An influence diagram for urban flood risk assessment through pluvial flood hazards under non-stationary conditions

Urban flooding introduces significant risk to society. Non-stationarity leads to increased uncertainty and this is challenging to include in actual decision-making. The primary objective of this study was to develop a risk assessment and decision support framework for pluvial urban flood risk under non-stationary conditions using an influence diagram (ID) which is a Bayesian network (BN) extended with decision and utility nodes. Non-stationarity is considered to be the influence of climate change where extreme precipitation patterns change over time. The overall risk is quantified in monetary terms expressed as expected annual damage. The network is dynamic in as much as it assesses risk at different points in time. The framework provides means for decision-makers to assess how different decisions on flood adaptation affect the risk now and in the future. The result from the ID was extended with a cost-benefit analysis defining the net benefits for the investment plans. We tested our framework in a case study where the risk for flooding was assessed on a railway track in Risskov, Aarhus. Drainage system improvements are planned for the area. Our study illustrates with the use of an ID how risk for flooding increases over time, and the benefits of implementing flood adaptation measures.</jats:p

The pathogenesis and immune evasive mechanisms of equine herpesvirus type 1

Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is an alphaherpesvirus related to pseudorabies virus (PRV) and varicella-zoster virus (VZV). This virus is one of the major pathogens affecting horses worldwide. EHV-1 is responsible for respiratory disorders, abortion, neonatal foal death and equine herpes myeloencephalopathy (EHM). Over the last decade, EHV-1 has received growing attention due to the frequent outbreaks of abortions and/or EHM causing serious economical losses to the horse industry worldwide. To date, there are no effective antiviral drugs and current vaccines do not provide full protection against EHV-1-associated diseases. Therefore, there is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis of EHV-1 in order to develop effective therapies. The main objective of this review is to provide state-of-the-art information on the pathogenesis of EHV-1. We also highlight recent findings on EHV-1 immune evasive strategies at the level of the upper respiratory tract, blood circulation and endothelium of target organs allowing the virus to disseminate undetected in the host. Finally, we discuss novel approaches for drug development based on our current knowledge of the pathogenesis of EHV-1

Homicide et schizophrénie : à propos de 14 cas de schizophrénie issus d’une série de 210 dossiers d’expertises psychiatriques pénales pour homicide

International audienceLa publicité de quelques crimes commis par des schizophrènes tend à stigmatiser et à généraliser dans l'opinion publique la peur liée à la pathologie schizophrénique. Or, 95 % des meurtriers ne présentent pas les critères diagnostiques de schizophrénie

May Measurement Month 2018: a pragmatic global screening campaign to raise awareness of blood pressure by the International Society of Hypertension

Aims Raised blood pressure (BP) is the biggest contributor to mortality and disease burden worldwide and fewer than half of those with hypertension are aware of it. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global campaign set up in 2017, to raise awareness of high BP and as a pragmatic solution to a lack of formal screening worldwide. The 2018 campaign was expanded, aiming to include more participants and countries. Methods and results Eighty-nine countries participated in MMM 2018. Volunteers (≥18 years) were recruited through opportunistic sampling at a variety of screening sites. Each participant had three BP measurements and completed a questionnaire on demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive medication. In total, 74.9% of screenees provided three BP readings. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to impute missing readings. 1 504 963 individuals (mean age 45.3 years; 52.4% female) were screened. After multiple imputation, 502 079 (33.4%) individuals had hypertension, of whom 59.5% were aware of their diagnosis and 55.3% were taking antihypertensive medication. Of those on medication, 60.0% were controlled and of all hypertensives, 33.2% were controlled. We detected 224 285 individuals with untreated hypertension and 111 214 individuals with inadequately treated (systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg) hypertension. Conclusion May Measurement Month expanded significantly compared with 2017, including more participants in more countries. The campaign identified over 335 000 adults with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. In the absence of systematic screening programmes, MMM was effective at raising awareness at least among these individuals at risk

The potential of electrical imaging for field root zone phenotyping

peer reviewedProviding enough food for a growing population while preserving natural resources and biodiversity is one of the challenges of the 21st century. A key pathway to maximize yields in a sustainable way is to select and grow crops that are optimally adapted to their environment. Plant performance is determined by characteristics or ‘traits’ which are partially genetically determined. Nevertheless, cultivars with the same genome (G) express different appearances or ‘phenomes’ in different environments (E) and under different management practices (M). Phenotyping the below-ground traits of plants is not straightforward, due to the opaque nature of soil. Non-invasive geophysical techniques to study the root zone have substantially advanced in recent years.Their biggest potential lies in indirect monitoring of water depletion in the root zone, especially in time-lapse mode. To explore the potential of integrating geophysics in a field phenotyping platform, we first generated a range scenarios of soil moisture dynamics for different soils and grass cultivars. Then we generated ERT data from these distributions for selected electrode setups and then inverted them back to obtain conductivity distributions. In this way, we checked the performance of different electrode arrays to delineate root water uptake patterns in various realistic conditions.EMPHASIS-BELGIU