Molar Mass of Silicon Highly Enriched in 28Si Determined by IDMS

The molar mass of a new silicon crystal material highly enriched in 28Si (‘Si28’, x(28Si) >99.99%) has been measured for the first time using a combination of a modified isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) technique and a high resolution multicollector-ICP-mass spectrometer. This work is related to the redetermination of the Avogadro constant NA with an intended relative measurement uncertainty urel(NA) less-than or equal to 2 × 10−8. The corresponding experimental investigations of the International Avogadro Coordination (IAC) were performed using this novel ‘Si28’ material. One prerequisite of the redetermination of NA is the determination of the isotopic composition and thus molar mass of ‘Si28’ with urel(M(‘Si28’)) less-than or equal to 1 × 10−8. At PTB, a molar mass M(‘Si28’) = 27.976 970 27(23) g mol−1 has been determined with an associated relative uncertainty urel(M(‘Si28’)) = 8.2 × 10−9, opening the opportunity to reach the target uncertainty of NA.JRC.D.4-Isotope measurement

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log10 increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence