The retrospective population-based study was published in the July issue of Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The main objective of the study was to determine whether the summer season is a risk factor for oligohydramnios, by comparing the frequency of amniotic fluid loss during the summer months versus its frequency during the rest of the year.

In the study at Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, the researchers evaluated pregnancies of patients with oligohydramnios that delivered from May to August during the years 1988-2007.

After excluding other causes of fluid loss, such as premature rupture of membranes, intra-uterine growth restriction or malformations, the study determined that higher rates of oligohydramnios were found in the summer months as compared to the rest of the year.

During the study period, there were 191,558 deliveries of which 4,335 were diagnosed with idiopathic oligohydramnios. Of these, a proportionally higher number, 1,553 deliveries (36 percent), occurred during these four summer months, while 2,782 deliveries occurred during the other eight months of the year (64 percent).

“It is important for pregnant women to drink appropriate amounts of water specifically in the summer — about 10 glasses per day — and avoid direct sun, not only for the health of the mother, but also in order to avoid fetal dehydration,” explains Prof. Eyal Sheiner of the Faculty of Health and Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Amniotic fluid is the nourishing and protecting liquid contained by the amnion of a pregnant woman. It protects the developing baby by cushioning the mother’s abdomen, promotes muscular and skeletal development, and helps to protect the fetus from heat loss.

Ilan Feldman1, Michael Friger2, Arnon Wiznitzer1, Moshe Mazor1, Gershon Holcberg1 and Eyal Sheiner1.

“Is Oligohydramnios More Common During the Summer Season?” Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics 280.1 (2009): 3-6.

(1) Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Soroka University Medical Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 151, Beer-Sheva, Israel

(2) Department of Epidemiology and Health Services Evaluation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Soroka University Medical Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and American Associates

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a world-renowned institute of research and higher learning with 19,000 students on campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat in Israel’s southern desert. It is a university with a conscience, where the highest academic standards are integrated with community involvement, committed to sustainable development of the Negev. Founded in 1972, American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev plays a vital role in helping the University fulfill its unique responsibility to develop the Negev, reach out to its local community and its Arab neighbors, and share its expertise with the world. For more information, please visit www.aabgu.org.

“This study found that women who lived in areas with higher levels of UV exposure when they developed an autoimmune muscle disease called myositis were more likely to develop the form known as dermatomyositis, which weakens the muscles and causes distinctive rashes, instead of the form called polymyositis that does not have a rash,” said Frederick W. Miller, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group, Program of Clinical Research, at NIEHS. “Although we have not shown a direct cause and effect link between UV exposure and this particular autoimmune disease, this study confirms the association between UV levels and the frequency of dermatomyositis that we found in a previous investigation,” said Miller.

The study, published in the August issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, is also the first to evaluate and find a possible UV radiation association in autoimmune diseases in women.

According to Miller, women are more likely than men to develop many autoimmune diseases, but the reasons for this have not been clear. “We only found the association between UV exposure and dermatomyositis in women and not in men, and it could be that inherent differences in how women and men respond to UV radiation may play a role in the development of certain autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. Miller. Miller also noted that other researchers have shown that female mice develop more skin inflammation after UV light exposure compared to male mice and these effects may be related to the new findings in dermatomyositis.

The study was designed to determine if there was a relationship between the level of UV exposure at the onset of the disease and the type of myositis and autoantibodies that people developed. Dermatomyositis and polymyositis are the two major forms of myositis and both are considered autoimmune diseases, in which the body’s immune system attacks muscle or skin and sometimes other tissues. Dermatomyositis is typically accompanied by a distinctive reddish-purple rash on the upper eyelids or over the knuckles and is often made worse with sun exposure.

To conduct the study, the NIEHS researchers collaborated with myositis centers across the country that had seen 380 patients who had been diagnosed with dermatomyositis or polymyositis and determined their autoantibodies. “Patients with autoimmune diseases make a variety of autoantibodies that are unique to different conditions. One autoantibody specifically associated with dermatomyositis is called the anti-Mi-2 autoantibody and we know from our previous research that UV radiation increases levels of the Mi-2 protein that this autoantibody binds to,” said Miller.

In addition to finding an association between the level of UV radiation and the proportion of women who developed dermatomyositis compared to polymyositis, the researchers found an association between UV levels and the proportion of women with the anti-Mi-2 autoantibody. “More research is clearly needed to understand the potential links between UV radiation and the development of autoimmune diseases and autoantibodies in women,” said Miller.

“While the causes of autoimmune diseases are not known, we suspect from emerging research that they develop after one or more environmental exposures in genetically susceptible people,” said NIEHS Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. “This study adds UV radiation to the growing list of environmental exposures possibly important in the development of autoimmune diseases.”

The NIEHS supports research to understand the effects of the environment on human health and is part of NIH. For more information on environmental health topics, visit our Web site at http://www.niehs.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Reference: Love LA, Weinberg CR, McConnaughey DR, Oddis CV, Medsger TA, Reveille JD, Arnett FC, Targoff IN, Miller FW. “Ultraviolet Radiation Intensity Predicts the Relative Distribution of Dermatomyositis and Anti-Mi-2 Autoantibodies in Women.” Arthritis & Rheumatism. August, 2009.

“It is not practical to apply the experimental method used in our study as a means of vaccination,” said Laurent Renia, Ph.D., principal investigator at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN).

“But, this method of immunization could be applied successfully to similar investigations to find biological markers which would indicate the extent of protection against malaria. It would thus advance the currently limited knowledge of what constitutes protective anti-malaria immunity in humans,” added Dr. Renia, who played a pivotal role in the research project by conceptualizing the experimental protocol and designing and conducting the follow-up experiments.

The scientists’ experimental approach involved exposing two groups of healthy human subjects to mosquitoes once a month over a three-month period at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in The Netherlands. One group (vaccine group) was exposed to mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite, P. falciparum, and the second group (control group) to uninfected mosquitoes

During the period of exposure, the study participants were treated with chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that prevented P. falciparum from multiplying in the blood. Eight weeks after the last round of immunization and four weeks after the discontinuation of chloroquine administration, the participants in both groups were re-exposed to infected mosquitoes and tested for protection against P. falciparum. The four-week period was considered to be sufficient for chloroquine levels to drop below that which might inhibit parasite multiplication and malaria development.

The scientists found that all individuals in the vaccine group had acquired complete protection against the parasite, while those in the control group who did not receive immunization developed parasitemia (parasites in their blood).

This unique method of immunization allowed the human immune system to direct its response to eliminating the P. falciparum parasite at the earlier, liver stage of its life cycle. (Chloroquine kills the parasite at the later blood stage.) To induce an immune response, the scientists used malaria parasites that were whole and intact. Other methods have used genetically inactivated parasites or parasites that had been weakened by radiation to induce anti-malaria immunity.

The unique immunization method demonstrated a significant improvement over other experimental malaria vaccines that are currently used in clinical trials and that could induce up to only 50% protection in humans.

Using their novel approach, the scientists examined and gained important insight into the protective anti-malaria immune response in humans, which is difficult to acquire, whether through previous exposure or vaccination. (Naturally acquired immunity to malaria develops over a period of 10 to 20 years and with repeated exposure to malaria parasites.)

By studying the antibodies, biological substances and cells present in the human subjects from the time of pre- to post-immunization, the scientists identified a specialised group of parasite-specific immune cells that indicated protection against P. falciparum in humans.

These immune cells, known as pluripotent effector memory T cells, which can mediate the removal of pathogens from the body, were found in the blood samples of subjects who had been immunized and re-exposed to P. falciparum. The control group did not have these specialized cells. These results indicate that these cells could serve as a biological indicator to check for malaria protection in humans during the stages of vaccine development.

“This is an elegant study which uses nature itself to tell us the answer to some basic questions regarding what can induce protective immunity against malaria,” said Raymond Lin, M.D., senior consultant and Head of Microbiology at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of Singapore’s National University Hospital.

“It shows that exposure to whole unmodified malarial parasites can protect against subsequent infection, while minimizing adverse events through the use of anti-malarial drugs,” he added. “This provides hope for future vaccines and offers prospects of alternatives to conventional vaccine approaches. Also, the remarkable experiment studies infection in humans, using real parasites and real mosquitoes yet in a controlled and safe clinical trial setting. Future vaccine researchers will doubtless refer to this paper for guidance. Malaria is a major health threat in this region which Singaporeans are vulnerable to, so having world-class malaria expertise here is important to us.”

