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

Capacitors can radiate - some consequences of the two-capacitor problem with radiation

We fill a gap in the arguments of Boykin et al [American Journal of Physics, Vol 70 No. 4, pp 415-420 (2002)] by not invoking an electric current loop (i.e. magnetic dipole model) to account for the radiation energy loss, since an obvious corollary of their results is that the capacitors should radiate directly even if the connecting wires are shrunk to zero length. That this is so is shown here by a direct derivation of capacitor radiation using an oscillating electric dipole radiator model for the capacitors as well as the alternative less widely known magnetic 'charge' current loop representation for an electric dipole [see for example "Electromagnetic Waves" by S.A.Schlekunoff, van Nostrand (1948)]. Implications for Electromagnetic Compliance (EMC) issues as well as novel antenna designs further motivate the purpose of this paper.Comment: 5 Pages with No figure

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 $\langle R_N^2 \rangle\$, namely the solution to the 2~dimensional~(2D) Edwards model. The $\langle R_N^2 \rangle$ thus calculated is shown to be convergent in $N$, 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~$\Delta$. Writing $\langle R_N^2 \rangle = AN^{2\nu}(1+BN^{-\Delta} + CN^{-1}+...)$, where $\nu = 3/4$ in 2D, our result shows that $\Delta = 1/2$. 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.

Pseudo-gap features of intrinsic tunneling in (HgBr_2)-Bi2212 single crystals

The c-axis tunneling properties of both pristine Bi2212 and its HgBr$_2$ intercalate have been measured in the temperature range 4.2 - 250 K. Lithographically patterned 7-10 unit-cell heigh mesa structures on the surfaces of these single crystals were investigated. Clear SIS-like tunneling curves for current applied in the $\it c$-axis direction have been observed. The dynamic conductance d$I/$d$V(V)$ shows both sharp peaks corresponding to a superconducting gap edge and a dip feature beyond the gap, followed by a wide maximum, which persists up to a room temperature. Shape of the temperature dependence of the {\it c}-axis resistance does not change after the intercalation suggesting that a coupling between $\rm CuO_2$-bilayers has little effect on the pseudogap.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; presented at the Second Int Conf. New3Sc-1999 (Las Vegas, NV