Local perceptions of the forms, timing and causes of behavior change in response to the AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe.

Quantitative studies indicate that HIV incidence in Zimbabwe declined since the late 1990s, due in part to behavior change. This qualitative study, involving focus group discussions with 200 women and men, two dozen key informant interviews, and historical mapping of HIV prevention programs, found that exposure to relatives and close friends dying of AIDS, leading to increased perceived HIV risk, was the principal explanation for behavior change. Growing poverty, which reduced men's ability to afford multiple partners, was also commonly cited as contributing to reductions in casual, commercial and extra-marital sex.

Moxifloxacin enhances etoposide-induced cytotoxic, apoptotic and anti-topoisomerase II effects in a human colon carcinoma cell line.

Etoposide (VP-16) is a topoisomerase-II (topo II) inhibitor chemotherapeutic agent. Studies have shown that a combination of VP-16 with other drugs demonstrates better clinical responses. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of moxifloxacin (MXF) and VP-16 on cellular topo II activity in drug-treated cells and evaluate the influence of MXF on the mode of action of VP-16, on proliferation and apoptosis of HT-29 cells.

Complications of circumcision in male neonates, infants and children: a systematic review.

Background: Approximately one in three men are circumcised globally, but there are relatively few data on the safety of the procedure. The aim of this paper is to summarize the literature on frequency of adverse events following pediatric circumcision, with a focus on developing countries.

Methods: PubMed and other databasess were searched with keywords and MeSH terms including infant/newborn/pediatric/child, circumcision, complications and adverse events.

Benefits and costs of expanding access to family planning programs to women living with HIV.

Objective: This analysis models the potential benefits and costs of adding family planning to national strategies for achieving universal access to programs to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission.

Methods: We assume a service delivery perspective and estimate the cost-effectiveness of programs to reduce the number of HIV-infected children through using antiretroviral prophylaxis to prevent perinatal transmission, and of family planning programs to avert additional infant infections not already averted by antiretroviral prophylaxis, as well as of family planning to reduce the number of total unintended births to women living with HIV. Data are presented from the 139 countries included in the 2008 Annual United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS Report, although the main results are for the 14 countries with the largest number of HIV-infected pregnant women.

Neonatal dacryocele with endonasal cyst: revisiting the management.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to present a consecutive series of neonatal dacryocele with endonasal cyst diagnosed and treated in our institution and to compare our management regimen and outcome with those reported in the literature.

Methods: The study was conducted at a university-affiliated teaching hospital. Study population included 5 infants, ages 1 day to 1 month, with either noninfected or infected neonatal dacryocele with endonasal cyst.

Moxifloxacin increases anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic activity of irinotecan in human xenograft tumors.

Camptothecins (CPTs) are topoisomerase I inhibitors chemotherapeutic agents used in combination chemotherapy. We showed previously that combination of moxifloxacin (MXF) and CPT induced inhibitory effects on topoisomerase I activity, on proliferation of HT-29 cells in vitro and enhanced apoptosis, compared to CPT alone. Analysis of secretion of the pro-angiogenic factors IL-8 and VEGF showed significant reduction by MXF.

Acceptability of infant male circumcision as part of HIV prevention and male reproductive health efforts in Gaborone, Botswana, and surrounding areas.

Adult male circumcision reduces a man's risk for heterosexual HIV acquisition. Infant circumcision is safer, easier and less costly but not widespread in southern Africa. Questionnaires were administered to sixty mothers of newborn boys in Botswana: 92% responded they would circumcise if the procedure were available in a clinical setting, primarily to prevent future HIV infection, and 85% stated the infant's father must participate in the decision.

Understanding the HIV epidemic in the Dominican Republic: a prevention success story in the Caribbean?

Objective: To analyze the general dynamics and trends of the HIV epidemic in the Dominican Republic (DR).

Methods: Thorough review of available HIV seroprevalence and sexual behavioral data from the DR.

Results: Multiple sources of data suggest that the DR's HIV epidemic has generally declined.

Increased number of offspring in first degree relatives of psychotic individuals: a partial explanation for the persistence of psychotic illnesses.

Objective: As patients with psychotic illness have fewer offspring than controls, the persistence of psychotic illness is puzzling. We hypothesized that unaffected first-degree relatives of patients have more offspring than controls.

Method: Probands were 4904, individuals with non-affective psychotic disorders identified from a hospitalization registry.

Before they were fat: adipocyte progenitors.

Adipose tissue mass can expand throughout adult life. Therefore, proliferative adipocyte precursor cells must stand at the ready to respond to increased demand for energy storage. Recent provocative studies have identified discrete immature cell populations from which brown and white adipocytes are derived.

Summary of the 1st Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference oral sessions, Venice, Italy, June 21-25, 2008: the rapporteur reports.

The Schizophrenia International Research Society held its first scientific conference in Venice, Italy, June 21 to 25th, 2008. A wide range of controversial topics were presented in overlapping and plenary oral sessions. These included new genetic studies, controversies about early detection of schizophrenia and the prodrome, treatment issues, clinical characteristics, cognition, neuropathology and neurophysiology, other etiological considerations, substance abuse co-morbidity, and animal models for investigating disease etiology and for use as targets in drug studies.

A major change of prescribing pattern in absence of adequate evidence: benzodiazepines versus newer antidepressants in anxiety disorders.

We performed a systematic review of controlled trials on anxiety disorders treatment (generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder) published from 1980 to 2006, and identified trials comparing the efficacy of benzodiazepines (BZD) with that of antidepressants, in particular comparisons between BZD and newer antidepressants. Among 969 publications, 274 double-blind randomized controlled studies remained after using our exclusion criteria. These studies comprised altogether 439 comparisons.

Concurrent sexual partnerships and the HIV epidemics in Africa: evidence to move forward.

The role of concurrent sexual partnerships is increasingly recognized as important for the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, particularly of heterosexual HIV transmission in Africa. Modeling and empirical evidence suggest that concurrent partnerships-compared to serial partnerships-can increase the size of an HIV epidemic, the speed at which it infects a population, and its persistence within a population. This selective review of the published and unpublished literature on concurrent partnerships examines various definitions and strategies for measuring concurrency, the prevalence of concurrency from both empirical and modeling studies, the biological plausibility of concurrency, and the social and cultural underpinnings of concurrency in southern Africa.

Generation, comparison, and merging of pathways between protein conformations: gating in K-channels.

We present a general framework for the generation, alignment, comparison, and hybridization of motion pathways between two known protein conformations. The framework, which is rooted in probabilistic motion-planning techniques in robotics, allows for the efficient generation of collision-free motion pathways, while considering a wide range of degrees of freedom involved in the motion. Within the framework, we provide the means to hybridize pathways, thus producing, the motion pathway of the lowest energy barrier out of the many pathways proposed by our algorithm.

Oxidative stress causes telomere damage in Fanconi anaemia cells - a possible predisposition for malignant transformation.

Fanconi anaemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive and X-linked disease characterized by severe genetic instability and increased incidence of cancer. One explanation for this instability may be the cellular hypersensitivity to oxidative stress leading to chromosomal breaks. This study explored the possible oxidative damage to telomeres of FA lymphocyte cell line, HSC536/N, and its possible effect on telomere function.