Redesigning hazard communication through technology: collaboration, co-production and coherence

Digital and virtual communication impacts increasingly upon the management of natural hazards in an uncertain world, challenging the boundaries between science and society. This study uses sociological theory to explore how technology reduces the mitigation failures and conflicts that scholars often disproportionately prioritise; it also evaluates the evolution of nodal points between communicating stakeholders in a complex hazard management network. Technical innovation has reshaped Iceland’s approach to mitigating risks associated with volcanic events; interconnections between stakeholders within the network evolve through technical innovation and the forming of collaborative engagements that renegotiate the roles and responsibilities of monitoring and response agencies. Interviews and participant observations, with agencies including the Icelandic Meteorological Office, evidence the impact of network evolution upon social media use, inter-agency trust, the expansion of crowdsourcing, and increasingly distributed decision-making frameworks.La communication numérique et virtuelle impacte de plus en plus la gestion des risques naturels dans un monde instable, défiant les frontières entre science et société. Notre étude étudie, sous l'angle de la sociologie, comment la technologie contribue à réduire les défaillances et les divergences en la matière, auxquels se réfèrent trop souvent les scientifiques. Nous analysons également l'évolution des points nodaux entre les acteurs de la communication à l'intérieur d'un réseau complexe de gestion des risques. En Islande les progrès technologiques ont remodelé l'approche de l'atténuation des risques associés aux événements volcaniques. Les interconnexions entre acteurs du réseau évoluent en fonction des innovations techniques et du développement d'engagements de collaboration qui renégocient les rôles et les responsabilités des organismes de contrôle et d'intervention. Les interviews et les observations des différents organismes, y compris l'Office météorologique d'Islande, démontrent l'impact de l'évolution du réseau sur l'utilisation des médias sociaux, la collaboration entre organismes, l'extension du "crowdsourcing", et la répartition croissante des cadres décisionnels

Re-enchanting Volcanoes:The Rise, Fall and Rise Again or Art and Aesthetics in the Making of Volcanic Knowledges

Current day volcanology largely tends to an instrumentalist view of art as, in its mimetic form, capable of providing proxy data on the timing and unfolding of particular volcanic events and, in its impressionistic form, of conveying the sublime grandeur of volcanic events and scenes. In this chapter, we note that such a reductionist view of what science is unhelpfully glosses over a much more complex disciplinary lineage, wherein both art and aesthetics played a key role in knowledge production concerning volcanoes. Using the work of Sir William Hamilton and Mary Somerville as case studies, we emphasise that art and aesthetics were part and parcel of both an 18th and 19th century approach to the study of volcanoes, and the making of particular scientific audiences. What is more, it is this lineage that provides a creative reservoir for more recent efforts that cut across scientific and arts divides, such that the ‘communication’ of the nature of volcanoes becomes a multi-media, multi-affective endeavour that speaks to a diverse range of publics

Effect of popping water content and amylose/amylopectin ratio on the physical properties of expanded starch products with different shear histories

Aerated starch products are a staple of the food industry, with particular relevance in the snack market. Water plays a crucial role in the formation of such products due to its utility both as a blowing agent and as a starch plasticiser. Amylose/amylopectin ratio and shear are traditionally also important factors in starch expansion. In this study, waxy, normal and high amylose maize starch variants were expanded using a rice-cake style popping head at water contents between 0% and 24%. This range of water contents was achieved by drying the material at 105 °C and then rehydrating by suspension over water at 50 °C until the desired water content was reached prior to popping. Sample types were further subdivided into low shear (native) and high shear (extruded) processing prior to popping. Processing history, amylose content and water content all influenced the water interaction properties of the popped products. However, density was largely governed by water content with little apparent influence of other factors. An optimum water content range to produce low-density (and therefore high desirability in industry) products was identified in the region of ~15–21% water. Samples popped below this range exhibited suboptimal expansion whilst those popped at higher water contents experienced violent blowout

A Bronze to Iron Age fishing economy at Kalbāʾ 4 (Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)

