262 research outputs found
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Association between daily antiretroviral pill burden and treatment adherence, hospitalisation risk, and other healthcare utilisation and costs in a US medicaid population with HIV
Objectives: Lower pill burden leads to improved antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among HIV patients. Simpler dosing regimens have not been widely explored in real-world populations. We retrospectively assessed ART adherence, all-cause hospitalisation risk and costs, and other healthcare utilisation and costs in Medicaid enrollees with HIV treated with ART as a once-daily single-tablet regimen (STR) or two or more pills per day (2+PPD). Design: Patients with an HIV diagnosis from 2005 to 2009 receiving complete ART (ie, two nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors plus a third agent) for â„60 days as STR or 2+PPD were selected and followed until the first of (1) discontinuation of the complete ART, (2) loss of enrolment or (3) end of database. Adherence was measured using the medication possession ratio. Monthly all-cause healthcare utilisation and costs were observed from regimen initiation until follow-up end. Results: Of the 7381 patients who met inclusion criteria, 1797 were treated with STR and 5584 with 2+PPD. STR patients were significantly more likely to reach 95% adherence and had fewer hospitalisations than 2+PPD patients (both p<0.01). STR patients had mean (SD) total monthly costs of 4962); 2+PPD patients had 5811; p<0.001). Hospital costs accounted for 53.8% and pharmacy costs accounted for 32.5% of this difference. Multivariate analyses found that STR led to a 23% reduction in hospitalisations and a 17% reduction in overall healthcare costs. ART adherence appears to be a key mechanism mediating hospitalisation risk, as patients with â„95% adherence (regardless of regimen type) had a lower hospitalisation rate compared with <95% adherence. Conclusions: While it was expected that STR patients would have lower pharmacy costs, we also found that STR patients had fewer hospitalisations and lower hospital costs than 2+PPD patients, resulting in significantly lower total healthcare costs for STR patients
Prenatal Stress and Stress Physiology Influences Human Fetal and Infant Development
Prenatal stress has been proposed as a risk factor that may have developmental consequences persisting throughout the lifespan. Exposing rodents to stress during pregnancy has consequences for brain development, stress regulation, learning, emotionality (increased anxiety), and social behavior (increased withdrawal) of the offspring (Weinstock, 2001; Chapillon et al., 2002). Additionally, non-human primates who experience stress during pregnancy have offspring with enhanced behavioral reactivity to stressors later in life (Clarke et al., 1994), lowered levels of motor behavior (Schneider, 1992), compromised neuromotor responses (Schneider and Coe, 1993), irritable temperament (Schneider et al., 1992), and attentional problems (Schneider et al., 1999).https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/psychology_books/1014/thumbnail.jp
Coatings on Mammalian Cells: Interfacing Cells with Their Environment
The research community is intent on harnessing increasingly complex biological building blocks. At present, cells represent a highly functional component for integration into higher order systems. In this review, we discuss the current application space for cellular coating technologies and emphasize the relationship between the target application and coating design. We also discuss how the cell and the coating interact in common analytical techniques, and where caution must be exercised in the interpretation of results. Finally, we look ahead at emerging application areas that are ideal for innovation in cellular coatings. In all, cellular coatings leverage the machinery unique to specific cell types, and the opportunities derived from these hybrid assemblies have yet to be fully realized
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Early retirement of power plants in climate mitigation scenarios
International efforts to avoid dangerous climate change aim for large and rapid reductions of fossil fuel CO2 emissions worldwide, including nearly complete decarbonization of the electric power sector. However, achieving such rapid reductions may depend on early retirement of coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. Here, we analyze future fossil fuel electricity demand in 171 energy-emissions scenarios from Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), evaluating the implicit retirements and/or reduced operation of generating infrastructure. Although IAMs calculate retirements endogenously, the structure and methods of each model differ; we use a standard approach to infer retirements in outputs from all six major IAMs andâunlike the IAMs themselvesâwe begin with the age distribution and region-specific operating capacities of the existing power fleet. We find that coal-fired power plants in scenarios consistent with international climate targets (i.e. keeping global warming well-below 2 °C or 1.5 °C) retire one to three decades earlier than historically has been the case. If plants are built to meet projected fossil electricity demand and instead allowed to operate at the level and over the lifetimes they have historically, the roughly 200 Gt CO2 of additional emissions this century would be incompatible with keeping global warming well-below 2 °C. Thus, ambitious climate mitigation scenarios entail drastic, and perhaps un-appreciated, changes in the operating and/or retirement schedules of power infrastructure
