Rapid Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation for Women in an HIV-1 Prevention Clinical Trial Experiencing Primary HIV-1 Infection during Pregnancy or Breastfeeding

During an HIV-1 prevention clinical trial in East Africa, we observed 16 cases of primary HIV-1 infection in women coincident with pregnancy or breastfeeding. Nine of eleven pregnant women initiated rapid combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), despite having CD4 counts exceeding national criteria for ART initiation; breastfeeding women initiated ART or replacement feeding. Rapid ART initiation during primary HIV-1 infection during pregnancy and breastfeeding is feasible in this setting.     

Dominance,Coloration, and Social and Sexual Behavior in Male Drills <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mandrillus leucophaeus</Emphasis>

Sexual selection has driven the evolution and elaboration of a wide variety of displays and ornaments in male nonhuman primates, including capes, cheek flanges, and sexual coloration. Among the most sexually dimorphic of all primates is the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus), the males of which can be 3 times the mass of females, possess large canines, and exhibit extremely bright sexual skin coloration. However, the function of male coloration in this species has never been examined. Here, we present data on male color (measured objectively using digital photography), dominance rank, measures of male-female association, and key sexual behaviors, of adult male drills (n = 17) living in four semi free-ranging enclosures at the Drill Rehabilitation and Breeding Center in Nigeria. We test the hypothesis that male coloration is a badge of status, indicating dominance rank, and the hypothesis that male coloration attracts females. We found that male coloration did indicate rank, and that high ranking, strongly colored males were more likely to associate with adult females, and more specifically with fully tumescent females. These males also engaged in more sexual activity. However, measures of male-female association and sexual behaviors were not related to male color once rank had been taken into consideration; i.e., for males of a given rank, females did not prefer those that were more colorful. We discuss the results in light of what is known about the wild drill social system, in which unfamiliar individuals may come together in “supergroups,” and in which quality indicators of competitive ability may be particularly important.     

The red-crab bloom off the west coast of Baja California, Mexico

Hydroacoustic data indicate that the benthic red crab Pleuroncodesplanipes(Stimpson, 1860) rises from the bottom towards the surfaceat dusk from very compacted patches settled on the continentalshelf. The behaviour is fast and abrupt, lasting >60 min.     

Prostaglandin E2 inhibits the activation of cloned T cell hybridomas

To minimize complicating interactions inherent in heterogeneous cell populations, we used a panel of cloned murine autoreactive (E8.A1) and antigen-specific (HEL.C10, HEL.B14) T cell hybridomas to examine the effect of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) on T cell activation. These T cells secrete interleukin 2 (IL 2) when co-cultured with a cloned population of I region-matched stimulator cells (TA3), or with mitogenic signals in the absence of TA3 stimulator cells. Physiologic concentrations of PGE2 inhibited the induction of IL 2 secretion by the T cell hybridomas tested, when they were activated either by TA3 cells or by mitogenic signals. IL 2 production was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by concentrations of PGE2 between 10(-7) and 10(-11) M, with 50% inhibition occurring at 10(-10) M. Pretreatment of the T hybridoma cells with 10(-7) M PGE2 for 1 hr before culture also resulted in marked inhibition of IL 2 secretion. Similar pretreatment of the TA3 cells did not affect their ability to activate the T cell hybridomas. PGE2 at 10(-8) M induced a 30-fold increase in cAMP levels within 25 min of addition to culture of the E8.A1 T cell hybridoma, but caused no significant elevation of cAMP levels in TA3 cells. The direct addition of dibutyryl cAMP (dcAMP) to cultures of E8.A1 cells resulted in marked inhibition of IL 2 secretion when stimulated by TA3 or by mitogenic signals, with an average of 80% inhibition occurring at 10(-4) M dcAMP. PGE2 and dcAMP also inhibited the growth of E8.A1 cells. Initially, cell growth was virtually halted, but began to recover between 24 and 48 hr after the addition of either PGE2 or dcAMP. Neither PGE2 nor dcAMP inhibited the division of TA3 cells. High affinity binding sites for PGE2 were detected in the E8.A1 T cell hybridomas with an apparent Kd of 7.6 X 10(-10) M, which is consistent with the functional data. No specific binding was detected in the TA3 stimulator cells. These findings suggest that the immunosuppressive effects of PGE2 are localized to the T cell, are receptor regulated, and may be mediated by the associated increase of cAMP levels in the T cell hybridomas.     

Cartography and Clandestinité in Leïla Sebbar’s Shérazade: 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts

In this paper, I read Leïla Sebbar’s staging in her novel Shérazade: 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts of the resistance by children of North African and other immigrants in the early 1980s to the French state’s cartographic modes and documents of control. The paper will consider the many uses to which the map was put by the French state in its colonization of North Africa and particularly Algeria, and later in its attempts to control the banlieues its policies of citizenship and cartographic control yielded on the margins of Paris. In this context, I will explore the ways in which the novel’s characters, living clandestinely in a squatt, simultaneously resist, put to use, and even supercede state documents of control as they disrupt everyday life and conduct heists across the city of Paris. The paper will explore unofficial cartographies of Paris, from those afforded by the radios libres and alternative publications such as Libération and Sans Frontièrez, to oral and almost proverbial networks of knowledge criss-crossing the city of Paris, while also tracing the uses to which supplemental cartographic sketches and counterfeit identity cards are put in the pages of the novel. The paper will be in dialogue with theoretical and critical formulations of space, cartography, and state control put forward by Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, and Tom Conley. The paper will conclude with a consideration of the means and limits of resistance by the novel’s characters in the context of this body of theory and criticism.     

Effects of okadaic acid on insulin-sensitive cAMP phosphodiesterase in rat adipocytes. Evidence that insulin may stimulate the enzyme by phosphorylation.

Okadaic acid, a potent inhibitor of Type 1 and Type 2A protein phosphatases, was used to investigate the mechanism of insulin action on membrane-bound low Km cAMP phosphodiesterase in rat adipocytes. Upon incubation of cells with 1 microM okadaic acid for 20 min, phosphodiesterase was stimulated 3.7- to 3.9-fold. This stimulation was larger than that elicited by insulin (2.5- to 3.0-fold). Although okadaic acid enhanced the effect of insulin, the maximum effects of the two agents were not additive. When cells were pretreated with 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H-7), the level of phosphodiesterase stimulation by okadaic acid was rendered smaller, similar to that attained by insulin. In cells that had been treated with 2 mM KCN, okadaic acid (like insulin) failed to stimulate phosphodiesterase, suggesting that ATP was essential. Also, as reported previously, the effect of insulin on phosphodiesterase was reversed upon exposure of hormone-treated cells to KCN. This deactivation of previously-stimulated phosphodiesterase was blocked by okadaic acid, but not by insulin. The above KCN experiments were carried out with cells in which A-kinase activity was minimized by pretreatment with H-7. Okadaic acid mildly stimulated basal glucose transport and, at the same time, strongly inhibited the action of insulin thereon. It is suggested that insulin may stimulate phosphodiesterase by promoting its phosphorylation and that the hormonal effect may be reversed by a protein phosphatase which is sensitive to okadaic acid. The hypothetical protein kinase thought to be involved in the insulin-dependent stimulation of phosphodiesterase appears to be more H-7-resistant than A-kinase.