24 research outputs found

    Cuatro altares de La Vera, Cáceres

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    This paper describes four Roman altars recently found in La Vera, which is the name given to the country lying between Tiétar river and Sierra de Gredos, in the Spanish province of Cáceres. Of the nine inscriptions, three epigraphs are dedications to local deities: Band(-) Vortiacius, a new divine couple, Ulisus and Ulisona; and Quangeius, this one being placed in fano, which is the second occurrence of that word in Spanish epigraphy. The last piece is a tombstone so dilapidated that it is difficult to tell apart even the normal features of an ancient epitaph.Se describen cuatro altares inscritos recientemente descubiertos en La Vera, comarca cacereña situada en la orilla septentrional del río Tiétar. De las nuevas inscripciones, tres son altares dedicados a lo que se han llamado “dioses indígenas”: Band(-) Vortiacius, lo que parece una nueva paredría (Ulisus y Ulisona) y Quangeius; nótese que este se colocó in fano, la segunda mención epigráfica del término aparecida hasta ahora en la Península. La última pieza es un epitafio, pero tan estropeado por la erosión, que apenas se reconocen los elementos característicos de esta clase de epígrafes

    Enhanced contrast detection of subsurface defects by pulsed infrared thermography based on the fourth order statistic moment, kurtosis

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    The automatic detection of subsurface defects has become a desired goal in the application of non-destructive testing and evaluation techniques. In this paper, an algorithm based on the fourth order standardised statistic moment, i.e. kurtosis, is proposed for detection and/or characterization of subsurface defects having a thermal diffusivity either higher or lower than the host material. The analysis of thermographic data for the detection of defects can be reduced to the temporal statistics of the thermographic sequence. The final result provided by this algorithm is an image showing the different defects without the necessity of establishing other evaluating parameters such as the delayed time of the first image or the acquisition frequency in the analysis, which are required in other processing techniques. All the information is contained in a single image allowing to discriminate between the defect types (high o low thermal diffusivity). Synthetic data from Thermocalcà ® and experimental works using a PlexiglasTM specimen were performed showing good agreement. Processed results using synthetic and experimental data with other methods used in the field of thermography for defect detection and/or characterization are provided as well for comparison

    Efficacy and safety of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in treatment-naïve adults with chronic hepatitis C virus genotypes 1–6 in Brazil

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    Introduction and objectives: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir is a highly effective and well tolerated treatment for hepatitis C infection. Brazilian patients were not included in the original development studies for glecaprevir/pibrentasvir. This study aimed to assess safety and efficacy of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir in treatment-naïve Brazilian adults without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis. Patients and methods: EXPEDITION-3 was a Phase 3, open-label, multicenter study in treatment-naïve Brazilian adults with hepatitis C infection genotype 1–6. Patients without cirrhosis (F2 or F3) or with compensated cirrhosis (F4) received 8 or 12 weeks of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir, respectively. The primary efficacy endpoint was the rate of sustained virologic response at post-treatment Week 12. Secondary endpoints were on-treatment virologic failure and relapse rates. Baseline polymorphisms were assessed in NS3 and NS5A. Adverse events and laboratory abnormalities were monitored. Results: 100 patients were enrolled, 75 received 8 weeks of treatment and 25 received 12 weeks; all patients completed treatment. Overall sustained virologic response at post-treatment Week 12 rate was high (98.0%; 98/100; 95% confidence interval: 93.0–99.4) and remained high regardless of baseline viral or host factors, including demographics, hepatitis C virus RNA levels, polymorphisms in NS3 and/or NS5A, genotype, and relevant comorbidities. 55% of patients reported ≥1 adverse event, the most common beingheadache (18.0%). Four patients reported serious adverse events; none were considered drug related orled to study drug discontinuation. No hepatic decompensations were observed.Conclusions: Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir was effective and well tolerated in treatment-naïve Brazilianpatients with hepatitis C infection without cirrhosis and with compensated cirrhosis

    Same-day initiation of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis among gay, bisexual, and other cisgender men who have sex with men and transgender women in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru (ImPrEP): a prospective, single-arm, open-label, multicentre implementation study.

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    BACKGROUND: Although gay, bisexual, and other cisgender men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women have the highest HIV burden in Latin America, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation is poor. We aimed to assess the feasibility of same-day oral PrEP delivery in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. METHODS: Implementation PrEP (ImPrEP) was a prospective, single-arm, open-label, multicentre PrEP implementation study conducted in Brazil (14 sites), Mexico (four sites), and Peru (ten sites). MSM and transgender women were eligible to participate if they were aged 18 years or older, HIV-negative, and reported one or more prespecified criteria. Enrolled participants received same-day initiation of daily oral PrEP (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate [300 mg] coformulated with emtricitabine [200 mg]). Follow-up visits were scheduled at week 4 and quarterly thereafter. We used logistic regression models to identify factors associated with early loss to follow-up (not returning after enrolment), PrEP adherence (medication possession ratio ≥0·6), and long-term PrEP engagement (attending three or more visits within 52 weeks). This study is registered at the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials, U1111-1217-6021. FINDINGS: From Feb 6, 2018, to June 30, 2021, 9979 participants were screened and 9509 were enrolled (Brazil n=3928, Mexico n=3288, and Peru n=2293). 543 (5·7%) participants were transgender women, 8966 (94·3%) were cisgender men, and 2481 (26·1%) were aged 18-24 years. There were 12 185·25 person-years of follow-up. 795 (8·4%) of 9509 participants had early loss to follow-up, 6477 (68·1%) of 9509 were adherent to PrEP, and 5783 (70·3%) of 8225 had long-term PrEP engagement. Transgender women (adjusted odds ratio 1·60, 95% CI 1·20-2·14), participants aged 18-24 years (1·80, 1·49-2·18), and participants with primary education (2·18, 1·29-3·68) had increased odds of early loss to follow-up. Transgender women (0·56, 0·46-0·70), participants aged 18-24 years (0·52, 0·46-0·58), and those with primary education (0·60, 0·40-0·91) had lower odds of PrEP adherence. Transgender women (0·56, 0·45-0·71), participants aged 18-24 years (0·56, 0·49-0·64), and those with secondary education (0·74, 0·68-0·86) had lower odds of long-term PrEP engagement. HIV incidence was 0·85 per 100 person-years (95% CI 0·70-1·03) and was higher for transgender women, participants from Peru, those aged 18-24 years, Black and mixed-race participants, and participants who were non-adherent to PrEP. INTERPRETATION: Same-day oral PrEP is feasible for MSM and transgender women in Latin America. Social and structural determinants of HIV vulnerability need to be addressed to fully achieve the benefits of PrEP. FUNDING: Unitaid, WHO, and Ministries of Health in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. TRANSLATIONS: For the Portuguese and Spanish translations of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section

    Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

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    Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe

    Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain

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    ience, this issue p. eaap8757 Structured Abstract INTRODUCTION Brain disorders may exhibit shared symptoms and substantial epidemiological comorbidity, inciting debate about their etiologic overlap. However, detailed study of phenotypes with different ages of onset, severity, and presentation poses a considerable challenge. Recently developed heritability methods allow us to accurately measure correlation of genome-wide common variant risk between two phenotypes from pools of different individuals and assess how connected they, or at least their genetic risks, are on the genomic level. We used genome-wide association data for 265,218 patients and 784,643 control participants, as well as 17 phenotypes from a total of 1,191,588 individuals, to quantify the degree of overlap for genetic risk factors of 25 common brain disorders. RATIONALE Over the past century, the classification of brain disorders has evolved to reflect the medical and scientific communities' assessments of the presumed root causes of clinical phenomena such as behavioral change, loss of motor function, or alterations of consciousness. Directly observable phenomena (such as the presence of emboli, protein tangles, or unusual electrical activity patterns) generally define and separate neurological disorders from psychiatric disorders. Understanding the genetic underpinnings and categorical distinctions for brain disorders and related phenotypes may inform the search for their biological mechanisms. RESULTS Common variant risk for psychiatric disorders was shown to correlate significantly, especially among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. By contrast, neurological disorders appear more distinct from one another and from the psychiatric disorders, except for migraine, which was significantly correlated to ADHD, MDD, and Tourette syndrome. We demonstrate that, in the general population, the personality trait neuroticism is significantly correlated with almost every psychiatric disorder and migraine. We also identify significant genetic sharing between disorders and early life cognitive measures (e.g., years of education and college attainment) in the general population, demonstrating positive correlation with several psychiatric disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bipolar disorder) and negative correlation with several neurological phenotypes (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke), even though the latter are considered to result from specific processes that occur later in life. Extensive simulations were also performed to inform how statistical power, diagnostic misclassification, and phenotypic heterogeneity influence genetic correlations. CONCLUSION The high degree of genetic correlation among many of the psychiatric disorders adds further evidence that their current clinical boundaries do not reflect distinct underlying pathogenic processes, at least on the genetic level. This suggests a deeply interconnected nature for psychiatric disorders, in contrast to neurological disorders, and underscores the need to refine psychiatric diagnostics. Genetically informed analyses may provide important "scaffolding" to support such restructuring of psychiatric nosology, which likely requires incorporating many levels of information. By contrast, we find limited evidence for widespread common genetic risk sharing among neurological disorders or across neurological and psychiatric disorders. We show that both psychiatric and neurological disorders have robust correlations with cognitive and personality measures. Further study is needed to evaluate whether overlapping genetic contributions to psychiatric pathology may influence treatment choices. Ultimately, such developments may pave the way toward reduced heterogeneity and improved diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

    Efficacy and safety of etravirine in treatment-experienced, HIV-1 patients: pooled 48 week analysis of two randomized, controlled trials

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    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy, safety and virologic resistance profile of etravirine (TMC125), a next-generation nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, over 48 weeks in treatment-experienced adults infected with HIV-1 strains resistant to a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor and other antiretrovirals. DESIGN: DUET-1 (NCT00254046) and DUET-2 (NCT00255099) are two identically designed, randomized, double-blind phase III trials. METHODS: Patients received twice-daily etravirine 200 mg or placebo, each plus a background regimen of darunavir/ritonavir, investigator-selected nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors and optional enfuvirtide. Eligible patients had documented nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor resistance, at least three primary protease inhibitor mutations at screening and were on a stable but virologically failing regimen for at least 8 weeks, with plasma viral load more than 5000 copies/ml. Pooled 48-week data from the two trials are presented. RESULTS: Patients (1203) were randomized and treated (n = 599, etravirine; n = 604, placebo). Significantly more patients in the etravirine than in the placebo group achieved viral load less than 50 copies/ml at week 48 (61 vs. 40%, respectively; P < 0.0001). Significantly fewer patients in the etravirine group experienced at least one confirmed or probable AIDS-defining illness/death (6 vs. 10%; P = 0.0408). Safety and tolerability in the etravirine group was comparable to the placebo group. Rash was the only adverse event to occur at a significantly higher incidence in the etravirine group (19 vs. 11%, respectively, P < 0.0001), occurring primarily in the second week of treatment. CONCLUSION: At 48 weeks, treatment-experienced patients receiving etravirine plus background regimen had statistically superior and durable virologic responses (viral load less than 50 copies/ml) than those receiving placebo plus background regimen, with comparable tolerability and no new safety signals reported since week 2
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