Barriers, Facilitators, and Suggestive HIV Interventions for Women: Preliminary Data from a Secondary Analysis

poster abstractThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that women account for almost ten thousand of those newly diagnosed with HIV annually. Within this group, Latina, non-Latina white and non-Latina black women are particularly affected. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to analyze existing de-identified data for barriers and facilitators for HIV testing and willingness to participate in a vaccine if available. The data were 30 de-identified transcripts of one hour interviews obtained from three groups of women (10 Latinas, 10 non-Latina white, and 10 non- Latina black) during the initial phase of a parent study, “HIV Testing and Women’s Attitudes on HIV Vaccine Trials”: G. Zimet, PI. A semi-structured interview guide had been used to guide the interviews. This sub analysis was conducted with removal of ethnic classification to reduce bias during qualitative review. Three predominant categories of fear, time, and cost emerged from all interviews regardless of ethnicity. Less prominent categories of gender, education, trust, motherhood, discrimination, loss of integrity, invincibility, safety, age, testing accuracy, confidentiality, indifference, pride, lifestyle, divine justice, and stress varied among the three groups. These categories will provide the basis for further analysis to determine subthemes and themes, and if there are themes unique to any of the three groups

A fully 3-dimensional thermal model of a comet nucleus

A 3-D numerical model of comet nuclei is presented. An implicit numerical scheme was developed for the thermal evolution of a spherical nucleus composed of a mixture of ice and dust. The model was tested against analytical solutions, simplified numerical solutions, and 1-D thermal evolution codes. The 3-D code was applied to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; surface temperature maps and the internal thermal structure was obtained as function of depth, longitude and hour angle. The effect of the spin axis tilt on the surface temperature distribution was studied in detail. It was found that for small tilt angles, relatively low temperatures may prevail on near-pole areas, despite lateral heat conduction. A high-resolution run for a comet model of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with low tilt angle, allowing for crystallization of amorphous ice, showed that the amorphous/crystalline ice boundary varies significantly with depth as a function of cometary latitude.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Use of an automated, integrated laboratory environment to enable predictive modeling approaches for identifying critical process parameters and controlling key quality attributes

An essential part of ensuring a high quality medicine is being able to reliably control Critical Quality Attributes (CQA’s). In the cell culture process, bioreactor conditions, feeds, cell state are some of the many variables that affect CQA’s. Out of this very large set of possible variables, the small subset of these (i.e., critical process parameters, or CPP’s) that have a large effect on the CQA’s must be identified and understood such that those CPP’s can be controlled to ensure quality product. Here, we demonstrate the use of predictive modeling techniques to supplement experimental bioreactor studies when defining critical process parameters (CPP’s) and generating process control strategies. Using predictive models to relate culture process conditions to CQA’s has the benefit of enabling both: 1) using model predictions to supplement experimental data when determining critical process parameters (CPP’s) and the resulting control strategy, and 2) active control of CQA’s based on model forecasts to achieve finer control of CQA’s. In order to support this predictive forecasting approach for bioreactor process definition and control, Bend Research has developed a new bioreactor laboratory environment that allows us to run the right experiments, take the right data, and determine which measurements are actually important in determining CQA’s, and to generate model predictions based on those data sets. Here we demonstrate the application of this new laboratory paradigm in practice, using galactosylation, an important product quality attribute, as the “CQA” of interest. We show how through using automated, perfusion-type systems identification experiments, combined with automated data-generation and reduction tools, we can generate a prediction of the effect of galactose feeding on product qualit

New primers for promising single-copy genes in fungal phylogenetics and systematics

Developing powerful phylogenetic markers is a key concern in fungal phylogenetics. Here we report degenerate primers that amplify the single-copy genes Mcm7 (MS456) and Tsr1 (MS277) across a wide range of Pezizomycotina (Ascomycota). Phylogenetic analyses of 59 taxa belonging to the Eurotiomycetes, Lecanoromycetes, Leotiomycetes, Lichinomycetes and Sordariomycetes, indicate the utility of these loci for fungal phylogenetics at taxonomic levels ranging from genus to class. We also tested the new primers in silico using sequences of Saccharomycotina, Taphrinomycotina and Basidiomycota to predict their potential of amplifying widely across the Fungi. The analyses suggest that the new primers will need no, or only minor sequence modifications to amplify Saccharomycotina, Taphrinomycotina and Basidiomycota

Three equivalent ordinal notation systems in cubical Agda

We present three ordinal notation systems representing ordinals below epsilon zero in type theory, using recent type-theoretical innovations such as mutual inductive-inductive definitions and higher inductive types. We show how ordinal arithmetic can be developed for these systems, and how they admit a transfinite induction principle. We prove that all three notation systems are equivalent, so that we can transport results between them using the univalence principle. All our constructions have been implemented in cubical Agda

Lower cardiorespiratory fitness contributes to increased insulin resistance and fasting glycaemia in middle-aged South Asian compared with European men living in the UK

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: This study aimed to determine the extent to which increased insulin resistance and fasting glycaemia in South Asian men, compared with white European men, living in the UK, was due to lower cardiorespiratory fitness (maximal oxygen uptake [[Formula: see text]]) and physical activity. METHODS: One hundred South Asian and 100 age- and BMI-matched European men without diagnosed diabetes, aged 40–70 years, had fasted blood taken for measurement of glucose concentration, HOMA-estimated insulin resistance (HOMA(IR)), plus other risk factors, and underwent assessment of physical activity (using accelerometry), [Formula: see text], body size and composition, and demographic and other lifestyle factors. For 13 South Asian and one European man, HbA(1c) levels were >6.5% (>48 mmol/mol), indicating potential undiagnosed diabetes; these men were excluded from the analyses. Linear regression models were used to determine the extent to which body size and composition, fitness and physical activity variables explained differences in HOMA(IR) and fasting glucose between South Asian and European men. RESULTS: HOMA(IR) and fasting glucose were 67% (p < 0.001) and 3% (p < 0.018) higher, respectively, in South Asians than Europeans. Lower [Formula: see text], lower physical activity and greater total adiposity in South Asians individually explained 68% (95% CI 45%, 91%), 29% (11%, 46%) and 52% (30%, 80%), respectively, and together explained 83% (50%, 119%) (all p < 0.001) of the ethnic difference in HOMA(IR). Lower [Formula: see text] and greater total adiposity, respectively, explained 61% (9%, 111%) and 39% (9%, 76%) (combined effect 63% [8%, 115%]; all p < 0.05) of the ethnic difference in fasting glucose. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Lower cardiorespiratory fitness is a key factor associated with the excess insulin resistance and fasting glycaemia in middle-aged South Asian, compared with European, men living in the UK. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00125-013-2969-y) contains peer-reviewed but unedited supplementary material, which is available to authorised users