Factors associated with compliance among users of solar water disinfection in rural Bolivia

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of childhood mortality, with an estimated 1.3 million deaths per year. Promotion of Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS) has been suggested as a strategy for reducing the global burden of diarrhoea by improving the microbiological quality of drinking water. Despite increasing support for the large-scale dissemination of SODIS, there are few reports describing the effectiveness of its implementation. It is, therefore, important to identify and understand the mechanisms that lead to adoption and regular use of SODIS. METHODS: We investigated the behaviours associated with SODIS adoption among households assigned to receive SODIS promotion during a cluster-randomized trial in rural Bolivia. Distinct groups of SODIS-users were identified on the basis of six compliance indicators using principal components and cluster analysis. The probability of adopting SODIS as a function of campaign exposure and household characteristics was evaluated using ordinal logistic regression models. RESULTS: Standardised, community-level SODIS-implementation in a rural Bolivian setting was associated with a median SODIS use of 32% (IQR: 17-50). Households that were more likely to use SODIS were those that participated more frequently in SODIS promotional events (OR = 1.07, 95%CI: 1.01-1.13), included women (OR = 1.18, 95%CI: 1.07-1.30), owned latrines (OR = 3.38, 95%CI: 1.07-10.70), and had severely wasted children living in the home (OR = 2.17, 95%CI: 1.34-3.49). CONCLUSIONS: Most of the observed household characteristics showed limited potential to predict compliance with a comprehensive, year-long SODIS-promotion campaign; this finding reflects the complexity of behaviour change in the context of household water treatment. However, our findings also suggest that the motivation to adopt new water treatment habits and to acquire new knowledge about drinking water treatment is associated with prior engagements in sanitary hygien and with the experience of contemporary family health concerns.Household-level factors like the ownership of a latrine, a large proportion of females and the presence of a malnourished child living in a home are easily assessable indicators that SODIS-programme managers could use to identify early adopters in SODIS promotion campaigns. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT0073149

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Characteristics Among a Clinical Sample of Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Youths in a Large California Metropolitan Area: a Descriptive Study

This study analyzes descriptive data among a clinical sample of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youths receiving mental health services in a large California metropolitan area. Among 118 urban AI/AN youths, mood disorders (41.5%) and adjustment disorder (35.4%) were the most common mental health diagnoses. Alcohol (69.2%) and marijuana (50.0%) were the most commonly used substances. Witnessing domestic violence (84.2%) and living with someone who had a substance abuse problem (64.7%) were reported. The majority of patients demonstrated various behavior and emotional problems. Enhancing culturally relevant mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention programs for urban AI/AN youth is suggested

Comparison of different techniques for characterizing the diesel injector internal dimensions

[EN] The geometry of certain parts of diesel injectors is key to the injection, atomization and fuel-air mixing phenomena. Small variations on the geometrical parameters may have a strong influence on the aforementioned processes. Thus, OEMs need to assess their manufacturing tolerances, whereas researchers in the field (both experimentalists and modelers) rely on the accuracy of a certain metrology technique for their studies. In the current paper, an investigation of the capability of different experimental techniques to determine the geometry of a modern diesel fuel injector has been performed. For this purpose, three main elements of the injector have been evaluated: the control volume inlet and outlet orifices, together with the nozzle orifices. While the direct observation of the samples through an optical microscope is only possible for the simplest pieces, both Computed Tomography Scanning and the visualization of silicone molds technique have proven their ability to characterize the most complex internal shapes corresponding to the internal injector elements. Indeed, results indicate that the differences observed among these methodologies for the determination of the control volume inlet orifice diameter and the nozzle orifice dimensions are smaller than the uncertainties related to the experimental techniques, showing that they are both equally accurate. This implies that the choice of a given technique for the particular application of determining the geometry of diesel injectors can be done on the basis of availability, intrusion and costs, rather than on its accuracy.This work was partly sponsored by "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad", of the Spanish Government, in the frame of the Project "Estudio de la interaccion chorro-pared en condiciones realistas de motor", Reference TRA2015-67679-c2-1-R.Salvador, FJ.; Gimeno, J.; De La Morena, J.; Carreres, M. (2018). Comparison of different techniques for characterizing the diesel injector internal dimensions. Experimental Techniques. 42(5):467-472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-018-0246-1S467472425Mobasheri R, Peng Z, Mostafa S (2012) Analysis the effect of advanced injection strategies on engine performance and pollutant emissions in a heavy duty DI-diesel engine by CFD modeling. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 33(1):59–69Dhar A, Agarwal AK (2015) Experimental investigations of the effect of pilot injection on performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of Karanja biodiesel fuelled CRDI engine. Energy Convers Manag 93:357–366Mohan B, Yang W, Chou SK (2013) Fuel injection strategies for performance improvement and emissions reduction in compression ignition engines—a review. Renew Sust Energ Rev 28(x):664–676Petrovic V, Bracanovic Z, Grozdanic B, Petrovic S, Sazhin S, Knezevic D (2015) The design of a full flow dilution tunnel with a critical flow venturi for the measurement of diesel engine particulate emission. FME Trans 43(2):99–106Ilić Z, Rasuo B, Jovanović M, Janković D (2013) Impact of changing quality of air/fuel mixture during flight of a piston engine aircraft with respect to vibration low frequency spectrum. FME Trans 41(1):25–32Luján JM, Tormos B, Salvador FJ, Galgar K (2009) Comparative analysis of a DI diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel blends during the European MVEG-A cycle: Preliminaru study I. Biomass & Bioenergy 33(6–7):941–947Postrioti L, Mariani F, Battistoni M (2012) Experimental and numerical momentum flux evaluation of high pressure diesel spray. Fuel 98:149–163Payri R, Salvador FJ, Gimeno J, Venegas O (2016) A technique to match the refractive index of different diesel fuels with the refractive index of transparent materials to improve the experimental visualization. Exp Tech 40(1):261–269Duran SP, Porter JM, Parker TE (2015) Ballistic imaging of diesel sprays using a picosecond laser: characterization and demonstration. Appl Opt 54(7):1743Payri R, Salvador FJ, Gimeno J et al (2011) Flow regime effects on non-cavitating injection nozzles over spray behavior. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 32(1):273–284Koukouvinis P, Gavaises M, Li J, Wang L (2016) Large Eddy simulation of diesel injector including cavitation effects and correlation to erosion damage. Fuel 175:26–39Som S, Aggarwal SK (2010) Effects of primary breakup modeling on spray and combustion characteristics of compression ignition engines. Combust Flame 157(6):1179–1193Salvador FJ, De la Morena J, Martínez-López J, Jaramillo D (2017) Assessment of compressibility effects on internal nozzle flow in diesel injectors at very high injection pressures. Energy Convers Manag 132:221–230Salvador FJ, Gimeno J, de la Morena J, Martí-Aldaraví P (2012) Using one-dimensional modelling to analyze the influence of the use of biodiesels on the dynamic behaviour of solenoid-operated injectors in common rail systems: Results of the simulation and discussion. Energy Convers Manag 54(1):122–132Taghavifar H, Khalilarya S, Jafarmadar S, Baghery F (2016) 3-D numerical consideration of nozzle structure on combustion and emission characteristics of DI diesel injector. Appl Math Model 40(19–20):8630–8646Edelbauer W (2017) Numerical simulation of cavitating injector flow and liquid spray break-up by combination of Eulerian–Eulerian and volume-of-fluid methods. Comput Fluids 144:19–33Salvador FJ, Carreres M, Jaramillo D, Martínez-López J (2015) Comparison of microsac and VCO diesel injector nozzles in terms of internal nozzle flow characteristics. Energy Convers Manag 103:284–299Salvador FJ, Martínez-López J, Romero JV, Roselló MD (2013) Study of the influence of the needle eccentricity on the internal flow in diesel injector nozzles by computational fluid dynamics calculations. Int J Comput Math 91, no. June:24–31Payri R, Salvador FJ, Carreres M, De la Morena J (Apr. 2016) Fuel temperature influence on the performance of a last generation common-rail diesel ballistic injector. Part II: 1D model development, validation and analysis. Energy Convers Manag 114:376–391Salvador FJ, Hoyas S, Novella R, Martinez-López J (2011) Numerical simulation and extended validation of two-phase compressible flow in diesel injector nozzles. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part-D-J Automob Eng 225(D4):545–563Satkoski C, Shaver G (2011) Piezoelectric fuel injection: pulse-to-pulse coupling and flow rate estimation. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 16(4):627–642Ferrari A, Mittica A (2016) Response of different injector typologies to dwell time variations and a hydraulic analysis of closely-coupled and continuous rate shaping injection schedules. Appl Energy 169:899–911Payri R, Salvador FJ, Gimeno J, De la Morena J (2011) Analysis of diesel spray atomization by means of a near-nozzle field visualization technique. At Sprays 21(9):753–774Li T, Moon S, Sato K, Yokohata H (Feb. 2017) A comprehensive study on the factors affecting near-nozzle spray dynamics of multi-hole GDI injectors. Fuel 190:292–302Yu W, Yang W, Zhao F (2017) Investigation of internal nozzle flow, spray and combustion characteristics fueled with diesel, gasoline and wide distillation fuel (WDF) based on a piezoelectric injector and a direct injection compression ignition engine. Appl Therm Eng 114:905–920Salvador FJ, Carreres M, Crialesi-Esposito M, Plazas AH (2017) Determination of critical operating and geometrical parameters in diesel injectors through one dimensional modelling, design of experiments and an analysis of variance. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part D J Automob EngMacian V, Bermúdez V, Payri R, Gimeno J (2003) New technique for determination of internal geometry of a diesel nozzle with the use of silicone methodology. Exp Tech 27, no April:39–43Piano A, Millo F, Postrioti L, Biscontini G, Cavicchi A, and Pesce FC, (2016) “Numerical and experimental assessment of a solenoid common-rail injector operation with advanced injection strategies,” SAE Int J Engines 9(1)Mitroglou N, Lorenzi M, Santini M, Gavaises M (2016) Application of X-ray micro-computed tomography on high-speed cavitating diesel fuel flows. Exp Fluids 57(11):1–14Kastengren AL, Tilocco FZ, Powell CF, Manin J, Pickett LM, Payri R, Bazyn T (2012) Engine combustion network (ECN): measurements of nozzle geometry and hydraulic behavior. At Sprays 22(12):1011–1052Otsu N (1979) A threshold selection method from gray-level histograms. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern 9(1):62–6

