Iron status and dietary iron intake of female blood donors

Background
The aim was to assess iron status and dietary iron intake in a sample of premenopausal female regular and new blood donors.

Study design and methods
Premenopausal women blood donors were invited to participate. Blood samples were analyzed for serum ferritin and hemoglobin. An iron checklist assessed dietary iron intake. Donors were classified as regular donors or new donors.

Results
Twenty-one new donors (mean [SD] age, 28.6 [6.0] years; body mass index [BMI], 25.6 [4.5] kg/m2) and 172 regular donors (mean age, 29.4 [5.5] years; BMI, 24.7 [3.8] kg/m2) participated. Fifty percent of regular donors and 24% of new donors had depleted iron stores (serum ferritin <15 mg/L; difference p = 0.036). Dietary iron intake was higher in regular donors (mean [SE], 12.6 [0.7] mg/day) compared to new donors (9.9 [0.4] mg/day; p = 0.006). Eighty-five percent of regular donors and 79% of new donors met the estimated average requirement for iron.

Conclusions
Despite the fact that most of these donors had an adequate dietary iron intake, more than half of the blood donors had depleted iron stores. Increasing dietary iron intake through supplements and/or dietary means is expected to be necessary to maintain adequate iron status in this group.

Sexual harassment of Australian female general practitioners by patients

In 2010, an Australian survey was undertaken to examine the nature and extent of female general practitioners’ experience of sexual harassment by patients and how they respond to such episodes. Previous research has shown the high prevalence of sexual harassment or abuse of medical practitioners, but little is known about the nature of harassment and responses of individual practitioners.

Conservation hotspots : implications of intense spatial area use by breeding male and female loggerheads at the Mediterranean’s largest rookery

The implementation of appropriate protection measures for endangered species in protected areas requires knowledge of their fine-scale habitat use. In May and June of 2006 and 2007, we used GPS loggers (some linked to the Argos system) and a conventional Argos transmitter to track male and female loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta in the vicinity of the breeding area of Laganas Bay within the National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Greece. We obtained (1) 9681 useable locations (mean: 1383 locations ind.–1; range: 519 to 2198 locations) from Tracktag GPS loggers attached to 7 females for a mean duration of 34 d (range: 17 to 52 d); (2) 1245 useable locations (mean: 311 locations ind.–1; range: 38 to 1110 locations) from 4 males fitted with Fastloc Argos tags for a mean duration of 29 d (range: 3 to 51 d) and (3) 100 locations from 1 male fitted with a conventional Argos satellite tag tracked for 128 d. GPS data indicated that before the onset of nesting, both males and females primarily used an area within 500 m of the shore along a core 9 km stretch of coastline, where existing protective legislation requires strengthening. Our observations suggest that a 76.7% female-biased operational sex ratio, measured previously from in-water surveys, may represent a realistic sex ratio estimate in the period before nesting starts. In the first month following the onset of nesting, female spatial distribution remained similar, whereas most males departed for distant areas presumably to forage. Our study provides quantitative evidence of the need to improve the management planning and conservation measures to protect sea turtles in a coastal breeding area, and new insights on male turtle migration.