95 research outputs found
Understanding Lived Experiences of Stigma for People Living with HIV: A Community Based Participatory Research Study
The goal of this project was to better understand the experiences and impacts of HIV stigma and discrimination on people living with HIV and to co-create knowledge that has the potential to challenge existing stigma within the healthcare, social services, and public policy sectors in the province of Alberta, Canada. We employed community-based participatory research and a mixed methods design (survey methods and qualitative interviews) to address these questions. An online survey was completed by 148 people living with HIV and semi-structured interviews were conducted with an additional 20 participants. The research findings have been conceptualized within a social ecological model. The four main categories that emerged from the data included personal level factors attributed to HIV stigma, interpersonal factors related to HIV stigma, community factors related to HIV stigma, and HIV stigma in systems and institutions. Within each ecological domain we highlight the strengths and coping strategies people living with HIV identified in the study. Results will be of interest to health researchers and HIV service providers
Single-Step Selection of Bivalent Aptamers Validated by Comparison with SELEX Using High-Throughput Sequencing
The identification of nucleic acid aptamers would be advanced if they could be obtained after fewer rounds of selection and
amplification. In this paper the identification of bivalent aptamers for thrombin by SELEX and single-step selection are
compared using next generation sequencing and motif finding informatics. Results show that similar aptamers are
identified by both methods. This is significant because it shows that next generation sequencing and motif finding
informatics have the potential to simplify the selection of aptamers by avoiding multiple rounds of enzymatic transcription and amplification
Pericytes from Brain Microvessels Strengthen the Barrier Integrity in Primary Cultures of Rat Brain Endothelial Cells
Cross-Over between Discrete and Continuous Protein Structure Space: Insights into Automatic Classification and Networks of Protein Structures
Structural classifications of proteins assume the existence of the fold, which is an intrinsic equivalence class of protein domains. Here, we test in which conditions such an equivalence class is compatible with objective similarity measures. We base our analysis on the transitive property of the equivalence relationship, requiring that similarity of A with B and B with C implies that A and C are also similar. Divergent gene evolution leads us to expect that the transitive property should approximately hold. However, if protein domains are a combination of recurrent short polypeptide fragments, as proposed by several authors, then similarity of partial fragments may violate the transitive property, favouring the continuous view of the protein structure space. We propose a measure to quantify the violations of the transitive property when a clustering algorithm joins elements into clusters, and we find out that such violations present a well defined and detectable cross-over point, from an approximately transitive regime at high structure similarity to a regime with large transitivity violations and large differences in length at low similarity. We argue that protein structure space is discrete and hierarchic classification is justified up to this cross-over point, whereas at lower similarities the structure space is continuous and it should be represented as a network. We have tested the qualitative behaviour of this measure, varying all the choices involved in the automatic classification procedure, i.e., domain decomposition, alignment algorithm, similarity score, and clustering algorithm, and we have found out that this behaviour is quite robust. The final classification depends on the chosen algorithms. We used the values of the clustering coefficient and the transitivity violations to select the optimal choices among those that we tested. Interestingly, this criterion also favours the agreement between automatic and expert classifications. As a domain set, we have selected a consensus set of 2,890 domains decomposed very similarly in SCOP and CATH. As an alignment algorithm, we used a global version of MAMMOTH developed in our group, which is both rapid and accurate. As a similarity measure, we used the size-normalized contact overlap, and as a clustering algorithm, we used average linkage. The resulting automatic classification at the cross-over point was more consistent than expert ones with respect to the structure similarity measure, with 86% of the clusters corresponding to subsets of either SCOP or CATH superfamilies and fewer than 5% containing domains in distinct folds according to both SCOP and CATH. Almost 15% of SCOP superfamilies and 10% of CATH superfamilies were split, consistent with the notion of fold change in protein evolution. These results were qualitatively robust for all choices that we tested, although we did not try to use alignment algorithms developed by other groups. Folds defined in SCOP and CATH would be completely joined in the regime of large transitivity violations where clustering is more arbitrary. Consistently, the agreement between SCOP and CATH at fold level was lower than their agreement with the automatic classification obtained using as a clustering algorithm, respectively, average linkage (for SCOP) or single linkage (for CATH). The networks representing significant evolutionary and structural relationships between clusters beyond the cross-over point may allow us to perform evolutionary, structural, or functional analyses beyond the limits of classification schemes. These networks and the underlying clusters are available at http://ub.cbm.uam.es/research/ProtNet.ph
Overview of cattle diseases listed under category C, D or E in the animal health law for wich control programmes are in place within Europe
13 páginas, 5 figuras, 3 tablas.The COST action “Standardising output-based surveillance to control non-regulated
diseases of cattle in the European Union (SOUND control),” aims to harmonise the results
of surveillance and control programmes (CPs) for non-EU regulated cattle diseases to
facilitate safe trade and improve overall control of cattle infectious diseases. In this paper
we aimed to provide an overview on the diversity of control for these diseases in Europe.
A non-EU regulated cattle disease was defined as an infectious disease of cattle with no
or limited control at EU level, which is not included in the European Union Animal health
law Categories A or B under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2002.
A CP was defined as surveillance and/or intervention strategies designed to lower the
incidence, prevalence, mortality or prove freedom from a specific disease in a region
or country. Passive surveillance, and active surveillance of breeding bulls under Council
Directive 88/407/EEC were not considered as CPs. A questionnaire was designed to
obtain country-specific information about CPs for each disease. Animal health experts
from 33 European countries completed the questionnaire. Overall, there are 23 diseases
for which a CP exists in one or more of the countries studied. The diseases for which
CPs exist in the highest number of countries are enzootic bovine leukosis, bluetongue,
infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine viral diarrhoea and anthrax (CPs reported by
between 16 and 31 countries). Every participating country has on average, 6 CPs
(min–max: 1–13) in place. Most programmes are implemented at a national level (86%)
and are applied to both dairy and non-dairy cattle (75%). Approximately one-third
of the CPs are voluntary, and the funding structure is divided between government
and private resources. Countries that have eradicated diseases like enzootic bovine
leukosis, bluetongue, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine viral diarrhoea have
implemented CPs for other diseases to further improve the health status of cattle in their
country. The control of non-EU regulated cattle diseases is very heterogenous in Europe.
Therefore, the standardising of the outputs of these programmes to enable comparison
represents a challenge.Peer reviewe
Reduced graphene oxide induces transient blood–brain barrier opening: an in vivo study
Too wet and too dry? Uncertainty of DEM as a potential source of significant errors in a model-based water level assessment in riparian and mire ecosystems
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