To derive and validate internally a novel risk assessment tool to identify young children at risk for all-cause mortality ≤60 days of discharge from hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.
We performed a ...prospective observational cohort study of children aged 1-59 months discharged from Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia (2019 to 2022). Caregivers received telephone calls up to 60 days after discharge to ascertain participant vital status. We collected socioeconomic, demographic, clinical, and anthropometric data during hospitalization. Candidate variables with P<0.20 in bivariate analyses were included in a multivariable logistic regression model with best subset selection to identify risk factors for the outcome. We internally validated our tool using bootstrapping with 500 repetitions.
There were 1,933 young children enrolled in the study. The median (interquartile range) age was 11 (4, 23) months and 58.7% were male. In total, 67 (3.5%) died during follow-up. Ten variables contributed to our tool (total possible score 82). Cancer (adjusted odds ratio aOR 10.6, 95% CI 2.58, 34.6), pedal edema (aOR 6.94, 95% CI 1.69, 22.6), and leaving against medical advice (aOR 6.46, 95% CI 2.46, 15.3) were most predictive of post-discharge mortality. Our risk assessment tool demonstrated good discriminatory value (optimism corrected area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.77), high precision, and sufficient calibration.
After validation, this tool may be used to identify young children at risk for post-discharge mortality to direct resources for follow-up of high-risk children.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Considering the vast and rapidly growing area of buildings, LCA research is being led in numerous different areas ranging from building materials and components level to whole building analysis. This ...review aims to explore the application of LCA to the various areas in the buildings sector. The areas of embodied energy and building certification systems have seen the maximum growth in the most recent years. Related challenges and research opportunities from these and other areas that require research are discussed. This paper also reviews the use of LCA in buildings industry and reports the associated developments and future research opportunities. The research areas identified include, comparison issues of LCA studies, difference in calculated and actual impacts, refurbishment analysis for whole buildings, system boundary selection procedure, standard data collection procedure, missing data, embodied energy indicator, deconstruction analysis, implementation of dynamic LCA, use of LCA in industry and difference in results from LCA integrated certification and LCA of buildings.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Several tools for assessing FAIRness have been developed. Although their purpose is common, they use different assessment techniques, they are designed to work with diverse research products, and ...they are applied in specific scientific disciplines. It is thus inevitable that they perform the assessment using different metrics. This paper provides an overview of the actual FAIR assessment tools and metrics landscape to highlight the challenges characterising this task. In particular, 20 relevant FAIR assessment tools and 1180 relevant metrics were identified and analysed concerning (i) the tool’s distinguishing aspects and their trends, (ii) the gaps between the metric intents and the FAIR principles, (iii) the discrepancies between the declared intent of the metrics and the actual aspects assessed, including the most recurring issues, (iv) the technologies used or mentioned the most in the assessment metrics. The findings highlight (a) the distinguishing characteristics of the tools and the emergence of trends over time concerning those characteristics, (b) the identification of gaps at both metric and tool levels, (c) discrepancies observed in 345 metrics between their declared intent and the actual aspects assessed, pointing at several recurring issues, and (d) the variety in the technology used for the assessments, the majority of which can be ascribed to linked data solutions. This work also highlights some open issues that FAIR assessment still needs to address.
Marine macroalgae have attracted significant interest as a viable resource for biofuel and value-added chemical production due to their abundant availability, low production costs, and high ...carbohydrate and lipid content. The growing awareness of socio-economic factors worldwide has led to a greater consideration of marine macroalgae as a sustainable source for biofuel production and the generation of valuable products. The integration of biorefinery techniques into biofuel production processes holds immense potential for fostering the development of a circular bioeconomy on a broad scale. Extensive research was focused on the technoeconomic and environmental impact analysis of biofuel production from macroalgal biomass. The integrated biorefinery processes offers valuable pathways for the practical implementation of macroalgae in diverse conversion technologies. These studies provided crucial insights into the large-scale industrial production of biofuels and associated by-products. This review explores the utilization of marine macroalgal biomass for the production of biofuels and biochemicals. It examines the application of assessment tools for evaluating the sustainability of biorefinery processes, including process integration and optimization, life cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, socio-economic analysis, and multi-criteria decision analysis. The review also discusses the limitations, bottlenecks, challenges, and future perspectives associated with utilizing macroalgal biomass for the production of biofuels and value-added chemicals.
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•Macroalgae biorefinery for Sustainable biofuels and biochemicals production.•Integration of biorefinery techniques for circular bioeconomy and greener future.•Technoeconomic and environmental analysis of macroalgae biofuel production.•Assessment tools for sustainability of macroalgae biorefinery techniques.•Challenges and future perspectives in macroalgae based biofuels production.
