The source and dynamics of persistent HIV-1 during long-term combinational antiretroviral therapy (cART) are critical to understanding the barriers to curing HIV-1 infection. To address this issue, ...we isolated and genetically characterized HIV-1 DNA from naïve and memory T cells from peripheral blood and gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) from eight patients after 4–12 y of suppressive cART. Our detailed analysis of these eight patients indicates that persistent HIV-1 in peripheral blood and GALT is found primarily in memory CD4 ⁺ T cells CD45RO ⁺/CD27(⁺/⁻). The HIV-1 infection frequency of CD4 ⁺ T cells from peripheral blood and GALT was higher in patients who initiated treatment during chronic compared with acute/early infection, indicating that early initiation of therapy results in lower HIV-1 reservoir size in blood and gut. Phylogenetic analysis revealed an HIV-1 genetic change between RNA sequences isolated before initiation of cART and intracellular HIV-1 sequences from the T-cell subsets after 4–12 y of suppressive cART in four of the eight patients. However, evolutionary rate analyses estimated no greater than three nucleotide substitutions per gene region analyzed during all of the 4–12 y of suppressive therapy. We also identified a clearly replication-incompetent viral sequence in multiple memory T cells in one patient, strongly supporting asynchronous cell replication of a cell containing integrated HIV-1 DNA as the source. This study indicates that persistence of a remarkably stable population of infected memory cells will be the primary barrier to a cure, and, with little evidence of viral replication, this population could be maintained by homeostatic cell proliferation or other processes.
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For Riemannian manifolds with a measure \((M,g, e^{-f} dvol_g)\) we prove mean curvature and volume comparison results when the \(\infty\)-Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor is bounded from below and \(f\) is ...bounded or \(\partial_r f\) is bounded from below, generalizing the classical ones (i.e. when \(f\) is constant). This leads to extensions of many theorems for Ricci curvature bounded below to the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor. In particular, we give extensions of all of the major comparison theorems when \(f\) is bounded. Simple examples show the bound on \(f\) is necessary for these results.
Plant species height (mature height), which strongly correlates with other measures of size, is widely considered an important functional trait. Taller species contribute greatly to ecosystem ...function and are frequently identified as strong competitors. Additionally, important ecological processes like self-thinning scale with plant species size. In spite of the clear functional importance of species size, evidence for size-based plant community assembly rules has been scant. While herbivory can be species specific and there are reasons why herbivores may target larger plant species, it is unknown whether herbivory has size-biased impacts on species composition. In an old-field plant community, we compared plant species composition in herbivore exclusion (caged) and control plots over five years to test whether herbivore activity favors species at one end of the size spectrum. Across 5 years, smaller species were modestly, but consistently, underrepresented in caged plots compared to control plots. This underrepresentation of relatively smaller plant species in caged plots, where seedling herbivory was greatly diminished, was driven by lower small plant species richness and abundance in those plots; the abundance and richness of tall species did not differ across treatments. Our findings demonstrate that reducing herbivore activity in our study community modestly but consistently altered plant species composition, slightly favoring larger species. There was no evidence that larger species are preferentially targeted by herbivores. Some research suggests, although it will require further investigation, that seedling herbivory, regardless of the species eaten, produces vegetation gaps that small plant species are more successful in colonizing.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Problem:
One in four American adults have a disability, which makes people with disabilities the largest minority group in the United States (U.S.). Chronic diseases are prevalent within this ...population, which faces myriad barriers that limit access to healthcare and create significant health care disparities. Yet, disability awareness programs are limited in U.S. medical schools and graduates report a sense of unpreparedness to care for this population.
Intervention:
Come Roll with Me (CRWM) was implemented as an interprofessional, preclinical experience to provide medical and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students an opportunity to engage with wheelchair users and one another. Students rotated through four stations with a licensed physical therapist and wheelchair user facilitator. Stations included (1) manual wheelchair self-propulsion, (2) accessible parking, (3) transfers, and (4) open dialog on barriers to healthcare led by the wheelchair user.
Context:
This study sought to assess the impact of CRWM on students' understanding of the barriers and health disparities faced by individuals with disabilities. Assessment was conducted using course evaluations, thematic analysis of student reflection essays and a focus group with the wheelchair user facilitators to determine if CRWM met pre-implementation program goals and objectives, including the Interprofessional Educational Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies.
Impact:
Student reflections from both disciplines indicated that learners were able to identify a variety of barriers faced by people with disabilities and prioritize methods to mitigate these factors. Approximately 91% of medical students agreed or strongly agreed that CRWM was effective in their learning on course evaluations. Wheelchair user facilitators noted three important outcomes of CRWM: educating, teaming, and impact on students.
Lesson Learned:
Come Roll with Me is a robust educational activity, as evidenced by the program meeting all goals and objectives as well as (IPEC) core competencies. It provides students a unique opportunity to learn about disability from another profession and wheelchair users. People with disabilities and DPT students are a unique and underutilized pool of educators in undergraduate medical education.
Brain interaction for mobile games Coulton, Paul; Wylie, Carlos Garcia; Bamford, Will
Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments,
09/2011
Conference Proceeding
Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) presents exciting possibilities with the recent emergence of off-the-shelf low cost headsets that offer the opportunity to implement BCI in a wide variety of ...scenarios. One interesting possibility is the ability to link BCI devices to a mobile phone, not only to provide new interaction modalities, but also the ability to record brain activity of users as they perform everyday 'real world' activities which could reveal new HCI insights on how we interact with our environment. In this paper we present Brain Interaction for Mobile Games (BIMG) through a fully functioning mobile game utilising a low cost EEG headset that combines a mimetic and intuitive interface with the requirement for the player to adopt an 'attentive' or 'meditative' mental state. The results illustrate that although EEG headsets are in their relative infancy they do offer the potential for new approaches both for mobile interaction and in measuring emotional states of users in the field. Further the spatial 'mind maps', that link the recorded attention and meditation levels to the players location in the game, highlight the potential for visualising emotions of mobile users whilst navigating virtual and physical spaces.
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10.
The One Page Magazine Itzkoff, Dave; Robertson, Campbell; Bertsche, Rachel ...
The New York times magazine,
07/2013
Magazine Article
Washington Monuments DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY By Matt Bai In the wake of Mitt Romney's defeat, the G.O.P. is planning an attack on the Electoral College. Since Democrats denounced it after ...losing in 2000 and 2004, you might think it would be a bipartisan issue. ...someone should remind Republicans that their guy lost the popular vote by nearly three points. What I'm Drinking Now By Mario Batali Give hot cocoa a kick: chop two 3-ounce disks of Mexican drinking chocolate and place in a saucepan with ½ cup boiling water and 2 teaspoons ancho-chili powder.
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