876 research outputs found
The European Men-Who-Have-Sex-With-Men Internet Survey (EMIS): Design and Methods
Full text linkCommunity-based opportunistic self-completion surveying for sexual health programming is common among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in Europe, being used to generate evidence of unmet prevention need, for behavioural surveillance and as a platform for advocating HIV precautions. However, comparing survey findings across Europe is difficult because of varying measures and recruitment designs, and surveying has not occurred in all countries. EMIS (the European Men-who-have-sex-with-men Internet Survey) aimed to develop a pan-European Internet survey on HIV-related male homosexual behaviours and prevention needs both to increase research capacity and to move towards harmonisation of existing systems. Six associated partners (APs) recruited another 77 collaborating partners from academia, public health and civil society across 35 countries. Partners' existing MSM surveys were collected and collated, producing a meta-survey which was discussed by all partners through rotating round-tables at a 2-day summit. Survey development continued iteratively through user piloting and partner feedback until the English language content was agreed. Transfer to an online survey application was followed by further testing before on-screen translation into 24 other languages, final testing and sign-off. The project's visual identity and promotional materials were developed in close collaboration with national leads, tailoring products to match country specific needs while maintaining an overall project identity. Five international MSM dating websites were contracted to send carefully crafted instant messages to members in a series of waves. The survey sought common ground with stakeholders and respondents by endorsing 'the best sex with the least harm' for MSM. Real-time monitoring of responses allowed targeted spending of the advertising budget to maximise coverage and depth of responses. Fieldwork occurred during June-August 2010. Over 184,469 responses were submitted of which 94.4 % were eligible. Partners in 38 countries were supplied with a national database of 100 or more respondents for national analysis and outputs, while the AP team proceeded on international comparisons among 174,209 respondents in 38 countries. EMIS demonstrated the feasibility of multi-country community-based MSM Internet surveying with limited public funding. The concept of 'the best sex with the least harm' provided a common ground for a diverse range of stakeholders to collaborate. Meaningful involvement of a large number of collaborators in the survey design, its visual identity and in promotional strategies ensured unprecedented coverage and depth of recruitment. Flexible planning was essential and a patchwork of recruitment was required across a range of commercial and community partners. Careful design, piloting and presentation ensured the survey was acceptable and had both authority and perceived community benefit. © 2013 The Author(s)
Relationships between mental Health and Job Satisfaction among Employees of a Medical Center Laboratory Medicine Department
No full textA Simulation Method for Design and Development of Magnetic Shape Memory Actuators
No full textThe systems/products and their design processes have become more and more complicated due to the fact that their requirements in terms of function, durability, reliability and energy efficiency have been increased significantly and that their leading time has to be short and their materials cost has to be low. To meet these requirements, individual parts and subsystems have to offer increased functionality and efficiency themselves. It has been found that smart materials, such as piezo ceramics or various shape memory alloys as well as less known dielectric elastomers or magnetic shape memory alloys, offer ideal preconditions to fulfil such requirements. Among the various shape memory alloys, the Magnetic Shape Memory (MSM) alloy is a kind of smart material that can elongate and contract in a magnetic field. Based on the MSM alloy a new type of smart electromagnetic actuators have been designed and developed. This kind of actuator exhibits the features above. Typically, the MSM material is a monocrystalline Ni-Mn-Ga alloy, which has the ability to change its size or shape very fast and many million times repeatedly. State-of-the-art alloys are able to achieve a magnetic field induced strain of up to 12%. The magneto-mechanical characteristic of MSM alloys is being constantly improved. However, as far as the author is aware, there are no efficient and commercially available tools for engineers to design MSM-based actuators. To achieve this, simulation tools for design are indispensable. This thesis is dedicated to this task.
In this PhD thesis, new design and simulation techniques for MSM-based actuators have been studied. In particular, three simulation methods have been proposed. These three methods extend standard magneto-static FEM simulation techniques by taking into account the magneto-mechanical coupling and the magnetic anisotropy of the MSM materials. They differ in terms of the necessary a priori alloy characterisation (i.e., measurement effort), computational complexity and consequent computing time. The magneto-mechanical characteristics of the MSM material are a necessary and fundamental ingredient for this type of simulation. However, the characterisation of the MSM materials is a very challenging task and requires specific modifications to standard measurement approaches. So, in this thesis, some specific measurement methods of the magneto-mechanical characteristics of the MSM materials have been proposed, designed and developed. It is described how existing measurement instruments can be modified to measure the unique magneto-mechanical characteristics of MSM, so they are applicable and with practical values. Various tests have been carried out to validate the new methods and the necessary characterisations of the properties of MSM materials have been performed, such as the measurement of the permeability of MSM under a defined stress during elongation. The new measurement results have been analysed and the findings have been used to design and develop the simulation methods. The three simulation methods can be used to predict and optimise the current-elongation behaviour of an MSM element under the load of a mechanical stress while excited by a magnetic field. Extensive experiments have been carried out to validate these three simulation methods. The results show that the three methods are relatively simple but, at the same time, very effective means to model, predict and optimise the properties of an MSM actuator using finite element tools. In addition, the experiment results have also shown that the simulation methods can be used to gain some deep insights into the magneto-mechanical interaction between the MSM element and the electromagnetic actuator. In this thesis an evolutionary algorithm which works together with the simulation methods has been developed to achieve individual optimised solutions in very short times.
In summary, from the experiment results, it has been found that the measurements and simulation methods proposed and developed in this thesis; enable designers to perform simulations for a high-quality actuator design based on the magneto-mechanical properties of MSM alloys. This is the first time that a MSM can be characterised for simulation purposes in a fast and precise way to predict MSM and electromagnetic actuator interactions and identify and optimise the design parameters of such actuators.
However, these simulation methods are strongly dependent on the measurement of the magneto-mechanical characteristics of magnetic shape memory alloys, whose precision can be further improved. To reach commercial success as well higher precision in the simulation prediction, further achievements in the field of material science (e.g. smoothness of mechanical curves) are also necessary
GaN MSM ultraviolet photodetectors with transparent and thermally stable RuO2 and IrO2 Schottky contacts
No full textRuthenium oxide and iridium oxide were used as the Schottky barrier materials of GaN metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) ultraviolet photodetector. After annealing Ru and Ir contacts at 500 degreesC under O-2 ambient, the reverse leakage current density at -5 V drastically decreased by four orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the Schottky barrier height and optical transmittance at 360 nm simultaneously increased to 1.43 eV and 71.5% for the Ru, and to 1.48 eV and 74.8% for the Ir contact. The dramatic improvements originated from the formation of thermally stable oxide phases, RuO2 and IrO2, by the annealing, resulting in the increase in the responsivity of the GaN MSM photodetector by one order of magnitude in comparison with the photodetector with Pt Schottky contact. (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.X111820sciescopu
MSM inhibits RANKL-induced signaling in BMMs.
No full textBMMs were incubated with various concentration of MSM for 1 h, together with controls without MSM exposure, were then incubated with or without RANKL (100ng/ml) for 10 min. Cell lysates were immunoblotted for the indicated proteins. (A) MSM inhibits RANKL-induced activation of ERK. (B) MSM suppresses RANKL-induced activation of Gab2, PLCγ2, and Syk. (C) MSM suppresses RANKL-induced IKK phosphorylation, IκB degradation, and NF-κB activation. Tata binding protein (TBP) was used as nuclear protein loading control. (D) NF-κB DNA binding was detected by EMSA. Data shown are representative of three independent experiments.</p
Multi-State Models for Panel Data: The msm Package for R
Full text linkPanel data are observations of a continuous-time process at arbitrary times, for example, visits to a hospital to diagnose disease status. Multi-state models for such data are generally based on the Markov assumption. This article reviews the range of Markov models and their extensions which can be fitted to panel-observed data, and their implementation in the msm package for R. Transition intensities may vary between individuals, or with piecewise-constant time-dependent covariates, giving an inhomogeneous Markov model. Hidden Markov models can be used for multi-state processes which are misclassified or observed only through a noisy marker. The package is intended to be straightforward to use, flexible and comprehensively documented. Worked examples are given of the use of msm to model chronic disease progression and screening. Assessment of model fit, and potential future developments of the software, are also discussed.
Comparisons of syphilis (RPR≧4) and anti-HCV positivity among HIV-infected MSM born during 1984–1985 (HIV[+] MSM 1984), HIV-infected MSM born in or after 1986 (HIV[+] MSM 1986), HIV-uninfected MSM and heterosexuals born in or after 1986 (HIV[−] MSM 1986 and (HIV[−] Hetero 1986).
No full text<p>Comparisons of syphilis (RPR≧4) and anti-HCV positivity among HIV-infected MSM born during 1984–1985 (HIV[+] MSM 1984), HIV-infected MSM born in or after 1986 (HIV[+] MSM 1986), HIV-uninfected MSM and heterosexuals born in or after 1986 (HIV[−] MSM 1986 and (HIV[−] Hetero 1986).</p
IDENTIFYING THE FACTORS THAT IMPACT THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC AMONG MSM IN THE PHILIPPINES
No full textabstract: This study identifies the factors impacting the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Philippines. Ten studies and three external reviews concerning HIV, MSM, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Philippines and Southeast Asia from 2009 to 2015 were analyzed to find common patterns in the literature and identify the factors that impact the HIV prevalence among MSM in the Philippines. Secondary analysis of the literature identified the following as influencing factors: HIV prevalence patterns, the accessibility of HIV-related health education, the engagement of MSM in health-seeking behaviors related to HIV, perceptions of HIV risk among MSM, and the influence of culture and religion in the Philippines. These factors lead to an increase in the overall HIV prevalence among MSM in the Philippines by increasing the potential of HIV transmission among the community as a whole and increasing the vulnerability of individual MSM to HIV infection. These factors were also found to be interconnected, each having an impact on the other. The lack of sexual health education coupled with the barriers to HIV-related health care are especially prominent interconnected issues concerning the prevention of HIV transmission. There needs to be further research in investigating which specific barriers that prevent the engagement and retention of HIV positive men in the Philippines in HIV care and related services after diagnosis in order to reduce the overall population viral load of HIV-positive MSM. Examining the issues concerning engagement in health care among HIV positive MSM could aid in overcoming the barriers to health care faced by MSM as well as addressing the increasing HIV prevalence among MSM in the Philippines
Comparisons of the proportions of persons with positive HBsAg (HBsAg), all-negative HBV markers (All-negative), vaccination serology (Vaccination), and positive anti-HBc (anti-HBc) among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) born during 1984–1985 (HIV[+] MSM 1984), HIV-infected MSM born in or after 1986 (HIV[+] MSM 1986), HIV-uninfected MSM and heterosexuals born in or after 1986 (HIV[−] MSM 1986 and (HIV[−] Hetero 1986).
No full text<p>Comparisons of the proportions of persons with positive HBsAg (HBsAg), all-negative HBV markers (All-negative), vaccination serology (Vaccination), and positive anti-HBc (anti-HBc) among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) born during 1984–1985 (HIV[+] MSM 1984), HIV-infected MSM born in or after 1986 (HIV[+] MSM 1986), HIV-uninfected MSM and heterosexuals born in or after 1986 (HIV[−] MSM 1986 and (HIV[−] Hetero 1986).</p
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