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Abstract Objectives Outbreaks of sexually transmitted acute HCV infection have been described recently in several cities in the western world. The epidemic affects mainly MSM who are coinfected with HIV and is supposably linked to certain sexual risk practices. Here, we compared our findings with current knowledge and recommendations. Methods HIV-positive patients with the diagnosis of acute HCV infection were included in the retrospective analysis. The patients came from outpatient infectious disease centers in northern German cities. We looked at markers of HIV and HCV infection and compared patients who received treatment and those who did not. Treated patients were followed up to 72 weeks. Results Three hundred nineteen HIV-positive patients with the diagnosis of acute hepatitis C between 2001 and 2008 and were included in the analysis. All patients were male, 315 (99%) patients were of caucasian origin, 296 (93%) declared homosexual contacts as a risk factor for HCV infection, intravenous drug use was declared in 3 (1%) cases. Median age at HCV diagnosis was 40 years (range 20-69 years). Median HCV viral load was 1.2 × 106 IU/mL, 222 patients (70%) had HCV genotype 1, 59 (18%) genotype 4. The median time of HIV infection was 5.5 years (range 0 to 22.4 years). Median HIV viral load was 110 copies/mL (range 25 to 10 × 106 copies/mL). The median CD 4 count was 461 cells/mm3 (range 55- 1331 cells/mm3). Two hundred and fourty-six patients (77%) received anti-HCV treatment, and 175 (55%) had completed therapy by the time of the analysis. Median treatment duration was 33 weeks (IQR 24.1-49.9). 93 of the 175 treated patients (53%) reached a sustained virological response (SVR). In the multivariate analysis, ART at diagnosis, HCV RNA drop at week 12, hemoglobin levels and higher platelets were associated with SVR. Treatment duration was significantly higher in the SVR group (40.6 weeks vs 26.6 weeks, p < 0.0001). Seventy-three patients (23%) did not receive anti-HCV treatment. In 19 of the untreated patients (26%) the hepatitis C virus was cleared spontaneously. Conclusions Our findings confirm that acute hepatitis C in HIV infected patients affects mainly MSM who acquire HCV sexually. Patients had a short duration of HIV infection and a stable immunological situation. In this real-life setting from urban regions in northern Germany, treatment rates appear to be high and effective.

The design, development, and successful implementation of pop-up Langmuir probes installed in the water-cooled divertor of W7-X are described. The probes are controlled by drive coils (actuators) installed behind the divertor plates. These drive coils make use of the magnetic field in W7-X to move the probe tips into and out of the plasma. The drive coils were installed in the vacuum vessel after extensively testing the durability of the coils and analyzing the criteria for safe operation. The probe design is carefully tailored for each of the 36 probe tips in order to be suitable for the different magnetic field configurations used in W7-X and ensure that the probes do not present leading edges to the magnetic flux tubes. An electronic bridge circuit is used for measurement to compensate for the effects of signal propagation time on the long cable lengths used. The diagnostic is integrated with the segment control of W7-X for automated operation and control of the diagnostic. The evaluation of the results from the plasma operation is presented after accounting for appropriate sheath expansion for negative bias voltage on the probes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) treatment recommendations for hepatitis C no longer discriminate between HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐coinfected and HCV‐monoinfected patients. However, recent data from Spain are questioning these recommendations on the basis of the findings of higher relapse rates and lower cure rates in HIV/HCV‐infected subjects. The aim of our study was to compare HCV cure rates in monoinfected and coinfected patients from Germany. Methods: Data acquired from the Deutsches Hepatitis C‐Registry were analysed. A total of 5657 HCV‐monoinfected subjects and 488 HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients were included in the study. Rates of sustained virological response 12 weeks after the scheduled end of therapy (SVR12) were collected in both subgroups and in cirrhotic and noncirrhotic patients. Results: HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients were more frequently male (84.6% vs. 56.4%, respectively; P < 0.001) and younger than HCV‐monoinfected subjects (46.5 ± 9 vs. 53.8 ± 12.5 years, respectively; P < 0.001). The CD4 blood cell count was > 350 cells/μL in 63.1% of HIV‐positive subjects and 88.7% were on antiretroviral therapy. SVR12 rates were 90.3% (5111 of 5657) in our HCV‐monoinfected cohort and 91.2% (445 of 488) in our coinfected patients. Liver cirrhosis was confirmed in 1667 of 5657 (29.5%) monoinfected patients and 84 of 488 (17.2%; P < 0.001) coinfected patients. SVR12 rates did not differ between HCV‐monoinfected and HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients with liver cirrhosis (87.8% vs. 89.3%, respectively; P = 0.864). A treatment duration of 8 weeks did not reduce the percentage of patients with SVR12 in either subgroup (93.7% in both groups). Conclusions: We found high SVR12 rates in monoinfected as well as coinfected individuals. No differences were detected between the two subgroups regardless of whether there was accompanying liver cirrhosis or a shortened treatment duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

7‐11 November 2010, Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection, Glasgow, UK, Objectives Before initiating an antiretroviral combination therapy which includes Maraviroc as one of its components, a coreceptor tropism test has to be performed. As Maraviroc is only effective against HIV [...]

7‐11 November 2010, Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection, Glasgow, UK, Background Wk 24 TRANxITION study data showed patients transitioned from immediate release nevirapine (NVP IR) twice daily (BID) to NVP extended release (NVP XR) once‐daily (QD) demonstrated non‐inferior efficacy to [...]

A Monte Carlo code has been developed for the interaction of initially neutral systems with intense ultra-short laser pulses. Photoionization creates immediately a partially ionized, non-equilibrium plasma for which the relevant scattering processes are included. In this way the absorption of the laser energy in the plasma and the evolution of the non-equilibrium electron distribution function during the laser pulse is described. Furthermore, the relaxation into an equilibrium state can be studied for longer time scales. As an example we consider the interaction of a cold liquid hydrogen jet with intense, ultra-short free electron laser pulses in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range. The corresponding spectrum of the Thomson self-scattering is calculated using the non-equilibrium electron distribution functions extracted from the Monte Carlo simulations. We compare with benchmarking experiments performed at the free electron laser facility FLASH. (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

7‐11 November 2010, Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection, Glasgow, UK, Purpose of the study The aim of this retrospective analysis was to review treatment decisions and outcomes in HIV positive patients with acute hepatitis C in a routine clinical setting. [...]

The International Soil Moisture Network contains more than 6100 in situ soil moisture data sets from all over the world to support the development of remote sensing products and land surface models, and to facilitate studying the behavior of our climate over space and time. We present a new, automated quality control system for these measurements. The International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) was initiated in 2009 to support calibration and validation of remote sensing products and land surface models, and to facilitate studying the behavior of our climate over space and time. The ISMN does this by collecting and harmonizing soil moisture data sets from a large variety of individually operating networks and making them available through a centralized data portal. Due to the diversity of climatological conditions covered by the stations and differences in measurement devices and setup, the quality of the measurements is highly variable. Therefore, appropriate quality characterization is desirable for a correct use of the data sets. This study presents a new, automated quality control system for soil moisture measurements contained in the ISMN. Two types of quality control procedures are presented. The first category is based on the geophysical dynamic range and consistency of the measurements. It includes flagging values exceeding a certain threshold and checking the validity of soil moisture variations in relation to changes in soil temperature and precipitation. In particular, the usability of global model- or remote sensing based temperature and precipitation data sets were tested for this purpose as an alternative to in situ measurements, which are often not recorded at the soil moisture sites themselves. The second category of procedures analyzes the shape of the soil moisture time series to detect outliers (spikes), positive and negative breaks, saturation of the signal, and unresponsive sensors. All methods were first validated and then applied to all the data sets currently contained in the ISMN. A validation example of an AMSR-E satellite and a GLDAS-Noah model product showed a small but positive impact of the flagging. On the basis of the positive results of this study we will add the flags as a standard attribute to all soil moisture measurements contained in the ISMN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the study HIV-1-infected patients have elevated levels of immune activation and systemic inflammatory markers which are partially strong predictors of disease progression or are associated with increased cardiovascular risk. The dependency of anti-retroviral treatment (ART), the usage of NNRTI or PI-based and the application of non-nuc regimens is analysed here on the basis of a dataset (Chronic Inflammation Dependency on TREatment: CIDRE cohort) from 1500 patients in Berlin. Methods In a retrospective analysis we compared relative CD4+ cell counts, viral load, relative CD8+CD38+DR-and CD3+DR+cells, concentration of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in therapy-naïve or treated patients dependent on usage or non-usage of NUCs, PI or NNRTI. Statistics were performed with R (R Core Team; 2012; R: A language and environment for statistical computing) using Wilcoxon rank sum test in two-sided analysis. Summary of results As to expect, ART-naïve patients (n=190) had significantly higher viral loads and lower CD4+cell counts (p: both<0.05) and showed higher activation levels than treated patient (CD8+CD38+DR- and CD3+DR+both<0.05). But no significant difference was calculated for hsCRP or IL-6. Nuc-sparing regimen (n=46) did not show any distinction compared to nuc-containing therapies (n=1249) for the analysed parameters. Significant differences were detected for PI-regimen (n=711) with lower CD4+ cell counts and higher activation (CD8+38+DR-, CD3+DR+) and IL-6 (p: all<0.05) but not for hsCRP (p=0.39). The opposite was true for NNRTI-based therapies (n=445) with higher CD4+ cell percentages and lower activation and inflammation markers (p: all<0.05) and as well no difference in hsCRP (p=0.97) compared with all other treated patients. Conclusions The lack of differences between therapy-naïve patients and patients on ART for inflammation markers may be due to the relative good immunological state of the first group, which could be one of the reasons why they are not treated so far. The number of nuc-sparing regimen is perhaps too low and too undifferentiated to find diverse inflammation states. Although the differences in activation status can be attributed to different treatment strata, there is no clear explanation for this outcome. A possible reason could be a pre-selection bias either for NNRTI-based or PI-based regimens. Additional data is acquired to perform longitudinal analysis to gain further insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]