Lessons Learned from Community Partnership During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Underserved communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Project Promoting Engagement and COVID-19 Testing for Health (PEACH) study was designed to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and infrastructure associated with COVID-19 risk, testing, and prevention behaviors in people living with, caring for, or at risk for type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this joint community-academic partnered manuscript is to share lessons learned for maintaining community partnerships through the challenging times of a pandemic.

Acceptability of an automated directly observed therapy (DOT) application for PrEP adherence support among young men who have sex with men: a qualitative exploration.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence remains a challenge among young men who have sex with men (MSM). We developed and tested a smartphone application ("app"), "DOT Diary", which combines automated directly observed therapy (DOT) with information about PrEP protection levels, pill-taking reminders, a sexual behavior diary, and a PrEP dosing calendar. To contextualize trial results, we qualitatively explored participants' app experiences.

Discovery of GLPG2737, a Potent Type 2 Corrector of CFTR for the Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis in Combination with a Potentiator and a Type 1 Co-corrector.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. This epithelial anion channel regulates the active transport of chloride and bicarbonate ions across membranes. Mutations result in reduced surface expression of CFTR channels with impaired functionality.

Alternative nano-lithographic tools for shell-isolated nanoparticle enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates.

Chemically synthesized metal nanoparticles (MNPs) have been widely used as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates for monitoring catalytic reactions. In some applications, however, the SERS MNPs, besides being plasmonically active, can also be catalytically active and result in Raman signals from undesired side products. The MNPs are typically insulated with a thin (∼3 nm), in principle pin-hole-free shell to prevent this.

Longitudinal Changes in the Body Mass Index of British Army Pilots.

Aircraft are manufactured according to design parameters that must account for the size and physical characteristics of the pilot. While cockpit dimensions, seats, restraints, and related components do not change substantially over the airframe lifecycle, it is conceivable that the occupant may, even if initially well-suited. This investigation focused on longitudinal body mass index (BMI) changes within a cohort of British Army Air Corps pilots.

Beam Effects on Atomic Dynamics in Metallic Glasses Studied With Electron Correlation Microscopy.

Electron correlation microscopy (ECM) is used to investigate atomic dynamics in metallic glasses (MG) close to metastable equilibrium. It temporally correlates diffracted intensities of a time series of dark-field images to deduce a metric for structural decays. The measurement parameters, such as time and temperature, must be chosen according to the material of interest.

Concentration dependence of the crystal nucleation kinetics in undercooled Cu-Ge melts.

The crystallization temperature of deeply undercooled Cu-Ge alloy melts is repeatedly measured. A statistical analysis is applied on the undercooling distributions obtained from nine different compositions, ranging from the pure semimetal (Ge) to the pure metal (Cu). By considering each undercooling distribution as an inhomogeneous Poisson process, the nucleation rates for every composition are calculated.

AKT supports the metabolic fitness of multiple myeloma cells by restricting FOXO activity.

Metabolic alterations are important cancer-associated features that allow cancer cell transformation and survival under stress conditions. Multiple myeloma (MM) plasma cells show increased glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), which are characteristics associated with recurrent genetic aberrations that drive the proliferation and survival of MM cells. The protein kinase B/AKT acts as a central node in cellular metabolism and is constitutively active in MM cells.

Randomized Controlled Trial of Automated Directly Observed Therapy for Measurement and Support of PrEP Adherence Among Young Men Who have Sex with Men.

Measurement of adherence to oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in real-time has been challenging. We developed DOT Diary, a smartphone application that combines automated directly observed therapy with a PrEP adherence visualization toolkit, and tested its ability to measure PrEP adherence and to increase adherence among a diverse cohort of young men who have sex with men (MSM). We enrolled 100 MSM in San Francisco and Atlanta and randomly assigned them 2:1 to DOT Diary versus standard of care.

Observing Dislocations Transported by Twin Boundaries in Al Thin Film: Unusual Pathways for Dislocation-Twin Boundary Interactions.

Twins are generally regarded as obstacles to dislocations in face-centered cubic metals and can modify individual dislocations by locking them in twin boundaries or obliging them to dissociate. Through in situ tensile experiments on Al thin film in a transmission electron microscope, we report a dynamic process of dislocations being transported by twin lamella via periodic twinning and detwinning at the atomic scale. Following this process, a 60° dislocation first transforms into a sessile step of the twin boundary, then migrates under stress as a step and finally reverts back into a 60° dislocation.

Ligand-controlled and nanoconfinement-boosted luminescence employing Pt(ii) and Pd(ii) complexes: from color-tunable aggregation-enhanced dual emitters towards self-referenced oxygen reporters.

In this work, we describe the synthesis, structural and photophysical characterization of four novel Pd(ii) and Pt(ii) complexes bearing tetradentate luminophoric ligands with high photoluminescence quantum yields ( ) and long excited state lifetimes () at room temperature, where the results were interpreted by means of DFT calculations. Incorporation of fluorine atoms into the tetradentate ligand favors aggregation and thereby, a shortened average distance between the metal centers, which provides accessibility to metal-metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MMLCT) excimers acting as red-shifted energy traps if compared with the monomeric entities. This supramolecular approach provides an elegant way to enable room-temperature phosphorescence from Pd(ii) complexes, which are otherwise quenched by a thermal population of dissociative states due to a lower ligand field splitting.

A Combined Experimental and First-Principles Based Assessment of Finite-Temperature Thermodynamic Properties of Intermetallic AlSc.

We present a first-principles assessment of the finite-temperature thermodynamic properties of the intermetallic Al3Sc phase including the complete spectrum of excitations and compare the theoretical findings with our dilatometric and calorimetric measurements. While significant electronic contributions to the heat capacity and thermal expansion are observed near the melting temperature, anharmonic contributions, and electron-phonon coupling effects are found to be relatively small. On the one hand, these accurate methods are used to demonstrate shortcomings of empirical predictions of phase stabilities such as the Neumann-Kopp rule.

Relaxation dynamics of Pd-Ni-P metallic glass: decoupling of anelastic and viscous processes.

The stress relaxation dynamics of metallic glass PdNiPwas studied in both supercooled liquid and glassy states. Time-temperature superposition was found in the metastable liquid, implying an invariant shape of the distribution of times involved in the relaxation. Once in the glass state, the distribution of relaxation times broadens as temperature and fictive temperature decrease, eventually leading to a decoupling of the relaxation in two processes.

Plasmon energy losses in shear bands of metallic glass.

Shear bands resulting from plastic deformation in cold-rolled AlYFe metallic glass were observed to display alternating density changes along their propagation direction. Electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) was used to investigate the volume plasmon energy losses in and around shear bands. Energy shifts of the peak centre and changes in the peak width (FWHM) reflecting the damping were precisely determined within an accuracy of a few meV using an open source python module (Hyperspy) to fit the shapes of the plasmon and zero-loss peaks with Lorentzian functions.

Metabolic Effects of Recurrent Genetic Aberrations in Multiple Myeloma.

Oncogene activation and malignant transformation exerts energetic, biosynthetic and redox demands on cancer cells due to increased proliferation, cell growth and tumor microenvironment adaptation. As such, altered metabolism is a hallmark of cancer, which is characterized by the reprogramming of multiple metabolic pathways. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a genetically heterogeneous disease that arises from terminally differentiated B cells.

Exploring the Phase Space of Multi-Principal-Element Alloys and Predicting the Formation of Bulk Metallic Glasses.

Multi-principal-element alloys share a set of thermodynamic and structural parameters that, in their range of adopted values, correlate to the tendency of the alloys to assume a solid solution, whether as a crystalline or an amorphous phase. Based on empirical correlations, this work presents a computational method for the prediction of possible glass-forming compositions for a chosen alloys system as well as the calculation of their critical cooling rates. The obtained results compare well to experimental data for Pd-Ni-P, micro-alloyed Pd-Ni-P, Cu-Mg-Ca, and Cu-Zr-Ti.

DOT Diary: Developing a Novel Mobile App Using Artificial Intelligence and an Electronic Sexual Diary to Measure and Support PrEP Adherence Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men.

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) are highly vulnerable to HIV. While pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has demonstrated effectiveness, adherence has been low among YMSM and difficult to measure accurately. In collaboration with a healthcare company, we configured an automated directly-observed therapy (aDOT) platform for monitoring and supporting PrEP use.

AKT signaling restrains tumor suppressive functions of FOXO transcription factors and GSK3 kinase in multiple myeloma.

The phosphatidylinositide-3 kinases and the downstream mediator AKT drive survival and proliferation of multiple myeloma (MM) cells. AKT signaling is active in MM and has pleiotropic effects; however, the key molecular aspects of AKT dependency in MM are not fully clear. Among the various downstream AKT targets are the Forkhead box O (FOXO) transcription factors (TFs) and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), which are negatively regulated by AKT signaling.

Comparison of Experimental STEM Conditions for Fluctuation Electron Microscopy.

Variable-resolution fluctuation electron microscopy (VR-FEM) data from measurements on amorphous silicon and PdNiP have been obtained at varying experimental conditions. Measurements have been conducted at identical total electron dose and with an identical electron dose normalized to the respective probe size. STEM probes of different sizes have been created by variation of the semi-convergence angle or by defocus.

Willingness to Use Home Collection Methods to Provide Specimens for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Research: Survey Study.

Background: Innovative laboratory testing approaches for SARS-CoV-2 infection and immune response are needed to conduct research to establish estimates of prevalence and incidence. Self-specimen collection methods have been successfully used in HIV and sexually transmitted infection research and can provide a feasible opportunity to scale up SARS-CoV-2 testing for research purposes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the willingness of adults to use different specimen collection modalities for themselves and children as part of a COVID-19 research study.

Willingness to Seek Diagnostic Testing for SARS-CoV-2 With Home, Drive-through, and Clinic-Based Specimen Collection Locations.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 virus testing for persons with COVID-19 symptoms, and contact tracing for those testing positive, will be critical to successful epidemic control. Willingness of persons experiencing symptoms to seek testing may determine the success of this strategy.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey in the United States measured willingness to seek testing if feeling ill under different specimen collection scenarios: home-based saliva, home-based swab, drive-through facility swab, and clinic-based swab.