Why is Wealthier Healthier?

Governmen

The Structural Sources of Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health: A Cross-National Perspective

This article investigates how macro-level structures condition the sources of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Drawing on multiple social science disciplines, the authors develop theoretically grounded propositions about how different types of welfare states, varieties of capitalism, and social structures give rise to cross-national variations in the sources of health inequalities. They consider how these macro-level structures affect the distribution of five key resources important to health, estimate the relative contribution that each resource makes to health inequalities, and compare those contributions in 21 developed democracies. Moving beyond a current literature focused on welfare states, the authors show how different types of political economies and social structures also condition the health gradient. This research carries implications for policy and suggests agendas for further investigation into the relationship between macro-level structures and inequalities in health

Dog Y chromosomal DNA sequence: identification, sequencing and SNP discovery

BACKGROUND: Population genetic studies of dogs have so far mainly been based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, describing only the history of female dogs. To get a picture of the male history, as well as a second independent marker, there is a need for studies of biallelic Y-chromosome polymorphisms. However, there are no biallelic polymorphisms reported, and only 3200 bp of non-repetitive dog Y-chromosome sequence deposited in GenBank, necessitating the identification of dog Y chromosome sequence and the search for polymorphisms therein. The genome has been only partially sequenced for one male dog, disallowing mapping of the sequence into specific chromosomes. However, by comparing the male genome sequence to the complete female dog genome sequence, candidate Y-chromosome sequence may be identified by exclusion. RESULTS: The male dog genome sequence was analysed by Blast search against the human genome to identify sequences with a best match to the human Y chromosome and to the female dog genome to identify those absent in the female genome. Candidate sequences were then tested for male specificity by PCR of five male and five female dogs. 32 sequences from the male genome, with a total length of 24 kbp, were identified as male specific, based on a match to the human Y chromosome, absence in the female dog genome and male specific PCR results. 14437 bp were then sequenced for 10 male dogs originating from Europe, Southwest Asia, Siberia, East Asia, Africa and America. Nine haplotypes were found, which were defined by 14 substitutions. The genetic distance between the haplotypes indicates that they originate from at least five wolf haplotypes. There was no obvious trend in the geographic distribution of the haplotypes. CONCLUSION: We have identified 24159 bp of dog Y-chromosome sequence to be used for population genetic studies. We sequenced 14437 bp in a worldwide collection of dogs, identifying 14 SNPs for future SNP analyses, and giving a first description of the dog Y-chromosome phylogeny

Disrupted connectivity within visual, attentional and salience networks in the visual snow syndrome.

Here we investigate brain functional connectivity in patients with visual snow syndrome (VSS). Our main objective was to understand more about the underlying pathophysiology of this neurological syndrome. Twenty-four patients with VSS and an equal number of gender and age-matched healthy volunteers attended MRI sessions in which whole-brain maps of functional connectivity were acquired under two conditions: at rest while watching a blank screen and during a visual paradigm consisting of a visual-snow like stimulus. Eight unilateral seed regions were selected a priori based on previous observations and hypotheses; four seeds were placed in key anatomical areas of the visual pathways and the remaining were derived from a pre-existing functional analysis. The between-group analysis showed that patients with VSS had hyper and hypoconnectivity between key visual areas and the rest of the brain, both in the resting state and during a visual stimulation, compared with controls. We found altered connectivity internally within the visual network; between the thalamus/basal ganglia and the lingual gyrus; between the visual motion network and both the default mode and attentional networks. Further, patients with VSS presented decreased connectivity during external sensory input within the salience network, and between V5 and precuneus. Our results suggest that VSS is characterised by a widespread disturbance in the functional connectivity of several brain systems. This dysfunction involves the pre-cortical and cortical visual pathways, the visual motion network, the attentional networks and finally the salience network; further, it represents evidence of ongoing alterations both at rest and during visual stimulus processing

The development of the Meaning in Life Index (MILI) and its relationship with personality and religious behaviours and beliefs among UK undergraduate students

The scales available for assessing meaning in life appear to be confounded with several related constructs, including purpose in life, satisfaction with life, and goal-directed behaviour. The Meaning in Life Index (MILI), a new instrument devised as a specific measure of meaning in life, was developed from responses to a pool of 22 items rated by a sample of 501 undergraduate students in Wales. The nine-item scale demonstrated sufficient face validity, internal consistency, and scale reliability to commend the instrument for future use. With respect to personality, the MILI scores were most strongly predicted by neuroticism (negatively), and less strongly by extraversion (positively) and psychoticism (negatively). With respect to several religious behavioural variables, those who attended church at least weekly returned significantly higher MILI scores than those who attended church less frequently. Intrinsic religiosity was the only orientation to be significantly associated with the MILI scale scores, although the magnitude of the association was smaller than anticipated. These results suggest that meaning in life is associated more strongly with individual differences in personality than with specific religious behaviours and attitudes. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of individual's personal values and attitudes that might underlie their experience of a meaning in life

Comprehensive analysis of the chromatin landscape in Drosophila melanogaster.

