Women’s Roles in Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in Nyanza Province,Kenya

Women are an important audience for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) communication messages so that they know that VMMC provides only partial protection against HIV. They may also be able to influence their male partners to get circumcised and practice other HIV protective measures after VMMC. This study was conducted in two phases of qualitative data collection. Phase 1 used in-depth interviews to explore women’s understanding of partial protection and their role in VMMC. Phase 2 built on the findings from the Phase 1, using focus groups to test VMMC communication messages currently used in Nyanza Province and to further explore women’s roles in VMMC. Sixty-four sexually active women between the ages of 18 and 35 participated. In Phase 1, all women said they had heard of partial protection, though some were not able to elaborate on what the concept means. When women in Phase 2 were exposed to messages about partial protection, however, participants understood the messages well and were able to identify the main points. In Phases 1 and 2, many participants said that they had discussed VMMC with their partner, and for several, it was a joint decision for the man to go for VMMC. These findings suggest that current VMMC messaging is reaching women, though communications could more effectively target women to increase their ability to communicate about partial HIV protection from VMMC. Also, women seem to be playing an important role in encouraging men to get circumcised, so reaching out to women could be a valuable intervention strategy for increasing VMMC uptake and promoting use of other HIV protective measures after VMMC.     

The Flexibility of Bacterial Cell Walls

S ummary . There are considerable differences in the extensibility of the cell walls of bacteria in different genera. Gram negative spp. examined were more flexible than the Gram positive ones.     

Behavioral and Psychological Care in Weight Loss Surgery: Best Practice Update

The objective of this study is to update evidence‐based best practice guidelines for psychological evaluation and treatment of weight loss surgery (WLS) patients. We performed a systematic search of English‐language literature on WLS and mental health, quality of life, and behavior modification published between April 2004 and May 2007 in MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library. Key words were used to narrow the search for a selective review of abstracts, retrieval of full articles, and grading of evidence according to systems used in established evidence‐based models. Our literature search identified 17 articles of interest; 13 of the most relevant were reviewed in detail. From these, we developed evidence‐based best practice recommendations on the psychological assessment and treatment of WLS patients. Regular updates of evidence‐based recommendations for best practices in psychological care are required to address the impact of mental health on short‐ and long‐term outcomes after WLS. Key factors in patient safety include comprehensive preoperative evaluation, use of appropriate and reliable evaluation instruments, and the development of short‐ and long‐term treatment plans.     

How strong is the edge effect in the adsorption of anticancer drugs on a graphene cluster?

The adsorption of nucleobase-analog anticancer drugs (fluorouracil, thioguanine, and mercaptopurine) on a graphene flake (C₅₄H₁₈) was investigated by shifting the site at which adsorption occurs from one end of the sheet to the other end. The counterpoise-corrected M06-2X/cc-pVDZ binding energies revealed that the binding stability decreases in the sequence thioguanine?>?mercaptopurine?>?fluorouracil. We found that adsorption near the middle of the sheet is more favorable than adsorption near the edge due to the edge effect. This edge effect is stronger for the adsorption of thioguanine or mercaptopurine than for fluorouracil adsorption. However, the edge effect reduces the binding energy of the drug to the flake by only a small amount, <5 kcal/mol, depending on the adsorption site and the alignment of the drug at this site.     

Properties of steroid sulphatase and arylsulphatase activities of human placenta

1. The properties of enzyme activities hydrolysing the sulphate esters of dehydroepiandrosterone, oestrone and p-nitrophenol are reported. The preparation studied was obtained from the microsomal fraction of human placenta by ultrasonic treatment and addition of Triton X-100. 2. The behaviour of the preparation during sedimentation at 105000g and attempts at purification indicated that the activities were particulate. Electron microscopy demonstrated the rupture of vesicular structures approx. 0.5mu in diameter concurrent with the release of activity. 3. The three activities were always associated throughout repeated attempts at separation by sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation and Sephadex-gel filtration. On the basis of kinetic studies, stability studies and treatment with butanol and ribonuclease it was concluded that a separate enzyme is responsible for each of the three activities. Widely varying plots of activity as a function of pH were consistent with this conclusion. 4. On the basis of sensitivity of the enzymes hydrolysing dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate and oestrone sulphate to ribonuclease and sensitivity of all three enzymes to lipase, it was concluded that the three enzymes are bound to a particle containing lipid and RNA. Enzymic activity is dependent on structural integrity of the particle. 5. A spectrophotometric method for the assay of oestrone sulphate hydrolysis is described. 6. Hydrolysis of nitrocatechol sulphate by human placenta under conditions described for arylsulphatases A and B is reported.     

Expression and subcellular distribution of gephyrin in non-neuronal tissues and cells

Gephyrin is a scaffolding protein required for the accumulation of inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors at neuronal postsynaptic membranes. In non-neuronal tissues, gephyrin is indispensible for the biosynthesis of molybdenum cofactor, the prosthetic group of oxidoreductases including sulfite oxidase and xanthine oxidase. However, the molecular and cellular basis of gephyrin’s non-neuronal function is poorly understood; in particular, the roles of its splice variants remain enigmatic. Here, we used cDNA screening as well as Northern and immunoblot analyses to show that mammalian liver contains only a limited number of gephyrin splice variants, with the C3-containing variant being the predominant isoform. Using new and established anti-gephyrin antibodies in immunofluorescence and subcellular fractionation studies, we report that gephyrin localizes to the cytoplasm of both tissue hepatocytes and cultured immortalized cells. These findings were corroborated by RNA interference studies in which the cytosolic distribution was found to be abolished. Finally, by blue-native PAGE we show that cytoplasmic gephyrin is part of a ~600 kDa protein complex of yet unknown composition. Our data suggest that the expression pattern of non-neuronal gephyrin is simpler than indicated by previous evidence. In addition, gephyrin’s presence in a cytosolic 600 kDa protein complex suggests that its metabolic and/or other non-neuronal functions are exerted in the cytoplasm and are not confined to a particular subcellular compartment.