‘We Keep It Secret So No One Should Know’ – A Qualitative Study to Explore Young Schoolgirls Attitudes and Experiences with Menstruation in Rural Western Kenya

Background

Keeping girls in school offers them protection against early marriage, teen pregnancy, and sexual harms, and enhances social and economic equity. Studies report menstruation exacerbates school-drop out and poor attendance, although evidence is sparse. This study qualitatively examines the menstrual experiences of young adolescent schoolgirls.

Methods and Findings

The study was conducted in Siaya County in rural western Kenya. A sample of 120 girls aged 14–16 years took part in 11 focus group discussions, which were analysed thematically. The data gathered were supplemented by information from six FGDs with parents and community members. Emergent themes were: lack of preparation for menarche; maturation and sexual vulnerability; menstruation as an illness; secrecy, fear and shame of leaking; coping with inadequate alternatives; paying for pads with sex; and problems with menstrual hygiene. Girls were unprepared and demonstrated poor reproductive knowledge, but devised practical methods to cope with menstrual difficulties, often alone. Parental and school support of menstrual needs is limited, and information sparse or inaccurate. Girls’ physical changes prompt boys and adults to target and brand girls as ripe for sexual activity including coercion and marriage. Girls admitted ‘others’ rather than themselves were absent from school during menstruation, due to physical symptoms or inadequate sanitary protection. They described difficulties engaging in class, due to fear of smelling and leakage, and subsequent teasing. Sanitary pads were valued but resource and time constraints result in prolonged use causing chafing. Improvised alternatives, including rags and grass, were prone to leak, caused soreness, and were perceived as harmful. Girls reported ‘other girls’ but not themselves participated in transactional sex to buy pads, and received pads from boyfriends.

Conclusions

In the absence of parental and school support, girls cope, sometimes alone, with menarche in practical and sometimes hazardous ways. Emotional and physical support mechanisms need to be included within a package of measures to enable adolescent girls to reach their potential.     

Protective effects of dietary EPA and DHA on ischemia–reperfusion-induced intestinal stress

The immunoregulatory effects of dietary omega-3 fatty acids are still not fully characterized. The aim of this study was to determine whether dietary eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) intake limits intestinal ischemia–reperfusion (IR) injury. To test this, rats were fed either control or EPA/DHA supplemented diet for 3 weeks following which they underwent either a sham or an IR surgical protocol. A significant reduction in mucosal damage was observed after EPA/DHA supplemented diet as reflected by maintenance of total protein content. To address the underlying mechanisms of protection, we measured parameters of oxidative stress, intestinal and serological cytokines and intestinal eicosanoids. Interestingly, EPA/DHA fed animals displayed a higher activity of oxidative stress enzyme machinery, i.e., superoxide dismutase and catalase in addition to a reduction in total nitrate/nitrite content. While no changes in cytokines were observed, eicosanoid analyses of intestinal tissue revealed an increase in metabolites of the 12-lipoxygenase pathway following IR. Further, IR in EPA/DHA fed animals was accompanied by a significant increase of 17,18-epoxyeicosatetraenoic acid, 8-Iso prostaglandin F_3α and thromboxane B₃, by more than 12-, 6-, 3-fold, respectively. Thus, the data indicate that EPA/DHA supplementation may be able to reduce early intestinal IR injury by anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.     

A Study on the Transfer of Iron in Soil–Plant–Animal Continuum Under Semi-arid Environmental Conditions in Sargodha,Pakistan

The present investigation on the iron (Fe) transfer from soil to plant and in turn to animal (cows), as a function of sampling periods was conducted at the Livestock Experimental Station Sargodha, Pakistan which falls under semi-arid conditions. Although the iron transfer from soil to forage increased consistently, the forage Fe content decreased progressively with increase in sampling period. Highest Fe transfer from forage to cow blood plasma was observed during October and lowest during January. The transfer of Fe from forage to animal milk was maximum during the months of October and January and minimum during December. The transfer of Fe to plasma and milk was found to be dependent variably on the growth stage of forage in this investigation. Based on the findings of the present study, it is evident that mineral supplementation with higher Fe availability is urgently warranted to the animals particularly during the months of December and January to enhance plasma Fe in the cows being reared at that livestock farm during the entire grazing period. Thus, obligatory supplementation of Fe to the ruminants is highly recommended. Since the processes involved in iron management system in humans, animals, and plants are basically similar, appropriate elemental management must be provided to the living organisms, otherwise deficient or excessive levels of iron may deteriorate the developing cells of the organisms.     

