134 research outputs found
Reforming Without Resourcing: The Case of the Urban Water Supply in Zambia
No full textI. Introduction Public water supply systems have increasingly been subject to commercialisation or corporatisation in the developing world. This method is sometimes used as a surrogate for privatisation in circumstances where existing systems of provision are unattractive for multinational water companies. By reforming the public sector in the image of independent and self-sufficient private enterprises, the chief aim of commercialisation is to improve the efficiency of operations often associated with the private sector. (...)Reforming Without Resourcing: The Case of the Urban Water Supply in Zambia
A self-stabilizing algorithm for b-matching
No full textWe present the first self-stabilizing algorithm for finding a maximal b-matching in arbitrary networks and under distributed unfair (adversarial) schedulers. The previous self-stabilizing b-matching algorithm presented by Goddard et al. in 2003 assumes central scheduler. We give proof for the correctness of our new algorithm for both unfair and fair schedulers, as well as the synchronous scheduler. Our algorithm stabilizes in O (Bm) steps under unfair scheduler and in O (n) rounds under distributed fair and synchronous schedulers, where n, m and B are the number of processors, the number of edges and the maximum capacity in the graph, respectively. The time complexity of distributed fair version of our algorithm is better than that of the transformation of Goddard et al.'s sequential self-stabilizing algorithm to the distributed fair one with the conflict manager of Gradinariu and Tixeuil (2007). (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.TUBITAKTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [215E115, BIDEB-1001]Authors would like to thank TUBITAK for the project grant (215E115) and the PhD research grant (BIDEB-1001)
Genetic ablation of lymphocytes and cytokine signaling in nonobese diabetic mice prevents diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance
No full textFull author list omitted for brevity. For full list of authors see article.
Co-author Sezin Dagdeviren is a doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at UMass Medical School.Obesity is characterized by a dysregulated immune system, which may causally associate with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Despite widespread use of nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice, NOD with severe combined immunodeficiency (scid) mutation (SCID) mice, and SCID bearing a null mutation in the IL-2 common gamma chain receptor (NSG) mice as animal models of human diseases including type 1 diabetes, the underlying metabolic effects of a genetically altered immune system are poorly understood. For this, we performed a comprehensive metabolic characterization of these mice fed chow or after 6 wk of a high-fat diet. We found that NOD mice had approximately 50% less fat mass and were 2-fold more insulin sensitive, as measured by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, than C57BL/6 wild-type mice. SCID mice were also more insulin sensitive with increased muscle glucose metabolism and resistant to diet-induced obesity due to increased energy expenditure ( approximately 10%) and physical activity ( approximately 40%) as measured by metabolic cages. NSG mice were completely protected from diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance with significant increases in glucose metabolism in peripheral organs. Our findings demonstrate an important role of genetic background, lymphocytes, and cytokine signaling in diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.Interdisciplinary Graduate Progra
The HLDA8 blind panel: findings and conclusions
No full textThere were over 600 antibodies submitted to HLDA8, with many of unknown specificity. Of these, 101 antibodies were selected for a blind panel study that also included 5 negative controls and 27 positive controls of known CD specificity making a total of 133 antibodies in the final panel. Of the 101 unknowns, 31 antibodies were identified during the course of this blind panel study as being specific for known molecules and included some specific for MHC class II antigens, CD45 isoforms and the Dombrock antigen. Several antibody pairs among those in the blind panel were found to have very similar staining patterns and were therefore compared by immunohistochemical and/or Western blot analyses for identity.Bernadette Swart, Mikhail P. Salganik, Matthew P. Wand, Kathryn Tinckam, Edgar L. Milford, Karel Drbal, Pavla Angelisova, Vaclav Horejsi, Peter Macardle, Sheree Bailey, Enoc Hollemweguer, Greg Hodge, Judith Nairn, Debbrah Millard, Attila Dagdeviren, Geoffrey W. Dandie, Heddy Zol
Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World
No full textAccording to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), 924 million people lived in slums in 2001. Population growth in these settlements is much greater than in other urban areas. The estimates suggest that this figure may rise to 1.5 billion by 2020 (Payne, 2005). This rapid increase is expected despite ?slum upgrading? efforts that have been taking place for decades, though inconsistently and with disruptions over time. There is a prolific literature on informal settlement areas, but research on access to essential services such as water and sanitation (WS) in these areas is very limited. Most studies consider issues of access in connection to urban poverty, an approach that often reduces the discussion to the income and expenditure constraints faced by households. Examining access to WS in the slums spurs an appreciation of the multidimensional nature of the problem, including income poverty, infrastructural limitations, asset ownership and housing quality. Moreover, developments in the slums concern every aspect of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper examines the conditions of access to water in the slums of the developing world. It has three goals. The first is to identify the objective and policy-related challenges that hinder progress in the provision of safe, affordable, continuous and easy access to water in countries where there is a sizeable slum population. The second is to explore the existing systems of provision in informal settlements and to discuss the weaknesses and strengths of each. The third is to make policy recommendations. Though the discussion on access to sanitation is limited, this is