Electrospinning of Formic Acid/Acetic Acid and Nylon-6 Solutions for Wearable Hydration Sensors

Students have been working on the development of wearable hydration sensors at the startup company RooSense. The goal of the company is to develop a lightweight wearable sensor that enables the user to know their hydration level, thus elevating their performance goals. To measure the hydration of the wearer, the sodium and other salt ions are collected from the user’s sweat as they exercise. This sweat is analyzed as it is collected to give the user an exact level of hydration, so they know how much fluids they need. The production of this ion sensor requires numerous steps and iteration upon the analysis of results. The process of the makeup of sensors starts with electrospinning a carbon fiber mat in an enclosed chamber in a lab. Once the mats are electrospun, quality control tests are run including tensile testing to show the durability of the sensors and sensor response testing is completed to show how the sensor responds to exposure to sodium ions so that a calibration curve can be created for use in the final sensors. When an athlete wears the sensor the sodium ions in the sweat are measured which helps the athlete better understand their hydration level

Dipeptidyl peptidase-1 inhibition in patients hospitalised with COVID-19: a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial

Background Neutrophil serine proteases are involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and increased serine protease activity has been reported in severe and fatal infection. We investigated whether brensocatib, an inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase-1 (DPP-1; an enzyme responsible for the activation of neutrophil serine proteases), would improve outcomes in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Methods In a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial, across 14 hospitals in the UK, patients aged 16 years and older who were hospitalised with COVID-19 and had at least one risk factor for severe disease were randomly assigned 1:1, within 96 h of hospital admission, to once-daily brensocatib 25 mg or placebo orally for 28 days. Patients were randomly assigned via a central web-based randomisation system (TruST). Randomisation was stratified by site and age (65 years or ≥65 years), and within each stratum, blocks were of random sizes of two, four, or six patients. Participants in both groups continued to receive other therapies required to manage their condition. Participants, study staff, and investigators were masked to the study assignment. The primary outcome was the 7-point WHO ordinal scale for clinical status at day 29 after random assignment. The intention-to-treat population included all patients who were randomly assigned and met the enrolment criteria. The safety population included all participants who received at least one dose of study medication. This study was registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN30564012. Findings Between June 5, 2020, and Jan 25, 2021, 406 patients were randomly assigned to brensocatib or placebo; 192 (47·3%) to the brensocatib group and 214 (52·7%) to the placebo group. Two participants were excluded after being randomly assigned in the brensocatib group (214 patients included in the placebo group and 190 included in the brensocatib group in the intention-to-treat population). Primary outcome data was unavailable for six patients (three in the brensocatib group and three in the placebo group). Patients in the brensocatib group had worse clinical status at day 29 after being randomly assigned than those in the placebo group (adjusted odds ratio 0·72 [95% CI 0·57–0·92]). Prespecified subgroup analyses of the primary outcome supported the primary results. 185 participants reported at least one adverse event; 99 (46%) in the placebo group and 86 (45%) in the brensocatib group. The most common adverse events were gastrointestinal disorders and infections. One death in the placebo group was judged as possibly related to study drug. Interpretation Brensocatib treatment did not improve clinical status at day 29 in patients hospitalised with COVID-19

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

What a difference a year makes: An examination of prosecutorial decision-making for persons under the age of 18 in the Harris County, Texas adult criminal justice system. Patterns and predictors.

Prior studies have argued that the disparate treatment of racial, ethnic, gender, and age groups is present, either directly or indirectly, at every stage of processing in the United States’ juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. Informed by the prior literature suggesting that extralegal factors influence decision-making in cases with adult offenders (see Walker et al., 2012), the purpose of the current study is twofold. First, the study seeks to explore patterns in prosecutorial decision-making involving juvenile offenders in an adult criminal court. Second, guided by a focal concerns perspective, this dissertation will then examine which, if any, legal and extralegal factors influence the decision to prosecute these youth in the adult system. More directly, the latter half of this study seeks to examine if disparities are present in the processing of juveniles in the Harris County, Texas adult criminal court. The study also seeks to examine the possibility of an age penalty being attached to younger juveniles (transferred youth) as compared to 17-year olds. More specifically, the current study will examine whether legal and extralegal factors differentially influence the prosecutors’ decision to prosecute to the detriment of transferred youth compared to statutorily excluded (17-year old) juveniles. This study employed a variety of analytical strategies using data from the Neulaw project, which consists of all court cases handled in the Harris County, Texas adult criminal court between the years of 1977-2013 (Ormachea et al., 2015). The results revealed several key patterns in prosecutorial decision-making and the presence of race/ethnicity, gender, and age effects in prosecutorial decision-making involving juvenile offenders in an adult criminal court

Sources of Secondary Task Interference with Driving: Executive Processes or Verbal and Visuospatial Rehearsal Processes?

We investigated the effects of secondary working memory tasks that loaded either visuospatial working memory or verbal working memory (phonological loop) and which required either rehearsal or executive processes involving stimulus manipulation. The effects of the secondary tasks on driver lookout behavior and driving performance were assessed. Preliminary studies were conducted to select tasks that resulted in similar levelsof accuracy and perceived difficulty across modalities (visuospatial, verbal, rehearse, and manipulate). Piloting and the preliminary studies were also used to evaluate different visual tasks and to select a visual task that could not be encoded verbally. Results of the study reveal that driving performance is significantly impaired while performing a secondary manipulation task than performing a rehearsal task of equivalent difficulty. The study finds that visuospatial and verbal secondary tasks produce the same level of interference with overall driving performance

credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Religious Identity and Economic Behavior

We thank Azim Shariff and Ara Norenzayan for sharing with us the religious identity priming instrument