Context and content: the impact of school-leaving and school-based health education on AIDS-relevant cognitions.

A survey examined health beliefs and intentions among 690 16-18 year-olds in Dundee. Respondents in the younger cohort (n = 363) were classified according to their educational situation (at school vs left) and self-reports of having received AIDS/HIV-relevant health education. Both remaining in school and receiving AIDS/HIV-relevant health education had independent beneficial effects, but the effects of leaving school also interacted with sex of respondent and with amount of relevant education received prior to leaving. Males' and females' reliance on mass media and other information sources diverged once they left school, indicating that males who leave school early are most likely to disregard useful or important information regarding AIDS. Consistent with this finding, leaving school reduced the difference between males' and females' intention to use condoms with a new partner. The beneficial impact of having previously received AIDS/HIV-relevant education on beliefs concerning the controllability of the epidemic and on feeling worried about everyday contact with a person with HIV/AIDS, was most marked among those who had left school. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for health education strategies.     

Iliac artery-ureteral fistula developing after dilatation and stent placement

A fistula formed between the common iliac artery and the ureter following balloon dilatation of the distal ureter and stent placement in the presence of an ileal conduit. Possible causes are discussed.     

Differential expression levels of the heat shock protein 27 isoforms in pediatric normal, nonleukemic and common acute lymphoblastic leukemia B- cell precursors

Heat shock protein 27 (hsp27) may function as a regulator of microfilament dynamics and may participate in signal transduction pathways of different cell growth regulators, with the mitogen- activated protein kinase-activated protein (MAPKAP) kinase 2 being a major enzyme responsible for its phosphorylation. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, we have compared the expression levels of two hsp27 isoelectric variants (hsp27 isoforms) M2 (molecular weight, 26 kD; isoelectric point, 6.02) and M3 (molecular weight, 26 kD; isoelectric point, 5.60) in pediatric bone marrow CD19+CD10+B-cell precursors (BCPs) purified from either common acute lymphoblastic leukemia (c-ALL) patients, normal donors, or non-c-ALL patients. Compared with normal BCPs, we found increased hsp27 expressions (M2 isoform) (by a factor 5 to 9 of mean level) in c-ALL as well as in non- c-ALL (nonleukemic) precursors. Though increased phosphorylation of hsp27 (M3 isoform) was observed in BCPs from c-ALL patients at relapse (by a factor 3 of mean level compared with normal BCPs and precursors from c-ALL at diagnosis), which might represent a differential enzymatic activity, this was not distinguishable from that of non-c-ALL patients. Therefore, our studies suggest constitutive differences of hsp27 isoforms between pediatric leukemic BCPs and their relatively low- expressing, immunophenotypically normal bone marrow counterparts. In light of the occasional and possibly transient increase of hsp27 expression during nonleukemic BCP differentiation and the possible role of hsp27 in signal transduction to microfilaments, these differences might be of considerable biologic interest and of importance in future studies of regulated normal or dysregulated leukemic hematopoietic cellular differentiation.     

Extending social cognition models of health behaviour

A cross-sectional study assessed the extent to which indices of social structure, including family socio-economic status (SES), social deprivation, gender and educational/lifestyle aspirations correlated with adolescent condom use and added to the predictive utility of a theory of planned behaviour model. Analyses of survey data from 824 sexually active 16-year-olds (505 women and 319 men) tested three hypotheses. Firstly, social structure measures will correlate with behaviour-specific cognitions that predict condom use. Secondly, cognition measures will not fully mediate the effects of social structural indices and thirdly, the effects of cognitions on condom use will be moderated by social structure indices. All three hypotheses were supported. SES, gender and aspirations accounted for between 2 and 7% of the variance in behaviour-specific cognitions predicting condom use. Aspirations explained a further 4% of the variance in condom use, controlling for cognition effects. Mother's SES and gender added an additional 5%, controlling for aspirations. Overall, including significant moderation effects, of social structure indices increased the variance explained from 20.5% (for cognition measures alone) to 31%. These data indicate that social structure measures should to be investigated in addition to cognitions when modelling antecedents of behaviour, including condom use.