Stability of Extemporaneously Prepared Sodium Benzoate Oral Suspension

The stability of extemporaneously prepared sodium benzoate oral suspension in cherry syrup and Ora-Sweet was studied. Oral solutions of 250-mg/mL sodium benzoate were prepared in either cherry syrup or Ora-Sweet. To a beaker, 50 grams of Sodium Benzoate Powder USP was dissolved and filtered, the solution was divided equally into two parts, and each aliquot was added into two separate calibrated 100-mL amber vials. In the first vial, cherry syrup was added to make a final volume of 100 mL. In the second vial, Ora-Sweet was added to give a final volume of 100 mL. This process was repeated to prepare three solutions of each kind and all were stored at room temperature. A 250-µL sample was withdrawn immediately after preparation and again at 7, 14, 28, 60, and 90 days for each sample. At each time point, further dilution was made to an expected concentration of 0.25 mg/mL with sample diluent, and the samples were assayed in triplicate by stability-indicating high-performance liquid chromatography. Stability was defined as the retention of at least 90% of the initial concentration. At least 92% of the initial concentration of sodium benzoate in cherry syrup and at least 96% of the sodium benzoate in Ora-Sweet remained throughout the 90-day study period. There were no detectable changes in color and no visible microbial growth in any sample. Extemporaneously compounded suspensions of sodium benzoate in cherry syrup or Ora-Sweet were stable for at least 90 days when stored in a 4-oz amber plastic bottle at room temperature in reduced lighting

‘I didn’t know what strong was until it was required’: factors that promote retention among homeless students in higher education

This study examines the experience of homeless university students. A focus group and in-depth interviews were conducted among 16 homeless students at a university in London to determine the factors that enable them to remain at university despite being homeless. Homelessness has been increasing in the UK since 2010, particularly in London. Combined with the widening participation initiative, which encourages access to Higher Education for more disadvantaged communities, this means that increasing numbers of students may face homelessness during their studies. The study demonstrates considerable personal resilience among homeless students. These students find it hard to fully engage with other students, or with the wider university experience. Most were in fact too embarrassed to tell their university friends that they were homeless. Key factors that promoted resilience were sense of purpose, personal determination, and the relationship with their families. The critical relationship was, however, with their children. Decisions to attend and remain at university were based not on having a role model, but on the desire to provide a positive role model to their children. The study also acknowledges wider structural factors; homelessness is influenced by national and international trends outside the influence of individual and institutional actors

Service delivery interventions to increase uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention: A systematic review.

BackgroundVoluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) remains an essential component of combination HIV prevention services, particularly in priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa. As VMMC programs seek to maximize impact and efficiency, and to support World Health Organization guidance, specific uptake-enhancing strategies are critical to identify.MethodsWe systematically reviewed the literature to evaluate the impact of service delivery interventions (e.g., facility layout, service co-location, mobile outreach) on VMMC uptake among adolescent and adult men. For the main effectiveness review, we searched for publications or conference abstracts that measured VMMC uptake or uptake of HIV testing or risk reduction counselling within VMMC services. We synthesized data by coding categories and outcomes. We also reviewed studies assessing acceptability, values/preferences, costs, and feasibility.ResultsFour randomized controlled trials and five observational studies were included in the effectiveness review. Studies took place in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They assessed a range of service delivery innovations, including community-, school-, and facility-based interventions. Overall, interventions increased VMMC uptake; some successfully improved uptake among age-specific subpopulations, but urban-rural stratification showed no clear trends. Interventions that increased adult men's uptake included mobile services (compared to static facilities), home-based testing with active referral follow-up, and facility-based HIV testing with enhanced comprehensive sexual education. Six acceptability studies suggested interventions were generally perceived to help men choose to get circumcised. Eleven cost studies suggested interventions create economies-of-scale and efficiencies. Three studies suggested such interventions were feasible, improving facility preparedness, service quality and quantity, and efficiencies.ConclusionsInnovative changes in male-centered VMMC services can improve adult men's and adolescent boys' VMMC uptake. Limited evidence on interventions that enhance access and acceptability show promising results, but evidence gaps persist due to inconsistent intervention definition and delivery, due in part to contextual relevance and limited age disaggregation

Economic compensation interventions to increase uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BackgroundEconomic compensation interventions may help support higher voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) coverage in priority sub-Saharan African countries. To inform World Health Organization guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of economic compensation interventions to increase VMMC uptake.MethodsEconomic compensation interventions were defined as providing money or in-kind compensation, reimbursement for associated costs (e.g. travel, lost wages), or lottery entry. We searched five electronic databases and four scientific conferences for studies examining the impact of such interventions on VMMC uptake, HIV testing and safer-sex/risk-reduction counseling uptake within VMMC, community expectations about compensation, and potential coercion. We screened citations, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias in duplicate. We conducted random-effects meta-analysis. We also reviewed studies examining acceptability, values/preferences, costs, and feasibility.ResultsOf 2484 citations identified, five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and three non-randomized controlled trials met our eligibility criteria. Studies took place in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Meta-analysis of four RCTs showed significant impact of any economic compensation on VMMC uptake (relative risk: 5.23, 95% CI: 3.13 to 8.76). RCTs of food/transport vouchers and conditional cash transfers generally showed increases in VMMC uptake, but lotteries, subsidized VMMC, and receiving a gift appeared somewhat less effective. Three non-randomized trials showed mixed impact. Six additional studies suggested economic compensation interventions were generally acceptable, valued for addressing key barriers, and motivating to men. However, some participants felt they were insufficiently motivating or necessary; one study suggested they might raise community suspicions. One study from South Africa found a program cost of US$91 per additional circumcision and US$450-$1350 per HIV infection averted.ConclusionsEconomic compensation interventions, particularly transport/food vouchers, positively impacted VMMC uptake among adult men and were generally acceptable to potential clients. Carefully selected economic interventions may be a useful targeted strategy to enhance VMMC coverage

Impact of the national rotavirus vaccination programme on acute gastroenteritis in England and associated costs averted.

BACKGROUND: Introduction of infant oral rotavirus vaccination in the UK in July 2013 has resulted in decreased hospitalisations and Emergency Department (ED) visits for acute gastroenteritis (AGE), for both adults and children. We investigated reductions in AGE incidence seen in primary care in the two years after vaccine introduction, and estimated the healthcare costs averted across healthcare settings in the first year of the vaccination programme. METHODS: We used primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and age-stratified time-series analyses to derive adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRa) for AGE in the first two years of the post-vaccination era (July 2013-April 2015) compared to the pre-vaccination era (July 2008-June 2013). We estimated cases averted among children aged <5years in the first year of the vaccination programme by comparing observed numbers of AGE cases in 2013-2014 to numbers predicted from the time-series models. We then estimated the healthcare costs averted for general practice consultations, ED visits and hospitalisations. RESULTS: In general practice, AGE rates in infants (the target group for vaccination) decreased by 15% overall after vaccine introduction (IRRa=0.85; 95%CI=0.76-0.95), and by 41% in the months of historically high rotavirus circulation (IRRa=0.59; 95%CI=0.53-0.66). Rates also decreased in other young children and to a lesser degree in older individuals, indicating herd immunity. Across all three settings (general practice, EDs, and hospitalisations) an estimated 87,376 (95% prediction interval: 62,588-113,561) AGE visits by children aged <5years were averted in 2013-14, associated with an estimated £12.5million (9,209-16,198) reduction in healthcare costs. CONCLUSIONS: The marked decreases in the general practice AGE burden after rotavirus vaccine introduction mirror decreases seen in other UK healthcare settings. Overall, these decreases are associated with substantial averted healthcare costs

Exploring the effectiveness of auditory, visual, and audio-visual sensory cues in a multiple object tracking environment

Maintaining object correspondence among multiple moving objects is an essential task of the perceptual system in many everyday life activities. A substantial body of research has confirmed that observers are able to track multiple target objects amongst identical distractors based only on their spatiotemporal information. However, naturalistic tasks typically involve the integration of information from more than one modality, and there is limited research investigating whether auditory and audio-visual cues improve tracking. In two experiments, we asked participants to track either five target objects or three versus five target objects amongst similarly indistinguishable distractor objects for 14 s. During the tracking interval, the target objects bounced occasionally against the boundary of a centralised orange circle. A visual cue, an auditory cue, neither or both coincided with these collisions. Following the motion interval, the participants were asked to indicate all target objects. Across both experiments and both set sizes, our results indicated that visual and auditory cues increased tracking accuracy although visual cues were more effective than auditory cues. Audio-visual cues, however, did not increase tracking performance beyond the level of purely visual cues for both high and low load conditions. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for multiple object tracking as well as for the principles of multisensory integration

Angiotensin-converting enzyme activity and inhibition in dogs with cardiac disease and an angiotensin-converting enzyme polymorphism

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity in dogs and with and without an ACE polymorphism in the canine ACE gene, before and after treatment with an ACE inhibitor. METHODS Thirty-one dogs (20 wild-type, 11 ACE polymorphism) with heart disease were evaluated with ACE activity measurement and systolic blood pressure before and after administration of an ACE inhibitor (enalapril). RESULTS Median pre-treatment ACE activity was significantly lower for ACE polymorphism dogs than for dogs with the wild-type sequence ( P=0.007). After two weeks of an ACE inhibitor, ACE activity was significantly reduced for both genotypes (wild-type, P&lt;0.0001; ACE polymorphism P=0.03); mean post-therapy ACE activity was no different between the groups. CONCLUSION An ACE polymorphism is associated with lower levels of ACE activity. Dogs with the polymorphism still experience suppression of ACE activity in response to an ACE inhibitor. It is possible that the genetic status and ACE activity of dogs may impact the response of dogs with this variant to an ACE inhibitor

LANL Virtual Center for Chemical Hydrogen Storage: Chemical Hydrogen Storage Using Ultra-high Surface Area Main Group Materials

The focus of the project was to design and synthesize light element compounds and nanomaterials that will reversibly store molecular hydrogen for hydrogen storage materials. The primary targets investigated during the last year were amine and hydrogen terminated silicon (Si) nanoparticles, Si alloyed with lighter elements (carbon (C) and boron (B)) and boron nanoparticles. The large surface area of nanoparticles should facilitate a favorable weight to volume ratio, while the low molecular weight elements such as B, nitrogen (N), and Si exist in a variety of inexpensive and readily available precursors. Furthermore, small NPs of Si are nontoxic and non-corrosive. Insights gained from these studies will be applied toward the design and synthesis of hydrogen storage materials that meet the DOE 2010 hydrogen storage targets: cost, hydrogen capacity and reversibility. Two primary routes were explored for the production of nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm in diameter. The first was the reduction of the elemental halides to achieve nanomaterials with chloride surface termination that could subsequently be replaced with amine or hydrogen. The second was the reaction of alkali metal Si or Si alloys with ammonium halides to produce hydrogen capped nanomaterials. These materials were characterized via X-ray powder diffraction, TEM, FTIR, TG/DSC, and NMR spectroscopy