Vine Deloria Jr., named in 1974 by Time Magazine as one of the twelve most important religious thinkers in the world, passed away 13 November 2005. The many accolades after his death, ranging from the obituary in the New York Times (“Champion of Indian Rights”) to the conference held one year after his passing at the University of Arizona (“Where do we go from here? The legacies of Vine Deloria, Jr.”), attest to the monumental contributions he made during his life in so many areas (for example, law, Indian studies, spirituality, political organization, metaphysics, and history); he was a Renaissance man. Deloria wrote numerous books that deal with spiritual themes: God Is Red comes to mind as one of the first. His recent book that deals with spirituality, The World We Used to Live In, was published in the spring of 2006, several months after his death. Deloria and I discussed spiritual and religious themes for almost three decades (from the time I took a graduate seminar with him until the summer before his passing). We engaged in an ongoing dialogue about religious freedom (in particular the free exercise clause) as well as the role of images of God in Western and non-Western traditions. This commentary’s primary purpose is to begin to examine how Deloria deals with the divine in particular and the holy in general. It was only during the last year of his life (through correspondence and conversations) and the year after his death (by reading his works and an unpublished manuscript

Context

People living with HIV infection (PLWH) in the United States continue to experience a high symptom burden despite improvements in antiretroviral therapy.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to determine if the number and types of symptom clusters differed based on whether symptom occurrence rates or distress ratings were used to create the clusters.

Methods

Data from 2,000 patients with complete symptom occurrence rates and distress scores on the 20-item HIV Symptom Index from their first ambulatory clinic visit at one of six national HIV centers of excellence in the Center for AIDS Research Network of Integrated Clinical Systems were used in these analyses. Exploratory factor analysis was used to create the symptom clusters.

Results

The same four symptom clusters (i.e., gastrointestinal, psychological, pain, body image) were identified using occurrence rates and distress ratings. For both dimensions of the symptom experience, the psychological, pain, and body image clusters each had the same symptoms. For the gastrointestinal cluster, four symptoms loaded on the occurrence dimension and six symptoms loaded on the distress dimension.

Conclusion

The number and types of symptom clusters were relatively similar across the occurrence and distress dimensions of the symptom experience. Symptom clusters in PLWH may provide insights into the development of targeted interventions for multiple co-occurring symptoms.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE

To identify genetic predictors of neurocognition, CMBs, brain volume, and WM changes in pediatric brain tumor survivors.

METHODS

Patients were selected from an existing cohort (RadART) if they had: 1) at least one neurocognitive evaluation using computer-based CogState; 2) available DNA; 3) standard imaging. Candidate gene or genome-wide genotyping was performed on all patients. CMBs were identified using a semi-automated algorithm developed in MATLAB. Volume of T2/FLAIR WM signal abnormality was measured using a semi-automated method based on a convolutional neural network. Brain volume and cortical thickness were measured using FreeSurfer volumetric analysis. Logistic and linear regression were done to compare phenotypes with candidate genotypes. Genome-wide efficient mixed-model analysis was done to compare neurocognition and CMBs. Gene set analysis was done using https://fuma.ctglab.nl/.

RESULTS

APOE4 was a candidate variant associated with non-lobar, larger volume CMBs (p<0.05). At the GWAS-level (n=225), specific genes trended with visual memory, psychomotor function, and CMB count (p<5x10-8). Using gene set analyses, there were gene set trends seen with CMB count and psychomotor function. Small sample size and low mutant allele frequency limited reliability of these findings. Preliminary volumetric analysis show reduced volume within the right parietal, medial occipital and inferior temporal lobes with increased cortical thickness in the left occipital and medial parietal lobe in patients carrying the ApoE4 allele. WM signal assessments are ongoing.

CONCLUSION

Genetic markers may be associated with neurocognition, CMBs, brain volume and WM changes in pediatric brain tumor survivors; however, larger cohorts are needed to confirm specific gene relevance.

The potential of the diverse chemistries present in natural products (NP) for biotechnology and medicine remains untapped because NP databases are not searchable with raw data and the NP community has no way to share data other than in published papers. Although mass spectrometry (MS) techniques are well-suited to high-throughput characterization of NP, there is a pressing need for an infrastructure to enable sharing and curation of data. We present Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS; http://gnps.ucsd.edu), an open-access knowledge base for community-wide organization and sharing of raw, processed or identified tandem mass (MS/MS) spectrometry data. In GNPS, crowdsourced curation of freely available community-wide reference MS libraries will underpin improved annotations. Data-driven social-networking should facilitate identification of spectra and foster collaborations. We also introduce the concept of 'living data' through continuous reanalysis of deposited data.

The transferability and clinical value of genetic risk scores (GRSs) across populations remain limited due to an imbalance in genetic studies across ancestrally diverse populations. Here we conducted a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 156,319 prostate cancer cases and 788,443 controls of European, African, Asian and Hispanic men, reflecting a 57% increase in the number of non-European cases over previous prostate cancer genome-wide association studies. We identified 187 novel risk variants for prostate cancer, increasing the total number of risk variants to 451. An externally replicated multi-ancestry GRS was associated with risk that ranged from 1.8 (per standard deviation) in African ancestry men to 2.2 in European ancestry men. The GRS was associated with a greater risk of aggressive versus non-aggressive disease in men of African ancestry (P = 0.03). Our study presents novel prostate cancer susceptibility loci and a GRS with effective risk stratification across ancestry groups.