Power Amidst Renewal: Foundation Support for Sustaining Advocacy After Disasters

Follows up a 2007 report on the effectiveness of foundations and nonprofits in advocating for systemic changes in the Gulf Coast and lessons learned. Calls for collaboration, regionalizing agendas, and integrating advocacy into missions and grant periods

Life Detection Subsystem Progress Report No. 1

Radioisotopic biochemical probe for extraterrestrial life detection based on cell uptake of phosphate and sulfu

A study toward development of an automated microbial metabolism laboratory Monthly progress report

Life detection systems based on phosphate and sulfur uptake for automated microbial metabolism laborator

Patient needs and point-of-care requirements for HIV load testing in resource-limited settings

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is an international, independent medical nongovernmental organization. One way in which MSF acts to improve patient care is to assist in the identification and development of adapted and appropriate tools for use in resource-limited settings. One strategy to achieve this goal is through active collaborations with scientists and developers, to make some of the field needs known and to help define the medical strategy behind the implementation of new diagnostic tests. Tests used in the field need to be effective in often extreme conditions and must also deliver high-quality, reliable results that can be used in the local context. In this article, we discuss some patient and health care provider needs for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) load measurement in resource-limited settings. This is just one of the areas in which effective, quality tools are desperately needed, not only by MSF and other international nongovernmental organizations, but also by many other health service providers. We hope that, by clearly defining the needs of patients in MSF clinics-as well as we can assess this-and by explaining why these tools are needed, how they should perform, and how their results can be integrated into a program, we will encourage the development of such tools and hasten their implementation in areas where they are so urgently needed

Towards an agonistic account of democracy, conflict, and institutions

In this paper, I offer a move back from a trend in political theory that posits strong divergence—even a contradiction—between two meanings of democracy. On the one hand, a liberal account of democracy conceives it as the set of institutions that shape a political regime and allow government; on the other, a radical tradition identifies democracy with a critical principle for transforming social order. By discussing these trends through the opposition between institution and conflict, I make the case for an agonistic approach of democratic institutions and conflict that relocates democracy both beyond liberalism and the radical tradition. I will do so by critically examining the works of Claude Lefort and Miguel Abensour, principally, where a Machiavellian ontology of social conflict inhibits this agonistic approach. I then draw on the analysis of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière in order to argue for a political theory of democracy that accounts for this link.peer-reviewe

Patient needs and point-of-care requirements for HIV load testing in resource-limited settings

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is an international, independent medical nongovernmental organization. One way in which MSF acts to improve patient care is to assist in the identification and development of adapted and appropriate tools for use in resource-limited settings. One strategy to achieve this goal is through active collaborations with scientists and developers, to make some of the field needs known and to help define the medical strategy behind the implementation of new diagnostic tests. Tests used in the field need to be effective in often extreme conditions and must also deliver high-quality, reliable results that can be used in the local context. In this article, we discuss some patient and health care provider needs for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) load measurement in resource-limited settings. This is just one of the areas in which effective, quality tools are desperately needed, not only by MSF and other international nongovernmental organizations, but also by many other health service providers. We hope that, by clearly defining the needs of patients in MSF clinics-as well as we can assess this-and by explaining why these tools are needed, how they should perform, and how their results can be integrated into a program, we will encourage the development of such tools and hasten their implementation in areas where they are so urgently neede

Thalamic neuropeptide mediating the effects of nursing on lactation and maternal motivation

Nursing has important physiological and psychological consequences on mothers during the postpartum period. Tuberoinfundibular peptide of 39 residues (TIP39) may contribute to its effects on prolactin release and maternal motivation. Since TIP39-containing fibers and the receptor for TIP39, the parathyroid hormone 2 receptor (PTH2 receptor) are abundant in the arcuate nucleus and the medial preoptic area, we antagonized TIP39 action locally to reveal its actions. Mediobasal hypothalamic injection of a virus encoding an antagonist of the PTH2 receptor markedly decreased basal serum prolactin levels and the suckling-induced prolactin release. In contrast, injecting this virus into the preoptic area had no effect on prolactin levels, but did dampen maternal motivation, judged by reduced time in a pup-associated cage during a place preference test. In support of an effect of TIP39 on maternal motivation, we observed that TIP39 containing fibers and terminals had the same distribution within the preoptic area as neurons expressing Fos in response to suckling. Furthermore, TIP39 terminals closely apposed the plasma membrane of 82% of Fos-ir neurons. Retrograde tracer injected into the arcuate nucleus and the medial preoptic area labeled TIP39 neurons in the posterior intralaminar complex of the thalamus (PIL), indicating that these cells but not other groups of TIP39 neurons project to these hypothalamic regions. We also found that TIP39 mRNA levels in the PIL markedly increased around parturition and remained elevated throughout the lactation period, demonstrating the availability of the peptide in postpartum mothers. Furthermore, suckling, but not pup exposure without physical contact, increased Fos expression by PIL TIP39 neurons. These results indicate that suckling activates TIP39 neurons in the PIL that affect prolactin release and maternal motivation via projections to the arcuate nucleus and the preoptic area, respectively

Stimulation of cortisol release by the N terminus of teleost parathyroid hormone-related protein in interrenal cells in vitro

The mode of action of PTHrP in the regulation of sea bream (Sparus auratus) interrenal cortisol production was studied in vitro using a dynamic superfusion system. Piscine (1–34)PTHrP (10−6–10−11 m) stimulated cortisol production in a dose-dependent manner. The ED50 of (1–34)PTHrP was 2.8 times higher than that of (1–39)ACTH, and maximum increase in cortisol production in response to 10−8 m of (1–34)PTHrP was approximately 7-fold lower than for 10−8 m of (1–39)ACTH. In contrast to (1–34)PTHrP, piscine (10–20)PTHrP, (79–93)PTHrP, and (100–125)PTHrP (10−9–10−7 m) did not stimulate cortisol production. The effect of piscine (1–34)PTHrP on cortisol production was abolished by N-terminal peptides in which the first amino acid (Ser) was absent and by simultaneous addition of inhibitors of the adenylyl cyclase-protein kinase A and phospholipase C-protein kinase C intracellular pathways but not by each separately. The PTHrP-induced signal transduction was further investigated by measurements of cAMP production and [H3]myo-inositol incorporation in an interrenal cell suspension. Piscine (1–34)PTHrP increased cAMP and total inositol phosphate accumulation, which is indicative that the mechanism of action of PTHrP in interrenal tissue involves the activation of both the adenylyl cyclase-cAMP and phospholipase C-inositol phosphate signaling pathways. These results, together with the expression of mRNA for PTHrP and for PTH receptor (PTHR) type 1 and PTHR type 3 receptors in sea bream interrenal tissue, suggest a specific paracrine or autocrine steroidogenic action of PTHrP mediated by the PTHRs

The treatment of fractures of the femur by Perkins' traction

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