Sexual behaviour and HIV/sexually transmitted infection risk behaviours in the general population of Slovenia, a low HIV prevalence country in central Europe.

OBJECTIVES: To describe sexual and HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk behaviours in Slovenia. METHODS: A nationally representative cross-sectional survey of the general population aged 18-49 years in 1999-2001 was conducted. The data were collected by face-to-face interviews and anonymous self-administered questionnaires. Statistical methods for complex survey data were used. RESULTS: 849 men and 903 women were interviewed. In the past 5 years, both men and women reported a median of one heterosexual partner (means 3.2, 1.5, respectively), concurrent heterosexual partnerships were reported by 24.4% of men and 8.2% of women, heterosexual sex with non-Slovenian partners by 12.6% of men and 12.2% of women, forced sex by 4.8% of women, paid heterosexual sex by 2.6% of men, sex with another man by 0.6% of men and heterosexual sex with an injecting drug user by 1.2% of men and 1.3% of women. In the past year, 22.7% of men and 9.5% of women reported forming at least one new heterosexual partnership. The mean numbers of episodes of heterosexual sex in the previous 4 weeks were 6.1 for men and 6.0 for women. Consistent and inconsistent condom use was reported more frequently among men reporting multiple female partners and those not married or cohabiting. CONCLUSIONS: Recent patterns of reported sexual behaviour are consistent with a low risk of HIV and STI transmission in Slovenia. The results will inform Slovenian sexual health policies including HIV/STI prevention, and are particularly valuable because population-based data on HIV/STI risk behaviour have not previously been available in low HIV prevalence countries of central Europe

Effects of maternal suicidal ideation on child cognitive development: A longitudinal analysis

This study aimed to assess the association between suicidal ideation among mothers living with HIV in Zimbabwe and the cognitive development of their children. Participants were mother–child dyads recruited from two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Data were collected at baseline and 12 months follow-up. Suicidal ideation was assessed using item-10 from the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to assess the association of child cognitive outcomes at follow-up (using the Mullen scales of early learning) with maternal suicidal ideation. Mothers with suicidal ideation at baseline (n = 171) tended to be younger, unmarried, experienced moderate to severe hunger, had elevated parental stress and depression symptoms compared with non-suicidal mothers (n = 391). At follow-up, emerging maternal suicidal ideation was associated with poorer child cognitive outcomes (adjusted mean difference − 6.1; 95% CI − 10.3 to − 1.8; p = 0.03). Suicidal ideation affects child cognitive development and should be addressed, particularly in HIV positive mothers

The 12-item WHO Disability Assessment Schedule II as an outcome measure for treatment of common mental disorders.

BACKGROUND: Common mental disorders (CMD) are among the most significant contributors to disability worldwide. Patient-reported disability outcomes should be included as a key metric in the comparative assessment of value across global mental health interventions. This study aims to evaluate the validity of a widely used, cross-cultural tool - the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS) - as a functional outcome measure for CMD treatment. METHODS: The study population includes 1024 participants with CMD enrolled in the MANAS trial in India. CMD was assessed using the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R). Disability was assessed using the 12-item WHODAS II plus a measure of disability days. This analysis presents the correlations between these disability items and CMD symptom severity at 2 months after enrollment (convergent validity) and the items' associations with CMD recovery 4 months later (external responsiveness). RESULTS: All items showed a positive correlation of disability with CMD symptom severity (p < 0.001). The WHODAS items of 'standing,' 'household responsibilities,' and 'emotional disturbance' explained the most variance in CMD symptom severity. Improvements in 'disability days,' 'emotional disturbance,' 'standing,' 'household responsibilities,' 'day-to-day work,' and 'concentrating' were significantly associated with CMD recovery over follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is recommended on a CMD-specific WHODAS subscale comprised of the six WHODAS items found to be most strongly associated with CMD severity and recovery. This shorter, CMD-specific disability subscale would critically serve as a common metric to compare intervention impact on patient-centered outcomes and, in turn, to allocate global mental health resources efficiently

A Homological Approach to Belief Propagation and Bethe Approximations

We introduce a differential complex of local observables given a decomposition of a global set of random variables into subsets. Its boundary operator allows us to define a transport equation equivalent to Belief Propagation. This definition reveals a set of conserved quantities under Belief Propagation and gives new insight on the relationship of its equilibria with the critical points of Bethe free energy.Comment: 14 pages, submitted for the 2019 Geometric Science of Information colloquiu

Determination of the three-dimensional orientation of single molecules

Published versio

Effects of Maternal Suicidal Ideation on Child Cognitive Development: A Longitudinal Analysis.

