Ischemic preconditioning does not acutely improve load-insensitive parameters of contractility in in vivo stunned porcine myocardium

AbstractObjective: Ischemic preconditioning has been shown to have no beneficial effect on segment shortening in in vivo regionally stunned myocardium. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ischemic preconditioning improves the recovery of postischemic ventricular function when contractility is assessed by load-insensitive measurements including end-systolic pressure length relations, preload recruitable stroke work, and preload recruitable stroke work area in in vivo regionally stunned porcine myocardium. Methods: Open chest, pentobarbital-anesthetized pigs were used. Regional ventricular function was monitored by measurements of segment shortening, stroke work, end systolic pressure length relations, preload recruitable stroke work, and preload recruitable stroke work area. The control group was submitted to 15 minutes of left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion and 3 hours of reperfusion. The preconditioned group underwent 2 cycles of 5-minute left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion and 10-minute reperfusion before 15 minutes of occlusion. Results: There was no infarct in either group. The preconditioning protocol significantly depressed preischemic segment shortening but not regional stroke work. Ischemic preconditioning had no significant beneficial effect on regional stroke work, end-systolic pressure length relations, preload recruitable stroke work, or preload recruitable stroke work area. Conclusions: These results confirm that ischemic preconditioning does not ameliorate in vivo porcine myocardial stunning and indicate that ischemic preconditioning may have a limited cardioprotective role during cardiac operation. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1999;117:810-7

How does firm innovativeness enable supply chain resilience?:The moderating role of supply uncertainty and interdependence

Despite its potential benefits in a wide range of circumstances, firm innovativeness received scant attention in relation to managing the various risks and uncertainties in the global business environment. Likewise, there is still a limited understanding of firms’ supply chain resilience (SCR) and its related antecedents in the strategic management literature. This research focuses on exploring the relationship between firm innovativeness and SCR in an attempt to facilitate bridging the gap between two important research streams and shed some light on the contingent value of firm innovativeness against disruptions and adversities. The moderating role of supply uncertainty and interdependence in the focal relationship was also hypothesised and tested. Findings suggest that firm innovativeness is positively associated with firm SCR, and supply uncertainty negatively moderates this relationship but interdependence does not. We argue that this could be due to the dual nature of interdependence in supply networks

Laser Microdissection of the Alveolar Duct Enables Single-Cell Genomic Analysis

Complex tissues such as the lung are composed of structural hierarchies such as alveoli, alveolar ducts, and lobules. Some structural units, such as the alveolar duct, appear to participate in tissue repair as well as the development of bronchioalveolar carcinoma. Here, we demonstrate an approach to conduct laser microdissection of the lung alveolar duct for single-cell PCR analysis. Our approach involved three steps. (1) The initial preparation used mechanical sectioning of the lung tissue with sufficient thickness to encompass the structure of interest. In the case of the alveolar duct, the precision-cut lung slices were 200 μm thick; the slices were processed using near-physiologic conditions to preserve the state of viable cells. (2) The lung slices were examined by transmission light microscopy to target the alveolar duct. The air-filled lung was sufficiently accessible by light microscopy that counterstains or fluorescent labels were unnecessary to identify the alveolar duct. (3) The enzymatic and microfluidic isolation of single cells allowed for the harvest of as few as several thousand cells for PCR analysis. Microfluidics based arrays were used to measure the expression of selected marker genes in individual cells to characterize different cell populations. Preliminary work suggests the unique value of this approach to understand the intra- and intercellular interactions within the regenerating alveolar duct

Stretch-induced intussuceptive and sprouting angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane

Vascular systems grow and remodel in response to not only metabolic needs, but also mechanical influences as well. Here, we investigated the influence of tissue-level mechanical forces on the patterning and structure of the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) microcirculation. A dipole stretch field was applied to the CAM using custom computer-controlled servomotors. The topography of the stretch field was mapped using finite element models. After 3 days of stretch, Sholl analysis of the CAM demonstrated a 7-fold increase in conducting vessel intersections within the stretch field (p 0.05). In contrast, corrosion casting and SEM of the stretch field capillary meshwork demonstrated intense sprouting and intussusceptive angiogenesis. Both planar surface area (p < 0.05) and pillar density (p < 0.01) were significantly increased relative to control regions of the CAM. We conclude that a uniaxial stretch field stimulates the axial growth and realignment of conducting vessels as well as intussusceptive and sprouting angiogenesis within the gas exchange capillaries of the ex ovo CAM.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant HL95678

