The technically pure copper is being replaced by aluminium as conductive material in electrical transformers for power systems. This evolution brings new manufacturing challenges. One major difficulty is the limited weld ability and non-acceptable residual deformations of the aluminium, when welded by fusion arc welding processes. The Friction Stir Welding (FSW) was selected for evaluation cons...

Anisotropy or alignment is a critical feature of functional soft materials in living organisms, but it remains a challenge for spontaneously generating anisotropic gel materials. Here we report a molecular design that increases intermolecular aromatic-aromatic interactions of hydrogelators during enzymatic hydrogelation for spontaneously forming an anisotropic hydrogel. This process, relying on...

OBJECTIVES To explore the effect of different patterns of condom use by clients and female sex workers (FSW) on HIV transmission in Mexico. METHODS Data from 2401 face-to-face interviews among FSW from Morelos and Michoacán in Mexico were used to build and parameterise a deterministic model of HIV transmission between FSW, their stable partners and clients. RESULTS For the observed patterns...

BACKGROUND High-dose steroid therapy has been proven effective in AIDS-related Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) but not in non-AIDS-related cases. We evaluated the effects on survival of steroids in HIV-negative patients with PCP. METHODS Retrospective study patients admitted to the ICU with hypoxemic PCP. We compared patients receiving HDS (≥1 mg/Kg/day prednisone equivalent), low-dose steroids ...

INTRODUCTION Tuberculosis (TB) requires at least six months of multidrug treatment and necessitates monitoring for response to treatment. Historically, public health departments (HDs) have cared for most TB patients in the United States. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides coverage for uninsured persons and may increase the proportion of TB patients cared for by private medical providers and...

BACKGROUND Heavy drinking smokers (HDS) have more difficulty quitting smoking than lighter drinkers or abstainers. The opioid antagonist naltrexone may improve smoking quit rates and reduce alcohol use in drinker-smokers, but its relative efficacy in smokers with a range of drinking patterns is unknown. The current study tested the hypothesis that HDS would show differential benefit of naltrexo...

Intact, viable sheets of adult rabbit corneal epithelium, 9 mm in diameter, were prepared by the Dispase II method (Gipson, I. K., and S. M. Grill, 1982, Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 23:269-273). The sheets, freed of the basal lamina, retained their desmosomes and stratified epithelial characteristics, but lacked hemidesmosomes (HD). Epithelial sheets were placed on fresh segments of corneal s...

BACKGROUND Traditional knowledge about the use of medicinal plants for herbal drinks (HDs) is not well documented in the Azad Kashmir region despite their widespread use. This study highlights the taxonomic diversity and traditional knowledge on medicinal plants used for HDs while examining the diversity of diseases treated with HDs in the study area. METHODS Individual discussions were condu...

The cost-effectiveness of three alternative policies for the use of intravenous contrast media for urography and enhanced computerized tomography (CT) are analyzed. Alternative #1 is to use high osmolar contrast media (HOCM) in all patients, the historical policy. Alternative #2 is to replace it with low osmolar contrast media (LOCM) in all patients. Alternative #3 is to use LOCM only in the hi...