Ontologies for Quantified Self: a Semantic Approach

The spreading of devices and applications that allow people to collect personal information opens new opportunities for user modeling (UM). In this new scenario UM together with personal informatics (PI) can offer a new way for self-monitoring that can provide the users with a sophisticated mirror of their behavior, attitudes and habits and their consequences on their life, on the environment and on contexts in which they live in. These new forms of self-reflection and self-knowledge can trigger and motivate the behavior change. In this paper we describe the first step in this direction, focusing on opportunities offered by semantic web ontologies for data integration and reasoning over data for recommendation purposes

Assessing the health-related management of people with differences of sex development

Purpose Health care requirements and perception of people with differences of sex development (DSD) have changed enormously since the "Chicago Consensus Conference" in 2005. Therefore, new standards of care and evaluation of care have to be developed. Methods We summarize the social and legal approach to care for DSD during the last two decades and report the main results of European research activities. Results The last two decades were accompanied by legal and societal discussion regarding how to deal with a nonbinary concept of sex. This leads to the necessity to assess health care requirements for individuals with DSD in an objective manner. We briefly review the results of the recently funded European research projects dealing with health-related issues in DSD like EU COST Action DSD, I-DSD, and dsd-LIFE, and address the compilation of quality indicators that will be needed to benchmark health care provision and health care-related outcomes. Conclusions The benchmarking process has to be implemented among health care providers for individuals with DSD within the European Reference Networks for Rare Conditions

Gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming

An exceptionally deep upper-air sounding launched from Kiruna airport (67.82∘ N, 20.33∘ E) on 30 January 2016 stimulated the current investigation of internal gravity waves excited during a minor sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) in the Arctic winter 2015/16. The analysis of the radiosonde profile revealed large kinetic and potential energies in the upper stratosphere without any simultaneous enhancement of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric values. Upward-propagating inertia-gravity waves in the upper stratosphere and downward-propagating modes in the lower stratosphere indicated a region of gravity wave generation in the stratosphere. Two-dimensional wavelet analysis was applied to vertical time series of temperature fluctuations in order to determine the vertical propagation direction of the stratospheric gravity waves in 1-hourly high-resolution meteorological analyses and short-term forecasts. The separation of upward- and downward-propagating waves provided further evidence for a stratospheric source of gravity waves. The scale-dependent decomposition of the flow into a balanced component and inertia-gravity waves showed that coherent wave packets preferentially occurred at the inner edge of the Arctic polar vortex where a sub-vortex formed during the minor SSW

The selection and definition of indicators in public health monitoring for the 65+ age group in Germany

Selecting relevant indicators is an important step in the development of public health monitoring for older people. Indicators can be used to combine information comprehensively from various data sources and enable recurring, comparable findings to be made about the health of older people. Indicators were systematically compiled from existing international monitoring systems. An indicator set on health in old age was developed using a multistage, structured consensus-based process together with an interdisciplinary panel of experts. The resulting 18 indicators were assigned to three health areas: (1) environmental factors, (2) activities and participation, and (3) personal factors. Data sources that can be used for the indicators are the health surveys within the framework of the Robert Koch Institute’s (RKI) health monitoring system, as well as surveys from other research institutes and official statistics. In the future, the indicator set is to be developed further and integrated into an overall approach that is geared towards health reporting and the monitoring of chronic diseases in all phases of life

Does Strong Tropospheric Forcing Cause Large-Amplitude Mesospheric Gravity Waves? A DEEPWAVE Case Study

On 4 July 2014, during the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE), strong low-level horizontal winds of up to 35 m s−1 over the Southern Alps, New Zealand, caused the excitation of gravity waves having the largest vertical energy fluxes of the whole campaign (38 W m−2). At the same time, large-amplitude mesospheric gravity waves were detected by the Temperature Lidar for Middle Atmospheric Research (TELMA) located at Lauder (45.0°S, 169.7°E), New Zealand. The coincidence of these two events leads to the question of whether the mesospheric gravity waves were generated by the strong tropospheric forcing. To answer this, an extensive data set is analyzed, comprising TELMA, in situ aircraft measurements, radiosondes, wind lidar measurements aboard the DLR Falcon as well as Rayleigh lidar and advanced mesospheric temperature mapper measurements aboard the National Science Foundation/National Center for Atmospheric Research Gulfstream V. These measurements are further complemented by limited area simulations using a numerical weather prediction model. This unique data set confirms that strong tropospheric forcing can cause large-amplitude gravity waves in the mesosphere, and that three essential ingredients are required to achieve this: first, nearly linear propagation across the tropopause; second, leakage through the stratospheric wind minimum; and third, amplification in the polar night jet. Stationary gravity waves were detected in all atmospheric layers up to the mesosphere with horizontal wavelengths between 20 and 100 km. The complete coverage of our data set from troposphere to mesosphere proved to be valuable to identify the processes involved in deep gravity wave propagation

