Optimization of the pentachlorophenol adsorption by organo-clays based on response surface methodology

The aim of this study is to optimize the adsorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) using an organo-clay under the response surface methodology. The adsorbent was selected from a montmorillonite exchanged by various cations, such as Fe3+, Al3+, Zn2+, Mg2+, Na+ , and modified by bromide cetyltrimethylammonium (CTAB) as surfactant. The obtained organo-montmorillonite was characterized using several techniques, such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and nitrogen adsorption, performed at −196 ◦C. The results showed an increase in basal space from 1.65 to 1.88 nm and a decrease in the specific surface and pore volume, with an increase in pore diameter, including the presence of characteristic bands of -CH2 - and -CH3 - groups at 2926 and 2854 cm−1 in the FTIR spectrum after the modification. The optimization of PCP removal by clay adsorbents is achieved using the response surface methodology (RSM) with a four-factor central composite model, including pH of solution, mass of adsorbent, contact time, and initial concentration. The results proved the validity of the regression model, wherein the adsorption capacity reaches its maximum value of 38 mg/g at a lower adsorbent mass of 20 mg, pH of 6, contact time (tc) of 5 h, and initial concentration of 8 mg/L.S.E.M. thanks the Universidad Pública de Navarra for a doctoral grant. A.G. also thanks Banco Santander for funding through the Research Intensification Program

Postoperative complications and waiting time for surgical intervention after radiologically guided drainage of intraabdominal abscess in patients with Crohn’s disease.

Background In patients with active Crohn’s disease (CD), treatment of intra-abdominal abscess usually comprises antibiotics and radiologically guided percutaneous drainage (PD) preceding surgery. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk of postoperative complications and identify the optimal time interval for surgical intervention after PD. Methods A multicentre, international, retrospective cohort study was carried out. Details of patients with diagnosis of CD who underwent ultrasonography- or CT-guided PD were retrieved from hospital records using international classification of disease (ICD-10) diagnosis code for CD combined with procedure code for PD. Clinical variables were retrieved and the following outcomes were measured: 30-day postoperative overall complications, intra-abdominal septic complications, unplanned intraoperative adverse events, surgical-site infections, sepsis and pathological postoperative ileus, in addition to abscess recurrence. Patients were categorized into three groups according to the length of the interval from PD to surgery (1–14 days, 15–30 days and more than 30 days) for comparison of outcomes. Results The cohort comprised 335 CD patients with PD followed by surgery. Median age was 33 (i.q.r. 24–44) years, 152 (45.4 per cent) were females, and median disease duration was 9 (i.q.r. 3.6–15) years. Overall, the 30-day postoperative complications rate was 32.2 per cent and the mortality rate was 1.5 per cent. After adjustment for co-variables, older age (odds ratio 1.03 (95 per cent c.i. 1.01 to 1.06), P < 0.012), residual abscess after PD (odds ratio 0.374 (95 per cent c.i. 0.19 to 0.74), P < 0.014), smoking (odds ratio 1.89 (95 per cent c.i. 1.01 to 3.53), P = 0.049) and low serum albumin concentration (odds ratio 0.921 (95 per cent c.i. 0.89 to 0.96), P < 0.001) were associated with higher rates of postoperative complications. A short waiting interval, less than 2 weeks after PD, was associated with a high incidence of abscess recurrence (odds ratio 0.59 (95 per cent c.i. 0.36 to 0.96), P = 0.042). Conclusion Smoking, low serum albumin concentration and older age were significantly associated with postoperative complications. An interval of at least 2 weeks after successful PD correlated with reduced risk of abscess recurrence.post-print664 K

Drawing Down Retirement Financial Savings: A Welfare Analysis using French data

Bravo, J. M., & Freitas, N. E. M. D. (2021). Drawing Down Retirement Financial Savings: A Welfare Analysis using French data. In 2021 The 5th International Conference on E-Commerce, E-Business and E-Government (ICEEG '21) (pp. 152-158). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3466029.3466041 -------------------------------------------------------------- Funding Information: Najat El Mekkaoui acknowledges support by Groupama Gan Vie, Groupama Asset Management and Deloitte. Jorge M. Bravo acknowledges financial support by Portuguese national funds through FCT under the project UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 ACM.In recent decades, most countries have responded to increased longevity, population ageing, and low market returns with systemic and/or gradual parametric pension reforms. The trend towards individual accounts in public and private funded pension schemes augmented the importance of studying the decumulation phase of pensions. This paper uses a simulation design to empirically investigate the individual welfare generated from alternative annuitization and self-managed fixed, variable and hybrid drawdown strategies. A time-separable utility function is used to represent an individual's preferences towards consumption and bequest, risk aversion and intertemporal discounting and to quantitively assess the range of retirement outcomes from competing decumulation designs. The setting comprises a stochastic mortality and investment risk framework calibrated to French interest rate, stock market and mortality data from 2010 to 2019. The results show that self-managed variable decumulation strategies may generate higher income at the expense of high risk taking, more volatile income streams and no longevity insurance. Annuitization strategies involving longevity-linked life annuities and hybrid solutions provide higher expected lifetime utility at the expense of bequest motives.authorsversionpublishe

