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At least 1,171 records · Page 65Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Encoding of sound localization cues by an identified auditory interneuron: effects of stimulus temporal pattern.

An important cue for sound localization is binaural comparison of stimulus intensity. Two features of neuronal responses, response strength, i.e., spike count and/or rate, and response latency, vary with stimulus intensity, and binaural comparison of either or both might underlie localization. Previous studies at the receptor-neuron level showed that these response features are affected by the stimulus temporal pattern. When sounds are repeated rapidly, as occurs in many natural sounds, response strength decreases and latency increases, resulting in altered coding of localization cues. In this study we analyze binaural cues for sound localization at the level of an identified pair of interneurons (the left and right AN2) in the cricket auditory system, with emphasis on the effects of stimulus temporal pattern on binaural response differences. AN2 spike count decreases with rapidly repeated stimulation and latency increases. Both effects depend on stimulus intensity. Because of the difference in intensity at the two ears, binaural differences in spike count and latency change as stimulation continues. The binaural difference in spike count decreases, whereas the difference in latency increases. The proportional changes in response strength and in latency are greater at the interneuron level than at the receptor level, suggesting that factors in addition to decrement of receptor responses are involved. Intracellular recordings reveal that a slowly building, long-lasting hyperpolarization is established in AN2. At the same time, the level of depolarization reached during the excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) resulting from each sound stimulus decreases. Neither these effects on membrane potential nor the changes in spiking response are accounted for by contralateral inhibition. Based on comparison of our results with earlier behavioral experiments, it is unlikely that crickets use the binaural difference in latency of AN2 responses as the main cue for determining sound direction, leaving the difference in response strength, i.e., spike count and/or rate, as the most likely candidate.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Epidemiology of scalds in vulnerable groups in New South Wales, Australia, 1998/1999 to 2002/2003.

In this study, the recently introduced International Classification of Disease, 10th revision, code for hot tap water scalds was used to examine the epidemiology of these cases and other scalds injuries in children younger than 5 years of age and adults aged 65 years and older. Although the trunk was the most common area in which scalds occurred, young children were more likely to sustain head and neck scalds (15%, 95% confidence interval 10.8-18.3) because of hot tap water than older people (2%, 95% confidence interval 0.2-4.4). Hospital separation rates for hot water scalds decreased significantly during the study period in both boys (chi(2) = 15.6, df = 1, P < .001) and girls (chi(2) = 5.6, df = 1, P < .001) who were younger than 5 years of age, which might be attributable to the introduction of new standards regulating the provision of hot tap water to various buildings. The severity of scalds cases did not seem to be correlated with the length of hospital stay, which remained unchanged in both age groups.

Accidents, Home↗
PubMed2024

DNABERT-S: Pioneering Species Differentiation with Species-Aware DNA Embeddings.

We introduce DNABERT-S, a tailored genome model that develops species-aware embeddings to naturally cluster and segregate DNA sequences of different species in the embedding space. Differentiating species from genomic sequences (i.e., DNA and RNA) is vital yet challenging, since many real-world species remain uncharacterized, lacking known genomes for reference. Embedding-based methods are therefore used to differentiate species in an unsupervised manner. DNABERT-S builds upon a pre-trained genome foundation model named DNABERT-2. To encourage effective embeddings to error-prone long-read DNA sequences, we introduce Manifold Instance Mixup (MI-Mix), a contrastive objective that mixes the hidden representations of DNA sequences at randomly selected layers and trains the model to recognize and differentiate these mixed proportions at the output layer. We further enhance it with the proposed Curriculum Contrastive Learning (C2LR) strategy. Empirical results on 23 diverse datasets show DNABERT-S's effectiveness, especially in realistic label-scarce scenarios. For example, it identifies twice more species from a mixture of unlabeled genomic sequences, doubles the Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) in species clustering, and outperforms the top baseline's performance in 10-shot species classification with just a 2-shot training. Model, codes, and data is publicly available at https://github.com/MAGlCS-LAB/DNABERT_S.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

The 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase family of enzymes: how nature makes new enzymes using a beta-alpha-beta structural motif.

