Cutting to the chase: Participation factors, behavioral effects, and cultural perspectives of participants in an adult circumcision campaign.

Following the adoption of key national policy, several campaigns aimed at increasing the number of adult males receiving circumcisions have been implemented across South Africa. Evidence as to the likely effectiveness of such interventions comes predominantly from three large randomized-controlled trials. However, little has been written about how these campaigns are perceived by the participants.

Promising development from translational or perhaps anti-translational research in breast cancer.

Background: A great deal of the public's money has been spent on cancer research but demonstrable benefits to patients have not been proportionate. We are a group of scientists and physicians who several decades ago were confronted with bimodal relapse patterns among early stage breast cancer patients who were treated by mastectomy. Since the bimodal pattern was not explainable with the then well-accepted continuous growth model, we proposed that metastatic disease was mostly inactive before surgery but was driven into growth somehow by surgery.

Induction and regulation of T-cell immunity by the novel tuberculosis vaccine M72/AS01 in South African adults.

Rationale: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, thus there is an urgent need for novel TB vaccines.

Objectives: We investigated a novel TB vaccine candidate, M72/AS01, in a phase IIa trial of bacille Calmette-Guérin-vaccinated, HIV-uninfected, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-infected and -uninfected adults in South Africa.

Methods: Two doses of M72/AS01 were administered to healthy adults, with and without latent Mtb infection.

Longitudinal changes in CD4(+) T-cell memory responses induced by BCG vaccination of newborns.

Background: Improved vaccination strategies against tuberculosis are needed, such as approaches to boost immunity induced by the current vaccine, BCG. Design of these strategies has been hampered by a lack of knowledge of the kinetics of the human host response induced by neonatal BCG vaccination. Furthermore, the functional and phenotypic attributes of BCG-induced long-lived memory T-cell responses remain unclear.

Should the "in situ" simulation become the new way in Belgium? Experience of an academic hospital.

The place of simulation in medical education, particularly in anesthesia, appears to be more and more evident. However, the history of simulation in Belgium showed that the associated costs remain a barrier. The use of 'in situ' simulation, defined as the practice of simulation in the usual workplace, could solve the problem of providing access to this educational tool.

[Postoperative pain trajectories to identify risk of chronic postsurgical pain in living donors for liver transplantation].

Objectives: To assess pain trajectories in predicting risk of chronic postoperative pain (CPP) after liver resection for living donor transplantation.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of patients undergoing liver resection for living donor transplantation during 3years.

Patients And Methods: After recording perioperative data, patients presenting CPP at 3months were separated from patients without postsurgical pain problem in order to build a pain trajectory for liver donor patients without CPP.

The concept of titration can be transposed to fluid management. but does is change the volumes? randomised trial on pleth variability index during fast-track colonic surgery.

Background: The concept of drug titration emerged recently for intraoperative fluid administration during Fast-Track colonic surgery to avoid hypovolemia as well as excessive crystalloid administration. The Pleth Variability Index (PVI) is an oximeter-derived parameter. It allows a continuous monitoring of the respiratory variation of the perfusion index.

The effect of clonidine, an alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonist, on inflammatory response and postischemic endothelium function during early reperfusion in healthy volunteers.

Ischemia-reperfusion disturbs endothelial physiology and generates a proinflammatory state. Animal studies showed that clonidine administered prior hypoxia improves posthypoxic endothelial function. To investigate this effect in human, we have assessed the postischemic endothelium function and the proinflammatory state in healthy volunteers with and without clonidine.

Chronic postsurgical pain.

Purpose Of Review: Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) is the consequence of acute postoperative pain. Unfortunately, despite many attempts of improvement, the treatment of acute postoperative pain remains unsatisfactory. In the present review, the probable reasons for this will be reviewed.

The Patient's View of Nursing Care after Hip Fracture.

Background. The pathway for patients with a hip fracture described in this study is a fast track. Many studies have focused on prevention of various complications but, so far, the patient's view of nursing care has not been highlighted.

In vivo optical spectroscopy monitoring in a new model of muscular compartment syndrome.

Background: Muscular compartment syndrome (MCS) is a rare but serious postoperative complication. In vivo optical spectroscopy (INVOS) monitors continuously and non-invasively regional oxygen saturation (rSO(2)), and could predict the development of MCS.

Methods: In 10 healthy volunteers, we inflated a tourniquet to the mean arterial pressure to produce slight venous congestion and arterial hypoperfusion.

Ageing influences the effect of pre-hypoxic administration of clonidine, an alpha₂-adrenoceptor agonist, on post-hypoxic vasomotricity.

In a previous study, we showed that clonidine, an α₂-adrenoceptor agonist, administered prior to hypoxia improves post-hypoxic contractility (PC) and endothelium-dependent dilatation (PED) in isolated young rat aortas. These effects were not investigated in old rats. Ageing influences vascular physiology and modifies the response to vasoactive drugs.

