Knowledge of HIV infection, risk perception, and sexual behaviour of undergraduates. May female medical students act as peer educators?

This paper is aimed to verify whether the knowledge and beliefs of female medical freshmen about HIV infection, their personal risk perception, and their sexual behaviour differs from their female peers, in view of the possibility of female medical student-based peer education. A purposive, theoretical quota sampling method was used to recruit the target population. A self-administered anonymous questionnaire was delivered to both female medical and non medical freshmen during March 2004 (n = 266: 124 medical students and 142 non medical students) in Catania (Sicily). The data were analysed for the whole sample and for the two groups of students individually. The Chi-square test was used to compare data from the two groups of students. Results showed that knowledge and risk perception about HIV infection were higher for medical students when compared with non medical students. Moreover, a lower rate of sexually active medical students and a higher rate of condom use was found among them. Since female medical students seem more sensitive to risk perception and aware of healthier lifestyles, they could be useful in peer sexual education and appropriate prevention programmes against HIV infection

Persistent oral and urinary Candida spp. carriagein Italian HIV-seropositive asymptomatic subjects

The aim of the present study was to ascertain frequency and persistence of Candida spp. oral and urinary carriage in asymptomatic, HAART-naive HIV-seropositive subjects who had not undergone therapy with antimycotic drugs, and whose CD4+ lymphocyte count was greater than 200/?l. Oral carriage was the most common Candida spp. carriage (63.0% of the subjects), while candiduria was more rarely observed (6.5%). C. albicans was recovered from the majority of the subjects examined (56.5%), followed by C. krusey (4.3%), C. tropicalis (2.2%) and C. dubliniensis (2.2%). C. albicans was also isolated from two urinary carriers (4.3%) and C. glabrata from another one (2.2%). The same C. albicans clone was repeatedly isolated from 14 out of 15 oral carriers while the same clone of C. dubliniensis was repeatedly isolated from one carrier, as shown by the persistence of RAPD fingerprint of serial isolates during one year of follow-up. Since persistence of Candida spp. carriage may influence the development of clinical candidiasis in immunocompromised hosts, monitoring of the carrier status could be useful for preventing clinical thrush in HIV-seropositive subjects

Motor imagery, perspective taking and gender differences: A VVIQ2-based study

Scientific literature highlighted gender differences in spatial orientation. In particular, men and women differ in terms of the navigational processes they use in daily life. Scientific literature highlighted that women use analytical strategies while men tend to use holistic strategies. Furthermore, studies exploring gender differences in self-reported dream perspectives reported that women dream mainly in first person and men mainly in third person. This work used Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 to verify if gender differences in perspective taking last also in motor imagery practice. The aim of VVIQ2 questionnaire is to determine the vividness of movement imagery. In the VVIQ2, the image can be obtained watching oneself while performing the movement from an external point of view (External Visual Imagery), or from an internal point of view, as if you were looking out through your own eyes while performing the movement (Internal Visual Imagery). The Questionnaire was administered to students of Sports Sciences Degree from University of Salern

Phylogenetic groups, virulence genes and quinolone resistance of integron-bearing Escherichia coli strains isolated from a wastewater treatment plant

We investigated phylogenetic affiliation, occurrence of virulence genes and quinolone resistance in 109 integron-containing strains of Escherichia coli isolated from a wastewater treatment plant. Selection for integron-bearing strains caused a shift toward phylogroup D, which was most numerous, followed by A, B1 and B2. Phylogroups D and B2, both of which are reported to include virulent extraintestinal pathotypes, made up 50.5% of all isolates and were present in every stage of wastewater treatment, including final effluent. Diarrheagenic pathotypes made up 21% of the strains. The average virulence factor genes score was low (1.40) and the range was from 0 to 5. Quinolone and fluoroquinolone resistance was observed in 56.0% and 50.4% of the strains, respectively; however, it was not associated with virulence factor score. Although the average virulence factor score was low, 17.4% of strains had three and more virulence genes. They were isolated mostly from raw sewage, but 30% of them were cultured from final effluent. Release of multiresistant integron-bearing E. coli strains with virulence traits into the environment may create potential threat and be of public health concern

A Gaussian model for evaluating the release of CH4 by the landfill of Palermo

Many landfills for urban solid waste have been developed in sites very close to urbanised areas thus exposing the population to various dangerous pollutants. The landfill of "Bellolampo", located a few kilometres from the city ofPalermo is one of these. It was officially created in the eighties and only some years later it was decided convert it into a controlled landfill, soon becoming a catch basin of refuse for a large hinterland constituted by approximately 50 small towns. In recent years the city of Palermo has been equipped with a network of weather and air-quality stations for monitoring the main components that afe responsible for atmospheric pollution; it consists of 10 fixed stations located both in peripheral and centraI parts ofthe city. Four ofthem afe able to measure the CH4 concentration. In this work an analysis of the meteorological data and of the CH4 concentrations, acquired downwind the emission source, has been carried out. A dispersion Gaussian model of pollutants was applied in order to estimate the amount of the CH4 released by the landfill. The estimated values were validated by utilising the methane concentration values recorded by the biogas capture system installed in the landfill area

[Molecular methods in the epidemiology of gram-negative bacterial infections]

Identification and typing of bacterial isolates from patients and environment are necessary in order to detect the sources of infections. In recent years different molecular typing methods have been carried out and proved more reliable than methods based on phenotypical characters. We have applied two methods of genotyping, i. e. ribotyping and rrnARDRA (Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis) methods, to the study of different bacterial species. Ribotyping was the first universal method for molecular typing of bacteria. We have succeded both in typing various species of enterobacteria (Salmonella Wien, S. Enteritidis, Shigella sonnei, Proteus spp., Morganella morganii, Providencia spp.) by using different restriction endonucleases and in demonstrating the epidemiological importance of the ribotypes identified in each species. Genotyping by rrnARDRA is an identification method based on the analysis of the electrophoretic patterns obtained after restriction endonucleases digestion of the rrn operon sequences amplified by polymerase chain reaction. This is a universal method, because both the same primers and the same endonucleases are utilized for the identification of Gram-positive as well as Gram-negative bacteria. The identification of a bacterial isolate is performed by comparing its profile (number of bands and molecular weight of the fragments) with those from a data-base of profiles of the various species

Recent trends in salmonellosis epidemiology

The taxonomy of the genus Salmonella and the recent trends in the epidemiology of salmonellosis have been reviewed. Global and Italian trends in salmonellae infections have been considered focusing on the application of molecular biology methods to the study of epidemic isolates, as in the case of S. Wien and the more recent S. Enteritidis pandemics. Interventions for salmonellosis prevention, and control measures including new rapid cultural methods for the detection of salmonellae in foods, have been summarized