not to deny the importance of that issue. Besides, water and sanitation services are often intrinsically linked and therefore are provided together by network utilities. The discussion reveals the failure of public policies as well as markets to provide satisfactory solutions to the problems of access to a safe, affordable and continuous water supply. In many countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, access to safe water through household connections declined in the 1990s. Achievements in access rates in many Asian and African economies are the due to widespread use of public water points such as public standpipes and kiosks. These sources are important, but doubtless the quality of access to water with these facilities is unsatisfactory since they involve greater effort by households, involving queuing, carrying water and lacking continuous access. A substantial proportion of urban dwellers in developing countries, especially in unplanned settlements, rely on a wide range of small-scale providers whose services are vital in the absence of alternatives. Their services, however, are often inferior to those provided by the formal network. Invariably, the water charges of alternative sources are higher than those for supply from the public network. Section 2 provides a general discussion of informal settlements and outlines the growth of slum development and trends in access to water supply since 1990. Section 3 examines changing public policies towards squatter settlements and the challenges such settlements pose. Section 4 presents the problems associated with the existing market-based water supply arrangements in countries where a sizeable proportion of the urban population resides in informal settlement areas. We then argue for the need to pursue a more proactive public policy on the basis of a discussion that highlights the limitations of private sector ventures. The paper concludes with a number of policy recommendations.Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World
Association between Metabolic Syndrome and Serum Nerve Growth Factor Levels in Women with Overactive Bladder
No full text<b><i>Objective:</i></b> This study aimed to determine the association between overactive bladder (OAB), metabolic syndrome (MetS) and serum nerve growth factors (NGF). <b><i>Study Design:</i></b> Serum samples from a group of 90 women that included patients with OAB (group 1), patients with both OAB and MetS (group 2) and healthy women without OAB and MetS (group 3). Each group included 30 patients. Serum levels of NGF were compared among the groups. <b><i>Results:</i></b> When the groups were compared with respect to NGF levels, group 2 was found to have significantly higher NGF levels (<i>p</i> = 0.001). A NGF threshold of >380 ng/mL had a sensitivity of 81.7% and a specificity of 100% to discriminate between groups 2 and 3. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Our findings support the theory that possible sympathetic overactivity, proinflammatory status, oxidative stress and other pathological conditions associated with MetS and potentially involved in the development of OAB lead to increased serum NGF levels. These findings may help to shed light on the complicated pathogenesis of OAB.</jats:p
A Pure Genetic Energy-Efficient Backbone Formation Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Internet of Things
No full textIndustry 4.0 envisions the utilization of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to increase the efficiency and productivity in industrial automation and manufacturing processes. To interconnect various objects, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are indispensable technologies located in the communication layer of IIoTs. Backbone formation is an important approach to achieve primitive operations such as data aggregation, routing and scheduling in energy-efficient WSNs. One of the fundamental backbone structures is the connected dominating set (CDS) which has been extensively studied by researchers. Although CDS provides a suitable infrastructure for relaying the sensed data packets, node energies are not primary concern during CDS construction phase. To achieve this, nodes are assigned weight values which are taken as a function of their resident energies. Weighted CDS (WCDS) problem is to find a set of nodes with minimum total weight such that every node in network is in the dominating set or a neighbor of at least one element of the dominating set. WCDS provides an energy-efficient backbone which leads to prolong the network lifetime. WCDS problem is in NP-Hard complexity class, so designing polynomial time heuristics is of utmost importance. To this aim, a pure genetic algorithm is proposed for the minimum WCDS problem on WSNs modeled as undirected graph in this paper. Each member of the population used in the algorithm is represented by a chromosome of bits where each bit indicates the corresponding node is in WCDS or not. Fitness value of a member is calculated by considering its total weight as well as the connectivity status of dominators. We analyze the time complexity of the proposed algorithm and show that our algorithm performs well in terms of total weight of the dominators, count of the dominators and the iteration count with respect to graph size, connection probability and maximum energy. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Ferroelectric/piezoelectric flexible mechanical energy harvesters and stretchable epidermal sensors for medical applications
No full textMultifunctional sensing capability, ‘unusual’ formats with flexible/stretchable designs, rugged lightweight construction, and self-powered operation are desired attributes for electronics that directly interface with the human body. The collective results in this dissertation suggest utility in a variety of sensors and energy harvesting components, with lightweight construction, attractive mechanical properties and potential for implementation over large areas, with promising application in unusual bio-integrated electronics, such as self-powered cardiac pacemakers, skin-mounted blood pressure sensors, modulus sensors and skin cancer detection bio-patches. For these and related applications, unusual electronics provide the capability of intimate and conformal integration with a variety of substrates on biological tissues. These systems can be twisted, folded, stretched/flexed and wrapped onto curviliniar surfaces without damage or significant alteration in operation.
