Discordant responses to antiretroviral treatment: prevalence, risk factors and associated mortality in Rwanda

Mexico AIDS Conference 200

Risk factors for hepatotoxicity of nevirapine-containing antiretroviral drug regimens in a large antiretroviral treatment program in Rwanda

Mexico AIDS Conference 200

Ecohydrological characterization of the Nyando wetland, Lake Victoria, Kenya: A State of System (SoS) analysis

Lake Victoria floodplain wetlands have a complex hydrological setting characterized by transition from a terrestrial to an aquatic environment. A state-of-system (SoS) analysis was carried out in a papyrus dominated wetland in the Nyando River Delta, on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya, to characterize and provide data for detailed ecohydrological studies. The objectives of the study were to: (1) determine the spatio- temporal changes in the wetland evolution and (2) analyze the main hydrological factors that have influenced wetland evolution. Multi-temporal dry-season Landsat MSS, Landsat TM and Landsat ETM+ imagery covering Nyando Wetland and its surrounding area were processed and analyzed to generate time series polygon and polyline maps of the wetland and river. Results show that the wetland increased in size from 5,925 ha in 1950 to 9,925 ha in 1973, and declined to 4,527 ha in 2008. In the last 60 years, Nyando River has migrated in a general eastward direction. Time series hydrological data (1950-2009) were statistically tested for homogeneity  using the Spearman’s rank test for linear trends, Pettit test and Standard Normal Homogeneity test (SNHT) for change point analysis, and split-record tests performed for variance (F-test) and mean (t-test). In addition, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and frequency analyses. Statistical test results show that the hydrological data series were homogeneous. Results of change point analyses indicate that total annual rainfall in Nyando declined in 1979, while the mean annual discharge for Nyando River and Lake Victoria levels had significant upward shifts in 1961. The decadal mean discharges varied significantly over time and increased by 80% from 11.45 m3/s observed in the 1950-1961 subset, reducing by 11.4 and 21.9% in the next two decadal sub-sets, before rising by 35.0% in 1990s and dropping by 24.0% in the last decade. The decadal mean annual lake levels increased from 1134.0 to 1135.43 m in the 1951-1961 and 1962-1972 and remained above the longterm mean of 1135.0 m for 43 years since 1962 before dropping drastically by 1.4 m to an average of 1134 m/year in 2005-2009. The highest recorded lake level at Kisumu Station was 1136.2 m in 1964 after increasing by 2.5 m from 1961. Discharge data exhibit trimodal seasonal patterns, while the lake levels had two peaks. The lake levels are more sensitive to direct lake rainfall. Changes in the Nyando wetland area are linked to the seasonal and episodic flood and drought events coupled with anthropogenic activities (regulation of lake levels, modification of river including cut-off meanders, river training and construction of dykes, drainage of wetland for cultivation, settlement and livestock grazing, abstraction of water for irrigation). A combination of these hydrological and human factors is the main cause of the Nyando Wetland evolution. If the land use trend continues unabated, then the increase in papyrus losses will pose a big challenge to the ecological functioning of the wetland and its support to sustaining community livelihoods.Key words: Nyando Wetland, River, ecohydrology, Lake Victoria

Constitutive and inducible co-expression systems for non-viral osteoinductive gene therapy

Tissue regenerative gene therapy requires expression strategies that deliver therapeutic effective amounts of transgenes. As physiological expression patterns are more complex than high-level expression of a singular therapeutic gene, we aimed at constitutive or inducible co-expression of 2 transgenes simultaneously. Co-expression of human bone morphogenetic protein 2 and 7 (BMP2/7) from constitutively expressing and doxycycline inducible plasmids was evaluated in vitro in C2C12 cells with osteocalcin reporter gene assays and standard assays for osteogenic differentiation. The constitutive systems were additionally tested in an in vivo pilot for ectopic bone formation after repeated naked DNA injection to murine muscle tissue. Inductor controlled differentiation was demonstrated in vitro for inducible co-expression. Both co-expression systems, inducible and constitutive, achieved significantly better osteogenic differentiation than single factor expression. The potency of the constitutive co-expression systems was dependent on relative expression cassette topology. In vivo, ectopic bone formation was demonstrated in 6/13 animals (46 % bone formation efficacy) at days 14 and 28 in hind limb muscles as proven by in vivo μCT and histological evaluation. In vitro findings demonstrated that the devised single vector BMP2/7 co-expression strategy mediates superior osteoinduction, can be applied in an inductor controlled fashion and that its efficiency is dependent on expression cassette topology. In vivo results indicate that co-expression of BMP2/7 applied by non-viral naked DNA gene transfer effectively mediates bone formation without the application of biomaterials, cells or recombinant growth factors, offering a promising alternative to current treatment strategies with potential for clinical translation in the future

Evaluation and application of multi-source satellite rainfall product CHIRPS to assess spatio-temporal rainfall variability on data-sparse Western margins of Ethiopian Highlands

The spatio-temporal characteristic of rainfall in the Beles Basin of Ethiopia is poorly understood, mainly due to lack of data. With recent advances in remote sensing, satellite derived rainfall products have become alternative sources of rainfall data for such poorly gauged areas. The objectives of this study were: (i) to evaluate a multi-source rainfall product (Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations: CHIRPS) for the Beles Basin using gauge measurements and (ii) to assess the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall across the basin using validated CHIRPS data for the period 1981-2017. Categorical and continuous validation statistics were used to evaluate the performance, and time-space variability of rainfall was analyzed using GIS operations and statistical methods. Results showed a slight overestimation of rainfall occurrence by CHIRPS for the lowland region and underestimation for the highland region. CHIRPS underestimated the proportion of light daily rainfall events and overestimated the proportion of high intensity daily rainfall events. CHIRPS rainfall amount estimates were better in highland regions than in lowland regions, and became more accurate as the duration of the integration time increases from days to months. The annual spatio-temporal analysis result using CHIRPS revealed: a mean annual rainfall of the basin is 1490 mm (1050-2090 mm), a 50 mm increase of mean annual rainfall per 100 m elevation rise, periodical and persistent drought occurrence every 8 to 10 years, a significant increasing trend of rainfall (similar to 5 mm year(-1)), high rainfall variability observed at the lowland and drier parts of the basin and high coefficient of variation of monthly rainfall in March and April (revealing occurrence of bimodal rainfall characteristics). This study shows that the performance of CHIRPS product can vary spatially within a small basin level, and CHIRPS can help for better decision making in poorly gauged areas by giving an option to understand the space-time variability of rainfall characteristics