Efficacy of HIV/STI behavioral interventions for heterosexual African American men in the United States: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis estimates the overall efficacy of HIV prevention interventions to reduce HIV sexual risk behaviors and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among heterosexual African American men. A comprehensive search of the literature published during 1988–2008 yielded 44 relevant studies. Interventions significantly reduced HIV sexual risk behaviors and STIs. The stratified analysis for HIV sexual risk behaviors indicated that interventions were efficacious for studies specifically targeting African American men and men with incarceration history. In addition, interventions that had provision/referral of medical services, male facilitators, shorter follow-up periods, or emphasized the importance of protecting family and significant others were associated with reductions in HIV sexual risk behaviors. Meta-regression analyses indicated that the most robust intervention component is the provision/referral of medical services. Findings indicate that HIV interventions for heterosexual African American men might be more efficacious if they incorporated a range of health care services rather than HIV/STI-related services alone

Internal displacement and the Syrian crisis: an analysis of trends from 2011–2014

BACKGROUND: Since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, civil unrest and armed conflict in the country have resulted in a rapidly increasing number of people displaced both within and outside of Syria. Those displaced face immense challenges in meeting their basic needs. This study sought to characterize internal displacement in Syria, including trends in both time and place, and to provide insights on the association between displacement and selected measures of household well-being and humanitarian needs. METHODS: This study presents findings from two complementary methods: a desk review of displaced population estimates and movements and a needs assessment of 3930 Syrian households affected by the crisis. The first method, a desk review of displaced population estimates and movements, provides a retrospective analysis of national trends in displacement from March 2011 through June 2014. The second method, analysis of findings from a 2014 needs assessment by displacement status, provides insight into the displaced population and the association between displacement and humanitarian needs. RESULTS: Findings indicate that while displacement often corresponds to conflict levels, such trends were not uniformly observed in governorate-level analysis. Governorate level IDP estimates do not provide information on a scale detailed enough to adequately plan humanitarian assistance. Furthermore, such estimates are often influenced by obstructed access to certain areas, unsubstantiated reports, and substantial discrepancies in reporting. Secondary displacement is not consistently reported across sources nor are additional details about displacement, including whether displaced individuals originated within the current governorate or outside of the governorate. More than half (56.4 %) of households reported being displaced more than once, with a majority displaced for more than one year (73.3 %). Some differences between displaced and non-displaced population were observed in residence crowding, food consumption, health access, and education. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in reported living conditions and key health, nutrition, and education indicators between displaced and non-displaced populations indicate a need to better understand migration trends in order to inform planning and provision of live saving humanitarian assistance

Chicken and duck myotubes are highly susceptible and permissive to influenza virus infection

Skeletal muscle, at 30 to 40% of body mass, is the most abundant soft tissue in the body. Besides its primary function in movement and posture, skeletal muscle is a significant innate immune organ with the capacity to produce cytokines and chemokines and respond to proinflammatory cytokines. Little is known about the role of skeletal muscle during systemic influenza A virus infection in any host and particularly avian species. Here we used primary chicken and duck multinucleated myotubes to examine their susceptibility and innate immune response to influenza virus infections. Both chicken and duck myotubes expressed avian and human sialic acid receptors and were readily susceptible to low-pathogenicity (H2N3 A/mallard duck/England/7277/06) and high-pathogenicity (H5N1 A/turkey/England/50-92/91 and H5N1 A/turkey/Turkey/1/05) avian and human H1N1 (A/USSR/77) influenza viruses. Both avian host species produced comparable levels of progeny H5N1 A/turkey/Turkey/1/05 virus.Notably, the rapid accumulation of viral nucleoprotein and matrix (M) gene RNA in chicken and duck myotubes was accompanied by extensive cytopathic damage with marked myotube apoptosis (widespread microscopic blebs, caspase 3/7 activation, and annexin V binding at the plasma membrane). Infected chicken myotubes produced significantly higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines than did the corresponding duck cells. Additionally, in chicken myotubes infected with H5N1 viruses, the induction of interferon beta (IFN-beta) and IFN-inducible genes, including the melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA-5) gene, was relatively weak compared to infection with the corresponding H2N3 virus. Our findings highlight that avian skeletal muscle fibers are capable of productive influenza virus replication and are a potential tissue source of infection

Tricarbonyl M(I) (M = Re, 99mTc) complexes bearing acridine fluorophores : synthesis, characterization, DNA interaction studies and nuclear targeting

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2010New pyrazolyl-diamine ligands with acridine derivatives at the 4-position of the pyrazolyl ring were synthesized and characterized (L1 and L2). Coordination towards the fac-[M(CO)3]+ (M = Re, 99mTc) led to complexes fac-[M(CO)3(κ3-L)] (L = L1: M = Re1, Tc1; L = L2: M = Re2, Tc2). The interaction of the novel pyrazolyl-diamine ligands (L1 and L2) and rhenium(I) complexes (Re1 and Re2) with calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) was investigated by a variety of techniques, namely UV-visible , fluorescence spectroscopy and circular and linear dichroism . Compounds L1 and Re1 have moderate affinity to CT-DNA and bind to DNA by intercalation, while L2 and Re2 have a poor affinity for CT-DNA. Moreover, LD measurements showed that L1 and Re1 act as perfect intercalators . By confocal fluorescence microscopy we found that L1 and Re1 internalize and localize in the nucleus of B16F1 murine melanoma cells . The congener Tc1 complex also targets the cell nucleus exhibiting a time-dependent cellular uptake and a fast and high nuclear internalization (67.2% of activity after 30 min). Plasmid DNA studies have shown that Tc1 converts supercoiled (sc) puc19 DNA to the open circular (oc) form.Teresa Esteves and Sofia Gama thank the FCT for a doctoral and postdoctoral research grants (SFRH/BD/29154/2006 and SFRH/BPD/29564/2006, respectively). COST Action D39 is also acknowledge. The QITMS instrument was acquired with the support of the Programa Nacional de Reequipamento Científico (Contract>REDE/1503/REM/2005-ITN) of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and is part of RNEM - Rede Nacional de Espectrometria de Massa

