Hematopoietic Stem Cell Threshold Sensing Controls Regulatory Pathways Facilitating Clinically Relevant Ex Vivo Expansion for Stem Cell Transplantation

The ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for transplantation has threefold importance: 1.) First, because of the rarity of stem cells there often isn’t a sufficient supply obtainable from common sources for larger children and adults. 2.) Secondly, patient morbidity and time to hematopoietic reconstitution following myeloablative preconditioning is improved by administering a larger pool of HSCs. 3.) Lastly, gene therapies for hematological diseases still require a robust supply of HSCs to offset varying degrees of inefficiency in vector mediated transfection protocols. These reasons, and others, have been an impetus for many discoveries made within four primary subdivisions within the field of HSC expansion; culture media optimization, hematopoietic gene regulation, development of small molecular compounds, and use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This article is a review of the current trends in HSC expansion methodology and posits that the majority of the singling mechanisms involved can be explained by the collective contribution of activating and inhibitory gene expression products interacting through regulatory homeostatic process mediated by HSC sensing of key pathway dependent thresholds

Interview with Robyn Daily

Robyn Daily talks about her hair salon and growing up in Knox Countyhttps://digital.kenyon.edu/ps_interviews/1026/thumbnail.jp

Agricultural Innovation in the Volta River Basin: An Analysis of Changes in Knowledge, Skills and Livelihoods brought about by the Volta Basin Development Challenge

Main message Farmers in Volta Basin Development Challenge project sites are generally not developing brand new practices on their own. Information about new technologies is slowly spreading from projects to the wider community, but adoption of these technologies could be strengthened by creating an enabling environment. This would mean taking into account the five determinants of adoption identified here and programming accordingly

When do governments concede to terrorists?

This study addresses the question of whether violence leads to governments making concessions. There were four hypotheses proposed that support the research on this question. The first proposed that there was no correlation between levels of violence and concessions. The second proposed that concessions increase as violence increases. The third proposed that concessions decrease as violence decreases. The final hypothesis proposed that there would be no concessions until a certain level of violence was reached, which was designated as a tipping point. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) served as the sample case study of this analysis. The findings indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between levels of violence and the Colombian government making concessions to the FARC. Regardless of the amount of violence that the FARC perpetuates each year, the Colombian government does not make concessions. Further analysis suggests that there may be a relationship between presidential parties, elections cycles, and governments making concessions.http://archive.org/details/whendogovernment1094542671Captain, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Linking Knowledge: A Qualitative Analysis of Gender and IWRM-related Policies in the Upper East Region of Ghana

While this study was originally conducted to gather baseline data on the general activities, issues, and concerns of women in the Upper East Region in northern Ghana, the initial data collection led to the discovery that women in the Upper East Region are organized, either by their own accord or through the recommendation of local governing bodies, in social groupings that fulfill specific needs such as access to credit, access to agricultural inputs, and access to reciprocal labor and support. The objective of the study shifted to include an analysis of the processes, opportunities and constraints of how and why women organize themselves in these particular social groupings. The paper concludes with an evaluation of how, if at all, IWRM-related district, regional and national level policies from government departments such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), and the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) address women and their social networks in Ghana