Code Status Discussions

The 2 most Important Take-aways: • Have the conversation early • Fully disclose risks, benefits and alternative

Transitions of Care

Objectives: • Define and Describe the various points of transition of care • Define and Describe the potential risks for TOC • Articulate the value of interdisciplinary team planning • Demonstrate an effective patient hand-off via role play

Production and Characterization of Biosurfactants from Abattoir Wastewater

Five genera of bacteria were isolated from abattoir waste water and identified as Bacillus licheniforms, Bacillus alvei, Pseudomonas paucimobilis, Vibrio metschnikovii and Yersinia enterocolitica. The isolates were screened for biosurfactant production using blood haemolysis test, emulsification test, oil spreading methods. The biosurfactants were characterized using GC-MS analysis. The isolates showed haemolytic activity and the highest emulsification index of 71% was observed from Pseudomonas paucimobilis followed by Bacillus alvei with emulsification index of 67% whereas Bacillus licheniformis has the lowest emulsification index of 11%. Also Bacillus alvei showed a high oil displacement of 20mm followed by Bacillus licheniformis with 18ml oil displacement whereas Pseudomonas paucimobilis has the lowest oil displacement of 15mm. The biosurfactant could be employed to enhance oil recovery bioremediation. Keywords: Abattoir, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Biosurfactants, Wastewate

Decolourization of Acacia Seyal Gum Arabic

This work aimed to decolourization of Acacia Seyal (Talha) Gum Arabic to improve its quality. The experimental set up consists of adsorption column made of Perspex. The adsorption media is activated charcoal of 350 m pore size. The adsorption bed is 15 cm in depth and 3.5 cm in diameter. The experiment is conducted for wide range of Talha Gum concentrations (5.5 -55 g/L). The transmittance is measured for wide range of wave length (350 to 800 nm). The result showed that the colour has changed from pink to colourless-transparent. The transmittance (%) has improved by 5 to 22% depending on the initial transmittance. The colour removal is found to have significant influence on pH, and total dissolved solid (TDS) and less influence on viscosity. The pH increased by 1 unit indicating that the impurities are of basic origin. The TDS is reduced by 20 to 50% indicating the removal of other salts excluding Ca+2 and Mg+2 ion

Study of quality of life and its determinants in patients after urinary stone fragmentation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study was designed to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients who had undergone lithotripsy for treatment of urinary stones and to identify factors that significantly affect the HRQOL of these patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A comparative cross-sectional study was performed at the main university and main Ministry of health hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All patients admitted to the urology service and who underwent lithotripsy for urinary stones during a 9-month period were included in the study. An observation period of 3-15 months following the last treatment was allowed before patients completed the QOL questionnaire. Information on socio-demographic, and medical characteristics, and number and type of lithotripsies were collected. The Medical Outcome Study Short-Form 36-item survey (SF-36) was used to assess HRQoL. For comparison, the HRQoL in an equal number of healthy individuals was investigated; multivariate analysis of variance was used for comparisons between groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with healthy subjects, lithotripsy patients had significantly higher mean scores in the different subscales of the SF-36 questionnaire such as physical functioning, vitality, role-physical, role-emotional and mental health, indicating a better HRQOL. Compared with patients who underwent ureteroscopic or extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsies, those who underwent percutaneous lithotripsy had significantly worse mean scores for all the SF-36 scales, except for body pain. Factors impacting HRQOL of the patients were age, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and stone characteristics such as localization (in the kidney) and recurrence (multiple lithotripsies).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Post-lithotripsy, patients have a favorable HRQOL compared with healthy volunteers. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm these results owing to the inherent limitations of the cross-sectional design and backward analysis of this study.</p

The Foundation of the Right Bank in Wadi-Zarat Dam

The geotechnical engineering characteristics of a calcareous crust formation are evaluated in order to determine the feasibility of its stability under the right bank of Wadi Zarat Dam. The crust is a rock similar, extremely heterogeneous, material with location of collapsing susceptibility when saturated. The formation is caverned and locally very permeable and can present a risk of losing the reservoir water, dissolution, settlement, and piping. In this case study, several alternatives to treat the crust formation are presented, discussed, and compared. Rational justifications for the adopted solution are given and the predicted performance during operation of the dam is provided in order to be compared with the observed behaviour

Crude Oil Pipeline Scale Deposition: Causes and Removal Methods

This work investigated the causes of scale formation and removal methods on 107 km crude oil pipeline of Diffra oil field of Muglad basin as a case study. The study is based on well and pipeline historical data of three years (2007, 2008 and 2009). The data included production data (net oil and water cut), choke opening, pipeline pressures, water qualities and scale composition. The study revealed that the main cause of scale formation is the presence of Ca+2 and Mg+2 in produced water and wax in oil. The scale consists of 78 % Ca+2, 12 % Mg+2 and 10 % wax. Investigations on removal methods revealed that the currently employed chemical removal method is effective; however the downtime (well shut down) is high making significant production cut. A method to reduce the cleaning down time is proposed. The pipeline is divided into two sections: aboveground and underground. The aboveground line is characterized with the presence of valves, choke and pipe reductions (i.e. non uniform cross section). The underground section is uniform in cross sectional area. For the aboveground section the current practice of chemical cleaning is recommended to be maintained however, with provision of a bypass line. For underground section the standard practice of pigging is recommended. The proposed cleaning method of the whole pipeline eliminates the downtime completely. In addition it is uncomplicated, with economical operation and installation cost. The method also make significant cut in chemical used hence reduces the hazard and environmental impact

In vitro antibacterial activity of Pituranthos scoparius from Algeria

Traditional medicine has a key role in health care worldwide; the search for antimicrobial agents from plants has been a growing interest in the last few decades. In the present study, antibacterial properties of Pituranthos scoparius were explored. Aerial and root parts of the plant were extracted with a series of solvent of varying polarity including water, methanol, acetone and chloroform. The antibacterial activity of extracts was assessed by agar disc diffusion method and broth microdilution method against 14 Gram positive and Gram negative pathogenic bacteria. The extracts from the aerial parts have shown a better antibacterial activity than the root extracts. The acetone aerial part extract showed the highest activity (about 22 mm inhibition zone) against Proteus mirabilis, and a MIC of 1.04 mg/mL against Salmonella Typhimurium, followed by the methanolic aerial part extract (about 15mm inhibition zone), with a MIC of 1.56 against Enterococcus faecalis. The values of MIC obtained show that the extracts have weak activities since all MIC values are greater than 1 mg/ml, comparing with the references antibiotics. The findings of the study indicate that Pituranthos scoparius could be a new source of antibacterial natural drugs. In vivo studies remain necessary to ensure the antibacterial efficacy of the plant.Keywords: Pituranthos scoparius, medicinal plants, extracts, disk diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration

On exact controllability of linear time delay systems of neutral type

The problem of exact null controllability is considered for linear neutral type systems with distributed delay. A characterization of this problem is given. The minimal time of controllability is precised. The results are based on the analysis of the Riesz basis property of eigenspaces in Hilbert space. Recent results on the moment problem and properties of exponential families are used