Use of Oil-Based Mud Cutting Waste in Cement Clinker Manufacturing

Oil-based Mud (OBM) cutting waste is generated during the process of oil well drilling. The drilled rocks are removed from deep within the drilled well and pumped to the surface. The portion removed , known at "cutting", is a mixture of rocks, mud, water and oil. Most drilling companies store this waste in open yards with no specific treatment solution. The environmental regulations in Oman specify that storage should involve isolation, to prevent penetration of the contamination to the surface and underground water. This has made OBM waste an environmental problem, with an associated cost for oil companies. OBM chemical analysis shows an interesting compositionthat may be used in cement manufacture. It has high calcium, silicon and aluminium contents, which are the major oxides in cement manufacture. Also the oil contents are useful for reducing the fuel used during the calcining and clinkerization process. In this research, the OBM waste has been analysed and used as a constituent of the raw meal for cement clinker production. The impact of OBM addition on the resultant clinker has also been investigated

Should HIV be a notifiable disease? Old questions with some new arguments

KMHIV notification enters national debate regularly, often introduced by politicians and supported by many individual healthcare workers. We argue that its proponents advance confused or poorly informed rationales for making HIV notifiable. We present reasons why making HIV notifiable would be inappropriate in South Africa, why the public health benefits of a notification programme are not even likely, and why there are risks of public health and human rights harms

Views of health care professionals and policy-makers on the use of surveillance data to combat antimicrobial resistance.

BACKGROUND: Providing healthcare professionals with health surveillance data aims to support professional and organisational behaviour change. The UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy 2013 to 2018 identified better access to and use of surveillance data as a key component. Our aim was to determine the extent to which data on antimicrobial use and resistance met the perceived needs of health care professionals and policy-makers at national, regional and local levels, and how provision could be improved. METHODS: We conducted 41 semi-structured interviews with national policy makers in the four Devolved Administrations and 71 interviews with health care professionals in six locations across the United Kingdom selected to achieve maximum variation in terms of population and health system characteristics. Transcripts were analysed thematically using a mix of a priori reasoning guided by the main topics in the interview guide together with themes emerging inductively from the data. Views were considered at three levels - primary care, secondary care and national - and in terms of availability of data, current uses, benefits, gaps and potential improvements. RESULTS: Respondents described a range of uses for prescribing and resistance data. The principal gaps identified were prescribing in private practice, internet prescribing and secondary care (where some hospitals did not have electronic prescribing systems). Some respondents under-estimated the range of data available. There was a perception that the responsibility for collecting and analysing data often rests with a few individuals who may lack sufficient time and appropriate skills. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to raise awareness of data availability and the potential value of these data, and to ensure that data systems are more accessible. Any skills gap at local level in how to process and use data needs to be addressed. This requires an identification of the best methods to improve support and education relating to AMR data systems

The impact of assisted reproductive technology treatments on maternal and offspring outcomes in singleton pregnancies: A review of systematic reviews

Objectives: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments are commonly used to aid conception in subfertile couples. We aimed to evaluate the risks of adverse maternal and offspring outcomes in singleton pregnancy conceived with different ART treatments and techniques. / Evidence review: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and HTA until December 2020 for all systematic reviews evaluating adverse outcomes in pregnancies conceived with various ART techniques, autologous or donor gametes, and embryo development stages. We assessed review quality using the AMSTAR2 tool risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) from the top quality reviews for each of the outcomes of interest across the identified ART treatments and population subgroups. / Results: We included 24 systematic reviews, most reported on observational studies. Compared to spontaneous conception, ART pregnancies had a higher risk of placenta previa (PP) (RR 3.71, 95%CI 2.67-5.16), antepartum haemorrhage (APH) (RR 2.11, 95%CI 1.86-2.38), preterm birth (PTB) (RR 1.71, 95%CI 1.59-1.83), very preterm birth (VPTB) (RR 2.12, 95%CI 1.73-2.59), small for gestational age (SGA) (RR 1.35, 95%CI 1.20-1.52), low birthweight (LBW) (RR 1.61, 95%CI 1.49-1.75) and very low birthweight (VLBW) (RR 2.12, 95%CI 1.84-2.43). Frozen vs fresh embryo transfer was associated with a lower risk for PTB (RR 0.90, 95%CI 0.84-0.97), SGA (RR 0.61, 95%CI 0.56-0.67), LBW (RR 0.72, 95%CI 0.67-0.77) and VLBW (RR 0.76, 95%CI 0.69–0.82). Embryo transfer at blastocyst vs cleavage showed higher risk for PTB (RR 1.10, 95%CI 1.01-1.20) and large for gestational age (LGA) (RR 1.12, 95%CI 1.03-1.21) with lower risk for SGA (RR 0.84, 95%CI 0.76-0.92). Using donor vs autologous oocytes increased the odds of PTB (OR 1.57, 95%CI 1.33-1.86), LBW (OR 1.94, 95%CI 1.10-3.41) and VLBW (OR 1.37, 95%CI 1.22–1.54) as well as maternal complications (postpartum haemorrhage OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.20-3.20, gestational diabetes OR 1.27 95%CI 1.03-1.56, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy OR 2.63, 95%CI 2.17-3.18, and caesarean section OR 2.28, 95%CI 2.14-2.42). / Conclusions: ART treatments are associated with increased risks of adverse maternal and offspring outcomes, especially with donor oocytes. The characteristics of ART treatment should be incorporated into prenatal care planning to mitigate those risks