SIgN Scientific Director Paola Castagnoli, Ph.D., said, “Professsor Renia has made some very significant findings that will contribute to a better understanding of the anti-malaria immune response in humans. His links with important international research centres and hospitals also demonstrate how collaborations that cross national borders can lead to fruitful and meaningful research outcomes. Certainly, such partnerships will help SIgN build up a strong platform in basic human immunology research that will better translate results into medical applications, and advance the search for cures to urgent medical problems.”

Before joining SIgN, which is part of Singapore’s A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), in 2007, Dr. Renia was research director at France’s INSERM ,and held appointments as co-director and director of the Department of Immunology at the Institut Cochin in Paris from 2001 to 2006.

At SIgN, Dr. Renia heads the Laboratory of Malaria Immunobiology and works closely with scientists and physicians at hospitals and centres in countries such as Thailand, where malaria is still a burden to public health authorities. Dr. Renia and his lab members travel to the border of Thailand and Myanmar, to conduct follow-up experiments to better understand the molecular basis of the disease.

Of the five malaria parasite species that can cause malaria in humans, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) is the most common cause of infection and is responsible for about 80% of all human malaria cases and about 90% of the deaths from malaria. The other four parasites are P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. knowlesi.

Authors of the NEJM paper, “Protection against a malaria challenge by sporozoite inoculation”, published in the 30 July 2009 issue, are:

Authors: M. Roestenberg1*, M. McCall1*, J. Hopman1, J. Wiersma1, A.J.F. Luty1, GJ van Gemert1, M. van de Vegte-Bolmer1, B. van Schaijk1, K. Teelen1, T. Arens1, L. Spaarman1, Q. de Mast2, W. Roeffen1, G. Snounou3,4, L. Rénia5, A. van der Ven2, C. Hermsen1 and R. Sauerwein1#

1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2 Department of General Internal Medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

3 INSERM Unité 511, Département de Parasitologie, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75013 Paris, France

4 Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005, Paris

5 Laboratory of Malaria Immunobiology, Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Robert W. Sauerwein, email: r.sauerwein@mmb.umcn.nl

Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN):

SIgN, officially inaugurated in 2008, is a research consortium under A*STAR’s Biomedical Research Council. It is aimed at building on the strengths of the existing immunology research groups at A*STAR, as well as expanding and strengthening the immunology research expertise in Singapore. SIgN’s objectives include coordinating basic, translational and clinical research needed to establish immunology as a core capability in Singapore. The major focus areas of research at SIgN are Infection and Inflammation, in which SIgN researchers investigate immune responses and regulation in disease-specific contexts. Through this, SIgN aims to build up a strong platform in basic human immunology research for better translation of research findings into clinical applications. SIgN also sets out to establish productive links with local initiatives within Biopolis and across Singapore, as well as to obtain international recognition as a leading immunology research hub while establishing relationships with the best institutions in the world.

For more information about SIgN, please visit www.sign.a-star.edu.sg.

Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR):

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is the lead agency for fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based Singapore. A*STAR actively nurtures public sector research and development in Biomedical Sciences, and Physical Sciences and Engineering, and supports Singapore’s key economic clusters by providing intellectual, human and industrial capital to our partners in industry and the healthcare sector. It oversees 23 research institutes, consortia and centres located in Biopolis and Fusionopolis, and the area in their vicinity, and supports extramural research in the universities, hospitals, research centres, and with other local and international partners.

For more information about A*STAR, please visit www.a-star.edu.sg.

“African-American men were aware of their increased risk of prostate cancer, and they felt responsible for getting themselves to physicians for preventative care. But there were substantial barriers to their carrying out what they saw as being important,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Paul A. Godley, associate professor of hematology and oncology in UNC’s School of Medicine and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Black men are more likely than white men to get prostate cancer, and their death rate from the disease is more than two times higher, according to the American Cancer Society. The study is published online March 12, 2007 in Cancer. Dr. James A. Talcott of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School is the lead author.

In a survey of black and white men in North Carolina who were recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, black men were more than twice as likely than white men to report getting their care at public clinics or emergency rooms, rather than a private physician’s office.

“In addition, African-American men were slightly less likely than white men to say they trusted their physicians. As with the other findings, lack of trust seemed to stem from the lack of a regular source of health care,” Godley said.

“This wasn’t coming from some historical distrust from previous abuses but was coming from people’s own experience with the health-care system,” Godley said. “If you don’t have a doctor and have to repeat your whole history to an emergency room physician every time you have a medical encounter, then it’s harder to develop trust in physicians.

“The reassuring part of the findings is that measures to generally make health care more accessible would also potentially address some of the disparities in prostate cancer.”

Godley is also affiliated with UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and School of Public Health.

Other authors of the study from UNC are Dr. Joseph A. Galanko of the School of Medicine; Dr. William R. Carpenter of Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center; Dr. Pamela Spain and Anne Jackman, of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research; and Dr. Young Kyung Do of the School of Public Health. Dr. Jack A. Clark of Boston University and Dr. Robert J. Hamilton of the University of Toronto are also authors.

The study was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The authors plan to release analysis of additional data from the survey in a separate study.

Lineberger Center contact: Dianne Shaw, (919) 966-7834, dgs@med.unc.edu

School of Medicine contact: Stephanie Crayton, (919) 966-2860, scrayton@med.unc.edu

News Services contact: Clinton Colmenares, (919) 843-1991, clinton_colmenares@unc.edu

]]> http://rxusapharmacy.org/?feed=rss2&p=1 http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=2 http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=2#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000 admin medicine health http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=2 A new study finds that while “expert centers” with extensive experience in managing cancer have higher overall costs, the approach is more cost-effective over time than referring patients to a less experienced medical center. Published in the April 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, a cost-effectiveness study of a hypothetical cohort of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer, performed using decision-analysis modeling, reveals that an expert center can provide significantly longer quality-adjusted survival compared to less experienced centers, leading to a lower cost per quality of life year gained.

Ovarian cancer is diagnosed in over 200,000 women worldwide each year, of which only 38 percent will survive five years. Most women are diagnosed with advanced disease, contributing to poor survival. The most important prognostic factors include the thoroughness of the surgical resection and the compliance with recommended contemporary adjuvant chemotherapy treatment.

Interestingly, the medical professional that manages the ovarian cancer patient impacts the quality of each of those factors. Studies have shown that gynecologic oncologists have better outcomes than other surgeons. Furthermore, better outcomes are observed when ovarian cancer patients are managed at a high-volume, multidisciplinary medical centers compared to low-volume medical centers. However, the cost-effectiveness of referring patients to an expert medical center versus a less experienced center has not been carefully studied.

Led by Robert E. Bristow, M.D. of the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, researchers compared the treatment efficacy, costs, and cost-effectiveness of these two referral strategies in a modeling study.

The researchers discovered that though the overall cost of managing ovarian cancer at an expert center was more ($50,652 versus $39,957), quality of life and survival as measured by quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were significantly better (5.12 QALYs versus 2.33 QALYs). Cost effectiveness analysis further demonstrated that an expert facility was more cost-effective at only $9,893/QALY at an expert center compared to $17,149/QALY at a less experienced center.

Clearly a strategy utilizing a centralized expert referral center, “with a high proportion of patients undergoing optimal primary cytoreduction and receiving combined IP/IV chemotherapy, is cost-effective from the perspective of society compared to referral of patients to a less-experienced center,” conclude the authors.

Article: “Centralization of Care for Patients With Advanced-Stage Ovarian Cancer: A Cost-effectiveness Analysis,” Robert E. Bristow, Antonio Santillan, Teresa P. Diaz-Montes, Ginger J. Gardner, Robert L. Giuntoli II, Benjamin C. Meisner, Kevin D. Frick, Deborah K. Armstrong, CANCER; Published Online: March 12, 2007 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.22561); Print Issue Date: April 15, 2007.

]]> http://rxusapharmacy.org/?feed=rss2&p=2 http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=3 http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=3#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000 admin medicine health http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=3 Improving access to and utilization of the healthcare system may benefit African-American prostate cancer patients more than educational or motivational interventions, according to a new study. Published in the April 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study reveals that African-American men are well educated about their risk of prostate cancer and the benefits of screening, and that socioeconomic factors that impact behavior are more important barriers to adequate care. The study finds African-American men access healthcare resources, including primary care physicians, infrequently, constrained by its limited availability, resulting in distrustful and irregular interactions.

Racial disparities in the diagnosis and outcome of prostate cancer are well documented in the U.S. Most concerning is the comparatively significantly higher mortality rate in African-American men (68.1 per 100,000 versus 27.7 per 100,000 among white men). Researchers continue to explore the reasons for this gap, but recent evidence suggests that socioeconomic, cultural, and behavioral factors play an important role. One promising hypothesis is that a lack of knowledge about prostate cancer and preventive care leads to less screening, delayed diagnosis and advanced disease.

Led by James A. Talcott, M.D., S.M. of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston in conjunction with collaborators at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Sheps Center for Health Services Research, researchers surveyed 84 African-Americans and 253 whites from North Carolina recently diagnosed with prostate cancer to better characterize the role of knowledge and attitudes, socioeconomic status, demography, and healthcare access in race and prostate cancer.

The researchers found that compared to whites, African-Americans were younger, had more underlying illness, and were at a socioeconomic disadvantage at the time of diagnosis. While the level of knowledge among this group was comparable if not better than among whites, African-Americans were more often distrustful of physicians but less likely to reject conventional Western medical treatments. African-Americans also reported having less access to healthcare resources and continuity of care, and were more likely to be uninsured or without secondary insurance and seek routine care at a public medical clinic or emergency room. In addition, they were less likely to have regular physical examinations, be seen by the same physician, and follow-up on a significant medical complaint. African-Americans were also more likely to have to request prostate cancer screening tests than whites, whose physicians were more likely to order them routinely.

“For African-American men,” conclude the authors, “the main barriers to timely diagnosis and screening identified in this study arose from their constrained opportunities for health care access and utilization, absence of strong ties to a primary physician, and a probably related reduced trust of physicians.”

Article: “Hidden Barriers Between Knowledge and Behavior: The North Carolina Prostate Cancer Screening and Treatment Experience,” James A. Talcott, Pamela Spain, Jack A. Clark, William R. Carpenter, Young Kyung Do, Robert J. Hamilton, Joseph A. Galanko, Anne Jackman, Paul A. Godley, CANCER; Published Online: March 12, 2007 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.22583); Print Issue Date: April 15, 2007.

]]> http://rxusapharmacy.org/?feed=rss2&p=3 http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=4 http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=4#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:00:00 +0000 admin sex drive http://rxusapharmacy.org/?p=4 I wonder if one reason people are so wary of the intersection of sex and the internet is that it exposes us so completely.

It’s the flip side of what many of us point to as one of the internet’s great strengths — we discover we are not alone in our desires, finding community and connection even as we learn more about ourselves.

For individuals, this sexual self-discovery has been largely positive. But for Americans as a whole, this self-knowledge has not been comfortable to accept.

We’re learning that our behavior does not match what our culture tells us is “right” or “moral.” And we’re having a hard time accepting that our behavior has changed only to the extent that technology makes it easier to break the rules, and makes rule-breaking more accessible to larger numbers of people.

Infidelity and pornography are not new. It’s just that in the past, we could keep our peccadilloes secret and still lead socially acceptable surface lives. Or, if discovered, we could be treated like deviants and pariahs and Made Examples Of — meanwhile, everyone else breathes a sigh of relief that they hadn’t been caught, too.

Now, our sexual behavior is documented and searchable and potentially duplicated for all the world (and our loved ones) to see. Given the potential for our online explorations to be misunderstood, taken out of context, used against us, published by accident or design and otherwise warped, it’s sort of amazing that millions of us do it anyway.

I think that says something about the power of the urges that drive us to connect online — and sometimes, from there, offline as well. It’s not just physical desire, as obviously online sex has no skin-on-skin touch. Our reasons are more complex than bodily need: Most people seem to be seeking some combination of understanding, a sense of belonging, excitement, pleasure, novelty, stimulation, validation, romance or even just temporary escape from the demands of ordinary daily life.

Last year, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey (.pdf) to find out how many Americans judged various behaviors — overeating, cheating on taxes, adultery — as “morally wrong.” The demographic with the most education and the highest income, the same group that has the most high-speed internet access at home, tended to be less likely to declare a behavior unilaterally “wrong” than other groups.

Yet on the question of extramarital affairs, the answers line up almost exactly across all ages, genders, marital statuses and political and religious affiliations. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said adultery is morally wrong.

That doesn’t stop us from doing it, in some form or another.

I wonder if one reason people are so wary of the intersection of sex and the internet is that it exposes us so completely.

It’s the flip side of what many of us point to as one of the internet’s great strengths — we discover we are not alone in our desires, finding community and connection even as we learn more about ourselves.

For individuals, this sexual self-discovery has been largely positive. But for Americans as a whole, this self-knowledge has not been comfortable to accept.

We’re learning that our behavior does not match what our culture tells us is “right” or “moral.” And we’re having a hard time accepting that our behavior has changed only to the extent that technology makes it easier to break the rules, and makes rule-breaking more accessible to larger numbers of people.

