Characterization of pysio-chemical properties of novel one stop chemical method in preparations of copper nanofluids and possible explanations

Nanofluid is a dilute suspension containing particles in nanometer sized which are dispersed in the base fluid like ethylene glycol or water. Nanofluid is one of the crucial discovery in modern science which found to be having better thermal properties compared with conventional fluids like water or ethylene glycol thus makes it ideal to be applied and utilized in many areas in heat transfer area such as cooling, utilized as fluid for heat echangers and etc. Besides, the nanofluid with the improved thermal properties could solve the problem faced by various industries in the area of heat transfer. For example, in the semiconductor industry, the needs of superior cooling coolant are very crucialJn this paper, presents about preparation of copper nanofluid using novel one stop chemical method by reducing copper sulphate pentahydrate using reduction agent which is sodium hypophosphite in ethylene glycol as base fluids. The obtained nanofluid by using this novel one stop method is more stable besides cheaper and faster compared with two stop method whereby in the two step method, the production of the nanoparticles and the nanofluids are isolated. The process of drying, storage and transportation of the nanoparticles that takes place in two step method have cause the agglomeration and sedimentation of the nanofluids. As the result, the agglomeration could cause the settlement and clogging in the microchannel besides reduce the thermal conductivity. Therefore in the novel one stop method the production of the nanoparticles and the nanofluids are combined and not separated to avoid the process of drying, storage and transportation of nanoparticles. Meanwhile the nanofluid that obtained were analyzed using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis Spectrophotometer, Viscometer and Fourier Transform Infared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The effect and influences of pH and dilution to the reaction rate and properties of nanofluid were also investigated

Natural climate solutions

Our thanks for inputs by L. Almond, A. Baccini, A. Bowman, S. CookPatton, J. Evans, K. Holl, R. Lalasz, A. Nassikas, M. Spalding, M. Wolosin, and expert elicitation respondents. Our thanks for datasets developed by the Hansen lab and the NESCent grasslands working group (C. Lehmann, D. Griffith, T. M. Anderson, D. J. Beerling, W. Bond, E. Denton, E. Edwards, E. Forrestel, D. Fox, W. Hoffmann, R. Hyde, T. Kluyver, L. Mucina, B. Passey, S. Pau, J. Ratnam, N. Salamin, B. Santini, K. Simpson, M. Smith, B. Spriggs, C. Still, C. Strömberg, and C. P. Osborne). This study was made possible by funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Woodbury was supported in part by USDA-NIFA Project 2011-67003-30205 Data deposition: A global spatial dataset of reforestation opportunities has been deposited on Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/record/883444). This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1710465114/-/DCSupplemental.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Assessing health status over time:Impact of recall period and anchor question on the minimal clinically important difference of copd health status tools

BACKGROUND: The Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) assesses what change on a measurement tool can be considered minimal clinically relevant. Although the recall period can influence questionnaire scores, it is unclear if it influences the MCID. This study is the first to examine longitudinally the impact of the recall period of an anchor question and its design on the MCID of COPD health status tools using the COPD Assessment Test (CAT), Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) and the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). METHODS: Moderate to very severe COPD patients without respiratory co-morbidities were recruited during 3-week Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR). CAT, CCQ and SGRQ were completed at baseline, discharge, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. A 15-point Global Rating of Change scale (GRC) was completed at each follow-up. A five-point GRC was used as second anchor at 12 months. Mean change scores of a subset of patients indicating a minimal improvement on each of the anchor questions were considered the MCID. The MCID estimates over different time periods were compared with one another by evaluating the degree of overlap of Confidence Intervals (CI) adjusted for dependency. RESULTS: In total 451 patients were included (57.9 ± 6.6 years, 65% male, 50/39/11% GOLD II/III/IV), of which 309 completed follow-up. Baseline health status scores were 20.2 ± 7.3 (CAT), 2.9 ± 1.2 (CCQ) and 50.7 ± 17.3 (SGRQ). MCID estimates for improvement ranged - 3.1 to - 1.4 for CAT, - 0.6 to - 0.3 for CCQ, and - 10.3 to - 7.6 for SGRQ. Absolute higher - though not significant - MCIDs were observed for CAT and CCQ directly after PR. Significantly absolute lower MCID estimates were observed for CAT (difference - 1.4: CI -2.3 to - 0.5) and CCQ (difference - 0.2: CI -0.3 to -0.1) using a five-point GRC. CONCLUSIONS: The recall period of a 15-point anchor question seemed to have limited impact on the MCID for improvement of CAT, CCQ and SGRQ during PR; although a 3-week MCID estimate directly after PR might lead to absolute higher values. However, the design of the anchor question was likely to influence the MCID of CAT and CCQ. TRIAL REGISTRATION: RIMTCORE trial # DRKS00004609 and #12107 (Ethik-Kommission der Bayerischen Landesärztekammer)

