Homogenising the design criteria of a community battery energy storage for better grid integration

Historically, minimum system demand has usually occurred overnight. However, in recent years, the increased penetration of rooftop photovoltaic systems (RPVs) has caused an even lower demand at midday, forcing some of the conventional generators to shut down only hours before the evening peak demand period. This further complicates the job of power system operators, who need to run the conventional generator at the minimum stable level at the midday low-demand period so that they can reliably supply power during the peak periods. Employing a community battery storage system can alleviate some of the technical issues caused by the high penetration of RPVs. This paper proposed a design criterion for community battery energy storage systems and employed the battery for the improvement of the duck curve profile and providing the desired level of peak-shaving. Furthermore, remote communities with high penetration of RPVs with a community battery energy storage can achieve the desired level of self-sufficiency. To this end, this study recommends and confirms an applicable design criterion for community battery energy storage. The study shows that the suitable size of community battery storage should be based on the community’s daily excess generation and consumption requirements. The results of various scenarios performed on the proposed design criterion show the extent to which the desired objectives of peak-shaving, duck curve mitigation, and self-sufficiency can be achieved

Strategy on Hepatitis B prevention among African undergraduate students of health sciences in Davangere, Karnataka India

Background: Hepatitis B is an inflammatory disease of the liver which is caused by Hepatitis B Virus. It is a global problem, with 66% of all the population living in areas where there are high levels of infections. Hepatitis B infection are due to lapses in the sterilization of instruments as well as improper waste management. Knowledge regarding Hepatitis B and safety precautions is needed to minimize the health care setting’s acquired infections among health personnel and students of health Sciences. Aim: The study was aimed at assessing the knowledge regarding the prevention of Hepatitis B among African Undergraduate students of Health Sciences in Davangere. Methodology: A cross sectional design was used for the study were 50 students were selected using purposive sampling. A validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were analyzed using median score and correlations. Results: The results indicated that majority (52%) of the respondents were between 22- 24years of age. The students of B.Pharm were 25 (50%), 38% MBBS and 12% B.Sc. Nursing. The overall median score on knowledge regarding hepatitis B Prevention was 13.0 out of maximum score of 29. The association between the knowledge on hepatitis B prevention strategy with level of study and course specialty was 0.74 P>0.05. Conclusion: The study concluded that the knowledge regarding Hepatitis B prevention among students was inadequate hence, recommends a similar study on a larger scale. Keywords: Knowledge; Prevention; Hepatitis B; Infection; African

Modeling the biomechanics of fetal movements

Fetal movements in the uterus are a natural part of development and are known to play an important role in normal musculoskeletal development. However, very little is known about the biomechanical stimuli that arise during movements in utero, despite these stimuli being crucial to normal bone and joint formation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to create a series of computational steps by which the forces generated during a kick in utero could be predicted from clinically observed fetal movements using novel cine-MRI data of three fetuses, aged 20–22 weeks. A custom tracking software was designed to characterize the movements of joints in utero, and average uterus deflection of 6.95±0.41 mm due to kicking was calculated. These observed displacements provided boundary conditions for a finite element model of the uterine environment, predicting an average reaction force of 0.52±0.15 N generated by a kick against the uterine wall. Finally, these data were applied as inputs for a musculoskeletal model of a fetal kick, resulting in predicted maximum forces in the muscles surrounding the hip joint of approximately 8 N, while higher maximum forces of approximately 21 N were predicted for the muscles surrounding the knee joint. This study provides a novel insight into the closed mechanical environment of the uterus, with an innovative method allowing elucidation of the biomechanical interaction of the developing fetus with its surroundings

Brain Tumors: Convection-Enhanced Delivery of Drugs (Method)

