The T cell response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine in adults with high exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances from Ronneby, Sweden.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been associated with impaired antibody levels after childhood vaccinations and immunosuppressive effects in animals. However, the in vivo effects of PFAS on antigen specific human T cell responses have not been investigated in adults. In Ronneby, Sweden, the drinking water of one of the water works was previously highly contaminated with primarily perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS).

Women's Perspectives on the Unique Benefits and Challenges of Self-Injectable Contraception: A Four-Country In-Depth Interview Study in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Implementing self-injection (SI) of subcutaneous depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) is a key self-care strategy for sexual and reproductive health, but SI uptake remains low, and assertions about the potential of SI to increase women's control over contraceptive use lack evidence. We sought to qualitatively explore how women with diverse contraceptive experiences-including those with and without experience using SI-view the benefits and challenges of SI as compared to other methods. We conducted 241 in-depth interviews with women across four sub-Saharan African countries and found alignment between the perceived and experienced benefits of SI across our diverse sample.

Individual empowerment and community norm effects of engaging young husbands in reproductive health in rural India: findings from a pilot study.

Background: Despite decades of a call to action to engage men in reproductive health, men are often left out of programs and interventions. In India, where half of pregnancies are reported as unintended, patriarchal gender norms and still dominant patterns of arranged marriages make engaging men in family planning and strengthening couples communication critical in increasing reproductive autonomy and helping young couples meet their reproductive goals. This study explores the feasibility and acceptability from the men's perspective of the pilot of a gender transformative intervention for newly married couples in India.

Individual empowerment and community norm effects of engaging young husbands in reproductive health in rural India: findings from a pilot study.

Background: Despite decades of a call to action to engage men in reproductive health, men are often left out of programs and interventions. In India, where half of pregnancies are reported as unintended, patriarchal gender norms and still dominant patterns of arranged marriages make engaging men in family planning and strengthening couples communication critical in increasing reproductive autonomy and helping young couples meet their reproductive goals. This study explores the feasibility and acceptability from the men's perspective of the pilot of a gender transformative intervention for newly married couples in India.

Many Cooks in the Kitchen: Iterating a Qualitative Analysis Process Across Multiple Countries, Sites, and Teams.

Establishing and proving methodological rigor has long been a challenge for qualitative researchers where quantitative methods prevail, but much published literature on qualitative analysis assumes a relatively small number of researchers working in relative proximity. This is particularly true for research conducted with a grounded theory approach. Different versions of grounded theory are commonly used, but this methodology was originally developed for a single researcher collecting and analyzing data in isolation.

Balancing client preferences and population-level goals: a qualitative study of the ways in which public health providers and facility administrators interpret and incentivise quality of care in contraceptive counselling in Ethiopia, Mexico and India.

Recent work in family planning has shifted from an instrumentalist perspective on quality in contraceptive counselling, which views quality as a means to encourage contraceptive uptake, to privilege quality of care as a valued end in itself. In this context of shifting narratives about quality, it is important to understand how health systems and providers navigate potential conflicts between instrumentalist definitions of quality versus a person-centred definition that considers meeting clients' contraceptive needs and preferences as an important end goal in and of itself. However, we know little about how providers and other health system stakeholders interpret the concept of quality in counselling, and how their experiences with different quality monitoring systems influence their ability to provide person-centred care.

Analyzing fast and slow: Combining traditional and rapid qualitative analysis to meet multiple objectives of a complex transnational study.

Much of the methodological literature on rapid qualitative analysis describes processes used by a relatively small number of researchers focusing on one study site and using rapid analysis to replace a traditional analytical approach. In this paper, we describe the experiences of a transnational research consortium integrating both rapid and traditional qualitative analysis approaches to develop social theory while also informing program design. Research was conducted by the Innovations for Choice and Autonomy (ICAN) consortium, which seeks to understand how self-injection of the contraceptive subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) can be implemented in a way that best meets women's needs, as defined by women themselves.

Enhancing electroporation-induced liposomal drug release in suspension and solid phases.

When exposed to an external electric field, lipid bilayer membranes are subject to increased permeability through the generation of pores. Combining this phenomenon, known as electroporation, with liposomal drug delivery offers the added benefit of on-demand release of the liposomal cargo. In previous studies, the maximum percent drug release when exposing liposomes to a pulsed electric field has not surpassed 30%, indicating most of the drug is still retained in the liposomes.

Designing for two: How enhancing human-centered design with behavioral nudges unlocked breakthroughs to promote young women's psychological safety and access to reproductive care in Tanzania.

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW; ages 15-24) in sub-Saharan Africa face many barriers to accessing preventive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. We drew upon the strengths of two complementary approaches, human-centered design and behavioral economics, to craft a holistic, highly-tailored, and empathetic intervention to motivate AGYW to seek contraception and HIV self-test kits at community drug shops. To encourage engagement, we embedded "nudge" strategies at different opportunity points (uncovered during our design research) along the care-seeking and service delivery journey.

Silencing of STE20-type kinase STK25 in human aortic endothelial and smooth muscle cells is atheroprotective.

Recent studies highlight the importance of lipotoxic damage in aortic cells as the major pathogenetic contributor to atherosclerotic disease. Since the STE20-type kinase STK25 has been shown to exacerbate ectopic lipid storage and associated cell injury in several metabolic organs, we here investigate its role in the main cell types of vasculature. We depleted STK25 by small interfering RNA in human aortic endothelial and smooth muscle cells exposed to oleic acid and oxidized LDL.

The Molecular Chaperone CCT Sequesters Gelsolin and Protects it from Cleavage by Caspase-3.

The actin filament severing and capping protein gelsolin plays an important role in modulation of actin filament dynamics by influencing the number of actin filament ends. During apoptosis, gelsolin becomes constitutively active due to cleavage by caspase-3. In non-apoptotic cells gelsolin is activated by the binding of Ca.

Functional assessment of the V390F mutation in the CCTδ subunit of chaperonin containing tailless complex polypeptide 1.

The chaperonin containing tailless complex polypeptide 1 (CCT) is a multi-subunit molecular chaperone. It is found in the cytoplasm of all eukaryotic cells, where the oligomeric form plays an essential role in the folding of predominantly the cytoskeletal proteins actin and tubulin. Both the CCT oligomer and monomeric subunits also display functions that extend beyond folding, which are often associated with microtubules and actin filaments.

Sequestration of the Transcription Factor STAT3 by the Molecular Chaperone CCT: A Potential Mechanism for Modulation of STAT3 Phosphorylation.

Chaperonin Containing Tailless complex polypeptide 1 (CCT) is an essential molecular chaperone required for the folding of the abundant proteins actin and tubulin. The CCT oligomer also folds a range of other proteins and participates in non-folding activities such as providing assembly support for complexes of the von Hippel Lindau tumor suppressor protein and elongins. Here we show that the oncogenic transcription factor STAT3 binds to the CCT oligomer, but does not display the early binding upon translation in rabbit reticulocyte lysate typical of an obligate CCT folding substrate.

Correlated fluorescence microscopy and multi-ion beam secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging reveals phosphatidylethanolamine increases in the membrane of cancer cells over-expressing the molecular chaperone subunit CCTδ.

Changes in the membrane composition of sub-populations of cells can influence different properties with importance to tumour growth, metastasis and treatment efficacy. In this study, we use correlated fluorescence microscopy and ToF-SIMS with C and (CO) ion beams to identify and characterise sub-populations of cells based on successful transfection leading to over-expression of CCTδ, a component of the multi-subunit molecular chaperone named chaperonin-containing tailless complex polypeptide 1 (CCT). CCT has been linked to increased cell growth and proliferation and is known to affect cell morphology but corresponding changes in lipid composition of the membrane have not been measured until now.

Spatial patterns of male alcohol-related mortality in Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Russia.

Introduction And Aims: Eastern Europe is known to suffer from a large burden of alcohol-related mortality. However, persisting unfavourable conditions at the national level mask variation at the sub-national level. We aim to explore spatial patterns of cause-specific mortality across four post-communist countries: Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Russia (European part).

High-Affinity Detection and Capture of Heavy Metal Contaminants using Block Polymer Composite Membranes.

Adsorptive membranes offer one possible solution to the challenge of removing and recovering heavy metal ion contaminants and resources from water supplies. However, current membrane-based sorbents suffer from low binding affinities, leading to issues when contaminants are present at trace concentrations or when the source waters have a high concentration of background electrolytes that compete for open binding sites. Here, these challenges are addressed in the design of a highly permeable (i.

The role of the molecular chaperone CCT in protein folding and mediation of cytoskeleton-associated processes: implications for cancer cell biology.

The chaperonin-containing tailless complex polypeptide 1 (CCT) is required in vivo for the folding of newly synthesized tubulin and actin proteins and is thus intrinsically connected to all cellular processes that rely on the microtubule and actin filament components of the cytoskeleton, both of which are highly regulated and dynamic assemblies. In addition to CCT acting as a protein folding oligomer, further modes of CCT action mediated either by the CCT oligomer itself or via CCT subunits in their monomeric forms can influence processes associated with assembled actin filaments and microtubules. Thus, there is an extended functional role for CCT with regard to its major folding substrates with a complex interplay between CCT as folding machine for tubulin/actin and as a modulator of processes involving the assembled cytoskeleton.

Interactions between monomeric CCTδ and p150: A novel function for CCTδ at the cell periphery distinct from the protein folding activity of the molecular chaperone CCT.

Chaperonin containing tailless complex polypeptide 1 (CCT) is a molecular chaperone consisting of eight distinct protein subunits, that when oligomeric is essential for the folding of newly synthesized tubulin and actin. In addition to folding, CCT activity includes functions of individual subunits in their monomeric form. For example, when CCTδ monomer levels are increased in cultured mammalian cells, numerous cell surface protrusions are formed from retraction fibres, indicating that an underlying function for the CCTδ monomer exists.

Reconstructing Long-Term Coherent Cause-of-Death Series, a Necessary Step for Analyzing Trends.

Every time the classification of causes of death is changed, time series of deaths by cause are disrupted in more or less profound ways. When changes involve only the merging of several items or splitting a single item into several new categories, the problems caused by these ruptures are not too difficult to solve. A more or less severe imbroglio occurs, however, each time a new item results from recombining portions of different split items.

Adult mortality patterns in the former Soviet Union's southern tier: Armenia and Georgia in comparative perspective.

Background: While the health crisis in the former USSR has been well-documented in the case of Russia and other northern former Soviet republics, little is known about countries located in the southern tier of the region, i.e., the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Identifying potential differences in cause-of-death coding practices across Russian regions.

Background: Reliable and comparable data on causes of death are crucial for public health analysis, but the usefulness of these data can be markedly diminished when the approach to coding is not standardized across territories and/or over time. Because the Russian system of producing information on causes of death is highly decentralized, there may be discrepancies in the coding practices employed across the country. In this study, we evaluate the uniformity of cause-of-death coding practices across Russian regions using an indirect method.

Spatial variation of male alcohol-related mortality in Belarus and Lithuania.

Background: Numerous studies have addressed the problem of hazardous alcohol consumption, alcohol-related causes of death and their relationship to persisting excess male mortality in the countries of the former USSR. Yet relatively little is known about the geographical patterns of alcohol-related mortality within these countries and the cross-border continuities of such patterns. This study aims at identifying the spatial distribution and the cross-border patterns of adult male mortality from alcohol poisonings and liver cirrhosis in Belarus and Lithuania.

[From epidemiological transition to health transition].

The "Epidemiological Transition" concept proposed by Abdel Omran in 1971 was the first theory attempting to explain the extraordinary progess that industrialized countries have achieved in health since the 18th century. Within the broader framework of the demographic transition, an important implication of this concept was that life expectancy in modern societies would converge toward limits determined by the new epidemiological conditions. In the ensuing decades, however the convergence process appears to have stopped as a result of a number of setbacks including the health crisis in Eastern Europe and AIDS in Africa.