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Infectious Syphilis in Non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics in an Urban STD Clinic
Syphilis is a complex infectious disease caused by Treponema pallidum and acquired through sexual contact or vertical transmission. The natural history of syphilis is divided in primary, secondary, latent and tertiary stages. The syphilis epidemic has evolved over the years. National rates of syphilis infection dropped to the lowest in 2000 and have since increased in certain populations. Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for 60% of new infections and high rates occur in individuals with human immune deficiency virus co-infection. This study describes and compares the demographic characteristics, risk factors, and clinical presentation ofinfectious syphilis cases diagnosed in the Miami-Dade Health Department STD clinic among the two main ethnicities (non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic)
Upper critical field measurements up to 60 T in arsenic-deficient LaO_(0.9)F_(0.1)FeAs_(1-delta): Pauli limiting behaviour at high fields vs improved superconductivity at low fields
We report resistivity and upper critical field B_c2(T) data for As deficient
LaO_(0.9)F_(0.1)FeAs_(1-delta) in a wide temperature and high field range up to
60 T. These disordered samples exhibit a slightly enhanced superconducting
transition at T_c = 29 K and a significantly enlarged slope dB_(c2))/dT = -5.4
T/K near T_c which contrasts with a flattening of B_(c2)(T) starting near 23 K
above 30 T. This flattening is interpreted as Pauli limiting behaviour (PLB)
with B_(c2)(0) approx 63 T. We compare our results with B_(c2)(T)-data reported
in the literature for clean and disordered samples. Whereas clean samples show
no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 T, the hitherto unexplained flattening of
B_(c2)(T) for applied fields H || ab observed for several disordered closely
related systems is interpreted also as a manifestation of PLB. Consequences of
our results are discussed in terms of disorder effects within the frame of
conventional and unconventional superconductivity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to RHMF09 (9th International Conference
on the Research in High Magnetic Fields), Dresden, July 22-25, 200
Evidence for Pauli-limiting behaviour at high fields and enhanced upper critical fields near T_c in several disordered FeAs based Superconductors
We report resistivity and upper critical field B_c2(T) data for disordered
(As deficient) LaO_0.9F_0.1FeAs_1-delta in a wide temperature and high field
range up to 60 T. These samples exhibit a slightly enhanced superconducting
transition at T_c = 28.5 K and a significantly enlarged slope dB_c2/dT = -5.4
T/K near T_c which contrasts with a flattening of B_c2(T) starting near 23 K
above 30 T. The latter evidences Pauli limiting behaviour (PLB) with B_c2(0)
approximately 63 T. We compare our results with B_c2(T)-data from the
literature for clean and disordered samples. Whereas clean samples show almost
no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 T, the hitherto unexplained pronounced
flattening of B_c2(T) for applied fields H II ab observed for several
disordered closely related systems is interpreted also as a manifestation of
PLB. Consequences are discussed in terms of disorder effects within the frames
of (un)conventional superconductivity, respectively.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, submitted to M2S Tokyo 0
Effective index of refraction, optical rotation, and circular dichroism in isotropic chiral liquid crystals
This paper concerns optical properties of the isotropic phase above the
isotropic-cholesteric transition and of the blue phase BP III. We introduce an
effective index, which describes spatial dispersion effects such as optical
rotation, circular dichroism, and the modification of the average index due to
the fluctuations. We derive the wavelength dependance of these spatial
dispersion effects quite generally without relying on an expansion in powers of
the chirality and without assuming that the pitch of the cholesteric is
much shorter than the wavelength of the light , an approximation which
has been made in previous studies of this problem. The theoretical predictions
are supported by comparing them with experimental spectra of the optical
activity in the BP III phase.Comment: 15 pages and 7 figures. Submitted to PR
Assessing the potential for fish migration from marine reserves to adjacent fished areas in the Soufriere Marine Management Area, St. Lucia
Influence of substitutional disorder on the electrical transport and the superconducting properties of FeTeSeS
We have carried out an investigation of the structural, magnetic, transport
and superconducting properties of FeTeSeS ceramic
compounds, for and some specific Se (0 x 0.5) and S (0
y 0.12) contents. The incorporation of Se and S to the FeTe
structure produces a progressive reduction of the crystallographic parameters
as well as different degrees of structural disorder associated with the
differences of the ionic radius of the substituting cations. In the present
study, we measure transport properties of this family of compounds and we show
the direct influence of disorder in the normal and superconductor states. We
