Reduced sphingosine kinase 1 activity in dengue virus type-2 infected cells can be mediated by the 3' untranslated region of dengue virus type-2 RNA.

Sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) is a lipid kinase with important roles including regulation of cell survival. We have previously shown reduced SphK1 activity in cells with an established dengue virus type-2 (DENV-2) infection. In this study, we examined the effect of alterations in SphK1 activity on DENV-2 replication and cell death and determined the mechanisms of the reduction in SphK1 activity. Chemical inhibition or overexpression of SphK1 after established DENV-2 infection had no effect on infectious DENV-2 production, although inhibition of SphK1 resulted in enhanced DENV-2-induced cell death. Reduced SphK1 activity was observed in multiple cell types, regardless of the ability of DENV-2 infection to be cytopathic, and was mediated by a post-translational mechanism. Unlike bovine viral diarrhea virus, where SphK1 activity is decreased by the NS3 protein, SphK1 activity was not affected by DENV-2 NS3 but, instead, was reduced by expression of the terminal 396 bases of the 3' UTR of DENV-2 RNA. We have previously shown that eukaryotic elongation factor 1A (eEF1A) is a direct activator of SphK1 and here DENV-2 RNA co-localized and co-precipitated with eEF1A from infected cells. We propose that the reduction in SphK1 activity late in DENV-2-infected cells is a consequence of DENV-2 out-competing SphK1 for eEF1A binding and hijacking cellular eEF1A for its own replication strategy, rather than a specific host or virus-induced change in SphK1 to modulate viral replication. Nonetheless, reduced SphK1 activity may have important consequences for survival or death of the infected cell.

Can you see what they are saying? Breast cancer images and text in Canadian women's and fashion magazines.

Media are an important source of breast cancer information for women. Visual images influence recall and comprehension of information. Research on breast cancer in the media has infrequently focused on images. Using directed content analysis, we compared content, tone, and themes in images (n = 91) and articles (n = 31) in Canadian women's and fashion (n = 6) magazines (2005-2010). About half of the articles (51.6%) had both positive and negative tone; in contrast, 87.7% of women in the images had positive facial expressions. Women in the images were Caucasian (80.9%), young (81.3%), attractive (99.2%), had a healthy body type (93.8%), and appeared to have intact breasts (100%). Images of screening/treatment (5.5%) and visual impact of disease/treatment on the body (4.4%) were rare. The most common theme in the articles was medical issues (35.5%); in the images, it was beauty or fashion (15.4%). The potential impact of these divergent messages for breast cancer education is discussed.

Ethnicity, genetics, and breast cancer: media portrayal of disease identities.

OBJECTIVE: To describe, compare, and analyze how the risk of breast cancer is framed in newspapers directed towards an ethnic minority population (Jewish) with higher risk of inherited breast cancer compared with newspaper coverage for the general population (Anglo-Canadian) without this risk. DESIGN: This investigation utilized a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) approach. The design emphasized a content analysis conducted on ethnically specific and non-ethnic newspaper articles. RESULTS: It is noteworthy that the 'Jewish' newspapers devote a substantially larger proportion of articles on breast cancer to genetic risk as the key risk factor for this disease. Articles in the Jewish newspapers tend to link being a Jewish woman with being at risk for a diagnosis of breast cancer. This ethnic 'identity' is reinforced through the repeated association of Jewish heritage and genetic breast cancer risk at the exclusion of other known risk factors. This isolated genetic link to breast cancer is not a message that is replicated within the provincial newsprint articles. CONCLUSIONS: These findings assist in the facilitation of prevention and treatment of those with or at risk of breast cancer. The health policy implications of this portrayal as well as suggestions for change are considered.

Portrayal of genetic risk for breast cancer in ethnic and non-ethnic newspapers.

There has been enormous attention paid to the genetics of breast cancer in this era of genomic medicine. A great deal of the interest has been generated through discourse in the public mass media. However, genetic risk is a probabilistic concept and one that requires adequate numeracy skills. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis was to describe and evaluate the portrayal of genetic risk for breast cancer in mass print media. Mass print newspapers targeting high (Ashkenazi Jews) and low (general Canadian population) genetic risk audiences and published at least monthly, available in English and accessible through public archives at the National Library of Canada, were identified and hand searched for articles on breast cancer. Approximately 47% of breast cancer articles in 6 Jewish newspapers and published between 1996-2000 identified genetics in the title, first or last paragraph compared with 17% of 145 articles in 6 provincial newspapers published in 2000. The description of breast cancer risk was equally problematic in print media targeting high and low risk audiences. Statistics were presented in complex and contradictory ways, with, for example, the confounding of individual and population based risk estimates. Inconsistent messages about the value of genetic screening for breast cancer characterized articles in both ethnic and non-ethnic newspapers. Deciphering the information into a comprehensible form is likely challenging, particularly in light of widespread numeric-literacy limitations. The publication of discrepant research findings and the perplexing statistical information consequently brought into question the credibility of the scientific process and the recommendations of health care professionals.

Quality of breast cancer sites on the World Wide Web.

The Internet is a powerful tool for accessing information about complex health topics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate breast cancer Internet sites using published criteria about website structure. Two searches were undertaken (November 1998 and June 1999) using the Yahoo search engine, providing a sample of 136 unique addresses. The results showed 1) owner's credentials were identified in 31.6% of sites, 2) financial charges were stated in 10.3% of sites, 3) less than 14.0% identified site creation date, 4) 33.1% identified content posting update, 5) 30.1% identified information sources, and 6) just under 88% of sites provided e-mail interactivity. The results indicate variability in breast cancer Internet sites with respect to framework criteria of accountability. We suggest that websites that lack fundamental indicators (such as dating and sources) do not provide the user with fundamental information that could enable informed decision making about site quality.

