Effectiveness of Efavirenz-Based Regimens in Young HIV-Infected Children Treated for Tuberculosis: A Treatment Option for Resource-Limited Settings

Background: Antiretroviral treatment (ART) options for young children co-infected with HIV and tuberculosis are limited in resource-poor settings due to limited data on the use of efavirenz (EFV). Using available pharmacokinetic data, an EFV dosing schedule was developed for young co-infected children and implemented as the standard of care at Macha Hospital in Southern Province, Zambia. Treatment outcomes inchildren younger than 3 years of age or weighing less than 10 kg receiving either EFV-based ART plus anti-tuberculous treatment or nevirapine-based (NVP) ART were compared. Methods: Treatment outcomes were measured in a cohort of HIV-infected children seeking care at Macha Hospital in rural Zambia from 2007 to 2010. Informationon the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis was abstracted from medical records. Results: Forty-five children treated for tuberculosis initiated an EFV-based regimen and 69 children initiated a NVP-based regimen, 7 of whom also were treated for tuberculosis. Children receiving both regimens were comparable in age, but children receiving EFV started ART with a lower CD4+ T-cell percentage and weight-for-age z-score. Children receiving EFV experienced increases in both CD4+ T-cell percentage and weight-for-age z-score during follow-up, such that levels were comparable to children receiving NVP after two years of ART. Cumulative survival after 12 months of ART did not differ between groups (NVP:87%;EFV:80%;p = 0.25). Eleven children experienced virologic failure during follow-up.The adjusted hazard ratio of virologic failure comparing EFV to NVP was 0.25 (95% CI:0.05,1.24) and 0.13 (95% CI:0.03,0.62) using thresholds of 5000 and 400 copies/mL, respectively.Five children receiving EFV were reported to have had convulsions after ART initiation compared to only one child receiving NVP (p = 0.04). Conclusions: Despite poorer health at ART initiation, children treated for tuberculosis and receiving EFV-based regimens showed significant improvements comparable to children receiving NVP-based regimens. EFV-based regimens should be considered for young HIV-infected children co-infected with tuberculosis in resource-limited settings

Theory of unitarity bounds and low energy form factors

We present a general formalism for deriving bounds on the shape parameters of the weak and electromagnetic form factors using as input correlators calculated from perturbative QCD, and exploiting analyticity and unitarity. The values resulting from the symmetries of QCD at low energies or from lattice calculations at special points inside the analyticity domain can beincluded in an exact way. We write down the general solution of the corresponding Meiman problem for an arbitrary number of interior constraints and the integral equations that allow one to include the phase of the form factor along a part of the unitarity cut. A formalism that includes the phase and some information on the modulus along a part of the cut is also given. For illustration we present constraints on the slope and curvature of the K_l3 scalar form factor and discuss our findings in some detail. The techniques are useful for checking the consistency of various inputs and for controlling the parameterizations of the form factors entering precision predictions in flavor physics.Comment: 11 pages latex using EPJ style files, 5 figures; v2 is version accepted by EPJA in Tools section; sentences and figures improve

Direct visualisation of collateral ventilation in COPD with hyperpolarised gas MRI

Abstract Background Collateral ventilation has been proposed as a mechanism of compensation of respiratory function in obstructive lung diseases but observations of it in vivo are limited. The assessment of collateral ventilation with an imaging technique might help to gain insight into lung physiology and assist the planning of new bronchoscopic techniques for treating emphysema. Objective To obtain images of delayed ventilation that might be related to collateral ventilation over the period of a single breath-hold in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods Time-resolved breath-hold hyperpolarised 3He MRI was used to obtain images of the progressive influx of polarised gas into initially non-ventilated defects. Results A time-series of images showed that 3He moves into lung regions which were initially non-ventilated. Ventilation defects with delayed filling were observed in 8 of the 10 patients scanned. Conclusions A method for direct imaging of delayed ventilation within a single breath-hold has been demonstrated in patients with COPD. Images of what is believed to be collateral ventilation and slow filling of peripheral airspaces due to increased flow resistance are presented. The technique provides 3D whole-lung coverage with sensitivity to regional information, and is non-invasive and non-ionising

Trilinear Gauge Boson Couplings in the MSSM

We study the C and P even WW\gamma and WWZ trilinear gauge boson vertices (TGV's), in the context of the MSSM assuming that the external W's are on their mass shell. We find that for energies less than 200 GeV squark and slepton contributions to the aforementioned couplings are two orders of magnitude smaller than those of the Standard Model (SM). In the same energy range the bulk of the supersymmetric Higgs corrections to the TGV's is due to the lightest neutral Higgs, h_0, whose contribution is like that of a Standard Model Higgs of the same mass. The contributions of the Neutralinos and Charginos are sensitive to the input value for the soft gaugino mass M_{1/2}, being more pronounced for values M_{1/2} < 100 GeV. In this case and in the unphysical region, 0 < \sqrt{s} < 2 M_W , their contributions are substantially enhanced resulting in large corrections to the static quantities of the W boson. However, such an enhancement is not observed in the physical region. In general for 2 M_W < \sqrt{s} < 200 GeV the MSSM predictions differ from those of the SM but they are of the same order of magnitude. To be detectable deviations from the SM require sensitivities reaching the per mille level and hence unlikely to be observed at LEP200. For higher energies SM and MSSM predictions exhibit a fast fall off behaviour, in accord with unitarity requirements, getting smaller,in most cases, by almost an order of magnitude already at energies \sqrt{s} 0.5 TeV.Comment: 16 pages, late

Exploring morphological correlations among H2CO, 12CO, MSX and continuum mappings

There are relatively few H2CO mappings of large-area giant molecular cloud (GMCs). H2CO absorption lines are good tracers for low-temperature molecular clouds towards star formation regions. Thus, the aim of the study was to identify H2CO distributions in ambient molecular clouds. We investigated morphologic relations among 6-cm continuum brightness temperature (CBT) data and H2CO (111-110; Nanshan 25-m radio telescope), 12CO (1--0; 1.2-m CfA telescope) and midcourse space experiment (MSX) data, and considered the impact of background components on foreground clouds. We report simultaneous 6-cm H2CO absorption lines and H110\alpha radio recombination line observations and give several large-area mappings at 4.8 GHz toward W49 (50'\times50'), W3 (70'\times90'), DR21/W75 (60'\times90') and NGC2024/NGC2023 (50'\times100') GMCs. By superimposing H2CO and 12CO contours onto the MSX color map, we can compare correlations. The resolution for H2CO, 12CO and MSX data was about 10', 8' and 18.3", respectively. Comparison of H2CO and 12CO contours, 8.28-\mu m MSX colorscale and CBT data revealed great morphological correlation in the large area, although there are some discrepancies between 12CO and H2CO peaks in small areas. The NGC2024/NGC2023 GMC is a large area of HII regions with a high CBT, but a H2CO cloud to the north is possible against the cosmic microwave background. A statistical diagram shows that 85.21% of H2CO absorption lines are distributed in the intensity range from -1.0 to 0 Jy and the \Delta V range from 1.206 to 5 km/s.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures, 5 tables. Accepted to be published in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Twist-2 Heavy Flavor Contributions to the Structure Function g2(x,Q2)g_2(x,Q^2)

The twist--2 heavy flavor contributions to the polarized structure function $g_2(x,Q^2)$ are calculated. We show that this part of $g_2(x,Q^2)$ is related to the heavy flavor contribution to $g_1(x,Q^2)$ by the Wandzura--Wilczek relation to all orders in the strong coupling constant. Numerical results are presented.Comment: 17 pages LATEX, 1 style files, 4 figure

Finding a moral homeground: appropriately critical religious education and transmission of spiritual values

Values-inspired issues remain an important part of the British school curriculum. Avoiding moral relativism while fostering enthusiasm for spiritual values and applying them to non-curricular learning such as school ethos or children's home lives are challenges where spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development might benefit from leadership by critical religious education (RE). Whether the school's model of spirituality is that of an individual spiritual tradition (schools of a particular religious character) or universal pluralistic religiosity (schools of plural religious character), the pedagogy of RE thought capable of leading SMSC development would be the dialogical approach with examples of successful implementation described by Gates, Ipgrave and Skeie. Marton's phenomenography, is thought to provide a valuable framework to allow the teacher to be appropriately critical in the transmission of spiritual values in schools of a particular religious character as evidenced by Hella's work in Lutheran schools

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02