The Australasian hepatology association consensus guidelines for the provision of adherence support to patients with hepatitis C on direct acting antivirals

© 2016 Richmond et al. Background: Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus primarily spread through sharing of drug-injecting equipment. Approximately 150 million people worldwide and 230,000 Australians are living with chronic hepatitis C infection. In March 2016, the Australian government began subsidizing direct acting antivirals (DAAs) for the treatment of hepatitis C, which are highly effective (95% cure rate) and have few side effects. However, there is limited evidence to inform the provision of adherence support to people with hepatitis C on DAAs including the level of medication adherence required to achieve a cure. Methodology: In February 2016, a steering committee comprising four authors convened an expert panel consisting of six hepatology nurses, a hepatologist, a pharmacist, a consumer with hepatitis C and treatment experience, and a consumer advocate. The expert panel focused on the following criteria: barriers and enablers to DAA adherence; assessment and monitoring of DAA adherence; components of a patient-centered approach to DAA adherence; patients that may require additional adherence support; and interventions to support DAA adherence. The resultant guidelines underwent three rounds of consultation with the expert panel, Australasian Hepatology Association (AHA) members (n=12), and key stakeholders (n=7) in June 2016. Feedback was considered by the steering committee and incorporated if consensus was achieved. Results: Twenty-four guidelines emerged from the evidence synthesis and expert panel discussion. The guidelines focus on the pretreatment assessment and education, assessment of treatment readiness, and monitoring of medication adherence. The guidelines are embedded in a patient-centered approach which highlights that all patients are at risk of nonadherence. The guidelines recommend implementing interventions focused on identifying patients’ memory triggers and hooks; use of nonconfrontational and nonjudgmental language by health professionals; and objectively monitoring adherence. Conclusion: These are the first guidelines to support patients and health professionals in the delivery of clinical care by identifying practical adherence support interventions for patients taking DAAs

Linear and nonlinear waveguides induced by optical vortex solitons

We study, numerically and analytically, linear and nonlinear waveguides induced by optical vortex solitons in a Kerr medium. Both fundamental and first-order guided modes are analyzed, as well as the cases of effectively defocusing and focusing nonlinearity.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, changed conten

Incoherent vector vortex-mode solitons in self-focusing nonlinear media

We suggest a novel type of composite spatial optical soliton created by a coherent vortex beam guiding a partially incoherent light beam in a self-focusing nonlinear medium. We show that the incoherence of the guided mode may enhance, rather than suppress, the vortex azimuthal instability, and also demonstrate strong destabilization of dipole-mode solitons by partially incoherent light

Microparticle-mediated transfer of the viral receptors CAR and CD46, and the CFTR channel in a CHO cell model confers new functions to target cells

Cell microparticles (MPs) released in the extracellular milieu can embark plasma membrane and intracellular components which are specific of their cellular origin, and transfer them to target cells. The MP-mediated, cell-to-cell transfer of three human membrane glycoproteins of different degrees of complexity was investigated in the present study, using a CHO cell model system. We first tested the delivery of CAR and CD46, two monospanins which act as adenovirus receptors, to target CHO cells. CHO cells lack CAR and CD46, high affinity receptors for human adenovirus serotype 5 (HAdV5), and serotype 35 (HAdV35), respectively. We found that MPs derived from CHO cells (MP-donor cells) constitutively expressing CAR (MP-CAR) or CD46 (MP-CD46) were able to transfer CAR and CD46 to target CHO cells, and conferred selective permissiveness to HAdV5 and HAdV35. In addition, target CHO cells incubated with MP-CD46 acquired the CD46-associated function in complement regulation. We also explored the MP-mediated delivery of a dodecaspanin membrane glycoprotein, the CFTR to target CHO cells. CFTR functions as a chloride channel in human cells and is implicated in the genetic disease cystic fibrosis. Target CHO cells incubated with MPs produced by CHO cells constitutively expressing GFP-tagged CFTR (MP-GFP-CFTR) were found to gain a new cellular function, the chloride channel activity associated to CFTR. Time-course analysis of the appearance of GFP-CFTR in target cells suggested that MPs could achieve the delivery of CFTR to target cells via two mechanisms: the transfer of mature, membrane-inserted CFTR glycoprotein, and the transfer of CFTR-encoding mRNA. These results confirmed that cell-derived MPs represent a new class of promising therapeutic vehicles for the delivery of bioactive macromolecules, proteins or mRNAs, the latter exerting the desired therapeutic effect in target cells via de novo synthesis of their encoded proteins

Social presence and dishonesty in retail

Self-service checkouts (SCOs) in retail can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff, together with reduced queuing times. Recent research indicates that the absence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly, consistent with a perceived lack of social presence. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of various instantiations of embodied, visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on opportunistic behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. This was partially supported by the results. The findings contribute to the theoretical framework in social presence research. We concluded that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence in technology applications to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study.<br/

From tagging to theorizing: deepening engagement with cultural heritage through crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing, or “obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people,” is becoming known for the impressive productivity of projects that ask the public to help transcribe, describe, locate, or categorize cultural heritage resources. This essay argues that crowdsourcing projects can also be a powerful platform for audience engagement with museums, offering truly deep and valuable connection with cultural heritage through online collaboration around shared goals or resources. It includes examples of well-designed crowdsourcing projects that provide platforms for deepening involvement with citizen history and citizen science; useful definitions of “engagement”; and evidence for why some activities help audiences interact with heritage and scientific material. It discusses projects with committed participants and considers the role of communities of participants in engaging participants more deeply

(Re)Conceptualising the space of markets: The case of the 2007–9 global financial crisis

The 2007–9 period saw an unprecedented crisis emerge in global financial markets with the collapse of several large western financial institutions, and the nearest moment of systemic crisis yet witnessed in the globalised financial system. The crisis has thus provoked a significant questioning of market theories, and in particular understandings of market within orthodox neoclassical economics. Within the social sciences, a significant element of this response has built on a growing heterodox socioeconomic literature which is heavily critical of hegemonic conceptions of the market within economics. However, whilst a small body of work in economic geography has begun to engage with this literature, geographical thinking has not directly sought to conceptualise the nature and significance of market spatiality. Utilising a cultural economy approach, this paper therefore argues that economic geographical theories need to foreground the concept of market rather than treat markets as a ‘component’ of wider processes. It further contends that the concept of the ‘market’ needs to be reconceptualised in a way that captures the spatialities of markets and the difference that space makes to market behaviours and outcomes. Drawing on the growing heterodox socioeconomic literature on markets, it thus proposes a practice-oriented ‘socio-spatial approach’ for framing conceptions of market spatiality, arguing that such a spatial epistemology opens up a range of theoretical possibilities for further contesting hegemonic neoclassical theories of the market beyond current socioeconomic critiques. It seeks to illustrate the utility of such a framework through a case study analysis of the limitations inherent in existing policy practices surrounding the early phase of the recent global financial crisis