Abstract.Despite the importance of sanitation, few studies have assessed the effects of latrines on the health outcomes of children under 5 years of age. We assessed the relations between latrine coverage and the prevalence of diarrhea in children under 4 years of age. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the baseline data obtained as part of a longitudinal survey targeting 720 households in Idiofa, Bandundu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We categorized latrines according to the presence of each major component and investigated whether diarrhea prevalence of children under 4 years of age is associated with latrine availability and improvement. Latrines have health benefits regardless of whether they are improved. Also worth noting is that comparatively well-equipped and more appropriately managed latrines could prevent child diarrhea more effectively than less equipped or inappropriately managed latrines. Households who have a latrine with a superstructure, roof, and no flies (a partly improved latrine) were found to be 52% less likely to report cases of diarrhea than households with unimproved latrines (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.48, confidence interval [CI] = 0.31–0.76), which are all the other latrines not included in the partly improved latrine category. We have observed the profound protective effect of latrines with a superstructure. This study demonstrates that latrines are associated with significant improvements in health even when they do not fully meet the conditions of improved latrines. This study adds value to the limited evidence on the effect of latrines on health parameters by demonstrating that latrines have correlations with health benefits regardless of whether they are improved, as well as by elucidating the most essential components of improved latrines.
Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is biocompatible, easy to fabricate, and has piezoelectric properties; it has been used for many biomedical applications including stem cell engineering. However, long‐term cultivation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and their differentiation toward cardiac lineages on PVDF have not been investigated. Herein, PVDF nanoscaled membrane scaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning; a vitronectin‐derived peptide‐mussel adhesive protein fusion (VNm) was immobilized on the scaffolds. hESCs cultured on the VNm‐coated PVDF scaffold (VNm–PVDF scaffold) were stably expanded for more than 10 passages while maintaining the expression of pluripotency markers and genomic integrity. Under cardiac differentiation conditions, hESCs on the VNm–PVDF scaffold generated more spontaneously beating colonies and showed the upregulation of cardiac‐related genes, compared with those cultured on Matrigel and VNm alone. Thus, VNm–PVDF scaffolds may be suitable for the long‐term culture of hESCs and their differentiation into cardiac cells, thus expanding their application in regenerative medicine.
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