A comparative study of faecal sludge management in Malawi and Zambia: Status, challenges and opportunities in pit latrine emptying

This review paper covers the issues of pit latrine emptying national policies and regulations with a focus on Malawi and Zambia. With 2.4 billion people worldwide still lacking improved sanitation facilities, developing countries need to look at policy, regulation and practice for household sanitation service provision with a new lens. What happens “next,” when improved sanitation facilities eventually become full? An emphasis on faecal sludge management has multiplied this important issue in the past few years. The authors compare the pit latrine emptying situation in Malawi and Zambia with a focus on status, challenges and opportunities. To build this comparison, a desk review of national policies, local regulations and peer-reviewed journal papers was conducted. The paper concludes that existing national policies and regulations taking faecal sludge management into account are weak and have wide gaps in the two study countries. For the future, it is recommended, first, that household pit latrine emptying should be seen as an opportunity to address national sanitation gaps and, second, national policies and regulations need to be evaluated and updated

Investigating the Applicability in Emergency Situations of Terra Preta Sanitation System using Lactic Acid Bacteria

LAB failed to keep lacto-fermented sludge’s pH (6.7) and TAN (11.8mg/l) below 4.2 and within 15-30 mg/l respectively. This is despite registering promising results in pH (9.6) and TAN (16.6mg/l) for urine. The results challenged on-site LAB procedure in terms of stabilizing and sanitising faecal sludge possibly due to differences in sludge age, charcoal addition and different environmental factors. Therefore TPS combined with LAB inoculation could not be the best sanitation option for an immediate phase but rather second and third stages of emergency situations.  Malawi experiences emergency situations whose response does not prioritize faecal sludge management challenges. This research adopted a redefined Terra Preta Sanitation (TPS) system that replaced vermicomposting with Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) inoculation. The research aimed at determining possibility of on-site LAB procedure upscalling and safe separation of urine and lacto-fermented sludge as useful agricultural by-products. The study site was Crown Ministries, Blantyre, Malawi. A fermented mixture of15L pasteurized milk, 30ml of Yakult and 1.5g cane molasses was added to a 200L faecal sludge collection drum before use. After defecation, 100cm3 charcoal and 2g molasses were added. Urine was anaerobically collected in 50L drum. Random grab samples results indicated that COD for urine (868.4mg/l) and Lacto-fermented sludge (431.2mg/l) were above 60mg/l Malawi Standard and E. coli (1.05 x107) and Total coliforms (2.18 x 107) for Lacto-Fermented Sludge went above <103 CFU/100ml.

Live-attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine MTBVAC versus BCG in adults and neonates: a randomised controlled, double-blind dose-escalation trial

Background: Infants are a key target population for new tuberculosis vaccines. We assessed the safety and immunogenicity of the live-attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine candidate MTBVAC in adults and infants in a region where transmission of tuberculosis is very high. Methods: We did a randomised, double-blind, BCG-controlled, dose-escalation trial at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative site near Cape Town, South Africa. Healthy adult community volunteers who were aged 18–50 years, had received BCG vaccination as infants, were HIV negative, had negative interferon-¿ release assay (IGRA) results, and had no personal history of tuberculosis or current household contact with someone with tuberculosis were enrolled in a safety cohort. Infants born to HIV-negative women with no personal history of tuberculosis or current household contact with a person with tuberculosis and who were 96 h old or younger, generally healthy, and had not yet received routine BCG vaccination were enrolled in a separate infant cohort. Eligible adults were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either BCG Vaccine SSI (5 × 105 colony forming units [CFU] of Danish strain 1331 in 0·1 mL diluent) or MTBVAC (5 × 105 CFU in 0·1 mL) intradermally in the deltoid region of the arm. After favourable review of 28-day reactogenicity and safety data in the adult cohort, infants were randomly assigned (1:3) to receive either BCG Vaccine SSI (2·5 × 105 CFU in 0·05 mL diluent) or MTBVAC in three sequential cohorts of increasing MTBVAC dose (2·5 × 103 CFU, 2·5 × 104 CFU, and 2·5 × 105 CFU in 0·05 mL) intradermally in the deltoid region of the arm. QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube IGRA was done on days 180 and 360. For both randomisations, a pre-prepared block randomisation schedule was used. Participants (and their parents or guardians in the case of infant participants), investigators, and other clinical and laboratory staff were masked to intervention allocation. The primary outcomes, which were all measured in the infant cohort, were solicited and unsolicited local adverse events and serious adverse events until day 360; non-serious systemic adverse events until day 28 and vaccine-specific CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses on days 7, 28, 70, 180, and 360. Secondary outcomes measured in adults were local injection-site and systemic reactions and haematology and biochemistry at study day 7 and 28. Safety analyses and immunogenicity analyses were done in all participants who received a dose of vaccine. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02729571. Findings: Between Sept 29, 2015, and Nov 16, 2015, 62 adults were screened and 18 were enrolled and randomly assigned, nine each to the BCG and MTBVAC groups. Between Feb 12, 2016, and Sept 21, 2016, 36 infants were randomly assigned—eight to the BCG group, nine to the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, nine to the 2·5 × 104 CFU group, and ten to the 2·5 × 105 CFU group. Mild injection-site reactions occurred only in infants in the BCG and the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group, with no evidence of local or regional injection-site complications. Systemic adverse events were evenly distributed across BCG and MTBVAC dose groups, and were mostly mild in severity. Eight serious adverse events were reported in seven vaccine recipients (one adult MTBVAC recipient, one infant BCG recipient, one infant in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, two in the 2·5 × 104 CFU MTBVAC group, and two in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group), including one infant in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group treated for unconfirmed tuberculosis and one in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group treated for unlikely tuberculosis. One infant died as a result of possible viral pneumonia. Vaccination with all MTBVAC doses induced durable antigen-specific T-helper-1 cytokine-expressing CD4 cell responses in infants that peaked 70 days after vaccination and were detectable 360 days after vaccination. For the highest MTBVAC dose (ie, 2·5 × 105 CFU), these responses exceeded responses induced by an equivalent dose of the BCG vaccine up to 360 days after vaccination. Dose-related IGRA conversion was noted in three (38%) of eight infants in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, six (75%) of eight in the 2·5 × 104 CFU MTBVAC group, and seven (78%) of nine in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group at day 180, compared with none of seven infants in the BCG group. By day 360, IGRA reversion had occurred in all three infants (100%) in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, four (67%) of the six in the 2·5 × 104 CFU MTBVAC group, and three (43%) of the seven in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group. Interpretation: MTBVAC had acceptable reactogenicity, and induced a durable CD4 cell response in infants. The evidence of immunogenicity supports progression of MTBVAC into larger safety and efficacy trials, but also confounds interpretation of tests for M tuberculosis infection, highlighting the need for stringent endpoint definition. Funding: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative, UK Department for International Development, and Biofabri

All but tedious: quantumchemistry and biomolecules

Berekening van de invloed van het electrische veld van een helix op de plaats van een proton in het actieve centrum van papaine, van de invloed daarop van de polariseerbaarheid van de omgeving, het construeren daarvoor van een hamiltioniaan die behalve inductie ook dispersie bevat, het afleiden dat de dispersie een bovengrens geeft voor de echte dispersie, het maken van eeen model voor het berekenen van de polariseerbaarheden van moleculen met zo weinig mogelijk parameters, ... Zie: Samenvatting