OBJECTIVE To identify the frequency, risk factors, and clinical forms of postpartum depression (PPD) in Kinshasa. METHODS In a cross-sectional study in well-baby clinics in Kinshasa in 2009, 120 mothers of 61 boys and 59 girls aged 1-10 months agreed to participate in the study. Their mean age was 28.4 ± 12.2 years. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Goldberg Scales of Anxiety and ...

INTRODUCTION This study examines the relationship between postpartum depression (PPD) and cigarette smoking from prior to pregnancy to postpartum. METHODS The study sample consisted of 29,654 U.S. women who reported smoking in the 3months prior to pregnancy and for whom data on PPD were available from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). Two sets of analyses were conducted...

More than 500,000 U.S. women develop postpartum depression (PPD) annually. Although psychosocial risks are known, the underlying biology remains unclear. Dysregulation of the immune inflammatory response and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are associated with depression in other populations. While significant research on the contribution of these systems to the development of PPD ...

T-cell responses directed against the circumsporozoite protein (CS) of Plasmodium falciparum can mediate protection against malaria. We determined the frequency of T cells reactive to different regions of the CS in the blood of donors naturally exposed to P. falciparum by examining T1 (gamma interferon [IFN-gamma] ELISPOT assay), T2 (interleukin 4 [IL-4] ELISPOT assay), and proliferative T-cell...

Background: Attachment is defined as lasting emotional connectedness. Attachment experiences are one of the basic ingredients in the complexly determined relationship between early experiences of parental care, personality growth and behavior. Attachment theory has been major aids in helping researchers understand how the quality of early and continuing close relationships affect children’s and...

Cell-mediated immune mechanisms (CMI) were studied in 51 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis to evaluate the role of mycobacterium growth inhibitory factor in prognosis of the infection, before and after the administration of anti-tubercular drugs. Twenty five Mantoux negative individuals who were subsequently bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccinated and 25 Mantoux positive, non-tuberculous cont...

Background: Rabies virus (RABV) is a deadly neurotropic virus that causes the disease of rabies in humans and animals. L protein is one of the large structural protein of rabies virus, which displays multiple enzymatic activities, and is required for viral transcription and replication. Objectives: A truncated L protein of Rabies virus is being cloned, expressed and purified to produce relevant...

Experiments are reported dealing with the correlation between activities of lysosomal acid hydrolases and hyperreactivity to endotoxin induced by BCG infection. Acid hydrolases were determined quantitatively in peritoneal MP, liver homogenate, and plasma of normal and hyperreactive mice. Mice infected with BCG not only exhibited a hyperreactive state to lethal effect of endotoxin, but also resp...

Within a neonatal vitamin A supplementation (VAS) trial, we investigated the effect of VAS on TNF-α, IL-10, IL-5 and IL-13 production after lipopolysaccharide, purified protein derivative (PPD) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and phytohaemagglutinin stimulation using a whole blood culture protocol. We found that VAS recipients had lower unstimulated TNF-α concentrations than placebo recipients. I...

In this paper, a significant correlation between the HHVV phase difference (polarisation phase difference, PPD) and the above-ground biomass (AGB) is observed for incidence angles above 30◦ in airborne P-band SAR data acquired over two boreal test sites in Sweden. A geometric model is used to explain the dependence of the AGB on tree height, stem radius, and tree number density, whereas a cylin...