49 research outputs found
Slum health: diseases of neglected populations.
BackgroundUrban slums, like refugee communities, comprise a social cluster that engenders a distinct set of health problems. With 1 billion people currently estimated to live in such communities, this neglected population has become a major reservoir for a wide spectrum of health conditions that the formal health sector must deal with.DiscussionUnlike what occurs with refugee populations, the formal health sector becomes aware of the health problems of slum populations relatively late in the course of their illnesses. As such, the formal health sector inevitably deals with the severe and end-stage complications of these diseases at a substantially greater cost than what it costs to manage non-slum community populations. Because of the informal nature of slum settlements, and cultural, social, and behavioral factors unique to the slum populations, little is known about the spectrum, burden, and determinants of illnesses in these communities that give rise to these complications, especially of those diseases that are chronic but preventable. In this article, we discuss observations made in one slum community of 58,000 people in Salvador, the third largest city in Brazil, to highlight the existence of a spectrum and burden of chronic illnesses not likely to be detected by the formal sector health services until they result in complications or death. Lack of health-related data from slums could lead to inappropriate and unrealistic allocation of health care resources by the public and private providers. Similar misassumptions and misallocations are likely to exist in other nations with large urban slum populations.SummaryContinued neglect of ever-expanding urban slum populations in the world could inevitably lead to greater expenditure and diversion of health care resources to the management of end-stage complications of diseases that are preventable. A new approach to health assessment and characterization of social-cluster determinants of health in urban slums is urgently needed
Trade-off between transcriptome plasticity and genome evolution in cephalopods
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Cell Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Cell 169 (2017): 191-202, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.03.025.RNA editing, a post-transcriptional process, allows the diversification of proteomes beyond the
genomic blueprint; however it is infrequently used among animals. Recent reports suggesting
increased levels of RNA editing in squids thus raise the question of their nature and effects in
these organisms. We here show that RNA editing is particularly common in behaviorally
sophisticated coleoid cephalopods, with tens of thousands of evolutionarily conserved sites.
Editing is enriched in the nervous system affecting molecules pertinent for excitability and
neuronal morphology. The genomic sequence flanking editing sites is highly conserved,
suggesting that the process confers a selective advantage. Due to the large number of sites, the
surrounding conservation greatly reduces the number of mutations and genomic polymorphisms
in protein coding regions. This trade-off between genome evolution and transcriptome plasticity
highlights the importance of RNA recoding as a strategy for diversifying proteins, particularly
those associated with neural function.NLB was supported by a post-doctoral
scholarship from the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Tel-Aviv University.
The research of RU is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (772/13). The research
of EYL was supported by the European Research Council (311257) and the Israel Science
Foundation (1380/14). The research of JJCR was supported by the National Institutes of
Health [1R0111223855, 1R01NS64259], the National Science Foundation (HRD-
1137725), and the Frank R. Lillie and Laura and Arthur Colwin Research Fellowships
from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. The work of JJCR and EE was
supported by grant No 094/2013 from the United States-Israel Binational Science
Foundation (BSF).2018-04-0
Slum Health: From Understanding to Action
The defining physical and legal characteristics of slums profoundly affect the health of these communities and may also serve as potential targets for immediate intervention
Enzymatic AND-Gate Based on Electrode-Immobilized Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase: Towards Digital Biosensors and Biochemical Logic Systems with Low Noise
Electrode-immobilized glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is used to catalyze
an enzymatic reaction which carries out the AND logic gate. This logic function
is considered here in the context of biocatalytic processes utilized for the
biocomputing applications for "digital" (threshold) sensing/actuation. We
outline the response functions desirable for such applications and report the
first experimental realization of a sigmoid-shape response in one of the
inputs. A kinetic model is developed and utilized to evaluate the extent to
which the experimentally realized gate is close to optimal
Factors associated with mortality in patients with drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death worldwide, yet the determinants of death are not well understood. We sought to determine risk factors for mortality during treatment of drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis under program settings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Retrospective chart review of patients with drug-susceptible tuberculosis reported to the San Francisco Tuberculosis Control Program from 1990-2001.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 565 patients meeting eligibility criteria, 37 (6.6%) died during the study period. Of 37 deaths, 12 (32.4%) had tuberculosis listed as a contributing factor. In multivariate analysis controlling for follow-up time, four characteristics were independently associated with mortality: HIV co-infection (HR = 2.57, p = 0.02), older age at tuberculosis diagnosis (HR = 1.52 per 10 years, p = 0.001); initial sputum smear positive for acid fast bacilli (HR = 3.07, p = 0.004); and experiencing an interruption in tuberculosis therapy (HR = 3.15, p = 0.002). The association between treatment interruption and risk of death was due to non-adherence during the intensive phase of treatment (HR = 3.20, p = 0.001). The median duration of treatment interruption did not differ significantly in either intensive or continuation phases between those who died and survived (23 versus 18 days, and 37 versus 29 days, respectively). No deaths were directly attributed to adverse drug reactions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In addition to advanced age, HIV and characteristics of advanced tuberculosis, experiencing an interruption in anti-tuberculosis therapy, primarily due to non-adherence, was also independently associated with increased risk of death. Improving adherence early during treatment for tuberculosis may both improve tuberculosis outcomes as well as decrease mortality.</p
The Hilbertian Tensor Norm and Entangled Two-Prover Games
We study tensor norms over Banach spaces and their relations to quantum
information theory, in particular their connection with two-prover games. We
consider a version of the Hilbertian tensor norm and its dual
that allow us to consider games with arbitrary output alphabet
sizes. We establish direct-product theorems and prove a generalized
Grothendieck inequality for these tensor norms. Furthermore, we investigate the
connection between the Hilbertian tensor norm and the set of quantum
probability distributions, and show two applications to quantum information
theory: firstly, we give an alternative proof of the perfect parallel
repetition theorem for entangled XOR games; and secondly, we prove a new upper
bound on the ratio between the entangled and the classical value of two-prover
games.Comment: 33 pages, some of the results have been obtained independently in
arXiv:1007.3043v2, v2: an error in Theorem 4 has been corrected; Section 6
rewritten, v3: completely rewritten in order to improve readability; title
changed; references added; published versio
Control of Noise in Chemical and Biochemical Information Processing
We review models and approaches for error-control in order to prevent the
buildup of noise when gates for digital chemical and biomolecular computing
based on (bio)chemical reaction processes are utilized to realize stable,
scalable networks for information processing. Solvable rate-equation models
illustrate several recently developed methodologies for gate-function
optimization. We also survey future challenges and possible new research
avenues.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures, PD
Optimization of Enzymatic Biochemical Logic for Noise Reduction and Scalability: How Many Biocomputing Gates Can Be Interconnected in a Circuit?
We report an experimental evaluation of the "input-output surface" for a
biochemical AND gate. The obtained data are modeled within the rate-equation
approach, with the aim to map out the gate function and cast it in the language
of logic variables appropriate for analysis of Boolean logic for scalability.
In order to minimize "analog" noise, we consider a theoretical approach for
determining an optimal set for the process parameters to minimize "analog"
noise amplification for gate concatenation. We establish that under optimized
conditions, presently studied biochemical gates can be concatenated for up to
order 10 processing steps. Beyond that, new paradigms for avoiding noise
build-up will have to be developed. We offer a general discussion of the ideas
and possible future challenges for both experimental and theoretical research
for advancing scalable biochemical computing
Abstracts from the 20th International Symposium on Signal Transduction at the Blood-Brain Barriers
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138963/1/12987_2017_Article_71.pd
Kibera Shantytown in Nairobi, Kenya
<p>Home to nearly 1 million residents on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kibera is the world's second largest slum. Photo by Alon Unger. For a virtual tour, see: <a href="http://www.amref.org/index.asp?PageID=432" target="_blank">http://www.amref.org/index.asp?PageID=432</a></p