The symbolism of rituals creates a shared understanding of events among group members. In the context of romantic relationships, a shared understanding of relationship status transitions may be associated with greater commitment and higher quality relationships. We argue that couples with differing retrospective accounts of their premarital courtship may not have had clear discussions or ritual...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) can measure hepatic steatosis. However, factors affecting its accuracy have not been described yet. This study investigated predictors of discordance between liver biopsy (LB) and CAP. METHODS A total of 161 consecutive patients with chronic liver disease who underwent LB and CAP were enrolled prospectively. Histological steatosis was g...

BACKGROUND Most HIV-1 transmission in Africa occurs among HIV-1-discordant couples (one partner HIV-1 infected and one uninfected) who are unaware of their discordant HIV-1 serostatus. Given the high HIV-1 incidence among HIV-1 discordant couples and to assess efficacy of interventions for reducing HIV-1 transmission, HIV-1 discordant couples represent a critical target population for HIV-1 pre...

Rapid progress in transcriptional and proteomic profiling methodologies, such as RNA-sequencing and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry in combination with nanoflow chromatography, allows for a more accurate comparisons of disparate omics data sets at high resolution. Despite the increased fidelity of such surveys, several studies in mammals, yeast and plants have shown that transcript lev...