Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Optimisation of Perioperative Cardiovascular Management to Improve Surgical Outcome II (OPTIMISE II) trial: study protocol for a multicentre international trial of cardiac output-guided fluid therapy with low-dose inotrope infusion compared with usual care in patients undergoing major elective gastrointestinal surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Postoperative morbidity and mortality in older patients with comorbidities undergoing gastrointestinal surgery are a major burden on healthcare systems. Infections after surgery are common in such patients, prolonging hospitalisation and reducing postoperative short-term and long-term survival. Optimal management of perioperative intravenous fluids and inotropic drugs may reduce infection rates and improve outcomes from surgery. Previous small trials of cardiac-output-guided haemodynamic therapy algorithms suggested a modest reduction in postoperative morbidity. A large definitive trial is needed to confirm or refute this and inform widespread clinical practice. METHODS: The Optimisation of Perioperative Cardiovascular Management to Improve Surgical Outcome II (OPTIMISE II) trial is a multicentre, international, parallel group, open, randomised controlled trial. 2502 high-risk patients undergoing major elective gastrointestinal surgery will be randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio using minimisation to minimally invasive cardiac output monitoring to guide protocolised administration of intravenous fluid combined with low-dose inotrope infusion, or usual care. The trial intervention will be carried out during and for 4 hours after surgery. The primary outcome is postoperative infection of Clavien-Dindo grade II or higher within 30 days of randomisation. Participants and those delivering the intervention will not be blinded to treatment allocation; however, outcome assessors will be blinded when feasible. Participant recruitment started in January 2017 and is scheduled to last 3 years, within 50 hospitals worldwide. ETHICS/DISSEMINATION: The OPTIMISE II trial has been approved by the UK National Research Ethics Service and has been approved by responsible ethics committees in all participating countries. The findings will be disseminated through publication in a widely accessible peer-reviewed scientific journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN39653756.The OPTIMISE II trial is supported by Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, CA) and the UK National Institute for Health Research through RMP’s NIHR Professorship

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Use of Metaphors in Scientific Domains: The Case of The Big Bang Theory, a Multimodal Analysis

Treball Final de Grau en Estudis Anglesos. Codi: EA0938. Curs acadèmic 2019/2020Metaphors are one of the most paramount figures of speech in language use and their application dates back to Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BC) and Rhetoric (c. ~400 BC). They consist in understanding entities by means of other ones that are somehow related. Despite its recurrent practice from ancient times up to nowadays, there is a lack of exploration regarding multimodality aspects when it comes to metaphors, although studies on construal processes have been directed (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Hence, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to further explore how various elements of the filmic discourse contribute to deliver messages throughout metaphorical displays and, second, to analyse in which ways the employment of such metaphors as well as their outcomes may be useful to talk about physics either in regular settings likewise in scientific fields. For this research, some scenes from the popular American Sitcom The Big Bang Theory are compiled and selected so as to conduct the inquiry taking the characters into consideration, since one of them is more prone to use more sophisticated language while expressing himself. The methodology employed in order to identify and analyze such linguistic metaphors is by means of the MIP tool (Pragglejaz Group, 2007). Lastly, the ultimate aim of this report is to serve as a basis for an extensive analysis on multimodal metaphor studies using filmic resources to examine how scientific concepts can be treated in non-professional contexts

Does socio-economic status explain the differentials in malaria parasite prevalence? Evidence from The Gambia

Malaria is commonly associated with poverty. Macro-level estimates show strong links between malaria and poverty, and increasing evidence suggests that the causal link between malaria and poverty runs in both directions. However, micro-level (household and population) analyses on the linkages between malaria and poverty have often produced mixed results. The Gambia Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) 2010/11 was carried out between November 2010 and January 2011. Laboratory-confirmed malaria and wealth quintiles were used to assess the association of socio-economic status and malaria infection in children and the general population. Simple and multiple logistic regressions and survey data analysis procedures, including linearized standard errors to account for cluster sampling and unequal selection probabilities were applied. Children (six to 59 months) from the second, third, fourth and richest quintiles were significantly less likely to have malaria compared to children from the poorest quintiles. Children (five to 14 years) from the fourth and richest quintiles were also significantly less likely to have malaria compared to those from the poorest quintiles. The malaria burden has shifted from the under-five children (six to 59 months) to children aged five to 14 years. Malaria prevalence was significantly higher in the Central River Region compared to the Upper River Region; and males bear the malaria brunt more than females. Children (six to 59 months) and children (five to 14 years) living in houses with poor walls, floors, roofs and windows were significant associated with higher prevalence of malaria. However, in the general population, only poor wall housing materials were associated with higher prevalence of malaria. Investments in strategies that address socio-economic disparities and improvements in the quality of housing could, in the long term, significantly reduce the malaria burden in the poorest communities