Africa's Wealthy Give Back: A Perspective on Philanthropic Giving by Wealthy Africans in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa

Over the last few years we have begun to see the emergence of more strategic philanthropy, the growth of formal vehicles for its practice, and the rise of new platforms that reflect African voices. There is also a growing interest to better understand African philanthropy and learn from the experience of African philanthropists so as to achieve greater impact. This research forms part of that effort by providing a pan-African view of a specific group of philanthropists from Africa. It focuses on Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, countries that are in the spotlight due to their respective positions within their regions, their economic status and their levels of giving by the wealthy. However, individuals from countries such as Uganda, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as from the African Diaspora also participated in the stud

Africas Wealthy Give Back

Philanthropy is an integral part of the African identity. Philanthropy, or giving, has long been practiced by Africans at individual and community levels, both formally and informally, and at multiple levels of scale

Eumelanin-based colouration reflects local survival of juvenile feral pigeons in an urban pigeon house

International audienceUrbanisation introduces deep changes in habitats, eventually creating new urban ecosystems where ecological functions are driven by human activities. The higher frequency of some phenotypes in urban vs rural/wild areas has led to the assumption that directional selection in urban habitats occurs, which may thereby favour some behavioural and physiological traits in urban animal populations compared to rural ones. However, empirical evidence of directional selection on phenotypic traits in urban areas remains scarce. In this study we tested whether eumelanin-based colouration could be linked to survival in two urban populations of the feral pigeon Columba livia. A number of studies in different cities pointed out a higher frequency of darker individuals in more urbanised areas compared to rural ones. To investigate whether directional selection through survival on this highly heritable trait could explain such patterns, we conducted mark-recapture studies on two populations of feral pigeons in highly urbanized areas. We predicted that darker coloured individuals would exhibit higher survival and/or philopatry (integrated into 'local survival') than paler coloured ones. No difference in local survival was found between adults of different colouration intensities. However, on one site, we found that darker juveniles had a higher local survival probability than light ones. Juvenile local survival on that site was also negatively correlated with the number of chicks born. This suggests the existence of colour- and/or density-dependent selection processes acting on juvenile feral pigeons in urban environments, acting through differential mortality and/or dispersal

Le Forum, Vol. 42 No. 2

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1095/thumbnail.jp

Determinants of Kidney Failure in Primary Hyperoxaluria Type 1:Findings of the European Hyperoxaluria Consortium

INTRODUCTION: Primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) has a highly heterogeneous disease course. Apart from the c.508G&gt;A (p.Gly170Arg) AGXT variant, which imparts a relatively favorable outcome, little is known about determinants of kidney failure. Identifying these is crucial for disease management, especially in this era of new therapies. METHODS: In this retrospective study of 932 patients with PH1 included in the OxalEurope registry, we analyzed genotype-phenotype correlations as well as the impact of nephrocalcinosis, urolithiasis, and urinary oxalate and glycolate excretion on the development of kidney failure, using survival and mixed model analyses.RESULTS: The risk of developing kidney failure was the highest for 175 vitamin-B6 unresponsive ("null") homozygotes and lowest for 155 patients with c.508G&gt;A and c.454T&gt;A (p.Phe152Ile) variants, with a median age of onset of kidney failure of 7.8 and 31.8 years, respectively. Fifty patients with c.731T&gt;C (p.Ile244Thr) homozygote variants had better kidney survival than null homozygotes ( P = 0.003). Poor outcomes were found in patients with other potentially vitamin B6-responsive variants. Nephrocalcinosis increased the risk of kidney failure significantly (hazard ratio [HR] 3.17 [2.03-4.94], P &lt; 0.001). Urinary oxalate and glycolate measurements were available in 620 and 579 twenty-four-hour urine collections from 117 and 87 patients, respectively. Urinary oxalate excretion, unlike glycolate, was higher in patients who subsequently developed kidney failure ( P = 0.034). However, the 41% intraindividual variation of urinary oxalate resulted in wide confidence intervals. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, homozygosity for AGXT null variants and nephrocalcinosis were the strongest determinants for kidney failure in PH1. </p

Vitalism and the Resistance to Experimentation on Life in the Eighteenth Century

There is a familiar opposition between a ‘Scientific Revolution’ ethos and practice of experimentation, including experimentation on life, and a ‘vitalist’ reaction to this outlook. The former is often allied with different forms of mechanism – if all of Nature obeys mechanical laws, including living bodies, ‘iatromechanism’ should encounter no obstructions in investigating the particularities of animal-machines – or with more chimiatric theories of life and matter, as in the ‘Oxford Physiologists’. The latter reaction also comes in different, perhaps irreducibly heterogeneous forms, ranging from metaphysical and ethical objections to the destruction of life, as in Margaret Cavendish, to more epistemological objections against the usage of instruments, the ‘anatomical’ outlook and experimentation, e.g. in Locke and Sydenham. But I will mainly focus on a third anti-interventionist argument, which I call ‘vitalist’ since it is often articulated in the writings of the so-called Montpellier Vitalists, including their medical articles for the Encyclopédie. The vitalist argument against experimentation on life is subtly different from the metaphysical, ethical and epistemological arguments, although at times it may borrow from any of them. It expresses a Hippocratic sensibility – understood as an artifact of early modernity, not as some atemporal trait of medical thought – in which Life resists the experimenter, or conversely, for the experimenter to grasp something about Life, it will have to be without torturing or radically intervening in it. I suggest that this view does not have to imply that Nature is something mysterious or sacred; nor does the vitalist have to attack experimentation on life in the name of some ‘vital force’ – which makes it less surprising to find a vivisectionist like Claude Bernard sounding so close to the vitalists

Effect of extracranial lesion severity on outcome of endovascular thrombectomy in patients with anterior circulation tandem occlusion: analysis of the TITAN registry

Introduction Endovascular treatment (EVT) for tandem occlusion (TO) of the anterior circulation is complex but effective. The effect of extracranial internal carotid artery (EICA) lesion severity on the outcomes of EVT is unknown. In this study we investigated the effect of EICA lesion severity on the outcomes of tandem occlusion EVT. Methods A multicenter retrospective TITAN (Thrombectomy In TANdem lesions) study that included 18 international endovascular capable centers was performed. Patients who received EVT for atherosclerotic TO with or without EICA lesion intervention were included. Patients were divided into two groups based on the EICA lesion severity (high-grade stenosis (>= 90% North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial) vs complete occlusion). Outcome measures included the 90-day clinical outcome (modified Rankin Scale score (mRS)), angiographic reperfusion (modified Thrombolysis In Cerebral Ischemia (mTICI) at the end of the procedure), procedural complications, and intracranial hemorrhage at 24 hours follow-up. Results A total of 305 patients were included in the study, of whom 135 had complete EICA occlusion and 170 had severe EICA stenosis. The EICA occlusion group had shorter mean onset-to-groin time (259 +/- 120 min vs 305 +/- 202 min;p=0.037), more patients with diabetes, and fewer with hyperlipidemia. With respect to the outcome, mTICI 2b-3 reperfusion was lower in the EICA occlusion group (70% vs 81%;p=0.03). The favorable outcome (90-day mRS 0-2), intracerebral hemorrhage and procedural complications were similar in both groups. Conclusion Atherosclerotic occlusion of the EICA in acute tandem strokes was associated with a lower rate of mTICI 2b-3 reperfusion but similar functional and safety outcomes when compared with high-grade EICA stenosis

A roadmap to the efficient and robust characterization of temperate terrestrial planet atmospheres with JWST

Ultra-cool dwarf stars are abundant, long-lived, and uniquely suited to enable the atmospheric study of transiting terrestrial companions with JWST. Amongst them, the most prominent is the M8.5V star TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets, which have been the favored targets of eight JWST Cycle 1 programs. While Cycle 1 observations have started to yield preliminary insights into the planets, they have also revealed that their atmospheric exploration requires a better understanding of their host star. Here, we propose a roadmap to characterize the TRAPPIST-1 system -- and others like it -- in an efficient and robust manner. We notably recommend that -- although more challenging to schedule -- multi-transit windows be prioritized to constrain stellar heterogeneities and gather up to 2$\times$ more transits per JWST hour spent. We conclude that in such systems planets cannot be studied in isolation by small programs, thus large-scale community-supported programs should be supported to enable the efficient and robust exploration of terrestrial exoplanets in the JWST era

A genome-wide association study identifies risk alleles in plasminogen and P4HA2 associated with giant cell arteritis

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of vasculitis in individuals older than 50 years in Western countries. To shed light onto the genetic background influencing susceptibility for GCA, we performed a genome-wide association screening in a well-powered study cohort. After imputation, 1,844,133 genetic variants were analysed in 2,134 cases and 9,125 unaffected controls from ten independent populations of European ancestry. Our data confirmed HLA class II as the strongest associated region (independent signals: rs9268905, P = 1.94E-54, per-allele OR = 1.79; and rs9275592, P = 1.14E-40, OR = 2.08). Additionally, PLG and P4HA2 were identified as GCA risk genes at the genome-wide level of significance (rs4252134, P = 1.23E-10, OR = 1.28; and rs128738, P = 4.60E-09, OR = 1.32, respectively). Interestingly, we observed that the association peaks overlapped with different regulatory elements related to cell types and tissues involved in the pathophysiology of GCA. PLG and P4HA2 are involved in vascular remodelling and angiogenesis, suggesting a high relevance of these processes for the pathogenic mechanisms underlying this type of vasculitis