Plasma and Sol-Gel Technology for Creating Nanostructured Surfaces of Fibrous Polymers

For a modification of natural and synthetic fibrous polymers low-pressure ICRF plasma and liquid repellent sol-gel fluoroalkyl-functional siloxane precursor were used. Plasma induced surface chemical and morphological changes on fluorinated poly(ethylene terephthalate) and cellulose were analysed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Wettability properties of sol-gel functionalized polymers were determined by the goniometric water contact angles and water sliding angle measurements. After plasma treatment the oxygen content on the surface of both polymers increased (increase of O/C ratio) and a nanostructured surface roughness appeared. Plasma ablation caused partially defluorinated nanostructured surface of fluorinated poly(ethylene terephthalate) polymer and increased its hydrophilicity. Plasma activation and etching of cellulose polymer contributed to the creation of highly adhesive and wash resistant sol-gel coating with superhydrophobic, oleophobic and self-cleaning properties. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3539

Neurologic and psychiatric disorders due to acute poisoning with drugs and other poisonous chemicals

Autori daju prikaz najčešćih neuroloških i psihijatrijskih poremećaja koji nastaju u toku akutnih trovanja lekovima i drugim hemijskim materijama. U prvom delu ukazuje se na pozitivne i negativne posledice brzog porasta broja psihotropnih lekova na tržištu. Najvažnija negativna posledica povećane potrošnje različitih vrsta psihofarmaka u svetu i u nas je povećani broj akutnih trovanja. Polemički je razmatran udeo ovih lekova u nastajanju akutnih i hroničnih intoksikacija, abususa i bolesti zavisnosti. U drugom delu opisani su osnovni neurološki i psihijatrijski sindromi koji se najčešće javljaju u toku akutnih trovanja psihofarmacirna. Posebno su diskutovani poremećaji budnog stanja, kao što su pospanost, somnolencija i koma. Istaknut je značaj komatoznih stanja koja sačinjavaju velike teškoće za postavljanje i diferencijalnu dijagnozu akutnih intoksikacija.Neurologic and psychiatric disorders due to acute poisoning with drugs and other poisonous chemicals. The authors give account of the most frequent neurologic and psychiatric disorders caused by acute poisoning with drugs and other poisonous chemicals. An increase in the number of acute intoxications is associated with the growing number of various psychotropic drugs available on the market and with the increasing quantity of drugs used. Problems relating to excessive use of and addiction to these drugs are also dealt with. Basic neurologic and psychiatric syndromes appearing in the course of acute poisoning with psychotropic drugs are discussed with particular reference to impairment of consciousness which varies from simple confusion to coma. Stress is laid on difficulties which comatose states present in the differential diagnosis of acute intoxications

CAR-Net: Clairvoyant Attentive Recurrent Network

We present an interpretable framework for path prediction that leverages dependencies between agents' behaviors and their spatial navigation environment. We exploit two sources of information: the past motion trajectory of the agent of interest and a wide top-view image of the navigation scene. We propose a Clairvoyant Attentive Recurrent Network (CAR-Net) that learns where to look in a large image of the scene when solving the path prediction task. Our method can attend to any area, or combination of areas, within the raw image (e.g., road intersections) when predicting the trajectory of the agent. This allows us to visualize fine-grained semantic elements of navigation scenes that influence the prediction of trajectories. To study the impact of space on agents' trajectories, we build a new dataset made of top-view images of hundreds of scenes (Formula One racing tracks) where agents' behaviors are heavily influenced by known areas in the images (e.g., upcoming turns). CAR-Net successfully attends to these salient regions. Additionally, CAR-Net reaches state-of-the-art accuracy on the standard trajectory forecasting benchmark, Stanford Drone Dataset (SDD). Finally, we show CAR-Net's ability to generalize to unseen scenes.Comment: The 2nd and 3rd authors contributed equall

INTERGROWTH-21st Gestational Dating and Fetal and Newborn Growth Standards in Peri-Urban Nairobi, Kenya: Quasi-Experimental Implementation Study Protocol.

BACKGROUND: The burden of preterm birth, fetal growth impairment, and associated neonatal deaths disproportionately falls on low- and middle-income countries where modern obstetric tools are not available to date pregnancies and monitor fetal growth accurately. The INTERGROWTH-21st gestational dating, fetal growth monitoring, and newborn size at birth standards make this possible. OBJECTIVE: To scale up the INTERGROWTH-21st standards, it is essential to assess the feasibility and acceptability of their implementation and their effect on clinical decision-making in a low-resource clinical setting. METHODS: This study protocol describes a pre-post, quasi-experimental implementation study of the standards at Jacaranda Health, a maternity hospital in peri-urban Nairobi, Kenya. All women with viable fetuses receiving antenatal and delivery services, their resulting newborns, and the clinicians caring for them from March 2016 to March 2018 are included. The study comprises a 12-month preimplementation phase, a 12-month implementation phase, and a 5-month post-implementation phase to be completed in August 2018. Quantitative clinical and qualitative data collected during the preimplementation and implementation phases will be assessed. A clinician survey was administered eight months into the implementation phase, month 20 of the study. Implementation outcomes include quantitative and qualitative analyses of feasibility, acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, fidelity, and penetration of the standards. Clinical outcomes include appropriateness of referral and effect of the standards on clinical care and decision-making. Descriptive analyses will be conducted, and comparisons will be made between pre- and postimplementation outcomes. Qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic coding and compared across time. The study was approved by the Amref Ethics and Scientific Review Committee (Kenya) and the Harvard University Institutional Review Board. Study results will be shared with stakeholders through conferences, seminars, publications, and knowledge management platforms. RESULTS: From October 2016 to February 2017, over 90% of all full-time Jacaranda clinicians (26/28) received at least one of the three aspects of the INTERGROWTH-21st training: gestational dating ultrasound, fetal growth monitoring ultrasound, and neonatal anthropometry standards. Following the training, implementation and evaluation of the standards in Jacaranda Health's clinical workflow will take place from March 2017 through March 5, 2018. Data analysis will be finalized, and results will be shared by August 2018. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study will have major implications on the national and global scale up of the INTERGROWTH-21st standards and on the process of scaling up global standards in general, particularly in limited-resource settings. REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER: RR1-10.2196/10293

