Direct Donation Research Articles

Effect of education on compliance and understanding of direct blood transfusion

Objective: According to an analysis of data from the Korean Red Cross in 2007, the blood deficiency rate in Korea is approximately 22%, which is the highest level worldwide. To overcome a deficiency in the blood supply, we performed education about directed blood donation and transfusion. Methods: We provided education about direct blood donation and transfusion to 64 high-risk pregnancies of all deliveries in our hospital between March 2008 and September 2008. After providing education, we administered a questionnaire about the recognition of direct blood donation and transfusion. We surveyed 50 cases of our obstetricians, gynecologists, and nurses about satisfaction of directed blood donation. Results: The mean age was 31.5±4.4 years (range, 24~42 years; median, 30 years), the mean gravidity was 2.3±1.5, and the mean gestational age was 37.4±2.9 weeks. Eleven gravidas performed direct blood donation, and six women received direct blood donations. Thirteen units of directed blood donations remained after transfer to other patients. After providing education, we administered a questionnaire to gravidas, doctors and nurses; 52.8% and 71.0% were generally satisfied based on questions about recognition of direct blood donation, respectively. Conclusion: Our data demonstrates that education about direct blood donation is cost effective and helpful in supplying blood in high-risk pregnancies.

Activism Gone Shopping: An Empirical Exploration of Individual-Level Determinants of Political Consumerism and Donating

AbstractUsing data collected from the European Social Survey (made available by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services), we compare the political acts of buycotting, boycotting, and direct monetary donation and examine the different individual-level attributes that determine people to engage in these political acts. Specifically, we examine the individual attributes that best indicate an individual’s propensity to engage in these activities. Our main findings are that women and young people participate in political consumerism more than men and older people. We also find that donors differ substantially from buycotters and boycotters, which leads us to conclude that donating is a different, more traditional type of participation than is political consumerism. This sets the stage for studying nontraditional realms of political expression and in particular indicates a need for future studies on political actors most likely to engage in political consumerism.

Bancos de sangue de cordão umbilical e placentário para uso familiar, de caráter privado, no Brasil: subsídios técnicos, legais e éticos para uma análise de implementação

Os bancos de sangue de cordão umbilical e placentário foram criados a partir da comprovação de que o sangue de cordão umbilical e placentário (SCUP) é uma fonte rica em células progenitoras hematopoéticas (CPH) e alternativa às células provenientes da medula óssea para transplante, fato que gerou o interesse pelo armazenamento das células nele contidas. A legislação brasileira distingue bancos para uso alogênico não aparentado (públicos) e para uso exclusivamente autólogo (privados). Por sua vez, o armazenamento de SCUP para uso familiar (doação dirigida) pode ser realizado em bancos de sangue de cordão umbilical e placentário públicos, serviços de hemoterapia ou centros de transplante, quando há um membro da família do nascituro com doença diagnosticada e que necessite de transplante de CPH como tratamento. Apesar de a legislação ser clara, a Anvisa tem identificado o interesse sobre a possibilidade da liberação de unidades de SCUP, armazenadas em bancos autólogos, para a utilização de outrem, familiar, além do recém-nascido beneficiário. O objetivo do trabalho visa promover a reflexão sobre uma possível modificação dos parâmetros legais nacionais que regem os bancos de SCUP autólogo, tornando-os bancos com vistas ao uso familiar, por meio da exposição dos principais elementos relacionados ao tema. O estudo analisou os critérios técnico-sanitários legais para regulamentação dos bancos; descreveu as características das CPH de diversas fontes e tipos de doação para transplante; contextualizou a relação com os princípios da Bioética; avanços sobre terapia e pesquisas relativas às CPH; e discutiu possíveis riscos envolvidos no processo.

The geography of giving: The effect of corporate headquarters on local charities

Does the presence of corporate headquarters in a city affect the incomes of local charities? To address this question we combine data on the head office locations of publicly traded U.S. firms with information on the receipts of local charitable organizations. Cities like Houston, San Jose, and San Francisco gained significant numbers of corporate headquarters over the past two decades, while cities like Chicago and Los Angeles lost. Our analysis suggests that attracting or retaining the headquarters of a publicly traded firm yields approximately $3–10 million per year in contributions to local non-profits. Likewise, each $1000 increase in the market value of the firms headquartered in a city yields $0.60–1.60 to local non-profits. Most of the increase in charitable contributions is attributable to an effect on the number of highly-compensated individuals in a city, rather than through direct donations by the corporations themselves. The increased private sector donations from the presence of corporate headquarters do not seem to crowd out government grants to local charities.

