Trends in Concurrency, Polygyny, and Multiple Sex Partnerships During a Decade of Declining HIV Prevalence in Eastern Zimbabwe.

Background. Observed declines in the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in Zimbabwe have been attributed to population-level reductions in sexual partnership numbers. However, it remains unknown whether certain types of sex partnerships were more important to this decline. Particular debate surrounds the epidemiologic importance of polygyny (the practice of having multiple wives). Methods. We analyze changes in reported multiple partnerships, nonmarital concurrency, and polygyny in eastern Zimbabwe during a period of declining HIV prevalence, from 1998 to 2011. Trends are reported for adult men (age, 17–54 years) and women (age, 15–49 years) from 5 survey rounds of the Manicaland HIV/STD Prevention Project, a general-population open cohort study. Results. At baseline, 34.2% of men reported multiple partnerships, 11.9% reported nonmarital concurrency, and 4.6% reported polygyny. Among women, 4.6% and 1.8% reported multiple partnerships and concurrency, respectively. All 3 partnership indicators declined by similar relative amounts (around 60%–70%) over the period. Polygyny accounted for around 25% of male concurrency. Compared with monogamously married men, polygynous men reported higher levels of subsequent divorce/separation (adjusted relative risk [RR], 2.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.87–4.55) and casual sex partnerships (adjusted RR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.41–1.88). Conclusions. No indicator clearly dominated declines in partnerships. Polygyny was surprisingly unstable and, in this population, should not be considered a safe form of concurrency

Substituting the main group element in cobalt - iron based Heusler alloys: Co2_2FeAl1−x_{1-x}Six_x

This work reports about electronic structure calculations for the Heusler compound Co$_2$FeAl$_{1-x}$Si$_x$. Particular emphasis was put on the role of the main group element in this compound. The substitution of Al by Si leads to an increase of the number of valence electrons with increasing Si content and may be seen as electron-doping. Self-consistent electronic structure calculations were performed to investigate the consequences of the electron doping for the magnetic properties. The series Co$_2$FeAl$_{1-x}$Si$_x$ is found to exhibit half-metallic ferromagnetism and the magnetic moment follows the Slater-Pauling rule. It is shown that the electron-doping stabilises the gap in the minority states for $x=0.5$.Comment: J. Phys. D (accepted

Trapping of a random walk by diffusing traps

We present a systematic analytical approach to the trapping of a random walk by a finite density rho of diffusing traps in arbitrary dimension d. We confirm the phenomenologically predicted e^{-c_d rho t^{d/2}} time decay of the survival probability, and compute the dimension dependent constant c_d to leading order within an eps=2-d expansion.Comment: 16 pages, to appear in J. Phys.

Clinical relevance of silent red blood cell autoantibodies.

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Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and Nuclear Receptors Gene Expression in Infertile and Fertile Men from Italian Areas with Different Environmental Features

Internal levels of selected endocrine disruptors (EDs) (i.e., perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), di-2-ethylhexyl-phthalate (DEHP), mono-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (MEHP), and bisphenol A (BPA)) were analyzed in blood/serum of infertile and fertile men from metropolitan, urban and rural Italian areas. PFOS and PFOA levels were also evaluated in seminal plasma. In peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of same subjects, gene expression levels of a panel of nuclear receptors (NRs), namely estrogen receptor α (ERα) estrogen receptor β (ERβ), androgen receptor (AR), aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and pregnane X receptor (PXR) were also assessed. Infertile men from the metropolitan area had significantly higher levels of BPA and gene expression of all NRs, except PPARγ, compared to subjects from other areas. Subjects from urban areas had significantly higher levels of MEHP, whereas subjects from rural area had higher levels of PFOA in both blood and seminal plasma. Interestingly, ERα, ERβ, AR, PXR and AhR expression is directly correlated with BPA and inversely correlated with PFOA serum levels. Our study indicates the relevance of the living environment when investigating the exposure to specific EDs. Moreover, the NRs panel in PBMCs demonstrated to be a potential biomarker of effect to assess the EDs impact on reproductive health

Pengembangan Aplikasi Penilaian Kinerja Guru untuk Meningkatkan Profesionalisme Guru di SMA Negeri 3 Sragen

Penilaian tentang kinerja guru semakin penting untuk mengetahui tingkat profesionalisme guru. Lembaga pendidikan harus mengetahui faktor-faktor apa saja yang mempengaruhi kinerja guru. Hasil analisis akan bermanfaat untuk pengembangan SDM (Sumber Daya Manusia) guru secara optimal yang sangat diperlukan untuk memajukan mutu pendidikan. Guru memerlukan perhatian khusus dari pemerintah dan masyarakat oleh karena itu pemerintah mengatur peningkatan kualitas tenaga pendidik atau guru secara nasional melalui Undang-undang No 20 Tahun 2003 tentang sistem pendidikan Nasional. Sistem PKG (Penilaian Kinerja Guru) masih dilaksanakan secara konvensional yang sangat berperpengaruh pada profesionalisme guru. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk membangun aplikasi Penilaian Kinerja Guru yang dapat meningkatkan kinerja dan profesionalisme guru. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode Research and Development yang terdiri dari 10 tahap yang telah dimodifikasi menghasilkan aplikasi PKG yang sesuai untuk meningkatkan profesionalisme guru. Hasil pengembangan berupa aplikasi Penilaian Kinerja Guru berbasis komputer yang memuat komponen- komponen penilaian yang terdiri atas kompetensi kepribadian, kompetensi pedagogik, kompetensi profesional, kompetensi sosial dan hasil rekap penilaian yang mampu meningkatkan profesionalisme guru secara maksimal

Does chess instruction enhance mathematical ability in children? A three-group design to control for placebo effects

Pupils’ poor achievement in mathematics has recently been aconcern in many Western countries. In order to address this is-sue, it has been proposed to teach chess in schools. However,in spite of optimistic claims, no convincing evidence of the ac-ademic benefits of chess instruction has ever been provided,because no study has ever controlled for possible placebo ef-fects. In this experimental study, a three-group design (i.e., ex-perimental, placebo, and control groups) was implemented tocontrol for possible placebo effects. Measures of mathematicalability and metacognitive skills were taken before and after thetreatment. We were interested in metacognitive skills becausethey have been claimed to be boosted by chess instruction, inturn positively influencing the enhancement of mathematicalability. The results show that the experimental group (partici-pants attending a chess course) achieved better scores in math-ematics than the placebo group (participants attending a Gocourse) but not than the control group (participants attendingregular school lessons). With regard to metacognition, no dif-ferences were found between the three groups. These resultssuggest that some chess-related skills generalize to the mathe-matical domain, because the chess lessons compensated for thehours of school lessons lost, whereas the Go lessons did not.However, this transfer does not seem to be mediated by meta-cognitive skills, and thus appears to be too limited to offer ed-ucational advantages

Resolution requirements for numerical simulations of transition

The resolution requirements for direct numerical simulations of transition to turbulence are investigated. A reliable resolution criterion is determined from the results of several detailed simulations of channel and boundary-layer transition

Specific heat of MgB_2 after irradiation

We studied the effect of disorder on the superconducting properties of polycrystalline MgB_2 by specific-heat measurements. In the pristine state, these measurements give a bulk confirmation of the presence of two superconducting gaps with 2 Delta 0 / k_B T_c = 1.3 and 3.9 with nearly equal weights. The scattering introduced by irradiation suppresses T_c and tends to average the two gaps although less than predicted by theory. We also found that by a suitable irradiation process by fast neutrons, a substantial bulk increase of dH_{c2}/dT at T_c can be obtained without sacrificing more than a few degrees in T_c. The upper critical field of the sample after irradiation exceeds 28 T at T goes to 0 K.Comment: 11 pages text, 6 figures, accepted by Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte