Rethinking the Kibera ‘Slum’: The Role of Social Networks as a Mechanism for Coping with the Increased Demand for Job Opportunities

Rural-urban migration is a livelihood strategy used to increase income at the household level. This study proposes four stages of livelihood enhancement in the urban informal sector: (1) Migration from rural to urban areas, (2) Entering an informal sector, (3) Formation of self-help groups and local enterprises and (4) Expansion of stable income-generating activities. At these different stages, social networks play critical roles in connecting new migrants to the assets and networks that they need to increase and stabilize their income. At the forth stage, migrants who operate local enterprises start creating ties with their business partners in the formal sector. Yet, they tend to choose to remain in the informal sector because of the better access to income, assets and networks. The traditional dualistic view of labour market, which is segmented into the formal and informal sectors, is not applicable to the cases observed in Kibera because the residents’ ultimate goal for livelihood enhancement is not solely to enter the formal market but also to maximize their income. Economic activities observed in Kibera cannot be fully explained by applying the existing studies and general theories of ‘slum’ as evidenced by this study. Comprehending the current state of Kibera leads to plentiful implication for expanding the theory and practice of sustainable development the in the informal sector. Keywords: Kibera, Informal sector, Social networks, Job market, Sustainable Developmen

TGR 5 signalling inhibits the production of pro‐inflammatory cytokines by in vitro differentiated inflammatory and intestinal macrophages in Crohn's disease

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97471/1/imm12045.pd

Social Inclusion and Museums: Understanding ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in the Context of Japanese Society and Visually Impaired People

This thesis explores museums’ social role in supporting an inclusive society, the nature of ‘difference’ and relationships between ‘self’ and ‘other’ in the context of Japanese society and disabled people. My research question is: can museums and galleries contribute to the creation of an inclusive society, enhancing the understanding of difference as well as of self and other? In particular, it considers the relationship between disabled people and non-disabled people with a special interest in visually impaired people. My thesis’s objectives are to think disability sociologically, to investigate the mechanism of exclusion and to develop socio-cultural learning in museums as an inclusion practice. The methodology of this thesis is Symbolic Interactionism. Fieldwork was conducted in Japan examining attitudes towards people with ‘difference’. Qualitative fieldwork research was conducted combining two methods: a ‘single-designs’ case study and a questionnaire given to participants at gallery workshops, in which sighted and visually impaired people viewed artworks together. Collected data was analysed with theories of communication, Symbolic Interactionism and socio-cultural learning. The preliminary fieldwork was conducted using the method of semi-structured interviews with key people working in art museums and art organisations (including blind people) aiming to increase knowledge about Japanese museums and disabled (visually impaired) users. Fieldwork results indicated that participants learned ‘we are all the same and different’, and demonstrated changes to their attitude. This thesis contributes to the development of a discourse about disability, exclusion/inclusion, museum and ‘self’ and ‘other’. It brings content from Museum Studies, Disability Studies and Sociology together in the museum and disability contexts. The broad aim of my thesis is to contribute to an improvement in social well-being, understanding, and celebration of difference

Isolation of a Multiheme Protein with Features of a Hydrazine-Oxidizing Enzyme from an Anaerobic Ammonium-Oxidizing Enrichment Culture

A multiheme protein having hydrazine-oxidizing activity was purified from enriched culture from a reactor in which an anammox bacterium, strain KSU-1, was dominant. The enzyme has oxidizing activity toward hydrazine but not hydroxylamine and is a 130-kDa homodimer composed of a 62-kDa polypeptide containing eight hemes. It was therefore named hydrazine-oxidizing enzyme (HZO). With cytochrome c as an electron acceptor, the V(max) and K(m) for hydrazine are 6.2 ± 0.3 μmol/min · mg and 5.5 ± 0.6 μM, respectively. Hydrazine (25 μM) induced an increase in the proportion of reduced form in the spectrum, whereas hydroxylamine (500 μM) did not. Two genes coding for HZO, hzoA and hzoB, were identified within the metagenomic DNA from the culture. The genes encode the same amino acid sequence except for two residues. The sequences deduced from these genes showed low-level identities (<30%) to those of all of the hydroxylamine oxidoreductases reported but are highly homologous to two hao genes found by sequencing the genome of “Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis” (88% and 89% identities). The purified enzyme might therefore be a novel hydrazine-oxidizing enzyme having a critical role in anaerobic ammonium oxidation

Effects of Growth Stage on the Characterization of Enterotoxin A-Producing <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>-Derived Membrane Vesicles

Virulence factors, such as staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), are contained within membrane vesicles (MVs) in the cell membrane of Staphylococcus aureus. In this study, the effects of the growth stage on quantitative and qualitative changes in the components contained in the MVs of S. aureus SEA-producing strains were examined. Changes in the expression levels of S. aureus genes were examined at each growth stage; phenol-soluble modulin (PSM) gene reached a maximum after 8 h, and the expression of cell membrane-related genes was decreased after 6 h. Based on these gene expression patterns, MVs were prepared at 6, 17, and 24 h. The particle size of MVs did not change depending on the growth stage. MVs prepared after culture for 17 h maintained their particle size when stored at 23 °C. The amount of SEA in the culture supernatant and MVs were not correlated. Bifunctional autolysin, a protein involved in cell wall biosynthesis/degradation, was increased in MVs at 17 h. The expression pattern of inflammation-related genes in human adult low calcium high temperature (HaCaT) cells induced by MVs was different for each growth stage. The inclusion components of S. aureus-derived MVs are selective, depend on the stage of growth, and may play an important role in toxicity

Interaction between Various Apple Procyanidin and Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A and Their Inhibitory Effects on Toxin Activity

In this study, we investigated the interaction between apple polyphenols (AP; mainly consisting of procyanidin (PC) from an apple) and staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), and the inhibitory effects of AP on SEA activity. According to the degree of polymerization, in particularly highly polymerized PC (more than pentamer) strongly interacted with SEA. The binding affinity of AP with SEA molecules was determined using Biacore analysis. AP reacted with SEA immobilized on a Biacore sensor chip. After treatment with pepsin and pancreatin, to examine the changes of binding affinity of AP in intragastric conditions, AP maintained interaction with SEA. We examined whether AP inhibits the proliferation and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production induced by SEA in mouse spleen cells. AP strongly inactivated the proliferation and IFN-γ production induced by SEA. These results suggest that AP, which has a higher degree of polymerization, inactivates stronger biological activity of SEA through interaction with SEA. Our studies are the first to demonstrate the relationship between the degree of polymerization of AP and the inhibitory effects on SEA activities