Relationship between mortality and health care expenditure: Sustainable assessment of health care system.

Infant and maternal mortality are important indicators for assessing the quality of healthcare systems. The World Health Organization underscores the importance of proper health care system in reducing preventable mortality through early intervention. Early intervention includes availability, accessibility and affordability of health care systems for children and mothers. While there are several studies that assess the immediate and underlying drivers of child mortality, literature on the role of policy measures are limited and inconsistent. Thus, robust empirical analysis of the determinants of maternal and infant mortality remains inconclusive in the era of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Here, we examined the influence of health expenditure on infant and maternal deaths for the period 2000-2015 across 177 countries. Using panel Quantile Regression with bootstrapping, this study accounted for the 2007-2008 financial crisis in an empirical relationship between health outcome and health expenditure. We found a negative effect of health expenditure on mortality across all percentiles. Infant mortality rate declines between 0.19% - 1.45% while maternal mortality rate declines ranging from 0.09% - 1.91%. To attain the goal of ensuring healthy lives and wellbeing of all people (SDG 3), this study infers that health expenditure potentially reduces maternal and infant mortality across lower and middle income countries. We highlight the need for an enhanced health care expenditure, especially in developing countries to curb the levels of infant and maternal deaths.

Imaging Plant Cells by High-Pressure Freezing and Serial block-face scanning electron microscopy.

This chapter describes methods to enhanced contrast of plant material processed by high-pressure freezing and freeze substitution for improved visualization by serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBEM). The contrast enhancing steps are based on a protocol involving the sequential incubation of samples in heavy metals and sodium thiocarbohydrazide (OTO staining). We also describe the pipeline for imaging plant tissues in a commercial SBEM system (Gatan 3View®) and routines for the image analysis and three-dimensional reconstructions using open-source and commercial software packages.

Differential regulation of Ca2+ influx by ORAI channels mediates enamel mineralization.

Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) channels are highly selective Ca2+ channels activated by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) sensors STIM1 and STIM2. Their direct interaction with the pore-forming plasma membrane ORAI proteins (ORAI1, ORAI2, and ORAI3) leads to sustained Ca2+ fluxes that are critical for many cellular functions. Mutations in the human ORAI1 gene result in immunodeficiency, anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, and enamel defects. In our investigation of the role of ORAI proteins in enamel, we identified enamel defects in a patient with an ORAI1 null mutation. Targeted deletion of the Orai1 gene in mice showed enamel defects and reduced SOCE in isolated enamel cells. However, Orai2-/- mice showed normal enamel despite having increased SOCE in the enamel cells. Knockdown experiments in the enamel cell line LS8 suggested that ORAI2 and ORAI3 modulated ORAI1 function, with ORAI1 and ORAI2 being the main contributors to SOCE. ORAI1-deficient LS8 cells showed altered mitochondrial respiration with increased oxygen consumption rate and ATP, which was associated with altered redox status and enhanced ER Ca2+ uptake, likely due to S-glutathionylation of SERCA pumps. Our findings demonstrate an important role of ORAI1 in Ca2+ influx in enamel cells and establish a link between SOCE, mitochondrial function, and redox homeostasis.

Quantification of Interfibrillar Shear Stress in Aligned Soft Collagenous Tissues via Notch Tension Testing.

The mechanical function of soft collagenous tissues is largely determined by their hierarchical organization of collagen molecules. While collagen fibrils are believed to be discontinuous and transfer load through shearing of the interfibrillar matrix, interfibrillar shear stresses have never been quantified. Scaling traditional shear testing procedures down to the fibrillar length scale is impractical and would introduce substantial artifacts. Here, through the use of a novel microscopic variation of notch tension testing, we explicitly demonstrate the existence of interfibrillar shear stresses within tendon fascicles and provide the first measurement of their magnitude. Axial stress gradients along the sample length generated by notch tension testing were measured and used to calculate a value of 32 kPa for the interfibrillar shear stress. This estimate is comparable to the interfibrillar shear stress predicted by previous multiscale modeling of tendon fascicles, which supports the hypothesis that fibrils are discontinuous and transmit load through interfibrillar shear. This information regarding the structure-function relationships of tendon and other soft collagenous tissues is necessary to identify potential causes for tissue impairment with degeneration and provide the foundation for developing regenerative repair strategies or engineering biomaterials for tissue replacement.

Hollow polycarbonate waveguides with inner Cu coatings for delivery of terahertz radiation.

Terahertz (THz) radiation has important applications in spectroscopy, imaging, and space science. Fiber optics for the THz region have been limited to rigid hollow metallic waveguides or short lengths of solid-core transparent dielectrics such as sapphire and plastic. We have fabricated flexible, hollow polycarbonate waveguides with interior Cu coatings for broadband THz transmission using simple liquid-phase chemistry techniques. The losses for these hollow-core guides were measured using a tunable, cw single-mode far IR laser. The losses for the best guides were found to be less than four dB/m and the single mode of the laser was preserved for the smaller bore waveguides.

Drivers' response to the installation of road lighting. An economic interpretation.

An economic model of drivers' behaviour is introduced in order to explain recently published empirical findings telling us that road lighting increases speed, decreases concentration and reduces accidents. The model, combined with the empirical results, indicate that drivers perceive speed and concentration as complementary safety variables, while common sense suggests that speed and concentration influence real accident rate as substitutable safety means. If this holds, a positive but concave relationship between subjective and objective risks exists, which means that as the objective accident risk rises, it has less influence on perceived risk.