Analysis and Design of a Portal for Ionospheric Data

Since 2004 DLR Neustrelitz operates the Space Weather Application Center – Ionosphere (SWACI). This Center is involved in several projects of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program of ESA and of EU FP7. It is largely based on services and tools of DLR’s Data and Information Management System (DIMS) and its long-standing User interface EoWEB. SWACI provides access to near real time products and ensures long-term preservation. The lecture will analyze the existing solution and various project-specific applications and will derive requirements for a recent user interface. In the second part the talk will draw a design of an user interface for the Ionospheric Monitoring and Prediction Center (IMPC), which continues utilizing existing services of DLR, offers OGC compliant interfaces and which is so generalized that future projects can be easily plugged in

Endobronchial intubation detected by insertion depth of endotracheal tube, bilateral auscultation, or observation of chest movements: randomised trial

Objective To determine which bedside method of detecting inadvertent endobronchial intubation in adults has the highest sensitivity and specificity

Haematocrit is invalid for estimating red cell volume: a prospective study in male volunteers

BACKGROUND: Although haematocrit and haemoglobin value are concentrations, they are commonly used to guide clinical decisions involving red cell and plasma volumes. A study challenging this convention systematically co-determined and compared these measures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a non-radioactive double-tracer technique to assess blood volume components, measurements were taken once in 46 healthy male endurance athletes. The best predictors of blood composition were derived from the first 36 athletes by automated stepwise forward selection of non-invasive metric parameters (age, weight, height, body surface area and body mass index) and the resulting formulae validated in the remaining ten volunteers. Haematocrit, haemoglobin concentration, red cell volume and plasma volume were measured again 4 weeks later in eight randomly selected volunteers. RESULTS: Red cell volume (2,282±283 mL) did not correlate with either haematocrit (0.42±0.02) or haemoglobin concentration (14.2±0.8, P>0.05, resp.), but was predictable from body surface area (red cell volume [mL]=1,547 × body surface area [m2]-723; r=.88, P<0.01). A similar accuracy was unobtainable using any potential predictor for plasma or blood volume, haematocrit or haemoglobin concentration. Red cell volume showed high intra-individual stability when measured again after 4 weeks, whereas plasma volume oscillated in both directions by up to 22%. DISCUSSION: Only red cell volume shows sufficiently stable intra- and interindividual values to be an accurate, objective indicator of normality in blood composition. The measurement technique is feasible in the outpatient setting and this parameter provides effective, robust, and readily available diagnostic information that might be useful in numerous clinical situations. Its clinical significance does, however, remain to be demonstrated

Exploitation of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba by three air-breathing predators with contrasting foraging strategies – implications for fisheries feedback management

-SCAR Open Science Conference, Kuala Lumpur 201

Multimodal nonlinear imaging of atherosclerotic plaques differentiation of triglyceride and cholesterol deposits

Cardiovascular diseases in general and atherothrombosis as the most common of its individual disease entities is the leading cause of death in the developed countries. Therefore, visualization and characterization of inner arterial plaque composition is of vital diagnostic interest, especially for the early recognition of vulnerable plaques. Established clinical techniques provide valuable morphological information but cannot deliver information about the chemical composition of individual plaques. Therefore, spectroscopic imaging techniques have recently drawn considerable attention. Based on the spectroscopic properties of the individual plaque components, as for instance different types of lipids, the composition of atherosclerotic plaques can be analyzed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Here, we compare the feasibility of multimodal nonlinear imaging combining two-photon fluorescence (TPF), coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy to contrast composition and morphology of lipid deposits against the surrounding matrix of connective tissue with diffraction limited spatial resolution. In this contribution, the spatial distribution of major constituents of the arterial wall and atherosclerotic plaques like elastin, collagen, triglycerides and cholesterol can be simultaneously visualized by a combination of nonlinear imaging methods, providing a powerful label-free complement to standard histopathological methods with great potential for in vivo application

Development of methods relevant to feedback management (FBM) for the krill fishery

The primary objective for this project is to develop knowledge on the marine environment essential for the implementation of a Feed-Back Management (FBM) system. In terms of FBM, Marine Protected Area (MPA) development in CCAMLR Planning Domain 1 encompasses the major krill fishing grounds. Thus, data supporting FBM as an integral part of the broader management strategies of the krill fisheries within Domain 1 are critical if the fishery is to be managed by an empirical understanding of krill density, distribution, availability and predator needs. A future developed FBM system, as presented in SC-CAMLR XXXVI/BG20 requires acoustic data to be collected, processed and reported continuously during the fishing season as a measure of the available prey field. This information can be integrated with finer-scale knowledge of krill predator feeding strategies and updated through specific scientific studies at regular (multiyear) intervals. The FBM process studies will take place during the Austral summer 2018-2019.Development of methods relevant to feedback management (FBM) for the krill fisherypublishedVersio

Francisella tularensis Transmission by Solid Organ Transplantation, 20171.

In July 2017, fever and sepsis developed in 3 recipients of solid organs (1 heart and 2 kidneys) from a common donor in the United States; 1 of the kidney recipients died. Tularemia was suspected only after blood cultures from the surviving kidney recipient grew Francisella species. The organ donor, a middle-aged man from the southwestern United States, had been hospitalized for acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome, pneumonia, and multiorgan failure. F. tularensis subsp. tularensis (clade A2) was cultured from archived spleen tissue from the donor and blood from both kidney recipients. Whole-genome multilocus sequence typing indicated that the isolated strains were indistinguishable. The heart recipient remained seronegative with negative blood cultures but had been receiving antimicrobial drugs for a medical device infection before transplant. Two lagomorph carcasses collected near the donor's residence were positive by PCR for F. tularensis subsp. tularensis (clade A2). This investigation documents F. tularensis transmission by solid organ transplantation

Identifying seasonal distribution patterns of fin whales across the Scotia Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula region using a novel approach combining habitat suitability models and ensemble learning methods

Following their near extirpation by industrial whaling of the 20th century, the population status of Southern Hemisphere fin whales (SHFW) remains unknown. Systematic surveys estimating fin whale abundance in the Southern Ocean are not yet available. Records of fin whale sightings have been collected by a variety of organisations over the past few decades, incorporating both opportunistic data and dedicated survey data. Together, these isolated data sets represent a potentially valuable source of information on the seasonality, distribution and abundance of SHFW. We compiled records across 40 years from the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea from multiple sources and used a novel approach combining ensemble learning and a maximum entropy model to estimate abundance and distribution of SHFW in this region. Our results show a seasonal distribution pattern with pronounced centres of distribution from January-March along the West Antarctic Peninsula. Our new approach allowed us to estimate abundance of SHFW for discrete areas from a mixed data set of mainly opportunistic presence only data