A COMPREHENSIVE DISASTER RISK INDEX FOR THE UNITED STATES

Risks to life, property, infrastructure and even environmental security emanate from a variety of hazard sources. Key to reducing this risk is the ability to measure it and present it decision-makers and stakeholders in a meaningful and understandable way. Currently, there exist no comprehensive hazard risk indices for the United States that have the ability to capture and convey a contemporary conceptualization of risk to hazards. Such an index, the World Risk Index, exists at the global level. The World Risk Index serves as an analog for further research on risk at various scales. The purpose of this dissertation is to facilitate an increased awareness of risk and the different factors that contribute to it and to provide a method for easily assessing risk at subnational scales. The following broad research questions frame this work: a) Can the World Risk Index be customized to a subnational scale in the United States? Which indicators are appropriate for use at the state and county level in the United States? b) Does the disaggregation of disaster risk to state and county scales provide more detailed understanding of the spatial distribution of risks and the components of risk? c) How does the risk assessment produced by a top-down approach compare to other US risk assessments at the county scale? To answer these questions, this dissertation is focused on the development of a risk index, the United States Disaster Risk Index (USDRI), tailored to assess risk at various scales. The USDRI is a proof of concept, and uses the methodology and indicators of the aforementioned World Risk Index to establish a baseline for evaluating risk at the state and county level. The validity of the index is examined through exploratory spatial statistical analysis. The results are also compared to loss data in order to assess whether the USDRI explains variability in loss. In addition, the USDRI and its components are compared to existing indices to determine similarities and differences. The results indicate that the USDRI provides new insight into risk at the state and county scale in the US. The ability to quickly tailor the index to various hazards of interest – to include potential hazards such as sea-level rise - proves to be one of its strongpoints. The USDRI, with some modification to the exposure component, shows the ability to explain variation in loss, especially at the state level. When compared to existing indices, USDRI risk and vulnerability show many similarities but also some important differences. For example, both the USDRI vulnerability component and the established Social Vulnerability Index show clusters of lower vulnerability in the Northeast US, but the USDRI shows large clusters of vulnerability in the Midwest that the Social Vulnerability Index does not. When the lessons learned are taken into consideration, the USDRI is successful in providing a baseline for the future evaluation of risk at the subnational level

Top-down Dendritic Input Increases the Gain of Layer 5 Pyramidal Neurons

The cerebral cortex is organized so that an important component of feedback input from higher to lower cortical areas arrives at the distal apical tufts of pyramidal neurons. Yet, distal inputs are predicted to have much less impact on firing than proximal inputs. Here we show that even weak asynchronous dendritic input to the distal tuft region can significantly increase the gain of layer 5 pyramidal neurons and thereby the output of columns in the primary somatosensory cortex of the rat. Noisy currents injected in ramps at different dendritic locations showed that the initial slope of the frequency-current (f/I) relationship increases with the distance of the current injection from the soma. The increase was due to the interaction of dendritic depolarization with back-propagating APs which activated dendritic calcium conductances. Gain increases were accompanied by a change of firing mode from isolated spikes to bursting where the timing of bursts coded the presence of coincident somatic and dendritic inputs. We propose that this dendritic gain modulation and the timing of bursts may serve to associate top-down and bottom-up input on different time scale

Unterschiede im Leistungsverhalten von Gesunden zwischen Fahrrad- und Laufbandergometrie

Problemstellung: Zur Überprüfung des Ausdauertrainingseffektes während einer Terrainkur ist die Laufbandergometrie der Belastung auf dem Fahrrad vorzuziehen, da hierbei dieselben Muskeln beansprucht werden wie während des Trainings. Allerdings gelingt es wegen der frühzeitigen subjektiven Erschöpfung der Kurpatienten nur selten, Milchsäurewerte oberhalb der aeroben/anaeroben Schwelle zu erzielen. Gegenstand: Die vorliegende Studie mit Gesunden befaßt sich mit den Fragen, warum sich Kurpatienten auf dem Laufband metabolisch betrachtet nicht genügend ausbelasten lassen, und welches die entscheidenden Unterschiede in der Art der Belastung zwischen Laufband- und Fahrradergometer sind. Versuchsplan: 27 gesunde Testpersonen wurden auf dem Fahrrad- und Laufbandergometer submaximal belastet. Die Belastung wurde nach einem standardisierten Verfahren in 0,33 W/kg-Schritten gesteigert. Wichtigste Meßparameter waren Herzfrequenz und Milchsäurespiegel. Ergebnisse: Während der Laufbandergometrie lagen Herzfrequenz und Sauerstoffbedarf des Myokards zum Erreichen der gleichen Wattstufe signifikant höher (1,0 W/kg:p≤0,001; 1,33 W/kg: p≤0,01; 2,0 W/kg: n.s.; Erholung: p≤0,001) als auf dem Fahrrad. Dagegen zeigte sich bei gegebener Herzfrequenz von 130/min und bei derselben höchsten erreichten Wattstufe auf dem Laufband ein um 0,7 mmol/1 bzw. l,0mmol/l signifikant (p≤0,01) niedrigerer Laktatanstieg als auf dem Fahrradergometer. Schlußfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse zeigten somit eine stärkere kardiale Ausschöpfung auf dem Laufbandergometer. Die aeroben/anaerobe Schwelle wird dagegen auf dem Laufband später als auf dem Fahrrad erreicht

Age-related Differences in Survival of AKR/J Mice Treated With Anti-Lymphocyte Globulins, Anti-Thymocyte Globulins, and Rabbit Anti-Mouse Brain Serum

This investigation was designed to study the age-related differences in the survival rates of 2-to 3- and 6- to 7-month-old AKR/J mice after continuous treatment with anti-lymphocyte globulins (ALG), anti-thymocyte globulins (ATG), or rabbit anti-mouse brain serum (RAMB)

Evaluation of three consecutive versions of a commercial rapid PCR test to screen for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is part of many recommendations to control MRSA. Several rapid PCR tests are available commercially and updated versions are constantly released. We aimed to evaluate the performance of three consecutive versions (G3, Gen3 and NxG) of the XpertMRSA test. Routine samples for MRSA screening were simultaneously tested by culture and rapid PCR. The three versions of XpertMRSA were used successively and compared with culture. A total of 3512, 2794 and 3288 samples were analysed by culture and by the G3, Gen3 and NxG XpertMRSA versions, respectively. The rates of positive-by-culture in the three groups were 5.0%, 4.7% and 4.3%, respectively. The sensitivity improved over time (71.4, 95% CI 64.0-77.9; 82.3, 95% CI 74.4-88.2; and 84.3%, 95% CI 77.0-89.7, respectively), but not significantly. The specificity (98.4, 95% CI 97.9-98.8; 96.8, 95% CI 96.0-97.4; and 99.1, 95% CI 98.7-99.4, respectively) and the positive likelihood ratios (45.7, 95% CI 34.4-60.8; 25.6, 95% CI 20.5-32.0; and 97.1, 95% CI 66.3-142.4) were significantly lower in the Gen3 version (p < 0.00001). These significant differences in performance show the importance of evaluating each new version of a commercial test