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IntroductionSince the introduction of HAART the desire to become a mother in women with HIV has become a viable option due to the drastic reduction in vertical transmission. The aim of this study was to look at the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and safety of antiretroviral drugs and rate of vertical transmission in our cohort in the Munster region, Ireland.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed all pregnant women with HIV who attended the ID clinic from January 2002 to April 2012. Patients' demographics, pertinent laboratory data, and pharmacy records were reviewed and statistically analysed.Results105 HIV‐positive women, with a total of 165 pregnancies, were seen from January 2002 to April 2012 at Cork University Hospital: 46 patients were previously known to be HIV‐infected at their first pregnancy and 59 were diagnosed during antenatal screening (median of 32 week gestation at diagnosis). The median age at the time of pregnancy was 32 and the HIV transmission was 90% sexual: 39 women were from Europe/Asia and 66 were African; only two women were HCV co‐infected and one was HBV co‐infected. Of the patients diagnosed with HIV prior to pregnancy, 13 were on treatment, all of whom had no detectable virus at the start and during pregnancy. The median CD4+ at the start of pregnancy was 490 cells/µl. The median weeks of gestation at the start of HAART was 28 before 2006 and 20 after 2006, in accordance with National Guidelines. The HAART regime used was in line with current Guidelines. 18 pregnancies ended in miscarriage before week 12 gestation and 2 pregnancies resulted in intrauterine death at 28 weeks. 145 pregnancies progressed to delivery at full term but 10 infants were born before the 37th week, with one baby born at 23 weeks: 63 had SVD and 82 underwent C‐section, of whom 12 emergency C‐section due to prolonged membrane rupture. Most of the C‐sections were planned due to obstetric reasons. 2 infants were born HIV+: in one case the mother was a late presenter at 38 of gestation; and in other the mother had poor compliance with viral load detectable at the time of labour. The overall number of pregnancies per year has been stable over the ten years (average of 14 pregnancies per year).ConclusionThe use of cART with high level of adherence and a close clinical management during pregnancy has shown to dramatically reduce the vertical transmission of HIV in our cohort.

BACKGROUND: The importance of blood safety in public health was recognized long ago, and data are essential to plan strategies to improve the status. This study aims to obtain data on blood donor and blood donation characteristics that would complement blood safety data from national and international organizations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to seven Francophone countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, and Rwanda) and was structured to obtain objective data on blood donors and donated blood and in administrative and technical organization. RESULTS: The results reflect a poor level of organization of blood transfusion centers in large regions of the African continent, insufficient supply of blood products, high prevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections, limited financial resources, a lack of well-trained personnel, and cultural obstacles. Six countries had less than 50% of their personnel trained in transfusion medicine. Only one country had the entire standard operating procedure written. Female donors represented less than 30% of the donors and the range of percentage of hepatitis B found in donors was 2.76% to 18.96%. CONCLUSION: The inclusion of these regions in future blood safety surveys and in the development of national blood transfusion programs is essential and will undoubtedly require the assistance of international organizations. © 2009 American Association of Blood Banks.

<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Recruiting racial, ethnic, and other underserved minorities into conven­tional clinic-based and other trials is known to be challenging. The Sistas Inspiring Sistas Through Activity and Support (SISTAS) Pro­gram was a one-year randomized controlled trial (RCT) to promote physical activity and healthy eating among AA women in SC to reduce inflammatory biomarkers, which are linked to increased breast cancer (BrCa) risk and mortality. This study describes the development, recruitment, and imple­mentation of the SISTAS clinical trial and provides baseline characteristics of the study participants.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>SISTAS was developed using community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches. At baseline, study participants completed assessments and underwent clinical measurements and blood draws to measure C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Participants randomized to the intervention received 12 weekly classes followed by nine monthly booster sessions. Post-intervention mea­surements were assessed at 12-week and 12-month follow-ups.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We recruited a total of 337 women who tended to: be middle-aged (mean age 48.2 years); have some college education; be employed full-time; have Medicare as their primary insurance; be non-smokers; and perceive their personal health as good. On average, the women were pre-hyper­tensive at baseline (mean systolic blood pressure = 133.9 mm Hg; mean diastolic blood pressure = 84.0 mm Hg) and mor­bidly obese (mean BMI &gt;40.0 kg/m2); the mean fat mass and fat-free mass among participants were 106.4 lb and 121.0 lb, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The SISTAS RCT addresses some of the gaps in the literature with respect to CBPR interventions target­ing AA women, such as implementing diet and physical activity in CBPR-based studies to decrease BrCa risk.</p><p><em>Ethn Dis. </em>2018;28(2):75-84; doi:10.18865/ ed.28.2.75.</p>

Military personnel with traveler's diarrhea (n = 202) while deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, from June to September 2002 were evaluated for pathogen-specific immune responses. Serologic and fecal immunoglobulin A (IgA) titers to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli antigens (CS6, CS3, and LT) were quite low. In contrast, subjects with Campylobacter infections had high serologic and fecal IgA responses.

We present new radio continuum images of the edge-on starburst galaxy NGC 5775, from LOFAR (140 MHz) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array CHANG-ES survey (1500 MHz). We trace the non-thermal radio halo up to 13 kpc from the disc, measuring the non-thermal spectral index and estimating the total equipartition magnetic field strength (≈13 μG in the disc and ≈7 μG above the plane). The radio halo has a similar extent at both frequencies, displays evidence for localized cosmic ray streaming coinciding with prominent H α filaments and vertical extensions of the regular magnetic field, and exhibits a boxy morphology especially at 140 MHz. In order to understand the nature of the disc–halo flow, we extend our previous model of cosmic ray propagation by implementing an iso-thermal wind with a tunable 'flux tube' (approximately hyperboloidal) geometry. This updated model is successful in matching the vertical distribution of non-thermal radio emission, and the vertical steepening of the associated spectral index, in a consistent conceptual framework with few free parameters. Our new model provides the opportunity to estimate the mass outflow driven by the star formation process, and we find an implied rate of M˙≈3–6M⊙yr−1 (≈40–80 per cent of the star formation rate) if the escape velocity is reached, with substantial uncertainty arising from the poorly understood distribution of interstellar medium material entrained in the vertical flow. The wind may play a role in influencing the vertical gradient in rotational velocity. © 2021 The Author(s). ; This paper is based (in part) on data obtained with the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) under project code LC1_046. LOFAR (van Haarlem et al. 2013) is the Low Frequency Array designed and constructed by ASTRON. It has observing, data processing, and data storage facilities in several countries, that are owned by various parties (each with their own funding sources), and that are collectively operated by the ILT foundation under a joint scientific policy. The ILT resources have benefitted from the following recent major funding sources: CNRS-INSU, Observatoire de Paris and Université d'Orléans, France; BMBF, MIWF-NRW, MPG, Germany; Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI), Ireland; NWO, The Netherlands; The Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. GH thanks Phil Edwards for useful feedback after a critical reading of the manuscript, and Tim Galvin for advice and help with tricky plotting issues. We would like to thank B. P. Brian Yu, for kindly providing us with their computer code of the cosmic ray-driven wind model. We thank the anonymous referee for a comprehensive review and for comments that led to substantial improvements to the paper. MB acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany's Excellence Strategy - EXC 2121 'Quantum Universe' - 390833306. This research was undertaken as an activity organized by the LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project (MKSP; https://lofar-mksp.org/). ; With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709. ; Peer reviewed

We study the physical properties of a sample of 6 SMGs in the COSMOS field, spectroscopically confirmed to lie at z>4. We use new GMRT 325 MHz and 3 GHz JVLA data to probe the rest-frame 1.4 GHz emission at z=4, and to estimate the sizes of the star-forming (SF) regions of these sources, resp. Combining our size estimates with those available in the literature for AzTEC1 and AzTEC3 we infer a median radio-emitting size for our z>4 SMGs of (0.63"+/-0.12")x(0.35"+/-0.05") or 4.1x2.3 kpc^2 (major times minor axis; assuming z=4.5) or lower if we take the two marginally resolved SMGs as unresolved. This is consistent with the sizes of SF regions in lower-redshift SMGs, and local normal galaxies, yet higher than the sizes of SF regions of local ULIRGs. Our SMG sample consists of a fair mix of compact and more clumpy systems with multiple, perhaps merging, components. With an average formation time of ~280 Myr, derived through modeling of the UV-IR SEDs, the studied SMGs are young systems. The average stellar mass, dust temperature, and IR luminosity we derive are M*~1.4x10^11 M_sun, T_dust~43 K, and L_IR~1.3x10^13L_sun, resp. The average L_IR is up to an order of magnitude higher than for SMGs at lower redshifts. Our SMGs follow the correlation between dust temperature and IR luminosity as derived for Herschel-selected 0.1=1.95+/-0.26 for our sample, compared to q~2.6 for IR luminous galaxies at z4 SMGs put them at the high end of the L_IR-T_dust distribution of SMGs, and that our SMGs form a morphologically heterogeneous sample. Thus, further in-depth analyses of large, statistical samples of high-redshift SMGs are needed to fully understand their role in galaxy formation and evolution. ; This research was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework program under grant agreement 337595 (ERC Starting Grant, "CoSMass"). A.K. acknowledges support by the Collaborative Research Council 956, subproject A1, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The Dark Cosmology Centre is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation.

We study the physical properties of a sample of 6 SMGs in the COSMOS field, spectroscopically confirmed to lie at z>4. We use new GMRT 325 MHz and 3 GHz JVLA data to probe the rest-frame 1.4 GHz emission at z=4, and to estimate the sizes of the star-forming (SF) regions of these sources, resp. Combining our size estimates with those available in the literature for AzTEC1 and AzTEC3 we infer a median radio-emitting size for our z>4 SMGs of (0.63"+/-0.12")x(0.35"+/-0.05") or 4.1x2.3 kpc^2 (major times minor axis; assuming z=4.5) or lower if we take the two marginally resolved SMGs as unresolved. This is consistent with the sizes of SF regions in lower-redshift SMGs, and local normal galaxies, yet higher than the sizes of SF regions of local ULIRGs. Our SMG sample consists of a fair mix of compact and more clumpy systems with multiple, perhaps merging, components. With an average formation time of ~280 Myr, derived through modeling of the UV-IR SEDs, the studied SMGs are young systems. The average stellar mass, dust temperature, and IR luminosity we derive are M*~1.4x10^11 M_sun, T_dust~43 K, and L_IR~1.3x10^13L_sun, resp. The average L_IR is up to an order of magnitude higher than for SMGs at lower redshifts. Our SMGs follow the correlation between dust temperature and IR luminosity as derived for Herschel-selected 0.1=1.95+/-0.26 for our sample, compared to q~2.6 for IR luminous galaxies at z4 SMGs put them at the high end of the L_IR-T_dust distribution of SMGs, and that our SMGs form a morphologically heterogeneous sample. Thus, further in-depth analyses of large, statistical samples of high-redshift SMGs are needed to fully understand their role in galaxy formation and evolution. ; This research was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework program under grant agreement 337595 (ERC Starting Grant, "CoSMass"). A.K. acknowledges support by the Collaborative Research Council 956, subproject A1, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The Dark Cosmology Centre is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation.

We identify stellar structures in the PHANGS sample of 74 nearby galaxies and construct morphological masks of sub-galactic environments based on Spitzer 3.6 mu m images. At the simplest level, we distinguish five environments: centres, bars, spiral arms, interarm regions, and discs without strong spirals. Slightly more sophisticated masks include rings and lenses, which are publicly released but not explicitly used in this paper. We examine trends with environment in the molecular gas content, star formation rate, and depletion time using PHANGS-ALMA CO(2-1) intensity maps and tracers of star formation. The interarm regions and discs without strong spirals clearly dominate in area, whereas molecular gas and star formation are quite evenly distributed among the five basic environments. We reproduce the molecular Kennicutt-Schmidt relation with a slope compatible with unity within the uncertainties and without significant slope differences among environments. In contrast to what has been suggested by early studies, we find that bars are not always deserts devoid of gas and star formation, but instead they show large diversity. Similarly, spiral arms do not account for most of the gas and star formation in disc galaxies, and they do not have shorter depletion times than the interarm regions. Spiral arms accumulate gas and star formation, without systematically boosting the star formation efficiency. Centres harbour remarkably high surface densities and on average shorter depletion times than other environments. Centres of barred galaxies show higher surface densities and wider distributions compared to the outer disc; yet, depletion times are similar to unbarred galaxies, suggesting highly intermittent periods of star formation when bars episodically drive gas inflow, without enhancing the central star formation efficiency permanently. In conclusion, we provide quantitative evidence that stellar structures in galaxies strongly affect the organisation of molecular gas and star formation, but their impact on star formation efficiency is more subtle. ; Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government PID2019-106027GA-C44 European Research Council (ERC) 694343 National Science Foundation (NSF) National Research Foundation of Korea 1615105 1615109 1653300 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under ADAP grants NNX16AF48G NNX17AF39G German Research Foundation (DFG) SFB 881 138713538 Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence "STRUCTURES" in the framework of Germany's Excellence Strategy EXC-2181/1 390900948 European Research Council via the ERC Synergy Grant "ECOGAL" 855130 SKA South Africa 694343 721463 726384/Empire Academy of Finland 297738 German Research Foundation (DFG) KR4801/1-1 KR4598/2-1 KR4801/2-1 BI1546/3-1 European Research Council (ERC) 714907 National Science Foundation (NSF) 1903946 Spanish Government AYA2016-79006-P Spanish Government European Commission PID2019-108765GB-I00 Programme National Cosmology et Galaxies (PNCG) of CNRS/INSU INP IN2P3 French Atomic Energy Commission Centre National D'etudes Spatiales Programme National 'Physique et Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire' (PCMI) of CNRS/INSU INC/INP - CEA Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) RGPIN-2017-03987 Spanish funding grant (MINECO/FEDER) AYA2016-79006-P Spanish funding grant (MCIU/AEI/FEDER) PGC2018-094671-B-I00 Spanish funding grant (MICINN) PID2019-108765GB-I00 German Research Foundation (DFG) 138713538 - SFB 881 ; Versión sometida a revisión - Preprint