Health Fatalism Does Not Predict Body Mass Index but Is Associated with Diet Quality in Healthy Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: Obesity as assessed by body mass index (BMI) is associated with increased risk of chronic disease. Health fatalism, defined as the belief that health outcomes are outside of one's control, is also associated with chronic disease risk. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to understand the relationship between health fatalism and BMI in healthy adults.

A convergent validity study: Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences (LiSN-S) test and the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT).

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to compare Listening in Spatialized Noise - Sentence (LiSN-S) test and the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) thresholds in order to determine if the two tests measure the same construct (convergent validity). The secondary purpose was to determine performance differences between the two test protocols. The third purpose was to determine the relationships between quiet measures (pure-tone average [PTA] and HINT Quiet thresholds) speech-in-noise performances.

The relationship between speech recognition in noise and non-speech recognition in noise test performances: Implications for central auditory processing disorders testing.

Background: According to the American Academy of Audiology, a recommendation for frequency-modulation systems may be based upon performances on speech perception tests that do not include background noise.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the presumption that non-speech recognition in noise test results are related to speech recognition in noise ability for a group of young adults.

Research Design: Performances on the non-speech recognition in noise tests included in the SCAN-3:A test battery were compared to speech recognition in noise performances as measured with the auditory figure ground subtest of the SCAN-3:A and the Hearing in Noise Test.

Viral Loads Among HIV-Infected Persons Diagnosed With Primary and Secondary Syphilis in 4 US Cities: New York City, Philadelphia, PA, Washington, DC, and Phoenix, AZ.

Background: Incident syphilis among HIV-infected persons indicates the ongoing behavioral risk for HIV transmission. Detectable viral loads (VLs) among coinfected cases may amplify this risk.

Methods: Primary and secondary cases reported during 2009-2010 from 4 US sites were crossmatched with local HIV surveillance registries to identify syphilis case-persons infected with HIV before or shortly after the syphilis diagnosis.

Viral loads among young HIV-infected men with early syphilis.

High rates of HIV coinfection among men with syphilis suggest HIV transmission opportunities due to biologic and behavioral risk synergy. We abstracted HIV viral loads for HIV-infected males aged 24 years or younger with a diagnosis of early syphilis (ES) in Maricopa County, Arizona, in order to evaluate HIV infectivity. During 2009 to 2012, there were 56 HIV-infected, ES cases meeting the age criteria, of whom 32 (57%) had a detectable viral load performed within 1 year of syphilis diagnosis (median 21 000 copies/mL, range 130-302 844 copies/mL).

Trends in reported syphilis and gonorrhea among HIV-infected people in Arizona: implications for prevention and control.

Objective: HIV and sexually transmitted disease (STD) surveillance patterns in Arizona suggested the need for integrated data analyses to identify trends.

Methods: We compiled all HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed from 1998 to 2008 that were reported in Arizona and syphilis or gonorrhea cases diagnosed from 1998 to 2008 in Arizona. We used deterministic matching to identify individuals who were diagnosed with HIV and one or more STDs, and calculated time intervals between diagnoses.

Gonorrhea infections diagnosed among persons living with HIV/AIDS: identifying opportunities for integrated prevention services in New York City, Washington, DC, Miami/Dade County, and Arizona.

: Persons living with HIV/AIDS who acquire new sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) pose a risk for enhanced transmission of both HIV and STDs. To describe the frequency of HIV coinfection among gonorrhea cases (GC), HIV and GC surveillance databases (2000-2008) were cross-matched in New York City (NYC), Washington, DC (DC), Miami/Dade County (MDC), and Arizona (AZ). During 2000-2008, 4.

Replicative senescence in sheep fibroblasts is a p53 dependent process.

Studies on telomere and telomerase biology are fundamental to the understanding of human ageing, and age-related diseases such as cancer. However, human studies are hampered by the lack of fully reflective animal model systems. Here we describe basic studies of telomere length and telomerase activity in sheep tissues and cells.

Mutant ras-induced proliferation of human thyroid epithelial cells requires three effector pathways.

Ras mutations occur as an early event in many human tumours of epithelial origin, including thyroid. Using primary human thyroid epithelial cells to model tumour initiation by Ras, we have shown previously that activation of both the MAP kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) effector pathways are necessary, but even when activated together are not sufficient, for Ras-induced proliferation. Here, we show that a third effector, RalGEF, is also activated by Ras in these cells, that this activation is necessary for Ras-induced proliferation, and furthermore that in combination with the MAPK and PI3K effectors, it is able to reproduce the proliferative effect of activated Ras.

Opposing effects of mutant ras oncoprotein on human fibroblast and epithelial cell proliferation: implications for models of human tumorigenesis.

Using microinjection of recombinant protein to directly control 'expression' levels, we have compared the proliferative response to ras oncogene activation in two normal cell types--fibroblast and thyroid epithelial cell--which give rise to human tumours with very low and high frequencies of ras mutation respectively. A concentration-dependent stimulation of DNA synthesis was observed in thyrocytes, matched by an almost perfectly reciprocal inhibition in fibroblasts. A concentration-dependent induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p21WAF1 was observed in both cell types, but p16Ink4a was induced by ras only in fibroblasts.

An analysis of replicative senescence in dermal fibroblasts derived from chronic leg wounds predicts that telomerase therapy would fail to reverse their disease-specific cellular and proteolytic phenotype.

The accumulation of senescent fibroblasts within tissues has been suggested to play an important role in mediating impaired dermal wound healing, which is a major clinical problem in the aged population. The concept that replicative senescence in wound fibroblasts results in reduced proliferation and the failure of refractory wounds to respond to treatment has therefore been proposed. However, in the chronic wounds of aged patients the precise relationship between the observed alteration in cellular responses with aging and replicative senescence remains to be determined.