Sentinel surveillance of HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance, acute infection and recent infection.

BackgroundHIV-1 acute infection, recent infection and transmitted drug resistance screening was integrated into voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT) services to enhance the existing surveillance program in San Francisco. This study describes newly-diagnosed HIV cases and characterizes correlates associated with infection.Methodology/principal findingsA consecutive sample of persons presenting for HIV VCT at the municipal sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic from 2004 to 2006 (N = 9,868) were evaluated by standard enzyme-linked immunoassays (EIA). HIV antibody-positive specimens were characterized as recent infections using a less-sensitive EIA. HIV-RNA pooled testing was performed on HIV antibody-negative specimens to identify acute infections. HIV antibody-positive and acute infection specimens were evaluated for drug resistance by sequence analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to evaluate associations. The 380 newly-diagnosed HIV cases included 29 acute infections, 128 recent infections, and 47 drug-resistant cases, with no significant increases or decreases in prevalence over the three years studied. HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance prevalence was 11.0% in 2004, 13.4% in 2005 and 14.9% in 2006 (p = 0.36). Resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) was the most common pattern detected, present in 28 cases of resistance (59.6%). Among MSM, recent infection was associated with amphetamine use (AOR = 2.67; p<0.001), unprotected anal intercourse (AOR = 2.27; p<0.001), sex with a known HIV-infected partner (AOR = 1.64; p = 0.02), and history of gonorrhea (AOR = 1.62; p = 0.03).ConclusionsNew HIV diagnoses, recent infections, acute infections and transmitted drug resistance prevalence remained stable between 2004 and 2006. Resistance to NNRTI comprised more than half of the drug-resistant cases, a worrisome finding given its role as the backbone of first-line antiretroviral therapy in San Francisco as well as worldwide. The integration of HIV-1 drug resistance, recent infection, and acute infection testing should be considered for existing HIV/STI surveillance and prevention activities, particularly in an era of enhanced efforts for early diagnosis and treatment

Fostering Application Opportunites for the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission

The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission will provide global observations of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state from space. We outline how priority applications contributed to the SMAP mission measurement requirements and how the SMAP mission plans to foster applications and applied science

Impact of vulvovaginal health on postmenopausal women: A review of surveys on symptoms of vulvovaginal atrophy

Several recent, large-scale studies have provided valuable insights into patient perspectives on postmenopausal vulvovaginal health. Symptoms of vulvovaginal atrophy, which include dryness, irritation, itching, dysuria, and dyspareunia, can adversely affect interpersonal relationships, quality of life, and sexual function. While approximately half of postmenopausal women report these symptoms, far fewer seek treatment, often because they are uninformed about hypoestrogenic postmenopausal vulvovaginal changes and the availability of safe, effective, and well-tolerated treatments, particularly local vaginal estrogen therapy. Because women hesitate to seek help for symptoms, a proactive approach to conversations about vulvovaginal discomfort would improve diagnosis and treatment

Biological Characterization of an Improved Pyrrole-Based Colchicine Site Agent Identified through Structure-Based Design s

ABSTRACT A refined model of the colchicine site on tubulin was used to design an improved analog of the pyrrole parent compound, JG-03-14. The optimized compound, NT-7-16, was evaluated in biological assays that confirm that it has potent activities as a new colchicine site microtubule depolymerizer. NT-7-16 exhibits antiproliferative and cytotoxic activities against multiple cancer cell lines, with IC 50 values of 10-16 nM, and it is able to overcome drug resistance mediated by the expression of P-glycoprotein and the bIII isotype of tubulin. NT-7-16 initiated the concentration-dependent loss of cellular microtubules and caused the formation of abnormal mitotic spindles, leading to mitotic accumulation. The direct interaction of NT-7-16 with purified tubulin was confirmed, and it was more potent than combretastatin A-4 in these assays. Binding studies verified that NT-7-16 binds to tubulin within the colchicine site. The antitumor effects of NT-7-16 were evaluated in an MDA-MB-435 xenograft model and it had excellent activity at concentrations that were not toxic. A second compound, NT-9-21, which contains dichloro moieties in place of the 3,5-dibromo substituents of NT-7-16, had a poorer fit within the colchicine site as predicted by modeling and the Hydropathic INTeractions score. Biological evaluations showed that NT-9-21 has 10-fold lower potency than NT-7-16, confirming the modeling predictions. These studies highlight the value of the refined colchicine-site model and identify a new pyrrole-based colchicine-site agent with potent in vitro activities and promising in vivo antitumor actions