In this dissertation, the application of ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials and patterning techniques for ‘unusual’ electronics, with an emphasis on bio-integrated systems were demonstrated. Overall, the results suggest that the various sensor capabilities could be valuable for a range of applications in continuous self-powered health/wellness monitoring and clinical medicine.Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf ([email protected]) on 2014-12-01T14:42:54Z
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An insulin-regulated arrestin domain protein controls hepatic glucagon action
No full textGlucagon signaling is essential for maintaining normoglycemia in mammals. The arrestin fold superfamily of proteins controls the trafficking, turnover, and signaling of transmembrane receptors as well as other intracellular signaling functions. Further investigation is needed to understand the in vivo functions of the arrestin domain–containing 4 (ARRDC4) protein family member and whether it is involved in mammalian glucose metabolism. Here, we show that mice with a global deletion of the ARRDC4 protein have impaired glucagon responses and gluconeogenesis at a systemic and molecular level. Mice lacking ARRDC4 exhibited lower glucose levels after fasting and could not suppress gluconeogenesis at the refed state. We also show that ARRDC4 coimmunoprecipitates with the glucagon receptor, and ARRDC4 expression is suppressed by insulin. These results define ARRDC4 as a critical regulator of glucagon signaling and glucose homeostasis and reveal a novel intersection of insulin and glucagon pathways in the liverSezin Dagdeviren, Megan F. Hoang, Mohsen Sarikhani, Vanessa Meier, Jake C. Benoit, Marinna C. Okawa, Veronika Y. Melnik, Elisabeth M. Ricci-Blair, Natalie Foot, Randall H. Friedline, Xiaodi Hu, Lauren A. Tauer, Arvind Srinivasan, Maxim B. Prigozhin, Sudha K. Shenoy, Sharad Kumar, Jason K. Kim, and Richard T. Le
Fibroblastic Reticular Cells And Fibroblast-Like Cells Determined By Monoclonal Antibodies B-F45 And B-D46 In Humans
No full textObjective: Identification of stromal microenvironmental components of lymphoid organs is relatively harder at light microscopic level as few markers, which are mostly not very specific, are available to be used for such a purpose. We screened a large panel to determine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) those reactive with fibroblasts/fibroblast-like cells aiming to obtain further evidence for the organization and function of this cell group. Methods: Tissue samples of 40 patients undergoing surgery in otorhinolaryngology, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics and traumatology, cardiovascular surgery and general surgery departments, Hacettepe University Medical Faculty Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, due to different pathologies obtained as partial specimens of surgery which were apart from pathological examination were immunostained by indirect immunoperoxidase method in histology and embryology department in 2003. Results: Among the screened monoclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibodies B-F45 and B-D46 reacted with the members of the family, therefore examined in detail in available human organs. Among the unique staining patterns of these mAbs, reactivity on fibroblastic reticular cells, perineural sheet cells pericryptal/perivillous fibroblasts were striking. Conclusion: Both mAbs will provide useful tools for further studies on stromal network of peripheral lymphoid organs and peripheral nerves.Wo
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