Exploring media preference and trust by millennial investors.

The purpose of this study is to establish which media millennial investors and potential investors prefer and trust to make investment decisions. The Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT) will be used to understand why millennials prefer the media they chose to receive investment and financial information, and how it gives them the satisfaction they seek. The study also evaluates how Investor Relations (IR) practitioners can hone the relationship they have with millennial investors and potential investors by using their preferred media to impact their decision-making process. This study will use both qualitative and quantitative research. An online survey will be distributed to people who fall within the millennial generation group (those born between the years 1981 - 1994). The survey will be in the form of a questionnaire. The qualitative instrument will be an online focus group discussion also made up of people who are within the millennial generation group

Definitions of risk in pregnancy and childbirth: Knowledge, attitudes and practices of pregnant women, men and elder women in Botswana

Aim of Study: To investigate traditional beliefs and practices in relation to perceptions of risks in pregnancy and childbirth in Gabane, Botswana. Design: A cross-sectional study using a structured and semi-structured questionnaire and unstructured interviews with pregnant women, men and elder women. Setting: Households in the community and a primary health care clinic for pregnant women. Participants: Thirty pregnant women, thirty men, and thirty elder women in each group making a total of ninety in all. Main Outcome Measures: The community's definitions of risk in pregnancy and childbirth and their knowledge, beliefs and practices. Principal Results: This community's knowledge of obstetrically defined risk indicators for pregnancy and childbirth is limited. Risk factors according to traditional beliefs include wider lifestyle and behavioural characteristics of the pregnant woman, her partner and her carer. Pregnant women's opinion of antenatal services is generally low. The screening value of antenatal care is not clearly understood and communication is poor. Elder women took their pregnant daughters to traditional healers first, but if the condition was considered serious, took them to the 'government' clinic or hospital. Recommendations: There is need for more communication between health services staff and pregnant women, men and elder women regarding the function and value of antenatal visits and regarding danger signs in pregnancy and labour

Assessment of heavy metal pollution in soils along major roadside areas in Botswana

Assessment of heavy metal pollutants: Al, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Ni and Zn was conducted along major roadside soils of Botswana, lying between latitudes 18°S to 27°S and longitudes 20°E to 29°E using enrichment factor ratios (EF), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI) and geoaccumulation index (Igeo) methods. The studied sites were demarcated into five zones referred to as FN (Francistown-Nata), NM (Nata-Maun), MG (Maun-Ghanzi), GK (Ghanzi-Kang) and TS (Tshabong-Sekoma). All the four pollution assessment methods revealed that zones FN, NM and MG are pollution impacted as compared to GK and TS zones. Results of multivariate analysis suggest mixed origins of pollution sources including human activities, vehicular emissions and lithogenic occurrences. Al, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn and Co is of mixed origins of pollutants, with Fe and Mn being predominantly lithogenic, and vehicular emissions characterised by Pb and Ni. The findings in this study will serve to create awareness of vehicular heavy metal pollution to Botswana policy makers in the mitigation of vehicular pollution, as it is barely monitored.Key words: Heavy metal contamination, roadside soils, enrichment factors, contamination factor, pollution load index, geoaccumulation index, cluster analysis, factor analysis

Germination and dormancy of meadowfoam seed

Meadowfoam (Limnanthes spp.) is a potential oil seed crop being developed for commercial production in the Willamette Valley. The seeds are characterized by poor germination at warm temperatures. It would be desirable to overcome this temperature-related dormancy problem so that better stand establishment could be realized from early fall planting. The objectives of this study were to determine the factors influencing seed germination of meadowfoam, characterize the types of dormancy involved, and develop methods of overcoming dormancy. Experiments were carried out with different-aged seed lots of L. alba 'Mermaid,' L- floccosa Howell and a cross of L. floccosa x L.. alba. Germination requirements were investigated by studying seed responses to temperature, light, oxygen, growth regulators, scarification, and chemical inhibitors. The most favorable germination temperatures were 10, 5-15 and 10-20°C. No germination occurred above 20°C. Prechilling 5 days at 5°C promoted germination at higher temperatures. Potassium and thiourea effectively promoted germination, while kinetin, gibberellic acid and ethephon did not. Daily 8-h exposures to light inhibited germination, particularly at the warmer temperatures. Increasing the length of the daily light periods resulted in corresponding decreases in germination. Removal of portions of the seed coat improved germination, as did germination at higher concentrations of oxygen. The seed coat was not a barrier to water uptake by dormant seeds. Water-soluble extracts from the seeds inhibited germination of non-dormant seeds. A number of treatments imposed on meadowfoam seed overcame dormancy partially or fully, suggesting that there are several mechanisms regulating seed dormancy. Evidence from this study suggests that the seed coat is partially responsible, acting as a barrier to diffusion of oxygen and because it is a source of germination inhibitors. Embryo dormancy is also implicated, in that seeds responded to treatment with potassium nitrate. For routine germination testing of meadowfoam, it is recommended that seeds be planted on a substrate moistened with 1 g L⁻¹ KNO₃ and placed in the dark at 10°C for 14 days. If circumstances warrant, additional germination of dormant seed lots can be obtained by germination on substrate of KNO₃ in an atmosphere of 100% O₂

