922017 research outputs found
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A review of the DTaP-IPV-HB-PRP-T Hexavalent vaccine in pediatric patients
No full textIntroduction: Hexaxim is a hexavalent vaccine approved in 2013 for use the EU as primary and booster vaccination in infants 6 weeks and older, protecting against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b.Areas Covered: To evaluate the immunogenicity and reactogenicity (safety) of Hexaxim (Hexyon, Hexacima) in primary and booster vaccine schedules; long-term antibody persistence; concomitant use with other childhood vaccines and use in immunocompromised infants. Hexaxim was found to be noninferior to other hexavalent vaccines on the market, being highly immunogenic for all toxoids/antigens and with an acceptable safety profile. It can be administered concomitantly with other childhood vaccines and provides long lasting immune protection against all diseases, including hepatitis B. Hexaxim can be given as a booster for infants primed with Infanrix Hexa and can be given in a pentavalent-hexavalent-pentavalent series. Hexaxim elicits a similar immune response and safety profile in Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive infants. It has the benefit of being a ready to use liquid formulation, minimising dosage errors and preparation time.Expert Opinion: Hexaxim has an acceptable safety profile and provides immunity against all six targeted diseases, including long lasting hepatitis B antibody persistence. It is an acceptable alternative to other hexavalent vaccines on the market. Further studies are required on the use in immunocompromised patients as well as the antibody persistence of each of the vaccine components
Elucidating Heterogeneous Iron Biomineralization Patterns in a Denitrifying As(III)-Oxidizing Bacterium: Implications for Arsenic Immobilization
No full textAnaerobic nitrate-dependent iron(II) oxidation is a process common to many bacterial species, which promotes the formation of Fe(III) minerals that can influence the fate of soil and groundwater pollutants, such as arsenic. Herein, we investigated simultaneous nitrate-dependent Fe(II) and As(III) oxidation by Acidovorax sp. strain ST3 with the aim of studying the Fe biominerals formed, their As immobilization capabilities and the metabolic effect on cells. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) nanodiffraction were applied for biomineral characterization in bulk and at the nanoscale, respectively. NanoSIMS (nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry) was used to map the intra and extracellular As and Fe distribution at the single-cell level and to trace metabolically active cells, by incorporation of a 13C-labeled substrate (acetate). Metabolic heterogeneity among bacterial cells was detected, with periplasmic Fe mineral encrustation deleterious to cell metabolism. Interestingly, Fe and As were not co-localized in all cells, indicating delocalized sites of As(III) and Fe(II) oxidation. The Fe(III) minerals lepidocrocite and goethite were identified in XRD, although only lepidocrocite was identified via STEM nanodiffraction. Extracellular amorphous nanoparticles were formed earlier and retained more As(III/V) than crystalline “flakes” of lepidocrocite, indicating that longer incubation periods promote the formation of more crystalline minerals with lower As retention capabilities. Thus, the addition of nitrate promotes Fe(II) oxidation and formation of Fe(III) biominerals by ST3 cells which retain As(III/V), and although this process was metabolically detrimental to some cells, it warrants further examination as a viable mechanism for As removal in anoxic environments by biostimulation with nitrate
Wit4Java: A Violation-Witness Validator for Java Verifiers
No full textWe describe and evaluate a violation-witness validator for Java verifiers called Wit4Java. It takes a Java program with a safety property and the respective violation-witness output by a Java verifier to generate a new Java program whose execution deterministically violates the property. We extract the value of the program variables from the counterexample represented by the violation witness and feed this information back into the original program. In addition, we have two implementations for instantiating source programs by injecting counterexamples. Experimental results show that Wit4Java can correctly validate the violation-witnesses produced by JBMC and GDart in a few seconds
Connecting Communities GM PCIE Forum 2021 Sharing Event Week of the 18th October 2021
No full textThe aim of this session will be to describe how we have co-produced a guide for patients and carers to help to address key patient safety questions and identify key points where they can make their care safer. We worked with patients, carers, general practitioners and pharmacists from across Greater Manchester. Background: Patients and carers should be actively involved in their patient safety and empowered to use person-centred approaches where they are asked to both identify safety concerns and partner in preventing them.Approach: We conducted three workshops with patients, carers, community pharmacists and general practitioners to develop and refine the patient safety guide. Alongside these workshops we worked with a public involvement group to develop the approach and the guide.Results: Co-developing the patient safety guide provided insight to improve care. The approach helped to identify the main factors that influenced people’s engagement with patient safety and actions that people could do to improve their patient safety. The importance of communication, understanding roles and responsibilities, and developing partnerships between patients and healthcare providers were considered essential for actively involving patients in patient safety. Discussion:Using a co-design approach identified important points where patient safety in routine primary care can be improved using patient and clinician experiences with a key focus on how the guide could be used in practice. The patient safety guide is the first guide to be developed for primary care, co-designed with patients, carers, general practitioners and pharmacists. <br/
Simultaneous Distillation-Extraction for Manufacturing Ultra-High-Purity Electronic-Grade Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4)
