Data from both laboratory studies and atmospheric measurements are used to develop an empirical parameterization for the immersion freezing activity of natural mineral dust particles. Measurements ...made with the Colorado State University (CSU) continuous flow diffusion chamber (CFDC) when processing mineral dust aerosols at a nominal 105% relative humidity with respect to water (RHw) are taken as a measure of the immersion freezing nucleation activity of particles. Ice active frozen fractions vs. temperature for dusts representative of Saharan and Asian desert sources were consistent with similar measurements in atmospheric dust plumes for a limited set of comparisons available. The parameterization developed follows the form of one suggested previously for atmospheric particles of non-specific composition in quantifying ice nucleating particle concentrations as functions of temperature and the total number concentration of particles larger than 0.5 mu m diameter. Such an approach does not explicitly account for surface area and time dependencies for ice nucleation, but sufficiently encapsulates the activation properties for potential use in regional and global modeling simulations, and possible application in developing remote sensing retrievals for ice nucleating particles. A calibration factor is introduced to account for the apparent underestimate (by approximately 3, on average) of the immersion freezing fraction of mineral dust particles for CSU CFDC data processed at an RHw of 105% vs. maximum fractions active at higher RHw. Instrumental factors that affect activation behavior vs. RHw in CFDC instruments remain to be fully explored in future studies. Nevertheless, the use of this calibration factor is supported by comparison to ice activation data obtained for the same aerosols from Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics of the Atmosphere (AIDA) expansion chamber cloud parcel experiments. Further comparison of the new parameterization, including calibration correction, to predictions of the immersion freezing surface active site density parameterization for mineral dust particles, developed separately from AIDA experimental data alone, shows excellent agreement for data collected in a descent through a Saharan aerosol layer. These studies support the utility of laboratory measurements to obtain atmospherically relevant data on the ice nucleation properties of dust and other particle types, and suggest the suitability of considering all mineral dust as a single type of ice nucleating particle as a useful first-order approximation in numerical modeling investigations.
Development in the textile industry leads to an increased demand for the use of various dyes. Moreover, there is the use of some dyes in the food industry as well as medical diagnostics. Thereby, ...increased demand for dyes in various fields has resulted in dye-containing wastewater. Only a small portion of the generated wastewater is adequately treated. The rest is usually dumped or otherwise directly discharged into the sewage system, which ultimately enters rivers, lakes, and streams. The handling and disposal of such concentrated wastewater, especially the dye-containing wastewater, is considered to be a major environmental issue from the moment of its generation to its ultimate disposal. Conventional water treatment methods such as flotation, filtration, adsorption, etc., are non-destructive physical separation processes. They only transfer the pollutants to other phases, thereby generating concentrated deposits. The advanced oxidation process (AOP) is one of the most effective emerging methods for the treatment of wastewater containing chemical pollutants. The method involves the formation and interaction of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals under suitable activation conditions. These radicals are non-selective and efficient for the destruction and eventual mineralization of recalcitrant organic pollutants. This review aims at the pros and cons of using photocatalysis as an efficient AOP to degrade dye-containing wastewater.
•Mild, acute sleep restriction has robust, negative consequences on sustained vigilance in both laboratory tasks and simulated driving scenarios.•When driving, sleep restriction slows reaction time ...when braking, causes braking to be missed more often, and results in more crashes.•Alpha burst activity predicts reaction time when driving suggesting it is a sensitive electrophysiological index of drowsiness during simulated “real-world” driving tasks.•These findings have direct implications for scenarios demanding sustained vigilance.
Here, we investigated the behavioral, cognitive, and electrophysiological impact of mild, acute sleep loss via simultaneously recorded behavioral and electrophysiological measures of vigilance during a "real-world", simulated driving task.
Participants (N = 34) visited the lab for two testing days where their brain activity and vigilance were simultaneously recorded during a driving simulator task. The driving task lasted approximately 70 mins and consisted of tailgating the lead car at high speed, which braked randomly, requiring participants to react quickly to avoid crashing. The night before testing, participants either slept from 12am-9am (Normally Rested), or 1am-6am (Sleep Restriction).
After a single night of mild sleep restriction, sleepiness was increased, participants took longer to brake, missed more braking events, and crashed more often. Brain activity showed more intense alpha burst activity and significant changes in EEG spectral power frequencies related to arousal (e.g., delta, theta, alpha). Importantly, increases in amplitude and number of alpha bursts predicted delays in reaction time when braking.
The findings of this study suggest that a single night of mild sleep loss has significant, negative consequences on driving performance and vigilance, and a clear impact on the physiology of the brain in ways that reflect reduced arousal.
Understanding neural and cognitive changes associated with sleep loss may lead to important advancements in identifying and preventing potentially dangerous sleep-related lapses in vigilance.
Objective
To assess the incidence of maternal group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection in England.
Design
Population surveillance augmented through data linkage.
Setting
England.
Population
All pregnant ...women accessing the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
Methods
Invasive GBS (iGBS) infections during pregnancy or within 6 weeks of childbirth were identified by linking Public Health England (PHE) national microbiology surveillance data for 2014 to NHS hospital admission records. Capsular serotypes of GBS were determined by reference laboratory typing of clinical isolates from women aged 15–44 years. Post‐caesarean section surgical site infection (SSI) caused by GBS was identified in 21 hospitals participating in PHE SSI surveillance (2009–2015).
Main outcome measures
iGBS rate per 1000 maternities; risk of GBS SSI per 1000 caesarean sections.
