Evaluating ecosystem services in urban salt marshes: Assessing vulnerability to sea-level rise and implications for coastal management.

This study presents a spatio-temporal framework that integrates ecosystem services into ecological risk assessment to evaluate the ecosystem service vulnerability of urban salt marshes to sea-level rise. The model was tested at Belle Isle Marsh to quantify and qualify the evolving capacity of urban marshes to continue supplying ecosystem services to an increasing urban populace to the end of the century with focus on carbon storage, nitrogen storage, fish nursery, and Saltmarsh Sparrow viewing. We project that sea-level rise will drive dynamic trade-offs between habitats and ecosystem services over space and time.

Quantitative structure permeability relationships for phenolic compounds applied to human epidermal membranes in various solvents.

Purpose: This study examined how solvent-skin-solute interactions influenced the human epidermal permeation of three similar-sized phenolic compounds applied in a series of different solvents.

Methods: Human epidermal permeation fluxes and lag times of three phenolic compounds were assessed in Franz cells for a range of solvents varying in molecular size and solubility parameters. In order to develop a mechanistic understanding of the determinants of the permeation findings, the solubility of the compounds in solvents and stratum corneum, the extent of solvent uptake by the stratum corneum and the impact of the solvents on skin hydration and transepidermal water loss were also measured.

Fludrocortisone dose-response relationship in septic shock: a randomised phase II trial.

Background: The combination of intravenous hydrocortisone and enteral fludrocortisone may reduce mortality in patients with septic shock. The optimal dose and reliability of absorption of fludrocortisone in critically ill patients are unclear.

Methods: In a multi-centre, open label, phase II randomized clinical trial, intravenous hydrocortisone alone or in combination with one of three doses of enteral fludrocortisone (50 µg, 100 µg or 200 µg daily) for 7 days was compared in patients with septic shock.

Factors Associated with Usage of Oral-PrEP among Female Sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya, Assessed by Self-Report and a Point-of-Care Urine Tenofovir Immunoassay.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective at reducing HIV acquisition. We aimed to estimate usage of oral-PrEP, and factors associated with adherence among female sex workers (FSWs) in Nairobi, Kenya, using a novel point-of-care urine tenofovir lateral flow assay (LFA). The Maisha Fiti study randomly selected FSWs from Sex Worker Outreach Program clinics in Nairobi.