Can luteal regression be reversed?

The corpus luteum is an endocrine gland whose limited lifespan is hormonally programmed. This debate article summarizes findings of our research group that challenge the principle that the end of function of the corpus luteum or luteal regression, once triggered, cannot be reversed. Overturning luteal regression by pharmacological manipulations may be of critical significance in designing strategies to improve fertility efficacy

Strategies to prevent HIV transmission among heterosexual African-American men

BACKGROUND: As part of qualitative research for developing a culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate videotape-based HIV prevention intervention for heterosexual African- American men, six focus groups were conducted with thirty African-American men to determine their perceptions of AIDS as a threat to the African-American community, characteristics of past situations that have placed African Americans at risk for HIV infection, their personal high risk behaviors, and suggestions on how HIV intervention videotapes could be produced to achieve maximum levels of interest among African-American men in HIV training programs. METHODS: The groups took place at a low-income housing project in Houston, Texas, a major epicenter for HIV/AIDS. Each group was audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using theme and domain analysis. RESULTS: The results revealed that low-income African-American men perceive HIV/AIDS as a threat to their community and they have placed themselves at risk of HIV infection based on unsafe sex practices, substance abuse, and lack of knowledge. They also cite lack of income to purchase condoms as a barrier to safe sex practice. They believe that HIV training programs should address these risk factors and that videotapes developed for prevention should offer a sensationalized look at the effects of HIV/AIDS on affected persons. They further believe that programs should be held in African-American communities and should include condoms to facilitate reduction of risk behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the respondents taking part in this study believe that HIV and AIDS are continued threats to the African-American community because of sexual risk taking behavior, that is, failure to use condoms. Further, African-American men are having sex without condoms when having sex with women often when they are under the influence of alcohol or other mind-altering substances and they are having sex with men while incarcerated and become infected and once released resume unprotected sexual relations with women. According to the men, substance abuse is an important part of the problem of HIV in the African-American community. This is in keeping with research that shows that drug use, especially crack cocaine, is linked to sexual risk taking among African Americans and to increased likelihood of becoming infected with other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV. Thus, interventions for men should address condom use, condom availability, skills for using condoms, eroticizing condoms and substance abuse prevention. Men in the present study also strongly recommended that HIV/AIDS videotaped messages should include footage of the sensational effects of the disease

HST Imaging of the Brightest z similar to 8-9 Galaxies from UltraVISTA: The Extreme Bright End of the UV Luminosity Function

We report on the discovery of three especially bright candidate ${z}_{\mathrm{phot}}\gtrsim 8$ galaxies. Five sources were targeted for follow-up with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), selected from a larger sample of 16 bright ($24.8\lesssim H\lesssim 25.5$ mag) candidate $z\gtrsim 8$ Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) identified over 1.6 degrees2 of the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field. These were selected as Y and J dropouts by leveraging the deep (Y-to-{K}_{{\rm{S}}}\sim 25.3\mbox{--}24.8 mag, $5\sigma$) NIR data from the UltraVISTA DR3 release, deep ground-based optical imaging from the CFHTLS and Suprime-Cam programs, and Spitzer/IRAC mosaics combining observations from the SMUVS and SPLASH programs. Through the refined spectral energy distributions, which now also include new HyperSuprimeCam g-, r-, i-, z-, and Y-band data, we confirm that 3/5 galaxies have robust {z}_{\mathrm{phot}}\sim 8.0\mbox{--}8.7, consistent with the initial selection. The remaining 2/5 galaxies have a nominal ${z}_{\mathrm{phot}}\sim 2$. However, with HST data alone, these objects have increased probability of being at $z\sim 9$. We measure mean UV continuum slopes $\beta =-1.74\pm 0.35$ for the three z\sim 8\mbox{--}9 galaxies, marginally bluer than similarly luminous z\sim 4\mbox{--}6 in CANDELS but consistent with previous measurements of similarly luminous galaxies at $z\sim 7$. The circularized effective radius for our brightest source is 0.9 ± 0.3 kpc, similar to previous measurements for a bright $z\sim 11$ galaxy and bright $z\sim 7$ galaxies. Finally, enlarging our sample to include the six brightest $z\sim 8$ LBGs identified over UltraVISTA (i.e., including three other sources from Labbé et al.) we estimate for the first time the volume density of galaxies at the extreme bright end (${M}_{\mathrm{UV}}\sim -22$ mag) of the $z\sim 8$ UV luminosity function. Despite this exceptional result, the still large statistical uncertainties do not allow us to discriminate between a Schechter and a double-power-law form

IQuaD dental trial; improving the quality of dentistry : a multicentre randomised controlled trial comparing oral hygiene advice and periodontal instrumentation for the prevention and management of periodontal disease in dentate adults attending dental primary care

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exploring perceptions of advertising ethics: an informant-derived approach

Whilst considerable research exists on determining consumer responses to pre-determined statements within numerous ad ethics contexts, our understanding of consumer thoughts regarding ad ethics in general remains lacking. The purpose of our study therefore is to provide a first illustration of an emic and informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. The authors use multi-dimensional scaling as an approach enabling the emic, or locally derived deconstruction of perceived ad ethics. Given recent calls to develop our understanding of ad ethics in different cultural contexts, and in particular within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we use Lebanon—the most ethically charged advertising environment within MENA—as an illustrative context for our study. Results confirm the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics as comprising a number of dimensional themes already salient in the existing literature but in addition, we also find evidence for a bipolar relationship between individual themes. The specific pattern of inductively derived relationships is culturally bound. Implications of the findings are discussed, followed by limitations of the study and recommendations for further research