Salicylic Acid Modulates Antioxidant System,Defense Metabolites,and Expression of Salt Transporter Genes in Pisum sativum Under Salinity Stress

At present plants continuously exposed to salinity stress due to the challenging environment that has reduced the crop growth and productivity worldwide. Application of phytohormones by using seed priming method emerges as one of the most reliable and cost effective to alleviate the toxic effect of salinity stress. In this study, we evaluate the effect of seed-primed salicylic acid (SA) to reduce the adverse effect of different salt concentrations (0, 100, 200, and 300 mM NaCl) in pea (Pisum sativum L.) seedlings. After seedling emergence, percent seed germination was calculated; however, after 60 days; plants were sampled for studying the growth and photosynthetic traits, lipid peroxidation level, antioxidant activities, ions accumulation, and its sequestration. The results depicted that salinity treatments hampered overall growth performance and induced oxidative stress in a dose-dependent manner. Salinity also has negatively influence on ion accumulation as Na⁺ ion increased while K⁺ ion decreased. On the other hand, seed priming with SA significantly reduced the salinity-induced effects on the overall performance of plants, including growth and photosynthetic attributes. SA alleviated the adverse effect of salinity even at higher salinity level by inducing enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems, soluble sugars, and proline accumulation, and regulating ion homeostasis along with up-regulation of Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters (SOS1 and NHX1). Thus, seed priming with SA shows a comprehensive role in mitigation of salinity stress and can be used as a model for promising salinity tolerant cultivation.

     

The Proapoptotic Protein tBid Forms Both Superficially Bound and Membrane-Inserted Oligomers

Bid is a proapopotic activator protein of the Bcl-2 family that plays a pivotal role in controlling mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization during apoptosis. Here, we characterized the interaction of fluorescently labeled truncated Bid (tBid) with a mitochondria-like supported lipid bilayer at the single-molecule level. The proteins observed at the membrane exhibited a very wide range of mobility. Confocal images of the membrane displayed both diffraction-limited Gaussian spots and horizontal streaks, corresponding to immobile and mobile tBid species, respectively. We observed 1), fast-diffusing proteins corresponding to a loosely, probably electrostatically bound state; 2), slowly diffusing proteins, likely corresponding to a superficially inserted state; and 3), fully immobilized proteins, suggesting a fully inserted state. The stoichiometry of these proteins was determined by normalizing their fluorescence intensity by the brightness of a tBid monomer, measured separately using fluorescence fluctuation techniques. Strikingly, the immobile species were found to be mainly tetramers and higher, whereas the mobile species had on average a significantly lower stoichiometry. Taken together, these results show that as soluble Bid progresses toward a membrane-inserted state, it undergoes an oligomerization process similar to that observed for Bax.     

Adventitial Delivery of Lentivirus-shRNA-ADAMTS-1 Reduces Venous Stenosis Formation in Arteriovenous Fistula

Hemodialysis vascular access can develop venous neointimal hyperplasia (VNH) causing stenosis. Recent clinical and experimental data has demonstrated that there is increased expression of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase thrombospondin motifs-1 (ADAMTS-1) at site of VNH. The experiments outlined in the present paper were designed to test the hypothesis that targeting of the adventitia of the outflow vein of murine arteriovenous fistula (AVF) using a small hairpin RNA that inhibits ADAMTS-1 expression (LV-shRNA-ADAMTS-1) at the time of fistula creation will decrease VNH. At early time points, ADAMTS-1 expression was significantly decreased associated with a reduction in vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) (LV-shRNA-ADAMTS-1 transduced vessels vs. controls). These changes in gene and protein expression resulted in favorable vascular remodeling with a significant increase in mean lumen vessel area, decrease in media/adventitia area, with a significant increase in TUNEL staining accompanied with a decrease in cellular proliferation accompanied with a reduction in CD68 staining. Collectively, these results demonstrate that ADAMTS-1 transduced vessels of the outflow vein of AVF have positive vascular remodeling.     

Recombination and Replication

The links between recombination and replication have been appreciated for decades and it is now generally accepted that these two fundamental aspects of DNA metabolism are inseparable: Homologous recombination is essential for completion of DNA replication and vice versa. This review focuses on the roles that recombination enzymes play in underpinning genome duplication, aiding replication fork movement in the face of the many replisome barriers that challenge genome stability. These links have many conserved features across all domains of life, reflecting the conserved nature of the substrate for these reactions, DNA.The interplay between replication and recombination is complex in terms of both mechanism and integration within DNA metabolism. At the heart of this interplay is the requirement for single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), the substrate for DNA-strand-exchange proteins, to initiate recombination (Cox 2007b; San Filippo et al. 2008). Whether, when, and where this ssDNA is generated determines the functional relationship between replication and recombination, a relationship that can operate in both directions. Homologous recombination enzymes are critical for successful completion of genome duplication (Kogoma 1997; Cox et al. 2000) but DNA replication also underpins homologous recombination, as discussed elsewhere in this collection. The links between recombination and replication are therefore intimate and one cannot be considered in isolation from the other. However, involvement of DNA-strand-exchange proteins, regardless of the metabolic context, comes with the unavoidable risk of genome rearrangements. This genome instability can occasionally increase evolutionary fitness but more frequently is deleterious to the viability of the individual.This review will focus on fundamental aspects of the links between replication and recombination enzymes rather than simply providing a list of known enzymes and reactions. The substrate, DNA, is identical in all of these reactions and this is reflected in the high mechanistic conservation of replication and recombination.