Cartographic Analysis of Antennas and Towers: A Novel Approach to Improving the Implementation and Data Transmission of mHealth Tools on Mobile Networks

Background: Most mHealth tools such as short message service (SMS), mobile apps, wireless pill counters, and ingestible wireless monitors use mobile antennas to communicate. Limited signal availability, often due to poor antenna infrastructure, negatively impacts the implementation of mHealth tools and remote data collection. Assessing the antenna infrastructure prior to starting a study can help mitigate this problem. Currently, there are no studies that detail whether and how the antenna infrastructure of a study site or area is assessed. Objective: To address this literature gap, we analyze and discuss the use of a cartographic analysis of antennas and towers (CAAT) for mobile communications for geographically assessing mobile antenna and tower infrastructure and identifying signal availability for mobile devices prior to the implementation of an SMS-based mHealth pilot study. Methods: An alpha test of the SMS system was performed using 11 site staff. A CAAT for the study area’s mobile network was performed after the alpha test and pre-implementation of the pilot study. The pilot study used a convenience sample of 11 high-risk men who have sex with men who were given human immunodeficiency virus test kits for testing nonmonogamous sexual partners before intercourse. Product use and sexual behavior were tracked through SMS. Message frequency analyses were performed on the SMS text messages, and SMS sent/received frequencies of 11 staff and 11 pilot study participants were compared. Results: The CAAT helped us to successfully identify strengths and weaknesses in mobile service capacity within a 3-mile radius from the epicenters of four New York City boroughs. During the alpha test, before CAAT, 1176/1202 (97.84%) text messages were sent to staff, of which 26/1176 (2.21%) failed. After the CAAT, 2934 messages were sent to pilot study participants and none failed. Conclusions: The CAAT effectively illustrated the research area’s mobile infrastructure and signal availability, which allowed us to improve study setup and sent message success rates. The SMS messages were sent and received with a lower fail rate than those reported in previous studies

High Substance Use and HIV Risk Behavior Among Young Argentine Men Who Have Sex with Men

In the United States young men who have sex with men have higher rates of substance use, higher HIV incidence, and less frequent HIV testing than their heterosexual counterparts and older MSM. Less is known about comparable populations in Latin America. As part of an epidemiological study, MSM were recruited through Respondent Driven Sampling in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina and answered a computerized behavioral survey. From the total of 500 MSM enrolled, a sub-sample of 233 aged 18?25 was analyzed. The sample was concentrated among lower socioeconomic strata, and only 16% identified as gay. Nearly half reported male, female, and transvestite sexual partners. Reported substance use was widespread ranging from 61% for marijuana to 20% for pasta base (cocaine sulfate). Seventy percent of the sample had never been tested for HIV infection; 3% tested positive for HIV and 8% for syphilis during the study.En los Estados Unidos, los hombres jóvenes que tienen sexo con hombres (JHSH) tienen tasas de uso de sustancias más altas de los HSH de mayor edad y de sus pares heterosexuales, además de una mayor incidencia del VIH y menor frecuencia de hacerse el examen del VIH. De las poblaciones comparables en América Latina, se conoce menos. Como parte de un estudio epidemiológico, 500 HSH fueron reclutados a través del método de Muestreo Dirigido por los Participantes (en inglés RDS) en el área metropolitano de Buenos Aires, Argentina y contestaron una encuesta conductual computarizada. Una submuestra de 233 hombres de 18 a 25 años de edad fue analisada. Se concentró en estratos socioeconómicos más bajos y sólo el 16% se identificaron como gay. Casi la mitad de la submuestra reportó haber tenido parejas sexuales masculinas, femeninas y travestíes. El uso de sustancias fue común, desde 61% consumidores de marihuana hasta 20% sulfato de cocaína (pasta base). El 70% de la muestra nunca se había hecho una prueba para el VIH: 3% resultaron positivos para VIH y 8% para sífilis en el transcurso del estudio.Fil: Balán, Iván C.. New York State Psychiatric Institute; Estados Unidos. Columbia University; Estados UnidosFil: Frasca, Timothy. New York State Psychiatric Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Pando, María de los Ángeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; ArgentinaFil: Marone, Ruben. Nexo Asociación Civil; ArgentinaFil: Barreda, Victoria. Nexo Asociación Civil; ArgentinaFil: Dolezal, Curtis. New York State Psychiatric Institute; Estados Unidos. Columbia University; Estados UnidosFil: Carballo Diéguez, Alex. New York State Psychiatric Institute; Estados Unidos. Columbia University; Estados UnidosFil: Ávila, María Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida; Argentin

