OBJECTIVE HIV "elite controllers" (ECs) spontaneously control viral load, but some eventually require combination antiretroviral treatment (cART), due to a loss of viral control or a decline in CD4 T-cell counts. Here we studied the CD4 T-cell count dynamics after cART initiation among 34 ECs followed in U.S. and European cohorts, by comparison with chronically viremic patients (VIRs). METHOD...

In this paper, we examine the evolution of the impact of non-elite journals. We attempt to answer two questions. First, what fraction of the top-cited articles are published in non-elite journals and how has this changed over time. Second, what fraction of the total citations are to non-elite journals and how has this changed over time. To answer these questions, we studied citations to article...

A characteristic feature of Russian post-communist transformation is a high rate of elite continuity that invites an explanation of the demise of the Soviet Union as the result of a rational choice made by its ruling elite. This paper proposes a political-economic model where predatory ruling elite uses costly coercion to raise revenue from the working population, while resistance of the popula...

BACKGROUND Our understanding of the effects of football code participation on low back pain (LBP) is limited. It is unclear whether LBP is more prevalent in athletic populations or differs between levels of competition. Thus it was the aim of this study to document and compare the prevalence, intensity, quality and frequency of LBP between elite and semi-elite male Australian football code part...

This paper explores the former Eastern Bloc’s (primarily the GDR and the Soviet Union) supremacy in developing elite sporting excellence and traces the ‘ow’ of elements of such systems to selected Western nation-states. The national elite sport development systems discussed in the West are: Europe (UK, France and Spain), North America (Canada, United States) and Australia. A tentative conceptu...

BACKGROUND Because of factors only partly understood, the generalized elevated immune activation and inflammation characterizing HIV-1-infected patients are corrected incompletely with antiretroviral therapy (ART). Extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes and microvesicles released by several cell types may contribute to immune activation and dysfunction. EV size, abundance, and content ...

introduction professional sports injuries are usually all dealt with at one single operation to return the player to the sport after appropriate rehabilitation. we questioned the assumption that rotator cuff tears must be repaired concurrently with instability syndromes, and aimed to allow a professional rugby league player to achieve career goals by not correcting all pathology at one surgery....

Community-based development has been criticized for its inadequate understanding of power relationships at the local level, which thus leaves room for elite capture. This paper compares and contrasts two case studies, both of which take power seriously in their institutional designs. The solar home system in Bangladesh, represents the ‘counter-elite’ approach and explicitly excludes local elite...

OBJECTIVE HIV-1 infection is characterized by altered intestinal barrier, gut microbiota dysbiosis, and systemic inflammation. We hypothesized that changes of the gut microbiota predict immune dysfunction and HIV-1 progression, and that antiretroviral therapy (ART) partially restores the microbiota composition. DESIGN An observational study including 28 viremic patients, three elite controlle...

OBJECTIVE To address the role of translationally active HIV reservoir in chronic inflammation and non-AIDS related disorders, we first need a simple and accurate assay to evaluate viral protein expression in virally suppressed subjects. DESIGN We optimized an HIV Nef enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and used it to quantify plasma Nef levels as an indicator of the leaky HIV reservoir ...