Paediatric HIV and elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the ASEAN region: a call to action

Recent achievements in scaling up paediatric antiretroviral therapy (ART) have changed the life of children living with HIV, who now stay healthy and live longer lives. However, as it becomes more of a chronic infection, a range of new problems have begun to arise. These include the disclosure of HIV serostatus to children, adherence to ART, long-term toxicities of antiretroviral drugs and their sexual and reproductive health, which are posing significant challenges to the existing health systems caring for children with HIV with limited resources, experiences and capacities. While intensified efforts and actions to improve care and treatment for these children are needed, it is crucial to accelerate the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, which is the main cause of paediatric HIV in the ASEAN region so as to eliminate the fundamental cause of the problem. This report argues that given over 70% of women have access to at least one antenatal care visit in the region and acceptance of HIV testing after receiving counselling on PMTCT could be as high as 90%, there is an opportunity to strengthen PMTCT services and eventually eliminate new paediatric HIV infections in the ASEAN countries

看護情報教育におけるメディア教材の活用

看護情報学(特に病院内における医療情報システム)を教育するにあたり、その教育リソースについてアンケート調査を行い検討したので報告する。調査対象は、看護大学1年次の学生61人である。その結果、病院など医療の現場で稼働しているシステムの理解については、テキストを使用した講義やシミュレーション教材を使用した演習に加えて、現場の見学をおこなうことが最も効果的であることが判明した。また、病院情報システムを理解するうえでシミュレーション教材の活用が効果的であることが、示唆された。さらに、見学も学生を少人数のグループに分け、実際のシステムを短時間操作させることで、より効果的な学習につながると考えられた。このような点も含め、看護情報学を教育するにあたり、講義だけでは理解させにくい事項について、様々な教育リソースを活用することで、効果的に学習させることが可能であることを報告する。We conducted a questionnaire survey of 61 first-year students of a nursing university at the beginning of a course on nursing information science focusing on medical information systems at hospitals. The results of the survey prompted us to reconsider the educational resources used in the course, and we came up with the following suggestions. The most effective measure to make students understand the systems working at hospitals and medical sites proved to be educational visits to the sites, in addition to lectures with textbooks and exercises with simulation materials. The practical use of simulation materials appears to be effective to afford students a better understanding of a hospital information system. Together with the above mentioned, we report on the potential application of various educational resources, especially for learning content difficult to understand only through lectures, for improved teaching of nursing information science

Isolation of TCR genes with tumor-killing activity from tumor-infiltrating and circulating lymphocytes in a tumor rejection cynomolgus macaque model

To develop effective adoptive cell transfer therapy using T cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T cells, it is critical to isolate tumor-reactive TCRs that have potent anti-tumor activity. In humans, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been reported to contain CD8+PD-1+ T cells that express tumor-reactive TCRs. Characterization of tumor reactivity of TILs from non-human primate tumors could improve anti-tumor activity of TCR-engineered T cells in preclinical research. In this study, we sought to isolate TCR genes from CD8+PD-1+ T cells among TILs in a cynomolgus macaque model of tumor transplantation in which the tumors were infiltrated with CD8+ T cells and were eventually rejected. We analyzed the repertoire of TCRα and β pairs obtained from single CD8+PD-1+ T cells in TILs and circulating lymphocytes and identified multiple TCR pairs with high frequency, suggesting that T cells expressing these recurrent TCRs were clonally expanded in response to tumor cells. We further showed that the recurrent TCRs exhibited cytotoxic activity to tumor cells in vitro and potent anti-tumor activity in mice transplanted with tumor cells. These results imply that this tumor transplantation macaque model recapitulates key features of human TILs and can serve as a platform toward preclinical studies of non-human primate tumor models

Are common names becoming less common? The rise in uniqueness and individualism in Japan.

個性的な名前を与える傾向が増加している -日本文化の個人主義化を示唆-. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2015-10-22.We examined whether Japanese culture has become more individualistic by investigating how the practice of naming babies has changed over time. Cultural psychology has revealed substantial cultural variation in human psychology and behavior, emphasizing the mutual construction of socio-cultural environment and mind. However, much of the past research did not account for the fact that culture is changing. Indeed, archival data on behavior (e.g., divorce rates) suggest a rise in individualism in the U.S. and Japan. In addition to archival data, cultural products (which express an individual’s psyche and behavior outside the head; e.g., advertising) can also reveal cultural change. However, little research has investigated the changes in individualism in East Asia using cultural products. To reveal the dynamic aspects of culture, it is important to present temporal data across cultures. In this study, we examined baby names as a cultural product. If Japanese culture has become more individualistic, parents would be expected to give their children unique names. Using two databases, we calculated the rate of popular baby names between 2004 and 2013. Both databases released the rankings of popular names and their rates within the sample. As Japanese names are generally comprised of both written Chinese characters and their pronunciations, we analyzed these two separately. We found that the rate of popular Chinese characters increased, whereas the rate of popular pronunciations decreased. However, only the rate of popular pronunciations was associated with a previously validated collectivism index. Moreover, we examined the pronunciation variation of common combinations of Chinese characters and the written form variation of common pronunciations. We found that the variation of written forms decreased, whereas the variation of pronunciations increased over time. Taken together, these results showed that parents are giving their children unique names by pairing common Chinese characters with uncommon pronunciations, which indicates an increase in individualism in Japan

Identification of serum metabolome signatures associated with retinal and renal complications of type 2 diabetes

Tomofuji et al. perform non-targeted metabolomics on serum samples from people with type 2 diabetes with or without complications. The authors identify metabolites associated with retinal and renal complications