Social Media Interventions to Promote HIV Testing, Linkage, Adherence, and Retention: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Social media is increasingly used to deliver HIV interventions for key populations worldwide. However, little is known about the specific uses and effects of social media on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) interventions. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review examines the effectiveness of social media interventions to promote HIV testing, linkage, adherence, and retention among key populations. METHODS: We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist and Cochrane guidelines for this review and registered it on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, PROSPERO. We systematically searched six databases and three conference websites using search terms related to HIV, social media, and key populations. We included studies where (1) the intervention was created or implemented on social media platforms, (2) study population included men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender individuals, people who inject drugs (PWID), and/or sex workers, and (3) outcomes included promoting HIV testing, linkage, adherence, and/or retention. Meta-analyses were conducted by Review Manager, version 5.3. Pooled relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by random-effects models. RESULTS: Among 981 manuscripts identified, 26 studies met the inclusion criteria. We found 18 studies from high-income countries, 8 in middle-income countries, and 0 in low-income countries. Eight were randomized controlled trials, and 18 were observational studies. All studies (n=26) included MSM; five studies also included transgender individuals. The focus of 21 studies was HIV testing, four on HIV testing and linkage to care, and one on antiretroviral therapy adherence. Social media interventions were used to do the following: build online interactive communities to encourage HIV testing/adherence (10 studies), provide HIV testing services (9 studies), disseminate HIV information (9 studies), and develop intervention materials (1 study). Of the studies providing HIV self-testing, 16% of participants requested HIV testing kits from social media platforms. Existing social media platforms such as Facebook (n=15) and the gay dating app Grindr (n=10) were used most frequently. Data from four studies show that HIV testing uptake increased after social media interventions (n=1283, RR 1.50, 95% CI 1.28-1.76). In the studies where social media interventions were participatory, HIV testing uptake was higher in the intervention arm than the comparison arm (n=1023, RR 1.64, 95% CI 1.19-2.26). CONCLUSIONS: Social media interventions are effective in promoting HIV testing among MSM in many settings. Social media interventions to improve HIV services beyond HIV testing in low- and middle-income countries and among other key populations need to be considered. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO): CRD42016048073; http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42016048073 (Archived by WebCite at http://www. webcitation.org/6usLCJK3v)

Colocalized Structural and Functional Changes in the Cortex of Patients with Trigeminal Neuropathic Pain

Background: Recent data suggests that in chronic pain there are changes in gray matter consistent with decreased brain volume, indicating that the disease process may produce morphological changes in the brains of those affected. However, no study has evaluated cortical thickness in relation to specific functional changes in evoked pain. In this study we sought to investigate structural (gray matter thickness) and functional (blood oxygenation dependent level – BOLD) changes in cortical regions of precisely matched patients with chronic trigeminal neuropathic pain (TNP) affecting the right maxillary (V2) division of the trigeminal nerve. The model has a number of advantages including the evaluation of specific changes that can be mapped to known somatotopic anatomy. Methodology/Principal Findings: Cortical regions were chosen based on sensory (Somatosensory cortex (SI and SII), motor (MI) and posterior insula), or emotional (DLPFC, Frontal, Anterior Insula, Cingulate) processing of pain. Both structural and functional (to brush-induced allodynia) scans were obtained and averaged from two different imaging sessions separated by 2–6 months in all patients. Age and gender-matched healthy controls were also scanned twice for cortical thickness measurement. Changes in cortical thickness of TNP patients were frequently colocalized and correlated with functional allodynic activations, and included both cortical thickening and thinning in sensorimotor regions, and predominantly thinning in emotional regions. Conclusions: Overall, such patterns of cortical thickness suggest a dynamic functionally-driven plasticity of the brain. These structural changes, which correlated with the pain duration, age-at-onset, pain intensity and cortical activity, may be specific targets for evaluating therapeutic interventions

Robust Reproducible Resting State Networks in the Awake Rodent Brain

Resting state networks (RSNs) have been studied extensively with functional MRI in humans in health and disease to reflect brain function in the un-stimulated state as well as reveal how the brain is altered with disease. Rodent models of disease have been used comprehensively to understand the biology of the disease as well as in the development of new therapies. RSN reported studies in rodents, however, are few, and most studies are performed with anesthetized rodents that might alter networks and differ from their non-anesthetized state. Acquiring RSN data in the awake rodent avoids the issues of anesthesia effects on brain function. Using high field fMRI we determined RSNs in awake rats using an independent component analysis (ICA) approach, however, ICA analysis can produce a large number of components, some with biological relevance (networks). We further have applied a novel method to determine networks that are robust and reproducible among all the components found with ICA. This analysis indicates that 7 networks are robust and reproducible in the rat and their putative role is discussed

Reduced phosphorylation of brain insulin receptor substrate and Akt proteins in apolipoprotein-E4 targeted replacement mice

10.1038/srep03754Scientific Reports4

The Nineteenth-Century World of Turkic Dictionaries: An Overview

The author creates a bibliographic picture of the various Turkic-language dictionaries from the eleventh to the end of the nineteenth centuries, in various languages, and describes their structure. He then focuses specifically on printed Turkic dictionaries of the nineteenth century, discussing their historical context and a statistical survey that he conducted. A number of these dictionaries have been digitized; he examines some sites where they are accessible. In the appendix is a list of the dictionaries that he found in the course of his research

Broad and narrow personality traits as markers of one-time and repeated suicide attempts: A population-based study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studying personality traits with the potential to differentiate between individuals engaging in suicide attempts of different degrees of severity could help us to understand the processes underlying the link of personality and nonfatal suicidal behaviours and to identify at-risk groups. One approach may be to examine whether narrow, i.e., lower-order personality traits may be more useful than their underlying, broad personality trait dimensions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We investigated qualitative and quantitative differences in broad and narrow personality traits between one-time and repeated suicide attempters in a longitudinal, population-based sample of young French Canadian adults using two multivariate regression models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One broad (Compulsivity: OR = 2.0; 95% CI 1.2–3.5) and one narrow personality trait (anxiousness: OR = 1.1; 95% CI 1.01–1.1) differentiated between individuals with histories of repeated and one-time suicide attempts. Affective instability [(OR = 1.1; 95% CI 1.04–1.1)] and anxiousness [(OR = .92; 95% CI .88–.95)], on the other hand, differentiated between nonattempters and one-time suicide attempters.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Emotional and cognitive dysregulation and associated behavioural manifestations may be associated with suicide attempts of different severity. While findings associated with narrow traits may be easier to interpret and link to existing sociobiological theories, larger effect sizes associated with broad traits such as Compulsivity may be better suited to objectives with a more clinical focus.</p