Molecular characterization and second-line antituberculosis drug resistance patterns of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from the northern region of South Africa.

Despite South Africa being one of the high-burden multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) countries, information regarding the population structure of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains is limited from many regions of South Africa. This study investigated the population structure and transmission patterns of drug-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates in a high-burden setting of South Africa as well as the possible association of genotypes with drug resistance and demographic characteristics.

Viscosalines B(1,2) and E(1,2): challenging new 3-alkyl pyridinium alkaloids from the marine sponge Haliclona viscosa.

Four new 3-alkyl pyridinium alkaloids, the viscosalines B(1) (1 a), B(2) (1 b), E(1) (2 a), and E(2) (2 b), were isolated from the Arctic sponge Haliclona viscosa. The structure elucidation of these isomeric compounds was challenging due to ambiguous fragments that derive during "standard" mass spectrometric fragmentation experiments. The final structure elucidation relied on the use of a combination of synthesis, liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry.

Configurational analysis of tetracyclic dimeric pyrrole-imidazole alkaloids using a floating chirality approach.

The structure elucidation of the palau'amine congener tetrabromostyloguanidine (1), which used interproton distances from ROESY spectra as restraints in a computational approach, the so-called fc-rDG/DDD method, led to a revision of the relative configuration of palau'amine (2) and its congeners in 2007. The recent total synthesis of (±)-palau'amine (2) subsequently confirmed the computed structural revision of the relative configuration. In order to test a broader application range of the fc-rDG/DDD method, the present study investigated two additional dimeric pyrrole-imidazole alkaloids, axinellamine A (3) and 3,7-epi-massadine chloride (4).

A phase IIa trial of the new tuberculosis vaccine, MVA85A, in HIV- and/or Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected adults.

Rationale: Novel tuberculosis (TB) vaccines should be safe and effective in populations infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) and/or HIV for effective TB control.

Objective: To determine the safety and immunogenicity of MVA85A, a novel TB vaccine, among M.

Evaluation of the GenoType® MTBDRsl assay for susceptibility testing of second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Background: The GenoType® MTBDRsl assay is a new rapid assay for the detection of resistance to second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Objective: To evaluate the MTBDRsl assay on 342 multidrug-resistant tuberculosis isolates for resistance to ofloxacin (OFX), kanamycin (KM), capreomycin (CPM) and ethambutol (EMB), to compare the results to the agar proportion method, and to test discrepant results using DNA sequencing.

Result: The sensitivity and specificity of the MTBDRsl assay were respectively 70.

Effect of raw humus under two adult Scots pine stands on ectomycorrhization, nutritional status, nitrogen uptake, phosphorus uptake and growth of Pinus sylvestris seedlings.

Ectomycorrhiza (EM) formation improves tree growth and nutrient acquisition, particularly that of nitrogen (N). Few studies have coupled the effects of naturally occurring EM morphotypes to the nutrition of host trees. To investigate this, pine seedlings were grown on raw humus substrates collected at two forest sites, R2 and R3.

Randomized trial of type 1 and type 3 oral monovalent poliovirus vaccines in newborns in Africa.

Background: The Global Polio Eradication Initiative aims to eradicate wild poliovirus by the end of 2012. Therefore, more-immunogenic polio vaccines, including monovalent oral poliovirus vaccines (mOPVs), are needed for supplemental immunization activities. This trial assessed the immunogenicity of monovalent types 1 and 3, compared with that of trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (tOPV), in South Africa.

Optimization of a whole blood intracellular cytokine assay for measuring innate cell responses to mycobacteria.

Innate cells are essential for host defense against invading pathogens, and the induction and direction of adaptive immune responses to infection. We developed and optimized a flow cytometric assay that allows measurement of intracellular cytokine expression by monocytes, dendritic cells (DC) and granulocytes, as well as cellular uptake of green-fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing mycobacteria, in very small volumes of peripheral blood. We show that innate cell stimulation resulted in increased granularity of monocytes and mDC and decreased granulocyte granularity that precluded flow cytometric discernment of granulocytes from monocytes and myeloid DC by forward and side scatter gating.

Arabidopsis thaliana PECP1: enzymatic characterization and structural organization of the first plant phosphoethanolamine/phosphocholine phosphatase.

Maintenance of cellular phosphate homeostasis is crucial for primary and energy metabolism. In plants, low exogenous phosphate availability activates adaptive responses that include the immediate liberation of Pi from phosphorylated metabolites by yet uncharacterized intracellular phosphatases. Based on transcriptional analyses, the Arabidopsis thaliana gene At1g17710, a member of the HAD (Haloacid Dehalogenase) superfamily, was one of the most promising candidates.