Implementation of a comprehensive program including psycho-social and treatment literacy activities to improve adherence to HIV care and treatment for a pediatric population in Kenya

BACKGROUND: To achieve good clinical outcomes with HAART, patient adherence to treatment and care is a key factor. Since the literature on how to care for pediatric HIV patients is limited, we describe here adherence interventions implemented in our comprehensive care program in a resource-limited setting in Kenya. METHODS: We based our program on factors reported to influence adherence to HIV care and treatment. We describe, in detail, our program with respect to how we adapted our clinical settings, implemented psycho-social support activities for children and their caregivers and developed treatment literacy for children and teenagers living with HIV/AIDS. RESULTS: This paper focused on the details of the program, with the treatment outcomes as secondary. However, our program appeared to have been effective; for 648 children under 15 years of age who were started on HAART, the Kaplan-Meier mortality survival estimate was 95.27% (95%CI 93.16-96.74) at 12 months after the time of initiation of HAART. CONCLUSION: Our model of pediatric HIV/AIDS care, focused on a child-centered approach with inclusion of caregivers and extended family, addressed the main factors influencing treatment adherence. It appeared to produce good results and is replicable in resource-limited settings

Automated quantitative analysis of shape features in human epithelial monolayers and spheroids generated from colorectal cancer cells

Book Title Intestinal Differentiated Cells Book Subtitle Methods and Protocols ISBN978-1-0716-3075-4 Chapter book Title Automated quantitative analysis of shape features in human epithelial monolayers and spheroids generated from colorectal cancer cells Description for the image named HCT116_Monolayer: HCT116 colorectal cancer cells have been grown as monolayers, then fixed and stained with Alexa 488-phalloidin to visualize actin filaments. Cells were imaged using a SP8 Leica confocal microscope. The image is the Sum projection of 3 independent planes (0.5 um each), exported to .tiff. The image serves as example for single cell analysis using automated packages such as Cellpose 2.0. Description for the image named HCT116_Spheroid: HCT116 colon cancer cells were seeded on low-attachment plates to generate spheroids. This image was acquired after 16h from seeding cells using a widefield Dmi8 Leica microscope. The image can be used to obtain automated cell contours and cell shape features from individual cells forming the spheroid using Cellpose 2.0 package and ImageJ/Fiji. A description of the steps to follow could be found in Brown and Juanes, 2023, ' Automated quantitative analysis of shape features in human epithelial monolayers and spheroids generated from colorectal cancer cells', a chapter in the "Intestinal Differentiated Cells" Book from the Methods in Molecular Biology - Springer Protocols from Nature Humana Press editorial

Structural modulation of π-conjugated linkers in D-π-A dyes based on Triphenylamine dicyanovinylene framework to explore the NLO properties

A donor-π-acceptor type series of Triphenylamine-dicyanovinylene based chromophores (DPMN1-DPMN11) was designed theoretically by the structural tailoring of π-linkers to exploit changes in the optical properties and their NLO behaviour. Density functional theory (DFT) computations were employed to understand the electronic structures, absorption spectra, charge transfer phenomena and the influence of these structural modifications on NLO properties. Interestingly, all investigated chromophores exhibited lower band gap (2.22-2.60 eV) with broad absorption spectra in the visible region, reflecting the remarkable NLO response. Furthermore, natural Bond Orbital (NBO) findings revealed a strong push-pull mechanism in DPMN1-DPMN11 as donor and π-conjugates exhibited positive, while all acceptors showed negative values. Examination of electronic transitions from donor to acceptor moieties via π-conjugated linkers revealed greater linear (=526.536-641.756 a.u) and non-linear (βtot =51313.8-314412.661 a.u) response. It was noted that the chromophores containing imidazole in 2nd p-linker expressed greater hyperpolarizability when compared with the ones containing pyrrole. This study reveals that by controlling the type of π-spacers, interesting metal-free NLO materials can be designed, which can be valuable for the hi-tech NLO applications

Additional file 1 of Fused inverse-normal method for integrated differential expression analysis of RNA-seq data

Additional file 1. Document contains interpretation of the fused inverse-normal (FIN) method, details of RNA-seq raw data processing using GALAXY, brief description of the simulation method, results of scenario 2 considered for meta-analysis and Ingenuity pathway analysis results

Additional file 1 of Fused inverse-normal method for integrated differential expression analysis of RNA-seq data

Additional file 1. Document contains interpretation of the fused inverse-normal (FIN) method, details of RNA-seq raw data processing using GALAXY, brief description of the simulation method, results of scenario 2 considered for meta-analysis and Ingenuity pathway analysis results

Additional file 1: of Gene expression meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease and its relationship with Alzheimer’s disease

Table S1. Information about each study used in our meta-analysis after removal of outlier samples. Table S2. Differentially expressed genes identified in our meta-analysis that have been identified as PD risk genes in a recent GWAS meta-analysis [33]. Table S3. IPA canonical pathway analysis for significant pathways identified using all PD DEGs, included with the information for pathways shared with those identified as significant using all AD DEGs. Table S4. IPA canonical pathway analysis for significant pathways identified using down-regulated PD DEGs. Table S5. IPA upstream regulator analysis for up and down regulated PD DEGs analysed separately. Table S6. Top 10 hubs found in the protein-protein interaction network (PPIN) analysis subnetwork created using the top 30 PD DEGs. Table S7. The direction of differential expression between the common DEGs found between AD and PD. Figure S1. Selecting filtering threshold for microarray data. The percentage of studies called absent in a mas5 present absent call for each probe was calculated, and threshold determined by minimizing Anderson-Darling normality tests and giving optimal Q-Q plot of the Z-scores after meta-analysis. The Q-Q plot for (A) 5%, (B) 10%, (C) 15%, (D) 20% and (E) 30% filtering. After 15% filtering A-D p-values were minimized (F) and the 15% Q-Q plot gave closest values to normality. A-D is Anderson-Darling normality test. Figure S2. RNAseq data vs. microarray gene expression data. Average absolute expression level of RNA-seq log2(TPM) of SN tissue from GTEx database plotted against RMA normalised and filtered intensity of microarray control and PD data used in this meta-analysis. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the control microarray data and healthy RNA-seq data (A) is 0.70 (pvalu

EB1 directly regulates APC-mediated actin nucleation

Data and analysis files for "EB1 directly regulates APC-mediated actin nucleation" Published in Current Biology September, 2020

Supplementary Material from The impact of pelvic lateral rotation on hindlimb kinematics and stride length in the red-legged running frog, Kassina maculata

Some frog species, such as Kassina maculata (red-legged running frog), use an asynchronous walking/running gait as their primary locomotor mode. Prior comparative anatomy work has suggested that lateral rotation of the pelvis improves walking performance by increasing hindlimb stride length; however, this hypothesis has never been tested. Using non-invasive methods, experimental high-speed video data collected from eight animals were used to create two three-dimensional kinematic models. These models, each fixed to alternative local anatomical reference frames, were used to investigate the hypothesis that lateral rotation of the mobile ilio-sacral joint in the anuran pelvis plays a propulsive role in walking locomotion by increasing hindlimb stride length. All frogs used a walking gait (duty factor greater than 0.5) despite travelling over a range of speeds (0.04–0.23 m s−1). The hindlimb joint motions throughout a single stride were temporally synchronized with lateral rotation of the pelvis. The pelvis itself, on average, underwent an angular excursion of 12.71° (±4.39°) with respect to the body midline during lateral rotation. However, comparison between our two kinematic models demonstrated that lateral rotation of the pelvis only increases the cranio-caudal excursion of the hindlimb modestly. Thus, we propose that pelvic lateral rotation is not a stride length augmenting mechanism in K. maculata

Supplementary Material from The impact of pelvic lateral rotation on hindlimb kinematics and stride length in the red-legged running frog, Kassina maculata.

Some frog species, such as Kassina maculata (red-legged running frog), use an asynchronous walking/running gait as their primary locomotor mode. Prior comparative anatomy work has suggested that lateral rotation of the pelvis improves walking performance by increasing hindlimb stride length; however, this hypothesis has never been tested. Using non-invasive methods, experimental high-speed video data collected from eight animals were used to create two three-dimensional kinematic models. These models, each fixed to alternative local anatomical reference frames, were used to investigate the hypothesis that lateral rotation of the mobile ilio-sacral joint in the anuran pelvis plays a propulsive role in walking locomotion by increasing hindlimb stride length. All frogs used a walking gait (duty factor greater than 0.5) despite travelling over a range of speeds (0.04–0.23 m s−1). The hindlimb joint motions throughout a single stride were temporally synchronized with lateral rotation of the pelvis. The pelvis itself, on average, underwent an angular excursion of 12.71° (±4.39°) with respect to the body midline during lateral rotation. However, comparison between our two kinematic models demonstrated that lateral rotation of the pelvis only increases the cranio-caudal excursion of the hindlimb modestly. Thus, we propose that pelvic lateral rotation is not a stride length augmenting mechanism in K. maculata

Figure 2. Cirolana westbyi n in Cirolana westbyi, (Isopoda: Cirolanidae) a new species in the 'Cirolana parva-group' from the Turneffe Atoll, Belize

Figure 2. Cirolana westbyi n sp. male (a) right mandible; (b) right maxilla; (c) distal part of right mandible; (d) right maxillule; (e) right maxilliped; (f)mesial part of right maxilliped showing endite