Dimensionality and cross-language invariance of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index among Indian adolescents and adults.

Sleep quality, key to physical and mental health, requires regular assessment in clinical and non-clinical settings. Despite widespread use, the dimensionality of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is debated, and its Hindi version's factor structure remains unexplored. Our study evaluates the PSQI's dimensionality among Indian adolescents and adults aiming to demonstrate cross-language (Hindi and English) invariance of its factor structure.

Does Prospective Mental Imagery Predict Symptoms of Negative Affect and Anhedonia in Young People?

Adolescent depression is associated with unhelpful emotional mental imagery. Here, we investigated whether vividness of negative and positive prospective mental imagery predict negative affect and anhedonia in adolescents. 111 people from Israel completed measures of prospective mental imagery, negative affect, and anhedonia at two time-points approximately three months apart.

Structural rearrangements in the nucleus localize latent HIV proviruses to a perinucleolar compartment supportive of reactivation.

Using an immunofluorescence assay based on CRISPR-dCas9-gRNA complexes that selectively bind to the HIV LTR (HIV Cas-FISH), we traced changes in HIV DNA localization in primary effector T cells from early infection until the cells become quiescent as they transition to memory cells. Unintegrated HIV DNA colocalized with CPSF6 and HIV capsid (CA, p24) was found in the cytoplasm and nuclear periphery at days 1 and 3 post infection. From days 3 to 7, most HIV DNA was distributed primarily in the nuclear intermediate euchromatic compartment and was transcribed.

Identifying characteristics of adolescents with persistent loneliness during COVID-19: A multi-country eight-wave longitudinal study.

Background: Elevated loneliness experiences characterise young people. While loneliness at this developmental juncture may emerge from age-typical upheaval in social relationships, there is little data on the extent to which young people experience high and persistent levels of loneliness, and importantly, who is most vulnerable to these experiences. Using the widespread social restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which precipitated loneliness in many, we aimed to examine adolescents' loneliness profiles across time and the demographic predictors (age, sex, and country) of more severe trajectories.

Attenuated maladaptive emotion processing as a potential mediator of the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and mental health.

The emotion processing and regulation mechanisms by which dispositional (personality trait) mindfulness exerts its positive effects on mental health remain unclear. Here, we tested, using structural equation modeling, whether the relationship between higher dispositional mindfulness and better mental health is mediated by reduced maladaptive processing of emotional information (e.g.

Emotional dampening in hypertension: Impaired recognition of implicit emotional content in auditory and cross-modal stimuli.

Research shows a reduced responsivity to implicit as well as explicit facial emotion recognition (emotional dampening) in prehypertensives and hypertensives. This study explored auditory and audiovisual emotion recognition in prehypertensives and hypertensives. Participants (N = 175) who were normotensives, prehypertensives, and hypertensives (n = 57, 58, and 60, respectively) completed an auditory implicit task (matching auditory target with auditory distractors) and two cross-modal implicit tasks (matching visual target with auditory distractors, and vice-versa), and an auditory explicit task (labelling emotions in audio-clips).

Self-Reported Worries in Young People During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic has had long-standing consequences for all aspects of life. Although young people appear less susceptible to severe forms of physical illness due to the coronavirus, they have not escaped unscathed from its' psychological impacts. The present study measured the content of worries in young people residing in the UK during the pandemic and how it varied with sociodemographic factors.

Behavioural approach-avoidance tendencies among individuals with elevated blood pressure.

Unlabelled: Emotional dampening (blunted responses to affective stimuli or experiences) has been reported in individuals with clinical and subclinical levels of elevated blood pressure (BP). Our aim in the present study was to explore how the basic motivational systems of approach and avoidance to positively- and negatively-valenced stimuli are affected in elevated BP. High BP (n = 27) and Low BP (n = 29) participants completed an approach-avoidance task.

Is Future Mental Imagery Associated with Reduced Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Negative Affect and Anhedonic Symptoms in Young People?

