About one third of people who lack electricity access worldwide reside in Africa, the most disadvantaged continent with respect to electricity access rates. Many Africans who lack electricity access ...are living in rural villages. Due to the low population densities of these villages, grid extension is economically unviable. Therefore, distributed generation using off-grid systems is a more favourable option for rural electrification in Africa. This study analyses the economic feasibility of small-scale wind systems for rural electrification in Africa. A spatial mapping model was used to enable the visualisation of the electrification costs of wind systems across the continent. The results of this analysis were integrated with previous work performed for photovoltaic (PV) and diesel systems. This integration produced a map indicating whether PV, diesel or wind systems are the least cost off-grid electrification option across the continent. The results show that PV and diesel systems are the most economically viable method of rural electrification in Africa, while wind systems are economically advantageous only within the horn of Africa and across few dispersed areas. This analysis can be used as a general framework for estimating the potential of off-grid wind systems using spatial mapping.
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•Small-scale stand-alone wind systems were analysed for rural electrification in Africa.•Stand-alone wind systems are economically advantageous only within limited regions in Africa, particularly coastal areas.•PV and diesel systems are dominating rural electrification in Africa.•The analysis can be used as a general framework for estimating the potential of off-grid wind systems using spatial mapping.
Perinatal Depression: An Update and Overview Stuart-Parrigon, Kaela; Stuart, Scott
Current psycchiatry reports/Current psychiatry reports,
09/2014, Letnik:
16, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Over the last 3 years there have been notable developments in the screening and treatment of perinatal depression. Most importantly, the DSM-V has made only minor changes in the diagnostic criteria ...for perinatal depression as compared to the DSM-IV; “perinatal,” as opposed to “postpartum,” is a specifier for depression with a requirement that the depression onset occurs during pregnancy or the first 4 weeks postpartum. Advances in the treatment of perinatal depression have been made over the last 3 years, including both prevention and acute interventions. Additional support has emerged confirming the primary risk factors for perinatal depression: a personal or family history, low SES and poor interpersonal support. There is general agreement that universal screening be conducted for all perinatal women, by both the woman’s obstetrician and the baby’s pediatrician.
Get to grips with the fundamentals of cloud security and prepare for the AWS Security Specialty exam with the help of this comprehensive certification guideKey FeaturesLearn the fundamentals of ...security with this fast-paced guideDevelop modern cloud security skills to build effective security solutionsAnswer practice questions and take mock tests to pass the exam with confidenceBook DescriptionAWS Certified Security – Specialty is a certification exam to validate your expertise in advanced cloud security. With an ever-increasing demand for AWS security skills in the cloud market, this certification can help you advance in your career. This book helps you prepare for the exam and gain certification by guiding you through building complex security solutions.From understanding the AWS shared responsibility model and identity and access management to implementing access management best practices, you'll gradually build on your skills. The book will also delve into securing instances and the principles of securing VPC infrastructure. Covering security threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks such as the DDoS attack, you'll discover how to mitigate these at different layers. You'll then cover compliance and learn how to use AWS to audit and govern infrastructure, as well as to focus on monitoring your environment by implementing logging mechanisms and tracking data. Later, you'll explore how to implement data encryption as you get hands-on with securing a live environment. Finally, you'll discover security best practices that will assist you in making critical decisions relating to cost, security,and deployment complexity.By the end of this AWS security book, you'll have the skills to pass the exam and design secure AWS solutions.What you will learnUnderstand how to identify and mitigate security incidentsAssign appropriate Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources to underpin security requirementsWork with the AWS shared responsibility modelSecure your AWS public cloud in different layers of cloud computingDiscover how to implement authentication through federated and mobile accessMonitor and log tasks effectively using AWSWho this book is forIf you are a system administrator or a security professional looking to get AWS security certification, this book is for you. Prior experience in securing cloud environments is necessary to get the most out of this AWS book.
Clinical genetic testing has grown substantially over the past 30 years as the causative mutations for Mendelian diseases have been identified, particularly aided in part by the recent advances in ...molecular-based technologies. Importantly, the adoption of new tests and testing strategies (e.g., diagnostic confirmation, prenatal testing, and population-based carrier screening) has often been met with caution and careful consideration before clinical implementation, which facilitates the appropriate use of new genetic tests. Although the field of pharmacogenetics was established in the 1950s, clinical testing for constitutional pharmacogenetic variants implicated in interindividual drug response variability has only recently become available to help clinicians guide pharmacotherapy, in part due to US Food and Drug Administration-mediated product insert revisions that include pharmacogenetic information for selected drugs. However, despite pharmacogenetic associations with adverse outcomes, physician uptake of clinical pharmacogenetic testing has been slow. Compared with testing for Mendelian diseases, pharmacogenetic testing for certain indications can have a lower positive predictive value, which is one reason for underutilization. A number of other barriers remain with implementing clinical pharmacogenetics, including clinical utility, professional education, and regulatory and reimbursement issues, among others. This review presents some of the current opportunities and challenges with implementing clinical pharmacogenetic testing.
Most evidence of the association between maternal depression and children's development is limited by being cross-sectional. To date, few studies have modelled trajectories of maternal depressive ...symptoms from pregnancy through the early postpartum years and examined their association with social emotional and behavior functioning in preschool children. The objectives of this study were to: 1) identify distinct groups of women defined by their trajectories of depressive symptoms across four time points from mid-pregnancy to one year postpartum; and 2) examine the associations between these trajectories and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
We analyzed data from the All Our Families (AOF) study, a large, population based pregnancy cohort of mother-child dyads in Alberta, Canada. The AOF study is an ongoing pregnancy cohort study designed to investigate relationships between the prenatal and early life period and outcomes for children and mothers. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Children's behavioral functioning at age 3 was assessed using the Behavior Scales developed for the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Longitudinal latent class analysis was conducted to identify trajectories of women's depressive symptoms across four time points from pregnancy to 1 year postpartum. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess the relationship between trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms and children's behavior, while adjusting for other significant maternal, child and psychosocial factors.
1983 participants met eligibility criteria. We identified four distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms: low level (64.7%); early postpartum (10.9%); subclinical (18.8%); and persistent high (5.6%). In multivariable models, the proportion of children with elevated behavior symptoms was highest for children whose mothers had persistent high depressive symptoms, followed by mothers with moderate symptoms (early postpartum and subclinical trajectories) and lowest for minimal symptoms. After accounting for demographic, child and psychosocial factors, the relationships between depression trajectories and child hyperactivity/inattention, physical aggression (subclinical trajectory only) and separation anxiety symptoms remained significant.
These findings suggest both externalizing and internalizing children's behaviors are associated with prolonged maternal depressive symptoms. There is a good case for the need to move beyond overly simplistic clinical cutoff approaches of depressed/not depressed in screening for perinatal depression. Women with elevated depressive symptoms at clinical and subclinical levels need to be identified, provided with evidence-based treatment, and monitored with repeat screening to improve maternal mental health outcomes and reduce the risk of associated negative outcomes on children's early social-emotional and behavior development.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are widely used for acid suppression in the treatment and prevention of many conditions, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, gastric and duodenal ulcers, erosive ...esophagitis, Helicobacter pylori infection, and pathological hypersecretory conditions. Most PPIs are metabolized primarily by cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19) into inactive metabolites, and CYP2C19 genotype has been linked to PPI exposure, efficacy, and adverse effects. We summarize the evidence from the literature and provide therapeutic recommendations for PPI prescribing based on CYP2C19 genotype (updates at www.cpicpgx.org). The potential benefits of using CYP2C19 genotype data to guide PPI therapy include (i) identifying patients with genotypes predictive of lower plasma exposure and prescribing them a higher dose that will increase the likelihood of efficacy, and (ii) identifying patients on chronic therapy with genotypes predictive of higher plasma exposure and prescribing them a decreased dose to minimize the risk of toxicity that is associated with long‐term PPI use, particularly at higher plasma concentrations.
Reporting and sharing pharmacogenetic test results across clinical laboratories and electronic health records is a crucial step toward the implementation of clinical pharmacogenetics, but allele ...function and phenotype terms are not standardized. Our goal was to develop terms that can be broadly applied to characterize pharmacogenetic allele function and inferred phenotypes.
Terms currently used by genetic testing laboratories and in the literature were identified. The Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) used the Delphi method to obtain a consensus and agree on uniform terms among pharmacogenetic experts.
Experts with diverse involvement in at least one area of pharmacogenetics (clinicians, researchers, genetic testing laboratorians, pharmacogenetics implementers, and clinical informaticians; n = 58) participated. After completion of five surveys, a consensus (>70%) was reached with 90% of experts agreeing to the final sets of pharmacogenetic terms.
The proposed standardized pharmacogenetic terms will improve the understanding and interpretation of pharmacogenetic tests and reduce confusion by maintaining consistent nomenclature. These standard terms can also facilitate pharmacogenetic data sharing across diverse electronic health care record systems with clinical decision support.
Translating CYP2D6 genotype to metabolizer phenotype is not standardized across clinical laboratories offering pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing and PGx clinical practice guidelines, such as the Clinical ...Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) and the Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group (DPWG). The genotype to phenotype translation discordance between laboratories and guidelines can cause discordant cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) phenotype assignments and, thus lead to inconsistent therapeutic recommendations and confusion among patients and clinicians. A modified‐Delphi method was used to obtain consensus for a uniform system for translating CYP2D6 genotype to phenotype among a panel of international CYP2D6 experts. Experts with diverse involvement in CYP2D6 interpretation (clinicians, researchers, genetic testing laboratorians, and PGx implementers; n = 37) participated in conference calls and surveys. After completion of 7 surveys, a consensus (> 70%) was reached with 82% of the CYP2D6 experts agreeing to the final CYP2D6 genotype to phenotype translation method. Broad adoption of the proposed CYP2D6 genotype to phenotype translation method by guideline developers, such as CPIC and DPWG, and clinical laboratories as well as researchers will result in more consistent interpretation of CYP2D6 genotype.
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