Efficacy of a Primary Care-Based Mobile Application to Increase Hepatitis C Screening Among Asian Americans: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening remains suboptimal. We assessed the efficacy of a mobile application and provider alert in enhancing HCV screening among Asian Americans. Methods: A secondary analysis of a cluster-randomized clinical trial was performed during the birth cohort screening era to assess the efficacy of a Hepatitis App (intervention), a multilingual mobile application delivering interactive video education on viral hepatitis and creating a Provider Alert printout, at primary care clinics within 2 healthcare systems in San Francisco from 2015 to 2017. A comparison group received usual care and a similar intervention on nutrition and physical activity. The outcome was electronic health record (EHR) documentation of HCV screening along with patient-provider communication about testing and test ordering. Results: Four hundred fifty-two participants (mean age 57 years, 36% male, 80% foreign-born) were randomized by provider clusters to the intervention (n = 270) or comparison groups (n = 182). At 3-month follow up, the intervention group was more likely than the comparison group to be aware of HCV (75% vs 59%, P = .006), to discuss HCV testing with their providers (63% vs 13%, P < .001), to have HCV testing ordered (39% vs 10%, P < .001), and to have EHR-verified HCV testing (30% vs 6%, P < .001). Within the intervention group, being born between 1945 and 1965 (odds ratio, 3.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.35-7.32) was associated with increased HCV testing. Conclusions: The Hepatitis App delivered in primary care settings was effective in increasing HCV screening in a socioeconomically diverse Asian American cohort. This highlights the importance of mobile technology as a patient-centered strategy to address gaps in HCV care.

Culture moderates the link between perceived obligation and biological health risk: Evidence of culturally distinct pathways for positive health outcomes.

RATIONALE: Although perceived obligations to meet the expectations of family, friends, and society can be detrimental to physical health, much research in this area has thus far been conducted exclusively on Western samples. Cross-cultural research importantly suggests that positive health can be dependent on whether one engages in modes of being that are sanctioned by one's culture. Specifically, studies show that better health is predicted when people from cultures that value independence are able to exercise their personal autonomy and when people from cultures that value interdependence are able to maintain relational harmony (Kitayama et al., 2010). OBJECTIVE: Based on these lines of research, as the fulfillment of perceived obligations can facilitate relational harmony but infringe on personal autonomy, we posit that culture will moderate the impact of perceived obligations on health outcomes. To gain further insight, we additionally examined people's goal disengagement tendency as an individual difference that may influence their likelihood of shunning perceived obligations in order to avoid associated stressors. METHOD: Drawing from the parallel biomarker projects of Midlife in the United States and Midlife in Japan, we examined the interaction between perceived obligations and goal disengagement tendency on health among American and Japanese middle-aged adults. Health outcomes were indexed by biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein levels) and cardiovascular risk (systolic blood pressure and total/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol). RESULTS: We found that a higher tendency to disengage from stressful social obligations is associated with better health for Americans. In contrast, we found poorer health outcomes amongst Japanese participants who tend to disengage from their perceived obligations. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the importance of examining how perceived obligations influence physical health from a cultural perspective. The current study supports the hypothesis that culturally distinct pathways underlie health outcomes.

Effects of bonding with parents and home culture on intercultural adaptations and the moderating role of genes.

In the current age of globalization, living abroad is becoming an increasingly common and highly sought after experience. Sojourners' ability to adjust to a new culture can be affected by their existing attachments, internalized as intrapsychic environment, as well as their biological sensitivity to environment. This sensitivity can be partly attributed to one's genomic endowments. As such, this prospective study sought to examine the differential effects of early experiences with parents and affection for home culture on young adults' ability to adapt to a foreign culture (n=305, students who studied overseas for a semester) - specifically, the difficulties they experience - moderated by genetic susceptibility. An additional 258 students who did not travel overseas were included as a comparison group to demonstrate the uniqueness of intercultural adaptation. Current findings suggest that the maternal, paternal and cultural bondings or affections affect different aspects of intercultural adjustment. Maternal bonding affected sojourners' relationships with host nationals, while paternal bonding affected sojourners' adjustment to a new physical environment. Moreover, individuals' genetic predispositions significantly moderate these main effects regarding how much difficulty the sojourners experienced overseas.

Asymmetric chromosome segregation in Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri.

This study was intended to characterize the chromosome segregation process of Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri (Xac) by investigating the functionality of the ParB factor encoded on its chromosome, and its requirement for cell viability and virulence. Using TAP tagging we show that ParB is expressed in Xac. Disruption of parB increased the cell doubling time and precluded the ability of Xac to colonize the host citrus. Moreover, Xac mutant cells expressing only truncated forms of ParB exhibited the classical phenotype of aberrant chromosome organization, and seemed affected in cell division judged by their reduced growth rate and the propensity to form filaments. The ParB-GFP localization pattern in Xac was suggestive of an asymmetric mode of replicon partitioning, which together with the filamentation phenotype support the idea that Xac may control septum placement using mechanisms probably analogous to Caulobacter crescentus, and perhaps Vibrio cholerae, and Corynebacterium glutamicum. Xac exhibits asymmetric chromosome segregation, and the perturbation of this process leads to an inability to colonize the host plant.

