5 research outputs found
Hypercalcemia and Milk Alkali Syndrome: A Case Report
A triad of metabolic alkalosis, hypercalcemia and renal insufficiency constitutes the milk alkali syndrome. Elderly subjects, especially those on drugs that GFR are more prone to acquire this syndrome. Those who take calcium supplements have high chances of developing milk alkali syndrome and this stands amongst the top five causes of hypercalcemia. Herein we present a case of hypercalcemia who was taking only small amount of calcium supplements but had a few concomitant risk factors
Evidence and gap map report: Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) interventions for strengthening HIV prevention and research among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in lowâ and middleâincome countries (LMICs)
Abstract Background Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), aged 15â24 years, are disproportionately affected by HIV and other sexual and reproductive health (SRH) risks due to varying social, cultural, and economic factors that affect their choices and shape their knowledge, understanding, and practices with regard to their health. SocioâBehavioral Change Communication (SBCC) interventions targeted at strengthening the capabilities of individuals and their networks have supported the demand and uptake of prevention services and participation in biomedical research. However, despite growing global recognition of the domain, highâquality evidence on the effectiveness of SBCC remains scattered. This evidence and gap map (EGM) report characterizes the evidence base on SBCC interventions for strengthening HIV Prevention and Research among AGYW in lowâ and middleâincome countries (LMICs), identifying evidence gaps and outlining the scope of future research and program design. Objectives The objectives of the proposed EGM are to: (a) identify and map existing EGMs in the use of diverse SBCC strategies to strengthen the adoption of HIV prevention measures and participation in research among AGYW in LMICs and (b) identify areas where more interventions and evidence are needed to inform the design of future SBCC strategies and programs for AGYW engagement in HIV prevention and research. Methods This EGM is based on a comprehensive search of systematic reviews and impact evaluations corresponding to a range of interventions and outcomesâaimed at engaging AGYW in HIV prevention and research â that were published in LMICs from January 2000 to April 2021. Based on guidance for producing a Campbell Collaboration EGM, the intervention and outcome framework was designed in consultation with a group of experts. These interventions were categorized across four broad intervention themes: massâmedia, communityâbased, interpersonal, and Information Communication and Technology (ICT)/Digital Mediaâbased interventions. They were further subâcategorized into 15 intervention categories. Included studies looked at 23 unique behavioral and health outcomes such as knowledge attitude and skills, relationship dynamics, household dynamics, health care services, and health outcomes and research engagement. The EGM is presented as a matrix in which the rows are intervention categories/subâcategories, and the columns are outcome domains/subdomains. Each cell is mapped to an intervention targeted at outcomes. Additional filters like region, country, study design, age group, funding agency, influencers, population group, publication status, study confidence, setting, and year of publication have been added. Selection Criteria To be eligible, studies must have tested the effectiveness of SBCC interventions at engaging AGYW in LMICs in HIV prevention and research. The study sample must have consisted of AGYW between the ages of 15â24, as defined by UNAIDS. Both experimental (random assignment) and quasiâexperimental studies that included a comparison group were eligible. Relevant outcomes included those at the individual, influencer, and institutional levels, along with those targeting research engagement and preventionârelated outcomes. Results This EGM comprises 415 impact evaluations and 43 systematic reviews. Interventions like peerâled interactions, counseling, and community dialogues were the most dominant intervention subâtypes. Despite increased digital penetration use of media and technologyâdriven interventions are relatively less studied. Most of the interventions were delivered by peers, health care providers, and educators, largely in schoolâbased settings, and in many cases are part of sexâeducation curricula. Evidence across geographies was mostly concentrated in SubâSaharan Africa (70%). Most measured outcomes focused on diseaseârelated knowledge dissemination and enhancing awareness of available prevention options/strategies. These included messaging around consistent condom use, limiting sexual partners, routine testing, and awareness. Very few studies were able to include psychographic, social, and contextual factors influencing AGYW health behaviors and decisions, especially those measuring the impact of social and gender norms, relationship dynamics, and household dynamicsârelated outcomes. Outcomes related to engagement in the research were least studied. Conclusion This EGM highlights that evidence is heavily concentrated within the awarenessâintent spectrum of behavior change and gets lean for outcomes situated within the intentâaction and the actionâhabit formation spectrum of the behavior change continuum. Most of the evidence was concentrated on increasing awareness, knowledge, and building risk perception around SRH domains, however, fewer studies focused on strengthening the agency and selfâefficacy of individuals. Similarly, evidence on extrinsic factorsâsuch as strengthening social and community norms, relationships, and household dynamicsâthat determine individual thought and action such as negotiation and life skills were also found to be less populated. Few studies explore the effectiveness of these interventions across diverse AGYW identities, like pregnant women and new mothers, sex workers, and people living with HIV, leading to limited understanding of the use of these interventions across multiple user segments including key influencers such as young men, partners, families, religious leaders, and community elders was relatively low. There is a need for better quality evidence that accounts for the diversity of experiences within these populations to understand what interventions work, for whom, and toward what outcome. Further, the evidence for use of digital and massâmedia tools remains poorly populated. Given the increasing penetration of these tools and growing media literacy on one end, with widening genderâbased gaps on the other, it is imperative to gather more highâquality evidence on their effectiveness. Timely evidence generation can help leverage these platforms appropriately and enable intervention designs that are responsive to changing communication ecologies of AGYW. SBCC can play a critical role in helping researchers meaningfully engage and collaborate with communities as equal stakeholders, however, this remains poorly evidenced and calls for investigation and investment. A full list of abbreviations and acronyms are available in Supporting Information: Appendix F
Intermetallic Ni<sub>2</sub>Ta Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Highly Acidic Electrolytes
The
identification of materials capable of catalyzing the oxygen evolution
reaction (OER) in highly acidic electrolytes is a critical bottleneck
in the development of many water-splitting technologies. Bulk-scale
solid-state compounds can be readily produced using high-temperature
reactions and therefore used to expand the scope of earth-abundant
OER catalysts capable of operating under strongly acidic conditions.
Here, we show that high temperature arc melting and powder metallurgy
reactions can be used to synthesize electrodes consisting of intermetallic
Ni<sub>2</sub>Ta that can catalyze the OER in 0.50 M H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub>. Arc melted Ni<sub>2</sub>Ta electrodes evolve oxygen
at a current density of 10 mA/cm<sup>2</sup> for >66 h with corrosion
rates 2 orders of magnitude lower than that of pure Ni. The overpotential
required for pellets of polycrystalline Ni<sub>2</sub>Ta to produce
a current density of 10 mA/cm<sup>2</sup> is 570 mV. This strategy
can be generalized to include other first-row transition metals, including
intermetallic Fe<sub>2</sub>Ta and Co<sub>2</sub>Ta systems
Optimizing accuracy and efficacy in data-driven materials discovery for the solar production of hydrogen
The production of hydrogen fuels, via water splitting, is of practical
relevance for meeting global energy needs and mitigating the environmental
consequences of fossil-fuel-based transportation. Water photoelectrolysis has
been proposed as a viable approach for generating hydrogen, provided that
stable and inexpensive photocatalysts with conversion efficiencies over 10% can
be discovered, synthesized at scale, and successfully deployed (Pinaud et al.,
Energy Environ. Sci., 2013, 6, 1983). While a number of first-principles
studies have focused on the data-driven discovery of photocatalysts, in the
absence of systematic experimental validation, the success rate of these
predictions may be limited. We address this problem by developing a screening
procedure with co-validation between experiment and theory to expedite the
synthesis, characterization, and testing of the computationally predicted, most
desirable materials. Starting with 70,150 compounds in the Materials Project
database, the proposed protocol yielded 71 candidate photocatalysts, 11 of
which were synthesized as single-phase materials. Experiments confirmed
hydrogen generation and favorable band alignment for 6 of the 11 compounds,
with the most promising ones belonging to the families of alkali and
alkaline-earth indates and orthoplumbates. This study shows the accuracy of a
nonempirical, Hubbard-corrected density-functional theory method to predict
band gaps and band offsets at a fraction of the computational cost of hybrid
functionals, and outlines an effective strategy to identify photocatalysts for
solar hydrogen generation