Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Projects, More than just Adaptation: Analysis of Social Benefits and Costs in Colombia.

Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) projects are increasingly flourishing throughout the globe on the grounds that EbA constitutes a particularly community-friendly solution for adaptation to climate change as it brings about an array of co-benefits. However, the promotion of EbA projects, by development agencies and conservation NGOs, remains blurry as it has not yet been contrasted against evidence on its effectiveness in delivering these benefits. Employing a political ecology perspective, the applied conceptual framework allows for the assessment of the social benefits and costs that EbA projects generate or reinforce and factors that influence the distribution of these social benefits or costs.

Maladjustment of programmable ventricular shunt valves by inadvertent exposure to a common hospital device.

Background: Programmable ventricular shunt valves are commonly used to treat hydrocephalus. They can be adjusted to allow for varying amounts of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow using an external magnetic programming device, and are susceptible to maladjustment from inadvertent exposure to magnetic fields.

Case Description: We describe the case of a 3-month-old girl treated for hydrocephalus with a programmable Strata II valve found at the incorrect setting on multiple occasions during her hospitalization despite frequent reprogramming and surveillance.

Improving functional properties of pea protein isolate for microencapsulation of flaxseed oil.

Unhydrolysed pea protein (UN) forms very viscous emulsions when used at higher concentrations. To overcome this, UN was hydrolysed using enzymes alcalase, flavourzyme, neutrase, alcalase-flavourzyme, and neutrase-flavourzyme at 50 °C for 0 min, 30 min, 60 min, and 120 min to form hydrolysed proteins A, F, N, AF, and NF, respectively. All hydrolysed proteins had lower apparent viscosity and higher solubility than UN.

Evolution of implantable and insertable drug delivery systems.

The paper describes the development of implantable and insertable drug delivery systems (IDDS) from their early stage in the 1960s until the current stage in the 2010s. It gives a detailed summary of non-degradable and biodegradable systems and their applications in different areas such as vascular disease treatment, birth control, cancer treatment, and eye disease treatment. It also describes the development of various implantable pump systems and some other atypical IDDS, the challenges and the future of IDDS.