Bis(cyclopentadienyl)dihydrido Mo and W complexes as Lewis bases — A computational study about their adducts with BX3(X = F, Cl) and Al(CH3)3

A computational investigation about the Lewis acid–base adducts between bases Cp2MH2(M = Mo, W) and acids BX3(X = F, Cl) and Al(CH3)3is presented. Density functional methods based on pure and hybrid correlation-exchange functionals and relativistic corrections based on the zero order relativistic approximation (ZORA) have been applied. A comparison with experimental data has been addressed to give insights about the nature of the acid–base interaction with the aim to evaluate the role of the transition metal in charge donation toward the acid centre. In this respect, the likelihood of proposed criteria for recognizing the presence of transition-metal direct charge donation has been discussed.

Successful Expansion of the Living Donor Pool by Alternative Living Donation Programs

Between January 2000 and December 2007, 786 potential recipients and 1059 potential donors attended our pretransplant unit with the request for a living-donor renal transplant procedure. The recipients brought one potential donor in 77.2% and two or more donors in 22.8% of cases. In the regular living donor program, a compatible donor was found for 467 recipients. Without considering alternative donation, 579 donors would have been refused. Alternative living donation programs led to 114 compatible combinations: kidney-exchange program (35), ABO-incompatible donation (25), anonymous donation (37) and domino-paired anonymous donation (17). Together, the 114 alternative program donations and the 467 regular living donations led to 581 living donor transplantations (24.4% increase). Eventually for 54.9% (581/1059) of our donors, a compatible combination was found. Donor-recipient incompatibility comprised 19.4% (89/458) in the final refused population, which is 8.8% of the potential donor-recipient couples. Without considering alternative donation, 30.1% (174/579) of the refused donors would have been refused on incompatibility and 6.4% (37/579) because they were anonymous. This is 20% of the potential donor population (211/1059). The implementation of alternative living donation programs led to a significant increase in the number of transplantations, while transplantations via the direct donation program steadily increased.

Paired kidney donations to expand the living donor pool: the Western Australian experience

Falling numbers of deceased organ donors and longer kidney transplant waiting lists have increased the emphasis on live kidney donation to meet demand for kidney transplantation. Several new strategies have been introduced to expand live donation beyond the classic direct donation. These include: altruistic donation; paired kidney exchange (PKE); and altruistic donor chains programs. Using incompatible donor-recipient pairs and altruistic donors, the Western Australian PKE program achieved nine successful kidney transplantations between October 2007 and November 2008. If PKE were performed routinely in Australia, the rate of kidney transplants could increase by 7%-10%.

Voluntary Provision of Public Goods for Bads: A Theory of Environmental Offsets

This article examines voluntary provision of a public good that is motivated, in part, to compensate for activities that diminish the public good. Markets for environmental offsets, such as those that promote carbon neutrality, provide an increasingly salient example. An important result is that mean donations do not converge to zero as the economy grows large. The equilibrium is solved to show how direct donations and net contributions depend on wealth and heterogeneous preferences. Comparative static analysis demonstrates how public good provision and social welfare depend on the technology, individual wealth and an initial level of the public good. Why do individuals voluntarily provide public goods? The question has received much attention in the economics literature, and two general answers have emerged. The first is based on a standard model of private provision of a pure public good. Agents are assumed to benefit from the aggregate level of a public good and thus have some incentive for private provision. While the additional incentive to free ride ensures that the equilibrium level of the public good will fall short of the Pareto-efficient level, the theory nevertheless predicts some degree of voluntary provision. 1 The second explanation has grown out of the need to reconcile why observed levels of private provision regularly exceed those that the standard theory predicts. Research in this area can be characterised broadly as refinements or extensions on the impure public good model. The general approach is to assume that agents obtain a private benefit from some aspect of their own provision and this encourages provision beyond that which would occur if benefits came from only the public good itself. Different interpretations of the private benefit range from a feeling of warm-glow satisfaction, social approval, prestige and signalling about income. 2 The present article pursues a further explanation for voluntary provision of a public good. The idea is that provision may occur, in part, to offset other activities that have an adverse effect on a public good. Consider an activity that produces a negative externality through diminishing the level of a public good. Assuming the individual cares enough about the public good, she may seek to minimise her adverse effect on it. One possibility is for the individual to restrain her behaviour voluntarily. 3 Another possibility, which need not be mutually exclusive, is for the individual to offset some (or all) of her detrimental effect through direct provision of the public good.

