A genetic variation map for chicken with 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms

We describe a genetic variation map for the chicken genome containing 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNPs). This map is based on a comparison of the sequences of three domestic chicken breeds ( a broiler, a layer and a Chinese silkie) with that of their wild ancestor, red jungle fowl. Subsequent experiments indicate that at least 90% of the variant sites are true SNPs, and at least 70% are common SNPs that segregate in many domestic breeds. Mean nucleotide diversity is about five SNPs per kilobase for almost every possible comparison between red jungle fowl and domestic lines, between two different domestic lines, and within domestic lines - in contrast to the notion that domestic animals are highly inbred relative to their wild ancestors. In fact, most of the SNPs originated before domestication, and there is little evidence of selective sweeps for adaptive alleles on length scales greater than 100 kilobases

The Swedish Reflux Trial

Background Small children with dilated vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) run risk of recurrent uri¬nary tract infections (UTI) and to acquire renal damage. To protect them, antibiotic prophylaxis and surgery to eliminate VUR have been used. Endoscopic injection of bulking agent at the ure-teral orifice has evolved as alternative surgical method but with insufficient scientific support of long term effect on VUR and rate of renal damage and UTI recurrence. Regarding prophylaxis, there is increasing concern of bacterial resistance and reports of low protective effect. Aim The aim of the trial was to evaluate three management strategies for children with dilating VUR, prophylaxis, endoscopic injection and surveillance only. Specific aims were to describe VUR outcome at two year follow-up, pattern and rate of recurrent UTI and how this differs be¬tween the three treatment strategies, and to investigate if prophylaxis or endoscopic injection can reduce rate of progression of established renal defects or new damage. Patients and methods From 23 centers, 203 children, 128 girls and 75 boys, aged 1 to less than 2 years, with dilating VUR grade III or IV were randomized to antibiotic prophylaxis (n=69), endoscopic injection (n=66) or surveillance (n=68) and followed for 2 years by regular visits and telephone contacts with special attention to febrile UTIs. Voiding cystourethrography (VCU) and dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scintigraphy were performed before randomization and after 2 years. Endoscopic injection with dextranomer hyaluronic acid copolymer was fol¬lowed by postoperative control with ultrasound and VCU. All calculations were done according to the intent to treat principle. Results Resolution or downgrading to nondilating VUR was seen in 71% in the endoscopic group, more frequent than in the prophylaxis or surveillance groups, 39% and 47% respectively (p=0.0002 and 0.0030). In 13 children (20% of those in the endoscopy group) with no or non¬dilating VUR after 1-2 injections, dilating VUR reappeared at 2-year follow-up. There were 67 febrile UTIs in 42 girls, significantly more than the 8 infections in 7 boys (p=0.0001). In girls febrile recurrence rate was 8 of 43 (19%) on prophylaxis, 10 of 43 (23%) with endoscopic treat¬ment and 24 of 42 (57%) on surveillance (p=0.0002). The recurrence rate was associated with persistent VUR after 2 years (p=0.0095). In boys recurrence rate was not associated with treat¬ment group or VUR status at entry or follow-up. Renal uptake defect at entry was seen in 124 of 203 children (61%), in 69 of 128 girls (54%) and 55 of 75 boys (73%), being generalized in 30 girls (23%) and in 44 boys (59%) (p<0.0001). The 2-year DMSA scan was performed in 201 children. New renal damage in previously unscarred areas was seen in 13 girls and 2 boys. Of the girls, 8 were on surveillance, 5 in the endoscopic group and none on prophylaxis (p=0.0155). New dam¬age was more common in children with febrile recurrence than without (11 of 49 (22%) vs 4 of 152 (3%), p<0.0001). Conclusion In small children with VUR grade III-IV, endoscopic injection enhanced the down¬grading or resolution of VUR compared to antibiotic prophylaxis or surveillance only. In boys older than 1 year, new renal damage was rare and febrile UTI recurrence rate low with no differ¬ence between treatment groups. In girls the rates of new renal damage and UTI recurrence was higher, especially in the control group on surveillance. UTI recurrence was reduced by prophy¬laxis and endocopic injection. New renal damage was strongly associated with UTI recurrence and was reduced by prophylaxis

Mhola – The Utopia of Peace : An Ethnographic Exploration of the Sungusungu Movement in Tanzania

This study is about the formation and spread of the Sungusungu movement in Tanzania that arose in the early 1980s among the Sukuma-Nyamwezi people in west-central Tanzania, south of Lake Victoria. In the wake of the international oil crisis in the 1970s, aggravated by the costly war with Uganda that led to the demise of Idi Amin’s regime in 1979, the country experienced a period of deep economic and social crisis with inflation, collapsing markets, a shortage of basic commodities and a breakdown of law and order, signified by increasing levels of violent crime, such as organized cattle theft and banditry in the rural areas. It was against this backdrop that people began to organize and arm themselves to cope with the disintegrating and malevolent forces they were experiencing, not only as an existential threat to their daily lives but to society at large. The quest for everyday peace, mhola, among people was omnipresent and the movement swept like a bush-fire from village to village over the large Sukuma-Nyamwezi area and beyond. Within only a couple of years several million people were involved in or affected by it. The emergence of Sungusungu in its particular sociocultural context constitutes a generic moment that sparks a process with, over time, many different far-reaching social, political and judicial repercussions. Based on long-term fieldwork engagements and an extensive literature review, the study sets out to trace the trajectory of the movement in its various cultural, social and political details from its early emergence as a genuine localized popular movement and then, over time until the present, through a series of various interventions that gradually transformed it into institutionalized forms of community policing under state supervision and control, emulated all over Tanzania and spread even to parts of Kenya

