Social support and postpartum adherence to HIV treatment: a community-based participatory research study in Russia.

Background: There are over 1 million people living with HIV in Russia, and less than half of them are on antiretroviral treatment (ART). Earlier in the epidemic, Russia was successful in implementing prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes; however, there is a gap in knowledge about postpartum adherence to ART among women living with HIV (WLHIV). The objective of our research study was to identify which factors are associated with postpartum engagement in HIV care and treatment in Russia.

Juno Observations of Heavy Ion Energization During Transient Dipolarizations in Jupiter Magnetotail.

Transient magnetic reconnection and associated fast plasma flows led by dipolarization fronts play a crucial role in energetic particle acceleration in planetary magnetospheres. Despite large statistical observations on this phenomenon in the Earth's magnetotail, many important characteristics (e.g.

Distribution of microcystin-producing genes in Microcystis colonies from some Russian freshwaters: Is there any correlation with morphospecies and colony size?

The first data on the distribution of microcystin genes among natural populations of different species of Microcystis from Russian reservoirs were obtained. It was statistically established that the occurrence of mcy gene-containing colonies of M. aeruginosa, M.

Mitochondrial performance of a continually growing marine bivalve, , depends on body size.

Allometric decline of mass-specific metabolic rate with increasing body size in organisms is a well-documented phenomenon. Despite a long history of research, the mechanistic causes of metabolic scaling with body size remain under debate. Some hypotheses suggest that intrinsic factors such as allometry of cellular and mitochondrial metabolism may contribute to the organismal-level metabolic scaling.

Flying on their own wings: young and adult cuckoos respond similarly to long-distance displacement during migration.

Common cuckoos Cuculus canorus are obligate nest parasites yet young birds reach their distant, species-specific wintering grounds without being able to rely on guidance from experienced conspecifics - in fact they never meet their parents. Naïve marine animals use an inherited navigational map during migration but in inexperienced terrestrial animal migrants unequivocal evidence of navigation is lacking. We present satellite tracking data on common cuckoos experimentally displaced 1,800 km eastward from Rybachy to Kazan.

Extreme Foaming Modes for SCF-Plasticized Polylactides: Quasi-Adiabatic and Quasi-Isothermal Foam Expansion.

The experimental evidence on depressurization foaming of the amorphous D,L-polylactide, which is plasticized by subcritical (initial pressures below the critical value) or supercritical (initial pressures above the critical value) carbon dioxide at a temperature above the critical value, relates to two extreme cases: a slow quasi-isothermal foam expansion, and a rapid quasi-adiabatic expansion. Under certain conditions, the quasi-isothermal mode is characterized by the non-monotonic dependencies of the foam volume on the external pressure that are associated with the expansion-to-shrinkage transition. The quasi-adiabatic and quasi-isothermal expansions are characterized by a significant increase in the degree of foam expansion under conditions where the CO initial pressure approaches the critical value.

Polarization-Sensitive Surface-Enhanced In Situ Photoluminescence Spectroscopy of Bacteria on Gold Nanospikes.

We report the possibility of a time-resolved bacterial live/dead dynamics observation with the use of plasmonic nanospikes. Sharp nanospikes, fabricated on a 500-nm thick gold film by laser ablation with the use of 1030-nm femtosecond pulses, were tested as potential elements for antibacterial surfaces and plasmonic luminescence sensors. bacteria were stained by a live/dead viability kit, with the dead microorganisms acquiring the red colour, caused by the penetration of the luminescent dye propidium iodide through the damaged cell membrane.

Machine Learning Non-Markovian Quantum Dynamics.

Machine learning methods have proved to be useful for the recognition of patterns in statistical data. The measurement outcomes are intrinsically random in quantum physics, however, they do have a pattern when the measurements are performed successively on an open quantum system. This pattern is due to the system-environment interaction and contains information about the relaxation rates as well as non-Markovian memory effects.

Effect of a small loss or gain in the periodic nonlinear Schrödinger anomalous wave dynamics.

The focusing nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation is the simplest universal model describing the modulation instability of quasimonochromatic waves in weakly nonlinear media, the main physical mechanism for the appearance of anomalous (rogue) waves (AWs) in nature. In this paper, concentrating on the simplest case of a single unstable mode, we study the special Cauchy problem for the NLS equation perturbed by a linear loss or gain term, corresponding to periodic initial perturbations of the unstable background solution of the NLS. Using the finite gap method and the theory of perturbations of soliton partial differential equations, we construct the proper analytic model describing quantitatively how the solution evolves after a suitable transient into slowly varying lower dimensional patterns (attractors) on the (x,t) plane, characterized by ΔX=L/2 in the case of loss and by ΔX=0 in the case of gain, where ΔX is the x shift of the position of the AW during the recurrence, and L is the period.

Review of Mesozoic Perissommatidae (Insecta: Diptera).

Perissommatidae is a peculiar relict nematoceran family with one extant genus inhabiting Australia and South America. The family is known since the Middle Jurassic, but the fossil record is very poor and is restricted to Asia. The description of three species of Collessomma gen.

Reduced infectivity in (Trematoda, Himasthlidae) cercariae with deviant photoreaction.

Digenean larvae of hermaphroditic generation - cercariae - are known to be polymorphic at genetic and behavioural levels. Cercariae arise as a result of parthenogenetic reproduction of intramolluscan stages, and represent a clone if a snail was infected with a single miracidium. Here we investigated cercarial clones of Himasthla elongata - namely, the infectivity of cercariae with normal (negative) and deviant (positive) photoreaction.

Uncomputability and complexity of quantum control.

In laboratory and numerical experiments, physical quantities are known with a finite precision and described by rational numbers. Based on this, we deduce that quantum control problems both for open and closed systems are in general not algorithmically solvable, i.e.

Synchronization route to weak chimera in four candle-flame oscillators.

Synchronization and chimera are examples of collective behavior observed in an ensemble of coupled nonlinear oscillators. Recent studies have focused on their discovery in systems with least possible number of oscillators. Here we present an experimental study revealing the synchronization route to weak chimera via quenching, clustering, and chimera states in a single system of four coupled candle-flame oscillators.

Calculation of tensorial flow properties on pore level: Exploring the influence of boundary conditions on the permeability of three-dimensional stochastic reconstructions.

While it is well known that permeability is a tensorial property, it is usually reported as a scalar property or only diagonal values are reported. However, experimental evaluation of tensorial flow properties is problematic. Pore-scale modeling using three-dimensional (3D) images of porous media with subsequent upscaling to a continuum scale (homogenization) is a valuable alternative.

On mechanical fragmentation of single-use plastics in the sea swash zone with different types of bottom sediments: Insights from laboratory experiments.

Mechanical fragmentation of four commonly used plastics, from 2-cm squares or cubes to microplastics (MPs, <5 mm), is experimentally investigated using a rotating laboratory mixer mimicking the sea swash zone with natural beach sediments (large and small pebbles, granules, sand). Macro-samples were prepared from brittle not-buoyant PS (disposable plates), flexible thin film of LDPE (garbage bags), highly buoyant foamed PS (building insulation sheets), and hard buoyant PP (single-use beverage cups). With a great variety of behaviors of plastics while mixing, coarser sediments (pebbles) have higher fragmentation efficiency than sands (measured as the mass of generated MPs), disregarding sinking/floating or mechanical properties of the samples.

Specialized sledge dogs accompanied Inuit dispersal across the North American Arctic.

Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but whether the Inuit adopted local Palaeo-Inuit dogs or introduced a new dog population to the region remains unknown. To test these hypotheses, we generated mitochondrial DNA and geometric morphometric data of skull and dental elements from a total of 922 North American Arctic dogs and wolves spanning over 4500 years.

Review of the fossil record of Bittacomorphinae (Diptera: Ptychopteridae).

The fossil record of Bittacomorphinae is poor. The two extant bittacomorphine genera are unknown as fossils and only two extinct genera, each with two species, have been described earlier: Zhiganka Lukashevich, 1995 from the Mesozoic of Eurasia and Probittacomorpha Freiwald et Willmann, 1992 from the Cenozoic of Europe. Both previously known species of Zhiganka have each been described based on a single isolated wing.

A novel candle light-style OLED with a record low colour temperature.

The possibility of using a single light-emitting layer consisting of newly synthesized fluorescent small organic molecules of D-A-π-A type incorporated into a conductive matrix together with an electron conductive Alq layer in order to form radiation in candle light-style OLEDs was shown for the first time. A record low color temperature of 1722 K OLED radiation was achieved, which is by 80 K lower than that of the best devices reported previously.

Description of four new species of Haemaphysalis Koch, 1844 (Acari: Ixodidae) from the H. (Rhipistoma) spinulosa subgroup, parasites of carnivores and rodents in Africa.

Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) bochkovi n. sp., H.

Calculation of coherences in Förster and modified Redfield theories of excitation energy transfer.

Förster and modified Redfield theories play one of the central roles in the description of excitation energy transfer in molecular systems. However, in the present state, these theories describe only the dynamics of populations of local electronic excitations or delocalized exciton eigenstates, respectively, i.e.

Anthropogenic carbon as a basal resource in the benthic food webs in the Neva Estuary (Baltic Sea).

Organic pollution is a serious environmental problem for the coastal zones of seas. The study tested the hypothesis that allochthonous organic carbon derived from St. Petersburg wastewaters is a significant basal resource of carbon for the benthic food webs.

Entropy nonconservation and boundary conditions for Hamiltonian dynamical systems.

Applying the theory of self-adjoint extensions of Hermitian operators to Koopman von Neumann classical mechanics, the most general set of probability distributions is found for which entropy is conserved by Hamiltonian evolution. A new dynamical phase associated with such a construction is identified. By choosing distributions not belonging to this class, we produce explicit examples of both free particles and harmonic systems evolving in a bounded phase-space in such a way that entropy is nonconserved.

Pollution with trace elements and rare-earth metals in the lower course of Syr Darya River and Small Aral Sea, Kazakhstan.

Over recent decades the Aral Sea has faced a major human-driven regression leading to environmental, economic and health impacts. Previous research has indicated that its region may be highly polluted yet there is little recent data to assess the scale or nature of the pollution. The present study investigated the concentration of elements for which the World Health Organization (WHO) has established guideline levels (Al, As, B, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sb) as well as 16 rare-earth elements (Ce, Eu, Er, Gd, La, Nd, Pr, Sc, Sm, Dy, Ho, Lu, Tb, Tm, Y, Yb) in the Small Aral Sea (SAS) and its inflow, the Syr Darya River (SDR).

Aging three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus: comparison of estimates from three structures.

In order to assess the accuracy and reliability of age estimates from calcified structures in the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, we evaluated intra and inter-reader repeatability from three structures: otoliths, gill covers and pelvic spines). Average age estimates were also compared between the structures. The overall intra-reader repeatability of age estimates were highest for otoliths (69%), lowest for gill covers (53%) and intermediate for spine cross-sections (63%).