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Biological sex differences affect the course of HIV infection, with untreated women having lower viral loads compared to their male counterparts but, for a given viral load, women have a higher rate of progression to AIDS. However, the vast majority of data on viral evolution, a process that is clearly impacted by host immunity and could be impacted by sex differences, has been derived from men. We conducted an intensive analysis of HIV-1 gag and env-gp120 evolution taken over the first 6-11 years of infection from 8 Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) participants who had not received combination antiretroviral therapy (ART). This was compared to similar data previously collected from men, with both groups infected with HIV-1 subtype B. Early virus populations in men and women were generally homogenous with no differences in diversity between sexes. No differences in ensuing nucleotide substitution rates were found between the female and male cohorts studied herein. As previously reported for men, time to peak diversity in env-gp120 in women was positively associated with time to CD4+ cell count below 200 (P = 0.017), and the number of predicted N-linked glycosylation sites generally increased over time, followed by a plateau or decline, with the majority of changes localized to the V1-V2 region. These findings strongly suggest that the sex differences in HIV-1 disease progression attributed to immune system composition and sensitivities are not revealed by, nor do they impact, global patterns of viral evolution, the latter of which proceeds similarly in women and men.

The current study examines the effects of a bottom-up CSR approach, as compared to a top-down CSR approach, on consumer publics' evaluation of CSR practices. By applying dialogic communication as a theoretical lens, this study also investigates the mediating effects of perceived dialogic organizational – employee communication in such relationships. Through a between-subject online experiment, the results showed that when a CSR program was implemented with a bottom-up approach (vs. a top-down approach), consumer publics perceived a higher level of organization – employee dialogic communication. Such perception, in turn, results in consumer publics' favorable attitude toward the company, purchase intentions, and supportive behavioral intentions of CSR practices. In addition, the positive effects of the bottom-up CSR approach on consumer publics' corporate evaluations via the mediation of perceived dialogic organization – employee communication were greater for individuals with higher levels of corporate distrust than those with lower levels of corporate distrust. The study extends our understanding of the value of dialogic communication in public relations and CSR communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates differential effects of form-focused instruction (FFI) to a simple versus complex L2 targets when the FFI is offered within a context of primarily meaning-focused instruction (MFI). Forty-seven Korean-speaking adult learners of English participated in the study and were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental groups or one control group. The experimental participants were instructed in one simple and one complex targets through MFI plus FFI or MFI only. No instruction was provided for the controls. Leaming was measured by a grammaticality judgment task, and knowledge types were examined by subjective measures of awareness. The results indicate that the combination of FFI and MFI results in more robust learn ing effects than the exclusive use of MFI particularly for both simple and complex targets. As for the types of knowledge, the analyses found that FFI positively influences development of implicit and explicit knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Whether and how the oral microbiome and its changes in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) recipients may contribute to oral chronic GVHD (cGVHD) pathogenesis is unknown. In addition, although the oral and colonic microbiota are distinct in healthy adults, whether oral microbes may ectopically colonize the gut in alloHCT patients is unknown., Experimental Design: To address these knowledge gaps, longitudinal oral and fecal samples were collected prospectively in the multicenter Close Assessment and Testing for Chronic GVHD study (NCT04188912). Through shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the samples collected at baseline, oral cGVHD onset, first post-cGVHD onset visit, and 1-year post-HCT time points in patients with oral cGVHD (cases; N = 29) or without any cGVHD (controls; N = 51), we examined whether (i) oral and/or gut microbiomes and their longitudinal trajectories differ between cases and controls and (ii) oral and gut microbiomes overlap in alloHCT recipients, especially those developing cGVHD., Results: A total of 195 samples were analyzed. The onset of oral cGVHD was characterized by an expansion of Streptococcus salivarius and Veillonella parvula in the oral microbiome. High levels of oral/gut microbiota overlap were observed, particularly in patients with oral cGVHD, suggesting ectopic colonization of the gut by oral bacteria., Conclusions: The unusual coalescence of two distant niches in these patients may result in short- or long-term consequences for the host, a novel avenue for future research. In addition, this study suggests a contribution of the oral microbiome to oral cGVHD pathogenesis., (©2024 American Association for Cancer Research.)