Evaluation of the in vivo role of vaccinia virus complement control protein (VCP) following renal ischemia

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-147)In transplantation, vascularized organs often suffer the consequences of ischemic damage as well as reperfusion injury following the reestablishment of blood flow. The induced ischemialreperfusion (I/R) damage is usually associated with the accumulation of injurious complement components. The vaccinia virus complement control protein (VCP) has the ability to simultaneously inhibit the classical and the alternative complement pathways by binding to the early components C3b and C4b. The complement component C3 is known to be the central route to all of the known complement activation pathways. As a result, it is involved in a number of complement-mediated ailments including renal ischemia/reperfusion injury. The objectives of this study were to initially evaluate the in vitro roles of the natural VCP and the humanized recombinant VCP (hrVCP), and then to establish their in vivo roles in a renal I/R injury model

Urban flood modelling : a GIS based approach in Lomma, Skåne region

Urbanization triggers flooding because it replaces pervious land surfaces with impervious surfaces that have less capacity to infiltrate and store water into the ground. Detailed analysis and modelling of flooding in urban areas can be performed with GIS-based distributed hydrological models. However, the implementation of these models require high-level proficiency in GIS and hydrology. Thus, many municipalities hire consultants to do the task. In this study, a GIS-based model that can perform urban flood modelling is developed. The process begins with pre-processing the original DEM so that it represents the urban terrain with its constructed streets and building that can change the direction of drainage path. This is done through integrating spatial data using Arc Hydro tools. Flow routing of water over the modified DEM is then calculated using two flow direction algorithms (1) the deterministic eight-node algorithm (D8) and (2) the Triangular Form Based Multiple Flow algorithm (TFM). D8 algorithm assumes that flow at a point follows only the steepest downhill slope to one of the eight possible directions. TFM algorithm on the other hand estimates flow distribution values proportionally to the slope gradient in each direction. The effect of street inlets flow interception is introduced in the analysis through preparing a weight raster. To develop the weight raster, two approaches are applied depending on which algorithm is used to assign flow direction over the terrain. In D8 method, flow accumulation at street inlet points is calculated from the sub-watershed areas delineated for each inlet point. Weight value assignment of cells within a sub-watershed is then calculated as a proportion of volume to be consumed by street inlet to the total volume generated from the sub-watershed. In TFM method, flow accumulation at inlets is calculated by running TFM algorithm with input DEM having since cells at locations of street inlets. Weight value assignment of cells is done by reducing the flow which is intercepted by inlets from the flow accumulation value at sink cells. In addition, the capacity of street inlets to intercept flow is also estimated. This study shows the capability of performing flooding in GIS environment. The results also show that the outcome of GIS-based urban flood modelling is different depending on which algorithm is used to calculate flow direction. Results of flow accumulation before the inclusion of street inlets interception effect in the analysis is 57,271 m3 and 45,028 m3 using D8 and TFM methods respectively. After street inlets interception effect is included in the analysis however, the results show that weighted flow accumulation is reduced to 33,316 m3 and 10,893 m3 using D8 and TFM methods respectively. In addition, 202 flooding incidents at sink cells are identified using D8 method, this number drops to 80 sink cells using TFM method.Simplified GIS-based models for urban flood modelling Urbanization replaces pervious surfaces by impervious ones having low capacity to infiltrate and store water into the ground. GIS-based distributed hydrological models such as PCSWMM and Mike Urban can perform a detailed analysis and modelling of flooding in urban areas. However, the implementation of such models requires high-level proficiency in hydrology and GIS. In addition, this approach is generally beyond the municipality’s budget in time and cost. For this reason, municipalities often hire consultants to do this. In this study, simplified GIS-based models are developed to perform flooding in urban environment. DEM can be used for watershed boundary delineation and drainage pattern extraction in rural environment. However, in urban areas similar analysis is complicated due to the constructed terrain of streets and buildings which can change the direction of drainage path. Therefore, the original DEM has to be modified so that it represents the urban terrain more accurately. This is done in the DEM pre-processing step through integration of spatial data such as street inlets, buildings and the DEM in Arc Hydro tools and ArcGIS. In the next step flow routing of water over the terrain is calculated using two flow direction algorithms namely the Deterministic eight-node (D8) algorithm and Triangular Form Based Multiple Flow Direction (TFM) algorithm. D8 algorithm assumes that in a 3 X 3 cells moving window flow at a point follows only the steepest downhill slope to one of the eight possible directions. TFM algorithm on the other hand estimates flow distribution values proportionally to the slope gradient in each direction. Flow interception by the stormwater collection points (street inlets) is included in the analysis. To do this street inlets flow interception capacity is estimated and used to develop a weight raster. The developed weight raster is then used as input weight during flow accumulation calculation. To prepare a weight raster input using D8 flow direction algorithm, first sub-watershed areas contributing flow to each of the street inlets are delineated and flow accumulation generated by the sub-catchments is calculated. Weight value assignment of cells within a sub-watershed is then calculated as a proportion of volume to be consumed by street inlet to the total volume generated from the sub-watershed. In TFM method, first sink structures are created at locations of street inlet points. This DEM with sinks is then used to calculate flow direction and flow accumulation in MATLAB. Flow accumulation values at the sink cells are then extracted and used to prepare weight raster. Weight value assignment is done by reducing a value which is equal to flow interception capacity of street inlets from the extracted flow accumulation values at street inlets. The weight raster is used as input to run flow accumulation with weight using a different tool that can operate with negative value. This study shows the capability of GIS to perform flooding in urban area. The results also show that GIS-based flood modelling produce different results depending on which algorithm is used to calculate flow direction, Flow accumulation before the inclusion of street inlets interception effect in the analysis is 57,271 m3 and 45,028 m3 using D8 and TFM methods respectively. After street inlets interception effect is included in the analysis however, the results show that weighted flow accumulation of 33,316 m3 and 10,893 m3 using D8 and TFM methods respectively. In addition, 202 flooding incidents at sink cells are identified using the D8 method, this number drops to 80 sink cell using TFM method

