Membrane technology has gained much ground in water and wastewater treatment over the past couple of decades. This is timely, as the world explores smart, eco-friendly, and cheap water and wastewater treatment technologies in its quest to make potable water and sanitation commonplace in all parts of the world. Against this background, this study investigated forward osmosis (FO) in the removal of salts (chlorides, sulphates, and carbonates) and organics (chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), and color) from a synthetic municipal wastewater (MWW), mimicking secondary-treated industrial wastewater, at very low feed and draw solution flow rates (0.16 and 0.14 L/min respectively), using 70 g/L NaCl solution as the draw solution. The results obtained showed an average of 97.67% rejection of SO42- and CO32- while Cl- was found to enrich the feed solution (FS). An average removal of 88.92% was achieved for the organics. A permeation flux of 5.06 L/m2.h was obtained. The kinetics of the ions transport was studied, and was found to fit the second-order kinetic model, with Pearson's R-values of 0.998 and 0.974 for Cl- and CO32- respectively. The study proves FO as a potential technology to desalinate saline MWW.The process by which athletes decide to continue or discontinue sport participation after concussion has not been explicated. Intercollegiate and club sport athletes (N = 394) completed an online survey that included assessments of demographic factors, the total number of concussions (and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears) that would prompt sport retirement, concussion history, and athletic identity. On average, participants reported that they would retire from their primary sport after sustaining 3 to 4 concussions (and approximately 2 ACL tears). The total number of concussions reported was negatively correlated with the number of additional concussions it would take to precipitate sport retirement. Athletic identity was positively associated with the number of concussions that participants with a history of one or more concussions reported would prompt them to retire from their primary sport. The results provide information of potential utility to professionals implementing concussion education programs and working with athletes at risk of experiencing concussion.The aims of this study were to assess serum concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in selected populations from Ghana, including workers engaged in the repair of electronic equipment (ERWs), and to elucidate PFAS concentrations in relation to blood mercury concentrations (B-Hg) as a biomarker of seafood consumption. In all, 219 participants were recruited into the study, of which 26 were women and 64 were ERWs. Overall, the PFAS concentrations were low. The most abundant components were perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS). Women had generally lower PFAS concentration than men. The ERWs had statistically significantly higher concentrations of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), which was associated with the concentration of tin in urine. This could indicate exposure during soldering. The concentration of B-Hg was associated with several of the PFASs such as PFOA, PFOS and perfluoroheptane sulfonate (PFHpS). Additionally, the concentrations of perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) and perfluoroundecanoate (PFUnDA) were highly associated with the concentrations of B-Hg. It is noteworthy that the linear isomer of PFHxS was strongly associated with B-Hg while the branched isomers of PFHxS were not. In conclusion, the PFAS concentrations observed in the present study are low compared to other populations previously investigated, which also reflects a lower PFAS exposure within the Ghanaian cohorts. ERWs had significantly higher PFOA concentrations than the other participants. Several PFASs were associated with B-Hg, indicating that seafood consumption may be a source of PFAS exposure.The 5G network is considered as the essential underpinning infrastructure of manned and unmanned autonomous machines, such as drones and vehicles. Besides aiming to achieve reliable and low-latency wireless connectivity, positioning is another function provided by the 5G network to support the autonomous machines as the coexistence with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is typically supported on smart 5G devices. This paper is a pilot study of using 5G uplink physical layer channel sounding reference signals (SRSs) for 3D user equipment (UE) positioning. The 3D positioning capability is backed by the uniform rectangular array (URA) on the base station and by the multiple subcarrier nature of the SRS. In this work, the subspace-based joint angle-time estimation and statistics-based expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms are investigated with the 3D signal manifold to prove the feasibility of using SRSs for 3D positioning. The positioning performance of both algorithms is evaluated by estimation of the root mean squared error (RMSE) versus the varying signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), the bandwidth, the antenna array configuration, and multipath scenarios.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/SB-202190.html  The simulation results show that the uplink SRS works well for 3D UE positioning with a single base station, by providing a flexible resolution and accuracy for diverse application scenarios with the support of the phased array and signal estimation algorithms at the base station.Background In 2018, the Office of the Nursing and Midwifery Services Director (ONMSD) completed phase one of work which culminated in the development and launch of seven research reports with defined suites of quality care process metrics (QCP-Ms) and respective indicators for the practice areas - acute care, midwifery, children's, public health nursing, older persons, mental health and intellectual disability nursing in Ireland. This paper presents a rapid realist review protocol that will systematically review the literature that examines QCP-Ms in practice; what worked, or did not work for whom, in what contexts, to what extent, how and why? Methods The review will explore if there are benefits of using the QCP-Ms and what are the contexts in which these mechanisms are triggered. The essence of this rapid realist review is to ascertain how a change in context generates a particular mechanism that produces specific outcomes. A number of steps will occur including locating existing theories on implementation of quality care metrics, searching the evidence, selecting relevant documents, data extraction, validation of findings, synthesising and refining programme theory.