Integration of Social, Cultural, and Biomedical Strategies into an Existing Couple-Based Behavioral HIV/STI Prevention Intervention: Voices of Latino Male Couples

Introduction Successful HIV prevention and treatment requires evidence-based approaches that combine biomedical strategies with behavioral interventions that are socially and culturally appropriate for the population or community being prioritized. Although there has been a push for a combination approach, how best to integrate different strategies into existing behavioral HIV prevention interventions remains unclear. The need to develop effective combination approaches is of particular importance for men who have sex with men (MSM), who face a disproportionately high risk of HIV acquisition. Materials and Methods We collaborated with Latino male couples and providers to adapt Connect ‘n Unite, an evidence-based intervention for Black male couples, for Latino male couples. We conducted a series of three focus groups, each with two cohorts of couples, and one focus group with providers. A purposive stratified sample of 20 couples (N = 40, divided into two cohorts) and 10 providers provided insights into how to adapt and integrate social, cultural, and biomedical approaches in a couples-based HIV/AIDS behavioral intervention. Results The majority (N = 37) of the couple participants had no prior knowledge of the following new biomedical strategies: non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP); pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); and HIV self-testing kits. After they were introduced to these biomedical interventions, all participants expressed a need for information and empowerment through knowledge and awareness of these interventions. In particular, participants suggested that we provide PrEP and HIV self-testing kits by the middle or end of the intervention. Providers suggested a need to address behavioral, social and structural issues, such as language barriers; and the promotion of client-centered approaches to increase access to, adaptation of, and adherence to biomedical strategies. Corroborating what couple participants suggested, providers agreed that biomedical strategies should be offered after providing information about these tools. Regarding culturally sensitive and responsive approaches, participants identified stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and sexual identity as barriers to care, language barriers and documentation status as further barriers to care, the couple-based approach as ideal to health promotion, and the need to include family topics in the intervention. Discussion We successfully adapted an evidence-based behavioral HIV prevention intervention for Latino male couples. The adapted intervention, called Conectando Latinos en Pareja, integrates social, cultural, behavioral and biomedical strategies to address the HIV epidemic among Latino MSM. The study highlights the promise regarding the feasibility of implementing a combination approach to HIV prevention in this populatio

Finfish and aquatic invertebrate pathology resources for now and the future

Utilization of finfish and aquatic invertebrates in biomedical research and as environmental sentinels has grown dramatically in recent decades. Likewise the aquaculture of finfish and invertebrates has expanded rapidly worldwide as populations of some aquatic food species and threatened or endangered aquatic species have plummeted due to overharvesting or habitat degradation. This increasing intensive culture and use of aquatic species has heightened the importance of maintaining a sophisticated understanding of pathology of various organ systems of these diverse species. Yet, except for selected species long cultivated in aquaculture, pathology databases and the workforce of highly trained pathologists lag behind those available for most laboratory animals and domestic mammalian and avian species. Several factors must change to maximize the use, understanding, and protection of important aquatic species: 1) improvements in databases of abnormalities across species; 2) standardization of diagnostic criteria for proliferative and nonproliferative lesions; and 3) more uniform and rigorous training in aquatic morphologic pathology

Finfish and aquatic invertebrate pathology resources for now and the future

Utilization of finfish and aquatic invertebrates in biomedical research and as environmental sentinels has grown dramatically in recent decades. Likewise the aquaculture of finfish and invertebrates has expanded rapidly worldwide as populations of some aquatic food species and threatened or endangered aquatic species have plummeted due to overharvesting or habitat degradation. This increasing intensive culture and use of aquatic species has heightened the importance of maintaining a sophisticated understanding of pathology of various organ systems of these diverse species. Yet, except for selected species long cultivated in aquaculture, pathology databases and the workforce of highly trained pathologists lag behind those available for most laboratory animals and domestic mammalian and avian species. Several factors must change to maximize the use, understanding, and protection of important aquatic species: 1) improvements in databases of abnormalities across species; 2) standardization of diagnostic criteria for proliferative and nonproliferative lesions; and 3) more uniform and rigorous training in aquatic morphologic pathology

Vaccine Efficacy in Senescent Mice Challenged with Recombinant SARS-CoV Bearing Epidemic and Zoonotic Spike Variants