Fatigue Intervention by Nurses Evaluation - The FINE Trial. A randomised controlled trial of nurse led self-help treatment for patients in primary care with chronic fatigue syndrome: study protocol. [ISRCTN74156610]

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (CFS/ME), is a condition characterised primarily by severe, disabling fatigue, of unknown origin, which has a poor prognosis and serious personal and economic consequences. Evidence for the effectiveness of any treatment for CFS/ME in primary care, where most patients are seen, is sparse. Recently, a brief, pragmatic treatment for CFS/ME, based on a physiological dysregulation model of the condition, was shown to be successful in improving fatigue and physical functioning in patients in secondary care. The treatment involves providing patients with a readily understandable explanation of their symptoms, from which flows the rationale for a graded rehabilitative plan, developed collaboratively with the therapist. The present trial will test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of pragmatic rehabilitation when delivered by specially trained general nurses in primary care. We selected a client-centred counselling intervention, called supportive listening, as a comparison treatment. Counselling has been shown to be as effective as cognitive behaviour therapy for treating fatigue in primary care, is more readily available, and controls for supportive therapist contact time. Our control condition is treatment as usual by the general practitioner (GP). Methods and design: This study protocol describes the design of an ongoing, single-blind, pragmatic randomized controlled trial of a brief (18 week) self-help treatment, pragmatic rehabilitation, delivered by specially trained nurse-therapists in patients' homes, compared with nurse-therapist delivered supportive listening and treatment as usual by the GP. An economic evaluation, taking a societal viewpoint, is being carried out alongside the clinical trial. Three adult general nurses were trained over a six month period to deliver the two interventions. Patients aged over 18 and fulfilling the Oxford criteria for CFS are assessed at baseline, after the intervention, and again one year later. Primary outcomes are self-reported physical functioning and fatigue at one year, and will be analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. A qualitative study will examine the interventions' mechanisms of change, and also GPs' drivers and barriers towards referral

The utilisation of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment

The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions. The utilisation of health research in policy-making should contribute to policies that may eventually lead to desired outcomes, including health gains. In this article, exploration of these issues is combined with a review of various forms of policy-making. When this is linked to analysis of different types of health research, it assists in building a comprehensive account of the diverse meanings of research utilisation. Previous studies report methods and conceptual frameworks that have been applied, if with varying degrees of success, to record utilisation in policy-making. These studies reveal various examples of research impact within a general picture of underutilisation. Factors potentially enhancing utilisation can be identified by exploration of: priority setting; activities of the health research system at the interface between research and policy-making; and the role of the recipients, or 'receptors', of health research. An interfaces and receptors model provides a framework for analysis. Recommendations about possible methods for assessing health research utilisation follow identification of the purposes of such assessments. Our conclusion is that research utilisation can be better understood, and enhanced, by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies

1967: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

LIFTING UP THE CHRIST” Being the Abilene Christian College Annual Bible Lectures 1967 $3.95 Published by ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE STUDENTS EXCHANGE ACC Station Abilene, Texa

Knowledge Transfer and Accomodation Effects in Multinational Corporations: Evidence from European Subsidiaries

Foreign subsidiaries in multinational corporations (MNCs) possess knowledge that has different sources (e.g., the firm itself or various sources in the environment). How such sources influence knowledge transfer is not well understood. Drawing on the “accommodation effect” from cognitive psychology, the authors argue that accumulation of externally sourced knowledge in a subsidiary may reduce the value of transferring that subsidiary’s knowledge to other parts of the MNC. The authors develop a parsimonious model of intrafirm knowledge transfer and test its predictions against a unique data set on subsidiary knowledge development that includes the sources of subsidiary knowledge and the extent of knowledge transfer to other MNC units. The authors show that a high level of externally sourced knowledge in a subsidiary is associated with a high level of knowledge transfer from that subsidiary only if a certain tipping point of internally sourced knowledge has been surpassed. This suggests that subsidiary knowledge stocks that are balanced in terms of their origins tend to be more valuable, congruous, and fungible, and therefore more likely to be transferred to other MNC units

Delivering Sustainable Infrastructure that Supports the Urban Built Environment

Over 50% of the global population now lives in urban areas. Over the past century, urban areas have expanded at a greater rate than population growth, increasing requirements for resources and producing greater impacts on the natural environment. Urban societies have also changed, with a greater diversity of cultures, high population densities, and rising demand for services, resulting in an increasing complexity of human urban systems. Urban systems influence and are influenced by infrastructure systems, which affect the design and management of the built, social, and natural environments, including future infrastructure decisions