According to Alice Park in Time, the discrepancy occurred because in their initial announcement, researchers included all the participants who had started the study. But some got infected with HIV before they had received all six shots of the vaccine, and then had to drop out. Since the point of the research was to measure the effect of all six injections, only those who received all of them should have been included in the data. And when the numbers are run this way, the result is a 26% reduction in risk — a finding that's not statistically significant, meaning it could have occurred by chance.

It's tempting to criticize the researchers, from the National Institute of Health and the US Army, for rushing to release promising results before properly vetting them. According to Park, the researchers decided to publicize their findings in a press conference before they were peer-reviewed or replicated because the government of Thailand, where the study was conducted, "wanted to inform its citizens of the positive findings as soon as possible." However, even before the announcement, a few scientists who had seen the data were expressing concerns.

Even more scientists are speaking out critically now. One AIDS researcher, who spoke anonymously to the ScienceInsider blog, says,

The press conference was not a scholarly, rigorously honest presentation. It doesn't meet the standards that have been set for other trials, and it doesn't fully present the borderline results. It's wrong.

The Army, however, says that it didn't present both the 31% and 26% numbers because that just would've been too complicated. An online statement reads, in part,

The multiple statistical analyses are all consistent with the same conclusion: that the vaccine was modestly effective at preventing HIV. However, explaining the differences between them is complex and the appropriate venue for this technical discussion of statistics is at an open scientific conference and in the scientific publication now under review at a major journal.

If truly explaining the results was only appropriate for a scientific forum, then it does seem that the researchers should have waited for such a forum before publicizing them. The statement claims that the researchers fulfilled the Thai government's request for a public statement in order to honor "our commitment to the volunteers who participated in this trial," but the volunteers would have been better honored by an accurate representation of the findings. The Army appears to be trying to have it both ways, saying that they had to publicize results quickly, but they couldn't possibly publicize the accurate ones because no one would understand them. But there are a lot of ways out of this double bind — it's really not all that hard, for instance, to explain the difference between a 26% and 31% figures. Army researcher Col. Nelson Michael says,

We tried very carefully to make sure that message was crystal clear. There's now hope. But that said, we've tried to be very careful not to oversell this.

It may not have been intentional, but overselling is exactly what they've done.

Behind The Rising Doubts About Hailed AIDS Vaccine [Time]
The HIV Vaccine And Science By Press Release [Wall Street Journal Health Blog]
Unrevealed Analysis Weakens Claim Of AIDS Vaccine "Success" [ScienceInsider]
RV 144 Update [US Military HIV Research Program]

Although Australia currently allows women to serve in 92% of military roles, many would like to see the other eight opened up to women as well. In the next several years, women will hopefully be able to serve in any of position in the military, which will allow recruiters to hire based on physical ability alone, without having to account for gender or age requirements. The U.S. has also seen a recent movement toward opening certain positions to women. While there most likely will not be American women "on the frontlines" anytime soon, there has been a growing movement to allow women to serve on submarines. And, even more importantly, women are already serving in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women have played a key role in this war without frontlines.

Naturally, some are opposed to the army's growing acceptance of women in the ranks. Time magazine quotes former military officer and opposition lawmaker Stuart Robert, who argues that women are physically no match for men. "It's like putting a woman in the ring with Mike Tyson, or putting them in the Wallabies [a male rugby team]," says Robert. "Why do they separate men and women in the Olympics? Maybe they should all compete in the same events?" Despite the fact that women would be given the exact same physical fitness tests as men, Robert claims even the women who qualify are still going to be weaker than the men. He points out that the reality of war is different from the controlled environment of the tests. "On a route fitness assessment you may be forced to carry 25 kg," he says. "But can you carry that weight when you haven't slept for days? Can you carry that weight after parachuting in the rain and landing in the mud?" It's pretty obvious that Robert is not really worried about their physical strength, because surely male soldiers often become weakened and tired by the stress of war, but their mental strength. What he is really saying is women just can't hack it. We'd like to see him tell that to Command Sergeant Maj. Theresa L. King, who was featured in a profile in the New York Times last week as part of a series on Women at Arms. King recently became the female first drill sergeant in command of a school, which puts her in a unique position to influence the basic training of U.S. soldiers. Furthermore, the Times notes, King aces every single physical fitness test. According to all accounts, King is one of the best - not just out of the women, but out of the entire army. "When I look in the mirror, I don't see a female," she said. "I see a soldier."

