Changes in household well being and resilience: The role of population, family planning and reproductive health in the Tuungane Project

Both the family planning sector and the environmental sector will be interested in this synopsis of findings from a study of the first four years of the Tuungane integrated population, health, and environment (PHE) project in Tanzania. The objectives of the Tuungane Project are to achieve healthier families, healthier forests, and healthier fisheries, using an integrated, cross-sectoral approach. Analyses of the 2011 baseline and 2016 midline quantitative data, and additional qualitative data from 2016, measured the project’s progress and shed light on the contribution of the project interventions to building resilience, and on the links between family planning and other components of resilience. This synopsis shows that after four years, the Tuungane Project has made progress toward increasing resilience on several key indicators relating to population, family planning, and reproductive health

The impact of population, health, and environment projects: A synthesis of evidence

This working paper synthesizes the existing research and results from projects that integrate family planning with environment, livelihoods, natural-resource management, and other non-health development sectors. The report synthesizes the published and gray literature on current and past integrated projects and the experiences of implementers to generate a summary of the state of knowledge on integrated family planning and environment projects. Specifically, this synthesis documents what is being measured by integrated projects, the proven benefits of integration, and gaps in the evidence base. Based on this analysis, the synthesis highlights and discusses successes and challenges for documenting the impact of integrating family planning and non-health sector development projects. Moving forward, Population, Health, and Environment projects can use the information from this synthesis to identify and fill current gaps in the evidence to further build the case for why integrating family planning with sectors such as natural resource management and livelihoods is an effective evidence-based development approach

Multi-Name Credit Derivatives

The problem addressed in this report is that of pricing multi-name credit derivatives. These are default guarantee contracts on a basket of “names” whose default rates are correlated

MRL12: Robert E. Speer Papers, 1795-1947

Pamphlets, reports, correspondence, and minutes collected by prominent American church leader, author, and missionary statesman who served on the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States for 46 years and was a founding member of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America

Geminin regulates the transcriptional and epigenetic status of neuronal fate-promoting genes during mammalian neurogenesis

Regulating the transition from lineage-restricted progenitors to terminally differentiated cells is a central aspect of nervous system development. Here, we investigated the role of the nucleoprotein geminin in regulating neurogenesis at a mechanistic level during both Xenopus primary neurogenesis and mammalian neuronal differentiation in vitro. The latter work utilized neural cells derived from embryonic stem and embryonal carcinoma cells in vitro and neural stem cells from mouse forebrain. In all of these contexts, geminin antagonized the ability of neural basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors to activate transcriptional programs promoting neurogenesis. Furthermore, geminin promoted a bivalent chromatin state, characterized by the presence of both activating and repressive histone modifications, at genes encoding transcription factors that promote neurogenesis. This epigenetic state restrains the expression of genes that regulate commitment of undifferentiated stem and neuronal precursor cells to neuronal lineages. However, maintaining geminin at high levels was not sufficient to prevent terminal neuronal differentiation. Therefore, these data support a model whereby geminin promotes the neuronal precursor cell state by modulating both the epigenetic status and expression of genes encoding neurogenesis-promoting factors. Additional developmental signals acting in these cells can then control their transition toward terminal neuronal or glial differentiation during mammalian neurogenesis

Penguin biogeography along the West Antarctic Peninsula: Testing the canyon hypothesis with Palmer LTER observations

The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is home to large breeding colonies of the ice-dependent Antarctic Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae). Although the entire inner continental shelf is highly productive, with abundant phytoplankton and krill populations, penguin colonies are distributed heterogeneously along the WAP (Ducklow et al., 2013, in this issue). This ecological conundrum targets a long-standing question of interest: what environmental factors structure the locations of Adélie penguin "hot spots" throughout the WAP

Going Multimodal: Programmatic, Curricular, and Classroom Change

AS THE STUDENTS NOTE IN this epigraph, we do not live in a monomodal world. Rather, we experience the world and communicate through multiple modalities. To confine students to learning in only one mode, typically the textual mode in first-year writing courses, indeed limits, students\u27 understanding and creative potential-a point that has reemerged in considerations of education and the teaching of writing..

Superresolution imaging of human cytomegalovirus vMIA localization in sub-mitochondrial compartments

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) viral mitochondria-localized inhibitor of apoptosis (vMIA) protein, traffics to mitochondria-associated membranes (MAM), where the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) contacts the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). vMIA association with the MAM has not been visualized by imaging. Here, we have visualized this by using a combination of confocal and superresolution imaging. Deconvolution of confocal microscopy images shows vMIA localizes away from mitochondrial matrix at the Mitochondria-ER interface. By gated stimulated emission depletion (GSTED) imaging, we show that along this interface vMIA is distributed in clusters. Through multicolor, multifocal structured illumination microscopy (MSIM), we find vMIA clusters localize away from MitoTracker Red, indicating its OMM localization. GSTED and MSIM imaging show vMIA exists in clusters of ~100–150 nm, which is consistent with the cluster size determined by Photoactivated Localization Microscopy (PALM). With these diverse superresolution approaches, we have imaged the clustered distribution of vMIA at the OMM adjacent to the ER. Our findings directly compare the relative advantages of each of these superresolution imaging modalities for imaging components of the MAM and sub-mitochondrial compartments. These studies establish the ability of superresolution imaging to provide valuable insight into viral protein location, particularly in the sub-mitochondrial compartments, and into their clustered organization

Decreasing recurrent bowel obstructions, improving quality of life with physiotherapy: Controlled study

AIM: To compare (1) quality of life and (2) rate of recurrent small bowel obstructions (SBO) for patients treated with novel manual physiotherapy METHODS: One hundred and three subjects (age 19-89) with a history of recurrent adhesive SBO were treated with a manual physiotherapy called the Clear Passage Approach (CPA) which focused on decreasing adhesive crosslinking in abdominopelvic viscera. Pre- and post-therapy data measured recurring obstructions and quality of life, using a validated test sent 90 d after therapy. Results were compared to 136 untreated control subjects who underwent the same measurements for subjects who did not receive any therapy, which is the normal course for patients with recurring SBO. Comparison of the groups allowed us to assess changes when the physiotherapy was added as an adjunct treatment for patients with recurring SBO. RESULTS: Despite histories of more prior hospitalizations, obstructions, surgeries, and years impacted by bowel issues, the 103 CPA-treated subjects reported a significantly lower rate of repeat SBO than 136 untreated controls (total obstructions CONCLUSION: CPA physical therapy was effective for patients with adhesive SBO with significantly lower recurrence rate, improvement in reported symptoms and overall quality of life of subjects