Increase in HIV sexual risk behaviour in homosexual men in Scotland, 1996–2002: prevention failure?

<b>Objective</b>: To investigate trends in homosexual men’s sexual risk behaviour for HIV infection in Scotland. <b>Methods</b>: Cross sectional surveys in 1996, 1999, and 2002 were carried out in "gay" bars in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. 6508 men—2276 (79% response rate) in 1996, 2498 (78%) in 1999, and 1734 (62%) in 2002. <b>Results</b>: In 1996, 10.7% of men surveyed and in 1999, 11.2% reported unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) with casual partners, compared with 18.6% in 2002 (p<0.001). There was also a significant increase in men reporting that they "knew" their casual partners’ HIV status, despite no increase in HIV testing among men who reported UAI with casual partners. In 2002, increases in UAI with more than one partner, in UAI with casual partners and in reporting seroconcordance remained significant after adjusting for confounding factors including HIV testing status and demographic characteristics. <b>Conclusions</b>: High risk sexual behaviour among homosexual men in Scotland increased between 1999 and 2002. Men showed increased confidence of shared antibody status, despite no increase in HIV testing, or evidence of discussion of HIV status. Explanations for this must include consideration of a cultural shift in the perception of HIV and "prevention failure" on the part of governments and health agencies

Classification of wetlands vegetation using small scale color infrared imagery

A classification system for Chesapeake Bay wetlands was derived from the correlation of film density classes and actual vegetation classes. The data processing programs used were developed by the Laboratory for the Applications of Remote Sensing. These programs were tested for their value in classifying natural vegetation, using digitized data from small scale aerial photography. Existing imagery and the vegetation map of Farm Creek Marsh were used to determine the optimal number of classes, and to aid in determining if the computer maps were a believable product

Ion molecule reactions in vinyl fluoride by photoionization. Effects of vibrational excitation on major reaction pathways

Photoionization methods have been used to study the reactions of the molecular ion in vinyl fluoride to yield the ionic products C_3H_3F_2^+, C_3H_4F^+, and C_3H_5^+. Quantitative measurements are reported of the effect of the vibrational state of the reactant ion on the product distribution and overall reaction cross section. Reaction cross sections for all three channels decrease with reactant internal energy. The effect on the reaction pathway producing C_3H_3F_2^+ is especially pronounced, with 0.18 eV of vibrational excitation being sufficient to reduce the reaction probability by 75%. Deactivation of vibrationally excited reactant ions competes with the reaction and is shown to be an efficient process

A summary report on system effectiveness and optimization study

Report treats optimization and effectiveness separately. Report illustrates example of dynamic programming solution to system optimization. Computer algorithm has been developed to solve effectiveness problem and is included in report

Older people's experiences of changed medication appearance : a survey

This report details a survey of older people's experiences of changed medication appearance. The aims of the study were: • To develop a questionnaire in partnership with older people to survey older people’s views on fluctuating medication appearance • To elicit older people’s experiences of medication that changed appearance due to ‘generic prescribing’ and ‘parallel import’ practices and its impact on their medication taking practices. These common pharmacy practices mean that the same tablet medication can be issued to older people in different colours, sizes and shapes to their previous prescriptions. Older people from a local User/Carer Forum highlighted these problems to the research team and asked that we investigate to explore the extent of the problem. An eight-item questionnaire was developed and distributed to 2000 older people (50 years+) across participating PCTs in Greater Manchester in 2008. A 29% response rate was achieved. The data was analysed using the SPSS statistical package. Findings include: •63.3% experienced a change in the appearance of their tablet medications. •74.1% did not seek advice regarding the change in the appearance of their tablet medications. •Older people noted changes to the actual tablets, tablet packaging and written information that accompanies tablets. Changes are occurring to the colour, size and shape of tablets more than changes to packaging and written information. The majority of respondents had experienced changes in the appearance of their prescribed tablet medication in the previous two years which were not due to change in medication or dose etc. Worryingly, for some respondents, these changes prompted negative experiences such as anxiety, confusion and upset. Of particular concern was that a small number omitted the affected tablet medications and did not seek help or advice from GPs, pharmacists or relatives. Six older people have been study advisors from inception to dissemination of this study and significantly added to its quality. The study demonstrates substantive public engagement / user involvement in research. The findings suggest nurses and others have a role to play in promoting better medicines management and identifying those most at risk from changed appearance of medications

Higgs alignment from extended supersymmetry

We consider the effective type-II Two-Higgs doublet model originating from Dirac gaugino models with extended supersymmetry in the gauge sector, which is automatically aligned in the simplest realisations. We show that raising the scale at which the extended supersymmetry is manifest and including quantum corrections actually improves the alignment. Using an effective field theory approach including new threshold corrections and two-loop RGEs, plus two-loop corrections to the Higgs mass in the low-energy theory, we study the implications from the Higgs mass and other experimental constraints on the scale of superpartners. We contrast the results of the minimal Dirac gaugino model, where alignment is automatic, with the hMSSM and the MRSSM, where it is not, also providing an hMSSM-inspired analysis for the new models.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures. References added. Published versio

Disaster Relief through the Tax Code: Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Opportunity Zone

This project investigates the impact of geo-graphically targeted Federal tax relief enacted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To facilitate administration of relief efforts and define eligibility for the temporary tax law changes, the Gulf Opportunity Zone (GO Zone) was created. We estimate the initial impacts of these tax incentives using propensity score matching (PSM) and Mahalanobis metric matching (MM) methods, combined with difference-in-difference (DD) estimation, to limit the confounding influences of observable and fixed unobservable differences between counties affected by these incentives and similarly storm-damaged counties in the region that were not included in the GO Zone. Results show that per capita personal income and net earnings increased more rapidly in GO Zone counties that experienced minimal storm damage than in similar non-GO Zone counties in the GO Zone States and neighboring States., Public Economics, H2, H24, H25,

Geophysical data base

A general data-management system that provides a random-access capability for large amounts of data is described. The system operates on a CDC 6400 computer using a combination of magnetic tape and disk storage. A FORTRAN subroutine package is provided to simplify the maintenance and use of the data

Analysis of NOVA-1 Doppler data

The intent is to prepare a set of Doppler tracking data for the NOVA-1 Satellite to be included in a data base of satellite tracking data. This data base is to be used in a solution for the gravity field of the Earth. This new gravity field model is needed so that the orbit of the proposed TOPEX (Ocean TOPography EXperiment) satellite can be determined accurately enough for the satellite's missions to be accomplished