Detection of HIV-1 infection in dried blood spots from a 12-year-old ABO bedside test card

Background and Objectives: We tested dried blood from an ABO bedside test card which had been stored at room temperature for 12 years, to prove that a patient with HIV-1 infection had been infected by blood transfusion. Materials and Methods: Immunoblots for HIV-1 antibodies and threefold PCRs with half-nested primers for the HIV-1 integrase gene were done with eluates from the dried blood spots. Results: HIV-1 antibodies and HIV-1 DNA could be detected in the sample from one unit of blood, but not from the two other units or from the recipient before transfusion. Conclusion: Further studies should be done on the validity of stored dried blood as an alternative to the storage of frozen donor serum for several years for `look-back' studies

A lattice determination of g_A and <x> from overlap fermions

We present results for the nucleon's axial charge g_A and the first moment of the unpolarized parton distribution function from a simulation of quenched overlap fermions.Comment: Talk presented at Lattice2004(chiral), 4 pages, 4 figure

Sabotage in Contests: A Survey

A contest is a situation in which individuals expend irretrievable resources to win valuable prize(s). ‘Sabotage’ is a deliberate and costly act of damaging a rival’s' likelihood of winning the contest. Sabotage can be observed in, e.g., sports, war, promotion tournaments, political or marketing campaigns. In this article, we provide a model and various perspectives on such sabotage activities and review the economics literature analyzing the act of sabotage in contests. We discuss the theories and evidence highlighting the means of sabotage, why sabotage occurs, and the effects of sabotage on individual players and on overall welfare, along with possible mechanisms to reduce sabotage. We note that most sabotage activities are aimed at the ablest player, the possibility of sabotage reduces productive effort exerted by the players, and sabotage may lessen the effectiveness of public policies, such as affirmative action, or information revelation in contests. We discuss various policies that a designer may employ to counteract sabotage activities. We conclude by pointing out some areas of future research

Feasibility, drug safety, and effectiveness of etiological treatment programs for Chagas disease in Honduras, Guatemala, and Bolivia: 10-year experience of Médecins Sans Frontières

BACKGROUND: Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is a zoonotic or anthropozoonotic disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Predominantly affecting populations in poor areas of Latin America, medical care for this neglected disease is often lacking. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has provided diagnostic and treatment services for Chagas disease since 1999. This report describes 10 years of field experience in four MSF programs in Honduras, Guatemala, and Bolivia, focusing on feasibility protocols, safety of drug therapy, and treatment effectiveness. METHODOLOGY: From 1999 to 2008, MSF provided free diagnosis, etiological treatment, and follow-up care for patients <18 years of age seropositive for T. cruzi in Yoro, Honduras (1999-2002); Olopa, Guatemala (2003-2006); Entre Ríos, Bolivia (2002-2006); and Sucre, Bolivia (2005-2008). Essential program components guaranteeing feasibility of implementation were information, education, and communication (IEC) at the community and family level; vector control; health staff training; screening and diagnosis; treatment and compliance, including family-based strategies for early detection of adverse events; and logistics. Chagas disease diagnosis was confirmed by testing blood samples using two different diagnostic tests. T. cruzi-positive patients were treated with benznidazole as first-line treatment, with appropriate counseling, consent, and active participation from parents or guardians for daily administration of the drug, early detection of adverse events, and treatment withdrawal, when necessary. Weekly follow-up was conducted, with adverse events recorded to assess drug safety. Evaluations of serological conversion were carried out to measure treatment effectiveness. Vector control, entomological surveillance, and health education activities were carried out in all projects with close interaction with national and regional programs. RESULTS: Total numbers of children and adolescents tested for T. cruzi in Yoro, Olopa, Entre Ríos, and Sucre were 24,471, 8,927, 7,613, and 19,400, respectively. Of these, 232 (0.9%), 124 (1.4%), 1,475 (19.4%), and 1,145 (5.9%) patients, respectively, were diagnosed as seropositive. Patients were treated with benznidazole, and early findings of seroconversion varied widely between the Central and South American programs: 87.1% and 58.1% at 18 months post-treatment in Yoro and Olopa, respectively; 5.4% by up to 60 months in Entre Ríos; and 0% at an average of 18 months in Sucre. Benznidazole-related adverse events were observed in 50.2% and 50.8% of all patients treated in Yoro and Olopa, respectively, and 25.6% and 37.9% of patients in Entre Ríos and Sucre, respectively. Most adverse events were mild and manageable. No deaths occurred in the treatment population. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing Chagas disease diagnosis and treatment programs in resource-limited settings, including remote rural areas, while addressing the limitations associated with drug-related adverse events. The variability in apparent treatment effectiveness may reflect differences in patient and parasite populations, and illustrates the limitations of current treatments and measures of efficacy. New treatments with improved safety profiles, pediatric formulations of existing and new drugs, and a faster, reliable test of cure are all urgently needed

Mid-Infrared Imaging and Modelling of the Dust Shell around Post-AGB star HD 187885 (IRAS 19500-1709)

We present 10 and 20 micron images of IRAS 19500-1709 taken with the mid-infrared camera, OSCIR, mounted on the Gemini North Telescope. We use a 2-D dust radiation transport code to fit the spectral energy distribution from UV to sub-mm wavelengths and to simulate the images.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. To appear in "Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae III", eds. M.Meixner, J.Kastner, N.Soker & B.Balick. 2004, ASP Conference Serie

Hadron spectrum, quark masses and decay constants from light overlap fermions on large lattices

We present results from a simulation of quenched overlap fermions with L\"uscher-Weisz gauge field action on lattices up to $24^3 48$ and for pion masses down to $\approx 250$ MeV. Among the quantities we study are the pion, rho and nucleon masses, the light and strange quark masses, and the pion decay constant. The renormalization of the scalar and axial vector currents is done nonperturbatively in the $RI-MOM$ scheme. The simulations are performed at two different lattice spacings, $a \approx 0.1$ fm and $\approx 0.15$ fm, and on two different physical volumes, to test the scaling properties of our action and to study finite volume effects. We compare our results with the predictions of chiral perturbation theory and compute several of its low-energy constants. The pion mass is computed in sectors of fixed topology as well

String Breaking in Non-Abelian Gauge Theories with Fundamental Matter Fields

We present clear numerical evidence for string breaking in three-dimensional SU(2) gauge theory with fundamental bosonic matter through a mixing analysis between Wilson loops and meson operators representing bound states of a static source and a dynamical scalar. The breaking scale is calculated in the continuum limit. In units of the lightest glueball we find $r_{\rm b} m_G\approx13.6$. The implications of our results for QCD are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; equations (4)-(6) corrected, numerical results and conclusions unchange