343 research outputs found
Impact on Chilean hospitals following the 2015 Illapel earthquake
In a post-disaster environment, hospitals play a critical role in healthcare services continuities to the population while
effectively coping with eventual losses of functionality. These losses come from physical damage to the facility, loss of
utility lifelines, failure in supply chains, and reduction of personnel. However, data describing the detailed performance of
hospitals during past earthquakes are scarce. Consequently, following the 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake in central Chile,
an exhaustive field campaign was carried out in the Coquimbo region to collect substantial perishable data to describe
physical damage to hospitals and functionality losses. This study presents first the baseline information obtained in nine
surveyed government hospitals, including size, location and type of infrastructure. Then, the seismic impact was analyzed
and classified to show the main physical structural and non-structural damage, lifeline interruptions, losses in hospital units,
and variations in flow of patients and staff. Transfers, discharges and evacuations of patients that occurred after the event
were also reported. We found that the earthquake did not affect strongly the healthcare service despite the fact that most of
the structural and non-structural damage was localized in the largest regional hospital. The archival nature of the data
collected may deepen our understanding of the post-earthquake healthcare system performance, which is very useful in
improving disaster preparation and overall resilience
Reconnaissance observations by CIGIDEN after the 2015 Illapel, Chile earthquake and tsunami
This paper describes the reconnaissance work conducted by researchers from the National Research Center for Integrated
Natural Disaster Management (CIGIDEN) between September 23rd and October 2nd in the area affected by the Mw 8.3
Illapel megathrust earthquake, which struck offshore the coast of the Coquimbo Region in central Chile on September 16th
,
2015. A first team focused on the seismic performance and effects of the tsunami on public hospitals and on reinforced
concrete (RC) buildings. A second team focused on the road network infrastructure. Field work included: (i) a survey on the
physical and functional damages of the public hospitals in the Region; (ii) a visual inspection and preliminary damage
assessment of 20 RC buildings in the largest cities of the region and an aftershock instrumentation of the Coquimbo
hospital; and (iii) the inspection of bridges, pedestrian bridges, and rockfall along overstepped cut slopes of the road
network. The overall limited impact of this megathrust earthquake may be explained in part by the long-term efforts made
by the country to prepare for such events. Learnings from the 2010 Maule earthquake were evidenced in the successful
evacuation along the coast of the country, and the overall good performance of engineered masonry structures, and of RC
buildings designed after 2010
Temperature-frequency evolution during 20 kHz cyclic loading of Dual- Phase 780 steel
Ultrasonic machine, which operates at around 20 kHz, is used to quickly get the fatigue behavior in the very high cycle fatigue domain. Cyclic loading at such high frequencies is accompanied by selfheating of the test specimen [1]–[3]. The self-heating magnitude depends on the material and cooling system. It is also accompanied by changes in loading frequency of testing. In contrast to thetemperature evolution and to our knowledge, the frequency evolution during an ultrasonic fatigue test
has been very little studied. In this paper, the changes in both specimen temperature and loading frequency during ultrasonic cycling for the Dual-Phase 780 steel are investigated
A glimpse into the early origins of medieval anatomy through the oldest conserved human dissection (Western Europe, 13<sup>th</sup> c. A.D.)