Delivery of therapeutic agents into the brain has been an ongoing challenge for many years. The poor prognosis for patient with primary malignant brain tumors treated with conventional techniques (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) has motivated the development of new strategies to deliver drugs into the brain. Local intracranial delivery of antineoplastic agents has appeared to be the most effective drug delivery technique into the central nervous system by circumventing the limitations imposed by the blood brain barrier (BBB). Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) is an alternative strategy to directly infuse drugs into brain tissue. This approach is based on continuous injection of the therapeutic agent under positive pressure via a catheter implanted into the brain. Convective transport driven by pressure gradient allows a widespread distribution of small and large drugs within the brain. In vivo experiments in rodents, cats and primates proved the efficacy of CED to deliver drugs into a targeted zone. However, clinical trials have reported frequent leakage phenomenon leading to mixed results for this delivery technique. A better optimization of operational parameters including infusion rate, catheter design, catheter placement and drug pharmacological formulation should allow achieving accurate and efficient delivery. In conjunction with CED, the use of nanocarriers to enhance drug pharmacokinetic behavior may help to achieve higher therapeutic index against tumor cells over healthy tissues. Additionally, the development of computer simulation to predict drug distribution and the real-time imaging for immediate assessment of convection efficiency may contribute to the CED improvement

Differential expression of HSP90β in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines after treatment with doxorubicin

Breast cancer is a complex, heterogeneous disease and one of the most common malignancies in women worldwide. The efficacy of chemotherapy as an important breast cancer treatment option has been severely limited because of the inherent or acquired resistance of cancer cells. The molecular chaperone heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) upregulated in response to cellular stress is required for functions such as conformational maturation, activation and stability in more than 200 client proteins, mostly of the signaling type. In this study, the expression of HSP90 isoforms including HSP90α and HSP90β in breast cancer cell lines before and after treatment with doxorubicin (DOX) was assessed. Material and Methods: The cell cytotoxicity of DOX in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines was determined using the MTT assay. Immunofluorescence and western blotting techniques were used to determine the expression of HSP90β in the cell lines before and after DOX treatment. Immunofluorescence was also conducted to ascertain the expression of HSP90α. Results: The MTT assay results showed that the MDAMB- 231 cells (IC50=14.521 μM) were more sensitive than the MCF-7 cells (IC50=16.3315 μM) to DOX. The immunofluorescence results indicated that the expression of HSP90α in both cell lines decreased after exposure to DOX. The western blot and immunofluorescence analyses showed that HSP90β expression decreased in the MCF-7 cells but increased in the MDAMB- 231 cells after DOX treatment. Conclusion: The obtained results suggested that HSP90α and HSP90β expression levels were reduced in the MCF-7 cells after exposure to DOX. In the MDA-MB-231 cells, HSP90α expression was reduced while HSP90β was found to be overexpressed following DOX treatment. © 2019 Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute

Self-assembly of micelles into designed networks

The EO20PO70EO20(molecular weight 5800) amphiphile as a template is to form dispersed micelle structures. Silver nanoparticles, as inorganic precursors synthesized by a laser ablation method in pure water, are able to produce the highly ordered vesicles detected by TEM micrography. The thickness of the outer layer of a micelle, formed by the silver nanoparticles interacting preferentially with the more hydrophilic EO20block, was around 3.5 nm. The vesicular structure ensembled from micelles is due to proceeding to the mixture of cubic and hexagonal phases

Motion-Compensation Techniques in Neonatal and Fetal MR Imaging

Fetal and neonatal MR imaging is increasingly used as a complementary diagnostic tool to sonography. MR imaging is an ideal technique for imaging fetuses and neonates because of the absence of ionizing radiation, the superior contrast of soft tissues compared with sonography, the availability of different contrast options, and the increased FOV. Motion in the normally mobile fetus and the unsettled, sleeping, or sedated neonate during a long acquisition will decrease image quality in the form of motion artifacts, hamper image interpretation, and often necessitate a repeat MR imaging to establish a diagnosis. This article reviews current techniques of motion compensation in fetal and neonatal MR imaging, including the following: 1) motion-prevention strategies (such as adequate patient preparation, patient coaching, and sedation, when required), 2) motion-artifacts minimization methods (such as fast imaging protocols, data undersampling, and motion-resistant sequences), and 3) motion-detection/correction schemes (such as navigators and self-navigated sequences, external motion-tracking devices, and postprocessing approaches) and their application in fetal and neonatal brain MR imaging. Additionally some background on the repertoire of motion of the fetal and neonatal patient and the resulting artifacts will be presented, as well as insights into future developments and emerging techniques of motion compensation

Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050

Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached$8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total,$40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this,$13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and$1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4$2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7$1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe