59 research outputs found
Can we improve maternal care in sows? Maternal behavioural traits important for piglet survival in loose-housed sow herds
No full textAuthor's accepted version (post-print).This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Animal Science following peer review. The version of record Ocepek, M., Rosvold, E. M., Andersen-Ranberg, I. & Andersen, I. L. (2017). Can we improve maternal care in sows? Maternal behavioural traits important for piglet survival in loose-housed sow herds. Journal of Animal Science, 95(11), 4708-4717 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.2527/jas2017.1725.Available from 02/11/2018.acceptedVersio
Reactivation of hepatitis D virus after chemotherapy for diffuse large B cell lymphoma despite lamivudine prophylaxis
No full textWe describe a case of reactivation of hepatitis D virus (HDV) in a patient treated with chemotherapy for a diffuse large B cell lymphoma despite lamivudine prophylaxis. This case suggests that previously cleared HDV should be considered when administering chemotherapy to patients with lymphoma
New treatment of chronic hepatitis B
No full textWorldwide, 350 million people are infected with chronic hepatitis B. Over the last few years, it has been possible to treat chronic hepatitis B. Treatment very often consists of nucleos(t)ide analogs and in a few cases of pegylated alpha-interferon. In 2007, a new nucleoside analog, Telbivudine, was approved to treat chronic hepatitis B. In phase II and ongoing phase III studies, Telbivudine has proven more effective than the nucleoside analog, Lamivudine, which was very often used up until recently. Udgivelsesdato: 2008-Nov-2
Transient elastography for liver fibrosis diagnosis
No full textUdgivelsesdato: 2009-JulLiver biopsy is considered the "golden standard" for assessment of hepatic fibrosis. However, the procedure has limitations because of inconvenience and rare but serious complications as bleeding. Furthermore, sampling errors are frequent, and interobserver variability often poses problems. Recently, a modified ultrasound scanner (transient elastography) has been developed to assess fibrosis. The device measures liver elasticity, which correlates well with the degree of fibrosis. Studies have shown that transient elastography is more accurate in diagnosing cirrhosis than minor to moderate fibrosis. Most of the studies have been conducted on patients with chronic hepatitis but a few studies have also covered fibrosis and cirrhosis due to other etiologies, and they also demonstrate the high sensitivity and specificity. Transient elastography for assessment of fibrosis may turn out to be a valuable diagnostic procedure and follow-up of patients with chronic liver diseases
Transient elastography for liver fibrosis diagnosis
No full textUdgivelsesdato: 2009-JulLiver biopsy is considered the "golden standard" for assessment of hepatic fibrosis. However, the procedure has limitations because of inconvenience and rare but serious complications as bleeding. Furthermore, sampling errors are frequent, and interobserver variability often poses problems. Recently, a modified ultrasound scanner (transient elastography) has been developed to assess fibrosis. The device measures liver elasticity, which correlates well with the degree of fibrosis. Studies have shown that transient elastography is more accurate in diagnosing cirrhosis than minor to moderate fibrosis. Most of the studies have been conducted on patients with chronic hepatitis but a few studies have also covered fibrosis and cirrhosis due to other etiologies, and they also demonstrate the high sensitivity and specificity. Transient elastography for assessment of fibrosis may turn out to be a valuable diagnostic procedure and follow-up of patients with chronic liver diseases
Prevalence of hepatitis B and C at a major tuberculosis centre in Denmark
No full textBackground: Denmark is a low-prevalence country for tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C (HCV) but the three diseases have similar sociodemographic risk factors. We estimated the prevalence and possible risk factors of HBV and HCV among TB-patients in a large TB clinic in Denmark. Methods: All patients starting anti-TB-treatment at Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev-Gentofte from April 1st 2018 through June 1st 2019 were included. Results from HBV and HCV testing as well as sociodemographic information were collected. Risk factor analyses were carried out using descriptive statistics. Results: Of 82 patients tested for HBV, one (1.2%) had chronic HBV and 16 (19.5%) had serocleared HBV. Of 91 patients tested for HCV, three (3.3%) had chronic HCV and one (1.1%) had serocleared HCV. Country of origin other than Denmark was significantly associated with HBV-seropositivity among TB-patients, particularly patients from Greenland, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. No other significantly associated risk factors were found. Conclusion: The prevalences of chronic and prior HBV and HCV among TB-patients were lower compared to studies in TB high endemic areas but higher than those found in the Danish background population. We calculated the number needed to test to find one patient with HBV ranged between 27 and 83 and we suggest continuing screening of chronic HBV and HCV in TB-patients in Denmark.</p