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•Novel UV- spectrophotometric methods for simultaneous analysis of DMH and CIN in the presence of their toxic impurities BZP and DPP, respectively.•Important studied drug mixtures ...used to relive chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting highlights the importance of its analysis and purity detection.•Resolution of fingerprint D0 spectrum of DMH and CIN through application of novel spectrophotometric methods enhance their purity detection.•First-time using of the ChlorTox scale, along with multiple greenness and whiteness tools.•Pioneering a complete evaluation profile using multiple tools enabled objectively determining the method’s actual sustainability and greenness.
Nausea and vomiting are considered common series side effects induced by chemotherapy treatment in cancer patients. This annoying side effect can impair the patient’s compliance to cancer treatment and affect their quality of life. Dimenhydrinate and cinnarizine in combined pharmaceutical dosage form is used to control chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. For safety, selective spectrophotometric methods based on novel dual resolution strategies were introduced to estimate dimenhydrinate and cinnarizine in presence of their harmful impurities namely benzophenone and 1- (diphenylmethyl)piperazine, respectively. These methods namely, dual ratio difference (DRD), dual ratio extraction (DRE) and dual absorbance extraction coupled with dual ratio extraction (DAE-DRE) were successfully performed to simultaneously analyze the drug of interests dimenhydrinate and cinnarizine in their pure form, synthetic mixtures and in market dosage form. Linearity ranges were 6.0–60.0 μg/mL and 3.0–30.0 μg/mL for dimenhydrinate and cinnarizine, respectively with good recovery% of Mean ± SD for all the proposed methods 99.82 ± 0.48, 99.79 ± 0.40, 100.14 ± 0.82, 100.03 ± 0.69, respectively. ICH guidelines were adhered in accordance with confirming validation of the proposed methods where fulfilling results were accomplished. Various unified greenness and whiteness assessment tools, such as the chlorTox scale, greenness index via spider chart, AGREE (The Analytical Greenness Metric), green certificate, and the RGB12 algorithm were employed in this research to assess the greenness and sustainability of the introduced UV-spectrophotometric methods in comparison to the reported HPLC method. As a result, these methods hold significant potential for utilization in the quality control department of pharmaceutical companies, contributing to enhanced pharmaceutical product analysis and overall sustainability practices.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This paper presents a comprehensive review of literature on most widely used urban sustainability assessment tools. The aim of this paper is to understand the similarities and differences in existing ...urban sustainability assessment tools and identify the gaps so as to find out whether these are capable of and suitable for addressing multiple issues of urban sustainability in multiple contexts, including settlements in diverse geo-climatic and ecologically sensitive regions such as the Himalayan hill regions of India. Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) is employed in this study to identify various themes/categories associated with various dimensions of sustainability. A total of 2594 articles were selected, of which 105 have been analysed in detail. The research reviews six most widely used urban sustainability assessment tools i.e., Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)for Communities, Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) for Urban Development, Green Building Index (GBI)for Township, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighbourhood Development that are used in other countries, and Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)for Green Townships and Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) for Large Development which are used in India. Analysis of these assessment tools reveals that most of them view sustainability from different perspectives by laying more emphasis on some aspects like infrastructure and resource management while ignoring others like cultural, business and innovation. The findings of the analysis highlight that certain aspects are given more importance in all the urban sustainability assessment tools reviewed and certain other aspects are given much lower or no consideration in all tools reflecting an incomprehensive understanding of urban sustainability on one hand; most tools reviewed do not address all context-specific aspects on the other. Further, it is observed that these tools are unable to address the complex relationships among various criteria and categories and each criterion is assessed in isolation irrespective of the fact that it can influence or be influenced by other criteria.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Rubrics are a useful tool for translating performance criteria to an overall rating of quality. In areas where there is not one correct solution but a range of acceptable and difficult-to-express ...responses, rubrics can be difficult to develop and use. This method uses personas, a technique found in human-centered design, to develop a holistic rubric that is particularly useful in areas where the performance rating is highly subjective. Examples include scholarship applications (e.g. NSF S-STEM grant programs), competitive positions (e.g. REU programs), and classroom performances (e.g. design presentations), among others.
Background: Falls risk assessment tools are used in hospital inpatient settings to identify patients at increased risk of falls to guide and target interventions for fall prevention. In 2022, Western ...Health, Melbourne, Australia, introduced a new falls risk assessment tool, the Western Health St. Thomas’ Risk Assessment Tool (WH-STRATIFY), which adapted The Northern Hospital’s risk tool (TNH-STRATIFY) by adding non-English speaking background and falls-risk medication domains to reflect patient demographics. WH-STRATIFY replaced Peninsula Health Risk Screening Tool (PH-FRAT) previously in use at Western Health. This study compared the predictive accuracy of the three falls risk assessment tools in an older inpatient high-risk population. Aims: To determine the predictive accuracy of three falls risk assessment tools (PH-FRAT, TNH-STRATIFY, and WH-STRATIFY) on admission to Geriatric Evaluation Management (GEM) units (subacute inpatient wards where the most frail and older patients rehabilitate under a multi-disciplinary team). Method: A retrospective observational study was conducted on four GEM units. Data was collected on 54 consecutive patients who fell during admission and 62 randomly sampled patients who did not fall between December 2020 and June 2021. Participants were scored against three falls risk assessment tools. The event rate Youden (Youden IndexER) indices were calculated and compared using default and optimal cut points to determine which tool was most accurate for predicting falls. Results: Overall, all tools had low predictive accuracy for falls. Using default cut points to compare falls assessment tools, TNH-STRATIFY had the highest predictive accuracy (Youden IndexER = 0.20, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.07, 0.34). The PH-FRAT (Youden IndexER = 0.01 and 95% CI = −0.04, 0.05) and WH-STRATIFY (Youden IndexER = 0.00 and 95% CI = −0.04, 0.03) were statistically equivalent and not predictive of falls compared to TNH-STRATIFY. When calculated optimal cut points were applied, predictive accuracy improved for PH-FRAT (Cut point 17, Youden IndexER = 0.14 and 95% CI = 0.01, 0.29) and WH-STRATIFY (Cut point 7, Youden IndexER = 0.18 and 95% CI = 0.00, 0.35). Conclusions: TNH-STRATIFY had the highest predictive accuracy for falls. The predictive accuracy of WH-STRATIFY improved and was significant when the calculated optimal cut point was applied. The optimal cut points of falls risk assessment tools should be determined and validated in different clinical settings to optimise local predictive accuracy, enabling targeted fall risk mitigation strategies and resource allocation.
Green chemistry principles have become increasingly important in various disciplines of chemistry, including analytical chemistry. This is mainly due to an ongoing awareness of the state of the ...ecosystem and the negative impacts that analytical procedures can have on the environment. The most important approach developed to address this issue is Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC). GAC is an environmental-friendly approach to analytical chemistry that aims to minimize the negative impact of analytical techniques on the environment and human health. This review provided a comprehensive overview of the history of GAC and the existing greenness assessment metric tools. The various approaches, such as the National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), Eco-scale Assessment (ESA), Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI), and Analytical Greens (AGREE) used to evaluate Green profiles were discussed in detail, and their importance in analytical approaches was examined. In addition, research articles on the applicability of assessment tools were discussed in detail in terms of greenness metrics. This review aims to provide researchers with comprehensive information on the various greenness assessment tools and their currently available applications.
•An overview of greenness assessment tools and their current applications.•Method validation process in evaluating the performance of the analysis.•Expected future evolution of greenness assessment tools.
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•A reliable and repeatable HPLC approach for in-vivo quantification of two simultaneously taken medications, metronidazole and dexibuprofen.•Description of the method greenness by ...Analytical Eco-scale, AGREE, RBG-12, Hexagon, and AGREEprep.•For the first time, the pharmacokinetic characteristics of both drugs when taken simultaneously have been investigated.•Validation regarding US FDA bioanalytical recommendations.•Suitability for therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacokinetics and quality control.
For the simultaneous analysis of metronidazole and dexibuprofen in real human plasma samples, a new HPLC method with a 6-minute analysis time was developed. Furthermore, the method was used to investigate their pharmacokinetics and bioavailability. The internal standard was chosen to be guaifenesin (IS). Following acetonitrile precipitation of plasma proteins, the drugs were chromatographically separated using a Zorbax Eclipse® C 18 column with acetonitrile: water (pH 4 with aqueous phosphoric acid) gradient mixture. Metronidazole and dexibuprofen calibration curves were found to be linear over the ranges of 0.5–20 and 1–30 µg/mL, respectively, with good correlation coefficients. The analysis of quality control samples revealed outstanding accuracy and precision. Drug stability was also examined throughout storage and processing, and all coefficients of variation were under 8.23 %. After this optimized method was successfully applied to plasma samples and the pharmacokinetic parameters of each of the targeted medicines were examined separately and compared to their parameters when they were administered concurrently. The outcomes supported each drug's significant impact on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the other. Using five metrics, including the Analytical Eco-scale, Analytical GREEnness Calculator (AGREE), RGB-12, Hexagon, and AGREE-prep, the environmental impact of the suggested approach and some reported methods utilized for the determination of either medicines in biological matrix were evaluated. The promising results demonstrated lower environmental and health risks associated with sample preparation and analysis.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
