A study to determine the incidence and prevalence of newly discovered human immunodeficiency virus infection during the prenatal care period.

OBJECTIVES: This study asked the following questions: 1) Does HIV testing in pregnancy identify women who previously were not known to be HIV positive? 2) When in pregnancy are women identified as HIV infected? 3) Does HIV seroconversion occur during the prenatal care period? METHODS: Medical records of 97 women from two primarily indigent care hospitals in Houston, TX who were found to be HIV positive at delivery were reviewed to determine if they had tested positive during the prenatal care period. Demographics and time of gestation of the prenatal testing also were recorded. The outcome measures were: 1) number of women found positive during prenatal care; 2) week of gestation at discovery of HIV positivity; and 3) number of women seroconverting between the initiation of prenatal care and delivery. RESULTS: Thirty women were known to be HIV positive prior to pregnancy. Fifty-six women were found to be positive during prenatal care and the seropositivity of 44 was discovered before the 34th week of pregnancy. Ten women were found to be positive at their first prenatal visit, which occurred after the 34th week. Date of testing was unknown for two women. Eleven women who received no prenatal care were found to be HIV positive at delivery. There were no seroconversions while women were under prenatal care. CONCLUSIONS: HIV testing at delivery did not find any HIV-positive women who had tested negative during prenatal care. Testing is very important for women who do not receive prenatal care. Making certain that high-risk women get into prenatal care also is very important

Daily oral grepafloxacin vs. twice daily oral doxycycline in the treatment of Chlamydia trachomatis endocervical infection.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of a 7-day course of treatment with oral grepafloxacin, 400 mg once daily, and oral doxycycline, 100 mg twice daily, in patients with chlamydial cervicitis. METHODS: Women aged 18 years or older attending 17 sexually transmitted disease clinics in the United States who had clinical signs of mucopurulent cervicitis or who had a recent positive culture or nonculture test for Chlamydia trachomatis or who had contact with a male partner with a positive culture for C. trachomatis were enrolled into this randomized, double-blind, active-controlled clinical study. The diagnosis of chlamydial cervicitis was based on culture for C. trachomatis. Patients were randomized to receive a 7-day course of treatment with either oral grepafloxacin, 400 mg once daily, or oral doxycycline, 100 mg twice daily. Response to therapy was assessed 3-8 days and 21-28 days after completion of treatment. The primary measure of efficacy was eradication of C. trachomatis at the 21-28 day follow-up visit. Clinical success, defined as improvement or complete resolution of the signs and symptoms of cervicitis, was a secondary measure of efficacy. RESULTS: Of the 451 female patients enrolled, 228 received grepafloxacin and 223 received doxycycline. In all, 154/451 (35%) patients were evaluable at the 21-28 day follow-up (81 who received grepafloxacin and 73 who received doxycycline). Microbiologic and clinical success rates demonstrated the equivalence of the two treatments. The C. trachomatis eradication rates were 96.3% (78/81) and 98.6% (72/73) for patients receiving grepafloxacin or doxycycline, respectively. The two study drugs were also equivalent in resolving clinical signs and symptoms, with clinical success rates of 88.9% (64/72) and 89.5% (51/57) for patients treated with grepafloxacin and doxycycline, respectively. Both drugs were well tolerated, with 47% of patients receiving grepafloxacin and 46% of patients receiving doxycycline experiencing drug-related adverse events, none of which was serious. CONCLUSIONS: Seven days of treatment with oral grepafloxacin, 400 mg once daily, was as effective as 7 days of treatment with oral doxycycline, 100 mg twice daily, in patients with cervicitis caused by C. trachomatis. Both agents were well tolerated and had comparable safety profiles. Grepafloxacin's once-daily dosing regimen may offer advantages in terms of patient compliance

Kaluza-Klein Multi-Black Holes in Five-Dimensional Einstein-Maxwell Theory

We construct the Kaluza-Klein multi-black hole solutions on the Gibbons-Hawking multi-instanton space in the five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory. We study geometric properties of the multi-black hole solutions. In particular, unlike the Gibbons-Hawking multi-instanton solutions, each nut-charge is able to take a different value due to the existence of black hole on it. The spatial cross section of each horizon can be admitted to have the topology of a different lens space L(n;1)=S^3/Z_n addition to S^3.Comment: 8 pages, to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Topology Change of Coalescing Black Holes on Eguchi-Hanson Space

We construct multi-black hole solutions in the five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory with a positive cosmological constant on the Eguchi-Hanson space, which is an asymptotically locally Euclidean space. The solutions describe the physical process such that two black holes with the topology of S^3 coalesce into a single black hole with the topology of the lens space L(2;1)=S^3/Z_2. We discuss how the area of the single black hole after the coalescence depends on the topology of the horizon.Comment: 10 pages, Some comments are added. to be published as a letter in Classical and Quantum Gravit

A Reformulation of the Hoop Conjecture

A reformulation of the Hoop Conjecture based on the concept of trapped circle is presented. The problems of severe compactness in every spatial direction, and of how to superpose the hoops with the surface of the black hole, are resolved. A new conjecture concerning "peeling" properties of dynamical/trapping horizons is propounded. A novel geometric Hoop inequality is put forward. The possibility of carrying over the results to arbitrary dimension is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, no figures. New references included, typos corrected, explanatory comments added. Much shorter version, in order to match EPL length restrictions. To be published in EP

Supersymmetric Black Rings on Eguchi-Hanson Space

We construct new supersymmetric black ring solutions on the Eguchi-Hanson base space as solutions of five-dimensional minimal supergravity. The solutions have the same two angular momentum components and the asymptotic structure on timeslices is asymptotically locally Euclidean. The S^1-direction of the black ring is along the equator on a S^2-bolt on the Eguchi-Hanson space. We also investigate the limit to a black hole, which describes the BMPV black hole with the topology of the lens space L(2;1)=S^3/Z_2.Comment: 21 page

On the Gannon-Lee Singularity Theorem in Higher Dimensions

The Gannon-Lee singularity theorems give well-known restrictions on the spatial topology of singularity-free (i.e., nonspacelike geodesically complete), globally hyperbolic spacetimes. In this paper, we revisit these classic results in the light of recent developments, especially the failure in higher dimensions of a celebrated theorem by Hawking on the topology of black hole horizons. The global hyperbolicity requirement is weakened, and we expand the scope of the main results to allow for the richer variety of spatial topologies which are likely to occur in higher-dimensional spacetimes.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, to appear in Class. Quantum Gra

Small doubling in groups

Let A be a subset of a group G = (G,.). We will survey the theory of sets A with the property that |A.A| <= K|A|, where A.A = {a_1 a_2 : a_1, a_2 in A}. The case G = (Z,+) is the famous Freiman--Ruzsa theorem.Comment: 23 pages, survey article submitted to Proceedings of the Erdos Centenary conferenc

Barbero-Immirzi parameter, manifold invariants and Euclidean path integrals

The Barbero-Immirzi parameter $\gamma$ appears in the \emph{real} connection formulation of gravity in terms of the Ashtekar variables, and gives rise to a one-parameter quantization ambiguity in Loop Quantum Gravity. In this paper we investigate the conditions under which $\gamma$ will have physical effects in Euclidean Quantum Gravity. This is done by constructing a well-defined Euclidean path integral for the Holst action with non-zero cosmological constant on a manifold with boundary. We find that two general conditions must be satisfied by the spacetime manifold in order for the Holst action and its surface integral to be non-zero: (i) the metric has to be non-diagonalizable; (ii) the Pontryagin number of the manifold has to be non-zero. The latter is a strong topological condition, and rules out many of the known solutions to the Einstein field equations. This result leads us to evaluate the on-shell first-order Holst action and corresponding Euclidean partition function on the Taub-NUT-ADS solution. We find that $\gamma$ shows up as a finite rotation of the on-shell partition function which corresponds to shifts in the energy and entropy of the NUT charge. In an appendix we also evaluate the Holst action on the Taub-NUT and Taub-bolt solutions in flat spacetime and find that in that case as well $\gamma$ shows up in the energy and entropy of the NUT and bolt charges. We also present an example whereby the Euler characteristic of the manifold has a non-trivial effect on black-hole mergers.Comment: 18 pages; v2: references added; to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity; v3: typos corrected; minor revisions to match published versio

Charged Black Holes in a Rotating Gross-Perry-Sorkin Monopole Background

We present a new class of stationary charged black hole solutions to five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Chern-Simons theories. We construct the solutions by utilizing so called the squashing transformation. At infinity, our solutions behave as a four-dimensional flat spacetime plus a `circle' and hence describe a Kaluza-Klein black hole. More precisely, our solutions can be viewed as a charged rotating black hole in a rotating Gross-Perry-Sorkin monopole background with the black hole rotation induced from the background rotation.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure