Visible diode lasers can be used for flow cytometric immunofluorescence and DNA analysis

This report describes a feasibility study concerning the use of a visible diode laser for two important fluorescence applications in a flow cytometer. With a 3 mW 635 nm. diode laser, we performed immunofluorescence measurements using the fluorophore allophycocyanin (APC). We have measured CD8 positive lymphocytes with a two-step labeling procedure and the resulting histograms showed good separation between the negative cells and the dim and the bright fluorescent subpopulations. As a second fluorescence application, we chose DNA analysis with the recently developed DNA/ RNA stains TOTO-3 and TO-PRO-3. In our setup TO-PRO-3 yielded the best results with a CV of 3.4%. Our results indicate that a few milliwatts of 635 nm light from a visible diode laser is sufficient to do single color immunofluorescence measurements with allophycocyanin and DNA analysis with TO-PRO-3. The major advantages of using a diode laser in a flow cytometer are the small size, the low price, the high efficiency, and the long lifetime

Moral Uncertainty in Technomoral Change: Bridging the Explanatory Gap

This paper explores the role of moral uncertainty in explaining the morally disruptive character of new technologies. We argue that existing accounts of technomoral change do not fully explain its disruptiveness. This explanatory gap can be bridged by examining the epistemic dimensions of technomoral change, focusing on moral uncertainty and inquiry. To develop this account, we examine three historical cases: the introduction of the early pregnancy test, the contraception pill, and brain death. The resulting account highlights what we call “differential disruption” and provides a resource for fields such as technology assessment, ethics of technology, and responsible innovation

How far does a big push really push?

BRAC implemented the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Specially Targeted Ultra-Poor (CFPR) program in 2002 to mitigate ultra-poverty in the poorest districts of Bangladesh, providing multifaceted support in the form of asset-transfer, food-stipends, education, healthcare and social support for two years. Utilizing a four-round panel data spanning 9 years and combining regression and propensity score weighting, we evaluate CFPR’s short and long term impact on income, employment, social status, food security and asset ownership. While remarkable effects of CFPR are evident in short and medium-term (up to 6 years since baseline), longer-term effects (up to 9 years) are smaller. The latter happens due to a variety of factors including faster catch-up by the control group, due partly to various new interventions by state and non-state sectors. We see a shift from begging, working as maids and day-laboring to entrepreneurial activities in the short and medium term, but many CFPR households revert back to their baseline employment by 2011. Analyses of the heterogeneity of effects across baseline employment and gender of the household-head reveal greater long-term impact on per-capita income for entrepreneurs and greater short-term impact for female-headed households. Overall, despite the deceleration of the effects in the long run, the program was able to successfully bring its participants out of ultra-poverty and had important demonstration effects

Socioeconomic Inequality in Malnutrition in Developing Countries

Epidemiological evidence points to a small set of primary causes of child mortality that are the main killers of children aged less than 5 years: pneumonia, diarrhoea, low birth weight, asphyxia and, in some parts of the world, HIV and malaria. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of one out of every two such deaths. The evidence also shows that child death and malnutrition are not equally distributed throughout the world. They cluster in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, and in poor communities within these regions. Disparities in health outcomes between the poor and the rich are increasingly attracting attention from researchers and policy-makers, thereby fostering a substantial growth in the literature on health equity. “Socioeconomic inequality” in malnutrition refers to the degree to which childhood malnutrition rates differ between more and less socially and economically advantaged groups. This is different from “pure inequality”, which takes into account all factors influencing childhood malnutrition. The available literature documenting socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition focuses mainly on individual countries or regions. At a more global level, Wagstaff and Watanabe provided evidence on socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition across 20 developing countries. Other relevant cross-country studies include those of Pradhan et al., who describe total inequality, and Smith et al., who describe inequalities between urban and rural populations. The latter two studies, however, provide no evidence on socioeconomic inequality within developing countries

PSMA, EpCAM, VEGF and GRPR as Imaging Targets in Locally Recurrent Prostate Cancer after Radiotherapy

In this retrospective pilot study, the expression of the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) in locally recurrent prostate cancer after brachytherapy or external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) was investigated, and their adequacy for targeted imaging was analyzed. Prostate cancer specimens were collected of 17 patients who underwent salvage prostatectomy because of locally recurrent prostate cancer after brachytherapy or EBRT. Immunohistochemistry was performed. A pathologist scored the immunoreactivity in prostate cancer and stroma. Staining for PSMA was seen in 100% (17/17), EpCAM in 82.3% (14/17), VEGF in 82.3% (14/17) and GRPR in 100% (17/17) of prostate cancer specimens. Staining for PSMA, EpCAM and VEGF was seen in 0% (0/17) and for GRPR in 100% (17/17) of the specimens’ stromal compartments. In 11.8% (2/17) of cases, the GRPR staining intensity of prostate cancer was higher than stroma, while in 88.2% (15/17), the staining was equal. Based on the absence of stromal staining, PSMA, EpCAM and VEGF show high tumor distinctiveness. Therefore, PSMA, EpCAM and VEGF can be used as targets for the bioimaging of recurrent prostate cancer after EBRT to exclude metastatic disease and/or to plan local salvage therapy