Intrauterine repair of gastroschisis in fetal rabbits

Objective: Infants with gastroschisis (GS) still face severe morbidity. Prenatal closure may prevent gastrointestinal organ damage, but intrauterine GS repair (GSR) has not been established yet. Methods: In New Zealand White rabbits we developed and compared GS versus GSR: creation of GS was achieved by hysterotomy, right-sided laparotomy of the fetus and pressure on the abdominal wall to provoke evisceration. GSR was accomplished by careful reposition of eviscerated organs and a running suture of the fetal abdominal wall. For study purposes, 18 animals were divided equally into 3 groups: GS, GS with GSR after 2 h, and unmanipulated controls (C). Vitality was assessed by echocardiography. After 5 h all animals were sacrificed. Results: GSR inflicted no increased mortality, because all fetuses survived GS or GS with GSR. All fetuses with GS demonstrated significant evisceration of abdominal organs. In contrast, the abdominal wall of the fetuses from GSR was intact. Conclusion:The present animal model demonstrated the technical feasibility and success of an intrauterine repair of GS for the first time. However, further long-term studies (leaving GS and GSR in utero for several days) will be necessary to compare survival rates and intestinal injury, motility or absorption. The clinical application of GSR in utero remains a vision so far. Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

Tuberculosis and poverty: the contribution of patient costs in sub-Saharan Africa – a systematic review

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is known to disproportionately affect the most economically disadvantaged strata of society. Many studies have assessed the association between poverty and TB, but only a few have assessed the direct financial burden TB treatment and care can place on households. Patient costs can be particularly burdensome for TB-affected households in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty levels are high; these costs include the direct costs of medical and non-medical expenditures and the indirect costs of time utilizing healthcare or lost wages. In order to comprehensively assess the existing evidence on the costs that TB patients incur, we undertook a systematic review of the literature. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, EconLit, Dissertation Abstracts, CINAHL, and Sociological Abstracts databases were searched, and 5,114 articles were identified. Articles were included in the final review if they contained a quantitative measure of direct or indirect patient costs for treatment or care for pulmonary TB in sub-Saharan Africa and were published from January 1, 1994 to Dec 31, 2010. Cost data were extracted from each study and converted to 2010 international dollars (I$). Results: Thirty articles met all of the inclusion criteria. Twenty-one studies reported both direct and indirect costs; eight studies reported only direct costs; and one study reported only indirect costs. Depending on type of costs, costs varied from less than I$1 to almost I$600 or from a small fraction of mean monthly income for average annual income earners to over 10 times average annual income for income earners in the income-poorest 20% of the population. Out of the eleven types of TB patient costs identified in this review, the costs for hospitalization, medication, transportation, and care in the private sector were largest. Conclusion: TB patients and households in sub-Saharan Africa often incurred high costs when utilizing TB treatment and care, both within and outside of Directly Observed Therapy Short-course (DOTS) programs. For many households, TB treatment and care-related costs were considered to be catastrophic because the patient costs incurred commonly amounted to 10% or more of per capita incomes in the countries where the primary studies included in this review were conducted. Our results suggest that policies to decrease direct and indirect TB patient costs are urgently needed to prevent poverty due to TB treatment and care for those affected by the disease

Strong reciprocity: norms and preferences governing cooperation and punishment behaviour

Many problems that societies face have the character of social dilemmas, in which cooperation benefits the whole society but is costly to the individual. The recent literature in experimental economics has focused on uncovering driving factors of cooperative success in social dilemmas. This thesis contributes to this literature and includes three research studies that investigate the influence of individual cooperative dispositions, societal and cultural differences, as well as institutional differences on human cooperative behaviour. Chapter 1 introduces the research questions, discusses the research methods used, and outlines the substantive contributions of the thesis. Chapter 2 presents an experimental test of a common implicit assumption in the literature, which suggests that only people with a cooperative disposition engage in the punishment of defectors in social dilemmas. The experimental test rejects this assumption and shows that individual cooperativeness is independent of one's propensity to punish. Chapter 3 investigates the channels through which culture and societal differences affect cooperative behaviour. The experimental results show that societal differences in behaviour are mainly driven through differences in beliefs about other people's behaviour. Chapter 4 reports on an experimental comparison of informal and formal sanctioning institutions. These experiments show that informal sanctions like peer pressure are necessary to foster high and stable cooperation levels in the long run. Chapter 5 concludes

Cellular IP₆ Levels Limit HIV Production while Viruses that Cannot Efficiently Package IP₆ Are Attenuated for Infection and Replication