Infidelity and pornography are not new. It’s just that in the past, we could keep our peccadilloes secret and still lead socially acceptable surface lives. Or, if discovered, we could be treated like deviants and pariahs and Made Examples Of — meanwhile, everyone else breathes a sigh of relief that they hadn’t been caught, too.

Now, our sexual behavior is documented and searchable and potentially duplicated for all the world (and our loved ones) to see. Given the potential for our online explorations to be misunderstood, taken out of context, used against us, published by accident or design and otherwise warped, it’s sort of amazing that millions of us do it anyway.

I think that says something about the power of the urges that drive us to connect online — and sometimes, from there, offline as well. It’s not just physical desire, as obviously online sex has no skin-on-skin touch. Our reasons are more complex than bodily need: Most people seem to be seeking some combination of understanding, a sense of belonging, excitement, pleasure, novelty, stimulation, validation, romance or even just temporary escape from the demands of ordinary daily life.

Last year, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey (.pdf) to find out how many Americans judged various behaviors — overeating, cheating on taxes, adultery — as “morally wrong.” The demographic with the most education and the highest income, the same group that has the most high-speed internet access at home, tended to be less likely to declare a behavior unilaterally “wrong” than other groups.

Yet on the question of extramarital affairs, the answers line up almost exactly across all ages, genders, marital statuses and political and religious affiliations. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said adultery is morally wrong.

That doesn’t stop us from doing it, in some form or another.

All right, so maybe the Game Developers Conference and SXSW Interactive are not, technically, bars. But over the next 10 days, interactive media wonks will converge upon San Francisco and Austin, Texas, and I have it on good authority that taverns, saloons and pubs will figure prominently.

You can’t present a comprehensive program about interactivity without acknowledging the role of sexuality in the development of interactive applications. And since I can’t attend either conference in person, I figured I would call a few of the sex-tech speakers to find out what’s on their minds for 2007.

Brenda Brathwaite, professor at Savannah College of Art and Design and author of Sex in Video Games (Charles River Media), will facilitate two round-table discussions at the Game Developers Conference so developers can explore the design challenges and business issues particular to games that incorporate adult themes.

“The number of developers and the interest in the topic is becoming bigger and bigger,” Brathwaite says, explaining why the conference has added a second sex-in-games session this year. “I know of at least seven MMOs in development right now targeting the adult market.”

The design discussion will address the integration of physical devices like sex toys into gameplay, as well as the use of abstraction versus reality in the virtual environment itself.

“A lot of games, like for the (Xbox) 360, have incredibly realistic and beautiful graphics. But for sex content, the more real the graphics become, the closer it gets for some people to the uncanny valley,” she says. “So some developers are going back to cartoons.”

And once you’ve created an erotic game, selling it presents its own obstacles, Brathwaite says: “You won’t find adult games on the shelves at Wal-Mart. Taking a cue from adult websites, game developers are banding together to create affiliate and referral programs.”

I confess that the first question I would ask at the round table is whether consumers have enough interest in adult games to sustain any sort of business.

“Yes,” she says, emphatically. “We have our little game world with 8 million players and we think that’s amazing, but you look at MySpace with its 70 million, and that’s amazing. All those adult sites like Adult FriendFinder — those are (millions of) people who are looking for particular things. They might not be gamers, but if they have the option they will go into a virtual world to facilitate sex. That’s a market that hasn’t been hit yet.”

At SXSW Interactive, the Sex and Computational Technology panel reflects the mix of disciplines involved in developing the next generation of sex tech: social analysts, sex educators and engineers. The moderator, Amanda Williams, is a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Irvine studying interactive and collaborative technology.

“(The field of) human-computer interaction has a long tradition of depicting users as a brain, an eye and a finger that can click a mouse,” she says. “(But) what about bodies? How about the ways we observe other people’s bodies? And how does this play into how we work with technology and collaborate?”

For Williams, research into what she calls “tangible interfaces” revolves around incorporating social, emotional and bodily aspects of life into our experiences with technology. And it’s not surprising that while designing various systems that do so, “every now and then we’d inadvertently run into a sex thing.”

A sex educator, a games developer and a grad student walk into a bar. Bartender says, “What is this, some kind of joke?”

All right, so maybe the Game Developers Conference and SXSW Interactive are not, technically, bars. But over the next 10 days, interactive media wonks will converge upon San Francisco and Austin, Texas, and I have it on good authority that taverns, saloons and pubs will figure prominently.

You can’t present a comprehensive program about interactivity without acknowledging the role of sexuality in the development of interactive applications. And since I can’t attend either conference in person, I figured I would call a few of the sex-tech speakers to find out what’s on their minds for 2007.

Brenda Brathwaite, professor at Savannah College of Art and Design and author of Sex in Video Games (Charles River Media), will facilitate two round-table discussions at the Game Developers Conference so developers can explore the design challenges and business issues particular to games that incorporate adult themes.

“The number of developers and the interest in the topic is becoming bigger and bigger,” Brathwaite says, explaining why the conference has added a second sex-in-games session this year. “I know of at least seven MMOs in development right now targeting the adult market.”

The design discussion will address the integration of physical devices like sex toys into gameplay, as well as the use of abstraction versus reality in the virtual environment itself.

“A lot of games, like for the (Xbox) 360, have incredibly realistic and beautiful graphics. But for sex content, the more real the graphics become, the closer it gets for some people to the uncanny valley,” she says. “So some developers are going back to cartoons.”

And once you’ve created an erotic game, selling it presents its own obstacles, Brathwaite says: “You won’t find adult games on the shelves at Wal-Mart. Taking a cue from adult websites, game developers are banding together to create affiliate and referral programs.”

I confess that the first question I would ask at the round table is whether consumers have enough interest in adult games to sustain any sort of business.

“Yes,” she says, emphatically. “We have our little game world with 8 million players and we think that’s amazing, but you look at MySpace with its 70 million, and that’s amazing. All those adult sites like Adult FriendFinder — those are (millions of) people who are looking for particular things. They might not be gamers, but if they have the option they will go into a virtual world to facilitate sex. That’s a market that hasn’t been hit yet.”

At SXSW Interactive, the Sex and Computational Technology panel reflects the mix of disciplines involved in developing the next generation of sex tech: social analysts, sex educators and engineers. The moderator, Amanda Williams, is a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Irvine studying interactive and collaborative technology.

“(The field of) human-computer interaction has a long tradition of depicting users as a brain, an eye and a finger that can click a mouse,” she says. “(But) what about bodies? How about the ways we observe other people’s bodies? And how does this play into how we work with technology and collaborate?”

For Williams, research into what she calls “tangible interfaces” revolves around incorporating social, emotional and bodily aspects of life into our experiences with technology. And it’s not surprising that while designing various systems that do so, “every now and then we’d inadvertently run into a sex thing.”

Except we seem to be confusing innocence with ignorance.

Next Friday, substitute teacher Julie Amero of Norwich, Connecticut, will receive her sentence — up to 40 years in prison, the press repeats with a mixture of horror and glee — for exposing children to pornography in the classroom.

It could be worse. Had some charges not been dropped, she could have faced 10 felony charges instead of four.

The prosecution claims she deliberately visited porn sites from the class computer and allowed the 12- and 13-year-olds to view the content. She claims — and evidence proves — the school computer got hit with a pop-up frenzy she didn’t know how to stop.

Tech-savvy lawyers are pointing out glaring technological and legal errors made by both sides of the case. Computer forensics researchers have been re-creating the incident, using a disk image of the classroom machine, to show how insidious pop-up porn can be. SecurityFocus columnist Mark Rasch published a 6,200-word analysis exposing the basic tech ignorance of just about everyone involved: the police detective who performed the forensic analysis, the state’s attorney, the defense attorney, the jury, the school administrators, the school IT department and Julie herself.

Julie is taking the fall, but many other people failed before a porn storm burst into that classroom.

The IT department failed to keep content filters and anti-malware software up-to-date. The school failed to enforce a security policy, allowing substitute teachers to use regular teachers’ network credentials to access the internet. The administration failed to ensure that all teachers, including substitutes, had the necessary skills and training to handle internet surprises — and the savvy to respond quickly in a crisis.

And the community fails to Protect The Children in the example it’s setting. What should have been a wake-up call for the district employment office — and for IT — has spiraled embarrassingly out of control.

Some students mentioned the incident to their parents, and some parents mentioned it to the administration, and the district told the parents that Julie wouldn’t be teaching there anymore.

It should have ended there. Instead, a subset of parents threw a tantrum and demanded, in one detective’s words, “aggressive police response.”

