Social Representations and Experiences of Sexual Transactions Among Swiss Youth.

This article relies on quantitative data collected in Switzerland as part of a research study on sexual transactions among youth. Building on an analytical framework that defines sexual transactions in terms of negotiated exchanges rooted in social representations, we explored how they were perceived by the Swiss young people included in our sample at a cognitive, ethical, and political level. We found that research participants who reported having experienced sexual transactions viewed them much more positively than those who reported never having engaged in such exchanges. While this was especially true among young women, we also found that the tendency of respondents to perceive sexual transactions negatively increased with age. When analyzed in light of the qualitative results of our study, these quantitative findings suggest that negative representations of sexual transactions are less likely to be based on lived experience than on an ideal-type of sexual behavior. In other words, our research highlights how young people interpret sexuality according to norms developed within a heteronormative matrix.

Iatrogenic cerebral amyloid angiopathy: A multinational case series and individual patient data analysis of the literature.

BACKGROUND: The transmission of amyloid ß (Aß) in humans leading to iatrogenic cerebral amyloid angiopathy (iCAA) is a novel concept with analogies to prion diseases. However, the number of published cases is low, and larger international studies are missing. AIMS: We aimed to build a large multinational collaboration on iCAA to better understand the clinical spectrum of affected patients. METHODS: We collected clinical data on patients with iCAA from Austria, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain. Patients were included if they met the proposed Queen Square diagnostic criteria (QSC) for iCAA. In addition, we pooled data on disease onset, latency, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers from previously published iCAA cases based on a systematic literature review. RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients (22% women) were included in this study. Of these, 19 (70%) met the criteria for probable and 8 (30%) for possible iCAA. Prior neurosurgical procedures were performed in all patients (93% brain surgery, 7% spinal surgery) at median age of 8 (interquartile range (IQR) = 4-18, range = 0-26 years) years. The median symptom latency was 39 years (IQR = 34-41, range = 28-49). The median age at symptom onset was 49 years (IQR = 43-55, range = 32-70). Twenty-one patients (78%) presented with intracranial hemorrhage and 3 (11%) with seizures. CONCLUSIONS: Our large international case series of patients with iCAA confirms a wide age boundary for the diagnosis of iCAA. Dissemination of awareness of this rare condition will help to identify more affected patients.

Experiences of Street Harassment and the Active Engagement of Bystanders: Insights From a Swiss Sample of Respondents.

In this article, we analyze data from a survey conducted in the Swiss city of Fribourg to investigate the correlation between bystanders' experiences of street harassment and their likelihood of active engagement and strategies used to stop the harasser or assist and support targets of street harassment. Results reveal that, among bystanders, lifetime experiences of street harassment correlate positively with their ability to recognize street harassment conduct and the likelihood of intervention, support of the survivors, and reporting emergencies, even more significantly when the bystander endured physical abuse. In addition, behavioral differences among bystanders reflect different forms of resistance to the sexist culture that fuels street harassment. In light of these findings, we emphasize the need to integrate the narratives of the bystanders into awareness programs and campaigns, the importance of designing tools and policies to improve feelings of safety and limit street harassment conducts, including forms of benevolent sexism, and support further studies to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies in support of victims, including the need to research the use of digital media and its impact as a deterrent to street harassment or in increasing police reporting.

Spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage associated with early-onset cerebral amyloid angiopathy and Alzheimer's disease neuropathological changes five decades after cadaveric dura mater graft.

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a small vessel disease, causing spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in the elderly. It is strongly associated with Alzheimer disease (AD), as most CAA patients show deposition of Aß-i.e. the basic component of parenchymal Alzheimer amyloid deposits-in the cerebral vessels. Iatrogenic early-onset CAA has been recently identified in patients with a history of traumatic brain injury or other cerebral as well as extra-cerebral lesions that led to neurosurgery or other medical procedures as intravascular embolization by cadaveric dura mater extracts many years before the first ICH event. In those patients, a transmission of Aß seeds from neurosurgical instruments or from cadaveric dura mater exposure was suggested. We report a 51-year-old woman with unremarkable family history who presented abruptly with aphasia and right hemiparesis. A cerebral left lobar haemorrhagic stroke was documented by neuroimaging. Accurate anamnesis revealed a neurosurgical procedure with cadaveric dura mater graft at the age of 2 years for an arachnoid cyst. The neuropathological examination of the cerebral parietal biopsy showed severe amyloid angiopathy in many leptomeningeal and cortical vessels, as well as abundant parenchymal Aß deposits, neurofibrillary tangles and neuropil threads. The mechanism involved in the human-to-human transmission of the Aß proteinopathy remains to be clarified. In our patient the cadaver derived dura used for grafting is a very strong candidate as the source of the transmission. A systematic monitoring of individuals who have had neurosurgical procedures in early life, especially those involving cadaveric dural grafts, is required to determine the ratio of those affected by CAA many years later and unaffected. Moreover, our report confirms that in addition to vascular and parenchymal Aß pathology, neurofibrillary changes indistinguishable from AD may develop in specific conditions with long latency period from the neurosurgical or embolization procedure.

Subacute sensory neuronopathy associated with Merkel cell carcinoma with unknown primary: a case report with literature review.

Paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes (PNSs) are a wide spectrum of neurologic diseases characterized by different clinical features, associated with a neoplasia, and triggered by an immune-mediated process. In most cases, it is possible to detect specific neuronal antibodies and the Hu protein is one of the most frequently recognized intracellular antigens in patients with PNSs. Small-cell lung cancer is the most common cancer associated with PNSs, followed by urological, gynecological and hematological malignancies. Otherwise, extra-pulmonary small-cell carcinomas, including Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), have been rarely described as related to PNSs. In this article we report, for the first time in the published literature, a case of anti-Hu antibody-related subacute sensory neuronopathy in association with MCC.