'If she is a good woman …' and 'to be a real man …': gender, risk and access to HIV services among key populations in Tajikistan.

The HIV epidemic continues to grow in Tajikistan, especially among people who inject drugs, sex workers, men who have sex with men and incarcerated populations. Despite their susceptibility to HIV, members of these groups do not always have access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment. The purpose of this study was to identify and understand the gender constraints in accessing HIV services for key populations in Tajikistan.

XRF-measured bone lead (Pb) as a biomarker for Pb exposure and toxicity among children diagnosed with Pb poisoning.

Childhood lead (Pb) poisoning remains a global issue, especially in industrial areas. In this study, 115 children with average age 5.7 years were recruited as either patient diagnosed with Pb poisoning or controls at Xinhua Hospital in China.

Asian flus in ethnographic and political context: A biosocial approach.

This collection highlights some of the social, cultural, political and economic factors that must be considered in developing a biosocial approach to pandemic influenza control and prevention. To date, most discussions of the current spread of avian influenza and a predicted human influenza pandemic have lacked rigorous analysis of the local contexts in which flus arise and in which the effects of a pandemic would most strongly be felt. Such local engagement is necessary to the development of an effective and ethical programme of epidemic control.

Laboratory and Field Evaluation of Measurement Methods for One-Hour Exposures to O, PM, and CO.

While researchers have linked acute (less than 12-hr) ambient O, PM, and CO concentrations to a variety of adverse health effects, few studies have characterized short-term exposures to these air pollutants, in part due to the lack of sensitive, accurate, and precise sampling technologies. In this paper, we present results from the laboratory and field evaluation of several new (or modified) samplers used in the "roll-around" system (RAS), which was developed to measure 1-hr O, PM, and CO exposures simultaneously. All the field evaluation data were collected during two sampling seasons: the summer of 1998 and the winter of 1999.

Characterization of the Southwestern Desert Aerosol, Meadview, AZ.

Sulfate, organic carbon, and soil dust were the major components of the fine aerosol at Meadview, AZ, during the summer of 1992. Sulfate mass median diameters (typically 0.15-0.