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Studies exploring gender differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are scarce and contradictory. This study evaluated gender differences in HRQOL of 744 PLWHA with median (IQR) age 44 (37-48) years and HIV infection diagnosed 12 (5-20) years earlier. Results showed important differences between genders (p < .05). Better male physical health was related to being employed, not having economic worries, not receiving psychological support, not having injected drugs in past, low negative mood HIV-related, low HIV illness representation and internalized stigma, and high body image satisfaction and health behavior. For women, variables were fewer years since HIV diagnosis and low enacted stigma-personal experience of rejection. Mentally, variables in men were being employed, not having injected drugs, having a stable partner, high health behavior, use of problem-solving coping, personal autonomy and personal meaning. In women, better mental health was related to high CD4 cells, self-esteem and body image satisfaction, and negative mood HIV-related. Men and women coincided in absence of past opportunistic infections being related to better physical and mental health, and absence of side effects for physical health and low HIV-related stress and HIV illness representation for mental health. Our results highlight the need for detailed study of gender differences that identify the bio-psycho-socio inequalities that affect HRQOL.

Recent observations show that the number of stars with very low metallicities in the dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way is low, despite the low average metallicities of stars in these systems. We undertake numerical simulations of star formation and metal enrichment of dwarf galaxies in order to verify whether this result can be reproduced with "standard" assumptions. The answer is likely to be negative, unless some selection bias against very low metallicity stars is present in the observations., 6 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the CRAL-Conference Series I "Chemodynamics: from first stars to local galaxies", Lyon 10-14 July 2006, France, Eds. Emsellem, Wozniak, Massacrier, Gonzalez, Devriendt, Champavert, EAS Publications Series

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a toxic compound which is used as a fungicide, bactericide, herbicide and chemical intermediate. Because of its toxicity, there is a need to decontaminate the PCP-laden soils and bioremediation is a very useful alternative to conventional clean-up methods. The success of this depends on finding strains able to degrade PCP in a changeable environment. The aim of this work was to study the influence of pH of the medium and the effect of inoculum size on pentachlorophenol degradation by Pseudomonas sp. A study of PCP degradation kinetics was performed to assess such effects. PCP was degraded rapidly at pH values from 6.3 to 8, but the maximum rate of PCP degradation by Pseudomonas sp. was at pH 6.3. In contrast, the PCP degradation kinetics at pH 5.5 were significantly lower, although PCP was totally depleted. These results show the broad range of pHs for PCP degradation for this strain. PCP was degraded at every inoculum size tested and PCP degradation increased with the increasing inoculum size, but cultures inoculated with the lowest inoculum showed the highest specific consumption rate. This reveals a lower consumption of PCP per CFU at a high population density. These results are useful to understand the physiological and biochemical properties of Pseudomonas sp. before its optimum use in environmental application and these data will assist in choosing the right PCP-degrader for a changeable environment. Water SA Vol 32(1)pp:93-98

The Fornax dSpb is a nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxy with five globular clusters and a complex star formation history. It is one of the most massive dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group. Using the FLAMES/GlRAFFE spectrograph on the VLT, we have obtained high resolution (R similar to 20 000) spectra for 80 Red Giant Branch stars in the central 25' of the Fornax dSph. We present abundance ratios for some of the elements we have in our analysis, including alpha (Mg and Ca), iron-peak (Fe and Ni) and heavy (Y, Ba, Eu) elements. We compare our results with the Milky Way (MW) and our recent VLT/UVES abundance determinations of nine individual stars in Fornax globular clusters.