IntroductionResearch in India has extensively examined the factors associated with non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) with limited focus on examining the relationship between adherence to ART regimen and survival status of HIV infected patients. This study examines the effect of optimal adherence to ART on survival status of HIV infected patients attending ART centers in Jharkhand, India.Materials and MethodsData from a cohort of 239 HIV infected individuals who were initiated ART in 2007 were compiled from medical records retrospectively for 36 months. Socio-demographic characteristics, CD4 T cell count, presence of opportunistic infections at the time of ART initiation and ART regimen intake and survival status was collected periodically. Optimal adherence was assessed using pill count methods; patients who took <95% of the specified regimens were identified as non-adherent. Cox-proportional hazard model was used to determine the relative hazards of mortality.ResultsMore than three-fourths of the patients were male, on an average 34 year old and median CD4 T cell count was 118 cells/cmm at the time of ART registration. About 57% of the patients registered for ART were found to be adherent to ART. A total of 104 patients died in 358.5 patient-years of observation resulting in a mortality rate of 29 per 100 patient-years (95% confidence interval (CI): 23.9–35.2) and median survival time of 6.5 months (CI: 2.7–10.9). The mortality rate was higher among patients who were non-adherent to ART (64.5, CI: 50.5–82.4) than who were adherent (15.4, CI: 11.3–21.0). The risk of mortality was fourfold higher among individuals who were non-adherent to ART than who were adherent (Adjusted hazard ratio: 3.9, CI: 2.6–6.0).ConclusionAdherence to ART is associated with a higher chance of survival of HIV infected patients, ascertaining the need for interventions to improve the ART adherence and early initiation of ART.

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ing liquid through the porous plug is reduced enough that the rate of solubility of fiuorapatite in HC1 may be sufficient to affect the streaming potential by changing the ionic strength of the solution in the plug.The rate of reduction in pressure used in this experiment was 6.7 cm Hg/min, thus about 3 min were required to obtain a curve of E vs. P over a pressure drop of 20 cm Hg. Parreira (3) reported rates between 18-36 cm Hg/min over a pressure drop of 6 cm Hg for a time of between 10-20 sec to obtain a curve. The time required to obtain a curve of E vs. P over a pressure drop of 20 cm Hg by the stepwise method was about 150 min (10 points at 15 rain/point). Clearly the savings in time is appreciable even at the lower rate of reduction in pressure with the continuous method.Parreira (2, 3) reported values of zeta-potential for quartz in 5 • 10-4N KC1 of --39.2 mV obtained by the continuous method and --36 mV obtained by the stepwise (equilibrium) method. Although the precision of these data was not reported, the difference between values of 8.9% was considered reasonable by him. In the present study a maximum difference between values of 2.8% was observed when the methods were compared. Because the precision of both methods was high, statistically significant differences between the methods at several concentrations of solute were found, however, the magnitude of the differences is acceptable. cell in Fig. 1.

In this paper we report a generalized templating approach for fabricating wafer-scale, two-dimensional, non-close-packed (ncp) colloidal crystals. Polymer nanocomposites consisting of monolayer ncp colloidal crystals prepared by a spin-coating process are used as sacrificial templates. After removal of the colloidal silica templates, the voids in the polymer matrix are infiltrated with other materials. By plasma-etching the polymer matrix, wafer-scale ncp colloidal crystals from a variety of functional materials can be made. This technique is scalable and compatible with standard microfabrication. Two-component colloidal arrays with complex micropatterns can also be fabricated by combining microfabrication with this templating approach. Normal-incidence reflectivity spectra of replicated titania ncp arrays agree well with theoretical prediction using Scalar Wave Approximation.