Background Despite the presence of effective strategies and standard guidelines for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a considerable proportion of patients at risk of developing ...thromboembolism did not receive prophylaxis during hospitalization, while others received it irrationally, thus led to unwanted side effects. Aim This study aimed to evaluate the current thromboprophylaxis practice and management of hospitalized patients at risk of developing DVT, along with the assessment of health care providers (HCPs) knowledge, and attitudes regarding DVT prevention. Methods An observational study was conducted in the general wards of two leading tertiary university hospitals in Northern Cyprus in which patients from multiple clinics were enrolled to investigate the rational use of DVT prophylaxis using the Caprini risk assessment tool. Patients were also followed for possible complications two weeks post-hospitalization. A cross-sectional study followed to assess the knowledge and attitude of HCPs regarding DVT risks and prophylaxis. Results Of the 180 patients enrolled, 47.7% were identified as irrationally managed, 52.3% were identified as rationally managed, 77.8% of patients were identified as having a high level of risk. Notably, Four of thirteen patients who received more thromboprophylaxis developed minor complications. Additionally, 73.3% of nurses had not received DVT education. Furthermore, more than 50% of physicians and nurses achieved a low knowledge score for DVT risks and prophylaxis. Conclusions A high degree of irrationality in the administration of thromboprophylaxis therapy to hospitalized patients was observed. The overall scores for HCPs indicated insufficient knowledge of DVT risk assessments and prophylaxis.
Hydrogels have attracted great attention as good adsorbents due to their extraordinary water retention capacity, unique hydrophilic nature, biocompatibility, and abundance in availability. In this ...work, a superabsorbent polymer (SAP) hydrogel and its composite were synthesized, with the introduction of activated charcoal (SAP-AC) for deep removal of the ecotoxic organic dye methylene blue (MB). The formation of the hydrogel was confirmed by FTIR analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the appearance of a porous microstructure due to the incorporation of AC. A continuous upflow column was set up, and the adsorption parameters were optimized using an experimental Doehlert uniform array design. The residual concentration of MB was analyzed by UV-Vis spectrophotometry at 665 nm (λmax). The experimental data were also discussed in terms of adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm models. Accordingly, MB adsorption followed pseudo second-order kinetics and better fits the Freundlich isotherm, suggesting a chemisorption mechanism and a multilayer MB adsorption system. The maximum adsorption capacity was 202.84 mg g−1 (96.96%) using the SAP and 213.2 mg g−1 (99.48%) using the SAP-AC. The present study proved that the synthesized composite hydrogel has good activity and selectivity for deep removal of the MB dye and can be effectively used in wastewater treatment.
Amid the turbulent nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, telepharmacy has shifted the paradigm of patient care by leveraging digital medicine. Government mandated lockdowns and norms of social distancing ...have further underscored the need for telepharmacy. Many developed and developing countries implemented such initiatives where pharmacists have provided tele-pharmacy services
telecommunications. However, the implementation and utilization of tele-pharmacy services are quite negligible in resource limited settings due to financial and administrative constraints. This study was aimed to ascertain the perception and readiness of pharmacists working in various sectors of a resource limiting country.
A cross sectional study was carried out in all provinces of Pakistan to explore the perceptions of pharmacists towards telepharmacy implementation through a 35-items study instrument. The collected data was analyzed descriptively and scored accordingly. The chi-square test was used for inferential analysis on pharmacist's perception regarding implementation of tele-pharmacy with their demographics.
Of 380 pharmacists, the mean age is 27.67 ± 3.67 years with a preponderance of male pharmacists (
= 238, 62.6%). The pharmacists (
= 321, 84.5%) perceived that telepharmacy implementation improves patient's quality of life and decreases patients' visits (
= 291, 76.6%). Overall, pharmacists (
= 227, 59.7%) had negative perception towards benefits of telepharmacy implementation, but pharmacists had positive perception towards eligibility (
= 258, 67.9%), regulatory issues (
= 271, 71.3%) and telepharmacy during pandemic and beyond (
= 312, 82.1%). In chi-square testing gender (
= 0.03) and age (
= 0.03) had a significant association with perception regarding regulatory issues. Among perception regarding telepharmacy during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond age had a significant association (
= 0.03). Among perception regarding eligibility job location of pharmacists had significant association (
= 0.04).
The majority of pharmacists had a positive perception regarding the eligibility of patients and regulatory issues/legal framework regarding the implementation of tele-pharmacy, as well as its use during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The implementation of tele-pharmacy can play a major role in providing timely and better patient care to remote patient areas and may help in the prevention and treatment of different infectious diseases.
