Mother-to-child transmission of HIV: a simulation-based approach for the evaluation of intervention strategies

Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is the most significant source of HIV infection in children below the age of 15 years. In 2000 alone, about 600 000 new infections occurred, the vast majority from mothers living in developing countries who were not aware of their HIV-positive status. To date, at least 4.3 million children have died from AIDS. In this paper, we discuss the development of an operational model that can be used to evaluate intervention options for the prevention of MTCT of HIV. The problem was approached by defining suitable pregnancy risk groups, prevention options and the required model outputs to evaluate different intervention strategies. The method chosen to approach the problem was a discrete-event, three-phase simulation, built in Visual Basic, with a stochastic semi-Markov structure. The developed model takes individual pregnant women through each stage of their pregnancy, labour and birth. Different intervention strategies may be modelled at any time, including short-course antiretroviral drugs and cessation of breastfeeding. The model is demonstrated with data from Botswana, which has one of the highest HIV-infection rates in the world.     

Effect of the Structure of Oxypropylated Hydroxyl-Containing Molecules on Glycolysis of Foamed Polyurethane

The activity of a polyether derived from ethylene and propylene oxides (Laprol 5003) and of N,N,N',N'-tetra(hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (Lapramol 294) in glycolytic degradation of elastic foamed polyurethane was studied.     

Wave processes in media with hysteretic nonlinearity: Part 2

Nonlinear processes caused by the propagation of low-frequency and high-frequency acoustic pulses in an unbounded medium and the propagation of continuous waves in a ring resonator are theoretically studied on the basis of two hysteretic equations of state for media with imperfect elasticity. The profiles and parameters of pulses, the resonance curve and the Q factor of the resonator, and the ratio of the nonlinear resonance frequency shift to the nonlinear damping decrement are determined. For nonlinear wave processes in such media, the distinctive features that allow one to choose an appropriate hysteretic equation of state for analytically describing the experimental data are revealed.     

Dynamics of the surface layer in cyanobiphenyl-aerosil nanocomposites with a high silica density

Composites were prepared from an aerosil and 4-n-alkyl-4'cyanobiphenyls with five to eight carbon atoms in the alkyl chain. Their high silica density of ∼7 g aerosil in 1 cm³ of liquid crystal (LC) allows the observation of the behaviour of a thin cyanobiphenyl layer (having nearly a monolayer structure) on the silica particles. The systems are investigated by dielectric spectroscopy (10^-2-10⁹ Hz) in a large temperature range (220-370 K). All the composites show a (main) relaxation process at frequencies much lower than the processes observed for the bulk LC that was assigned to the dynamics of the molecules in the surface layer. The temperature dependence of its characteristic frequencies obeys the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann law, which is found to be typical for glass-forming liquids. The quasi two-dimensional character of the glass transition in the surface layer is discussed for the first time. At the nematic-to-isotropic transition temperature of the bulk, the composites show a continuous decrease of the characteristic frequencies as a function of the alkyl chain length, while the bulk LCs show the well known odd-even behaviour. The magnitude and temperature dependence of the slow relaxation process in the composites (molecules on an outer surface) agree with those of the same molecules confined to the nanopores of molecular sieves (internal surface).     

Formation of nanosystems under near-equilibrium copper condensation in an ultrapure inert medium

Mechanisms of the self-organization of nanosystems at the condensation of the extremely weak steady flows of copper vapors obtained in magnetron sputtering in an ultrapure argon are studied. It is shown that the free-energy minimization near equilibrium condensation creates prerequisites for the self-organization of statistically homogeneous layers of nanoclusters and determines the transition to the formation of nanosystems in the form of fractal networks. Original Russian Text ? V.I. Perekrestov, A.S. Kornyushchenko, Yu.A. Kosminskaya, 2007, published in Pis’ma v Zhurnal éksperimental’noĭ i Teoreticheskoĭ Fiziki, 2007, Vol. 86, No. 12, pp. 879–883.     

Reaction of aroyl- and hetaroyltrifluoroacetones with acylhydrazines: Regioselectivity and tautomerism of the condensation products

Acylhydrazines react with 1,3-diketones of the general formula CF₃COCH₂COR (where R is an aryl or hetaryl group) at both carbonyl groups. The reaction at the trifluoroacetyl group is favored by donor substituents in the aromatic ring of the 1,3-diketone or by the 2-furyl and, especially, 2-thienyl group as a hetaryl substituent, as well as by elevated temperature. The condensation products at the carbonyl group contiguous to the aryl or hetaryl ring have the structure of 5-hydroxy-4,5-dihydropyrazoles and do not undergo tautomeric transformations in solution. The condensation products at the trifluoroacetyl group have either 5-hydroxy-4,5-dihydropyrazole or hydrazone structure and give rise to ring-chain tautomeric equilibrium in solution. Electron-withdrawing substituents in the aromatic ring of the 1,3-dicarbonyl fragment and CDCl₃ as solvent favor formation of the cyclic tautomer. The state of the tautomeric equilibrium is weakly sensitive to structural variations in the hydrazine component.     

4-arylamino-2-(2-acetoxyethyl)amino-6-methylpyrimidines: Synthesis,deacetylation, and biological activity

The reaction of 2-(2-acetoxyethyl)amino-4-chloro-6-methylpyrimidine with aromatic amines leads to a series of 4-arylamino-2-(2-acetoxyethyl)amino-6-methylpyrimidines. Deacetylation of these compounds proceeds in both acidic and basic media. Most of the arylaminopyrimides obtained exhibit a pronounced antituberculous effect.