Psychological and minor physical violence victimization is common in opposite-sex romantic relationships during adolescence. The sex-specific associations between sociodemographic characteristics and patterns of partner violence victimization underscore the importance of pursuing longitudinal, theory-driven investigations of the characteristics and developmental histories of both partners in a couple to advance understanding of this public health problem.

To further elucidate the incidence and potential mechanism of asparaginase-associated lipid abnormalities in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), we serially obtained fasting lipid and lipoprotein studies on 38 of the 43 consecutively diagnosed children with ALL before, during, and after asparaginase therapy. We also evaluated a second population of 30 long-term survivors of childhood ALL; a fasting lipid and lipoprotein profile was obtained once at study entry. The mean peak triglyceride level during asparaginase of 465 mg/dL (standard deviation [SD] 492) was significantly higher (P = .003) than the level of 108 mg/dL (SD 46) before the initiation of asparaginase therapy. Sixty-seven percent of the newly diagnosed patients had fasting triglyceride levels greater than 200 mg/dL during asparaginase therapy; 15 patients (42%) had levels greater than 400 mg/dL, 7 with levels greater than 1,000 mg/dL. The incidence of hypertriglyceridemia did not vary by type of asparaginase or risk status of ALL (defined by white blood cell count and age). None of the 7 patients with triglyceride levels greater than 1,000 mg/dL developed pancreatitis. In contrast, 4 of the 13 patients without triglyceride elevation developed pancreatitis; 3 of the 4 patients had fasting studies at the height of their abdominal pain. Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of lipid subclasses showed a significant increase in the smaller, denser forms of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and negligible chylomicron fraction in a subset of patients with marked triglyceride elevation. Lipoprotein lipase activity was consistently above normative values for all levels of triglyceride and could not be explained by obesity or hyperglycemia. Apolipoprotein B100 levels increased during asparaginase therapy, although the mechanism of this remains unclear. LDL reciprocally decreased with increased VLDL during asparaginase therapy. After asparaginase therapy, triglyceride levels (mean, 73 mg/dL [SD 33]) were significantly lower than levels obtained during asparaginase therapy. Triglyceride levels for survivors did not differ from the normal range or postasparaginase levels in the newly diagnosed patients. These data show a striking temporal association between asparaginase therapy and hypertriglyceridemia. Changes in cholesterol, in contrast, were not temporally related to asparaginase treatment. Cholesterol levels were elevated (<200 mg/dL) in 20% of the patients after asparaginase, which may be due to continued treatment with corticosteroids. The mean cholesterol level of long-term survivors of 177 mg/dL was significantly higher than the norm (P = .045). High-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels were significantly lower than normal at all time periods and for both populations; 25% of survivors had HDL levels less than 35 mg/dL. We conclude that modifications in asparaginase therapy are not necessary. In cases of triglyceride elevation greater than 2,000 mg/dL when the risk of pancreatitis is increased, close clinical monitoring is imperative. Larger studies are needed to determine the incidence of dyslipidemia in long-term survivors of ALL as well as the relationship between lipid abnormalities and other late effects of treatment, notably obesity and cardiomyopathies.

While current mainstream media stories oscillate between Canadian troops in Afghanistan attempting to restore safety and democracy and the imminent threat of a war on terror on domestic soil, a sorely neglected story concerns the continued war on women in Canada. In this paper, we look at one site of this war-the case of missing and murdered women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Employing a frame analysis, we analyze 128 articles from The Vancouver Sun published between 2001 and 2006. We argue that prevailing and historically entrenched stereotypes about women, Aboriginality, and sex-trade work continue to demarcate the boundaries of 'respectability' and degeneracy, interlocking in ways that situate these women's lives, even after death, in the margins.Résumé : Les reportages qui font la une présentent soit les troupes canadiennes postées en Afghanistan tentant de rétablir la sécurité et la décromatie, soit la menace imminente d'une guerre contre la terreur en sol domestique. Il est pourtant une histoire délibérément occultée : la guerre sans fin que subissent les femmes au Canada. Cet article explore une facette de cette guerre-celle des femmes disparues et assassinées du When the terrain is sexual violence, racism and sexism interlock in particularly nasty ways. These two systems operate through each other so that sexual violence, as well as women's narratives of resistance to sexual violence, cannot be understood outside of colonialism and today's ongoing racism and genocide. When women from marginalized communities speak out about sexual violence, we are naming something infinitely broader than what men do to women within our communities, an interlocking analysis that has most often been articulated by Aboriginal women.-Sherene Razack, Looking White People in the Eye (1998a, p. 59) A recent news article in The Vancouver Sun announced that one of Vancouver's "missing" women had been found (Culbert, 2006). That brought the count down to 67 women who have disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Over the past 30 years, approximately 100 women in British Columbia alone have gone missing. In the Hazelton-Houston-Burns Lake corridor-or the "Highway of Tears," as the Aboriginal women of the region have called it-police say nine young women and girls have disappeared, while a citizens' report suggests that the number may be as high as 30 (Hume, 2006). If we count women missing across the country, the numbers skyrocket. Yet, in comparison with the events "out there" dominating the international scene and their links here in the homeland, little attention has been paid to the phenomenon of missing women in the mainstream media.Our location informing this paper draws from our position as feminist researchers investigating the terrain of racialized and sexualized violence and its mediations. Our point of departure is that violence against women constitutes a gendered war that remains peripheral to the public sphere constructed by the mass media. In using the war metaphor, we borrow from anti-violence ...

While the mixed model approach to cluster randomization trials is relatively well developed, there has been less attention given to the design and analysis of population-averaged models for randomized and non-randomized cluster trials. We provide novel implementations of familiar methods to meet these needs. A design strategy that selects matching control communities based upon propensity scores, a statistical analysis plan for dichotomous outcomes based upon generalized estimating equations (GEE) with a design-based working correlation matrix, and new sample size formulae are applied to a large non-randomized study to reduce underage drinking. The statistical power calculations, based upon Wald tests for summary statistics, are special cases of a general power method for GEE.

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Leg ulcers associated with CVI have a high rate of recurrence. Ulcer recurrence is significantly increased in patients with DVI and in patients who do not have venous abnormalities corrected surgically. The VFI obtained from APG is useful in the prediction of increased risk for recurrence, particularly in association with anatomic data.

Small residual shunts are common after coil embolization of patent ductus arteriosus, but most close spontaneously. Actuarial analysis estimates complete closure in 94% at 20 months, and reintervention was required in only 7% of patients.

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