Gender-Based Violence Is a Human Rights Violation: Are Donors Responding Adequately? What a Decade of Donor Interventions in Colombia, Kenya, and Uganda Reveals.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a violation of human rights and must be addressed as such. This paper examines whether donor practices align with a rights-based approach, using data from our comprehensive study of foreign funding flows related to GBV in Colombia, Kenya, and Uganda from 2010 to 2020. By analyzing data from 1,180 grants-and providing parallel analyses of the state of GBV, and GBV reporting and interventions in each country-we demonstrate donors' role in shaping GBV outcomes and their consequent duty to address policies and practices that violate rights.

From bad to worse: global governance of abortion and the Global Gag Rule.

The Trump Administration's (PLGHA) significantly expands the "Global Gag Rule" - and, in so doing, weakens the global governance of abortion. By chilling debate, reducing transparency, ghettoising sexual and reproductive health and rights work, and interfering with research, PLGHA makes an already bad context demonstrably worse. Individual women suffer the most, as PLGHA inhibits ongoing efforts to reduce abortion-related morbidity and mortality.

As the HIV Epidemic among Young Women Grows, Can We Look to the SDGs to Reverse the Trend?

To end the growing HIV epidemic among young women, human rights violations must be addressed. The Sustainable Development Goals have the potential to help, but only if political barriers are overcome and a rights-based approach is integrated.

IgE in childhood asthma: relevance of demographic characteristics and polysensitisation.

Background: Despite the therapeutic efficacy of the anti-IgE monoclonal antibody, the role of IgE in allergic asthma is still a matter of debate. This may be mostly relevant in childhood, where a wide range of total serum (s) IgE levels is often detected.

Aim: To evaluate whether the relationships between total or allergen-specific sIgE levels and the clinical markers of allergic inflammation and the pulmonary function values might be affected by the demographic characteristics of the patients or by the presence of multiple sensitisations to allergens.

Determinants of exhaled nitric oxide levels (FeNO) in childhood atopic asthma: evidence for neonatal respiratory distress as a factor associated with low FeNO levels.

Background: In allergic asthmatic children exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) levels are related to eosinophilic inflammation by correlation analysis. Whether FeNO can be modified by factors potentially influencing the natural history of asthma in early life is not known.

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of anamnestic factors influencing the natural history of asthma and to identify potential determinants for elevated or low FeNO levels by multivariate analysis.

Real-time quantification of wild-type contaminants in glyphosate tolerant soybean.

Background: Trait purity is a key factor for the successful utilization of biotech varieties and is currently assessed by analysis of individual seeds or plants. Here we propose a novel PCR-based approach to test trait purity that can be applied to bulk samples. To this aim the insertion site of a transgene is characterized and the corresponding sequence of the wild-type (wt) allele is used as diagnostic target for amplification.

Intermittent gaseous bowel distention: atypical sign of congenital tracheoesophageal fistula.

Three girls, 5-, 9-, and 15-year-old, were evaluated for recurrent airway infections and pneumonia. Chest X-rays, which included the upper portion of the abdomen, showed marked gaseous bowels distention, while computed tomography scans of the chest demonstrated the presence of tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF), confirmed by fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Abdominal gaseous distension, a known possible clinical manifestation of TEF in the neonatal period generated by airflow through the fistula into the oesophagus, has not been reported as a clue to the diagnosis in older children.

High-relaxivity magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent based on supramolecular assembly between a gadolinium chelate, a modified dextran, and poly-beta-cyclodextrin.

Nanosized contrast agents have great potential in magnetic resonance molecular imaging applications for clinical diagnosis. This study proposes new nanoparticles spontaneously formed under mild conditions and composed of a noncovalent adduct between a gadolinium complex, a polymer of beta-cyclodextrin (pbetaCD: MW 1.5 x 10(6) g mol(-1)) and a dextran grafted with alkyl chains (MD).

Gastroesophageal reflux and its clinical manifestation at gastroenteric and respiratory levels in childhood: physiology, signs and symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is a physiological process occurring with different frequency and characteristics in healthy infants, children and adults, most episodes being brief and asymptomatic. By contrast, GER disease (GERD) occurs when this normal event results in the occurrence of symptoms/signs or complications involving the upper portion of the gastroenteral tract and the respiratory system. Transient relaxations of the lower esophageal sphincter represent the major mechanism responsible for reflux episodes, possibly associated with gastroesophageal dysfunctional motility, excessive gastric acid secretion or anatomic abnormalities.

Molecular recognition of sugars by lanthanide (III) complexes of a conjugate of N, N-bis[2-[bis[2-(1, 1-dimethylethoxy)-2-oxoethyl]amino]ethyl]glycine and phenylboronic acid.

A novel conjugate of phenylboronic acid and an Ln(DTPA) derivative, in which the central acetate pendant arm was replaced by the methylamide of L-lysine, was synthesized and characterized. The results of a fit of variable (17)O NMR data and a (1)H NMRD profile show that the water residence lifetime of the Gd(III) complex (150 ns) is shorter than that of the parent compound Gd(DTPA)(2-) (303 ns). Furthermore, the data suggest that several water molecules in the second coordination sphere of Gd(III) contribute to the relaxivity of the conjugate.

Early decrease in nasal eosinophil proportion after nasal allergen challenge correlates with baseline bronchial reactivity to methacholine in children sensitized to house dust mites.

Background: Allergic rhinitis is induced by an IgE mediated inflammation after allergen exposure of the membranes lining the nose which, in predisposed individuals, may constitute a risk factor for the occurrence of asthma.

Objective: To detect early changes in nasal inflammation after allergen exposure, 11 children [9.0 (7, 11) yrs], sensitized to house dust mites (HDM), with rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma and an age- and gender-matched control group (Ctr) were studied.

Activity of budesonide on nasal neutrophilic inflammation and obstruction in children with recurrent upper airway infections. A preliminary investigation.

Objective: While it is widely accepted that inhaled glucocorticosteroids represent an effective treatment for allergic rhinitis, little is known on the specific effects of this therapeutic approach in other upper airway disorders of childhood. The aim of the study was to evaluate the improvement of clinical symptoms and changes in local cellular inflammatory reaction induced by budesonide inhalation suspension in children with recurrent nasal infections using budesonide inhalation suspension delivered by Rinowash, a nebulizer designed to treat upper airway structures.

Methods: In a randomized, controlled-open study, 14 children (5.

Relationship between body mass index and asthma characteristics in a group of Italian children and adolescents.

The prevalence of asthma and obesity, two often associated conditions, is influenced not only by age and gender but also by lifestyle factors. This study aimed to determine whether, in a Mediterranean northern Italian region, Liguria, an increased prevalence of obesity could be detected in asthmatic children and adolescents and to evaluate the possible relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the characteristics and/or severity of asthma. BMI was determined in 554 asthmatic subjects (2.

Magnetic resonance imaging visualization of targeted cells by the internalization of supramolecular adducts formed between avidin and biotinylated Gd3+ chelates.

The high binding affinity between avidin and biotin has been exploited to develop a procedure for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) visualization of target cells. SHIN3 and PANC1 tumor cell lines have been used as target cells because they possess on their membranes galactosyl receptors able to bind avidin molecules. Avidin-Gd chelate adducts have been built by using two Gd complexes containing one (Gd-I) and two (Gd-II) biotin residues, respectively.

Correlations between exhaled nitric oxide levels and pH-metry data in asthmatics with gastro-oesophageal reflux.

Background: In gastro-oesophageal reflux (GER), micro-aspirations of gastric fluid may damage the epithelial surface of the airways, an important source of endogenous nitric oxide (NO).

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the possible influence of GER on fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)) release.

Methods: FE(NO) levels were compared in two age-matched groups of allergic children: (1) 20 with mild asthma, responding to standard anti-asthma pharmacologic therapy (asthmatic children) and (2) 12 with mild 'asthma-like symptoms' and GER.

Nasal inflammation and bronchial reactivity to methacholine in atopic children with respiratory symptoms.

Background: In atopic subjects, dysfunctions of the upper and lower airways frequently coexist and allergic rhinitis seems to constitute a risk factor for the occurrence of asthma in predisposed individuals.

Aim Of The Study: To evaluate whether in atopic subjects nasal inflammation could reflect changes in respiratory functions, 11 allergic children, sensitized to house dust mites (HDM), with rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma and 10 nonatopic controls (ctrs) were studied.

Methods: All subjects underwent nasal brushing to detect percentages of nasal eosinophils (Eos %) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression by nasal epithelial cells.

Steroid-naive adolescents with mild intermittent allergic asthma have airway hyperresponsiveness and elevated exhaled nitric oxide levels.

Although atopic asthma symptoms often seem to disappear around puberty, subjects in this age group may experience unexpected, often severe, asthma attacks. This may be related to persistence of untreated airway hyperresponsiveness/inflammation in a life period characterized by low perceptiveness of disease-related symptoms. This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence and the severity of bronchial hyperreactivity and the exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) levels in a group of steroid-naive asthmatic adolescents.

Correlations between exhaled nitric oxide levels, blood eosinophilia, and airway obstruction reversibility in childhood asthma are detectable only in atopic individuals.

The aim of this study was to compare in atopic and nonatopic asthmatic children correlations between two inflammation parameters, i.e., blood eosinophilia and exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)), and pulmonary function values, at baseline and after beta(2)-adrenergic bronchodilators.

Clinical, physiologic, and roentgenographic changes after pneumonectomy in a boy with Macleod/Swyer-James syndrome and bronchiectasis.

Macleod/Swyer-James syndrome is an uncommon and complex disease characterized by roentgenographic hyperlucency of one lung or lobe due to loss of the pulmonary vascular structure and to alveolar overdistension. This syndrome seems to be an acquired disease that follows viral bronchiolitis and pneumonitis in childhood. It must be differentiated from many other causes of unilateral lung "transradiancy" on the chest roentgenogram, such as those related to congenital bronchial and/or vascular abnormalities.

Changes in inflammatory and clinical parameters and in bronchial hyperreactivity asthmatic children sensitized to house dust mites following sublingual immunotherapy.

Unlabelled: In allergic patients with rhinoconjunctivitis (RNC), sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is effective in reducing both clinical symptoms and immuno-mediated local inflammatory responses. The study evaluates whether SLIT could reduce upper airway inflammation and improve clinical parameters also in children with rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma from house dust mite sensitization. Ten children with mild to intermittent asthma, monosensitized to house dust mites, received SLIT (Der p 1 monthly dose = 48 microg) for 2 years, in addition to "as needed" pharmacologic treatment.

How can we best read exhaled nitric oxide flow curves in asthmatic children?

Orally exhaled nitric oxide (NO) levels are increased in children with asthma and thought to reflect the local inflammatory events in the airways. NO production in the lower respiratory airway is reflected in the plateau values of the NO curve, recorded while the patient is performing a slow vital capacity manoeuvre. In young patients, however, plateau values may be difficult to obtain, because the slow vital capacity manoeuvre is often terminated prematurely.