EFFECT OF DROUGHT STRESS ON PHYSIOLOGICAL GROWTH PARAMETERS OF TOMATO INBRED LINES AT GERMINATION STAGE

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of water stress condition in growth parameters of 35 tomato inbred lines. Those inbred lines are collected from different countries and they were screened with osmotic concentration of 12.5 % polyethylene glycol 6000 while their respective control treatments were treated using distilled water for twelve days at germination stage. The relative percentages of shoot length, root length, shoot weight; root weight and relative germination rate were computed to determine the effect of water stress on the growth parameters of the inbred lines. According the experiment’s result, drought tolerant inbred lines have longer root length and higher root weight than the susceptible inbred lines. Shoot length and shoot weight was not much affected by the drought situation at the germination stage. The most drought tolerant inbred lines have the highest relative germination rate and the drought susceptible inbred lines have a lower relative germination rate. The highest germination percentage was recorded at control treatments than in the PEG treatments

An Investigation into the factors Influencing consumer perceptions of the no name brand food items.

Thesis (MBA)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.In South Africa, Store brands are sold throughout retailers in the country and categories are widespread - from beverages (milk, coffee, water, etc); including most confectionary categories; most household and toiletry categories; and from premium brands, to the more cost effective. Compared to the U.S and Europe, the South African market for store brands is not well developed; however, there are still mega opportunities in the own brand category, as the market is far from being saturated. Even though South African retailers are utilizing own brands as a means of differentiation, some studies are also indicating the lack of well tuned major store brand strategies and own brands were not perceived as of value by consumers as well. Therefore, this study is undertaken to establish a greater insight into consumer perceptions toward The No Name Brand food items by investigating the influence of selected economic, psychosocial and demographic variables. Without a solid understanding of the consumer, the available growth opportunities in the store brand category are likely to be missed.For retailers to take advantage of the opportunities in the store brand category a greater understanding of consumer behaviour is required. For that purpose, relevant theories and concepts of consumer behaviour are included in the literature review for the study

Yield and quality response of tomato and hot pepper to pruning

The effect of source-sink relationships on the performance of tomato and hot pepper was investigated in glasshouse experiments by pruning tomato trusses and hot pepper fruit from plants trained to a single stem. The objectives were to characterize the effect of time, method and intensity of pruning on the yield and quality of tomato and hot pepper. Pruning at anthesis as compared to pruning at fruit-set had little effect on yield and fruit quality of both crops. Yield per truss increased steadily with intensity of pruning in tomato, due to increase in fruit size and fruit number per truss. Thus, total yield was not affected by pruning. In hot pepper fruit size increased with intensity of pruning but total yield was significantly reduced and total plant dry mass depressed at higher source : sink ratios (two and three fruit pruned out of a total of six). Occurrence of fruit disorders such as blossom-end rot and fruit cracking increased with increasing source: sink ratio. Pruning of one truss in tomato and one fruit in hot pepper gave the best fruit quality in terms of fruit size, pericarp thickness and freedom from defects, without decreasing total and marketable yield. Removing a middle truss of tomato (third truss) gave the highest yield as compared to removing the youngest truss (sixth truss) or the oldest truss (first truss). The yield increase (relative to the control) in the remaining individual trusses tended to decrease with increasing distance of the trusses from the pruned truss. In hot pepper removal of the youngest fruit (sixth fruit) resulted in the highest yield in comparison to removal of the middle fruit (third fruit) and the oldest fruit (first fruit). The quantity of yield increase in the remaining individual fruits had no consistent trend regarding the relative distance of the fruits from the pruned fruit. Two pruning methods were tried on hot pepper and tomato to compare yield and fruit quality. The first method involved pruning of the first three consecutive trusses of tomato and the first three consecutive fruit of hot pepper out of a total of six. The second method involved pruning of three alternating tomato trusses or hot pepper fruit. Yield and yield components did not differ significantly for the two methods, but pruning alternate trusses of tomato and fruit of hot pepper reduced occurrence of fruit disorders.Dissertation (MSc (Agric) Agronomy)--University of Pretoria, 2007.Plant Production and Soil Scienceunrestricte

An assessment of the orphan reunification and rehabilitation program in Zoba Ma'akel, Eritrea.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.This study aims at investigating the orphan reunification and rehabilitation program in Zoba Ma'ekel, Eritrea. The orphan reunification and rehabilitation program is an intervention devised by Eritrean government in an attempt to address the ever present and continuing problem of orphans in Eritrea. This program aims at reunifying orphan children with their extended families (the uncles, the aunts, the elder brothers and sisters, the grandparents, and any other available relatives). It also aims at strengthening the participant families economically so that they provide the physical and social needs of the orphans under their care. Using data collected through in-depth interviews and questionnaires administered face-to-face in eight selected sites, this study examines the 'well-being' of the reunified orphans compared to non-orphans 1 in the same families using what were believed basic child needs indicators. The study was carried out over two months (December 2002 to January 2003). The findings illustrate that reunified orphans are provided with food, clothing/shoes and health services. However non-orphans in those families are better off than orphans. Most of the caregiver families are economically poor and tend to privilege their own children when there is scarcity of resources within the family. The statistical findings show that 81.5% of non-orphans are supplied with food four times a day compared to 73.2% of the sample orphans. The expenses made for clothing /shoes are found to be slightly higher for non-orphans than orphans (65.9% compared to 59.1%). The findings also reveal orphans' enrolment rate is higher than the national school age children which means they are better off than other children of the country although they are enrolled 6.2% lower than the comparison group (79% vs. 85.2%). However, they work longer hours than non-orphans and among orphans, females do more work than male which deprived them time for play and study. Relationship with the orphans is found stronger where there is a close family tie between the orphans and the caregivers. 1 Non-orphans in this study refer to children in the same families sampled for questionnaires administered face-to-face

The production of gibberellin-like substances by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides associated with lupin anthracnose

The most characteristic symptoms of lupin (Lupinus spp.) anthracnose caused by the fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, are twisting and bending of stems and petioles. These might be related to the production of gibberellin-like activity by the pathogen. The barley aleurone bioassay was used to determine whether two isolates of C. gloeosporioides could produce gibberellin-like substances. Ethyl acetate extracts from isolates SHK 2148 and SHK 1033, grown in liquid minimal medium, had gibberellin-like activities of 0.21 μg GA3 equivalents and >0.26μg GA3 equivalents per g dry mass of mycelium, respectively. Provided that the strong association between gibberellins and this specific pathogen/host interaction can be established, this knowledge may be helpful in screening lupin cultivars for anthracnose resistance

A production function analysis of fresh milk production in the highlands of Eritrea.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.This study presents a production function analysis of fresh milk producers in the Highlands of Eritrea for the year 2002, dealing with the most important factors of production. Most dairy farmers are located in the Central Zone and Southern Zone (Mendefera and Dekemhare) areas of the Highlands of Eritrea. To ensure representative production functions, the Highlands of Eritrea were divided into three respectively homogenous study areas, namely Central Zone, Mendefera and Dekemhare. Most data for this study were collected by survey using a questionnaire, as dairy farms' recorded data were scarce. The annual milk yield record and purchased concentrates per farmer were obtained from their respective milk collecting centres and Dairy Associations belonging to each study area. Basically, an attempt was made to pool the data of the three study areas, using dummy variables to test if the three study areas' regressions have a common intercept and a common slope. However, from the analysis, the intercept and slope dummy coefficients for the pooled data were found to be statistically significant at the 1 % and 5% levels of probability. Thus, it was not economically as well as statistically practical to pool the three areas' data to determine a common function that represents the sample dairy farmers of the Highlands of Eritrea as a whole. For this reason, a separate analysis was conducted for each study area. The analysis used the Cobb-Douglas function (double-log) form using multiple regressions. However, while analysing the data using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, strong intercorrelations were encountered among some factors of production. These intercorrelations resulted in some of the parameters having negative production coefficients where, a priori, all such coefficients are assumed to be non-negative. Thus, to tackle the multicollinearity problem, a ridge regression technique was used at different levels of the biasing constant, c, where the regression coefficients in the ridge trace start to stabilize and the variance inflation factor (VIF) of each parameter and the average of the VIFs are close to one. The final fitted model includes those variables, which were significant at the 1 % and 5% levels of probability. However, for the Mendefera study area those variables significant at 10% level of probability were included as their t-statistic values were considerably greater than one and nearly significant at the 5% level of probability. From the regression coefficients of the final fitted model for each study area, the elasticities of production with respect to the factors of production, ceteris paribus, were estimated. The highest response in production to a one percent change, ceteris paribus, is due to milking cows followed by concentrates and labour for the Central Zone Dairy farmers . However, for the Southern Zone (Mendefera and Dekemhare) the highest response next to milking cows came from forage and labour. The regression coefficients of all the factors of production in each study area were greater than zero and less than one, implying rational use of the resources. However, the sum of the elasticities of production was found to be greater than one for each area of production, indicating increasing returns to scale. Components of the production function and cost calculations including marginal product (MP), values of marginal product (VMP), marginal rate of substitution (MRS), least-cost combinations of inputs, profit maximizing combinations of inputs and the short-run cost functions for each category within the sample of dairy farmers in each study area were estimated. All the VMP's of the resources for the Central Zone dairy farmers were found to be greater than the corresponding unit price of the resources. This implies that the resources are utilized inadequately. However, for the Southern Zone (Mendefera and Dekemhare) the variable concentrates is over-utilized, as the VMP is less than the unit price of the input. The marginal rate of substitution of concentrates for forage, ceteris paribus, showed that the Central Zone sample dairy farmers were utilizing the two resources almost equally. But for the Southern Zone sample dairy farmers the MRS of the mentioned resources showed a higher dependence on concentrates than forage. From the least-cost combination of concentrates and forage analysis it was found that none of the sample of dairy farmers was allocating resources on a least-cost basis. The profit maximizing combination of inputs showed generally a considerable improvement of milk yield and margins for all the sample of dairy farmers relative to the present situations. However, the profit maximizing criteria (i.e. VMPx = Px), assumes perfect knowledge, a risk free environment and competitive marketing systems. This has to be considered when advising sample farmers as to the optimal combination of concentrates and forage. The short-run cost function also indicates use of resources at below optimum levels. When the average variable cost of the resources is less than the unit price of output, then use of the resources is in the rational area of production. Based on the analysis of the three study areas, the average variable cost of the lower one-third group of sample dairy farmers of the Southern Zone was found to be greater than the unit price of output. This means that the farmers were not covering the short-run costs of production. The MC of concentrates for the lower one-third group of sample dairy farmers was found to be greater than the price per litre of fresh milk in the Southern Zone. This implies more than optimum use of the input (i.e. where MC = Py)

Proton Pump Inhibitors Are Not Associated With Acute Kidney Injury in Critical Illness

Recent epidemiologic data linking proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use to acute and chronic kidney dysfunction is yet to be validated in other populations, and mechanisms have not been explored. Using a large, well phenotyped inception cohort of 15 063 critically ill patients, we examined the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI), as defined by the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria guidelines, according to prior use of a PPI, histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H 2 RA), or neither. A total of 3725 (24.7%) patients reported PPI use prior to admission, while 905 (6.0%) patients reported H 2 RA use. AKI occurred in 747 (20.0%) and 163 (18.0%) of PPI and H 2 RA users respectively, compared to 1712 (16.2%) of those not taking acid suppressive medications. In unadjusted analysis, PPI and H 2 RA users had a 28% (95%CI 1.17-1.41, P  < .001) and 10% (95%CI 0.91-1.30, P =.31) higher risk of AKI compared to those taking neither class of medication. However, in sequential models that included adjustment for demographics, cardiovascular comorbidities, indications for PPI use, and severity of illness, the effect of PPI on the risk of AKI was attenuated, and in the adjusted analysis, PPI was not associated with AKI (OR 1.02; 95%CI 0.91-1.13, P =.73). The presence of sterile pyuria and hypomagnesemia did not modify the association between PPI use and AKI. In summary, after adjustment for demographics, illness severity, and the indication for PPI use, PPI use prior to admission is not associated with critical illness AKI.National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (U.S.) (Grant 2R01 EB001659