Risk populations for HIV infections tend to neglect condom use, making alternative preventive approaches necessary. Accordingly, we modelled the risk of sexual HIV transmission for condom use vs. use of rapid diagnostic test (RDT) systems with subsequent exclusion of potential sexual partners with a correctly or falsely positive test from unprotected sex with and without the use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in a bio-statistical approach. We combined a previously described model of transmission risk for HIV-exposed individuals with a newly suggested model of risk of HIV exposure for sexually active HIV-negative individuals. The model was adapted for several stages of infection and different strategies of HIV infection prevention.

HIV prevention with RDTs can reduce the transmission risk by up to 97% compared with having sex without any prevention and up to 80% compared with condom use. Nevertheless, RDT-based prevention strategies demonstrate a lack of protection in several stages of infection; in particular, RNA-based RDT systems may fail under treatment. RDT-based pre-screening of potential sex partners prior to unprotected sexual contacts substantially reduces HIV transmission risk. Combination of different prevention strategies is advisable for high-risk groups.

This study examined whether Ascaridia galli infection can be controlled by dietary non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) in chickens. One-day-old chicks were fed either a basal diet (CON) or CON plus insoluble NSP (I-NSP), or CON plus soluble NSP (S-NSP) for 11 weeks. Three weeks later, birds from half of each feeding group were inoculated with 250 embryonated eggs of A. galli, and slaughtered 8 weeks post-infection to determine worm counts. Both NSP diets, particularly S-NSP, increased prevalence of infection (P<0·05) and worm burden (roughly +50%) of the birds (P<0·001). A. galli infection caused a less efficient (P=0·013) feed utilization for body weight gain (BWG) resulting in lower body weights (P<0·001) irrespective of type of diet consumed. NSP-fed birds, particularly those on I-NSP, consumed more (+8%) feed per unit BWG and showed retarded (P<0·001) BW development compared to CON-fed birds. Intracaecal pH was lowered by S-NSP (P<0·05). Both NSP diets increased the volatile fatty acids pool size in caeca (P<0·001) with S-NSP exerting a greater effect (+46%) than I-NSP (+24%). It is concluded that both NSPs supplemented diets alter gastrointestinal environment in favour of the nematode establishment, and thus have no potential for controlling A. galli infection in chickens.

With the advent of intense, coherent light sources in the XUV and soft X-ray regime, X-ray Thomson scattering becomes a unique tool for the diagnostics of dense plasmas. The scattering spectrum gives direct access to plasma properties like density, temperature, and composition. In dense systems, collisions among constituents are of primary importance for the prediction and interpretation of the scattering signal. We present a systematic approach to the dynamical structure factor using the Born-Mermin ansatz to include collisions via the dynamical collision frequency. Calculations of the scattering spectrum are performed for X-ray scattering on solid and compressed beryllium targets as well as for XUV-photons scattering on hydrogen at near solid density.

Multiwavelength observations of polars are essential for developing the big picture of these systems, particularly to gain understanding of the relevant accretion-induced heating and cooling processes. Eclipsing polars are prime targets for such studies since different radiation processes can be disentangled by observations with high-time resolution. We present a preliminary combined analysis of space-based observations (XMM-Newton, ROSAT, HST) with ground-based high-speed photometry (MCCP, OPTIMA, ULTRACAM) of DP Leo, HU Aqr and UZ For. We determine the location and extent of different emission components and find secular and short-term changes in the accretion geometries. We find displaced optical and X-ray emission regions in DP Leo and HU Aqr as well as mini-bursts and accretion arcs of variable size in HU Aqr. We report marked changes in the X-ray eclipse length of UZ For between high and low states.

This paper briefly describes the principle of operation and science goals of the AMANDA high energy neutrino telescope located at the South Pole, Antarctica. Results from an earlier phase of the telescope, called AMANDA-BIO, demonstrate both reliable operation and the broad astrophysical reach of this device, which includes searches for a variety of sources of ultrahigh energy neutrinos: generic point sources, Gamma-Ray Bursts and diffuse sources. The predicted sensitivity and angular resolution of the telescope were confirmed by studies of atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds. We also report on the status of the analysis from AMANDA-II, a larger version with far greater capabilities. At this stage of analysis, details of the ice properties and other systematic uncertainties of the AMANDA-II telescope are under study, but we have made progress toward critical science objectives. In particular, we present the first preliminary flux limits from AMANDA-II on the search for continuous emission from astrophysical point sources, and report on the search for correlated neutrino emission from Gamma Ray Bursts detected by BATSE before decommissioning in May 2000. During the next two years, we expect to exploit the full potential of AMANDA-II with the installation of a new data acquisition system that records full waveforms from the in-ice optical sensors.

This investigation was designed to estimate the Co requirement of growing cattle on the basis of plasma and liver levels of vitamin B12 and folate, plasma levels of homocysteine and methylmalonic acid (MMA) and haematological variables. For this purpose thirty-four male intact cattle of the German Simmental breed (236 kg) were assigned randomly to ten groups and were fed corn silage-based diets which contained 70, 90, 109, 147, 184, 257, 327, 421, 589 or 689 μg Co/kg DM for 40 weeks. One-slope broken-line model analysis and a quadratic model with plateau were used to estimate the Co requirement. The broken-line model estimated the dietary Co requirement of growing cattle to be 257 (SE 29) ΜG/KG DIETARY DM BASED ON PLASMA VITAMIN B12 AS RESPONSE CRITERION. THE DIETARY CO LEVELS NEEDED TO MAXIMISE THE LIVER VITAMIN B12 AND LIVER FOLATE WERE 236 (se 8) and 190 (se 8) μg/kg dietary DM respectively. Plasma folate did not show any response to the different Co levels. The dietary Co was inversely correlated with the plasma concentrations of homocysteine and MMA. Estimates of the dietary Co concentration required to minimise homocysteine were 161 (se 10) μg/kg DM. When MMA was used as response criterion, the linear model yielded a Co requirement of 124 (se 3) μg/kg dietary DM. The quadratic model did not provide a better closeness of regression fit and yielded similar requirements to the linear model. Haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit tended to have a slight response to increasing dietary Co and were only decreased in cattle on diets containing less than 100 μg Co/kg DM. On the basis of the present data, recommended levels of dietary Co for normal folate metabolism and minimum homocysteine and MMA levels can be set to be 150–200 μg/kg DM; for maximum vitamin B12 levels, the desired Co content in the diet seems to be 250 μg/kg DM.

There has been a rejuvenation of interest in the field of metallic glasses in the last decade, ever since the discovery of alloy compositions which allow bulk glass formation. By definition, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are characterized by a critical cooling rate < 10 K/s or a minimum dimension > 1mm. We have chosen to examine the structure of the Pd-Ni-P system in order to explain, from an atomic structural point of view, its precipitously high glass-forming ability in this system with respect to those of the binary alloys. With three constituent elements the study of the Pd-Ni-P system remains tractable in comparison to other BMGs that often contain five or more elements. This system has a critical cooling rate lower than 1 K/s and is one of the simplest prototypes of a BMG. However, binary alloys of transition metals (e.g. Pd, Ni, Cu) with metalloids (P, Si, etc.) will not form BMGs even though they can be forced to retain a glassy structure with rapid quenching from the liquid phase.

We have successfully grafted polythiophene on polyethylene (PE) film with a three reactions step: gas phase bromination on PE, yielding PE-Br; substitution reaction of PE-Br with 2-thiophene thiolate anion, following by chemical oxidative polymerization. The polymerization was carried out in a suspension solution of anhydrous FeCl3 in CHCl3, yielding a reddish PE-PT film after dedoping with ethanol. ATR-FTIR shows that the polythiophene (PT) was grafted on PE in the 2,5-position; on the other hand, PT homopolymer shows a small amount of 2,4 coupling. XPS reveals higher intensity of the S2p, including neutral and positive sulfur. SEM image reveals the island of PT on the PE film. AFM analysis found the thickness of the island is in the range of 120–145 nm. The conductivity of these thin films is in the range of 10−6 S/cm.

Sakurai's object is thought to be undergoing a final thermal pulse or shell flash. It is the first example of this type of object to be studied using modern instrumentation and will be useful and unique for the time being for placing theoretical models of these transient events on a firm observational footing. The only other definite candidate is V605 Aql – now the WC central star of the planetary nebula Abell 58 – which is thought to have undergone a final thermal pulse around 1918.

We have observed a sample of 16 PNe of different morphological classes (from stellar to bipolar) in the mm-region, using the 15m Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST). Continuum observations at 230 GHz were made with the SEST bolometer, and recombination line and continuum observations at 99 GHz (H40α) and 147 GHz (H35α) were made with SIS receivers.

Thin (CsCl)CoSi films of thicknesses from 44 to 105 Å were grown by MBE at room temperature onto ultrathin annealed CoSi2 templates. Also two CoSi2 films of about 100 Å with the CaF2 structure and with the defected CsCl structure were obtained epitaxially.

Far infrared reflectance and transmittance measured on such samples show optical structures between 240 and 370 cm-1. In the range 1.4–5 eV spectroscopic ellipsometry was performed, too. A change in the optical response was revealed among the different samples, which can be ascribed to strain, roughness and/or disorder at the interfaces.

The interdiffusion of carbon in a-Si:H and a-Si1-xCx:H multilayers is measured by analyzing the time evolution of the X-ray diffraction from the superlattices. A time dependent diffusivity D(t)which follows a power law is found. The theoretical analysis shows that such a time dependence, referred to as “dispersive” or “anomalous” diffusion and studied for hydrogen diffusion in the literature, is fundamentally related to the amorphous structure of the material.

A four point bending experiment was conducted to study the effect of stress on the electrical activation of implanted 29Si in GaAs. The stress distribution in the SiNx-coated GaAs was quantitatively examined. 29Si electrical activation was found to depend strongly on the magnitude of the stress when specimens were annealed under tensile stress; compressive stress had a negligible effect. The n-type GaAs was converted into p-type under excess tensile stress. This stress dependence of electrical activation is attributed to the differences in dislocation characteristics and its interaction with implanted Si under tensile or compressive bending.

The effect of implant temperature, superlattice period, and directional diffusion has been studied for silicon impurity-enhanced compositional disordering of GaAs-AlAs superlattices (SL) of 9 ran and 16 nm period. The SL were implanted with Si at temperatures of 483 K, 293 K, and 77 K, with an energy of 100 keV and dose of 2.5 × 1014 cm-2. These were examined by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectro-scopy for structural and compositional information. The damage due to implantation prior to annealing is strikingly less for superlattices than for bulk GaAs. All annealed samples exhibited disordering, with the 9 nm period SL exhibiting a deeper disordered region than the 16 nm SL. The greatest enhancement was found in the 9 nm period SL implanted at 77 K, in which the disordering extended from a depth of 25 nm to =300 nm. The mixing was found to be anisotropie, with the SL mixing propagating greater in depth than in the lateral directions. The result has important implications for high resolution patterning possibilities with this method.