Ethnic differences in age of onset and prevalence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviours: a school-based South African study

Objectives: To determine the age of onset and prevalence figures for disordered eating for diverse ethnic groups among a sample of South African schoolgirls. Method: A cross-sectional design was implemented. Two questionnaires were used to elicit prevalence figures and attitudes towards eating. Results: The study population (n = 418) consisted of black and white schoolgirls in various educational phases. Black students were found to experience a significant increase in reported bulimia-associated behaviours in grades seven to nine (mean age 13.7 years) but did not report any significant increases in drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction or poor eating attitudes across the different phases. White students reported significant increases in all measured disordered eating attitudes and behaviours in grades 10-12 (mean age 16.7 years). In grades four to six, black and white students did not differ with respect to their reported disordered eating attitudes and behaviours. However, in grades seven to nine, black students were more likely to report bulimia-associated behaviours than their white counterparts. The most apparent differences emerged in grades 10-12. White students reported significantly higher drive for thinness, greater body dissatisfaction and poorer eating attitudes than their black counterparts. Furthermore, the ethnic differences that emerged during grades seven to nine with respect to bulimia disappeared in grades 10–12. Conclusion: This study fills the hiatus in the existing South African literature with respect to age of onset and prevalence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviours across ethnic boundaries. Furthermore, it creates a foundation for developing appropriate strategies to address eating disorders in the multicultural South African context.Keywords: disordered eating, onset, ethnic groups, EDI, EAT-2

The Secret Life of the Anthrax Agent Bacillus anthracis: Bacteriophage-Mediated Ecological Adaptations

Ecological and genetic factors that govern the occurrence and persistence of anthrax reservoirs in the environment are obscure. A central tenet, based on limited and often conflicting studies, has long held that growing or vegetative forms of Bacillus anthracis survive poorly outside the mammalian host and must sporulate to survive in the environment. Here, we present evidence of a more dynamic lifecycle, whereby interactions with bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, elicit phenotypic alterations in B. anthracis and the emergence of infected derivatives, or lysogens, with dramatically altered survival capabilities. Using both laboratory and environmental B. anthracis strains, we show that lysogeny can block or promote sporulation depending on the phage, induce exopolysaccharide expression and biofilm formation, and enable the long-term colonization of both an artificial soil environment and the intestinal tract of the invertebrate redworm, Eisenia fetida. All of the B. anthracis lysogens existed in a pseudolysogenic-like state in both the soil and worm gut, shedding phages that could in turn infect non-lysogenic B. anthracis recipients and confer survival phenotypes in those environments. Finally, the mechanism behind several phenotypic changes was found to require phage-encoded bacterial sigma factors and the expression of at least one host-encoded protein predicted to be involved in the colonization of invertebrate intestines. The results here demonstrate that during its environmental phase, bacteriophages provide B. anthracis with alternatives to sporulation that involve the activation of soil-survival and endosymbiotic capabilities

Endovascular management of traumatic cervicothoracic arteriovenous fistula.

GesondheidswetenskappeChirurgiePlease help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: [email protected]

Endovascular management of traumatic cervicothoracic arteriovenous fistula

GesondheidswetenskappeRadiodiagnosePlease help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: [email protected]