OBJECTIVE Rates of AIDS defining event (ADE), serious ADE and death by CD4 and HIV RNA categories before and after combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) initiation are lacking for high CD4 counts. METHODS Event rates were estimated within CD4 cell strata using a Poisson regression model adjusting for sex, exposure category, age, and current HIV RNA (<4, 4-4.99, > or =5 log copies/ml), and...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the impact of male circumcision on HIV incidence, the number of procedures per HIV infection averted, and costs per infection averted. METHODS A stochastic simulation model with empirically derived parameters from a cohort in Rakai, Uganda was used to estimate HIV incidence, assuming that male circumcision reduced the risks of HIV acquisition with rate ratios (RR) rangi...

OBJECTIVE To assess Australian consumers' perception of portion size of fast-food items and their ability to estimate energy content. DESIGN Cross-sectional computer-based survey. SETTING Australia. SUBJECTS Fast-food consumers (168 male, 324 female) were asked to recall the items eaten at the most recent visit to a fast-food restaurant, rate the prospective satiety and estimate the energ...

BACKGROUND Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a common hereditary disorder with unclear disease mechanism. Currently, overt hypertension and increased renal volume are the best predictors of renal function. In this study, we assessed the usefulness of selected circulating microRNAs (miRs) to predict disease progress in a cohort with ADPKD. METHODS Eighty ADPKD patients (4...

Tumours in rodent and human colon share many histological and genetic features. To know if rodent models of colon carcinogenesis are good predictors of chemopreventive efficacy in humans, we conducted a meta-analysis of aspirin, beta-carotene, calcium, and wheat bran studies. Controlled intervention studies of adenoma recurrence in human volunteers were compared with chemoprevention studies of ...

In light of the increasing interest in documenting and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health, a pressing need exists for appropriate methods to measure these disparities at the local level. The authors measured county-level disparity in heart disease mortality between African Americans and whites in South Carolina during 1996– 2000, modelled via an extension of a spatial hierarchi...

Von Willebrand disease (VWD) is an inherited bleeding disorder characterized by incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. We evaluated a 24-member pedigree with VWD type 2 caused by a T>G mutation at position 3911 that predicts a methionine to arginine (M1304R) change in the platelet-binding A1 domain of von Willebrand factor (VWF). This mutation manifests as an autosomal-dominant trait,...

A Gram-positive, spore-forming and moderately halophilic bacterium, strain BH139(T), was isolated from saline sediment of Xinjiang Province, China. Cells of strain BH139(T) were motile, flagellated rods. The organism grew optimally at 30-35 degrees C in the presence 12-14 % (w/v) NaCl. The major fatty acids were branched saturated fatty acids such as iso-C(16 : 0), anteiso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 :...

OBJECTIVE Many dietary assessment methods attempt to estimate total food and nutrient intake. If the intention is simply to determine whether participants achieve dietary recommendations, this leads to much redundant data. We used data mining techniques to explore the number of foods that intake information was required on to accurately predict achievement, or not, of key dietary recommendation...

Surveillance for influenza A virus infection of seals has continued following the association of influenza A virus with epizootics of pneumonia in seals off the New England coast in 1979-1980 and 1982-1983. In January 1991 and January to February 1992, influenza A viruses were isolated from seals that died of pneumonia along the Cape Cod peninsula of Massachusetts. Antigenic characterization id...