The State of Preschool 2007

Provides data on state-funded pre-K programs for the 2006-2007 school year, such as percentages of children enrolled at different ages, spending per child, and the number of quality standard benchmarks met. Includes state rankings and profiles

Surviving the Anthropocene: the resilience of marine animals to climate change

If marine organisms are to persist through the Anthropocene, they will need to be resilient, but what is resilience, and can resilience of marine organisms build within a single lifetime or over generations? The aim of this review is to evaluate the resilience capacity of marine animals in a time of unprecedented global climate change. Resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem, society, or organism to recover from stress. Marine organisms can build resilience to climate change through phenotypic plasticity or adaptation. Phenotypic plasticity involves phenotypic changes in physiology, morphology, or behaviour which improve the response of an organism in a new environment without altering their genotype. Adaptation is an evolutionary longer process, occurring over many generations and involves the selection of tolerant genotypes which shift the average phenotype within a population towards the fitness peak. Research on resilience of marine organisms has concentrated on responses to specific species and single climate change stressors. It is unknown whether phenotypic plasticity and adaptation of marine organisms including molluscs, echinoderms, polychaetes, crustaceans, corals, and fish will be rapid enough for the pace of climate change

Exploring the Utility of Recombinant Snake Venom Serine Protease Toxins as Immunogens for Generating Experimental Snakebite Antivenoms.

Snakebite is a neglected tropical disease that causes high rates of global mortality and morbidity. Although snakebite can cause a variety of pathologies in victims, haemotoxic effects are particularly common and are typically characterised by haemorrhage and/or venom-induced consumption coagulopathy. Despite polyclonal antibody-based antivenoms being the mainstay life-saving therapy for snakebite, they are associated with limited cross-snake species efficacy, as there is often extensive toxin variation between snake venoms, including those used as immunogens for antivenom production. This restricts the therapeutic utility of any antivenom to certain geographical regions. In this study, we explored the feasibility of using recombinantly expressed toxins as immunogens to stimulate focused, pathology-specific, antibodies in order to broadly counteract specific toxins associated with snakebite envenoming. Three snake venom serine proteases (SVSP) toxins, sourced from geographically diverse and medically important viper snake venoms, were successfully expressed in HEK293F mammalian cells and used for murine immunisation. Analyses of the resulting antibody responses revealed that ancrod and RVV-V stimulated the strongest immune responses, and that experimental antivenoms directed against these recombinant SVSP toxins, and a mixture of the three different immunogens, extensively recognised and exhibited immunological binding towards a variety of native snake venoms. While the experimental antivenoms showed some reduction in abnormal clotting parameters stimulated by the toxin immunogens and crude venom, specifically reducing the depletion of fibrinogen levels and prolongation of prothrombin times, fibrinogen degradation experiments revealed that they broadly protected against venom- and toxin-induced fibrinogenolytic functional activities. Overall, our findings further strengthen the case for the use of recombinant venom toxins as supplemental immunogens to stimulate focused and desirable antibody responses capable of neutralising venom-induced pathological effects, and therefore potentially circumventing some of the limitations associated with current snakebite therapies

A haemagglutination test for rapid detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2

Serological detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 is essential for establishing rates of seroconversion in populations, and for seeking evidence for a level of antibody that may be protective against COVID-19 disease. Several high-performance commercial tests have been described, but these require centralised laboratory facilities that are comparatively expensive, and therefore not available universally. Red cell agglutination tests do not require special equipment, are read by eye, have short development times, low cost and can be applied at the Point of Care. Here we describe a quantitative Haemagglutination test (HAT) for the detection of antibodies to the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The HAT has a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 99% for detection of antibodies after a PCR diagnosed infection. We will supply aliquots of the test reagent sufficient for ten thousand test wells free of charge to qualified research groups anywhere in the world

Trabajo práctico N° 2 de Instalaciones 2 (2018) : Diseño ambientalmente consciente. Integración de sistemas solares térmicos en edificios

El TP 2 de Instalaciones 2 de la Cátedra Czajkowski, Gómez, Calisto Aguilar busca tratar de integrar sistemas y tecnologías pasivas y activas para la climatización de un edificio y la provisión de agua caliente sanitaria. Se incluye teoría y modelo de dimensionamiento.Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanism

Understanding the behaviour of children in care before and after parental contact

It is not uncommon to hear foster carers and child protection case workers comment about a child’s behaviour both before and after parental contact. Frequently these comments are negative, the view being expressed that contact should be reduced because the children get upset at seeing their parents for a limited time, and then at having to separate from them. The child’s resultant distress seems too difficult to manage for foster carers. Some foster parents even go so far as to suggest that parental contact should completely cease. This article sets out the rationale for parent–child contact after a Children’s Court has ruled that there is “no realistic possibility of restoration” of a child to parental care. In doing so, the article revisits many of the old arguments put forward for reducing parent contact. However, alternative ways of approaching children’s difficult behaviours both pre- and post-contact are also proposed to suggest different ways of managing these behaviours. The legislation and child protection practice in New South Wales provides the frame of reference for this articl

Pregnancy is associated with elevation of liver enzymes in HIV-positive women on antiretroviral therapy

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess whether pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of liver enzyme elevation (LEE) and severe LEE in HIV-positive women on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Design: Two observational studies: the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort (UK CHIC) study and the UK and Ireland National Study of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood (NSHPC). Methods: Combined data from UK CHIC and NSHPC were used to identify factors associated with LEE (grade 1-4) and severe LEE (grade 3-4). Women starting ART in 2000-2012 were included irrespective of pregnancy status. Cox proportional hazards were used to assess fixed and time-dependent covariates including pregnancy status, CD4 + cell count, drug regimen and hepatitis B virus/hepatitis C virus (HBV/HCV) coinfection. Results: One-quarter (25.7%, 982/3815) of women were pregnant during follow-up, 14.2% (n = 541) when starting ART. The rate of LEE was 14.5/100 person-years in and 6.0/100 person-years outside of pregnancy. The rate of severe LEE was 3.9/100 person-years in and 0.6/100 person-years outside of pregnancy. The risk of LEE and severe LEE was increased during pregnancy [LEE: adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.66 (1.31-2.09); severe LEE: aHR 3.57 (2.30-5.54)], including in secondary analyses excluding 541 women pregnant when starting ART. Other factors associated with LEE and severe LEE included lower CD4 + cell count

The risk of viral rebound in the year after delivery in women remaining on antiretroviral therapy

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the risk of viral rebound in postpartum women on suppressive combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Methods: Using data from the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort (UK CHIC) study and the UK and Ireland National Study of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood (NSHPC), women with HIV-RNA 50copies/ml or less at delivery in 2006-2011, who started life-long cART during pregnancy (n=321) or conceived on cART (n=618), were matched by age, duration on cART and time period, with at least one control (non-postpartum). The cumulative probability of viral rebound (HIV-RNA >200copies/ml) was assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis; adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for the 0-3 and 3-12 months postdelivery (cases)/pseudo-delivery (controls) were calculated in Cox proportional hazards models. Results: In postpartum women who conceived on cART, 5.9% [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 4.0-7.7] experienced viral rebound by 3 months, and 2.2% (1.4-3.0%) of their controls. The risk of viral rebound was higher in postpartum women than in controls during the first 3 months [aHR 2.63 (1.58-4.39)] but not during the 3-12 months postdelivery/pseudo-delivery. In postpartum women who started cART during pregnancy, 27% (22-32%) experienced viral rebound by 3 months, and 3.0% (1.6-4.4%) of their controls. The risk of viral rebound was higher in postpartum women than in controls during both postdelivery/pseudo-delivery periods