But King is one of relatively few women who have ascended to the top positions. One of the reasons fewer women make it to the top ranks has to do with the difficulties of being a mother at arms. And many women are forced to deal with daily sexual harassment from their fellow soldiers, and all too often, rape. One of the other argument against opening up the front lines to female soldiers has to do with their perceived vulnerability to sexual assault:

Many also argue that women in combat pose a security risk to their nation's mission because as hostages, they are potentially more vulnerable to rape and torture than their male counterparts. "You have to admit that, yes, conceptually, it's more likely that women would be in more danger," says McKinley. "I am not convinced that it would have to be the case, but it is possible." Men, after all, are also subject to sexual assault and abuse as prisoners.

Surprisingly, no one in the Time article even so much as mentions the sexual assualt already happening in the military. Robert is more concerned that women could be used as a tool to manipulate men. He worries that women could be tortured in front of their male peers, which would force them to reveal state secrets. "The attitude with men [in capture] is just 'Suck it in and welcome to captivity,' but if they watching a woman suffer like that, it's a whole different ball game," he says.

As it is, Australia won't see women serving on the front lines for at least several years. However, if the standards are revised to allow women into the 8% of jobs currently barred to them, Australia will join a select group of countries, including Israel, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and Denmark, which allow female soldiers in direct combat. Maybe once they do, men like Roberts will see that there are some women strong enough, both physically and mentally, to fight alongside men.

How Soon Will Australia's Female Soldiers Be On The Frontlines? [Time]
Army Medic Jacqui De Gelder Shows Women Are Already Serving On The Front Line [News.com.au]
A Call To Allow Women To Serve On Submarines [New York Times]
Drill Sergeant At Heart Ascents To Army's Top Spot [New York Times]
Living And Fighting Alongside The Men [New York Times]
Women At Arms Series [New York Times]

Image via About.com: Women's History

• Kim Kardashian, has, obviously, created a perfume. "The fragrance really captures who I am," she says ominously. [WWD]
• Heather Mills continues her controversial career, launching a line of recycled, re-modelled, animal-friendly (good!) clothes (bad. Very, very bad.) [DailyMail]