notice that the structural disorder correlates with a variable range hopping
conducting regime observed at temperatures 200 K. At lower temperatures,
all the samples except the one with the highest degree of disorder show a
crossover to a metallic-like regime, probably related to the transport of
resilient-quasi-particles associated with the proximity of a Fermi liquid state
at temperatures below the superconducting transition. Moreover, the
superconducting properties are depressed only for that particular sample, in
accordance to the condition that superconductivity is affected by disorder when
the electronic localization length becomes smaller than the coherence
length .Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure
Insufficient neutralization in testing a chlorhexidine-containing ethanol-based hand rub can result in a false positive efficacy assessment
BACKGROUND: Effective neutralization in testing hand hygiene preparations is considered to be a crucial element to ensure validity of the test results, especially with the difficulty to neutralize chlorhexidine gluconate. Aim of the study was to measure the effect of chemical neutralization under practical test conditions according to EN 1500. METHODS: We have investigated two ethanol-based hand rubs (product A, based on 61% ethanol and 1% chlorhexidine gluconate; product B, based on 85% ethanol). The efficacy of products (application of 3 ml for 30 s) was compared to 2-propanol 60% (v/v) (two 3 ml rubs of 30 s each) on hands artificially contaminated with Escherichia coli using a cross-over design with 15 volunteers. Pre-values were obtained by rubbing fingertips for 1 minute in liquid broth. Post-values were determined by sampling immediately after disinfection in liquid broth with and without neutralizers (0.5% lecithin, 4% polysorbate 20). RESULTS: The neutralizers were found to be effective and non-toxic. Without neutralization in the sampling fluid, the reference disinfection reduced the test bacteria by 3.7 log(10), product B by 3.3 log(10 )and product A by 4.8 log(10 )(P = 0.001; ANOVA). With neutralization the reference disinfection reduced the test bacteria by 3.5 log(10), product B by 3.3 log(10 )and product A by 2.7 log(10 )(P = 0.011; ANOVA). In comparison to the reference treatment Product B lead to a lower mean reduction than the reference disinfection but the difference was not significant (P > 0.1; Wilcoxon-Wilcox test). Without neutralizing agents in the sampling fluid, product A yielded a significantly higher reduction of test bacteria (4.8; P = 0.02) as compared to the situation with neutralizing agents (2.7; P = 0.033). CONCLUSION: The crucial step of neutralization lies in the sampling fluid itself in order to stop any residual bacteriostatic or bactericidal activity immediately after the application of the preparation, especially with chlorhexidine gluconate-containing preparations. This is particularly important at short application times such as the 30 s
Status of high temperature superconductor based magnets and the conductors they depend upon
This paper reviews the status of high temperature superconductors for high
field magnets for future devices such as a high energy LHC or a muon collider.
Some of the primary challenges faced for the implementation of systems are
discussed. Two conductor technologies, BiSrCaCuO and
YBaCuO, have emerged as high field conductor options, but
their relative advantages and disadvantages for high field magnets are quite
different. These are reviewed from an engineering perspective, including coil
manufacturing, electromechanical behaviour and quench behaviour. Lastly, the
important roles of "system pull" upon conductor and magnet technology
development, and of interactions between the materials and magnet communities
for accelerating development, are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, contribution to the EuCARD-AccNet-EuroLumi Workshop: The
High-Energy Large Hadron Collider, Malta, 14 -- 16 Oct 2010; CERN Yellow
Report CERN-2011-003, pp. 59-6
Systematic Study on Fluorine-doping Dependence of Superconducting and Normal State Properties in LaFePO1-xFx
We have investigated the fluorine-doping dependence of lattice constants,
transports and specific heat for polycrystalline LaFePO1-xFx. F doping slightly
and monotonically decreases the in-plane lattice parameter. In the normal
state, electrical resistivity at low temperature is proportional to the square
of temperature and the electronic specific heat coefficient has large value,
indicating the existence of moderate electron-electron correlation in this
system. Hall coefficient has large magnitude, and shows large temperature
dependence, indicating the low carrier density and multiple carriers in this
system. Temperature dependence of the upper critical field suggests that the
system is a two gap superconductor. The F-doping dependence of these properties
in this system are very weak, while in the FeAs system (LaFeAsO), the F doping
induces the large changes in electronic properties. This difference is probably
due to the different F-doping dependence of the lattice in these two systems.
It has been revealed that a pure effect of electron doping on electronic
properties is very weak in this Fe pnictide compound.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp
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