Faculty Bibliography

[Barack Obama]'s heaviest smoking was seven or eight cigarettes a day, but three was more typical, according to an interview published in the November issue of Men's Health magazine. In a letter given to reporters before the election, Obama's doctor described his smoking history as 'intermittent,' and said he had quit several times and was using Nicorette gum, a form of nicotine replacement, 'with success.' Obama was often seen chewing gum during the campaign. 'It's generally prompted by a stressful situation, when they're fatigued and they need to concentrate and focus,' [Neal Benowitz] said. 'Obama talked about that. People are used to having a cigarette in that situation.' 'Then there is something called hedonic dysregulation,' Benowitz said. 'It involves pleasure. Nicotine involves dopamine release, which is key in signaling pleasure. When people quit smoking, they don't experience things they used to like as pleasure.'

In the study, all the men and women agreed in writing to participate after they were informed about other ways to prevent HIV infection, wound care and abstention from sex after the surgical circumcision. The men were offered free condoms and the couples were counseled and tested for HIV. There were 1,015 HIV-infected men who agreed to having circumcision immediately or waiting two years for purposes of a scientific control group. The timing was chosen at random, researchers said

Todd N. McAllister of Cytograft Tissue Engineering in Novato, Calif., said, ''[Doris A. Taylor]'s work is one of those maddeningly simple ideas that you knock yourself on the head, saying, 'Why didn't I think of that?'<0>'' Dr. McAllister's team has used a snippet of a patient's skin to grow blood vessels in a laboratory, and then implanted them to restore blood flow around a patient's damaged arteries and veins. ''The heart is a beautiful organ,'' Dr. Taylor said, ''and it's not one that I thought I'd ever be able to build in a dish.'' Beginning Jan. 15, Adam Liptak's column, ''Sidebar,'' will appear on Tuesdays. Dan Barry's column, ''This Land,'' will return on Monday, Jan. 21

The melanoma removed in 2000 was Stage IIa on a standard classification that makes Stage IV the most serious. For Stage IIa melanoma, the survival rate 10 years after diagnosis is about 65 percent. But the outlook is much better for patients like [John McCain], who have already survived more than seven years. Even if the melanoma returns, McCain would not be the first sitting president to have had cancer. From what information he has disclosed, he is at increased risk for melanoma and other skin cancers because of his medical history, fair skin and prolonged sun exposure at a young age - long before the wide use of sunscreen. The most serious melanoma was spotted on his temple in 2000 by the attending physician at the U.S. Capitol after it had escaped the eye of McCain's personal physician at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, in Arizona

The melanoma removed in 2000 was Stage IIa on a standard classification that makes Stage IV the most serious. For Stage IIa melanoma, the survival rate 10 years after diagnosis is about 65 percent. But the outlook is much better for patients like [John McCain], who have already survived more than seven years. Even if the melanoma returns, McCain would not be the first sitting president to have had cancer. From what information he has disclosed, he is at increased risk for melanoma and other skin cancers because of his medical history, fair skin and prolonged sun exposure at a young age - long before the wide use of sunscreen. The most serious melanoma was spotted on his temple in 2000 by the attending physician at the U.S. Capitol after it had escaped the eye of McCain's personal physician at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, in Arizona. The Capitol physician also spotted the melanoma on his left arm

With modifications, scientists should be able to grow a human heart by taking stem cells from a patient's bone marrow and placing them in a cadaver heart that has been prepared as a scaffold, Ms. Taylor said in a telephone interview from her laboratory in Minneapolis. Todd N. McAllister of Cytograft Tissue Engineering in Novato, Calif., said, 'Doris Taylor's work is one of those maddeningly simple ideas that you knock yourself on the head, saying, 'Why didn't I think of that?'' Mr. McAllister's team has used a snippet of a patient's skin to grow blood vessels in a laboratory, and then implanted them to restore blood flow around a patient's damaged arteries and veins.

''We can say we have a culprit with the smoking gun at the scene of the crime, but that still doesn't mean he's guilty,'' Dr. [Patrick S. Moore] said in a telephone interview. ''We have a long way to go to prove that this agent is really the cause,'' he said. ''But the fact that the virus is so strongly associated with the tumor is at least a very good bet that it is playing an important role.'' ''It is not every day,'' Dr. [Anthony S. Fauci] said, ''that you have some pretty compelling molecular proof that a virus is associated, likely causally, with development of a particular cancerous process.''

Initial findings might come early next year, although researchers do not know how they will compare with the disappointing results of recent tests of vaccines and HIV microbicides, which are chemicals that women can put in their vaginas to prevent HIV infection. 'We cannot wait for the study results to begin to prepare for the optimal use and delivery of PrEP,' said Pedro Goicochea, an investigator in a PrEP study under way in Peru and Ecuador. 'Instead, we should look ahead to consider all of the possible outcomes of these trials and make real plans for making PrEP available to those who can benefit from it, as quickly and safely as possible if it is proven effective.'

Another plenary speaker, Dr. Bruno Spire, the president of AIDES, a nongovernmental group in France, also called for improving laws and policies to combat stigma and discrimination against groups most vulnerable to H.I.V., typically gay and bisexual men, injecting drug users and sex workers