4-Oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT) catalyzes the isomerization of beta,gamma-unsaturated enones to their alpha,beta-isomers. The enzyme is part of a plasmid-encoded pathway, which enables bacteria harboring the plasmid to use various aromatic hydrocarbons as their sole sources of carbon and energy. Among isomerases and enzymes in general, 4-OT is unusual for two reasons: it has one of the smallest known monomer sizes (62 amino acids) and the amino-terminal proline functions as the catalytic base. In addition to Pro-1, three other residues (Arg-11, Arg-39, and Phe-50) have been identified as critical catalytic residues by kinetic analysis, site-directed mutagenesis, chemical synthesis, NMR, and crystallographic studies. Arginine-39 functions as the general acid catalyst (assisted by an ordered water molecule) in the reaction while Arg-11 plays a role in substrate binding and facilitates catalysis by acting as an electron sink. Finally, the hydrophobic nature of the active site, which lowers the pK(a) of Pro-1 to approximately 6.4 and provides a favorable environment for catalysis, is largely maintained by Phe-50. 4-OT is also the title enzyme of the 4-OT family of enzymes. The chromosomal homologues in this family are composed of monomers ranging in size from 61 to 79 amino acids, which code a beta-alpha-beta structural motif. The homologues all retain Pro-1 and generally have an aromatic or hydrophobic amino acid at the Phe-50 position. Characterization of representative members has uncovered mechanistic and structural diversity. A new activity, a trans-3-chloroacrylic acid dehalogenase, has been identified in addition to the previously known tautomerase and isomerase activities. Two new structures have also been found, along with the 4-OT hexamer. The dehalogenase functions as a heterohexamer while the Escherichia coli homologue, designated YdcE, functions as a dimer. Moreover, both 4-OT and the Bacillus subtilis homologue, designated YwhB, exhibit low-level dehalogenase activity. Amplification of this activity could have produced the full-fledged dehalogenase. The sum of these observations indicates that Nature uses the beta-alpha-beta structural motif as a building block in a variety of manners to create new enzymes.

Bacillus subtilis↗
PubMed2002

Animal conservation, carbon and sustainability.

International conventions to reduce carbon dioxide levels focus on ecosystems and do not specifically recognize the need to conserve species. However, species are the building blocks of ecosystems, they are more widely understood among the public, and they provide means of capturing market values from ecosystems. Achieving successful conservation globally will require ensuring that the systems under which species and ecosystems are conserved are more inclusive than statutory protected areas. Equal emphasis needs to be placed on including effective regimes that also encompass private and communal ownership through incentive-based approaches. Nevertheless, if globalized industries such as nature-based tourism or consumptive use are to provide meaningful incentives locally, a key requirement is to reduce leakage of revenue that is earned as a result of conserving species, such that local development concerns are addressed. However, current biodiversity conventions that address these needs are largely aspirational, while globalized industries such as tourism mainly promote their green credentials only through voluntary codes of conduct. Greatly improved linkages are needed between international conservation concerns and ensuring effective solutions to sustainability, which inevitably rest at national and sub-national levels, through systems of rights, tenure, benefits and incentives.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2005

Neural encoding and retrieval of sound sequences.

Although considerable progress has been made recently in our understanding of the coding of complex sounds in the cerebral cortex, the processing and storage of tone sequences is still poorly understood. We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify brain mechanisms involved in the encoding and retrieval of melodies by studying the anticipation of familiar music. The results suggest a specific role for each of the following brain structures: the anterior part of the right superior temporal cortex, the right inferior frontal cortex and anterior insula, the left anterior prefrontal cortex, the lateral cerebellum, and the anterior cingulate. In a separate study, we investigated single-neuron responses in the auditory cortex of awake behaving monkeys to alternating tone sequences that in humans evoke the perception of "streaming." Depending on the frequency separation between the tones, an initial single stream may segregate into two streams after a build-up period of several seconds. The neural responses in the monkeys' primary auditory cortex (A1) mirror the psychophysical time course extremely well, suggesting that habituation within A1 may be one reason for stream segregation. However, the higher auditory and prefrontal areas found to be activated by musical melodies are expected to interact with primary areas in both bottom-up and top-down fashion to bring about the perceptual organization of sound sequences.

Animals↗
PubMed2025

DNABERT-S: pioneering species differentiation with species-aware DNA embeddings.

SUMMARY: We introduce DNABERT-S, a tailored genome model that develops species-aware embeddings to naturally cluster and segregate DNA sequences of different species in the embedding space. Differentiating species from genomic sequences (i.e. DNA and RNA) is vital yet challenging, since many real-world species remain uncharacterized, lacking known genomes for reference. Embedding-based methods are therefore used to differentiate species in an unsupervised manner. DNABERT-S builds upon a pre-trained genome foundation model named DNABERT-2. To encourage effective embeddings to error-prone long-read DNA sequences, we introduce Manifold Instance Mixup (MI-Mix), a contrastive objective that mixes the hidden representations of DNA sequences at randomly selected layers and trains the model to recognize and differentiate these mixed proportions at the output layer. We further enhance it with the proposed Curriculum Contrastive Learning (C2LR) strategy. Empirical results on 28 diverse datasets show DNABERT-S's effectiveness, especially in realistic label-scarce scenarios. For example, it identifies twice more species from a mixture of unlabeled genomic sequences, doubles the Adjusted Rand Index (ARI) in species clustering, and outperforms the top baseline's performance in 10-shot species classification with just a 2-shot training. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Model, codes, and data are publically available at https://github.com/MAGICS-LAB/DNABERT_S.

Sequence Analysis, DNA↗
PubMed1999

Reaching the goals of "Healthy People 2000" regarding breastfeeding.

The Healthy People 2000 objectives for breastfeeding were to move the breastfeeding initiation rate to 75% from 54% and the breastfeeding continuation rate to 50% at age 6 months from the 1988 baseline of 21%. The 1996 data indicated that the goal will not be met either for initiation or duration in spite of governmental strategic planning and coalition building, the acknowledgement of the benefits of breastfeeding by professional associations, the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, or the efforts of individual health professionals. Clearly, there is still work to be done. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative was organized within Baby-Friendly USA too late in the decade to have had any impact on the 1996 data. It may take an additional decade before sufficient hospitals and birthing centers are engaged in the process to make a measurable difference in duration. Work protection legislation was not introduced until 1998. A national breastfeeding committee was not formed until 1998. National breastfeeding promotion programs were still either in the planning stage or in early stages of implementation in 1996. There is no paid maternity leave guaranteed by legislation for women in the United States. The International Code on Marketing has not been addressed, except to propose ways of examining the issue. The blueprints developed by the Surgeon General's Workshop on Breastfeeding and the Call for Action workshop enumerated strategies that will be carried over to the 2010 objectives. New blueprints will be developed to meet the 2010 goals, but it is not enough to strategize and plan. The substantive advantages of breastfeeding make accomplishment of the goals imperative if we are to achieve "health for all."

Breast Feeding↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Federal and state efforts to improve care for infants and toddlers.

Can government help mothers and fathers manage their economic and parenting responsibilities? Should it try? This article examines how federal and state governments currently act as partners with the parents of four million babies who are born each year in the United States. Viewing public policy as a tool that expresses the priorities of society, this article summarizes the leading ways that policy touches the lives of infants and toddlers--from the tax code to mandates for family leave, to cash benefits and subsidies, to funding for direct service programs. Several conclusions emerge from this detailed catalog: Significant federal policies focus on the economics of family life, helping low-income families meet their children's basic physical needs and allowing affluent families to shelter income for their children's benefit. Far less policy attention addresses the challenges that parents face as caregivers trying to ensure that their infants are safe, nurtured, and encouraged each day. Child care, despite its importance for children's development, is seen by policymakers primarily as a service that enables parents to work. Opportunities to promote child development through high-quality care, therefore, go untapped. Some states have creatively combined federal and state resources to provide new services for infants and caregivers, expand successful programs, and build linkages across programs and agencies. The author stresses the importance of maximizing the benefits of current federal policies that reduce the harm of child poverty, and urges policymakers to embed a developmental perspective in new state and federal programs and policies that touch the lives of infants, toddlers, and their families.

Child Care↗
PubMed2006

EasyExonPrimer: automated primer design for exon sequences.

UNLABELLED: EasyExonPrimer is a web-based software that automates the design of PCR primers to amplify exon sequences from genomic DNA. EasyExonPrimer is written in Perl and uses Primer3 to design PCR primers based on the genome builds and annotation databases available at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Genome Browser database (http://genome.ucsc.edu/). It masks repeats and known single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites in the genome and designs standardised primers using optimised conditions. Users can input genes by RefSeq mRNA ID, gene name or keyword. The primer design is optimised for large-scale resequencing of exons. For exons larger than 1 kb, the user has the option of breaking the exon sequence down into overlapping smaller fragments. All primer pairs are then verified using the In-Silico PCR software to test for uniqueness in the genome. We have designed >1000 pairs of primers for 90 genes; 95% of the primer pairs successfully amplified exon sequences under standard PCR conditions without requiring further optimisation. AVAILABILITY: EasyExonPrimer is available from http://129.43.22.27/~primer/. The source code is also available upon request. CONTACT: Xiaolin Wu (forestwu@mail.nih.gov).

Algorithms↗
PubMed1993

Are there structural and functional modules in the vertebrate olfactory bulb?

A number of different recording methods have shown that odorants elicit patterns of neuronal activity widely distributed across cells of the olfactory receptor epithelium, olfactory bulb, and piriform cortex in the vertebrate olfactory system. These findings suggest that the physicochemical properties of odorant molecules are processed by distributed coding mechanisms activated in parallel in olfactory circuits in order to characterize a single, "monomolecular" odorant. These findings also suggest that the response patterns seen at higher levels are set up by differential responses in peripheral receptor cells of the olfactory epithelium. One requirement for understanding the details of this proposed encoding scheme is correlation of odor-generated patterns with the components of these circuits. In this paper, results from 2-deoxyglucose and voltage-sensitive dye studies suggest that certain components of these responses may relate to patterns established in reproducibly identifiable aggregates of bulbar cells. These findings are consistent with previous observations suggesting that columnar groups of periglomerular, mitral/tufted and granule cells, oriented perpendicular to the laminae of the bulb, are functionally related to one another. Such cell groups or modules, when activated in parallel, could serve as building block components of the complete ensemble response. According to this hypothesis, different sets of such modules would be activated with different odorant stimuli and modules could be shared to the degree to which the physicochemical properties of the different stimuli overlap.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Providing health care to low-income women: a matter of trust.

BACKGROUND: Trust is an important indicator of quality in patient-provider relationships and predicts adherence to certain protective health behaviours. It has been relatively unexplored among low-income or minority women. OBJECTIVES: We explored health care experiences that influence patient trust among low-income women in the USA with respect to professionals and lay health workers (LHWs). METHODS: Focus groups were conducted with 33 prenatal and postpartum women, aged 18-45 years, recruited from community-based public prenatal care programmes. Focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed, and independently coded by readers. A model of factors associated with trust was developed based on the major thematic categories. RESULTS: Most women were Black (67%) and had completed high school (85%). Factors related to greater trust specific to patient-provider relationships were: continuity of the patient-provider relationship, effective communication, demonstration of caring and perceived competence. Women with less trust in their physicians reported an unwillingness to follow his/her advice. Most women reported having more trusting relationships with LHWs and nurses than with physicians, probably due to greater contact with these staff. Several women with a low level of trust reported experiences of discrimination due to lack of insurance. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal care presents a unique opportunity for providers to contribute to the elimination of health disparities among low-income women. Improving continuity with public health prenatal care providers and building strong relationships with LHWs may enhance quality of care and contribute to achieving this goal. Better patient-provider communication is also a practical area of focus towards improving patient trust.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1995

A positive, individually ventilated caging system: a local barrier system to protect both animals and personnel.

Most local barrier systems are designed primarily either to protect animals from airborne contamination (exclusion) or to ensure the safety of personnel (hazard containment). Few, other than isolators, are able to cope with the often conflicting demands to do both. The Positive Individually Ventilated system (PIV), which provides pressure adjustable, individual supply and exhaust ventilation to each cage has been tested with this in mind as well as the need to ensure that environmental conditions comply with the requirements of the Home Office Code of Practice (CoP). The results indicate that when compared with traditional open racking the system can reduce both the risk of animals becoming contaminated by airborne infection from the room and the risk of aeroallergens escaping from the cages into the room air. At the same time, environmental conditions within the cages are both less variable and less stressful to the occupants. Conditions of air temperature, relative humidity, ventilation rates, light intensity and (with appropriate air handling) sound levels, all comply with or are better than those required by the CoP. Even with the room air change rate set at only 8/h (8 ac/h) the air distribution system results in draught-free cage ventilation rates of around 50-120 ac/h. This means that with at least the PIV exhaust(s) linked directly into the air conditioning system of the building, the size of the latter and its associated running costs can be reduced by around 50%; this energy saving concept has been approved in principle by the Home Office. Additional benefits include the fact that bedding is kept much drier allowing further cost savings in bedding and associated labour costs. The system is thus beneficial to the animals in protecting them from airborne infection and other stresses. By providing a less variable environment it also helps to minimise the sort of interference with experiments which can arise from that source. Similarly, in accordance with the aims of 'The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations' (COSHH 1988) and the Health & Safety Executive (HSE 1990), by reducing dust levels in the room air, including allergens, it is also beneficial to the personnel working in the animal rooms.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed2005

Automation of a problem list using natural language processing.

BACKGROUND: The medical problem list is an important part of the electronic medical record in development in our institution. To serve the functions it is designed for, the problem list has to be as accurate and timely as possible. However, the current problem list is usually incomplete and inaccurate, and is often totally unused. To alleviate this issue, we are building an environment where the problem list can be easily and effectively maintained. METHODS: For this project, 80 medical problems were selected for their frequency of use in our future clinical field of evaluation (cardiovascular). We have developed an Automated Problem List system composed of two main components: a background and a foreground application. The background application uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to harvest potential problem list entries from the list of 80 targeted problems detected in the multiple free-text electronic documents available in our electronic medical record. These proposed medical problems drive the foreground application designed for management of the problem list. Within this application, the extracted problems are proposed to the physicians for addition to the official problem list. RESULTS: The set of 80 targeted medical problems selected for this project covered about 5% of all possible diagnoses coded in ICD-9-CM in our study population (cardiovascular adult inpatients), but about 64% of all instances of these coded diagnoses. The system contains algorithms to detect first document sections, then sentences within these sections, and finally potential problems within the sentences. The initial evaluation of the section and sentence detection algorithms demonstrated a sensitivity and positive predictive value of 100% when detecting sections, and a sensitivity of 89% and a positive predictive value of 94% when detecting sentences. CONCLUSION: The global aim of our project is to automate the process of creating and maintaining a problem list for hospitalized patients and thereby help to guarantee the timeliness, accuracy and completeness of this information.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

The route of entry of cytoplasmically synthesized proteins into chloroplasts of algae possessing chloroplast ER.

In 8 classes of algae, namely the Cryptophyceae, Raphidophyceae, Haptophyceae, Chrysophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Xanthophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae and Phaeophyceae, the chloroplasts, in addition to being surrounded by a double-membraned chloroplast envelope, are also enclosed by a cisterna of endoplasmic reticulum called the chloroplast ER. Often this ER cisterna is continuous with the outher membrane of the nuclear envelope in such a manner that the nuclear envelope forms a part of the ER sac enclosing the chloroplast. In all these classes of algae except the Cryptophyceae, a regular network of tubules and vesicles, named the periplastidal reticulum, is present at a specific location between the chloroplast envelope and the chloroplast ER. In the Cryptophyceae, scattered vesicles are found between the chloroplast envelope and the chloroplast ER. Ribosomes which have been shown to be arranged to polysomes are found on the outer membrane of the chloroplast ER. It is proposed that nuclear-coded proteins which are destined for the chloroplast are synthesized on these polysomes, passing during synthesis into the lumen of the ER cisterna. Vesicles containing these proteins then pinch off the chloroplast ER and form the periplastidal reticulum. Vesicles containing these proteins then pinch off the chloroplast ER and form the periplastidal reticulum. Vesicles then fuse with the outer membrane of the chloroplast envelope thereby delivering their contents to the lumen of the chloroplast envelope. Proteins then cross the inner membrane of the chloroplast envelope in an as yet unknown manner. Experimental evidence for this hypothesis comes from studies on Ochromonas danica using chloramphenicol and spectinomycin, which inhibit protein synthesis on plastid ribosomes, and cycloheximide, which inhibits protein synthesis on cytoplasmic ribosomes. In cells of Ochromonas exposed to chloramphenicol or spectinomycin, the periplastidal reticulum proliferates markedly becoming several layers thick. Presumably this build up of periplastidal reticulum occurs because the transport of cytoplasmically synthesized plastid proteins is slowed down when protein synthesis in the chloroplast is inhibited. Conversely, when cells of Ochromonas are treated with cycloheximide, there is a reduction in the amount of periplastidal reticulum presumably because there are no cytoplasmically synthesized proteins to be transported into the chloroplast.

Biological Transport↗
PubMed2002

Tryparedoxin peroxidase of Leishmania donovani: molecular cloning, heterologous expression, specificity, and catalytic mechanism.

Tryparedoxin peroxidase (TXNPx) of Trypanosomatidae is the terminal peroxidase of a complex redox cascade that detoxifies hydroperoxides by NADPH (Nogoceke et al., Biol. Chem. 378, 827-836, 1997). A gene putatively coding for a peroxiredoxin-type TXNPx was identified in L. donovani and expressed in Escherichia coli to yield an N-terminally His-tagged protein (LdH6TXNPx). LdH6TXNPx proved to be an active peroxidase with tryparedoxin (TXN) 1 and 2 of Crithidia fasciculata as cosubstrates. LdH6TXNPx efficiently reduces H2O2, is moderately active with t-butyl and cumene hydroperoxide, but only marginally with linoleic acid hydroperoxide and phosphatidyl choline hydroperoxide. The enzyme displays ping-pong kinetics with a k(cat) of 11.2 s(-1) and limiting K(m) values for t-butyl hydroperoxide and CfTXN1 of 50 and 3.6 microM, respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed that C52 and C173, as in related peroxiredoxins, are involved in catalysis. Exchanges of R128 against D and T49 against S and V, supported by molecular modelling, further disclose that the SH group of C52 builds the center of a novel catalytic triad. By hydrogen bonding with the OH of T49 and by the positive charge of R128 the solvent-exposed thiol of C52 becomes deprotonated to react with ROOH. Molecular models of oxidized TXNPx show C52 disulfide-bridged with C173' that can be attacked by C41 of TXN2. By homology, the deduced mechanism may apply to most peroxiredoxins and complements current views of peroxiredoxin catalysis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2005

Semi-supervised protein classification using cluster kernels.

MOTIVATION: Building an accurate protein classification system depends critically upon choosing a good representation of the input sequences of amino acids. Recent work using string kernels for protein data has achieved state-of-the-art classification performance. However, such representations are based only on labeled data--examples with known 3D structures, organized into structural classes--whereas in practice, unlabeled data are far more plentiful. RESULTS: In this work, we develop simple and scalable cluster kernel techniques for incorporating unlabeled data into the representation of protein sequences. We show that our methods greatly improve the classification performance of string kernels and outperform standard approaches for using unlabeled data, such as adding close homologs of the positive examples to the training data. We achieve equal or superior performance to previously presented cluster kernel methods and at the same time achieving far greater computational efficiency. AVAILABILITY: Source code is available at www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/bs/people/weston/semiprot. The Spider matlab package is available at www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/bs/people/spider. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/bs/people/weston/semiprot.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2003

Community consultation in HIV prevention research: a study of community advisory boards at 6 research sites.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand how community advisory boards (CABs) can be used to improve the quality of HIV prevention trials. DESIGN: Data collected included descriptive and epidemiologic reports, ethnographic observations, and face-to-face semistructured qualitative interviews with 67 CAB and research team members. Interviews were coded for themes related to community-based consultation. SETTING: The study was conducted at 6 sites of the HIV Prevention Trials Network-Los Angeles, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Harare, Zimbabwe; Lima, Peru; and Chiang Mai, Thailand. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-six CAB members and 31 research team members, identified with the assistance of research staff at each site, were recruited for interviews across the 6 sites. RESULTS: Both "broad community" and "population-specific" models were identified as strategies for CABs to represent potential participants in HIV prevention trials. CABs viewed their role as a bridge between the research team and trial participants. CABs improved prevention clinical trials by assisting in protocol development, recruitment, and retention. In addition, CABs both identified and helped resolve ethical issues in clinical trials. CONCLUSIONS: When given time to develop, CABs appear to be a good strategy for building partnerships between researchers and communities for collaborative research projects. This approach has the potential to build sustainable capacity to identify and address ethical issues in research as well as community needs.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