Sexual risk behavior and pregnancy in detained adolescent females: a study in Dutch detention centers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the lifetime prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the histories of detained adolescent females and to examine the relationship between teenage pregnancy on the one hand and mental health and sexuality related characteristics on the other.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Of 256 admitted detained adolescent females aged 12–18 years, a representative sample (N = 212, 83%) was examined in the first month of detention. Instruments included a semi-structured interview, standardized questionnaires and file information on pregnancy, sexuality related characteristics (sexual risk behavior, multiple sex partners, sexual trauma, lack of assertiveness in sexual issues and early maturity) and mental health characteristics (conduct disorder, alcohol and drug use disorder and suicidality).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Approximately 20% of the participants reported having been pregnant (before detention), although none had actually given birth. Sexuality related characteristics were more prevalent in the pregnancy group, while this was not so for the mental health characteristics. Age at assessment, early maturity, sexual risk behavior, and suicidality turned out to be the best predictors for pregnancy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The lifetime prevalence of pregnancy in detained adolescent females is high and is associated with both sexuality related risk factors and mental health related risk factors. Therefore, prevention and intervention programs targeting sexual risk behavior and mental health are warranted during detention.</p

Haptic pop-out of movable stimuli

When, in visual and haptic search, a target is easily found among distractors, this is called a pop-out effect. The target feature is then believed to be salient, and the search is performed in a parallel way. We investigated this effect with movable stimuli in a haptic search task. The task was to find a movable ball among anchored distractors or the other way round. Results show that reaction times were independent of the number of distractors if the movable ball was the target but increased with the number of items if the anchored ball was the target. Analysis of hand movements revealed a parallel search strategy, shorter movement paths, a higher average movement speed, and a narrower direction distribution with the movable target, as compared with a more detailed search for an anchored target. Taken together, these results show that a movable object pops out between anchored objects and this indicates that movability is a salient object feature. Vibratory signals resulting from the movable ball were found to be a reasonable explanation regarding the sensation responsible for the pop-out of movability

Long-Term Mortality of Patients with Septic Ocular or Central Nervous System Complications from Pyogenic Liver Abscess: A Population-Based Study

Background: Taiwan is endemic for pyogenic liver abscess (PLA). Septic ocular or central nervous system (CNS) complications derived from PLA can result in catastrophic disability. We investigated the epidemiology and long-term prognosis of PLA patients with septic ocular or CNS complications over an 8-year period. Methodology/Principal Findings: We extracted 21,307 patients with newly diagnosed PLA from a nationwide health registry in Taiwan between 2000 and 2007. The frequency of and risk factors for PLA with septic ocular or CNS complications were determined. The 2-year survival of these patients was compared between those with and without septic ocular or CNS complications. Septic ocular or CNS complications accounted for 2.1 % of all PLA patients. Age and the Charlson comorbidity index were significantly lower in PLA patients with ocular or CNS complications than those without. Diabetes and age,65 years were independent predictors of septic ocular or CNS complications. The 2-year mortality of patients with septic ocular or CNS complications was similar to those without complications (24.8 % vs. 27.5%, p = 0.502). However, among patients,65 years old and a Charlson index #1, the 2-year mortality was significantly higher in those with than without complications (18.6 % vs. 11.8%, p = 0.001). Conclusions/Significance: Physicians should recognize that catastrophic disability due to ocular or neurologica

SPL7013 Gel (VivaGel®) Retains Potent HIV-1 and HSV-2 Inhibitory Activity following Vaginal Administration in Humans

SPL7013 Gel (VivaGel®) is a microbicide in development for prevention of HIV and HSV. This clinical study assessed retention and duration of antiviral activity following vaginal administration of 3% SPL7013 Gel in healthy women. Participants received 5 single doses of product with ≥5 days between doses. A cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) sample was collected using a SoftCup™ pre-dose, and immediately, or 1, 3, 12 or 24 h post-dose. HIV-1 and HSV-2 antiviral activities of CVF samples were determined in cell culture assays. Antiviral activity in the presence of seminal plasma was also tested. Mass and concentration of SPL7013 in CVF samples was determined. Safety was assessed by reporting of adverse events. Statistical analysis was performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Bonferroni adjustment; p≤0.003 was significant. Eleven participants completed the study. Inhibition of HIV-1 and HSV-2 by pre-dose CVF samples was negligible. CVF samples obtained immediately after dosing almost completely inhibited (median, interquartile range) HIV-1 [96% (95,97)] and HSV-2 [86% (85,94)], and activity was maintained in all women at 3 h (HIV-1 [96% (95,98), p = 0.9]; HSV-2 [94% (91,97), p = 0.005]). At 24 h, >90% of initial HIV-1 and HSV-2 inhibition was maintained in 6/11 women. SPL7013 was recovered in CVF samples obtained at baseline (46% of 105 mg dose). At 3 and 24 h, 22 mg and 4 mg SPL7013, respectively, were recovered. More than 70% inhibition of HIV-1 and HSV-2 was observed if there was >0.5 mg SPL7013 in CVF samples. High levels of antiviral activity were retained in the presence of seminal plasma. VivaGel was well tolerated with no signs or symptoms of vaginal, vulvar or cervical irritation reported. Potent antiviral activity was observed against HIV-1 and HSV-2 immediately following vaginal administration of VivaGel, with activity maintained for at least 3 h post-dose. The data provide evidence of antiviral activity in a clinical setting, and suggest VivaGel could be administered up to 3 h before coitus

Insights into pathogenic events of HIV-associated Kaposi sarcoma and immune reconstitution syndrome related Kaposi sarcoma

A decrease in the incidence of human immune deficiency virus-associated Kaposi sarcoma (HIV-KS) and regression of some established HIV-KS lesions is evident after the introduction of highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART), and is attributed to generalized immune restoration, to the reconstitution of human herpesvirus (HHV)-8 specific cellular immune responses, and to the decrease in HIV Tat protein and HHV-8 loads following HAART. However, a small subset of HIV-seropositive subjects with a low CD4+ T cell count at the time of introduction of HAART, may develop HIV-KS as immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) within 8 weeks thereafter

Functional Connectivity in Tactile Object Discrimination—A Principal Component Analysis of an Event Related fMRI-Study

BACKGROUND: Tactile object discrimination is an essential human skill that relies on functional connectivity between the neural substrates of motor, somatosensory and supramodal areas. From a theoretical point of view, such distributed networks elude categorical analysis because subtraction methods are univariate. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the neural networks involved in somatosensory object discrimination using a voxel-based principal component analysis (PCA) of event-related functional magnetic resonance images. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Seven healthy, right-handed subjects aged between 22 and 44 years were required to discriminate with their dominant hand the length differences between otherwise identical parallelepipeds in a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. Of the 34 principal components retained for analysis according to the 'bootstrapped' Kaiser-Guttman criterion, t-tests applied to the subject-condition expression coefficients showed significant mean differences between the object presentation and inter-stimulus phases in PC 1, 3, 26 and 32. Specifically, PC 1 reflected object exploration or manipulation, PC 3 somatosensory and short-term memory processes. PC 26 evinced the perception that certain parallelepipeds could not be distinguished, while PC 32 emerged in those choices when they could be. Among the cerebral regions evident in the PCs are the left posterior parietal lobe and premotor cortex in PC 1, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) and the right cuneus in PC 3, the medial frontal and orbitofrontal cortex bilaterally in PC 26, and the right intraparietal sulcus, anterior SPL and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in PC 32. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The analysis provides evidence for the concerted action of large-scale cortico-subcortical networks mediating tactile object discrimination. Parallel to activity in nodes processing object-related impulses we found activity in key cerebral regions responsible for subjective assessment and validation

When Right Feels Left: Referral of Touch and Ownership between the Hands

Feeling touch on a body part is paradigmatically considered to require stimulation of tactile afferents from the body part in question, at least in healthy non-synaesthetic individuals. In contrast to this view, we report a perceptual illusion where people experience “phantom touches” on a right rubber hand when they see it brushed simultaneously with brushes applied to their left hand. Such illusory duplication and transfer of touch from the left to the right hand was only elicited when a homologous (i.e., left and right) pair of hands was brushed in synchrony for an extended period of time. This stimulation caused the majority of our participants to perceive the right rubber hand as their own and to sense two distinct touches – one located on the right rubber hand and the other on their left (stimulated) hand. This effect was supported by quantitative subjective reports in the form of questionnaires, behavioral data from a task in which participants pointed to the felt location of their right hand, and physiological evidence obtained by skin conductance responses when threatening the model hand. Our findings suggest that visual information augments subthreshold somatosensory responses in the ipsilateral hemisphere, thus producing a tactile experience from the non-stimulated body part. This finding is important because it reveals a new bilateral multisensory mechanism for tactile perception and limb ownership

Applying the ALARA concept to the evaluation of vesicoureteric reflux

The voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) is a widely used study to define lower urinary tract anatomy and to diagnose vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) in children. We examine the technical advances in the VCUG and other examinations for reflux that have reduced radiation exposure of children, and we give recommendations for the use of imaging studies in four groups of children: (1) children with urinary tract infection, (2) siblings of patients with VUR, (3) infants with antenatal hydronephrosis (ANH), and (4) children with a solitary functioning kidney. By performing examinations with little to no radiation, carefully selecting only the children who need imaging studies and judiciously timing follow-up examinations, we can reduce the radiation exposure of children being studied for reflux