Introduction: Understanding levels of HIV testing among populations at risk for acquisition is essential to meeting the goal of the United Nations that 95% of individuals living with HIV know their status. This study assessed HIV testing prevalence among men who had sex with men (MSM), characteristics of MSM who have never tested for HIV, and missed testing opportunities in Hanoi, Vietnam.Methods: We measured the prevalence of never testing for HIV and missed opportunities for testing in the baseline data of a cohort study of MSM recruited in 2017-2019 in Hanoi.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Teledentistry has expanded access to oral health care by allowing patients and providers the option to receive care using technology and telecommunications. This study used a cross-sectional, mixed-methods design to evaluate dentists' perceptions in the United States and understanding of the value and scope of teledentistry in their practices and to adopt virtual encounters as a care delivery methodology.
Methods: This study used a cross-sectional, mixed-methods design.
JDR Clin Trans Res
July 2023
Background: The objective of this article was to understand the trust of study participants in dental providers and trust-building practices used by dentists to establish and maintain trust with their patients.
Methods: This study used a concurrent cross-sectional mixed-methods design to measure the participants' trust in their dental providers. An 11-item Dental Trust Scale (DTS) questionnaire was administered to 150 White, Black, and Hispanic study participants.
The establishment of an "interferon (IFN) signature" to subset SLE patients on disease severity has led to therapeutics targeting IFNα. Here, we investigate IFN signaling in SLE using multiplexed protein arrays and single cell cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF). First, the IFN signature for SLE patients (n=81) from the Stanford Lupus Registry is determined using fluidigm qPCR measuring 44 previously determined IFN-inducible transcripts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Public Health Dent
January 2022
Objective: To ascertain the financial impact associated with the underutilization of preventive dental care for adults enrolled in Medicaid.
Methods: We used adult claims data for patients aged 21-64 in the IBM Watson Marketscan Medicaid database. Enrollees were included if they had at least one dental claim in 2019 and were continuously enrolled between 2014 and 2019.
Objectives: Dental-related emergency department (ED) visits are a growing public health concern. Dental insurance coverage is a strong predictor of dental service access. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to assess the incidence of dental-related ED visits for Medicaid dental enrollees compared to those with other insurances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Public Health Dent
September 2020
Objective: There are both opportunities and challenges with the implementation of oral health value-based care (OHVBC). To tackle concerns and advance conversation, a symposium was convened with subject matter experts to develop a gap analysis and capture insights into professional readiness for value-based care design.
Methods: The symposium was convened as a private event for 46 participants over the course of one and a half days in December 2019.
The Texas Ranger Special Operations Group (SOG) performs high-risk warrant service and responds to callouts for evolving kinetic situations and special missions as required. These operations may occur many hours from a trauma center. Fresh whole blood (FWB) transfusions may offer a stopgap for those who are critically injured.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease that follows an unpredictable disease course and affects multiple organs and tissues. We performed an integrated, multicohort analysis of 7,471 transcriptomic profiles from 40 independent studies to identify robust gene expression changes associated with SLE. We identified a 93-gene signature (SLE MetaSignature) that is differentially expressed in the blood of patients with SLE compared with healthy volunteers; distinguishes SLE from other autoimmune, inflammatory, and infectious diseases; and persists across diverse tissues and cell types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoherent frequency generators are an enabling platform in basic science and applied technology. Originally reliant on high-power lasers, recently comb generation has been demonstrated in ultrahigh- microcavities. The large circulating intensity within the cavity results in strong light-matter interaction, giving rise to Kerr parametric oscillations for comb generation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlexible, light-emitting materials have shown promise in a wide range of applications. Here, we develop an inverse soft-lithography process for embedding zinc oxide nanotetrapods (ZnO NTP) uniformly and nondestructively into a host matrix. The crystalline NTPs were synthesized using a catalyst-free, environmentally friendly chemical vapor transport method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutoantibodies are a hallmark of autoimmune diseases such as lupus and have the potential to be used as biomarkers for diverse diseases, including immunodeficiency, infectious disease, and cancer. More precise detection of antibodies to specific targets is needed to improve diagnosis of such diseases. Here, we report the development of reusable peptide microarrays, based on giant magnetoresistive (GMR) nanosensors optimized for sensitively detecting magnetic nanoparticle labels, for the detection of antibodies with a resolution of a single post-translationally modified amino acid.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBelief networks represent a powerful approach to problems involving probabilistic inference, but much of the work in this area is software based utilizing standard deterministic hardware based on the transistor which provides the gain and directionality needed to interconnect billions of them into useful networks. This paper proposes a transistor like device that could provide an analogous building block for probabilistic networks. We present two proof-of-concept examples of belief networks, one reciprocal and one non-reciprocal, implemented using the proposed device which is simulated using experimentally benchmarked models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is well-established that high spin-orbit coupling (SOC) materials convert a charge current density into a spin current density which can be used to switch a magnet efficiently and there is increasing interest in identifying materials with large spin Hall angle for lower switching current. Using experimentally benchmarked models, we show that composite structures can be designed using existing spin Hall materials such that the effective spin Hall angle is larger by an order of magnitude. The basic idea is to funnel spins from a large area of spin Hall material into a small area of ferromagnet using a normal metal with large spin diffusion length and low resistivity like Cu or Al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh titer, class-switched autoantibodies are a hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Dysregulation of the interferon (IFN) pathway is observed in individuals with active SLE, although the association of specific autoantibodies with chemokine score, a combined measurement of three IFN-regulated chemokines, is not known. To identify autoantibodies associated with chemokine score, we developed giant magnetoresistive (GMR) biosensor microarrays, which allow the parallel measurement of multiple serum antibodies to autoantigens and peptides.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Type I interferon (IFN) signaling is a central pathogenic pathway in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and therapeutics targeting type I IFN signaling are in development. Multiple proteins with overlapping functions play a role in IFN signaling, but the signaling events downstream of receptor engagement are unclear. This study was undertaken to investigate the roles of the type I and type II IFN signaling components IFN-α/β/ω receptor 2 (IFNAR-2), IFN regulatory factor 9 (IRF-9), and STAT-1 in a mouse model of SLE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mechanisms underlying development of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) autoantibodies are unclear. The U1-70K protein is the predominant target of RNP autoantibodies, and the RNA binding domain has been shown to be the immunodominant autoantigenic region of U1-70K, although the specific epitopes are not known. To precisely map U1-70K epitopes, we developed silicon-based peptide microarrays with >5700 features, corresponding to 843 unique peptides derived from the U1-70K protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTimothy syndrome (TS) is a rare genetic condition that associates long QT syndrome, structural heart defects, dysmorphic facial features, syndactyly, seizures, developmental delay, and autism. Timothy syndrome type 1 is caused by a recurrent de novo mutation (p.Gly406Arg) in exon 8A of the L-type calcium channel gene CACNA1C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus (pSLE) patients often initially present with more active and severe disease than adults, including a higher frequency of lupus nephritis. Specific autoantibodies, including anti-C1q, anti-DNA and anti-alpha-actinin, have been associated with kidney involvement in SLE, and DNA antibodies are capable of initiating early-stage lupus nephritis in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. Over 100 different autoantibodies have been described in SLE patients, highlighting the need for comprehensive autoantibody profiling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA graphene lateral spin valve structure with asymmetric contacts is presented for the first time, with enhancement of spin angular momentum absorption in its receiving magnet. The asymmetric device with tunneling barrier only at the injector magnet shows a comparable spin valve signal but lower electrical noises compared to the device with two tunneling barriers. We also report experimental measurements of spin transfer torque.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Elevated levels of particulate matter PM2.5 and rhinovirus infection have been known to exacerbate asthma. However, the combined effect of rhinovirus infection and high PM2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpin-based devices are widely discussed for post-complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) applications. A number of spin device ideas propose using spin current to carry information coherently through a spin channel and transfering it to an output magnet by spin transfer torque. Graphene is an ideal channel material in this context due to its long spin diffusion length, gate-tunable carrier density, and high carrier mobility.
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