HIV-care access among people with incarceration experience in St. Petersburg, Russia

Background: Little is known about the clinical care experiences of HIV-infected persons in St. Petersburg who have experience with incarceration. To address this question, we conducted a capture-recapture study to identify individuals who had been diagnosed with HIV infection while incarcerated and who subsequently presented for medical care in St. Petersburg, Russia following release from prison. Methods: We matched 292 HIV-positive prisoners tested by the prison system in 2010 to the medical records at the St. Petersburg AIDS Center in the following 4 years. Results: The data analysis shows that as many as half of HIV+ prisoners fail to seek treatment in the community upon release. Of those who had sought care post-release, only 36% were receiving HAART. Of the 109 individuals for whom tuberculosis testing was indicated post-release, 36.7% were found to be reactive. Conclusion: Despite the limitations of the data, this study is the first of its kind to review records documenting HIV care among prisoners in Russia post-incarceration. In addition to providing important descriptive information about this marginalized population, the findings from this study highlight areas where HIV control efforts could be improved in order to address the HIV epidemic in the Russian Federation

Superscaling in dilute Fermi gas and its relation to general properties of the nucleon momentum distribution in nuclei

The superscaling observed in inclusive electron scattering is described within the dilute Fermi gas model with interaction between the particles. The comparison with the relativistic Fermi gas (RFG) model without interaction shows an improvement in the explanation of the scaling function $f(\psi ')$ in the region $\psi ' < -1$, where the RFG result is $f(\psi ') = 0$. It is found that the behavior of $f(\psi ')$ for $\psi ' < -1$ depends on the particular form of the general power-law asymptotics of the momentum distribution $n(k)\sim 1/ k^{4+m}$ at large $k$. The best agreement with the empirical scaling function is found for $m\simeq 4.5$ in agreement with the asymptotics of $n(k)$ in the coherent density fluctuation model where $m = 4$. Thus, superscaling gives information about the asymptotics of $n(k)$ and the NN forces.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Stabilising the Blue Phases

We present an investigation of the phase diagram of cholesteric liquid crystals within the framework of Landau - de Gennes theory. The free energy is modified to incorporate all three Frank elastic constants and to allow for a temperature dependent pitch in the cholesteric phase. It is found that the region of stability of the cubic blue phases depends significantly on the value of the elastic constants, being reduced when the bend elastic constant is larger than splay and when twist is smaller than the other two. Most dramatically we find a large increase in the region of stability of blue phase I, and a qualitative change in the phase diagram, in a system where the cholesteric phase displays helix inversion.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Structural changes in metastable austenitic steel during equal channel angular pressing and subsequent cyclic deformation

The paper reports a substantial improvement of the static and cyclic strength of a Cr-Ni-Ti austenitic stainless steel nanostructured by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). After ECAP at room temperature or 673 K, the mean grain size decreased from 14 µm to 430 nm or 940 nm, respectively; corresponding ultimate tensile strength increased from 610 MPa to 1230 MPa or 940 MPa, and the fatigue limit increased from 275 MPa to 375 MPa or 475 MP

Microstructure and crystallographic texture of silicon iron modified by torsion under quasihydrostatic pressure

The electron backscatter diffraction, X-ray diffraction analysis, electromotive force instantaneous measurement, microhardness and coercive force measurement techniques are used to explore the development of the microstructure, crystallographic texture and physico-mechanical properties of silicon iron (Fe-3% Si) alloy under quasi-hydrostatic pressure in a Bridgman anvil. It is found that the alloy deformation is accompanied by its significant hardenin

Recrystallized microstructures and mechanical properties of a C-containing CoCrFeNiMn-type high-entropy alloy

The effect of cold rolling to 80% thickness reduction and annealing at 973-1373 K for 1h our on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a C-containing CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloy was studied. Cold rolling significantly strengthened the alloy to the yield strength of 1310 MPa. Annealing at 973 K or 1073 K resulted in incomplete recrystallization of an fcc matrix and M23C6-type carbide precipitations aligned with highly elongated grains/subgrains. Complete recrystallization occurred during annealing at 1173-1373