Tanzanian adolescents' attitudes toward abortion: innovating video vignettes in survey research on health topics.

Background: The purpose of this study was to pilot an innovative cartoon video vignette survey methodology to learn about young people's perspectives on abortion and sexual relationships in Tanzania. The Animating Children's Views methodology used videos shown on tablets to engage young people in conversations. Such conversations are complicated because abortion is highly stigmatized, inaccessible, and illegal in Tanzania.

Leveraging global investments for polio eradication to strengthen health systems' resilience through transition.

Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, more than US$20 billion has been invested globally in polio eradication. The World Health Organization and its partners are currently supporting Member States to transition the functions used to eradicate polio to strengthen their health systems. This study analyses global polio activities through the lens of health systems and the Common Goods for Health (CGH).

Implications of Environmental Chores for Schooling: Children's Time Fetching Water and Firewood in Tanzania.

In many developing countries, children devote substantial time to collecting firewood and fetching water. Is there a connection between such time-consuming work and children's schooling? If so, environmental degradation may have serious detrimental implications for children's education. To explore this question, this case study set in rural Tanzania uses evidence collected from children and their mothers about children's environmental chores.

Comparative effectiveness using a matching-adjusted indirect comparison between delayed-release dimethyl fumarate and fingolimod for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Objective: Delayed-release dimethyl fumarate (DMF; also known as gastro-resistant DMF) and fingolimod are approved oral disease-modifying treatments for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. In phase 3 trials, DMF (DEFINE/CONFIRM) and fingolimod (FREEDOMS/FREEDOMS II) resulted in significant reductions in clinical and magnetic resonance imaging activity, with acceptable safety profiles. Direct comparisons of these treatments are not possible due to a lack of head-to-head trials.

Impact of Domestic Violence on Children's Education in Colombia: Methodological Challenges.

We explore the methodological challenges of estimating the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) against the mother on the educational outcomes of her children. We tackle the problem of potential endogeneity and non-random selection of children into situations where they are exposed to IPV using non-parametric matching methods and parametric instrumental variable methods. Using Colombia's 2005 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), we find that IV and non-IV estimators produce qualitatively similar results at varying degrees of precision, for some educational outcomes.

Is policy well-targeted to remedy financial strain among caregivers of severely injured U.S. service members?

U.S. military service members have sustained severe injuries since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Counting Child Domestic Servants in Latin America.

This paper summarizes trends in the use of child domestic servants in six Latin American countries using IPUMS-International census samples for 1960 to 2000. Child domestics are among the most vulnerable of child workers, and the most invisible. They may be treated kindly and allowed to attend school, or they may be secluded in their employers' home, overworked, verbally abused, beaten, and unable to leave or report their difficulties to kin.

Gene expression in colorectal neoplasia: modifications induced by tissue ischaemic time and tissue handling protocol.

Aims: The heterogeneity within individual distinct cancer types in terms of behaviour, response to therapy and prognosis is well recognized. A major goal of translational research projects has therefore been to define clinically significant subgroups of individual tumour types by analysis of mRNA as well as protein expression. An essential premise of such investigations is that expression of these key molecules is a true reflection of conditions present within the neoplastic cells in vivo.

Seliciclib (CYC202, R-roscovitine) enhances the antitumor effect of doxorubicin in vivo in a breast cancer xenograft model.

We sought to determine whether seliciclib (CYC202, R-roscovitine) could increase the antitumor effects of doxorubicin, with no increase in toxicity, in an MCF7 breast cancer xenograft model. The efficacy of seliciclib combined with doxorubicin was compared with single agent doxorubicin or seliciclib administered to MCF7 cells and to nude mice bearing established MCF7 xenografts. Post-treatment cells and tumors were examined by cell cycle analysis, immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR.

Intermittent child employment and its implications for estimates of child labour.

Using longitudinal data from urban Brazil, the authors track the employment patterns of thousands of children aged 10-16 during four months of their lives in the 1980s and 1990s. The proportion of children who work at some point during a four-month period is substantially higher than the fraction observed working in any single month. The authors calculate an intermittency multiplier to summarize the difference between employment rates in one reference week vs.

Effects of Economic Shocks on Children's Employment and Schooling in Brazil.

This paper uses longitudinal employment survey data to analyze the impact of household economic shocks on the schooling and employment transitions of young people in metropolitan Brazil. The paper uses data on over 100,000 children ages 10-16 from Brazil's Monthly Employment Survey (PME) from 1982 to 1999. Taking advantage of the rotating panels in the PME, we compare households in which the male household head becomes unemployed during a four-month period with households in which the head is continuously employed.

C-MYC translocation in t(14;18) positive follicular lymphoma at presentation: An adverse prognostic indicator?

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a common subtype of low grade B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Although this form of lymphoma often pursues an indolent course, in some cases it may behave in a more aggressive manner. Clinical and histological parameters have been shown to correlate with an adverse prognosis but a number of cytogenetic abnormalities may also be associated with aggressive disease.

Systematic review of the impact of endoscopic ultrasound on the management of patients with esophageal cancer.

Objectives: Although endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) staging of esophageal cancer is established in clinical practice, high-quality evidence about its impact on patient outcomes is not available. This study aims to determine the impact of EUS for esophageal cancer staging on patient management and survival.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted using Medline, PreMedline, Embase, and The Cochrane Library.

Probe production for in situ hybridization by PCR and subsequent covalent labeling with fluorescent dyes.

A simple procedure for fluorescent labeling of probes just before in situ hybridization is provided. Aminoallyl-dUTP is introduced during probe production by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The aminoallyl-dUTP functions as a reactive site for subsequent labeling of the probe.

A dose-specific meta-analysis of lipid changes in randomized controlled trials of atorvastatin and simvastatin.

Background: The available statins exhibit differences in the potency with which they alter serum lipid levels.

Objective: Meta-analyses were conducted to assess the relative potency of atorvastatin and simvastatin (the 2 most commonly prescribed statins) across all possible dose combinations in terms of changes in total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C).

Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, National Health Service (NHS) Centre for Reviews and Dissemination database, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects were searched for randomized, head-to-head trials of atorvastatin and simvastatin in patients aged >or=18 years with elevated levels of serum TC and LDL-C.

Kikuchi's disease displaying a t(2:16) chromosomal translocation.

Kikuchi's disease is a rare self-limiting lymphoproliferative condition of unknown aetiology, characterised by acute or subacute necrotising lymphadenitis. It is a benign condition that can mimic malignant lymphoma. In this report, a case of Kikuchi's disease associated with a chromosomal abnormality is described.

A simple and rapid approach to the problem of tissue contamination and patient identity in histopathologic specimens.

Individual pathologists deal with thousands of diagnostic biopsy and excision specimens annually. At each stage, procedures are in place to limit the possibility of human error, which could result in specimen transposition or contamination. One specimen contaminating another is usually easily identified and rarely causes diagnostic difficulty; however, when it does, the consequences can be very serious.

BCL2 gene abnormalities define distinct clinical subsets of follicular lymphoma.

Aims: Follicular lymphoma (FL) arising primarily in the skin has recently been proposed as a distinct entity on the basis of a low incidence of t(14;18)(q32;q21) and bcl-2 expression, with a very high percentage of patients surviving more than 5 years. However, cases of t(14;18)(q32;q21)-positive primary cutaneous FL (PCFL) and examples of t(14;18)(q32;q21)-negative FL at nodal and other extranodal sites, are well documented. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that there is a subtype of FL lacking t(14;18)(q32;q21), which preferentially involves certain sites but is not restricted by anatomical location.

Lesions resembling Langerhans cell histiocytosis in association with other lymphoproliferative disorders: a reactive or neoplastic phenomenon?

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) has been described in association with a variety of neoplasms preceding, after, or synchronous with the other tumor. In some cases, a neoplasm may arise as a complication of therapy for LCH, and in others, the association may be coincidental. Synchronous occurrence has been reported most commonly in association with malignant lymphoma in which discrete proliferations of Langerhans cells (LCs) histologically indistinguishable from LCH are seen.

Challenges in determining how child work affects child health.

Credible findings from well-crafted research studies are essential in assessing the impact of child work on children's health. Researchers, however, encounter significant challenges in defining the relevant group of workers for a study and identifying an appropriate comparison group. This article describes some of those challenges and explains how choices about study and comparison groups can lead to biased research results.

Capacity and limits of associative memory in pigeons.

How much information can a brain store over a lifetime's experience? The answer to this important, but little researched, question was investigated by looking at the long-term visual memory capacity of 2 pigeons. Over 700 sessions, the pigeons were tested with an increasingly larger pool of pictorial stimuli in a two-alternative discrimination task (incremented in sets of 20 or 30 pictures). Each picture was randomly assigned to either a right or a left choice response, forcing the pigeons to memorize each picture and its associated response.

NT-3 expression from engineered olfactory ensheathing glia promotes spinal sparing and regeneration.

Adenoviral (AdV) vectors encoding neurotrophin-3 (AdV-NT-3) or the bacterial marker enzyme beta-galactosidase (LacZ gene) were used to transduce olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) cultures. AdV vector-transduced OEG expressed high levels of recombinant neurotrophin as shown by in situ hybridization and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. The biological activity of vector-derived NT-3 was determined in a dorsal root ganglia neurite outgrowth assay.