Personality and personality disorders in urban and rural Africa: results from a field trial in Burkina Faso

When conducting research in different cultural settings, assessing measurement equivalence is of prime importance to determine if constructs and scores can be compared across groups. Structural equivalence implies that constructs have the same meaning across groups, metric equivalence implies that the metric of the scales remains stable across groups, and full scale or scalar equivalence implies that the origin of the scales is the same across groups. Several studies have observed that the structure underlying both normal personality and personality disorders (PDs) is stable across cultures. Most of this cross-cultural research was conducted in Western and Asian cultures. In Africa, the few studies were conducted with well-educated participants using French or English instruments. No research was conducted in Africa with less privileged or preliterate samples. The aim of this research was to study the structure and expression of normal and abnormal personality in an urban and a rural sample in Burkina Faso. The sample included 1,750 participants, with a sub-sample from the urban area of Ouagadougou (n = 1,249) and another sub-sample from a rural village, Soumiaga (n = 501). Most participants answered an interview consisting of a Mooré language adaptation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and of the International Personality Disorders Examination. Mooré is the language of the Mossi ethnic group, and the most frequently spoken local language in Burkina Faso. A sub-sample completed the same self-report instruments in French. Demographic variables only had a small impact on normal and abnormal personality traits mean levels. The structure underlying normal personality was unstable across regions and languages, illustrating that translating a complex psychological inventory into a native African language is a very difficult task. The structure underlying abnormal personality and the metric of PDs scales were stable across regions. As scalar equivalence was not reached, mean differences cannot be interpreted. Nevertheless, these differences could be due to an exaggerated expression of abnormal traits valued in the two cultural settings. Our results suggest that studies using a different methodology should be conducted to understand what is considered, in different cultures, as deviating from the expectations of the individual's culture, and as a significant impairment in self and interpersonal functioning, as defined by the DSM-5

Estimation of genetic parameters in rubber progenies.

This study was designed to evaluate the genetic variability, the potential for rubber yield and secondary traits of rubber tree progenies at three locations in the state of Sao Paulo. The experiments were conducted in a randomized block design with 22 progenies and 6 replications. At the age of three years, the progenies were evaluated for rubber yield, girth growth and total number of latex vessel rings. The results showed the existence of genetic variability among progenies for each location separately as well as between locations, with differences in the progeny performance for the traits. The individual heritabilities calculated for rubber yield, girth growth and total number of latex vessel rings (0.30, 0.63 and 0.29, respectively), associated with high genetic gains with selection for the traits studied at each site, showed that the populations can be considered suitable for the rubber breeding program, provided that an appropriate selection procedure is used

Human iPSC-Derived 3D Hepatic Organoids in a Miniaturized Dynamic Culture System

The process of identifying and approving a new drug is a time-consuming and expensive procedure. One of the biggest issues to overcome is the risk of hepatotoxicity, which is one of the main reasons for drug withdrawal from the market. While animal models are the gold standard in preclinical drug testing, the translation of results into therapeutic intervention is often ambiguous due to interspecies differences in hepatic metabolism. The discovery of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and their derivatives has opened new possibilities for drug testing. We used mesenchymal stem cells and hepatocytes both derived from hiPSCs, together with endothelial cells, to miniaturize the process of generating hepatic organoids. These organoids were then cultivated in vitro using both static and dynamic cultures. Additionally, we tested spheroids solely composed by induced hepatocytes. By miniaturizing the system, we demonstrated the possibility of maintaining the organoids, but not the spheroids, in culture for up to 1 week. This timeframe may be sufficient to carry out a hypothetical pharmacological test or screening. In conclusion, we propose that the hiPSCderived liver organoid model could complement or, in the near future, replace the pharmacological and toxicological tests conducted on animals

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

To improve maternal and child health, it is essential to adhere to health-promoting and preventive measures. However, reliable information as well as effective tools are not easy to identify in this field. Our cross-sectional study investigated the needs and expectations of expectant and new mothers and fathers as potential primary users of a hypothetical application supporting the first 1000 days of life. Between May and August 2022, we recruited expectant and new parents by administering an 83-item 5-point Likert scale questionnaire related to the content, functionalities, and technical features of the hypothetical app. We stratified responses using sociodemographic characteristics and then performed ward hierarchical clustering. The 94 women and 69 men involved in our study generally agreed with the proposed content, but expressed low interest in certain app functionalities or features, including those related to the interaction mechanism and interactivity. Women were generally more demanding than men. Our findings, resulting from the engagement of end-users, may be useful for designers and technology providers to implement mHealth solutions that, in addition to conveying reliable information, are tailored to the needs and preferences of end-users in the first 1000 days of life

Trapping the HIV-1 V3 loop in a helical conformation enables broad neutralization

The third variable (V3) loop on the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein trimer is indispensable for virus cell entry. Conformational masking of V3 within the trimer allows efficient neutralization via V3 only by rare, broadly neutralizing glycan-dependent antibodies targeting the closed prefusion trimer but not by abundant antibodies that access the V3 crown on open trimers after CD4 attachment. Here, we report on a distinct category of V3-specific inhibitors based on designed ankyrin repeat protein (DARPin) technology that reinstitute the CD4-bound state as a key neutralization target with up to >90% breadth. Broadly neutralizing DARPins (bnDs) bound V3 solely on open envelope and recognized a four-turn amphipathic α-helix in the carboxy-terminal half of V3 (amino acids 314-324), which we termed 'αV3C'. The bnD contact surface on αV3C was as conserved as the CD4 binding site. Molecular dynamics and escape mutation analyses underscored the functional relevance of αV3C, highlighting the potential of αV3C-based inhibitors and, more generally, of postattachment inhibition of HIV-1