Marital and sexual norms in roma community

This study presents some aspects from Roma reality like marital and sexual norms in the community – basic for sustaining the community identity. These norms are changing because the community is in period of transition. This fact reflects the individual and group sensation for community boundaries and difference from the majority. Families with new behavioral models appear – so called „denominated“ families (with denominated values and norms). They are in an identity vacuum – the old norms lose their regulative functions but the new norms, these of the gadjo (non-roma) are not integrated yet. This defines these families as isolates from their own community and from this of the Bulgarian majority. These families are the indicator for the coming changes in the Roma ethnic self-conscience and in the Roma community identity.===========================Н астоящая студия рассматрывает некоторые аспекты современной ромской жизни, такие как брачные и сексуальные нормы общности, являющиеся основными к сохранению общностной идентичности. Так как общность находится в переходном периоде, то и эти нормы соответствено меняются во времени. Данное положение оказывает влияние на груповое и индивидуальное понимание границ общности и различия от остальных. Появляются семьи с поведенческими моделями нового типа – так называемые „аномиранные“ семьи. Они находятся во вакууме идентичности – старые нормы начинают терять свою регулятивную функцию, а новые нормы – такие как „гаджо“, не-ромские – все еще не утверждены. Это обстоятельство ставит семьи такого типа в особенную позицию изоляции, как со стороны их собственной, так и со стороны болгарской общности. Эти семьи являются индикатором наступающих перемен в ромском этническом самосознании и ромской общностной идентичности

Case Report: Changes in Spatial Summation for Chromatic Stimuli in a Patient with Hypothyroidism Due to Autoimmune Thyroiditis Before and After Treatment with Levothyroxine.

Introduction: Acquired hypothyroidism is associated with a wide range of deficits including visual effects. Investigating colour vision mediated by S-cones has shown potential to detect diseases such as glaucoma or diabetes, however, studies of colour vision in hypothyroidism are scarce. Case presentation: In the present study we report spatial summation data of a patient with hypothyroidism due to autoimmune thyroiditis tested with S-cone specific stimuli. The area of complete spatial summation (Ricco’s area) is believed to reflect neural convergence and has been widely used to study structural changes to compensate for cell loss. We measured Ricco’s area before and after treatment with levothyroxine. Colour contrast thresholds were measured as a function of stimulus area in the retinal periphery, under S-cone isolating conditions. Ricco’s area was determined from the Threshold vs Area curve for either blue (S-cone increments) or yellow (S-cone decrements) stimuli. The patient’s data before treatment showed enlarged Ricco’s area (3 to 10 times larger) only for yellow stimuli compared to participants without hypothyroidism. After a treatment with levothyroxine and having reached euthyroidism, Ricco’s area decreased significantly (p < 0.05) for yellow stimuli, but remained unchanged for blue stimuli (p = 0.177). A second subject without hypothyroidism, who participated in both experiments did not show any significant differences for either blue (p = 0.081) or yellow stimuli (p = 0.78). Conclusion: The observed increase in Ricco’s area in hypothyroidism may be related to increased convergence to compensate for ganglion cell dysfunction. The results suggest that this process can be reversible after treatment. Examination of the S-cone system provides the potential to monitor this condition

Peripheral and central delay in processing high spatial frequencies: reaction time and VEP latency studies

AbstractVisually evoked potentials (VEP) and reaction time (RT) were recorded under stimulation with sinusoidal gratings. Grating spatial frequency (SF) was 0.5, 5 or 12 cd and grating contrast was varied. Consistent with previous findings, both VEP latency and RT increased with the increase of grating SF and with the decrease of grating contrast. It was found, in addition, that RT and VEP latency increased by approximately the same amount when SF increased from 0.5 to 5 cd, thus suggesting that the main source of the RT delay at 5 cd in comparison with RT at 0.5 cd is of peripheral origin. However, in comparison with the data at 0.5 and 5 cd, RT at 12 cd increased much more than VEP latency. We conclude that the RT delay at high SF involves a substantial central component in addition to the peripheral delay

Impact of CYP3A7, CYP2D6 and ABCC2/ABCC3 polymorphisms on tacrolimus steady state concentrations in Bulgarian kidney transplant recipients

AbstractPolymorphisms in the genes of drug-metabolizing enzymes have the potential to contribute to inter-individual differences in drug pharmacokinetics and toxicity. A custom next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel was used in 71 kidney transplanted patients to study the polymorphisms of 11 genes relevant to the metabolism of immunosuppressive drugs. Cyclosporine A and tacrolimus concentrations were determined by a validated liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method. More than 1000 polymorphisms were found in the studied 11 genes, and 45% of them were different non-synonymous variants. Eleven missense mutations were observed in the CYP3A7 gene, resulting in increased metabolism of tacrolimus at day 21 post-transplantation (6.7 µg/L vs. 10.3 µg/L; p = 0.048). Two alleles encoding a cytochrome P450 2D6 enzyme with impaired function—CYP2D6*4 (non-functional) and CYP2D6*10 (decreased function), were found in the studied group and both of them were associated with higher levels of tacrolimus at day 14 (10.1 µg/L; p = 0.021 and 9.7 µg/L; p = 0.036, vs. 7.7 µg/L respectively). Altered function of ABC transporters C3 and C2 was also associated with increased TAC concentration. ABCC3 significantly influenced TAC metabolism by itself, but polymorphisms affecting both ABCC3 and ABCC2 resulted in higher changes: 13.6 µg/L vs. 7.9 µg/L, day 14 (p = 0.003) and 20 µg/L versus 9.3 µg/L, day 21 (p = 0.019). All associations were also checked for variants affecting the activity of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5. Despite its small size, the study points out that the pharmacogenetics of calcineurin inhibitors may also be influenced by other genes besides CYP3A4 and CYP3A5

Chemical Composition and Disruption of Quorum Sensing Signaling in Geographically Diverse United States Propolis

Propolis or bee glue has been used for centuries for various purposes and is especially important in human health due to many of its biological and pharmacological properties. In this work we showed quorum sensing inhibitory (QSI) activity of ten geographically distinct propolis samples from the United States using the acyl-homoserine lactone- (AHL-) dependent Chromobacterium violaceum strain CV026. Based on GC-MS chemical profiling the propolis samples can be classified into several groups that are as follows: (1) rich in cinnamic acid derivatives, (2) rich in flavonoids, and (3) rich in triterpenes. An in-depth analysis of the propolis from North Carolina led to the isolation and identification of a triterpenic acid that was recently isolated from Hondurian propolis (Central America) and ethyl ether of p-coumaric alcohol not previously identified in bee propolis. QSI activity was also observed in the second group US propolis samples which contained the flavonoid pinocembrin in addition to other flavonoid compounds. The discovery of compounds that are involved in QSI activity has the potential to facilitate studies that may lead to the development of antivirulence therapies that can be complementary and/or alternative treatments against antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens and/or emerging pathogens that have yet to be identified