Frequency and risk factors for incident and redetected Chlamydia trachomatis infection in sexually active, young, multi-ethnic women: a community based cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency and risk factors for incident and redetected Chlamydia trachomatis infection in sexually active, young, multi-ethnic women in the community. DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: 20 London universities and Further Education colleges. PARTICIPANTS: 954 sexually experienced women, mean age 21.5 years (range 16-27), 26% from ethnic minorities, who were recruited to the Prevention of Pelvic Infection (POPI) chlamydia screening trial between 2004 and 2006, and returned repeat postal self-taken vaginal swabs 11-32 (median 16) months after recruitment. RESULTS: The estimated annual incidence of chlamydia infection among 907 women who tested negative at baseline was 3.4 per 100 person-years (95% CI 2.5 to 4.6 per 100 person-years), but 6.6 per 100 person-years (95% CI 4.5 to 9.3 per 100 person-years) in the 326 teenagers (<20 years). Predictors of incident chlamydia infection were age <20 years (relative risk (RR) 4.0, 95% CI 2.1 to 7.5), and (after adjusting for age) a new sexual partner during 12 months follow-up (RR 4.4, 95% CI 2.0 to 9.9), smoking (RR 2.2 95% CI 1.2 to 3.9), concurrent bacterial vaginosis (RR 2.0 95% CI 1.1 to 3.9) and high risk carcinogenic human papillomavirus (RR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.3). Of 47 women positive for chlamydia at baseline, 12 (25.5%, 95% CI 13.9% to 40.3%) had redetected infection at a median of 16 months follow-up. Taking into account follow-up time (65 person-years), the annual redetection rate was 18.5 per 100 person-years (95% CI 9.9 to 30.0 per 100 person-years). CONCLUSIONS: One in four women with chlamydia infection at baseline retested positive, supporting recent recommendations to routinely retest chlamydia positives

Effective Hamiltonians in quantum optics: a systematic approach

We discuss a general and systematic method for obtaining effective Hamiltonians that describe different nonlinear optical processes. The method exploits the existence of a nonlinear deformation of the usual su(2) algebra that arises as the dynamical symmetry of the original model. When some physical parameter, dictated by the process under consideration, becomes small, we immediately get a diagonal effective Hamiltonian that correctly represents the dynamics for arbitrary states and long times. We extend the technique to su(3) and su(N), finding the corresponding effective Hamiltonians when some resonance conditions are fulfilled.Comment: 13 Pages, no figures, submitted for publicatio

Moduli space coordinates and excited state g-functions

We consider the space of boundary conditions of Virasoro minimal models formed from the composition of a collection of flows generated by \phi_{1,3}. These have recently been shown to fall naturally into a sequence, each term having a coordinate on it in terms of a boundary parameter, but no global parameter has been proposed. Here we investigate the idea that the overlaps of particular bulk states with the boundary states give natural coordinates on the moduli space of boundary conditions. We find formulae for these overlaps using the known thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz descriptions of the ground and first excited state on the cylinder and show that they give a global coordinate on the space of boundary conditions, showing it is smooth and compact as expected.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Effect of heat treatment and defects on the tensile behavior of a hot work tool steel manufactured by laser powder bed fusion

Microstructure and tensile properties of a hot work tool steel manufactured via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) were investigated. Specimens were built under two different orientations and subjected to two quenching and tempering heat treatments, featuring different austenitizing and tempering temperatures and the eventual presence of a sub-zero step. Microstructural analyses revealed a homogeneous tempered martensite structure after both heat treatments, with the only distinction of a higher alloying segregation at a sub micrometric scale length in samples subjected to the highest tempering temperatures. Hardness and tensile tests indicated a negligible effect of building orientation on mechanical properties, but a significant influence of heat treatment parameters. The treatment featuring the lower tempering temperatures and the sub-zero step resulted in higher hardness, tensile strength, and elongation, attributed to a lower martensite tempering and alloying segregation. Tensile fracture occurred via crack initiation and unstable propagation from large LPBF defects in all the investigated conditions

Surviving sepsis: going beyond the guidelines

The Surviving Sepsis Campaign is a global effort to improve the care of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. The first Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines were published in 2004 with an updated version published in 2008. These guidelines have been endorsed by many professional organizations throughout the world and come regarded as the standard of care for the management of patients with severe sepsis. Unfortunately, most of the recommendations of these guidelines are not evidence-based. Furthermore, the major components of the 6-hour bundle are based on a single-center study whose validity has been recently under increasing scrutiny. This paper reviews the validity of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign 6-hour bundle and provides a more evidence-based approach to the initial resuscitation of patients with severe sepsis

Actuation of Micro-Optomechanical Systems Via Cavity-Enhanced Optical Dipole Forces

We demonstrate a new type of optomechanical system employing a movable, micron-scale waveguide evanescently-coupled to a high-Q optical microresonator. Micron-scale displacements of the waveguide are observed for milliwatt(mW)-level optical input powers. Measurement of the spatial variation of the force on the waveguide indicates that it arises from a cavity-enhanced optical dipole force due to the stored optical field of the resonator. This force is used to realize an all-optical tunable filter operating with sub-mW control power. A theoretical model of the system shows the maximum achievable force to be independent of the intrinsic Q of the optical resonator and to scale inversely with the cavity mode volume, suggesting that such forces may become even more effective as devices approach the nanoscale.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. High resolution version available at (http://copilot.caltech.edu/publications/CEODF_hires.pdf). For associated movie, see (http://copilot.caltech.edu/research/optical_forces/index.htm

Review: Inelastic Constitutive Modeling: Polycrystalline Materials

This article provides a literature review that details the development of inelastic constitutive modeling as it relates to polycrystalline materials. This review distinguishes between inelastic constitutive models that account for nonlinear behavior at the microstructural level, time-independent classic plasticity models, and time-dependent unified models. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the underlying theoretical framework for unified viscoplasticity models where creep and classical plasticity behavior are considered the result of applied boundary conditions instead of separable rates representing distinct physical mechanisms. This article establishes a clear understanding of the advantages of the unified approach to improve material modeling. This review also discusses recent topics in constitutive modeling that offer new techniques that bridge the gap between the microstructure and the continuum