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Ophthalmic disease in people living with HIV (PLWH) and at-risk controls in Sub-Saharan Africa was evaluated. PLWH were more likely to have ophthalmic disease at enrollment, but there was no difference in incidence once enrolled.

What causes people to disclose their preferences or withhold them? Declare their love for each other or keep it a secret? Gossip with a coworker or bite one's tongue? We argue that to understand disclosure, we need to understand a critical and often overlooked aspect of human conversation: group size. Increasing the number of people in a conversation creates systematic challenges for speakers and listeners, a phenomenon we call the many minds problem. Here, we review the substantial implications that group size is likely to have on how much people disclose, what they disclose, and how they feel about it.

Stimulation of the inflammatory reflex (IR) is a promising strategy to treat systemic inflammatory disorders. However, this strategy is hindered by the cost and side effects of traditional IR activators. Recently, oral intake of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) has been suggested to activate the IR, providing a safe and inexpensive alternative. Critically, the mechanisms whereby NaHCO3 might achieve this effect and more broadly the pathways underlying the IR remain poorly understood. Here, we argue that the recognition of NaHCO3 as a potential IR activator presents exciting clinical and research opportunities. To aid this quest, we provide an integrative review of our current knowledge of the neural and cellular pathways mediating the IR and discuss the status of physiological models of IR activation. From this vantage point, we derive testable hypotheses on potential mechanisms whereby NaHCO3 might stimulate the IR and compare NaHCO3 with classic IR activators. Elucidation of these mechanisms will help determine the therapeutic value of NaHCO3 as an IR activator and provide new insights into the IR circuitry.

In everyday life, people often have opportunities to improve others' lives, whether offering well-intentioned advice or complimenting someone on a job well done. These are opportunities to provide "prosocial input" (information intended to benefit others), including feedback, advice, compliments, and expressions of gratitude. Despite widespread evidence that giving prosocial input can improve the well-being of both givers and recipients, people sometimes hesitate to offer their input. The current paper documents when and why people fail to give prosocial input, noting that potential givers overestimate the costs of doing so (e.g., making recipients uncomfortable) and underestimate the benefits (e.g., being helpful) for at least four psychological reasons. Unfortunately, the reluctance to give prosocial input results in a short supply of kindness.

Background: Immune activation is a significant contributor to HIV pathogenesis and disease progression. In virally-suppressed individuals on ART, low-level immune activation has been linked to several non-infectious comorbid diseases. However, studies have not been systematically performed in sub-Saharan Africa and thus the impact of demographics, ART and regional endemic co-infections on immune activation is not known. We therefore comprehensively evaluated in a large multinational African cohort markers for immune activation and its distribution in various settings. Methods: 2747 specimens from 2240 people living with HIV (PLWH) and 477 without HIV from the observational African Cohort Study (AFRICOS) were analyzed for 13 immune parameters. Samples were collected along with medical history, sociodemographic and comorbidity data at 12 HIV clinics across 5 programs in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria. Data were analyzed with univariate and multivariate methods such as random forests and principal component analysis. Findings: Immune activation was markedly different between PLWH with detectable viral loads, and individuals without HIV across sites. Among viremic PLWH, we found that all immune parameters were significantly correlated with viral load except for IFN-α. The overall inflammatory profile was distinct between men and women living with HIV, in individuals off ART and with HIV viremia. We observed stronger differences in the immune activation profile with increasing viremia. Using machine learning methods, we found that geographic differences contributed to unique inflammatory profiles. We also found that among PLWH, age and the presence of infectious and/or noninfectious comorbidities showed distinct inflammatory patterns, and biomarkers may be used to predict the presence of some comorbidities. Interpretation: Our findings show that chronic immune activation in HIV-1 infection is influenced by HIV viral load, sex, age, region and ART use. These predictors, as well as associations among some biomarkers and coinfections, influence biomarkers associated with noncommunicable diseases. Funding: This work was supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief via a cooperative agreement between the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Defense [W81XWH-11-2-0174, W81XWH-18-2-0040]. The investigators have adhered to the policies for protection of human subjects as prescribed in AR 70–25. This article was prepared while Michael A. Eller was employed at Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine for the U.S. Military HIV Research Program. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the positions of the US Army or the Department of Defense. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own, and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. government. CA extern

Members of the Berkman Klein community, representing academics, activists, lawyers and technologists, came together to discuss the bluesky project, Twitter's proposed protocol for public conversation. The discussions culminated in this “meta-proposal” for the bluesky team and community, which presents suggestions on how to go about considering proposals and building out bluesky.

Background: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the most prevalent of all head injuries, and based on the severity of the injury, it may result in chronic neurologic and cognitive deficits. Microglia play an essential role in homeostasis and diseases of the central nervous system. We hypothesize that microglia may play a beneficial or detrimental role in TBI depending on their state of activation and duration.Methods: In the present study, we evaluated whether TBI results in a spatiotemporal change in microglia phenotype and whether it affects sensory-motor or learning and memory functions in male C57BL/6 mice. We used a panel of neurological and behavioral tests and a multi-color flow cytometry-based data analysis followed by unsupervised clustering to evaluate isolated microglia from injured brain tissue. Results: We characterized several microglial phenotypes and their association with cognitive deficits. TBI results in a spatiotemporal increase in highly activated microglia that correlated negatively with spatial learning and memory at 35 days post-injury.Conclusions: These observations could define therapeutic windows and accelerate translational research to improve patient outcomes.

Los moduladores selectivos del receptor de la progesterona (SPRM) ejercen una accion progestagena o antiprogestagena en funcion del tejido diana. Se usan en obstetricia para la interrupcion de embarazo y en ginecologia para la anticoncepcion de urgencia y el tratamiento medico de los miomas. Las perspectivas de desarrollo se centran en la anticoncepcion de larga duracion, el tratamiento de la endometriosis y la prevencion del cancer de mama. Los efectos endometriales especificos estan en evaluacion.

Although fibroids are common benign tumors, their impact on women's quality of life can be considerable. The most frequent symptoms are uterine bleeding, resulting in anemia, and pelvic pain. Fibroids can be of genetic or hormonal origin or arise from intrauterine events. Current options for medical treatment include control of estradiol and progesterone production or action and are discussed in this review. Although curative treatment of fibroids relies on surgical strategies, the current trend is for uterine-sparing treatment to preserve fertility and avoid unnecessary surgery. Currently approved medical treatments include intrauterine progestin delivery to reduce uterine bleeding, GnRH analogues, and, more recently, selective progesterone receptor modulators to control uterine bleeding and reduce fibroid volume.

Introduction L’allergie aux proteines de lait de vache (APLV) touche jusqu’a 5 % des enfants. De nombreuses donnees suggerent qu’un microbiote intestinal desequilibre peut contribuer au developpement d’allergies alimentaires, validant l’utilisation de probiotiques a titre preventif ou curatif. Methodes Les proprietes curatives de trois souches probiotiques (Lactobacillus rhamnosus LA305, L. salivarius LA307, Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis LA308), ont ete evaluees chez des souris Balb/c sensibilisees per os avec des proteines de lactoserum et de la toxine cholerique, une fois par semaine pendant 5 semaines. Un test de provocation orale a la β-lactoglobuline (BLG) a ensuite ete realise avant l’administration orale de souches probiotiques pendant 3 semaines. Apres un second test de provocation a la BLG, les reponses immunitaires ont ete evaluees par dosage serique de marqueurs de sensibilisation et de degranulation des mastocytes, metabolome serique, dosage de cytokines secretees pas les splenocytes re-stimules par la BLG et mesure de l’expression des genes ileaux associes aux T-helper. Resultats Le traitement probiotique n’a pas eu d’impact sur la degranulation des mastocytes et la production d’immunoglobulines specifiques anti-BLG. Cependant, la secretion de cytokines IL-2, Th2 (IL-4, IL-5) et Th1 (IFNg) par les splenocytes de souris traitees a ete diminuee avec un profil souche dependant. L’expression ileale des genes foxp3, tbet, gata3 et rorgt a confirme cette regulation immunitaire. Les 3 souches ont aussi induit une diminution des kynurenines seriques. Discussion Si les capacites de regulation des reponses immunitaire et inflammatoire dans un modele murin d’APLV sont souche-dependantes, la diminution des kynurenines seriques montrent que les trois souches ont un effet anti-inflammatoire. Conclusion Ces resultats confirment le potentiel therapeutique de ces probiotiques base notamment sur une reduction de la reponse inflammatoire au cours de la reaction allergique.

In this study, in-vehicle and out-vehicle concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) are measured to assess commuter's exposure in a commercial residential area and on a highway, under three popular ventilation modes namely, one window half opened, air conditioning on fresh air intake, and air conditioning on recirculation and examine its relationship to scarcely studied parameters including self pollution, out-vehicle sample intake location and meteorological gradients. Self pollution is the intrusion of a vehicle's own engine fumes into the passenger's compartment. For this purpose, six car makes with different ages were instrumented to concomitantly monitor in- and out-vehicle PM 2.5 and CO concentrations as well as meteorological parameters. Air pollution levels were unexpectedly higher in new cars compared to old cars, with in-cabin air quality most correlated to that of out-vehicle air near the front windshield. Self-pollution was observed at variable rates in three of the six tested cars. Significant correlations were identified between indoor to outdoor pressure difference and PM 2.5 and CO In/Out (IO) ratios under air recirculation and window half opened ventilation modes whereas temperature and humidity difference affected CO IO ratios only under the air recirculation ventilation mode.