Environmental impact assessment of SONARA's oil sludge landfill in BATOKE, south-west Cameroon.

The focus of this study was to assess the environmental impact of the BATOKE oil sludge dump. A field visit was conducted to evaluate the condition of the site, followed by the sampling of oil sludge, BATOKE river water, soil, and locally grown manioc and macabo tubers. Subsequent physico-chemical characterization revealed parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, total hydrocarbons, COD, BOD5, TSS, major cations and anions, as well as heavy metals including iron, copper, zinc, nickel, chromium, lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, calcium, potassium, titanium, zirconium, and rubidium.

Steno-occlusive Intracranial Large Vessel Arteriopathies in Childhood: A Pattern Oriented Approach to Neuroimaging Diagnosis.

Intracranial steno-occlusive large vessel arteriopathies refer to abnormalities of the arterial wall that typically express luminal stenosis. Notably, some entities that can find themselves within this category may also express luminal dilation, and/or aneurysm formation as an alternative phenotype. Intracranial steno-occlusive large vessel arteriopathies are a leading cause of arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) in children, often progress, and can predispose to recurrent brain infarction.

Use of an Automated Surgical Impactor Reduces Femoral Broaching Time in Direct Anterior Approach Total Hip Arthroplasty: Results From a Randomized, Multicenter Study.

Background: Impaction in total hip arthroplasty has typically been conducted using a mallet. A surgical automated impactor has been developed with the goal of reducing surgeon variability, fatigue, and injury. There is also potential to reduce the variability of each impaction step in which automated impaction is used, through reproducible and consistent application of force.

Early functional recovery outcomes and return to work after primary total hip arthroplasty: a novel patient reported outcomes questionnaire.

Purpose: Clinical and patient reported outcomes are often collected before and after the procedure to benchmark and study outcomes for patients. These outcomes and scores are useful for tracking patient outcomes after surgery, however, the fact that these commonly used measures typically provide information about a patient's level of pain and function at a single point in time is a limitation.

Methods: We present early functional recovery and return to work outcomes after primary THA from a novel questionnaire administered in a global, multi-center, prospective clinical study.

Accuracy of cup placement compared with preoperative surgeon targets in primary total hip arthroplasty using standard instrumentation and techniques: a global, multicenter study.

Background: Acetabular cup positioning in total hip arthroplasty (THA) is closely related to outcomes. The literature has suggested cup parameters defined by the Lewinnek safe zone; however, the validity of such measures is in question. Several studies have raised concerns about the benefits of using the Lewinnek safe zone as a predictor of success.

Axial Magnetic Resonance Angiography in Evaluating Revascularization after Indirect Bypass Surgery for Moyamoya Axial Magnetic Resonance Angiography after Indirect Bypass.

Introduction: At our institution, revascularization after indirect moyamoya surgery is routinely evaluated using magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) rather than catheter angiography. In this paper, we review how revascularization can be visualized on axial MRA and compare its visualization on MRA to that on catheter angiography. We also compare clinical outcomes of patients followed with routine postoperative MRA with outcomes of patients followed with routine catheter angiography.

Rapidly Progressive Contralateral Internal Carotid Artery Stenosis After COVID-19 Infection in a Down Syndrome Patient With Unilateral Moyamoya Arteriopathy.

Moyamoya arteriopathy is a condition where chronic, progressive stenosis of large intracranial arteries, primarily of the anterior circulation, results in ischemia and the growth of small, abnormal collateral vessels. There is increasing evidence that infectious pathologies, such as COVID-19, may serve as a sort of trigger, or "second hit," for the development of moyamoya arteriopathy. In this article, we present the case of a 13-year-old female with Down syndrome and unilateral moyamoya arteriopathy who developed contralateral internal carotid artery (ICA) dissection and thrombus in the setting of a positive COVID-19 test and subsequently developed rapidly progressive contralateral ICA and bilateral anterior cerebral artery (ACA) moyamoya-like stenosis.

Estimating metabolic rate from ISO heart rate method and two walking equations.

Assigning a value for metabolic rate is central to heat stress assessment. ISO 8996 describes a predictive method for walking based on the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) method and another generalized method based on average heart rate. In addition, the US Army uses the load carriage decision aid (LCDA) predictive equation to estimate metabolic rate.

A Novel Conceptual Model for Human Heat Tolerance.

Human "heat tolerance" has no accepted definition or physiological underpinnings; rather, it is almost always discussed in relative or comparative terms. We propose to use environmental limits to heat balance accounting for metabolic rate and clothing, that is, the environments for which heat stress becomes uncompensable for a specified metabolic rate and clothing, as a novel metric for quantifying heat tolerance.

Core temperature and heart rate at the upper limit of the prescriptive zone.

