COPING STRATEGIES AND LIFE EXPECTANCY OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) IN BAMENDA MEZAM DIVISION NORTH WEST REGION OF CAMEROON: A PEDAGOGIC PERSPECTIVE

The life expectancy of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) who attend the treatment center of the Bamenda Regional Hospital has been of interest to many educationists. Coping strategies can have a relationship with their lifestyle. The argument for the study anchored on the attribution theory (Bernard Weiner, 1990), Lazarus’ Cognitive Theory of Stress (1966), the human ecological theory (1979). A cross-sectional descriptive survey research design with a mixed approach was used with a sample of 165 PLWHA who attend the treatment center of the Bamenda Regional Hospital. Data obtained were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. Findings showed that there is a very significant and positive relationship between emotional approach coping and life expectancy of people living with HIV/AIDS (P<0.001). Similarly, findings on hypothesis two showed that there is a very significant and positive relationship between problem focus coping and life expectancy of people living with HIV/AIDS (P<0.001). Again, findings on hypothesis three showed that there is a very significant and positive relationship between engagement and disengagement coping and life expectancy of people living with HIV/AIDS (P<0.001). Lastly, findings on hypothesis four showed that that there is a very significant and positive relationship between meaning focus coping and life expectancy of people living with HIV/AIDS (P<0.001). The study concludes that coping strategies have positive effects on people living with HIV/AIDS. The findings recommend that, people living with HIV/AIDS should be encouraged to be resilient and agentic. This will help them to live well and increase life expectancy rate.  Article visualizations

Electronic, optical and thermal properties of the hexagonal and fcc Ge2Sb2Te5 chalcogenide from first-principle calculations

We present a comprehensive computational study on the properties of face-centered cubic and hexagonal chalcogenide Ge2Sb2Te5. We calculate the electronic structure using density functional theory (DFT); the obtained density of states (DOS) compares favorably with experiments, also looking suitable for transport analysis. Optical constants including refraction index and absorption coefficient capture major experimental features, aside from an energy shift owed to an underestimate of the band gap that is typical of DFT calculations. We also compute the phonon DOS for the hexagonal phase, obtaining a speed of sound and thermal conductivity in good agreement with the experimental lattice contribution. The calculated heat capacity reaches ~ 1.4 x 106 J/(m3 K) at high temperature, in agreement with experimental data, and provides insight into the low-temperature range (< 150 K), where data are unavailable.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

Transcriptional regulation of long-term memory in the marine snail Aplysia

Whereas the induction of short-term memory involves only covalent modifications of constitutively expressed preexisting proteins, the formation of long-term memory requires gene expression, new RNA, and new protein synthesis. On the cellular level, transcriptional regulation is thought to be the starting point for a series of molecular steps necessary for both the initiation and maintenance of long-term synaptic facilitation (LTF). The core molecular features of transcriptional regulation involved in the long-term process are evolutionally conserved in Aplysia, Drosophila, and mouse, and indicate that gene regulation by the cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) acting in conjunction with different combinations of transcriptional factors is critical for the expression of many forms of long-term memory. In the marine snail Aplysia, the molecular mechanisms that underlie the storage of long-term memory have been extensively studied in the monosynaptic connections between identified sensory neuron and motor neurons of the gill-withdrawal reflex. One tail shock or one pulse of serotonin (5-HT), a modulatory transmitter released by tail shocks, produces a transient facilitation mediated by the cAMP-dependent protein kinase leading to covalent modifications in the sensory neurons that results in an enhancement of transmitter release and a strengthening of synaptic connections lasting minutes. By contrast, repeated pulses of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) induce a transcription- and translation-dependent long-term facilitation (LTF) lasting more than 24 h and trigger the activation of a family of transcription factors in the presynaptic sensory neurons including ApCREB1, ApCREB2 and ApC/EBP. In addition, we have recently identified novel transcription factors that modulate the expression of ApC/EBP and also are critically involved in LTF. In this review, we examine the roles of these transcription factors during consolidation of LTF induced by different stimulation paradigms

Testing the reality of Wigner's friend's observations

Does quantum theory apply at all scales, including that of observers? A resurgence of interest in the long-standing Wigner's friend paradox has shed new light on this fundamental question. Here---building on a scenario with two separated but entangled "friends" introduced by Brukner---we rigorously prove that if quantum evolution is controllable on the scale of an observer, then one of the following three assumptions must be false: "No-Superdeterminism", "Locality", or "Absoluteness of Observed Events" (i.e. that every observed event exists absolutely, not relatively). We show that although the violation of Bell-type inequalities in such scenarios is not in general sufficient to demonstrate the contradiction between those assumptions, new inequalities can be derived, in a theory-independent manner, which are violated by quantum correlations. We demonstrate this in a proof-of-principle experiment where a photon's path is deemed an observer. We discuss how this new theorem places strictly stronger constraints on quantum reality than Bell's theorem.Comment: In v1, v2 we claimed to give the first rigorous proof of Brukner's theorem, interpreting his "Observer Independent Facts" assumption to be weaker than what he formalized. This was inaccurate (Brukner's theorem follows from his assumptions) and obscured the significantly stronger implications of our theorem. In v3 we name the weaker assumption in our theorem "Absoluteness of Observed Events

Analysis of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteome with PeptideAtlas

We present the Saccharomyces cerevisiae PeptideAtlas composed from 47 diverse experiments and 4.9 million tandem mass spectra. The observed peptides align to 61% of Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) open reading frames (ORFs), 49% of the uncharacterized SGD ORFs, 54% of S. cerevisiae ORFs with a Gene Ontology annotation of 'molecular function unknown', and 76% of ORFs with Gene names. We highlight the use of this resource for data mining, construction of high quality lists for targeted proteomics, validation of proteins, and software development

Information system for monitoring and assessing stress among medical students

Author ProofThe severe or prolonged exposure to stress-inducing factors in occupational and academic settings is a growing concern. The literature describes several potentially stressful moments experienced by medical students throughout the course, affecting cognitive functioning and learning. In this paper, we introduce the EUSTRESS Solution, that aims to create an Information System to monitor and assess, continuously and in real-time, the stress levels of the individuals in order to predict chronic stress. The Information System will use a measuring instrument based on wearable devices and machine learning techniques to collect and process stress-related data from the individual without his/her explicit interaction. A big database has been built through physiological, psychological, and behavioral assessments of medical students. In this paper, we focus on heart rate and heart rate variability indices, by comparing baseline and stress condition. In order to develop a predictive model of stress, we performed different statistical tests. Preliminary results showed the neural network had the better model fit. As future work, we will integrate salivary samples and self-report questionnaires in order to develop a more complex and intelligent model.QVida+ project (Estimação Contínua de Qualidade de Vida para Auxílio Eficaz à Decisão Clínica), funded by European Structural funds (FEDER-003446), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement

PKA-activated ApAF–ApC/EBP heterodimer is a key downstream effector of ApCREB and is necessary and sufficient for the consolidation of long-term facilitation

Long-term memory requires transcriptional regulation by a combination of positive and negative transcription factors. Aplysia activating factor (ApAF) is known to be a positive transcription factor that forms heterodimers with ApC/EBP and ApCREB2. How these heterodimers are regulated and how they participate in the consolidation of long-term facilitation (LTF) has not, however, been characterized. We found that the functional activation of ApAF required phosphorylation of ApAF by PKA on Ser-266. In addition, ApAF lowered the threshold of LTF by forming a heterodimer with ApCREB2. Moreover, once activated by PKA, the ApAF–ApC/EBP heterodimer transactivates enhancer response element–containing genes and can induce LTF in the absence of CRE- and CREB-mediated gene expression. Collectively, these results suggest that PKA-activated ApAF–ApC/EBP heterodimer is a core downstream effector of ApCREB in the consolidation of LTF