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Capacity Development to Meet National Nutrition Priorities.
No full textThis presentation was given at All Innovation Lab Director's Meeting - Kampala Uganda.Dietetics, LUANAR, Malawi
Setting priorities for humanitarian water, sanitation and hygiene research: a meeting report.
No full textAbstract: Recent systematic reviews have highlighted a paucity of rigorous evidence to guide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions in humanitarian crises. In June 2017, the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) programme of Elrha, convened a meeting of representatives from international response agencies, research institutions and donor organisations active in the field of humanitarian WASH to identify research priorities, discuss challenges conducting research and to establish next steps. Topics including cholera transmission, menstrual hygiene management, and acute undernutrition were identified as research priorities. Several international response agencies have existing research programmes; however, a more cohesive and coordinated effort in the WASH sector would likely advance this field of research. This report shares the conclusions of that meeting and proposes a research agenda with the aim of strengthening humanitarian WASH policy and practice.Keywords: Action Contre la Faim, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department for International Development, Emergency Environmental Health Forum, Humanitarian Evidence Programme, Humanitarian Innovation Fund, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Moderate Acute Malnutrition, Menstrual Hygiene Management, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oral Cholera Vaccine, Point-Of-Use water treatment, Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises, Severe Acute Malnutrition, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Related, Technical Working Group, University of North Carolina, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Water, Development and Engineering Centre.Springer Open
JAPAN AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW: INSTITUTIONAL REFORM PROPOSAL FOR FURTHER LEGALISM.
No full textSubmitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Abstract: This paper explores answers to the following questions: (1) why Japan has pushed itself into legalism in the arena of international trade; (2) what factors have made Japan lesslitigious in the arena of international trade; and (3) what institutional reforms are possible to further push its legalism in formulating international trade law
The role of Pay-for-Success mechanisms within capital markets for social change in France and the U.S.
No full textSubmitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Abstract: Pay-for-success mechanisms have existed since the 1980s. Over the last decade, they have regained attention through the launch of the specific Social Impact Bond contracts. This paper aims to describe the role that Pay-for-Success (PFS) contracts, considered as both social innovations and financial instruments, play and could play within capital markets for social change in France and the US. It first introduces and compares the similarities and differences in the French and US ecosystems. Then, considering PFS contracts as social innovation tools, I discuss whether PFS are legitimate instruments to be financed in capital markets for social change based on the claims that they increase the availability of capital for social programs and improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Having nuanced the social justification for PFS, I then consider them as financial products and place them within three distinct capital markets for social change. The analysis shows promises for PFS contracts in the public spending and philanthropic spaces, with an opportunity to influence mainstream capital markets
Synthetic biology in probiotic lactic acid bacteria: At the frontier of living therapeutics.
No full textThe trillions of microbes hosted by humans can dictate health or illness depending on a multitude of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that help define the human ecosystem. As the human microbiota is characterized, so can the interconnectivity of microbe-host-disease be realized and manipulated. Designing microbes as therapeutic agents can not only enable targeted drug delivery but also restore homeostasis within a perturbed microbial community. Used for centuries in fermentation and preservation of food, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have a long history of safe, and occasionally health promoting, interactions with the human gut, making them ideal candidates for engineered functionality. This review outlines available genetic tools, recent developments in biomedical applications, as well as potential future applications of synthetic biology to program LAB-based therapeutic systems
Restoring Angiogenic Balance in Diabetes: Advanced Molecular Therapeutics for Non-Healing Diabetic Wounds and Cellular Medicines for Diabetic Retinopathy
No full textAbstract: The microvascular complications of diabetes are associated with a tremendous degree of morbidity and mortality. Indeed, type I and type II diabetes are leading causes of adult-onset retinal damage and blindness, non-healing foot ulcers that may require amputation, and end-stage renal disease around the world. Intriguingly, while these debilitating conditions arise from long-standing, hyperglycemia-driven inflammation and vascular insult, diabetic microangiopathies have strikingly tissue-specific manifestations: chronic wounds in the extremities of diabetic patients are hallmarked by their impairments in vascular growth and matrix turnover after injury, whereas retinopathy is characterized by florid vascular overgrowth that has long been ascribed to the loss of microvascular pericytes from the retinal circulation. The work performed in our laboratory and center aims to further elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms of angiogenesis, in order to better understand the pathogenesis of these diabetes-associated vasculopathies and develop advanced molecular and cellular therapeutics for these conditions. Linked to these goals, our investigations of cell-matrix interactions in angiogenesis and wound healing have resulted in the creation of several bioactive, matrix-derived peptides that induce cellular migration, proliferation and morphogenesis necessary for tissue repair. And, at the same time, our studies of pericyte-endothelial interactions reveal that subtle alterations in pericyte chemo-mechanics - rather than their frank disappearance - may be sufficient to permit endothelial cell cycle re-entry and angiogenesis. Herein, we demonstrate that bioactive matrix- and plasma-derived peptides significantly increase re-epithelialization and angiogenesis in diabetic porcine wounds through upregulation of multiple reparative growth factors and cytokines, especially matrix metalloproteinases and inhibitors that may aid in reversing the proteolytic imbalance characteristic of chronically inflamed non-healing wounds. Additionally, we reveal that Santyl® collagenase induces post-debridement wound healing through the liberation of bioactive matrix-derived peptides within the wound bed, and that a "combinatorial" peptide created from some of the individual matrix domains fosters wound healing in vivo at a dose equivalent to that of Santyl®. Finally, as an extension of our studies of RhoGTPase in the regulation of pericyte chemo-mechanical control of angiogenesis, we show that key perturbations in the downstream pericyte RhoGTPase effectors, LIM-kinases and cofilin, promote endothelial cell cycle re-entry that may contribute to the development of vascular proliferative lesions in diabetic retinopathy. Overall, our findings should inform the development of next-generation molecular and cellular therapeutics capable of repairing difficult-to-heal wounds and abrogating or ameliorating pathologic neovascularization in diabetic retinopathy.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2018.Submitted to the Dept. of Cellular & Molecular Physiology.Advisor: Ira Herman.Committee: Brent Cochran, Guofu Hu, and Harold Dvorak.Keywords: Medicine, Biology, and Surgery
Epidemiology of Traumatic Esophageal Injury: An Analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank
No full textAbstract: Introduction: Traumatic injury of the esophagus (TIE) is rare, and the existing literature is limited. The aim of this descriptive study was to comprehensively describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of TIE among trauma patients using the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB). Methods: Patients with TIE from 2010-2015 were identified in the NTDB by the Abbreviated Injury Scale. The prevalence of TIE among trauma patients was estimated. The demographic and clinical characteristics and hospital outcomes, including hospital length of stay, complications, and mortality, of these patients were further analyzed according to injury mechanism, injury severity score (ISS), and sex. Results: 1,411 adult patients with TIE were identified. The prevalence of TIE among all trauma patients was 37 patients per 100,000 (95% CI: 35, 39). The prevalence of TIE was 257 cases per 100,000 (95% CI: 250, 270) among patients with penetrating trauma and 16 cases per 100,000 (95% CI: 15, 18) among patients with blunt trauma. Patients with ISS ≥ 25 were 34 times more likely to have TIE than those with ISS 0-9, and TIE was almost 3 times more likely in males as compared to females. Among cases of TIE, 523 (37%) were blunt and 888 (63%) were penetrating. Compared to those with blunt TIE, patients with penetrating TIE were significantly younger (34 vs 46 years), more likely to be male (85% vs 74%), and were more severely injured (ISS ≥ 25: 48% vs 40%) (all p < 0.001). Patients with blunt TIE were more likely to have associated spine injuries as compared to those with penetrating TIE (43% vs 27%, p < 0.001). Overall in-hospital mortality in patients with TIE was 19%, and patients with TIE had significantly higher mortality than those without after adjusting for age, sex, and ISS (OR = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1, 1.7). There was no statistically significant difference in mortality between blunt and penetrating TIE in both crude analysis (20% vs 18%) and multivariable adjusted analyses. Conclusion: TIE is associated with more severe injuries, male sex, and penetrating trauma. Mortality is markedly elevated in trauma patients with TIE but is not associated with mechanism of injury.Thesis (M.S.)--Tufts University, 2018.Submitted to the Dept. of Clinical & Translational Science.Advisor: Jessica Paulus.Committee: Janis Breeze, and Nikolay Bugaev.Keyword: Surgery
SMFA Senior Thesis Project May 2018.
No full textAllie Rose Bartlett is interested in the representation of memory and expresses this through her drawings and oil paintings.Keywords: Painting, Oil painting, Drawing, Figure, Memory, Based on Photography
The Imbalance in Latin American Technology Production and Non-Native Language Computer Programming.
No full textThis thesis explores the cultural, historical, and economical relationship that exists with technology in Latin American society, and it proposes and tests the implementation of a Spanish-based programming language as a tool for helping native Spanish speakers learn to code. It also discusses the difference between writing code in native and non-native languages, and it examines the impact that spoken language has on the English-saturated world of programming languages
Exploring the Role of Pfam Families in Protein Function.
No full textMany computational functional inference methods use GO for their set of functional labels. While informative motif informationleveraging structure is already captured in libraries of Hidden MarkovModels (HMMs), such as Pfam, creating a useful Pfam to GO mappingremains a difficult endeavor. This is because, it is amany-to-many mapping, where different Pfam annotations withina protein structure, either individually, or as a set, might yielddifferent amounts of specificity in regards to the set of possible GOlabels that are appropriate. Estimating the amount of specificitythat a single, or set of, Pfam-derived domains gives, in regards to GOlabeling, is confounded by the unequal representation and/or the lackof coverage of annotation in both domains across the protein universe.We revisit issues of coverage, diversity, and representationin the light of all the new data in current sequence databases. Wehave developed a suite of parsers and an Object-Relational Mappingusing Python and SQLAlchemy to represent selected information ofproteins and families from the UniProt and Pfam databasesrespectively. We use this framework to compare dcGO (Fang andGough, 2013) and GODM (Alborzi et al., 2017), which are designed tooptimize different tradeoffs for coverage versus false-positives