1,557 research outputs found
Preparedness for use of the rapid result HIV self-test by gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM): a mixed methods exploratory study among MSM and those involved in HIV prevention and care
Objectives:
The aim of the study was to explore preparedness for the HIV self-test among men who have sex with men (MSM) and those involved in HIV prevention and care.
Methods:
A mixed methods exploratory research design was employed, detailing awareness and willingness to use the self-test and the perceived barriers and facilitators to implementation. Quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis were completed in parallel. Descriptive and inferential analysis of cross-sectional bar-based survey data collected from MSM through a self-completed questionnaire and oral fluid specimen collection (n = 999) was combined with qualitative, thematic, analysis of data collected through 12 expert focus groups (n = 55) consisting of gay men, National Health Service (NHS) staff, community organizations, entrepreneurs and activists. Findings were subsequently combined and assessed for synergies.
Results:
Among MSM, self-test awareness was moderate (55%). Greater awareness was associated with increased educational attainment [adjusted odds ratio 1.51; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00–2.30; P = 0.05] and previous history of sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing (adjusted odds ratio 1.63; 95% CI 1.11–2.39; P = 0.01). Willingness to use the test was high (89%) and associated with meeting sexual partners online (unadjusted odds ratio 1.96; 95% CI 1.31–2.94; P < 0.001). Experts highlighted the overall acceptability of self-testing; it was understood as convenient, discreet, accessible, and with a low burden to services. However, some ambivalence towards self-testing was reported; it could reduce opportunities to engage with wider services, wider health issues and the determinants of risk.
Conclusions:
Self-testing represents an opportunity to reduce barriers to HIV testing and enhance prevention and access to care. Levels of awareness are moderate but willingness to use is high. Self-testing may amplify health inequalities
Dissipative Dynamics of an Open Bose Einstein Condensate
As an atomic Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) is coupled to a source of
uncondensed atoms at the same temperature and to a sink (extraction towards an
atom laser) the idealized description in terms of a Gross-Pitaevsky equation
(GP) no longer holds. Under suitable physical assumptions we show that the
dissipative BEC obeys a Complex Ginzburg Landau equation (CGL) and for some
parameter range it undergoes a space time patterning. As a consequence, the
density of BEC atoms within the trap displays non trivial space time
correlations, which can be detected by monitoring the density profile of the
outgoing atom laser. The patterning condition requires a negative scattering
length, as e.g. in Li. In such a case we expect a many domain collapsed
regime, rather than a single one as reported for a closed BEC.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitt. to Optics Comm., 18th Aug. 99 (special
issue Scully Festschrift
Social and cultural origins of motivations to volunteer a comparison of university students in six countries
Although participation in volunteering and motivations to volunteer (MTV) have received substantial attention on the national level, particularly in the US, few studies have compared and explained these issues across cultural and political contexts. This study compares how two theoretical perspectives, social origins theory and signalling theory, explain variations in MTV across different countries. The study analyses responses from a sample of 5794 students from six countries representing distinct institutional contexts. The findings provide strong support for signalling theory but less so for social origins theory. The article concludes that volunteering is a personal decision and thus is influenced more at the individual level but is also impacted to some degree by macro-level societal forces
Management of type 1 diabetes with a very low–Carbohydrate diet: A word of caution
The public often looks to nutrition to improve health, and reporting on nutrition findings from the scientific literature in the popular media often reveals unproven benefits. Lennerz et al present data collected via an online community and conclude that exceptional glycemic control in type 1 diabetes with a low risk for adverse events is possible with a VLCD, and research is needed to confirm the generalizability of these findings. Although it may be true that a VLCD can be useful, we find the study of Lennerz et al to fall well short of the level of scientific evidence that merits the media and professional attention it seems to have garnered
Black hole collision with a scalar particle in four, five and seven dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetimes: ringing and radiation
In this work we compute the spectra, waveforms and total scalar energy
radiated during the radial infall of a small test particle coupled to a scalar
field into a -dimensional Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black hole. We focus
on and 7, extending the analysis we have done for . For small
black holes, the spectra peaks strongly at a frequency , which
is the lowest pure anti-de Sitter (AdS) mode. The waveform vanishes
exponentially as , and this exponential decay is governed
entirely by the lowest quasinormal frequency. This collision process is
interesting from the point of view of the dynamics itself in relation to the
possibility of manufacturing black holes at LHC within the brane world
scenario, and from the point of view of the AdS/CFT conjecture, since the
scalar field can represent the string theory dilaton, and 4, 5, 7 are
dimensions of interest for the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures. Published versio
Bridging the gap between stellar-mass black holes and ultraluminous X-ray sources
The X-ray spectral and timing properties of ultraluminous X-ray sources
(ULXs) have many similarities with the very high state of stellar-mass black
holes (power-law dominated, at accretion rates greater than the Eddington
rate). On the other hand, their cool disk components, large characteristic
inner-disk radii and low characteristic timescales have been interpreted as
evidence of black hole masses ~ 1000 Msun (intermediate-mass black holes). Here
we re-examine the physical interpretation of the cool disk model, in the
context of accretion states of stellar-mass black holes. In particular, XTE
J1550-564 can be considered the missing link between ULXs and stellar-mass
black holes, because it exhibits a high-accretion-rate, low-disk-temperature
state (ultraluminous branch). On the ultraluminous branch, the accretion rate
is positively correlated with the disk truncation radius and the bolometric
disk luminosity, while it is anti-correlated with the peak temperature and the
frequency of quasi-periodic-oscillations. Two prototypical ULXs (NGC1313 X-1
and X-2) also seem to move along that branch. We use a phenomenological model
to show how the different range of spectral and timing parameters found in the
two classes of accreting black holes depends on both their masses and accretion
rates. We suggest that ULXs are consistent with black hole masses ~ 50-100
Msun, moderately inefficiently accreting at ~20 times Eddington.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science.
Based on work presented at the Fifth Stromlo Symposium, Australian National
University, Dec 200
Axion-photon Couplings in Invisible Axion Models
We reexamine the axion-photon couplings in various invisible axion models
motivated by the recent proposal of using optical interferometry at the ASST
facility in the SSCL to search for axion. We illustrate that the assignment of
charges for the fermion fields plays an important role in
determining the couplings. Several simple non-minimal invisible axion models
with suppressed and enhanced axion-photon couplings are constructed,
respectively. We also discuss the implications of possible new experiments to
detect solar axions by conversion to -rays in a static magnetic apparatus
tracking the sun.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX fil
The ATLAS3D project - XXVI : H I discs in real and simulated fast and slow rotators
One quarter of all nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs) outside Virgo host a disc/ring of H I with size from a few to tens of kpc and mass up to ∼109 M⊙. Here we investigate whether this H I is related to the presence of a stellar disc within the host making use of the classification of ETGs in fast and slow rotators (FR/SR). We find a large diversity of H I masses and morphologies within both families. Surprisingly, SRs are detected as often, host as much H I and have a similar rate of H I discs/rings as FRs. Accretion of H I is therefore not always linked to the growth of an inner stellar disc. The weak relation between H I and stellar disc is confirmed by their frequent kinematical misalignment in FRs, including cases of polar and counterrotating gas. In SRs the H I is usually polar. This complex picture highlights a diversity of ETG formation histories which may be lost in the relative simplicity of their inner structure and emerges when studying their outer regions. We find that Λ CDM hydrodynamical simulations have difficulties reproducing the H I properties of ETGs. The gas discs formed in simulations are either too massive or too small depending on the star formation feedback implementation. Kinematical misalignments match the observations only qualitatively. The main point of conflict is that nearly all simulated FRs and a large fraction of all simulated SRs host corotating H I. This establishes the H I properties of ETGs as a novel challenge to simulationsPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
An horizon scan of biogeography
The opportunity to reflect broadly on the accomplishments, prospects, and reach of a field may present itself relatively infrequently. Each biennial meeting of the International Biogeography Society showcases ideas solicited and developed largely during the preceding year, by individuals or teams from across the breadth of the discipline. Here, we highlight challenges, developments, and opportunities in biogeography from that biennial synthesis. We note the realized and potential impact of rapid data accumulation in several fields, a renaissance for inter-disciplinary research, the importance of recognizing the evolution-ecology continuum across spatial and temporal scales and at different taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional levels, and re-exploration of classical assumptions and hypotheses using new tools. However, advances are taxonomically and geographically biased, and key theoretical frameworks await tools to handle, or strategies to simplify, the biological complexity seen in empirical systems. Current threats to biodiversity require unprecedented integration of knowledge and development of predictive capacity that may enable biogeography to unite its descriptive and hypothetico-deductive branches and establish a greater role within and outside academia
Present and Future Bounds on Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions
We consider Non-Standard neutrino Interactions (NSI), described by
four-fermion operators of the form , where is an electron or first generation quark. We
assume these operators are generated at dimension , so the related
vertices involving charged leptons, obtained by an SU(2) transformation
, do not appear at tree level. These related
vertices necessarily arise at one loop, via exchange. We catalogue current
constraints from measurements in neutrino scattering, from
atmospheric neutrino observations, from LEP, and from bounds on the related
charged lepton operators. We estimate future bounds from comparing KamLAND and
solar neutrino data, and from measuring at the near detector
of a neutrino factory. Operators constructed with and should
not confuse the determination of oscillation parameters at a factory,
because the processes we consider are more sensitive than oscillations at the
far detector. For operators involving , we estimate similar
sensitivities at the near and far detector.Comment: Erratum added at the end of the documen
- …