Reproductive rights approach to reproductive health in developing countries

Research on reproductive health in developing countries focuses mostly on the role of economic development on various components of reproductive health. Cross-sectional and empirical research studies in particular on the effects of non-economic factors such as reproductive rights remain few and far between.This study investigates the influence of two components of an empowerment strategy, gender equality, and reproductive rights on women's reproductive health in developing countries. The empowerment strategy for improving reproductive health is theoretically situated on a number of background factors such as economic and social development.Cross-national socioeconomic and demographic data from a number of international organizations on 142 developing countries are used to test a model of reproductive rights and reproductive health.The findings suggest that both economic and democratic development have significant positive effects on levels of gender equality. The level of social development plays a prominent role in promoting reproductive rights. It is found that reproductive rights channel the influences of social structural factors and gender equality on reproductive health

How Ernest Hemingway’s Cats Became a Federal Case

On the USDA’s regulation of the descendants of Hemingway’s cats at the Hemingway Museum in Key West

Photochromic anils: spectroscopy and mechanisms of photo- and thermal reactions

The photochromism and thermochromism of several salicylideneanilines and related compounds have been investigated. At room temperature or low temperature most salicylideneanilines exist almost exclusively in the enol form in solutions of hydrocarbon solvents. At low temperature in solutions of hydrogen bonding solvents or solutions in which strongly hydrogen bonding species are present, some of the anil molecules exist as the cis-keto tautomer. In the cases of the nitrosalicylideneanilines and 2-hydroxynaphthylideneaniline some cis-keto is produced at low temperatures even in solutions of hydrocarbon solvents. This phenomenon is attributed to the enhanced stability of the cis-keto tautomer. In rigid solutions at low temperature excitation of the enol form of most salicylideneanilines produces a colored species via a cis-keto-like transition state. It is found that increased viscosity decreases the yield of the photo-product by increasing the potential, energy barrier between the transition state and the photo-colored species. This photo-colored species has a characteristic long wavelength absorption band which is different from either the absorption of the enol or the cis-keto. This species is identified as a non-equilibrium form of the cis-keto in which the C=C bond is twisted and the internal hydrogen bond broken in order to relieve the strain which the nitrogen acquires in the transition state. Warming the solution to decrease its viscosity results in the immediate conversion of this photo-colored species to the cis-keto. Further warming converts this cis-keto to enol. Under the proper conditions of temperature and viscosity the photo-colored species may be eradicated by irradiation into its absorption band. This process converts the photo-colored species to the enol through the transition state. No cis keto is produced. Nitrosalicylideneanilines are not photochromic; 2-hydroxynaphthylideneaniline is photochromic, but in this case irradiation produces only more cis keto tautomer. This photo-produced cis keto may be eradicated by irradiation into the cis keto absorption band.Chemistry, Department o

Parker McKenzie Collection

Photograph of Parker McKenzie, a Kiowa, at home. Photo by Warren N. Richey, Houston, TX

Ice sheet advance, dynamics, and decay configurations : evidence from West Central Scotland

A 3700-km2 area adjacent to the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, is examined to constrain the development and dynamics of the western central sector of the last British and Irish Ice Sheet. Results from geomorphological mapping, lithostratigraphic investigations, three-dimensional geological modelling and field observations are combined to produce an empirically constrained, five-stage conceptual model of ice sheet evolution. (A) Previously published dates on interstadial organic deposits and mammalian fossils suggest that the Main Late Devensian (MLD) (MIS 2) glaciation of central Scotland began after 35 ka cal BP. During build-up, ice advanced from the western Scottish Highlands into the Clyde and Ayrshire basins. Glaciomarine muds and shelly deposits scavenged from the Firth of Clyde were redeposited widely as shelly tills and glacial rafts. Ice advance against reverse slopes generated, and subsequently overtopped, ice-marginal sediment accumulations. We hypothesise that some of these formed pre-cursor ridges which were moulded into suites of ribbed moraine during the glacial cycle. (B) Sustained stadial conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (c 30–25 ka cal BP) resulted in development of a major dispersal centre over the Firth of Clyde and Southern Uplands. This dispersal centre locally preserved previously formed subglacial bedforms, and fed a wide corridor of fast-flowing ice east towards the Firth of Forth. (C) Initial deglaciation promoted a substantial re-configuration of the ice surface, with enhanced westward drawdown into the outer Firth of Clyde and eastward migration of an ice divide towards the Clyde-Forth watershed. (D) Renewed ice sheet thickening over the Firth of Clyde may have accompanied growth of the Irish Ice Sheet during the Killard Point Stadial (c 17.1–15.2 ka cal BP); it was associated with limited bed modification. Subsequent ice sheet retreat was characterised by substantial meltwater production, ponding and erosion. (E) Late stages of MLD ice sheet retreat were punctuated by one or more significant ice margin oscillations. Discovery of De Geer moraines at the site of a former proglacial lake in western Ayrshire allows glacier flow at the ice margin to be approximated as ≤290 m a−1 during one such oscillation. Such velocities were probably enabled by basal sliding and shallow sediment deformation. At this stage those parts of the MLD ice sheet margin that were grounded in the Firth of Clyde were extremely vulnerable to collapse. Final disintegration of glacier ice in the Clyde basin probably occurred early in the Lateglacial Interstadial (Greenland Interstadial-1), coinciding with marine incursion to c 40 m above present day sea level

Topical application of a platelet activating factor receptor agonist suppresses phorbol ester-induced acute and chronic inflammation and has cancer chemopreventive activity in mouse skin.

Platelet activating factor (PAF) has long been associated with acute edema and inflammatory responses. PAF acts by binding to a specific G-protein coupled receptor (PAF-R, Ptafr). However, the role of chronic PAF-R activation on sustained inflammatory responses has been largely ignored. We recently demonstrated that mice lacking the PAF-R (Ptafr-/- mice) exhibit increased cutaneous tumorigenesis in response to a two-stage chemical carcinogenesis protocol. Ptafr-/- mice also exhibited increased chronic inflammation in response to phorbol ester application. In this present study, we demonstrate that topical application of the non-hydrolysable PAF mimetic (carbamoyl-PAF (CPAF)), exerts a potent, dose-dependent, and short-lived edema response in WT mice, but not Ptafr -/- mice or mice deficient in c-Kit (c-KitW-sh/W-sh mice). Using an ear inflammation model, co-administration of topical CPAF treatment resulted in a paradoxical decrease in both acute ear thickness changes associated with a single PMA application, as well as the sustained inflammation associated with chronic repetitive PMA applications. Moreover, mice treated topically with CPAF also exhibited a significant reduction in chemical carcinogenesis. The ability of CPAF to suppress acute and chronic inflammatory changes in response to PMA application(s) was PAF-R dependent, as CPAF had no effect on basal or PMA-induced inflammation in Ptafr-/- mice. Moreover, c-Kit appears to be necessary for the anti-inflammatory effects of CPAF, as CPAF had no observable effect in c-KitW-sh/W-sh mice. These data provide additional evidence that PAF-R activation exerts complex immunomodulatory effects in a model of chronic inflammation that is relevant to neoplastic development