The epidemiology of sleep disorders in Israel: results from a population-wide study.

Background: Studies on the prevalence of sleep disorders have found great variability due to different data collection methods and case definitions. We aimed at assessing the prevalence of sleep disorders in a large, unselected population using validated clinical patient records. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large clinically based study on sleep disorders.

Automatic recognition of the XLHED phenotype from facial images.

X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED) is a genetic disorder that affects ectodermal structures and presents with a characteristic facial appearance. The ability of automated facial recognition technology to detect the phenotype from images was assessed . In Phase 1 of this study we examined if the age of male patients affected the technology's recognition.

Immunomodulatory factors in cervicovaginal secretions from pregnant and non-pregnant women: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Pregnant women are at an increased risk for HIV infection due to unknown biological causes. Given the strong effect of sex-hormones on the expression of immunomuodulatory factors, the central role of mucosal immunity in HIV pathogenesis and the lack of previous studies, we here tested for differences in immunomuodulatory factors in cervico-vaginal secretions between pregnant and non-pregnant women.

Methods: We compared concentrations of 39 immunomodulatory factors in cervicovaginal lavages (CVL) from 21 pregnant women to those of 24 non-pregnant healthy women from the US.