Stereospecific Opiate Binding in Human Erythrocyte Membranes and Changes in Heroin Addicts

Stereospecific opiate binding has been demonstrated in human erythrocyte membranes, having a Kd of 9-10(-9) M. In most respects the binding characteristics resemble those of synaptic membranes. These included the correlation of binding affinity and pharmacological potency of opiates; competition by naloxone; inhibition by Ca2+ and Na+; and sensitivity to phospholipases and trypsin. A comparison of stereospecific opiate binding in control human subjects and heroin addicts revealed a 43% increase in the addict group

Serologic evidence of human orthopoxvirus infections in Sierra Leone

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Orthopoxviruses, including variola virus, vaccinia virus, and monkeypox virus, have previously been documented in humans in West Africa, however, no cases of human orthopoxvirus infection have been reported in the region since 1986. We conducted a serosurvey to determine whether human exposure to orthopoxviruses continues to occur in eastern Sierra Leone.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>To examine evidence of exposure to orthopoxviruses in the Kenema District of Sierra Leone, we collected and tested sera from 1596 persons by IgG ELISA and a subset of 313 by IgM capture ELISA. Eleven persons born after the cessation of smallpox vaccination had high orthopoxvirus-specific IgG values, and an additional 6 persons had positive IgM responses. No geographic clustering was noted.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that orthopoxviruses continue to circulate in Sierra Leone. Studies aimed at obtaining orthopoxvirus isolates and/or genetic sequences from rodents and symptomatic humans in the area are indicated.</p

Assessing the Effectiveness of a Community Intervention for Monkeypox Prevention in the Congo Basin

Human monkeypox is a potentially severe illness that begins with a high fever soon followed by the development of a smallpox-like rash. Both monkeypox and smallpox are caused by infection with viruses in the genus Orthopoxvirus. But smallpox, which only affected humans, has been eradicated, whereas monkeypox continues to occur when humans come into contact with infected animals. There are currently no drugs specifically available for the treatment of monkeypox, and the use of vaccines for prevention is limited due to safety concerns. Therefore, monkeypox prevention depends on diminishing human contact with infected animals and preventing person-to-person spread of the virus. The authors describe a film-based method for community outreach intended to increase monkeypox knowledge among residents of communities in the Republic of the Congo. Outreach was performed to ∼23,600 rural Congolese. The effectiveness of the outreach was evaluated using a sample of individuals who attended small-group sessions. The authors found that among the participants, the ability to recognize monkeypox symptoms and the willingness to take ill family members to the hospital was significantly increased after seeing the films. In contrast, the willingness to deter some high-risk behaviors, such as eating animal carcasses found in the forest, remained fundamentally unchanged

Gerschenkron revisited: The new corporate Russia

© 2015, Journal of Economic Issues / Association for Evolutionary Economics. Our analysis is based on firm-specific data compiled from the Russian Trading System stock exchange and SKRIN (CKP-H in Russian) database. We seek to identify the factors behind Russias dramatically improved corporate sector performance from the beginning of the 2000s to December 2007. We argue that improved long-term corporate performance was a consequence of several policy initiatives associated with the state-dominated banking sector, which enabled statesubsidized investment funds to be channeled from a structurally reengineered energy sector to targeted investment projects located in other industries. We claim that Russias industrial strategy closely conforms to Alexander Gerschenkrons catch-up theory

The everchanging epidemiology of meningococcal disease worldwide and the potential for prevention through vaccination.

Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis and septicaemia worldwide and is associated with high case fatality rates and serious life-long complications among survivors. Twelve serogroups are recognised, of which six (A, B, C, W, X and Y) are responsible for nearly all cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The incidence of IMD and responsible serogroups vary widely both geographically and over time. For the first time, effective vaccines against all these serogroups are available or nearing licensure. Over the past two decades, IMD incidence has been declining across most parts of the world through a combination of successful meningococcal immunisation programmes and secular trends. The introduction of meningococcal C conjugate vaccines in the early 2000s was associated with rapid declines in meningococcal C disease, whilst implementation of a meningococcal A conjugate vaccine across the African meningitis belt led to near-elimination of meningococcal A disease. Consequently, other serogroups have become more important causes of IMD. In particular, the emergence of a hypervirulent meningococcal group W clone has led many countries to shift from monovalent meningococcal C to quadrivalent ACWY conjugate vaccines in their national immunisation programmes. Additionally, the recent licensure of two protein-based, broad-spectrum meningococcal B vaccines finally provides protection against the most common group responsible for childhood IMD across Europe and Australia. This review describes global IMD epidemiology across each continent and trends over time, the serogroups responsible for IMD, the impact of meningococcal immunisation programmes and future needs to eliminate this devastating disease

Global wealth disparities drive adherence to COVID-safe pathways in head and neck cancer surgery

Peer reviewe

Analysis of interval -censored events in hypertension studies: Evaluation of treatment of coronary heart disease

Many statistical studies feature data with both exact-time and interval-censored events. While a number of methods currently exist to handle interval-censored events and multivariate exact-time events separately, few techniques exist to deal with their combination. This thesis develops a theoretical framework for analyzing a multivariate endpoint comprised of a single interval-censored event plus an arbitrary number of exact-time events. The approach fuses the exact-time events, modeled using the marginal method of Wei, Lin, and Weissfeld, with a piecewise-exponential interval-censored component. The resulting model incorporates more of the information in the data and also removes some of the biases associated with the exclusion of interval-censored events. A simulation study demonstrates that our approach produces reliable estimates for the model parameters and their variance-covariance matrix. As a real-world data example, we apply this technique to the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (SHEP) clinical trial, which features three correlated events: clinical non-fatal myocardial infarction, fatal myocardial infarction (two exact-time events), and silent myocardial infarction (one interval-censored event)

Reassessing educational values in Nova Scotia

v, 76 leaves ; 28 cm.Bibliography: leaves 75-76.Online version unavailable; print version available from Patrick Power Library.In order to bring together the basic information regarding educational values in the light of marked developments which are taking place at the present time in Nova Scotia, certain topics have been selected for consideration terminating interviews with some Authorities who are directly responsible for recent developments in education within the Province

The gate-keeper networks of power, and symbolic capital: Gender exclusion in the Professional Service Firms (UK and Europe)

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe research aim is to explore, women managers’ lack legitimacy with senior management for allocation to CAE management positions and, how this damages women managers’ promotion opportunities for partner roles in the elite Professional Service Firms (PSFs). The conceptual frame utilises Bourdieu’s theories of cultural capital, habitus and field analysis (1991, 1989, 1986, 1984), to find the symbolic capital or legitimate competence (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2011, 2005) which male-dominated partner gatekeepers within their networks of power use to confer candidates legitimacy for promotion. A core argument of this Doctorate is these gatekeepers’ informal networks reproduce existing gender inequalities (Acker, 2012, 2006, 2004) for partner promotion in the PSFs. The study is multi-level (Layder, 2012, 1998, 1993) and relational (Ozbilgin and Vassilopoulou, 2018) covering macro, meso and micro levels, overcoming the duality between structure and agency (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2011, 2005), and surfaces hidden gender inequalities. The research methods involves a combination of critical realist ontology (Bhasker, 1989), and a feminist epistemology for the research. The field study includes 76 qualitative semi-structured and, in-depth interviews of female and male partners, female and male middle managers in global PSFs. The study used multiple methods including secondary statistics, observations and memos (Layder, 1998, 1993) from the individual cases embedded within two in-depth cases-study organizations (Yin, 2012, 2003). The research contribution identifies the competing logics which legitimise gender inequalities in the field. Additionally, cultural capitals especially symbolic capital valued by the gatekeepers in their networks of power, and how field logic(s) mitigate against women gain legitimacy for entry to the senior management field. To surface hidden informal practices used by gatekeepers which undermine women managers’ legitimacy for promotion, and persistent talent leakage are explored. Women who use their own agency to instigate SIE assignments can enhance their career capital portfolios in early and middle career stages but, this incorporates career capital gains and losses (Duberly and Cohen, 2010)