Hormonal Contraception and the Risk of HIV Acquisition: An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis

BackgroundObservational studies of a putative association between hormonal contraception (HC) and HIV acquisition have produced conflicting results. We conducted an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis of studies from sub-Saharan Africa to compare the incidence of HIV infection in women using combined oral contraceptives (COCs) or the injectable progestins depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) or norethisterone enanthate (NET-EN) with women not using HC.ConclusionsThis IPD meta-analysis found no evidence that COC or NET-EN use increases women’s risk of HIV but adds to the evidence that DMPA may increase HIV risk, underscoring the need for additional safe and effective contraceptive options for women at high HIV risk. A randomized controlled trial would provide more definitive evidence about the effects of hormonal contraception, particularly DMPA, on HIV risk.     

Transitional cell carcinoma of the ovary: A rare case and review of literature

Goblet cell carcinoid of the large intestine is a rare neoplasm, usually located in ascending colon and rectum. A 60-year-old male patient underwent surgery after the diagnosis of acute abdomen. Exploratory laparotomy revealed perforation with a diameter of 1 cm at the site of the previously performed gastroenterostomy and dilatation of the right colic flexure, secondary to a solid obstructive mass located in the mid-portion of transverse colon. Histopathological investigation of the biopsies, taken from the gastroenterostomy site and the tumor, revealed mixed carcinoid-adenocarcinoma with carcinoid component, predominantly composed of goblet cells. Three cycles of FOLFOX-4 protocol was administered. Following respiratory distress secondary to pulmonary metastasis, the patient's condition deteriorated and subsequently died in the fourth postoperative month. Our aim with this paper is to point out that more cases should be reported for more effective diagnosis, histopathological study, clinical investigation, treatment and prognosis of this specific neoplasm.     

A critique of and recommendations for a subsistence fishery, Lake St Lucia, South Africa

The fish resources of Lake St Lucia, the largest estuary on the eastcoast of Africa, present resource managers of the Natal Parks Board with acommon property resource (CPR) problem. Problems associated with illegal gillnetting by local people from three tribal areas, prompted the introduction of asystem of legal, subsistence netting. This paper reviews the legal fisheries inthese three areas from 1995 to 1997, and examines existing organizationalarrangements, suggesting reasons why the three fisheries show differences infunctioning. By employing concepts from CPRs theory, elements of anorganizational design for fisheries management involving local users and theconservation organization staff are proposed.     

Airborne allergenic microorganisms associated with mushroom cultivation

Exposure to microorganisms, including thermophilic actinomycetes and fungal spores, and to airborne dust produced during compost production and mushroom picking may cause work-related respiratory symptoms. Previous studies have implicated Thermoactinomyces vulgaris and Faenia rectivirgula, the aetiological agents in farmer's lung disease, as causes of these symptoms but these species have been rare in aerobiological studies of mushroom farms. As part of a study of the respiratory health of the exposed workers, we carried out an aerobiological survey of all the stages of commercial mushroom production. Samples of viable airborne microorganisms were collected at a farm from eight locations on two occasions using Andersen cascade impactors. Large numbers of airborne thermophilic actinomycetes, yielding > 10⁶ colony-forming units (cfu) m^?3 air sampled, were associated with compost handling. These were predominantly Thermomonospora spp., while Thermoactinomyces spp. and Faenia rectivirgula were few. Because the compost was largely undisturbed, few airborne actinomycete spores were found in mushroom growing houses, but concentrations of fungal spores exceeded 10⁵ cfu m^?3 when mushrooms were being harvested. Most were Penicillium spp. and Aspergillus fumigatus but Peziza ostracoderma and Trichoderma spp. were also isolated. Workers are thus exposed to a wide range of airborne microorganisms, but the role of many of these in mushroom workers' respiratory symptoms is not yet fully understood.     

Identifying the structure in cuttlefish visual signals

The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) communicates and camouflages itself by changing its skin colour and texture. Hanlon and Messenger (1988 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 320, 437-487) classified these visual displays, recognizing 13 distinct body patterns. Although this conclusion is based on extensive observations, a quantitative method for analysing complex patterning has obvious advantages. We formally define a body pattern in terms of the probabilities that various skin features are expressed, and use Bayesian statistical methods to estimate the number of distinct body patterns and their visual characteristics. For the dataset of cuttlefish coloration patterns recorded in our laboratory, this statistical method identifies 12-14 different patterns, a number consistent with the 13 found by Hanlon and Messenger. If used for signalling these would give a channel capacity of 3.4 bits per pattern. Bayesian generative models might be useful for objectively describing the structure in other complex biological signalling systems.     

Polygalacturonase inhibiting protein in plant cell walls

Polygalacturonase inhibiting protein (PGIP) is localized in plant cell walls and plays an important role both in pectic substance metabolism and in prevention of the penetration of phytopathogenic microorganisms. Apparently, PGIP is responsible for the specificity of cell--cell interactions during pollination or inoculation by fungi nonpathogenic for the particular plant. PGIPs from different plants share a basic common structure. They are rather thermostable glycoproteins enriched with leucine and contain about 20% carbohydrates; the molecular weight varies between 37-54 kD. The synthesis of PGIP is encoded by one gene, and its expression is stimulated by injury and fungal infection. The resistance of plant tissues to infection frequently correlates with PGIP expression and with inhibiting action on fungal PG. Thus, PGIP is believed to be useful for gene engineering to obtain transgenic plants resistant to fungal infection or retaining commercial value during storage.     

Differential responsiveness to immunoablative therapy in refractory rheumatoid arthritis is associated with level and avidity of anti-cyclic citrullinated protein autoantibodies: a case study

In order to identify pathogenic correlates of refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RA), antibodies against anti-cyclic citrullinated protein (ACPAs) were investigated in RA patients in whom the dysregulated immune system had been ablated by high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Six patients with refractory RA were extensively characterized in terms of levels of total immunoglobulins, RA-specific autoantibodies (ACPAs and rheumatoid factor) and antibodies against rubella, tetanus toxoid (TT) and phosphorylcholine before and after HDC plus HSCT. Additionally, the avidity of ACPAs was measured before and after treatment and compared with the avidity of TT antibodies following repeated immunizations. Synovial biopsies were obtained by arthroscopy before HDC plus HSCT, and analyzed by immunohistochemistry. In the three patients with clinically long-lasting responses to HDC plus HSCT (median 423 days), significant reductions in ACPA-IgG levels after therapy were observed (median level dropped from 215 to 34 arbitrary units/ml; P = 0.05). In contrast, stable ACPA-IgG levels were observed in three patients who relapsed shortly after HDC plus HSCT (median of 67 days). Clinical responders had ACPA-IgG of lower avidity (r = 0.75; P = 0.08) and higher degree of inflammation histologically (r = 0.73; P = 0.09). Relapse (after 38 to 530 days) in all patients was preceded by rising levels of low avidity ACPA-IgG (after 30 to 388 days), in contrast to the stable titres of high avidity TT antibodies. In conclusion, humoral autoimmune responses were differentially modulated by immunoablative therapy in patients with synovial inflammation and low avidity ACPA-IgG autoantibodies as compared with patients with high levels of high avidity ACPA-IgG. The distinct clinical disease course after immunoablative therapy based on levels and avidity of ACPA-IgG indicates that refractory RA is not a single disease entity.