The search for legitimacy and the "expertization" of the lay person: the case of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Some "diseases" appear to be recognized first by sufferers. At times these diseases may be disclaimed by medical doctors and elusive to scientific categorization and description. In these cases sufferers may organize themselves together in support groups and lobby for money to finance the discovery of diagnostic markers that would legitimate and medicalize the constellation of symptoms that they experience. Chronic fatigue syndrome is such a disease; and it is characterized by varied and changing symptomatology. Its diagnostic markers are in the process of being refined. Presently, its diagnosis primarily originates in reports of subjective experience of extreme fatigue. Often-times people diagnose themselves after attending a support group and find a doctor through a support group network who believes in the disease. Sometimes, people then return to their own family doctors with information and try to teach their doctors about what they believe to be the nature of their disease, its prognosis and treatment. Through such paths as described in the paper, patients become "experts": they may often know more about the illness than doctors and non-suffering others. This paper moves beyond the experience of chronic illness to describe the processes through which people seek confirmation and legitimation for the way that they feel and in a sense become the "experts."

Breast cancer in mass circulating magazines in the U.S.A. and Canada, 1974-1995.

This paper presents the results of a study of the images of breast cancer in the highest circulating periodicals in the USA and Canada over a twenty year period of time. Both manifest and latent themes are noted and described. The emphasis in the manifest themes is on the medical aspects of the treatment and early detection of breast cancer. The latent themes emphasize the contrast in the ways that women with the disease, as compared to their doctors, are described. Notably, women are portrayed as being 'worried about their health' and, in particular, the most feared of 'their' diseases, breast cancer. Breast cancer is said to be caused by everything, especially women's own traitorous bodies. Women are described as isolates, as emotional and preoccupied with their sexual attractiveness. Doctors are described in contrasting ways, as moral truth-seekers, infused with rationality and intelligence. The ubiquitous causes of breast cancer are also noted. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible implications of the gendered character of the reporting about breast cancer.

Chronic fatigue syndrome: gender differences in the search for legitimacy.

This study employs qualitative research methods to describe and compare the experiences of men and women with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), focusing on respondents' self-perceived illness experience and relationship with medical practitioners. Data were collected from 59 respondents (18 male, 41 female) in telephone interviews using an open-ended focus interview schedule. While respondents explained the causes of the disease in ways that were largely gender appropriate, they did not experience the disease itself in gender different ways. The evidence of the study points to a clear dichotomy between ways in which men and women experience the disease and differences in the ways in which they are treated by the medical profession.

Prostate cancer's hegemonic masculinity in select print mass media depictions (1974-1995).

The meanings associated with prostate cancer were studied in contemporary mass print media. The study includes both manifest and latent content analysis of a period of approximately 2 decades, from 1974 to 1995. The manifest analysis revealed a primary emphasis on the importance of early detection. The latent analysis found that prostate cancer's presentation is gendered. Its description is embedded in themes related to masculinity, sexuality, competition, brotherhood, and machismo. This small, qualitative, and inductive study raises questions about the socially significant portrayal of the meanings of disease in the media, about the men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, have symptoms of prostate cancer, or about all men, because any man might at some time be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Stereotypical imaging could alienate men who either do not or do not want to fit into the stereotypical ideal as it is protrayed in the media. Such a portrayal also may have inplications for the potential willingness of men to engage in early detection, avail themselves of treatment, act preventatively, or become involved in lobbying for monies for research into the early prevention, detection, and treatment of prostate cancer.

Feminist methods in health promotion research.

This paper describes and discusses the traditional social scientific approach to health promotion research, details some of its methods of data collection and analysis, outlines some of the principles of feminist methods of research particularly as these provide a critical analysis of traditional methods and concludes with a feminist critique of a typical and influential health promotion document, the Active Health Report (1985).

Medicalization and secularization in selected English Canadian fiction.

This paper presents an analysis of the role of medical and religious values in Canadian society during the past two centuries as described in Canadian book-length fiction. It has been argued that medical institutions are increasingly becoming powerful social control agencies. More and more of human behavior is seen as having a medical explanation, cause or cure. At the same time, religious institutions are believed to be diminishing in their social control abilities. Normality and abnormality tend now to be defined as medical conditions. What was once seen as sin may now be considered illness; and what once was grace or holiness, now may be viewed as health. An empirical examination of this theoretically conceived and seldom empirically examined trend is documented.

Sexism, feminism and medicalism: a decade review of literature on gender and illness.

Do we really have a dependent variable in our study of the sex differences in illness and sex differences in the explanations for illness? The purpose of this paper, which reviews the literature in this area over the past decade, is to argue that because of both conceptual and methodological difficulties in the definition of health/illness, there are serious problems in the available analyses to date. Confusions between medical and lay definitions, mental and physical illness, illness per se and illness behavior are among the issues raised with respect to the first issue: conceptual and definitional incommensurability. Proxy respondents, distinctions between males and females in illness experience, and improper rate calculation are among the issues discussed in the section concerning methodology.

The physician as moral entrepreneur.

This paper argues that the work of the contemporary physician is at least in part the work of a moral entrepreneur. The effects of religious affiliation and religiosity on the decision making of a modern doctor are examined in an analysis of the responses of 231 physicians to a mailed questionnaire. Decision-making issues were considered to be those with social/moral implications. Religious physicians tend to favor clergy involvement in social and procreative issues. Roman Catholic physicians oppose the involvement of the medical profession in birth control issues.