Summary: HIV-1 hijacks host proteins to promote infection. Here we show that HIV is also dependent upon the host metabolite inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) for viral production and primary cell replication. HIV-1 recruits IP6 into virions using two lysine rings in its immature hexamers. Mutation of either ring inhibits IP6 packaging and reduces viral production. Loss of IP6 also results in virions with highly unstable capsids, leading to a profound loss of reverse transcription and cell infection. Replacement of one ring with a hydrophobic isoleucine core restores viral production, but IP6 incorporation and infection remain impaired, consistent with an independent role for IP6 in stable capsid assembly. Genetic knockout of biosynthetic kinases IPMK and IPPK reveals that cellular IP6 availability limits the production of diverse lentiviruses, but in the absence of IP6, HIV-1 packages IP5 without loss of infectivity. Together, these data suggest that IP6 is a critical cofactor for HIV-1 replication

Mediator‐induced activation of xanthine oxidase in endothelial cells

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154271/1/fsb2003013008.pd

INDUSTRIES OF ANGKOR PROJECT: PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF IRON PRODUCTION AT BOENG KROAM, PREAH KHAN OF KOMPONG SVAY

The Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) is the first intensive investigation into the history and role of iron production at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan), the largest regional enclosure complex built by the Angkorian Khmer (9th to 15th c. CE) in Cambodia. We present the initial multidisciplinary research of the primary iron smelting sites located on Boeng Kroam, a large reservoir located north of Preah Khan’s central temple complex. Ground-penetrating radar surveys and excavation at Location 1, a slag concentration on top of the reservoir bank, revealed that it is a deposit of metallurgical waste from a nearby furnace. Multiple radiocarbon dates from Location 1 indicate that the smelting activities took place in the early 15th century during the time of Angkor’s ultimate collapse as the political centre of the Khmer world. This indicates a re-use of spaces by iron workers after the primary occupation of Preah Khan between the 11th and 13th centuries

Oxygen radicals in complement and neutrophil-mediated acute lung injury

The development of experimental acute lung injury following systemic complement activation is closely related to availability of blood neutrophils. Although tissue-destructive neutrophil-derived may play a supportive role in acute pulmonary injury, it appears that oxygen radical constitute the major neutrophil product responsible for acute damage of lung tissues and cells. Intravascular activation of neutrophils by the chemotactic complement peptide C5a is related to the generation os superoxide anion. Dismutation of superoxide to hydrogen peroxide and its iron-mediated conversion to hydroxyl radical appear to constitute in vivo events that ultimately lead to acute lung microvascular injury.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25857/1/0000420.pd

Social closeness can help, harm and be irrelevant in solving pure coordination problems

Experimental research has shown that ordinary people often perform remarkably well in solving coordination games that involve no conflicts of interest. While most experiments in the past studied such coordination games among socially distant anonymous players, here we study behaviour in a set of two player coordination games and compare the outcomes depending on whether the players are socially close or socially distant. We find that social closeness influences prospects for coordination, but whether it helps, harms, or has no impact on coordination probabilities, depends on the structure of the game

Protection by Vitamin B 2 Against Oxidant-Mediated Acute Lung Injury

The effect of vitamin B 2 (riboflavin) on oxidant-mediated acute lung injury has been examined in three different rat models. Pulmonary injury was induced by intravenous injection of cobra venom factor (CVF), by the intrapulmonary deposition of IgG immune complexes, or by hind limb ischemia-reperfusion. In each of the three models, injury was characterized by increases in vascular permeability (leakage of 125 I-labeled bovine serum albumin), alveolar hemorrhage (extravasation of 51 Cr-labeled rat erythrocytes), and neutrophil accumulation (myeloperoxidase activity). Intraperitoneal administration of riboflavin at a dose of 6 μmoles/kg body weight reduced vascular leakage by 56% in the CVF model, by 31% in the immune complex model, and by 53% in the lung injury model following ischemia-reperfusion of the hind limbs. Similar treatment reduced hemorrhage by 76%, 51%, and 70% in the three models of lung injury. In the CVF model, riboflavin was also shown to decrease products of lipid peroxidation (conjugated dienes) in lungs (by 45%) and in plasma (by 74%). Neutrophil accumulation in the lungs was not influenced by riboflavin administration in any of the three models. The studies demonstrate that riboflavin can mount a significant protection against oxidant-mediated inflammatory organ injury.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44527/1/10753_2004_Article_413169.pd

Do economic preferences predict pro-environmental behaviour?

Understanding the determinants of pro-environmental behaviour is key to addressing many environmental challenges. Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that human behaviour is partly determined by people's economic preferences which therefore should predict individual differences in pro-environmental behaviour. In a pre-registered study, we elicit seven preference measures (risk taking, patience, present bias, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, and trust) and test whether they predict pro-environmental behaviour in everyday life measured using the day reconstruction method. We find that only altruism is significantly associated with everyday pro-environmental behaviour. This suggests that pro-social aspects of everyday pro-environmental behaviour are more salient to people than the riskiness and intertemporal structure of these behaviours. We also show in an exploratory analysis that different clusters of everyday pro-environmental behaviours are predicted by patience, positive reciprocity, and altruism, indicating that these considerations are relevant for some, but not other, pro-environmental behaviours