Functional outcome and muscle wasting in adults with tetanus.

BACKGROUND: In many countries, in-hospital survival from tetanus is increasing, but long-term outcome is unknown. In high-income settings, critical illness is associated with muscle wasting and poor functional outcome, but there are few data from resource-limited settings. In this study we aimed to assess muscle wasting and long-term functional outcome in adults with tetanus. METHODS: In a prospective observational study involving 80 adults with tetanus, sequential rectus femoris ultrasound measurements were made at admission, 7 days, 14 days and hospital discharge. Functional outcome was assessed at hospital discharge using the Timed Up and Go test, Clinical Frailty Score, Barthel Index and RAND 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and 3 and 6 months after discharge using the SF-36 and Barthel Index. RESULTS: Significant muscle wasting occurred between hospital admission and discharge (p70 y of age, functional recovery at 6 months was reduced compared with younger patients. Hospital-acquired infection and age were risk factors for muscle wasting. CONCLUSIONS: Significant muscle wasting during hospitalization occurred in patients with tetanus, the extent of which correlates with functional outcome

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Injection molding scrap reduction: a study in the relationships of plastics processing methods

Includes bibliographical references

Synthesis of heat-resistant fish gelatin gel by radiation-induced crosslinking

Gelatin is a kind of protein obtained by the partial hydrolysis of collagen derived from bone, skin and scale of animals such as porcine, bovine, and fish. It has been widely used as gelling agent in many fields such as food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and medical because of its multifunctional continent: biological origin, non-antigenicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability. In recent years, there are many researches that improve the heat-resistant at 37 °C and gel strength of porcine and bovine gelatin through the crosslinking by irradiation method without toxic chemicals as crosslinker, their elastic modulus were insufficient for the practical use of biomedical device (10 - 100 kPa). However, products made of mammalian gelatins have concern with ethic problem or religious issue for clinical medicine and tissue engineering. From this necessary demand, fish gelatin can replace and resolve this disadvantage of porcine and bovine ones. Although melting point of fish gelatin gel was lower than mammalian one, recently, it have been reported successfully obtained gelatin having high melting point of 24 °C from Tilapia fish scale by pre-treatment. In this work, hydrogels derived from fish gelatin with different molecular weights were produced by quantum beam in order to improve their heat-resistant, production yields and mechanical property.The 13th meeting of the “Ionizing Radiation and Polymers” symposium (IRaP2018

Cyborg Beetle Achieves Efficient Autonomous Navigation Using Feedback Control

Terrestrial cyborg insects were long discussed as potential complements for insect-scale mobile robots. These cyborgs inherit the insects' outstanding locomotory skills, orchestrated by a sophisticated central nervous system and various sensory organs, favoring their maneuvers in complex terrains. However, the autonomous navigation of these cyborgs was not yet comprehensively studied. The struggle to select optimal stimuli for individual insects hinders reliable and accurate navigations. This study overcomes this problem and provides a detailed look at the terrestrial navigation of cyborg insects (darkling beetle) by implementing a feedback control system. Via a thrust controller for acceleration and a proportional controller for turning, the system regulates the stimulation parameters depending on the beetle's instantaneous status. Adjusting the system's control parameters allows reliable and precise path-following navigations (i.e., up to ~94% success rate, ~1/2 body length accuracy). Also, the system's performance can be tuned, providing flexibility to navigation applications of terrestrial cyborg insects.Comment: Demonstration video can be found at http://youtu.be/p00mfxFo7V

Specifying the relationship between land use/land cover change and dryness in central Vietnam from 2000 to 2019 using Google Earth Engine

Land use/land cover (LULC) change and climate change are thought to be closely related and mutually influential, especially in contexts where land is converted for urban expansion or agriculture. We represent a first attempt to specify the relationship between LULC change and dryness in a region of Vietnam that is profoundly affected by climate change. Using the temperature–vegetation dryness index (TVDI), we specified the relationships and changes underway in Vietnam’s Ba river basin, one of the largest river systems in the South Central Coast. Using Google Earth Engine, we extracted land use data from Landsat images and calculated TVDI values from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data for 2000 to 2019. We found, first, that agricultural area and deforestation rose by 7.2% and 2.4% annually, respectively. These changes were driven by economic development, rising crop prices, illegal logging, wildfires, and emergence of new agricultural areas. Second, areas classified in the driest TVDI intervals (dry and very dry) occupied 57% of the basin in 2019, 70% of which was agricultural lands and 20% other (mainly urban and bare lands). These driest land categories expanded at an average rate of 0.08% to 0.1% per year. Moreover, 90% of areas classified as 'very wet' and 'wet' were forest. We observed a strong relationship between LULC change and TVDI. Climate change and LULC change thus appear to be propelling the basin’s climate toward increasing dryness, suggesting the need for policies to reduce the agricultural area and expand forests while developing more adaptive and sustainable livelihoods