Food sharing with friends and acquaintances:A study in preschool boys and girls

IntroductionThe current study examined whether preschoolers in a (semi-)natural situation shared more food with friends or acquaintances, and whether this was different between boys and girls, older and younger children, and for preferred and non- preferred food. In order to do so, we replicated and extended the classical work of Birch and Billman in a Dutch sample.MethodsParticipants included 91 children aged between 3 to 6 years (52.7% boys, 93.4% Western European) from a middle- to upper-middle-class neighborhood in the Netherlands.ResultsThe results revealed that children shared more non-preferred than preferred food with others. Girls gave more non-preferred food to acquaintances than to friends, whereas boys gave more to friends than to acquaintances. No effect of relationship was found for preferred food. Older children shared more food than younger children. Compared to acquaintances, friends made more active attempts to get food. Moreover, children who were not shared with were just as likely to share food as children who were shared with.DiscussionOverall, only a small degree of agreement with the original study was found: Some significant findings could not be replicated, and some unconfirmed hypotheses of the original study were supported. The results underscore both the need for replications and studying the effect of social-contextual factors in natural settings

Cost-effectiveness of HIV screening of blood donations in Accra (Ghana)

AbstractObjectivesAreas with high HIV-incidence rates compared to the developed world may benefit from additional testing in blood banks and may show more favorable cost-effectiveness ratios. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of adding p24 antigen, mini pool nucleic acid amplification testing (MP-NAT), or individual donation NAT (ID-NAT) to the HIV-antibody screening at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (Accra, Ghana), where currently only HIV-antibody screening is undertaken.MethodsThe residual risk of HIV transmission was derived from blood donations to the blood bank of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in 2004. Remaining life expectancies of patients receiving blood transfusion were estimated using the World Health Organization life expectancies. Cost-effectiveness ratios for adding the tests to HIV-antibody screening only were determined using a decision tree model and a Markov model for HIV.ResultsThe prevalence of HIV was estimated at 1.51% in 18,714 donations during 2004. The incremental cost per disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) averted was US$1237 for p24 antigen, US$3142 for MP-NAT and US$7695 compared to the next least expensive strategy. HIV-antibody screening itself was cost-saving compared to no screening at all, gaining US$73.85 and averting 0.86 DALY per transfused patient. Up to a willingness-to-pay of US$2736 per DALY averted, HIV-antibody screening without additional testing was the most cost-effective strategy. Over a willingness-to-pay of US$11,828 per DALY averted, ID-NAT was significantly more cost-effective than the other strategies.ConclusionsAdding p24 antigen, MP-NAT, or ID-NAT to the current antibody screening cannot be regarded as a cost-effective health-care intervention for Ghana

Purification of germline stem cells from adult mammalian ovaries: a step closer towards control of the female biological clock?

For decades it was believed that a non-renewable pool of oocyte-containing follicles is established in female mammals at birth. This cornerstone of reproductive biology was challenged 5 years ago by a study reporting on the presence of mitotically-active germ cells in juvenile and adult mouse ovaries. Additional findings presented in this study and others that followed further suggested that mammals retain the capacity to generate oocytes during adulthood; however, isolation of oocyte-producing germline stem cells (GSC) as unequivocal proof of their existence remained elusive. This piece of information now appears to have been provided by Ji Wu and colleagues. In addition to showing that proliferative germ cells resembling male spermatogonial stem cells can be purified from neonatal or adult mouse ovaries and maintained in vitro for months, transplantation studies demonstrated that these cells generate oocytes in ovaries of chemotherapy-sterilized recipients that fertilize and produce viable offspring. Although these findings do not establish that oogenesis occurs in adult females under physiological conditions, they strongly support the existence of GSC in adult mouse ovaries. If equivalent cells can be found in human ovaries, stem cell-based rejuvenation of the oocyte reserve in ovaries on the verge of failure may one day be realized

Children’s Feedback Preferences in Response to an Experimentally Manipulated Peer Evaluation Outcome: The Role of Depressive Symptoms

The present study examined the linkage between pre-adolescent children’s depressive symptoms and their preferences for receiving positive vs. negative feedback subsequent to being faced with an experimentally manipulated peer evaluation outcome in real time. Participants (n = 142) ages 10 to 13, played a computer contest based on the television show Survivor and were randomized to either a peer rejection (i.e., receiving the lowest total ‘likeability’ score from a group of peer-judges), a peer success (i.e., receiving the highest score), or a control peer evaluation condition. Children’s self-reported feedback preferences were then assessed. Results revealed that participants assigned to the negative evaluation outcome, relative to either the success or the control outcome, showed a significantly higher subsequent preference for negatively tuned feedback. Contrary to previous work and predictions derived from self-verification theory, children higher in depressive symptoms were only more likely to prefer negative feedback in response to the negative peer evaluation outcome. These effects for depression were not accounted for by either state mood at baseline or mood change in response to the feedback manipulation

Ecotoxicological risk assessment of hospital wastewater: a proposed framework for raw effluents discharging into urban sewer network

International audienc

Notion de transfert Ville-Campagne à Port-au-Prince (Haïti) : en quoi la ville peut-elle apporter une valeur ajoutée pour la campagne par la gestion de ses déchets organiques et la campagne vers la ville par la production de produits alimentaires ?

Depuis de nombreuses années, la communauté urbaine de Port-au-Prince doit faire faceà la gestion des déchets ménagers produits par ses 2.2 millions d’habitants. Malgré les efforts des institutions nationales et internationales, aucune solution pérenne n’a pu être proposée pour résoudre les nombreuses difficultés rencontrées : taux de collecte rarement performant, décharge non contrôlée, création de dépôts sauvages, obstruction des canalisations impliquant inondations et risques sanitaires élevés, peu d’intervention dans les zones « bidonvillisées ». Or, compte tenu des caractéristiques physico-chimiques des déchets produits (faible teneur en produits compressibles, masse volumique très élevée, matières organiques (60 %) et humidité des déchets (de 60 à 80 %) très élevées, PCI faible), le compostage constituerait a priori une solution adéquate. Ce compost peu utilisable en zone urbaine pourrait être transféré dans les agro-systèmes maraîchers périurbains de montagne distants de quelques dizaines de kilomètre de Port-au-Prince. Il s'agit donc d'établir des modèles socio-économiques de transférabilité ville/campagne en utilisant les déchets organiques produits en zone urbaine, de les transformer puis de les valoriser dans une zone rurale proche des sites de compostage. La meilleure fertilité des terres se traduira par un accroissement de la productivité par unité de surface et par individu et par une consommation des produits, au final, dans la ville.Among all the problems the urban area of Port-au-Prince has to face, the management of the wastes produced by more than 2.2 million Haitians living in the capital appears as one of the biggest and most complicated one for which no one - local or international institutions - seem to have a clear solution (low waste collecting rate, non controlled landfill, creation of non authorised waste deposits in the city, canalisation obstructions implying floods and high sanitation risks, few intervention in slams). However, according to physical and chemical characteristics of the wastes produced in the capital (high percentage of organic matter (around 60 %), high humidity (between 60 & 80 %), low percentage of compressible wastes), using compost processes appears as an adequate solution. The compost produced, hardly usable in urban areas, could be transferred to agricultural systems close to the city. Therefore, socio-economical models for the transferability « city→countryside » can be settled using the organic wastes produced in urban areas, converted into compost and finally used in rural areas close to the compost plants. The better fertility of the ground will be accompanied with a better productivity per surface unity and per peasant for a final consumption of the products in the city

Assessing Aggregate Human Exposure to Toluene In Europe

20th Annual Conference of the International-Society-for-Environmental-Epidemiology, Oct 12-16, 2008, Pasadena, C