Designing a Landslide Database; lessons from Australian examples

The Australian Geomechanics Society 2007 Landslide Risk Management Guidelines stress the importance of developing inventories of landslides in order to underpin better land management decisions and facilitate landslide research . In the absence of a definitive (and published) data model for the inventory a number of landslide databases have been created in Australia to serve a range of purposes, all of which pre-date the guidelines. We outline a project undertaken to develop a website linking four disparate landslide databases together using network service oriented interoperability concepts and technology. From this project we have learned a number of important lessons. Digital landslide databases in our view should combine both spatial and non-spatial data and take advantage of the current information technology available. Unfortunately there is much research and design required before we have a satisfactory model to address a range of required functionality. Conceptual approaches require skill sets and technology that may be foreign to traditional geotechnical practitioners. We believe that there is merit in establishing an open forum to share, discuss and improve landslide database models. We list data concepts that need to be captured and offer examples of topological representations of various landslide types

Correction to: Minimum Quality Threshold in Pre-Clinical Sepsis Studies (MQTiPSS): an international expert consensus initiative for improvement of animal modeling in sepsis (Infection, (2018), 10.1007/s15010-018-1183-8)

© 2018, The Author(s). The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes

Resolvin D2 is a potent regulator of leukocytes and controls microbial sepsis

National Institutes of Health grants GM-38765 and P50-DE016191 (C.N.S.), Welcome Trust Programme grant 086867/Z/08/Z (R.J.F. and M.P.) and Project grant 085903/Z/08 (R.J.F.) and Arthritis Research Campaign UK fellowships 18445 and 18103 (to L.V.N. and D.C., respectively). M.S. received a National Research Service Award from the NHLBI (HL087526)

A qualitative evidence synthesis of employees' views of workplace smoking reduction or cessation interventions

Background The need to reduce smoking rates is a recognised public health policy issue in many countries. The workplace offers a potential context for offering smokers’ programmes and interventions to assist smoking cessation or reduction. A qualitative evidence synthesis of employees’ views about such programmes might explain why some interventions appear effective and others not, and can be used to develop evidence-based interventions for this population and setting. Methods A qualitative evidence synthesis of primary research exploring employees’ views about workplace interventions to encourage smoking cessation, including both voluntary programmes and passive interventions, such as restrictions or bans. The method used was theory-based “best fit” framework synthesis. Results Five relevant theories on workplace smoking cessation were identified and used as the basis for an a priori framework. A comprehensive literature search, including interrogation of eight databases, retrieved 747 unique citations for the review. Fifteen primary research studies of qualitative evidence were found to satisfy the inclusion criteria. The synthesis produced an evidence-based conceptual model explaining employees’ experiences of, and preferences regarding, workplace smoking interventions. Conclusion The synthesis suggests that workplace interventions should employ a range of different elements if they are to prove effective in reducing smoking among employees. This is because an employee who feels ready and able to change their behaviour has different needs and preferences from an employee who is not at that stage. Only a multi-faceted intervention can satisfy the requirements of all employees

Current gaps in sepsis immunology: new opportunities for translational research

Increasing evidence supports a central role of the immune system in sepsis, but the current view of how sepsis affects immunity, and vice versa, is still rudimentary. The European Group on Immunology of Sepsis has identified major gaps that should be addressed with high priority, such as understanding how immunological alterations predispose to sepsis, key aspects of the immunopathological events during sepsis, and the long-term consequences of sepsis on patient's immunity. We discuss major unmet topics in those three categories, including the role of key immune cells, the cause of lymphopenia, organ-specific immunology, the dynamics of sepsis-associated immunological alterations, the role of the microbiome, the standardisation of immunological tests, the development of better animal models, and the opportunities offered by immunotherapy. Addressing these gaps should help us to better understand sepsis physiopathology, offering translational opportunities to improve its prevention, diagnosis, and care