Factors determining social participation in the first year after kidney transplantation: a prospective study

BACKGROUND: This study describes changes in social participation in the first year after kidney transplantation and examines the influence of clinical factors, health status, transplantation-related symptoms, and psychological characteristics on change in social participation. METHODS: A prospective study was performed on a cohort of primary kidney transplant recipients, transplanted between March 2002 and March 2003. Data on participation in obligatory activities (i.e., employment, education, household tasks) and leisure activities (i.e., volunteer work, assisting others, sports, clubs/associations, recreation, socializing, going out) were collected by in-home interviews (n=61) at 3 months (T1) and 1 year posttransplantation (T2). Analysis of covariance was performed. RESULTS: Data showed an increase in participation in obligatory activities and diversity of leisure participation between T1 and T2, although pre-end-stage renal disease level was not regained and differed from the general population. On T1, the majority of employed recipients were on sick leave, but returned to work on T2. Employment rate remained stable. An increase in obligatory participation was predicted by clinical factors (i.e., peritoneal dialysis, initial hospitalization), whereas change in leisure participation was related to serum albumin and cognitive capacity. No effects were found for type of donation, comorbidity, and renal function. CONCLUSIONS: We found that mainly clinical factors were associated with an increase in participation in society. Although health-status related factors and the psychological attribute self-efficacy may be related to recovery of social participation, their effect was outweighed by the strength of clinical predictors in multivariate analysis

Natural climate solutions for the United States

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Science Advances 4 (2018): eaat1869, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat1869.Limiting climate warming to <2°C requires increased mitigation efforts, including land stewardship, whose potential in the United States is poorly understood. We quantified the potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)—21 conservation, restoration, and improved land management interventions on natural and agricultural lands—to increase carbon storage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We found a maximum potential of 1.2 (0.9 to 1.6) Pg CO2e year−1, the equivalent of 21% of current net annual emissions of the United States. At current carbon market prices (USD 10 per Mg CO2e), 299 Tg CO2e year−1 could be achieved. NCS would also provide air and water filtration, flood control, soil health, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience benefits.This study was made possible by funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. C.A.W. and H.G. acknowledge financial support from NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System program (NNH14ZDA001N-CMS) under award NNX14AR39G. S.D.B. acknowledges support from the DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program under the award DE-SC0014416. J.W.F. acknowledges financial support from the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation grant no. DEB-1237517

Flaws in the methodologies for organic carbon analysis in seagrass blue carbon soils

The ability to accurately measure organic carbon (OC) in marine sediments or soils is overall taken for granted in scientific communities, yet this seemingly mundane task remains a methodological challenge when the soil matrix contains calcium carbonate (CaCO3), creating inaccuracies in Blue Carbon estimates. Here, we compared five common methods combining acidification, combustion, and wet oxidation pre-treatments for determination of OC in sediments and soils containing CaCO3 based on the analyses of artificial soil mixtures made of different OC and CaCO3 contents, and multiple soils from Australian seagrass cores. The results obtained showed that methods involving acidification pre-treatment entailed −17 ± 0.2% (mean ± SE) underestimation of OC content (ranging from −8% to −26%), whereas the combustion-based method was accurate for samples with high CaCO3 content but entailed 32–47% overestimation in samples with low CaCO3 content. The Heanes method (wet oxidation method) showed \u3c 5% deviation from the known OC content, but this method is not suitable for soil samples containing reduced iron, sulfur and potentially manganese compounds. The differences observed among methods have significant impacts on local, regional, and global Blue Carbon storage calculations. We provide key methodological guidelines for the analysis of OC in soils with high and low CaCO3 contents, aiming at improving accuracy in current Blue Carbon science

Tailoring eHealth design to support the self-care needs of patients with cardiovascular diseases:a vignette survey experiment

Self-care support is a key cornerstone of treatment for patients with a cardiovascular disease. The success of any supportive intervention requires adaptation to the distinct needs of individuals. This requirement also applies to eHealth interventions. This study investigates how experts from multiple fields of science assess the potential success of different eHealth design strategies when matched to key self-care needs. An online vignette survey experiment was conducted. Nine vignettes representing different combinations of self-care needs (maintenance, monitoring, management) and eHealth persuasive design strategies (primary task support, dialogue support, social support) were evaluated. In total, 118 experts from 18 different countries participated in the survey. Their evaluations show primary task support as a promising design strategy across all self-care needs. In contrast, dialogue support and social support showed more promise for specific self-care needs. Above all, according to experts, the success of design strategies could be enhanced by (i) personalising the pacing of the intervention and (ii) tailoring the information to the literacy and culture of the person. Adding to that, self-care support should distinctly (iii) support the three self-care needs, be (iv) patient-centered, (v) support the collaboration with caregivers, and (vi) be aligned to the life goals and values of individuals