Thermal Performance Analysis of an Underground Closed Chamber with Human Body Heat Sources under Natural Convection

In this article, a combined experimental and numerical study has been performed to investigate the thermal performance of a mine refuge chamber (MRC) under natural convection. In the current study, a 20-hour heating experiment is carried out in a fifty-person MRC laboratory and the heat lamps are utilized to simulate the human heat loss. A new analytical model is proposed to predict the air temperature and validated against the experimental data. Sensitivity analysis is performed to further investigate the effects of the thermal parameters of the rock. Results indicated that: (1) two different air temperature increase stages, rapid and slow increase stages, are observed in the MRC; (2) A new analytical method for predicting the air temperature in MRC under natural convection is proposed, it shows that the air temperature increasing trend becomes slow with the increase of the thermal conductivity, density and specific heat capacity of the rock; (3) the surface heat transfer coefficient on the vertical walls reaches the largest and it increases linearly with air temperature.Peer reviewe

The MORPHEUS protein crystallization screen

MORPHEUS is an initial protein crystallization screen with a unique organization which integrates components and ligands selected after analysing all crystal structure data deposited with the Protein Data Bank and local data gathered at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England (MRC-LMB). Three challenging proteins from the MRC-LMB have already been crystallized exclusively using MORPHEUS

Imaging in population science: cardiovascular magnetic resonance in 100,000 participants of UK Biobank - rationale, challenges and approaches

PMCID: PMC3668194SEP was directly funded by the National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Barts. SN acknowledges support from the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and from the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence. SP and PL are funded by a BHF Senior Clinical Research fellowship. RC is supported by a BHF Research Chair and acknowledges the support of the Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence and the MRC and Wellcome Trust. PMM gratefully acknowledges training fellowships supporting his laboratory from the Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline and the Medical Research Council

Oral activated charcoal prevents experimental cerebral malaria in mice and in a randomized controlled clinical trial in man did not interfere with the pharmacokinetics of parenteral artesunate.

BACKGROUND: Safe, cheap and effective adjunct therapies preventing the development of, or reducing the mortality from, severe malaria could have considerable and rapid public health impact. Oral activated charcoal (oAC) is a safe and well tolerated treatment for acute poisoning, more recently shown to have significant immunomodulatory effects in man. In preparation for possible efficacy trials in human malaria, we sought to determine whether oAC would i) reduce mortality due to experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) in mice, ii) modulate immune and inflammatory responses associated with ECM, and iii) affect the pharmacokinetics of parenteral artesunate in human volunteers. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found that oAC provided significant protection against P. berghei ANKA-induced ECM, increasing overall survival time compared to untreated mice (p<0.0001; hazard ratio 16.4; 95% CI 6.73 to 40.1). Protection from ECM by oAC was associated with reduced numbers of splenic TNF(+) CD4(+) T cells and multifunctional IFNgamma(+)TNF(+) CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Furthermore, we identified a whole blood gene expression signature (68 genes) associated with protection from ECM. To evaluate whether oAC might affect current best available anti-malarial treatment, we conducted a randomized controlled open label trial in 52 human volunteers (ISRCTN NR. 64793756), administering artesunate (AS) in the presence or absence of oAC. We demonstrated that co-administration of oAC was safe and well-tolerated. In the 26 subjects further analyzed, we found no interference with the pharmacokinetics of parenteral AS or its pharmacologically active metabolite dihydroartemisinin. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: oAC protects against ECM in mice, and does not interfere with the pharmacokinetics of parenteral artesunate. If future studies succeed in establishing the efficacy of oAC in human malaria, then the characteristics of being inexpensive, well-tolerated at high doses and requiring no sophisticated storage would make oAC a relevant candidate for adjunct therapy to reduce mortality from severe malaria, or for immediate treatment of suspected severe malaria in a rural setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN64793756

Clinical Research in Britain 1950-1980

Edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, on 9 June 1998. First published by the Wellcome Trust, 2000. ©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2000. All volumes are freely available online at www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 June 1998. Introduction by Dr David Gordon.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 June 1998. Introduction by Dr David Gordon.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 June 1998. Introduction by Dr David Gordon.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 June 1998. Introduction by Dr David Gordon.What is clinical research? The growth of clinical research in the UK since the Second World War is examined, including the 1953 Cohen Report and the subsequent creation of the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Research Board. Lord Walton of Detchant, as Chairman, guided the discussion on the inter-relationships between the MRC, the NHS, the Royal Colleges, other professional bodies and other funding organizations. Among other issues were the changes imposed by Government policy over the period, the influence of the early clinical research fellowships, growth of clinical career structures, planning of the Clinical Research Centre at Northwick Park, the tropical research units, and the effects of the Rothschild and Dainton reports on funding for clinical research and the role of the Chief Scientist. Participants include: Sir Douglas Black, Sir John Gray, Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, Dr Sheila Howarth, Professor Peter Lachmann, Sir Patrick Nairne, Professor Sir Stanley Peart and Dr Peter Williams. Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2000) Clinical research in Britain, 1950–1980, Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 7. London: The Wellcome Trust.The Wellcome Trust is a registered charity, no. 210183

