What is it about basketball that makes it "the black man's game"? And what about pickup basketball in particular: can it tell us something about the state of blackness in the United States? ...Reflecting on these questions, Rafik Mohamed presents pickup games as a text of the political, social, and economic struggles of African American men. In the process, he tells a story about race in its peculiarly American context, and about how the politics of race--and resistance--are mediated through sports.
Recent studies suggest a potential role of bioactive lipids in acute kidney injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The current study was designed to determine the profiling activities of various ...polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) metabolizing enzymes, including lipoxygenases (LO), cyclooxygenase, and cytochrome P450 in the plasma of LPS-injected mice using LC-MS. Heat map analysis revealed that out of 126 bioactive lipids screened, only the 12/15-LO metabolite, 12-HETE, had a significant (2.24 ± 0.4) fold increase relative to control (P = 0.0001) after Bonferroni Correction (BCF α = 0.003). We then determined the role of the 12/15-LO in LPS-induced acute kidney injury using genetic and pharmacological approaches. Treatment of LPS injected mice with the 12/15-LO inhibitor, baicalein, significantly reduced levels of renal injury and inflammation markers including urinary thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARs), urinary monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), renal interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Similarly, knocking-out of 12/15-LO reduced levels of renal inflammation and injury markers elicited by LPS injection. Next, we tested whether exogenous supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as a substrate would divert the role of 12/15-LO from being pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory via increased production of the anti-inflammatory metabolite. DHA treatment restored the decreased in plasma level of resolvin D2 (RvD2) and reduced renal injury in LPS-injected mice whereas DHA treatment failed to provide any synergistic effects in reducing renal injury in LPS injected 12/15-LO knock-out mice. The ability of RvD2 to protect kidney against LPS-induced renal injury was further confirmed by exogenous RvD2 which significantly reduced the elevation in renal injury in LPS injected mice. These data suggest a double-edged sword role of 12/15-LO in LPS-induced acute renal inflammation and injury, depending on the type of substrate available for its activity.
Background 1-year data from this trial showed the noninferiority of a novel once-daily extended-release tacrolimus (LCPT; Envarsus XR) to immediate-release tacrolimus (IR-Tac) twice daily after ...kidney transplantation. Study Design Final 24-month analysis of a 2-armed, parallel-group, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, multicenter, phase 3 trial. Setting & Participants 543 de novo kidney recipients randomly assigned to LCPT (n = 268) or IR-Tac (n = 275); 507 (93.4%) completed the 24-month study. Intervention LCPT tablets once daily at 0.17 mg/kg/d or IR-Tac twice daily at 0.1 mg/kg/d; subsequent doses were adjusted to maintain target trough ranges (first 30 days, 6-11 ng/mL; thereafter, 4-11 ng/mL). The intervention was 24 months; the study was double blinded for the entirety. Outcomes & Measurements Treatment failure (death, transplant failure, biopsy-proven acute rejection, or loss to follow up) within 24 months. Safety end points included adverse events, serious adverse events, new-onset diabetes, kidney function, opportunistic infections, and malignancies. Pharmacokinetic measures included total daily dose (TDD) of study drugs and tacrolimus trough levels. Results 24-month treatment failure was LCPT, 23.1%; IR-Tac, 27.3% (treatment difference, −4.14% 95% CI, −11.38% to +3.17%, well below the +10% noninferiority criterion defined for the primary 12-month end point). Subgroup analyses showed fewer treatment failures for LCPT versus IR-Tac among black, older, and female recipients. Safety was similar between groups. From month 1, TDD was lower for LCPT; the difference increased over time. At month 24, mean TDD for LCPT was 24% lower than for the IR-Tac group ( P < 0.001), but troughs were similar (means at 24 months: LCPT, 5.47 ± 0.17 ng/mL; IR-Tac, 5.8 ± 0.30 ng/mL; P = 0.4). Limitations Trial participant eligibility criteria may limit the generalizability of results to the global population of de novo kidney transplant recipients. Conclusions Results suggest that once-daily LCPT in de novo kidney transplantation has comparable efficacy and safety profile to that of IR-Tac. Lower TDD reflects LCPT’s improved bioavailability and absorption.
Evaluating speech quality in voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) in a non-intrusive manner is challenging, because it relies on a degraded speech signal only. In this paper, a parametric, ...non-intrusive VoIP speech quality assessment algorithm is proposed, which adopts a three-step strategy, impairment detection, individual effect modeling and an overall model. Mainly based on voice payload analysis, the algorithm also combines Internet protocol analysis approach and the ITU-T E-model. It quantifies the individual contributions to speech quality from several major VoIP impairments, including packet loss, temporal clipping and noise. Also, an overall assessment model is developed. The performance is evaluated through intensive simulations, and the results show that the algorithm is effective and accurate. For the overall model, the correlation between prediction and measurement is 0.90; the root mean square error (RMSE) is 0.27 mean opinion score (MOS). The algorithm aims to be implemented at the receive-end media gateway or IP terminal, for identifying the root causes of speech quality degradation as well as quality assessment in VoIP.
This work was designed to study the efficacy of two types of silicon compounds (sodium silicate and potassium silicate) to control charcoal rot disease caused by Macrophomina phaseolina in vitro, ...under greenhouse and field conditions. In vitro study showed that sodium and potassium silicate at all concentration were effective on inhibiting the growth of the pathogen. Generally, sodium silicate significantly reduces pathogen growth than potassium silicate (29.02% and 19.34%, respectively). Under greenhouse conditions, treatments with sodium silicate caused the highest percentage of disease reduction of charcoal rot disease (37.8%), compared with infected control plants. Sodium silicate treatment increased the root, stem and leaves thickness layers of cortex (CO) and pith (PI) compared to untreated soybean plants. Under field conditions, application of sodium silicate in controlling charcoal rot disease showed significant reduction of disease severity in both tested seasons (56% and 42%, respectively) as well as increased the yield of soybean by (136.7% and 97.6%, respectively). The study concluded that application of sodium silicate could be useful in reducing charcoal rot diseases under greenhouse and field conditions.
Tuberculosis continues tobe a major cause of death. It is a preventable and curable disease. Themost commonbacteria likely to cause a cystic pneumoniaare Staphylococcusaureus, streptococcuspneumonia ...and Escherichiacoli. The cystic pulmonary tuberculosis is exceptional and shoulddefinitized be from other cystic lung disease.Wepresent a case report of immunocompetent patient with acute respiratoryfailurePulmonarytuberculosiswithunusualcystic change in an immunocompromised host.
This article examines the relationships and business practices of an informal Southern California drug dealing network servicing and, in many cases, run by college students of relatively privileged ...backgrounds. On the basis of qualitative interviews conducted with drug suppliers, the dealing mechanics, motives, and perceptions of the threat of punishment are explored. This network exists virtually unmediated by agencies of formal social control, despite the fact that their material culture, attitudes, and behaviors are frequently similar to those of their street-level counterparts. This ongoing field study underscores the idea that the war on drugs ignores a significant segment of drug dealing and using Americans.
PDF
