Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Hollow fiber sorbents for the desulfurization of pipeline natural gas

Pipeline natural gas is the primary fuel of choice for distributed fuel cell-based applications. The concentration of sulfur in odorized natural gas is about 30 ppm, with acceptable levels being <1 ppm for catalyst stability in such applications. Packed bed technology for desulfurization suffers from several disadvantages including high pressure drop and slow regeneration rates that require large unit sizes. We describe a novel Rapid Temperature Swing Adsorption (RTSA) system utilizing hollow fibers with polymer 'binder', impregnated with high loadings of sulfur selective sorbent 'fillers'. Steam and cooling water can be utilized to thermally swing the sorbent during the regeneration cycles. An impermeable, thin polymer barrier layer on the outside of fiber sorbents allows only thermal interactions with the regeneration media, thereby promoting consistent sorption capacity over repeated cycles. A simplified flow pattern minimizes pressure drop, porous core morphology maximizes sorption efficiencies, while small fiber dimensions allows for rapid thermal cycles.PhDCommittee Chair: Dr. William J. Koros; Committee Member: Dr. Christopher Jones; Committee Member: Dr. James Stevens; Committee Member: Dr. Pradeep Agrawal; Committee Member: Dr. Ronald Rousseau; Committee Member: Dr. Satish Kuma

Effects of Coating Solvent and Thermal Treatment on Transport and Morphological Characteristics of PDMS/Torlon Composite Hollow Fiber Membrane

A new approach for formation of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer on Torlon polyamide-imide hollow fiber (PAI-HF) support has been developed by directly after fiber spinning without the need to undergo the final conventional solvent exchange and drying step, thereby saving postspinning processing steps. The produced PDMS/PAI-HF composite membranes were found to have high CO2 permeance (i.e., 1100 GPU) and exhibited good CO2/N2 selectivities of 8—10 which is close to 90% of that of a PDMS dense film. The effects of coating solution, rewetting and crosslinking temperature on the PAI-HF morphological features, that is, gas transport, skin thickness, skin integrity, and substructure resistance are investigated. The rewetting and thermal treatment of the PAI-HF caused the densification of the skin layer and reduced the pore sizes on the top layer. In addition, the potential use of the PAI-HF support with polymers that are insoluble in hexane is also considered. Effects of water, methanol, and hexane exposure of PAI-HF to these solvents are considered. This evaluation calls attention to issues that must be addressed in any eventual use of the PAI-HF with water-soluble or methanol-soluble selective layer polymers, rather than simple hexane-soluble polymers such as PDMS

MAPPING LOCAL PATTERNS OF CHILDHOOD OVERWEIGHT AND WASTING IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES BETWEEN 2000 AND 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic