Modified Silicone Elastomer Vaginal Gels for Sustained Release of Antiretroviral HIV Microbicides

We previously reported nonaqueous silicone elastomer gels (SEGs) for sustained vaginal administration of the CCR5-targeted entry inhibitor maraviroc (MVC). Here, we describe chemically modified SEGs (h-SEGs) in which the hydrophobic cyclomethicone component was partially replaced with relatively hydrophilic silanol-terminated polydimethylsiloxanes (st-PDMS). MVC and emtricitabine (a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor), both currently under evaluation as topical microbicides to counter sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), were used as model antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. Gel viscosity and in vitro ARV release were significantly influenced by st-PDMS molecular weight and concentration in the h-SEGs. Unexpectedly, gels prepared with lower molecular weight grades of st-PDMS showed higher viscosities. h-SEGs provided enhanced release over 24 h compared with aqueous hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) gels, did not modify the pH of simulated vaginal fluid (SVF), and were shown to less cytotoxic than standard HEC vaginal gel. ARV solubility increased as st-PDMS molecular weight decreased (i.e., as percentage hydroxyl content increased), helping to explain the in vitro release trends. Dye ingression and SVF dilution studies confirmed the increased hydrophilicity of the h-SEGs. h-SEGs have potential for use in vaginal drug delivery, particularly for ARV-based HIV-1 microbicides.

Monsters, Dinosaurs, Ghosts

A stage play for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin 4-27 June 2015

Sexual Health and Sexuality Education Needs of Young People in Care: a Survey of Service-provider Perspectives. Report No 1.

Aim: This study aims to describe the sex education and sexual health needs of young people in care, and to explore the degree to which these needs are being met by current provision.As part of the Department for Children and Youth Affairs ‘National Strategy for Data and Research on Children’s Lives, 2011-2016’, the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme (CPP) and HSE Children and Families Social Services Care Group have co-commissioned a team of researchers from UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems, Insights Health and Social Research and Queen’s University Belfast to examine the sex education and sexual health needs of young people in care in the Republic of Ireland. The project is supported by a steering group of senior personnel from both partner organisations (CPP and CFS) and external advisors. The study involves data collection with young people, care providers, birth parents and foster parents using a mixed methods approach. Findings from each stage of the study will be combined to inform recommendations for policy and practice.

Deglacial mesophotic reef demise on the Great Barrier Reef

Submerged reefs are important recorders of palaeo-environments and sea-level change, and provide a substrate for modern mesophotic (deep-water, light-dependent) coral communities. Mesophotic reefs are rarely, if ever, described from the fossil record and nothing is known of their long-term record on Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Sedimentological and palaeo-ecological analyses coupled with 67 14C AMS and U–Th radiometric dates from dredged coral, algae and bryozoan specimens, recovered from depths of 45 to 130 m, reveal two distinct generations of fossil mesophotic coral community development on the submerged shelf edge reefs of the GBR. They occurred from 13 to 10 ka and 8 ka to present. We identified eleven sedimentary facies representing both autochthonous (in situ) and allochthonous (detrital) genesis, and their palaeo-environmental settings have been interpreted based on their sedimentological characteristics, biological assemblages, and the distribution of similar modern biota within the dredges. Facies on the shelf edge represent deep sedimentary environments, primarily forereef slope and open platform settings in palaeo-water depths of 45–95 m. Two coral–algal assemblages and one non-coral encruster assemblage were identified: 1) Massive and tabular corals including Porites, Montipora and faviids associated with Lithophylloids and minor Mastophoroids, 2) platy and encrusting corals including Porites, Montipora and Pachyseris associated with melobesioids and Sporolithon, and 3) Melobesiods and Sporolithon with acervulinids (foraminifera) and bryozoans. Based on their modern occurrence on the GBR and Coral Sea and modern specimens collected in dredges, these are interpreted as representing palaeo-water depths of < 60 m, < 80–100 m and > 100 m respectively. The first mesophotic generation developed at modern depths of 85–130 m from 13 to 10.2 ka and exhibit a deepening succession of < 60 to > 100 m palaeo-water depth through time. The second generation developed at depths of 45–70 m on the shelf edge from 7.8 ka to present and exhibit stable environmental conditions through time. The apparent hiatus that interrupted the mesophotic coral communities coincided with the timing of modern reef initiation on the GBR as well as a wide-spread flux of siliciclastic sediments from the shelf to the basin. For the first time we have observed the response of mesophotic reef communities to millennial scale environmental perturbations, within the context of global sea-level rise and environmental changes.

