Barriers and Enablers for Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Among People Living With HIV/AIDS in the Era of COVID-19: A Qualitative Study From Pakistan.

With the increased availability of safe antiretroviral therapy (ART) in recent years, achieving optimal adherence and patient retention is becoming the biggest challenge for people living with HIV (PLWH). Care retention is influenced by several socioeconomic, socio-cultural, and government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we aim to explore barriers and facilitators to adherence to ART among PLWH in Pakistan in general and COVID-19 pandemic related in particular.

Stigma, Social Support, Illicit Drug Use, and Other Predictors of Anxiety and Depression Among HIV/AIDS Patients in Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Anxiety and depression in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) can lead to non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), morbidity, and mortality. Therefore, assessing the stigma, social support, and other determinants of anxiety and depression in PLWHA are important for developing further interventions. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 505 PLWHA, approached through systematic sampling, who paid routine visits to the ART center, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad.

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of WHOQOL-HIV Bref among people living with HIV/AIDS in Pakistan.

Background: Reliable Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) assessment will be useful in identifying health issues and in identifying health care actions. Due to the lack of a psychometrically valid tool in Urdu, we aim to translate and examine the psychometric and cross-cultural adaptation of WHOQOL HIV Bref among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Pakistan.

Methods: The standard forward-backwards translation technique was used to convert English version of the WHOQOL HIV Bref into Urdu.

Excellent Temperature-Control Based on Reversible Thermochromic Materials for Light-Driven Phase Change Materials System.

Light-driven phase change materials (PCMs) have received significant attention due to their capacity to convert visible light into thermal energy, storing it as latent heat. However, continuous photo-thermal conversion can cause the PCMs to reach high thermal equilibrium temperatures after phase transition. In our study, a novel light-driven phase change material system with temperature-control properties was constructed using a thermochromic compound.

Rapid Fabrication of Noniridescent Structural Color Coatings with High Color Visibility, Good Structural Stability, and Self-Healing Properties.

Artificial construction of amorphous photonic structures (APSs) is an important approach for obtaining noniridescent structural colors and shows a great potential for practical applications in paints, textile coloring, display, or other color-related fields. However, the structural colors are usually dim because of the influence of incoherent scattering, and the point contact among the microspheres leads to poor structural stability. This paper presents an innovative strategy for constructing noniridescent structural color coatings with high color visibility, good structural stability, and self-healing properties by combining APSs with polymers.

CoO/Co-Activated Porous Carbon Cloth Cathode for High Performance Li-S Batteries.

Li-S batteries are one of the most promising candidates for the next generation of batteries because of their high theoretical specific capacity of 1675 mA h g . However, the dissolution of polysulfide causes severe capacity fading during cycling. Herein, a 3 D CoO/Co-activated free-standing porous carbon fiber cloth (CoO/Co@PCF) is designed to suppress polysulfide diffusion from the cathode.

Necrotizing Autoimmune Myopathy: A Rare Variant of Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies.

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are an unusual group of myopathies with annual incidence of 1 in 100 000 people in the United States. Necrotizing autoimmune myopathy comprises only 16% of this group. It usually presents with severe proximal weakness, lower extremity weakness, and severe fatigue while very rarely does it present with dysphagia and respiratory muscle weakness.