The Transplantation Society Statement on Directed and Conditional Donation

The Transplantation Society Statement on Directed and Conditional Donation

V(D)J Recombinase Binding and Cleavage of Cryptic Recombination Signal Sequences Identified from Lymphoid Malignancies

V(D)J recombination is a process integral to lymphocyte development. However, this process is not always benign, since certain lymphoid malignancies exhibit recurrent chromosomal abnormalities, such as translocations and deletions, that harbor molecular signatures suggesting an origin from aberrant V(D)J recombination. Translocations involving LMO2, TAL1, Ttg-1, and Hox11, as well as a recurrent interstitial deletion at 1p32 involving SIL/SCL, are cited examples of illegitimate V(D)J recombination. Previous studies using extrachromosomal substrates reveal that cryptic recombination signal sequences (cRSSs) identified near the translocation breakpoint in these examples support V(D)J recombination with efficiencies ranging from about 30- to 20,000-fold less than bona fide V(D)J recombination signals. To understand the molecular basis for these large differences, we investigated the binding and cleavage of these cRSSs by the RAG1/2 proteins that initiate V(D)J recombination. We find that the RAG proteins comparably bind all cRSSs tested, albeit more poorly than a consensus RSS. We show that four cRSSs that support levels of V(D)J recombination above background levels in cell culture (LMO2, TAL1, Ttg-1, and SIL) are also cleaved by the RAG proteins in vitro with efficiencies ranging from 18 to 70% of a consensus RSS. Cleavage of LMO2 and Ttg-1 by the RAG proteins can also be detected in cell culture using ligation-mediated PCR. In contrast, Hox11 and SCL are nicked but not cleaved efficiently in vitro, and cleavage at other adventitious sites in plasmid substrates may also limit the ability to detect recombination activity at these cRSSs in cell culture.

Strategies to expand the living donor pool for kidney transplantation

Structural shortage of deceased donor kidneys for transplantation has resulted in the expansion of living donation programs. A number of possibilities are now being explored, since it became clear that donors do not need to be genetically related to their recipients. Apart from classical direct donation we now conduct paired exchange, list exchange, altruistic donation and domino paired exchange programs. Other alternative programs are desensitization and transplantation across the blood type barrier. The purpose of this article is to give a general view of all optimizing living donation programs by reviewing the literature. First we describe logistic solutions, thereafter the more intensive medical treatments. We observed a wide variation in clinical experiences with living donation dependent on local jurisdiction, culture and customs. Professionals disagree on various ethical issues inherent to alternative programs. In our opinion logistic solutions like paired exchange, list exchange and altruistic donation programs are to be preferred over the more medical demanding programs e.g. desensitization and transplantation across the blood type barrier.

Re-mapping the politics of aid

The 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami caused massive human and economic destruction. In this paper we argue that the international response to the tsunami exemplifies a shift in the way humanitarian aid is sourced and delivered, and tease out a framework for understanding the continuities and discontinuities that led to differential distribution across a range of sites in southern Thailand. On the one hand we examine the degree to which we can understand differential aid distribution in terms of persistent characteristics in the political economy, such as lack of transparency and corruption . We also consider the importance of ‘traditional’ structures, networks and resiliences and their role in influencing aid distribution. But these sorts of explanations must be nuanced in light of the emergence of new aid linkages and networks, particularly the move from formal organizations to individualized and direct donations. We suggest these patterns reflect new abilities of communities to mobilize trans-national networks, a more participatory approach to aid donation and an opportunity to re-map the multi-scalar politics of aid.

