Evolution of sprouting versus seeding inAspalathus linearis

We have tested the hypothesis that reseeding is a plesiomorphic character state and that sprouting is a derived state inAspalathus linearis, and that the latter is an adaptation to ensure fire-survival in a fireprone environment. Samples of five seeder and four sprouter populations of A.linearis were examined by horizontal starch gel electrophoresis to assess the amount of genetic differentiation within and between sprouting and seeding populations, and to determine the extent of gene flow between the populations. Leaf extracts were surveyed for ten enzymes and gene products revealed genetic variation at 13 (76%) of 17 protein coding loci. Allele frequency differences were found between sprouting and seeding populations and genetic distance values show that the sprouters are grouped separate from the seeders, thus providing support for the morphological data on which the above mentioned hypothesis is based. It is evident that evolution operates at the population level inA. linearis.     

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.     

Care of the diabetic child in the community.

Brief admission of the new diabetic child and of a parent to an enlightened hospital for stabilisation, preliminary education, and familiarisation with hospital and community staff is well worth while. The greater the demand for constant control of the highest quality, the greater the need for a close understanding of the psychosocial factors concerned and for clinical skill. The nature of the home and the family relationships should in theory be available from the child''s general practitioner at the time of the first referral since he has so much information about the whole family. With the virtual disappearance, however, of mutual consultation in the patient''s home in many places, the opportunity for oral communication has declined, and availability on the telephone is not always easy. The busy general practitioner (far less an unknown physician from a deputising service without access to the records) has little time to write a comprehensive letter. In practice a relatively small hospital-based mobile team of specially experienced sisters who are keen to communicate in the home, the GP''s surgery, and the school makes a major contribution to the diabetic care of a young population vulnerable to major handicap in what should be the prime of life. Their cost effectiveness may be difficult to prove but it is not at all in doubt--especially when the sisters as in this area deal in the community with a wider range of chronic illnesses and handicaps in children.