Quantifying the dynamics of viral recombination during free virus and cell-to-cell transmission in HIV-1 infection.

Recombination has been shown to contribute to human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) evolution , but the underlying dynamics are extremely complex, depending on the nature of the fitness landscapes and of epistatic interactions. A less well-studied determinant of recombinant evolution is the mode of virus transmission in the cell population. HIV-1 can spread by free virus transmission, resulting largely in singly infected cells, and also by direct cell-to-cell transmission, resulting in the simultaneous infection of cells with multiple viruses.

Building institutional resilience in the context of climate change in Aurora, Philippines.

The role of local government units (LGUs) in disaster resilience is crucial for a hazard-prone country such as the Philippines. Although the country has its own institutional framework on disaster risk reduction, a number of issues limit LGUs' potential to perform its role. This study focused on building institutional resilience of LGUs towards building climate risk resilience in Aurora, Philippines by engaging key actors in the formulation of Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAP).

Secreted frizzled related protein is a target of PaxB and plays a role in aquiferous system development in the freshwater sponge, Ephydatia muelleri.

Canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling, as well as the Pax/Six gene network, are involved in patterning the freshwater sponge aquiferous system. Using computational approaches to identify transcription factor binding motifs in a freshwater sponge genome, we located putative PaxB binding sites near a Secreted Frizzled Related Protein (SFRP) gene in Ephydatia muelleri. EmSFRP is expressed throughout development, but with highest levels in juvenile sponges.

Intense focused ultrasound stimulation can safely stimulate inflamed subcutaneous tissue and assess allodynia.

Background: Potential peripheral sources of deep pain can require invasive evocative tests for their assessment. Here we perform research whose ultimate goal is development of a non-invasive evocative test for deep painful tissue.

Methods: We used a rat model of inflammation to show that intense focused ultrasound (iFU) differentially stimulates inflamed versus control tissue and can identify allodynia.

Intense focused ultrasound as a potential research tool for the quantification of diurnal inflammatory pain.

Quantifying pain through assay of a human's or animal's response to a known stimulus as a function of time of day is a critical means of advancing chronotherapeutic pain management. Current methods for quantifying pain, even in the context of etiologies involving deep tissue, generally involve stimulation by quantifiable means of either cutaneous (heat-lamp tests, electrical stimuli) or both cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue (von Frey hairs, tourniquets, etc.) or study of proxies for pain (such as stress, via assay of cortisol levels).