Mineral exploration potential of ERTS-1 data

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery of an area approximately 15,000 square miles in Arizona was interpreted for regional structure and tectonic units. Eight fault systems were identified by trend, of which two, northeast and northwest, are considered to be related to porphyry copper mineralization. Nine tectonic units can be identified on the imagery as distinct geological identities. The boundaries between these units can be correlated with theoretical shear directions related to the San Andreas stress system. Fourier analysis of the N 50 W fault trend indicates a fundamental spacing between Fourier energy maxima that can be related to distances between copper deposits

Kopfschmerzen und passagere Aphasie bei einer 35-jährigen Patientin

Zusammenfassung: Wir schildern den Fall einer 35-jährigen Patientin, die unter einer fulminant verlaufenden Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis litt und verstarb. Die Besonderheit dieses Falls ist, dass die junge Frau nicht direkt aus einem Endemiegebiet stammte und die Krankheit nicht, wie eigentlich typisch, im Frühling auftrat. Weiterhin zeigen wir auf, dass auch außerhalb der klassischen Endemiegebiete mit einer Zunahme an durch Zecken übertragenen Krankheiten zu rechnen ist. So kommen Zecken, wahrscheinlich bedingt durch den Klimawandel, zunehmend auch in höheren Lagen vo

Gas exchange calculation may estimate changes in pulmonary blood flow during veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in a porcine model.

BACKGROUND Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is used as rescue for severe cardiopulmonary failure. We tested whether the ratio of CO2 elimination at the lung and the ECMO (VCO2ECMO/VCO2Lung) would reflect the ratio of respective blood flows and could be used to estimate changes in pulmonary blood flow (QLUNG), i. e. native cardiac output. METHODS Four healthy pigs were centrally cannulated for VA-ECMO. We measured blood flows with an ultrasonic flow probes. VCO2ECMO and VCO2Lung were calculated from sidestream capnographs under constant pulmonary ventilation during ECMO weaning with changing sweep gas and/or ECMO blood flow. If ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) ratio of ECMO was not one, the VCO2ECMO was normalized to V/Q=1 (VCO2ECMONORM). Changes in pulmonary blood flow were calculated using the relationship between changes in CO2 elimination and ECMO blood flow. RESULTS QECMO correlated strongly with VCO2ECMONORM (r2 0.95 - 0.99). QLUNG correlated well with VCO2LUNG (r2 0.65 - 0.89, p<=0.002). Absolute QLung could not be calculated in a non-steady state. Calculated pulmonary blood flow changes had a bias of 76 (-266 to 418) ml/min and correlated with measured QLUNG (r2 0.974 - 1.000, p = 0.1 to 0.006) for cumulative ECMO flow reductions. CONCLUSIONS VCO2 of the lung correlated strongly with pulmonary blood flow. Our model could predict pulmonary blood flow changes within clinically acceptable margins of error. The prediction is made possible with a normalization to a V/Q of 1 for ECMO. This approach depends on measurements readily available and may allow immediate assessment of the cardiac output response

Entropy and bispectral index for assessment of sedation, analgesia and the effects of unpleasant stimuli in critically ill patients: an observational study

INTRODUCTION: Sedative and analgesic drugs are frequently used in critically ill patients. Their overuse may prolong mechanical ventilation and length of stay in the intensive care unit. Guidelines recommend use of sedation protocols that include sedation scores and trials of sedation cessation to minimize drug use. We evaluated processed electroencephalography (response and state entropy and bispectral index) as an adjunct to monitoring effects of commonly used sedative and analgesic drugs and intratracheal suctioning. METHODS: Electrodes for monitoring bispectral index and entropy were placed on the foreheads of 44 critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation and who previously had no brain dysfunction. Sedation was targeted individually using the Ramsay Sedation Scale, recorded every 2 hours or more frequently. Use of and indications for sedative and analgesic drugs and intratracheal suctioning were recorded manually and using a camera. At the end of the study, processed electroencephalographical and haemodynamic variables collected before and after each drug application and tracheal suctioning were analyzed. Ramsay score was used for comparison with processed electroencephalography when assessed within 15 minutes of an intervention. RESULTS: The indications for boli of sedative drugs exhibited statistically significant, albeit clinically irrelevant, differences in terms of their association with processed electroencephalographical parameters. Electroencephalographical variables decreased significantly after bolus, but a specific pattern in electroencephalographical variables before drug administration was not identified. The same was true for opiate administration. At both 30 minutes and 2 minutes before intratracheal suctioning, there was no difference in electroencephalographical or clinical signs in patients who had or had not received drugs 10 minutes before suctioning. Among patients who received drugs, electroencephalographical parameters returned to baseline more rapidly. In those cases in which Ramsay score was assessed before the event, processed electroencephalography exhibited high variation. CONCLUSIONS: Unpleasant or painful stimuli and sedative and analgesic drugs are associated with significant changes in processed electroencephalographical parameters. However, clinical indications for drug administration were not reflected by these electroencephalographical parameters, and barely by sedation level before drug administration or tracheal suction. This precludes incorporation of entropy and bispectral index as target variables for sedation and analgesia protocols in critically ill patients

Intra- and inter-individual variation of BIS-index® and Entropy® during controlled sedation with midazolam/remifentanil and dexmedetomidine/remifentanil in healthy volunteers: an interventional study

INTRODUCTION: We studied intra-individual and inter-individual variability of two online sedation monitors, BIS and Entropy, in volunteers under sedation. METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers were sedated in a stepwise manner with doses of either midazolam and remifentanil or dexmedetomidine and remifentanil. One week later the procedure was repeated with the remaining drug combination. The doses were adjusted to achieve three different sedation levels (Ramsay Scores 2, 3 and 4) and controlled by a computer-driven drug-delivery system to maintain stable plasma concentrations of the drugs. At each level of sedation, BIS and Entropy (response entropy and state entropy) values were recorded for 20 minutes. Baseline recordings were obtained before the sedative medications were administered. RESULTS: Both inter-individual and intra-individual variability increased as the sedation level deepened. Entropy values showed greater variability than BIS(R) values, and the variability was greater during dexmedetomidine/remifentanil sedation than during midazolam/remifentanil sedation. CONCLUSIONS: The large intra-individual and inter-individual variability of BIS and Entropy values in sedated volunteers makes the determination of sedation levels by processed electroencephalogram (EEG) variables impossible. Reports in the literature which draw conclusions based on processed EEG variables obtained from sedated intensive care unit (ICU) patients may be inaccurate due to this variability. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Nr. NCT00641563

Effects of immersive virtual reality on sensory overload in a random sample of critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND Sensory overload and sensory deprivation have both been associated with negative health outcomes in critically ill patients. While there is a lack of any clear treatment or prevention strategies, immersive virtual reality is a promising tool for addressing such problems, but which has not been repetitively tested in random samples. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how critically ill patients react to repeated sessions of immersive virtual reality. METHODS This exploratory study was conducted in the mixed medical-surgical intermediate care unit of the University Hospital of Bern (Inselspital). Participants (N = 45; 20 women, 25 men; age = 57.73 ± 15.92 years) received two immersive virtual reality sessions via a head-mounted display and noise-canceling headphones within 24 h during their stay in the unit. Each session lasted 30-min and showed a 360-degree nature landscape. Physiological data were collected as part of the participants' standard care, while environmental awareness, cybersickness, and general acceptance were assessed using a questionnaire designed by our team (1 = not at all, 10 = extremely). RESULTS During both virtual reality sessions, there was a significant negative linear relationship found between the heart rate and stimulation duration [first session: r(43) = -0.78, p < 0.001; second session: r(38) = -0.81, p < 0.001] and between the blood pressure and stimulation duration [first session: r(39) = -0.78, p < 0.001; second session: r(30) = -0.78, p < 0.001]. The participants had a high comfort score [median (interquartile range {IQR}) = 8 (7, 10); mean = 8.06 ± 2.31], did not report being unwell [median (IQR) = 1 (1, 1); mean = 1.11 ± 0.62], and were not aware of their real-world surroundings [median (IQR) = 1 (1, 5); mean = 2.99 ± 3.22]. CONCLUSION The subjectively reported decrease in environmental awareness as well as the decrease in the heart rate and blood pressure over time highlights the ability of immersive virtual reality to help critically ill patients overcome sensory overload and sensory deprivation. Immersive virtual reality can successfully and repetitively be provided to a randomly selected sample of critically ill patients over a prolonged duration

Nearest Neighbor Connectivity in Two-Dimensional Multihop MANETs

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is characterized to be a network with free, cooperative, and dynamic nodes, self-organized in a random topology, without any kind of infrastructure, where the communication between two nodes usually occurs using multihop paths. The number of hops used in the multihop path is an important metric for the design and performance analysis of routing protocols in MANETs. In this paper, we derive the probability distribution of the hop count of a multihop path between a source node and a destination node, fixed at a known distance from each other, and when a fixed number of nodes are uniformly distributed in a region of interest. This distribution is obtained by the Poisson randomization method. To obtain the multihop path, we propose a novel routing model in which the nearest distance routing protocol (NR) is analyzed. Numerical results are obtained to evaluate the performance of the NR

Erythropoietin regulates developmental myelination in the brain stimulating postnatal oligodendrocyte maturation

Myelination is a process tightly regulated by a variety of neurotrophic factors. Here, we show—by analyzing two transgenic mouse lines, one overexpressing EPO selectively in the brain Tg21(PDGFB-rhEPO) and another with targeted removal of EPO receptors (EPORs) from oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC)s (Sox10-cre;EpoRfx/fx mice)—a key function for EPO in regulating developmental brain myelination. Overexpression of EPO resulted in faster postnatal brain growth and myelination, an increased number of myelinating oligodendrocytes, faster axonal myelin ensheathment, and improved motor coordination. Conversely, targeted ablation of EPORs from OPCs reduced the number of mature oligodendrocytes and impaired motor coordination during the second postnatal week. Furthermore, we found that EPORs are transiently expressed in the subventricular zone (SVZ) during the second postnatal week and EPO increases the postnatal expression of essential oligodendrocyte pro-differentiation and pro-maturation (Nkx6.2 and Myrf) transcripts, and the Nfatc2/calcineurin pathway. In contrast, ablation of EPORs from OPCs inactivated the Erk1/2 pathway and reduced the postnatal expression of the transcripts. Our results reveal developmental time windows in which EPO therapies could be highly effective for stimulating oligodendrocyte maturation and myelination

Searching for synergy: combining systemic daptomycin treatment with localised phage therapy for the treatment of experimental pneumonia due to MRSA.

OBJECTIVE Bacteriophages (or phages) are viruses which infect and lyse bacteria. The therapeutic use of phages (phage therapy) has regained attention in the last decades as an alternative strategy to treat infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. In clinical settings it is most likely that phages are administered adjunct to antibiotics. For successful phage therapy it is therefore crucial to investigate different phage-antibiotic combinations in vivo. This study aimed to elucidate the combinatorial effects of systemic daptomycin and nebulised bacteriophages for the treatment of experimental pneumonia due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). RESULTS Using a rat model of ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by MRSA, the simultaneous application of intravenous daptomycin and nebulised phages was not superior to aerophage therapy alone at improving animal survival (55% vs. 50%), or reducing bacterial burdens in the lungs, or spleen. Thus, this combination does not seem to be of benefit for use in patients with MRSA pneumonia