HIV sero-positivity in recently admitted and long-term psychiatric in-patients : prevalence and diagnostic profile

OBJECTIVE: Research on HIV in South Africa has not reflected the impact of the disease on psychiatric patients. The aims of the study were: to compare the HIV prevalence among patient groups in Weskoppies Hospital; to compare psychiatric diagnoses of infected and non-infected patients; to assess intravenous drug use and high-risk sexual behaviour; to establish HIV-syphilis association; and to investigate the rapid test performance for screening, compared to the confirmatory ELISA test. METHOD: Onehundred- and-ninety-five patients were grouped into four categories according to their duration of admission and gender. HIV rapid testing, HIV ELISA, syphilis-RPR and TPHA testing were performed. RESULTS: The HIV prevalence of 11% in the sample was significantly associated with ‘gender-and-duration-of-admission’ categories (p=0.003). No significant association between HIV infection and psychiatric diagnoses or intravenous drug use was found, but a significant association existed between HIV infection and high-risk sexual behaviour (p=0.002), and between HIV and syphilis (p=0.012). The HIV rapid screening test had a sensitivity of 91.7% and a specificity of 98.2%. CONCLUSION: The overall HIV prevalence at Weskoppies Hospital remains lower than the national average, but has increased since a previous local study. The rapid test for HIV had a lower sensitivity than was expected, and it is recommended that HIV ELISA testing be performed as a first line test in the setting of hospitalised patients. Due to the high prevalence of HIV and syphilis in the psychiatric population it is recommended that all patients be tested for both of these diseases.This study was financially supported by a grant from the Research Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_medjda.htm

Design of a ferrite rod antenna for harvesting energy from medium wave broadcast signals

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting is an emerging technology that has the potential to eliminate the need for batteries and reduce maintenance costs of sensing applications. The antenna is one of the critical components that determines its performance and while antenna design has been well researched for the purpose of communication, the design for RF energy harvesting applications has not been widely addressed. The authors present an optimised design for such an antenna for harvesting energy from medium wave broadcast transmissions. They derive and use a model for computing the optimal antenna configuration given application requirements on output voltage and power, material costs and physical dimensions. Design requirements for powering autonomous smart meters have been considered. The proposed approach was used to obtain the antenna configuration that is able to deliver 1 mW of power to 1 kΩ load at a distance of up to 9 km, sufficient to replace batteries on low-power sensing applications. Measurements using a prototype device have been used to verify the authors simulations

Metabolites identified during varied doses of aspergillus species in Zea mays grains, and their correlation with aflatoxin levels

Open Access Journal; Published online: 7 May 2018Aflatoxin contamination is associated with the development of aflatoxigenic fungi such as Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus on food grains. This study was aimed at investigating metabolites produced during fungal development on maize and their correlation with aflatoxin levels. Maize cobs were harvested at R3 (milk), R4 (dough), and R5 (dent) stages of maturity. Individual kernels were inoculated in petri dishes with four doses of fungal spores. Fungal colonisation, metabolite profile, and aflatoxin levels were examined. Grain colonisation decreased with kernel maturity: milk-, dough-, and dent-stage kernels by approximately 100%, 60%, and 30% respectively. Aflatoxin levels increased with dose at dough and dent stages. Polar metabolites including alanine, proline, serine, valine, inositol, iso-leucine, sucrose, fructose, trehalose, turanose, mannitol, glycerol, arabitol, inositol, myo-inositol, and some intermediates of the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA—also known as citric acid or Krebs cycle) were important for dose classification. Important non-polar metabolites included arachidic, palmitic, stearic, 3,4-xylylic, and margaric acids. Aflatoxin levels correlated with levels of several polar metabolites. The strongest positive and negative correlations were with arabitol (R = 0.48) and turanose and (R = 0.53), respectively. Several metabolites were interconnected with the TCA; interconnections of the metabolites with the TCA cycle varied depending upon the grain maturity

Ecological niche and potential geographic distribution of the invasive fruit fly *Bactrocera invadens* (Diptera, Tephritidae)

Two correlative approaches to the challenge of ecological niche modeling (genetic algorithm, maximum entropy) were used to estimate the potential global distribution of the invasive fruit fly, Bactrocera invadens, based on associations between known occurrence records and a set of environmental predictor variables. The two models yielded similar estimates, largely corresponding to Equatorial climate classes with high levels of precipitation. The maximum entropy approach was somewhat more conservative in its evaluation of suitability, depending on thresholds for presence/absence that are selected, largely excluding areas with distinct dry seasons; the genetic algorithm models, in contrast, indicate that climate class as partly suitable. Predictive tests based on independent distributional data indicate that model predictions are quite robust. Field observations in Benin and Tanzania confirm relationships between seasonal occurrences of this species and humidity and temperature

Prospects for asteroseismology

The observational basis for asteroseismology is being dramatically strengthened, through more than two years of data from the CoRoT satellite, the flood of data coming from the Kepler mission and, in the slightly longer term, from dedicated ground-based facilities. Our ability to utilize these data depends on further development of techniques for basic data analysis, as well as on an improved understanding of the relation between the observed frequencies and the underlying properties of the stars. Also, stellar modelling must be further developed, to match the increasing diagnostic potential of the data. Here we discuss some aspects of data interpretation and modelling, focussing on the important case of stars with solar-like oscillations.Comment: Proc. HELAS Workshop on 'Synergies between solar and stellar modelling', eds M. Marconi, D. Cardini & M. P. Di Mauro, Astrophys. Space Sci., in the press Revision: correcting abscissa labels on Figs 1 and

Observation of excited states in the near-drip-line nucleus 125Pr

High-spin states have been observed in the near-drip-line nucleus 125Pr following the reaction 64Zn(64Zn, p2n). The detection of charged particles and neutrons evaporated from the compound system, along with the M/q of the recoiling nucleus, have allowed the identification of excited states in 125Pr and the unambiguous assignment of five rotational structures to this nucleus. This is the most neutron-deficient Pr isotope in which excited states have been observed. The strongest band is identified as the h11/2 single-quasiproton configuration, and is observed to a maximum spin of I = (67/2hℏ). Another structure is interpreted as the g9/2 proton hole state, which is associated with bands of enhanced deformation observed in several nuclei in this mass region. These two bands are compared with analogous bands in the heavier odd-A Pr isotopes and changes in deformation are discussed

Core-excited smoothly terminating band in 114Xe

High-spin states have been studied in neutron-deficient 54114Xe, populated through the 58Ni(58Ni,2p) fusion-evaporation reaction at 230 MeV. The Gammasphere γ-ray spectrometer has been used in conjunction with the Microball charged-particle detector in order to select evaporation residues of interest. The yrast band has been greatly extended to a tentative spin of 52hℏ and shows features consistent with smooth band termination. This band represents the first evidence for a core-excited (six-particle, two-hole) proton configuration above Z = 53

The mammalian gene function resource: The International Knockout Mouse Consortium

In 2007, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) made the ambitious promise to generate mutations in virtually every protein-coding gene of the mouse genome in a concerted worldwide action. Now, 5 years later, the IKMC members have developed highthroughput gene trapping and, in particular, gene-targeting pipelines and generated more than 17,400 mutant murine embryonic stem (ES) cell clones and more than 1,700 mutant mouse strains, most of them conditional. A common IKMC web portal (www.knockoutmouse.org) has been established, allowing easy access to this unparalleled biological resource. The IKMC materials considerably enhance functional gene annotation of the mammalian genome and will have a major impact on future biomedical research

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 5q11.2 Breast Cancer Locus Reveals at Least Three Independent Risk Variants Regulating MAP3K1

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