1,221 research outputs found

    Recent Creation and Worldwide Flood: The Perfect Agreement Between Biblical Chronology, Recorded History, and Other Extra-biblical Geochronometers

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    By careful study, the Bible gives us an almost exact chronology from the Cross back to the Genesis Flood and to Creation, which is then shown to be in complete agreement with other historical and archaeological data as well as with all reliable geochronometers known today

    William, an Englishman (1919) and the Collapse of Cicely Hamiltonā€™s Pre-war Meliorism

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    William, an Englishman is a novel written in a tent near the French front by a ā€˜non-combatantā€™: the wartime volunteer nurse, postal overseer and theatrical performer Cicely Hamilton. A well-known playwright, actress, suffrage militant, polemical essayist before the conflict, Hamilton, nowadays largely overlooked, performed here a post-mortem exploration of some influential attitudes which were transformed by the experience of war. Coming from someone who had been particularly active on the British radical scene, the textā€™s denunciation of social progress, pacifism, internationalism, and even votes for women as naive ideals may appear unexpected. She drew from long personal knowledge as well as contemporary documentation to write a novel that, while not untouched by sympathy for her characters, is often brutal. The collapse of Hamiltonā€™s previous political optimism, her (self-ironical) criticism of any belief in the perfectibility of human beings may come as a shock even today. But those familiar with Senlis (1917) might have anticipated Hamiltonā€™s sombre 1919 text. ā€˜Modern warfare is so monstrous, allengrossing and complex, that there is a sense, and a very real sense, in which hardly a civilian stands outside it; where the strife is to the death with an equal opponent the non-combatant ceases to exist.ā€™ The abuse and strategic bombing of civilian populations, the collapse of former distinctions between combatants and non-combatants, the mobilization of almost entire nations were early on denounced by the writer. ā€˜No modern nation could fight for its life with its men in uniform only; it must mobilize, nominally or not, every class of its population for a struggle, too great and too deadly for the combatant to carry alone.ā€™ (Senlis 34) Her discerning eye read the Great War for what it was: a conflict which was leaving no domain of social, economic and political life unsullied, a total war.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

    PPE unmasked: why health-care workers in Australia are inadequately protected against coronavirus

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    In Victoria, more than 1,100 health-care workers have now been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Some 11% of active cases are workers in the health-care sector. Health-care workers are reported to be among those fighting for life in Victorian intensive care units

    Qualitative website analysis of information on birth after caesarean section

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    Date of Acceptance: 10/08/2015 Ā© 2015 Peddie et al.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    Geomagnetic Field Behavior at High Latitudes from a Paleomagnetic Record from Eltanin Core 27-21 in the Ross Sea Sector, Antarctica

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    We present a high-resolution paleomagnetic record from 682 discrete samples from Eltanin 27-21 (69.03Ā°S 179.83Ā°E), a 16-meter long piston core recovered in 1968 at a water depth of 3456 meters by the USNS Eltanin as part of Operation Deep Freeze. After removal of a low-coercivity overprint, most samples yield stable characteristic remanent magnetization directions. The downhole variation in the magnetic inclination provides a well-resolved magnetostratigraphy from the Brunhes Chron (0-0.78 Ma), through the Reunion Subchron (2.128-2.148 Ma), and into Chron C2r.2r. The sedimentation rates are sufficiently high that even short-term geomagnetic features, like the Cobb Mountain excursion, are resolved. The record from Eltanin 27-21 provides new insights into the behavior of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes, about which very little is currently known. Using the variability in the inclinations during stable polarity intervals, we estimate that the dispersion in the paleomagnetic pole position over the past ~2 Myr is 30.3Ā°Ā±4.3Ā°, which is significantly greater than observed at low to mid latitude sites. The higher dispersion observed at Eltanin 27-21 is consistent with numerical modeling of the geodynamo. That modeling has shown that polar vortices can develop in the Earthā€™s core within the tangent cylinder, defined as the cylinder coaxial with the Earthā€™s rotation axis and tangent to the inner core/outer core boundary. The polar vortices produce vigorous fluid motion in the core, which creates greater geomagnetic field variability above the tangent cylinder at the surface of the Earth. The tangent cylinder intersects the Earthā€™s surface in the polar regions at 69.6Ā° latitude, which is very close to the latitude of Eltanin 27-21

    Prevalence of bacterial contamination of powdered infant feeds in a hospital enviroment

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    Background. The study arose as part of a best-practice nutrition model regarding the introduction of ready-to-use (RTU) infant feeds in place of powdered infant feeds (PIFs) as a standard formula for infants under the age of 1 year who are unable to be breastfed. Internationally and locally there is grave concern regarding the safety and efficacy of mixing PIFs, especially in a hospital setting, and the resultant bacterial contamination causing enteric infections, especially in premature, immunocompromised and sick infants. Objective. To evaluate the prevalence of bacterial contamination of PIFs given to infants at Red Cross War Memorial Childrenā€™s Hospital, Cape Town. Methods. Quantitative levels of bacterial contamination were determined and were expressed as colony-forming units (CFUs) per millilitre of sample. Aliquots of milk were inoculated onto agar, and the milk samples were then incubated at 25o C overnight (N = 10), 30o C overnight (N = 48) and 30o C for 6 hours (N = 34). Post-incubation milk samples were cultured again. Contamination was defined as any positive culture before administration (i.e. pre incubation) or > 102 CFU/ ml after administration (i.e. post incubation). Results. Fifty samples of PIFs (N = 82) were contaminated pre incubation, with 25/82 samples (30.4%) being heavily contaminated (ā‰„ 104 CFU/ml). Post incubation, 43/92 samples (46.7%) were contaminated with > 102 CFU/ml. The acidified PIFs appeared to have some bactericidal effect against some of the organisms, but not all. Conclusions. RTU infant feeds are sterile and are recommended for use in all hospitalised infants. The results of this study indicate that even when milk is prepared in a controlled environment there is significant bacterial contamination of PIFs post production. As RTU feeds are now readily available in South Africa every attempt should be made to use a sterile RTU system for hospitalised infant

    Efficiency of respirator filter media against diesel particulate matter: a comparison study using two diesel particulate sources

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    Diesel engines have been a mainstay within many industries since the early 1900s. Exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM) is a major issue in many industrial workplaces given the potential for serious health impacts to exposed workers; including the potential for lung cancer and adverse irritant and cardiovascular effects. Personal respiratory protective devices are an accepted safety measure to mitigate worker exposure against the potentially damaging health impacts of DPM. To be protective, they need to act as effective filters against carbon and other particulates. In Australia, the filtering efficiency of respiratory protective devices is determined by challenging test filter media with aerosolised sodium chloride to determine penetration at designated flow rates. The methodology outlined in AS/NZS1716 (Standards Australia International Ltd and Standards New Zealand 2012. Respiratory protective devices. Sydney/Wellington: SAI Global Limited/Standards New Zealand) does not account for the differences between characteristics of workplace contaminants like DPM and sodium chloride such as structure, composition, and particle size. This study examined filtering efficiency for three commonly used AS/NZS certified respirator filter models, challenging them with two types of diesel emissions; those from a diesel generator and a diesel engine. Penetration through the filter media of elemental carbon (EC), total carbon (TC), and total suspended particulate (TSP) was calculated. Results indicate that filtering efficiency assumed by P2 certification in Australia was achieved for two of the three respirator models for DPM generated using the small diesel generator, whilst when the larger diesel engine was used, filtering efficiency requirements were met for all three filter models. These results suggest that the testing methodology specified for certification of personal respiratory protective devices by Standards Australia may not ensure adequate protection for respirator users against DPM under all circumstances of diesel generated particles

    Are respiratory protection standards protecting worker health against ultrafine diesel particulate matter emissions? An Australian perspective

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    Poster presentation made at the 20th ETH-Conference on Combustion Generated Nanoparticles, 13-16 June 2016, Zurich, Switzerland. Aim: Ultrafine diesel engine emissions are known to cause adverse health impacts including lung cancer, cardiovascular and irritant effects (World Health Organisation 2012). Respiratory protective devices are commonly used to mitigate worker exposure to many hazardous contaminants, especially in heavy industry such as mining and refining. Current standards to evaluate penetration through respirator filter media may not consider ultrafine particles due to the diameter of the challenge aerosol and the detection limit of the instrument (Eninger et al. 2008). Nor do they test penetration at flow rates representative of moderate to heavy work rates. Research is currently being undertaken at the University of Wollongong, Australia, to develop a method to measure penetration through respirator filter media using diesel emissions, rather than the standard challenge aerosol of NaCl, at flow rates consistent with moderate to heavy work rates. Methods: Emissions from a Detroit D706 LTE diesel engine were fed into an experimental chamber which was purpose built for the study. Penetration through a range of commonly used respirator filters in Australian workplaces was determined by particle count at diameters ranging from 5.6 - 560nm, using an Engine Emissions Particle Sizer (EEPS). Penetration was also measured by mass of Elemental Carbon, using NIOSH 5040. Flow rates were as designated in AS/NZS 1716 (Standards Australia International Ltd & Standards New Zealand 2012) and ISO DIS 16975 - 1.2 Work Rates 2 and 3 (ISO 2015), consistent with moderate to heavy work rates. Results and Conclusions: A method has been developed and validated and a pilot study completed. Initial findings indicate penetration exceeded standards specified limits for filtering efficiency for a number of filters for the size range \u3c50 \u3enm, when measured as a function of particle count. Penetration through the filters was found to increase as flow rate increases. These results differed from the penetration by mass of elemental carbon through the respirator filters, using a paired samples t-test at a significance level of 0.05. This research is relevant as it has been postulated that ultrafine particles may contribute to adverse cardiovascular mortality and morbidity associated with diesel engine emissions (Martinelli, Olivieri & Girelli 2013) hence it is important to determine if these smaller size particles are penetrating through respirator filter media and may be inhaled by workers