The UK register of HIV seroconverters: Methods and analytical issues

A Register of HIV-infected persons who have had a negative antibody test within 3 years of their first antibody positive test (seroconverters) is being set up in the UK to monitor the distribution of times from HIV seroconversion to AIDS (the incubation period) and to death. It will also provide a national resource for use by those designing studies in this group of individuals. Clinicians caring for HIV-positive persons in Genito-Urinary Medicine, Infectious Disease and other departments throughout the UK were asked to participate by providing information on eligible subjects. Most laboratories undertaking HIV antibody testing were also contacted and asked to provide the name of the attending clinician for all seroconverters identified through the HIV laboratory reporting systems of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) and the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) and for any other seroconverters known to them but not identified by CDSC or SCIEH. Data items sought for the Register include: sex, ethnic group, probable route of HIV transmission, annual CD4 counts, details of therapy and prophylaxis prescribed, AIDS-defining events and vital status. Follow up information is collected annually. Wherever possible, all seroconverters known to a clinic have been identified, whether currently alive or dead, either from clinic records or laboratory reporting or both. The objective is to establish and update a complete register of seroconverters on a long-term basis to provide reliable estimates of the incubation period on which future projections of AIDS cases in the UK can be made

Clinical Genetics in Britain: Origins and development

Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2010.©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2010.All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 23 September 2008. Introduction by Professor Sir John Bell, Uiversity of Oxford.Clinical genetics has become a major medical specialty in Britain since its beginnings with Lionel Penrose’s work on mental handicap and phenylketonuria (PKU) and John Fraser Robert’s first genetic clinic in 1946. Subsequent advances in diagnosis and prediction have had key impacts on families with inherited disorders and prospective parents concerned about their unborn children. The Witness Seminar focused on the beginnings of British clinical genetics in London, Oxford, Liverpool and Manchester, the development of subspecialties, such as dysmorphology, and also the roles of the Royal College of Physicians, the Clinical Genetics Society and the Department of Health in the establishment of clinical genetics as a specialty in 1980. Specialist non-medical genetic counsellors, initially from the fields of nursing and social work, progressively became a more significant part of genetic services, while lay societies also developed an important influence on services. Prenatal diagnosis became possible with the introduction of new genetic tools in regional centres to identify fetal anomalies and chromosomal disorders. This volume complements the 2001 Witness Seminar on genetic testing which emphasizes laboratory aspects of medical genetics, with limited coverage of clinical genetics. Participants include: Ms Chris Barnes, Dr Caroline Berry, Professor Martin Bobrow (chair), Professor Sir John Burn, Dr Ian Lister Cheese, Professor Angus Clarke, Dr Clare Davison, Professor Joy Delhanty, Dr Nick Dennis, Professor Dian Donnai, Professor Alan Emery, Professor George Fraser, Mrs Margaret Fraser Roberts, Professor Peter Harper, Dr Hilary Harris, Professor Rodney Harris, Professor Shirley Hodgson, Dr Alan Johnston, Mrs Ann Kershaw, Mrs Lauren Kerzin-Storrar, Professor Michael Laurence, Professor Ursula Mittwoch, Professor Michael Modell, Professor Marcus Pembrey, Professor Sue Povey, Professor Heather Skirton, Professor Sir David Weatherall. Harper P A, Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2010) Clinical genetics in Britain: Origins and development. Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 39. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity, no. 210183

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2008

Examines ten indicators to assess progress in state readiness to respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. Evaluates the federal government's and hospitals' preparedness. Makes suggestions for funding, restructuring, and other reforms

Asymptotic SER and Outage Probability of MIMO MRC in Correlated Fading

This letter derives the asymptotic symbol error rate (SER) and outage probability of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) maximum ratio combining (MRC) systems. We consider Rayleigh fading channels with both transmit and receive spatial correlation. Our results are based on new asymptotic expressions which we derive for the p.d.f. and c.d.f. of the maximum eigenvalue of positive-definite quadratic forms in complex Gaussian matrices. We prove that spatial correlation does not affect the diversity order, but that it reduces the array gain and hence increases the SER in the high SNR regime.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, to appear in IEEE Signal Processing Letter