Chromatin is composed of DNA and a variety of modified histones and non-histone proteins, which have an impact on cell differentiation, gene regulation and other key cellular processes. Here we present a genome-wide chromatin landscape for Drosophila melanogaster based on eighteen histone modifications, summarized by nine prevalent combinatorial patterns. Integrative analysis with other data (non-histone chromatin proteins, DNase I hypersensitivity, GRO-Seq reads produced by engaged polymerase, short/long RNA products) reveals discrete characteristics of chromosomes, genes, regulatory elements and other functional domains. We find that active genes display distinct chromatin signatures that are correlated with disparate gene lengths, exon patterns, regulatory functions and genomic contexts. We also demonstrate a diversity of signatures among Polycomb targets that include a subset with paused polymerase. This systematic profiling and integrative analysis of chromatin signatures provides insights into how genomic elements are regulated, and will serve as a resource for future experimental investigations of genome structure and function

Test Characteristics of Urinary Lipoarabinomannan and Predictors of Mortality among Hospitalized HIV-Infected Tuberculosis Suspects in Tanzania.

Tuberculosis is the most common cause of death among patients with HIV infection living in tuberculosis endemic countries, but many cases are not diagnosed pre-mortem. We assessed the test characteristics of urinary lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and predictors of mortality among HIV-associated tuberculosis suspects in Tanzania. We prospectively enrolled hospitalized HIV-infected patients in Dar es Salaam, with ≥2 weeks of cough or fever, or weight loss. Subjects gave 2 mLs of urine to test for LAM using a commercially available ELISA, ≥2 sputum specimens for concentrated AFB smear and solid media culture, and 40 mLs of blood for culture. Among 212 evaluable subjects, 143 (68%) were female; mean age was 36 years; and the median CD4 count 86 cells/mm(3). 69 subjects (33%) had culture confirmation of tuberculosis and 65 (31%) were LAM positive. For 69 cases of sputum or blood culture-confirmed tuberculosis, LAM sensitivity was 65% and specificity 86% compared to 36% and 98% for sputum smear. LAM test characteristics were not different in patients with bacteremia but showed higher sensitivity and lower specificity with decreasing CD4 cell count. Two month mortality was 64 (53%) of 121 with outcomes available. In multivariate analysis there was significant association of mortality with absence of anti-retroviral therapy (p = 0.004) and a trend toward association with a positive urine LAM (p = 0.16). Among culture-negative patients mortality was 9 (75%) of 12 in LAM positive patients and 27 (38%) of 71 in LAM negative patients (p = 0.02). Urine LAM is more sensitive than sputum smear and has utility for the rapid diagnosis of culture-confirmed tuberculosis in this high-risk population. Mortality data raise the possibility that urine LAM may also be a marker for culture-negative tuberculosis

Caspase-mediated cleavage of the exosome subunit PM/Scl-75 during apoptosis

Recent studies have implicated the dying cell as a potential reservoir of modified autoantigens that might initiate and drive systemic autoimmunity in susceptible hosts. A number of subunits of the exosome, a complex of 3'→5' exoribonucleases that functions in a variety of cellular processes, are recognized by the so-called anti-PM/Scl autoantibodies, found predominantly in patients suffering from an overlap syndrome of myositis and scleroderma. Here we show that one of these subunits, PM/Scl-75, is cleaved during apoptosis. PM/Scl-75 cleavage is inhibited by several different caspase inhibitors. The analysis of PM/Scl-75 cleavage by recombinant caspase proteins shows that PM/Scl-75 is efficiently cleaved by caspase-1, to a smaller extent by caspase-8, and relatively inefficiently by caspase-3 and caspase-7. Cleavage of the PM/Scl-75 protein occurs in the C-terminal part of the protein at Asp369 (IILD(369)↓G), and at least a fraction of the resulting N-terminal fragments of PM/Scl-75 remains associated with the exosome. Finally, the implications of PM/Scl-75 cleavage for exosome function and the generation of anti-PM/Scl-75 autoantibodies are discussed

Pathological Features of Breast Cancer seen in Northwestern Tanzania: A Nine Years Retrospective Study.

Breast cancer is more common in Western Countries compared to African populations. However in African population, it appears that the disease tends to be more aggressive and occurring at a relatively young age at the time of presentation. The aim of this study was to describe the trend of Breast Cancer in Northwestern Tanzania. This was a retrospective study which involved all cases of breast cancer diagnosed histologically at Bugando Medical Center from 2002 to 2010. Histological results and slides were retrieved from the records in the Pathology department, clinical information and demographic data for patients were retrieved from surgical wards and department of medical records. Histology slides were re-evaluated for the histological type, grade (By modified Bloom-Richardson score), and presence of necrosis and skin involvement. Data was entered and analyzed by SPSS computer software version 15. There were 328 patients histologically confirmed to have breast cancer, the mean age at diagnosis was 48.7 years (+/- 13.1). About half of the patients (52.4%) were below 46 years of age, and this group of patients had significantly higher tendency for lymph node metastasis (p = 0.012). The tumor size ranged from 1 cm to 18 cm in diameter with average (mean) of 5.5 cm (+/- 2.5), and median size of 6 cm. Size of the tumor (above 6 cm in diameter) and presence of necrosis within the tumor was significantly associated with high rate of lymph node metastasis (p = 0.000). Of all patients, 64% were at clinical stage III (specifically IIIB) and 70.4% had lymph node metastasis at the time of diagnosis. Only 4.3% of the patients were in clinical stage I at the time of diagnosis. Majority of the patients had invasive ductal carcinoma (91.5%) followed by mucinous carcinoma (5.2%), Invasive lobular carcinoma (3%) and in situ ductal carcinoma (0.3%). In all patients, 185 (56.4%) had tumor with histological grade 3. Breast cancer in this region show a trend towards relative young age at diagnosis with advanced stage at diagnosis and high rate of lymph node metastasis. Poor Referral system, lack of screening programs and natural aggressive biological behavior of tumor may contribute to advanced disease at the time of diagnosis