Novel deletion alleles carrying CYP21A1P/A2 chimeric genes in Brazilian patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency.

BACKGROUND: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency is caused by deletions, large gene conversions or mutations in CYP21A2 gene. The human gene is located at 6p21.3 within a locus containing the genes for putative serine/threonine Kinase RP, complement C4, steroid 21-hydroxylase CYP21 tenascin TNX, normally, in a duplicated cluster known as RCCX module. The CYP21 extra copy is a pseudogene (CYP21A1P). In Brazil, 30-kb deletion forming monomodular alleles that carry chimeric CYP21A1P/A2 genes corresponds to ~9% of disease-causing alleles. Such alleles are considered to result from unequal crossovers within the bimodular C4/CYP21 locus. Depending on the localization of recombination breakpoint, different alleles can be generated conferring the locus high degree of allelic variability. The purpose of the study was to investigate the variability of deleted alleles in patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency. METHODS: We used different techniques to investigate the variability of 30-kb deletion alleles in patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency. Alleles were first selected after Southern blotting. The composition of CYP21A1P/A2 chimeric genes was investigated by ASO-PCR and MLPA analyses followed by sequencing to refine the location of recombination breakpoints. Twenty patients carrying at least one allele with C4/CYP21 30-kb deletion were included in the study. RESULTS: An allele carrying a CYP21A1P/A2 chimeric gene was found unusually associated to a C4B/C4A Taq I 6.4-kb fragment, generally associated to C4B and CYP21A1P deletions. A novel haplotype bearing both p.P34L and p.H62L, novel and rare mutations, respectively, was identified in exon 1, however p.P30L, the most frequent pseudogene-derived mutation in this exon, was absent. Four unrelated patients showed this haplotype. Absence of p.P34L in CYP21A1P of normal controls indicated that it is not derived from pseudogene. In addition, the combination of different approaches revealed nine haplotypes for deleted 21-hydroxylase deficiency alleles. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated high allelic variability for 30-kb deletion in patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency indicating that a founder effect might be improbable for most monomodular alleles carrying CYP21A1P/A2 chimeric genes in Brazil.

Subcellular localization of proteins labeled with GFP in Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri: targeting the division septum.

Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri (Xac) is the causal agent of citrus canker, an economically important disease that affects citrus worldwide. To initiate the characterization of essential biological processes of Xac, we constructed integrative plasmids for the ectopic expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled proteins within this bacterium. Here, we show that the disruption of the alpha-amylase gene (amy), the site of plasmid integration into the bacterial chromosome, does not alter its pathogenesis while abolishing completely the ability of Xac to degrade starch. Furthermore, our GFP expression system was used to characterize ORF XAC3408, a hypothetical protein encoded by Xac that shares significant homology to the FtsZ-stabilizing factor ZapA from Bacillus subtilis (ZapA(Bsu)). GFP-XAC3408 expressed in Xac exhibited a septal localization pattern typical of GFP-ZapA(Bsu), which indicates that XAC3408 is the Xac orthologue of the cell division protein ZapA(Bsu). The results demonstrate the potential of GFP labeling for protein functional characterizations in Xac, and, in addition, the Xac mutant strain labeled at the septum constitutes a biological model for the exploration of antibacterial compounds able to inhibit cell division in this plant pathogen.

Cks1 activates transcription by binding to the ubiquitylated proteasome.

Cyclin-dependent kinase-associated protein 1 (Cks1) is involved in the control of the transcription of a subset of genes in addition to its role in controlling the cell cycle in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By directly ligating Cks1 onto a GAL1 promoter-driven reporter, we demonstrated that Cks1 acts as a transcription activator. Using this method, we dissected the downstream events from Cks1 recruitment at the promoter. We showed that subsequent to promoter binding, Cdc28 binding is required to modulate the level of gene expression. The ubiquitin-binding domain of Cks1 is essential for implementing downstream transcription events, which appears to recruit the proteasome via ubiquitylated proteasome subunits. We propose that the selective ability of Cks1 to bind ubiquitin allows this small molecule the flexibility to bind large protein complexes with specificity and that this may represent a novel mechanism of regulating transcriptional activation.

Culture as common sense: perceived consensus versus personal beliefs as mechanisms of cultural influence.

The authors propose that culture affects people through their perceptions of what is consensually believed. Whereas past research has examined whether cultural differences in social judgment are mediated by differences in individuals' personal values and beliefs, this article investigates whether they are mediated by differences in individuals' perceptions of the views of people around them. The authors propose that individuals who perceive that traditional views are culturally consensual (e.g., Chinese participants who believe that most of their fellows hold collectivistic values) will themselves behave and think in culturally typical ways. Four studies of previously well-established cultural differences found that cultural differences were mediated by participants' perceived consensus as much as by participants' personal views. This held true for cultural differences in the bases of compliance (Study 1), attributional foci (Study 2), and counterfactual thinking styles (Study 3). To tease apart the effect of consensus perception from other possibly associated individual differences, in Study 4, the authors experimentally manipulated which of 2 cultures was salient to bicultural participants and found that judgments were guided by participants' perception of the consensual view of the salient culture.

Perceived cultural importance and actual self-importance of values in cultural identification.

Cross-cultural psychologists assume that core cultural values define to a large extent what a culture is. Typically, core values are identified through an actual self-importance approach, in which core values are those that members of the culture as a group strongly endorse. In this article, the authors propose a perceived cultural importance approach to identifying core values, in which core values are values that members of the culture as a group generally believe to be important in the culture. In 5 studies, the authors examine the utility of the perceived cultural importance approach. Results consistently showed that, compared with values of high actual self-importance, values of high perceived cultural importance play a more important role in cultural identification. These findings have important implications for conceptualizing and measuring cultures.

Discovery of growth hormone-releasing hormones and receptors in nonmammalian vertebrates.

In mammals, growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) is the most important neuroendocrine factor that stimulates the release of growth hormone (GH) from the anterior pituitary. In nonmammalian vertebrates, however, the previously named GHRH-like peptides were unable to demonstrate robust GH-releasing activities. In this article, we provide evidence that these GHRH-like peptides are homologues of mammalian PACAP-related peptides (PRP). Instead, GHRH peptides encoded in cDNAs isolated from goldfish, zebrafish, and African clawed frog were identified. Moreover, receptors specific for these GHRHs were characterized from goldfish and zebrafish. These GHRHs and GHRH receptors (GHRH-Rs) are phylogenetically and structurally more similar to their mammalian counterparts than the previously named GHRH-like peptides and GHRH-like receptors. Information regarding their chromosomal locations and organization of neighboring genes confirmed that they share the same origins as the mammalian genes. Functionally, the goldfish GHRH dose-dependently activates cAMP production in receptor-transfected CHO cells as well as GH release from goldfish pituitary cells. Tissue distribution studies showed that the goldfish GHRH is expressed almost exclusively in the brain, whereas the goldfish GHRH-R is actively expressed in brain and pituitary. Taken together, these results provide evidence for a previously uncharacterized GHRH-GHRH-R axis in nonmammalian vertebrates. Based on these data, a comprehensive evolutionary scheme for GHRH, PRP-PACAP, and PHI-VIP genes in relation to three rounds of genome duplication early on in vertebrate evolution is proposed. These GHRHs, also found in flounder, Fugu, medaka, stickleback, Tetraodon, and rainbow trout, provide research directions regarding the neuroendocrine control of growth in vertebrates.

Recombination and chromosome segregation.

The duplication of DNA and faithful segregation of newly replicated chromosomes at cell division is frequently dependent on recombinational processes. The rebuilding of broken or stalled replication forks is universally dependent on homologous recombination proteins. In bacteria with circular chromosomes, crossing over by homologous recombination can generate dimeric chromosomes, which cannot be segregated to daughter cells unless they are converted to monomers before cell division by the conserved Xer site-specific recombination system. Dimer resolution also requires FtsK, a division septum-located protein, which coordinates chromosome segregation with cell division, and uses the energy of ATP hydrolysis to activate the dimer resolution reaction. FtsK can also translocate DNA, facilitate synapsis of sister chromosomes and minimize entanglement and catenation of newly replicated sister chromosomes. The visualization of the replication/recombination-associated proteins, RecQ and RarA, and specific genes within living Escherichia coli cells, reveals further aspects of the processes that link replication with recombination, chromosome segregation and cell division, and provides new insight into how these may be coordinated.

Biases in the perceived prevalence and motives of severe acute respiratory syndrome prevention behaviors among Chinese high school students in Hong Kong.

In two studies conducted in Hong Kong during and immediately after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), participants displayed several social cognitive biases when they estimated the prevalence of and inferred the motives underlying SARS preventive behaviors. First, participants who practiced preventive behaviors (practicers) consistently estimated that more people practiced such behaviors than did non-practicers (false consensus bias). Second, for some preventive behaviors, participants believed that their own behaviors were more motivated by prosocial concerns (relative to self-interest) than were other practicers (pluralistic ignorance). Finally, non-practicers underestimated the importance of prosocial concerns underlying some preventive behaviors (actor-observer bias). We discussed the relevance of these social cognitive biases to health education and to Hong Kong people's psychological reactions to SARS.

Spatial and temporal organization of replicating Escherichia coli chromosomes.

The positions of DNA regions close to the chromosome replication origin and terminus in growing cells of Escherichia coli have been visualized simultaneously, using new widely applicable reagents. Furthermore, the positions of these regions with respect to a replication factory-associated protein have been analysed. Time-lapse analysis has allowed the fate of origins, termini and the FtsZ ring to be followed in a lineage-specific manner during the formation of microcolonies. These experiments reveal new aspects of the E. coli cell cycle and demonstrate that the replication terminus region is frequently located asymmetrically, on the new pole side of mid-cell. This asymmetry could provide a mechanism by which the chromosome segregation protein FtsK, located at the division septum, can act directionally to ensure that the septal region is free of DNA before the completion of cell division.