Wind erosion is one of the main factors of soil degradation and air pollution in arid and semi-arid regions. In this study we evaluated microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) as an ...alternative soil conservation method against wind erosion using sugar cane molasse and vinasse as growth substrates in comparison to tryptic soy broth (TSB). The three substrates were applied in laboratory tests with and without addition of MICP cementing solution (1 M urea plus calcium chloride) to two sandy soils differing in calcium carbonate content. The performance of MICP solution inoculated with a cultured urease-producing strain of Sporosarcina pasteurii was compared to that of an autoclaved MICP solution. For control we also performed a blank treatment without substrate, MICP solution and inoculation. In addition to lab tests in which we determined the effects of treatments on soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), calcium carbonate (CaCO3) content and surface penetration resistance, we performed wind tunnel experiments to determine soil loss by deflation under different wind velocities. Applying vinasse and molasse strongly increased soil CaCO3 content and penetration resistance, with and without addition of inoculated or non-inoculated MICP solution. Vinasse generally had stronger effects than molasse, while TSB was less effective, especially on penetration resistance. The addition of MICP solution in most treatments did not enhance but rather decrease the substrate effects. In the treatments with vinasse and molasse, increase in penetration resistance translated into substantially decreased soil loss in the wind tunnel tests, down to around one third of the loss in the blank treatment. In contrast, soil loss substantially increased in the treatments with TSB, probably due to the high input of sodium with this substrate. Our results show that molasse and, even more, vinasse can have a strong soil stabilization effect against wind erosion, which is primarily related to the formation of CaCO3 content and does not depend on additional amendments. Thus, these substrates have a great potential to be used on their own as environmentally friendly and cost-effective amendments to control wind erosion of bare sandy soils in arid environments.
•Wind erosion is one of the main factors of air pollution in arid and semiarid regions.•MICP with three substrates (sugarcane molasse, vinasse and tryptic soy broth) are investigated.•Extensive in-situ wind tunnel experiments and soil properties analysis are performed.•Links between soil erosion rates and soil amendments are illustrated.•Environmentally friendly and cost-effective amendments to control wind erosion of bare sandy soils are proposed.
Fuel moisture content (FMC) is an important fuel property for assessing wildfire hazard, since it influences fuel flammability and fire behavior. The relationship between FMC and fire activity ...differs among land covers and seems to be a property of each ecosystem. Our objectives were to analyze pre-fire FMC among different land covers and to propose a wildfire hazard classification for the Sierras Chicas in the Chaco Serrano subregion (Argentina), by analyzing pre-fire FMC distributions observed for grasslands, shrublands and forests and using percentiles to establish thresholds. For this purpose, we used a fire database derived from Landsat imagery (30 m) and derived FMC maps every 8 days from 2002 to 2016 using MODIS reflectance products and empirical equations of FMC. Our results indicated that higher FMC constrains the extent of wildfires, whereas at lower FMC there are other factors affecting their size. Extreme and high fire hazard thresholds for grasslands were established at FMC of 55% and 67% respectively, at 72% and 105% for forests and at 106% and 121% for shrublands. Our FMC thresholds were sensitive to detect extreme fire hazard conditions during years with high fire activity in comparison to average conditions. The differences in the distributions of pre-fire FMC among land covers and between ecosystems highlighted the need to locally determine land cover-specific FMC thresholds to assess wildfire hazard. Our wildfire hazard classification applied to FMC maps in an operational framework will contribute to improving early warning systems in the Sierras Chicas. However, moisture alone is not sufficient to represent true fire hazard in Chaco forests and the combination with other variables would provide better hazard assessments. These operational wildfire hazard maps will help to better allocation of fire protective resources to minimize negative impact on people, property and ecosystems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing pre-fire FMC over several fire seasons in a non-Mediterranean ecosystem, aiming at assessing wildfire hazard.
The anaerobic digestion (AD) process is influenced by a variety of operation parameters, such as sludge rheology, mixing, temperature, solid retention time (SRT), hydraulic retention time (HRT) and ...solids concentration. The optimum in the mixing lies somewhere between no-mixing and continuous mixing, as the lack or excessive mixing can lead to poor AD performance instead. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics steady/unsteady model, incorporating the rheological properties of the sludge, was developed and applied to quantify mixing in a full-scale anaerobic digester. Mechanical and gas mixing solutions were taken into account, keeping constant the daily energy consumption. Results, consisting of velocity magnitude and patterns, dead zone formation and turbulence levels were discussed. Compared to the mechanical mixing, gas mixing had lower percentage of dead zones (about 5% against 50%), larger maximum velocity (about 3 m/s against 1 m/s) as well as larger turbulent kinetic energy levels (0.24 m
/s
against 0.001 m
/s
).
This qualitative study aimed to discover whether experiences of sexual violence suffered by a sample of adolescents and young-adults at a Brazilian public health had been disclosed or detected, why ...or why not, and what happened after disclosure or detection. Seventy-one (8.3%) students were victims of sexual violence, and 52 (73.2%) were females. The researchers interviewed 22 participants to obtain an oral history of these abuse experiences. The 22 interviewees had experienced 29 episodes of violence. Acquaintances had perpetrated 26 of these attacks, and of these 26 only four (15.4%) occurrences were never disclosed. Twenty-two experiences were disclosed or detected, of which four (18.2%) were promptly revealed (days after the event), resulting in a discontinuation of the violence. Unfortunately, molestation continued without intervention in nine (41.0%) of the revealed situations, despite disclosure or detection. The authors find that children or adolescents disclosing their experiences of sexual violence cannot end the attacks. This study identifies an urgent need to educate society about how to respond appropriately to revelations of sexual violence. Children or adolescents must be oriented to disclose their abuse and seek help from as many people as necessary until they are heard, believed and the violence is ended.
For older, frail adults, exercise before surgery through prehabilitation (prehab) may hasten return recovery and reduce postoperative complications. We developed a smartwatch-based prehab program ...(BeFitMe) for older adults that encourages and tracks at-home exercise. The objective of this study was to assess patient perceptions about facilitators and barriers to prehab generally and to using a smartwatch prehab program among older adult thoracic surgery patients to optimize future program implementation.
We recruited patients, aged ≥50 years who had or were having surgery and were screened for frailty (Fried's Frailty Phenotype) at a thoracic surgery clinic at a single academic institution. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by telephone after obtaining informed consent. Participants were given a description of the BeFitMe program. The interview questions were informed by The Five "Rights" of Clinical Decision-Making framework (Information, Person, Time, Channel, and Format) and sought to identify the factors perceived to influence smartwatch prehab program participation. Interview transcripts were transcribed and independently coded to identify themes in for each of the Five "Rights" domains.
A total of 29 interviews were conducted. Participants were 52% men (n = 15), 48% Black (n = 14), and 59% pre-frail (n = 11) or frail (n = 6) with a mean age of 68 ± 9 years. Eleven total themes emerged. Facilitator themes included the importance of providers (right person) clearly explaining the significance of prehab (right information) during the preoperative visit (right time); providing written instructions and exercise prescriptions; and providing a preprogrammed and set-up (right format) Apple Watch (right channel). Barrier themes included pre-existing conditions and disinterest in exercise and/or technology. Participants provided suggestions to overcome the technology barrier, which included individualized training and support on usage and responsibilities.
This study reports the perceived facilitators and barriers to a smartwatch-based prehab program for pre-frail and frail thoracic surgery patients. The future BeFitMe implementation protocol must ensure surgical providers emphasize the beneficial impact of participating in prehab before surgery and provide a written prehab prescription; must include a thorough guide on smartwatch use along with the preprogrammed device to be successful. The findings are relevant to other smartwatch-based interventions for older adults.
Introduction
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a neuromodulation technique approved for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). Evidence regarding its long-term efficacy and safety is still scarce.
...Objectives
To descriptively report a case series of 3 patients undergoing adjunctive VNS for TRD with an over 10-year follow-up.
Methods
We investigated outcomes of clinical interest in patients with ongoing VNS for at least 10 years after the device implantation. They had participated in a larger single-arm interventional study conducted at the University Hospital of Padua. They were diagnosed with chronic unipolar (1), recurrent unipolar (1), and bipolar (1) TRD.
Results
Our 3 cases had an average 14-year history of psychiatric disease before surgery. Afterward, all subjects achieved clinical remission within two years. 2 patients experienced relapses within the first 4 years of treatment (respectively, 1 and 2 episodes). The other case showed a recurrent trend of brief relapses every two years. Only 1 individual needed to be admitted to the psychiatric unit once. None of them committed suicidal attempts. Prescription of antidepressants remained almost unchanged after the first two years. 2 individuals improved and 1 maintained their working position. Common adverse events were voice alteration (3/3), neck pain (2/3), and cough (2/3).
Conclusions
Very few cases of 10-year VNS for TRD have been reported so far. For our subjects, VNS was most likely to have a major impact on the clinical course of the disease. This treatment can be a safe and effective adjunctive intervention in a subgroup of patients with TRD.
A full understanding of the nature of sorption/desorption reactions of Zn in soils is crucial for the interpretation and prediction of its chemical behavior in soils. Therefore, to identify the ...kinetics of zinc (Zn) adsorption in selected common diagnostic horizons of soils in southwestern Iran, 30 ml of solutions containing 10 mg Zn/L was added to 3 g of each of mollic, calcic, and salic diagnostic horizons (in triplicate) and at specified times (5 to 2880 minutes) the residual concentration of Zn in the supernatant was measured by an atomic absorption spectrometer. The results indicated that the Zn adsorption process in the soils studied was a three-stage process. Accordingly, by end of the first step (120 minutes from the beginning of the experiment) 65.7, 57.8, and 26.7% of the total amount of Zn was adsorbed in mollic, calcic and salic horizons, respectively. The Zn adsorption capacity of mollic, calcic, and salic diagnostic horizons were 58.20, 63.57, and 79.50 mg g
−1
, respectively. Excellent agreement was found between the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the experimental data (
R
2
≈ 0.994–0.999). The Zn sorption/desorption isotherms were also derived with 0.1 M Ca (NO
3
)
2
solutions containing varying concentrations of Zn (0 to 10 mg L
−1
) for 24 h. Accordingly, comparing with the Langmuir model (0.888 <
R
2
sorption < 0.956; 0.896 <
R
2
desorption < 0.984), Freundlich isotherm model (0.987 <
R
2
sorption < 0.999; 0.963 <
R
2
desorption < 0.994) could better explain Zn sorption/desorption data in the soils studied. The Zn adsorption data on all three soils followed an L-shaped isotherm. Besides, Zn adsorption isotherms showed greater values than desorption isotherms, suggesting that the Zn adsorption process is irreversible. Results obtained from hysteresis calculations indicated that the desorption of freshly sorbed Zn was less hysteretic in calcic and mollic horizons relative to salic horizon. This suggests low mobility and leaching potential of freshly sorbed Zn can be expected from these soils.
•Identical twin pairs discordant for MS are ideal for the co-twin control design.•This approach allows studies, controlling for genetic and non-genetic influences.•The co-twin control design provides ...clues on non-genetic factors of MS etiology.•MS-discordant monozygotic twins inform on early, possibly reversible, endophenotypes.
Twin studies of disease concordance are useful to weight the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the cause of common complex disorders. In multiple sclerosis (MS) different twinning rates from geographic areas at different prevalence suggested that heritable and non-heritable factors contribute in different proportions and ways to MS risk in diverse populations. This concept prompted genome-wide association studies, and the implementation of the co-twin control design, that allows stringent experimental approaches in MS-discordant identical pairs, controlling for genetic influences and many other known and unknown factors. The co-twin control design provided important clues on MS molecular model. These studies will be reviewed, focusing on those showing significant differences between affected and healthy co-twins. In some cases, differences that emerged in non-twin patients compared to matched controls were not confirmed in identical MS-discordant pairs, suggesting an ‘MS subclinical trait’. Early patterns of magnetic resonance imaging and predictive biomarkers that characterize ‘healthy’ co-twins may be useful for the identification of a prodromal reversible phase of the disease.
Shrinking natural habitats exposes some non-human primates to the risk of accidents associated with electrical transmission lines. We examined dead marmosets (
Callithrix penicillata
) collected in ...the region from January 2015 to April 2018 to determine the animals’ cause of death and for electrocuted animals we examined the locations the animals had died as well as the configuration of the power lines at these sites. We also recorded the sex of the animal, the body region affected, and characteristics of the injuries. We diagnosed electrocutions in 11% (
n
= 34) of the marmosets studied. Most of the affected animals were male (
n
= 22) with single or double sites of injury on the limbs. Animals were injured in urban (
n
= 26) and peri-urban (
n
= 8) areas on lower-voltage alternate current lines, and we detected no seasonality or hotspots of electrocution. Our findings suggest that movement along transmission lines composed of bundled conductors is a major factor in electrocutions of marmosets in the Federal District and surrounding areas. The planning of electrical power grid infrastructure should consider arboreal primates to prevent electrocutions.
Tractography of the facial nerve based on single-shell diffusion MR imaging is thought to be helpful before surgery for resection of vestibular schwannoma. However, this paradigm can be vitiated by ...the isotropic diffusion of the CSF, the convoluted path of the facial nerve, and its crossing with other bundles. Here we propose a multishell diffusion MR imaging acquisition scheme combined with probabilistic tractography that has the potential to provide a presurgical facial nerve reconstruction uncontaminated by such effects.
Five patients scheduled for vestibular schwannoma resection underwent multishell diffusion MR imaging (b-values = 0, 300, 1000, 2000 s/mm
). Facial nerve tractography was performed with a probabilistic algorithm and anatomic seeds located in the brain stem, cerebellopontine cistern, and internal auditory canal. A single-shell diffusion MR imaging (b-value = 0, 1000 s/mm
) subset was extrapolated from the multishell diffusion MR imaging data. The quality of the facial nerve reconstruction based on both multishell diffusion MR imaging and single-shell diffusion MR imaging sequences was assessed against intraoperative videos recorded during the operation.
Single-shell diffusion MR imaging-based tractography was characterized by failures in facial nerve tracking (2/5 cases) and inaccurate facial nerve reconstructions displaying false-positives and partial volume effects. In contrast, multishell diffusion MR imaging-based tractography provided accurate facial nerve reconstructions (4/5 cases), even in the presence of ostensibly complex patterns.
In comparison with single-shell diffusion MR imaging, the combination of multishell diffusion MR imaging-based tractography and probabilistic algorithms is a more valuable aid for surgeons before vestibular schwannoma resection, providing more accurate facial nerve reconstructions, which may ultimately improve the postsurgical patient's outcome.
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