Genome-Wide Association Analysis of Major Depressive Disorder and Its Related Phenotypes.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a complex and chronic disease that ranks fourth as cause of disability worldwide. Thirteen to 14 million adults in the U.S. are believed to have MDD and an estimated 75% attempt suicide making MDD a major public health problem. Recently several genome-wide association (GWA) studies of MDD have been reported; however, few GWA studies focus on the analysis for MDD related phenotypes such as neuroticism and age at onset of MDD. The purpose of this study is to determine risk factors for MDD, identify genome-wide genetic variants affecting neuroticism and age at onset as quantitative traits, and detect gender differences influencing neuroticism. Bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed on 1,738 MDD cases and 1,618 non-MDD controls to determine phenotypic risk factors for MDD. Multiple linear regression analyses in PLINK software were used for GWA analyses for neuroticism and age at onset of MDD with 437,547 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). Gender (OR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.24 - 1.64) and a family history (OR: 2.88; 95% CI: 2.48 - 3.35) were significantly associated with an increased risk of MDD, which supports the findings of prior studies. Through GWA analysis 34 SNPs were identified to be associated with neuroticism (p \u3c 10-4). The best SNP was rs4806846 within the TMPRSS9 gene (p = 7.79 x10-6). Furthermore, 46 SNPs were found showing significant gene x gender interactions for neuroticism with p\u3c10-4. The best SNP showing gene x gender interaction was rs2430132 (p = 5.37x10-6) in HMCN1 gene. In addition, GWA analysis showed that several SNPs within 4 genes (GPR143, ASS1P4, MXRA5 and MAGEC1/2) were significantly associated with age at onset of MDD (p \u3c 5x10-7). This study confirmed previous findings that MDD is associated with an increased prevalence in women (about 43% more compared to men) and is highly heritable among first degree relatives. Several novel genetic loci were identified to be associated with neuroticism and age at onset. Gender differences were found in genetic influence of neuroticism. These findings offer the potential for new insights into the pathogenesis of MDD

Exchange rate pass-through and the role of international distribution channels

Manufacturers selling in foreign markets often do not completely pass on the effects of fluctuations in exchange rates to the prices of their products. Our paper addresses this puzzle and studies the effects of the international distribution channel on exchange rate pass-through. We develop an exchange rate pass-through model that takes into account the role of an intermediary between a domestic manufacturer and its consumers in a foreign market. We find that the magnitude of the pass-through depends on the presence of an incentive problem in the distribution channel. When there is no incentive problem, pass-through is complete; however, when there is an incentive problem, pass-through depends on various characteristics of the intermediary and the market setting. Our analysis underscores the importance of considering the role of international distribution channels and suggests directions for further work on exchange rate pass-through

Health financing and family planning in the context of Universal Health Care: Connecting the discourse

Financing is a major challenge and concern for the future of family planning (FP) programs. As countries commit to increasing access to and quality of FP services and to universal health care (UHC), it is crucial that UHC schemes include FP and other reproductive health services. While the importance of financing is recognized in relation to quality, the “how” of financing FP within the context of UHC is not well understood. This brief targets the “bridge” constituency that is coalescing between the health financing and FP communities of practice around a shared interest in making access to health services universal. With this brief, we aim to: 1) document trends in UHC and health financing, drawing out implications for policymakers and programmers; and 2) identify opportunities for the FP community of practice to advocate for the inclusion of quality FP services within UHC and health financing discussions

Increased contractile responses to 5-hydroxytryptamine and Angiotensin II in high fat diet fed rat thoracic aorta

BACKGROUND: Feeding normal rats with high dietary levels of saturated fat leads to pathological conditions, which are quite similar to syndrome X in humans. These conditions such as hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and hyperglycemia might induce hypertension through various mechanisms. Metabolic syndrome and the resulting NIDDM represent a major clinical challenge because implementation of treatment strategies is difficult. Vascular abnormalities probably contribute to the etiology of many diabetic complications including nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy, and cardiomyopathy. It has been shown that in Streptozotocin induced diabetic animals there is an increase in maximal responses to 5-Hydroxytryptamine and Angiotensin II. The purpose of this study was to evaluate High fat diet fed rats for the development of hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia and to assess their vascular responses to 5-Hydroxytryptamine and Angiotensin II. METHODS: Male Sprague Dawley rats were used for this study and were divided into two equal groups. One of the groups was fed with normal pellet diet and they served as the control group, whereas the other group was on a high fat diet for 4 weeks. Body weight, plasma triglycerides, plasma cholesterol, and plasma glucose were measured every week. Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test was performed after 4 weeks of feeding. At the end of fourth week of high fat diet feeding, thoracic aortae were removed, and cut into helical strips for vascular reactivity studies. Dose-response curves of 5-Hydroxytryptamine and Angiotensin II were obtained. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in pD(2), with 5-Hydroxytryptamine and Angiotensin II in both groups but E(max )was increased. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that hypertension in high fat diet rats is associated with increased in vitro vascular reactivity to 5-HT and Ang II

Optimal Termination Protocols for Network Partitioning

We address the problem of maintaining the distributed database consistency in presence of failures while maximizing the database availability. Network partitioning is a failure which partitions the distributed system into a number of parts, no part being able to communicate with any other. Formalizations of various notions in this context are developed and two measures for the performances of protocols in presence of a network partitioning are introduced. A general optimality theory is developed for two classes of protocols - centralized and decentralized. Optimal protocols are produced in all cases.published_or_final_versio

On the performance of otter trawls operated from a 15.4 m trawler off Veraval

Results obtained with three trawl nets namely, 13.7m four seam, 15.8m six seam and 18.3m four seam operated from a 15.4m wooden trawler, are presented. Among the three nets operated, 15.8m six seam trawl and 18.3 four seam trawl were found to be equally effective for the capture of shrimp and during the lean season 15.8m six seam trawl can be successfully operated to exploit demersal as well as semi-pelagic fish resources. The catch data were analysed using analysis of variance and Gulland's method

Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of Enhanced Copper-Silica-Loaded Titania Prepared via HydrothermalMethod

TiO2 nanopowder, loaded with SiO2 and Cu-SiO2, was prepared under both acidic and basic environments via the hydrothermal method. The morphology and structure of TiO2 were studied by XRD, TEM, and FT-IR. The photocatalytic activity of samples was studied by monitoring the degradation of methyl orange, using a UV-visible spectrophotometer. The effect of Ti/Si ratio, pH, and Cu2+ addition on the formation of TiO2 and its photocatalytic activity was investigated in detail. The results show that a large surface area and a high surface acidity were important factors to achieve good TiO2 performance. The presence of Ti-O-Si bonding enhanced surface acidity, which improved its ability to adsorb more hydroxyl radicals and increased its surface area. The addition of 0.1mol% concentration of Cu2+ and 25mol% SiO2 in TiO2 induced the formation of new states close to the conduction band, which narrowed the band gap energy and enhanced the photodegradation efficiency

Health financing and family planning in the context of universal health care: Connecting the discourse in Kenya

Financing is a major challenge and concern for the future of family planning (FP) programs. As countries commit to increasing access to and quality of FP services and to universal health care (UHC), it is crucial that UHC schemes include FP and other reproductive health services. This brief aims to: 1) document trends in UHC and health financing, drawing out implications for policymakers and programmers; and 2) identify opportunities for the FP community of practice to advocate for the inclusion of quality FP services within UHC and health financing discussions. With this brief, we aim to highlight experiences in Kenya, given that there is a body of experience with health financing reforms and UHC schemes and a relatively strong national FP program. The Kenya case study is instructive for other countries with decentralized and mixed health systems as they seek to integrate FP within their own UHC initiatives and health financing reforms

Enhancing customer satisfaction for health services

The Family Planning (FP) 2020 global partnership has achieved significant gains since its inception, and while it strives to accelerate uptake of voluntary FP services, women in developing countries continue to face an unmet need for modern contraceptive services. Critical opportunities for action exist in the area of understanding the effects of quality of family planning services and continued contraceptive use. Measuring and tracking the quality of FP services is an important aspect of improving service delivery, and client feedback also offers critical insight into the design of demand generation and uptake strategies for a contraceptive. In this report, we present a literature review on the current trends in customer feedback management in the private sector, particularly in industries that closely resemble the health-services sector. We believe that the well-tested business principles that drive success in the services business can be effectively used to scale solutions to address client satisfaction in the global health sector