Understanding Asthma Care and Management Challenges in Pediatric Patients

Background: Asthma is a common pediatric health condition with highly variable manifestations. It may require daily management with medications and lifestyle adjustments throughout childhood. Due to the varied severity of the disease, effective management of asthma can place undue demands and challenges on asthmatic children and their families. Objective: To understand the challenges families face in managing their child’s asthma. Methods: Currently ongoing since November 18, 2021, this study enrolls 5-11 years old presenting with an acute asthma exacerbation to the emergency room of a tertiary care children’s hospital. We use structured questionnaires to collect information on asthma history, severity and management, and families’ demographics. We also record families’ responses to two qualitative questions on their needs and challenges in managing asthma, reported here using thematic analysis. Results: Of the 61 enrolled patients, 57 caregivers provided responses highlighting their needs and challenges. Six central themes emerged from content analysis of the qualitative transcripts: medication availability and management, environmental triggers, limiting activities, school policies, employment issues, and the emotional stress associated with caring for a child with asthma. Conclusion: Though the study was limited to patients in the emergency room, it provides insight into the different obstacles that patients and their families encounter. This interim analysis highlights an overwhelming need for improving modifiable challenges such as medication accessibility and school policies to lessen undue burden on families in caring for a child with asthma

Bone Fractures With and Without Sickle Cell Disease in the Pediatric Population

Background: Individuals with sickle cell disease are restricted from certain physical activities due to the increased risk of complications including fractures secondary to osteopenia. However the exact incidence and outcomes of fractures amongst these patients is unknown. Objectives: (1) describe the incidence, epidemiology, and outcomes of fractures in patients with SCD. (2) to compare fracture patterns and outcomes in patients with and without SCD. Methods: This is a retrospective, cohort study of patients aged 0-25 years old with HbSS, HbSC, or HbS-β-thalassemia with a fracture evaluated at a pediatric emergency department from April 2009-April 2022. Eligible patients were identified using a combination of ICD billing codes and a preexisting hematology clinic database. Patients were age/gender matched with non-SCD patients with fractures. Data on demographics, number and types of fractures and outcomes were collected. Results: 753 patients with SCD were identified during the study period. SCD patients with fractures were more likely to have multiple comorbidities, lower mean vitamin D levels and were less likely to be on vitamin D supplementation compared to those without fractures. The most common etiology was fall and carpal bones were most commonly fractured. Non-SCD patients with fractures were more likely to be obese and require surgical repair compared to their SCD peers. Conclusions: Fracture incidence among SCD patients is low. Male gender, multiple comorbidities, and lack of vitamin D supplementation are associated with increased risk of fracture. SCD patients with a fracture were less likely to require surgical treatment compared to their non-SCD counterparts

OMMYDCLD: a New A-train Cloud Product that Co-locates OMI and MODIS Cloud and Radiance Parameters onto the OMI Footprint

Clouds cover approximately 60% of the earth's surface. When obscuring the satellite's field of view (FOV), clouds complicate the retrieval of ozone, trace gases and aerosols from data collected by earth observing satellites. Cloud properties associated with optical thickness, cloud pressure, water phase, drop size distribution (DSD), cloud fraction, vertical and areal extent can also change significantly over short spatio-temporal scales. The radiative transfer models used to retrieve column estimates of atmospheric constituents typically do not account for all these properties and their variations. The OMI science team is preparing to release a new data product, OMMYDCLD, which combines the cloud information from sensors on board two earth observing satellites in the NASA A-Train: Aura/OMI and Aqua/MODIS. OMMYDCLD co-locates high resolution cloud and radiance information from MODIS onto the much larger OMI pixel and combines it with parameters derived from the two other OMI cloud products: OMCLDRR and OMCLDO2. The product includes histograms for MODIS scientific data sets (SDS) provided at 1 km resolution. The statistics of key data fields - such as effective particle radius, cloud optical thickness and cloud water path - are further separated into liquid and ice categories using the optical and IR phase information. OMMYDCLD offers users of OMI data cloud information that will be useful for carrying out OMI calibration work, multi-year studies of cloud vertical structure and in the identification and classification of multi-layer clouds

Synthesis and Characterization of High-Performing Sulfur-Free Tannin Foams

Tannin foams are green lightweight materials that have attracted industrial interest for the manufacturing of sandwich panels for insulation purposes. However, the dimensions of the cells and the presence of sulfur in the formulation developed until now have discouraged their upscaling. In this work, we present the synthesis and the characterization of the more promising small cell and sulfur-free materials. It was observed that, with respect to standard ones, foams catalyzed with nitric acid present similar physical properties and more phenolic character, which favors the absorption of ionic pollutants. Conversely, the foams blown with aliphatic solvents and surfactants present smaller pores, and higher mechanical and insulating properties, without a\ufb00ecting the chemical properties or the heating value. The combined foam produced with nitric acid as a catalyst and petroleum ether as a blowing agent result in sulfur-free and small cell material with overall improved features. These foams have been produced at 30 7 30 7 3 cm3, with high homogeneity and, to date, they represent the most suitable formulation for industrial upscaling