BACKGROUND: In 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was identified as the etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a disease characterized by severe pneumonia that sometimes results in death. SARS-CoV is a zoonotic virus that crossed the species barrier, most likely originating from bats or from other species including civets, raccoon dogs, domestic cats, swine, and rodents. A SARS-CoV vaccine should confer long-term protection, especially in vulnerable senescent populations, against both the 2003 epidemic strains and zoonotic strains that may yet emerge from animal reservoirs. We report the comprehensive investigation of SARS vaccine efficacy in young and senescent mice following homologous and heterologous challenge. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus replicon particles (VRP) expressing the 2003 epidemic Urbani SARS-CoV strain spike (S) glycoprotein (VRP-S) or the nucleocapsid (N) protein from the same strain (VRP-N), we demonstrate that VRP-S, but not VRP-N vaccines provide complete short- and long-term protection against homologous strain challenge in young and senescent mice. To test VRP vaccine efficacy against a heterologous SARS-CoV, we used phylogenetic analyses, synthetic biology, and reverse genetics to construct a chimeric virus (icGDO3-S) encoding a synthetic S glycoprotein gene of the most genetically divergent human strain, GDO3, which clusters among the zoonotic SARS-CoV. icGD03-S replicated efficiently in human airway epithelial cells and in the lungs of young and senescent mice, and was highly resistant to neutralization with antisera directed against the Urbani strain. Although VRP-S vaccines provided complete short-term protection against heterologous icGD03-S challenge in young mice, only limited protection was seen in vaccinated senescent animals. VRP-N vaccines not only failed to protect from homologous or heterologous challenge, but resulted in enhanced immunopathology with eosinophilic infiltrates within the lungs of SARS-CoV–challenged mice. VRP-N–induced pathology presented at day 4, peaked around day 7, and persisted through day 14, and was likely mediated by cellular immune responses. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies gaps and challenges in vaccine design for controlling future SARS-CoV zoonosis, especially in vulnerable elderly populations. The availability of a SARS-CoV virus bearing heterologous S glycoproteins provides a robust challenge inoculum for evaluating vaccine efficacy against zoonotic strains, the most likely source of future outbreaks

The CAFA challenge reports improved protein function prediction and new functional annotations for hundreds of genes through experimental screens

Background The Critical Assessment of Functional Annotation (CAFA) is an ongoing, global, community-driven effort to evaluate and improve the computational annotation of protein function. Results Here, we report on the results of the third CAFA challenge, CAFA3, that featured an expanded analysis over the previous CAFA rounds, both in terms of volume of data analyzed and the types of analysis performed. In a novel and major new development, computational predictions and assessment goals drove some of the experimental assays, resulting in new functional annotations for more than 1000 genes. Specifically, we performed experimental whole-genome mutation screening in Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aureginosa genomes, which provided us with genome-wide experimental data for genes associated with biofilm formation and motility. We further performed targeted assays on selected genes in Drosophila melanogaster, which we suspected of being involved in long-term memory. Conclusion We conclude that while predictions of the molecular function and biological process annotations have slightly improved over time, those of the cellular component have not. Term-centric prediction of experimental annotations remains equally challenging; although the performance of the top methods is significantly better than the expectations set by baseline methods in C. albicans and D. melanogaster, it leaves considerable room and need for improvement. Finally, we report that the CAFA community now involves a broad range of participants with expertise in bioinformatics, biological experimentation, biocuration, and bio-ontologies, working together to improve functional annotation, computational function prediction, and our ability to manage big data in the era of large experimental screens.Peer reviewe

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE : survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Funding for the WEAVE facility has been provided by UKRI STFC, the University of Oxford, NOVA, NWO, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Isaac Newton Group partners (STFC, NWO, and Spain, led by the IAC), INAF, CNRS-INSU, the Observatoire de Paris, Région Île-de-France, CONCYT through INAOE, Konkoly Observatory (CSFK), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Lund University, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the Swedish Research Council, the European Commission, and the University of Pennsylvania.WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366-959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20,000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼ 3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼ 1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼ 0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey  ∼ 400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z 1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.PostprintPeer reviewe

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366$-$959\,nm at $R\sim5000$, or two shorter ranges at $R\sim20\,000$. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for $\sim$3 million stars and detailed abundances for $\sim1.5$ million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey $\sim0.4$ million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey $\sim400$ neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in $z<0.5$ cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in $\sim25\,000$ field galaxies at $0.3\lesssim z \lesssim 0.7$; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using $>1$ million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at $z>2$. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA