HIV Seroprevalence Among Patients Admitted to Two Psychiatric Hospitals

OBJECTIVE: The authors determined the seroprevalence of HIV-1 among patients admitted to two psychiatric hospitals in New York City. METHOD: Patients consecutively admitted to an acute psychiatric unit in Manhattan and a large state hospital in Queens were anonymously tested for HIV-1 antibodies from December 1989 through July 1990. Test results were linked to age, gender, ethnicity, and two risk behaviors: male homosexual activity and injection drug use. RESULTS: Blood was obtained from 83.0% of the eligible patients. The prevalence of HIV was 5.5% (25 of 451). Black patients accounted for 38.0% of the patients tested and 76.0% of positive results (N = 19), a rate of 11.1% for this group. The rate of seropositivity was comparable in women and men. Clinicians had charted risk behavior for nine (36.0%) of the 25 HIV-positive patients. Infection control records suggested that clinicians were aware of seven (28.0%) of the positive cases. CONCLUSIONS: One in every 18 patients admitted to two public psychiatric hospitals in New York City was HIV positive. Clinical staff largely failed to identify HIV-positive patients. Ethnicity and a history of homosexual activity among men or use of injected drugs were strongly associated with seropositivity. This pattern of infection may be linked to needle sharing and/or sexual activity with partners who have shared needles. Future research should clarify how psychiatric illness affects risk-taking behavior, focus on improving detection by clinicians, and identify effective prevention strategies in this population

Production of β‑ionone by combined expression of carotenogenic and plant CCD1 genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Background Apocarotenoids, like the C13-norisoprenoids, are natural compounds that contribute to the flavor and/or aroma of flowers and foods. They are produced in aromatic plantslike raspberries and rosesby the enzymatic cleavage of carotenes. Due to their pleasant aroma and flavour, apocarotenoids have high commercial value for the cosmetic and food industry, but currently their production is mainly assured by chemical synthesis. In the present study, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that synthesizes the apocarotenoid -ionone was constructed by combining integrative vectors and high copy number episomal vectors, in an engineered strain that accumulates FPP. Results Integration of an extra copy of the geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase gene (BTS1), together with the carotenogenic genes crtYB and crtI from the ascomycete Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, resulted in carotenoid producing cells. The additional integration of the carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase gene from the plant Petunia hybrida (PhCCD1) let to the production of low amounts of -ionone (0.073 ± 0.01 mg/g DCW) and changed the color of the strain from orange to yellow. The expression of the crtYB gene from a high copy number plasmid in this former strain increased -ionone concentration fivefold (0.34 ± 0.06 mg/g DCW). Additionally, the episomal expression of crtYB together with the PhCCD1 gene in the same vector resulted in a final 8.5-fold increase of -ionone concentration (0.63 ± 0.02 mg/g DCW). Batch fermentations with this strain resulted in a final specific concentration of 1 mg/g DCW at 50 h, which represents a 15-fold increase. Conclusions An efficient -ionone producing yeast platform was constructed by combining integrative and episomal constructs. By combined expression of the genes BTS1, the carotenogenic crtYB, crtI genes and the plant PhCCD1 genethe highest -ionone concentration reported to date by a cell factory was achieved. This microbial cell factory represents a starting point for flavor production by a sustainable and efficient process that could replace current methods.This work was funded by grants COPEC-UC 6C-063 and FONDECYT No 1130822, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation

Crime, Institutions and Sector-Specific FDI in Latin America

In this article, we explore how crime and institutions affect the flow of capital in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Latin American and Caribbean countries in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors during the 1996-2010 period. We use three different variables related to violent crime: homicides, crime victimization, and an index of organized crime. We find that there is a correlation between the institutional and crime variables, where the significance of institutional variables tends to disappear when the crime variables are added to the model. We find that higher crime victimization and organized crime are associated with lower FDI in the tertiary sector. We do not find that crime affects FDI inflows to Latin America in the primary and secondary sector

A transcriptomic analysis of Echinococcus granulosus larval stages:implications for parasite biology and host adaptation

The cestode Echinococcus granulosus--the agent of cystic echinococcosis, a zoonosis affecting humans and domestic animals worldwide--is an excellent model for the study of host-parasite cross-talk that interfaces with two mammalian hosts. To develop the molecular analysis of these interactions, we carried out an EST survey of E. granulosus larval stages. We report the salient features of this study with a focus on genes reflecting physiological adaptations of different parasite stages.We generated ~10,000 ESTs from two sets of full-length enriched libraries (derived from oligo-capped and trans-spliced cDNAs) prepared with three parasite materials: hydatid cyst wall, larval worms (protoscoleces), and pepsin/H(+)-activated protoscoleces. The ESTs were clustered into 2700 distinct gene products. In the context of the biology of E. granulosus, our analyses reveal: (i) a diverse group of abundant long non-protein coding transcripts showing homology to a middle repetitive element (EgBRep) that could either be active molecular species or represent precursors of small RNAs (like piRNAs); (ii) an up-regulation of fermentative pathways in the tissue of the cyst wall; (iii) highly expressed thiol- and selenol-dependent antioxidant enzyme targets of thioredoxin glutathione reductase, the functional hub of redox metabolism in parasitic flatworms; (iv) candidate apomucins for the external layer of the tissue-dwelling hydatid cyst, a mucin-rich structure that is critical for survival in the intermediate host; (v) a set of tetraspanins, a protein family that appears to have expanded in the cestode lineage; and (vi) a set of platyhelminth-specific gene products that may offer targets for novel pan-platyhelminth drug development.This survey has greatly increased the quality and the quantity of the molecular information on E. granulosus and constitutes a valuable resource for gene prediction on the parasite genome and for further genomic and proteomic analyses focused on cestodes and platyhelminths

Crowds in or crowds out? The effect of foreign direct investment on domestic investment in Chinese cities

This study investigates the empirical relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic investment (DI) in China using a comprehensive city-level panel over the period from 2003 to 2011. System-generalized method-of-moment estimation reveals mixed results. At the national level, FDI neither crowds in nor crowds out DI, indicating a neutral FDI–DI nexus. However, when the full sample is segmented by geographical topology, a positive and significant FDI–DI nexus can be found in eastern and, to a lesser extent, central cities. A negative, although insignificant, association is reported among western cities. Further, the empirical nexus is conditional on several local absorptive capacities including human capital, financial development, and institutional quality. These findings suggest that a region-based FDI strategy in general and local governments should strengthen their absorptive capacities to fully internalize FDI spillovers