•Tin impregnated activated charcoal (Sn–AC) was used as an adsorbent for dibenzothiophene (DBT) removal from model and real oil samples.•Maximum DBT removal was achieved from model oil at optimized ...conditions of temperature 60°C, stirring time 1h and adsorbent dosage 0.8g.•The spent adsorbent was regenerated with toluene washing and was used for DBT adsorption for multiple folds.•Sn–AC was then used for the desulphurization of commercial kerosene and diesel oil samples.
Keeping in view the growing concern regarding desulphurization of petroleum products, the present study was under taken to investigate the efficiency of tin impregnated activated charcoal (Sn–AC) as a potential adsorbent for the desulphurization of model and real commercial straight run kerosene and diesel oil samples. The adsorbent Sn–AC was prepared by wet impregnation process in the laboratory and characterized by SEM, EDX and surface area analysis. Initial experiments were carried out using model oil, which was prepared by dissolving dibenzothiophene (DBT) in cyclohexane, the optimum conditions for desulfurization were found to be, 60°C temperature, 1h contact time and adsorbent dosage of 0.8g, under which about 99.4% of DBT removal was attained. Under optimized conditions the desulfurization of real oil i.e., kerosene and diesel oil was also investigated. Kinetic studies revealed that DBT adsorption followed pseudo second order kinetics and the data best fits in the Langmuir adsorption isotherm as compared to Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. The adsorbent could be easily regenerated simply by washing with toluene for a multiple cycles and reused without losing its efficiency.
The growing demand for rare earth elements (REEs) confronted with a parallel supply risk, draws major interest to utilize secondary resources bearing higher REE content than the primary resources. ...The European Commission has recently identified bauxite as a Critical Raw Material (CRM). In particular, unexploited bauxite residues have invited due attention owing to their abundance (worldwide generation at 120 – 150 million tons/yr) and presence of REEs (0.5 - 1.7 kg/ton) and scandium (Sc) in particular, with Fe: 14–45%, Al: 5–14%, Si: 1–9%, Na: 1–6% and Ti: 2–12%. Nevertheless, it has also to be taken into consideration that higher amassing of this waste is turning into a global concern due to its hazardous impacts and disposal issues owing to its high alkalinity, fine particle size and metal content. Industrial valorization of REEs from stockpiled bauxite residues could possibly unlock approximately a 4.3 trillion-dollar economy globally. This review foresees bauxite as a potential resource for REEs and identifies the problems associated with disposal of bauxite residues. Considering the recycling potential of bauxite residues for supplying valuable metals for technology, biotechnology is seen as a promising alternative to the conventional methods. Comprehensive details including role and challenges of biotechnology in green recovery of REEs from bauxite residues, their scale-up and environmental issues are critically discussed. Furthermore, w.r.t. the bauxite residues, the REE market potential is presented with discussions into future prospects, following the current impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the demand and supply of REE to industrial sectors.
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In this study, an economical and sustainable bio-hydrometallurgical route was evaluated for the recovery of aluminum from low-grade bauxite using the marine-derived fungus Aspergillus niger. Firstly, ...four different solid media were tested for high-yield spore production. Organic acid production capacity by A. niger was also evaluated in a medium supplemented with glucose or low-cost molasses as a carbon source using fungal spores or pellets as inoculum. The concentrations of the produced organic acids were determined by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that oat-agar can be used as an inexpensive solid medium for greater fungal sporulation, while the liquid medium supplemented with molasses as a low-cost carbon source can be used for higher organic acids production. Among the conditions tested, A. niger spore inoculum showed the highest yield of the total produced organic acids (122.40 g L−1 or 81.6% (grams of sucrose used per grams of total acid) and also the highest (1.02 ± 0.02 g L−1 h−1) acids production rate using molasses as an inexpensive carbon source. This cultivation condition was selected for the bioleaching studies with low-grade bauxite. Among the three different bioleaching methods tested, the direct two-steps bioleaching process resulted in higher aluminum leaching (91.2%) compared to indirect (84.8%) and direct one-step (82.8%) bioleaching process. According to the results obtained using marine-derived A. niger under the established culture conditions, proved to be an eco-friendly and cost-effective way for aluminum recovery from low-grade bauxite ore and has the potential to be adopted on a pilot scale.
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•Bio-hydrometallurgical route was studied for the recovery of aluminum from bauxite.•Oat-agar was selected as the best solid growth medium for the spore production.•Molasses was used as a carbon substrate for the production of fungal metabolites.•A. niger was successfully used to degrade the bauxite ore to liberate aluminum.•The direct two-steps bioleaching process showed the highest (91.2%) Al leaching.
Critical conduction mode (CrCM) active clamp flyback (ACF) converter is regarded as a good candidate for low power adaptor applications. However, the most adopted control strategy of ...variable-frequency peak current mode (VF-PCM) and discrete zero voltage switch (ZVS) control makes it difficult to get the accurate small signal model. Therefore, by using sampled-data modeling method, this paper proposes an exact small signal model of CrCM ACF converter for the first time. In the modeling process, the influence of discrete-ZVS control is firstly considered. The conduction time of power switch is regarded as the control signal, which is different from constant-frequency converter. The total current close-loop transfer function is simplified by the linear combination of single VF-PCM and discrete-ZVS control model. After considering the sampling effect and the modulator gain from the derived sampled-data model respectively, the control-to-output transfer function of CrCM ACF converter is developed. The analytical results are analyzed by comparing with single VF-PCM and the widely used average model. Finally, to validate the accuracy of the proposed model, a 65W 20V output CrCM ACF converter is simulated and measured. The verification shown that the proposed sampled-data model is basically agreement with the simulation and experimental results.
The current study addresses the improved desulphurization activity of activated charcoal modified by acetic acid treatment. The modified activated charcoal was investigated as an adsorbent for the ...elimination of sulfur compounds from the model oil (consisting of dibenzothiophene (DBT) dissolved in cyclohexane) as well as real oil samples including kerosene and diesel oil. In the case of model oil, about 99.5% of DBT was removed under conditions optimized in the laboratory, which included 15 mL feed (model oil) volume, 0.8 g of adsorbent, 60 °C temperature, stirring speed of 100 rpm, and contact time of 1 h under neutral pH. In the case of real oil samples, i.e., kerosene and diesel oil, sulfur removal of 78.69% and 74.29% was attained under optimized conditions, respectively. Experimental results were interpreted through model adsorption isotherms, which indicated that the adsorption process is in close agreement with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm in comparison to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The spent adsorbents were regenerated to view their repeated use, simply by washing separately with organic solvents such as toluene, acetonitrile, methanol, and chloroform. Among these, toluene was found to be the best solvent for the regeneration of the spent adsorbents. The regenerated adsorbents were reused and regenerated for six consecutive regeneration cycles.
Filamentous fungi have been proved to have a pronounced capability to recover metals from mineral ores. However, the metal recovery yield is reduced due to toxic effects triggered by various heavy ...metals present in the ore. The current study highlights the fungal adaptations to the toxic effects of metals at higher pulp densities for the enhanced bio-recovery of aluminum from low-grade bauxite. In the previous studies, a drastic decrease in the aluminum dissolution was observed when the bauxite pulp density was increased from 1 to 10% (w/v) due to the high metal toxicity and low tolerance of
Aspergillus niger
and
Penicillium simplicissium
to heavy metals
.
These fungi were adapted in order to increase heavy metal tolerance of these fungal strains and also to get maximum Al dissolution. A novel approach was employed for the adaptation of fungal strains using a liquid growth medium containing 5% bauxite pulp density supplemented with molasses as an energy source. The mycelia of adapted strains were harvested and subsequently cultured in a low-cost oat-agar medium. Batch experiments were performed to compare the aluminum leaching efficiencies in the direct one-step and the direct two-step bioleaching processes. FE-SEM analysis revealed the direct destructive and corrosive action by the bauxite-tolerant strains due to the extension and penetration of the vegetative mycelium filaments into the bauxite matrix. XRD analysis of the bioleached bauxite samples showed a considerable decline in oxide minerals such as corundum and gibbsite. Results showed a high amount of total Al (≥ 98%) was successfully bioleached and solubilized from low-grade bauxite by the adapted fungal strains grown in the presence of 5% pulp density and molasses as a low-cost substrate.
Graphical abstract
The importance of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has increased over the past ten years due to the solar PV industry's explosive growth. To ensure the reliable, safe, and efficient operation of ...residential PV systems, fault detection is crucial. Early classification of faults can improve PV system performance and reduce damage and energy loss. Many recent studies have focused on classifying and detecting PV faults but most of them are limited to specific reasons like Real-world data can be restricted, unbalanced, or include noise, all of which may decrease the effectiveness of ML models. This paper proposes a method for identifying and classifying both physical and electrical faults in the PV array system applying a machine learning (Random Forest) model to that is trained using a synthetic photovoltaic training database. Make use of a synthetic PV database opens the door to a more precise, effective, and scalable PV system by addressing the limitations of real-world data. MATLAB is used to create a synthetic database while scikit-learn tool in Jupyter Notebook is used to train an ML model are the two main steps in this paper. The performance of the proposed model is compared with the existing ML model and achieves the most effective algorithm offering higher accuracy in detection of 98.6% and classification accuracy is 94.2% for both physical and electrical faults after being successfully tested on real-world datasets and trained on historical data from the PV array system (PV Database).
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