Temperatures as low as 42 C, maintained for a little as 25 minutes, inactivate {approx}25% of HIV. Furthermore, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected T-cells are more sensitive to heat than healthy lymphocytes and susceptibility increases when the cells are pre-sensitized by exposure to tumor necrosis factor. Thus, induction of a whole-body hyperthermia, or hyperthermia specifically limited to tissues having a high viral load, are potential antiviral therapies for acquired immunodeficiency disease (AIDS). Accordingly, we incorporated therapeutic hyperthermia into an existing mathematical model which evaluates the interaction between HIV and CD4{sup +} T cells. Given the assumptions and limitations of this model, the results indicate that a daily therapy, reducing the population of actively infected cells by 40% or infectious virus by 50%, would effectively reverse the depletion of T cells. In contrast, a daily reduction of 20% of either actively infected cells or infectious virus would have a marginal effect. However, reduction by 20% of both actively infected cells and infectious virus could restore T cell numbers, assuming that permanent damage had not been inflicted on the thymus. Whole-body hyperthermia seems unlikely to be clinically useful, unless it can be induced non-invasively without general anesthesia. In contrast, heating directed specifically to …

This report provides the draft minutes of the Interagency Advanced Power Group meeting held November 3--4, 1993. Topics addressed are: Materials for thermal management; photovoltaic programs in the Airforce; ground based radar advanced power system development program; battery research; generator prognostics & diagnostics equipment; a thermal flight experiment test program; power systems assessment; Overview: Phillip`s space thermal technologies branch; and development of actuator thermal management.

Later this decade the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) will be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Its goal will be to accelerate and collide Au beams at 100 GeV/c in an attempt to create a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). The PHENIX detector aims to detect the QGP through its leptonic and hadronic signatures. We describe here its physics capabilities and the details of the apparatus designed to pick out rare leptonic signatures from among hadronic multiplicities of up to 1500 particles per unit of rapidity.

The requirements of a gamma-ray burst optical counterpart detector are reviewed. By taking advantage of real-time notification of bursts, new instruments can make sensitive searches while the gamma-ray transient is still in progress. A wide field of view camera at Livermore National Laboratories has recently been adapted for detecting GRB optical counterparts to a limiting magnitude of 8. A more sensitive camera, capable of reaching m{sub upsilon} = 14, is under development.