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Romania has a unique diversity of large branchiopods in Europe, but the present distribution of species is poorly documented. This note is a summary of a survey aimed at a rapid assessment of large branchiopod occurrence and frequency at a landscape level. The survey was conducted in ten landscapes, and it lasted from 2004 to 2006, recording fifteen species. Most species (80%) were only found in one or two landscapes, showing large differences in species composition between landscapes and possibly an underestimation of some species. Four landscapes had a frequency of large branchiopod habitats greater than 30% and together contained all the species found during the survey. Based on the relatively large detection probabilities found during this survey we suggest that a country-level distribution database could be done in a short time period (in a few years) even with few participants. Target areas for further distribution surveys should be the localities described in the published literature, flat lands and middle to large river valleys.

The observed inter-individual variation in antiretroviral pharmacokinetics (PK) that results in a wide range of drug exposures from fixed-dose regimens has led to increasing interest in the clinical use of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to individualize dosing of antiretroviral therapy (ART). The focus of this review is to provide an overview of literature available to support therapeutic drug monitoring among the current classes of antiretrovirals, suggest patient populations that may benefit from TDM and bring forth some of the limitations that may exist for widespread use of TDM in a traditional clinical setting.

ABSTRACTThe development of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 resistance to delavirdine (DLV) was studied in subjects receiving DLV monotherapy. Phenotypic resistance developed in 28 of 30 subjects within 8 weeks. K103N and Y181C, which confer nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) cross-resistance, were the predominant reverse transcriptase mutations. P236L, which confers DLV resistance but hypersensitivity to other NNRTIs, developed in <10% of isolates.

Physics International (PI) has designed a modular pulse generator for research in high-power switching, pulse compression, power flow, magnetic insulation, and dielectric breakdown. The generator is one wedge-shaped 1/20th "slice" of PI's conceptual design for a 40-50 TW, radial, tri-disk accelerator designed to drive imploded plasma or particle beam loads. The nominal design goal of the "slice" (or module) is to produce a 100 ns, 2 TW, 2 MV, 1 MA pulse into a resistive load, or a 150 to 200 ns pulse at lower power. The module consists of an 0.8 MJ Marx generator and four water-dielectric triplates with adjustable impedances. The first is a gas-switched transfer capacitor. Next are two water-switched pulse-compression stages, and last, an output line converging to a racetrack insulator. This article describes the design and planned experiments.

The association of plasma human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA level at study entry and over time with clinical progression was evaluated in 187 patients from AIDS Clinical Trials Group protocol 116A who had little or no prior zidovudine treatment. Three-fold-higher HIV-1 RNA levels at study entry and 3-fold increases by week 8 were associated with progression (relative hazard [RH], 1.67; 95% confidence limits [CLl, 1.20,2.32; and RH, 1.45; CL, 1.02,2.05, respectively). Having 3-fold-higher CD4 cell count at entry was independently associated with a 52% reduction in risk for progression (adjusted RH, 0.48; CL, 0.33, 0.70). When stratified by length of prior zidovudine therapy, RNA level was predictive in drug-naive patients (adjusted RH, 1.87; CL, 1.23,2.85) but not predictive in patients with up to 16 weeks of prior therapy (adjusted RH, 1.11; CL, 0.70, 1.76). Analysis suggests that theacquisition of mutations at HIV-1 reverse transcriptase codons 215 and 74 is associated with subsequent increases in HN-1 RNA level (relative risk, 7.00; CL, 0.86, 56.90).