Environmental and inflammatory factors influencing concurrent gut and lung inflammation.

Background: Crohn's disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are chronic inflammatory diseases that affect the gut and lung respectively and can occur comorbidly.

Methods: Using the SHIP-1 model of Crohn's-like ileitis and chronic lung inflammation, the two diseases were co-investigated.

Results: Contrary to prior literature, Crohn's-like ileitis was not fully penetrant in SHIP-1 mice, and housing in a specific pathogen-free facility was completely protective.

BAYESIAN PROJECTIONS OF TOTAL FERTILITY RATE CONDITIONAL ON THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

Women's educational attainment and contraceptive prevalence are two mechanisms identified as having an accelerating effect on fertility decline and that can be directly impacted by policy. Quantifying the potential accelerating effect of education and family planning policies on fertility decline in a probabilistic way is of interest to policymakers, particularly in high-fertility countries. We propose a conditional Bayesian hierarchical model for projecting fertility given education and family planning policy interventions.

Activated eosinophils in early life impair lung development and promote long-term lung damage.

Exaggeration of type 2 immune responses promotes lung inflammation and altered lung development; however, eosinophils, despite expansion in the postnatal lung, have not been specifically assessed in the context of neonatal lung disease. Furthermore, early life factors including prematurity and respiratory infection predispose infants to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease later in life. To assess eosinophils in the developing lung and how they may contribute to chronic lung disease, we generated mice harboring eosinophil-specific deletion of the negative regulatory enzyme SH2 domain-containing inositol 5' phosphatase-1.