Field test of a silver-impregnated ceramic water filter

The silver-impregnated Ceramic Water Purifier (CWP) is a low-cost household water filter that removes micro-biological contamination at the point of use. One thousand CWPs were distributed in twelve Cambodian villages to test their effectiveness under conditions of rural household use. Water quality tests (n=686) were conducted to measure filter performance. A control group comparison survey (n=201) and a baseline and follow-up survey (n=1,000) measured impacts on household health and expenses. Ninety-nine percent of CWPs produced water meeting WHO ‘low risk’ guidelines or better (10 or fewer E. coli per 100 ml). Households that used CWPs experienced significantly lower incidence of diarrhoea than households without CWPs. Households that had previously boiled their drinking water experienced savings in time and expenses after using the CWP. The CWP’s low production cost (US$5.50) opens the possibility of reaching large numbers of the rural poor through sustainable market channels

Quantum Two-Body Interactions in Harmonic Traps and a Study of Dynamic Optical Lattices

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Field test of a silver-impregnated ceramic water filter

The silver-impregnated Ceramic Water Purifier (CWP) is a low-cost household water filter that removes micro-biological contamination at the point of use. One thousand CWPs were distributed in twelve Cambodian villages to test their effectiveness under conditions of rural household use. Water quality tests (n=686) were conducted to measure filter performance. A control group comparison survey (n=201) and a baseline and follow-up survey (n=1,000) measured impacts on household health and expenses. Ninety-nine percent of CWPs produced water meeting WHO ‘low risk’ guidelines or better (10 or fewer E. coli per 100 ml). Households that used CWPs experienced significantly lower incidence of diarrhoea than households without CWPs. Households that had previously boiled their drinking water experienced savings in time and expenses after using the CWP. The CWP’s low production cost (US$5.50) opens the possibility of reaching large numbers of the rural poor through sustainable market channels

Arterial Stiffness and Subendocardial Viability Ratio: Temporal Responses to Ultra-Endurance Exercise

Ultra-endurance exercise causes significant cardiovascular stress, yet the vascular responses during recovery remain incompletely understood. This study examined the short- (12-18 hours) and longer-term (7 and 28 days) effects of a long-distance triathlon on arterial stiffness and subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR) in novice triathletes. Eleven participants (2 females, 9 males), novice to long-distance exercise events, completed cardiovascular assessments at baseline (pre-race), 12-18 hours post-race, and 7- and 28-days post-race. Measures included carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), augmentation index (Aix) and SEVR, obtained via applanation tonometry. PWV remained unchanged at all post-exercise time points (P = 0.310). Aix showed significant reduction at 7 days post-event (P = 0.024), though this effect was abolished after normalizing values to a heart rate of 75 beats per minute (Aix75, P = 0.162). SEVR decreased significantly 12-18 hours post-race (P </p

Additional file 1: of Estimation of energy balance and training volume during Army Initial Entry Training

Table S1. Example food log. (DOCX 20 kb

Histogram of the percentage of HFDs that belong to (i) set B2U1, duplicated in Btau 4.2 and single copy in UMD Bos taurus 3.1 (solid line), and (ii) set B1U2, single copy in Btau 4.2 and duplicated in UMD Bos taurus 3.1 (dashed line).

<p>The area under each curve integrates to 100%. The histograms were computed by mapping the WGS reads to both assemblies. The average WGS read coverage of the assemblies is 5.9. The solid vertical line is placed at 5.9/ln(2), the coverage at which it is equally likely that a region occurs in two copies versus one. 47 of the 69 regions (68%) in B1U2 are on the right hand side of the line and thus they are more likely to be true segmental duplications. 94% of the 3,111 HFDs in Btau 4.2 (set B2U1) are more likely to be unique in the genome and thus probably represent assembly errors in Btau 4.2.</p

Carbon Footprint Analysis of Gasoline and Diesel from Forest Residues and Algae using Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion Plus Fischer–Tropsch (IH² Plus cool GTL)

