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A survey in African animal trypanosomosis throughout four regions of Senegal.
Our findings suggest that financial literacy, as an instrument encouraging rational decision making, could be a tool to help reduce smoking in the United States.The present study investigated the structural evolution of Portland cement (PC) incorporating supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) exposed to seawater. The samples were made with replacing Portland cement with 10 mass-% silica fume, metakaolin or glass powder. The reaction degree of SCMs estimated by the portlandite consumption shows that metakaolin has the highest reaction degree, thus metakaolin-blended PC exhibits the highest strength. The control exposed to seawater exhibited 14.82% and 12.14% higher compressive strengths compared to those cured in tap water at 7 and 28 days. The samples incorporating metakaolin showed the highest compressive strength of 76.60 MPa at 90 days tap water curing and this was 17% higher than that of the control. Exposure to seawater is found to retard the rate of hydration in all SCM-incorporating systems, while the strength development of the neat PC system is enhanced. The main reaction product that forms during exposure to seawater is Cl-AFm and brucite, while it is predicted by the thermodynamic modelling that a significant amount of M-S-H, calcite and hydrotalcite is to form at an extended period of exposure time.A novel, simple, low-cost, and user-friendly potentiometric surfactant sensor based on the new 1,3-dihexadecyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-3-ium-tetraphenylborate (DHBI-TPB) ion-pair for the detection of cationic surfactants in personal care products and disinfectants is presented here. The new cationic surfactant DHBI-Br was successfully synthesized and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and elemental analysis and was further employed for DHBI-TPB ion-pair preparation. The sensor gave excellent response characteristics for CTAB, CPC and Hyamine with a Nernstian slope (57.1 to 59.1 mV/decade) whereas the lowest limit of detection (LOD) value was measured for CTAB (0.3 × 10-6 M). The sensor exhibited a fast dynamic response to dodecyl sulfate (DDS) and TPB. High sensor performances stayed intact regardless of the employment of inorganic and organic cations and in a broad pH range (2-11). Titration of cationic and etoxylated (EO)-nonionic surfactant (NSs) (in Ba2+) mixtures with TPB revealed the first inflexion point for a cationic surfactant and the second for an EO-nonionic surfactant. The increased concentration of EO-nonionic surfactants and the number of EO groups had a negative influence on titration curves and signal change. The sensor was successfully applied for the quantification of technical-grade cationic surfactants and in 12 personal care products and disinfectants. The results showed good agreement with the measurements obtained by a commercial surfactant sensor and by a two-phase titration. A good recovery for the standard addition method (98-102%) was observed.After the first pandemic wave, a nationwide survey assessed the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Spain and found notable differences among provinces whose causes remained unclear. This ecological study aimed to analyze the association between environmental and demographic factors and SARS-CoV-2 infection by province. The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies by province was obtained from a nationwide representative survey performed in June 2020, after the first pandemic wave in Spain. Linear regression was used in the analysis. The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies of the 50 provinces ranged from 0.2% to 13.6%. read more The altitude, which ranged from 5 to 1131 m, explained nearly half of differences in seroprevalence (R2 = 0.47, p less then 0.001). The seroprevalence in people residing in provinces above the median altitude (215 m) was three-fold higher (6.5% vs. 2.1%, p less then 0.001). In the multivariate linear regression, the addition of population density significantly improved the predictive value of the altitude (R2 = 0.55, p less then 0.001). Every 100 m of altitude increase and 100 inhabitants/km2 of increase in population density, the seroprevalence rose 0.84 and 0.63 percentage points, respectively. Environmental conditions related to higher altitude in winter-spring, such as lower temperatures and absolute humidity, may be relevant to SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Places with such adverse conditions may require additional efforts for pandemic control.Healthcare workers are particularly exposed to biological risk during their daily occupational activities. Nowadays, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become one of the most widespread infectious agents. In the current study, we performed a survey on the attitude and behavior of Polish healthcare workers (HCW), which comprise physicians (MD) and administrative healthcare assistants (HA) towards the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Our study involved 2300 subjects (42.17% female; 10.96% MD; 5.87% HA). The evaluation was conducted using a Google Forms survey based on original questions and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 Items questionnaire. HCW significantly more often demonstrated their willingness to get vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 as compared to the control group (82.95% vs. 54.31%, respectively). The main concern, as regards all groups, was the development of long-term side effects after getting COVID-19 vaccine. The study revealed that depression significantly affects the willingness to get vaccinated. The readiness was significantly strengthened by positive medical history of recommended vaccinations, fear of catching COVID-19, as well as fear of passing on the disease to the relatives. Overall, the percentage of HCW, who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 remains unsatisfactory. Further works exploring this subject are needed to take a step closer to achieving the herd immunity in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.Oxidative stress leads to protein degeneration or mitochondrial dysfunction, causing neuronal cell death. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that nerve cells use to send signals. However, the excess accumulation of glutamate can cause excitotoxicity in the central nervous system. In this study, we deciphered the molecular mechanism of catechin-mediated neuroprotective effect on glutamate-induced oxidative stress in mouse hippocampal neuronal HT22 cells. Cellular antioxidant activity was determined using the 1,1-diphenyl-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) assay and 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA) staining. Furthermore, the levels of intracellular calcium (Ca2+) as well as nuclear condensation and protein expression related to neuronal damage were assessed. All five catechins (epigallocatechin gallate, gallocatechin gallate (GCG), gallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epicatechin) showed strong antioxidant effects. Among them, GCG exhibited the highest neuroprotective effect against glutamate excitotoxicity and was used for further mechanistic studies.
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