Disclosure of Paediatric HIV Status to Infected Children and Significant Others: Impact and Psychosocial outcomes

There is limited data on disclosure of Paediatric HIV to significant others in the social network of children which may impact on their care. This study determined the prevalence of disclosure of Paediatric HIV to infected children and others as well as their impact on the children. It took place at the Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinic of the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Caregivers of HIV positive school aged children were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and the Parent version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. A total of 200 children were studied with a male: female ratio of 1.3:1 and ages ranging from 6-17 years. Disclosure of HIV status had been done to 54 (27%) of the 200 children. Disclosure was not associated with a significant difference in psychological functioning or adherence to ART. Disclosure had been made to extended family members in 128 (64%) of the 200 patients, to the children’s siblings in 33 (21.4 %) of the 154 who had siblings, to the family spiritual leaders in 28 (14%) of the 200 families and to the children’s teachers in 3 (1.5%) of 197 cases in school. In response to disclosure, all the siblings, teachers and spiritual leaders encouraged the families and expressed willingness to support but this was so for only 108 (84.4%) of the 128 extended family members. Major forms of support given were financial, medication reminder, emotional support and prayers. Negative outcomes included stigmatization and HIV related parental separation. There is need for health workers to promote disclosure to significant others and provide support for families who get abandoned by relations following disclosure

Organisms associated with burrowing whelks of the genus Bullia

Organisms found associated with the psammophilic neogastropod Bullia include hydroids, a boring sponge and algae which grow on, and burrow into, the shell. The shell may also be the recipient of the egg capsules of other species of gastropods. Peridinian ciliates are commonly found attached in some numbers to the tentacles and an occasional rotifer occurs on the soft parts of the animal. The gut is rich in bacteria, some of which are symbiotic, Digenetic trematode larvae are the mosl common internal parasites and larval cestodes also occur. Preliminary descriptions are given of two apparently new trematode larvae and of a cestode cysti-cercoid. A nematode worm is occasionally present in the gut. The absence of external parasites is noted and it is suggested that the shells of the whelk represent a refuge for smaller organisms or their eggs in an unstable environment lacking geological diversity

Sand moisture as a factor determining depth of burrowing in the oniscid isopod Tylos granulatus Krauss

Tylos granulatus, a sandy-beach isopod, prefers an environmental moisture range exceeding 3,4% but less than 13%. The depths to which the animals burrow are, at least partly, determined by the moisture gradient in the sand. They are, however, incapable of burrowing into lotally dry sand. Animals alter their position in the sand in response to changes in moisture content so as to ensure exposure to suitable conditions

Organisms associated with the sandy-beach bivalve Donax serra Röding, with a description of Cercaria serrae sp. nov. (Trematoda)

Examination of two collections of Donax serra from a South African west coast beach revealed the presence of Ciliophora, Trematoda, Nematoda and a parasitic pycnogonid. This is the first record of a pycnogonid from the genus Donax and the first published report of such a parasite from any southern African bivalve mollusc. One of the two trematode species found is described as new and its epidemiology is discussed briefly. No epibiota were found on the bivalve shell

Optimisation in behavioural synthesis using hierarchical expansion: module ripping

During behavioural synthesis, an abstract functional description of a system is mapped automatically onto a physical structure. In a competitive setting, this mapping will be highly optimised - the dataflow is re-arranged, units and registers are multiplexed and so on - to deliver a final structure that meets some overall user supplied specification. Ultimately, however, the physical functional units are drawn from some predefined (human designed) library - these may be thought of as the leaf-level modules in the design hierarchy. Design re-use and increasing sophistication of module libraries inevitably leads to leaf modules becoming larger and more complex. As these modules are, by definition, atomic, a synthesis system is unable to capitalise on any internal similarities the leaf modules may possess. This paper describes the design, construction and effects of using a hierarchically defined module library. The set of leaf-level modules made available to the synthesis environment is conventional - add, subtract, multiply and so on - but the optimiser is capable of ?ripping apart? these modules to manipulate their inner structures. Two advantages accrue from this technique: (1) it is possible to optimise behavioural designs far more effectively, with up to a 65% reduction in area, and a 46% reduction in delay reported, and (2) it is possible to build library modules that have tightly controllable internal timing relationships. This is essential when designing systems that communicate externally via low-level protocols, but behavioural synthesis, by its very nature, usually distorts timing information. Using this technique, it is possible to create ?islands of fixed timing? embedded in the synthesised design

Simultaneous Optimisation of Dynamic Power, Area and Delay in Behavioural Synthesis

Concern over power dissipation coupled with the continuing rise in system size and complexity means that there is a growing need for high-level design tools capable of automatically optimising systems to take into account power dissipation, in addition to the more conventional metrics of area, delay and testability. Current methods for reducing power consumption tend to be ad-hoc: for example, slowing down, or turning off idle parts of the system, or a controlled reduction in power supply. The behavioural synthesis system described in this paper features an integrated incremental power estimation capability, which makes use of activity profiles, generated automatically through simulation of a design on any standard VHDL simulator; accurate circuit-level cell models (generated, again automatically, via Spice simulation); and a comprehensive system power model. This data, along with similar estimators for area and delay, guides the optimisation of a design towards independent, user-specified objectives for final area, delay, clock speed, and energy consumption. In addition, a range of power reducing features are included encompassing: supply voltage scaling, clock gating, input latching, input gating, low-power cells, and pipelined and multicycle units. These are automatically exploited during optimisation as part of the area/delay/power dissipation trade-off process. The resulting system is capable of reducing the estimated energy consumption of several benchmark designs by factors of between 3.5 and 7.0 times. Furthermore, the design exploration capability enables a range of alternative structural implementations to be generated from a single behavioural description, with differing area/delay/power trade-offs

An analytical and experimental assessment of flexible road ironwork support structures

This paper describes work undertaken to investigate the mechanical performance of road ironwork installations in highways, concentrating on the chamber construction. The principal aim was to provide the background research which would allow improved designs to be developed to reduce the incidence of failures through improvements to the structural continuity between the installation and the surrounding pavement. In doing this, recycled polymeric construction materials (Jig Brix) were studied with a view to including them in future designs and specifications. This paper concentrates on the Finite Element (FE) analysis of traditional (masonry) and flexible road ironwork structures incorporating Jig Brix. The global and local buckling capacity of the Jig Brix elements was investigated and results compared well with laboratory measurements. FE models have also been developed for full-scale traditional (masonry) and flexible installations in a surrounding flexible (asphalt) pavement structure. Predictions of response to wheel loading were compared with full-scale laboratory measurements. Good agreement was achieved with the traditional (masonry) construction but poorer agreement for the flexible construction. Predictions from the FE model indicated that the use of flexible elements significantly reduces the tensile horizontal strain on the surface of the surrounding asphaltic material which is likely to reduce the incidence of surface cracking

Confined Maxwell Field and Temperature Inversion Symmetry

We evaluate the Casimir vacuum energy at finite temperature associated with the Maxwell field confined by a perfectly conducting rectangular cavity and show that an extended version of the temperature inversion symmetry is present in this system

Aggregations of the sandy-beach isopod, Tylos granulatus: adaptation or incidental-effect?

Spatial aggregations of organisms are common in nature. Aggregations have often been thought to play important roles in mate-finding, predator avoidance, reduction of water loss, or the acquisition of food and other resources, yet few empirical studies have been done on the processes that lead to aggregation We studied aggregations of the giant isopod Tylos granulatus, which lives as a scavenger in the intertidal zone of sandy beaches on the west coast of South Africa. Individuals emerge with the receding tide leaving exit holes, then forage for about two hours before returning to the vicinity of the high-water mark where they aggregate to bury themselves, leaving behind cone-shaped mounds. Our observations showed there was no correlation between aggregations and the availability of food, and that manipulating the position of food had no effect on the aggregations. Reproduction, which is seasonal and synchronous, also seems unlikely to explain the year-round aggregations. Experiments showed T. granulatus preferentially burrows in existing holes or mounds rather than creating new ones. The advantages of this are analysed in terms of energy conservation, and as a means of reducing risks of exposure to predators or being swept away by the incoming tide. Whatever the benefit, the preferential use of existing holes can incidentally lead to aggregation, which may not itself have any adaptive function