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Visualizing disaster attitudes resulting from terrorist activities

Khalid HM, Helander MG, Hood NA

Appl Ergon, 2013 Sep;44(5):671-9.
PMID: 22944486 DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2012.06.005

The purpose of this study was to analyze people's attitudes to disasters by investigating how people feel, behave and think during disasters. We focused on disasters induced by humans, such as terrorist attacks. Two types of textual information were collected - from Internet blogs and from research papers. The analysis enabled forecasting of attitudes for the design of proactive disaster advisory scheme. Text was analyzed using a text mining tool, Leximancer. The outcome of this analysis revealed core themes and concepts in the text concerning people's attitudes. The themes and concepts were sorted into three broad categories: Affect, Behaviour, and Cognition (ABC), and the data was visualized in semantic maps. The maps reveal several knowledge pathways of ABC for developing attitudinal ontologies, which describe the relations between affect, behaviour and cognition, and the sequence in which they develop. Clearly, terrorist attacks induced trauma and people became highly vulnerable.
Defining and measuring trophic role similarity in food webs using regular equivalence

Luczkovich JJ, Borgatti SP, Johnson JC, Everett MG

J Theor Biol, 2003 Feb 07;220(3):303-21.
PMID: 12468282

We present a graph theoretic model of analysing food web structure called regular equivalence. Regular equivalence is a method for partitioning the species in a food web into "isotrophic classes" that play the same structural roles, even if they are not directly consuming the same prey or if they do not share the same predators. We contrast regular equivalence models, in which two species are members of the same trophic group if they have trophic links to the same set of other trophic groups, with structural equivalence models, in which species are equivalent if they are connected to the exact same other species. Here, the regular equivalence approach is applied to two published food webs: (1) a topological web (Malaysian pitcher plant insect food web) and (2) a carbon-flow web (St. Marks, Florida seagrass ecosystem food web). Regular equivalence produced a more satisfactory set of classes than did the structural approach, grouping basal taxa with other basal taxa and not with top predators. Regular equivalence models provide a way to mathematically formalize trophic position, trophic group and trophic niche. These models are part of a family of models that includes structural models used extensively by ecologists now. Regular equivalence models uncover similarities in trophic roles at a higher level of organization than do the structural models. The approach outlined is useful for measuring the trophic roles of species in food web models, measuring similarity in trophic relations of two or more species, comparing food webs over time and across geographic regions, and aggregating taxa into trophic groups that reduce the complexity of ecosystem feeding relations without obscuring network relationships. In addition, we hope the approach will prove useful in predicting the outcome of predator-prey interactions in experimental studies.
Fulltext Understanding the influences on successful quality improvement in emergency general surgery: learning from the RCS Chole-QuIC project

Stephens TJ, Bamber JR, Beckingham IJ, Duncan E, Quiney NF, Abercrombie JF, et al.

Implement Sci, 2019 08 23;14(1):84.
PMID: 31443689 DOI: 10.1186/s13012-019-0932-0

BACKGROUND: Acute gallstone disease is the highest volume Emergency General Surgical presentation in the UK. Recent data indicate wide variations in the quality of care provided across the country, with national guidance for care delivery not implemented in most UK hospitals. Against this backdrop, the Royal College of Surgeons of England set up a 13-hospital quality improvement collaborative (Chole-QuIC) to support clinical teams to reduce time to surgery for patients with acute gallstone disease requiring emergency cholecystectomy.
METHODS: Prospective, mixed-methods process evaluation to answer the following: (1) how was the collaborative delivered by the faculty and received, understood and enacted by the participants; (2) what influenced teams' ability to improve care for patients requiring emergency cholecystectomy? We collected and analysed a range of data including field notes, ethnographic observations of meetings, and project documentation. Analysis was based on the framework approach, informed by Normalisation Process Theory, and involved the creation of comparative case studies based on hospital performance during the project.
RESULTS: Chole-QuIC was delivered as planned and was well received and understood by participants. Four hospitals were identified as highly successful, based upon a substantial increase in the number of patients having surgery in line with national guidance. Conversely, four hospitals were identified as challenged, achieving no significant improvement. The comparative analysis indicate that six inter-related influences appeared most associated with improvement: (1) achieving clarity of purpose amongst site leads and key stakeholders; (2) capacity to lead and effective project support; (3) ideas to action; (4) learning from own and others' experience; (5) creating additional capacity to do emergency cholecystectomies; and (6) coordinating/managing the patient pathway.
CONCLUSION: Collaborative-based quality improvement is a viable strategy for emergency surgery but success requires the deployment of effective clinical strategies in conjunction with improvement strategies. In particular, achieving clarity of purpose about proposed changes amongst key stakeholders was a vital precursor to improvement, enabling the creation of additional surgical capacity and new pathways to be implemented effectively. Protected time, testing ideas, and the ability to learn quickly from data and experience were associated with greater impact within this cohort.
Fulltext Effectiveness of a quality improvement collaborative in reducing time to surgery for patients requiring emergency cholecystectomy

Bamber JR, Stephens TJ, Cromwell DA, Duncan E, Martin GP, Quiney NF, et al.

