Anaerobic bacteria cultured from cystic fibrosis airways correlate to milder disease: A multisite study

Anaerobic and aerobic bacteria were quantitated in respiratory samples across three cystic fibrosis (CF) centres using extended culture methods. Subjects aged 1–69 years who were clinically stable provided sputum (n=200) or bronchoalveolar lavage (n=55). 18 anaerobic and 39 aerobic genera were cultured from 59% and 95% of samples, respectively; 16 out of 57 genera had a 5% prevalence across centres. Analyses of microbial communities using co-occurrence networks in sputum samples showed groupings of oral, including anaerobic, bacteria, whereas typical CF pathogens formed distinct entities. Pseudomonas was associated with worse nutrition and F508del genotype, whereas anaerobe prevalence was positively associated with pancreatic sufficiency, better nutrition and better lung function. A higher total anaerobe/ total aerobe CFU ratio was associated with pancreatic sufficiency and better nutrition. Subjects grouped by factor analysis who had relative dominance of anaerobes over aerobes had milder disease compared with a Pseudomonas-dominated group with similar proportions of subjects that were homozygous for F508del. In summary, anaerobic bacteria occurred at an early age. In sputum-producing subjects anaerobic bacteria were associated with milder disease, suggesting that targeted eradication of anaerobes may not be warranted in sputum-producing CF subjects

AD51B in Familial Breast Cancer

Common variation on 14q24.1, close to RAD51B, has been associated with breast cancer: rs999737 and rs2588809 with the risk of female breast cancer and rs1314913 with the risk of male breast cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of RAD51B variants in breast cancer predisposition, particularly in the context of familial breast cancer in Finland. We sequenced the coding region of RAD51B in 168 Finnish breast cancer patients from the Helsinki region for identification of possible recurrent founder mutations. In addition, we studied the known rs999737, rs2588809, and rs1314913 SNPs and RAD51B haplotypes in 44,791 breast cancer cases and 43,583 controls from 40 studies participating in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) that were genotyped on a custom chip (iCOGS). We identified one putatively pathogenic missense mutation c.541C>T among the Finnish cancer patients and subsequently genotyped the mutation in additional breast cancer cases (n = 5259) and population controls (n = 3586) from Finland and Belarus. No significant association with breast cancer risk was seen in the meta-analysis of the Finnish datasets or in the large BCAC dataset. The association with previously identified risk variants rs999737, rs2588809, and rs1314913 was replicated among all breast cancer cases and also among familial cases in the BCAC dataset. The most significant association was observed for the haplotype carrying the risk-alleles of all the three SNPs both among all cases (odds ratio (OR): 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–1.19, P = 8.88 x 10−16) and among familial cases (OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.16–1.32, P = 6.19 x 10−11), compared to the haplotype with the respective protective alleles. Our results suggest that loss-of-function mutations in RAD51B are rare, but common variation at the RAD51B region is significantly associated with familial breast cancer risk

Recommended adult immunization schedule, United States, 2020

In October 2019, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to approve the Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule for Ages 19 Years or Older, United States, 2020. The 2020 adult immunization schedule, available at www.cdc.gov/vaccines /schedules/hcp/imz/adult.html, summarizes ACIP recommendations in 2 tables and accompanying notes (Figure). The full ACIP recommendations for each vaccine are available at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/index.html. The 2020 schedule has also been approved by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and by the American College of Physicians (www .acponline.org), American Academy of Family Physicians (www.aafp.org), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (www.acog.org), and American College of Nurse-Midwives (www.midwife.org)

WIRED - World-Wide Web interactive remote event display

Contains fulltext : 129118.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

The Performativity of Labour and Femininity on Mad Men

Maryn Wilkinson contends that Mad Men affords its female characters the potential for great transformation because it conflates the performance of femininity with the performance of affective labour—all the while highlighting the ‘performative’ as the central tenet of women’s work. Using Marxist theory, she explores ways the concept of affective labour informs the representation of women in Mad Men. Through close analysis of the series’ aesthetics, characterization, and narration, she illustrates how the representation of female labour, in contrast to the male labour, is entirely ‘affective’—not only for its leading women, but also for auxiliary characters such as Rachel Menken, Megan Draper, Dawn Chambers, Trudy Campbell, and Sylvia Rosen as well. She argues that this affective labour is consistently marked as ‘performative’ in nature. The series thus conflates the performance of femininity with the performance of female affective labour

The Performativity of Labour and Femininity on Mad Men

Maryn Wilkinson contends that Mad Men affords its female characters the potential for great transformation because it conflates the performance of femininity with the performance of affective labour—all the while highlighting the ‘performative’ as the central tenet of women’s work. Using Marxist theory, she explores ways the concept of affective labour informs the representation of women in Mad Men. Through close analysis of the series’ aesthetics, characterization, and narration, she illustrates how the representation of female labour, in contrast to the male labour, is entirely ‘affective’—not only for its leading women, but also for auxiliary characters such as Rachel Menken, Megan Draper, Dawn Chambers, Trudy Campbell, and Sylvia Rosen as well. She argues that this affective labour is consistently marked as ‘performative’ in nature. The series thus conflates the performance of femininity with the performance of female affective labour