The feasibility of integrating alcohol risk-reduction counseling into existing VCT services in Kenya

This pretest-posttest separate-sample study with intervention and comparison groups documented the abilities and willingness of trained voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service providers to integrate alcohol screening and risk reduction counseling into their routine service delivery. Pre-test (n=1073) and post-test data (n=1058) were collected from different clients exiting from 25 VCT centers. A 12-month intervention that required all VCT providers from the intervention groups to screen all VCT clients for their alcohol use and offer them brief risk reduction alcoholrelated counseling was implemented. At post-test, the intervention group clients (n=456) had better study outcomes than the comparison group clients (n=602). Intervention clients were more likely to report that their VCT service provider had: asked them about their alcohol use (83% vs. 41%:

The Gender Context of HIV Risk and Pregnancy Goals in Western Kenya

Background: Intentional childbearing may place heterosexual couples at risk of HIV infection in resource-limited settings with high HIV prevalence areas where society places great value on having children.Objective: To explore cognitive, cultural, and spatial mapping of sexual and reproductive health domains and services in western Kenya among men and women.Design: Community-based formative qualitative study design.Setting: Five administrative/geographical divisions of Nyando District, western Kenya.Subjects: Adult male 18 years and older and female who were of reproductive-potential ages (15 to 49 years for females)(n=90).Results:Men and women have disparate goals for number of children and engage in gendered patterns of protective method use (contraceptives used by women often in secret, condoms by men but rarely).Conclusion: HIV infection was still seen as stigmatising. These study results are relevant to design of effective integrated delivery for reproductive and HIV services in high-burden sub-Saharan African countries

Chromosomal instability by mutations in the novel minor spliceosome component CENATAC

Aneuploidy is the leading cause of miscarriage and congenital birth defects, and a hallmark of cancer. Despite this strong association with human disease, the genetic causes of aneuploidy remain largely unknown. Through exome sequencing of patients with constitutional mosaic aneuploidy, we identified biallelic truncating mutations in CENATAC (CCDC84). We show that CENATAC is a novel component of the minor (U12-dependent) spliceosome that promotes splicing of a specific, rare minor intron subtype. This subtype is characterized by AT-AN splice sites and relatively high basal levels of intron retention. CENATAC depletion or expression of disease mutants resulted in excessive retention of AT-AN minor introns in similar to 100 genes enriched for nucleocytoplasmic transport and cell cycle regulators, and caused chromosome segregation errors. Our findings reveal selectivity in minor intron splicing and suggest a link between minor spliceosome defects and constitutional aneuploidy in humans.Peer reviewe

Testis-specific glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase: origin and evolution

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPD) catalyses one of the glycolytic reactions and is also involved in a number of non-glycolytic processes, such as endocytosis, DNA excision repair, and induction of apoptosis. Mammals are known to possess two homologous GAPD isoenzymes: GAPD-1, a well-studied protein found in all somatic cells, and GAPD-2, which is expressed solely in testis. GAPD-2 supplies energy required for the movement of spermatozoa and is tightly bound to the sperm tail cytoskeleton by the additional N-terminal proline-rich domain absent in GAPD-1. In this study we investigate the evolutionary history of GAPD and gain some insights into specialization of GAPD-2 as a testis-specific protein.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A dataset of GAPD sequences was assembled from public databases and used for phylogeny reconstruction by means of the Bayesian method. Since resolution in some clades of the obtained tree was too low, syntenic analysis was carried out to define the evolutionary history of GAPD more precisely. The performed selection tests showed that selective pressure varies across lineages and isoenzymes, as well as across different regions of the same sequences.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The obtained results suggest that GAPD-1 and GAPD-2 emerged after duplication during the early evolution of chordates. GAPD-2 was subsequently lost by most lineages except lizards, mammals, as well as cartilaginous and bony fishes. In reptilians and mammals, GAPD-2 specialized to a testis-specific protein and acquired the novel N-terminal proline-rich domain anchoring the protein in the sperm tail cytoskeleton. This domain is likely to have originated by exonization of a microsatellite genomic region. Recognition of the proline-rich domain by cytoskeletal proteins seems to be unspecific. Besides testis, GAPD-2 of lizards was also found in some regenerating tissues, but it lacks the proline-rich domain due to tissue-specific alternative splicing.</p

Epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection and sepsis in critically ill patients: “AbSeS”, a multinational observational cohort study and ESICM Trials Group Project

Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of intra-abdominal infection in an international cohort of ICU patients according to a new system that classifies cases according to setting of infection acquisition (community-acquired, early onset hospital-acquired, and late-onset hospital-acquired), anatomical disruption (absent or present with localized or diffuse peritonitis), and severity of disease expression (infection, sepsis, and septic shock). Methods: We performed a multicenter (n = 309), observational, epidemiological study including adult ICU patients diagnosed with intra-abdominal infection. Risk factors for mortality were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Results: The cohort included 2621 patients. Setting of infection acquisition was community-acquired in 31.6%, early onset hospital-acquired in 25%, and late-onset hospital-acquired in 43.4% of patients. Overall prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was 26.3% and difficult-to-treat resistant Gram-negative bacteria 4.3%, with great variation according to geographic region. No difference in prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was observed according to setting of infection acquisition. Overall mortality was 29.1%. Independent risk factors for mortality included late-onset hospital-acquired infection, diffuse peritonitis, sepsis, septic shock, older age, malnutrition, liver failure, congestive heart failure, antimicrobial resistance (either methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria, or carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria) and source control failure evidenced by either the need for surgical revision or persistent inflammation. Conclusion: This multinational, heterogeneous cohort of ICU patients with intra-abdominal infection revealed that setting of infection acquisition, anatomical disruption, and severity of disease expression are disease-specific phenotypic characteristics associated with outcome, irrespective of the type of infection. Antimicrobial resistance is equally common in community-acquired as in hospital-acquired infection

A review of the systematic biology of fossil and living bony-tongue fishes, Osteoglossomorpha (Actinopterygii: Teleostei)

The bony-tongue fishes, Osteoglossomorpha, have been the focus of a great deal of morphological, systematic, and evolutionary study, due in part to their basal position among extant teleostean fishes. This group includes the mooneyes (Hiodontidae), knifefishes (Notopteridae), the abu (Gymnarchidae), elephantfishes (Mormyridae), arawanas and pirarucu (Osteoglossidae), and the African butterfly fish (Pantodontidae). This morphologically heterogeneous group also has a long and diverse fossil record, including taxa from all continents and both freshwater and marine deposits. The phylogenetic relationships among most extant osteoglossomorph families are widely agreed upon. However, there is still much to discover about the systematic biology of these fishes, particularly with regard to the phylogenetic affinities of several fossil taxa, within Mormyridae, and the position of Pantodon. In this paper we review the state of knowledge for osteoglossomorph fishes. We first provide an overview of the diversity of Osteoglossomorpha, and then discuss studies of the phylogeny of Osteoglossomorpha from both morphological and molecular perspectives, as well as biogeographic analyses of the group. Finally, we offer our perspectives on future needs for research on the systematic biology of Osteoglossomorpha

Chimpanzee lip-smacking facilitates cooperative behaviour

Signalling plays an important role in facilitating and maintaining affiliative or cooperative interactions in social animals. Social grooming in primates is an example of an interaction that requires coordination between partners but little is known about communicative behaviours facilitating this activity. In this study, we analysed the communication of wild chimpanzees of Budongo Forest, Uganda, as they entered and maintained a naturally occurring cooperative interaction: social grooming. We found that lip-smacking, a distinct multimodal oral gesture produced during grooming, coordinated this activity. Lip-smacking at the beginning of grooming bouts was significantly more often followed by longer and reciprocated bouts than silent grooming initiations. Lip-smacks were more likely to be produced when the risk of termination of the interaction by the recipient was high, for instance when grooming vulnerable body parts. Groomers were also more likely to produce lip-smacks during face-to-face grooming where the visual aspect of the signal could be perceived. Data are consistent with the hypothesis that chimpanzee lip-smacks function to coordinate and prolong social grooming, suggesting that this oral signal is an example of a communicative behaviour facilitating cooperative behaviour in chimpanzees