INTRODUCTION: Medieval autopsy practice is very poorly known in Western Europe, due to a lack of both descriptive medico-surgical texts and conserved dissected human remains. This period is currently considered the dark ages according to a common belief of systematic opposition of Christian religious authorities to the opening of human cadavers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The identification in a private collection of an autopsied human individual dated from the 13(th) century A.D. is an opportunity for better knowledge of such practice in this chrono-cultural context, i.e. the early origins of occidental dissections. A complete forensic anthropological procedure was carried out, completed by radiological and elemental analyses. RESULTS: The complete procedure of this body opening and internal organs exploration is explained, and compared with historical data about forensic and anatomical autopsies from this period. During the analysis, a red substance filling all arterial cavities, made of mercury sulfide (cinnabar) mixed with vegetal oil (oleic and palmitic acids) was identified; it was presumably used to highlight vascularization by coloring in red such vessels, and help in the preservation of the body. CONCLUSIONS: Of particular interest for the description of early medical and anatomical knowledge, this “human preparation” is the oldest known yet, and is particularly important for the fields of history of medicine, surgery and anatomical practice
PMm2: large photomultipliers and innovative electronics for the next-generation neutrino experiments
The next generation of proton decay and neutrino experiments, the
post-SuperKamiokande detectors as those that will take place in megaton size
water tanks, will require very large surfaces of photodetection and a large
volume of data. Even with large hemispherical photomultiplier tubes, the
expected number of channels should reach hundreds of thousands. A funded R&D
program to implement a solution is presented here. The very large surface of
photodetection is segmented in macro pixels made of 16 hemispherical (12
inches) photomultiplier tubes connected to an autonomous front-end which works
on a triggerless data acquisition mode. The expected data transmission rate is
5 Mb/s per cable, which can be achieved with existing techniques. This
architecture allows to reduce considerably the cost and facilitate the
industrialization. This document presents the simulations and measurements
which define the requirements for the photomultipliers and the electronics. A
proto-type of front-end electronics was successfully tested with 16
photomultiplier tubes supplied by a single high voltage, validating the
built-in gain adjustment and the calibration principle. The first tests and
calculations on the photomultiplier glass led to the study of a new package
optimized for a 10 bar pressure in order to sustain the high underwater
pressure.Comment: 1 pdf file, 4 pages, 4 figures, NDIP08, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and
Meth. Phys. Res.
Jacobsen syndrome
Jacobsen syndrome is a MCA/MR contiguous gene syndrome caused by partial deletion of the long arm of chromosome 11. To date, over 200 cases have been reported. The prevalence has been estimated at 1/100,000 births, with a female/male ratio 2:1. The most common clinical features include pre- and postnatal physical growth retardation, psychomotor retardation, and characteristic facial dysmorphism (skull deformities, hypertelorism, ptosis, coloboma, downslanting palpebral fissures, epicanthal folds, broad nasal bridge, short nose, v-shaped mouth, small ears, low set posteriorly rotated ears). Abnormal platelet function, thrombocytopenia or pancytopenia are usually present at birth. Patients commonly have malformations of the heart, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, genitalia, central nervous system and skeleton. Ocular, hearing, immunological and hormonal problems may be also present. The deletion size ranges from ~7 to 20 Mb, with the proximal breakpoint within or telomeric to subband 11q23.3 and the deletion extending usually to the telomere. The deletion is de novo in 85% of reported cases, and in 15% of cases it results from an unbalanced segregation of a familial balanced translocation or from other chromosome rearrangements. In a minority of cases the breakpoint is at the FRA11B fragile site. Diagnosis is based on clinical findings (intellectual deficit, facial dysmorphic features and thrombocytopenia) and confirmed by cytogenetics analysis. Differential diagnoses include Turner and Noonan syndromes, and acquired thrombocytopenia due to sepsis. Prenatal diagnosis of 11q deletion is possible by amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling and cytogenetic analysis. Management is multi-disciplinary and requires evaluation by general pediatrician, pediatric cardiologist, neurologist, ophthalmologist. Auditory tests, blood tests, endocrine and immunological assessment and follow-up should be offered to all patients. Cardiac malformations can be very severe and require heart surgery in the neonatal period. Newborns with Jacobsen syndrome may have difficulties in feeding and tube feeding may be necessary. Special attention should be devoted due to hematological problems. About 20% of children die during the first two years of life, most commonly related to complications from congenital heart disease, and less commonly from bleeding. For patients who survive the neonatal period and infancy, the life expectancy remains unknown
First events from the CNGS neutrino beam detected in the OPERA experiment
The OPERA neutrino detector at the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS)
was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in
appearance mode, through the study of nu_mu to nu_tau oscillations. The
apparatus consists of a lead/emulsion-film target complemented by electronic
detectors. It is placed in the high-energy, long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam
(CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. In August 2006 a first run with
CNGS neutrinos was successfully conducted. A first sample of neutrino events
was collected, statistically consistent with the integrated beam intensity.
After a brief description of the beam and of the various sub-detectors, we
report on the achievement of this milestone, presenting the first data and some
analysis results.Comment: Submitted to the New Journal of Physic
The structure of mercantile communities in the Roman world : how open were Roman trade networks?
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