Search

Objectives: To assess the validity of electronic health records (EHRs) from a network of health centers for chronic disease surveillance among an underserved population in an urban setting., Design: EHRs from a network of health centers were used to calculate the prevalence of chronic disease among adult and child patient populations during 2016. Two population-based surveys with local estimates of chronic disease prevalence were compared with the EHR prevalences., Setting: A network of health centers that provides health care services to an underserved population in a large urban setting., Participants: A total of 187 292 patients who had at least 1 health care visit recorded in the Philadelphia health center network., Main Outcome Measure: Chronic disease indicator (CDI) prevalence of adult obesity, adult smoking, adult diabetes, adult hypertension, child obesity, and child asthma. Health center CDI proportions were compared with survey estimates., Results: Overall consistency between the health center estimates and surveys varied by CDI. With the exception of childhood obesity, all health center CDI proportions fell within the 95% CI for at least 1 comparison survey estimate. Statistically significant differences were observed and varied by CDI., Conclusions: This analysis presents a novel use of existing EHR data to estimate chronic disease prevalence among underserved populations. With the increased use of EHRs in health centers, data from health center networks may supplement chronic disease surveillance efforts, if used appropriately., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

We have studied the anodic dissolution (electropolishing) of various stainless steel alloys in an ionic liquid comprising a 2 : 1 stoichiometric mix of ethylene glycol (EG) and choline chloride. We have used a combination of electrochemical and spectroscopic methods together with in situ liquid probe microscopy. We discuss the role and influence of the surface oxide passivation layer, characterized here by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and linear sweep voltammetry, on the polishing process. We address the question of dealloying during the polish in order to contribute to our understanding of the viability of the ionic liquid as a replacement industrial electropolishing medium; the current commercial process uses a corrosive mixture of phosphoric and sulfuric acids. Also, we present data from ex situ and in situ liquid AFM studies giving both a qualitative and quantitative insight into the nature and scale of morphological changes at the steel surface during the polishing process.

The solubility of a range of metal oxides in a eutectic mixture of urea/choline chloride is quantified, and it is shown that the dissolved metals can be reclaimed from a mixed metal oxide matrix using electrodeposition.

A dark green, viscous liquid can be formed by mixing choline chloride with chromium(III) chloride hexahydrate and the physical properties are characteristic of an ionic liquid. The eutectic composition is found to be 1:2 choline chloride/chromium chloride. The viscosity and conductivity are measured as a function of temperature and composition and explained in terms of the ion size and liquid void volume. The electrochemical response of the ionic liquid is also characterised and it is shown that chromium can be electrodeposited efficiently to yield a crack-free deposit. This approach could circumvent the use of chromic acid for chromium electroplating, which would be a major environmental benefit. This method of using hydrated metal salts to form ionic liquids is shown to be valid for a variety of other salt mixtures with choline chloride.

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) can be formed between a variety of quaternary ammonium salts and carboxylic acids. The physical properties are significantly affected by the structure of the carboxylic acid but the phase behavior of the mixtures can be simply modeled by taking account of the mole fraction of carboxylic acid in the mixture. The physical properties such as viscosity, conductivity, and surface tension of these DES are similar to ambient temperature ionic liquids and insight into the cause of these properties is gained using hole-theory. It is shown that the conductivity and viscosity of these liquids is controlled by ion mobility and the availability of voids of suitable dimensions, and this is consistent with the fluidity of other ionic liquids and molten salts. The DES are also shown to be good solvents for metal oxides, which could have potential application for metal extraction.

The synthesis of ionic liquids based upon functionalized quaternary ammonium salts and metal salts of zinc, tin, or iron is demonstrated. The freezing point of these ionic liquids was studied as a function of the quaternary ammonium cation. The complex anions were identified and quantified using mass spectrometry and potentiometry. It is shown that the primary zinc anion is Zn(2)Cl(5)(-) with Zn(3)Cl(7)(-) becoming more abundant in more Lewis basic solutions. Similar results were observed for ionic liquids containing SnCl(2). The surface tension was also measured and was used to explain the high viscosity of the ionic liquids in terms of the large ion:hole size ratio and the small probability of finding a hole of suitable dimensions adjacent to a given ion to permit movement. The phase behavior of a variety of quaternary ammonium halides/ZnCl(2) mixtures is characterized and it is shown that the depression of freezing point is related to the increase in size of the component ions.

Eutectic mixtures of urea and a range of quaternary ammonium salts are liquid at ambient temperatures and have interesting solvent properties.

A range of novel, moisture-stable, Lewis-acidic ionic liquids has been prepared by mixing appropriate molar ratios of MCl2 (M = Zn and/or Sn) and quaternary ammonium salts of formula [Me3NC2H4Y]Cl (Y = OH, Cl, OC(O)Me, OC(O)Ph); the influence of substituent Y and metal M on the physical properties of the melts has been investigated.

The measurement of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine is an increasingly popular marker of in vivo oxidative damage to DNA. A random-sequence 21-mer oligonucleotide 5'-TCA GXC GTA CGT GAT CTC AGT-3' in which X was 8-oxo-guanine (8-oxo-G) was purified and accurate determination of the oxidised base was confirmed by a 32P-end labelling strategy. The lyophilised material was analysed for its absolute content of 8-oxo-dG by several major laboratories in Europe and one in Japan. Most laboratories using HPLC-ECD underestimated, while GC-MS-SIM overestimated the level of the lesion. HPLC-ECD measured the target value with greatest accuracy. The results also suggest that none of the procedures can accurately quantitate levels of 1 in 10(6) 8-oxo-(d)G in DNA.