The emergence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and related diseases.

Since 1986, approximately 170,000 cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) have occurred among approximately one million animals infected by contaminated feed in the United Kingdom. A ruminant feed ban in 1988 resulted in the rapid decline of the epidemic. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies due to agents indistinguishable from BSE have appeared in small numbers of exotic zoo animals; a small outbreak among domestic cats is declining. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been intensively monitored since 1990 because of the risk BSE could pose to public health. In 1995, two adolescents in the United Kingdom died of CJD, and through the early part of 1996, other relatively young people had cases of what became known as new variant CJD, whose transmissible agent (indistinguishable from that of BSE) is responsible for 26 cases in the United Kingdom and one in France. Areas of concern include how many cases will appear in the future and whether or not use of human blood and blood products may cause a second cycle of human infections

Law-Based Arguments and Messages to Advocate for Later School Start Time Policies in the United States

The increasing scientific evidence that early school start times are harmful to the health and safety of teenagers has generated much recent debate about changing school start times policies for adolescent students. Although efforts to promote and implement such changes have proliferated in the United States in recent years, they have rarely been supported by law-based arguments and messages that leverage the existing legal infrastructure regulating public education and child welfare in the United States. Furthermore, the legal bases to support or resist such changes have not been explored in detail to date. This article provides an overview of how law-based arguments and messages can be constructed and applied to advocate for later school start time policies in U.S. public secondary schools. The legal infrastructure impacting school start time policies in the United States is briefly reviewed, including descriptions of how government regulates education, what legal obligations school officials have concerning their students\u27 welfare, and what laws and public policies currently exist that address adolescent sleep health and safety. On the basis of this legal infrastructure, some hypothetical examples of law-based arguments and messages that could be applied to various types of advocacy activities (e.g., litigation, legislative and administrative advocacy, media and public outreach) to promote later school start times are discussed. Particular consideration is given to hypothetical arguments and messages aimed at emphasizing the consistency of later school start time policies with existing child welfare law and practices, legal responsibilities of school officials and governmental authorities, and societal values and norms

The intensity of cosmic ray muons deep underground

The vertical intensity, I(_v), and exponent of the angular distribution, n, (where I(_o) = I(_v)cos(^n) 0), of muons underground have been measured using simple telescopes comprising plastic scintillators, geiger counters and neon flash tubes at depths of 816, 1812 and 4110 m.w.e. in the Kolar Gold Fields, India. The observed values of n are 1.92 ± 0.33, 3.26 ± 0.10 and 5.33 ± 0.50 respectively, and those of I(_v) are (2.29 ± 0.09)10(^-6), (1.98 ± 0.05)10(^-7) and (4.47 ± 0.34)10(^-9) cm(^-2)sr(^-1)sec(^-1). These results have been compared with the results of other workers and the intensity-depth relation of Osborne et al (1964). The agreement is quite good at 816 and 4110 m.w.e. but the observed intensity is higher by ~30% at 1812 m.w.e. The integral sea-level muon intensities have been inferred from the range-energy relation, allowing for fluctuations in energy losses. From comparison with ɤ - ray cascade data it is shown the K/π ratio is sensibly constant at ~30% over the range of primary energy 10(^3) – 10(^6_) GeV. No significant non-Poissonian contribution to the distribution of time intervals between the arrival of successive events underground was noted indicating that the phenomenon of bursts of particles at short time intervals reported by Cowan et al (1964) has not been observed in the present experiment. The probability of electromagnetic interactions of muons in rock and lead was found to Increase (with increasing depth) demonstrating the growing Importance of energy losses by bremsstrahlung and direct pair production. Analysis of multiple penetrating particle events shows that they cfm be attributed to the production o muons (via pions) in extensive air showers, and to the nuclear interaction of muons in rock. Several neutrino induced muons and atmospheric muons have been detected in a new experiment, still in operation, at 7600 m.w.e. The vertical intensity of muons has been derived from the latter and compared with that inferred from the South African neutrino experiment at 8500 m.w.e. Finally, a best estimate of the intensity depth relation is given

Sunrise : Le Lever Du Soleil

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/1909/thumbnail.jp

Hanging In, Stepping up and Stepping Out: Livelihood Aspirations and Strategies of the Poor Development in Practice

In recent years understanding of poverty and of ways in which people escape from or fall into poverty has become more holistic. This should improve the capabilities of policy analysts and others working to reduce poverty, but it also makes analysis more complex. This paper describes a simple schema which integrates multidimensional, multilevel and dynamic understandings of poverty, of poor people’s livelihoods, and of changing roles of agricultural systems. The paper suggests three broad types of strategy pursued by poor people: ‘hanging in’; ‘stepping up’; and ‘stepping out’. This simple schema explicitly recognises the dynamic aspirations of poor people; diversity among them; and livelihood diversification. It also brings together aspirations of poor people with wider sectoral, inter-sectoral and macro-economic questions about policies necessary for realisation of those aspirations

Effects of Replacing Oxygenated Functionality with Fluorine on Lipophilicity

The replacement of oxygenated functionality (hydroxy and alkoxy) with a fluorine atom is a commonly used bioisosteric replacement in medicinal chemistry. In this paper, we use molecular matched-pair analysis to better understand the effects of this replacement on lipophilicity. It seems that the reduced log P of the oxygenated compound is normally dominant in determining the size of this difference. We observe that the presence of additional electron-donating groups on an aromatic ring generally increases the difference in lipophilicity between an oxygenated compound and its fluorinated analogue, while electron-withdrawing groups lead to smaller differences. Ortho-substituted compounds generally display a reduced difference in log P compared to para- and meta-substituted compounds, particularly if an ortho-substituent can form an intramolecular hydrogen bond. Hydrogen-bond acceptors remote to an aromatic ring containing fluorine/oxygen can also reduce the difference in log P between oxygen- and fluorine-substituted compounds

Macroautophagy and Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy in Heart Failure: The Known and the Unknown

Cardiac diseases including hypertrophic and ischemic cardiomyopathies are increasingly being reported to accumulate misfolded proteins and damaged organelles. These findings have led to an increasing interest in protein degradation pathways, like autophagy, which are essential not only for normal protein turnover but also in the removal of misfolded and damaged proteins. Emerging evidence suggests a previously unprecedented role for autophagic processes in cardiac physiology and pathology. This review focuses on the major types of autophagic processes, the genes and protein complexes involved, and their regulation. It discusses the key similarities and differences between macroautophagy, chaperone-mediated autophagy, and selective mitophagy structures and functions. The genetic models available to study loss and gain of macroautophagy, mitophagy, and CMA are discussed. It defines the markers of autophagic processes, methods for measuring autophagic activities, and their interpretations. This review then summarizes the major studies of autophagy in the heart and their contribution to cardiac pathology. Some reports suggest macroautophagy imparts cardioprotection from heart failure pathology. Meanwhile, other studies find macroautophagy activation may be detrimental in cardiac pathology. An improved understanding of autophagic processes and their regulation may lead to a new genre of treatments for cardiac diseases