Bridge-specific fragility analysis: when is it really necessary?

In seismic assessment of bridges the research focus has recently shifted on the derivation of bridge-specific fragility curves that account for the effect of different geometry, structural system, component and soil properties, on the seismic behaviour. In this context, a new, component-based methodology for the derivation of bridge-specific fragility curves has been recently proposed by the authors, with a view to overcoming the inherent difficulties in assessing all bridges of a road network and the drawbacks of existing methodologies, which use the same group of fragility curves for bridges within the same typological class. The main objective of this paper is to critically assess the necessity of bridge-specific fragility analysis, starting from the effect of structure-specific parameters on component capacity (limit state thresholds), seismic demand, and fragility curves. The aforementioned methodology is used to derive fragility curves for all bridges within an actual road network, with a view to investigating the consistency of adopting generic fragility curves for bridges that fall within the same class and quantifying the degree of over- or under-estimation of the probability of damage when generic bridge classes are considered. Moreover, fragility curves for all representative bridges of the analysed concrete bridge classes are presented to illustrate the differentiation in bridge fragility for varying structural systems, bridge geometry, total bridge length and maximum pier height. Based on the above, the relevance of bridge-specific fragility analysis is assessed, and pertinent conclusions are drawn

Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years

A Plain Segmentation Algorithm Utilizing Region Growing Technique for Automatic Partitioning of computed Tomography Liver Images

2018 Medical Technologies National Congress, TIPTEKNO 2018 --8 November 2018 through 10 November 2018 -- --Medical image segmentation is quite significant, especially for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this study, similar and different tissues in computed tomography (CT) images of liver are decomposed by utilizing region growing method. The images are preprocessed before segmentation. First, gray scale CT images are smoothed with a median filter, and a coarse segmentation is done with four level uniform quantization. A pixel from each connected component of the quantized image is selected as a seed point and is employed by region growing algorithm to specify corresponding segment. The number of segments depends on the number of connected components. Experimental results show that this basic method has successfully segmented the liver. © 2018 IEEE

Investigation of chemoattractant properties of various molecules in three-dimensional microenvironment to metastasis of breast cancer cells to bone [Meme kanseri hücrelerinin kemi?e metastazi{dotless} ¯çin üç boyutlu mikroçevrede çeşitli moleküllerin kemoatraktan özelliklerinin belirlenmesi]

2014 18th National Biomedical Engineering Meeting, BIYOMUT 2014 -- 16 October 2014 through 17 October 2014 -- 110485Metastasis is the most destructive step of cancer and it is defined as spreading of tumor cells from the primary tumor cite to other organs. Because of the fact that the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying bone metastasis have not been yet understood, the development of an effective therapy is not possible. Chemo-attractant properties of some molecules in the bone extracellular matrix has been considered among possible reasons of metastasis. In this study, collagen scaffolds were produced by electrospinning method mimicking natural porous bone structure to understand possible chemo-attractant molecules that are common in bone metastases of metastatic breast cancer cells. MCF-7 metastatic breast cancer cells' adhesion kinetics were studied on the surfaces and scaffolds which are functionalized by osteopontin, collagen type I and hydroxyapatite. Three dimensional chemotaxis slides were used for visualizing the migration. Both cell adhesion kinetics and migration results showed that collagen type 1 and hydroxyapatite combination was more effective as a chemo-attractant than only collagen type 1 in the bone metastasis of breast cancer cells. Osteopontin caused migration and cell adhesion relatively more than collagen type I; and it was showed that this protein is an effective chemo-attractant in the bone metastasis of breast cancer cells. It was shown that micro environments of the bone minerals play an important role in the formation of metastatic niche because of their support to the development and colonization of tumor cells in the bone. © 2014 IEEE

Environmental interpretation of the Kuzgun formation in the Adana Basin through microfossils [Adana Havzasi Kuzgun formasyonunun mikrofosiller ile ortamsal yorumu]

The Adana Basin is bordered by the Ecemiş Fault Zone to the west, Taurus Mountain to the north, Amanos Mountain to the east and Mediterranean to the south. The Tertiary sequence of the Adana Basin is limited by Paleozoic and Mesozoic rock units at the base and Quaternary sediments at the top. This study deals with the Kuzgun formation in the Tertiary sequence. The Salbaş tuffite member of the Late Miocene Kuzgun formation, the subject of this study, lies along an east-west direction and has a thickness varying between 50 cm and 10 m. The benthic foraminiferal and ostracod assemblages are investigated for the purpose of determining the effects of the living conditions when the Tortonian of tuffite levels developed in the basin. For this reason, seven stratigraphic sections were measured from the region including tuffite levels. A total of 45 foraminiferal species from 31 genera, and 37 ostracod species from 26 genera were identified from 96 samples. Although these described benthic foraminiferal and ostracod species decrease or are even extinct in the tuffite levels, they show high diversities and similarities at the units situated above or below the tuffite levels. In addition, according to the benthic foraminiferal and ostracod assemblages, it is pointed out that the tuffite levels have been deposited in the lagoonal conditions in the eastern and shallow marinal enviroment of the western part of the basin