Earthing the Anthropos? From âsocializing the Anthropoceneâ to geologizing the social
Responding to claims of Anthropocene geoscience that humans are now geological agents, social scientists are calling for renewed attention to the social, cultural, political and historical differentiation of the Anthropos. But does this leave critical social thoughtâs own key concepts and categories unperturbed by the Anthropocene provocation to think through dynamic earth processes? Can we âsocialize the Anthropoceneâ without also opening âthe socialâ to climate, geology and earth system change? Revisiting the earth science behind the Anthropocene thesis and drawing on social research that is using climatology and earth systems thinking to help understand socio-historical change, this article explores some of the possibilities for âgeologizingâ social thought. While critical social thoughtâs attention to justice and exclusion remains vital, it suggests that responding to Anthropocene conditions also calls for a kind of âgeo-socialâ thinking that relates human diversity and social difference to the potentiality and multiplicity of the earth itself
Tectonic Transport Directions, Shear Senses and Deformation Temperatures Indicated by Quartz câAxis Fabrics and Microstructures in a NWâSE Transect across the Moine and Sgurr Beag Thrust Sheets, Caledonian Orogen of Northern Scotland
Moine metasedimentary rocks of northern Scotland are characterized by arcuate map patterns of mineral lineations that swing progressively clockwise from orogenâperpendicular Eâtrend-ing lineations in greenschist facies mylonites above the Moine thrust on the foreland edge of the Caledonian Orogen, to Sâtrending lineations at higher structural levels and metamorphic grades in the hinterland. Quartz câaxis fabrics measured on a west to east coast transect demonstrate that the lineations developed parallel to the maximum principal extension direction and therefore track the local tectonic transport direction. Microstructures and câaxis fabrics document a progressive change from top to the N shearing in the hinterland to top to the W shearing on the foreland edge. Field relationships indicate that the domain of top to the N shearing was at least 55 km wide before later horizontal shortening on kmâscale Wâvergent folds that detach on the underlying Moine thrust. Previously published data from the Moine thrust mylonites demonstrate that top to the W shearing had largely ceased by 430 Ma, while preliminary isotopic age data suggest top to the N shearing occurred at ~470â450 Ma. In addition, data from the east coast end of our transect indicate normal-sense top downâSE shearing at close to peak temperatures at ~420 Ma that may be related to the closing stages of Scandian deformation, metamorphism and cooling/exhumation
The Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel: a resource for systems genetics analyses of metabolic and cardiovascular traits
The Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel (HMDP) is a collection of approximately 100 well-characterized inbred strains of mice that can be used to analyze the genetic and environmental factors underlying complex traits. While not nearly as powerful for mapping genetic loci contributing to the traits as human genome-wide association studies, it has some important advantages. First, environmental factors can be controlled. Second, relevant tissues are accessible for global molecular phenotyping. Finally, because inbred strains are renewable, results from separate studies can be integrated. Thus far, the HMDP has been studied for traits relevant to obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, heart failure, immune regulation, fatty liver disease, and host-gut microbiota interactions. High-throughput technologies have been used to examine the genomes, epigenomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, metabolomes, and microbiomes of the mice under various environmental conditions. All of the published data are available and can be readily used to formulate hypotheses about genes, pathways and interactions
Atomic resolution imaging of electrode surfaces in solutions containing reversible redox species
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