"You're in an Image of a Man but Not a Man": A Qualitative Analysis of Intersectional Stigma Among Men with HIV Experiencing Subfertility in Rural Southwestern Uganda.

Many men with HIV (MWH) want to have children and may encounter HIV- and infertility-related stigma experiences. Integration of reproductive health and HIV care for men is rare. When available, safer conception care focuses on HIV prevention but lacks fertility support.

Two-Step Reshaping of Acicular Gold Nanoparticles.

Anisometric plasmonic nanoparticles find applications in various fields, from photocatalysis to biosensing. However, exposure to heat or to specific chemical environments can induce their reshaping, leading to loss of function. Understanding this process is therefore relevant both for the fundamental understanding of such nano-objects and for their practical applications.

Noise Exposure History and Age-Related Changes to Hearing.

Importance: Noise exposure is a major modifiable risk factor for hearing loss, yet it is not known whether it affects the rate of hearing decline in aging.

Objective: To determine the association of noise exposure history with the rate of pure-tone threshold change per year.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This longitudinal cohort study was conducted in the ongoing community-based Medical University of South Carolina Longitudinal Cohort Study of Age-Related Hearing Loss (1988 to present with the sample based in Charleston, South Carolina, and surrounding area).

Referral Networks, Racial Inequity, and Hospital Quality for Open Heart Surgery.

Background: Differences in the quality of hospitals where Black and White patients receive coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery have been documented. We examined the contributions of physician networks to the gap.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of all Medicare fee-for-service Black and White patients undergoing elective CABG during 2017 to 2019; the primary care physicians and cardiologists treating them for 12 months before surgery (the patients' physician network); and CABG-performing hospitals within 100 miles of each patient.

How to Diagnose Abhorrent Science.

What makes certain scientific research controversial? And when does scientific research go beyond being merely controversial to be something far worse? We propose a diagnostic framework for distinguishing between scientific research that is merely controversial and that which is abhorrent. Our framework places research projects along two axes of a value-harm map. Most research, fortunately, is both valuable and harmless.

Longitudinal changes in tenofovir and tenofovir-diphosphate concentrations among pregnant women using oral PrEP for HIV prevention: Findings from Durban, South Africa.

Background: Pregnant women are vulnerable to HIV acquisition. Oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is safe and effective for use during pregnancy. We describe PrEP adherence among pregnant women using multiple measures.

Use of tenofovir-based PrEP among pregnant women in South Africa.

Objective: We developed Healthy Families-PrEP to support perinatal women to use HIV prevention strategies.

Design: Single arm study to evaluate PrEP use among pregnant women exposed to the intervention.

Methods: We offered safer conception counselling including TDF/FTC as PrEP with adherence support (Healthy Families-PrEP) for women planning for pregnancy in South Africa with a partner with HIV or unknown serostatus.

Effect of pandemic influenza A virus PB1 genes of avian origin on viral RNA polymerase activity and pathogenicity.

Zoonotic influenza A virus (IAV) infections pose a substantial threat to global health. The influenza RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) comprises the PB2, PB1, and PA proteins. Of the last four pandemic IAVs, three featured avian-origin PB1 genes.

Pneumococcal pneumonia trends in adults hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia over 10 years (2013-2023) and the role of serotype 3.

Background: With higher valency pneumococcal vaccines on the horizon and new adult immunisation strategies under discussion, we aimed to evaluate the contribution of individual pneumococcal serotypes to the burden of pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Over 10 years, trends in pneumococcal pneumonia epidemiology in adults hospitalised with CAP were assessed. The risk factors and severity associated with serotype 3 were examined.

Association of the Cervical Canal Area With Disability and Progression in People With Multiple Sclerosis.

Background And Objectives: In multiple sclerosis (MS), brain reserve serves as a protective factor against cognitive impairment. Previous research has suggested a structural counterpart in the spine-spinal cord reserve-seemed to be associated with physical disability. This study aimed to investigate the potential of the cervical canal area (CCaA) as a proxy for spinal cord reserve in a multicentric cohort of people with MS (PwMS).

Morphology and intervesicle distances in condensates of synaptic vesicles and synapsin.

Synaptic vesicle clusters or pools are functionally important constituents of chemical synapses. In the so-called reserve and the active pools, neurotransmitter-loaded synaptic vesicles (SVs) are stored and conditioned for fusion with the synaptic membrane and subsequent neurotransmitter release during synaptic activity. Vesicle clusters can be considered as so-called membraneless compartments, which form by liquid-liquid phase separation.

The Geneticization of Education and Its Bioethical Implications.

The day has arrived that genetic tests for educational outcomes are available to the public. Today parents and students alike can send off a sample of blood or saliva and receive a 'genetic report' for a range of characteristics relevant to education, including intelligence, math ability, reading ability, and educational attainment. DTC availability is compounded by a growing "precision education" initiative, which proposes the application of DNA tests in schools to tailor educational curricula to children's genomic profiles.

Integrating existing and novel methods to understand organizational context: A case study of an academic-public health department partnership.

Purpose: In this manuscript we illustrate how implementation science (IS) researchers and practitioners can deploy and integrate existing and novel methods to develop a more comprehensive understanding of organizational context, particularly organizational routines and processes, to inform adaptation and implementation of evidence-based interventions.

Methods: The work reported here was part of a broader investigation of how to adapt and implement a three-component combination intervention in a county health department in Mobile, Alabama. Based on pre-implementation efforts to assess local context and barriers to implementation, we first describe three approaches that can be effectively used to elucidate organizational routines and processes, followed by a description of how these approaches were applied in our study.

Executive Function Associations With Audibility-Adjusted Speech Perception in Noise.

Purpose: Speech recognition in noise is challenging for listeners and appears to require support from executive functions to focus attention on rapidly unfolding target speech, track misunderstanding, and sustain attention. The current study was designed to test the hypothesis that lower executive function abilities explain poorer speech recognition in noise, including among older participants with hearing loss who often exhibit diminished speech recognition in noise and cognitive abilities.

Method: A cross-sectional sample of 400 younger-to-older adult participants (19 to < 90 years of age) from the community-based Medical University of South CarolinaLongitudinal Cohort Study of Age-related Hearing Loss were administered tasks with executive control demands to assess individual variability in a card-sorting measure of set-shifting/performance monitoring, a dichotic listening measure of selective attention/working memory, sustained attention, and processing speed.

Glass-like Relaxation Dynamics during the Disorder-to-Order Transition of Viral Nucleocapsids.

Nucleocapsid self-assembly is an essential yet elusive step in virus replication. Using time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering on a model icosahedral ssRNA virus, we reveal a previously unreported kinetic pathway. Initially, RNA-bound capsid subunits rapidly accumulate beyond the stoichiometry of native virions.

Sex-Specific Effects of Anxiety on Cognition and Activity-Dependent Neural Networks: Insights From (Female) Mice and (Wo)men.

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, are observed in 90% of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), two-thirds of whom are women. Neuropsychiatric symptoms usually manifest long before AD onset creating a therapeutic opportunity. Here, we examined the impact of anxiety on AD progression and the underlying brainwide neuronal mechanisms.

Rotating particle pair produces hot complex plasma crystals.

Rotating quasipaired particles (torsions) are observed within a two-dimensional monolayer crystal suspended in an argon complex plasma for discharge powers of 1-10 W and pressures of 135-155 mTorr. The inclusion of a torsion in a crystal lattice fundamentally changes the overall lattice state to a "hot crystal." A torsion increases the particle motion and kinetic energy of other particles in the crystal, with the strongest effects on neighboring particles.

Uptake and Persistence of Safer Conception Strategies Among South African Women Planning for Pregnancy.

Safer conception strategies can minimize HIV acquisition during periconception periods among women living in HIV-endemic areas. We examined uptake and predictors of persistent use of the same safer conception strategy among a cohort of HIV-uninfected South African women ages 18-35 years planning for pregnancy with a partner living with HIV or of unknown HIV-serostatus. The safer conception strategies we evaluated included oral PrEP, condomless sex limited to peak fertility, and waiting for a better time to have a child (until, for example, the risks of HIV acquisition are reduced and/or the individual is prepared to care for a child); persistence was defined as using the same safer conception strategy from the first visit through 9 months follow-up.

Demographic factors impact the rate of hearing decline across the adult lifespan.

Background: Little is known about the natural history of hearing loss in adults, despite it being an important public health problem. The purpose of this study is to describe the rate of hearing change per year over the adult lifespan.

Methods: The 1436 participants are from the MUSC Longitudinal Cohort Study of Age-related Hearing Loss (1988-present).

Exploring drivers of self-treatment with antibiotics in three agricultural communities of northern Tanzania.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant global health threat, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Self-treatment with antibiotics, the practice of using antibiotics without professional guidance, is often considered an important contributor to the emergence and spread of AMR.

Method: This study investigated the drivers of self-treatment in three common types of agricultural communities in northern Tanzania.

HDAC6 inhibition as a mechanism to prevent neurodegeneration in the mSOD1 mouse model of ALS.

The loss of upper and lower motor neurons, and their axons is central to the loss of motor function and death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Due to the diverse range of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of ALS, there have been difficulties in developing effective therapies for ALS. One emerging dichotomy is that protection of the neuronal cell soma does not prevent axonal vulnerability and degeneration, suggesting the need for targeted therapeutics to prevent axon degeneration.

Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance trends of pathogens causing urinary tract infections in Mwanza, Tanzania: A comparative study during and after the implementation of the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2017-2022).

Objectives: To delineate the epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) trends of pathogens causing urinary tract infections (UTIs) during (June 2019-June 2020) and after (March-July 2023) the implementation of the National Action Plan on AMR 2017-2022 in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 2097 patients with clinical symptoms of UTIs during (n = 1144) and after (n = 953) the National Action Plan on AMR 2017-2022. Quantitative urine culture was done to isolate significant bacteria causing UTI, which were then identified to the species level and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility.