Flattening the curve of distress: A public-facing webinar for psychoeducation during COVID-19

This case report describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a public-facing webinar that provided psychoeducation addressing the emotional distress that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic. Using a webinar was an effective strategy for reaching a large, public audience and making content from expert clinicians accessible. Participants were likely to recommend the webinar to friends or family. Participants appreciated that the webinar acknowledged the presence of distressing emotions and provided practical advice for reducing the negative psychological sequelae of the coronavirus pandemic. Areas for improvement included addressing technical issues and incorporating additional information into the webinar. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Patient, Family & Community Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework) Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens

Separate Pathways for Antigen Presentation by CD1 Molecules

AbstractThe ability to sample relevant intracellular compartments is necessary for effective antigen presentation. To detect peptide antigens, MHC class I and II molecules differentially sample cytosolic and endosomal compartments. CD1 constitutes another lineage of lipid antigen-presenting molecules. We show that CD1b traffics deeply into late endosomal compartments, while CD1a is excluded from these compartments and instead traffics independently in the recycling pathway of the early endocytic system. Further, CD1b but not CD1a antigen presentation is dependent upon vesicular acidification. Since lipids and various bacteria are known to traffic differentially, either penetrating deeply into the endocytic system or following the route of recycling endosomes, these findings elucidate efficient monitoring of distinct components of the endocytic compartment by CD1 lipid antigen-presenting molecules

Elite Tweets: Analysing the Twitter Communication Patterns of Labour Party Peers in the House of Lords

The micro-blogging platform Twitter has gained notoriety for its status as both a communication channel between private individuals, and as a public forum monitored by journalists, the public, and the state. Its potential application for political communication has not gone unnoticed; politicians have used Twitter to attract voters, interact with constituencies and advance issue-based campaigns. This article reports on the preliminary results of the research team’s work with 21 peers sitting on the Labour frontbench. It is based on the monitoring and archival of the peers’ activity on Twitter for a period of 100 days from 16th May to 28th September 2012. Using a sample of more than 4,363 tweets and a mixed methodology combining semantic analysis, social network analysis and quantitative analysis, this paper explores the peers’ patterns of usage and communication on Twitter. Key findings are that as a tweeting community their behavior is consistent with others, however there is evidence that a coherent strategy is lacking. Labour peers tend to work in ego networks of self-interest as opposed to working together to promote party polic

Regulation of CD1 Antigen-presenting Complex Stability

For major histocompatibility complex class I and II molecules, the binding of specific peptide antigens is essential for assembly and trafficking and is at the center of their quality control mechanism. However, the role of lipid antigen binding in stabilization and quality control of CD1 heavy chain (HC).beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2)m) complexes is unclear. Furthermore, the distinct trafficking and loading routes of CD1 proteins take them from mildly acidic pH in early endososmal compartments (pH 6.0) to markedly acidic pH in lysosomes (pH 5.0) and back to neutral pH of the cell surface (pH 7.4). Here, we present evidence that the stability of each CD1 HC.beta(2)m complex is determined by the distinct pH optima identical to that of the intracellular compartments in which each CD1 isoform resides. Although stable at acidic endosomal pH, complexes are only stable at cell surface pH 7.4 when bound to specific lipid antigens. The proposed model outlines a quality control program that allows lipid exchange at low endosomal pH without dissociation of the CD1 HC.beta(2)m complex and then stabilizes the antigen-loaded complex at neutral pH at the cell surface

Antiretroviral Therapy for Prevention of HIV Infection: New Clues From an Animal Model

The authors discuss the implications of a new study in macaques of antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis regimens

Variational Methods for Biomolecular Modeling

Structure, function and dynamics of many biomolecular systems can be characterized by the energetic variational principle and the corresponding systems of partial differential equations (PDEs). This principle allows us to focus on the identification of essential energetic components, the optimal parametrization of energies, and the efficient computational implementation of energy variation or minimization. Given the fact that complex biomolecular systems are structurally non-uniform and their interactions occur through contact interfaces, their free energies are associated with various interfaces as well, such as solute-solvent interface, molecular binding interface, lipid domain interface, and membrane surfaces. This fact motivates the inclusion of interface geometry, particular its curvatures, to the parametrization of free energies. Applications of such interface geometry based energetic variational principles are illustrated through three concrete topics: the multiscale modeling of biomolecular electrostatics and solvation that includes the curvature energy of the molecular surface, the formation of microdomains on lipid membrane due to the geometric and molecular mechanics at the lipid interface, and the mean curvature driven protein localization on membrane surfaces. By further implicitly representing the interface using a phase field function over the entire domain, one can simulate the dynamics of the interface and the corresponding energy variation by evolving the phase field function, achieving significant reduction of the number of degrees of freedom and computational complexity. Strategies for improving the efficiency of computational implementations and for extending applications to coarse-graining or multiscale molecular simulations are outlined.Comment: 36 page