Providing antiretroviral care in conflict settings.

There has been an historic expectation that delivering combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) to populations affected by violent conflict is untenable due to population movement and separation of drug supplies. There is now emerging evidence that cART provision can be successful in these populations. Using examples from Médecins Sans Frontières experience in a variety of African settings and also local nongovernmental organizations' experiences in northern Uganda, we examine novel approaches that have ensured retention in programs and adequate adherence. Emerging guidelines from United Nations bodies now support the expansion of cART in settings of conflict

Theatre of Trauma

In his thesis paper, entitled: Theatre of Trauma , MFA Directing candidate Nathan Singh uses his three years of graduate school to further develop his theories of a theatre of trauma. He uses class-work, productions and the philosophies/works of other theatre-makers to articulate how theatre is a powerful outlet to show survivors processing different types of trauma. In doing this, he has expands his vision and aesthetic on directing (or generating) works about trauma and human suffering. He also investigates how theatre can help heal and/or reclaim trauma. In the first part, he shares his background on how to got to The Theatre School at DePaul University. The work he was doing in Los Angeles, both theatrically as a freelance director and personally in therapy, was subconsciously pushing him towards the topic of trauma. In his first year of grad school, he learned text analysis that helped track the journey of characters, directed a play about Repressed Memory Syndrome, learned about (and was influenced by) directing theorists who were tackling social and societal trauma in their work, and generated postdramatic theatre pieces that combined images with different types of emotional scars

Microarray Analysis of PBMC after Plasmodium falciparum Infection: Molecular Insights into Disease Pathogenesis

Our laboratory’s previous microarray analysis of subjects with Plasmodium falciparum revealed up-regulation of Toll-like receptor, NF-kB, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, p38 MAPK, and MHC molecules. We performed further time-course microarray analysis focusing on malaria pathogenesis by using peripheral leukocytes as a cellular model. We found up-regulation of coagulation-related genes (SERPINB2, thrombomodulin, thrombospondin), heat shock proteins, glycolytic enzymes, glucose transporters, and vacuolar H+-ATPases in acute febrile malaria. In early malaria, prior to detectable parasitemia, CD36 and ICAM1 were up-regulated. During acute malaria, a correlation was observed between IL-1ß and heat shock proteins, suggesting heat shock protein response may be in the febrile response induced by IL-1ß. CD163, a hemoglobin scavenger receptor, was up-regulated in acute malaria to potentially facilitate free hemoglobin up-take by peripheral leukocytes. In acute malaria, high MafB gene expression was negatively correlated with down-regulation of hemoglobin and platelet counts. Consistent with a down-regulation of hemoglobin expression, peripheral RBC counts tended to increase during the acute malaria. In our model, up-regulations of RBC and/or leucocyte binding mediators like CD36, ICAM1, thrombospondin, and thrombomodulin may contribute to the pathogenesis of cerebral malaria. Similarly, up-regulation of genes coding for glycolytic enzymes, glucose transporter and H+-ATPases may contribute to the hypoglycemia and metabolic acidosis frequently observed in seriously ill malaria patients. Overall gender effects on gene expression profiles between male and female subjects were not apparent, except that some hemoglobins were significantly down-regulated in male versus female; suggesting males may be more prone to the development of malaria associate anemia

Entanglement renormalization and symmetry fractionalization

It is well known that the matrix product state (MPS) description of a gapped ground state with a global on-site symmetry can exhibit "symmetry fractionalization". Namely, even though the symmetry acts as a linear representation on the physical degrees of freedom, the MPS matrices---which act on some virtual degrees of freedom---can transform under a projective representation. This was instrumental in classifying gapped symmetry protected phases that manifest in one dimensional quantum many-body systems. Here we consider the multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) description of 1D ground states that have global on-site symmetries. We show that, in contrast to the MPS, the symmetry does not fractionalize in the MERA description if the ground state is gapped, assuming that the MERA preserves the symmetry at all length scales. However, it is still possible that the symmetry can fractionalize in the MERA if the ground state is critical, which may be relevant for characterizing critical symmetry protected phases. Our results also motivate the presumed use of symmetric tensors to implement global on-site symmetries in MERA algorithms.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Treatment Outcomes of Treatment-Naïve Hepatitis C Patients co-infected with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational cohorts

Co-infection with Hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV is common and HIV accelerates hepatic disease progression due to HCV. However, access to HCV treatment is limited and success rates are generally poor

Perspectives in Immunotherapy: Meeting report from Immunotherapy Bridge (Naples, November 30th-December 1st, 2022)

The discovery and development of novel treatments that harness the patient\u27s immune system and prevent immune escape has dramatically improved outcomes for patients across cancer types. However, not all patients respond to immunotherapy, acquired resistance remains a challenge, and responses are poor in certain tumors which are considered to be immunologically cold. This has led to the need for new immunotherapy-based approaches, including adoptive cell transfer (ACT), therapeutic vaccines, and novel immune checkpoint inhibitors. These new approaches are focused on patients with an inadequate response to current treatments, with emerging evidence of improved responses in various cancers with new immunotherapy agents, often in combinations with existing agents. The use of cell therapies, drivers of immune response, and trends in immunotherapy were the focus of the Immunotherapy Bridge (November 30th-December 1st, 2022), organized by the Fondazione Melanoma Onlus, Naples, Italy, in collaboration with the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer

Evaluation of flow schemes for near-neutral pH electrolytes in solar-fuel generators

The electrochemical performance of three different types of membrane-containing electrolyte-flow schemes for solar-driven water splitting has been studied quantitatively using 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional multi-physics models. The three schemes include a recirculation scheme with a well-mixed bulk electrolyte, a recirculation scheme with laminar flow fields, and a fresh-feed scheme with laminar flow fields. The Nernstian potential loss associated with pH gradients at the electrode surfaces, the resistive loss between the cathode and anode, the product-gas crossovers, and the required pumping energy in all three schemes have been evaluated as a function of the operational current density, the flow rates for the electrolyte, and the physical dimensions of the devices. The trade-offs in the voltage loss, safety considerations, and energy inputs from the balance-of-systems required to produce a practical device have been evaluated and compared to membrane-free devices as well as to devices that operate at extreme pH values