The perceived impact of interprofessional information sharing on young people about their sexual health care

This article presents the results from an analysis of data from service providers and young adults who were formerly in state care about how information about the sexual health of young people in state care is managed. In particular, the analysis focuses on the perceived impact of information sharing between professionals on young people. Twenty-two service providers from a range of professions including social work, nursing and psychology, and 19 young people aged 18–22 years who were formerly in state care participated in the study. A qualitative approach was employed in which participants were interviewed in depth and data were analysed using modified analytical induction (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). Findings suggest that within the care system in which service provider participants worked it was standard practice that sensitive information about a young person’s sexual health would be shared across team members, even where there appeared to be no child protection issues. However, the accounts of the young people indicated that they experienced the sharing of information in this way as an invasion of their privacy. An unintended outcome of a high level of information sharing within teams is that the privacy of the young person in care is compromised in a way that is not likely to arise in the case of young people who are not in care. This may deter young people from availing themselves of the sexual health services.

The role of knowledge in the contraceptive behaviour of sexually active young people in state care

Aim: To analyse the role of sex-focused knowledge in the contraceptive behaviour of sexually active young people in state care.

Methods: The sample consisted of 19 care leavers (young people previously in state care) aged 18-22 years, 16 females and 3 males. In-depth interviewing was the method of data collection, and a qualitative strategy resembling modified analytical induction was used to analyse data.

Findings: Findings indicated that a lack of information was not the sole, or even the primary reason for engaging in unsafe sexual practices. Other factors such as ambivalence to becoming pregnant also featured in participants’ accounts. Several participants conveyed a relatively weak sense of agency about consistently using contraception. A small number of participants expressed a strong determination to avoid pregnancy, and these appeared to have a level of anxiety about becoming pregnant that motivated them to engage with knowledge about contraception and its use.

Conclusion: Lack of sex-focused information is just one aspect of a myriad of complex factors, including socioeconomic disadvantage and/or emotional deprivation, that influences contraceptive behaviour.

Doing Relationships and Sexuality Education with Young People in State Care

Background: Existing literature indicates that young people in state carehave particular sexual health needs that include addressing their social andemotional well-being, yet little has been published as to how thesecomponents of sex education are actually delivered by service-providers.Objective: To analyse the processes involved in delivering relationship andsexuality education to young people in state care from the perspectives ofa sample of service-providers with a role in sexual health care delivery.Design: Qualitative methodological strategy.Setting: Service-delivery sites at urban and rural locations in Ireland.Method: Twenty-two service-providers were interviewed in depth, and datawere analysed using a qualitative analytical strategy resembling modifiedanalytical induction.Findings: Participants proffered their perceptions and examples of theirpractices of sex education in relation to the following themes: (1)acknowledging the multi-dimensional nature of sexual health in the case ofyoung people in care; (2) personal and emotional development educationto address poor self-esteem, emotional disconnectedness and an inabilityto recognise and express emotions; (3) social skills’ education as part of arepertoire of competencies needed to negotiate relationships and safer sex;(4) the application of positive social skills embedded in everyday socialsituations; and (5) factual sexuality education.Conclusion: Insights into service providers’ perceptions of the multidimensionalnature of the sexual health needs of young people in statecare, and the ways in which these service-providers justified their practicemake visible the complex character of sex education and the degree of skillrequired to deliver it to those in state care.