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African Blacks (african + blacks)
Selected AbstractsConflict resolution strategies in joint purchase decisions for major household consumer durables: a cross-cultural investigationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 3 2009Rina Makgosa Abstract Previous studies on joint purchase decisions have investigated the types of conflict resolution strategies used by spouses, the usage frequency of different conflict resolution strategies, and the effects of demographics and various other variables, on the uses of conflict resolution strategies. Despite efforts to address this largely unexplored area, the role that culture plays in the use of conflict resolution strategies has been significantly ignored. Using a cross-cultural perspective, this study addresses the gap in our understanding of the joint purchase decisions in the family by examining how husbands and wives of three ethnic groups in Britain , British Whites, Indians and African Blacks , use different conflict resolution strategies while jointly purchasing major household consumer products. The total sample comprised 583 husbands and wives of British White, Indian and African Black origin residing in London and Manchester in Britain. Our results showed that three conflict resolution strategies are used by both husbands and wives: bargaining, assertiveness and playing on an emotion. In addition, disengagement emerged as a strategy for husbands, whereas supplication emerged for wives. The study presented in this paper also provides substantial evidence of differences in the use of conflict resolution strategies by husbands and wives from the three ethnic groups, which greatly improves our knowledge on a cross-cultural perspective of joint purchase decisions. [source] Hepatitis B viral loads in southern African Blacks with hepatocellular carcinomaJOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Issue 9 2009Raquel Viana Abstract Although viral loads are known to influence the development of hepatitis B virus-induced hepatocellular carcinoma in a number of populations, little information is available in the Black African population. Black African patients with hepatocellular carcinoma differ from those in other populations in having a lower frequency of e antigen-positivity and in other respects that might affect viral loads. Hepatitis B viral loads were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction assay in 124 Black Africans with hepatocellular carcinoma and compared with those in 125 Black adult asymptomatic viral carriers. The geometric mean viral load in the cancer patients was 553,618,copies/ml (95% CI 301,953,1,015,033,copies/ml), with 62.1% having loads >1,×,105,copies/ml and 87.1% >1,× 104,copies/ml, whereas that in the carriers was 16,084,copies/ml (95% CI 9,184,28,168,copies/ml), with only 15.2% having values >1,× 105,copies/ml and 49.6% >1,×,104,copies/ml (P,<,0.001 in each instance). Mean viral load was significantly higher in e antigen-positive than e antigen-negative cancer patients (5,905,357 copies/ml [1,362,847,25,588,520] cf 238,173 copies/ml [97,200,685,730]: P,<,0.001) after adjusting for age and sex. No statistically significant difference existed between patients in different age groups, in men and women, or in patients infected with genotype A or D after adjusting for the other variables. Conclusion: Black Africans with hepatocellular carcinoma have high hepatitis B viral loads in spite of the relative infrequency of e antigen-positivity. J. Med. Virol. 81:1525,1530, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Dietary iron overload in the African and hepatocellular carcinomaLIVER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 6 2007Michael C. Kew Abstract Dietary iron overload occurs commonly in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It results from the consumption of large volumes of traditional beer that is home-brewed in iron pots or drums and consequently has a high iron content. The liver becomes iron overloaded and may develop portal fibrosis or, less often, cirrhosis. A genetic predisposition to the condition has been suggested, but no putative gene has yet been identified. Although originally believed not to cause hepatocellular carcinoma, recent case,control studies have shown African Blacks with dietary iron overload to be at increased risk for the tumour and a causal association has been confirmed in an animal model. The mechanisms of iron-induced malignant transformation are yet to be fully characterised, but the close association between cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with hereditary haemochromatosis and the lesser association in those with dietary iron overload, suggests that chronic necroinflammatory hepatic disease contributes to the malignant transformation. Increased hepatic iron may, however, also be directly carcinogenic. Probable mechanisms include the generation of reactive oxygen intermediates and the resultant chronic oxidative stress that damages hepatocytes and proteins, causes lipid peroxidation, and induces strand breaks, DNA unwinding, and mutations in tumour-suppressor genes and critical DNA repair genes. [source] Gastroschisis: International epidemiology and public health perspectives,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS, Issue 3 2008Eduardo E. Castilla Abstract Gastroschisis offers the intriguing epidemiological situation of a pandemic, strongly associated with very low maternal age. Identifying gastroschisis, and distinguishing it from the other abdominal wall defects, is theoretically easy but difficult in practice. The baseline birth prevalence of gastroschisis before the pandemic was approximately 1 in 50,000 births and has increased since between 10- and 20-fold. In many populations worldwide, it is still increasing. Such increasing prevalence and the association with very low maternal age are well proven, but the interaction between these two findings remains unknown. Geographic gradients (decreasing prevalence from North to South) are clear in Continental Europe and suggestive in Britain and Ireland. Gastroschisis seems more frequent in Caucasians compared to African Blacks and Orientals, and in Northern compared to Southern Europeans. These observations indicate the need for investigating gene,environment interactions. Since the global human situation is marked by inequalities among as well as within countries, the medical care and public health impact of gastroschisis varies widely among regions and social strata. The postnatal benefits of prenatal diagnosis of gastroschisis include family awareness; adequate planning of delivery with alerted obstetrical, pediatric, and surgical staff; optimal risk categorization, and personalized protocol for action. The increasing prevalence of gastroschisis combined with improved medical techniques to reduce morbidity and mortality are also increasing the burden and costs of this anomaly on health systems. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Occult hepatitis B virus infection in Southern African blacks with hepatocellular carcinomaJOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY, Issue 9 2008Michael C Kew Abstract Background and Aim:, To ascertain the prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in southern African blacks with hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods:, Sera from 118 patients negative for HBV surface antigen but positive for HBV antibodies were studied. HBV-DNA was detected using a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and confirmed by nucleotide sequencing of the surface and precore/core genes. Results:, Surface gene HBV-DNA was detected in a single PCR assay in 48.4% of the patients. Positive results increased to 57.7% after two PCR assays (not significant) and 75.7% after four assays (P < 0.001). No false positive results were obtained in these assays or in the 15 control samples for which PCR assays were performed four times. Significant differences in positivity rates were not observed between patients positive for HBV core antibody alone and those positive for core and surface antibodies. The sensitivity of the PCR amplification of the precore/core gene was significantly less than that of the surface open reading frame: the yield of positive results was 23.7% after one assay, 32.2% after two assays (not significant), and 52% after four assays (P < 0.001). Combining the results of the assays of the two genes increased the yield of positive results for the first assay (by 11.9%, P = 0.015), but not the second (6.1%) or fourth assays (4.6%). Conclusion:, Occult HBV infection is present in the serum of the majority of hepatocellular carcinomas in southern African blacks whose serum is negative for hepatitis B surface antigen but positive for anti-HBV core antigen. The yield of positive results increases if more than one PCR assay is performed. [source] | |||||||||||||