The Dog Enlists

Mna\u27s best friend is following his master to war. The use of the dog in war is not new. During the first World War, dogs were used extensively by both sides for various essential tasks, both at the front and behind the lines. Today on the fighting fronts which stretch around the world, the dog is again fighting beside his master

Do Employees From Less-Healthy Communities Use More Care and Cost More? Seeking to Establish a Business Case for Investment in Community Health.

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined the impact of community health on employers. We explored whether employed adults and their adult dependents living in less-healthy communities in the greater Philadelphia region used more care and incurred higher costs to employers than employees from healthier communities. METHODS: We used a multi-employer database to identify adult employees and dependents with continuous employment and mapped them to 31 zip code regions. We calculated community health scores at the regional level, by using metrics similar to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) County Health Rankings but with local data. We used descriptive analyses and multilevel linear modeling to explore relationships between community health and 3 outcome variables: emergency department (ED) use, hospital use, and paid claims. Business leaders reviewed findings and offered insights on preparedness to invest in community health improvement. RESULTS: Poorer community health was associated with high use of ED services, after controlling for age and sex. After including a summary measure of racial composition at the zip code region level, the relationship between community health and ED use became nonsignificant. No significant relationships between community health and hospitalizations or paid claims were identified. Business leaders expressed interest in further understanding health needs of communities where their employees live. CONCLUSION: The health of communities in which adult employees and dependents live was associated with ED use, but similar relationships were not seen for hospitalizations or paid claims. This finding suggests a need for more primary care access. Despite limited quantitative evidence, business leaders expressed interest in guidance on investing in community health improvement

Moving E-Waste Management into the 21st Century: Protecting Health and Wealth from the Dangers of Electronic Waste

Thesis advisor: Michael CermakElectronic waste (e-waste) is being generated faster than ever, threatening the health of people at home and abroad. This paper advocates for improvements in e-waste management that increase environmental protection in innovative ways that also benefit workers. It reviews what is being done around the world in response to the problem and then introduces suggestions on how public and private actors can cooperate to achieve better results, particularly within the United States. The paper begins by examining the successes and failures of extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations in Europe, the United States, China, and Japan. It then goes on to advocate for a system combining EPR with a refundable deposit to encourage consumer-driven increases in return rates. If people could receive five to ten dollars for recycling their old cell phone or laptop, far fewer would end up in landfills. The paper culminates with an examination of how the idea of “green-collar jobs” can apply to ewaste management. It examines non-college training programs to prepare people to work in this industry and bring them out of poverty. Several reports have discussed the e-waste issue and its policy implications but this will be the first that brings in the labor aspect.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: College Honors Program.Discipline: International Studies Honors Program.Discipline: International Studies

Splice variants of DOMINO control Drosophila circadian behavior and pacemaker neuron maintenance.

Circadian clocks control daily rhythms in behavior and physiology. In Drosophila, the small ventral lateral neurons (sLNvs) expressing PIGMENT DISPERSING FACTOR (PDF) are the master pacemaker neurons generating locomotor rhythms. Despite the importance of sLNvs and PDF in circadian behavior, little is known about factors that control sLNvs maintenance and PDF accumulation. Here, we identify the Drosophila SWI2/SNF2 protein DOMINO (DOM) as a key regulator of circadian behavior. Depletion of DOM in circadian neurons eliminates morning anticipatory activity under light dark cycle and impairs behavioral rhythmicity in constant darkness. Interestingly, the two major splice variants of DOM, DOM-A and DOM-B have distinct circadian functions. DOM-A depletion mainly leads to arrhythmic behavior, while DOM-B knockdown lengthens circadian period without affecting the circadian rhythmicity. Both DOM-A and DOM-B bind to the promoter regions of key pacemaker genes period and timeless, and regulate their protein expression. However, we identify that only DOM-A is required for the maintenance of sLNvs and transcription of pdf. Lastly, constitutive activation of PDF-receptor signaling rescued the arrhythmia and period lengthening of DOM downregulation. Taken together, our findings reveal that two splice variants of DOM play distinct roles in circadian rhythms through regulating abundance of pacemaker proteins and sLNvs maintenance

B754: Adolescent Pregnancies in Maine: A Demographic Analysis

Information concerning teenage pregnancy in Maine is limited. Published data have been incomplete and fail to provide for adequately planning specific health and/or educational programs. This research was designed to examine data pertaining to fertility patterns of women 19 years of age and younger in Maine by county, by city, by age of mother, and by birth order of child.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1069/thumbnail.jp

An electrostatic mechanism for Ca(2+)-mediated regulation of gap junction channels.

Gap junction channels mediate intercellular signalling that is crucial in tissue development, homeostasis and pathologic states such as cardiac arrhythmias, cancer and trauma. To explore the mechanism by which Ca(2+) blocks intercellular communication during tissue injury, we determined the X-ray crystal structures of the human Cx26 gap junction channel with and without bound Ca(2+). The two structures were nearly identical, ruling out both a large-scale structural change and a local steric constriction of the pore. Ca(2+) coordination sites reside at the interfaces between adjacent subunits, near the entrance to the extracellular gap, where local, side chain conformational rearrangements enable Ca(2+)chelation. Computational analysis revealed that Ca(2+)-binding generates a positive electrostatic barrier that substantially inhibits permeation of cations such as K(+) into the pore. Our results provide structural evidence for a unique mechanism of channel regulation: ionic conduction block via an electrostatic barrier rather than steric occlusion of the channel pore

Economic analysis of alley farming with small ruminants

Evaluates alley farming models with small ruminants based on field and experimental data from southwest Nigeria, and compares them to basic alley cropping and to fallow systems. Describes the basic fallow model, the basic alley cropping model without animals, the alley farming model with goats, as well as with sheep

Laboratory studies of periphyton production and community metabolism in lotic environments

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Molecular architecture of Gαo and the structural basis for RGS16-mediated deactivation

Heterotrimeric G proteins relay extracellular cues from heptahelical transmembrane receptors to downstream effector molecules. Composed of an α subunit with intrinsic GTPase activity and a βγ heterodimer, the trimeric complex dissociates upon receptor-mediated nucleotide exchange on the α subunit, enabling each component to engage downstream effector targets for either activation or inhibition as dictated in a particular pathway. To mitigate excessive effector engagement and concomitant signal transmission, the Gα subunit's intrinsic activation timer (the rate of GTP hydrolysis) is regulated spatially and temporally by a class of GTPase accelerating proteins (GAPs) known as the regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) family. The array of G protein-coupled receptors, Gα subunits, RGS proteins and downstream effectors in mammalian systems is vast. Understanding the molecular determinants of specificity is critical for a comprehensive mapping of the G protein system. Here, we present the 2.9 Å crystal structure of the enigmatic, neuronal G protein Gαo in the GTP hydrolytic transition state, complexed with RGS16. Comparison with the 1.89 Å structure of apo-RGS16, also presented here, reveals plasticity upon Gαo binding, the determinants for GAP activity, and the structurally unique features of Gαo that likely distinguish it physiologically from other members of the larger Gαi family, affording insight to receptor, GAP and effector specificity