Background: Difficulties with prospective mental images are associated with adolescent depression. Current treatments mainly focus on verbal techniques to reduce negative affect (e.g.

A Reliable Primary Cell Model for HIV Latency: The QUECEL (Quiescent Effector Cell Latency) Method.

One of the main methods to generate the HIV reservoir is during the transition of infected activated effector CD4 T cells to a memory phenotype. The QUECEL (Quiescent Effector Cell Latency) protocol mimics this process efficiently and allows for production of large numbers of latently infected CD4+ T cells. After polarization and expansion, CD4+ T cells are infected with a single round reporter virus which expressed GFP/CD8a.

Inhibition of the H3K27 demethylase UTX enhances the epigenetic silencing of HIV proviruses and induces HIV-1 DNA hypermethylation but fails to permanently block HIV reactivation.

One strategy for a functional cure of HIV-1 is "block and lock", which seeks to permanently suppress the rebound of quiescent HIV-1 by epigenetic silencing. For the bivalent promoter in the HIV LTR, both histone 3 lysine 27 tri-methylation (H3K27me3) and DNA methylation are associated with viral suppression, while H3K4 tri-methylation (H3K4me3) is correlated with viral expression. However, H3K27me3 is readily reversed upon activation of T-cells through the T-cell receptor.

A network analysis of adolescent mental well-being during the coronavirus pandemic: Evidence for cross-cultural differences in central features.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose unprecedented threat globally. Adolescents and youth may be especially susceptible to the long-term impact of these stressors, thus intervening early is an important priority. However, it is also crucial to understand how young people maintain psychological well-being in the face of adversity, particularly given that many nations are experiencing further waves of the pandemic.

Biogenesis of P-TEFb in CD4+ T cells to reverse HIV latency is mediated by protein kinase C (PKC)-independent signaling pathways.

The switch between HIV latency and productive transcription is regulated by an auto-feedback mechanism initiated by the viral trans-activator Tat, which functions to recruit the host transcription elongation factor P-TEFb to proviral HIV. A heterodimeric complex of CDK9 and one of three cyclin T subunits, P-TEFb is expressed at vanishingly low levels in resting memory CD4+ T cells and cellular mechanisms controlling its availability are central to regulation of the emergence of HIV from latency. Using a well-characterized primary T-cell model of HIV latency alongside healthy donor memory CD4+ T cells, we characterized specific T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathways that regulate the generation of transcriptionally active P-TEFb, defined as the coordinate expression of cyclin T1 and phospho-Ser175 CDK9.

The Effect of COVID-19 and Related Lockdown Phases on Young Peoples' Worries and Emotions: Novel Data From India.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented stress to young people. Despite recent speculative suggestions of poorer mental health in young people in India since the start of the pandemic, there have been no systematic efforts to measure these. Here we report on the content of worries of Indian adolescents and identify groups of young people who may be particularly vulnerable to negative emotions along with reporting on the impact of coronavirus on their lives.

Design, synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of truncated 3'-deoxy- 3', 3' difluororibofuranosyl pyrimidine nucleosides.

Truncated 3'-deoxy- 3', 3' difluororibofuranosyl pyrimidine nucleoside derivatives were synthesized from d-ribose via β-apioribo pyrimidine nucleoside intermediates 11a-c. The synthetic approach signifies that truncation at C3' position of apioribose ring of 13a-c by oxidative cleavage of diols with Pb(OAc) and followed by fluorination with DAST as key steps. Cytotoxic evaluation of synthesized truncated nucleoside derivatives 16a-c and 19a-c were tested against MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines.

Reduced emotional responsiveness in individuals with marginal elevation in blood pressure within the normal range: Evidence from altered affect-modulated startle response.

