Longitudinal Characteristics Of Depression And Mood States Beginning In Primary Hiv Infection

LONGITUDINAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DEPRESSION AND MOOD STATES BEGINNING IN PRIMARY HIV INFECTION. Jessica A. Gold, Marie Grill, Julia Peterson, Christopher Pilcher, Evelyn Lee, Frederick M. Hecht, Dietmar Fuchs, Constantin T. Yiannoutsos, Richard W. Price, Kevin Robertson, and Serena Spudich. Department of Neurology, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Though depression is known to frequently afflict those with chronic HIV, mood during the early course of HIV is not well characterized. In a prospective study we assessed mood during primary HIV infection (PHI, \u3c1 year duration), its association with neuropsychological performance and markers of neurological disease, and its longitudinal course including effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Profile of Mood States (POMS) subscales were longitudinally administered prior to and after HAART in PHI subjects. This evaluation of mood was done concurrently with blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuropsychological (total z and global deficit score, GDS) evaluation at each visit. Analysis employed Spearman\u27s rho, logistic regression, and linear mixed models. 47.7% of the 65 men recruited at a median 3.5 months HIV duration met BDI criteria for clinical depression at baseline, classified as `mild\u27 (n=11), `moderate\u27 (n=11), or `severe\u27 (n=9). Drug, alcohol, and depression history did not associate with BDI score. Proportional somatic-performance scores were worse than cognitive-affective scores (p=. 0045). Vigor subscore of POMS was reduced compared to norms and correlated with total z (r=0.33, p=0.013) and GDS (r=-0.32, p=0.016). BDI and POMS correlated with one another (r=0.85, p\u3c .0001), but not with CSF or plasma HIV RNA, white blood cell (WBC) count, albumin ratio or neopterin. Improvement was not observed in BDI and POMS over 330 total follow-up visits, even after initiation of HAART. Depression was prevalent during PHI in our subjects, associated with abnormal somatic-performance and vigor scores. Neither neuropsychological performance nor disease biomarkers correlated with depressed mood. Mood indices did not improve over time in the presence of HAART

Usage Patterns and Perceptions of the Achievement, Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS)

This report offers the first systematic examination of actual usage of New York City's Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS). ARIS is a comprehensive data system designed to put student information within easy reach of school administrators and teachers. The findings suggest that ARIS has been used successfully as a school-wide planning tool, but was less valuable as a direct aid to classroom instruction. The Research Alliance will continue its study of ARIS through 2013, including an examination of some of the new components and features that have been developed recently by the Department of Education

Remote Options for Medication Abortion: Improving Patient Care During and After the Covid-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted primary care and other practices towards remote care and telemedicine options to minimize viral exposure. Although in-person visits are sometimes indispensable, research shows that telemedicine can expand access to vital services without sacrificing patient-centered care. Medication abortion is an essential, time-sensitive service that is particularly well-suited to telemedicine provision, including in primary care settings. Decades of clinical research and practice guidelines from core medical societies affirm the safety and efficacy of providing medication abortion remotely. Neither FDA nor professional guidelines require sonography for medication abortion, and research shows that necessary clinical assessments can be achieved without ultrasound. New practice guidelines recommend against Rh testing for abortions under 8 weeks of pregnancy and rely on patient history for those provided from 8 to 11 weeks. As primary care providers, we can and should provide high-quality, low-risk abortion care for patients without point-of-care exams and labs. This discussion includes a detailed checklist for providing such remote-care medication abortion in a variety of settings. Such strategies will allow more clinicians to offer this essential care both during and after the Covid-19 crisis.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155399/1/Stein main article.pd

On curvature-squared invariants of minimal five-dimensional supergravity from superspace

We elaborate on the off-shell superspace construction of curvature-squared invariants in minimal five-dimensional supergravity. This is described by the standard Weyl multiplet of conformal supergravity coupled to two compensators being a vector multiplet and a linear multiplet. In this set-up, we review the definition of the off-shell two-derivative gauged supergravity together with the three independent four-derivative superspace invariants defined in arXiv:1410.8682. We provide the explicit expression for the linear multiplet based on a prepotential given by the logarithm of the vector multiplet primary superfield. We then present for the first time the primary equations of motion for minimal gauged off-shell supergravity deformed by an arbitrary combination of these three four-derivative locally superconformal invariants. We also identify a four-derivative invariant based on the linear multiplet compensator and the kinetic superfield of a vector multiplet which can be used to engineer an alternative supersymmetric completion of the scalar curvature squared.Comment: 35 pages. v2: minor corrections, typos correcte

Medication Abortion: A Sample Protocol for Increasing Access During a Pandemic and Beyond

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Determining the absolute requirement of G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 for pathological cardiac hypertrophy: short communication.

RATIONALE: Heart failure (HF) is often the end phase of maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy. A contributing factor is activation of a hypertrophic gene expression program controlled by decreased class II histone deacetylase (HDAC) transcriptional repression via HDAC phosphorylation. Cardiac-specific overexpression of G proteinen-coupled receptor kinase-5 (GRK5) has previously been shown to possess nuclear activity as a HDAC5 kinase, promoting an intolerance to in vivo ventricular pressure overload; however, its endogenous requirement in adaptive and maladaptive hypertrophy remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: We used mouse models with global or cardiomyocyte-specific GRK5 gene deletion to determine the absolute requirement of endogenous GRK5 for cardiac hypertrophy and HF development after chronic hypertrophic stimuli. METHODS AND RESULTS: Mice with global deletion of GRK5 were subjected to transverse aortic constriction. At 12 weeks, these mice showed attenuated hypertrophy, remodeling, and hypertrophic gene transcription along with preserved cardiac function. Global GRK5 deletion also diminished hypertrophy and related gene expression due to chronic phenylephrine infusion. We then generated mice with conditional, cardiac-specific deletion of GRK5 that also demonstrated similar protection from pathological cardiac hypertrophy and HF after transverse aortic constriction. CONCLUSIONS: These results define myocyte GRK5 as a critical regulator of pathological cardiac growth after ventricular pressure overload, supporting its role as an endogenous (patho)-physiological HDAC kinase. Further, these results define GRK5 as a potential therapeutic target to limit HF development after hypertrophic stress