• Oh, this is good. Philip Simon Footwear Group has teamed up with, um, the U.S. Army, to launch a line of shoes and bags, presumably aimed at Army-strong youngsters. Says the company, seemingly without irony, "We want to create a footwear line that expresses and conveys the ideals of the U.S. Army, but in a fashionable way... The patriotic homage combined with bright accent colors and cool styles will appeal to consumers across the board." [WWD]
• Gisele Bundchen's on the cover of September's Vogue India, and appears in a series of ensembles by Indian designers. Quoth the Brazilian bathing-suit queen, "I like the combination of traditional Indian clothing with an edge — and the fabrics and colours are beautiful." [ONTD]
• Talking about covers, find Lily Allen on British Elle's October issue. We'd have given her September. Okay, maybe not. [Sassybella]
• From WWD: "David Gandy's sculpted torso has joined Scarlett Johansson's voluptuous flesh in Dolce & Gabbana's beauty ads. Four athletic men in their skivvies are shooting hoops around model Stella Tennant in Saks Fifth Avenue's fall campaign. And the muscular limbs of Andrés Velencoso are peeking out from behind Christy Turlington's black leather wardrobe in Yves Saint Laurent's spots. Is it too soon to declare the return of the "himbo"?" Yes. It's always too soon. In fact, I prefer to believe that word doesn't exist. [WWD]
• And he's back! Private equity group Permira Advisers LLP has written down its stake in Valentino Fashion Group - again. Out of the Valentino Red? [WWD]
• Liberty of London is staying defiantly high-end: the iconic London store is teaming up with Hermès, who's running a six-week pop-up scarf and tie shop on the premises. [Telegraph]
• Hopefully this is win-win; Hermès' quarterly earnings fell below expectation. [FT]
• But! J. Crew's crew of adorable kids has done the trick: the prepsters beat Wall Street estimates for the quarter and only see things getting better. [The Street]
• Contrary to rumor, lovable hair-meister Chris March is not suing Beyonce for ripping him off - just Thierry Mugler and Tancrede Prinz LLC, who apparently kept the March-intended monies Beyonce paid them for costume services rendered. "Chris continues to be a fan and great admirer of Beyonce who looks beautiful in everything she wears, especially Chris's costumes." [Blogging Project Runway]
• Speaking of Project Runway: Daniel Vosovic launches a capsule collection in February, inspired by his love of gymnastics. "There is a whole fashion group of gays that go. For at least an hour and a half it's my therapy. When you see the 6-year-old girls walking by with their six-packs and chiseled triceps, it makes you want to be even better." [New York]
• And speaking of exercise: trainer to Madge and Gwynnie, Tracy Anderson, will be giving some kind of rareified, Goop-approved (presumably) exercise demo during Fashion's Night Out, so. [New York]
• Donatella Versace has brought Versus back form the dead, and the resurrected brand will premiere at Milan Fashion Week. Prediction: she will be tanned. [WWD]
• As you already knew, Tim Gunn is a superhero! Marvel is introducing Loaded Gunn, a comic set at the "New York Museum of Fashion." [WWD]

[Fort Stewart, Georgia; July 28. Image via Getty]

FORT STEWART, GA - JULY 28: The wife of a U.S. Army soldier with the 293rd Military Police Company watches her husband form up before deploying to Afghanistan July 28, 2009 in Fort Stewart, Georgia. More than 130 soldiers from the company, attached to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, will spend the next year in Afghanistan training the Afghan National Police. (Photo by Stephen Morton/Getty Images)

Army recruiter Sgt. Jessica La Pointe says she has to become a personal trainer for many recruits just to get them ready for boot camp. "We do get people who come in the office that are overweight by Army standards, said La Pointe, "And then what we do is try to work out a program through nutrition and exercise." The fitness standards vary by service, with the Army allowing 26 percent body fat for men and more for women. Curtis Gilroy, the Pentagon's accessions chief, acknowledged that the national obesity epidemic is a problem for the Army. "We're faced with a dwindling pool of the youth population in the 17-to-24 year old group about which we are very concerned," he said. [ABC News]

As previously reported, many female soldiers are reticent to report sexual assault while it's happening for fear of being ostracized. "A typical scenario is it's either a supervisor or someone at her level, in the same military unit. If you come forward, you're tattle-telling on a comrade," USA Today notes.

All service branches are expanding their sexual assault prevention programs, says Kaye Whitley, who heads a pentagon office created to address these issues. Next year, according to USA Today Whitley will be launching an effort to educate 18- to 24-year-old men about assault prevention. The VA report does not specify whether or not the perpetrators of these sex crimes were from the armed forces or if they were one of the many independent contractors in Iraq. If you'll recall, many of the female contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, most notably the brutally gang raped Jamie Leigh Jones, also suffered a great deal of sexual trauma in the field.

However, the pull of being ostracized is still going to be strong for many female soldiers. The VA survey detected such a high percentage of assault because all patients seeking medical care at the VA hospital are directly asked if they've been sexually assaulted. "They may not tell if they are not asked about them," study co-author Amy Street tells the LA Times. What's interesting is that the rate of sexual assault among deployed women in the armed forces is slightly lower than the rate of sexual assault among VA health care users overall. 21.5% of all women in the armed forces suffered from sexual assault or harassment, says Street, but researchers are not entirely sure why.

Sexual Abuse Rates Of Deployed Female Soldiers Detailed In Study [Los Angeles Times]
15% Of Female Veterans Tell Of Sexual Trauma [USA Today]
Sexual Trauma Afflicts 15 Percent Of U.S. Veterans: Study [Reuters]

Earlier: US Army Finally Vows To Prevent Sexual Assault In Its Ranks
Jamie Leigh Jones

• Celebrity gossip sites like TMZ and E! Online have seen a boost in cellphone readers since they have begun introducing mobile updates to keep readers up-to-date on the latest Kim Kardashian mishaps. • A New York cat therapist poses for New York Magazines "Look Book" with her formerly panic attack-having kitty and talks about helping cats with behavioral problems. • A Welsh woman has created a blog that asks women to share their stories of domestic abuse in hopes of illustrating how widespread domestic violence is in the UK. • According to a recent survey of online behavior, men are more likely than women to feel as strongly about their online communities as they feel about their off-line ones. • Chris Hardy, an ex-Mormon who created a beefcake calendar featuring Mormon hunks, had his recent BYU degree put on nonacademic hold after BYU found out he had been excommunicated between the time he completed his studies and the time he attended graduation ceremonies. • An 89-year-old Ohioan woman was arrested last week after she refused to give a child back his football when it landed in her yard. • A judge in Pennsylvania has ordered a woman and her husband to take down the woman's makeshift "bubble," which she says helps her environmental illness which makes her sensitive to substances. • A speculation ad from the CLM BBDO Paris advertising agency caused a bit of trouble for Pepsi last week when an ad that suggested a lifeguard was willing to look the other way while a young boy molested a woman in exchange for a can of Pepsi was leaked on the internet. • A representative for the Nebraska State Legislature announced today that the state would be altering its safe-haven law to apply only to infants who are up to 3 days old. • Researchers are currently studying the link between past birth control use and a lowered risk uterine and ovarian cancers by examining the amount of estrogen that is found in the urine of monkeys who are given birth control. •

The Army is now encouraging soldiers to confront inappropriate sexual comments and alert higher-ranking soldiers about misconduct. However, many sexual assault advocates point out that this encouragement runs counter to the Army's entrenched culture of deferring to highly ranked officers.

Army veteran Susan Avila-Smith, who runs the advocacy group Women Organizing Women, tells the Journal, "Most people keep quiet because they don't want to believe it happened to them or because they're scared of what will happen if they speak up." The Journal also quotes former medic Ellen Wainwright, who says she was involuntarily discharged for psychological reasons after she reported being repeatedly raped and sodomized by a higher-ranking enlisted soldier in Baghdad two years ago. "It would have been better for me to have kept my mouth shut," Wainwright says.

Oh, and about that 2.6 soldiers per 1,000 figure? Other reports show that 6.8% of active duty military women reported unwanted sexual contact, so the problem is probably bigger than the Army is willing to acknowledge. General George Casey has promised a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual assault in the Army, but with with a culture of deference based on rank, will soldiers really be willing to narc on someone higher up on the totem pole?

Rate of Sexual Assault in Army Prompts an Effort at Prevention [WSJ]

Earlier: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And Try Not To Be A Woman
Is The Military Finally Going To Do Something About The Sexual Harassment Of Soldiers?

Until recently, Touma and the unnamed soldier had been stationed in Bamberg, Germany, and according to the Fayetteville Observer, a friend in Germany says that Touma was recently engaged, but that the friend had never known the fiance's name. Below is the letter published in the Observer, taking responsibility for Touma's killing. As the reader of too many true crime books, I agree with the Fayetteville police: I don't think it's the work of a serial killer, but it's certainly hinky.

[Image of letter via Fayetteville Observer]

Source: German Base Links Touma, Person Of Interest [Fayetteville Observer]
Letter, Soldier Probed In Pregnant GI's Death [CNN]

Earlier: Horrors