Applying the MyOcean MCS to the benefit of national users in Malta

The MyOcean MCS mainly provides data at the basin and regional scales. On the other hand local users require high resolution data products, especially for applications close to the coast. A major effort is needed to close the gap between global/regional scale data provision and demands for coastal applications in the form of specialized added-value services and products targeting stakeholders in coastal remits. This entails the integration and enhancement of MCS data with coastal scale observations and high resolution numerical model fields.peer-reviewe

A first attempt at testing correlation between MODIS ocean colour data and in situ chlorophyll-a measurements within Maltese coastal waters

The study of spatio-temporal trends for key water quality parameters in the Maltese coastal waters is hindered by the lack of systematic observations spanning over the full domain and for sufficiently long time periods. Satellite data offers an alternative source of information, but requires ground truthing against in situ measurements. The aim of this study is to attempt the statistical comparison of MODIS ocean colour data, for a near-shore marine area off the north-east coastline of Malta, with in situ surface chlorophyll-a measurements, and to extract a twelve-month ocean colour data series for the same marine area. Peaks in surface chlorophyll-a concentration occurred in the January-February period, with lowest values being recorded during the early spring period. Log bias values indicate that the MODIS dataset under-estimates the surface chlorophyll-a values, whilst RMSD and r2 values suggest that the match-up between satellite and in situ values is only partly consistent.peer-reviewe

Psychological Sequelae of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks In New York City

Background The scope of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was unprecedented in the United States. We assessed the prevalence and correlates of acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among residents of Manhattan five to eight weeks after the attacks. Methods We used random-digit dialing to contact a representative sample of adults living south of 110th Street in Manhattan. Participants were asked about demographic characteristics, exposure to the events of September 11, and psychological symptoms after the attacks. Results Among 1008 adults interviewed, 7.5 percent reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of current PTSD related to the attacks, and 9.7 percent reported symptoms consistent with current depression (with “current“ defined as occurring within the previous 30 days). Among respondents who lived south of Canal Street (i.e., near the World Trade Center), the prevalence of PTSD was 20.0 percent. Predictors of PTSD in a multivariate model were Hispanic ethnicity, two or more prior stressors, a panic attack during or shortly after the events, residence south of Canal Street, and loss of possessions due to the events. Predictors of depression were Hispanic ethnicity, two or more prior stressors, a panic attack, a low level of social support, the death of a friend or relative during the attacks, and loss of a job due to the attacks. Conclusions There was a substantial burden of acute PTSD and depression in Manhattan after the September 11 attacks. Experiences involving exposure to the attacks were predictors of current PTSD, and losses as a result of the events were predictors of current depression. In the aftermath of terrorist attacks, there may be substantial psychological morbidity in the population.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40334/2/Galea_Psychological Sequelae of the September 11_2002.pd

Trends of Probable Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in New York City after the September 11 Terrorist Attacks

The authors investigated trends in probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence in the general population of New York City in the first 6 months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Three random digit dialing telephone surveys of adults in progressively larger portions of the New York City metropolitan area were conducted 1 month, 4 months, and 6 months after September 11, 2001. A total of 1,008, 2,001, and 2,752 demographically representative adults were recruited in the three surveys, respectively. The current prevalence of probable PTSD related to the September 11 attacks in Manhattan declined from 7.5% (95% confidence interval: 5.7, 9.3) 1 month after September 11 to 0.6% (95% confidence interval: 0.3, 0.9) 6 months after September 11. Although the prevalence of PTSD symptoms was consistently higher among persons who were more directly affected by the attacks, a substantial number of persons who were not directly affected by the attacks also met criteria for probable PTSD. These data suggest a rapid resolution of most of the probable PTSD symptoms in the general population of New York City in the first 6 months after the attacks. The psychological consequences of a large-scale disaster in a densely populated urban area may extend beyond persons directly affected by the disaster to persons in the general population.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40325/2/Galea_Trends of Probable Post-Traumatic Stress_2003.pd

Increased Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana among Manhattan, New York, Residents after the September 11th Terrorist Attacks

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the largest human-made disaster in the United States since the Civil War. Studies after earlier disasters have reported rates of psychological disorders in the acute postdisaster period. However, data on postdisaster increases in substance use are sparse. A random digit dial telephone survey was conducted to estimate the prevalence of increased cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and marijuana use among residents of Manhattan, New York City, 5–8 weeks after the attacks. Among 988 persons included, 28.8% reported an increase in use of any of these three substances, 9.7% reported an increase in smoking, 24.6% reported an increase in alcohol consumption, and 3.2% reported an increase in marijuana use. Persons who increased smoking of cigarettes and marijuana were more likely to experience posttraumatic stress disorder than were those who did not (24.2% vs. 5.6% posttraumatic stress disorder for cigarettes; 36.0% vs. 6.6% for marijuana). Depression was more common among those who increased than for those who did not increase cigarette smoking (22.1 vs 8.2%), alcohol consumption (15.5 vs. 8.3%), and marijuana smoking (22.3 vs. 9.4%). The results of this study suggest a substantial increase in substance use in the acute postdisaster period after the September 11th attacks. Increase in use of different substances may be associated with the presence of different comorbid psychiatric conditions. Am J Epidemiol 2002;155:988–96.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40268/2/Vlahov_Increased Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana_2002.pd

An Advanced Multi-Sensor Acousto-Ultrasonic Structural Health Monitoring System: Development and Aerospace Demonstration

A key longstanding objective of the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) research community is to enable the embedment of SHM systems in high value assets like aircraft to provide on-demand damage detection and evaluation. As against traditional non-destructive inspection hardware, embedded SHM systems must be compact, lightweight, low-power and sufficiently robust to survive exposure to severe in-flight operating conditions. Typical Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems can be bulky, costly and are often inflexible in their configuration and/or scalability, which militates against in-service deployment. Advances in electronics have resulted in ever smaller, cheaper and more reliable components that facilitate the development of compact and robust embedded SHM systems, including for Acousto-Ultrasonics (AU), a guided plate-wave inspection modality that has attracted strong interest due mainly to its capacity to furnish wide-area diagnostic coverage with a relatively low sensor density. This article provides a detailed description of the development, testing and demonstration of a new AU interrogation system called the Acousto Ultrasonic Structural health monitoring Array Module+ (AUSAM+). This system provides independent actuation and sensing on four Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensor (PWAS) elements with further sensing on four Positive Intrinsic Negative (PIN) photodiodes for intensity-based interrogation of Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG). The paper details the development of a novel piezoelectric excitation amplifier, which, in conjunction with flexible acquisition-system architecture, seamlessly provides electromechanical impedance spectroscopy for PWAS diagnostics over the full instrument bandwidth of 50 KHz–5 MHz. The AUSAM+ functionality is accessed via a simple hardware object providing a myriad of custom software interfaces that can be adapted to suit the specific requirements of each individual application

Participant Reactions to Survey Research in the General Population After Terrorist Attacks

There remains concern that survey research after a disaster can precipitate or exacerbate distress among study participants. The authors surveyed 5,774 persons in three random-digit-dial telephone surveys of the general population of New York City conducted 1–2 months, 4–5 months, and 6–9 months after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Overall, 746 (12.9%) people who finished the surveys said that the survey questions were upsetting but only 57 (1.0% overall) were still upset at the end of the interview, and 19 (0.3%) wanted assistance from a counselor. Ten persons who did not finish the survey also received counselor assistance. Persons with mental health symptoms were more likely to find the survey questions emotionally upsetting as were participants who lacked salutary resources, including health insurance and a regular health care provider. Although relatively few of those interviewed found the survey assessment disturbing, the presence of a small number of respondents who wanted mental health assistance suggests the need for a mental health backup system for research conducted soon after exposure to large-scale traumatic events.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40338/2/Galea_Participant Reactions to Survey Research_2005.pd

International meta-analysis of PTSD genome-wide association studies identifies sex- and ancestry-specific genetic risk loci.

The risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified. In a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls we conduct a genome-wide association study of PTSD. We demonstrate SNP-based heritability estimates of 5-20%, varying by sex. Three genome-wide significant loci are identified, 2 in European and 1 in African-ancestry analyses. Analyses stratified by sex implicate 3 additional loci in men. Along with other novel genes and non-coding RNAs, a Parkinson's disease gene involved in dopamine regulation, PARK2, is associated with PTSD. Finally, we demonstrate that polygenic risk for PTSD is significantly predictive of re-experiencing symptoms in the Million Veteran Program dataset, although specific loci did not replicate. These results demonstrate the role of genetic variation in the biology of risk for PTSD and highlight the necessity of conducting sex-stratified analyses and expanding GWAS beyond European ancestry populations

Ki67 Index, HER2 Status, and Prognosis of Patients With Luminal B Breast Cancer

"Background Gene expression profiling of breast cancer has identified two biologically distinct estrogen receptor (ER)-positive subtypes of breast cancer: luminal A and luminal B. Luminal B tumors have higher proliferation and poorer prognosis than luminal A tumors. In this study, we developed a clinically practical immunohistochemistry assay to distinguish luminal B from luminal A tumors and investigated its ability to separate tumors according to breast cancer recurrence-free and disease-specific survival. Methods Tumors from a cohort of 357 patients with invasive breast carcinomas were subtyped by gene expression profile. Hormone receptor status, HER2 status, and the Ki67 index (percentage of Ki67-positive cancer nuclei) were determined immunohistochemically. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine the Ki67 cut point to distinguish luminal B from luminal A tumors. The prognostic value of the immunohistochemical assignment for breast cancer recurrence-free and disease-specific survival was investigated with an independent tissue microarray series of 4046 breast cancers by use of Kaplan–Meier curves and multivariable Cox regression. Results Gene expression profiling classified 101 (28%) of the 357 tumors as luminal A and 69 (19%) as luminal B. The best Ki67 index cut point to distinguish luminal B from luminal A tumors was 13.25%. In an independent cohort of 4046 patients with breast cancer, 2847 had hormone receptor–positive tumors. When HER2 immunohistochemistry and the Ki67 index were used to subtype these 2847 tumors, we classified 1530 (59%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 57% to 61%) as luminal A, 846 (33%, 95% CI = 31% to 34%) as luminal B, and 222 (9%, 95% CI = 7% to 10%) as luminal–HER2 positive. Luminal B and luminal–HER2-positive breast cancers were statistically significantly associated with poor breast cancer recurrence-free and disease-specific survival in all adjuvant systemic treatment categories. Of particular relevance are women who received tamoxifen as their sole adjuvant systemic therapy, among whom the 10-year breast cancer–specific survival was 79% (95% CI = 76% to 83%) for luminal A, 64% (95% CI = 59% to 70%) for luminal B, and 57% (95% CI = 47% to 69%) for luminal–HER2 subtypes. Conclusion Expression of ER, progesterone receptor, and HER2 proteins and the Ki67 index appear to distinguish luminal A from luminal B breast cancer subtypes.