Congenital anomalies in low- and middle-income countries: the unborn child of global surgery.

Surgically correctable congenital anomalies cause a substantial burden of global morbidity and mortality. These anomalies disproportionately affect children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to sociocultural, economic, and structural factors that limit the accessibility and quality of pediatric surgery. While data from LMICs are sparse, available evidence suggests that the true human and financial cost of congenital anomalies is grossly underestimated and that pediatric surgery is a cost-effective intervention with the potential to avert significant premature mortality and lifelong disability

Genomic analysis of the function of the transcription factor gata3 during development of the Mammalian inner ear

We have studied the function of the zinc finger transcription factor gata3 in auditory system development by analysing temporal profiles of gene expression during differentiation of conditionally immortal cell lines derived to model specific auditory cell types and developmental stages. We tested and applied a novel probabilistic method called the gamma Model for Oligonucleotide Signals to analyse hybridization signals from Affymetrix oligonucleotide arrays. Expression levels estimated by this method correlated closely (p<0.0001) across a 10-fold range with those measured by quantitative RT-PCR for a sample of 61 different genes. In an unbiased list of 26 genes whose temporal profiles clustered most closely with that of gata3 in all cell lines, 10 were linked to Insulin-like Growth Factor signalling, including the serine/threonine kinase Akt/PKB. Knock-down of gata3 in vitro was associated with a decrease in expression of genes linked to IGF-signalling, including IGF1, IGF2 and several IGF-binding proteins. It also led to a small decrease in protein levels of the serine-threonine kinase Akt2/PKB beta, a dramatic increase in Akt1/PKB alpha protein and relocation of Akt1/PKB alpha from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27(kip1), a known target of PKB/Akt, simultaneously decreased. In heterozygous gata3 null mice the expression of gata3 correlated with high levels of activated Akt/PKB. This functional relationship could explain the diverse function of gata3 during development, the hearing loss associated with gata3 heterozygous null mice and the broader symptoms of human patients with Hearing-Deafness-Renal anomaly syndrome

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

A review of measurement and modelling results of particle atmosphere–surface exchange

Atmosphere–surface exchange represents one mechanism by which atmospheric particle mass and number size distributions are modified. Deposition velocities (vd) exhibit a pronounced dependence on surface type, due in part to turbulence structure (as manifest in friction velocity), with minima of approximately 0.01 and 0.2 cm s−1 over grasslands and 0.1–1 cm s−1 over forests. However, as noted over 20 yr ago, observations over forests generally do not support the pronounced minimum of deposition velocity (vd) for particle diameters of 0.1–2 μm as manifest in theoretical predictions. Closer agreement between models and observations is found over less-rough surfaces though those data also imply substantially higher surface collection efficiencies than were originally proposed and are manifest in current models. We review theorized dependencies for particle fluxes, describe and critique model approaches and innovations in experimental approaches, and synthesize common conclusions of experimental and modelling studies. We end by proposing a number of research avenues that should be pursued in to facilitate further insights and development of improved numerical models of atmospheric particles