Mhola – The Utopia of Peace : An Ethnographic Exploration of the Sungusungu Movement in Tanzania

This study is about the formation and spread of the Sungusungu movement in Tanzania that arose in the early 1980s among the Sukuma-Nyamwezi people in west-central Tanzania, south of Lake Victoria. In the wake of the international oil crisis in the 1970s, aggravated by the costly war with Uganda that led to the demise of Idi Amin’s regime in 1979, the country experienced a period of deep economic and social crisis with inflation, collapsing markets, a shortage of basic commodities and a breakdown of law and order, signified by increasing levels of violent crime, such as organized cattle theft and banditry in the rural areas. It was against this backdrop that people began to organize and arm themselves to cope with the disintegrating and malevolent forces they were experiencing, not only as an existential threat to their daily lives but to society at large. The quest for everyday peace, mhola, among people was omnipresent and the movement swept like a bush-fire from village to village over the large Sukuma-Nyamwezi area and beyond. Within only a couple of years several million people were involved in or affected by it. The emergence of Sungusungu in its particular sociocultural context constitutes a generic moment that sparks a process with, over time, many different far-reaching social, political and judicial repercussions. Based on long-term fieldwork engagements and an extensive literature review, the study sets out to trace the trajectory of the movement in its various cultural, social and political details from its early emergence as a genuine localized popular movement and then, over time until the present, through a series of various interventions that gradually transformed it into institutionalized forms of community policing under state supervision and control, emulated all over Tanzania and spread even to parts of Kenya

The Swedish Reflux Trial in Children: V. Bladder Dysfunction.

PURPOSE: We investigated the prevalence and types of lower urinary tract dysfunction in children with vesicoureteral reflux grades III and IV, and related improved dilating reflux, renal damage and recurrent urinary tract infection to dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 203 children between ages 1 to less than 2 years with reflux grades III and IV were recruited into this open, randomized, controlled, multicenter study. Voiding cystourethrography and dimercapto-succinic acid scintigraphy were done at study entry and 2-year followup. Lower urinary tract function was investigated by noninvasive methods, at study entry with 4-hour voiding observation in 148 patients and at 2 years by structured questionnaire and post-void residual flow measurement in 161. RESULTS: At study entry 20% of patients had lower urinary tract dysfunction, characterized by high bladder capacity and increased post-void residual urine. At 2 years there was dysfunction in 34% of patients. Subdivision into groups characteristic of children after toilet training revealed that 9% had isolated overactive bladder and 24% had voiding phase dysfunction. There was a negative correlation between dysfunction at 2 years and improved dilating reflux (p = 0.002). Renal damage at study entry and followup was associated with lower urinary tract dysfunction at 2 years (p = 0.001). Recurrent urinary tract infections were seen in 33% of children with and in 20% without dysfunction (p = 0.084). CONCLUSIONS: After toilet training a third of these children with dilating reflux had lower urinary tract dysfunction, mainly voiding phase problems. Dysfunction was associated with persistent reflux and renal damage while dysfunction at study entry did not predict the 2-year outcome

Uropathogen Resistance and Antibiotic Prophylaxis: A Meta-analysis

Limited data exist regarding uropathogen resistance in randomized controlled trials of urinary tract infection (UTI) prevention and antibiotic prophylaxis. To assess the effect of prophylaxis on developing a multidrug-resistant first recurrent UTI among children with vesicoureteral reflux. Cochrane Kidney and Transplant Specialized Register through May 25, 2017. Randomized controlled trials of patients ≤18 years of age with a history of vesicoureteral reflux being treated with continuous antibiotic prophylaxis compared with no treatment or placebo with available antibiotic sensitivity profiles. Two independent observers abstracted data and assessed quality and validity per Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Adjusted meta-analyses were performed by using a mixed-effects logistic regression model. One thousand two hundred and ninety-nine patients contributed 224 UTIs. Patients treated with prophylaxis were more likely to have a multidrug-resistant infection (33% vs 6%, P &lt; .001) and were more likely to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics (68% vs 49%, P = .004). Those receiving prophylaxis had 6.4 times the odds (95% confidence interval: 2.7-15.6) of developing a multidrug-resistant infection. One multidrug-resistant infection would develop for every 21 reflux patients treated with prophylaxis. Variables that may contribute to resistance such as medication adherence and antibiotic exposure for other illnesses could not be evaluated. Prophylaxis increases the risk of multidrug resistance among recurrent infections. This has important implications in the risk-benefit assessment of prophylaxis as a management strategy and in the selection of empirical treatment of breakthrough infections in prophylaxis patients

Associated with Fecundity and a Sexual Ornament

Trait Loci (QTL) analysis (n=377) was performed using an F 2 intercross between a White Leghorn layer breed and a Red Junglefowl population, with onset of sexual maturity measured and mapped to three separate loci. This cross has already been analysed for comb mass, egg production and bone allocation. Onset of sexual maturity significantly correlated with comb mass, whilst the genetic architecture for sexual maturity and comb mass overlapped at all three loci. For two of these loci the QTL for sexual maturity and comb mass were statistically indistinguishable from pleiotropy, suggesting that the alleles that increase comb mass also decrease onset of sexual maturity.