Clean Facilities Research Articles

The associations between water and sanitation and hookworm infection using cross-sectional data from Togo's national deworming program.

BackgroundSustainable control of soil-transmitted helminths requires a combination of chemotherapy treatment and environmental interventions, including access to safe drinking water, sufficient water for hygiene, use of clean sanitation facilities, and handwashing (WASH). We quantified associations between home-, school-, and community-level WASH characteristics and hookworm infection—both prevalence and eggs per gram of stool (intensity)—among Togolese school children in the context of community-based chemotherapy treatments administered in the country from 2010 through 2014.Methodology/Principal findingsWe analyzed data from two surveys conducted by the Togo Ministry of Health: a school-based survey of students aged 6–9 years across Togo conducted in 2009 and a follow-up survey in 2015, after four to five years of preventive chemotherapy. Data were available for 16,473 students attending 1,129 schools in 2009 and for 16,890 students from 1,126 schools in 2015. Between surveys, children in study schools received 0 to 8 rounds of deworming chemotherapy treatments. Few WASH conditions (only unimproved drinking water) were found to be significantly associated with the presence or absence of hookworms in an individual; however, quantitative eggs per gram of feces was associated with availability of unimproved drinking water, availability of improved drinking water either on or off school grounds, having a handwashing station with water available, and access to a sex-separate non-private or private latrine. The association between school WASH conditions and hookworm infection or burden often depended on the 2009 prevalence of infection, as more WASH characteristics were found to be significant predictors of infection among schools with high underlying endemicity of hookworm.Conclusions/SignificanceOur findings emphasize the complex and often inconsistent or unpredictable relationship between WASH and hookworm. Specifically, we found that while preventive chemotherapy appeared to dramatically reduce hookworm infection, WASH was associated with infection intensity.

PERAN PEMERINTAH DAERAH DALAM MENGENTASKAN KEMISKINAN DI KABUPATEN TANGERANG PROVINSI BANTEN

ABSTRACT
 Tangerang Regency has many potential natural resources and human resources that should be added value in increasing the economic potential of the community. However, the people’s life in Tangerang district is still living in poverty. Looking at the facts in the field that there are still many people living in slums, the researchers need to conduct a study on how the role of local government in Tangerang District eradicate poverty in the region. The research design refers to secondary data from 2011-2015. The research was conducted by qualitative method with descriptive inductive writing to obtain data. The scope of writing is about the role of Local Government of Tangerang Regency in Eradicating Poverty as well as factors that inhibit and support the role. The results of this sresearch illustrates that the role of Local Government of Tangerang Regency in alleviating poverty is quite a lot of realized in 25 excellent programs that are implemented consistently cross-sectoral and cross-SKPD which is expected to solve synergic regional problems and integrated but the community is still constrained some access related to clean water facilities, especially in some densely populated areas or slums in coastal areas.
 Keywords: role, local government, poverty

Ultrafiltration of Aqueous PVA Using Spinning Basket Membrane Module

The performance of spinning basket membrane (SBM) module was tested for the separation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) from wastewater. The SBM performance was examined using 50 kDa polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane under different parametric conditions. Also, the effects of rotational speed and transmembrane pressure on permeate flux and PVA rejection were investigated. The rotational speed played a significant role in decreasing membrane fouling by reducing the particle deposition on the membrane surface due to enhanced turbulence and shear force. Also, the in-built hydrodynamic cleaning facility of the SBM module allowed easy cleaning of the membrane. The steady-state value of percentage rejection of PVA was above 90% when the steady-state permeate flux value was above 54% of its initial value. The results suggested that spinning basket membrane module was efficient as well as economical for the separation of PVA from aqueous solution.

Determinant of Dermatitis Occurrence At Rappokalling Health Center Makassar city

Dermatitis is a group of diseases that are often underestimated, whereas it includes the top 10 diseases suffered by the people of Indonesia. Prevalence in Makassar City, 2014 dermatitis case number 53,365 cases, while in Puskesmas Rappokalling dermatitis cases amounted to 2030 (15.63%) cases. The purpose of this research is to know the correlation of risk factor of individual characteristic, personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, environmental exposure, genetic / heredity, and allergy with dermatitis incidence. The study design used was case control study, where patients who visited the Rappokalling Puskesmas were suffering from dermatitis (cases) and patients who did not suffer from dermatitis (control) as population and sample. The sample counted 64 people (cases) and 64 people (control), so the total sample size was 128 people. Data analysis was done by odds ratio test and presented in tabular form. The results showed that there was a personal hygiene relationship, environmental sanitation (clean water facilities), and allergy to the incidence of dermatitis in the work area of ​​Rappokalling Puskesmas. It is recommended that the government, especially Rappokalling Puskesmas to provide education to the public to always maintain personal hygiene such as cleanliness of towels, body hygiene (bath 2 times a day), hand hygiene and nails (diligent hand washing and cutting nails). The government should provide clean water facilities that meet the requirements of the community and take into account the potential for allergic-related dermatitis.

한국 동남권 주력·선도산업의 경쟁력 분석

This study aims to analyze the competitiveness of the base and main industries related to the 8 leading industries in the Dongnam Economic Region of South Korea, which have a high share in this region. For this purpose, first, this study has confirmed the base and main industries among the manufacturing industries in the Dongnam Economic Region using the location quotient. By the regional growth rate differential analysis, this study has classified the base and main industries of Dongnam Economic Region as competitive advantage and competitive disadvantage. The results showed that among the 8 leading industries in the Dongnam economic region, industries related to clean car, aerospace, and power generation facilities have generally competitive advantage. The results also showed that industries related to fine chemicals, offshore plant equipment, and shipbuilding equipment have competitive disadvantage.

Impact of climate change on dermatological conditions related to flooding: update from the International Society of Dermatology Climate Change Committee.

Climate change contributes to the increase in severity and frequency of flooding, which is the most frequent and deadly disaster worldwide. Flood-related damage can be very severe and include health effects. Among those health impacts, dermatological diseases are one of the most frequently encountered. Both infectious and noninfectious dermatological conditions are increasing after flooding. We searched PubMed using the search term climate change OR global warming OR rainfall OR flooding OR skin. Articles published in the English-language literature were included. We also searched the International Society of Dermatology website library on climate change for additional articles. There is an increased risk of trauma during the course of a natural disaster. The majority of post-tsunami wound infections were polymicrobial, but gram-negative bacteria were the leading causes. Infectious diseases with dermatological manifestations, such as impetigo, leptospirosis, measles, dengue fever, tinea corporis, malaria, and leishmaniasis, are important causes of morbidity among flood-afflicted individuals. Insect bites and stings, and parasite infestations such as scabies and cutaneous larva migrans are also frequently observed. Inflammatory conditions including irritant contact dermatitis are among the leading dermatological conditions. Dermatological conditions such as alopecia areata, vitiligo, psoriasis, and urticaria can be induced or exacerbated by psychological conditions post disaster. Prevention is essential in the management of skin diseases because of flooding. Avoiding exposure to contaminated environments, wearing protective devices, rapid provision of clean water and sanitation facilities, prompt vector controls, and education about disease risk and prevention are important.

Planning Optimization of the Work Processes of Gas Cleaning Facilities of a Power Plant by Means of Mathematical Processing and Computer Simulation

The article seeks to examine the efficiency of applying means of mathematical processing and computer modeling of the work processes of gas cleaning facilities of power plants to optimize the process of planning and designing of future power plant in operation. A way of solution of the gas outbursts cleaning problem at the stage of designing measures for the development of waste processing systems through mathematical processing of expected volumes of gas outbursts and computer simulation of individual pieces of equipment and working areas as a whole is offered. The authors present the results of the processing of the projected technological processes and the gas outbursts cleaning facilities in terms of E-networks and using mathematical processing in the application Simulink, which allows to build a model of the device and to carry out calculations on the screen using the library of building blocks. A 3D model of the gas cleaning facilities, which allows to visualize the technological process and to compare it with theoretical calculations at the design stage of the future power plant and, if necessary, make changes to the project, has been created by means of computer modeling.

Design of Groundwater Filtration Technology to Meet the Clean Water Needs of Rural Communities Using Quality Function Deployment

The provision of clean water for all Indonesians is one of the objectives of the government that is still constrained by the limitations of the existing water supply infrastructure. Some areas, especially rural or remote areas, are still hard to reach by the clean water facilities of the Regional Water Company. Whereas the groundwater resources in this region are abundant but can't be explored optimally to meet the needs of clean water and proper consumption for the surrounding community. The availability of water is not balanced with its quality, especially as qualified water for consumption. Some other characteristics of rural areas such as poor sanitation and the presence of agricultural waste pollutants, result in groundwater quality being further away from the standard of consumption. Although there are some commercial water filtration technologies available, they are generally expensive, with limited capacity, and not intended for mass use. For that reason, a new breakthrough, by designing proper technology, which is not only affordable but also easy to use and have sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the community. This research used Quality Function Deployment followed by Functional Analysis Systems Technique to get the character of the user and design requirement of groundwater filtration technology which suitable with the community needs and water quality condition in rural areas. The result is a design of filtration technology consists of five main modules, namely filtration module, information module high voltage module, reactor module, and rack module. This design is expected to be the basis for developing clean water technologies for people in rural areas or others that are difficult to reach by the Regional Water Company infrastructure.

The Analysis of Fecal Coliforms and Coliform Total in Wells Water at the Tourism Area of Sanur

Sanur is a tourism area that located in the south of Denpasar, which includes the village of Sanur, Sanur Kaja, Sanur Kauh, and Renon, with clean water wells facilities as many as 3174 wells. Utilization of water wells in this region 87% of the total existing wells. Based on quality measurement results conducted by the Dinas Kesehatan Kota Denpasar in 2006, from 40 dug-wells in South Denpasar District, the content of Coliform and fecal coli has exceeded water quality standards which refers to Permenkes No. 416/Menkes/Per/IX/1990, it can be concluded as a high risk of contamination status.

Study on the Current Status of China’s Food Security Based on Multiple Dimensions Measurement

As a large agricultural country, food security is of vital importance to the national economy and people's livelihood. In recent years, food production has been constantly restricted in order to meet the needs of urbanization and economic development. And problems such as resource compression, cost increase and insufficient investment in science and technology have gradually surfaced. In order to guarantee the food production safety, this paper comprehensively analyzes the status of China's food security from four aspects: food availability, food access, food utilization and the stability of food security. Through comparative analysis, it is known that the overall situation of China's food security has been significantly improved. It is better than the average level of developing countries. China also has advantages when compared with other developing countries with large populations, but there is still a certain gap with the average level of developed countries. China's food security situation is not balanced in different dimensions. The food availability situation measured by indicators such as per capita food output and average dietary energy supply has significantly improved. The food access measured by per capita GDP, domestic food price index, prevalence of undernourishment and so on, enhances continuously. The global hunger index was significantly reduced in food utilization, and the condition of food utilization measured by clean drinking water sources and good sanitation facilities was significantly improved. The lower stability index of political stability, the higher domestic food price volatility and per capita food production variability are not conducive to the stability of food security.

Health counseling effect towards knowledge levels of community in obtaining clean water supply

Water is a very important element for the survival of humanity. The main problem faced by the community related to water resources is the quantity of water that is not able supply the increasing needs and quality of water for domestic needs which is decreasing every year. Clean water supply coverage in Majene Regency is 78.27%. This study aims to see the effect of health ceducation towards knowledge level of community in obtaining clean water. This research is a quasi-entrepreneurial or quasi-experimental research with Non-equivalent control group design design with pretest - posttest with a total sample of 66 people consisting of 2 groups. The results showed that the knowledge of the treatment group increased by 12.27 with t = - 14.52 (P <0.05) while the control group increased by 8.97 with t = - 19.38 (P <0.05). This shows that health counseling methods are proven to increase knowledge in empowering people to get clean water facilities. Therefore, it is expected that related partiesshould be more intense in conducting the community environment.

Accelerating Energy Access Through Public-Private Partnership Investment in Zambia

Zambia has abundant renewable energy resources which could provide basic energy services to over 16 million Zambian citizens. Despite that only 25% of the population in Zambia have access to electricity and clean cooking facilities. This has led to a continued large scale usage of wood energy causing a strain on forestry stock. Further the country’s largest renewable energy generation potential exists through solar and hydro power. Although, Government efforts to invest in the solar and hydro energy sector has been slow, so far less than 30% of the available (6000MW) hydro potential has been harnessed and solar PV has been installed only on about 400 households, several schools and Chief’s Palaces in various parts of the country. Zambia aims to reach an electrification rate of 90% in urban and 51% in rural areas through its vision 2030. This will technically require policies and regulatory that build capacity for both public and private sector partnership with specific regard to promoting renewables energies. Therefore this paper seeks to address energy issue of access in Zambia and highlight the policy issues to harmonize the partnership of public and private sector investments in solving energy concern. This is done through an overview of the energy sector, review of the energy policies and private sector investments.

Institutional and Management Analysis of the Auction Fish Place (AFP) for Improving Fishermen’s Welfare in Tegalsari AFP, Tegal City, Central Java

Institutional and Management Analysis of The Auction Fish Place (AFP) for Improving Fishermen's Welfare in Tegalsari AFP, Tegal City, Central Java” research aimed to find out the institutional system of Auction Fish Place (AFP) and Evaluation Strategy of Auction Fish Place (AFP) Tegalsari based on its institutional function. This research uses survey method which done by observation and interview. The data used are primary data and secondary data which then analyzed descriptively by using SWOT analysis. The result showed that the institutional and management system in Tegalsari AFP has been running well, from the performance of AFP managers and the tender system that runs smoothly in accordance with applicable regulations. The optimal management strategy of Tegalsari AFP is by improving the existing operational system in AFP, one of them is clean water facility and access to capital for local fisherman.

Practice of and Barriers to Prevention by Secondary School Athletic Trainers

Purpose: Prevention is a key aspect of care from athletic trainers. There is limited research on the practice strategies employed to prevent injury by secondary school athletic trainers (SSATs). The purpose of this study was to describe the prevention practice strategies and barriers faced by secondary school athletic trainers. Methods: Athletic trainers (n=3010) were recruited from secondary schools through e-mails provided by the national professional organization database. Secondary school athletic trainers were surveyed on their self-reported prevention practices and barriers using a web-based survey platform. Respondents were 28±3 years, predominantly female (n=260/359, 72.4%), with about 5 years (±2yrs) of clinical experience. The survey contained prevention strategies items with tasks from Domain 1 of the Board of Certification Role Delineation Study (6th ed.) that relates to athletic training clinical practice. Barrier items were developed from previous literature about implementing evidence-based practice strategies. Partial data (completion rate=359/473, 75.9%) was used for the analyses. Data were analyzed by using frequencies, medians with percentiles, means, and standard deviations. Results: The least frequently practiced environmental illness monitoring techniques and addressing patient-specific nutritional needs were identified. In contrast, secondary school athletic trainers most frequently practiced compliance for both equipment maintenance and maintaining a clean facility. The most common ‘always practiced’ skills align with Task 102, 103, and 104 in Domain 1 of the Board of Certification Role Delineation Study. These include pre-participation and screening, personal protective equipment, and maintaining treatment and rehabilitation areas through regulatory standards. A lack of time, workload, player compliance, available space, and coach support were the most commonly cited barriers to prevention practice. Conclusions: Overall, secondary school athletic trainers engaged in prevention strategies frequently, yet external factors were barriers to implementation. The consistent and continual practice of prevention skills are essential to risk mitigation. As a result, always practicing the skill is essential and should not be completed as an occasional duty of the athletic training. As many prevention strategies are required for all patient encounters, the frequency of task performance must improve for clinical practice.

Brazilian Citizens: Expectations Regarding Dairy Cattle Welfare and Awareness of Contentious Practices.

Simple SummaryAnimal welfare is an important issue for citizens in North America and Europe, but much less is known about how citizens from emergent countries, such as Brazil, view this topic. Our aim was to explore attitudes of urban Brazilian citizens about dairy production and, in particular, how they view four routine husbandry practices: early cow-calf separation; zero-grazing; culling of the newborn male calf; and dehorning without pain mitigation. Through in-depth interviews and a questionnaire using open-ended questions, we can conclude that animal welfare was a major issue for our participants, especially in terms of its perceived relation with milk quality. Although participants were initially unaware about any of the four management practices, they were all viewed as contentious and not supported. This study provides some insights that farmers and others working in the Brazilian dairy supply chain should take into consideration, particularly in terms of social sustainability.The primary aim of this study was to explore attitudes of urban Brazilian citizens about dairy production. A secondary aim was to determine their knowledge and attitudes about four potentially contentious routine dairy cattle management practices: early cow-calf separation; zero-grazing; culling of newborn male calves; and dehorning without pain mitigation. To address the first aim 40 participants were interviewed using open-ended semi-structured questions designed to probe their views and attitudes about dairy production in Brazil, and 300 participants answered a questionnaire that included an open-ended question about the welfare of dairy cattle. Primary concerns reported by the participants centered on milk quality, which included the rejection of any chemical additives, but also animal welfare, environmental and social issues. The interviewees rarely mentioned animal welfare directly but, when probed, expressed several concerns related to this topic. In particular, participants commented on factors that they perceived to influence milk quality, such as good animal health, feeding, clean facilities, and the need to avoid or reduce the use of drugs, hormones and pesticides, the avoidance of pain, frustration and suffering, and the ability of the animals to perform natural behaviors. To address our second aim, participants were asked questions about the four routine management practices. Although they self-reported being largely unaware of these practices, the majority of the participants rejected these practices outright. These data provide insight that animal welfare may be an important issue for members of the public. Failure to consider this information may increase the risk that certain dairy production practices may not be socially sustainable once lay citizens become aware of them.

Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions for acute childhood diarrhea: a systematic review to provide estimates for the Lives Saved Tool

BackgroundIn the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, there is growing recognition of the responsibilities of non-health sectors in improving the health of children. Interventions to improve access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene behaviours (WASH) represent key opportunities to improve child health and well-being by preventing the spread of infectious diseases and improving nutritional status.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review of studies evaluating the effects of WASH interventions on childhood diarrhea in children 0–5 years old. Searches were run up to September 2016. We screened the titles and abstracts of retrieved articles, followed by screening of the full-text reports of relevant studies. We abstracted study characteristics and quantitative data, and assessed study quality. Meta-analyses were performed for similar intervention and outcome pairs.ResultsPooled analyses showed diarrhea risk reductions from the following interventions: point-of-use water filtration (pooled risk ratio (RR): 0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.36–0.62), point-of-use water disinfection (pooled RR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.60–0.79), and hygiene education with soap provision (pooled RR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57–0.94). Quality ratings were low or very low for most studies, and heterogeneity was high in pooled analyses. Improvements to the water supply and water disinfection at source did not show significant effects on diarrhea risk, nor did the one eligible study examining the effect of latrine construction.ConclusionsVarious WASH interventions show diarrhea risk reductions between 27% and 53% in children 0–5 years old, depending on intervention type, providing ample evidence to support the scale-up of WASH in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Due to the overall low quality of the evidence and high heterogeneity, further research is required to accurately estimate the magnitude of the effects of these interventions in different contexts.

Tetrachloroethene Release and Degradation During Combined ERH and Sodium Persulfate Oxidation

AbstractElectrical resistance heating (ERH) is a thermal treatment technology that involves passing electrical current through soil to increase subsurface temperatures. In addition to volatizing and recovering contaminant mass in the gas phase, heating the subsurface has the potential to decompose contaminants by increasing the rate of degradation reactions. Prior laboratory studies using convective heating demonstrated that the rate of tetrachloroethene (PCE) degradation was not sufficient to cause substantial in situ PCE mass destruction. However, similar experiments have not been performed using ERH, which has the potential to degrade PCE in reaction with the heating electrodes and electrochemically. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the extent of PCE degradation during thermal treatment of PCE‐contaminated soil using a bench‐scale ERH system. The contaminated soil, a silty clay loam, was collected from a single borehole at a former dry cleaning facility prior to undergoing ERH treatment. After 30 days of ERH, 52% of the initial PCE mass was recovered, potentially indicating that 48% of the PCE was degraded during ERH. Although potential degradation products such as carbon dioxide were observed, their presence was attributed to the degradation of soil organic carbon and carbonates rather than PCE destruction. A second ERH experiment was conducted to assess the potential benefit of adding the heat‐activated oxidant, sodium‐persulfate, during treatment. After 19 days of ERH and three persulfate injections, 93% of the initial PCE was recovered, with 3% PCE destruction based on chloride evolution. However, the difference in mass recovery between the first and second experiments could have been due to differences in the initial mass of PCE, even though soil from the same core was used in both experiments. The results of this work suggest that the majority of mass recovered during ERH of the PCE‐contaminated soil at the former dry cleaning facility will be due to volatilization and gas phase extraction rather than abiotic degradation, even with the addition of sodium persulfate.

Development and validation of burnup-transport code system OMCB for accelerator driven system

Accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS) is a kind of clean nuclear facility with inherent safety features. ADS facilities mainly put emphasis on studying the two following categories of isotopes, namely, the minor actinide (MA) and long-lived fission products (LLFP). However, some general burnup codes lack depletion chains for specific heavy isotopes with MA included, or treat a series of isotopes, including LLFP, as pseudo nuclides. Taking into account the above characteristics, a burnup-transport code system OMCB (OpenMC based Burnup code) has been developed based on transmutation trajectory analysis (TTA) method and Bateman equations, coupling with OpenMC code for ADS facilities. In order to make the depletion calculation process more effective and accurate, three kinds of iterations and one terminate criteria have been proposed for searching the depletion chains. Moreover, a scan mode method based high order differential expression has been proposed to remove the infinite terms in Bateman equations. Finally, a concept of sub-step predictor calculation has been introduced by combining both linear and quadratic interpolation methods, which makes cross section time-dependent in each depletion step. Four benchmarks have been used to validate OMCB code. The numerical tests demonstrate that OMCB code has a good agreement in comparison with the reference results and can be used in ADS facilities.

New insights into the shock tube ignition of H2/O2 at low to moderate temperatures using high-speed end-wall imaging

In this work, the effects of pre-ignition energy releases on H2O2 mixtures were explored in a shock tube with the aid of high-speed imaging and conventional pressure and emission diagnostics. Ignition delay times and time-resolved camera image sequences were taken behind the reflected shockwaves for two hydrogen mixtures. High concentration experiments spanned temperatures between 858 and 1035 K and pressures between 2.74 and 3.91 atm for a 15% H2\\18% O2\\Ar mixture. Low concentration data were also taken at temperatures between 960 and 1131 K and pressures between 3.09 and 5.44 atm for a 4% H2\\2% O2\\Ar mixture. These two model mixtures were chosen as they were the focus of recent shock tube work conducted in the literature (Pang et al., 2009). Experiments were performed in both a clean and dirty shock tube facility; however, no deviations in ignition delay times between the two types of tests were apparent. The high-concentration mixture (15%H2\\18%O2\\Ar) experienced energy releases in the form of deflagration flames followed by local detonations at temperatures < 1000 K. Measured ignition delay times were compared to predictions by three chemical kinetic mechanisms: GRI-Mech 3.0 (Smith et al.), AramcoMech 2.0 (Li et al., 2017), and Burke's et al. (2012) mechanisms. It was found that when proper thermodynamic assumptions are used, all mechanisms were able to accurately predict the experiments with superior performance from the well-validated AramcoMech 2.0 and Burke et al. mechanisms. Current work provides better guidance in using available literature hydrogen shock tube measurements, which spanned more than 50 years but were conducted without the aid of high-speed visualization of the ignition process, and their modeling using combustion kinetic mechanisms.

Soft Lithographic Procedure for Producing Plastic Microfluidic Devices with View-ports Transparent to Visible and Infrared Light.

Infrared (IR) spectro-microscopy of living biological samples is hampered by the absorption of water in the mid-IR range and by the lack of suitable microfluidic devices. Here, a protocol for the fabrication of plastic microfluidic devices is demonstrated, where soft lithographic techniques are used to embed transparent Calcium Fluoride (CaF2) view-ports in connection with observation chamber(s). The method is based on a replica casting approach, where a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold is produced through standard lithographic procedures and then used as the template to produce a plastic device. The plastic device features ultraviolet/visible/infrared (UV/Vis/IR) -transparent windows made of CaF2 to allow for direct observation with visible and IR light. The advantages of the proposed method include: a reduced need for accessing a clean room micro-fabrication facility, multiple view-ports, an easy and versatile connection to an external pumping system through the plastic body, flexibility of the design, e.g., open/closed channels configuration, and the possibility to add sophisticated features such as nanoporous membranes.