Influence of Particle Size and Bulk Density on Sound Absorption Performance of Oil Palm Frond-Reinforced Composites Particleboard.

The present study deals with the sound absorption performance of natural fibres from the oil palm frond (OPF), mainly considered agricultural waste. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the sound absorption performance of OPF fibre-reinforced composite under normal incidence sound. The materials used were OPF particles and urea-formaldehyde was used as an adhesive.

Enhanced HIV-1 surveillance using molecular epidemiology to study and monitor HIV-1 outbreaks among intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Athens and Bucharest.

Background: A significant increase in HIV-1 diagnoses was reported among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in the Athens (17-fold) and Bucharest (9-fold) metropolitan areas starting 2011.

Methods: Molecular analyses were conducted on HIV-1 sequences from IDUs comprising 51% and 20% of the diagnosed cases among IDUs during 2011-2013 for Greece and Romania, respectively. Phylodynamic analyses were performed using the newly developed birth-death serial skyline model which allows estimating of important epidemiological parameters, as implemented in BEAST programme.

Recent HIV-1 Outbreak Among Intravenous Drug Users in Romania: Evidence for Cocirculation of CRF14_BG and Subtype F1 Strains.

Since 2011, Romania has faced an HIV outbreak among injecting drug users (IDUs). Our aim was to identify and describe clinical and epidemiological patterns of this outbreak. A cross-sectional study enrolled 138 IDUs diagnosed with HIV infection between 2011 and 2013 with 58 sexually infected individuals included as the control group.

Molecular typing of the recently expanding subtype B HIV-1 epidemic in Romania: evidence for local spread among MSMs in Bucharest area.

HIV-1 subtype B is predominant in Europe except in some countries from Eastern Europe which are characterized by a high prevalence of non-B subtypes and circulating recombinant forms (CRFs). Romania is a particular case: the HIV-1 epidemic started with subtype F1 which is still the most prevalent. Previous studies have shown an increasing prevalence of subtype B which is the second most frequent one among the newly diagnosed individuals, followed by subtype C and several CRFs as well as unique recombinant forms (URFs).