Search

The majority of tobacco use emerges in individuals before they reach 21 years of age, and many adult distributors of tobacco to youths are young adults aged between 18 and 20 years. Raising the tobacco sales minimum age to 21 years across the United States would decrease tobacco retailer and industry sales by approximately 2% but could contribute to a substantial reduction in the prevalence of youths' tobacco use and dependency by limiting access.

Objective: To explore (1) whether extremely low gestational age newborns exposed to inflammation-associated pregnancy disorders differ in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) risk from infants exposed to placenta dysfunction-associated disorders, and (2) whether ROP risk associated with postnatal hyperoxemia and bacteremia differs among infants exposed to these disorders., Methods: Pregnancy disorders resulting in preterm birth include inflammation-associated: preterm labor, prelabor premature rupture of membranes (pPROM), cervical insufficiency, and abruption and placenta dysfunction-associated: preeclampsia and fetal indication. The risk of severe ROP associated with pregnancy disorders was evaluated by multivariable analyses in strata defined by potential effect modifiers, postnatal hyperoxemia and bacteremia., Results: Compared to preterm labor, infants delivered after pPROM were at reduced risk of plus disease (Odds ratio = 0.4, 95% confidence interval: 0.2-0.8) and prethreshold/threshold ROP (0.5, 0.3-0.8). Infants delivered after abruption had reduced risk of zone I ROP (0.2, 0.1-0.8) and prethreshold/threshold ROP (0.3, 0.1-0.7). In stratified analyses, infants born after placenta dysfunction had higher risks of severe ROP associated with subsequent postnatal hyperoxemia and bacteremia than infants born after inflammation-associated pregnancy disorders., Conclusion: Infants exposed to placenta dysfunction have an increased risk of severe ROP following postnatal hyperoxemia and bacteremia compared to infants exposed to inflammation-associated pregnancy disorders.

The five two-domain stimulatory KIR genes carried by 100 random African Americans were characterized by DNA sequencing of genomic DNA covering the majority of coding exons. The frequency of individual loci was similar to that found in European Americans, with the exception of a reduced frequency for KIR2DS1 in African Americans. New alleles were identified at the KIR2DS1 (*008), KIR2DS2 (*006), KIR2DS3 (*00104, *00105, *00106, *004), KIR2DS4 (*00103, *00104, *009, *011, *012, *013), and KIR2DS5 (*006, *007, *00801, *00802, *009) loci. The distribution of alleles at each locus was similar to that found in a European American population except for KIR2DS5. KIR2DS5 exhibits a single allele in European Americans; the same allele is found at a reduced frequency (41% of gene-positive individuals), accompanied by KIR2DS5*006 (18%), KIR2DS5*007 (26%), and six other alleles (25%), in African Americans.