Gravity-wave-induced cross-isentropic mixing: a DEEPWAVE case study

Orographic gravity waves (i.e., mountain waves) can potentially lead to cross-isentropic fluxes of trace gases via the generation of turbulence. During the DEEPWAVE (Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment) campaign in July 2014, we performed tracer measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) above the Southern Alps during periods of gravity wave activity. The measurements were taken along two stacked levels at 7.9 km in the troposphere and 10.9 km in the stratosphere. A detailed analysis of the observed wind components shows that both flight legs were affected by vertically propagating gravity waves with momentum deposition and energy dissipation between the two legs. Corresponding tracer measurements indicate turbulent mixing in the region of gravity wave occurrence. For the stratospheric data, we identified mixing leading to a change of the cross-isentropic tracer gradient of N2O from the upstream to the downstream region of the Southern Alps. Based on the quasi-inert tracer N2O, we identified two distinct layers in the stratosphere with different chemical composition on different isentropes as given by constant potential temperature 2. The CO–N2O relationship clearly indicates that irreversible mixing between these two layers occurred. Further, we found a significant change of the vertical profiles of N2O with respect to 2 from the upstream to the downstream side above the Southern Alps just above the tropopause. A scale-dependent gradient analysis reveals that this cross-isentropic gradient change of N2O is triggered in the region of gravity wave occurrence

Recommendations for respiratory syncytial virus surveillance at national level

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections and hospitalisations among young children and is globally responsible for many deaths in young children, especially in infants aged <6 months. Furthermore, RSV is a common cause of severe respiratory disease and hospitalisation among older adults. The development of new candidate vaccines and monoclonal antibodies highlights the need for reliable surveillance of RSV. In the European Union (EU), no up-to-date general recommendations on RSV surveillance are currently available. Based on outcomes of a workshop with 29 European experts in the field of RSV virology, epidemiology and public health, we provide recommendations for developing a feasible and sustainable national surveillance strategy for RSV that will enable harmonisation and data comparison at the European level. We discuss three surveillance components: active sentinel community surveillance, active sentinel hospital surveillance and passive laboratory surveillance, using the EU acute respiratory infection and World Health Organization (WHO) extended severe acute respiratory infection case definitions. Furthermore, we recommend the use of quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR-based assays as the standard detection method for RSV and virus genetic characterisation, if possible, to monitor genetic evolution. These guidelines provide a basis for good quality, feasible and affordable surveillance of RSV. Harmonisation of surveillance standards at the European and global level will contribute to the wider availability of national level RSV surveillance data for regional and global analysis, and for estimation of RSV burden and the impact of future immunisation programmes

The North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment

The North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment (NAWDEX) explored the impact of diabatic processes on disturbances of the jet stream and their influence on downstream high-impact weather through the deployment of four research aircraft, each with a sophisticated set of remote sensing and in situ instruments, and coordinated with a suite of ground-based measurements. A total of 49 research flights were performed, including, for the first time, coordinated flights of the four aircraft: the German High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO), the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) Dassault Falcon 20, the French Service des Avions Français Instrumentés pour la Recherche en Environnement (SAFIRE) Falcon 20, and the British Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe 146. The observation period from 17 September to 22 October 2016 with frequently occurring extratropical and tropical cyclones was ideal for investigating midlatitude weather over the North Atlantic. NAWDEX featured three sequences of upstream triggers of waveguide disturbances, as well as their dynamic interaction with the jet stream, subsequent development, and eventual downstream weather impact on Europe. Examples are presented to highlight the wealth of phenomena that were sampled, the comprehensive coverage, and the multifaceted nature of the measurements. This unique dataset forms the basis for future case studies and detailed evaluations of weather and climate predictions to improve our understanding of diabatic influences on Rossby waves and the downstream impacts of weather systems affecting Europe