As a result, Julie was arrested for the crime of deliberately exposing children to porn, even though nobody bothered to check the computer for malware first. Apparently, her mistakes in handling the situation could only have meant she deliberately brought porn into the classroom.

What message does this witch hunt send to students? That if you scream and huff and puff, you can get your way — and a spot on national television — even when you haven’t made the most basic attempts to verify the assumptions on which you base your accusations?

That teachers are at the mercy of parents, even in small numbers? So if you don’t like a teacher, you can use a volatile issue like internet porn to set off your parents and get that teacher fired, maybe even jailed?

No reasonable person wants to see pornography in a junior-high classroom. But no reasonable person believes that if a porn storm takes over the school browser, it has to be because the teacher deliberately called it there. At least give the teacher the benefit of the doubt and look for other, non-felonious explanations first.

Accidental porn is actually a very common occurrence, even among savvy web users — I ran into some myself just the other day. According to the Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 34 percent of youths age 10 to 17 who use the internet have unintentionally encountered pictures of naked people or people having sex. See “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later” (.pdf). In most cases the encounter is not distressing to the kids; they click away and move on.

Seventh grade is not too early to learn how to handle the internet responsibly.

By all means, let’s Protect The Children. Because that’s what it’s all about, right? It doesn’t matter whose life gets mowed down in the process, as long as we are clear that it’s all in the name of keeping kids innocent.

Except we seem to be confusing innocence with ignorance.

Next Friday, substitute teacher Julie Amero of Norwich, Connecticut, will receive her sentence — up to 40 years in prison, the press repeats with a mixture of horror and glee — for exposing children to pornography in the classroom.

It could be worse. Had some charges not been dropped, she could have faced 10 felony charges instead of four.

The prosecution claims she deliberately visited porn sites from the class computer and allowed the 12- and 13-year-olds to view the content. She claims — and evidence proves — the school computer got hit with a pop-up frenzy she didn’t know how to stop.

Tech-savvy lawyers are pointing out glaring technological and legal errors made by both sides of the case. Computer forensics researchers have been re-creating the incident, using a disk image of the classroom machine, to show how insidious pop-up porn can be. SecurityFocus columnist Mark Rasch published a 6,200-word analysis exposing the basic tech ignorance of just about everyone involved: the police detective who performed the forensic analysis, the state’s attorney, the defense attorney, the jury, the school administrators, the school IT department and Julie herself.

Julie is taking the fall, but many other people failed before a porn storm burst into that classroom.

The IT department failed to keep content filters and anti-malware software up-to-date. The school failed to enforce a security policy, allowing substitute teachers to use regular teachers’ network credentials to access the internet. The administration failed to ensure that all teachers, including substitutes, had the necessary skills and training to handle internet surprises — and the savvy to respond quickly in a crisis.

And the community fails to Protect The Children in the example it’s setting. What should have been a wake-up call for the district employment office — and for IT — has spiraled embarrassingly out of control.

Some students mentioned the incident to their parents, and some parents mentioned it to the administration, and the district told the parents that Julie wouldn’t be teaching there anymore.

It should have ended there. Instead, a subset of parents threw a tantrum and demanded, in one detective’s words, “aggressive police response.”

As a result, Julie was arrested for the crime of deliberately exposing children to porn, even though nobody bothered to check the computer for malware first. Apparently, her mistakes in handling the situation could only have meant she deliberately brought porn into the classroom.

What message does this witch hunt send to students? That if you scream and huff and puff, you can get your way — and a spot on national television — even when you haven’t made the most basic attempts to verify the assumptions on which you base your accusations?

That teachers are at the mercy of parents, even in small numbers? So if you don’t like a teacher, you can use a volatile issue like internet porn to set off your parents and get that teacher fired, maybe even jailed?

No reasonable person wants to see pornography in a junior-high classroom. But no reasonable person believes that if a porn storm takes over the school browser, it has to be because the teacher deliberately called it there. At least give the teacher the benefit of the doubt and look for other, non-felonious explanations first.

Accidental porn is actually a very common occurrence, even among savvy web users — I ran into some myself just the other day. According to the Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 34 percent of youths age 10 to 17 who use the internet have unintentionally encountered pictures of naked people or people having sex. See “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later” (.pdf). In most cases the encounter is not distressing to the kids; they click away and move on.

Seventh grade is not too early to learn how to handle the internet responsibly.