BJS Open, 2019 12;3(6):802-811.
PMID: 31832587 DOI: 10.1002/bjs5.50221

Background: Acute gallstone disease is a high-volume emergency general surgery presentation with wide variations in the quality of care provided across the UK. This controlled cohort evaluation assessed whether participation in a quality improvement collaborative approach reduced time to surgery for patients with acute gallstone disease to fewer than 8 days from presentation, in line with national guidance.
Methods: Patients admitted to hospital with acute biliary conditions in England and Wales between 1 April 2014 and 31 December 2017 were identified from Hospital Episode Statistics data. Time series of quarterly activity were produced for the Cholecystectomy Quality Improvement Collaborative (Chole-QuIC) and all other acute National Health Service hospitals (control group). A negative binomial regression model was used to compare the proportion of patients having surgery within 8 days in the baseline and intervention periods.
Results: Of 13 sites invited to join Chole-QuIC, 12 participated throughout the collaborative, which ran from October 2016 to January 2018. Of 7944 admissions, 1160 patients had a cholecystectomy within 8 days of admission, a significant improvement (P
Fulltext Workshops of the Sixth International Brain-Computer Interface Meeting: brain-computer interfaces past, present, and future

Huggins JE, Guger C, Ziat M, Zander TO, Taylor D, Tangermann M, et al.

Brain Comput Interfaces (Abingdon), 2017;4(1-2):3-36.
PMID: 29152523 DOI: 10.1080/2326263X.2016.1275488

The Sixth International Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Meeting was held 30 May-3 June 2016 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, USA. The conference included 28 workshops covering topics in BCI and brain-machine interface research. Topics included BCI for specific populations or applications, advancing BCI research through use of specific signals or technological advances, and translational and commercial issues to bring both implanted and non-invasive BCIs to market. BCI research is growing and expanding in the breadth of its applications, the depth of knowledge it can produce, and the practical benefit it can provide both for those with physical impairments and the general public. Here we provide summaries of each workshop, illustrating the breadth and depth of BCI research and highlighting important issues and calls for action to support future research and development.
Fulltext Lifestyle management of hypertension: International Society of Hypertension position paper endorsed by the World Hypertension League and European Society of Hypertension

Charchar FJ, Prestes PR, Mills C, Ching SM, Neupane D, Marques FZ, et al.

J Hypertens, 2024 Jan 01;42(1):23-49.
PMID: 37712135 DOI: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000003563

Hypertension, defined as persistently elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) >140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at least 90 mmHg (International Society of Hypertension guidelines), affects over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Hypertension is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events (e.g. coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke) and death. An international panel of experts convened by the International Society of Hypertension College of Experts compiled lifestyle management recommendations as first-line strategy to prevent and control hypertension in adulthood. We also recommend that lifestyle changes be continued even when blood pressure-lowering medications are prescribed. Specific recommendations based on literature evidence are summarized with advice to start these measures early in life, including maintaining a healthy body weight, increased levels of different types of physical activity, healthy eating and drinking, avoidance and cessation of smoking and alcohol use, management of stress and sleep levels. We also discuss the relevance of specific approaches including consumption of sodium, potassium, sugar, fibre, coffee, tea, intermittent fasting as well as integrated strategies to implement these recommendations using, for example, behaviour change-related technologies and digital tools.
Fulltext Genetic Mapping, Candidate Gene Identification and Marker Validation for Host Plant Resistance to the Race 4 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Using Musa acuminata ssp. malaccensis

Chen A, Sun J, Viljoen A, Mostert D, Xie Y, Mangila L, et al.

Pathogens, 2023 Jun 09;12(6).
PMID: 37375510 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12060820

Fusarium wilt of banana is a devastating disease that has decimated banana production worldwide. Host resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense (Foc), the causal agent of this disease, is genetically dissected in this study using two Musa acuminata ssp. Malaccensis segregating populations, segregating for Foc Tropical (TR4) and Subtropical (STR4) race 4 resistance. Marker loci and trait association using 11 SNP-based PCR markers allowed the candidate region to be delimited to a 12.9 cM genetic interval corresponding to a 959 kb region on chromosome 3 of 'DH-Pahang' reference assembly v4. Within this region, there was a cluster of pattern recognition receptors, namely leucine-rich repeat ectodomain containing receptor-like protein kinases, cysteine-rich cell-wall-associated protein kinases, and leaf rust 10 disease-resistance locus receptor-like proteins, positioned in an interspersed arrangement. Their transcript levels were rapidly upregulated in the resistant progenies but not in the susceptible F2 progenies at the onset of infection. This suggests that one or several of these genes may control resistance at this locus. To confirm the segregation of single-gene resistance, we generated an inter-cross between the resistant parent 'Ma850' and a susceptible line 'Ma848', to show that the STR4 resistance co-segregated with marker '28820' at this locus. Finally, an informative SNP marker 29730 allowed the locus-specific resistance to be assessed in a collection of diploid and polyploid banana plants. Of the 60 lines screened, 22 lines were predicted to carry resistance at this locus, including lines known to be TR4-resistant, such as 'Pahang', 'SH-3362', 'SH-3217', 'Ma-ITC0250', and 'DH-Pahang/CIRAD 930'. Additional screening in the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture's collection suggests that the dominant allele is common among the elite 'Matooke' NARITA hybrids, as well as in other triploid or tetraploid hybrids derived from East African highland bananas. Fine mapping and candidate gene identification will allow characterization of molecular mechanisms underlying the TR4 resistance. The markers developed in this study can now aid the marker-assisted selection of TR4 resistance in breeding programs around the world.
Fulltext Antimicrobials: a global alliance for optimizing their rational use in intra-abdominal infections (AGORA)

Sartelli M, Weber DG, Ruppé E, Bassetti M, Wright BJ, Ansaloni L, et al.

World J Emerg Surg, 2016;11:33.
PMID: 27429642 DOI: 10.1186/s13017-016-0089-y

Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are an important cause of morbidity and are frequently associated with poor prognosis, particularly in high-risk patients. The cornerstones in the management of complicated IAIs are timely effective source control with appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is important in the management of intra-abdominal infections and must be broad enough to cover all likely organisms because inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy is associated with poor patient outcomes and the development of bacterial resistance. The overuse of antimicrobials is widely accepted as a major driver of some emerging infections (such as C. difficile), the selection of resistant pathogens in individual patients, and for the continued development of antimicrobial resistance globally. The growing emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms and the limited development of new agents available to counteract them have caused an impending crisis with alarming implications, especially with regards to Gram-negative bacteria. An international task force from 79 different countries has joined this project by sharing a document on the rational use of antimicrobials for patients with IAIs. The project has been termed AGORA (Antimicrobials: A Global Alliance for Optimizing their Rational Use in Intra-Abdominal Infections). The authors hope that AGORA, involving many of the world's leading experts, can actively raise awareness in health workers and can improve prescribing behavior in treating IAIs.
Fulltext Mutations in KEOPS-complex genes cause nephrotic syndrome with primary microcephaly

Braun DA, Rao J, Mollet G, Schapiro D, Daugeron MC, Tan W, et al.

Nat Genet, 2017 Oct;49(10):1529-1538.
PMID: 28805828 DOI: 10.1038/ng.3933

Galloway-Mowat syndrome (GAMOS) is an autosomal-recessive disease characterized by the combination of early-onset nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) and microcephaly with brain anomalies. Here we identified recessive mutations in OSGEP, TP53RK, TPRKB, and LAGE3, genes encoding the four subunits of the KEOPS complex, in 37 individuals from 32 families with GAMOS. CRISPR-Cas9 knockout in zebrafish and mice recapitulated the human phenotype of primary microcephaly and resulted in early lethality. Knockdown of OSGEP, TP53RK, or TPRKB inhibited cell proliferation, which human mutations did not rescue. Furthermore, knockdown of these genes impaired protein translation, caused endoplasmic reticulum stress, activated DNA-damage-response signaling, and ultimately induced apoptosis. Knockdown of OSGEP or TP53RK induced defects in the actin cytoskeleton and decreased the migration rate of human podocytes, an established intermediate phenotype of SRNS. We thus identified four new monogenic causes of GAMOS, describe a link between KEOPS function and human disease, and delineate potential pathogenic mechanisms.