The article draws on the first stages of a large-scale longitudinal study into foster care with 'looked after' children. It uses data supplied by 950 foster carers in response to a postal questionnaire designed to document the proportions who had experienced one or more of six potentially stressful 'events': breakdowns or disruptions, allegations, relationship with birth parents, family tensions, 'tug of love' cases, and other disagreements with social services. The article uses carers' comments to describe their reaction to the 'events'. It then examines the relationship between the 'events' and measures of carer stress, satisfaction with fostering, and intentions to continue fostering. Overall, two-thirds of the sample had experienced one or more of these 'events' and these were associated with a measure of mental ill-health and with attitudes towards continuing fostering. At any one time, around six out of ten of the children looked after by local authorities are placed with foster carers (Department of Health, 1997). Although the numbers of foster children (currently around 33,000) have remained fairly constant (Berridge, 1997), they constitute a proportion of those in the care system which has roughly doubled since the 1970s. So it seems likely that foster carers are having to cope with more troubled and more challenging children (Warren, 1997), at the same time as they negotiate the treacherous waters between the Scylla of family needs

No abstract

A novel transposon-tagging strategy designed to recover dominant gain-of-function alleles was performed with Arabidopsis by using a Dissociation element with a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter transcribing outward over one terminus. Lines containing transposed copies of this transposon were screened for mutants, and a semidominant mutation affecting plant height, hypocotyl elongation, and fertility was recovered. The pleiotropic effects of this mutation appear to result from a general reduction in cell expansion, and some of the effects are similar to those caused by supplying exogenous ethylene or cytokinin to wild-type seedlings. In addition, the arrangement of cells in some organs such as the etiolated hypocotyl, is disorganized. The mutation was called tiny, and the affected gene was cloned by first using transposon sequences to isolate the mutant allele. The predicted protein product of the TINY gene shows strong homology with the DNA binding domain of a recently identified class of plant transcription factors. This domain, called the APETALA2 domain, was initially identified as a duplicated region within the APETALA2 gene of Arabidopsis and then as a conserved region between APETALA2 and the ethylene responsive element binding proteins of tobacco. In the mutant allele, the Dissociation element is inserted in the untranslated leader of the TINY gene, 36 bp from the ATG, and the mutant contains a novel transcript that initiates from the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter within the transposon. This transcript is present in greater abundance than the wild-type TINY transcript; therefore, the semidominant tiny mutation most likely results from increased, or ectopic, expression of the gene.

Health needs of women who have experienced IPV are significant and include physical and mental concerns. IPV creates unique barriers to accessing healthcare, which can be addressed only partially by a crisis center. Greater coordination with the healthcare system is needed to respond more appropriately to the health needs of women who have experienced IPV.

Latino immigrants in the United States are disproportionally impacted by the HIV epidemic but face barriers to clinic-based testing. We assessed a community-based strategy for rapid HIV testing by conducting "door-to-door" outreaches in apartments with predominately Latino immigrants in Durham, North Carolina, that has experienced an exponential growth in its Latino population. Eligible persons were 18 years or older, not pregnant, and reported no HIV test in the previous month. Participants were asked to complete a survey and offered rapid HIV testing. Of the 228 Latino participants, 75.4% consented to HIV testing. There was a high prevalence of sexual risk behaviors among participants, with 42.5% acknowledging ever having sex with a commercial sex worker (CSW). Most (66.5%) had no history of prior HIV testing. In bivariate analysis, perceived HIV risk, no history of HIV testing, sex with a CSW, sex in exchange for drugs or money, living with a partner, and alcohol use were significantly associated with test acceptance. In the multivariate analysis, participants who had never been tested for HIV were more likely to consent to rapid HIV testing than those who had tested in the past (adjusted odds ratio 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1, 5.6). Most participants supported rapid HIV testing in the community (97%). Door-to-door rapid HIV testing is a feasible and acceptable strategy for screening high-risk Latino immigrants in the community. Factors associated with HIV risk among Latino migrants and immigrants in the United States should be considered along with novel testing strategies in HIV prevention programs.

METHODS: Overall, 192

The key milestones in the rise of digital health illustrate efforts to bridge gaps in the evidence base, a shifting focus to scale-up and sustainability, growing attention to the precise costing of these strategies, and an emergent implementation science agenda that better characterizes the ecosystem—the social, political, economic, legal, and ethical context that supports digital health implementation—necessary to take digital health approaches to scale.

We evaluated the prevalence and correlates of intimate partner violence in the past year by a regular male partner in HIV-positive female sex workers in Mombasa, Kenya. This cross-sectional study included HIV-positive women ≥ 18 years old who reported engagement in transactional sex at the time of enrolment in the parent cohort. We asked 13 questions adapted from the World Health Organization survey on violence against women about physical, sexual, or emotional violence in the past year by the current or most recent emotional partner (index partner). We used standardised instruments to assess socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics as possible correlates of intimate partner violence. Associations between intimate partner violence and these correlates were evaluated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Overall, 286/357 women (80.4%) had an index partner, and 52/357 (14.6%, 95% confidence interval 10.9%–18.2%) reported intimate partner violence by that partner in the past year. In multivariate analysis, women with severe alcohol problems (adjusted odds ratio 4.39, 1.16–16.61) and those experiencing controlling behaviours by the index partner (adjusted odds ratio 4.98, 2.31–10.74) were significantly more likely to report recent intimate partner violence. Recent intimate partner violence was common in HIV-positive female sex workers. Interventions targeting risk factors for intimate partner violence, including alcohol problems and partner controlling behaviours, could help to reduce recurrent violence and negative health outcomes in this key population.