Kangaroo mother care: a multi-country analysis of health system bottlenecks and potential solutions.

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is now the leading cause of under-five child deaths worldwide with one million direct deaths plus approximately another million where preterm is a risk factor for neonatal deaths due to other causes. There is strong evidence that kangaroo mother care (KMC) reduces mortality among babies with birth weight <2000 g (mostly preterm). KMC involves continuous skin-to-skin contact, breastfeeding support, and promotion of early hospital discharge with follow-up. The World Health Organization has endorsed KMC for stabilised newborns in health facilities in both high-income and low-resource settings. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) use a 12-country analysis to explore health system bottlenecks affecting the scale-up of KMC; (2) propose solutions to the most significant bottlenecks; and (3) outline priority actions for scale-up. METHODS: The bottleneck analysis tool was applied in 12 countries in Africa and Asia as part of the Every Newborn Action Plan process. Country workshops involved technical experts to complete the survey tool, which is designed to synthesise and grade health system "bottlenecks", factors that hinder the scale-up, of maternal-newborn intervention packages. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the bottleneck data, combined with literature review, to present priority bottlenecks and actions relevant to different health system building blocks for KMC. RESULTS: Marked differences were found in the perceived severity of health system bottlenecks between Asian and African countries, with the former reporting more significant or very major bottlenecks for KMC with respect to all the health system building blocks. Community ownership and health financing bottlenecks were significant or very major bottlenecks for KMC in both low and high mortality contexts, particularly in South Asia. Significant bottlenecks were also reported for leadership and governance and health workforce building blocks. CONCLUSIONS: There are at least a dozen countries worldwide with national KMC programmes, and we identify three pathways to scale: (1) champion-led; (2) project-initiated; and (3) health systems designed. The combination of all three pathways may lead to more rapid scale-up. KMC has the potential to save lives, and change the face of facility-based newborn care, whilst empowering women to care for their preterm newborns

The influence of distance and quality of care on place of delivery in rural Ghana

Facility delivery is an important aspect of the strategy to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. Geographic access to care is a strong determinant of facility delivery, but few studies have simultaneously considered the influence of facility quality, with inconsistent findings. In rural Brong Ahafo region in Ghana, we combined surveillance data on 11,274 deliveries with quality of care data from all 64 delivery facilities in the study area. We used multivariable multilevel logistic regression to assess the influence of distance and several quality dimensions on place of delivery. Women lived a median of 3.3 km from the closest delivery facility, and 58% delivered in a facility. The probability of facility delivery ranged from 68% among women living 1 km from their closest facility to 22% among those living 25 km away, adjusted for confounders. Measured quality of care at the closest facility was not associated with use, except that facility delivery was lower when the closest facility provided substandard care on the EmOC dimension. These results do not imply, however, that we should increase geographic accessibility of care without improving facility quality. While this may be successful in increasing facility deliveries, such care cannot be expected to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.Peer reviewe

Specific prebiotics modulate gut microbiota and immune activation in HAART-naive HIV-infected adults: results of the “COPA” pilot randomized trial

Intestinal mucosal immune system is an early target for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, resulting in CD4+ T-cell depletion, deterioration of gut lining, and fecal microbiota composition. We evaluated the effects of a prebiotic oligosaccharide mixture in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)-naive HIV-1-infected adults. In a pilot double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, 57 HAART-naive HIV-1-infected patients received a unique oligosaccharide mixture (15 or 30 g short chain galactooligosaccharides/long chain fructooligosaccharides/pectin hydrolysate-derived acidic oligosaccharides (scGOS/lcFOS/pAOS) daily) or a placebo for 12 weeks. Microbiota composition improved significantly with increased bifidobacteria, decreased Clostridium coccoides/Eubacterium rectale cluster, and decreased pathogenic Clostridium lituseburense/Clostridium histolyticum group levels upon prebiotic supplementation. In addition, a reduction of soluble CD14 (sCD14), activated CD4+/CD25+ T cells, and significantly increased natural killer (NK) cell activity when compared with control group were seen in the treatment group. The results of this pilot trial highly significantly show that dietary supplementation with a prebiotic oligosaccharide mixture results in improvement of the gut microbiota composition, reduction of sCD14, CD4+ T-cell activation (CD25), and improved NK cell activity in HAART-naive HIV-infected individuals