The Plant Ontology Database: a community resource for plant structure and developmental stages controlled vocabulary and annotations

The Plant Ontology Consortium (POC, http://www.plantontology.org) is a collaborative effort among model plant genome databases and plant researchers that aims to create, maintain and facilitate the use of a controlled vocabulary (ontology) for plants. The ontology allows users to ascribe attributes of plant structure (anatomy and morphology) and developmental stages to data types, such as genes and phenotypes, to provide a semantic framework to make meaningful cross-species and database comparisons. The POC builds upon groundbreaking work by the Gene Ontology Consortium (GOC) by adopting and extending the GOC's principles, existing software and database structure. Over the past year, POC has added hundreds of ontology terms to associate with thousands of genes and gene products from Arabidopsis, rice and maize, which are available through a newly updated web-based browser (http://www.plantontology.org/amigo/go.cgi) for viewing, searching and querying. The Consortium has also implemented new functionalities to facilitate the application of PO in genomic research and updated the website to keep the contents current. In this report, we present a brief description of resources available from the website, changes to the interfaces, data updates, community activities and future enhancement

The Plant Ontology Database: a community resource for plant structure and developmental stages controlled vocabulary and annotations

The Plant Ontology Consortium (POC, http://www.plantontology.org) is a collaborative effort among model plant genome databases and plant researchers that aims to create, maintain and facilitate the use of a controlled vocabulary (ontology) for plants. The ontology allows users to ascribe attributes of plant structure (anatomy and morphology) and developmental stages to data types, such as genes and phenotypes, to provide a semantic framework to make meaningful cross-species and database comparisons. The POC builds upon groundbreaking work by the Gene Ontology Consortium (GOC) by adopting and extending the GOC's principles, existing software and database structure. Over the past year, POC has added hundreds of ontology terms to associate with thousands of genes and gene products from Arabidopsis, rice and maize, which are available through a newly updated web-based browser (http://www.plantontology.org/amigo/go.cgi) for viewing, searching and querying. The Consortium has also implemented new functionalities to facilitate the application of PO in genomic research and updated the website to keep the contents current. In this report, we present a brief description of resources available from the website, changes to the interfaces, data updates, community activities and future enhancement

Plant Ontology (PO): a Controlled Vocabulary of Plant Structures and Growth Stages

The Plant Ontology Consortium (POC) (www.plantontology.org) is a collaborative effort among several plant databases and experts in plant systematics, botany and genomics. A primary goal of the POC is to develop simple yet robust and extensible controlled vocabularies that accurately reflect the biology of plant structures and developmental stages. These provide a network of vocabularies linked by relationships (ontology) to facilitate queries that cut across datasets within a database or between multiple databases. The current version of the ontology integrates diverse vocabularies used to describe Arabidopsis, maize and rice (Oryza sp.) anatomy, morphology and growth stages. Using the ontology browser, over 3500 gene annotations from three species-specific databases, The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) for Arabidopsis, Gramene for rice and MaizeGDB for maize, can now be queried and retrieved

Expressions 1989

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/expressions/1011/thumbnail.jp

Supporting Less-Proficent Writers through Linguistically-Aware Teaching

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.Whilst historically there has been a widespread consensus that teaching grammar has no impact on students’ attainment in writing, more recent research suggests that where a functionally-oriented approach to grammar is meaningfully embedded within the teaching of writing, significant improvements in writing can be secured. A recent study ((Myhill et al 2012), using a functionally-oriented approach, which found a statistically significant positive effect of such an approach, also found that the approach appeared to benefit higher-attaining writers more than lower-attaining writers. The study reported here set out to investigate specifically whether functionally-oriented approach to teaching grammar in the context of writing might support less proficient writers. A quasi-experimental design was adopted, repeating the principles of the parent study but with the intervention adapted to meet the identified writing needs of less proficient writers. The statistical analysis indicated a positive effect for the intervention group (p<0.05), and an effect size of 0.33 on students’ sentence structure and punctuation. The study demonstrates that explicit attention to grammar within the teaching of writing can support learners in developing their writing, but taken with the parent study, it also highlights that pedagogical choices need to be well-matched to writers’ needs.This parent study referred to in this article was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council.Funding Agency under Grant ES/FO15313/1. The study reported in this article was funded by Pearson