Bacteriostatic conformal coating for electronic components

Coating for electronic components used in space applications has bacteriostatic qualities capable of hindering bacterial reproduction, both vegetative and sporulative viable microorganisms. It exhibits high electrical resistivity, a low outgassing rate, and is capable of restraining electronic components when subjected to mechanical vibrations

Bacteriostatic conformal coating and methods of application Patent

Development of bacteriostatic conformal coating and methods of applicatio

MMTF: The Maryland-Magellan Tunable Filter

This paper describes the Maryland-Magellan Tunable Filter (MMTF) on the Magellan-Baade 6.5-meter telescope. MMTF is based on a 150-mm clear aperture Fabry-Perot (FP) etalon that operates in low orders and provides transmission bandpass and central wavelength adjustable from ~5 to ~15 A and from ~5000 to over ~9200 A, respectively. It is installed in the Inamori Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS) and delivers an image quality of ~0.5" over a field of view of 27' in diameter (monochromatic over ~10'). This versatile and easy-to-operate instrument has been used over the past three years for a wide variety of projects. This paper first reviews the basic principles of FP tunable filters, then provides a detailed description of the hardware and software associated with MMTF and the techniques developed to observe with this instrument and reduce the data. The main lessons learned in the course of the commissioning and implementation of MMTF are highlighted next, before concluding with a brief outlook on the future of MMTF and of similar facilities which are soon coming on line.Comment: 38 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, now accepted for publication to the Astronomical Journa

Successful paediatric HIV treatment in rural primary care in Africa

<p>Objective: Clinical outcomes of HIV-infected children on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in a decentralised, nurse/counsellor-led programme.</p> <p>Design: Clinical cohort.</p> <p>Setting: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.</p> <p>Patients: HIV-infected children aged <= 15 years on ART, June 2004-2008.</p> <p>Main outcome measures: Survival according to baseline characteristics including age, WHO clinical stage, haemoglobin and CD4%, was assessed in Kaplan-Meier analyses. Hazard ratios for mortality were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression and changes in laboratory parameters and weight-for-age z scores after 6-12 months' treatment were calculated.</p> <p>Results: 477 HIV-infected children began ART at a median age of 74 months (range 4-180), median CD4 count (CD4%) of 433 cells/mm(3) (17%) and median HIV viral load of log 4.2 copies/ml; 105 (22%) were on treatment for tuberculosis and 317 (76.6%) were WHO stage 3/4. There were significant increases after ART initiation in CD4% (17% vs 22%; p<0.001), haemoglobin (9.9 vs 11.7 g/l; p <= 0.001) and albumin (30 vs 36 g/l; p <= 0.001). 32 (6.7%) children died over 732 child-years of follow-up (43.7 deaths/1000 child-years; 95% CI 32.7 to 58.2), 17 (53.1%) within 90 days of treatment initiation; median age of death was 84 (IQR 10-181) months. Children with baseline haemoglobin <= 8 g/l were more likely to die (adjusted HR 4.5; 95% CI 1.6 to 12.3), as were those aged <18 months compared with >60 months (adjusted HR 3.2; 95% CI 1.2 to 9.1).</p> <p>Conclusions Good clinical outcomes in HIV-infected children on ART are possible in a rural, decentralised service. Few young children are on ART, highlighting the urgent need to identify HIV-exposed infants.</p&gt

Astrophotonic micro-spectrographs in the era of ELTs

The next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT), with diameters up to 39 meters, will start opera- tion in the next decade and promises new challenges in the development of instruments. The growing field of astrophotonics (the use of photonic technologies in astronomy) can partly solve this problem by allowing mass production of fully integrated and robust instruments combining various optical functions, with the potential to reduce the size, complexity and cost of instruments. In this paper, we focus on developments in integrated micro-spectrographs and their potential for ELTs. We take an inventory of the identified technologies currently in development, and compare the performance of the different concepts. We show that in the current context of single-mode instruments, integrated spectrographs making use of, e.g., a photonic lantern can be a solution to reach the desired performance. However, in the longer term, there is a clear need to develop multimode devices to improve overall the throughput and sensitivity, while decreasing the instrument complexity.Comment: 9 pages. 2 figures. Proceeding of SPIE 9147 "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V

Agreement between methods of measurement with multiple observations per individual

Limits of agreement provide a straightforward and intuitive approach to agreement between different methods for measuring the same quantity. When pairs of observations using the two methods are independent, i.e., on different subjects, the calculations are very simple and straightforward. Some authors collect repeated data, either as repeated pairs of measurements on the same subject, whose true value of the measured quantity may be changing, or more than one measurement by one or both methods of an unchanging underlying quantity. In this paper we describe methods for analysing such clustered observations, both when the underlying quantity is assumed to be changing and when it is not

Influence of Two Common Bryophytes on Acidity and Divalent Cation Concentrations in Standing Spring Water

This laboratory experiment examines the influence of two common mosses on the pH and solute dynamics of water from a spring brook. Bivariate analysis of variance tests (MANOVA) revealed significant changes in concentrations of H+ and the combined variable, divalent cations (Ca++ & Mg++) over a three week incubation period in microcosms containing Thuidium delicatulum and Brachythecium rivulare, mosses commonly found in low order woodland streams. Divalent cation concentrations in the presence of moss were 36% higher, on average, than in similar microcosms with moss absent. In microcosms containing decomposing wood, W concentrations were 15% lower in the presence of moss. There were approximately 7 mg of divalent cations in every gram of moss tissue (AFDM), while a gram of wood contained 1-2 mg of divalent cations, values similar to those reported elsewhere in the literature. I suggest reversed cation exchange is the mechanism responsible for elevated divalent cation concentrations and changes in solute dynamics. A hypothesis concerning expected responses of fungal enzymes to the observed changes in solute dynamics is discussed