Disentangling the stigma of HIV/AIDS from the stigmas of drugs use, commercial sex and commercial blood donation – A factorial survey of medical students in China

Background: HIV/AIDS related stigma interferes with the provision of appropriate care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. Currently, programs to address the stigma approach it as if it occurs in isolation, separate from the co-stigmas related to the various modes of disease transmission including injection drug use (IDU) and commercial sex (CS). In order to develop better programs to address HIV/AIDS related stigma, the inter-relationship (or 'layering') between HIV/AIDS stigma and the co-stigmas needs to be better understood. This paper describes an experimental study for disentangling the layering of HIV/AIDS related stigmas. Methods: The study used a factorial survey design. 352 medical students from Guangzhou were presented with four random vignettes each describing a hypothetical male. The vignettes were identical except for the presence of a disease diagnosis (AIDS, leukaemia, or no disease) and a cocharacteristic (IDU, CS, commercial blood donation (CBD), blood transfusion or no cocharacteristic). After reading each vignette, participants completed a measure of social distance that assessed the level of stigmatising attitudes. Results: Bivariate and multivariable analyses revealed statistically significant levels of stigma associated with AIDS, IDU, CS and CBD. The layering of stigma was explored using a recently developed technique. Strong interactions between the stigmas of AIDS and the co-characteristics were also found. AIDS was significantly less stigmatising than IDU or CS. Critically, the stigma of AIDS in combination with either the stigmas of IDU or CS was significantly less than the stigma of IDU alone or CS alone. Conclusion: The findings pose several surprising challenges to conventional beliefs about HIV/ AIDS related stigma and stigma interventions that have focused exclusively on the disease stigma. Contrary to the belief that having a co-stigma would add to the intensity of stigma attached to people with HIV/AIDS, the findings indicate the presence of an illness might have a moderating effect on the stigma of certain co-characteristics like IDU. The strong interdependence between the stigmas of HIV/AIDS and the co-stigmas of IDU and CS suggest that reducing the co-stigmas should be an integral part of HIV/AIDS stigma intervention within this context

Stabilized plane and axisymmetric piezoelectric finite element models

This paper derives a four-node plane, a nine-node plane and a four-node axisymmetric stabilized elements for piezoelectric analysis. All elements are formulated by a stabilization approach founded on the generalized Hellinger-Reissner functional which employs stress, electric displacement, displacement and electric potential as the independent field variables. The lower and higher order stress and electric displacement are chosen to be orthogonal such that their coupling terms in the electromechanical flexibility matrices vanish. In the absence of the higher order modes, the elements are equivalent to their uniformly reduced integrated counterparts. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate that the stabilized elements are markedly more accurate than the standard fully integrated elements. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.postprin

Effect of superlattice modulation of electronic parameters on the density of states of cuprate superconductors

Recent scanning tunneling microscopy on BSCCO 2212 has revealed a substantial spatial supermodulation of the energy gap in the superconducting state. We propose that this gap modulation is due to the superlattice modulations of the atoms in the structure, and hence the parameters in a microscopic model of the CuO2 plane. The gap modulation is estimated using renormalized mean field theory for a t- t′ -J model on a superlattice. The results compare well with experiment. © 2007 The American Physical Society.published_or_final_versio

Electric assumptions for piezoelectric laminate analysis

In computational analysis of piezoelectric laminates which may comprise piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric plies, the transverse electric field is often assumed to be piecewise constant along the transverse direction. This conventional assumption may lead to significant errors unless the piezoelectric ply is considerably thinner than the overall thickness of the laminate. To this end, two alternate assumptions termed EL and DC on the spatial distributions of the electric variables are proposed. In EL, the transverse electric field is taken to be piecewise linear along the transverse direction. In the DC assumption, the transverse electric displacement is taken to be piecewise constant along the transverse direction. The rationales leading to the proposed assumptions are discussed. Numerical examples indicate that the proposed assumptions are markedly more accurate than the conventional one. However, EL becomes inaccurate when its piecewise function spans more than one ply. In this light, DC often consumes less electric potential d.o.f.s and is more efficient than EL. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Irreducible representations of Upq[gl(2/2)]

The two-parametric quantum superalgebra $U_{pq}[gl(2/2)]$ and its representations are considered. All finite-dimensional irreducible representations of this quantum superalgebra can be constructed and classified into typical and nontypical ones according to a proposition proved in the present paper. This proposition is a nontrivial deformation from the one for the classical superalgebra gl(2/2), unlike the case of one-parametric deformations.Comment: Latex, 8 pages. A reference added in v.

Induction chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity: A cumulative meta-analysis

Induction chemotherapy (ICT) is a controversial treatment for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Despite numerous randomized controlled trials (RCTs), a majority do not have enough statistical power alone to conclude ICT’s treatment value among oral squamous carcinoma patients (OSCC) since many addressed HNSCC as one entity instead of by specific subtypes. By performing a systematic review and cumulative meta-analysis, we aim to determine the benefits of ICT in OSCC therapy. A literature search identified for RCTs comparing OSCC patients who received ICT against those without. Log-hazard ratio, and relative risk were used for comparison. Heterogeneity was determined using the I2 statistic package. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), followed by disease-free survival (DFS), locoregional recurrence (LRR) and distant metastasis (DM) as secondary endpoints. RESULTS: 27 randomized trials were included for analysis (n = 2872 patients). The shortest median follow-up was 15 months whereas the longest was 11.5 years. ICT does not improve OS (HR = 0.947, 95% CI 0.85–1.05, p = 0.318), DFS (RR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.92–1.21, p = 0.462) and DM (RR = 0.626, CI 95% 0.361–1.086, p = 0.096) compared to locoregional treatment alone. However, there was a significant improvement to LRR (RR = 0.778, 95% CI 0.622–0.972, p = 0.027). There is no evidence ICT improves survival outcomes for OSCC patients. However, ICT reduces locoregional recurrence of OSCC, which may need further verification.preprin