AIDS knowledge and sexual activity among Flemish secondary school students: a multilevel analysis of the effects of type of education

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The behavior of adolescents puts them at an increased risk for HIV and other STIs, and their knowledge about HIV/AIDS is often inadequate. An understanding of how AIDS knowledge and sexual activity co-vary among Flemish secondary school students and of how education type, specifically, affects these students is limited. This study addresses the question of whether the effects of education type on HIV/AIDS knowledge and sexual activity are independent of the socio-demographic characteristics of the students.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from the Flemish Educational Assessment survey, which collected data from a large representative sample of third- and fifth-grade high school students (<it>N </it>= 11,872), were used. Data were analyzed using multilevel logistic and Poisson regression techniques.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There is an indication that type of education affects both an adolescent's sexual activity and his/her AIDS knowledge; these effects prove robust for differences in socio-economic backgrounds. Students in lower status education types are more likely to be sexually active and to have poorer AIDS knowledge. The relationship between AIDS knowledge and sexual activity is, however, more complex. Although students in education types with poorer AIDS knowledge are more sexually active, within each of these groups the sexually active have better AIDS knowledge than the non-sexually active. There is also evidence of active information seeking by sexually active students, which leads to improved AIDS knowledge.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings are consistent with the literature on the role of the educational system in the reproduction of social inequalities. Students from lower status education types are at increased sexual risk compared to those from higher status types. There is also evidence of active information seeking by sexually active students, which leads to improved AIDS knowledge.</p

Changing the ISS attitude to maximize science return of the SOLAR payload

The Solar Monitoring Observatory, or SOLAR in short, is a payload of the European Space Agency that resides on one of the external platforms of the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS). The two operational instruments on-board the payload are designed to measure the solar irradiance in the wavelength range 16 to 3000nm. However, due to its unique location and because of the mechanical constraints of the platform, observations are only possible at most two weeks a month, for not longer than 20 minutes per ISS orbital revolution. Since the SOLAR mission will be operational for an almost complete solar cycle, it will provide data on the long-term evolution of the Spectral Solar Irradiance, important for, among others, atmospheric science. However, in order to study the short term variability it is important to have measurements covering a complete solar rotation. During the winter and summer solstices the time between two consecutive observation windows is the shortest. By changing the ISS attitude by only a few degrees from its standard Torque Equilibrium Attitude, this gap in the observations can be bridged. Between 30 November and 12 December, 2012, the ISS roll, and mainly yaw (about 7.5°) were modified, allowing the SOLAR instruments to monitor the Sun for more than 35 days in a row, covering a complete solar rotation. This event is historical as it was the first time ever the ISS rotated exclusively for a scientific experiment. The change of the ISS attitude was reached by solely using the Control Momentum Gyroscopes and did not negatively affect any of the other external payloads. This minimal effort resulted in a great scientific benefit. During this extended observation period data of the solar spectrum were intensively collected. A more complete dataset of the solar irradiance will contribute to a better understanding of the effect of the solar variability on the Earth's atmosphere. ©2013 by the International Astronautical Federation. Al