2,875 research outputs found
Beliefs and Attitudes of Medical Students from Public and Private Universities in Malaysia towards Individuals with HIV/AIDS
We describe the findings from a survey assessing the beliefs regarding testing, confidentiality, disclosure, and environment of care and attitudes towards care of people with HIV/AIDS (PLHWA), in 1020, 4th and 5th year medical students, from public and private medical universities in Malaysia. A self-administered validated questionnaire based on the UNAIDS Model Questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale (5, strongly disagree; 4, disagree; 3, neutral; 2, agree; 1, strongly agree) was used as a survey tool. The survey included demographic data and data on undergraduate training received on HIV/AIDS. Statistical significance in the demographic data and training received by respondents was evaluated using the chi-square test while the independent Student's t-test was used for comparison of means between public and private universities. A P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant with 95% confidence interval. Our study revealed less than 20% of medical students received adequate training to care for PLHWA. They had prevalent negative beliefs regarding testing, confidentiality, disclosure and environment of care towards PLHWA although in giving care to PLHWA, their attitudes were largely positive and nondiscriminatory.Article Link:
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2013/462826
Design and Focused Ion Beam Fabrication of Single Crystal Diamond Nanobeam Cavities
We present the design and fabrication of nanobeam photonic crystal cavities
in single crystal diamond for applications in cavity quantum electrodynamics.
First, we describe three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations
of a high quality factor (Q ~ 10^6) and small mode volume (V ~ 0.5
({\lambda}/n)^3) device whose cavity resonance corresponds to the zero-phonon
transition (637nm) of the Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) color center in diamond. This
high Q/V structure, which would allow for strong light-matter interaction, is
achieved by gradually tapering the size of the photonic crystal holes between
the defect center and mirror regions of the nanobeam. Next, we demonstrate two
different focused ion beam (FIB) fabrication strategies to generate thin
diamond membranes and nanobeam photonic crystal resonators from a bulk crystal.
These approaches include a diamond crystal "side-milling" procedure as well as
an application of the "lift-off" technique used in TEM sample preparation.
Finally, we discuss certain aspects of the FIB fabrication routine that are a
challenge to the realization of the high-Q/V designs
Low-energy excitations of the one-dimensional half-filled SU(4) Hubbard model with an attractive on-site interaction: Density-matrix renormalization-group calculations and perturbation theory
We investigate low-energy excitations of the one-dimensional half-filled
SU(4) Hubbard model with an attractive on-site interaction U < 0 using the
density matrix renormalization group method as well as a perturbation theory.
We find that the ground state is a charge density wave state with a long range
order. The ground state is completely incompressible since all the excitations
are gapful. The charge gap which is the same as the four-particle excitation
gap is a non-monotonic function of U, while the spin gap and others increase
with increasing |U| and have linear asymptotic behaviors.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitte
An improved perturbation approach to the 2D Edwards polymer -- corrections to scaling
We present the results of a new perturbation calculation in polymer
statistics which starts from a ground state that already correctly predicts the
long chain length behaviour of the mean square end--to--end distance , namely the solution to the 2~dimensional~(2D) Edwards model.
The thus calculated is shown to be convergent in ,
the number of steps in the chain, in contrast to previous methods which start
from the free random walk solution. This allows us to calculate a new value for
the leading correction--to--scaling exponent~. Writing , where in 2D,
our result shows that . This value is also supported by an
analysis of 2D self--avoiding walks on the {\em continuum}.Comment: 17 Pages of Revtex. No figures. Submitted to J. Phys.
Impact of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the Pathogenesis and Outcome of Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme.
BackgroundImprovement in antiviral therapies have been accompanied by an increased frequency of non-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) defining malignancies, such as glioblastoma multiforme. Here, we investigated all reported cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients with glioblastoma and evaluated their clinical outcomes. A comprehensive review of the molecular pathogenetic mechanisms underlying glioblastoma development in the setting of HIV/AIDS is provided.MethodsWe performed a PubMed search using keywords "HIV glioma" AND "glioblastoma," and "AIDS glioma" AND "glioblastoma." Case reports and series describing HIV-positive patients with glioblastoma (histologically-proven World Health Organization grade IV astrocytoma) and reporting on HAART treatment status, clinical follow-up, and overall survival (OS), were included for the purposes of quantitative synthesis. Patients without clinical follow-up data or OS were excluded. Remaining articles were assessed for data extraction eligibility.ResultsA total of 17 patients met our inclusion criteria. Of these patients, 14 (82.4%) were male and 3 (17.6%) were female, with a mean age of 39.5±9.2 years (range 19-60 years). Average CD4 count at diagnosis of glioblastoma was 358.9±193.4 cells/mm3. Tumor progression rather than AIDS-associated complications dictated patient survival. There was a trend towards increased median survival with HAART treatment (12.0 vs 7.5 months, p=0.10).ConclusionOur data suggests that HAART is associated with improved survival in patients with HIV-associated glioblastoma, although the precise mechanisms underlying this improvement remain unclear
Majorana fermions emerging from magnetic nanoparticles on a superconductor without spin-orbit coupling
There exists a variety of proposals to transform a conventional s-wave
superconductor into a topological superconductor, supporting Majorana fermion
mid-gap states. A necessary ingredient of these proposals is strong spin-orbit
coupling. Here we propose an alternative system consisting of a one-dimensional
chain of magnetic nanoparticles on a superconducting substrate. No spin-orbit
coupling in the superconductor is needed. We calculate the topological quantum
number of a chain of finite length, including the competing effects of disorder
in the orientation of the magnetic moments and in the hopping energies, to
identify the transition into the topologically nontrivial state (with Majorana
fermions at the end points of the chain).Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Energy Flow in Acoustic Black Holes
We present the results of an analysis of superradiant energy flow due to
scalar fields incident on an acoustic black hole. In addition to providing
independent confirmation of the recent results in [5], we determine in detail
the profile of energy flow everywhere outside the horizon. We confirm
explicitly that in a suitable frame the energy flow is inward at the horizon
and outward at infinity, as expected on physical grounds.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Comments added to discussion of energy flow and
introductory section abbreviate
The Van der Waals interaction of the hydrogen molecule - an exact local energy density functional
We verify that the van der Waals interaction and hence all dispersion
interactions for the hydrogen molecule given by: W"= -{A/R^6}-{B/R^8}-{C/R^10}-
..., in which R is the internuclear separation, are exactly soluble. The
constants A=6.4990267..., B=124.3990835 ... and C=1135.2140398... (in Hartree
units) first obtained approximately by Pauling and Beach (PB) [1] using a
linear variational method, can be shown to be obtainable to any desired
accuracy via our exact solution. In addition we shall show that a local energy
density functional can be obtained, whose variational solution rederives the
exact solution for this problem. This demonstrates explicitly that a static
local density functional theory exists for this system. We conclude with
remarks about generalising the method to other hydrogenic systems and also to
helium.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures and 28 reference
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