‘What we’ve tried,hasn’t worked’: the politics of assets based public health 1

It is a paradox of recent epidemiology that as material inequalities grow, so the pursuit of non-material explanations for health outcomes proliferates. At one level, a greater recognition of psycho-social factors has deepened the understanding of the societal determinants of health, the links between mental and physical health and the social nature of human need. Too often however, psycho-social factors are abstracted from the material realities of people’s lives and function as an alternative to addressing questions of economic power and privilege and their relationship to the distribution of health. The growing influence of salutogenesis and asset-based approaches is one example of this trend. This paper reflects on the theories of public health that lie behind the discourse of assets, together with some of the reasons for, and consequences of, its popularity and influence, notably in Scotland.     

Coupling pre-mRNA splicing and 3′ end formation to mRNA export: alternative ways to punch the nuclear export clock

How does a mammalian cell determine when newly synthesized mRNAs are fully processed and appropriate for nuclear export? Müller-McNicoll and colleagues (pp. 553–566) expand on mechanisms known to be mediated by nuclear export factor 1 (NXF1) by describing SR proteins as NXF1 adaptors that flag alternatively spliced and polyadenylated mRNA isoforms as cargo ready for the cytoplasm.     

Psychometric Properties of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in African American Single Mothers

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem (RSE) Scale is a commonly used measure of global self-esteem, an important element of mental health. The purpose of this cross sectional secondary analysis was to examine the psychometric properties of the scale in a sample of 98 African American single mothers. The RSE Scale showed adequate internal consistency with an alpha coefficient of .83. Two factors that accounted for a total of 54.7% of the variance were extracted. Self-esteem showed a strong negative relationship with both depressive symptoms and negative thinking. This study provides support for the internal consistency of the RSE Scale and partial support for its construct validity in this population. The RSE appears to represent a bidimensional construct of self-esteem for African American women, with the cultural influences of racial esteem and the rejection of negative stereotypes forming a separate and distinct aspect of this concept. The RSE Scale should be used and interpreted with caution in this population given these findings.     

Structural abnormalities revealed by magnetic resonance imaging in rats prenatally exposed to methylazoxymethanol acetate parallel cerebral pathology in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a highly familial, neurodevelopmental disorder that is associated with several neuropsychiatric, psychological, and neuropathological features. Although pharmacological animal models of dopaminergic and glutamatergic dysfunction have helped advance our understanding of the disease biology, there is a clear need for translational models that capture the neuropathological and functional manifestations associated with the intermediate phenotype and the clinical illness. Neuroimaging of preclinical neurodevelopmental approaches such as methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) exposure may afford a powerful translational tool to establish endpoints with greater congruency across animals and humans. Using in vivo volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), manganese‐enhanced MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we investigated morphological and cytoarchitectural changes of brain structures in MAM‐exposed rats, a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia. Compared to saline‐exposed controls, MAM‐exposed rats showed significant enlargement of lateral and third ventricles as well as reduced hippocampal volumes, which is consistent with findings observed in schizophrenia. In addition, DTI revealed that diffusion fractional anisotropy retrieved from corpus callosum and cingulum were significantly decreased in MAM‐exposed rats, suggesting that demyelination occurred in these white‐matter fiber tracts. Imaging findings were confirmed by conducting histological analysis using hematoxylin and eosin and Luxol fast blue stainings. In summary, structural abnormalities resulting from a MAM environmental challenge parallel cerebral pathology observed in schizophrenia. The MAM model incorporating noninvasive imaging techniques may therefore serve as an improved translational research tool for assessing new treatments for schizophrenia. Synapse, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Acquisition of anal human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in women: the Hawaii HPV Cohort study

BACKGROUND: The majority of anal cancer is associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, yet little is known about women's risk of acquisition of anal HPV infection. METHODS: Risk factors for the acquisition of anal HPV infection were examined in a longitudinal cohort study of 431 women, via repeated measurement of HPV DNA. RESULTS: Seventy percent of women were positive for anal HPV infection at one or more clinic visits from baseline through a follow-up period that averaged 1.3 years. The incidence of a high-risk (HR) infection was 19.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 16.0-23.6) per 1000 woman-months. The most common incident HR HPV types were HPV-53, -52 and -16. The presence of an HR anal HPV infection at baseline increased the risk of an incident anal infection by 65%. Baseline HR cervical HPV infection also predicted the acquisition of an HR anal HPV infection (odds ratio, 1.81 [95% CI, 1.09-3.02]). Nonviral risk factors for acquisition of HR HPV infection included younger age, lower socioeconomic status, greater lifetime number of sexual partners, past use of hormones, and condom use. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that women's risk of anal HPV infection is as common as their risk of cervical HPV infection.