36 research outputs found

    The Our World Heritage Case Studies Approach to African Heritage, Social Capital and Participation

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    Context and backgroundThe Our World Heritage Foundation was created in 2020 as a global network to include different stakeholders in the review of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, in its 50th anniversary. The Convention is in urgent need for a scientific-based participatory policy review, as it does not respond to the current global and regional challenges. With the world in crisis, threats from pandemics to economic depression, resource exploitation to politics, conflict to climate, development, disasters and more, today strain the very core of this treaty.Goal and Objectives:World Heritage is a medium to achieve our transformation into more locally empowered, just and resilient societies. The aim of this research is to generate scientific evidence with a participatory approach for policy recommendations for the UNESCO World Heritage Convention to adapt to the current challenges, threats, trends and strengths of World Heritage in general and African heritage in particular.Methodology:The paper focuses on the work and findings of the OWH Sustainability team in the 10 African World Heritage Sites selected, analysed and discussed within a global participatory process. The methodology involved self-assessment forms with a set of sustainability criteria and indicators, the parametrization of the data in a global barometer of the sustainable management of World Heritage for data analysis and visualization,  a focus group discussion with 10 African case study proponents, and a series of public debates with 109 international stakeholders.Results:Slow implementation processes in the management of African World Heritage is hindering sustainable development, due to the high urban development pressure, pollution, illegal hunting, poaching of wild life, logging, mining, population pressure, and climate change among other impacts on environmental sustainability of our African World heritage. However, inherent strengths of African culture could become key strategies to safeguard heritage, advance towards sustainable development and keep heritage alive, for which we provide recommendations

    Maternal TLR signaling is required for prenatal asthma protection by the nonpathogenic microbe Acinetobacter lwoffii F78

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    The pre- and postnatal environment may represent a window of opportunity for allergy and asthma prevention, and the hygiene hypothesis implies that microbial agents may play an important role in this regard. Using the cowshed-derived bacterium Acinetobacter lwoffii F78 together with a mouse model of experimental allergic airway inflammation, this study investigated the hygiene hypothesis, maternal (prenatal) microbial exposure, and the involvement of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling in prenatal protection from asthma. Maternal intranasal exposure to A. lwoffii F78 protected against the development of experimental asthma in the progeny. Maternally, A. lwoffii F78 exposure resulted in a transient increase in lung and serum proinflammatory cytokine production and up-regulation of lung TLR messenger RNA. Conversely, suppression of TLRs was observed in placental tissue. To investigate further, the functional relevance of maternal TLR signaling was tested in TLR2/3/4/7/9−/− knockout mice. The asthma-preventive effect was completely abolished in heterozygous offspring from A. lwoffii F78–treated TLR2/3/4/7/9−/− homozygous mother mice. Furthermore, the mild local and systemic inflammatory response was also absent in these A. lwoffii F78–exposed mothers. These data establish a direct relationship between maternal bacterial exposures, functional maternal TLR signaling, and asthma protection in the progeny

    Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

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    Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

    DIRECT CONVERSION OF HUMAN FIBROBLASTS INTO FUNCTIONAL OSTEOBLASTS BY SMALL MOLECULES

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    Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (SOM

    Some results on the q-Beta function

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    In this article we find some results on the q-analogue of the beta function via using the concepts of neutrix and neutrix limit
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