Area Deprivation index and Segregation On the Risk of Hiv: a Us Veteran Case-Control Study

BACKGROUND: Preventing HIV infection remains a critically important tool in the continuing fight against HIV/AIDS. The primary aim is to evaluate the effect and interactions between a composite area-level social determinants of health measure and an area-level measure of residential segregation on the risk of HIV/AIDS in U.S. Veterans. METHODS: Using the individual-level patient data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, we constructed a case-control study of veterans living with HIV/AIDS (VLWH) and age-, sex assigned at birth- and index date-matched controls. We geocoded patient\u27s residential address to ascertain their neighborhood and linked their information to two measures of neighborhood-level disadvantage: area deprivation index (ADI) and isolation index (ISOL). We used logistic regression to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for comparing VLWH with matched controls. We performed analyses for the entire U.S. and separately for each U.S. Census division. FINDINGS: Overall, living in minority-segregated neighborhoods was associated with a higher risk of HIV (OR: 1.88 (95% CI: 1.79-1.97) while living in higher ADI neighborhoods was associated with a lower risk of HIV (OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.84-0.92). The association between living in a higher ADI neighborhood and HIV was inconsistent across divisions, while living in minority-segregated neighborhoods was consistently associated with increased risk across all divisions. In the interaction model, individuals from low ADI and high ISOL neighborhoods had a higher risk of HIV in three divisions: East South Central; West South Central, and Pacific. INTERPRETATION: Our results suggest that residential segregation may prevent people in disadvantaged neighborhoods from protecting themselves from HIV independent from access to health care. There is the need to advance knowledge about the neighborhood-level social-structural factors that influence HIV vulnerability toward developing interventions needed to achieve the goal of ending the HIV epidemic. FUNDING: US National Cancer Institute

Preoperative Psoas Muscle Size Predicts Postoperative Delirium in Older Adults Undergoing Surgery: A Pilot Cohort Study

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136001/1/jgs14571.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136001/2/jgs14571_am.pd

Observation of Spontaneous Brillouin Cooling

While radiation-pressure cooling is well known, the Brillouin scattering of light from sound is considered an acousto-optical amplification-only process. It was suggested that cooling could be possible in multi-resonance Brillouin systems when phonons experience lower damping than light. However, this regime was not accessible in traditional Brillouin systems since backscattering enforces high acoustical frequencies associated with high mechanical damping. Recently, forward Brillouin scattering in microcavities has allowed access to low-frequency acoustical modes where mechanical dissipation is lower than optical dissipation, in accordance with the requirements for cooling. Here we experimentally demonstrate cooling via such a forward Brillouin process in a microresonator. We show two regimes of operation for the Brillouin process: acoustical amplification as is traditional, but also for the first time, a Brillouin cooling regime. Cooling is mediated by an optical pump, and scattered light, that beat and electrostrictively attenuate the Brownian motion of the mechanical mode.Comment: Supplementary material include

Dephosphorylation of Nucleophosmin by PP1β Facilitates pRB Binding and Consequent E2F1-dependent DNA Repair

We report a new pathway through which PP1β signals to nucleophosmin (NPM) in response to DNA damage. UV induces dephosphorylation of NPM at multiple sites, leading to enhancement of complex formation between NPM and retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein and the subsequent upregulation of E2F1. Consequently, such signaling pathway potentiates the cellular DNA repair capacity

Mitochondrial Genome Sequences Effectively Reveal the Phylogeny of Hylobates Gibbons

BACKGROUND: Uniquely among hominoids, gibbons exist as multiple geographically contiguous taxa exhibiting distinctive behavioral, morphological, and karyotypic characteristics. However, our understanding of the evolutionary relationships of the various gibbons, especially among Hylobates species, is still limited because previous studies used limited taxon sampling or short mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences. Here we use mtDNA genome sequences to reconstruct gibbon phylogenetic relationships and reveal the pattern and timing of divergence events in gibbon evolutionary history. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of 51 individuals representing 11 species belonging to three genera (Hylobates, Nomascus and Symphalangus) using the high-throughput 454 sequencing system with the parallel tagged sequencing approach. Three phylogenetic analyses (maximum likelihood, Bayesian analysis and neighbor-joining) depicted the gibbon phylogenetic relationships congruently and with strong support values. Most notably, we recover a well-supported phylogeny of the Hylobates gibbons. The estimation of divergence times using Bayesian analysis with relaxed clock model suggests a much more rapid speciation process in Hylobates than in Nomascus. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Use of more than 15 kb sequences of the mitochondrial genome provided more informative and robust data than previous studies of short mitochondrial segments (e.g., control region or cytochrome b) as shown by the reliable reconstruction of divergence patterns among Hylobates gibbons. Moreover, molecular dating of the mitogenomic divergence times implied that biogeographic change during the last five million years may be a factor promoting the speciation of Sundaland animals, including Hylobates species

VHDL modelling of the open short tester

IC (Integrated Circuitry) testing requires the very advanced and sophisticated Advance Test Equipment (ATE) that costs multi million USD. The cost of IC testing is increasing yearly and it will exceed the cost of manufacturing in future. The manufacturers are interested to lower down the manufacturing cost. Low cost tester is one of the options to reduce the manufacturing cost. The low cost FPGA realization of Open/Short Test on IC is introduced to reduce the IC test cost. The open short test is selected, because it is the first IC test. The Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is used to model the Open/Short Test on IC and the design is capable to perform the open/short test

Evodiamine Stabilizes Topoisomerase I-DNA Cleavable Complex to Inhibit Topoisomerase I Activity

Evodiamine (EVO), an alkaloidal compound isolated from Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.), has been reported to affect many physiological functions. Topoisomerase inhibitors have been developed in a variety of clinical applications. In the present study, we report the topoisomerase I (TopI) inhibitory activity of EVO, which may have properties that lead to improved therapeutic benefits. EVO is able to inhibit supercoiled plasmid DNA relaxation catalyzed by TopI. Upon treatment 0~10 μM EVO TopI was depleted in MCF-7 breast cancer cells in a concentration-dependent and time-dependent manner in 0~120 min. A K-SDS precipitation assay was performed to measure the extent of Top I-trapped chromosomal DNA. The ability of EVO to cause the formation of a TopI-DNA complex increased in a concentration-dependent manner, in that the DNA trapped increased by 24.2% in cells treated with 30 μM. The results suggest that EVO inhibits TopI by stabilizing the enzyme and DNA covalent complex