Modelling clinical goals: a corpus of examples and a tentative ontology

Knowledge of clinical goals and the means to achieve them are either not represented in most current guideline representation systems or are encoded procedurally (e.g. as clinical algorithms, condition-action rules). There would be a number of major benefits if guideline enactment systems could reason explicitly about clinical objectives (e.g. whether a goal has been successfully achieved or not, whether it is consistent with prevailing conditions, or how the system should adapt to circumstances where a recommended action has failed to achieve the intended result). Our own guideline specification language, PROforma, includes a simple goal construct to address this need, but the interpretation is unsatisfactory in current enactment engines, and goals have yet to be included in the language semantics. This paper discusses some of the challenges involved in developing an explicit, declarative formalism for goals. As part of this, we report on a study we have undertaken which has identified over 200 goals in the routine management of breast cancer, and outline a tentative formal structure for this corpus

Obesity and metabolic syndrome in adolescent survivors of standard risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Saudi Arabia

This study estimated prevalence of unhealthy weight status and metabolic syndrome (MS) amongst Saudi survivors of standard risk ALL. Procedure. We recruited 56 survivors, mean age 13.4 years (SD 4.1), a mean of 9.1 years (SD 4.1) postdiagnosis. The BMI for age was used to define weight status relative to national (Saudi) and international (Cole et al., Cole-IOTF, WHO, and CDC) reference data. We measured body composition by dualenergy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), waist circumference, blood pressure, lipid profile (HDL-C, Triglycerides), fasting glucose and insulin. Results. According to international definitions based on BMI for age, around half of the sample had unhealthy weight status. All of the approaches based on BMI for age underestimated overfatness, present in 27/51 (53%) of the sample according to DXA. Prevalence of MS was 7.1% (3/42 of those over 9-years old) and 5.4% (3/56) by applying the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definition and National Cholesterol Education Program Third Adult Treatment panel Guidelines (NCEP III), respectively. However, MS by the NCEP III definition was present in 19% of the overweight and obese survivors and 7.1% of the sample had at least two of the components of MS. Conclusion. Unhealthy body weight and overfatness may be common amongst adolescent Saudi survivors of standard risk ALL, though overweight and obesity may be no more common than in the general Saudi adolescent population. Defining weight status using BMI underestimates overfatness. Ideally, body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors should be monitored at late effects clinics. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2012;59: 133–137. 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Enhancing neuroimaging genetics through meta-analysis for Tourette syndrome (ENIGMA-TS): A worldwide platform for collaboration

Tourette syndrome (TS) is characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics, and high-comorbidity rates with other neuropsychiatric disorders. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), major depressive disorder (MDD), and anxiety disorders (AXDs) are among the most prevalent TS comorbidities. To date, studies on TS brain structure and function have been limited in size with efforts mostly fragmented. This leads to low-statistical power, discordant results due to differences in approaches, and hinders the ability to stratify patients according to clinical parameters and investigate comorbidity patterns. Here, we present the scientific premise, perspectives, and key goals that have motivated the establishment of the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis for TS (ENIGMA-TS) working group. The ENIGMA-TS working group is an international collaborative effort bringing together a large network of investigators who aim to understand brain structure and function in TS and dissect the underlying neurobiology that leads to observed comorbidity patterns and clinical heterogeneity. Previously collected TS neuroimaging data will be analyzed jointly and integrated with TS genomic data, as well as equivalently large and already existing studies of highly comorbid OCD, ADHD, ASD, MDD, and AXD. Our work highlights the power of collaborative efforts and transdiagnostic approaches, and points to the existence of different TS subtypes. ENIGMA-TS will offer large-scale, high-powered studies that will lead to important insights toward understanding brain structure and function and genetic effects in TS and related disorders, and the identification of biomarkers that could help inform improved clinical practice