Exploring barriers to consistent condom use among sub-Saharan African young immigrants in Switzerland.

No study to date has focused on barriers to condom use specifically among young immigrants to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a qualitative study in sociology, this paper explores generational differences in barriers to condom use between first-generation immigrants (born in Africa and arrived in Switzerland after age 10) and second-generation immigrants (born in Switzerland to two native parents or arrived in Switzerland before age 10). Results are based on in-depth, semistructured individual interviews conducted with 47 young women and men aged 18 to 25 to understand how individual, relational, and cultural dimensions influence sexual socialization and practices. Six main barriers to consistent condom use were identified: reduced pleasure perception, commitment and trust, family-transmitted sexual norms and parental control, lack of accurate knowledge on HIV transmission, lack of awareness about HIV in Switzerland, and gender inequalities. The three first barriers concerned both generations of immigrants, whereas the three last revealed generational differences. These findings can help sexual health providers identify social causes for young sub-Saharan immigrants not using condoms. The findings also highlight the necessity of offering accurate, accessible, and adapted information to all young immigrants, as well as the particular importance of addressing families' lack of discussions about sex, understanding the sexual norms transmitted by parents, and taking into consideration cultural differences among young people born in immigration countries

The Frontier Mountain meteorite gap (Antarctica)

The Frontier Mountain blue ice field is an important Antarctic meteorite trap which has yielded 472 meteorite specimens since its discovery in 1984. Remote sensing analyses and field campaigns from 1993 to 1999 have furnished new glaciological data on ice flow, ice thickness, bedrock topography, ice ablation and surface mass transport by wind, along with detailed descriptions of the field situation at the trap. This solid set of data combined with an updated meteorite distribution map and terrestrial ages available from literature allows us to better describe the nature of the concentration mechanism. In particular, we observe that the meteorite trap forms in a blue ice field i) located upstream of an absolute and a shallow subice barriers; ii) characterized by compressive ice flow with horizontal velocities decreasing from 100 to <10 cm a-1 on approaching the obstacle; iii) undergoing mean ablation rates of 6.5 cm a-1; iv) nourished by a limited snow accumulation zone extending ~20 km upstream of the blue ice area. We also draw the following conclusions: i) the origin of the meteorite trap can be explained according to the present-day glaciological situation; ii) the meteorite concentration develops according to the general principles of the “ice flow model”; iii) the accumulation model can be described as “stagnant ice or slow-moving ice against an absolute and submerged barriers”, according to the descriptive schemes present in literature; iv) the Frontier Mountain ice field is an effective trap for meteorites weighing more than ~200 g; for smaller masses, the combination of wind and glacial drift may remove meteorites in less than a few tens of ka; v) although the activation age of the FM trap is not yet constrained, we infer that one of the most important findsite may be as old as 50 ka, i.e. older than the Last Glacial Maximum

Experiences of patients with Poland syndrome of diagnosis and care in Italy: A pilot survey

Background: Poland Syndrome (PS) is a rare congenital malformation involving functional and aesthetic impairments. Early diagnosis and timely therapeutic approaches play an important role in improving the quality of life of patients and kindred. This study aims to explore healthcare experiences of the diagnosis of patients affected by PS and to investigate the factors associated with diagnostic delay in Italy. Results: Seventy-two patients affected by PS were asked to fill in a self-administered questionnaire on: a) diagnostic path; b) perceived quality of care received after diagnosis; c) knowledge of the rights and the socio-economic hardships related to their disease; d) evaluation of the integration of various professional skills involved in the diagnostic and therapeutic approach; e) perception of the social support provided by the Italian Association of Poland Syndrome (AISP). The average age at diagnosis was around 14 years; diagnosis was made at birth in only 31.58% of cases. Although typical symptomatology had appeared on average at an early age (4 months), only 23 patients (40.35%) received an early diagnosis (within the first year of life). Just over half of the patients (n = 30) were diagnosed in their region of origin, while 27 were diagnosed elsewhere. Furthermore, 12.28% were self-diagnoses. Among the patients who were diagnosed outside their region, 15 (88.24%) stated they had foregone some visits or treatments owing to costs and/or organizational issues. Conclusions: An analysis of the patients' experiences highlights several gaps and a lack of homogeneity in the diagnostic and therapeutic follow-up of PS patients in Italy. A specific national diagnostic and therapeutic path is essential to guarantee patients complete and appropriate health services, compliant with the ethical principles of non-discrimination, justice and empathy. Implementation of an effective information and research network and empowerment of patients' associations are necessary conditions to encourage clinical collaboration and improve the quality of life of people living with rare diseases

Reply to the comment by Michard et al. on “Evidence of extensional metamorphism associated to Cretaceous rifting of the North-Maghrebian passive margin: the Tanger-Ketama Unit (External Rif, Northern Morocco) by Vázquez et al., GeologicaActa 11 (2013)...

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Reply to the comment by Michard et al. on "Evidence of extensional metamorphism associated to Cretaceous rifting of the North-Maghrebian passive margin : The Tanger-Ketama Unit (External Rif, northern Morocco) by Vázquez et al., Geologica Acta 11 (2013), 277-293"

Michard et al. (this issue) commented on certain aspects of the Alpine metamorphism and structural evolution of the Rif belt (Morocco) that were briefly noted in Vázquez et al. (2013). In particular, they criticize our interpretation of an extensional setting during the main metamorphic recrystallization of the Tanger-Ketama Unit that we considered related to slaty cleavage (S1) parallel to the lithological layering generated during the Cretaceous. Michard et al. (this issue) interpret the S1 syn-metamorphic foliation as being related to compressional folds, and the peak metamorphism temperatures, in the Lower Cretaceous sediments, as ranging between 200-300°C. Therefore, they conclude that recrystallization of the Ketama Unit occurred during Miocene thrust nappe tectonics. We explain our view in the following sections

The potential role of MR based radiomic biomarkers in the characterization of focal testicular lesions

How to differentiate with MRI-based techniques testicular germ (TGCTs) and testicular non-germ cell tumors (TNGCTs) is still under debate and Radiomics may be the turning key. Our purpose is to investigate the performance of MRI-based Radiomics signatures for the preoperative prediction of testicular neoplasm histology. The aim is twofold: (i), differentiating TGCTs and TNGCTs status and (ii) differentiating seminomas (SGCTs) from non-seminomatous (NSGCTs). Forty-two patients with pathology-proven testicular neoplasms and referred for pre-treatment MRI, were retrospectively enrolled. Thirty-two out of 44 lesions were TGCTs. Twelve out of 44 were TNGCTs or other histologies. Two radiologists segmented the volume of interest on T2-weighted images. Approximately 500 imaging features were extracted. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) was applied as method for variable selection. A linear model and a linear support vector machine (SVM) were trained with selected features to assess discrimination scores for the two endpoints. LASSO identified 3 features that were employed to build fivefold validated linear discriminant and linear SVM classifiers for the TGCT-TNGCT endpoint giving an overall accuracy of 89%. Four features were employed to build another SVM for the SGCT-SNGCT endpoint with an overall accuracy of 86%. The data obtained proved that T2-weighted-based Radiomics is a promising tool in the diagnostic workup of testicular neoplasms by discriminating germ cell from non-gem cell tumors, and seminomas from non-seminomas