Rates and Factors Associated with Major Modifications to First-Line Combination Antiretroviral Therapy: Results from the Asia-Pacific Region

Background: In the Asia-Pacific region many countries have adopted the WHO's public health approach to HIV care and treatment. We performed exploratory analyses of the factors associated with first major modification to first-line combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-rich and resource-limited countries in the region. Methods: We selected treatment naive HIV-positive adults from the Australian HIV Observational Database (AHOD) and the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD). We dichotomised each country's per capita income into high/upper-middle (T-H) and lower-middle/low (T-L). Survival methods stratified by income were used to explore time to first major modification of first-line ART and associated factors. We defined a treatment modification as either initiation of a new class of antiretroviral (ARV) or a substitution of two or more ARV agents from within the same ARV class. Results: A total of 4250 patients had 961 major modifications to first-line ART in the first five years of therapy. The cumulative incidence (95% CI) of treatment modification was 0.48 (0.44-0.52), 0.33 (0.30-0.36) and 0.21 (0.18-0.23) for AHOD, T-H and T-L respectively. We found no strong associations between typical patient characteristic factors and rates of treatment modification. In AHOD, relative to sites that monitor twice-yearly (both CD4 and HIV RNA-VL), quarterly monitoring corresponded with a doubling of the rate of treatment modifications. In T-H, relative to sites that monitor once-yearly (both CD4 and HIV RNA-VL), monitoring twice-yearly corresponded to a 1.8 factor increase in treatment modifications. In T-L, no sites on average monitored both CD4 & HIV RNA-VL concurrently once-yearly. We found no differences in rates of modifications for once- or twice-yearly CD4 count monitoring. Conclusions: Low-income countries tended to have lower rates of major modifications made to first-line ART compared to higher-income countries. In higher-income countries, an increased rate of RNA-VL monitoring was associated with increased modifications to first-line ART. © 2013 Wright et al

High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging reveals nuclei of the human amygdala: manual segmentation to automatic atlas

Available online 4 May 2017The amygdala is composed of multiple nuclei with unique functions and connections in the limbic system and to the rest of the brain. However, standard in vivo neuroimaging tools to automatically delineate the amygdala into its multiple nuclei are still rare. By scanning postmortem specimens at high resolution (100–150 µm) at 7 T field strength (n = 10), we were able to visualize and label nine amygdala nuclei (anterior amygdaloid, cortico-amygdaloid transition area; basal, lateral, accessory basal, central, cortical medial, paralaminar nuclei). We created an atlas from these labels using a recently developed atlas building algorithm based on Bayesian inference. This atlas, which will be released as part of FreeSurfer, can be used to automatically segment nine amygdala nuclei from a standard resolution structural MR image. We applied this atlas to two publicly available datasets (ADNI and ABIDE) with standard resolution T1 data, used individual volumetric data of the amygdala nuclei as the measure and found that our atlas i) discriminates between Alzheimer's disease participants and age-matched control participants with 84% accuracy (AUC=0.915), and ii) discriminates between individuals with autism and age-, sex- and IQ-matched neurotypically developed control participants with 59.5% accuracy (AUC=0.59). For both datasets, the new ex vivo atlas significantly outperformed (all p < .05) estimations of the whole amygdala derived from the segmentation in FreeSurfer 5.1 (ADNI: 75%, ABIDE: 54% accuracy), as well as classification based on whole amygdala volume (using the sum of all amygdala nuclei volumes; ADNI: 81%, ABIDE: 55% accuracy). This new atlas and the segmentation tools that utilize it will provide neuroimaging researchers with the ability to explore the function and connectivity of the human amygdala nuclei with unprecedented detail in healthy adults as well as those with neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.This work was supported by the PHS grant DA023427 and NICHD/ NIH grant F32HD079169 (Z.M.S); Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (D.K.); R21(MH106796), R21 (AG046657) and K01AG28521 (J.C.A.), the National Cancer Institute (1K25CA181632-01) as well as the Genentech Foundation (M.R.); the European Union's Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 654911 (project ”THALAMODEL”) and ERC Starting Grant agreement No 677697 (project “BUNGEE-TOOLS”); and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) reference TEC2014-51882-P (J.E.I.); and the NVIDIA hardware award (M.R. and J.E.I.). Further support for this research was provided in part by the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (P41EB015896, R01EB006758, R21EB018907, R01EB019956, R01- EB013565), the National Institute on Aging (5R01AG008122, R01AG016495), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (1-R21-DK-108277-01), the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS0525851, R21NS072652, R01NS070963, R01NS083534, 5U01NS086625), the Massachusetts ADRC (P50AG005134) and was made possible by the resources provided by Shared Instrumentation Grants 1S10RR023401, 1S10RR019307, and 1S10RR023043. Additional support was provided by the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (5U01-MH093765), part of the multi-institutional Human Connectome Project. In addition, BF has a financial interest in CorticoMetrics, a company whose medical pursuits focus on brain imaging and measurement technologies. BF's interests were reviewed and are managed by Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare in accordance with their conflict of interest policies. The collection and sharing of the ADNI MRI data used in the evaluation was funded by the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (National Institutes of Health Grant U01 AG024904) and DOD ADNI (Department of Defense award number W81XWH-12-2- 0012). ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and through generous contributions from the following: Alzheimer's Association; Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation; BioClinica, Inc.; Biogen Idec Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Eisai Inc.; Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and its affiliated company Genentech, Inc.; GE Healthcare; Innogenetics, N.V.; IXICO Ltd.; Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC.; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC.; Medpace, Inc.; Merck & Co., Inc.; Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC.; NeuroRx Research; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Pfizer Inc.; Piramal Imaging; Servier; Synarc Inc.; and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is providing funds to support ADNI clinical sites in Canada. Private sector contributions are facilitated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (www. fnih.org). The grantee organization is the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and the study is coordinated by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego. ADNI data are disseminated by the Laboratory for Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California

Fixed point results for generalized cyclic contraction mappings in partial metric spaces

Rus (Approx. Convexity 3:171–178, 2005) introduced the concept of cyclic contraction mapping. P˘acurar and Rus (Nonlinear Anal. 72:1181–1187, 2010) proved some fixed point results for cyclic φ-contraction mappings on a metric space. Karapinar (Appl. Math. Lett. 24:822–825, 2011) obtained a unique fixed point of cyclic weak φ- contraction mappings and studied well-posedness problem for such mappings. On the other hand, Matthews (Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 728:183–197, 1994) introduced the concept of a partial metric as a part of the study of denotational semantics of dataflow networks. He gave a modified version of the Banach contraction principle, more suitable in this context. In this paper, we initiate the study of fixed points of generalized cyclic contraction in the framework of partial metric spaces. We also present some examples to validate our results.S. Romaguera acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, grant MTM2009-12872-C02-01.Abbas, M.; Nazir, T.; Romaguera Bonilla, S. (2012). Fixed point results for generalized cyclic contraction mappings in partial metric spaces. Revista- Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas Y Naturales Serie a Matematicas. 106(2):287-297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-011-0051-5S2872971062Abdeljawad T., Karapinar E., Tas K.: Existence and uniqueness of a common fixed point on partial metric spaces. Appl. Math. Lett. 24(11), 1894–1899 (2011). doi: 10.1016/j.aml.2011.5.014Altun, I., Erduran A.: Fixed point theorems for monotone mappings on partial metric spaces. Fixed Point Theory Appl. article ID 508730 (2011). doi: 10.1155/2011/508730Altun I., Sadarangani K.: Corrigendum to “Generalized contractions on partial metric spaces” [Topology Appl. 157 (2010), 2778–2785]. Topol. Appl. 158, 1738–1740 (2011)Altun I., Simsek H.: Some fixed point theorems on dualistic partial metric spaces. J. Adv. Math. Stud. 1, 1–8 (2008)Altun I., Sola F., Simsek H.: Generalized contractions on partial metric spaces. Topol. Appl. 157, 2778–2785 (2010)Aydi, H.: Some fixed point results in ordered partial metric spaces. arxiv:1103.3680v1 [math.GN](2011)Boyd D.W., Wong J.S.W.: On nonlinear contractions. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 20, 458–464 (1969)Bukatin M., Kopperman R., Matthews S., Pajoohesh H.: Partial metric spaces. Am. Math. Monthly 116, 708–718 (2009)Bukatin M.A., Shorina S.Yu. et al.: Partial metrics and co-continuous valuations. In: Nivat, M. (eds) Foundations of software science and computation structure Lecture notes in computer science vol 1378., pp. 125–139. Springer, Berlin (1998)Derafshpour M., Rezapour S., Shahzad N.: On the existence of best proximity points of cyclic contractions. Adv. Dyn. Syst. 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Feeding strategies and energy to protein ratio on tambaqui performance and physiology

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of feed deprivation and refeeding with diets containing different energy to protein ratios (E/P) on the performance and physiology of juvenile tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum). A 4x2 factorial arrangement with three replicates was used, with four E/P ratios (11.5, 10.5, 9.5, and 8.5 kcal g-1 digestible energy per protein) and two feeding regimens (with and without deprivation), during 60 days. Fish from the food-deprived group were fasted for 14 days and refed from the fifteenth to the sixtieth day, whereas the remaining fish were fed for 60 days. At the end of the experimental period, weight of fish subjected to food deprivation was lower than that of those continuously fed; however, this condition did not influence the physiological parameters analyzed. Tambaqui fed 11.5 kcal g-1 achieved lower final weight than those fed with the other diets, in both regimens. Among the physiological parameters, only plasma protein presented significant increase in fish fed 8.5 kcal g-1, in both feeding regimens, probably due to the higher dietary protein concentration. These results indicate that fish show a partial compensatory growth, and that 10.5 kcal g-1 can be recommended for the diet of juvenile tambaqui

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters