Timeliness of Clinic Attendance is a good predictor of Virological Response and Resistance to Antiretroviral drugs in HIV-infected patients

Ensuring long-term adherence to therapy is essential for the success of HIV treatment. As access to viral load monitoring and genotyping is poor in resource-limited settings, a simple tool to monitor adherence is needed. We assessed the relationship between an indicator based on timeliness of clinic attendance and virological response and HIV drug resistance

Testing the theory of immune selection in cancers that break the rules of transplantation

Modification of cancer cells likely to reduce their immunogenicity, including loss or down-regulation of MHC molecules, is now well documented and has become the main support for the concept of immune surveillance. The evidence that these modifications, in fact, result from selection by the immune system is less clear, since the possibility that they may result from reorganized metabolism associated with proliferation or from cell de-differentiation remains. Here, we (a) survey old and new transplantation experiments that test the possibility of selection and (b) survey how transmissible tumours of dogs and Tasmanian devils provide naturally evolved tests of immune surveillance

T helper cell subsets specific for pseudomonas aeruginosa in healthy individuals and patients with cystic fibrosis

Background: We set out to determine the magnitude of antigen-specific memory T helper cell responses to Pseudomonas aeruginosa in healthy humans and patients with cystic fibrosis. Methods: Peripheral blood human memory CD4+ T cells were co-cultured with dendritic cells that had been infected with different strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The T helper response was determined by measuring proliferation, immunoassay of cytokine output, and immunostaining of intracellular cytokines. Results: Healthy individuals and patients with cystic fibrosis had robust antigen-specific memory CD4+ T cell responses to Pseudomonas aeruginosa that not only contained a Th1 and Th17 component but also Th22 cells. In contrast to previous descriptions of human Th22 cells, these Pseudomonal-specific Th22 cells lacked the skin homing markers CCR4 or CCR10, although were CCR6+. Healthy individuals and patients with cystic fibrosis had similar levels of Th22 cells, but the patient group had significantly fewer Th17 cells in peripheral blood. Conclusions: Th22 cells specific to Pseudomonas aeruginosa are induced in both healthy individuals and patients with cystic fibrosis. Along with Th17 cells, they may play an important role in the pulmonary response to this microbe in patients with cystic fibrosis and other conditions

Image informatics strategies for deciphering neuronal network connectivity

Brain function relies on an intricate network of highly dynamic neuronal connections that rewires dramatically under the impulse of various external cues and pathological conditions. Among the neuronal structures that show morphologi- cal plasticity are neurites, synapses, dendritic spines and even nuclei. This structural remodelling is directly connected with functional changes such as intercellular com- munication and the associated calcium-bursting behaviour. In vitro cultured neu- ronal networks are valuable models for studying these morpho-functional changes. Owing to the automation and standardisation of both image acquisition and image analysis, it has become possible to extract statistically relevant readout from such networks. Here, we focus on the current state-of-the-art in image informatics that enables quantitative microscopic interrogation of neuronal networks. We describe the major correlates of neuronal connectivity and present workflows for analysing them. Finally, we provide an outlook on the challenges that remain to be addressed, and discuss how imaging algorithms can be extended beyond in vitro imaging studies

Tuning ultrafast electron thermalization pathways in a van der Waals heterostructure

Ultrafast electron thermalization - the process leading to Auger recombination, carrier multiplication via impact ionization and hot carrier luminescence - occurs when optically excited electrons in a material undergo rapid electron-electron scattering to redistribute excess energy and reach electronic thermal equilibrium. Due to extremely short time and length scales, the measurement and manipulation of electron thermalization in nanoscale devices remains challenging even with the most advanced ultrafast laser techniques. Here, we overcome this challenge by leveraging the atomic thinness of two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) materials in order to introduce a highly tunable electron transfer pathway that directly competes with electron thermalization. We realize this scheme in a graphene-boron nitride-graphene (G-BN-G) vdW heterostructure, through which optically excited carriers are transported from one graphene layer to the other. By applying an interlayer bias voltage or varying the excitation photon energy, interlayer carrier transport can be controlled to occur faster or slower than the intralayer scattering events, thus effectively tuning the electron thermalization pathways in graphene. Our findings, which demonstrate a novel means to probe and directly modulate electron energy transport in nanoscale materials, represent an important step toward designing and implementing novel optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices with tailored microscopic properties.Comment: Accepted to Nature Physic

Transcriptome pathways unique to dehydration tolerant relatives of modern wheat

Among abiotic stressors, drought is a major factor responsible for dramatic yield loss in agriculture. In order to reveal differences in global expression profiles of drought tolerant and sensitive wild emmer wheat genotypes, a previously deployed shock-like dehydration process was utilized to compare transcriptomes at two time points in root and leaf tissues using the Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Wheat Genome Array hybridization. The comparison of transcriptomes reveal several unique genes or expression patterns such as differential usage of IP(3)-dependent signal transduction pathways, ethylene- and abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent signaling, and preferential or faster induction of ABA-dependent transcription factors by the tolerant genotype that distinguish contrasting genotypes indicative of distinctive stress response pathways. The data also show that wild emmer wheat is capable of engaging known drought stress responsive mechanisms. The global comparison of transcriptomes in the absence of and after dehydration underlined the gene networks especially in root tissues that may have been lost in the selection processes generating modern bread wheats

Ecology: a prerequisite for malaria elimination and eradication

* Existing front-line vector control measures, such as insecticide-treated nets and residual sprays, cannot break the transmission cycle of Plasmodium falciparum in the most intensely endemic parts of Africa and the Pacific * The goal of malaria eradication will require urgent strategic investment into understanding the ecology and evolution of the mosquito vectors that transmit malaria * Priority areas will include understanding aspects of the mosquito life cycle beyond the blood feeding processes which directly mediate malaria transmission * Global commitment to malaria eradication necessitates a corresponding long-term commitment to vector ecolog

Quantitative proteomic analysis of age-related subventricular zone proteins associated with neurodegenerative disease.

Aging is characterized by a progressive decline in the function of adult tissues which can lead to neurodegenerative disorders. However, little is known about the correlation between protein changes in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and neurodegenerative diseases with age. In the present study, neural stem cells (NSCs) were derived from the SVZ on postnatal 7 d, 1 m, and 12 m-old mice. With age, NSCs exhibited increased SA-β-gal activity and decreased proliferation and pool size in the SVZ zone, and were associated with elevated inflammatory chemokines and cytokines. Furthermore, quantitative proteomics and ingenuity pathway analysis were used to evaluate the significant age-related alterations in proteins and their functions. Some downregulated proteins such as DPYSL2, TPI1, ALDH, and UCHL1 were found to play critical roles in the neurological disease and PSMA1, PSMA3, PSMC2, PSMD11, and UCHL1 in protein homeostasis. Taken together, we have provided valuable insight into the cellular and molecular processes that underlie aging-associated declines in SVZ neurogenesis for the early detection of differences in gene expression and the potential risk of neurological disease, which is beneficial in the prevention of the diseases

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Measurement of CP-violation asymmetries in D0 to Ks pi+ pi-

We report a measurement of time-integrated CP-violation asymmetries in the resonant substructure of the three-body decay D0 to Ks pi+ pi- using CDF II data corresponding to 6.0 invfb of integrated luminosity from Tevatron ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. The charm mesons used in this analysis come from D*+(2010) to D0 pi+ and D*-(2010) to D0bar pi-, where the production flavor of the charm meson is determined by the charge of the accompanying pion. We apply a Dalitz-amplitude analysis for the description of the dynamic decay structure and use two complementary approaches, namely a full Dalitz-plot fit employing the isobar model for the contributing resonances and a model-independent bin-by-bin comparison of the D0 and D0bar Dalitz plots. We find no CP-violation effects and measure an asymmetry of ACP = (-0.05 +- 0.57 (stat) +- 0.54 (syst))% for the overall integrated CP-violation asymmetry, consistent with the standard model prediction.Comment: 15 page