Intimate partner violence in early adolescence:the role of gender; socioeconomic factors and the school

BACKGROUND:Intimate partner violence (IPV) among adolescents is common worldwide; but our understanding of perpetration; gender differences and the role of social-ecological factors remains limited.OBJECTIVES:To explore the prevalence of physical and sexual IPV perpetration and victimisation by gender; and associated risk and protective factors.METHODS:Young adolescents (N=2 839) from 41 randomly selected public high schools in the Western Cape region of South Africa (SA); participating in the PREPARE study; completed a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS:The participants' mean age was 13.65 years (standard deviation 1.01); with 19.1% (541/2 839) reporting being victims/survivors of IPV and 13.0% (370/2 839) reporting perpetrating IPV. Girls were less likely to report being a victim/survivor of physical IPV (odds ratio (OR) 0.72; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57 - 0.92) and less likely to be a perpetrator of sexual IPV than boys (OR 0.33; 95% CI 0.21 - 0.52). Factors associated with perpetration of physical and sexual IPV were similar and included being a victim/survivor (physical IPV: OR 12.42; 95% CI 8.89 - 17.36; sexual IPV: OR 20.76; 95% CI 11.67 - 36.93); being older (physical IPV: OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.08 - 1.47; sexual IPV: OR 1.36; 95% CI 1.14 - 1.62 ); having lower scores on school connectedness (physical IPV: OR 0.59; 95% CI 0.46 - 0.75; sexual IPV: OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.42 - 0.76) and scoring lower on feelings of school safety (physical IPV: OR 0.66; 95% CI 0.57 - 0.77; sexual IPV: OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.40 - 0.62).CONCLUSIONS:Physical and sexual IPV was commonly reported among young adolescents in SA. Further qualitative exploration of the role of reciprocal violence by gender is needed; and the role of 'school climate'-related factors should be taken into account when developing preventive interventions

Dietary Nitrate – an Unrecognised Nutrient.

Background: Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease such as stroke, NICE [1]. Dietary nitrate supplements, including beetroot juice, may have positive effects on health: for example by reducing blood pressure (BP) Siervo et al. [2] and improving exercise tolerance in peripheral arterial disease Allen et al. [3]. However, nitrate is a strictly controlled, environmental contaminant and not regarded as a nutrient essential for health. Plasma [nitrate] and [nitrite] increase following ingestion of nitrate containing supplements, but few studies have used whole, nitrate-rich vegetables to supplement a normal diet. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of supplementation with high- and low-nitrate vegetables on plasma [nitrate], [nitrite], and BP. Method: Following ethical approval, fifteen non-smoking, physically active males of 18-40 years of age were recruited between January 2011 and March 2012. In a randomised, balanced, cross-over design, participants received high- or low-nitrate vegetables for a 2- week period and, after a 2-week wash-out, participants received the remaining diet (lowor high-nitrate) for a 2-week period. Data were analysed using repeated-measures ANOVAs. Results: There were significant main and interaction effects by diet on plasma [nitrate] (P<0.05) and plasma [nitrite] (P<0.05). Post hoc tests revealed that high-nitrate diet significantly increased plasma [nitrate] (pre: 29.5±20.0 μM; post: 129.4±87.1 μM, P<0.05) and plasma [nitrite] (pre: 118.9±35.2 nM; post: 226.5 ± 89.3 nM, P<0.05). There were significant inverse correlations between changes in plasma [nitrate] and systolic BP (r =– 0.49, P<0.05), plasma [nitrate] and the mean arterial pressure (r =–0.44, P=0.05) and plasma [nitrite] and diastolic BP (r =–0.56, P<0.05). No significant changes were observed in these variables after the low-nitrate diet. Discussion: This is the first study to compare whole, fresh, high-nitrate and low-nitrate vegetables as a dietary intervention with potential to reduce BP. It was shown that increases in plasma concentrations of nitrate and nitrite were associated with a reduction in BP. These findings are comparable to previous studies using high-nitrate supplements, such as natural or concentrated beetroot juice or sodium nitrate (Siervo et al. [2]. Conclusion: The present findings support the hypothesis that increasing dietary nitrate intake in the form of nitrate-rich vegetables reduces BP, with major public health implications for dietary interventions to reduce hypertension. A population wide promotion of normal BP could substantially reduce the risk of stroke (Seshadri et al. [4].

Trier Social Stress Test in Indian Adolescents.

Objective: To test the Trier Social Stress Test for children (TSSTC) in a cohort of Indian adolescents. Design: Cohort study Setting: Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore, India. Participants: Adolescent children (N=273, 134 males; mean age 13.6 yrs) selected from an ongoing birth cohort; 269 completed the test. Intervention: Performance of 5-minutes each of public- speaking and mental arithmetic tasks in front of two unfamiliar ‘evaluators’. Outcome measures: Salivary cortisol concentrations were measured at baseline and at regular intervals after the TSST-C. Continuous measurements of heart rate, finger blood pressure, stroke volume, cardiac output and systemic vascular resistance were carried out before, during and for 10 minutes after the TSSTC using a finger cuff. Results: Cortisol concentrations [mean increment (SD): 6.1 (6.9) ng/mL], heart rate [4.6 (10.1) bpm], systolic [24.2 (11.6) mmHg] and diastolic blood pressure [16.5 (7.3) mmHg], cardiac output [0.6 (0.7) L/min], stroke volume [4.0 (5.6) mL] and systemic vascular resistance [225 (282) dyn.s/cm5] increased significantly (P<0.001) from baseline after inducing stress. Conclusions: The TSST-C produces stress-responses in Indian adolescents of a sufficient magnitude to be a useful tool for examining stress physiology and its relationships to disease outcomes in this population.

The Role of Dream Analysis for Exploring Emotional Content during early Adolescence

The purpose of the study reported in this article was to determine whether dream analysis can provide insight into the emotional problems of female adolescents. A number of classical and contemporary theories on dreams and dream analysis were used to design guidelines for dream analysis. This was followed by a qualitative study of five pur- posefully selected adolescent girls with emotional problems. Data gathering included the following: recorded dreams; interviews; diaries; a personality test; (the Emotions Profile Index); a projection medium (Three Wishes) and the above-mentioned guidelines for dream analysis. Findings indicated that insights may be gained into adolescent emotional problems by means of dream analysis; revealing the intrapsychic world of the individual. Emotional problems that were revealed by the dream analysis; include(d) anxiety; aggression; negative self-concepts; feelings of social isolation and depression. These were revealed by means of manifest dream content such as being chased; falling; biting; fighting and stabbing. The emotional problems were often caused by fear; conflict; lack of confidence or trauma. Compensatory and regulatory functions were revealed by the investigation

Primary squamous carcinoma of liver: presentation as liver abscess.

Primary keratinizing squamous carcinoma of the liver has been reported as arising in a hepatic cyst, in association with prolonged cholestasis or chronic biliary sepsis. We describe the occurrence of such a tumor without predisposing factors, with presentation similar to that of hepatic abscess.

Initial characterization of Trypanosoma lewisi surface membrane antigen.

The purified T. lewisi were subjected to hypotonic lysis plus freezing and thawing in acetone dry ice bath. The trypanosome ghosts were obtained after repeated washing and centrifugation. The homogenized ghost suspension was assayed for enzyme Na++K+ ATPase activity to ratify the presence of the trypanosome surface membrane. Membrane solubilized in sodium dodecyl sulfate were fractionated by gel filtration on Sephadex columns equilibrated with the detergent and electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel. Crude trypanosome surface membrane antigens were tested for their immunogenicity, administered to rats in Fraund's complete adjuvant. The results of these experiments indicated that the protective immunogen is tightly bound to the membrane since the use of strong anionic detergent is necessary in its extraction.