Women who inject drugs in Russia: stigma as a barrier in access to HIV and drug treatment services

Background

There are over one million people living with HIV in Russia. People who inject drugs experience major disparities in their susceptibility to the virus and in their access to HIV services. Women who inject drugs (WWID) have been shown to be at heightened susceptibility to HIV, through both unsafe drug use and unprotected sex. Less is known about the social determinants of engagement in care specifically among WWID.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative research study in St. Petersburg in order to assess what factors influence engagement in HIV-related and drug rehabilitation services. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 service providers and 30 WWID from June-November 2018. We recruited providers to represent a range of services, including government clinics, non-governmental organizations, and family services. We recruited WWID through community outreach services. We used thematic analysis and a team-based approach to coding data.

Results

A major theme across our data was the stigma and discrimination that WWID experience in their everyday lives and in their interactions with the healthcare system. WWID are subjected to stigmatization related to gender norms about drug use, the capacity to fulfill their roles as mothers, (for some) engagement in sex work, and (for some) HIV-positive serostatus. WWID are often reluctant to seek HIV-related services, including testing and treatment, out of fear of being treated poorly because of their drug use. The omnipresent societal stigma manifests into self-stigmatization and many WWID questioned their deserving of and abilities to seek healthcare services, including drug rehabilitation and HIV-related care.

Conclusions

Interventions are needed to address the stigma and discrimination that WWID in Russia experience in families, communities, and health institutions. Additionally, psychosocial interventions may help to address the self-stigmatization that sometimes influences WWID's self-efficacy to seek services.

Anisotropy of solar wind turbulence between ion and electron scales

The anisotropy of turbulence in the fast solar wind, between the ion and electron gyroscales, is directly observed using a multispacecraft analysis technique. Second order structure functions are calculated at different angles to the local magnetic field, for magnetic fluctuations both perpendicular and parallel to the mean field. In both components, the structure function value at large angles to the field S{⊥} is greater than at small angles S{∥}: in the perpendicular component S{⊥}/S{∥}=5±1 and in the parallel component S{⊥}/S{∥}>3, implying spatially anisotropic fluctuations, k{⊥}>k{∥}. The spectral index of the perpendicular component is -2.6 at large angles and -3 at small angles, in broad agreement with critically balanced whistler and kinetic Alfvén wave predictions. For the parallel component, however, it is shallower than -1.9, which is considerably less steep than predicted for a kinetic Alfvén wave cascade.

Universality of solar-wind turbulent spectrum from MHD to electron scales

To investigate the universality of magnetic turbulence in space plasmas, we analyze seven time periods in the free solar wind under different plasma conditions. Three instruments on Cluster spacecraft operating in different frequency ranges give us the possibility to resolve spectra up to 300 Hz. We show that the spectra form a quasiuniversal spectrum following the Kolmogorov's law approximately k(-5/3) at MHD scales, a approximately k(-2.8) power law at ion scales, and an exponential approximately exp[-sqrt[k(rho)e]] at scales k(rho)e approximately [0.1,1], where rho(e) is the electron gyroradius. This is the first observation of an exponential magnetic spectrum in space plasmas that may indicate the onset of dissipation. We distinguish for the first time between the role of different spatial kinetic plasma scales and show that the electron Larmor radius plays the role of a dissipation scale in space plasma turbulence.

Oogenesis in Hydra: Nurse cells transfer cytoplasm directly to the growing oocyte

Oogenesis in Hydra occurs in so-called egg patches containing several thousand germ cells. Only one oocyte is formed per egg patch; the remaining germ cells differentiate as nurse cells. Whether and how nurse cells contribute cytoplasm to the developing oocyte has been unclear. We have used tissue maceration to characterize the differentiation of oocytes and nurse cells in developing egg patches. We show that nurse cells decrease in size at the same time that developing oocytes increase dramatically in volume. Nurse cells are also tightly attached to oocytes at this stage and confocal images of egg patches stained with the fluorescent membrane dye FM 4-64 clearly show large gaps (10 microm) in the cell membranes separating nurse cells from the developing oocyte. We conclude that nurse cells directly transfer cytoplasm to the developing oocyte. Following this transfer of cytoplasm, nurse cells undergo apoptosis and are phagocytosed by the oocyte. These results demonstrate that basic mechanisms of alimentary oogenesis typical of Caenorhabditis and Drosophila are already present in the early metazoan Hydra.

An immunoelectron study of karyosphere and nuclear bodies in oocytes of mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: polyphaga)

The karyosphere and nuclear bodies (NBs) were studied in Tenebrio molitor oocytes using immunoelectron cytochemistry. During early diplotene (previtellogenic stage), oocyte chromosomes begin to unite in a small nuclear volume forming the karyosphere. In vitellogenic oocyte nuclei, the chromatin undergoes condensation, and the karyosphere acquires a ring-shaped structure. The karyosphere is the only structure containing DNA in the oocyte nucleus. Pre-mRNA splicing factors [small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) and SC35] are not found in the karyosphere itself. In previtellogenic oocyte nuclei, these factors are present in NBs and in a fibrogranular substance surrounding the chromosomes in the early stages of karyosphere formation. At this stage, larger fibrillar NBs contain the non-snRNP splicing factor SC35. Smaller roundish NBs were shown to contain snRNPs. Some NBs with the same morphology contain neither snRNPs nor SC35. In the vitellogenic oocyte, there are fibrogranular NBs containing both snRNPs and SC35 splicing factors, fibrillar NBs containing snRNPs only, and complex NBs containing both. Complex NBs are often connected with the ring-shaped karyosphere. Based on the obtained immunoelectron data, we suggest that T. molitor oocyte NBs containing both snRNPs and the non-snRNP splicing factor SC35 are homologs of the well-characterized B-snurposomes in amphibian germinal vesicles and clusters of interchromatin granules in mammalian oocyte nuclei. Other NBs containing only snRNPs are suggested to represent a special class of insect oocyte snurposomes. The nuclear organelles mentioned seem to play a role as storage domains for pre-mRNA splicing factors during T. molitor oogenesis.