The expressed goal of limiting workplace heat stress exposures to a core temperature (T ) of 38°C traces back to a 1969 World Health Organization Technical Report (WHO Series 412). The actual goal was to limit exposures to the upper limit of the prescriptive zone (ULPZ). To explore the physiological strain at the ULPZ, progressive heat stress protocol data from Penn State University (PSU) and University of South Florida (USF) below and at the ULPZ were used to articulate the relation of T and heart rate (HR) to metabolic rate (MR) with consideration of acclimatization state, clothing, exposure condition (PreULPZ vs.

Distribution of upper limit of the prescriptive zone values for acclimatized and unacclimatized individuals.

Heat stress has an adverse impact on worker health and well-being, and the effects will increase with more frequent and severe heat events associated with global warming. Acclimatization to heat stress is widely considered to be a critical mitigation strategy and wet bulb globe temperature- (WBGT-) based occupational standards and guidelines contain adjustments for acclimatization. The purpose here was to ) compare the mean values for the upper limit of the prescriptive zone (ULPZ, below which the rise in core temperature is minimal) between unacclimatized and acclimatized men and women; ) demonstrate that the change in the occupational exposure limit (ΔOEL) due to acclimatization is independent of metabolic rate; ) examine the relation between ΔOEL and body surface area (BSA); and ) compare the exposure-response curves between unacclimatized and acclimatized populations.

The development of the pediatric stroke neuroimaging platform (PEDSNIP).

Childhood stroke occurs from birth to 18 years of age, ranks among the top ten childhood causes of death, and leaves lifelong neurological impairments. Arterial ischemic stroke in infancy and childhood occurs due to arterial occlusion in the brain, resulting in a focal lesion. Our understanding of mechanisms of injury and repair associated with focal injury in the developing brain remains rudimentary.

Gimme shelter. Social distancing and income support in times of pandemic.

Stay-at-home orders feature high in the set of policies used to curb the spread of epidemics such as COVID-19, but are potentially less efficient among poor people who must continue to work during pandemics. We examine how income support programs help poor people comply with stay-at-home order and thereby generate positive health externalities. We use data on work-related mobility in 2020 and on poverty rates for 729 subnational regions of Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Epilepsy panels in clinical practice: Yield, variants of uncertain significance, and treatment implications.

Objective: There has been increasing utilization of genetic testing for pediatric epilepsy in recent years. Little systematic data is available examining how practice changes have impacted testing yields, diagnostic pace, incidence of variants of uncertain significance (VUSs), or therapeutic management.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed at Children's Hospital Colorado from February 2016 through February 2020.

Impact of small farmers' access to improved seeds and deforestation in DR Congo.

Since the 1960s, the increased availability of modern seed varieties in developing countries has had large positive effects on households' well-being. However, the effect of related land use changes on deforestation and biodiversity is ambiguous. This study examines this question through a randomized control trial in a remote area in the Congo Basin rainforest with weak input and output markets.

Nurse-led heart failure educational interventions for patient and informal caregiver dyads: An integrative review.

Background: Heart failure is a major health problem with significant economic burden in the United States. Educating heart failure dyads (heart failure patient and informal caregiver) is a relatively new domain and is being proposed by providers, policy makers, and third-party payors. Nurse-led dyad education can improve quality of life and reduce hospital admissions in the heart failure population.

Accelerating technical change through ICT: Evidence from a video-mediated extension experiment in Ethiopia.

Despite enthusiasm around applications of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to smallholder agriculture in many lower-income countries, there are still many questions on the effectiveness of ICT-based approaches. This study assesses the impacts of video-mediated agricultural extension service provision on farmers' adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices in Ethiopia using data from a two-year randomized experiment. Our results show that the video-mediated extension approach significantly increases uptake of recommended technologies and practices by improving extension access and farmer knowledge.

Group Outcomes for Time-Weighted Averaging in WBGT-Based Heat Stress Exposure Assessment.

The wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT)-based occupational exposure limits (OELs) were developed from steady exposures to heat stress at constant WBGT and metabolic rate (M). The exposure limits were based on compensable heat stress exposures at the upper limit of the prescriptive zone for most healthy people. Professional practice allows for using time-weighted averages (TWAs) of WBGT and M to account for heterogeneous heat stress exposures.

Cerebral Arteriopathies of Childhood - Current Approaches.

Up to more than half of previously healthy children presenting with their first arterial ischemic stroke have a cerebral arteriopathy. Cerebral arteriopathies during childhood can be congenital, reflecting abnormal vessel development, or acquired when caused by disruption of vascular homeostasis. Distinguishing different types of cerebral arteriopathies in children can be challenging but of great clinical value as they may dictate different disease and treatment courses, and clinical and radiologic outcomes.

Indicators to assess physiological heat strain - Part 1: Systematic review.

In a series of three companion papers published in this Journal, we identify and validate the available thermal stress indicators (TSIs). In this first paper of the series, we conducted a systematic review (registration: INPLASY202090088) to identify all TSIs and provide reliable information regarding their use (funded by EU Horizon 2020; HEAT-SHIELD). Eight databases (PubMed, Agricultural and Environmental Science Collection, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, Russian Science Citation Index, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar) were searched from database inception to 15 April 2020.