Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding the Recent Zika Outbreak Among a Sample of South Florida Residents

South Florida has had the largest number of U.S. Zika infection cases during the recent outbreak. This study aimed at assessing South Floridians\u27 basic knowledge, perceptions of the seriousness and susceptibility to Zika infection, their information sources and needs, as well as their attitudes towards the protective measures proposed by the CDC. We also wanted to assess whether any of those factors have affected the frequency of participants\u27 undertaking of the protective behaviors. To this end, we designed an online questionnaire and surveyed the responses of five hundred South Floridians (Age=18-78 years). We found significant gaps in participants\u27 knowledge about the risk groups, routes of transmission, treatment, and complications of Zika infection. Older age and college education were associated with significantly higher knowledge scores, while the presence of pregnant women in the household was associated with lower scores. About half of the participants perceived Zika to be a profoundly severe health problem, but less than one-third believed that their susceptibility to the infection is high. Most participants agreed that undertaking the measures that limit exposure to mosquito bites would be effective in preventing infections and that they would be able to carry-out these measures if recommended by the CDC, but a significantly lower proportion had similar responses to the items regarding protection against sexual transmission. There was a significant association between the frequency of protective behavior undertaking and respondents\u27 beliefs about the seriousness and personal susceptibility to the infection, as well as their beliefs regarding the efficacy of the protective behaviors. Finally, most participants reported media platforms as their sources of information about Zika, while a minority of them received their information directly from healthcare professionals. These findings suggest that more targeted risk communication efforts are needed to increase South Floridians\u27 awareness about Zika\u27s public health threat

The cyclooligomerization of arylethynes in ionic liquids catalysed by ruthenium porphyrins: a case of real catalyst recycling

An efficient cyclooligomerization of arylethynes, catalysed by ruthenium(II) porphyrins in environmentally friendly ionic liquids, with an effective recycling of the catalyst and easy isolation of the products is described

Highly selective biaryl formation by the cyclooligomerization of arylethynes catalyzed by rhodium and ruthenium porphyrins

Rhodium and ruthenium porphyrins catalyze the one-pot formation of biaryl derivatives from arylethynes with high selectivity, giving interesting derivatives not easy to obtain using other different methods; the porphyrin catalysts can be recovered and reused after several experiments with no change of activity

Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics Investigation of Mechanisms of Enhanced Oil Recovery via Nanoparticle-Surfactant Solutions

The enhancement in surfactant performance at downhole conditions in the presence of nanomaterials has fascinated researchers’ interest regarding the applications of nanoparticle-surfactant (NPS) fluids as novel enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. However, the governing EOR mechanisms of hydrocarbon recovery using NPS solutions are not yet explicit. Pore-scale visualization experiments clarify the dominant EOR mechanisms of fluid displacement and trapped/residual oil mobilization using NPS solutions. In this study, the influence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), silicon dioxide (SiO2), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles on the EOR properties of a conventional surfactant (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, SDBS) was investigated via experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation approaches. Oil recovery was reduced with increased temperatures and micromodel heterogeneity. Adding nanoparticles to SDBS solutions decreases the fingering and channeling effect and increases the recovery factor. The simulation prediction results agreed with the experimental results, which demonstrated that the lowest amount of oil (37.84%) was retained with the micromodel after MWCNT-SDBS flooding. The oil within the micromodel after Al2O3-SDBS and SiO2-SDBS flooding was 58.48 and 43.42%, respectively. At 80 °C, the breakthrough times for MWCNT-SDBS, Al2O3-SDBS, and SiO2-SDBS displacing fluids were predicted as 32.4, 29.3, and 21 h, respectively, whereas the SDBS flooding and water injections at similar situations were at 12.2 and 6.9 h, respectively. The higher oil recovery and breakthrough time with MWCNTs could be attributed to their cylindrical shape, promoting the MWCNT-SDBS orientation at the liquid–liquid and solid–liquid interfaces to reduce the oil–water interfacial tension and contact angles significantly. The study highlights the prevailing EOR mechanisms of NPS