Investigation of the detoxification mechanism of formaldehyde-treated tetanus toxin
No full text Udgivelsesdato: 2007-Mar-8 The tetanus vaccine is based on the extremely potent tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT), which is converted by treatment with formaldehyde and lysine into the non-toxic, but still immunogenic tetanus toxoid (TTd). This formaldehyde-induced detoxification, which to a large extend determines the quality and properties of the vaccine component, occurs through partly unknown chemical modifications of the toxin. The aim of this study was to gain knowledge of the detoxification mechanism in the generation of the tetanus vaccine. Two approaches were chosen: (i) the effect of changes in the concentrations of lysine and formaldehyde in the detoxification process and (ii) characterisation of the chemically detoxified TTd. (i) We examined a number of TTd components that was produced by varying the concentrations of formaldehyde and lysine during the inactivation. Toxicity tests showed that the detoxification failed when the lysine or formaldehyde concentration was < or =1/5 or < or =1/10, respectively, of the standard level. Gel-electrophoretic analyses showed that inter-chain cross-linking was formaldehyde-dependent and, furthermore, revealed that inter-chain cross-linking was not the only requirement for the inactivation. In addition, the measurable amount of tyrosine correlated inversely with the degree of inter-chain cross-linking. (ii) To study the formaldehyde-induced chemical modifications, the TTd was investigated using protein chemical techniques in combination with mass spectrometry (MS). Using off-line liquid chromatography (LC)-MS, the most pronounced chemical modifications were characterised as unstable Schiff-bases (+12 Da) located on lysine residues and the N-termini of peptides throughout the molecule. Several arginine residues were also found with +12 Da modifications due to Schiff-base formation or as a consequence of degenerative fragmentation of lysine/formaldehyde adducts or cross-links during MS. A few tyrosine residues were similarly observed with a mass increase of 12 Da. Even though it cannot be ruled out that this is a residual mass of higher molecule adducts or cross-links to tyrosine, amino acid analysis and MS data indicated that the modification forms a ring structure from a carbon in the aromatic ring to the backbone N(alpha). In addition, several mono-varepsilon-methyllysines (+14 Da) were observed as a likely consequence of reductive methylation of the Schiff-bases. A substantial part (87%) of the known TeNT sequence, including the active site, was covered using the off-line LC-MS approach to investigate the tryptic digested TTd. In contrast to the results obtained from the gel-electrophoretic experiments, neither intra/inter-chain cross-links nor cross-links to external lysines were observed in the MS analysis. Instability of the cross-links during separation and/or MS is likely to explain their absence in the analyses. The biological relevance of the observed modifications is discussed in relation to 3D mapping analyses. Proposals for the TeNT detoxification are discussed, although no direct evidence for the exact mechanism could be obtained
Remembering Maurice Sendak, Who Brought Loneliness to Children's Literature
No full textMaurice Sendak, Childhood, Stories, Bedtime, LonlinessRemembering Maurice Sendak, Who Brought Loneliness to Children's Literature
Ellen Handler Spitz
Like many other enduring contributors to children’s literature (Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, James M. Barrie, and Margaret Wise Brown), Maurice Sendak was childless. For inspiration, he drew not on the diurnal trials, joys, and encumbrances of nurturing the young but on a bygone childhood of his own, which festered within his mind raw and accessible for many years—indeed, perhaps, for his entire life. That childhood, which began in 1928, was spent in marginal health, in a Brooklyn Jewish/Sicilian neighborhood, with ravaged working-class immigrant parents whose efforts were spent rescuing overseas Polish Jewish relatives from impending doom.
Sendak, who passed away yesterday at the age of 83, translated this childhood gradually into books that, particularly in the decade from 1960 to 1970, galvanized the entire field of late-twentieth century American children’s literature. He lay bare authentic features of childhood that had, in this genre, previously been overridden by edifying guides to behavior, bypassed by compendia of information thought to be informative for youth, or papered over by merry entertainment. His art opened floodgates that, by now, have been completely broken through. What Sendak let in were surely the dark fantasies that many commentators have noted, but something else too: loneliness.
Sendak knew from within the profound sense in which every child, from time to time, perceives himself or herself to be alone—an outsider—and feels the need to retreat into some private space, some nook or secret hiding place. Sendak’s books are themselves such places; they can so function even when being read aloud by an adult. Sendak’s supreme gift, as visual artist as well as author, was to discover pictorial as well as verbal and narrative means to portray the existential separateness of childhood. Perhaps his capacity to do this—to recognize, acknowledge, and openly reveal the anomie of childhood—stemmed from his exposure to psychoanalysis, which, during the decade of his finest work was enjoying its American heyday.
Max, Mickey, and Ida are, respectively, the protagonists of Sendak’s trilogy: Where the Wild Things Are (1963), In the Night Kitchen (1970), and Outside Over There (1981). Each of these child characters exists within a solitary world, and at the end of their stories they remain isolated and apart. All three are, at least momentarily, misunderstood, unrecognized, and insufficiently well loved. Such uncomfortable feelings, rarely if ever explored so openly in the pages of picture books, are ones routinely experienced even by the most cherished child. Who has not suffered the emotional unavailability of one or both of one’s parents? In Where the Wild Things Are, Max’s mother (who, like Kafka’s insect, is never depicted, and who is thus a fertile field for projection) grows angry at him for his naughtiness and sends him to bed without his supper. Mickey’s parents are presumably together in their own room and unresponsive when he becomes upset and hears the “racket” that angers him: “QUIET DOWN THERE!” he shouts. Ida’s father is away at sea, and her depressed mother ignores both her and a baby sister. In each story, as the plot unfolds, Sendak limits his child protagonist’s sensibility: He or she remains solely within a private world of fantasy.
As we follow the trajectories and dénouements of each of these stories, we see that Max sails away, Mickey flies away, while Ida turns away and vanishes out a window. When each fantasy ends, however, we are reassured—in a not wholly believable adult voice—that things are fine now. Dinner is hot even though you and your mother have not reestablished any direct rapport or communication. You are carefree and dry in your bed even though you are still clueless about the noise that upset you and that kept you awake in the dark. Your papa loves you still, even though it is not certain that he is alive any more and his letter has charged you to take care of your mom and baby sister indefinitely. Sendak carefully provides imagery to accompany these soothing words, but silently betrays them: Max has food but no suggestion of his mother’s arms or smile. Mickey appears smug, hugging his bottle solipsistically to himself. Ida, in profile, wiggling her big bare feet, fondles strands of her own hair and wears a distracted expression as she hears disembodied words about her bravery.
His characters’ ambiguous estrangement (we might include Johnny and Pierre from The Nutshell Library) lies at the heart of Sendak’s legacy. By leaving his protagonists alone, Sendak makes sure his child readers are not alone. The children encountering his stories realize that he understands what they are feeling, and they are thus empowered to feel less lonely or angry or left out. As children enter the realms of his picture books, they are not wholly disconnected or lost. And, after all, isn’t this what literature, at its best, whether for children or for adults, is about?
Ellen Handler Spitz is Honors College Professor at the University of Maryland (UMBC). Her most recent book, Illuminating Childhood, was recently released in paperback by University of Michigan Press. She writes regularly about children’s literature for The Book
The Constrained Left and its Adverse Impact on Losers of Globalization. IHS Political Science Series No. 120, May 2010
No full textThis paper examines the political mechanisms of welfare state policymaking in two countries with differing levels of institutional and political constraints, Germany and Ireland. The study analyzes the joint impact of political constraints and varying party governments on different dimensions of labor market policymaking. It comes to the conclusion that left-wing governments must cut spending more to accommodate the conservative opposition and gain its support when political and institutional constraints are high. To simultaneously ensure the support from pivotal extra-parliamentary actors, namely labor unions that are closely linked to the governing party, the left has to further compensate the unions' prime constituency, which is the well-integrated core workforce. The privileged treatment of labor market 'insiders' by left-wing governments in countries with high political constraints comes at the expenses of labor market 'outsiders'. Left-wing party governments in countries where political constraints are low are better able to address the needs of broader segments of society
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