Optimizing citizen engagement during emergencies through use of Web 2.0 technologies

Emergencies and disasters create hardships for citizens. To speed up recovery, local governments need to engage with citizens in an interactive information sharing system to convey information while the incident is still developing and to help mitigate and recover from damages. Lack of effective communication can decrease public trust and engender stress and anxiety of the survivors. As service delivery becomes more complicated during an emergency, responders can also benefit from additional information from the public to increase situational awareness and better understand the challenges facing citizens. This thesis examines emergency information needs, emerging information sharing trends, and the potential homeland security application of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, mashups and text messaging. This thesis examines the use of Web 2.0 technologies during the Southern California wildfires as a case study and interviews top emergency managers throughout the country capturing their insights and opinions about the benefits and pitfalls of incorporating Web 2.0 technologies into existing emergency information sharing systems. Local government agencies, the impacted community, and those outside the immediate area seeking opportunities to assist may be interested in the benefits of context-powered knowledge when collaboration from multiple sources converges to facilitate knowledge used for decision making

The Social Media Spectrum

When it comes to social media practices within the realm of homeland security and emergency management, one thing is clear: There is no “one size fits all.” Every organization could be charted to fall on a different point along a diverse spectrum of possible goals, strategies, and tactics. But it may likely be an organization’s attitude, culture, and structure (not the complexity of their approach) that best determines the success rate of their efforts

A homeostatic function of CXCR2 signalling in articular cartilage

Funding This work was funded by Arthritis Research UK (grants 17859, 17971, 19654), INNOCHEM EU FP6 (grant LSHB-CT-2005-51867), MRC (MR/K013076/1) and the William Harvey Research FoundationPeer reviewedPublisher PD

"Water, Water, Every Where": Nuances for a Water Industry Critical Infrastructure Specification Exemplar

The water infrastructure is critical to human life, but little attention has been paid to the nuances of the water industry. Without such attention, evaluating security innovation in this domain without compromising the productivity goals when delivering water services is difficult. This paper proposes four nuances that need to be incorporated into a representative specification exemplar for the water industry; these provided input to the exemplar based on a fictional water company

Translational and Regulatory Challenges for Exon Skipping Therapies

Several translational challenges are currently impeding the therapeutic development of antisense-mediated exon skipping approaches for rare diseases. Some of these are inherent to developing therapies for rare diseases, such as small patient numbers and limited information on natural history and interpretation of appropriate clinical outcome measures. Others are inherent to the antisense oligonucleotide (AON)-mediated exon skipping approach, which employs small modified DNA or RNA molecules to manipulate the splicing process. This is a new approach and only limited information is available on long-term safety and toxicity for most AON chemistries. Furthermore, AONs often act in a mutation-specific manner, in which case multiple AONs have to be developed for a single disease. A workshop focusing on preclinical development, trial design, outcome measures, and different forms of marketing authorization was organized by the regulatory models and biochemical outcome measures working groups of Cooperation of Science and Technology Action: "Networking towards clinical application of antisense-mediated exon skipping for rare diseases." The workshop included participants from patient organizations, academia, and members of staff from the European Medicine Agency and Medicine Evaluation Board (the Netherlands). This statement article contains the key outcomes of this meeting.status: publishe

An optimisation method to improve modelling of wet deposition in atmospheric transport models: applied to FLEXPART v10.4

Wet deposition plays a crucial role in the removal of aerosols from the atmosphere. Yet, large uncertainties remain in its implementation in atmospheric transport models, specifically in the parameterisation schemes that are often used. Recently, a new wet deposition scheme was introduced in FLEXPART. The input parameters for its wet deposition scheme can be altered by the user and may be case-specific. In this paper, a new method is presented to optimise the wet scavenging rates in atmospheric transport models such as FLEXPART. The optimisation scheme is tested in a case study of aerosol-attached 137Cs following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. From this, improved values for the wet scavenging input parameters in FLEXPART are suggested.</p

Thrombin Generation in Vitreous and Subretinal Fluid of Patients with Retinal Detachment

Purpose: To measure prothrombin fragments (F1+2) and thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT) in vitreous and subretinal fluid (SRF) of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) patients and to validate and further specify our earlier finding of increased thrombin activity in patients with proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). Methods: F1+2 and TAT were measured in 31 vitreous and 16 SRF samples using the Enzygnost® immunoassays. Results: We found significant levels of F1+2 and TAT in the vitreous of all patients with RRD compared to patients with macular hole or macular pucker. However, there was no significant difference between patients who would develop PVR in the future, had established PVR, and patients with uncomplicated RRD both in vitreous concentrations of F1+2 (Kruskal-Wallis p = 0.963) and TAT (p = 0.516). Conclusion: The analysis of F1+2 and TAT confirmed significant thrombin generation in both vitreous and SRF of patients with RRD. An imbalance between the thrombin regulation mechanisms TAT and α2-macroglobulin possibly explains the difference from our previous findings

Sustained changes in lipid profile and macrophage migration inhibitory factor levels after anti-tumour necrosis factor therapy in rheumatoid arthritis

BACKGROUND: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has recently emerged as an important cytokine possibly linking rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and atherogenesis. Because atherogenesis is accelerated in RA this study was conducted to investigate whether anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy could lead to sustained downregulation of systemic MIF levels and improvement in lipid profiles. METHODS: Fifty RA patients with active disease (disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28) >or=3.2), who started adalimumab therapy at 40 mg every other week, were included. At baseline, weeks 16 and 52 serum levels of MIF and lipids were assessed. In addition, the DAS28 and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were determined. RESULTS: After 16 weeks of adalimumab therapy, both DAS28 and MIF levels were significantly decreased (p<0.001 and p = 0.020, respectively). This was sustained up to week 52 (p<0.001 and p = 0.012, respectively). CRP levels and ESR were significantly reduced after 16 and 52 weeks of adalimumab therapy (p<0.001). High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels increased at week 16 (p<0.001), but returned to baseline at week 52. Apolipoprotein (apo) A-I levels increased at week 16 (p<0.001) and remained stable (p = 0.005). This resulted in an improved apo B/A-I ratio. CONCLUSIONS: The results underline the sustained downregulation of MIF as a potential new mechanism by which anti-TNF therapy might reduce vascular inflammation, and as such perhaps cardiovascular morbidity in RA patients. This hypothesis is supported by an improved apo B/A-I ratio as well as reduced CRP levels in these patient