31 research outputs found

    Batas-batas pertumbuhan

    No full text
    xxix+151hlm.;21c

    Energy information engagement among the poor: Predicting participation in a free workshop

    No full text
    © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Although one option for increasing low-income consumer knowledge regarding household energy use is the development of free or low-cost educational workshops, exactly how to promote attendance for such workshops remains an open question. Here we briefly outline results from a set of in-depth interviews with applicants to the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program in Durham County, NC, USA. Models predicting intended attendance at workshops or community meetings suggested that factors such as utility costs, social norms, perceived ability to plan ahead, and perceived accessibility of energy information all matter more than one's general attitude toward energy workshop attendance. Many respondents expressed interest in energy education materials and faced challenging utility costs, but meeting attendance appears to be constrained by the everyday life obstacles of the poor

    Deficiencies of the T and natural killer cell system in major depressive disorder

    No full text
    Background: In a previous study, we found an up-regulated inflammatory monocyte gene expression profile in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients aged >= 28 years and a down-regulated inflammatory gene expression profile in MDD patients aged = 28 years additionally exhibited decreased percentages of CD4(+)CD25(high)FoxP3(+) T regulatory cells, next to signs of the above described partial T cell defects. Natural T regulatory cells were inversely associated with the pro-inflammatory state of the monocytes (r = -.311; p = .034) that characterized this patient subgroup. Conclusions: Deficiencies of the NK and T (regulatory) cell system and inflammatory monocyte immune activation co-occur as partly interrelated phenomena within the same MDD patients. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

    Correlative light-electron microscopy methods to characterize the ultrastructural features of the replicative and dormant liver stages of Plasmodium parasites

    No full text
    Abstract Background The infection of the liver by Plasmodium parasites is an obligatory step leading to malaria disease. Following hepatocyte invasion, parasites differentiate into replicative liver stage schizonts and, in the case of Plasmodium species causing relapsing malaria, into hypnozoites that can lie dormant for extended periods of time before activating. The liver stages of Plasmodium remain elusive because of technical challenges, including low infection rate. This has been hindering experimentations with well-established technologies, such as electron microscopy. A deeper understanding of hypnozoite biology could prove essential in the development of radical cure therapeutics against malaria. Results The liver stages of the rodent parasite Plasmodium berghei, causing non-relapsing malaria, and the simian parasite Plasmodium cynomolgi, causing relapsing malaria, were characterized in human Huh7 cells or primary non-human primate hepatocytes using Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy (CLEM). Specifically, CLEM approaches that rely on GFP-expressing parasites (GFP-CLEM) or on an immunofluorescence assay (IFA-CLEM) were used for imaging liver stages. The results from P. berghei showed that host and parasite organelles can be identified and imaged at high resolution using both CLEM approaches. While IFA-CLEM was associated with more pronounced extraction of cellular content, samples’ features were generally well preserved. Using IFA-CLEM, a collection of micrographs was acquired for P. cynomolgi liver stage schizonts and hypnozoites, demonstrating the potential of this approach for characterizing the liver stages of Plasmodium species causing relapsing malaria. Conclusions A CLEM approach that does not rely on parasites expressing genetically encoded tags was developed, therefore suitable for imaging the liver stages of Plasmodium species that lack established protocols to perform genetic engineering. This study also provides a dataset that characterizes the ultrastructural features of liver stage schizonts and hypnozoites from the simian parasite species P. cynomolgi. Graphical Abstrac
    corecore