•Participants residing closer to their first ever ART prescribing physician are more likely to be highly adherent to ART.•Participants residing in rural areas have poorer health outcomes when ...compared to those residing in urban areas.•Discrepancies in HIV treatment outcomes exist despite the fact that HIV treatment costs are born directly by government.
Distance to health services plays an important role in determining access to care and an individual's health. This study aims to examine the relationship between distance to antiretroviral therapy (ART) prescribing physician and adherence to HIV treatment in British Columbia, Canada. Only participants who provided highly accurate locational data for both place of residence and their physician were used in the analysis. Using logistic regression, a multivariable confounder model was created to assess the association between distance and adherence. A geographically weighted logistic regression was also performed to adjust for spatial dependency. There were 1528 participants in the analysis, for a median distance of 17.85km. The final model showed further away from ART prescribing physician had a higher chance of incomplete adherence to ART (adjusted odds ratio 1.31; 95% Confidence Interval 1.04–1.65). Mobile services could potentially increase adherence rates for population residing further away from their ART prescribing physician.
Abstract
Background
Topoisomerase IIα has been shown to be down-regulated in doxorubicin-resistant cell lines. The specificity proteins Sp1 and Sp3 have been implicated in regulation of topoisomerase ...IIα transcription, although the mechanism by which they regulate expression is not fully understood. Sp1 has been shown to bind specifically to both proximal and distal GC elements of the human topoisomerase IIα promoter
in vitro
, while Sp3 binds only to the distal GC element unless additional flanking sequences are included. While Sp1 is thought to be an activator of human topoisomerase IIα, the functional significance of Sp3 binding is not known. Therefore, we sought to determine the functional relationship between Sp1 and Sp3 binding to the topoisomerase IIα promoter
in vivo
. We investigated endogenous levels of Sp1, Sp3 and topoisomerase IIα as well as binding of both Sp1 and Sp3 to the GC boxes of the topoisomerase IIα promoter in breast cancer cell lines
in vivo
after short term doxorubicin exposure.
Results
Functional effects of Sp1 and Sp3 were studied using transient cotransfection assays using a topoisomerase IIα promoter reporter construct. The
in vivo
interactions of Sp1 and Sp3 with the GC elements of the topoisomerase IIα promoter were studied in doxorubicin-treated breast cancer cell lines using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Relative amounts of endogenous proteins were measured using immunoblotting.
In vivo
DNA looping mediated by proteins bound at the GC1 and GC2 elements was studied using the chromatin conformation capture assay. Both Sp1 and Sp3 bound to the GC1 and GC2 regions. Sp1 and Sp3 were transcriptional activators and repressors respectively, with Sp3 repression being dominant over Sp1-mediated activation. The GC1 and GC2 elements are linked
in vivo
to form a loop, thus bringing distal regulatory elements and their cognate transcription factors into close proximity with the transcription start site.
Conclusion
These observations provide a mechanistic explanation for the modulation of topoisomerase IIα and concomitant down-regulation that can be mediated by topoisomerase II poisons. Competition between Sp1 and Sp3 for the same cognate DNA would result in activation or repression depending on absolute amounts of each transcription factor in cells treated with doxorubicin.
Mobility among sex workers has been linked not only to improved economic and social opportunities, but also to concerns regarding displacement, criminalization, and violence. In 2014, new ...“end-demand” legislation criminalized new aspects of sex work in Canada (e.g., third-party advertising, purchasing) while leaving the sale of sex legal. Utilizing data from a longitudinal community-based cohort of women sex workers in Metro Vancouver (An Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access AESHA, 2010-2016), we used kernel density mapping to understand and identify geographic patterns of workplace neighborhood mobility (i.e., changing the primary neighborhood in which one worked in the last 6 months); multivariable logistic regression using generalized estimating equations was also used to model contextual (policing, violence, and safety) and individual correlates of workplace mobility among sex workers over the 6-year period, including potential changes in mobility patterns pre- and post-end-demand criminalization. A total of 543 sex workers were included in analyses, contributing 2,199 observations. A total of 402 (74.0%) experienced workplace neighborhood mobility during the study period. Neighborhood mobility was negatively correlated with age (adjusted odds ratio AOR = 0.98/year older, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.97, 0.99) and positively correlated with homelessness (AOR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.82), identifying as a gender/sexual minority (AOR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.04, 1.70), and servicing clients primarily outdoors (vs. informal indoor or in-call venues; AOR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.21, 1.81); police harassment (AOR = 1.19, 95% CI = 0.96, 1.48, p = .11) and changing one’s neighborhood of work due to safety concerns (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI = 0.94, 2.00, p = .09) were both marginally correlated. Steps to promote safer working conditions for marginalized women in urban environments remain urgently needed, including shifts away from criminalized enforcement toward community-led initiatives and promoting access to safer indoor workspaces.
Abstract Background The cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is unknown; multiple risk factors have been implicated, including environmental exposures, such as sunlight. Many studies have relied on ...latitude alone as a crude proxy for sunlight exposure. We aimed to develop a protocol allowing a more detailed estimate of cumulative ambient ultra-violet B (UVB) exposure at critical time-periods over a patient's life-course. Methods 4010 definite MS patients with a ‘movement history’ from birth to the study end (2005) were selected from the University of British Columbia, Canada's MS Genetic database. Patient's place of resident from birth were tracked, each place being geocoded (latitude and longitude) and assigned a UVB value using the NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) dataset. Combined, these data allowed an estimated UVB value for each patient based on year and location. Results Using this protocol, we provide a potentially more detailed cumulative UVB exposure for critical periods in a patients' life history based on their individual spatial migration through time. Conclusions This protocol is intended to provide a framework for researchers to more accurately estimate UVB exposures for individuals over the course of their life history and may be useful for understanding etiology of MS and other chronic disease.
Road traffic injuries constitute a significant global health burden; the World Health Organization estimates that they result in 1.35 million deaths annually. While most pedestrian injury studies ...rely predominantly on statistical modelling, this paper argues for a mixed-methods approach combining spatial analysis, environmental scans, and local knowledge for assessing environmental risk factors. Using data from the Nova Scotia Trauma Registry, severe pedestrian injury cases and ten corresponding hotspots were mapped across the Halifax Regional Municipality. Using qualitative observation, quantitative environmental scans, and a socioeconomic deprivation index, we assessed hotspots over three years to identify key social- and built-environmental correlates. Injuries occurred in a range of settings; however, clear patterns were not observed based on land use, age, or socio-economic status (SES) alone. Three hotspots revealed an association between elevated pedestrian injury and a pattern of geographic, environmental, and socio-economic factors: low- to middle-SES housing separated from a roadside attraction by several lanes of traffic, and blind hills/bends. An additional generalized scenario was constructed representing common risk factors across all hotspots. This study is unique in that it moves beyond individual measures (e.g., statistical, environmental scans, or geographic information systems (GIS) mapping) to combine all three methods toward identifying environmental features associated with pedestrian motor vehicle crashes (PMVC).
To carry out functioning and dynamic vegetation studies, a temporal analysis is needed. So far, only data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites with ...Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensors offer the required temporal resolution, but their spatial resolution is coarse (1.1 km). But, in many situations, the vegetation cover is heterogeneous and the 1.1 km AVHRR pixel contains several types of land use radiometrically different and is, in fact, a mixed pixel. Thus, the reflectance and consequently deduced parameters (NDVI, LAI, etc.) measured by AVHRR is actually average value and does not represent a value for each vegetation class present in the pixel. The objective is to extract the reflectance of each vegetation class from the mixed pixel using NOAA-AVHRR data and SPOT-HRV data simultaneously which give the proportions of each type of vegetation inside the mixed pixel through a classification map. The paper presents a method for radiometrically unmixing coarse resolution signals through the inversion of linear mixture modelling on heterogeneous regions of natural vegetation (Bidi-Bahn) in Burkina-Faso and in Niger (Hapex site). In a first step, simulated coarse resolution data (NOAA-AVHRR) obtained from the degradation of SPOT images are used to assess the method. In a second step, real NOAA-AVHRR data are used and some elements of validation are given by comparing the results to airborne reflectance measurements.
The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) is used to assess a realistic estimate of emissions by savanna fires from NOAA advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) satellite imagery ...during the Experiment for Regional Sources and Sinks of Oxidants (EXPRESSO) campaign. The daily amounts of gases released by biomass burning depend on burnt biomaterial, the mass of which is estimated from two independent methods: classification of vegetation formations (CV) or net primary productivity (NPP). The area of the burnt zone is derived from satellite imagery. The percent of burnt biomass or combustion factor (α) is determined by an adjustment procedure using two model runs and assumed to be 40%, a value consistent with the biomass wetness. The simulated CO redistribution is compared with aircraft measurements (tracks and profiles). Two events of 4 and 5 days are examined, where flights above forest and savanna zones have been performed. In this study we show that the main mechanisms of the chemical species spatial redistribution originates from mesoscale features. The RAMS results are in rather good agreement with the aircraft measurements (vertical profiles or horizontal legs) over forest and savanna. The difference between the CO simulated fields obtained from CV or NPP is weak (about 20% or 30%), and it is difficult to discriminate the best method because this difference is generally inferior to the gap between model and observations. One may consider this study as a preliminary approach to improve the estimate of released gases by biomass burning with the help of mesoscale modeling and the knowledge of the real sources.
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