    Prevalence of bacterial contamination of powdered infant feeds in a hospital environment

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    Background The study arose as part of a nutritionĀ model regarding the introduction of ready-to-use (RTU) infantĀ feeds in place of powdered infant feeds (PIFs) as a standardĀ formula for infants under the age of 1 year who are unable toĀ be breastfed. Internationally and locally there is grave concernĀ regarding the safety and efficacy of PIFs, especially inĀ a hospital setting, and the resultant bacterial contaminationĀ causing enteric infections, in premature,Ā immunocompromised and sick infants.Objective. To evaluate the of bacterial contaminationĀ of PIPs given to infants at Red Cross War Memorial Children'sĀ Hospital, Cape Town.Methods. Quantitative levels of bacterial contaminationĀ were determined and were expressed as colony-formingĀ units (CFUs) per millilitre of sample. Aliquots of milk wereĀ inoculated onto agar, and the milk samples were thenĀ incubated at 25Ā°C overnight (N = 10), 30Ā°C overnight (N = 48)Ā and 30Ā°C for 6 hours (N 34). Post-incubation milk samples were cultured againĀ Contamination was defined as any positive cultureĀ administration (i.e. pre incubation) or> 102 CFU/ ml afterĀ administration (i.e. post incubation).Results. Fifty samples of PIFs (N 82) were contaminatedĀ pre incubation, with (30.4%) being heavilyĀ contaminated(> 104 CFU /ml). Post incubation, 43/92 samplesĀ (46.7%) were contaminated with> 102 CFU /mi. The acidifiedĀ PIFs appeared to have some bactericidal effect against some ofĀ the organisms, but not all.Conclusions. RTU infant feeds are sterile and are recommendedĀ for use in all hospitalised infants. The results of this studyĀ indicate that even when milk is prepared in a controlledĀ environment there is bacterial contarnination ofĀ PIFs post production. As feeds are now readily availableĀ in South Africa every attempt should be made to use a sterileĀ RTU system for hospitalised infants

    Have you got your head in the sand? Respirable crystalline exposures of restorative stonemasons

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    Restoration stonemasons play a vital role in preserving culturally significant heritage buildings and the majority of culturally significant buildings in Sydney are constructed using Sydney sandstone, with an average silica content of 75%. Stonemasons conducting the close inspection required for precision sandstone grinding restoration works are considered at significant risk of exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS). An occupational hygiene survey was conducted to assess the risk of RCS exposure of restoration stonemasons conducting various tasks. Exposure monitoring for respirable dust (RD) and RCS was undertaken and the task of grinding sandstone determined as the highest exposure risk. \u27Spinning\u27 and \u27Chopping out\u27 tasks were identified as \u27high risk\u27 activities with excessive exposures of 4, 6 and 12 mg/m3, well above the workplace exposure standard (WES) of 0.1 mg/m3. Short duration task monitoring was conducted to better evaluate worker exposures and job rotation during the highest risk grinding task was not determined as a suitable control to reduce stonemason exposures. A trial was undertaken using on-tool dust collecting shrouds attached to local exhaust ventilation (LEV) system to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability to grinding tasks, with a 99% exposure reduction achieved. Reducing stonemason exposures below the WES was still not possible for grinding tasks; and numerous control measures were recommended to ensure workers are not exposed to concentrations of RCS likely to cause risk to health. Implementation of a combination of control measures is essential in reducing RCS exposure risk. Controls selected in line with the hierarchy of controls include:- mini enclosures, wet methods of dust suppression, on-tool dust collection shrouds and local exhaust ventilation (LEV); along with appropriate respiratory protection commensurate to exposure and powered air purifying respirators (PAPR) when grinding sandstone. Stonemasons grinding sandstone are considered at high risk of RCS exposure. They were encouraged to participate in equipment trials and evaluate their effectiveness. The more informed the stonemasons became, the more inspired they were to reduce their RCS exposure and integrate small, effective changes during sandstone restoration activities. Utilising knowledge from industry experts was invaluable in ensuring a successful trial, and gaining the confidence of the cohort. Throughout the risk assessment process, the stonemasons increased their knowledge and understanding of RCS
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