Recent Food Shortage Is Associated with Leprosy Disease in Bangladesh: A Case-Control Study

Although intensive control programs reduced the prevalence of leprosy worldwide, new cases of this infectious disease are still detected in several of the poorest areas of the world. Therefore the disease is known as a disease of poverty. To be able to control the disease it is important to know which aspects of poverty play a role in transmission and acquiring clinical signs of disease. In this study socio-economic circumstances of recently diagnosed leprosy patients were compared with those of a control population in the poverty stricken northwest area of Bangladesh where leprosy is common. A recent period of food shortage was the only socio-economic factor that was found related to leprosy disease in this study and not poverty as such. Food shortage is seasonal and poverty related in northwest Bangladesh, while malnutrition is known to lower immunity and make people more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Therefore it was concluded that malnutrition as an aspect of poverty played an important role in the development of the clinical signs of leprosy. We therefore recommend that nutritional support for high risk groups should be included in leprosy control programmes to reduce risk of disease in areas where leprosy is common

Aberrant innate immune sensing leads to the rapid progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Novel approaches are needed to define subgroups of patients with Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) at risk for acute exacerbations and/or accelerated progression of this generally fatal disease. Progression of disease is an integral component of IPF with a median survival of 3 to 5 years. Conversely, a high degree of variability in disease progression has been reported among series. The characteristics of patients at risk of earlier death predominantly rely on baseline HRCT appearance, but this concept that has been challenged. Disparate physiological approaches have also been taken to identify patients at risk of mortality, with varying results. We hypothesized that the rapid decline in lung function in IPF may be a consequence of an abnormal host response to pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), leading to aberrant activation in fibroblasts and fibrosis. Analysis of upper and lower lobe surgical lung biopsies (SLBs) indicated that TLR9, a hypomethylated CpG DNA receptor, is prominently expressed at the transcript and protein level, most notably in biopsies from rapidly progressive IPF patients. Surprisingly, fibroblasts appeared to be a major cellular source of TLR9 expression in IPF biopsies from this group of progressors. Further, CpG DNA promoted profibrotic cytokine and chemokine synthesis in isolated human IPF fibroblasts, most markedly again in cells from patients with the rapidly progressive IPF phenotype, in a TLR9-dependent manner. Finally, CpG DNA exacerbated fibrosis in an in vivo model initiated by the adoptive transfer of primary fibroblasts derived from patients who exhibited rapidly progressing fibrosis. Together, these data suggested that TLR9 activation via hypomethylated DNA might be an important mechanism in promoting fibrosis particularly in patients prone to rapidly progressing IPF

Theoretical Constraints on the Higgs Effective Couplings

We derive constraints on the sign of couplings in an effective Higgs Lagrangian using prime principles such as the naturalness principle, global symmetries, and unitarity. Specifically, we study four dimension-six operators, O_H, O_y, O_g, and O_gamma, which contribute to the production and decay of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), among other things. Assuming the Higgs is a fundamental scalar, we find: 1) the coefficient of O_H is positive except when there are triplet scalars, resulting in a reduction in the Higgs on-shell coupling from their standard model (SM) expectations if no other operators contribute, 2) the linear combination of O_H and O_y controlling the overall Higgs coupling to fermion is always reduced, 3) the sign of O_g induced by a new colored fermion is such that it interferes destructively with the SM top contribution in the gluon fusion production of the Higgs, if the new fermion cancels the top quadratic divergence in the Higgs mass, and 4) the correlation between naturalness and the sign of O_gamma is similar to that of O_g, when there is a new set of heavy electroweak gauge bosons. Next considering a composite scalar for the Higgs, we find the reduction in the on-shell Higgs couplings persists. If further assuming a collective breaking mechanism as in little Higgs theories, the coefficient of O_H remains positive even in the presence of triplet scalars. In the end, we conclude that the gluon fusion production of the Higgs boson is reduced from the SM rate in all composite Higgs models. Our study suggests a wealth of information could be revealed by precise measurements of the Higgs couplings, providing strong motivations for both improving on measurements at the LHC and building a precision machine such as the linear collider.Comment: 37 pages, one figure; v2: improved discussion on dispersion relation and other minor modifications; version accepted for publication

Smoking among Young Rural to Urban Migrant Women in China: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Rural-to-urban migrant women may be vulnerable to smoking initiation as they are newly exposed to risk factors in the urban environment. We sought to identify correlates of smoking among rural-to-urban migrant women in China.A cross-sectional survey of rural-to-urban migrant women working in restaurants and hotels (RHW) and those working as commercial sex workers (CSW) was conducted in ten provincial capital cities in China. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to identify correlates of smoking. We enrolled 2229 rural-to-urban migrant women (1697 RHWs aged 18–24 years and 532 CSWs aged 18–30 years). Of these, 18.4% RHWs and 58.3% CSWs reported ever tried smoking and 3.2% RHWs and 41.9% CSWs reported current smoking. Participants who first tried smoking after moving to the city were more likely to be current smokers compared to participants who first tried smoking before moving to the city (25.3% vs. 13.8% among RHWs, p = 0.02; 83.6% vs. 58.6% among CSWs, p = <0.01). Adjusting for other factors, “tried female cigarette brands” had the strongest association with current smoking (OR 5.69, 95%CI 3.44 to 9.41) among participants who had ever tried smoking.Exposure to female cigarette brands may increase the susceptibility to smoking among rural-to-urban migrant women. Smoke-free policies and increased taxes may be effective in preventing rural-to-urban migrant women from smoking initiation

Activation of the dopamine 1 and dopamine 5 receptors increase skeletal muscle mass and force production under non-atrophying and atrophying conditions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Control of skeletal muscle mass and force production is a complex physiological process involving numerous regulatory systems. Agents that increase skeletal muscle cAMP levels have been shown to modulate skeletal muscle mass and force production. The dopamine 1 receptor and its closely related homolog, the dopamine 5 receptor, are G-protein coupled receptors that are expressed in skeletal muscle and increase cAMP levels when activated. Thus we hypothesize that activation of the dopamine 1 and/or 5 receptor will increase skeletal muscle cAMP levels thereby modulating skeletal muscle mass and force production.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We treated isolated mouse tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscles in tissue bath with the selective dopamine 1 receptor and dopamine 5 receptor agonist SKF 81297 to determine if activation of skeletal muscle dopamine 1 and dopamine 5 receptors will increase cAMP. We dosed wild-type mice, dopamine 1 receptor knockout mice and dopamine 5 receptor knockout mice undergoing casting-induced disuse atrophy with SKF 81297 to determine if activation of the dopamine 1 and dopamine 5 receptors results in hypertrophy of non-atrophying skeletal muscle and preservation of atrophying skeletal muscle mass and force production.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In tissue bath, isolated mouse TA and MG muscles responded to SKF 81297 treatment with increased cAMP levels. Treating wild-type mice with SKF 81297 reduced casting-induced TA and MG muscle mass loss in addition to increasing the mass of non-atrophying TA and MG muscles. In dopamine 1 receptor knockout mice, extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus muscle mass and force was not preserved during casting with SKF 81297 treatment, in contrast to significant preservation of casted wild-type mouse EDL and soleus mass and EDL force with SKF 81297 treatment. Dosing dopamine 5 receptor knockout mice with SKF 81297 did not significantly preserve EDL and soleus muscle mass and force although wild-type mouse EDL mass and force was significantly preserved SKF 81297 treatment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data demonstrate for the first time that treatment with a dopamine 1/5 receptor agonist results in (1) significant preservation of EDL, TA, MG and soleus muscle mass and EDL muscle force production during periods of atrophy and (2) hypertrophy of TA and MG muscle. These effects appear to be mainly mediated by both the dopamine 1 and dopamine 5 receptors.</p

Smoking Cessation Among Women with and at Risk for HIV: Are They Quitting?

Cigarette smoking is an important risk factor for adverse health events in HIV-infected populations. While recent US population-wide surveys report annual sustained smoking cessation rates of 3.4–8.5%, prospective data are lacking on cessation rates for HIV-infected smokers. To determine the sustained tobacco cessation rate and predictors of cessation among women with or at risk for HIV infection. Prospective cohort study. A total of 747 women (537 HIV-infected and 210 HIV-uninfected) who reported smoking at enrollment (1994–1995) in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) and remained in follow-up after 10 years. The participants were mostly minority (61% non-Hispanic Blacks and 22% Hispanics) and low income (68% with reported annual incomes of less than or equal to $12,000). The primary outcome was defined as greater than 12 months continuous cessation at year 10. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent baseline predictors of subsequent tobacco cessation. A total of 121 (16%) women reported tobacco cessation at year 10 (annual sustained cessation rate of 1.8%, 95% CI 1.6–2.1%). Annual sustained cessation rates were 1.8% among both HIV-positive and HIV-negative women (p = 0.82). In multivariate analysis, the odds of tobacco cessation were significantly higher in women with more years of education (p trend = 0.02) and of Hispanic origin (OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.4–2.9) compared to Black women. Cessation was significantly lower in current or former illicit drug users (OR = 0.42 95% CI = 0.24–0.74 and OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.49–0.86, respectively, p trend = 0.03) and women reporting a higher number of cigarettes per day at baseline (p trend &lt; 0.001). HIV-infected and at-risk women in this cohort have lower smoking cessation rates than the general population. Given the high prevalence of smoking, the high risk of adverse health events from smoking, and low rates of cessation, it is imperative that we increase efforts and overcome barriers to help these women quit smoking

Validating the German Version of the Quality of Relationship Inventory: Confirming the Three-Factor Structure and Report of Psychometric Properties

Research on psychosocial influences such as relationship characteristics has received increased attention in the clinical as well as social-psychological field. Several studies demonstrated that the quality of relationships, in particular with respect to the perceived support within intimate relationships, profoundly affects individuals' mental and physical health. There is, however, a limited choice of valid and internationally known assessments of relationship quality in Germany. We report the validation of the German version of the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI). First, we evaluated its factor structure in a representative German sample of 1.494 participants by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Our findings support the previously proposed three-factor structure. Second, importance and satisfaction with different relationship domains (family/children and relationship/sexuality) were linked with the QRI scales, demonstrating high construct validity. Finally, we report sex and age differences regarding the perceived relationship support, conflict and depth in our German sample. In conclusion, the QRI is a reliable and valid measurement to assess social support in romantic relationships in the German population

Systematic screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions: Still debatable

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Assessing people's ability to drive has become a public health concern in most industrialized countries. Although age itself is not a predictive factor of an increased risk for dangerous driving, the prevalence of medical conditions that may impair driving increases with age. Because the implementation of a screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions is a public health issue, its usefulness should be judged using standardised criteria already proposed for screening for chronic disease. The aim of this paper is to propose standardised criteria suitable to assess the scientific validity of screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions, and identify potential issues to be clarified before screening can be implemented and effective.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Using criteria developed for screening for chronic diseases and published studies on driving with medical conditions, we specify six criteria to judge the opportunity of screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions. This adaptation was needed because of the complexity of the natural history of medical conditions and their potential consequences on driving and road safety. We then illustrate that published studies pleading for or against screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions fail to provide the needed documentation. Individual criteria were mentioned in 3 to 72% of 36 papers pleading for or against screening. Quantitative estimates of relevant indicators were provided in at most 42% of papers, and some data, such as the definition of an appropriate unsafe driving period were never provided.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>The standardised framework described in this paper provides a template for assessing the effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of proposed measures for screening for unsafe driving due to medical conditions. Even if most criteria were mentioned in the published literature pleading for or against such a screening, the failure to find quantitative and evidence-based estimates of relevant indicators provides useful insight for further research.</p

Search for the Θ+\Theta^+ pentaquark in the reaction γd→pK−K+n\gamma d \to p K^- K^+ n

A search for the \thp in the reaction $\gamma d \to pK^-K^+n$ was completed using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. A study of the same reaction, published earlier, reported the observation of a narrow \thp resonance. The present experiment, with more than 30 times the integrated luminosity of our earlier measurement, does not show any evidence for a narrow pentaquark resonance. The angle-integrated upper limit on \thp production in the mass range of 1.52 to 1.56 GeV/c$^2$ for the $\gamma d \to pK^-\Theta^+$ reaction is 0.3 nb (95% CL). This upper limit depends on assumptions made for the mass and angular distribution of \thp production. Using \lamstar production as an empirical measure of rescattering in the deuteron, the cross section upper limit for the elementary $\gamma n \to K^-\Theta^+$ reaction is estimated to be a factor of 10 higher, {\it i.e.}, $\sim 3$ nb (95% CL).Comment: 5 figures, submitted to PRL, revised for referee comment

Photodisintegration of 4^4He into p+t

The two-body photodisintegration of $^4$He into a proton and a triton has been studied using the CEBAF Large-Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Laboratory. Real photons produced with the Hall-B bremsstrahlung-tagging system in the energy range from 0.35 to 1.55 GeV were incident on a liquid $^4$He target. This is the first measurement of the photodisintegration of $^4$He above 0.4 GeV. The differential cross sections for the $\gamma$$^4$He$\to pt$ reaction have been measured as a function of photon-beam energy and proton-scattering angle, and are compared with the latest model calculations by J.-M. Laget. At 0.6-1.2 GeV, our data are in good agreement only with the calculations that include three-body mechanisms, thus confirming their importance. These results reinforce the conclusion of our previous study of the three-body breakup of $^3$He that demonstrated the great importance of three-body mechanisms in the energy region 0.5-0.8 GeV .Comment: 13 pages submitted in one tgz file containing 2 tex file and 22 postscrip figure