Assessing the Occupational Risks associated with Artisanal and Small-Scale mining- A Case study in Asankrangwa and Kenyasi Areas in Ghana

This study assesses some environmental and safety impacts, causes of accidents and hazards associated with operations at 10 selected Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) sites in Asankrangwa and Kenyasi areas. The aim is to establish the extent of the environmental and safety impacts and the risks associated with the hazards at the ASM sites and suggest ways to minimise the impacts. Dust and noise monitoring results show that silica dust and noise levels are above the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH) of occupational exposure limits. Results from questionnaire administration indicate that low levels of risk awareness, use of personal protective equipment, workplace monitoring and incident reporting, are the main challenges associated with the ASM operations. Causes of accidents are in the decreasing order of Pit collapse, Blasting, Flooding, Suffocation and Others. Using a 5x5 risk matrix, initial risk assessment (IRA), based on existing site conditions and residual risk assessment (RRA), based on recommended controls were conducted on 7 hazard types. The IRA scored HIGH (11-17) to EXTREME (18-25) values while the RRA scored MEDIUM (6-10) to LOW (1-5) values which represent average risk drop of about 47%. Fifty percent of the study sites indicate HIGH fatality rates. The causes of incidents are in the reducing order of; Handling of explosives, Digging to expose the ore, Shaft sinking, Ore preparation and beneficiation, Underground mining, Working in a poorly consolidated environment and Tunnelling. Risk Assessment is thus established as a necessary requirement for ASM practice in Ghana

WINGS: Wellness Interventions for Nurses’ growth and selfcare study at Purdue University, US and UEL, UK

During the pandemic, a quasi-experimental study was designed to empirically test the effectiveness of SOPHIE intervention among palliative care nurses in US. Along with SOPHIE framework, the study also included Nurses’ Psychological Trauma (NPT) model (Foli, et al., 2021). Our study included N=94 nurses working in palliative care setting including long-term care, nursing homes and hospice setting. Intervention included four weekly blog writing with pre and post surveys. Findings showed significant improvement in subjective wellbeing of nurses. Narrative analysis of the four weekly blogs and post blog feedback demonstrated self-reflexivity on the part of participants. Participants shared blogs were helpful as it provided them a valuable opportunity to generate self-awareness and ability to share traumatic experiences while creating avenues for personal growth and wellbeing. Our preliminary data suggest that SOPHIE tool is an effective tool for self-reflexivity and create pathways for selfcare and wellbeing

The influence of the textural properties of activated carbons on acetaminophen adsorption at different temperatures

The influence of temperature (20–40 °C) on the acetaminophen adsorption onto activated carbons with different textures was studied. Different temperature dependences, not explained by kinetic effects, were observed for carbons with different micropore size distribution patterns: adsorption capacity increased for pine gasification residues (Pi-fa) derived carbons and decreased for sisal based materials. No significant variation was seen for carbon CP. The species identified by 1H NMR spectroscopy on the back-extraction solution proved that during the adsorption process exist the conditions required to promote the formation of acetaminophen oligomers which have constrained access to the narrow microporosity. The rotation energy of the dihedral angle between monomers (estimated by electronic DFT methods) showed that conformations in the planar form are less stable than the non-planar conformation (energy barrier of 70 and 23 kJ mol-1), but have critical dimensions similar to the monomer and can access most of the micropore volume. The enthalpy change of the overall process showed that the energy gain of the system (endothermic) for Pi-fa samples (˜40 kJ mol-1) was enough to allow a change in the dimer, or even a larger oligomer, conformation to the planar form. This will permit adsorption in the narrow micropores, thus explaining the uptake increase with temperature. Non-continuous micropore size distributions centered at pore widths close to the critical dimensions of the planar form seem to be crucial for a positive evolution of the adsorption capacity with temperature

Arsenic Intensity Risk Assessment at AngloGold Obuasi Goldmine, Ghana, West Africa: Using Sorption and Geotechnical Factors

This research evaluated arsenic (As) intensity risk using sorption and geotechnical factors in the AngloGold Obuasi mine environment in Ghana. Water samples from tailings dam boreholes and surface stream were analysed for As contents over a time period of 24 months and over a distance of about 9 km respectively, under closed conditions, where there are no more discharges of waste. The porosity and bulk density of the subsurface material were also determined. Data generated from the mass-time and mass-distance analysis were used to establish As intensity risk assessment model based on documented global As impact data. From the model, a period of about 4 years is required in monitoring boreholes and a distance of about 12 km is required along the stream profile for As concentration to reduce from the maximum value of about 2.50 mg/l to 0.01 mg/l. Using the porosity, bulk density and combined degradation properties of the monitored media of the mobile As, the estimated retardation factor was 1.96 and the solute velocity estimated to be 1.53 × 10-7 ms-1 in the borehole environment, and 1.074 and 9.25 × 10-1 ms-1 along the streambed, respectively. This study shows that the pollution risk assessment model can be used to spatially estimate exposure to As contamination in the environment, while the transport characteristics can be used to determine clean-up criteria for effective As remediation in drainage

Co-creation workshops for developing local community networks during a pandemic

During co-creation workshops, three communities in Lomé, Togo, developed their own alternative technology – do-it-yourself networks that were adapted to their specific local needs. Usually, these collaborative formats require physical proximity, not only between participants, but also between participants and their local environments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all physical meetings were cancelled or restricted, and the project team had to transfer their methodologies to digital formats accommodating geographical distance. Their endeavours revealed challenges regarding both local community networking in general and the adaptation of co-creation methodologies during a global pandemic. A major lesson learned was the importance of trust among participants in such an interdisciplinary and diverse consortium. This article offers insights into the collaborative development of local community networks, providing new perspectives on co-design in the restrictive settings caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic

Pomalidomide and dexamethasone grant rapid haematologic responses in patients with relapsed and refractory AL amyloidosis: a European retrospective series of 153 patients

Pomalidomide demonstrated activity in the treatment of AL amyloidosis in three phase II clinical trials. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of 28-day cycles of pomalidomide and dexamethasone in 153 previously treated patients with systemic AL amyloidosis. Ninety-nine (65%) were refractory to the last line of therapy and 54 (35%) had relapsed. The median number of previous lines of therapy was 3 (range: 2–7): 143 patients (93%) previously received bortezomib, 124 (81%) lenalidomide, 114 (75%) oral melphalan, and 37 (24%) underwent autologous stem cell transplant. At the completion of cycle 6, 68 (44%) patients obtained at least partial haematologic response, with 5 complete responses (CR, 3%), 35 very good partial responses (VGPR, 23%). Haematologic response resulted in improved overall survival (median survival 50 vs. 27 months, p = .033) in a 6 months landmark analysis. Obtaining at least partial response was also associated with a significant improvement of the progression-free survival (median PFS 37 vs. 18 months, p < .001). Pomalidomide is an effective treatment for heavily pre-treated patients with AL amyloidosis. Haematologic responses are associated with an overall survival advantage

Experimental study of heat transfer and pressure drop in micro-channel based heat sinks with tip clearance

This article presents an experimental study on the optimisation of micro-heat sink configurations when both thermal effects and pressure drop are accounted for. The interest of the latter is that the practical engineering viability of some of these systems also depends on the required pumping power. The working fluid was water and, according to typical power dissipation and system size requirements, the considered fluid regime was either laminar or transitional, and not fully developed from the hydrodynamics point of view. Five configurations were considered: a reference geometry (selected for comparison purposes) made up of square section micro-channels, and four alternative configurations that involved the presence of a variable tip clearance in the design. The performance of the different configurations was compared with regard to both cooling efficiency and pressure drop. Finally, we also provide some practical guidelines for the engineering design of these types of systems

Abacavir, efavirenz, didanosine, with or without hydroxyurea, in HIV-infected adults failing initial nucleoside/protease inhibitor-containing regimens

BACKGROUND: Hydroxyurea (HU) is an immunomodulatory agent that has been documented to enhance the antiretroviral activity of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, such as abacavir (ABC) and didanosine (ddI), and would be expected to improve virologic efficacy. METHODS: A 48-week, phase IV, multicenter, open-label, proof-of-concept clinical trial was conducted to evaluate second-line, protease inhibitor (PI)-sparing therapy with ABC/efavirenz (EFV)/ddI plus HU or without HU in HIV-infected subjects failing to achieve HIV-1 RNA ≤ 400 copies/mL after ≥ 16 weeks of treatment with lamivudine/zidovudine or lamivudine/stavudine, plus 1 or 2 PIs. Subjects were assigned to ABC (300 mg twice daily)/ EFV (600 mg once daily)/ ddI (400 mg once daily) plus HU (500 mg twice daily) (n = 30) or this regimen without HU (n = 24). RESULTS: Baseline mean HIV-1 RNA was 3.86 log(10 )copies/mL and CD4+ cell count was 345 cells/mm(3). A similar percentage of subjects in the non-HU arm (58%) and HU arm (53%) completed the study. Intent-to-treat: missing = failure analysis showed no differences in proportions of subjects in the non-HU and HU arms achieving undetectable plasma HIV-1 RNA levels at week 24 (<400 copies/mL: 58% [14/24] vs 57% [17/30], P = 0.899; <50 copies/mL (50% [12/24] vs 47% [14/30], P = 0.780). Median change from baseline in CD4+ cell count in the non-HU and HU arms at week 48 was +114 cells/mm(3 )and -63 cells/mm(3 )(P = 0.007), respectively. Both regimens were generally well tolerated, although more subjects in the HU arm withdrew prematurely from the study due to adverse events (23% vs 4%). Four cases of possible ABC-related hypersensitivity were observed. CONCLUSION: ABC/EFV/ddI was an effective and well-tolerated second-line regimen for nucleoside/PI-experienced HIV-infected subjects. The addition of HU blunted the CD4+ cell response, did not appear to enhance antiviral activity, and resulted in more treatment-limiting adverse events

Minimal residual disease negativity by next-generation flow cytometry is associated with improved organ response in AL amyloidosis

Light chain (AL) amyloidosis is caused by a small B-cell clone producing light chains that form amyloid deposits and cause organ dysfunction. Chemotherapy aims at suppressing the production of the toxic light chain (LC) and restore organ function. However, even complete hematologic response (CR), defined as negative serum and urine immunofixation and normalized free LC ratio, does not always translate into organ response. Next-generation flow (NGF) cytometry is used to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in multiple myeloma. We evaluated MRD by NGF in 92 AL amyloidosis patients in CR. Fifty-four percent had persistent MRD (median 0.03% abnormal plasma cells). There were no differences in baseline clinical variables in patients with or without detectable MRD. Undetectable MRD was associated with higher rates of renal (90% vs 62%, p = 0.006) and cardiac response (95% vs 75%, p = 0.023). Hematologic progression was more frequent in MRD positive (0 vs 25% at 1 year, p = 0.001). Altogether, NGF can detect MRD in approximately half the AL amyloidosis patients in CR, and persistent MRD can explain persistent organ dysfunction. Thus, this study supports testing MRD in CR patients, especially if not accompanied by organ response. In case MRD persists, further treatment could be considered, carefully balancing residual organ damage, patient frailty, and possible toxicity