Female Prisoners in the Us: HIV/AIDS and Opportunistic Co-Infectious Diseases

Objective This study is an overview of the most current state of the US prison system relative to incarcerated women focusing specifically on the risks of HIV and opportunistic diseases that affect women s health and lacking concerted interest in understanding and addressing women s specific needs by policy-makers and managers of our prison facilities Methodology Conducted by an interdisciplinary team of socio-behavioral scientists in epidemiology social work policy and education the study relies on the most updated research data provided by federal and state government agencies hospital registries biomedical public health and socio-behavioral databases relevant and peer-reviewed research studies published in journals and other accepted information sources using a comparative national and global approach to the subject of female prisoners and the impact of infectious disease

Social network analytics and visualization: Dynamic topic-based influence analysis in evolving micro-blogs

Influence Analysis is one of the well-known areas of Social Network Analysis. However, discovering influencers from micro-blog networks based on topics has gained recent popularity due to its specificity. Besides, these data networks are massive, continuous and evolving. Therefore, to address the above challenges we propose a dynamic framework for topic modelling and identifying influencers in the same process. It incorporates dynamic sampling, community detection and network statistics over graph data stream from a social media activity management application. Further, we compare the graph measures against each other empirically and observe that there is no evidence of correlation between the sets of users having large number of friends and the users whose posts achieve high acceptance (i.e., highly liked, commented and shared posts). Therefore, we propose a novel approach that incorporates a user's reachability and also acceptability by other users. Consequently, we improve on graph metrics by including a dynamic acceptance score (integrating content quality with network structure) for ranking influencers in micro-blogs. Additionally, we analysed the topic clusters' structure and quality with empirical experiments and visualization.Fundaçao para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Grant/Award Number: UIDB/50014/202

Bioaccumulation of amylose-like glycans by Helicobacter pylori

Background: Helicobacter pylori cell surface is composed of lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) yielding structures homologous to mammalian Lewis O-chains blood group antigens. These structures are key mediators in the definition of host-microbial interactions and known to change their expression pattern in response to environmental pressure. Aims:  The present work is focused on the identification of new H. pylori cell-surface glycosides. Special attention is further devoted to provide insights on the impact of in vitro subcultivation on H. pylori cell-surface phenotypes. Methods:  Cell-surface glycans from H. pylori NCTC 11637 and two clinical isolates were recovered from the aqueous phase resulting from phenol:water extraction of intact bacteria. They were evaluated in relation to their sugars and glycosidic-linkages composition by CG-MS, size-exclusion chromatography, NMR, and Mass Spectrometry. H. pylori glycan profile was also monitored during subcultivation in vitro in agar and F12 liquid medium. Results:  All three studied strains produce LPS expressing Lewis epitopes and express bioaccumulate amylose-like glycans. Bioaccumulation of amylose was found to be enhanced with the subcultivation of the bacterium on agar medium and accompanied by a decrease in the expression of LPS O-chains. In contrast, during exponential growth in F12 liquid medium, an opposite behavior is observed, that is, there is an increase in the overall amount of LPS and decrease in amylose content. Conclusions:  This work shows that under specific environmental conditions, H. pylori expresses a phase-variable cell-surface α-(1→4)-glucose moiety

High stakes and low bars: How international recognition shapes the conduct of civil wars

When rebel groups engage incumbent governments in war for control of the state, questions of international recognition arise. International recognition determines which combatants can draw on state assets, receive overt military aid, and borrow as sovereigns—all of which can have profound consequences for the military balance during civil war. How do third-party states and international organizations determine whom to treat as a state's official government during civil war? Data from the sixty-one center-seeking wars initiated from 1945 to 2014 indicate that military victory is not a prerequisite for recognition. Instead, states generally rely on a simple test: control of the capital city. Seizing the capital does not foreshadow military victory. Civil wars often continue for many years after rebels take control and receive recognition. While geopolitical and economic motives outweigh the capital control test in a small number of important cases, combatants appear to anticipate that holding the capital will be sufficient for recognition. This expectation generates perverse incentives. In effect, the international community rewards combatants for capturing or holding, by any means necessary, an area with high concentrations of critical infrastructure and civilians. In the majority of cases where rebels contest the capital, more than half of its infrastructure is damaged or the majority of civilians are displaced (or both), likely fueling long-term state weakness

The Association between Individual and Combined Components of Metabolic Syndrome and Chronic Kidney Disease among African Americans: The Jackson Heart Study

Introduction: Approximately 26.3 million people in the United States have chronic kidney disease and many more are at risk of developing the condition. The association between specific metabolic syndrome components and chronic kidney disease in African American individuals is uncertain. Methods: Baseline data from 4,933 participants of the Jackson Heart Study were analyzed. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds and 95% confidence intervals of chronic kidney disease associated with individual components, metabolic syndrome, the number of components, and specific combinations of metabolic syndrome components. Results: Metabolic syndrome was common with a prevalence of 42.0%. Chronic kidney disease was present in 19.4% of participants. The prevalence of metabolic components was high: elevated blood pressure (71.8%), abdominal obesity (65.8%), low fasting high density lipoprotein cholesterol (37.3%), elevated fasting glucose (32.2%) and elevated triglycerides (16.2%). Elevated blood pressure, triglycerides, fasting blood glucose, and abdominal obesity were significantly associated with increased odds of chronic kidney disease. Participants with metabolic syndrome had a 2.22-fold (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.22; 95% CI, 1.78–2.78) increase in the odds of chronic kidney disease compared to participants without metabolic syndrome. The combination of elevated fasting glucose, elevated triglycerides, and abdominal obesity was associated with the highest odds for chronic kidney disease (AOR 25.11; 95% CI, 6.94–90.90). Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome as well as individual or combinations of metabolic syndrome components are independently associated with chronic kidney disease in African American adults

Fluorescence in situ hybridization method using peptide nucleic acid probes for rapid detection of Lactobacillus and Gardnerella spp

Background: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal infection occurring in women of reproductive age. It is widely accepted that the microbial switch from normal microflora to BV is characterized by a decrease in vaginal colonization by Lactobacillus species together with an increase of Gardnerella vaginalis and other anaerobes. Our goal was to develop and optimize a novel Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) Fluorescence in situ Hybridization assay (PNA FISH) for the detection of Lactobacillus spp. and G. vaginalis in mixed samples. Results: Therefore, we evaluated and validated two specific PNA probes by using 36 representative Lactobacillus strains, 22 representative G. vaginalis strains and 27 other taxonomically related or pathogenic bacterial strains commonly found in vaginal samples. The probes were also tested at different concentrations of G. vaginalis and Lactobacillus species in vitro, in the presence of a HeLa cell line. Specificity and sensitivity of the PNA probes were found to be 98.0% (95% confidence interval (CI), from 87.8 to 99.9%) and 100% (95% CI, from 88.0 to 100.0%), for Lactobacillus spp.; and 100% (95% CI, from 92.8 to 100%) and 100% (95% CI, from 81.5 to 100.0%) for G. vaginalis. Moreover, the probes were evaluated in mixed samples mimicking women with BV or normal vaginal microflora, demonstrating efficiency and applicability of our PNA FISH. Conclusions: This quick method accurately detects Lactobacillus spp. and G. vaginalis species in mixed samples, thus enabling efficient evaluation of the two bacterial groups, most frequently encountered in the vagina.This work was supported by European Union funds (FEDER/COMPETE) and by national funds (FCT) under the project with reference FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-008991 (PTDC/BIA-MIC/098228/2008). AM acknowledges the FCT individual fellowship - SFRH/BD/62375/2009)

OT Modeling: The Enterprise Beyond IT

Enterprises are composed of an enormous number of elements (e.g., organizational units, human resources, production processes, and IT systems) typically classified in the business or the IT domain. However, some crucial elements do not belong in either group: they are directly responsible for producing and delivering the company’s goods and services and include all the elements that support day to day operations. Collectively, these elements have been called operational technologies (OT) and have been conspicuously excluded from enterprise modeling (EM) approaches which traditionally have focused on the business and IT dimensions. Evidence of this is the absence of OT elements in languages and metamodels for EM. This is in line with the historical division between IT and OT in organizations that has led to information silos, independent teams, and disparate tech- nologies that only recently have started to be reconciled. Considering that OT is critical to most productive organi- zations, and the benefits that EM brings to its understand- ing and improvement, it makes sense to expand EM to include OT. For that purpose, this paper proposes an extension to ArchiMate 3.0 which includes crucial OT elements. On top of that, this paper also proposes an approach to further expand ArchiMate to address specific industries where more specific OT elements are required. This is illustrated in the paper with an extension for the Oil and Gas case that was validated with experts belonging to five companies in the sector

Influence of low birth weight on C-reactive protein in asymptomatic younger adults: the bogalusa heart study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both low birth weight, an indicator of intrauterine growth restriction, and low grade systemic inflammation depicted by high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) have emerged as independent predictors of cardiovascular (CV) disease and type 2 diabetes. However, information linking low birth weight and hs-CRP in a biracial (black/white) population is scant. We assessed a cohort of 776 black and white subjects (28% black, 43% male) aged 24-43 years (mean 36.1 years) enrolled in the Bogalusa Heart Study with regard to birth weight and gestational age data were retrieved from Louisiana State Public Health Office.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Black subjects had significantly lower birth weight than white subjects (3.145 kg vs 3.441 kg, p < 0.0001) and higher hs-CRP level (3.29 mg/L vs 2.57 mg/L, p = 0.011). After adjusting for sex, age, body mass index (BMI), smoking status and race (for total sample), the hs-CRP level decreased across quartiles of increasing birth weight in white subjects (p = 0.001) and the combined sample (p = 0.002). Adjusting for sex, age, BMI, smoking status and race for the total sample in a multivariate regression model, low birth weight was retained as an independent predictor variable for higher hs-CRP levels in white subjects (p = 0.004) and the total sample (p = 0.007). Conversely, the area under the receiver operative curve (c statistic) analysis adjusted for race, sex, age, smoking status and BMI yielded a value of 0.777 with regard to the discriminating value of hs-CRP for predicting low birth weight.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The deleterious effect of low birth weight on systemic inflammation depicted by the hs-CRP levels in asymptomatic younger adults may potentially link fetal growth retardation, CV disease and diabetes, with important health implications.</p