Intelligence Reporting in the Face of COVID-19: Informing Our Response Efforts

How might we provide successful intelligence? Gather all relevant information from all possible sources available (academia, news, social media, human intelligence, etc.) Sort intelligence based on relevance and credibility. Identify trends, indicators, vulnerabilities, and warnings. Assess opportunity analysis

Examining Israeli Emergency Medical Preparedness in the Context of Jefferson and Affiliates Practices

Introduction: Recent domestic disasters have demonstrated the challenges and vulnerabilities in the US health care disaster preparedness framework, challenges that extend to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital System (TJUH), in Philadelphia, PA. As Israel serves as a global leader in civilian defense and disaster preparedness, this study examines best practices in response to a mass casualty event at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, and compares them with existing protocol at TJUH. The list of best practices generated from this research allows for a greater understanding of standards that are feasibly employable at TJUH. Methods: This study examined hospital staff response practices in the event of a mass casualty incident, as informed by Hadassah Hospital data. These practices were compared with TJUH’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). TJUH affiliate Christiana Hospital’s EOP was also consulted as a means of comparison to provide additional insight into the feasibility of implementing different emergency response strategies in a US hospital. Based on these data sets, a list of practices from Hadassah Hospital that were judged to be most useful in the face of a mass casualty event and most implementable at TJUH were compiled. Results: Per approval by Dr. James Plumb on 4 December 2019, results for this study are forthcoming and will be added as soon as they are available. Conclusion: Theoretical and practical implications based on the findings will be available as data analysis is completed

Vegetation Changes in Southeast Australian Temperate Grasslands

In temperate areas of southeast Australia, the combined effects of tree clearing, grazing, application of fertilizer and the introduction of exotic species have modified the original grasslands. This paper describes these changes and attempts to explain them in terms of ecological principles derived from North American grasslands. Stability of the original grasslands appears to have been due to the lack of disturbance and the slow rates of nitrogen (N) cycling within them. Increased N cycling after disturbance has allowed invasion of species better adapted to higher N status, particularly exotic annual grasses and weeds. The present composition of grasslands, in terms of native perennial grasses and exotic species appears to be explainable by the ecological principles outlined

Cholecystobronchocolic Fistula: A Late Complication of Biliary Sepsis

A case of a 48 year old woman presenting with bilioptysis due to a cholecystobronchocolic fistula is reported. Bilioptysis is a rare complication of biliary fistulae, with a high mortality due to chemical pneumonitis. Bronchospasm and rapid respiratory failure may ensue if aggressive management is not adopted. The site of fistulation is established by cholangiography, preferably by the percutaneous transhepatic route. Continued biliary drainage can lead to closure of these fistulae, or allow sufficient improvement in clinical condition to allow definitive surgery to be performed electively

Conformity and controversies in the diagnosis, staging and follow-up evaluation of canine nodal lymphoma: a systematic review of the last 15 years of published literature

Diagnostic methods used in the initial and post-treatment evaluation of canine lymphoma are heterogeneous and can vary within countries and institutions. Accurate reporting of clinical stage and response assessment is crucial in determining the treatment efficacy and predicting prognosis. This study comprises a systematic review of all available canine multicentric lymphoma studies published over 15 years. Data concerning diagnosis, clinical stage evaluation and response assessment procedures were extracted and compared. Sixty-three studies met the eligibility criteria. Fifty-five (87.3%) studies were non-randomized prospective or retrospective studies. The survey results also expose variations in diagnostic criteria and treatment response assessment in canine multicentric lymphoma. Variations in staging procedures performed and recorded led to an unquantifiable heterogeneity among patients in and between studies, making it difficult to compare treatment efficacies. Awareness of this inconsistency of procedure and reporting may help in the design of future clinical trials

Fibronectin as a Prognostic Indicator in Portal Hypertension

Plasma fibronectin levels were measured in 33 patients with portal hypertension and c6mpared with modified Child’s grading and a previously described prognostic index. Outcome at one year from blood sampling was recorded. Mean plasma fibronectin level was 304.1 mg/ml (sem 24.3) and significantly lower levels were found in patients who had had a variceal bleed within the previous seven days. Plasma fibronectin levels tended to be lower in patients with poor liver function as assessed by modified Child’s grading but this did not achieve statistical significance. Plasma fibronectin alone was not an accurate predictor of one year survival in these patients but only one of seven patients who had a plasma fibronectin level below 300mg/l in association with a poor prognostic index survived for one year

Continuum Determination of Light Quark Masses from Quenched Lattice QCD

We compute the strange and the average up/down quark masses in the quenched approximation of lattice QCD, by using the O(a)-improved Wilson action and operators and by implementing the non-perturbative renormalization. Our computation is performed at four values of the lattice spacing, from which we could extrapolate to the continuum limit. Our final result for the strange quark mass (in the MSbar scheme) is ms(2 GeV) = (106 +/- 2 +/- 8) MeV. For the average up/down quark mass we have ml(2 GeV) = (4.4 +/- 0.1 +/- 0.4) MeV. The ratio ms/ml = (24.3 +/- 0.2 +/- 0.6).Comment: 14 pages, 3 PostScript figure

Light hadron spectroscopy with O(a) improved dynamical fermions

We present the first results for the static quark potential and the light hadron spectrum using dynamical fermions at $\beta=5.2$ using an O(a) improved Wilson fermion action together with the standard Wilson plaquette action for the gauge part. Sea quark masses were chosen such that the pseudoscalar-vector mass ratio, m_PS/m_V$, varies from 0.86 to 0.67. Finite-size effects are studied by using three different volumes, 8^3\cdot 24, 12^3\cdot 24 and 16^3\cdot 24. Comparing our results to previous ones obtained using the quenched approximation, we find evidence for sea quark effects in quantities like the static quark potential and the vector-pseudoscalar hyperfine splitting.Comment: 38 pages, 14 Postscript figure, LaTe