Conflict and Livelihood Decisions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

__Abstract__ We analyse rural household livelihood and child school enrolment decisions in the post-conflict setting of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh. What makes this paper innovative is the use of current subjective perceptions regarding the possibility of violence in the future and past actual experiences of violence in explaining household economic decision-making. Preferences are endogenous in line with behavioural economics. Regression results show that heightened subjective perceptions of future violence and past actual experiences of conflict influence current consumption and child enrolment and could encourage risky mixed crop cultivation. The trauma emanating from past experiences combined with current high perceptions of risk of violence may induce bolder and riskier behaviour in line with prospect theories of risk. Furthermore, a postconflic

Clinicopathological Profile and Surgical Treatment of Abdominal Tuberculosis: A Single Centre Experience in Northwestern Tanzania.

Abdominal tuberculosis continues to be a major public health problem worldwide and poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges to general surgeons practicing in resource-limited countries. This study was conducted to describe the clinicopathological profile and outcome of surgical treatment of abdominal tuberculosis in our setting and compare with what is described in literature. A prospective descriptive study of patients who presented with abdominal tuberculosis was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) in northwestern Tanzania from January 2006 to February 2012. Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from relevant authorities. Statistical data analysis was performed using SPSS version 17.0. Out of 256 patients enrolled in the study, males outnumbered females. The median age was 28 years (range = 16-68 years). The majority of patients (77.3%) had primary abdominal tuberculosis. A total of 127 (49.6%) patients presented with intestinal obstruction, 106 (41.4%) with peritonitis, 17 (6.6%) with abdominal masses and 6 (2.3%) patients with multiple fistulae in ano. Forty-eight (18.8%) patients were HIV positive. A total of 212 (82.8%) patients underwent surgical treatment for abdominal tuberculosis. Bands /adhesions (58.5%) were the most common operative findings. Ileo-caecal region was the most common bowel involved in 122 (57.5%) patients. Release of adhesions and bands was the most frequent surgical procedure performed in 58.5% of cases. Complication and mortality rates were 29.7% and 18.8% respectively. The overall median length of hospital stay was 32 days and was significantly longer in patients with complications (p < 0.001). Advanced age (age ≥ 65 years), co-morbid illness, late presentation, HIV positivity and CD4+ count < 200 cells/μl were statistically significantly associated with mortality (p < 0.0001). The follow up of patients were generally poor as only 37.5% of patients were available for follow up at twelve months after discharge. Abdominal tuberculosis constitutes a major public health problem in our environment and presents a diagnostic challenge requiring a high index of clinical suspicion. Early diagnosis, early anti-tuberculous therapy and surgical treatment of the associated complications are essential for survival

Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines mediates chemokine endocytosis through a macropinocytosis-like process in endothelial cells

Background: The Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) shows high affinity binding to multiple inflammatory CC and CXC chemokines and is expressed by erythrocytes and endothelial cells. Recent evidence suggests that endothelial DARC facilitates chemokine transcytosis to promote neutrophil recruitment. However, the mechanism of chemokine endocytosis by DARC remains unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the role of several endocytic pathways in DARC-mediated ligand internalization. Here we report that, although DARC co-localizes with caveolin-1 in endothelial cells, caveolin-1 is dispensable for DARC-mediated 125I-CXCL1 endocytosis as knockdown of caveolin-1 failed to inhibit ligand internalization. 125I-CXCL1 endocytosis by DARC was also independent of clathrin and flotillin-1 but required cholesterol and was, in part, inhibited by silencing Dynamin II expression. 125I-CXCL1 endocytosis was inhibited by amiloride, cytochalasin D, and the PKC inhibitor Gö6976 whereas Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) enhanced ligand internalization through DARC. The majority of DARC-ligand interactions occurred on the endothelial surface, with DARC identified along plasma membrane extensions with the appearance of ruffles, supporting the concept that DARC provides a high affinity scaffolding function for surface retention of chemokines on endothelial cells. Conclusions/Significance: These results show DARC-mediated chemokine endocytosis occurs through a macropinocytosis-like process in endothelial cells and caveolin-1 is dispensable for CXCL1 internalization. © 2011 Zhao et al

Generation of peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells and presence of regulatory T cells during vaccination with hTERT (class I and II) peptide-pulsed DCs

Optimal techniques for DC generation for immunotherapy in cancer are yet to be established. Study aims were to evaluate: (i) DC activation/maturation milieu (TNF-α +/- IFN-α) and its effects on CD8+ hTERT-specific T cell responses to class I epitopes (p540 or p865), (ii) CD8+ hTERT-specific T cell responses elicited by vaccination with class I alone or both class I and II epitope (p766 and p672)-pulsed DCs, prepared without IFN-α, (iii) association between circulating T regulatory cells (Tregs) and clinical responses

Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project (TEMP). III. on the Relocation of the Kepler-9 b Transit

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. The Kepler-9 system harbors three known transiting planets. The system holds significant interest for several reasons. First, the outer two planets exhibit a period ratio that is close to a 2:1 orbital commensurability, with attendant dynamical consequences. Second, both planets lie in the planetary mass "desert" that is generally associated with the rapid gas agglomeration phase of the core accretion process. Third, there exist attractive prospects for accurately measuring both the sky-projected stellar spin-orbit angles as well as the mutual orbital inclination between the planets in the system. Following the original Kepler detection announcement in 2010, the initially reported orbital ephemerides for Kepler-9 b and c have degraded significantly, due to the limited time base-line of observations on which the discovery of the system rested. Here, we report new ground-based photometric observations and extensive dynamical modeling of the system. These efforts allow us to photometrically recover the transit of Kepler-9 b and thereby greatly improve the predictions for upcoming transit mid-times. Accurate ephemerides of this system are important in order to confidently schedule follow-up observations of this system, for both in-transit Doppler measurements as well as for atmospheric transmission spectra taken during transit

Analysis of cardiac signals using spatial filling index and time-frequency domain

BACKGROUND: Analysis of heart rate variation (HRV) has become a popular noninvasive tool for assessing the activities of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). HRV analysis is based on the concept that fast fluctuations may specifically reflect changes of sympathetic and vagal activity. It shows that the structure generating the signal is not simply linear, but also involves nonlinear contributions. These signals are essentially non-stationary; may contain indicators of current disease, or even warnings about impending diseases. The indicators may be present at all times or may occur at random in the time scale. However, to study and pinpoint abnormalities in voluminous data collected over several hours is strenuous and time consuming. METHODS: This paper presents the spatial filling index and time-frequency analysis of heart rate variability signal for disease identification. Renyi's entropy is evaluated for the signal in the Wigner-Ville and Continuous Wavelet Transformation (CWT) domain. RESULTS: This Renyi's entropy gives lower 'p' value for scalogram than Wigner-Ville distribution and also, the contours of scalogram visually show the features of the diseases. And in the time-frequency analysis, the Renyi's entropy gives better result for scalogram than the Wigner-Ville distribution. CONCLUSION: Spatial filling index and Renyi's entropy has distinct regions for various diseases with an accuracy of more than 95%

The development of a knowledge test of depression and its treatment for patients suffering from non-psychotic depression: a psychometric assessment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To develop and psychometrically assess a multiple choice question (MCQ) instrument to test knowledge of depression and its treatments in patients suffering from depression.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 63 depressed patients and twelve psychiatric experts participated. Based on empirical evidence from an extensive review, theoretical knowledge and in consultations with experts, 27-item MCQ knowledge of depression and its treatment test was constructed. Data collected from the psychiatry experts were used to assess evidence of content validity for the instrument.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cronbach's alpha of the instrument was 0.68, and there was an overall 87.8% agreement (items are highly relevant) between experts about the relevance of the MCQs to test patient knowledge on depression and its treatments. There was an overall satisfactory patients' performance on the MCQs with 78.7% correct answers. Results of an item analysis indicated that most items had adequate difficulties and discriminations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There was adequate reliability and evidence for content and convergent validity for the instrument. Future research should employ a lager and more heterogeneous sample from both psychiatrist and community samples, than did the present study. Meanwhile, the present study has resulted in psychometrically tested instruments for measuring knowledge of depression and its treatment of depressed patients.</p

FGF-23 in bone biology

Recent studies have demonstrated that levels of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), a key regulator of phosphorus and vitamin D metabolism, rise dramatically as renal function declines and may play a key initiating role in disordered mineral and bone metabolism in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The physiologic importance of FGF-23 in mineral metabolism was first identified in human genetic and acquired rachitic diseases and further characterized in animal models. FGF-23 and its regulators, including phosphate regulating endopeptidase homolog, dentin matrix 1 (DMP1), and matrix extracellular phosphoglycoprotein, are made primarily in bone, specifically in osteocytes. Dysregulation of these proteins results in osteomalacia, implicating the osteocyte in the regulation of skeletal mineralization. Studies in pediatric patients with CKD, the majority of whom have altered skeletal mineralization in early stages of CKD, have demonstrated that skeletal expression of both FGF-23 and its regulator, DMP1, are increased in early stages of CKD and that expression of these proteins is associated with alterations in skeletal mineralization. Thus, dysregulation of osteocytic proteins occur very early in the course of CKD and appear to be central to altered bone and mineral metabolism in this patient population

The lectin concanavalin-A signals MT1-MMP catalytic independent induction of COX-2 through an IKKγ/NF-κB-dependent pathway

The lectin from Canavalia ensiformis (Concanavalin-A, ConA), one of the most abundant lectins known, enables one to mimic biological lectin/carbohydrate interactions that regulate extracellular matrix protein recognition. As such, ConA is known to induce membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) which expression is increased in brain cancer. Given that MT1-MMP correlated to high expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in gliomas with increasing histological grade, we specifically assessed the early proinflammatory cellular signaling processes triggered by ConA in the regulation of COX-2. We found that treatment with ConA or direct overexpression of a recombinant MT1-MMP resulted in the induction of COX-2 expression. This increase in COX-2 was correlated with a concomitant decrease in phosphorylated AKT suggestive of cell death induction, and was independent of MT1-MMP’s catalytic function. ConA- and MT1-MMP-mediated intracellular signaling of COX-2 was also confirmed in wild-type and in Nuclear Factor-kappaB (NF-κB) p65−/− mutant mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), but was abrogated in NF-κB1 (p50)−/− and in I kappaB kinase (IKK) γ−/− mutant MEF cells. Collectively, our results highlight an IKK/NF-κB-dependent pathway linking MT1-MMP-mediated intracellular signaling to the induction of COX-2. That signaling pathway could account for the inflammatory balance responsible for the therapy resistance phenotype of glioblastoma cells, and prompts for the design of new therapeutic strategies that target cell surface carbohydrate structures and MT1-MMP-mediated signaling. Concise summary Concanavalin-A (ConA) mimics biological lectin/carbohydrate interactions that regulate the proinflammatory phenotype of cancer cells through yet undefined signaling. Here we highlight an IKK/NF-κB-dependent pathway linking MT1-MMP-mediated intracellular signaling to the induction of cyclooxygenase-2, and that could be responsible for the therapy resistance phenotype of glioblastoma cells