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Purpose of Review Review work to create and evaluate educational materials that could serve as a primary prevention strategy to help both providers and patients in Panama, Colombia, and the USA reduce disease burden of Toxoplasma infections. Recent Findings Educational programs had not been evaluated for efficacy in Panama, USA, or Colombia. Summary Educational programs for high school students, pregnant women, medical students and professionals, scientists, and lay personnel were created. In most settings, short-term effects were evaluated. In Panama, Colombia, and USA, all materials showed short-term utility in transmitting information to learners. These educational materials can serve as a component of larger public health programs to lower disease burden from congenital toxoplasmosis. Future priorities include conducting robust longitudinal studies of whether education correlates with reduced adverse disease outcomes, modifying educational materials as new information regarding region-specific risk factors is discovered, and ensuring materials are widely accessible.

Next Generation IoT systems will allow sustainable performance in long-term monitoring systems. This sustainability concept is applicable to soundscape description, as it allows monitoring in urban environments. In this work, the implementation of psycho-acoustic annoyance models in a 5G-enabled IoT system is proposed applying two Edge Computing approaches. A modified Zwicker’s model is adopted in this research, introducing a term that takes into account the tonal component of the captured sound. These implementations have been validated in a measurement campaign where several IoT devices have been deployed to evaluate different sound environments of a University Campus. Then, the analysis of the sound quality metrics is done in different location showing that if tonality is present in a noisy environment, it results in greater subjective annoyance. Moreover, the Just Noticeable Difference of these results are derived for the Zwicker’s psycho-acoustic annoyance to establish a limitation for this metric.

Operators in need of improved reservoir drainage, increases in ultimate recovery, and delay of unwanted fluid production are faced with a choice between passive and autonomous inflow control devices (ICD / AICD) to manage these issues most effectively. Production challenges leading to this choice are increasing as water production in particular across the globe continues to rise. Passive Inflow Control Devices (ICD) have been used with great effect throughout the world. Multiple variants exist using nozzle, tube, or helical designs to balance inflow in long horizontal wells and those with permeability variations. Each type of ICD has various degrees of viscosity insensitivity, with the nozzle-type being seen as relatively viscosity insensitive, which is true when the viscosities of the oil and water are nearly similar. As the viscosities between the two diverge, however, all passive ICD's produce more water than oil at breakthrough for a given pressure. As ICD's only delay the onset of water and gas breakthrough, however, the industry moved to develop Autonomous ICD's (AICD), which sense the presence of unwanted fluid without any connection to or intervention from the surface. The majority of AICD devices available currently contain moving parts and require close tolerances to deliver their unique benefits. They were initially specifically designed for light oil applications in long horizontal wells to shut off the majority of produced water overall. While this is desirable in low oil viscosity wells it may not be as effective with increases in viscosity due to the need to produce water in order to produce the oil. The design proposed in this paper uses no moving parts, significantly restricts water production in a wide range of crude viscosities, is easily configured for a variety of downhole conditions, and delivers passive ICD performance with AICD benefits using a simple, reliable, and unique design. The tool functions to restrict water production progressively as either oil viscosity or water cut increase without ever completely or nearly completely closing to production, which makes it an excellent solution for marginal production wells, younger reservoirs, and wells with lower overall production rates compared to other technologies. The paper will discuss the theory of the device's functionality to differentiate between fluids present. Laboratory test results will be shown to demonstrate flow performance as well as API 19ICD[1] testing for erosion, plugging resistance, and mud flow initiation testing. In addition, an example comparing an open hole base case to the new device's performance in a sample reservoir will be discussed.