Life cycle analysis was conducted with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of renewable gasoline and diesel produced by the integrated hydropyrolysis and hydroconversion (IH²) and the new IH² plus Fischer–Tropsch (IH² Plus cool GTL) processes. This new process has a primary objective of increasing the yield of biofuel relative to original IH² process (increase of 26% to 38% wt) by processing the C1–C3 gas co-products through an integrated Fischer–Tropsch unit to produce liquid-range hydrocarbon biofuel. For both biofuel processes, woody biomass residues (forest logging and saw mills) and algae were investigated as feedstocks. The effect of the electricity generation mix of different states in the U.S. was also examined for algae cultivation. For woody residues as feedstock, life cycle GHG emission savings of about 86.8% and 63.3% were calculated for the IH² and optimized-IH² Plus cool GTL hydrocarbon biofuel, respectively, relative to fossil-derived fuel. For algae as feedstock, emission increases of about 140% and 103% were calculated for the IH² and optimized-IH² Plus cool GTL, respectively, relative to fossil-derived fuel. The electricity grid mix of the biorefinery location significantly impacts the GHG emissions of the processes for algae feedstock. GHG savings of about 42% can be potentially achieved if the plant was located in an area with a low GHG intensity grid. This study has shown that a significant biofuel yield boost can be achieved while retaining high GHG savings by using IH² Plus cool GTL for a woody feedstock

CSF/plasma levels, transthyretin stabilisation and safety of multiple doses of tolcapone in subjects with hereditary ATTR amyloidosis

To investigate the effect of tolcapone on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) transthyretin (TTR) tetramer stability in patients with hereditary transthyretin (ATTRv) amyloidosis. A total of 9 patients were enrolled in the study (3 men, 50.3 ± 14.4 years old). Three patients had central nervous system (CNS) involvement. Patients were assigned to receive tolcapone 300 mg/day or 600 mg/day for 7 days. Plasma and CSF were collected at baseline and 2 h after the final tolcapone dose. The mean CSF tolcapone and 3-O-Methyltolcapone (3-OMT) concentration were 39.4 ± 36.3 ng/mL and 26.0 ± 4.9 ng/mL, respectively, after 7 days of tolcapone dosing. Tolcapone and 3-OMT were detected in the CSF of patients with or without CNS symptoms. The mean total study drug (tolcapone + 3-OMT) to TTR molar ratio in CSF was 1.15 ± 0.59. Orally administered tolcapone significantly increased CSF TTR concentration and decreased monomer content under semi-denaturing conditions. Eight adverse events (AEs) were reported in 6 patients. All AEs were mild in severity and resolved. Tolcapone was able to cross the blood brain-barrier, highlighting its potential to decrease CNS manifestations of ATTRv amyloidosis. Tolcapone was well tolerated by patients with ATTRv amyloidosis.</p

MOESM1 of Validation of a 5-item tool to measure patient assessment of clinician compassion in the emergency department

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Distribution of the 5-item compassion measure question, “How often do you feel your clinician cared about your emotional or psychological well-being?”. Figure S2. Distribution of the 5-item compassion measure question, “How often do you feel your clinician was interested in you as a whole person?”. Figure S3. Distribution of the 5-item compassion measure question, “How often do you feel your clinician was considerate of your personal needs?”. Figure S4. Distribution of the 5-item compassion measure question, “How often do you feel your clinician was able to gain your trust?”. Figure S5. Distribution of the 5-item compassion measure question, “How often do you feel your clinician showed you care and compassion?”

Comparison of the three assemblies for the subset of the 21 BACs from the Rat genome.

<p>The “original Atlas with UMD Plausible” and “original Atlas with UMD reliable” assembly results obtained by substituting Phrap for PhrapUMD with UMD plausible and reliable overlaps respectively. The best assembly (the bottom line) uses PhrapUMD and UMD reliable overlaps utilizing the 2-pass approach described in the “<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0001836#s2" target="_blank">Methods</a>” section. It has almost 3% more sequence matching finished sequence than original Atlas with Phrap at less than 1/4 the original base error rate.</p