Acute kidney disease and renal recovery : consensus report of the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) 16 Workgroup

Consensus definitions have been reached for both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and these definitions are now routinely used in research and clinical practice. The KDIGO guideline defines AKI as an abrupt decrease in kidney function occurring over 7 days or less, whereas CKD is defined by the persistence of kidney disease for a period of > 90 days. AKI and CKD are increasingly recognized as related entities and in some instances probably represent a continuum of the disease process. For patients in whom pathophysiologic processes are ongoing, the term acute kidney disease (AKD) has been proposed to define the course of disease after AKI; however, definitions of AKD and strategies for the management of patients with AKD are not currently available. In this consensus statement, the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) proposes definitions, staging criteria for AKD, and strategies for the management of affected patients. We also make recommendations for areas of future research, which aim to improve understanding of the underlying processes and improve outcomes for patients with AKD

The relationship between basal and acute HPA axis activity and aggressive behavior in adults

The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis seems to play a major role in the development, elicitation, and enhancement of aggressive behavior in animals. Increasing evidence suggests that this is also true for humans. However, most human research on the role of the HPA axis in aggression has been focusing on highly aggressive children and adolescent clinical samples. Here, we report on a study of the role of basal and acute HPA axis activity in a sample of 20 healthy male and female adults. We used the Taylor Aggression Paradigm to induce and measure aggression. We assessed the cortisol awakening response as a trait measure of basal HPA axis activity. Salivary free cortisol measures for the cortisol awakening response were obtained on three consecutive weekdays immediately following awakening and 30, 45, and 60 min after. Half of the subjects were provoked with the Taylor Aggression Paradigm to behave aggressively; the other half was not provoked. Acute HPA axis activity was measured four times, once before and three times after the induction of aggression. Basal cortisol levels were significantly and negatively related to aggressive behavior in the provoked group and explained 67% of the behavioral variance. Cortisol levels following the induction of aggression were significantly higher in the provoked group when baseline levels were taken into account. The data implicate that the HPA axis is not only relevant to the expression of aggressive behavior in clinical groups, but also to a large extent in healthy ones

Search for the neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data were recorded in 2011 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb-1 to 4.8 fb-1. Higgs boson decays into oppositely-charged muon or τ lepton pairs are considered for final states requiring either the presence or absence of b-jets. No statistically significant excess over the expected background is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived. The exclusion limits are for the production cross-section of a generic neutral Higgs boson, φ, as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for h/A/H production in the MSSM as a function of the parameters mA and tan β in the mhmax scenario for mA in the range of 90GeV to 500 GeV. Copyright CERN

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured

O-GlcNAc Modification of NFκB p65 Inhibits TNF-α-Induced Inflammatory Mediator Expression in Rat Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells

BACKGROUND: We have shown that glucosamine (GlcN) or O-(2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranosylidene)amino-N-phenylcarbamate (PUGNAc) treatment augments O-linked-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) protein modification and attenuates inflammatory mediator expression, leukocyte infiltration and neointima formation in balloon injured rat carotid arteries and have identified the arterial smooth muscle cell (SMC) as the target cell in the injury response. NFκB signaling has been shown to mediate the expression of inflammatory genes and neointima formation in injured arteries. Phosphorylation of the p65 subunit of NFκB is required for the transcriptional activation of NFκB. This study tested the hypothesis that GlcN or PUGNAc treatment protects vascular SMCs against tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α induced inflammatory stress by enhancing O-GlcNAcylation and inhibiting TNF-α induced phosphorylation of NFκB p65, thus inhibiting NFκB signaling. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Quiescent rat aortic SMCs were pretreated with GlcN (5 mM), PUGNAc (10(-4) M) or vehicle and then stimulated with TNF-α (10 ng/ml). Both treatments inhibited TNF-α-induced expression of chemokines [cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC)-2β and monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1] and adhesion molecules [vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 and P-Selectin]. Both treatments inhibited TNF-α induced NFκB p65 activation and promoter activity, increased NFκB p65 O-GlcNAcylation and inhibited NFκB p65 phosphorylation at Serine 536, thus promoting IκBα binding to NFκB p65. CONCLUSIONS: There is a reciprocal relationship between O-GlcNAcylation and phosphorylation of NFκB p65, such that increased NFκB p65 O-GlcNAc modification inhibits TNF-α-Induced expression of inflammatory mediators through inhibition of NFκB p65 signaling. These findings provide a mechanistic basis for our previous observations that GlcN and PUGNAc treatments inhibit inflammation and remodeling induced by acute endoluminal arterial injury

The Virtual Teacher (VT) Paradigm: Learning New Patterns of Interpersonal Coordination Using the Human Dynamic Clamp

The Virtual Teacher paradigm, a version of the Human Dynamic Clamp (HDC), is introduced into studies of learning patterns of inter-personal coordination. Combining mathematical modeling and experimentation, we investigate how the HDC may be used as a Virtual Teacher (VT) to help humans co-produce and internalize new inter-personal coordination pattern(s). Human learners produced rhythmic finger movements whilst observing a computer-driven avatar, animated by dynamic equations stemming from the well-established Haken-Kelso-Bunz (1985) and Schöner-Kelso (1988) models of coordination. We demonstrate that the VT is successful in shifting the pattern co-produced by the VT-human system toward any value (Experiment 1) and that the VT can help humans learn unstable relative phasing patterns (Experiment 2). Using transfer entropy, we find that information flow from one partner to the other increases when VT-human coordination loses stability. This suggests that variable joint performance may actually facilitate interaction, and in the long run learning. VT appears to be a promising tool for exploring basic learning processes involved in social interaction, unraveling the dynamics of information flow between interacting partners, and providing possible rehabilitation opportunities