Molecular characterization and cloning of sheep mitochondrial DNA

Summary Mitochondrial DNA from the liver of a single Rasa Aragonesa sheep has been isolated and characterized. The size of the genome, determined by restriction enzyme analysis, was found to be 16.58 kbp. The cleavage sites for the restriction endonucleases BamHI, HindIII, EcoRI, BglII, PvuII, BstEII and PstI were mapped, and the gene organization deduced through heterologous hybridization using different cloned fragments of the rat mitochondrial genome. Fragments representative of the entire sheep genome were cloned in plasmid vectors pGEM3Z and pUN121.     

Selecting a Child Care Center: What Really Matters to Parents?

Previous research on parents' decision making concerning child care centers has attempted to evaluate the importance of various characteristics of the centers by having parents evaluate them one at a time. In an effort to better understand how parents evaluate centers when they must consider all the characteristics of the center simultaneously as is done in real life, 235 parents who were in the process of finding child care for their children were surveyed. Utilizing conjoint analysis, parents were presented with profiles of child care centers in which eight center characteristics were varied. Parents evaluated all eight characteristics simultaneously and then indicated how likely they were to select each center. Results indicated that the characteristics of child care centers that most significantly affect parents' decision-making vary based on demographic characteristics of the parents. Single mothers attend most strongly to cost in their decision making, while married mothers attend to the child/staff ratio and married fathers give relatively equal attention to four factors; cost, convenience, child/staff ratio and hours of operation. Further differences in parents' decision-making strategies were found based on parents' education and family income. These findings are discussed in light of the importance of developing child care programs which meets the needs of parents as well as children.     

Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and bladder cancer: evaluation from a gene-environment perspective in a hospital-based case-control study in the Canary Islands (Spain)

Background:

Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been linked to bladder cancer.

Objective:

To evaluate the role of PAHs in bladder cancer, PAHs serum levels were measured in patients and controls from a case-control study.

Methods:

A total of 140 bladder cancer patients and 206 healthy controls were included in the study. Sixteen PAHs were analyzed from the serum of subjects by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.

Results:

Serum PAHs did not appear to be related to bladder cancer risk, although the profile of contamination by PAHs was different between patients and controls: pyrene (Pyr) was solely detected in controls and chrysene (Chry) was exclusively detected in the cases. Phenanthrene (Phe) serum levels were inversely associated with bladder cancer (OR = 0·79, 95%CI = 0·64–0·99, P = 0·030), although this effect disappeared when the allelic distribution of glutathione-S-transferase polymorphisms of the population was introduced into the model (multinomial logistic regression test, P = 0·933). Smoking (OR = 3·62, 95%CI = 1·93–6·79, P<0·0001) and coffee consumption (OR = 1·73, 95%CI = 1·04–2·86, P = 0·033) were relevant risk factors for bladder cancer.

Conclusions:

Specific PAH mixtures may play a relevant role in bladder cancer, although such effect seems to be highly modulated by polymorphisms in genes encoding xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes.     

Congenital Chagas disease involves Trypanosoma cruzi sub-lineage IId in the northwestern province of Salta,Argentina

Trypanosoma cruzi is genetically classified into six discrete phylogenetic lineages on the basis of different genetic markers. Identifying lineages circulating among humans in different areas is essential to understand the molecular epidemiology of Chagas disease. In the present study, 18 T. cruzi isolates from congenitally infected newborns in the northwestern province of Salta-Argentina were studied by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). All isolates were typed by MLEE and RAPD as belonging to T. cruzi IId. Analysis of minor variants of TcIId using probes hybridizing with hypervariable domains of kDNA minicircles, detected three variants with a similar distribution among the isolates. Our findings confirm the presence of T. cruzi IId among congenitally infected newborns in northwestern Argentina and support the assumption that human infection by T. cruzi in the Southern Cone countries of Latin America is due principally to T. cruzi II.     

Informed consent in clinical practice and medical research

The present paper deals with the basic aspects, influences and elements that constitute Informed Consent seeing it as a process and not only as an administrative format. Both the patient-physician relationship, as well as the research subject-investigator relationship, should be seen in the same manner, in spite of recognizing specific objectives for each one. For this reason, Informed Consent should not be different regarding both clinical as well as research activities. The patient-physician relationship presents a disbalance of power within the relationship in favor of the physician; this adds to the moral considerations that take place within both participants. Informed Consent should be defined in a broad sense as all those actions that promote a process of communication and dialogue which facilitates a person in order to make decisions with respect of an action, practice or product that have an impact on his/her body, intimacy or other vital spaces. Informed Consent has influences that originate in basic bioethical principles (autonomy, beneficience, non-maleficence, justice), professional and international declarations (Hippocratic Oath, Declaration of Helsinki), as well as legal considerations pertinent to each country. In our country legality emmanates from the General Health Law which, unfortunately, only contemplates Informed Consent as part of the relation established in clinical research. However, the Official Medican Norm on the Clinical Record establishes the conditions where Informed Consent must be obtained during clinical as well as research activities. Primary components of Informed Consent (revelation, capacity to understand and voluntariness), can be better understood when divided into several elements: information, voluntariness, risks and benefits, confidentiality, return of information, utility of the process and management of fragility. Informed Consent should be legally instrumented in an explicit written manner (administrative formats). However, it is important to recognize the limitations of these formats when used outside the context of a continuous communication process with the patient. For this reason, ultimate instrumentation is through continuous dialogue between patient and physician. Finally, Informed Consent might help improve the patient-physician relationship which, in the end, might be the best way to counteract the influence of the establishment of health management services.     

Quantifying disparities in access to public-sector abortion based on legislative differences within the Mexico City Metropolitan Area

Objectives

In the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, only women in the city center have local access to legal first-trimester abortion. We quantify how this legislative discrepancy affects access to legal, public-sector abortion across the metropolitan area.

Neighborhood and weight-related health behaviors in the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) Study

Background  

Previous studies have shown that neighborhood factors are associated with obesity, but few studies have evaluated the association with weight control behaviors. This study aims to conduct a multi-level analysis to examine the relationship between neighborhood SES and weight-related health behaviors.