Effects of Structurally Different Tertiary Amines on the Properties of Quaternized Anionic Exchange Membranes Potentially Applicable for Water Electrolysis.

In this work, two structurally different monoamines (trimethylamine [TMA] and N-methylpiperidine [N-MPip]) are used for the amination of a g-VBC-15 graft copolymer, obtained by the functionalization of a mechanically robust, commercially available styrene-butadiene block copolymer (SB) with vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) via solution free-radical polymerization. Results demonstrate that g-VBC-15-based membranes quaternized with TMA have superior electrochemical performance than N-MPip counterparts; while, the mechanical properties are good and only slightly inferior to those of N-MPip. Therefore, TMA is the selected monoamine to be alternatively mixed with two polyamines (tetramethyl-1,3-propanediamine [TMPDA] and N,N,N',N'',N''-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine [PMDETA]) into different proportions, in order to modulate the average functionality of the amination mixture in terms of number of amine functional groups available for the quaternization reaction of the membranes.

Vinylbenzyl Chloride/Styrene-Grafted SBS Copolymers via TEMPO-Mediated Polymerization for the Fabrication of Anion Exchange Membranes for Water Electrolysis.

In this work, a commercial SBS was functionalized with the 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin--oxyl stable radical (TEMPO) via free-radical activation initiated with benzoyl peroxide (BPO). The obtained macroinitiator was used to graft both vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) and styrene/VBC random copolymer chains from SBS to create g-VBC-x and g-VBC-x--Sty-z graft copolymers, respectively. The controlled nature of the polymerization as well as the use of a solvent allowed us to reduce the extent of the formation of the unwanted, non-grafted (co)polymer, thereby facilitating the graft copolymer's purification.

High success and low recurrence with shorter treatment regimen for multidrug-resistant TB in Nepal.

Setting: Nine drug-resistant TB centres, some of them supported by Damien Foundation in Nepal where >80% of multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB) patients are treated.

Objective: To assess the uptake, effectiveness and safety of the 9-12-month shorter treatment regimen (STR) in MDR/RR-TB patients registered from January 2018 to December 2019.

Design: This was a cohort study involving secondary programme data.

High rifampicin-resistant TB cure rates and prevention of severe ototoxicity after replacing the injectable by linezolid in early stage of hearing loss.

The short treatment regimen (STR) achieves a >80% cure in rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) patients. However, ototoxicity induced by the injectable is a concern. This is the first study to evaluate the replacement of injectables by linezolid in patients with audiometry abnormalities at baseline or during the treatment.

Pharmacokinetic study of two different rifabutin doses co-administered with lopinavir/ritonavir in African HIV and tuberculosis co-infected adult patients.

Background: This study aimed to assess the pharmacokinetic profile of 150 mg rifabutin (RBT) taken every other day (every 48 h) versus 300 mg RBT taken every other day (E.O.D), both in combination with lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r), in adult patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) co-infection.