Understanding the UK hospital supply chain in an era of patient choice

Author Posting © Westburn Publishers Ltd, 2011. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy-edit version of an article which has been published in its definitive form in the Journal of Marketing Management, and has been posted by permission of Westburn Publishers Ltd for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in Journal of Marketing Management, 27(3-4), 401 - 423, doi:10.1080/0267257X.2011.547084 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2011.547084The purpose of this paper is to investigate the UK hospital supply chain in light of recent government policy reform where patients will have, inter alia, greater choice of hospital for elective surgery. Subsequently, the hospital system should become far more competitive with supply chains having to react to these changes as patient demand becomes less predictable. Using a qualitative case study methodology, hospital managers are interviewed on a range of issues. Views on the development of the hospital supply chain in different phases are derived, and are used to develop a map of the current hospital chain. The findings show hospital managers anticipating some significant changes to the hospital supply chain and its workings as Patient Choice expands. The research also maps the various aspects of the hospital supply chain as it moves through different operational phases and highlights underlying challenges and complexities. The hospital supply chain, as discussed and mapped in this research, is original work given there are no examples in the literature that provide holistic representations of hospital activity. At the end, specific recommendations are provided that will be of interest to service to managers, researchers, and policymakers

Genome-Wide Association Study of Cryptosporidiosis in Infants Implicates PRKCA.

Diarrhea is a major cause of both morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially among young children. Cryptosporidiosis is a leading cause of diarrhea in children, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where it is responsible for over 200,000 deaths per year. Beyond the initial clinical presentation of diarrhea, it is associated with long-term sequelae such as malnutrition and neurocognitive developmental deficits. Risk factors include poverty and overcrowding, and yet not all children with these risk factors and exposure are infected, nor do all infected children develop symptomatic disease. One potential risk factor to explain these differences is their human genome. To identify genetic variants associated with symptomatic cryptosporidiosis, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) examining 6.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 873 children from three independent cohorts in Dhaka, Bangladesh, namely, the Dhaka Birth Cohort (DBC), the Performance of Rotavirus and Oral Polio Vaccines in Developing Countries (PROVIDE) study, and the Cryptosporidiosis Birth Cohort (CBC). Associations were estimated separately for each cohort under an additive model, adjusting for length-for-age Z-score at 12 months of age, the first two principal components to account for population substructure, and genotyping batch. The strongest meta-analytic association was with rs58296998 (P = 3.73 × 10-8), an intronic SNP and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) of protein kinase C alpha (PRKCA). Each additional risk allele conferred 2.4 times the odds of Cryptosporidium-associated diarrhea in the first year of life. This genetic association suggests a role for protein kinase C alpha in pediatric cryptosporidiosis and warrants further investigation.IMPORTANCE Globally, diarrhea remains one of the major causes of pediatric morbidity and mortality. The initial symptoms of diarrhea can often lead to long-term consequences for the health of young children, such as malnutrition and neurocognitive developmental deficits. Despite many children having similar exposures to infectious causes of diarrhea, not all develop symptomatic disease, indicating a possible role for human genetic variation. Here, we conducted a genetic study of susceptibility to symptomatic disease associated with Cryptosporidium infection (a leading cause of diarrhea) in three independent cohorts of infants from Dhaka, Bangladesh. We identified a genetic variant within protein kinase C alpha (PRKCA) associated with higher risk of cryptosporidiosis in the first year of life. These results indicate a role for human genetics in susceptibility to cryptosporidiosis and warrant further research to elucidate the mechanism

Do marketing and logistics understand each other? An empirical investigation of the interface activities between logistics and marketing

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the understanding between logistics and marketing functions, to highlight specific issues relating to the interface activities between the two areas, and to discuss the impact for business processes. Findings are presented from a research-based case study with a major international food manufacturer, the results of which have helped the company to gain a better understanding between the marketing and logistics functions. The research has highlighted further implications for the supply chain. The paper discusses key findings and proposes a number of recommendations for marketing and logistics educators, practitioners and researchers

An Institutional Theory perspective on sustainable practices across the dairy supply chain

AbstractThe need for sustainable practices in the food supply chain, particularly in the area of energy reduction, is becoming acute. The food industry currently has to contend with multiple competing pressures alongside the new challenges of sustainable production. We applied Institutional Theory to explore the role of supermarkets in the development of legitimate sustainable practices across the dairy supply chains. The paper focuses on dairy supply chain organizations and their consumption of energy. We conducted 70 semi-structured telephone interviews with various stakeholders across the supply chain. Findings revealed that the majority of actors in the supply chain identified supermarkets as the dominant player, and that the supermarkets exert pressure on other smaller organizations across the supply chain. Although some organizations wished to pursue a sustainable agenda through integrating new rules and legitimate practices within their own organization, the dominant logic appeared to be one of cost reduction and profit maximization. There was also evidence that supermarkets and other large organizations attempt to replicate publicly available information on green successes for image purposes. We conclude that the dominant logic of cost reduction is so well established that challenging the dominant logic may prove difficult. The challenge is therefore to complement the dominant logic with sustainable practices across the whole supply chain, a role Government needs to play. This will require a broader more systemic approach to encouraging sustainable practices including investment and financing practices, so that all members of the dairy supply chain can co-operate and contribute to energy reduction