Modification of nano-clays with ionic liquids for the removal of Cd (II) ion from aqueous phase

The present study attempts to synthesize nano-modified clays of Na-bentonite (Bent) and montmorillonite (MT), using three imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) including 3,3′-(hexyl)bis(3-methylimidazolium) bromide chloride ([H(mim)2[Br][Cl]), 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Hmim][Cl]) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Omim][Cl]). X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen elemental analysis (CHN), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and specific surface area (SSA) (using N2-BET) techniques provided evidence of successful modification of the guest clays. Removal of Cd (II) from aqueous phase was investigated using the modified clays under different experimental conditions of reaction time, pH and adsorbent dosage. Detailed isotherms and kinetic studies showed that the modified clays have much higher Cd (II) adsorption capacity compared to those of the starting clay minerals. The maximum Cd (II) absorption capacities of 87.46 and 94.6 mg g−1 were observed in [H(mim)2]-MT and [H(mim)2]-Bent with d-values of 35.4 Å and 28.3 Å respectively. The [Omim]-clays had the highest adsorption affinities of Cd (II) in initial concentrations of Cd (II). This study shows that ILs could enhance the clay capacity and tendency for Cd (II) absorption with different trends based on the ILs structures. The modified clays using ILs are green and eco-friendly adsorbents and due to substantial increase in their capacity for the removal of heavy metals, they could have positive economic and environmental impacts

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Comparison the Effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Family Empowerment and Quality of Life in Families with Attention Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder Children

Due to the psychological, physical and communicational problems of families with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children, this study aimed to compare the efficacy of Functional Family Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on family empowerment and quality of life in families with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children. this study was quasi- experimental with pre - posttest. The population of the present research included all the families who had referred to the counseling centers of Sanandaj city, in 2016 and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was diagnosed for their child based on clinical and diagnostic interview. This research was conducted on 30 families selected by available sampling method from those who responded to the call for research and were divided into two experimental (n=10) and one control group (n=10). The experimental groups received 9 two-hour treatment sessions once a week. Data were collected using Family Empowerment Scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and analyzed using multiple analysis of covariance in SPSS 20. The results of study showed significant differences between the mean scores of the pre-test and post-test of the experimental and control groups (p<0/001). In addition, comparison of experimental groups indicates Functional Family Therapy was more effective in increase of family empowerment and Improve of quality of life (p<0/001). The present findings indicate that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Functional Family Therapy can be useful in increase of family empowerment and improving life quality in families with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children

Targeting modular adaptive façade personalization in a shared office space using fuzzy logic and genetic optimization

In shared office spaces, occupants' comfort criteria are limited to locally controlled zones while ambient features of the environment and the potential negative impacts of others' behavior require a well-designed control system, especially over adaptive façade elements. This means setting up control strategies for a wider spectrum of varying comfort perceptions from person to person dictates an approach towards personalizing adaptive facades. Thereby, this research coupled a simulation-based methodology with fuzzy logic and a genetic algorithm to personalize façade modules based on the visual discomfort conditions of the occupants. Results confirmed that increasing the control freedom by personalization accounting for multi-objective criteria including glare, daylight, and view could satisfy occupants from 83% to 100%. Moreover, the proposed façade personalization framework could enhance visual comfort compared with two typical automated Venetian blind controls, significantly. This study provides novel insights for designers and operators to decentralize facades' elements by accepting occupants’ feedback as part of their control loops.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.History, Form & Aesthetic

Correlation of Low Levels of α-1 Antitrypsin and Elevation of Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio with Higher Mortality in Severe COVID-19 Patients

Background. Variations in COVID-19 prevalence, severity, and mortality rate remain ambiguous. Genetic or individual differences in immune response may be an explanation. Moreover, hyperinflammation and dysregulated immune response are involved in the etiology of severe forms of COVID-19. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to analyze serum alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) levels, as an acute-phase plasma protein with immunomodulatory effect and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a marker of inflammation response in severe COVID-19 illness. Methods. In this retrospective observational cohort study, 64 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive COVID-19 hospitalized patients were studied for AAT, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), troponin, complete blood count (CBC), random blood sugar, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), and arterial oxygen saturation (O2sat) at admission and during hospitalization. Results. The results showed that hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had low serum levels of AAT and high CRP levels at the first days of hospitalization. In particular, the percentages of individuals with low, normal, and high AAT levels were 7.80%, 82.80%, and 9.40%, respectively, while high and low values of CRP accounted for 86.70% and 13.30% of patients. Most of the patients had an upward neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) trend, with a higher mortality rate (p<0.05) and troponin levels (p<0.05). However, comorbidities, CRP alterations, ESR alterations, nonfasting blood sugar, SGOT, SGPT, O2sat, RBC, and PLT values were not significantly different between the NLR downward and upward trend groups. Conclusions. The current study revealed that severe COVID-19 patients had low serum AAT levels related to CRP values. Therefore, AAT response may be considered as a new mechanism by which some COVID-19 patients show immune dysregulation and more severe symptoms

The effect of transdermal nitroglycerin on pain control in diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy

Background Despite high prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy there is no definite treatment for the condition. The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of transdermal nitroglycerin patch in pain control of patients with DPN. Methods This randomized, double-blind, crossover study was conducted on 30 patients with symmetric distal peripheral neuropathy and good glycemic control. The patients were randomly assigned to receive nitroglycerin transdermal and placebo patches in two 4-week stages. The severity of pain and other neuropathic sensory symptoms were assessed at the end of each course. Results Mean reduction of pain severity was more prominent in the NTG group compared to placebo group of the study (p = 0.048) at least during the first phase of the study. Except for mood and sleep, a significant reduction in all Brief Pain Inventory scores was noted in the drug group (all corrected p < 0.05). SF-MPQ also showed the drug patch to be effective in improving different aspects of pain measured using McGill Pain Questionnaire, except for Role–emotional. Conclusions It could be concluded that nitroglycerin plasters can effectively help alleviate pain in patients with diabetic neuropathy