A third of Aotearoa New Zealand's increasingly ageing population resides in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. This most populous cosmopolitan urban area in the country is also home to the largest Polynesian population of any global city. Sprawling across a North Island isthmus inclusive of Hauraki Gulf islands, 70% of the city region is rural, whilst almost 90% of the ethnically diverse residents live in urban areas. Members of Auckland Council's Seniors Advisory Panel (SAP) advocated for, and in 2018 secured unanimous support from the governing body to resource an Age-friendly City (AFC) Project. This case study inquiry applied bricolage methodology to provide diverse contextual perspectives of this unique Polynesian setting, prior to exploring interview narratives of three SAP members who served two consecutive terms (six years) as AFC advocates. Weaving insights gleaned from their interview transcripts responding to relational leadership prompts about their age-friendly advocacy with the findings from the council's AFC Community Engagement report highlighted the achievements and challenges of the evolving AFC Project. Service-learning recommendations include co-developing (1) A sustainable co-governance framework for an independent steering group that embodies the values and principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi to enable empowered active ageing for all residents; (2) A succession plan that enables the timely transfer of knowledge and skills to empower incoming SAP members.β3-adrenoreceptor (β3-AR), a G-protein coupled receptor, has peculiar regulatory properties in response to oxygen and widespread localization. β3-AR is expressed in the most frequent neoplasms, also occurring in pregnant women, and its blockade reduces tumor growth, indicating β3-AR-blockers as a promising alternative to antineoplastic drugs during pregnancy. However, β3-AR involvement in prenatal morphogenesis and the consequences of its blockade for the fetus remain unknown. In this study, after the demonstrated expression of β3-AR in endothelial and smooth muscle cells of ductus arteriosus (DA), C57BL/6 pregnant mice were acutely treated at 18.5 of gestational day (GD) with indomethacin or with the selective β3-AR antagonist SR59230A, or chronically exposed to SR59230A from 15.5 to 18.5 GD. Six hours after the last treatment, fetuses were collected. Furthermore, newborn mice were treated straight after birth with BRL37344, a β3-AR agonist, and sacrificed after 7 h. SR59230A, at the doses demonstrated effective in reducing cancer progression (10 and 20 mg/kg) in acute and chronic mode, did not induce fetal DA constriction and did not impair the DA ability to close after birth, whereas at the highest dose (40 mg/kg), it was shown to cause DA constriction and preterm-delivery. BRL37344 administered immediately after birth did not alter the physiological DA closure.Simultaneous fouling and pore wetting of the membrane during membrane distillation (MD) is a major concern. In this work, an electrospun bilayer membrane for enhancing fouling and wetting resistance has been developed for treating hydraulic fracture-produced water (PW) by MD. These PWs can contain over 200,000 ppm total dissolved solids, organic compounds and surfactants. The membrane consists of an omniphobic surface that faces the permeate stream and a hydrophilic surface that faces the feed stream. The omniphobic surface was decorated by growing nanoparticles, followed by silanization to lower the surface energy. An epoxied zwitterionic polymer was grafted onto the membrane surface that faces the feed stream to form a tight antifouling hydration layer. The membrane was challenged with an aqueous NaCl solution containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), an ampholyte and crude oil. In the presence of SDS and crude oil, the membrane was stable and displayed salt rejection (>99.9%). Further, the decrease was much less than the base polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) electrospun membrane. The membranes were also challenged with actual PW. Our results highlight the importance of tuning the properties of the membrane surface that faces the feed and permeate streams in order to maximize membrane stability, flux and salt rejection.Background Improving balance-related ability is an important goal in stroke rehabilitation. Evidence is needed to demonstrate how this goal could be better achieved. Aim Determine if trunk exercises on unstable surfaces would improve trunk control and balance for persons in the subacute stage of stroke. Design An assessor-blind randomized controlled trial. Setting Inpatients in the department of rehabilitation in a general hospital. Population Patients who suffered a first-time stroke with onset from one to six months. Methods Inpatients with stroke were assigned to upper limb exercises (control group, n = 17) or trunk exercises on unstable surfaces (experimental group, n = 18) to receive training twice a week for six weeks, in addition to their daily conventional stroke rehabilitation. Sensorimotor function tests, including hand grip, plantar sensitivity, stroke rehabilitation assessment of movement and Fugl-Meyer lower extremity motor scale, and clinical outcome assessments, including Trunk Impairment Scaleered to be included in stroke rehabilitation.This contribution reports an efficient method for the production and use of biocide-loaded cellulose acetate nanoparticles. As well-known model biocides 4-Hexylresorcinol and Triclosan were used for in situ nanoparticle loading during a nanoprecipitation process. We show that the nanoparticle size can be well-controlled by variation of the cellulose acetate concentration during nanoprecipitation. Apart from strong evidence suggesting cellulose acetate particle formation according to a nucleation-aggregation mechanism, we further show that the biocide loading of the particles occurs by a diffusion process and not via co-precipitation. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/bibo-3304-trifluoroacetate.html The quantity of particle loading was analyzed by 1H-NMR spectroscopy of re-dissolved nanoparticles, and it was observed that a decisive factor for high packaging efficiency is the use of a biocide with low water solubility and high hydrophobicity. SEM studies showed no influence on the particle morphology or size by both biocides 4-Hexylresorcinol and Triclosan. Finally, an aqueous nanoparticle dispersion can be coated onto model paper sheets to yield pronounced antimicrobial surface-properties.