A peer to peer discussion on how ADB works with the private sector to fill the investment gaps and finance facilities that generate and distribute clean energy.

ADBI Dean Tetsushi Sonobe discussed imperatives for enabling COVID-19 pandemic recovery in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific and new ADBI research to boost related policy efforts in a video message.

To better understand how ADB’s developing members are weathering the COVID-19 crisis, the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department launched the ADB COVID-19 Policy Database.

Dentons Hong Kong has been recognised for its work at the IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards 2020 and Asian-mena Counsel: Deals of the Year 2019. These recognitions have highlighted the capabilities of the Firm in a wide range of practice areas.

670,000 households in Indonesia are benefitting from improved access to water and sanitation.

Proyek perbaikan kawasan kumuh: 670 ribu keluarga di Indonesia nikmati manfaat dari perbaikan akses air dan sanitasi.

A glimpse into how scaling-up investment in Hasfarm Holdings is helping women in Central Highlands, Viet Nam improve their economic status and reach their full potential.

Banking integration lowers bank default risk in recipient countries.

Tech startups rely on an array of financing sources, and venture capital is not a common source.

Foreign-currency exposures on an economy’s external balance sheet may jeopardize financial stability when the exchange rate depreciates.

This handbook shows how the Asian Development Bank (ADB) piloted futures thinking and foresight to understand entry points to support transformational change and finance the future of Asia and the Pacific.

Energy security is a nation’s ability to meet the energy needs of its inhabitants uninterruptedly at an affordable price.

Regulatory reforms should focus on building up market competition, which indirectly forces state-owned enterprises to improve their operation toward efficiency.

This paper examines digital financial services and products—powered by financial technology—as well as low technology solutions that can boost digital financial inclusion for women in remote and rural areas.

Asian regional integration is progressing under more complex and diversified considerations than European integration.

This publication provides estimates of purchasing power parities (PPPs) and real expenditures for 22 economies in Asia and the Pacific. These are summary regional results from the 2017 cycle of the International Comparison Program (ICP).

Brexit reminds us of the limitations of regional integration.

Trade facilitation, by reducing trade costs and raising the efficiency of moving goods across borders, is integral to international trade.

Growth in the region is expected to slow sharply to 2.2% in 2020 under the effects of the current health emergency and then rebound to 6.2% in 2021.

The global financial architecture should focus on providing short-term lending facilities to improve the efficiency of developing projects.

Gradual integration and expansion would help intensify Asian economic integration through capacity-building and technological development from more advanced economic blocs.

Banking integration lowers bank default risk in recipient countries.

Tech startups rely on an array of financing sources, and venture capital is not a common source.

Foreign-currency exposures on an economy’s external balance sheet may jeopardize financial stability when the exchange rate depreciates.

Energy security is a nation’s ability to meet the energy needs of its inhabitants uninterruptedly at an affordable price.

Regulatory reforms should focus on building up market competition, which indirectly forces state-owned enterprises to improve their operation toward efficiency.

June 15 - A community in East Java, Indonesia, is turning methane from the local garbage dump into gas for more than 400 homes. Local authorities have set up a system where methane produced by rotting waste is extracted and pumped to villages nearby, turning greenhouse gas emissions into useful energy. Tara Cleary reports.

A pizza chain in northern Russia begins to deliver pizza by Russian-made drones. Elly Park reports.

Five species of songbird and five subspecies have been discovered by scientists for the first time in mountainous areas of Indonesia

Vast machines have left the subterranean world of a potash mine in the Urals with ammonite-like whorls, photographed for a project to highlight lasting human impacts on the planet.

Dozens of people have died in Indonesia and Mozambique as a result of storms and flooding, possibly driven by climate change

President Vladimir Putin told Russians on Saturday they are invincible when they stand together as he presided over celebrations of victory in World War Two that were slimmed down because of the coronavirus outbreak.

People living in Russia about 20,000 years ago built a "bonehenge" – a circular structure made of mammoth bones that could have been used to store food

The mysterious Liangzhu civilisation was a neolithic "Venice of the East", rivalling ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia with its engineering marvels

New archaeological finds show that New Guinea developed sophisticated cultural practices around the same time as they were emerging in Europe and Asia

From a bunch of radishes to a sleeping cat, Parisian Agnes Goyet has turned to her life indoors for inspiration as France's coronavirus lockdown frees her up to pursue her hobby - art.

When an art gallery in southern Russia closed its doors to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, one artist asked to self-isolate there rather than leave his place of work.

A grandiose mosaic depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking officials will not be put on display in a new military church after objections from the Kremlin leader, a church official said on Friday.

The mysterious Liangzhu civilisation was a neolithic "Venice of the East", rivalling ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia with its engineering marvels

The sting of the Asian giant hornet can kill and that's not just an expression of speech. Since their discovery in 2019 in the US, traps have been set to see if Asian giant "murder hornets" have settled in the state. Libby Hogan has more.

Title: Health Tip: Be Alert for Signs of Preeclampsia
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2012 8:05:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/3/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: General Anesthesia Not Linked to Raised Risk for Dementia
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: Dog Food Recalled After Tests Find Euthanasia Drug
Category: Health News
Created: 4/29/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: Kidney Dysplasia: In Infants and Children
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 5/22/2012 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: How Dangerous Is General Anesthesia?
Category: Procedures and Tests
Created: 3/5/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/7/2020 12:00:00 AM

ABSTRACT

This research analyzed six Aspergillus fumigatus genes encoding putative efflux proteins for their roles as transporters. The A. fumigatus genes abcA, abcC, abcF, abcG, abcH, and abcI were cloned into plasmids and overexpressed in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain in which the highly active endogenous ABC transporter gene PDR5 was deleted. The activity of each transporter was measured by efflux of rhodamine 6G and accumulation of alanine β-naphthylamide. The transporters AbcA, AbcC, and AbcF had the strongest efflux activities of these compounds. All of the strains with plasmid-expressed transporters had more efflux activity than did the PDR5-deleted background strain. We performed broth microdilution drug susceptibility testing and agar spot assays using an array of compounds and antifungal drugs to determine the transporter specificity and drug susceptibility of the strains. The transporters AbcC and AbcF showed the broadest range of substrate specificity, while AbcG and AbcH had the narrowest range of substrates. Strains expressing the AbcA, AbcC, AbcF, or AbcI transporter were more resistant to fluconazole than was the PDR5-deleted background strain. Strains expressing AbcC and AbcF were additionally more resistant to clotrimazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole, and posaconazole than was the background strain. Finally, we analyzed the expression levels of the genes by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in triazole-susceptible and -resistant A. fumigatus clinical isolates. All of these transporters are expressed at a measurable level, and transporter expression varied significantly between strains, demonstrating the high degree of phenotypic variation, plasticity, and divergence of which this species is capable.

IMPORTANCE One mechanism behind drug resistance is altered export out of the cell. This work is a multifaceted analysis of membrane efflux transporters in the human fungal pathogen A. fumigatus. Bioinformatics evidence infers that there is a relatively large number of genes in A. fumigatus that encode ABC efflux transporters. However, very few of these transporters have been directly characterized and analyzed for their potential role in drug resistance.

Our objective was to determine if these undercharacterized proteins function as efflux transporters and then to better define whether their efflux substrates include antifungal drugs used to treat fungal infections. We chose six A. fumigatus potential plasma membrane ABC transporter genes for analysis and found that all six genes produced functional transporter proteins. We used two fungal systems to look for correlations between transporter function and drug resistance. These transporters have the potential to produce drug-resistant phenotypes in A. fumigatus. Continued characterization of these and other transporters may assist in the development of efflux inhibitor drugs.

APHA member Elena Ong, PHN, MS, past president and founding CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander Caucus for Public Health, a recent APHA Executive Board member, and a past vice president of the Southern California Public Health Association, discusses discrimination against Asians in the U.S. and beyond.

First described in 1967, one of the most vexing problems in the care of preterm infants continues to be bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). The clinical presentation and pathological changes associated with BPD, also referred to as chronic lung disease of prematurity, have changed substantially since that initial description by Northway et al. [1]. The condition described in that seminal report, characterised by marked respiratory distress associated with pulmonary oedema due to shunting across the patent ductus arteriosus, was also specific to preterm infants that had received high inspired oxygen concentrations for at least a week.