Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education and HIV risk behavior: a survey of rapid deployment troops.

A paper-and-pencil questionnaire was administered to 1,377 U.S. Army troops from rapid deployment units at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This yielded 1,368 surveys available for analysis. The primary goal of the survey was to evaluate this group's experience with the Army human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education program and to determine their level of HIV risk behaviors as related to participation in the Army's HIV education program. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents (1,052 of 1,368) reported receiving some HIV education from the Army. Of those, 55% (578 of 1,052) reported receiving 1 hour of education within the past year. Soldiers of Asian, Native American, and "other" race/ethnicity, and to a lesser extent, Hispanic background, were more likely to report receiving no HIV education compared with whites and African Americans. Self-reported receipt of HIV education did not strongly differentiate individuals in their partner selection or in key sexual risk behaviors in which they engaged.

Perspective from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program.

The Department of Defense (DOD), Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) was established in 1993. Since its inception, Congress has appropriated more than 878 million dollars for the BCRP, a unique public-private partnership between the DOD, consumer advocacy, and scientific communities which has funded approximately 1,800 breast cancer research grants. Through this partnership, the BCRP designed a model program for consumer involvement in scientific peer review. This paper describes the BCRP's approach to the processes of recruitment, selection, and preparation of consumers for this expanded role. Further, factors critical to program implementation, such as effective program management, ongoing process improvement, strong program leadership, and allocation of resources, that led to the BCRP's success in developing the previously undefined role of breast cancer survivors as members of scientific peer review panels are discussed. The BCRP demonstrates the feasibility and unique contributions of consumers in scientific peer review and provides a critical foundation for future efforts to ensure consumer involvement in scientific research programs.

Prometaphase chromosomes in five patients with the Brachmann-de Lange syndrome.

We analyzed the prometaphase chromosomes of 5 patients (including one pair of sibs) with the Brachmann-de Lange syndrome (BDLS), and did not find a significant chromosome abnormality in any of them. It appears that two distinct entities can be distinguished on clinical and chromosomal bases; the BDLS and the dup(3q) syndrome. We still recommend chromosome studies in any patients with BDLS and BDLS-like manifestations.