1,529 research outputs found

    An intravaginal ring for real-time evaluation of adherence to therapy

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    © 2017 Moss et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Two recent Phase III clinical trials to investigate an intravaginal ring for preventing HIV infection demonstrated that adherence to prescribed device use was a primary driver of efficacy. Surrogate methods for determining adherence in the studies were limited in their inability to monitor temporal patterns of use and allow deconvolution of the effects of adherence and device efficacy on HIV infection rates. To address this issue, we have developed functionality in an intravaginal ring to continuously monitor when the device is being used and maintain a log of adherence that can be accessed by clinicians after it is removed. An electronic module fabricated with common, inexpensive electronic components was encapsulated in a silicone intravaginal ring. The device uses temperature as a surrogate measure of periods of device insertion and removal, and stores a record of the data for subsequent retrieval. The adherence-monitoring intravaginal ring accurately recorded the device status over 33 simulated IN-OUT cycles and more than 1000 measurement cycles in vitro. Following initial in vitro testing in a temperature-controlled chamber, the device was evaluated in vivo in sheep using a predetermined insertion/removal pattern to simulate intravaginal ring use. After insertion into the vaginal cavity of a sheep, the logged data correctly indicated the device status over 29 hours of continuous measurement including three cycles of insertion and removal. The device described here is a promising, low-cost method for real-time adherence assessment in clinical trials involving medicated intravaginal rings or other intravaginal devices

    Kinetics and products of the IO + BrO reaction

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    Orbital and Mass Constraints of the Young Binary System IRAS 16293-2422 A

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    We present 3 mm ALMA continuum and line observations at resolutions of 6.5 au and 13 au, respectively, toward the Class 0 system IRAS 16293-2422 A. The continuum observations reveal two compact sources toward IRAS 16293-2422 A, coinciding with compact ionized gas emission previously observed at radio wavelengths (A1 and A2), confirming the long-known radio sources as protostellar. The emission toward A2 is resolved and traces a dust disk with an FWHM size of ~12 au, while the emission toward A1 sets a limit to the FWHM size of the dust disk of ~4 au. We also detect spatially resolved molecular kinematic tracers near the protostellar disks. Several lines of the J = 5 124 rotational transition of HNCO, NH2CHO, and t-HCOOH are detected, with which we derived individual line-of-sight velocities. Using these together with the CS (J = 2 121), we fit Keplerian profiles toward the individual compact sources and derive masses of the central protostars. The kinematic analysis indicates that A1 and A2 are a bound binary system. Using this new context for the previous 30 yr of Very Large Array observations, we fit orbital parameters to the relative motion between A1 and A2 and find that the combined protostellar mass derived from the orbit is consistent with the masses derived from the gas kinematics. Both estimations indicate masses consistently higher (0.5 lesssim M 1 lesssim M 2 lesssim 2 Modot{M}_{odot }) than previous estimations using lower-resolution observations of the gas kinematics. The ALMA high-resolution data provides a unique insight into the gas kinematics and masses of a young deeply embedded bound binary system

    Enhancement of the Two-channel Kondo Effect in Single-Electron boxes

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    The charging of a quantum box, coupled to a lead by tunneling through a single resonant level, is studied near the degeneracy points of the Coulomb blockade. Combining Wilson's numerical renormalization-group method with perturbative scaling approaches, the corresponding low-energy Hamiltonian is solved for arbitrary temperatures, gate voltages, tunneling rates, and energies of the impurity level. Similar to the case of a weak tunnel barrier, the shape of the charge step is governed at low temperatures by the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the two-channel Kondo effect. However, the associated Kondo temperature TK is strongly modified. Most notably, TK is proportional to the width of the level if the transmission through the impurity is close to unity at the Fermi energy, and is no longer exponentially small in one over the tunneling matrix element. Focusing on a particle-hole symmetric level, the two-channel Kondo effect is found to be robust against the inclusion of an on-site repulsion on the level. For a large on-site repulsion and a large asymmetry in the tunneling rates to box and to the lead, there is a sequence of Kondo effects: first the local magnetic moment that forms on the level undergoes single-channel screening, followed by two-channel overscreening of the charge fluctuations inside the box.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figure

    A new non-Fermi liquid fixed point

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    We study a new exchange interaction in which the conduction electrons with pseudo spin Sc=3/2S_c=3/2 interact with the impurity spin SI=1/2S_I=1/2. Due to the overscreening of the impurity spin by higher conduction electron spin, a new non-trivial intermediate coupling strength fixed point is realized. Using the numerical renormalization group (NRG), we show that the low-energy spectra are described by a non-Fermi liquid excitation spectrum. A conformal field theory analysis is compared with NRG results and excellent agreement is obtained. Using the double fusion rule to generate the operator spectrum with the conformal theory, we find that the specific heat coefficient and magnetic susceptibility will diverge as T2/3T^{-2/3}, that the scaling dimension of an applied magnetic field is 5/65/6, and that exchange anisotropy is always relevant. We discuss the possible relevance of our work to two-level system Kondo materials and dilute cerium alloys, and we point out a paradox in understanding the Bethe-Ansatz solutions to the multichannel Kondo model.Comment: Revised. 20 page

    Site-Specific Iron Substitution in STA-28, a Large Pore Aluminophosphate Zeotype Prepared by Using 1, 10-Phenanthrolines as Framework-Bound Templates

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    An AlPO4 zeotype has been prepared using the aromatic diamine 1, 10-phenanthroline and some of its methylated analogues as templates. In each case the two template N atoms bind to a specific framework Al site to expand its coordination to the unusual octahedral AlO4N2 environment. Furthermore, using this framework-bound template, Fe atoms can be included selectively at this site in the framework by direct synthesis, as confirmed by annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy and Rietveld refinement. Calcination removes the organic molecules to give large pore framework solids, with BET surface areas up to 540 m2 g-1 and two perpendicular sets of channels that intersect to give pore space connected by 12-ring openings along all crystallographic directions

    CO adsorption on neutral iridium clusters

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    The adsorption of carbon monoxide on neutral iridium clusters in the size range of n = 3 to 21 atoms is investigated with infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy. For each cluster size only a single v(CO) band is present with frequencies in the range between 1962 cm-1 (n = 8) and 1985 cm-1 (n = 18) which can be attributed to an atop binding geometry. This behaviour is compared to the CO binding geometries on clusters of other group 9 and 10 transition metals as well as to that on extended surfaces. The preference of Ir for atop binding is rationalized by relativistic effects on the electronic structure of the later 5d metals
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