Approach to Fungal Infections in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Individuals Pneumocystis and Beyond

Many fungi cause pulmonary disease in HIV-infected patients. Major pathogens include Pneumocystis jirovecii, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus species, Histoplasma capsulatum, Coccidioides species, Blastomyces dermatitidis, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, Talaromyces marneffei, and Emmonsia species. Because symptoms are frequently non-specific, a high index of suspicion for fungal infection is required for diagnosis. Clinical manifestations of fungal infection in HIV-infected patients frequently depend on the degree of immunosuppression and the CD4 + TH cell count. Establishing definitive diagnosis is important because treatments differ. Primary and secondary prophylaxis depends on CD4+ TH cell counts as well as geographic location and local prevalence of disease

Pneumocystis Pneumonia Associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Afterlives of Chinese Communism comprises essays from over fifty world- renowned scholars in the China field, from various disciplines and continents. It provides an indispensable guide for understanding how the Mao era continues to shape Chinese politics today. Each chapter discusses a concept or practice from the Mao period, what it attempted to do, and what has become of it since. The authors respond to the legacy of Maoism from numerous perspectives to consider what lessons Chinese communism can offer today, and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics that it once promised

Room temperature plasmon laser by total internal reflection

Plasmon lasers create and sustain intense and coherent optical fields below light's diffraction limit with the unique ability to drastically enhance light-matter interactions bringing fundamentally new capabilities to bio-sensing, data storage, photolithography and optical communications. However, these important applications require room temperature operation, which remains a major hurdle. Here, we report a room temperature semiconductor plasmon laser with both strong cavity feedback and optical confinement to 1/20th of the wavelength. The strong feedback arises from total internal reflection of surface plasmons, while the confinement enhances the spontaneous emission rate by up to 20 times.Comment: 8 Page, 2 Figure

A contextualização como estruturante curricular na educação em ciências : uma discussão a partir dos documentos oficiaisbra sileiros e artigos especializados

As Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional desencadearam políticas educacionais para a redefinição do Ensino Médio no Brasil. Como parte dessa política, os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais incorporam a contextualização como princípio curricular central. Empregando análise de conteúdo,analisamos artigos de periódicos que atribuem diferentes sentidos para a contextualização no Ensino de Ciências. Com a construção de categorias inspiradas na análise vigotskiana, dimensionamos o conteúdo da contextualização como sentido epistemológico/cognitivo, ético e híbridos destes dois.Encontramos a preponderância de um hibridismo entre uma contextualização que busca dar um sentido cognitivo ao conhecimento e uma contextualização que busca um sentido ético, articulação nem sempre presentes de forma explicita nos documentos oficiais

4D Bragg Edge Tomography of Directional Ice Templated Graphite Electrodes

Bragg edge tomography was carried out on novel, ultra-thick, directional ice templated graphite electrodes for Li-ion battery cells to visualise the distribution of graphite and stable lithiation phases, namely LiC12 and LiC6. The four-dimensional Bragg edge, wavelength-resolved neutron tomography technique allowed the investigation of the crystallographic lithiation states and comparison with the electrode state of charge. The tomographic imaging technique provided insight into the crystallographic changes during de-/lithiation over the electrode thickness by mapping the attenuation curves and Bragg edge parameters with a spatial resolution of approximately 300 µm. This feasibility study was performed on the IMAT beamline at the ISIS pulsed neutron spallation source, UK, and was the first time the 4D Bragg edge tomography method was applied to Li-ion battery electrodes. The utility of the technique was further enhanced by correlation with corresponding X-ray tomography data obtained at the Diamond Light Source, UK

Mechanisms of Psychological Distress following War in the Former Yugoslavia: The Role of Interpersonal Sensitivity

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This study was funded by a grant from the European Commission, contract number INCO-CT-2004-509176. AN was supported by a Clinical Early Career Research Fellowship (113295) and a Project Grant (104288

Environmental Risk Factors for Pneumocystis Pneumonia Hospitalizations in HIV Patients

Background. Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected patients in the United States. Although the host risk factors for the development of PcP are well established, the environmental (climatological, air pollution) risk factors are poorly understood. The major goal of this study was to determine the environmental risk factors for admissions of HIV-positive patients with PcP to a single medical center. / Methods. Between 1997 and 2008, 457 HIV-positive patients with microscopically confirmed PcP were admitted to the San Francisco General Hospital. A case-crossover design was applied to identify environmental risk factors for PcP hospitalizations. Climatological and air pollution data were collected from the Environmental Protection Agency and Weather Warehouse databases. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of each environmental factor and PcP hospital admission. / Results. Hospital admissions were significantly more common in the summer than in the other seasons. Increases in temperature and sulfur dioxide levels were independently associated with hospital admissions for PcP, but the effects of sulfur dioxide were modified by increasing carbon monoxide levels. / Conclusions. This study identifies both climatological and air pollution constituents as independent risk factors for hospitalization of HIV-positive patients with PcP in San Francisco. Thus, the environmental effects on PcP are more likely complex than previously thought. Further studies are needed to understand how these factors exert their effects and to determine if these factors are associated with PcP in other geographic locations

Low Resistance Polycrystalline Diamond Thin Films Deposited by Hot Filament Chemical Vapour Deposition

Polycrystalline diamond thin films with outgrowing diamond (OGD) grains were deposited onto silicon wafers using a hydrocarbon gas (CH4) highly diluted with H2 at low pressure in a hot filament chemical vapour deposition (HFCVD) reactor with a range of gas flow rates. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM showed polycrystalline diamond structure with a random orientation. Polycrystalline diamond films with various textures were grown and (111) facets were dominant with sharp grain boundaries. Outgrowth was observed in flowerish character at high gas flow rates. Isolated single crystals with little openings appeared at various stages at low gas flow rates. Thus, changing gas flow rates had a beneficial influence on the grain size, growth rate and electrical resistivity. CVD diamond films gave an excellent performance for medium film thickness with relatively low electrical resistivity and making them potentially useful in many industrial applications