Reduced responsiveness to emotional stimuli ('emotional dampening') has been observed in normotensives with elevated blood pressure (BP) and hypertensives but it is not known whether this is due to aberrant responding to emotional information at the involuntary level and whether it is also associated with minimal elevations in BP in the normal range. In this study, we examined emotional dampening using the affect-modulated startle paradigm given its proven sensitivity to motivational states of approach and withdrawal, typically independent of conscious intentional control. Acoustically elicited startle eye-blink modulation was measured using electromyography of the orbicularis oculi muscle beneath the left eye in 59 healthy individuals while they viewed pleasant, unpleasant and neutral standardized pictures.

Childhood maltreatment and its mental health consequences among Indian adolescents with a history of child work.

Objectives: Although the prevalence and mental health consequences of childhood maltreatment among adolescents have been studied widely, there are few data addressing these issues in Asian lower middle-income countries. Here, we assessed the prevalence and types of childhood maltreatment and, for the first time, examined their association with current mental health problems in Indian adolescents with a history of child work.

Methods: One hundred and thirty-two adolescents (12-18 years; 114 males, 18 females) with a history of child work were interviewed using the Child Maltreatment, Conventional Crime, and Witnessing and Indirect Victimisation modules of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire.

Entry of Polarized Effector Cells into Quiescence Forces HIV Latency.

The latent HIV reservoir is generated following HIV infection of activated effector CD4 T cells, which then transition to a memory phenotype. Here, we describe an method, called QUECEL (iescent ffector ll atency), that mimics this process efficiently and allows production of large numbers of latently infected CD4 T cells. Naïve CD4 T cells were polarized into the four major T cell subsets (Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg) and subsequently infected with a single-round reporter virus which expressed GFP/CD8a.

Complex Systems Biology Approach in Connecting PI3K-Akt and NF-κB Pathways in Prostate Cancer.

Phosphatidylinositol 3'-OH kinase (PI3K)-Akt and transcription factor NF-κB are important molecules involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and oncogenesis. Both PI3K-Akt and Nuclear Factor-kappaB (NF-κB) are involved in the development and progression of prostate cancer, however, the crosstalk and molecules connecting these pathway remains unclear. A multilevel system representation of the PI3K-Akt and NF-κB pathways was constructed to determine which signaling components contribute to adaptive behavior and coordination.

Poor emotional responsiveness in clinical hypertension: Reduced accuracy in the labelling and matching of emotional faces amongst individuals with hypertension and prehypertension.

Psychological factors are known to play an important part in the origin of many medical conditions including hypertension. Recent studies have reported elevated blood pressure (even in the normal range of variation) to be associated with a reduced responsiveness to emotions or 'emotional dampening'. Our aim was to assess emotional dampening in individuals with more extreme blood pressure levels including prehypertensives (N = 58) and hypertensives (N = 60) by comparing their emotion recognition ability with normotensives (N = 57).

Assessing emotional processing difficulties in normotensive individuals with high and isolated blood pressure elevations.

This study examined the effect of sense modality (auditory/visual) on emotional dampening (reduced responsiveness to emotions with elevation in blood pressure). Fifty-six normotensive participants were assessed on tasks requiring labelling and matching of emotions in faces and voices. Based on median split of systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP and DBP, respectively), participants were divided into low BP, high BP and isolated BP groups.

IL-4 and IL-13 employ discrete signaling pathways for target gene expression in alternatively activated monocytes/macrophages.

Monocytes/macrophages are innate immune cells that play a crucial role in the resolution of inflammation. In the presence of the Th2 cytokines interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13), they display an anti-inflammatory profile and this activation pathway is known as alternative activation. In this study we compare and differentiate pathways mediated by IL-4 and IL-13 activation of human monocytes/macrophages.

Development and in vitro evaluation of ibuprofen mouth dissolving tablets using solid dispersion technique.

The aim of present study was to prepare and evaluate mouth dissolving tablets of ibuprofen (IBU). Ternary solid dispersion (SD) of IBU was prepared using PEG 4000 as carrier and Tween 80 as surfactant. The SD formulations were prepared by solvent evaporation and melt solvent method by varying ratio of PEG 4000.