Some Thoughts on Devising a Historiographical Map of Seventh-Century BC Egypt

The social and cultural developments in the Eastern Mediter-ranean Area of Connectivity in the 8th to 6th c. BC are stronglyrooted in the cross-regional mobility and subsequent culturaldiversity that resulted from the various local strategies in thesouthern Levant and the Nile delta of challenging and outma-neuvering the super-powers. Yet, historiographical maps of 7thc. Egypt predominantly depict the political landscape – if at all– as the dominion of politically homogeneous entities: as parteither of the Assyrian empire, or of the Kushite empire, or ofa local power. By contrast, this paper discusses an alternativevisualization, which indicates historical complexity with theaim of triggering further research

Assessing cellular response to functionalized α-helical peptide hydrogels

α-Helical peptide hydrogels are decorated with a cell-binding peptide motif (RGDS), which is shown to promote adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of PC12 cells. Gel structure and integrity are maintained after functionalization. This opens possibilities for the bottom-up design and engineering of complex functional scaffolds for 2D and 3D cell cultures.</p

Social capital and burnout among mental healthcare providers

Background: Provider burnout is a critical problem in mental health services. Contributing factors have been explicated across three domains: personal, job and organizational characteristics. Of these, organizational characteristics, including workplace environment, appear to be particularly important given that most interventions addressing burnout via the other domains (e.g. bolstering personal coping skills) have been modestly effective at best. Aims: This study builds on previous research by using social capital as a framework for the experience of work social milieu, and aims to provide a richer understanding of how workplace social environment might impact burnout and help create more effective ways to reduce burnout. Methods: Providers (n = 40) taking part in a larger burnout intervention study were randomly selected to take part in interviews regarding their workplace environment and burnout. Participant responses were analyzed thematically. Results: Workplace social milieu revolved around two primary themes: workplace social capital in provider burnout and the protective qualities of social capital in cohesive work teams that appear to mitigate burnout. Conclusions: These results imply that work environments where managers support collaboration and social interaction among work teams may reduce burnout

Boceprevir in combination with HIV protease inhibitors in patients with advanced fibrosis-altered drug-drug interactions?

In HIV/HCV co-infected patients improved treatment outcomes have been reported for the HCV protease inhibitors (PIs) boceprevir (BOC) and telaprevir (TVR), reaching SVR rates of up to 70% in pilot trials. Due to complex drug-drug-interactions triple therapy is substantially limited in HIV/HCV-coinfected individuals. Co-administration of BOC with the commonly available HIV PIs has been reported not only to decrease the level of BOC but also to lead to relevant decreases in the respective HIV PI. Here, we report on two patients who received BOC-containing HCV triple therapy in combination with a HIV PI. Patient 1 was on darunavir 800 mg/ritonavir 100 mg once-daily mono-therapy. Using FibroScan a liver stiffness of 34 kPa suggested liver cirrhosis prior to start of HCV triple therapy. At week 5 of HCV triple therapy darunavir trough concentration was measured in the reference range with 3777 ng/ml (reference trough concentration 2400&#x2013;4600 ng/ml). HCV-RNA became negative at week 10 and HIV-RNA was below detection limit (&#60;40 copies/ml) at all times. Patient 2 was on a simplified FTC qd and fos-amprenavir 700 mg/ritonavir 100 mg bid regimen. Liver disease had also progressed to liver cirrhosis, confirmed in FibroScan, with a liver stiffness of 32 kPa. At week 8 of HCV triple therapy fos-amprenavir trough level was measured in the normal reference range with 1699 ng/ml (reference trough concentration 750&#x2013;2500 ng/ml). At week 11 HCV-RNA was &#60;12 IU/ml and HIV viral load was below detection limit of &#60;40 copies/ml at all times. Our clinical data suggest that in patients with advanced liver disease possibly drug levels of HIV PIs which are coadministered with BOC may be within the normal range. In order to better understand the true amount of drug interactions between BOC and commonly used HIV PIs in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients with more advanced liver fibrosis, urgently more PK studies are required to make HCV triple therapy accessible for a wider number of HIV/HCV-coinfected patients in desperate need of these drugs