Summary REFRA-FLS is a new registry in Spain aimed at identifying individuals over 50 years of age with a fragility fracture. Using this registry, we found hip fracture is the most prevalent fracture. Treatment for osteoporosis was 87.7%, with 65.3% adherence. REFRA-FLS provides fundamental data in the study of fragility fractures. Purpose Fragility fractures are a growing public health concern in modern-aged societies. Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) have been shown to successfully lower rates of secondary fractures. A new registry (REFRA-FLS) has been created to monitor quality indicators of FLS units in Spain and to explore the occurrence and characteristic of fragility fractures identified by these centers. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study based on fragility fractures recorded in the REFRA-FLS registry. Participants were individuals 50 years or above who suffered a low energy fragility fracture identified by the 10 participating FLS units during the study period. The type of FLS unit, the characteristics of the individuals at baseline, along with patient outcomes as quality indicators among those who completed 1 year of follow-up were analyzed. Results A total of 2965 patients and 3067 fragility fractures were identified, and the most frequent locations were hip (n = 1709, 55.7%) and spine (n = 492, 16.0%). A total of 43 refractures (4.5%) and 46 deaths (4.9%) were observed among 948 individuals in the follow-up analyses. Time from fracture to evaluation was less than 3 months in 76.7% of individuals. Osteoporosis treatment was prescribed in 87.7%, and adherence was 65.3% in Morisky–Green test. Conclusion Our results provide a comprehensive picture of fragility fractures identified in FLS units from Spain. Overall, quality indicators are satisfactory although a much higher use of DXA would be desirable. As the registry grows with the incorporation of new FLS units and longer follow-up, incoming analyses will provide valuable insight.

Purpose of Review Review international efforts to build a global public health initiative focused on toxoplasmosis with spillover benefits to save lives, sight, cognition and motor function benefiting maternal and child health. Recent Findings Multiple countries’ efforts to eliminate toxoplasmosis demonstrate progress and context for this review and new work. Summary Problems with potential solutions proposed include accessibility of accurate, inexpensive diagnostic testing, pre-natal screening and facilitating tools, missed and delayed neonatal diagnosis, restricted access, high costs, delays in obtaining medicines emergently, delayed insurance pre-approvals and high medicare copays taking considerable physician time and effort, harmful shortcuts being taken in methods to prepare medicines in settings where access is restricted, reluctance to perform ventriculoperitoneal shunts promptly when needed without recognition of potential benefit, access to resources for care, especially for marginalized populations, and limited use of recent advances in management of neurologic and retinal disease which can lead to good outcomes.

Purpose of ReviewReview building of programs to eliminateToxoplasmainfections.Recent FindingsMorbidity and mortality from toxoplasmosis led to programs in USA, Panama, and Colombia to facilitate understanding, treatment, prevention, and regional resources, incorporating student work.SummaryStudies foundational for building recent, regional approaches/programs are reviewed. Introduction provides an overview/review of programs in Panamá, the United States, and other countries. High prevalence/risk of exposure led to laws mandating testing in gestation, reporting, and development of broad-based teaching materials aboutToxoplasma.These were tested for efficacy as learning tools for high-school students, pregnant women, medical students, physicians, scientists, public health officials and general public. Digitized, free, smart phone application effectively taught pregnant women about toxoplasmosis prevention. Perinatal infection care programs, identifying true regional risk factors, and point-of-care gestational screening facilitate prevention and care. When implemented fully across all demographics, such programs present opportunities to save lives, sight, and cognition with considerable spillover benefits for individuals and societies.

Despite the prevailing assumption of "smooth trachea walls" in respiratory fluid dynamics research, recent investigations have demonstrated that cartilaginous rings in the trachea and main bronchi have a significant effect on the flow behavior and in particle deposition. However, there is not enough detailed information about the underlying physics of the interaction between the cartilage rings and the flow.This study presents an experimental observation of a simplified Weibel-based model of the human trachea and bronchi with cartilaginous rings. A transparent model and refractive index-matching methods were used to observe the flow, particularly near the wall. The flow was seeded with tracers to perform particle image velocimetry and particle tracking velocimetry to quantify the effect the rings have on the flow near the trachea and bronchi walls. The experiments were carried out with a flow rate comparable with a resting state (trachea-based Reynolds number of ReThe results present a previously unknown phenomenon in the cavities between the cartilaginous rings: a small recirculation is observed in the upstream side of the cavities throughout the trachea. This recirculation is due to the adverse pressure gradient created by the expansion, which traps particles within the ring cavity, thus affecting the treatment of patients suffering from lung disease and other respiratory conditions.The detection of recirculation zones in the cartilage ring cavities sheds light on the particle deposition mechanism and helps explain results from previous studies that have observed an enhancement of particle deposition in models with cartilage rings. These results bring to light the importance of including cartilage rings in experimental, numerical, and theoretical models to better understand particle deposition in the trachea and bronchi. In addition, the results provide scientists and medical staff with new insights for improving drug delivery.

The present experimental study aims to determine the effect of two different gas diffusion layers in the performance of a 5-cm2 proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The gas diffusion layers consisted of a carbon cloth gas diffusion (GDL-CT) and a non-woven carbon paper (Sigracet 25 BC, Sigracet 29, and BC Sigracet 35 BC). The effect of the GDL parameters on the fuel cell performance was evaluated by the polarization curve. Based on the polarization curve results, it was confirmed that the carbon cloth gas diffusion layer had a better performance than the non-woven carbon. Different temperatures, hydrogen flow rates and inlet pressures were tested. Images from the scanning electron microscopy were obtained to visualize the internal structure of a carbon paper GDL and a carbon cloth GDL; it was observed different surface structures between them.

Thermo-capillary stresses on the surface of a drop can be the result of a non-isothermal surface chemical conversion of a reactant dissolved in the host fluid. The strength of heat production (with e.g. absorption) on the surface is ruled by the diffusion of the reactant and depends on the state of motion of the drop. Such thermo-capillary stresses can provoke the motion of the drop or its motionless state in the presence of an external body force. If in the balance of forces, including indeed viscous drag, the net resultant force vanishes there is the possibility of autonomous motion with constant velocity of the drop. Focusing on drops with radii in the millimeter range provided here is a quantitative study of the possibility of such autonomous motion when the drop, considered as active unit, is seat of endo- or exo-thermic reactive processes that dominate its motion. The framework is restricted to Stokes flows in the hydrodynamics, negligible heat Peclet number while the solute Peclet number is considered very high. A boundary layer approximation is used in the description of reactant diffusion. Those processes eventually end up in the action being expressed by surface tension gradients and the Marangoni effect. Explicit expressions of the force acting on the drop and the velocity fields inside and outside the drop are provided. Some significant particular cases are discussed to illustrate the usefulness of the theory.

Sound pleasantness or annoyance perceived in urban soundscapes is a major concern in environmental acoustics. Binaural psychoacoustic parameters are helpful to describe generic acoustic environments, as it is stated within the ISO 12913 framework. In this paper, the application of a Wireless Acoustic Sensor Network (WASN) to evaluate the spatial distribution and the evolution of urban acoustic environments is described. Two experiments are presented using an indoor and an outdoor deployment of a WASN with several nodes using an Internet of Things (IoT) environment to collect audio data and calculate meaningful parameters such as the sound pressure level, binaural loudness and binaural sharpness. A chunk of audio is recorded in each node periodically with a microphone array and the binaural rendering is conducted by exploiting the estimated directional characteristics of the incoming sound by means of DOA estimation. Each node computes the parameters in a different location and sends the values to a cloud-based broker structure that allows spatial statistical analysis through Kriging techniques. A cross-validation analysis is also performed to confirm the usefulness of the proposed system. Ingeniería, Industria y Construcción

Resumen Objetivo: determinar la asociación entre factores sociodemográficos, exposición a teratógenos y enfermedad materna, con la presencia de malformaciones congénitas en un centro de tercer nivel de la región centro occidental de Colombia durante el año 2013. Método: se realizó un estudio analítico tipo casos y controles. Se analizaron variables maternas y del recién nacido, las cuales se presentaron como frecuencias y proporciones y se evaluaron usando las pruebas de Chi2 (x2) y exacta de Fisher. Para determinar la asociación entre cada variable se calculó el Odds Ratio (OR) crudo, y Odds Ratio (ORa) ajustado para las variables que presentaron una diferencia estadísticamente significativa. Resultados: las variables sociodemográficas edad y ocupación materna, mostraron ser un riesgo para desarrollar malformaciones congénitas (OR=5.75a (IC95% (1.78-18.48) y OR=2.01c(1.11-3.64) respectivamente. Además en la historia obstétrica se encontró mayor riesgo al tener ganancia de peso mayor al ideal con OR=2.8a (1.2-6.4) y una ganancia de peso menor a lo ideal OR=2.3a (1.1-5.12) y como factores protectores ser hijo del mismo padre y concebir fácil OR=0.37C (0.16-0.82) y OR=0.22a (0.07-0.68), Conclusión: la edad mayor de 35 años, trabajar fuera y una ganancia de peso mayor a lo ideal, son factores de riesgo para desarrollar malformaciones congénitas.

Maximizing production and profitability is imperative in heavy oil operations using steam-assisted-gravity-drainage (SAGD), as well as in other thermal operations. Effective downhole flow technology plays an important role in increasing the net present value of a SAGD operation. Conformance improvement for the injection well, utilizing outflow control devices (OCDs), can potentially increase production, and as a result, profitability of the SAGD process. On the producer well, operators prefer to have a uniform inflow production profile to recover more in-situ oil. This can be achieved through installing inflow control devices (ICDs) in the producer well. ICDs also help to mitigate the negative effect of baffles and barriers on the production well. To properly model both ICDs and OCDs, there are several methodologies and approaches available in the oil and gas industry. Each approach can be helpful to address specific questions and examine certain attributes of downhole flow technology. Depending on the objectives of the analysis, a specific software program or workflow can be used. The tool itself has a particular importance for the analysis and we would like to understand the physics behind the tool. The performance attributes of each downhole flow control device (FCD) will vary based on dimensions and design factors. Other analyses focus on design and optimization of the completion tool. Some studies use software programs to only focus on wellbore hydraulics and follow a simple and quick analysis for modeling, while other studies involve multiple software programs and complicated methodology to model and optimize the entire process. This paper shows some of the different options that are available to analyze and model both ICDs and OCDs. It will examine the pros and cons of each method, as well as the limitations of each software/methodology. Some examples will be shown to investigate the details of outputs and objectives of each approach. At the end, a guideline will be introduced for completion, reservoir, and production engineers to understand how these models can help them to evaluate flow control devices and their applications.

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with an increased risk of osteoporotic fracture. Several factors have been identified as being potentially responsible for this risk, such as alterations in bone remodelling that may have been induced by changes in circulating glucose or/and by the presence of non-oxidative end products of glycosylation (AGEs). The aim of this study is to assess whether such variations generate a change in the gene expression related to the differentiation and osteoblast activity (OPG, RANKL, RUNX2, OSTERIX, and AGE receptor) in primary cultures of human osteoblast-like cells (hOB). Methods We recruited 32 patients; 10 patients had osteoporotic hip fractures (OP group), 12 patients had osteoporotic hip fractures with T2DM (T2DM group), and 10 patients had hip osteoarthritis (OA group) with no osteoporotic fractures and no T2DM. The gene expression was analyzed in hOB cultures treated with physiological glucose concentration (4.5 mM) as control, high glucose (25 mM), and high glucose plus AGEs (2 μg/ml) for 24 h. Results The hOB cultures from patients with hip fractures presented slower proliferation. Additionally, the hOB cultures from the T2DM group were the most negatively affected with respect to RUNX2 and OSX gene expression when treated solely with high glucose or with high glucose plus AGEs. Moreover, high levels of glucose induced a major decrease in the RANKL/OPG ratio when comparing the OP and the T2DM groups to the OA group. Conclusions Our data indicates an altered bone remodelling rate in the T2DM group, which may, at least partially, explain the reduced bone strength and increased incidence of non-traumatic fractures in diabetic patients.