What is the most effective and safe malaria prophylaxis during pregnancy?

Chloroquine and mefloquine have superior safety profiles in pregnancy, though all antimalarials are effective for prophylaxis. Antimalarials will decrease the severity of maternal malaria infection and malaria-associated anemia, while decreasing the incidence of low birth weight and perinatal death in women having their first or second baby (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, based on systematic review of consistent, good-quality patient-oriented evidence)

Oil recovery through deemulsification research : separation of water from emulsified oil

In an effort to improve the environment, there is a need to recover and reuse the oil and water components of lubricating emulsions used in copper drawing and rolling processes. The Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. copper rod mill located in El Paso, TX was chosen as the site location for this project. It is one of the largest rolling and drawing operation facilities in the world, and it meets the established criteria set by Project ORDER. A large facility generates an average of 8,400 gallons of spent lubricant per day. The WERC emulsion sample contains 98 v% water and 2 v% lubricating oil and contains metal debris that would negatively impact water quality if it were discharged into surface waters. Oil and water are valuable resources and their maximum recoveries are desired. Project ORDER successfully recovers more than 90 v% of the water and essentially all of the oil. The recovered water could be recycled for fresh lubricant production within the facility, eliminating almost all water discharge and reducing water intake. The recovered oil will be sent to oil recyclers, lowering discharge expenses. Project ORDER has carefully evaluated several water recovery, oil recovery, and metal recovery technologies to design the commercial process. The first processing step of Project ORDER is an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane that recovers 90 v% of the water in the spent emulsion sample. As water permeates the membrane, the concentration of oil in the emulsion increases from about 2 v% to 30 v%. The second processing step removes essentially all of the water from the UF concentrate using an evaporator, which operates by passing low pressure steam through a jacketed, agitated vessel. The third processing step removes metal debris from the oil using a depth filter. The fourth processing step utilizes a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane to purify the UF permeate water for recycle. The fifth processing step reduces the amount of waste from the RO reject using an evaporator, which also operates by passing low pressure steam through a jacketed, agitated vessel. The evaporator removes essentially all of the water in the RO reject and the remaining waste is sent for disposal. The evaporated water from both evaporation units is condensed and combined with the RO permeate to be recycled. Based on a spent emulsion production rate of 8,400 gal/day, it costs $793, 000 per year for current disposal by incineration. For Project ORDER the fixed capital investment is$899,000, the yearly operating cost is $528,000, and the net present worth is$413,000 with a 24% discounted rate of return. After the initial investment is recovered, Project ORDER results in a net savings of $265,000 per year. This project is a promising process to achieve all the goals of Task 5. It produces oil with less than 3% water content, produces maximum water yield, minimizes waste solution, avoids the use of harmful materials and is cost and energy efficient. The health and safety of all individuals involved and the environmental impact of Project ORDER is of utmost importance throughout the construction and life of the project. The facility will ensure that all processes will comply with regulations outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and Texas State and El Paso County regulations. All operations and company procedures will comply with The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. The following report provides a detailed proposal for an oil and water recovery system, including experimental research results, process optimization, full-scale design, economic analysis, and environmental, health and safety considerations

Pesticide Ground Water Monitoring Project Phase VIII

During Phase VIII monitoring (March 24, 2000 to June 30, 2001 ), 86 samples were collected from 77 new wells and 9 samples were collected from wells with previous detectable herbicide

Marrying Social Media Approaches and Space Flight Control: Eight Years at SpaceOps

Three previous SpaceOps papers [1-3] - published in 2010, 2012 (honored by the Conference as a "Best Paper"), and 2014 - have discussed paths to using social media concepts and techniques to enhance space flight controller effectiveness by a) reducing clutter of nonverbal communications (e.g., visual flow with minimal headers and shared content instead of multiple copies), b) moving some voice communication to non-verbal transmission (virtually eliminating "say again" requests because non-verbal comm can be re-read), thus making remaining voice comm easier to focus on, and c) reducing short-term and long-term flight stress on flight control personnel. This paper shows how Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) ISS Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) is realizing the above goals via the Communications Dashboard (CommDash) software suite deployed in 2017 (including enhancements to the Console Log Tool (CoLT) discussed in earlier papers). Two larger-scope benefits spawned by CommDash evolution are also chronicled: a) emergence of an Agile Software Development (ASD) process adapted to the not-always-nimble environment of government projects, and b) the sprouting of a Human Factors Engineering (HF or HFE) community of practice within MSFC's Payload and Mission Operations Division (PMOD)

Inhaled alpha 1 -proteinase inhibitor therapy in patients with cystic fibrosis

Inhaled alpha1-proteinase inhibitor (PI) is known to reduce neutrophil elastase burden in some patients with CF. This phase 2a study was designed to test inhaled Alpha-1 HC, a new aerosolized alpha1-PI formulation, in CF patients

MADNESS: A Multiresolution, Adaptive Numerical Environment for Scientific Simulation

MADNESS (multiresolution adaptive numerical environment for scientific simulation) is a high-level software environment for solving integral and differential equations in many dimensions that uses adaptive and fast harmonic analysis methods with guaranteed precision based on multiresolution analysis and separated representations. Underpinning the numerical capabilities is a powerful petascale parallel programming environment that aims to increase both programmer productivity and code scalability. This paper describes the features and capabilities of MADNESS and briefly discusses some current applications in chemistry and several areas of physics

Western Diet-Fed, Aortic-Banded Ossabaw Swine: A Preclinical Model of Cardio-Metabolic Heart Failure.

The development of new treatments for heart failure lack animal models that encompass the increasingly heterogeneous disease profile of this patient population. This report provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that Western Diet-fed, aortic-banded Ossabaw swine display an integrated physiological, morphological, and genetic phenotype evocative of cardio-metabolic heart failure. This new preclinical animal model displays a distinctive constellation of findings that are conceivably useful to extending the understanding of how pre-existing cardio-metabolic syndrome can contribute to developing HF

Photoinitiated Nitric Oxide-Releasing Tertiary S -Nitrosothiol-Modified Xerogels

The synthesis of a tertiary thiol-bearing silane precursor (i.e., N-acetyl penicillamine propyltrimethoxysilane or NAPTMS) to enable enhanced NO storage stability at physiological temperature is described. The novel silane was co-condensed with alkoxy- and alkylalkoxysilanes under varied synthetic parameters (e.g., water to silane ratio, catalyst and solvent concentrations, and reaction time) to evaluate systematically the formation of stable xerogel films. The resulting xerogels were subsequently nitrosated to yield tertiary RSNO-modified coatings. Total NO storage ranged from 0.87–1.78 µmol cm−2 depending on the NAPTMS concentration and xerogel coating thickness. Steric hindrance near the nitroso functionality necessitated the use of photolysis to liberate NO. The average NO flux for irradiated xerogels in physiological buffer at 37 °C was ~23 pmol cm−2 s−1 (20% NAPTMS balance TEOS xerogel film cast using 30 µL). The biomedical utility of the photo-initiated NO-releasing films was illustrated by their ability to both reduce Pseudomonas aeruginosa adhesion by ~90% relative to control interfaces and eradicate the adhered bacteria

Fabrication of nitric oxide-releasing polyurethane glucose sensor membranes

Despite clear evidence that polymeric nitric oxide (NO) release coatings reduce the foreign body response (FBR) and may thus improve the analytical performance of in vivo continuous glucose monitoring devices when used as sensor membranes, the compatibility of the NO release chemistry with that required for enzymatic glucose sensing remains unclear. Herein, we describe the fabrication and characterization of NO-releasing polyurethane sensor membranes using NO donor-modified silica vehicles embedded within the polymer. In addition to demonstrating tunable NO release as a function of the NO donor silica scaffold and polymer compositions and concentrations, we describe the impact of the NO release vehicle and its release kinetics on glucose sensor performance

Frontal lobe changes occur early in the course of affective disorders in young people

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>More severe and persistent forms of affective disorders are accompanied by grey matter loss in key frontal and temporal structures. It is unclear whether such changes precede the onset of illness, occur early in the course or develop gradually with persistence or recurrence of illness. A total of 47 young people presenting with admixtures of depressive and psychotic symptoms were recruited from specialist early intervention services along with 33 age matched healthy control subjects. All participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging and patients were rated clinically as to current stage of illness. Twenty-three patients were identified as being at an early 'attenuated syndrome' stage, while the remaining were rated as having already reached the 'discrete disorder' or 'persistent or recurrent illness' stage. Contrasts were carried out between controls subjects and patients cohorts with attenuated syndromes and discrete disorders, separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The patients that were identified as having a discrete or persisting disorder demonstrated decreased grey matter volumes within distributed frontal brain regions when contrasted to both the control subjects as well as those patients in the attenuated syndrome stage. Overall, patients who were diagnosed as more advanced in terms of the clinical stage of their illness, exhibited the greatest grey matter volume loss of all groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that, in terms of frontal grey matter changes, a major transition point may occur in the course of affective illness between early attenuated syndromes and later discrete illness stages.</p