Results
Of 1601 patients diagnosed with iGBS infections in England in 2014, 185 (12%) were identified as maternal infections, a rate of 0.29 (95% CI 0.25–0.33) per 1000 maternities and representing 83% of all iGBS cases in women aged 18–44 years. Seven (3.8%) were associated with miscarriage. Fetal outcome identified excess rates of stillbirth (3.4 versus 0.5%) and extreme prematurity (<28 weeks of gestation, 3.7 versus 0.5%) compared with national averages (P < 0.001). Caesarean section surveillance in 27 860 women (21 hospitals) identified 47 cases of GBS SSI, with an estimated 4.24 (3.51–5.07) per 1000 caesarean sections, a median time‐to‐onset of 10 days (IQR 7–13 days) and ten infections that required readmission. Capsular serotype analysis identified a diverse array of strains with serotype III as the most common (43%).
Conclusions
Our assessment of maternal GBS infection in England indicates the potential additional benefit of GBS vaccination in preventing adverse maternal and fetal outcomes.
EGFR mutations drive a subset of NSCLC. Patients harboring the common EGFR mutations, deletion of exon 19 and L858R, respond well to osimertinib, a third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor. ...Nevertheless, the effect of osimertinib on NSCLC with atypical EGFR mutations is not well described. This multicenter retrospective study evaluates the efficacy of osimertinib among patients with NSCLC harboring atypical EGFR mutations.
Patients with metastatic NSCLC treated with osimertinib, harboring at least one atypical EGFR mutation, excluding concurrent deletion of exon 19, L858R, or T790M mutations, from six U.S. academic cancer centers were included. Baseline clinical characteristics were collected. The primary end point was the time to treatment discontinuation (TTD) of osimertinib. Objective response rate by the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 was also assessed.
A total of 50 patients with NSCLC with uncommon EGFR mutations were identified. The most frequent EGFR mutations were L861Q (40%, n = 18), G719X (28%, n = 14), and exon 20 insertion (14%, n = 7). The median TTD of osimertinib was 9.7 months (95% confidence interval CI: 6.5–12.9 mo) overall and 10.7 months (95% CI: 3.2–18.1 mo) in the first-line setting (n = 20). The objective response rate was 31.7% (95% CI: 18.1%–48.1%) overall and 41.2% (95% CI: 18.4%–67.1%) in the first-line setting. The median TTD varied among patients with L861Q (17.2 mo), G719X (7.8 mo), and exon 20 insertion (1.5 mo) mutations.
Osimertinib has activity in patients with NSCLC harboring atypical EGFR mutations. Osimertinib activity differs by the type of atypical EGFR-activating mutation.
IntroductionBangladesh has not yet adopted measures to implement Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) has drafted a guideline for ...implementation, but progress has stalled amid high levels of tobacco industry interference in public policy. This paper examines the barriers to minimising industry interference in a context of close relationships between government officials and tobacco companies.MethodsIn-depth interviews were conducted with government officials, representatives from civil society, think tank and media organisations, and academic researchers. The data were analysed using a ‘3 Is’ framework developed within the political sciences, emphasising the interactive role of ideas, interests and institutions in policy change.ResultsThe findings indicate that policy ideas about protecting public health policy making from tobacco industry interests are largely restricted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the NTCC specifically. Both individual and institutional conflicts of interest emerge as key barriers to progress to minimising industry interference and for tobacco control governance more broadly. The data also suggest that development of an Article 5.3 guideline has been shaped by the perceived interests of political actors and institutions, and the institutional position of the NTCC, constrained by limits on its resources, authority and isolation from other ministries.ConclusionNTCC’s initiatives towards implementing Article 5.3 constitute an important opportunity to address conflicts of interest that restrict tobacco control in Bangladesh. Progress in minimising industry interference is essential to realising the commitment to being smoke free by 2040.
Smog chambers are extensively used to study processes that drive gas and particle evolution in the atmosphere. A limitation of these experiments is that particles and gas-phase species may be lost to ...chamber walls on shorter timescales than the timescales of the atmospheric processes being studied in the chamber experiments. These particle and vapor wall losses have been investigated in recent studies of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, but they have not been systematically investigated in experiments of primary emissions from combustion. The semi-volatile nature of combustion emissions (e.g. from wood smoke) may complicate the behavior of particle and vapor wall deposition in the chamber over the course of the experiments due to the competition between gas/particle and gas/wall partitioning. Losses of vapors to the walls may impact particle evaporation in these experiments, and potential precursors for SOA formation from combustion may be lost to the walls, causing underestimations of aerosol yields. Here, we conduct simulations to determine how particle and gas-phase wall losses contributed to the observed evolution of the aerosol during experiments in the third Fire Lab At Missoula Experiment (FLAME III). We use the TwO-Moment Aerosol Sectional (TOMAS) microphysics algorithm coupled with the organic volatility basis set (VBS) and wall-loss formulations to examine the predicted extent of particle and vapor wall losses. We limit the scope of our study to the dark periods in the chamber before photo-oxidation to simplify the aerosol system for this initial study. Our model simulations suggest that over one-third of the initial particle-phase organic mass (41 %) was lost during the experiments, and over half of this particle-organic mass loss was from direct particle wall loss (65 % of the loss) with the remainder from evaporation of the particles driven by vapor losses to the walls (35 % of the loss). We perform a series of sensitivity tests to understand uncertainties in our simulations. Uncertainty in the initial wood-smoke volatility distribution contributes 18 % uncertainty to the final particle-organic mass remaining in the chamber (relative to base-assumption simulation). We show that the total mass loss may depend on the effective saturation concentration of vapor with respect to the walls as these values currently vary widely in the literature. The details of smoke dilution during the filling of smog chambers may influence the mass loss to the walls, and a dilution of ~ 25:1 during the experiments increased particle-organic mass loss by 33 % compared to a simulation where we assume the particles and vapors are initially in equilibrium in the chamber. Finally, we discuss how our findings may influence interpretations of emission factors and SOA production in wood-smoke smog-chamber experiments.
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