Preparation and Application of Electrodes in Capacitive Deionization (CDI): a State-of-Art Review

As a promising desalination technology, capacitive deionization (CDI) have shown practicality and cost-effectiveness in brackish water treatment. Developing more efficient electrode materials is the key to improving salt removal performance. This work reviewed current progress on electrode fabrication in application of CDI. Fundamental principal (e.g. EDL theory and adsorption isotherms) and process factors (e.g. pore distribution, potential, salt type and concentration) of CDI performance were presented first. It was then followed by in-depth discussion and comparison on properties and fabrication technique of different electrodes, including carbon aerogel, activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, graphene and ordered mesoporous carbon. Finally, polyaniline as conductive polymer and its potential application as CDI electrode-enhancing materials were also discussed

Web-Based Parametric Effort Estimation for Mobile Application Development

Estimation methods are continuously being adapted to obtain better and clearer estimations needed to achieve development goals. Some estimation methods were invented before the modern mobile application technology that is currently available. Thus, these methods are unable to cater to the requirements for estimating modern mobile application features. The objective of this paper is to propose a web-based system as a method to estimate the effort and cost of developing a mobile application. The key idea behind this study is to identify cost drivers that can be applied in mobile application development through literature review. From the analysis, 19 cost drivers are found to fit the vision of this study. In addition, this study also seeks to investigate the price range of cost drivers acquired from existing similar systems. The total price range is accumulated, and the mean value of each cost driver is obtained, which is then inserted further into the new estimation metric. The proposed system is then evaluated by comparing the obtained results with six similar systems according to basic user needs requirements in an application. The results demonstrate that the proposed system is a more enhanced cost estimation software that contains more cost driver options, which users can utilize to estimate mobile application development costs

Antibiotic use among hospitalised patients in Sierra Leone: a national point prevalence survey using the WHO survey methodology

Objective Inappropriate use of antibiotics is a major driver of antibiotic resistance. A few studies conducted in Africa have documented that about half of hospitalised patients who receive antibiotics should not have received them. A few hospital-based studies that have been conducted in Sierra Leone have documented a high usage of antibiotics in hospitals. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide point prevalence survey on antibiotic use among hospitalised patients in Sierra Leone.Design We conducted a hospital-based, cross-sectional survey on the use of antibiotics using the WHO point prevalence survey methodology.Setting The study was conducted in 26 public and private hospitals that are providing inpatient healthcare services.Participants All patients admitted to paediatric and adult inpatient wards before or at 08:00 on the survey date were enrolled.Outcome measures Prevalence of antibiotic use, antibiotics Access, Watch and Reserve (AWaRe) categorisation, indication for antibiotic use prevalence and proportion of bacteria culture done.Results Of the 1198 patient records reviewed, 883 (73.7%, 95% CI 71.1% to 76.2%) were on antibiotics. Antibiotic use was highest in the paediatric wards (306, 85.7%), followed by medical wards (158, 71.2%), surgical wards (146, 69.5%), mixed wards (97, 68.8%) and lowest in the obstetrics and gynaecology wards (176, 65.7%). The most widely prescribed antibiotics were metronidazole (404, 22.2%), ceftriaxone (373, 20.5%), ampicillin (337, 18.5%), gentamicin (221, 12.1%) and amoxicillin (90, 5.0%). Blood culture was only done for one patient and antibiotic treatments were given empirically. The most common indication for antibiotic use was community-acquired infection (484, 51.9%) followed by surgical prophylaxis (222, 23.8%).Conclusion There was high usage of antibiotics in hospitals in Sierra Leone as the majority of patients admitted received an antibiotic. This has the potential to increase the burden of antibiotic resistance in the country. We, therefore, recommend the establishment of hospital antimicrobial stewardship programmes according to the WHO core components

A cross-sectional study on the prevalence, knowledge, attitude and practice of alcohol consumption among the population aged 13 years and above in longhouses Johnnie, Langgie and Hamdam, Kampung Sare, Sarikei from 14 February 2009 to 3 April 2009

In Malaysia, prevalence of binge drinking is more than 30% and is more common in rural area. No known available data regarding the prevalence, knowledge, attitude and practice of alcohol consumption among the population aged 13 years and above in Kampung Sare, Sarikei