"Clock genes" were present in horse all placentas, with significant lower relative levels of CRY2 and CLOCK in placentas associated with male fetuses. There was no association between relative levels of Clock genes and gestational length. These data provide the stage for future studies aimed at uncovering a function for Clock genes in the horse placenta. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.OBJECTIVES To determine factors associated with interindividual variability in tenofovir diphosphate (TFV-DP) concentrations in dried blood spots (DBSs) among persons living with HIV (PLWH). METHODS PLWH who were at least 18 years old and taking tenofovir disoproxil fumarate-containing ART were prospectively recruited and enrolled from a clinical cohort and followed longitudinally (up to three visits over 48 weeks). With log-transformed TFV-DP concentrations in DBSs as the outcome, mixed-model regression analyses were used to assess associations between self-reported 3 month ART adherence, race and other clinical covariates (gender, age, BMI, CD4+ T cell count, estimated glomerular filtration rate, haematocrit, duration on current ART and anchor drug class) on TFV-DP in DBSs. RESULTS Five hundred and twenty-seven participants (1150 person-visits) were analysed. Adjusting for race and other clinical covariates, every 10% increase in self-reported 3 month ART adherence was associated with an average TFV-DP concentration increase in DBSs of 28% (95% CI 24%-32%; P  less then  0.0001). In the same model, female participants had 20% (95% CI 3%-40%; P = 0.02) higher TFV-DP concentrations in DBSs, compared with male participants, and every 1 kg/m2 increase in BMI was associated with a decrease in TFV-DP concentration in DBSs by 2% (95% CI -3% to -1%; P  less then  0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Individual patient characteristics were predictive of TFV-DP concentration in DBSs in PLWH receiving tenofovir disoproxil fumarate-based ART. Future research to incorporate these predictors into the interpretation of this ART adherence biomarker, and to establish whether these associations extend to PLWH taking tenofovir alafenamide-containing ART, is needed. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oup.com.OBJECTIVES Direction and magnitude of gender differences in late-life cognitive function are inextricably tied to sociocultural context. Our study evaluates education and literacy in rural South Africa as primary drivers of gender inequality in late-life cognitive function. METHOD Data were collected on 1,938 participants aged 40-79 from Agincourt, South Africa. Cognitive function was measured via the Oxford Cognitive Screen-Plus, a tablet-based assessment with low literacy demands. Four cognitive domains were derived through confirmatory factor analysis episodic memory, executive function, visual spatial, and language. Structural equation models tested domain-specific gender effects, incrementally controlling for demographic, education, health, and socioeconomic variables. RESULTS In the model adjusting only for demographic factors, men outperformed women on executive function and visual spatial domains. Adding education and literacy to the model revealed a robust female advantage in episodic memory, and reduced the magnitude of male advantage in executive function and visual spatial by 47% and 42%, respectively. Health and socioeconomic factors did not alter patterns of gender associations in subsequent models. DISCUSSION In this older South African cohort, gender inequality in cognitive performance was partially attributable to educational differences. Understanding biopsychosocial mechanisms that promote cognitive resilience in older women is critically important given the predominantly female composition of aging populations worldwide. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.Ralstonia solanacearum is a bacterial vascular pathogen causing devastating bacterial wilt. In the field, resistance against this pathogen is quantitative and is available for breeders only in tomato and eggplant. To understand the basis of resistance to R.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/h-1152-dihydrochloride.html  solanacearum in tomato, we investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of bacterial colonization using non-invasive live monitoring techniques coupled to grafting of susceptible and resistant varieties. We found four 'bottlenecks' that limit the bacterium in resistant tomato root colonization, vertical movement from roots to shoots, circular vascular bundle invasion, and radial apoplastic spread in the cortex. Radial invasion of cortical extracellular spaces occurred mostly at late disease stages but was observed throughout plant infection. This study shows that resistance is expressed in both root and shoot tissues, and highlights the importance of structural constraints to bacterial spread as a resistance mechanism. It also shows that R. solanacearum is not only a vascular pathogen but spreads out of the xylem, occupying the plant apoplast niche. Our work will help elucidate the complex genetic determinants of resistance, setting the foundations to decipher the molecular mechanisms that limit pathogen colonization, which may provide new precision tools to fight bacterial wilt in the field. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oup.com.INTRODUCTION People living with HIV (PLWH) are more likely to smoke and harbor oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, putting them at higher risk for head and neck cancer. We sought to investigate the joint effects of HIV and smoking on risk of oral HPV. METHODS Consecutive PLWH (n=169) and at-risk HIV-negative individuals (n=126) were recruited from two large health centers in United States. Lifetime smoking history was collected using questionnaires. Participants provided oral rinse samples for HPV genotyping by Next-Generation Sequencing. We used multivariable logistic regression models with interaction terms for HIV to test for smoking effect on oral HPV and reported the Relative Excess Risk due to Interaction (RERI). RESULTS PLWH were more likely to harbor oral HPV than HIV-negative individuals, including α (39% vs. 28%), β (73% vs. 63%), and γ-types (33% vs. 20%). HIV infection positively modified the association between smoking and detection of high-risk oral HPV with odds ratios for smoking of 3.