This study aimed to assess the association between suicidal ideation among mothers living with HIV in Zimbabwe and the cognitive development of their children. Participants were mother-child dyads recruited from two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Data were collected at baseline and 12 months follow-up. Suicidal ideation was assessed using item-10 from the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to assess the association of child cognitive outcomes at follow-up (using the Mullen scales of early learning) with maternal suicidal ideation. Mothers with suicidal ideation at baseline (n = 171) tended to be younger, unmarried, experienced moderate to severe hunger, had elevated parental stress and depression symptoms compared with non-suicidal mothers (n = 391). At follow-up, emerging maternal suicidal ideation was associated with poorer child cognitive outcomes (adjusted mean difference - 6.1; 95% CI - 10.3 to - 1.8; p = 0.03). Suicidal ideation affects child cognitive development and should be addressed, particularly in HIV positive mothers

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: An Introduction to the Cost, Impact, and Challenges of Accelerated Scaling Up

Catherine Hankins, Steven Forsythe, and Emmanuel Njeuhmeli provide an overview of the “Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: The Cost, Impact, and Challenges of Accelerated Scale-Up in Southern and Eastern Africa” Collection, calling for leadership and vision to help halt the HIV epidemic

Economic evaluation of a task-shifting intervention for common mental disorders in India

OBJECTIVE: To carry out an economic evaluation of a task-shifting intervention for the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders in primary-care settings in Goa, India. METHODS: Cost-utility and cost-effectiveness analyses based on generalized linear models were performed within a trial set in 24 public and private primary-care facilities. Subjects were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control arm. Eligible subjects in the intervention arm were given psycho-education, case management, interpersonal psychotherapy and/or antidepressants by lay health workers. Subjects in the control arm were treated by physicians. The use of health-care resources, the disability of each subject and degree of psychiatric morbidity, as measured by the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule, were determined at 2, 6 and 12 months. FINDINGS: Complete data, from all three follow-ups, were collected from 1243 (75.4%) and 938 (81.7%) of the subjects enrolled in the study facilities from the public and private sectors, respectively. Within the public facilities, subjects in the intervention arm showed greater improvement in all the health outcomes investigated than those in the control arm. Time costs were also significantly lower in the intervention arm than in the control arm, whereas health system costs in the two arms were similar. Within the private facilities, however, the effectiveness and costs recorded in the two arms were similar. CONCLUSION: Within public primary-care facilities in Goa, the use of lay health workers in the care of subjects with common mental disorders was not only cost-effective but also cost-saving

The epidemiology of gonorrhoea, chlamydial infection and syphilis in four African cities.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the epidemiology of gonorrhoea, chlamydial infection and syphilis in four cities in sub-Saharan Africa; two with a high prevalence of HIV infection (Kisumu, Kenya and Ndola, Zambia), and two with a relatively low HIV prevalence (Cotonou, Benin and Yaoundé, Cameroon). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study, using standardized methods, including a standardized questionnaire and standardized laboratory tests, in four cities in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: In each city, a random sample of about 2000 adults aged 15-49 years was taken. Consenting men and women were interviewed about their socio-demographic characteristics and their sexual behaviour, and were tested for HIV, syphilis, herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), gonorrhoea, chlamydial infection, and (women only) Trichomonas vaginalis infection. Risk factor analyses were carried out for chlamydial infection and syphilis seroreactivity. RESULTS: The prevalence of gonorrhoea ranged between 0% in men in Kisumu and 2.7% in women in Yaoundé. Men and women in Yaoundé had the highest prevalence of chlamydial infection (5.9 and 9.4%, respectively). In the other cities, the prevalence of chlamydial infection ranged between 1.3% in women in Cotonou and 4.5% in women in Kisumu. In Ndola, the prevalence of syphilis seroreactivity was over 10% in both men and women; it was around 6% in Yaoundé, 3-4% in Kisumu, and 1-2% in Cotonou. Chlamydial infection was associated with rate of partner change for both men and women, and with young age for women. At the population level, the prevalence of chlamydial infection correlated well with reported rates of partner change. Positive syphilis serology was associated with rate of partner change and with HSV-2 infection. The latter association could be due to biological interaction between syphilis and HSV-2 or to residual confounding by sexual behaviour. At the population level, there was no correlation between prevalence of syphilis seroreactivity and reported rates of partner change. CONCLUSION: Differences in prevalence of chlamydial infection could be explained by differences in reported sexual behaviour, but the variations in prevalence of syphilis seroreactivity remained unexplained. More research is needed to better understand the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections in Africa

What can one learn from two-state single molecule trajectories?

A time trajectory of an observable that fluctuates between two values (say, on and off), stemming from some unknown multi-substate kinetic scheme, is the output of many single molecule experiments. Here we show that when all successive waiting times along the trajectory are uncorrelated the on and the off waiting time probability density functions (PDFs) contain all the information. By relating the lack of correlation in the trajectory to the topology of kinetic schemes, we can immediately specify those kinetic schemes that are equally consistent with experiment, which means that it is impossible to differentiate between them by any sophisticated analyses of the trajectory. Correlated trajectories, however, contain additional information about the underlying kinetic scheme, and we consider the strategy that one should use to extract it. An example is given on correlations in the activity of individual lipase molecules.Comment: Biophys. J., in press (2005