There is a dire need for interventions that will address the multiple factors—poverty, substance use, early sexual debut, and violence—that influence Haitian youth’s engagement in risky behaviors. ...The deteriorating socioeconomic and political state of the country has had a deleterious effect on the sociocultural milieu and on the boundaries that have heretofore kept risky behaviors in check. Historically, the lakou system, a community-based approach that supports the family unit, has disintegrated, leading to the disruption of traditional parenting patterns. The unstable economic system has also led to the increasing use of children from poor families, who through the restavek system, are sent to work as servants in other households. The breakdown of traditional systems, coupled with the increasing economic and political instability, has had a significant effect on Haitian adolescents. Among boys, increased levels of substance use have been associated with multiple sex partnerships and very early sexual debut. Among girls, extremely high rates of sexual abuse and forced sex have led to relatively high levels of HIV. While the majority of them have been exposed to behavior change messages, behavior change itself has lagged because many adolescents do not accurately perceive their risk exposure. This review explores the risks of HIV transmission among Haitian youth, with a focus on vulnerability factors, including substance use, culture, and the socioeconomic context, and provides recommendations for intervention. An ecosystemic approach, designed specifically for Haitian youth and that takes environmental context and culture into account, is needed.
The detailed analysis of human coprolites as a recognized field of archaeological science is barely 40
years old. Dr. Eric O. Callen, the founder and developer of the discipline, has been dead for ...more than 30
years, yet the ideas he developed and techniques he perfected continue to guide the discipline today as it widens analysis into more areas than he ever dreamed possible. Callen would be gratified to learn that others have extended his initial research efforts to include the routine analysis of plant macrofossils, pollen concentration values, fauna and insects, phytoliths, and more recently, immunological proteins, trace elements, gas chromatography, and the extraction and identification of DNA from prehistoric human feces.
Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) collect pollen for brood and young worker development, and pollinate many crops and economically important plants. Pollen was collected from honey bees from six feral ...honey bee colonies in southern Texas during two time periods to evaluate diurnal patterns of pollen collection. Overall, the same pollen types tended to be collected throughout the day, however, the percentages differed depending upon the time of day. Honey bees from four of the six colonies collected predominant pollen types (> 45% of a sample). Honey bees from the two colonies which did not collect a predominant pollen type collected two or more secondary pollen types (1645% of a sample). Lamiaceae was the most prevalent pollen type collected during the early sampling period and an unknown tricolporate grain was the most collected pollen type during the late sampling period. However, honey bees from one colony primarily collected the unknown tricolporate grain during both sampling periods. Several factors probably contributed to these diurnal variations in pollen collection patterns. These include floral patterns of pollen availability, resource depletion and/or profitability, nutritional needs of honey bees and preferences of individual honey bee foragers.
The fossil pollen contents found in the charred dottle residue from 20 clay pipe bowls recovered from a cesspit at a house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (which was owned and used by the artist ...Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn), were collected and studied. The clay pipes date from approximately the same period when Rembrandt lived in the house and used the cesspit. We believe that some of the pollen in the dottle residue may have come from the tobacco, some possibly from airborne sources at Rembrandt's house and/or from debris in the cesspit in which the pipes were discarded. The results are compared with a similar study of pipe dottle from Native American clay pipes conducted more than 25 years ago. We also briefly review the origin and spread of domestic tobacco in an effort to determine potential sources of the tobacco imported and used in the Netherlands during the lifetime of Rembrandt and the period when he occupied the house. The pollen content of modern brands of commercial pipe tobacco is studied and the potential for using pollen found in tobacco products as evidence in forensic circumstances is reviewed.
Background
In vitro studies suggest that reducing cholesterol inhibits HIV replication. However, this effect may not hold in vivo, where other factors, such as cholesterol's immunomodulatory ...properties, may interact.
Methods
Fasting blood samples were obtained on 165 people living with HIV at baseline and after 24 weeks on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Participants were classified as hypocholesterolemic (HypoCHL; <150 mg/dl) or non‐HypoCHL (>150 mg/dl) and were compared on viro‐immune outcomes.
Results
At baseline, participants with HypoCHL (40%) exhibited lower CD4 (197 ± 181 vs. 295 ± 191 cells/mm3, p = 0.02) and CD8 (823 ± 448 vs. 1194 ± 598 cells/mm3, p = 0.001) counts and were more likely to have detectable viral loads (OR = 3.5, p = 0.01) than non‐HypoCHL controls. After HAART, participants with HypoCHL were twice as likely to experience a virological failure >400 copies (95% CI 1‐2.6, p = 0.05) and to exhibit <200 CD4 (95% CI 1.03‐2.9, p = 0.04) compared with non‐HypoCHL. Low thymic output was related to poorer CD4 cell response in HypoCHL subjects. Analyses suggest a dose‐response relationship with every increase of 50 mg/dl in cholesterol related to a parallel rise of 50 CD4 cells.
Conclusions
The study implicates, for the first time, HypoCHL with impaired HAART effectiveness, including limited CD4 repletion by the thymus and suboptimal viral clearance.
Erratum to McMahon, Robert C.; Bryant, Vaughn E.; Dévieux, Jessy G. ...
Journal of immigrant and minority health,
06/2014, Letnik:
16, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Issue Title: Special Topics in Immigrant Health: The Health of Indigenous Mayan Migrants from Yucatán México
A multidisciplinary project on an archaeological site on the Mitchell River, which feeds into Choctawhatchee Bay on the Florida panhandle, was designed to understand human adaptations to a dynamic ...hydrological environment during the Middle and Late Archaic period (ca. 8000–3000 B.P.). Now in a freshwater environment, on a sandy terrace above the Mitchell River floodplain, the Mitchell River 1 archaeological site contains an oyster-shell midden and other features indicating human exploitation of an estuarine environment. Estuarine exploitation at the site occurred over a long span of time, from around 7300 to 3400 2cal B.P., although the site was abandoned two or three times over the millennia. The site was more permanently abandoned after 3400 B.P. Because estuarine shellfish, such as oysters, are low trophic level species, they have been considered marginal resources, and archaeologists modeling collector strategies assume that people will not travel far to obtain them. Under an optimal foraging model, estuarine resources should have been closer to the site than at present. A multidisciplinary team was assembled to address whether a mid-Holocene sea-level highstand had produced estuarine conditions in the Mitchell River floodplain during the Archaic. Using microfossils and stratigraphy from a dated core taken in the floodplain due south of the site, the project members attempted to correlate the changing paleoenvironment with human occupation and abandonment of the area. Results indicate that, at ca. 7300 cal B.P., when the Mitchell River 1 site was first inhabited, the floodplain was a shallow, open, sedge marsh. The site inhabitants must have traveled some distance to gather the oysters and other estuarine species that were discarded on the site. The earliest occupation was brief, but the site was reoccupied between 5900 and 5300 cal B.P., when the floodplain had become a Taxodium/Nyssa swamp. Site deposits indicate intensive exploitation of oyster and to a lesser extent Rangia, which may have been closer to the site than at 7300 B.P. but still would have required some travel. At some point, the mouth of the Mitchell River was forced eastward, and the bayhead delta, recognized as a 2-meter-deep wedge of sand in the core, was located adjacent to the site. By 4700 cal B.P., brackish water conditions prevailed, although direct evidence of oyster beds in the immediate area is lacking. Unfortunately, scouring of the core sediments sometime after 4700 cal B.P. destroyed the paleoenvironmental record for the last part of the Archaic occupation of the site. However, some evidence in Core 1, along with research elsewhere on the Florida panhandle, suggests that catastrophic storms may have played a part in the more permanent abandonment of the site after 3400 B.P.
This study identified personality clusters among a community sample of adolescents of Haitian decent and related cluster subgroup membership to problems in the areas of substance abuse, mental and ...physical health, family and peer relationships, educational and vocational status, social skills, leisure and recreational pursuits, aggressive behavior-delinquency, and to sexual risk activity. Three cluster subgroups were identified: dependent/conforming (N = 68), high pathology (N = 30); and confident/extroverted /conforming (N = 111). Although the overall sample was relatively healthy based on low average endorsement of problems across areas of expressed concern, significant physical health, mental health, relationship, educational, and HIV risk problems were identified in a MACI identified high psychopathology cluster subgroup. A confident/extraverted/ conforming cluster subgroup revealed few problems and appears to reflect a protective style.
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