Screening HIV-positive men who have sex with men for hepatitis C re-infection risk: is a single question on condom-use enough? A sensitivity analysis

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is common in men who have sex with men (MSM) with HIV. The Swiss HCVree Trial targeted a micro-elimination by using a treat and counsel strategy. Self-reported condomless anal intercourse with non-steady partners was used as the selection criterion for participation in a counselling intervention designed to prevent HCV re-infection. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of this criterion to identify men who engaged in other sexual risk behaviours associated with HCV re-infection.; Men who disclosed their sexual and drug- use behaviours during the prior 6 months, at study baseline, were included in the current study. Using a descriptive comparative study design, we explored self-reported sexual and drug-use risk behaviours, compared the odds of reporting each behaviour in men who reported and denied condomless anal intercourse with non-steady partners during the prior year and calculated the sensitivity/specificity (95% CI) of the screening question in relation to the other at-risk behaviours.; Seventy-two (61%) of the 118 men meeting eligibity criteria reported condomless anal intercourse with non-steady partners during the prior year. Many also engaged in other potential HCV transmission risk behaviours, e.g., 52 (44%) had used drugs. In participants disclosing drug use, 44 (37%) reported sexualised drug use and 17 (14%) injected drugs. Unadjusted odds ratios (95% CI) for two well-known risk behaviours were 2.02 (0.80, 5.62) for fisting and 5.66 (1.49, 37.12) for injecting drug use. The odds ratio for sexualised drug use - a potential mediator for increased sexual risk taking - was 5.90 (2.44, 16.05). Condomless anal intercourse with non-steady partners showed varying sensitivity in relation to the other risk behaviours examined (66.7-88.2%).; Although condomless anal intercourse with non-steady partners was fairly sensitive in detecting other HCV relevant risk behaviours, using it as the only screening criterion could lead to missing a proportion of HIV-positive men at risk for HCV re-infection due to other behaviours. This work also points to the importance of providing access to behavioral interventions addressing other sexual and drug use practices as part of HCV treatment.; Clinical Trial Number: NCT02785666 , 30.05.2016

Hydrogen-Bond Driven Loop-Closure Kinetics in Unfolded Polypeptide Chains

Characterization of the length dependence of end-to-end loop-closure kinetics in unfolded polypeptide chains provides an understanding of early steps in protein folding. Here, loop-closure in poly-glycine-serine peptides is investigated by combining single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy with molecular dynamics simulation. For chains containing more than 10 peptide bonds loop-closing rate constants on the 20–100 nanosecond time range exhibit a power-law length dependence. However, this scaling breaks down for shorter peptides, which exhibit slower kinetics arising from a perturbation induced by the dye reporter system used in the experimental setup. The loop-closure kinetics in the longer peptides is found to be determined by the formation of intra-peptide hydrogen bonds and transient β-sheet structure, that accelerate the search for contacts among residues distant in sequence relative to the case of a polypeptide chain in which hydrogen bonds cannot form. Hydrogen-bond-driven polypeptide-chain collapse in unfolded peptides under physiological conditions found here is not only consistent with hierarchical models of protein folding, that highlights the importance of secondary structure formation early in the folding process, but is also shown to speed up the search for productive folding events

Geosciences Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2025 - 2028 by the Swiss Geosciences Community

This roadmap is the product of a grassroots effort by the Swiss Geosciences community. It is the first of its kind, outlining an integrated approach to research facilities for the Swiss Geosciences. It spans the planning period 2025-2028. Swiss Geoscience is by its nature leading or highly in-volved in research on many of the major national and global challenges facing society such as climate change and meteorological extreme events, environmental pol-lution, mass movements (land- and rock-slides), earth-quakes and seismic hazards, global volcanic hazards, and energy and other natural resources. It is essential to under- stand the fundamentals of the whole Earth system to pro-vide scientific guidelines to politicians, stakeholders and society for these pressing issues. Here, we strive to gain efficiency and synergies through an integrative approach to the Earth sciences. The research activities of indivi- dual branches in geosciences were merged under the roof of the 'Integrated Swiss Geosciences'. The goal is to facilitate multidisciplinary synergies and to bundle efforts for large research infrastructural (RI) requirements, which will re-sult in better use of resources by merging sectorial acti- vities under four pillars. These pillars represent the four key RIs to be developed in a synergistic way to improve our understanding of whole-system processes and me- chanisms governing the geospheres and the interactions among their components. At the same time, the roadmap provides for the required transition to an infrastructure adhering to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data principles by 2028.The geosciences as a whole do not primarily profit from a single large-scale research infrastructure investment, but they see their highest scientific potential for ground-break-ing new findings in joining forces in establishing state-of-the-art RI by bringing together diverse expertise for the benefit of the entire geosciences community. Hence, the recommendation of the geoscientific community to policy makers is to establish an integrative RI to support the ne- cessary breadth of geosciences in their endeavor to ad-dress the Earth system across the breadth of both temporal and spatial scales. It is also imperative to include suffi-cient and adequately qualified personnel in all large RIs. This is best achieved by fostering centers of excellence in atmospheric, environmental, surface processes, and deep Earth projects, under the roof of the 'Integrated Swiss Geosciences'. This will provide support to Swiss geo-sciences to maintain their long standing and internatio- nally well-recognized tradition of observation, monitor-ing, modelling and understanding of geosciences process-es in mountainous environments such as the Alps and beyond

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz gives the conclusions of his letters about the Lorentz group and makes general observations about the problem

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz comments on Jordan's attempt at deriving the gravitational equations from a variation-principle. He writes on speculations on the possibility of explaining life scientifically

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz writes on the elaboration of the concepts of polar opposites and complementary opposites. He refers to Kant and Leibniz

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz agrees to participate on the symposium on "Phenomenon and physical reality". He describes his interpretation of the concepts of "phenomenon" and "reality", and relates this to the present situation of physics

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz sends a note written by Schiff. He solves a differential field equation

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz makes some remarks on a theory of Pais. The letter is contained in a letter of Pais to Pauli

Pauli letter collection: letter to Wolfgang Pauli

Fierz replies to a remark by Pauli on the lack of mirror-invariance. He refers to a story in Greek mythology