The implications of HIV infection on the management of valvular heart disease in Southern Africa

There is very limited information on the disease profile and treatment approaches in HIV patients with valvular heart disease (VHD) in developing countries. HIV infection impacts on patients with VHD in three settings: HIV/Aids as a comorbid disease in patients with underlying valve disease, infective endocarditis secondary to immunosuppression, and non-infective valve involvement from myocardial failure or from marantic endocarditis. The clinical presentation of infective endocarditis does not differ between HIV and non-HIV patients, with the exception that intravenous drug abuse is a common cause in specific populations. While peri-operative mortality and morbidity is high in acute infective endocarditis, surgical interventions do not increase the postoperative risk for complications or death and should therefore not be withheld. There is also little evidence to suggest that HIV or antiretroviral drugs increase the rate of cardiac-related pregnancy complications or that pregnancy may alter the course of HIV infection. Since antiretroviral therapy has been associated with considerable improvement in clinical status prior to surgery, as well as in long term outcomes, all patients with valve disease in whom intervention is likely should undergo HIV testing and staging so that highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) may be instituted timeously. Conclusion: The high prevalence of HIV in our population makes consideration of this comorbidity an essential facet in the routine evaluation and management of patients with VHD. There is solid evidence that these patients do no worse than non-HIV patients undergoing medical treatment or percutaneous/surgical intervention – open-heart surgery may be offered safely to patients with HIV if proper precautions are taken

Beam spin asymmetry measurements of deeply virtual π0 production with CLAS12

The new experimental measurements of beam spin asymmetry were performed for the deeply virtual exclusive pi0 production in a wide kinematic region with the photon virtualities Q2 up to 6.6 GeV2 and the Bjorken scaling variable xB in the valence regime. The data were collected by the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS12) at Jefferson Lab with longitudinally polarized 10.6 GeV electrons scattered on an unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target. Sizable asymmetry values indicate a substantial contribution from transverse virtual photon amplitudes to the polarized structure functions. The interpretation of these measurements in terms of the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) demonstrates their sensitivity to the chiral-odd GPD ET, which contains information on quark transverse spin densities in unpolarized and polarized nucleons and provides access to the nucleon's transverse anomalous magnetic moment. Additionally, the data were compared to a theoretical model based on a Regge formalism that was extended to the high photon virtualities

Predictors of purchase intention of luxury South Sea pearls

This study aims to gain further insight into the reasons behind the decline in sales of luxury South Sea pearls by exploring the different antecedents of consumers’ purchase intention using the theory of planned behaviour. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using a combination of statistical analysis techniques. Findings showed that attitudes, novelty seeking and self-efficacy are significant predictors of purchase intention, while interpersonal influences are not a significant predictor. This study provides industry practitioners, researchers, policy makers and retailers with new insights into the pearling industry so they are able to better develop products, design branding strategies and form policies which address current consumer behaviour

Observation of Beam Spin Asymmetries in the Process ep→e′π+π−Xep\rightarrow{e}^{'}{\pi}^{+}{\pi}^{-}X with CLAS12

International audienceThe observation of beam spin asymmetries in two-pion production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering off an unpolarized proton target is reported. The data presented here were taken in the fall of 2018 with the CLAS12 spectrometer using a 10.6 GeV longitudinally spin-polarized electron beam delivered by CEBAF at JLab. The measured asymmetries provide the first opportunity to extract the parton distribution function e(x), which provides information about the interaction between gluons and quarks, in a collinear framework that offers cleaner access than previous measurements. The asymmetries also constitute the first ever signal sensitive to the helicity-dependent two-pion fragmentation function G1⊥. A clear sign change is observed around the ρ mass that appears in model calculations and is indicative of the dependence of the produced pions on the helicity of the fragmenting quark