IT-Supported Management of Mass Casualty Incidents: The e-Triage Project

Emergencies arise out of disasters and are characterized by limited resources in terms of medical personnel and infrastructure, underlining the importance of mobilizing regional, supra-regional and/or international help to the affected regions. Effective deployment of this help is crucial, but only possible if a common operational picture among authorities, coordination centers, and staff working in the field is developed as quickly as possible. Since mass casualty incidents (MCIs) normally overwhelm the regularly available rescue resources (rescue personnel, transport vehicles, hospital capacity, etc.), a particularly effective crisis management has to be applied. In general, for co-ordination centers it is a challenge to get an immediate and accurate situation overview (i.e. number of victims, injury categories and their location). Indeed, triage and registration performed at different places by different teams maintaining different lists are indubitably an error-prone approach. Furthermore, it can happen that all later attempts to track the way of single patient, their attendants and transport vehicles are not very successful, although this could be of key interest in scenarios with nuclear, biological or chemical hazards. Within the e-Triage project, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, an integrated concept for electronic registration of affected persons is under development

Global transcriptomic response of Leptospira interrogans serovar Copenhageni upon exposure to serum

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Leptospirosis is a zoonosis of worldwide distribution caused by infection with pathogenic serovars of <it>Leptospira </it>spp. The most common species, <it>L. interrogans</it>, can survive in the environment for lengthy periods of time in between infection of mammalian hosts. Transmission of pathogenic <it>Leptospira </it>to humans mostly occurs through abraded skin or mucosal surfaces after direct or indirect contact with infected animals or contaminated soil or water. The spirochete then spreads hematogenously, resulting in multi-organ failure and death in severe cases. Previous DNA microarray studies have identified differentially expressed genes required for adaptation to temperature and osmolarity conditions inside the host compared to those of the environment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In order to identify genes involved in survival in the early spirochetemic phase of infection, we performed a transcriptional analysis of <it>L. interrogans </it>serovar Copenhageni upon exposure to serum in comparison with EMJH medium. One hundred and sixty-eight genes were found to be differentially expressed, of which 55 were up-regulated and 113 were down-regulated. Genes of known or predicted function accounted for 54.5 and 45.1% of up- and down-regulated genes, respectively. Most of the differentially expressed genes were predicted to be involved in transcriptional regulation, translational process, two-component signal transduction systems, cell or membrane biogenesis, and metabolic pathways.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study showed global transcriptional changes of pathogenic <it>Leptospira </it>upon exposure to serum, representing a specific host environmental cue present in the bloodstream. The presence of serum led to a distinct pattern of gene expression in comparison to those of previous single-stimulus microarray studies on the effect of temperature and osmolarity upshift. The results provide insights into the pathogenesis of leptospirosis during the early bacteremic phase of infection.</p

Howard Chang: Gene regulation in time and space

Chang studies how large groups of genes work together to carry out biological processes

Model based learning for accelerated, limited-view 3D photoacoustic tomography

Recent advances in deep learning for tomographic reconstructions have shown great potential to create accurate and high quality images with a considerable speed-up. In this work we present a deep neural network that is specifically designed to provide high resolution 3D images from restricted photoacoustic measurements. The network is designed to represent an iterative scheme and incorporates gradient information of the data fit to compensate for limited view artefacts. Due to the high complexity of the photoacoustic forward operator, we separate training and computation of the gradient information. A suitable prior for the desired image structures is learned as part of the training. The resulting network is trained and tested on a set of segmented vessels from lung CT scans and then applied to in-vivo photoacoustic measurement data

Reduction of Soil-Borne Plant Pathogens Using Lime and Ammonia Evolved from Broiler Litter

In laboratory and micro-plots simulations and in a commercial greenhouse, soil ammonia (NH3) and pH were manipulated as means to control soil-borne fungal pathogens and nematodes. Soil ammonification capacity was increased by applying low C/N ratio broiler litter at 1–8% (w/w). Soil pH was increased using lime at 0.5–1% (w/w). This reduced fungi (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. dianthi and Sclerotium rolfsii) and root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne javanica) in lab tests below detection. In a commercial greenhouse, broiler litter (25 Mg ha−1) and lime (12.5 Mg ha−1) addition to soil in combination with solarization significantly reduced M. javanica induced root galling of tomato test plants from 47% in the control plots (solarization only) to 7% in treated plots. Root galling index of pepper plants, measured 178 days after planting in the treated and control plots, were 0.8 and 1.5, respectively, which was statistically significantly different. However, the numbers of nematode juveniles in the root zone soil counted 83 and 127 days after pepper planting were not significantly different between treatments. Pepper fruit yield was not different between treatments. Soil disinfection and curing was completed within one month, and by the time of bell-pepper planting the pH and ammonia values were normal

Measuring the Decorrelation Times of Fourier Modes in Simulations

We describe a method to study the rate at which modes decorrelate in numerical simulations. We study the XY model updated with the Metropolis and Wolff dynamics respectively and compute the rate at which each eigenvector of the dynamics decorrelates. Our method allows us to identify the decorrelation time for each mode separately. We find that the autocorrelation function of the various modes is markedly different for the `local' Metropolis compared to the `non-local' Wolff dynamics. Equipped with this new insight, it may be possible to devise highly efficient algorithms.Comment: 16 pp (LaTeX), PUPT-1378 , IASSNS-HEP-93/

The integrability of the 2-Toda lattice on a simple Lie algebra

We define the 2-Toda lattice on every simple Lie algebra g, and we show its Liouville integrability. We show that this lattice is given by a pair of Hamiltonian vector fields, associated with a Poisson bracket which results from an R-matrix of the underlying Lie algebra. We construct a big family of constants of motion which we use to prove the Liouville integrability of the system. We achieve the proof of their integrability by using several results on simple Lie algebras, R-matrices, invariant functions and root systems.Comment: 30 page