Las "Músicas" de Augusto Villabrille (Clotaldo)

Copia digital. Valladolid : Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 2009-201

Watchful Waiting After Radiological Guided Drainage of Intra-abdominal Abscess in Patients With Crohn’s Disease Might Be Associated With Increased Rates of Stoma Construction.

Background: Management of spontaneous intra-abdominal abscess (IAA) in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) with radiologically guided percutaneous drainage (PD) was debated. Methods: This is a secondary analysis from a multicenter, retrospective cohort study of all the patients with CD who underwent PD followed by surgery at 19 international tertiary centers. Results: Seventeen patients (4.8%) who did not undergo surgery after PD were compared to those who had PD followed by surgical intervention 335/352 (95.2%). Patients who had PD without surgery were those with longer disease duration, more frequently had previous surgery for CD (laparotomies/laparoscopies), enteric fistula, on steroid treatment before and continue to have it after PD. Patients who had PD without subsequent surgical resection had a higher risk of stoma construction at later stages 8/17 (47.1%) versus 90/326 (27.6%) (P < .01). Patients with PD with no subsequent surgery had numerically higher rates of abscess recurrence 5/17 (29.4%) compared to those who had PD followed by surgery 45/335 (13.4%) the difference was not statistically significant (P = .07). Conclusions: Even with the low number of patients enrolled in this study who had PD of IAA without subsequent surgery, the findings indicate a markedly worse prognosis in terms of recurrence, length of stay, readmission, and stoma construction. Watchful waiting after PD to treat patients with spontaneous IAA might be indicated in selected patients with poor health status or poor prognostic factors.post-print179 K

An international assessment of surgeon practices in abdominal wound closure and surgical site infection prevention by the European Society for Coloproctology

Abdominal wound; Incisional hernia; Surgical site infectionFerida abdominal; Hèrnia incisional; Infecció del lloc quirúrgicHerida abdominal; Hernia incisional; Infección del sitio quirúrgicoAim The burden of abdominal wound failure can be profound. Recent clinical guidelines have highlighted the heterogeneity of laparotomy closure techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate current midline closure techniques and practices for prevention of surgical site infection (SSI). Method An online survey was distributed in 2021 among the membership of the European Society of Coloproctology and its partner societies. Surgeons were asked to provide information on how they would close the abdominal wall in three specific clinical scenarios and on SSI prevention practices. Results A total of 561 consultants and trainee surgeons participated in the survey, mainly from Europe (n = 375, 66.8%). Of these, 60.6% identified themselves as colorectal surgeons and 39.4% as general surgeons. The majority used polydioxanone for fascial closure, with small bite techniques predominating in clean-contaminated cases (74.5%, n = 418). No significant differences were found between consultants and trainee surgeons. For SSI prevention, more surgeons preferred the use of mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) alone over MBP and oral antibiotics combined. Most surgeons preferred 2% alcoholic chlorhexidine (68.4%) or aqueous povidone-iodine (61.1%) for skin preparation. The majority did not use triclosan-coated sutures (73.3%) or preoperative warming of the wound site (78.5%), irrespective of level of training or European/non-European practice. Conclusion Abdominal wound closure technique and SSI prevention strategies vary widely between surgeons. There is little evidence of a risk-stratified approach to wound closure materials or techniques, with most surgeons using the same strategy for all patient scenarios. Harmonization of practice and the limitation of outlying techniques might result in better outcomes for patients and provide a stable platform for the introduction and evaluation of further potential improvements

Photocatalytic properties of sisal fiber coated with nano titanium dioxide

Molded sisal fibers dip-coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were physico-chemical characterized and tested for the photocatalytic treatment of textile wastewaters. The X-Ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed uniform TiO2 nanoparticles deposition in the anatase phase with and average diameter of 32 nm. The sisal/TiO2 nanocomposite exhibits a remarkable photodegradation yield of methylene blue solution (92%) maintaining a good efficiency even after 5 washing cycles (70%). The nanocomposite also exhibits a remarkable fast photo-induced hydrophilicity decreasing the contact angle from 140° to 6° after 7 minutes of UV exposure. Sisal fibers revealed to be a promising substrate for TiO2 nanocomposites in wastewater treatment due to its low cost, low density, high specific strength and modulus, no health risk, easy availability and renewability.(undefined

Kafirin structure and functionality

The structural and functional properties of kafirins are reviewed. Three classes of kafirin: the a, ß and ? forms have been identified at the protein level and one, the d, has been identified only at the gene and transcript levels. All forms show high homology with the equivalent zein proteins. By analogy with the zeins it is believed that the a-kafirins probably have an extended hairpin structure in solution, comprising elements of a-helix, ß-sheet and turns folded back on itself. Kafirins are the most hydrophobic of the prolamins as shown by their solubility, and calculated hydration free energies. The proteins exhibit extensive cross-linking by disulphide bonds and on cooking form indigestible aggregates which are not solubilised by reduction of disulphide bonds. In spite of continuing studies, the reasons for the low digestibility of the protein remain uncertain and there may be several factors involved. Other research has shown that kafirins may have non-food uses and may be used to form films

Measurement of fractionated plasma metanephrines for exclusion of pheochromocytoma: Can specificity be improved by adjustment for age?

BACKGROUND: Biochemical testing for pheochromocytoma by measurement of fractionated plasma metanephrines is limited by false positive rates of up to 18% in people without known genetic predisposition to the disease. The plasma normetanephrine fraction is responsible for most false positives and plasma normetanephrine increases with age. The objective of this study was to determine if we could improve the specificity of fractionated plasma measurements, by statistically adjusting for age. METHODS: An age-adjusted metanephrine score was derived using logistic regression from 343 subjects (including 33 people with pheochromocytoma) who underwent fractionated plasma metanephrine measurements as part of investigations for suspected pheochromocytoma at Mayo Clinic Rochester (derivation set). The performance of the age-adjusted score was validated in a dataset of 158 subjects (including patients 23 with pheochromocytoma) that underwent measurements of fractionated plasma metanephrines at Mayo Clinic the following year (validation dataset). None of the participants in the validation dataset had known genetic predisposition to pheochromocytoma. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the age-adjusted metanephrine score was the same as that of traditional interpretation of fractionated plasma metanephrine measurements, yielding a sensitivity of 100% (23/23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 85.7%, 100%). However, the false positive rate with traditional interpretation of fractionated plasma metanephrine measurements was 16.3% (22/135, 95% CI, 11.0%, 23.4%) and that of the age-adjusted score was significantly lower at 3.0% (4/135, 95% CI, 1.2%, 7.4%) (p < 0.001 using McNemar's test). CONCLUSION: An adjustment for age in the interpretation of results of fractionated plasma metanephrines may significantly decrease false positives when using this test to exclude sporadic pheochromocytoma. Such improvements in false positive rate may result in savings of expenditures related to confirmatory imaging

Los sistemas de información en la toma de decisiones gerenciales en las empresas comerciales de Portoviejo: Information systems on managerial decision making in the commercial enterprises of Portoviejo

&nbsp; El presente estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la importancia de los sistemas de información en la toma de decisiones gerenciales en las empresas comerciales de Portoviejo, mediante la aplicación de encuestas a gerentes y directivos a través de un conjunto de preguntas. La metodología aplicada en la investigación permitió describir con exactitud la realidad del problema. El estudio demuestra en qué medida las empresas comerciales de Portoviejo han innovado sus negocios implementando algún sistema de información gerencial y cuán significativa ha sido esta herramienta tecnológica a la hora de tomar decisiones gerenciales en las empresas para renovar su estrategia de negocio y sobrevivir en un contexto donde la calidad y la agilidad son requisitos de competitividad. &nbsp; Palabras clave: Innovación, Cambios Tecnológicos, Estrategias de negocios, Gestión, Competitividad. &nbsp; ABSTRACT This study aims to analyze the importance of the information systems and their impact on managerial decision making in the commercial enterprises of Portoviejo with the implementation of surveys to managers and senior executives applying a set of questions. The methodology applied in the research allowed the researchers to describe accurately the problem. The study demonstrates how commercial enterprises of Portoviejo have changed their business, implementing a management information system and how significant this technological tool is when making managerial decisions in its organization, to change their business strategy and survive in a context where quality and quickness are requirements of competitiveness. &nbsp; Key words: Innovation, Change of Technology, Business Strategies, Management, Competitiveness