This paper represents a study of archaeological fish remains retrieved from the excavations conducted by C. S. Phillips between 1993 and 2001 at Kalbāʾ 4 (Emirate of Sharjah, UAE). Kalbāʾ 4 is a major coastal site that was continuously occupied from the Umm an-Nar period to the Iron Age (c. 2700–600 BCE). The site is of particular interest regarding monumental architecture, pottery studies and exchange networks across Arabia and its neighbouring regions from the Bronze Age onwards. A corpus of about 5500 fish remains provides information on fishing economies during the entire occupation of the site. Data regarding fish complement results previously obtained from the study of other fauna including marine molluscs, sea turtles, terrestrial and marine mammals. They allow us to document a fishing-based economy at Kalbāʾ 4. The results highlight the exploitation of a quite limited range of fish taxa associated mostly with reef areas (groupers, trevallies, snappers, spangled emperors, King soldierbreams), brackish waters (mullets) and the open sea (scombrids). The techniques seem to have mainly involved the use of baited lines from boats, fishing nets and possibly cage traps. The discussion includes comparisons with the other main fish studies conducted for the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Eastern Arabia

Treatment patterns among non-active users of maintenance asthma medication in the United Kingdom : a retrospective cohort study in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink

The authors are also grateful to Dr Michael Gibbs for providing a review of an early draft of this manuscript. Funding Editorial support was provided by Kate Hollingworth of Continuous Improvement Ltd and funded by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This study was funded by GSK. DCG, BA, JFB, and MF are employees of GSK and hold GSK shares.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Anaesthetic Impairment of Immune Function Is Mediated via GABAA Receptors

GABA(A) receptors are members of the Cys-loop family of neurotransmitter receptors, proteins which are responsible for fast synaptic transmission, and are the site of action of wide range of drugs. Recent work has shown that Cys-loop receptors are present on immune cells, but their physiological roles and the effects of drugs that modify their function in the innate immune system are currently unclear. We are interested in how and why anaesthetics increase infections in intensive care patients; a serious problem as more than 50% of patients with severe sepsis will die. As many anaesthetics act via GABA(A) receptors, the aim of this study was to determine if these receptors are present on immune cells, and could play a role in immunocompromising patients.We demonstrate, using RT-PCR, that monocytes express GABA(A) receptors constructed of α1, α4, β2, γ1 and/or δ subunits. Whole cell patch clamp electrophysiological studies show that GABA can activate these receptors, resulting in the opening of a chloride-selective channel; activation is inhibited by the GABA(A) receptor antagonists bicuculline and picrotoxin, but not enhanced by the positive modulator diazepam. The anaesthetic drugs propofol and thiopental, which can act via GABA(A) receptors, impaired monocyte function in classic immunological chemotaxis and phagocytosis assays, an effect reversed by bicuculline and picrotoxin.Our results show that functional GABA(A) receptors are present on monocytes with properties similar to CNS GABA(A) receptors. The functional data provide a possible explanation as to why chronic propofol and thiopental administration can increase the risk of infection in critically ill patients: their action on GABA(A) receptors inhibits normal monocyte behaviour. The data also suggest a potential solution: monocyte GABA(A) receptors are insensitive to diazepam, thus the use of benzodiazepines as an alternative anesthetising agent may be advantageous where infection is a life threatening problem

Early ultrasound surveillance of newly-created haemodialysis arteriovenous fistula

IntroductionWe assess if ultrasound surveillance of newly-created arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) can predict nonmaturation sufficiently reliably to justify randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation of ultrasound-directed salvage intervention.MethodsConsenting adults underwent blinded fortnightly ultrasound scanning of their AVF after creation, with scan characteristics that predicted AVF nonmaturation identified by logistic regression modeling.ResultsOf 333 AVFs created, 65.8% matured by 10 weeks. Serial scanning revealed that maturation occurred rapidly, whereas consistently lower fistula flow rates and venous diameters were observed in those that did not mature. Wrist and elbow AVF nonmaturation could be optimally modeled from week 4 ultrasound parameters alone, but with only moderate positive predictive values (PPVs) (wrist, 60.6% [95% confidence interval, CI: 43.9–77.3]; elbow, 66.7% [48.9–84.4]). Moreover, 40 (70.2%) of the 57 AVFs that thrombosed by week 10 had already failed by the week 4 scan, thus limiting the potential of salvage procedures initiated by that scan’s findings to alter overall maturation rates. Modeling of the early ultrasound characteristics could also predict primary patency failure at 6 months; however, that model performed poorly at predicting assisted primary failure (those AVFs that failed despite a salvage attempt), partly because patency of at-risk AVFs was maintained by successful salvage performed without recourse to the early scan data.ConclusionEarly ultrasound surveillance may predict fistula maturation, but is likely, at best, to result in only very modest improvements in fistula patency. Power calculations suggest that an impractically large number of participants (>1700) would be required for formal RCT evaluation

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2–4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease