OBJECTIVE To describe the construction of a disease model incorporating both genetic an environmental factors in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), using data generated from the Indianapolis-Ibadan dementia project (I-IDP). METHOD The I-IDP is a longitudinal comparative study of the prevalence and incidence o dementia in 2 communities: elderly African Americans living in Indianapolis, ...

In this study of autoimmunity among a population of Gullah African Americans in South Carolina, the links between environmental exposures and autoimmunity (presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA)) have been assessed. The study population included patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 10), their first degree relatives (n = 61), and unrelated controls (n = 9) where 47.5% (n = 38) were ...

African swine fever (ASF) is now established beyond Africa, in the Caucasus and the Russian Federation, where it is having a particularly devastating impact on small-scale pig farmers, who are losing a valuable protein source and cash income. In the past, the virus was already detected outside Africa from the 1950s to the 1980s in Europe, the Caribbean and Brazil. The recent developments in Eas...

Introduction Institutionalizing research and training for the management of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) through establishment of a worldclass research centre In a recent article titled ‘‘Neglected No Longer: New Progress on NTDs,’’ Richard Hartfield argues that NTDs are now mainstream because they are on the agenda of three key policy forums_the African Union (AU), the World Health Assem...

African horsesickness (AHS) is a devastating disease of horses. The disease is caused by the double-stranded RNA-containing African horsesickness virus (AHSV). Using electron cryomicroscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction, we determined the architecture of an AHSV serotype 4 (AHSV-4) reference strain. The structure revealed triple-layered AHS virions enclosing the segmented genome an...

Confounding due to population stratification is a potential source of concern in population-based genetic association studies, particularly in recently admixed populations such as African Americans. Several methods have been developed to control for population stratification in the context of genome-wide association studies. Because these approaches require thousands of genotypes from genetic m...

A traveler to East Africa developed fever, an eschar on his forearm and thrombocytopenia shortly after returning home to Chennai, India. Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense infection was diagnosed on examination of his peripheral smear. He made a full recovery after receiving a course of suramin.

PURPOSE The purpose of this research was to study some of the reasons why African Americans are underrepresented in dental hygiene. The purpose was to 1) describe African American representation in dental hygiene and dental hygiene education; 2) evaluate the relationship between the percentage of hygienists and the percentage of African Americans by state; and 3) evaluate how the professional p...

Substantial research effort has recently focused on the potential protective effect of cognitively demanding activities on cognitive decline in late life. A significant methodological issue in this effort has been the lack of consistency in approaches to the operational measurement of cognitive activity. In this study, data in support of the reliability and construct validity of the recently de...