Curbing the HIV Epidemic by Supporting Effective Engagement in HIV Care: Recommendations for Health Plans and Health Care Purchasers

The United States is poised to dramatically reduce the scope of its HIV epidemic, but this demands increased leadership and attention from health plans and health care purchasers (including Medicaid, Medicare, marketplaces, and other private purchasers). This new amfAR report identifies changes in policy and practice in clinics, communities, and health care programs to reduce unnecessary health spending, increase the effectiveness of services, and increase the integration of services. Done right, the same steps that lead to appropriate management of care by health plans and purchasers also will help to achieve national public health goals

Kinetic energy spectra for fragments and break-up density in multifragmentation

We investigate the possibility, in nuclear fragmentation, to extract information on nuclear density at break-up from fragment kinetic energy spectra using a simultaneous scenario for fragment emission. The conclusions we derive are different from the recently published results of Viola et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, (2004), 132701] assuming a sequential fragment emission and claiming that the experimentally observed decrease of peak centroids for kinetic energy spectra of fragments with increasing bombarding energy is due to a monotonic decrease of the break-up density.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Status and performances of the FAZIA project

FAZIA is designed for detailed studies of the isospin degree of freedom, extending to the limits the isotopic identification of charged products from nuclear collisions when using silicon detectors and CsI(Tl) scintillators. We show that the FAZIA telescopes give isotopic identification up to Z$\sim$25 with a $\Delta$E-E technique. Digital Pulse Shape Analysis makes possible elemental identification up to Z=55 and isotopic identification for Z=1-10 when using the response of a single silicon detector. The project is now in the phase of building a demonstrator comprising about 200 telescopes

Advancement in the understanding of multifragmentation and phase transition for hot nuclei

Recent advancement on the knowledge of multifragmentation and phase transition for hot nuclei is reported. It concerns i) the influence of radial collective energy on fragment partitions and the derivation of general properties of partitions in presence of such a collective energy, ii) a better knowledge of freeze-out properties obtained by means of a simulation based on all the available experimental information and iii) the quantitative study of the bimodal behaviour of the heaviest fragment charge distribution for fragmenting hot heavy quasi-projectiles which allows, for the first time, to estimate the latent heat of the phase transition.Comment: 9 pages, Proceedings of IWM09, November 4-7, Catania (Italy

Break-up stage restoration in multifragmentation reactions

In the case of Xe+Sn at 32 MeV/nucleon multifragmentation reaction break-up fragments are built-up from the experimentally detected ones using evaluations of light particle evaporation multiplicities which thus settle fragment internal excitation. Freeze-out characteristics are extracted from experimental kinetic energy spectra under the assumption of full decoupling between fragment formation and energy dissipated in different degrees of freedom. Thermal kinetic energy is determined uniquely while for freeze-out volume - collective energy a multiple solution is obtained. Coherence between the solutions of the break-up restoration algorithm and the predictions of a multifragmentation model with identical definition of primary fragments is regarded as a way to select the true value. The broad kinetic energy spectrum of $^3$He is consistent with break-up genesis of this isotope.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Lumican inhibits in vivo melanoma metastasis by altering matrix-effectors and invadopodia markers

It was reported that lumican inhibits the activity of metalloproteinase MMP-14 and melanoma cell migration in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, Snail triggers epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and the metastatic potential of cancer cells. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of lumican on Mock and Snail overexpressing melanoma B16F1 cells in vivo. Lung metastasis was analyzed after intravenous injections of Mock-B16F1 and Snail-B16F1 cells in Lum+/+ and Lum−/− mice. At day 14, mice were sacrificed, and lungs were collected. The number of lung metastatic nodules was significantly higher in mice injected with Snail-B16F1 cells as compared to mice injected with Mock-B16F1 cells confirming the pro-metastatic effect of Snail. This effect was stronger in Lum−/− mice as compared to Lum+/+, suggesting that endogenous lumican of wild-type mice significantly inhibits metastasis to lungs. Scanning electron and confocal microscopy investi-gations demonstrated that lumican inhibits the development of elongated cancer cell phenotypes which are known to develop invadopodia releasing MMPs. Moreover, lumican was shown to affect the expression of cyclin D1, cortactin, vinculin, hyaluronan synthase 2, heparanase, MMP-14 and the phosphorylation of FAK, AKT, p130 Cas and GSK3α/β. Altogether, these data demonstrated that lumican significantly inhibits lung metastasis in vivo, as well as cell invasion in vitro, suggesting that a lumican-based strategy targeting Snail-induced metastasis could be useful for melanoma treatment

On-sky observations with an achromatic hybrid phase knife coronagraph in the visible

CONTEXT: The four-quadrant phase mask stellar coronagraph, introduced by D. Rouan et al., is capable of achieving very high dynamical range imaging and was studied in the context of the direct detection of extra-solar planets. Achromatic four-quadrant phase mask is currently being developed for broadband IR applications. AIMS: We report on laboratory and on-sky tests of a prototype coronagraph in the visible. This prototype, the achromatic hybrid phase knife coronagraph, was derived from the four-quadrant phase mask principle. METHODS: The instrumental setup implementing the coronagraph itself was designed to record the pre- and post-coronagraphic images simultaneously so that an efficient real-time image selection procedure can be performed. We describe the coronagraph and the associated tools that enable robust and repeatable observations. We present an algorithm of image selection that has been tested against the real on-sky data of the binary star HD80081 (* 38 Lyn). RESULTS Although the observing conditions were poor, the efficiency of the proposed method is proven. From this experiment, we derive procedures that can apply to future focal instruments associating adaptive optics and coronagraphy, targeting high dynamic range imaging in astronomy, such as detecting extra-solar planets

Quantum and statistical fluctuations in dynamical symmetry breaking

Dynamical symmetry breaking in an expanding nuclear system is investigated in semi-classical and quantum framework by employing a collective transport model which is constructed to mimic the collective behavior of expanding systems. It is shown that the fluctuations in collective coordinates during the expansion are developed mainly by the enhancement of the initial fluctuations by the driving force, and that statistical and quantum fluctuations have similar consequences. It is pointed out that the quantal fluctuations may play an important role in the development of instabilities by reducing the time needed to break the symmetry, and the possible role of quantal fluctuations in spinodal decomposition of nuclei is discussed.Comment: 19 Latex pages including 6 figure