Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Resolve Lipid Load in High Fat Diet-Induced Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Mice by Mitochondria Donation

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) increasingly emerge as an option to ameliorate non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a serious disease, which untreated may progress to liver cirrhosis and cancer. Before clinical translation, the mode of action of MSC needs to be established. Here, we established NASH in an immune-deficient mouse model by feeding a high fat diet. Human bone-marrow-derived MSC were delivered to the liver via intrasplenic transplantation. As verified by biochemical and image analyses, human mesenchymal stromal cells improved high-fat-diet-induced NASH in the mouse liver by decreasing hepatic lipid content and inflammation, as well as by restoring tissue homeostasis. MSC-mediated changes in gene expression indicated the switch from lipid storage to lipid utilization. It was obvious that host mouse hepatocytes harbored human mitochondria. Thus, it is feasible that resolution of NASH in mouse livers involved the donation of human mitochondria to the mouse hepatocytes. Therefore, human MSC might provide oxidative capacity for lipid breakdown followed by restoration of metabolic and tissue homeostasis

Health System Support for Childbirth care in Southern Tanzania: Results from a Health Facility Census.

Progress towards reaching Millennium Development Goals four (child health) and five (maternal health) is lagging behind, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, despite increasing efforts to scale up high impact interventions. Increasing the proportion of birth attended by a skilled attendant is a main indicator of progress, but not much is known about the quality of childbirth care delivered by these skilled attendants. With a view to reducing maternal mortality through health systems improvement we describe the care routinely offered in childbirth offered at dispensaries, health centres and hospitals in five districts in rural Southern Tanzania. We use data from a health facility census assessing 159 facilities in five districts in early 2009. A structural and operational assessment was undertaken based on staff reports using a modular questionnaire assessing staffing, work load, equipment and supplies as well as interventions routinely implemented during childbirth. Health centres and dispensaries attended a median of eight and four deliveries every month respectively. Dispensaries had a median of 2.5 (IQR 2--3) health workers including auxiliary staff instead of the recommended four clinical officer and certified nurses. Only 28% of first-line facilities (dispensaries and health centres) reported offering active management in the third stage of labour (AMTSL). Essential childbirth care comprising eight interventions including AMTSL, infection prevention, partograph use including foetal monitoring and newborn care including early breastfeeding, thermal care at birth and prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum was offered by 5% of dispensaries, 38% of health centres and 50% of hospitals consistently. No first-line facility had provided all signal functions for emergency obstetric complications in the previous six months. Essential interventions for childbirth care are not routinely implemented in first-line facilities or hospitals. Dispensaries have both low staffing and low caseload which constraints the ability to provide high-quality childbirth care. Improvements in quality of care are essential so that women delivering in facility receive "skilled attendance" and adequate care for common obstetric complications such as post-partum haemorrhage

Music and the Performance of Identity on Marie- Galante, French Antilles

No Abstract

Formative Arts Experiences: The Differential Effect of Evaluative Praise and Encouragement on Sustained Participation in the Arts

The literature in educational psychology suggests that positive feedback and reinforcement can influence learning, motivation, and self-efficacy. This paper, based on survey and interview data with college-age students about formative arts experiences, will argue that the type of positive feedback employed by teachers, studio instructors, parents, and role models plays an important role in whether or not a student sustains their engagement with music and the arts beyond high school. More specifically, this pilot study distinguishes several types of positive feedback, including “evaluative praise” and general “encouragement”--terms based on the work of the psychologist Carol Dweck--and suggests higher encounters of “evaluative praise” during an individual’s formative arts experiences lead to lower rates of participation in the arts, extrinsic motivation, and experiences of anxiety while participating; while higher encounters of “encouragement” lead to higher rates of participation in the arts, intrinsic motivation, and experiences of comfort and enthusiasm while participating. In sum, this paper contributes to conversations within the field of arts education and educational psychology to promote sustained participation and enjoyment within the arts through the way that feedback is communicated to developing students

Exotica, Ethnicity, and Embodiment: An Ethnography of Latin Dance in United States Popular Culture

354 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.The work considers both dance and music as equal members of a gestalt, framing dance as a particular type of music reception, and addresses the question of how non-musicians make sense of musical sound through movement. It explores the connections between identity, ethics, and the aesthetic values of control and discipline; standardization and codification as strategies for legitimization and as a means for stylistic transformation; and most important, how the perception of "self" informs perceptions of the "other."U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD