Phase 1 Research Report on the IMPRESS Health 2 (Interreg IVA Channel Programme) Project 4282: Understanding the factors behind the late testing and diagnosis of HIV

This report outlines Phase 1 data from an EU Interreg IVA Channel Programme funded research project (Number 4282) conducted to understand factors behind the late testing and diagnosis of HIV in Kent and Medway (UK). The views of patients or service users (n=37) and health care professionals (n=16) on the barriers to early HIV testing and diagnosis were elicited in a series of semi-structured interviews across three organisations providing HIV testing in Kent and Medway between January and March 2014. A retrospective analysis of all patients diagnosed with HIV between January 2008 and December 2013 (n=242) in those centres was also conducted to identify the proportion of early and late presenters in each organisation and identify any correlating factors which may have impacted upon an individual's likelihood of being diagnosed late (i.e. with a CD4 count <350). Chief among the recommendations for a Phase 2 intervention study were the need for improved education and training of healthcare staff (particularly in primary care) to elicit individual's concerns about HIV risk and address stereotypical ideas that it is a condition which predominantly affects men who have sex with men or particular immigrant populations. The data showed that white heterosexuals, and in particular, white women were at particular risk of having their HIV diagnosed late in the region. The second recommendation for immediate action was the need for a concerted social media and public health campaign aimed at 'atypical' HIV patient groups in order to raise awareness of HIV transmission risk and the benefits of early testing and diagnosis

Nearest-neighbour Attraction Stabilizes Staggered Currents in the 2D Hubbard Model

Using a strong-coupling approach, we show that staggered current vorticity does not obtain in the repulsive 2D Hubbard model for large on-site Coulomb interactions, as in the case of the copper oxide superconductors. This trend also persists even when nearest-neighbour repulsions are present. However, staggered flux ordering emerges {\bf only} when attractive nearest-neighbour Coulomb interactions are included. Such ordering opens a gap along the $(\pi,0)-(0,\pi)$ direction and persists over a reasonable range of doping.Comment: 5 pages with 5 .eps files (Typos in text are corrected

A complex speciation-richness relationship in a simple neutral model

Speciation is the "elephant in the room" of community ecology. As the ultimate source of biodiversity, its integration in ecology's theoretical corpus is necessary to understand community assembly. Yet, speciation is often completely ignored or stripped of its spatial dimension. Recent approaches based on network theory have allowed ecologists to effectively model complex landscapes. In this study, we use this framework to model allopatric and parapatric speciation in networks of communities and focus on the relationship between speciation, richness, and the spatial structure of communities. We find a strong opposition between speciation and local richness, with speciation being more common in isolated communities and local richness being higher in more connected communities. Unlike previous models, we also find a transition to a positive relationship between speciation and local richness when dispersal is low and the number of communities is small. Also, we use several measures of centrality to characterize the effect of network structure on diversity. The degree, the simplest measure of centrality, is found to be the best predictor of local richness and speciation, although it loses some of its predictive power as connectivity grows. Our framework shows how a simple neutral model can be combined with network theory to reveal complex relationships between speciation, richness, and the spatial organization of populations.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, 50 reference

Monthly average daily global and diffuse solar radiation based on sunshine duration and clearness index for Brasov, Romania

The main objective of this study is to develop single location appropriate models for the estimation of the monthly average daily global and diffuse horizontal solar radiation for Brasov, Romania. The study focuses particularly on models based on the sunshine duration and clearness index. The data used for the calibration of the models were collected during a period of 4 yr, between November 2008 and October 2012, at the Transilvania University of Brasov. The testing and validation of the models was carried out using data from the online SoDa database for Brasov for the year 2005. Different statistical error tests were applied to evaluate the accuracy of the models. The predicted values are also compared with values from three other known models concerning the global and diffuse solar radiation. A new mixed model was developed for the estimation of monthly average daily global horizontal solar radiation. The data processing was performed by means of a real-time interface developed with LabVIEW graphical programming language. The parameters taken into account were the relative sunshine, the clearness index, the extraterrestrial radiation, the latitude and the longitude. The methodology is simple and effective and may be applied for any region. Its effectiveness was proven through comparison with global models

Multidimensional prognostic index and mortality in intermediate care facilities: A retrospective study

Multidimensional prognostic index (MPI) is a frailty assessment tool used for stratifying prognosis in older hospitalized people, but data regarding older people admitted to intermediate care facilities (ICFs) are missing. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether MPI can predict mortality in older patients admitted to the ICFs. MPI was calculated using different domains explored by a standard comprehensive geriatric assessment and categorized into tertiles (MPI-1 ≤ 0.20, MPI 2 0.20–0.34, MPI 3 &gt; 0.34). A Cox’s regression analysis, taking mortality as the outcome, was used, reporting the results as hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In total, 653 older patients were enrolled (mean age: 82 years, 59.1% females). Patients in MPI-2 (HR = 3.66; 95%CI: 2.45–5.47) and MPI-3 (HR = 6.22; 95%CI: 4.22–9.16) experienced a higher risk of mortality, compared to MPI-1. The accuracy of MPI in predicting mortality was good (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.74, 95%CI: 0.70–0.78). In conclusion, our study showed that prognostic stratification, as assessed by the MPI, was associated with a significantly different risk of mortality in older patients admitted to the ICFs, indicating the necessity of using a CGA-based tool for better managing older people in this setting as well. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Experimental wake survey behind a 120 deg included angle cone at angles of attack of 0 deg and 5 deg, Mach numbers from 1.60 to 3.95, and longitudinal stations varying from 1.0 to 8.39 body diameters

Wake flow properties of conical bodies at supersonic speeds and various angles of attac