Horizontally acquired glycosyltransferase operons drive salmonellae lipopolysaccharide diversity.

The immunodominant lipopolysaccharide is a key antigenic factor for Gram-negative pathogens such as salmonellae where it plays key roles in host adaptation, virulence, immune evasion, and persistence. Variation in the lipopolysaccharide is also the major differentiating factor that is used to classify Salmonella into over 2600 serovars as part of the Kaufmann-White scheme. While lipopolysaccharide diversity is generally associated with sequence variation in the lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis operon, extraneous genetic factors such as those encoded by the glucosyltransferase (gtr) operons provide further structural heterogeneity by adding additional sugars onto the O-antigen component of the lipopolysaccharide. Here we identify and examine the O-antigen modifying glucosyltransferase genes from the genomes of Salmonella enterica and Salmonella bongori serovars. We show that Salmonella generally carries between 1 and 4 gtr operons that we have classified into 10 families on the basis of gtrC sequence with apparent O-antigen modification detected for five of these families. The gtr operons localize to bacteriophage-associated genomic regions and exhibit a dynamic evolutionary history driven by recombination and gene shuffling events leading to new gene combinations. Furthermore, evidence of Dam- and OxyR-dependent phase variation of gtr gene expression was identified within eight gtr families. Thus, as O-antigen modification generates significant intra- and inter-strain phenotypic diversity, gtr-mediated modification is fundamental in assessing Salmonella strain variability. This will inform appropriate vaccine and diagnostic approaches, in addition to contributing to our understanding of host-pathogen interactions

A CI-Independent Form of Replicative Inhibition: Turn Off of Early Replication of Bacteriophage Lambda

Several earlier studies have described an unusual exclusion phenotype exhibited by cells with plasmids carrying a portion of the replication region of phage lambda. Cells exhibiting this inhibition phenotype (IP) prevent the plating of homo-immune and hybrid hetero-immune lambdoid phages. We have attempted to define aspects of IP, and show that it is directed to repλ phages. IP was observed in cells with plasmids containing a λ DNA fragment including oop, encoding a short OOP micro RNA, and part of the lambda origin of replication, oriλ, defined by iteron sequences ITN1-4 and an adjacent high AT-rich sequence. Transcription of the intact oop sequence from its promoter, pO is required for IP, as are iterons ITN3–4, but not the high AT-rich portion of oriλ. The results suggest that IP silencing is directed to theta mode replication initiation from an infecting repλ genome, or an induced repλ prophage. Phage mutations suppressing IP, i.e., Sip, map within, or adjacent to cro or in O, or both. Our results for plasmid based IP suggest the hypothesis that there is a natural mechanism for silencing early theta-mode replication initiation, i.e. the buildup of λ genomes with oop+ oriλ+ sequence

Dolutegravir twice-daily dosing in children with HIV-associated tuberculosis: a pharmacokinetic and safety study within the open-label, multicentre, randomised, non-inferiority ODYSSEY trial

Background: Children with HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB) have few antiretroviral therapy (ART) options. We aimed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of dolutegravir twice-daily dosing in children receiving rifampicin for HIV-associated TB. Methods: We nested a two-period, fixed-order pharmacokinetic substudy within the open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled, non-inferiority ODYSSEY trial at research centres in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Children (aged 4 weeks to <18 years) with HIV-associated TB who were receiving rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir were eligible for inclusion. We did a 12-h pharmacokinetic profile on rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir and a 24-h profile on once-daily dolutegravir. Geometric mean ratios for trough plasma concentration (Ctrough), area under the plasma concentration time curve from 0 h to 24 h after dosing (AUC0–24 h), and maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) were used to compare dolutegravir concentrations between substudy days. We assessed rifampicin Cmax on the first substudy day. All children within ODYSSEY with HIV-associated TB who received rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir were included in the safety analysis. We described adverse events reported from starting twice-daily dolutegravir to 30 days after returning to once-daily dolutegravir. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02259127), EudraCT (2014–002632-14), and the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN91737921). Findings: Between Sept 20, 2016, and June 28, 2021, 37 children with HIV-associated TB (median age 11·9 years [range 0·4–17·6], 19 [51%] were female and 18 [49%] were male, 36 [97%] in Africa and one [3%] in Thailand) received rifampicin with twice-daily dolutegravir and were included in the safety analysis. 20 (54%) of 37 children enrolled in the pharmacokinetic substudy, 14 of whom contributed at least one evaluable pharmacokinetic curve for dolutegravir, including 12 who had within-participant comparisons. Geometric mean ratios for rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir versus once-daily dolutegravir were 1·51 (90% CI 1·08–2·11) for Ctrough, 1·23 (0·99–1·53) for AUC0–24 h, and 0·94 (0·76–1·16) for Cmax. Individual dolutegravir Ctrough concentrations were higher than the 90% effective concentration (ie, 0·32 mg/L) in all children receiving rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir. Of 18 children with evaluable rifampicin concentrations, 15 (83%) had a Cmax of less than the optimal target concentration of 8 mg/L. Rifampicin geometric mean Cmax was 5·1 mg/L (coefficient of variation 71%). During a median follow-up of 31 weeks (IQR 30–40), 15 grade 3 or higher adverse events occurred among 11 (30%) of 37 children, ten serious adverse events occurred among eight (22%) children, including two deaths (one tuberculosis-related death, one death due to traumatic injury); no adverse events, including deaths, were considered related to dolutegravir. Interpretation: Twice-daily dolutegravir was shown to be safe and sufficient to overcome the rifampicin enzyme-inducing effect in children, and could provide a practical ART option for children with HIV-associated TB

Neuropsychiatric manifestations and sleep disturbances with dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy versus standard of care in children and adolescents: a secondary analysis of the ODYSSEY trial

BACKGROUND: Cohort studies in adults with HIV showed that dolutegravir was associated with neuropsychiatric adverse events and sleep problems, yet data are scarce in children and adolescents. We aimed to evaluate neuropsychiatric manifestations in children and adolescents treated with dolutegravir-based treatment versus alternative antiretroviral therapy. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of ODYSSEY, an open-label, multicentre, randomised, non-inferiority trial, in which adolescents and children initiating first-line or second-line antiretroviral therapy were randomly assigned 1:1 to dolutegravir-based treatment or standard-of-care treatment. We assessed neuropsychiatric adverse events (reported by clinicians) and responses to the mood and sleep questionnaires (reported by the participant or their carer) in both groups. We compared the proportions of patients with neuropsychiatric adverse events (neurological, psychiatric, and total), time to first neuropsychiatric adverse event, and participant-reported responses to questionnaires capturing issues with mood, suicidal thoughts, and sleep problems. FINDINGS: Between Sept 20, 2016, and June 22, 2018, 707 participants were enrolled, of whom 345 (49%) were female and 362 (51%) were male, and 623 (88%) were Black-African. Of 707 participants, 350 (50%) were randomly assigned to dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy and 357 (50%) to non-dolutegravir-based standard-of-care. 311 (44%) of 707 participants started first-line antiretroviral therapy (ODYSSEY-A; 145 [92%] of 157 participants had efavirenz-based therapy in the standard-of-care group), and 396 (56%) of 707 started second-line therapy (ODYSSEY-B; 195 [98%] of 200 had protease inhibitor-based therapy in the standard-of-care group). During follow-up (median 142 weeks, IQR 124–159), 23 participants had 31 neuropsychiatric adverse events (15 in the dolutegravir group and eight in the standard-of-care group; difference in proportion of participants with ≥1 event p=0·13). 11 participants had one or more neurological events (six and five; p=0·74) and 14 participants had one or more psychiatric events (ten and four; p=0·097). Among 14 participants with psychiatric events, eight participants in the dolutegravir group and four in standard-of-care group had suicidal ideation or behaviour. More participants in the dolutegravir group than the standard-of-care group reported symptoms of self-harm (eight vs one; p=0·025), life not worth living (17 vs five; p=0·0091), or suicidal thoughts (13 vs none; p=0·0006) at one or more follow-up visits. Most reports were transient. There were no differences by treatment group in low mood or feeling sad, problems concentrating, feeling worried or feeling angry or aggressive, sleep problems, or sleep quality. INTERPRETATION: The numbers of neuropsychiatric adverse events and reported neuropsychiatric symptoms were low. However, numerically more participants had psychiatric events and reported suicidality ideation in the dolutegravir group than the standard-of-care group. These differences should be interpreted with caution in an open-label trial. Clinicians and policy makers should consider including suicidality screening of children or adolescents receiving dolutegravir