Strategies To Boost Maternal Immunization To Achieve Further Gains In Improved Maternal And Newborn Health.

Despite the indisputable successes of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which include goals on improving maternal health and reducing child mortality, millions of mothers and newborns still die tragically and unnecessarily each year. Many of these deaths result from vaccine-preventable diseases, since obstacles such as cost and accessibility have hampered efforts to deliver efficacious vaccines to those most in need. Additionally, many vaccines given to mothers and children under age five are not suitable for newborns, since their maturing immune systems do not respond optimally during the first few months of life.

Innovation can improve and expand aspects of end-of-life care in low- and middle-income countries.

Provision for end-of-life care around the world is widely variable and often poor, which leads to millions of deaths each year among people without access to essential aspects of care. However, some low- and middle-income countries have improved specific aspects of end-of-life care using innovative strategies and approaches such as international partnerships, community-based programs, and philanthropic initiatives. This article reviews the state of current global end-of-life care and examines how innovation has improved end-of-life care in Nigeria, Uganda, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Jordan.

Ocular biocompatibility and structural integrity of micro- and nanostructured poly(caprolactone) films.

The identification of biomaterials that are well tolerated in the eye is important for the development of new ocular drug delivery devices and implants, and the application of micro- and nanoengineered devices to biomedical treatments is predicated on the long-term preservation within the target organ or tissue of the very small functional design elements. This study assesses the ocular tolerance and durability of micro- and nanostructured biopolymer thin films injected or implanted into the rabbit eye. Structured poly(caprolactone) (PCL) thin films were placed in adult rabbit eyes for survival studies, with serial ophthalmic examinations over 6 months.

Enhanced differentiation of retinal progenitor cells using microfabricated topographical cues.

Due to the retina's inability to replace photoreceptors lost during retinal degeneration, significant interest has been placed in methods to implant replacement cells. Polymer scaffolds are increasingly being studied as vehicles for cellular delivery to degenerated retinas. Previously, we fabricated poly(methyl methacrylate) thin film scaffolds that increased survival and integration of implanted retinal progenitor cells (RPCs).

A method for characterizing adsorption of flowing solutes to microfluidic device surfaces.

We present a method for characterizing the adsorption of solutes in microfluidic devices that is sensitive to both long-lived and transient adsorption and can be applied to a variety of realistic device materials, designs, fabrication methods, and operational parameters. We have characterized the adsorption of two highly adsorbing molecules (FITC-labeled bovine serum albumin (BSA) and rhodamine B) and compared these results to two low adsorbing species of similar molecular weights (FITC-labeled dextran and fluorescein). We have also validated our method by demonstrating that two well-known non-fouling strategies [deposition of the polyethylene oxide (PEO)-like surface coating created by radio-frequency glow discharge plasma deposition (RF-GDPD) of tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether (tetraglyme, CH(3)O(CH(2)CH(2)O)(4)CH(3)), and blocking with unlabeled BSA] eliminate the characteristic BSA adsorption behavior observed otherwise.