No full textUltra-high-purity (UHP) electronic-grade octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) is the key precursor of low-dielectric constant (low-k) SiCOH films to manufacture integrated circuits (IC), meeting the stringent requirements of the rapidly developing semiconductor industry. Commonly, metallic impurities in D4 were removed by multiple unit operations of adsorption, filtration, and distillation, which could reduce the concentration of a single metallic impurity below 1 ppb. However, D4 with higher purity is required by semiconductor production due to an increase in transistor density. Herein, a novel method based on the integrated simultaneous distillation-extraction (SDE) was developed for manufacturing UHP electronic-grade D4. The lab and pilot scale experiments showed that the purity of water and D4 has a positive correlation. Based on the experimental data, a double-column process, consisting of azeotropic/extractive distillation column and precision distillation column with UNIQUAC method, was established to access the feasibility of scaling up the SDE process. According to the simulation results, D4 with the purity >99.999 wt.% and total metallic impurities (TMI) content below 1 ppb could be obtained using ultra-pure water. Keywords: Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), Process integration, Simultaneous distillation-extraction, Electronic-Grade<br/
Mineral diagenesis in a carbonate-rich mudstone: The Lower Carboniferous Hodder Shale, UK
No full textMineral authigenesis in mudstones respond differently across the compositional spectrum of fine-grained rocks resulting in a complex array of possible rock fabrics that affect the mechanical capacity of mudstones. Within carbonate-rich mudstones, geochemical controls on silicate and carbonate mineral reactions are variable and poorly understood. Here we analyse the diagenetic minerals of the carbonate-rich Hodder Mudstone from the Carboniferous Bowland Basin, UK, using SEM petrography combined with X-ray-based inorganic geochemical data. Our findings show that up to 90% of quartz cement in the samples are diagenetic in origin, originating mainly from biogenic silica dissolution, and clay mineral reactions. It is also evident that due to the varying diagenetic silica-yielding reactions, authigenic silica overgrowths and isolated authigenic quartz crystals are localised in argillaceous samples while calcareous samples are characterized by silica replacement textures and quartz/calcite intergrowths. Moreover, euhedral dolomite crystals are concentrated within argillaceous units in comparison with calcareous units which are characterised by anhedral dolomite precipitation and replacement textures. These finding presents a case for facies28 selective cementation as both early and burial diagenetic alterations were observed to be controlled by primary depositional components of biogenic debris and extrabasinal silicate detritus that resulted in complex and variable precipitation of authigenic minerals
Determination of substrate addition order strategy for bespok Polyhydroxyalkanoates production: a Molecular Modeling based approach
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Properties of positive feedback interconnected negative imaginary systems
No full textThis paper addresses the problem of finding a set of ‘if and only if’ criteria for a positive feedback interconnection of two Negative Imaginary (NI) systems to retain the NI property.First, we have derived a state-space characterisation for NI systems that does not impose the minimality restriction. Then, two more essential pre-requisite technical lemmas are provided to prove the main results of this paper, which deal with interconnected system properties. Under some technical assumptions, the paper shows that a positive feedback interconnection of two NI systems with possible pole(s) at s = 0 preserves the NI property.Subsequently, the result is specialised when the NI systems do not have any pole(s) at s = 0 and then to SNI systems. The proposed results have potential applications in decentralised control of large vehicle platoons. Furthermore, the results may be utilised in simplifying complex physical networks and in physical network analysis and synthesis
Mitochondrial antiviral-signalling protein is a client of the BAG6 protein quality control complex
No full textThe heterotrimeric BAG6 complex coordinates the direct handover of newly synthesised tail-anchored (TA) membrane proteins from an SGTA-bound preloading complex to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) delivery component TRC40. In contrast, defective precursors, including aberrant TA proteins, form a stable complex with this cytosolic protein quality control factor, enabling such clients to be either productively re-routed or selectively degraded. We identify the mitochondrial TA protein MAVS (mitochondrial antiviral-signalling protein) as an endogenous client of both SGTA and the BAG6 complex. Our data suggest that the BAG6 complex binds to a cytosolic pool of MAVS before its misinsertion into the ER membrane, from where it can subsequently be removed via ATP13A1-mediated dislocation. This BAG6- associated fraction of MAVS is dynamic and responds to the activation of an innate immune response, suggesting that BAG6 may modulate the pool of MAVS that is available for coordinating the cellular response to viral infection
Experimental investigation on the fatigue crack growth behaviour of Q420C
No full textThe lack of test data on the fatigue crack growth behaviour of Q420C steel affects its application in the field of wind power engineering. To fill this gap, this paper carried out an experimental study and theoretical analysis of the fatigue crack propagation behaviour of Q420C steel under constant amplitude. Six compact tension specimens were separately tested under six loading conditions comprising two maximum loads (𝐹𝑚𝑎𝑥=8 𝑘𝑁 𝑜𝑟 10 𝑘𝑁) and three load ratios (𝑅=0.1,0.3,𝑜𝑟 0.5). The Back-Face Strain method was used to calculate the crack length, and a complete cycle of strain values was recorded for every 1 mm of crack extension. The crack growth rate and crack opening load were calculated according to the ASTM E647-15. The test results show that for the two crack growth rate calculation methods given by the ASTM E647-15, the secant method provides large discrete results, while the incremental polynomial method can obtain a relatively smooth rate curve. In addition, for the incremental polynomial method, the normalisation of the number of cycles in the ASTM E647-15 should not be used to achieve acceptable results. The rate curves of Q420C steel show a clear load ratio effect, for the same stress intensity factor range Δ𝐾, the higher the load ratio, the faster the crack grows. Quantitative analysis of the effect of load ratios has shown that two-parameter models based on 'unified theory', such as Walker’s model, can accurately describe the effect of load ratios. However, the theory of plasticity-induced crack closure cannot account for the effect of load ratios, as the crack opening load 𝐹𝑜𝑝 is less than the minimum load 𝐹𝑚𝑖𝑛 for load ratios greater than 0.1. Finally, a comparison is carried out against the predictions by BS7910; results verify the applicability of BS7910 to Q420C steel material and demonstrate the different degrees of conservatism of all recommended design curves in BS7910