Perception of health needs and HIV/AIDS threats in rural and urban Zulu-speaking adults.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.This study sought to investigate the relationship between variables .common to models of health behaviour, and the role of demographic and contextual variables in determining or influencing AIDS health protective behaviours. In addition, the perceived and stated health needs and 'priorities of the sample were investigated. The overall intention of the study was to inform HIV/ AIDS interventions in the region. A sample of fifty Zulu-speaking adults were randomly selected from a rural area and an urban area within the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Data was obtained using a simple questionnaire together with a structured interview. Data was collected by Zuluspeaking assistants. The design and instruments were based on the findings of a pilot study conducted in the same area. The resul of the study showed a close relationship between perceived health needs and identified social and environmental problems. HIV/ AIDS .and other sexually transmitted diseases were not perceived by those sampled as a health priority. Results indicated that knowledge of HIV/ AIDS was relatively low and responses tended to be stereotyped. There was some indication of an awareness of personal vulnerability and self-efficacy, but subjects' responses suggest that this was not translated into healthprotective behaviours. Culture, gender, age, education and rural/urban classification were found to be associated with the prioritisation of health needs and explanations of ill-health. Urban/rural classification was found to be significantly related to knowledge score and efficacy score, and gender was significantly related to the behaviour score. It was concluded that while many of the variables included in the theoretical models of health behaviour were useful in explaining such behaviour in the population studied, demographic and contextual factors were paramount in determining and influencing decisions about health

Turning Machines

Molecular robotics is challenging, so it seems best to keep it simple. We consider an abstract molecular robotics model based on simple folding instructions that execute asynchronously. Turning Machines are a simple 1D to 2D folding model, also easily generalisable to 2D to 3D folding. A Turning Machine starts out as a line of connected monomers in the discrete plane, each with an associated turning number. A monomer turns relative to its neighbours, executing a unit-distance translation that drags other monomers along with it, and through collective motion the initial set of monomers eventually folds into a programmed shape. We fully characterise the ability of Turning Machines to execute line rotations, and to do so efficiently: computing an almost-full line rotation of 5?/3 radians is possible, yet a full 2? rotation is impossible. We show that such line-rotations represent a fundamental primitive in the model, by using them to efficiently and asynchronously fold arbitrarily large zig-zag-rastered squares and y-monotone shapes

Low-Abundance Resistant Mutations in HIV-1 Subtype C Antiretroviral Therapy-Naïve Individuals as Revealed by Pyrosequencing

Given the recent scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa, we sought to determine how often and at what levels do drug-resistant mutant variants exist in ART-naïve HIV subtype C infected individuals. Samples from 10 ART-naïve Zambian individuals were subjected to ultra-deep pyrosequencing (UDPS) to characterize the frequency of low-abundance drug resistance mutations in the pol gene. Low-abundance clinically relevant variants were detected for nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and protease inhibitors (PIs) in eight of the ten subjects. Intermediate to high-level resistance was predicted for the majority of NRTIs. Mutations conferring resistance to most firstline and some second-line therapy drugs were also observed. UDPS detected a number of additional major resistant mutations suggesting that these individuals may have an increased risk of virological failure after initiating ART. Moreover, the effectiveness of first-line and even some second-line ART may be compromised in this setting

New partnership network helps to protect Australian mangroves and saltmarsh.

MangroveWatch and the new Australian Mangrove and Saltmarsh Network are helping to link communities and promote information sharing to improve monitoring and management of coastal habitats

Molecular Determinants of HIV-1 Subtype C Coreceptor Transition from R5 to R5X4

The molecular mechanism(s) underlying transition from CCR5 to CXCR4 usage of subtype C viruses remain largely unknown. We previously identified a subtype C HIV-1 infected child whose virus demonstrated CXCR4 usage along with CCR5 upon longitudinal follow-up. Here we delineated the molecular determinants of Env involved in expanded coreceptor usage. Residue changes in three positions of Env V3 domain are critical for the dual-tropic phenotype. These include: substitution of arginine at position 11, MG or LG insertion between positions 13 and 14, and substitution of threonine at the position immediately downstream of the GPGQ crown. Introducing these mutations into V3 region of another R5 virus also conferred dual tropism. Molecular modeling of V3 revealed a possible structural basis for the dual-tropic phenotype. Determining what defines a subtype C X4 virus will lead to a better understanding of subtype C HIV-1 pathogenesis, and will provide important information relevant to anti-retroviral therapy

Handheld Device for Substitution From Vision to Audition

Presented at the 20th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2014), June 22-25, 2014, New York, NY.Sensorial substitution has great potential in rehabilitation, education, games, and in the creation of music and art. Current technologies allow us to develop sensorial substitution and sonification systems that would not have been imaginable two decades ago. It is desirable to let a large audience use and test sonification systems to provide feedback and improve their design. Handheld devices like smartphones or tablets include network connectivity (WIFI and/or Cellular radio) that can be used to transmit anonymous information about the configuration and strategies adopted by users. It is now feasible to obtain feedback from any user of substitution and sonification technology and not only from a limited number of subjects in the laboratory. Testing in the field with a large number of users is now possible thanks to telecommunication networks and machine learning tools to analyze big data. This work presents a handheld implementation of a simple video sonification system designed to test the acceptability of vision to audition substitution systems and in the near future to provide feedback from users. A first beta version was publicly released in November 2013 as an iOS application for large scale testing. The extended abstract introduces the interface and the underlying technology

Functional Properties of the HIV-1 Subtype C Envelope Glycoprotein Associated with Mother-to-Child Transmission

Understanding the properties of viruses capable of establishing infection during perinatal transmission of HIV-1 is critical for designing effective means of limiting transmission. We previously demonstrated that the newly transmitted viruses (in infant) were more fit in growth, as imparted by their envelope glycoproteins, than those in their corresponding mothers. Here, we further characterized the viral envelope glycoproteins from six mother-infant transmission pairs and determined whether any specific envelope functions correlate with HIV-1 subtype C perinatal transmission. We found that most newly transmitted viruses were less susceptible to neutralization by their maternal plasma compared to contemporaneous maternal viruses. However, the newly transmitted variants were sensitive to neutralization by pooled heterologous plasma but in general were resistant to IgG1 b12. Neither Env processing nor incorporation efficiency was predictive of viral transmissibility. These findings provide further insight into the characteristics of perinatally transmissible HIV-1 and may have implications for intervention approaches

chi^2 Analysis of Supersymmetric Models

We discuss the results of a global fit to precision data in supersymmetric models. We consider both gravity- and gauge-mediated models. As the superpartner spectrum becomes light, the global fit to the data typically results in larger values of chi^2. We indicate the regions of parameter space which are excluded by the data. We discuss the additional effect of the B(B --> X_s\gamma) measurement. Our analysis excludes chargino masses below MZ in the simplest gauge-mediated model with mu>0, with stronger constraints for larger values of tan beta.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures. Talk given by D.M.P. at the 5th International Conference on Supersymmetries in Physics (SUSY 97), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 27-31, 199