Environmental aspects of internal migration in Tanzania

In recent years, the issue of the nexus of climate change and human migration has attracted a growing amount of interest among scholars and policy makers. Using individual-level data from the Tanzania National Panel Survey conducted in 2008\u20132009, we examine the roles played by droughts or floods, crop diseases, and severe water shortages in inter-district migration in Tanzania. Findings reveal that droughts or floods and crop diseases are associated with an overall decrease in the likelihood of inter-district mobility, providing support for the \u201cenvironmental scarcity\u201d hypothesis. Yet migration becomes a likely response to droughts and floods among individuals with no education suggesting mobility is a key livelihood strategy among those most disadvantaged. Future examination of domestic migration-environment processes at the individual-level is critical for informed policy and programs

Cervical cancer screening in women vaccinated against human papillomavirus infection: Recommendations from a consensus conference

In Italy, the cohorts of women who were offered Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in 2007/08 will reach the age (25 years) for cervical cancer (CC) screening from 2017. The simultaneous shift from cytology-based screening to HPV test-based screening gives the opportunity for unprecedented reorganisation of CC prevention. The ONS (National Screening Monitoring Centre) Directive and the GISCi (Italian Group for Cervical Screening) identified the consensus conference as the most suitable method for addressing this topic. A summary of consensus recommendations is reported here. The main objective was to define the best screening methods in girls vaccinated against HPV and the knowledge required for defining evidence-based screening strategies. A Jury made recommendations about questions and proposals formulated by a panel of experts representative of Italian scientific societies involved in CC prevention and based on systematic reviews of literature and evidence. The Jury considered changing the screening protocols for girls vaccinated in their twelfth year as appropriate. Tailored screening protocols based on vaccination status could be replaced by \u201cone size fits all\u201d protocols only when a herd immunity effect has been reached. Vaccinated women should start screening at age 30, instead of 25, with HPV test. Furthermore, there is a strong rationale for applying longer intervals for re-screening HPV negative women than the currently recommended 5 years, but research is needed to determine the optimal screening time points. For non-vaccinated women and for women vaccinated in their fifteenth year or later, the current protocol should be kept

Current Trends in the Development and Use of Personalized Implants: Engineering Concepts and Regulation Perspectives for the Contemporary Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon

The recently adopted Medical Device Regulation (MDR) has finally entered into force on 26 May 2021. As innovation and especially the advent of customized prostheses has deeply modified many surgical procedures in our discipline, it is imperative for the contemporary surgeon to become aware of the impact that the MDR will have on many aspects, including the choice of the manufacturer, the evaluation of the devices, point-of-care 3D printing labs, and medical software. In this paper, the authors tried to identify the cultural gaps in clinical practice that the MDR is supposed to fill. To achieve this purpose, a task force of experts was reunited, including CMF surgeons with direct expertise in medical software and 3D printing, mechanical and material engineers, facing the topic of the MDR from a multidimensional perspective. In this article, surgeons and engineers review many crucial aspects concerning the points of the regulation that mostly affect the field of implantable devices for the cranio-maxillo-facial skeleton. The result of interdisciplinary research is a paper aiming to provide surgeons with the knowledge on the fundamental processes of additive manufacturing, increasing the clinician’s awareness on the evaluation of a customized implant before surgery and on the underlying regulatory framework

The Relationship between an Oxidative Stress Biomarker and Plasma Haemoglobin in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Introduction Evidence suggests that decreased haemoglobin plasma concentration may be a predictor of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We hypothesized that in CKD patients, oxidative stress could influence the development of cardiovascular damage via a relationship with haemoglobin levels. Methods We assayed plasma levels of the biomarker of oxidative stress 8-ISO-prostaglandin F2α (8-ISO-PGF2α) and of haemoglobin in 193 stage 2-5 CKD patients, investigating their relationship. Eighty healthy subjects and 80 patients with primary hypertension having normal renal function were enrolled as controls. Results The CKD group was divided according to 8-ISO-PGF2α quartiles, and decreasing levels of both haemoglobin and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) along with increasing quartiles were observed. In the 193 CKD patients, the linear analysis of correlation showed inverse correlations of 8-ISO-PGF2α with both haemoglobin and eGFR (r = −0.47; r = −0.81; p < 0.00001, respectively). In the control groups, no correlation between haemoglobin and 8-ISO-PGF2α was found. The multiple regression analysis carried out in CKD patients, by a model with 8-ISO-PGF2α as the dependent variable, and including haemoglobin and all confounding factors, confirmed the inverse relationship between haemoglobin and 8-ISO-PGF2α (β = −0.50; p < 0.00001). In this model, only when eGFR was added did the relationship between haemoglobin and 8-ISO-PGF2α lose statistical significance. In this final multivariate model, 8-ISO-PGF2α correlated independently with eGFR (β = −0.82; p < 0.0001). Conclusions In CKD, haemoglobin plasma level is inversely related to oxidative stress, depending on GFR. It remains to be elucidated whether or not the biochemistry of nitric oxide and haemoglobin interaction has a role in causing this relationship

Fragment Merging, Growing, and Linking Identify New Trypanothione Reductase Inhibitors for Leishmaniasis

: Trypanothione reductase (TR) is a suitable target for drug discovery approaches against leishmaniasis, although the identification of potent inhibitors is still challenging. Herein, we harnessed a fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) strategy to develop new TR inhibitors. Previous crystallographic screening identified fragments 1-3, which provided ideal starting points for a medicinal chemistry campaign. In silico investigations revealed critical hotspots in the TR binding site, guiding our structure- and ligand-based structure-actvity relationship (SAR) exploration that yielded fragment-derived compounds 4-14. A trend of improvement in Leishmania infantum TR inhibition was detected along the optimization and confirmed by the crystal structures of 9, 10, and 14 in complex with Trypanosoma brucei TR. Compound 10 showed the best TR inhibitory profile (Ki = 0.2 μM), whereas 9 was the best one in terms of in vitro and ex vivo activity. Although further fine-tuning is needed to improve selectivity, we demonstrated the potentiality of FBDD on a classic but difficult target for leishmaniasis