In this study, we conducted an electrical analysis of the effects of cold plasma on the properties of distilled water, using a corona discharge in a tip–plane configuration. The discharge was initiated by applying a voltage of 7.17 kV with a 2 mm gap between the tip and the water surface. We investigated the impact of plasma treatment on the total dissolved solids (TDS) and conductivity of 20 mL of distilled water, with exposure times ranging from 2 to 12 min. The results show that plasma treatment leads to a significant increase in conductivity and TDS, with a proportional increase relative to the exposure time. In addition to these measurements, we performed a detailed electrical analysis to evaluate the energy efficiency of the plasma treatment. This analysis involved calculating the useful power and energy efficiency using an equivalent electrical model of the corona discharge reactor, as direct measurement of these parameters is challenging in this context. The model allowed us to calculate energy consumption and analyse the electrical behaviour of the system throughout the treatment process. This study also enables us to monitor, control and optimize the energy during plasma treatment, providing insights into the energy dynamics involved. The findings have potential applications in improving energy efficiency in industrial and environmental processes.

At coastal archaeological sites, measuring erosion rates and assessing artifact loss are vital to understanding the timescale(s) and spatial magnitude of past and future site loss. We describe a straightforward low-tech methodology for documenting shoreline erosion developed by professionals and volunteers over seven years at Calusa Island Midden (8LL45), one of the few remaining sites with an Archaic component in the Pine Island Sound region of coastal Southwest Florida. We outline the evolution of the methodology since its launch in 2016 and describe issues encountered and solutions implemented. We also describe the use of the data to guide archaeological research and document the impacts of major storms at the site. The response to Hurricane Ian in 2022 is one example of how simply collected data can inform site management. This methodology can be implemented easily at other coastal sites at low cost and in collaboration with communities, volunteers, and heritage site managers.

This article critically examines the inequities in the access to COVID-19 vaccine and the lessons for global health law. Despite the rapid development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines, the rollout exposed severe systemic failures rooted in preexisting economic distortions and market inefficiencies. The article argues that addressing vaccine inequity requires more than improved distribution and solidarity, but effective reinvention of the global vaccine supply chain through evidence-based and meaningful market-shaping measures. It calls for a transformative approach to global health governance, emphasising the need for a comprehensive, human rights-compliant policy framework to correct structural problems in international markets, moving beyond superficial exhortations to equity.

Human rights offer to ground global health law in equity and justice. Human rights norms, advocacy, and strategies have proven successes in challenging private and public inequities and in realizing more equitable domestic and global health governance. However, mobilizing human rights within global health law faces enormous political, economic, technological, and epidemiological challenges, including from the corrosive health impacts of power, politics, and commerce. This article focuses on what human rights could bring to three major global health law challenges — health systems strengthening and universal health coverage, the commercial and economic determinants of health, and pandemic disease threats. We argue that human rights offer potentially powerful norms and strategies for achieving equity and justice in these and other key global health domains. The challenge for those working in human rights and global health law is to work nimbly, creatively, and courageously to strengthen the contribution of these instruments to health justice.

This article examines how, why, and with what limitations judges have adopted a gendered perspective (perspectiva de género) in Chile. It addresses why the Supreme Court’s Secretariat of Gender and Nondiscrimination advocates for a particular understanding of the concept, how judges understand and apply it, and the barriers they perceive to its implementation. Drawing on interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and analysis of court rulings, the study identifies four ways in which judges understand a “gendered perspective”: as a method to detect stereotypes, a tool to analyze context, an instrument to reach a fair result, and a rejection of the notion of loosening evidentiary standards. The article argues that in contemporary Chile, different legal cultures shape disparate understandings about a gendered perspective. There is significant contestation between understandings endorsed by the dominant textualist legal culture and those favored by the emerging interpretive legal culture. By illuminating the limitations Chilean judges face in this evolving area of the law, the study contributes insights of relevance for our understanding of the factors that affect gender and judging in Latin America and beyond.

Describing the evolution of a wind turbine's wake from a top-hat profile near the turbine to a Gaussian profile in the far wake is a central feature of many engineering wake models. Existing approaches, such as super-Gaussian wake models, rely on a set of tuning parameters that are typically obtained from fitting high-fidelity data. In the current study, we present a new engineering wake model that leverages the similarity between the shape of a turbine's wake normal to the streamwise direction and the diffusion of a passive scalar from a disk source. This new wake model provides an analytical expression for a streamwise scaling function that ensures the conservation of linear momentum in the wake region downstream of a turbine. The model also considers the different rates of wake expansion that are known to occur in the near- and far-wake regions. Validation is presented against high-fidelity numerical data and experimental measurements from the literature, confirming a consistent good agreement across a wide range of turbine operating conditions. A comparison is also drawn with several existing engineering wake models, indicating that the diffusion-based model consistently provides more accurate wake predictions. This new unified framework allows for extensions to more complex wake profiles by making adjustments to the diffusion equation. The derivation of the proposed model included the evaluation of analytical solutions to several mathematical integrals that can be useful for other physical applications.

Increased intestinal leakiness and associated systemic inflammation are potential contributors to osteoarthritis (OA) and postural imbalance in the geriatric population. To date, no successful treatment to correct postural imbalance in OA is known. We aimed to explore the effects of a multistrain probiotic upon postural imbalance in OA-affected patients. In this randomised, double-blind trial with a placebo group, 147 patients suffering from knee OA (age span = 64–75 years) were divided into placebo (n 75) and probiotics (n 72) study groups. Vivomix 112 billion, multistrain probiotic was given once a day for 12 weeks. The outcomes of study variables were determined first at baseline and later after 12 weeks of intervention. These were Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), knee flexion range of motion (ROM), pain intensity by visual analogue scale, handgrip strength (HGS), gait speed and balance control assessed in standing, semi-tandem and tandem stances. We determined plasma zonulin to determine intestinal leak along with c-reactive protein and 8-isoprostanes levels. A total of 136 OA patients taking placebo (n 71) and probiotics (n 65) were analysed. The probiotics group exhibited a reduction in pain intensity, disease severity and WOMAC scores along with improvement in balance scores, HGS and walking speed (P < 0·05 for all), no change in ROM, resting pain and 8-isoprostanes levels. The correlation analysis revealed a robust association of balance scores with plasma markers of intestinal leakiness and inflammation in probiotics but not in the placebo group. Probiotics reduce postural imbalance in OA patients partly due to a reduction in intestinal leakiness.

This paper explores the (de-)routinisation of employment structure in developing countries, through the case of Morocco. We investigate employment (de-)routinisation from an often-overlooked perspective, aiming to elucidate the interplay between the dynamics of occupational employment composition by the level of routine tasks intensity and two structural aspects: premature deindustrialisation and the prevalence of informal labour.

Our findings, based on tertile analysis and regressions, do not fully support the hypothesis of employment structure de-routinisation. At the same time, we could not identify a clear process of routinisation similar to that observed in developing countries undergoing the first stage of the traditional structural transformation process. Rather, we identified an inverted U-shaped pattern in the dynamics of occupational employment, indicative of a rise in intermediate routine-intensive occupations.

We emphasise two key factors, with opposite effects that have contributed to this atypical pattern: The first aspect is premature deindustrialisation, which according to our shift-share decomposition, has adversely affected highly routine-intensive jobs, contrasting with the routinisation trend observed in countries that have experienced a more traditional process of structural transformation. The influence of premature deindustrialisation in terms of de-routinisation is somewhat mitigated by the increasing prevalence of occupations demanding intermediate routine tasks, particularly within the services and construction sector. Regarding the second structural aspect – the prevalence of informal labour – our three-way interaction model indicates a lower susceptibility of informal jobs to de-routinisation compared to their formal counterparts within the same industry. Consequently, the prevalence of informal employment has slowed down the process of de-routinisation of employment structure.

Background: Infection is one of the most common complications of cancer and cancer treatment. Most patients admitted for fever or infection come through the Emergency Department (ED), which is a primary site for blood culture collection. Contamination of blood cultures complicates the diagnoses, compromises quality of care, leads to unnecessary antibiotic exposure and increases financial burdens. It may also lead to unnecessary removal of central venous access devices or delay of critical therapy or procedures. At our institution, the contamination rate of blood cultures drawn in the ED was over twice that of the remainder of the hospital (2.8 versus 0.8), prompting this quality improvement project. Unlike on hospital floors, nurses, instead of phlebotomists, draw most blood cultures due to the urgency of managing suspected sepsis. Our aim was to decrease the ED contamination rate by 20 percent after the first PDSA cycle, and ultimately bring it on par with the remainder of the hospital. Methods: First, we compared ED contamination rates versus other hospital inpatient floors and outpatient centers over a three-month period. We then evaluated the contamination rates of ED nurses versus ED phlebotomists and peripheral versus central line blood draws. Process mapping and fishbone analysis helped identify practices contributing to higher contamination rates. Key drivers of these practices were diagrammed, and potential interventions were ranked on a prioritization matrix. Results: We identified use of alcohol rather than chlorhexidine swabs for peripheral disinfection and inconsistent techniques of blood draw by nurses as critical contributors to increased contamination rates in the ED. Our intervention was creating premade blood culture kits promoting the use of chlorhexidine swabs through availability and easy access in the fast-paced ED environment. Ten cubic centimeter (cc) syringes in the kits encouraged withdrawal of adequate blood samples in compliance with the 7-10 cc guideline. Designated nursing team leaders checked off ED nurses at the bedside, implementing education and adherence in using the blood culture collection kits. The average number of blood cultures in the emergency department was 1,400. A reduction in blood culture contamination from 2.46 percent to 1.89 percent was seen after two months. Conclusions: A guideline-driven, standardized blood culture collection process followed by ED nurses is vital to reducing blood culture contamination. Chlorhexidine is necessary to maintain the lowest contamination rates. Readily available premade blood culture kits improve compliance with materials and techniques associated with best practices.

The formalisation of informal security-providers has important consequences for citizenship, the rule of law, and human rights. We examine these policies in Burkina Faso, where formalisation has led to concerns about vigilante justice and ethnic targeting. Although African governments' reliance on informal security provision is well-documented, less is known about the origins of formalisation policies. To advance theory-building in this domain, this paper examines the political logic of empowering self-defence groups through the study of Burkina Faso's 2022 junta government, with comparisons to two prior regimes. We argue that formalisation is not only a mechanism for overcoming vexing security challenges, but is a tool used by leaders to build legitimacy and strengthen the regime's grip on power. In doing so, the article contributes insights into the origins of governmental policies towards self-defence groups, with implications for the study of political legitimacy, security provision and citizen–state relations.