Potential of Directed Cord Blood Donations for the Treatment of Patients with Hematologic Disorders

Directed cord blood donations are donations inwhich a family that has a child or other family member witha malignant or nonmalignant disease that is potentiallytreatable with stem cell transplantation, banks cord blood insubsequent pregnancies for future transplantation. With thepresent study we evaluate the effectiveness of directed cordblood donations. Patients and Methods: Within a 3-year periodwe analyzed directed cord blood collections in 27 familiesin which a family member had a malignant (primaryhematological) disease. Results: The amount of collectedcord blood was 75 ml median (20-168 ml). The amountof CD34+ cells per collection varied from 0.13 × 10⁶ to30.9 × 10 ⁶ (median 5.1 × 10 ⁶). Screening for bacterial contaminationwas negative in all collections. HLA typing of thecollected cord blood showed HLA identity to the patient in8 (25%) of the 32 cord blood collections. In 2 cases (6.25%)1 HLA mismatch was found and in 10 cases (31.25%) 2 HLAmismatches. The other 12 (37.5%) collected cord blood samplesdisplayed at least 3 HLA mismatches. Assuming 2 HLAmismatches as a cut-off for acceptance would mean that62.5% of the patients in the investigated group would havean HLA-compatible directed cord blood donation. Conclusions:Our investigation showed that directed cord bloodbanking is a potential option in families with a family memberwhich has a disorder potentially treatable with stem celltransplantation.

One donor, two transplants: willingness to participate in altruistically unbalanced exchange donation

Kidney exchange donation programs offer a good solution to help patients with a willing, but incompatible living kidney donor. Literature shows that blood type O patients are less likely to be selected for transplantation within a living exchange donation program. 'Altruistically unbalanced donation' could help these blood type O patients: one donor-recipient pair is incompatible (e.g. A-donor > O-recipient) and the other pair is compatible, but not identical (e.g. O-donor > A-recipient). Exchanging these kidneys would result in two compatible living donor kidney transplants. We studied whether compatible pairs would be willing to participate in such procedure. We included 96 living kidney donors and recipients in our study. These donors and recipients could be divided into two groups: (i) donors and their direct recipients (n = 48), and (ii) paired exchange donors and their intended recipients (n = 48). All were asked whether they would be willing to participate in altruistically unbalanced exchange donation, as long as direct donation was also an option. We found no group differences. We found that one third of the donors and recipients are willing to participate in altruistically unbalanced kidney exchanges. Therefore this form of donation may be a feasible addition to already existing living kidney exchange programs.

Acute Injury with Intravenous Iron and Concerns Regarding Long-Term Safety

Intravenous iron is widely used to maintain adequate iron stores and prevent iron deficiency anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease, yet concerns remain about its long-term safety with respect to oxidative stress, kidney injury, and accelerated atherosclerosis, which are the subjects of this review. Three parenteral iron formulations are available for use in the United States: Iron dextran, iron gluconate, and iron sucrose. Iron dextran, especially the high molecular form, has been linked with anaphylactoid and anaphylactic reactions, and its use has been declining. A portion of intravenous iron preparations is redox-active, labile iron available for direct donation to transferrin. In vitro tests show that commonly available intravenous iron formulations have differing capacities to saturate transferrin directly: Iron gluconate > iron sucrose > iron dextran. Intravenous iron treatment produces oxidative stress, as demonstrated by increases in plasma levels of lipid peroxidation products (malondialdehyde), at a point that is much earlier than the time to peak concentration of catalytically active iron, suggesting a direct effect of iron sucrose on oxidative stress. Furthermore, iron sucrose infusion produces endothelial dysfunction that seems to peak earlier than the serum level of free iron. Intravenous iron sucrose infusion also has been shown to produce acute renal injury and inflammation as demonstrated by increased urinary albumin, enzyme (N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase), and cytokine (chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) excretions. Although the long-term dangers of intravenous iron are unproved, these data call for examination of effects of intravenous iron on the potential for long-term harm in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Ethical challenges in live organ donation

The supply of deceased donor organs continues to fall significantly short of demand. This imbalance has resulted in lengthy waiting times, morbidity, and even death to the patient on the waiting list. In response to this, living donation has become an accepted practice. Among individuals hoping to reduce their waiting times, a variety of approaches have emerged to solicit live, and even deceased, donor organs. Many of these approaches present significant ethical challenges for the transplant community. Use of the media or Internet to solicit directed organ donation increases societal awareness about donation and transplantation; however, the practice is ethically problematic. The solicitation for the directed donation of deceased donor organs is unethical. With regard to live donor organs, (1) the solicitation for a directed donation of an emotionally unrelated living donor's organ is ethically problematic; (2) the most appropriate approach to living unrelated organ donation is the allocation of these organs to the general pool of patients awaiting transplant, rather than to specific individuals. In this way, conflict of interest is reduced, and altruism is maximized, because the donated organs go to patients who clinically and logistically match at the top of the waiting list.

LifeSharers: Increasing Organ Supply Through Directed Donation

LifeSharers is a noble and ethical effort to increase the supply of transplantable organs in the United States by expanding the use of directed donation. Restricting the LifeSharers approach to dir...

Complex formation by bismuth and boron with fullerene (C60): A reaction that opens up a novel route for synthesis of C60–inorganic hybrid composites

A dark red colored composite of C60 and (zinc, bismuth) borate glass was synthesized by solid-state reaction between C60 and frits of the glass at 650–700 °C in an argon atmosphere completely free from oxygen and moisture. An unusual change in color and the absorption spectrum of the glass upon composite formation with C60 indicated that the incorporated C60 underwent some sort of interaction with the glass. Such fullerene molecules bonded to relatively smaller units of bismuth-boron network, were extracted out by eluting a powdered sample with toluene. The composite itself and the toluene extract there of, were then characterized by ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared, infrared, and mass spectral studies. The results showed that the bismuth ions of the bismuth-boron network were bonded with the C60 cages through direct donation of their lone pair of electrons to the latter. The phenomenon of addition of boron to C60 via an “oxygen bridge,” which was observed in our earlier work, was also detected in this case. Studies on the nonlinear optical properties of the composite exhibited a moderate value of third order nonlinear susceptibility χ(3) (1.5 × 10−11 esu) and optical limiting properties of the composite. The result showed that the material had the prospect of being used in nonlinear optical devices.

Impure public goods and the comparative statics of environmentally friendly consumption

This paper develops an impure public good model to analyze the comparative statics of environmentally friendly consumption. “Green” products are treated as impure public goods that arise through joint production of a private characteristic and an environmental public characteristic. The model is distinct from existing impure public good models because of the way it considers the availability of substitutes. Specifically, the model accounts for the way that the jointly produced characteristics of a green product may be available separately as well—through a conventional-good substitute, direct donations to improve environmental quality, or both. The analysis provides a theoretical foundation for understanding how demand for green products and demand for environmental quality depend on market prices, green-production technologies, and ambient environmental quality. The comparative static results generate new insights into the important and sometimes counterintuitive relationship between demand for green products and demand for environmental quality.

The crystallographic structure of the aldose reductase-IDD552 complex shows direct proton donation from tyrosine 48.

The X-ray crystal structure of human aldose reductase (ALR2) in complex with the inhibitor IDD552 was determined using crystals obtained from two crystallization conditions with different pH values (pH 5 and 8). In both structures the charged carboxylic head of the inhibitor binds to the active site, making hydrogen-bond interactions with His110 and Tyr48 and electrostatic interactions with NADP+. There is an important difference between the two structures: the observation of a double conformation of the carboxylic acid moiety of the inhibitor at pH 8, with one water molecule interacting with the main configuration. This is the first time that a water molecule has been observed deep inside the ALR2 active site. Furthermore, in the configuration with the lower occupancy factor the difference electron-density map shows a clear peak (2.5sigma) for the H atom in the hydrogen bond between the inhibitor's carboxylic acid and the Tyr48 side-chain O atom. The position of this peak implies that this H atom is shared between both O atoms, indicating possible direct proton transfer from this residue to the inhibitor. This fact agrees with the model of the catalytic mechanism, in which the proton is donated by the Tyr48 hydroxyl to the substrate. These observations are useful both in drug design and in understanding the ALR2 mechanism.