Using Artifacts as Triggers for Participatory Analysis

Based on a study of a three-day workshop between users and developers, we show how artifacts like computer prototypes can be used to trigger productive discussions. We demonstrate how clashes between contextualized artifacts and the practitioners' (users) conceptions and experiences of their work practices trigger new understandings of current practice as well as possible futures. In this way, artifacts support the work of participatory analysis as well as participatory design

Incidence of Bicycle injuries presenting to the Emergency Department in Reykjavik 2005-2010

Efst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinnInngangur: Hjólreiðar verða sífellt vinsælli samgöngumáti á Íslandi. Opinber skráning reiðhjólaslysa byggir á lögregluskýrslum en minni reið- hjólaslys eru líklega ekki tilkynnt til lögreglunnar þar sem önnur ökutæki eða einstaklingar koma ekki við sögu. Því er hugsanlegt að tíðni reið- hjólaslysa sé vanskráð. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar var því að kanna faraldsfræði slasaðra í reiðhjólaslysum sem leita til bráðamóttöku Landspítala vegna áverka. Efniviður og aðferðir: Rannsóknin náði til allra sem leituðu á bráðamóttöku Landspítalans vegna reiðhjólaslyss frá 1. janúar 2005 til 31. desember 2010. Allar sjúkraskrár voru yfirfarnar og eftirfarandi breytur skráðar: kyn, aldur, ár, mánuður slyss/áverka, hjálmanotkun, slysagreiningar, alvarleiki áverka og innlagnir. Hjá innlögðum voru aukalega eftirfarandi breytur skráðar: legudagar á gjörgæslu og á legudeildum, myndgreiningarrannsóknir og aðgerðir. Niðurstöður: Alls voru 3472 komur á bráðamóttöku vegna reiðhjólaslysa, þar af 68,3% karlar en 31,7% konur. Fjöldi slasaðra á ári er því um 579. Meðalaldur slasaðra reyndist 22,6 ár (1-95 ára). Flestir slasast (72,4%) við leik eða tómstundaiðju og í 45,7% tilfella áttu slysin sér stað við íbúðarsvæði utandyra. Flest slysin voru mánuðina frá maí til september eða 71,3%. Orsök slysa var í 44,0% tilvika skráð sem lágt fall eða stökk. Hjálmanotkun var einungis skráð í 14,2% tilvika. Af líkamssvæðum áverkastigsins reyndist áverki oftast á efri útlim eða í 47,1% tilfella. Lítill áverki (ISS ≤3 stig) (áverkaskorið ISS: Injury Severity Score) reyndist hjá 65,6% sjúklinga og 29,3% sjúklinga voru með meðaláverka (ISS 4-8 stig). Alls lögðust 124 sjúklingar inn og meðallegutími var 5 dagar. Enginn lést á rannsóknartímabilinu. Ályktanir: Reiðhjólaslysum hefur fjölgað lítillega á rannsóknartímabilinu en fjölgun slysa virðist minni en fjölgun hjólreiðamanna. Fleiri karlar en konur leita á sjúkrahús vegna afleiðinga reiðhjólaslysa og meirihluti slasaðra er ungur að árum. Slysin eiga sér yfirleitt stað á vorin og á sumrin. Flestir slasast lítið en 3,6% slasaðra þurfti að leggja inn á LandspítalaIntroduction: Bicycling has become increasingly popular in Iceland. Official registration of bicycle accidents is based on police reports. As minor accidents are often not reported to the police, these accidents may be underreported in police records. The aim of this study was to examine the epidemiology of bicycle related accidents in patients seeking medical assistance at the Emergency Department (ED) at Landspitali-University Hospital, Reykjavik (LUH), Iceland. Materials and methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at the ED at LUH, Iceland from January 2005 to December 2010. All medical files were reviewed and sex, age, year and month of accident/ injury, helmet wearing, ICD-10 diagnosis, severity of injury according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and the Injury Severity Score (ISS) recorded. The rate of hospital admission was examined with length of stay, Intensive Care Unit admission, use of medical imaging and operative treatment. Results: A total of 3472 patients presented to the ED with bicycle related accidents , 68.3% men and 31.7% female. The average age of patients was 22,6 years (1-95 years). Most are injured during recreational activities (72.4%) and in residence areas (45,7%). Most injuries occurred during May-September (71.4%). Data on counterparty was missing in 74.9% of cases. The cause of accident was in 44.0% a low fall or jump. The upper extremity was injured in 47.1% cases. A majority of the patients (65.6%) had a mild injury (ISS≤3points) and 29.3% had a moderate injury (4-8 points). No fatalities were found during the study period. Use of helmets was only recorded in 14.2% of cases. In total 124 patients were admitted during the period where the mean time of admission was 5 days. Conclusion: The incidence of bicycle injuries increased during the study period but appears to have increased less than the number of bicyclists. Injuries are more frequent among males and the majority are of a young age. The accidents usually occur during the spring and summer. Most injuries are minor but 3.6% required admission

Toward an Energy Efficient Language and Compiler for (Partially) Reversible Algorithms

We introduce a new programming language for expressing reversibility, Energy-Efficient Language (Eel), geared toward algorithm design and implementation. Eel is the first language to take advantage of a partially reversible computation model, where programs can be composed of both reversible and irreversible operations. In this model, irreversible operations cost energy for every bit of information created or destroyed. To handle programs of varying degrees of reversibility, Eel supports a log stack to automatically trade energy costs for space costs, and introduces many powerful control logic operators including protected conditional, general conditional, protected loops, and general loops. In this paper, we present the design and compiler for the three language levels of Eel along with an interpreter to simulate and annotate incurred energy costs of a program.Comment: 17 pages, 0 additional figures, pre-print to be published in The 8th Conference on Reversible Computing (RC2016

Constitutive immune mechanisms: mediators of host defence and immune regulation

The immune system enables organisms to combat infections and to eliminate endogenous challenges. Immune responses can be evoked through diverse inducible pathways. However, various constitutive mechanisms are also required for immunocompetence. The inducible responses of pattern recognition receptors of the innate immune system and antigen-specific receptors of the adaptive immune system are highly effective, but they also have the potential to cause extensive immunopathology and tissue damage, as seen in many infectious and autoinflammatory diseases. By contrast, constitutive innate immune mechanisms, including restriction factors, basal autophagy and proteasomal degradation, tend to limit immune responses, with loss-of-function mutations in these pathways leading to inflammation. Although they function through a broad and heterogeneous set of mechanisms, the constitutive immune responses all function as early barriers to infection and aim to minimize any disruption of homeostasis. Supported by recent human and mouse data, in this Review we compare and contrast the inducible and constitutive mechanisms of immunosurveillance

Streptococcus pneumoniae stabilizes tumor necrosis factor α mRNA through a pathway dependent on p38 MAPK but independent of Toll-like receptors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>is a human pathogenic bacteria and a major cause of severe invasive diseases, including pneumonia, bacteremia, and meningitis. Infections with <it>S. pneumoniae </it>evoke a strong inflammatory response, which plays a major role in the pathogenesis of pneumococcal disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we have examined how <it>S. pneumoniae </it>affects expression of the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α, and the molecular mechanisms involved. Secretion of TNF-α was strongly induced by <it>S. pneumoniae</it>, which was able to stabilize TNF-α mRNA through a mechanism dependent on the viability of the bacteria as well as the adenylate uridylate-rich elements in the 3'untranslated region of TNF-α mRNA. The ability of <it>S. pneumoniae </it>to stabilize TNF-α mRNA was dependent on the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38 whereas inhibition of Toll-like receptor signaling via MyD88 did not affect <it>S. pneumoniae-</it>induced mRNA stabilization. P38 was activated through a pathway involving the upstream kinase transforming growth factor-activated kinase 1 and MAPK kinase 3.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Thus, <it>S. pneumoniae </it>stabilizes TNF-α mRNA through a pathway dependent on p38 but independent of Toll-like receptors. Production of TNF-α may contribute significantly to the inflammatory response raised during pneumococcal infection.</p

Determinants of neurological syndromes caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV)

Varicella zoster virus (VZV) is a pathogenic human herpes virus which causes varicella as a primary infection, following which it becomes latent in peripheral autonomic, sensory, and cranial nerve ganglionic neurons from where it may reactivate after decades to cause herpes zoster. VZV reactivation may also cause a wide spectrum of neurological syndromes, in particular, acute encephalitis and vasculopathy. While there is potentially a large number of coding viral mutations that might predispose certain individuals to VZV infections, in practice, a variety of host factors are the main determinants of VZV infection, both disseminated and specifically affecting the nervous system. Host factors include increasing age with diminished cell-mediated immunity to VZV, several primary immunodeficiency syndromes, secondary immunodeficiency syndromes, and drug-induced immunosuppression. In some cases, the molecular immunological basis underlying the increased risk of VZV infections has been defined, in particular, the role of POL III mutations, but in other cases, the mechanisms have yet to be determined. The role of immunization in immunosuppressed individuals as well as its possible efficacy in preventing both generalized and CNS-specific infections will require further investigation to clarify in such patients

Varicella-ZosterVirus infection of neurons derived from neural stem cells

Varicella-Zoster virus (VZV) is a human herpesvirus that causes varicella (chickenpox) as a primary infection, and, following a variable period of ganglionic latency in neurons, it reactivates to cause herpes zoster (shingles). An analysis of VZV infection in cultures of neural cells, in particular when these have been obtained from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or neural stem cells consisting of highly purified neuronal cultures, has revealed much data that may be of neurobiological significance. Early studies of VZV infection of mature cultured neural cells were mainly descriptive, but more recent studies in homogeneous neural stem cell cultures have used both neuronal cell markers and advanced molecular technology. Two general findings from such studies have been that (a) VZV infection of neurons is less severe, based on several criteria, than that observed in human fibroblasts, and (b) VZV infection of neurons does not lead to apoptosis in these cells in contrast to apoptosis observed in fibroblastic cells. Insights gained from such studies in human neural stem cells suggest that a less severe initial lytic infection in neurons, which are resistant to apoptosis, is likely to facilitate a pathological pathway to a latent state of the virus in human ganglia

Case report:Evolution of pulmonary manifestations and virological markers in critical COVID-19 infection in Bruton's agammaglobulinemia

Despite several reports and small case series on the disease course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI), including X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA), this topic remains incompletely described. Here we present the case of a 38-year-old unvaccinated man with XLA, who acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection and experienced a protracted disease course with 47 days of SARS-CoV-2 positivity, critical COVID-19 with respiratory insufficiency necessitating intensive care and ventilatory support, and prompting repeated intensified treatments with remdesivir, dexamethasone, and monoclonal antibodies to eventually control infection. We describe the disease course and treatment and review the current literature on COVID-19 susceptibility and evidence for vaccine efficacy in patients with XLA