Communication in Crisis

The communication of messages of the impending impact of some natural disaster agent can play a key role in averting natural catastrophe. This article examines the social processes involved in disaster warnings which function to elicit evacuation in such threat situations. These processes and the role of the mass media in forming situational definitions requisite for evacuation are examined in reference to data gathered in Rapid City, South Dakota where on June 9, 1972 a flash flood produced a major disaster.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68175/2/10.1177_009365027500200102.pd

Design of atomic clock cavity based on a loop-gap geometry and modified boundary conditions

In this study, we investigate a concept that can be used to improve the magnetic field homogeneity in a microwave cavity applied in a novel, high-performance atomic frequency standard. We show that by modifying the boundary conditions in the case of a loop-gap geometry, a good improvement of the field homogeneity can be obtained. Such a design demonstrates high potential to improve the frequency stability; it is compact and hence suitable for a future generation of compact, high-precision frequency standards based on vapor cells and a pulsed optical pumping (POP) regime (POP atomic clocks)

Pseudoresonance mechanism of all-optical frequency standard operation

We propose a novel approach to all-optical frequency standard design, based on a counterintuitive combination of the coherent population trapping effect and signal discrimination at the maximum of absorption for the probe radiation. The short-term stability of such a standard can achieve the level of 10^-14/(\tau)^1/2. The physics beyond this approach is dark resonance splitting caused by interaction of the nuclear magnetic moment with the external magnetic field.Comment: revtex4, references adde

Distinctive physiological muscle synergy patterns define the Box and Block Task execution as revealed by electromyographic features

Stroke survivors experience muscular pattern alterations of the upper limb that decrease their ability to perform daily-living activities. The Box and Block test (BBT) is widely used to assess the unilateral manual dexterity. Although BBT provides insights into functional performance, it returns limited information about the mechanisms contributing to the impaired movement. This study aims at exploring the BBT by means of muscle synergies analysis during the execution of BBT in a sample of 12 healthy participants with their dominant and non-dominant upper limb. Results revealed that: (i) the BBT can be described by 1 or 2 synergies; the number of synergies (ii) does not differ between dominant and non-dominant sides and (iii) varies considering each phase of the task; (iv) the transfer phase requires more synergies. Clinical Relevance— This preliminary study characterizes muscular synergies during the BBT task in order to establish normative patterns that could assist in understanding the neuromuscular demands and support future evaluations of stroke deficit

Comparison of the immunomodulatory properties of three probiotic strains of Lactobacilli using complex culture systems: prediction for in vivo efficacy

Background: While the use of probiotics to treat or prevent inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been proposed, to this point the clinical benefits have been limited. In this report we analyzed the immunological activity of three strains of Lactobacillus to predict their in vivo efficacy in protecting against experimental colitis. Methodology/Principal Findings: We compared the immunological properties of Lactobacillus plantarum NCIMB8826, L. rhamnosus GG (LGG), L. paracasei B21060 and pathogenic Salmonella typhimurium (SL1344). We studied the stimulatory effects of these different strains upon dendritic cells (DCs) either directly by co-culture or indirectly via conditioning of an epithelial intermediary. Furthermore, we characterized the effects of these strains in vivo using a Dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) model of colitis. We found that the three strains exhibited different abilities to induce inflammatory cytokine production by DCs with L. plantarum being the most effective followed by LGG and L. paracasei. L. paracasei minimally induced the release of cytokines, while it also inhibited the potential of DCs to both produce inflammatory cytokines (IL-12 and TNF-\u3b1) and to drive Th1 T cells in response to Salmonella. This effect on DCs was found under both direct and indirect stimulatory conditions - i.e. mediated by epithelial cells - and was dependent upon an as yet unidentified soluble mediator. When tested in vivo, L. plantarum and LGG exacerbated the development of DSS-induced colitis and caused the death of treated mice, while, conversely L. paracasei was protective. Conclusions: We describe a new property of probiotics to either directly or indirectly inhibit DC activation by inflammatory bacteria. Moreover, some immunostimulatory probiotics not only failed to protect against colitis, they actually amplified the disease progression. In conclusion, caution must be exercised when choosing a probiotic strain to treat IBD

Muscle activation patterns are more constrained and regular in treadmill than in overground human locomotion

The use of motorized treadmills as convenient tools for the study of locomotion has been in vogue for many decades. However, despite the widespread presence of these devices in many scientific and clinical environments, a full consensus on their validity to faithfully substitute free overground locomotion is still missing. Specifically, little information is available on whether and how the neural control of movement is affected when humans walk and run on a treadmill as compared to overground. Here, we made use of linear and non-linear analysis tools to extract information from electromyographic recordings during walking and running overground, and on an instrumented treadmill. We extracted synergistic activation patterns from the muscles of the lower limb via non-negative matrix factorization. We then investigated how the motor modules (or time-invariant muscle weightings) were used in the two locomotion environments. Subsequently, we examined the timing of motor primitives (or time-dependent coefficients of muscle synergies) by calculating their duration, the time of main activation, and their Hurst exponent, a non-linear metric derived from fractal analysis. We found that motor modules were not influenced by the locomotion environment, while motor primitives were overall more regular in treadmill than in overground locomotion, with the main activity of the primitive for propulsion shifted earlier in time. Our results suggest that the spatial and sensory constraints imposed by the treadmill environment might have forced the central nervous system to adopt a different neural control strategy than that used for free overground locomotion, a data-driven indication that treadmills could induce perturbations to the neural control of locomotion