Social sensing of floods in the UK Arthur, Rudy; Boulton, Chris A; Shotton, Humphrey ...
PloS one,
01/2018, Letnik:
13, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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"Social sensing" is a form of crowd-sourcing that involves systematic analysis of digital communications to detect real-world events. Here we consider the use of social sensing for observing natural ...hazards. In particular, we present a case study that uses data from a popular social media platform (Twitter) to detect and locate flood events in the UK. In order to improve data quality we apply a number of filters (timezone, simple text filters and a naive Bayes 'relevance' filter) to the data. We then use place names in the user profile and message text to infer the location of the tweets. These two steps remove most of the irrelevant tweets and yield orders of magnitude more located tweets than we have by relying on geo-tagged data. We demonstrate that high resolution social sensing of floods is feasible and we can produce high-quality historical and real-time maps of floods using Twitter.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although pulmonary fibrosis can occur in the absence of a clear-cut inciting agent, and without a clinically clear initial acute inflammatory phase, it is more commonly associated with severe lung ...injury. This may be due to respiratory infections, chronic granulomatous diseases, medications, and connective tissue disorders. Pulmonary fibrosis is associated with permanent pulmonary architectural distortion and irreversible lung dysfunction. Available clinical, radiographic, and autopsy data has indicated that pulmonary fibrosis is central to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS) and MERS pathology, and current evidence suggests that pulmonary fibrosis could also complicate infection by SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this review is to explore the current literature on the pathogenesis of lung injury in COVID-19 infection. We evaluate the evidence in support of the putative risk factors for the development of lung fibrosis in the disease and propose risk mitigation strategies. We conclude that, from the available literature, the predictors of pulmonary fibrosis in COVID-19 infection are advanced age, illness severity, length of ICU stay and mechanical ventilation, smoking and chronic alcoholism. With no proven effective targeted therapy against pulmonary fibrosis, risk reduction measures should be directed at limiting the severity of the disease and protecting the lungs from other incidental injuries.
Trypanosomes are single-celled eukaryotic parasites characterised by the unique biology of their mitochondrial DNA. African livestock trypanosomes impose a major burden on agriculture across ...sub-Saharan Africa, but are poorly understood compared to those that cause sleeping sickness and Chagas disease in humans. Here we explore the potential of the maxicircle, a component of trypanosome mitochondrial DNA to study the evolutionary history of trypanosomes.
We used long-read sequencing to completely assemble maxicircle mitochondrial DNA from four previously uncharacterized African trypanosomes, and leveraged these assemblies to scaffold and assemble a further 103 trypanosome maxicircle gene coding regions from published short-read data. While synteny was largely conserved, there were repeated, independent losses of Complex I genes. Comparison of pre-edited and non-edited genes revealed the impact of RNA editing on nucleotide composition, with non-edited genes approaching the limits of GC loss. African tsetse-transmitted trypanosomes showed high levels of RNA editing compared to other trypanosomes. The gene coding regions of maxicircle mitochondrial DNAs were used to construct time-resolved phylogenetic trees, revealing deep divergence events among isolates of the pathogens Trypanosoma brucei and T. congolense.
Our data represents a new resource for experimental and evolutionary analyses of trypanosome phylogeny, molecular evolution and function. Molecular clock analyses yielded a timescale for trypanosome evolution congruent with major biogeographical events in Africa and revealed the recent emergence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and T. equiperdum, major human and animal pathogens.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PURPOSEThe objective of this study is to assess prospectively the dose–response relationship between respiratory disease (ICD10J1–99), pneumonia (ICD10J12.0–18.9), and aspiration pneumonia mortality ...(ICD10J69) versus baseline walking and running energy expenditure (MET·h·d, 1 MET = 3.5 mL O2·kg·min).
METHODSWe conducted Cox proportional hazard analyses of 109,352 runners and 40,798 walkers adjusted for age, sex, smoking, diet, alcohol, and education.
RESULTSThere were 236 deaths with respiratory disease listed as the underlying cause, and 833 deaths were respiratory disease related (entity axis diagnosis). Included among these were 79 deaths with pneumonia listed as the underlying cause and 316 pneumonia-related deaths, and 77 deaths were due to aspiration pneumonia. There was no significant difference in the effect of running compared with walking (per MET-hour per day) on mortality; thus, runners and walkers were combined for analysis. Respiratory disease mortality decreased 7.9% per MET-hour per day as the underlying cause (95% CI, 1.6%–14.0%; P = 0.01) and 7.3% for all respiratory disease-related deaths (95% CI, 4.2%–10.4%; P = 10). Pneumonia mortality decreased 13.1% per MET-hour per day as the underlying cause (95% CI, 2.6%–23.2%; P = 0.01) and 10.5% per MET-hour per day for all pneumonia-related deaths (95% CI, 5.4%–15.5%; P = 0.0001). The risk for aspiration pneumonia mortality also did not differ between running and walking, and it decreased 19.9% per MET-hour per day run or walked (95% CI, 8.9%–30.2%; P = 0.0004). These results remained significant when additionally adjusted for body mass index.
CONCLUSIONSHigher doses of running and walking were associated with lower risk of respiratory disease, pneumonia, and aspiration pneumonia mortality in a dose-dependent manner, and the effects of running and walking appear equivalent. These effects appear to be independent of the effects of exercise on cardiovascular disease.
Background. Transnasal humidified rapid-insufflation ventilatory exchange (THRIVE) was introduced to adult anaesthesia to improve the safety of airway management during apnoea before intubation. The ...objective of our study was to determine whether THRIVE safely prolongs apnoeic oxygenation in children.
Methods. This was a randomized controlled trial in 48 healthy children, with normal airways and cardiorespiratory function, in age groups 0-6 and 7-24 months, 2-5 and 6-10 yr old, presenting for elective surgery or imaging under general anaesthesia. All children were induced with sevoflurane, O2, and N2O, followed by muscle relaxation with rocuronium, and standardized preoxygenation with bag-and-mask ventilation. The control arm received jaw support during apnoea, whereas the THRIVE arm received jaw support during apnoea and age-specific flow rates. The primary outcome was to demonstrate that children allocated to THRIVE maintain transcutaneous haemoglobin saturation at least twice as long as the expected age-dependent apnoea time in the control group.
Results. Both study arms (each n=24) were similar in age and weight. The apnoea time was significantly shorter in the control arm: average 109.2 (95% CI 28.8) s in the control arm and 192 s in the THRIVE arm (0-6 months), 147.3 (95% CI 18.9) and 237 s (7-24 months), 190.5 (95% CI 15.3) and 320 s (2-5 yr), and 260.8 (95% CI 37.5) and 430 s (6-10 yr), respectively. Average transcutaneous haemoglobin saturation remained at 99.6% (95% CI 0.2) during THRIVE. Transcutaneous CO2 increased to a similar extent in both arms, with 2.4 (95% CI 0.5) mm Hg min−1 for the control arm and 2.4 (95% CI 0.4) mm Hg min−1 for the THRIVE arm.
Conclusion. Transnasal humidified rapid-insufflation ventilatory exchange prolongs the safe apnoea time in healthy children but has no effect to improve CO2 clearance.
Clinical trial registration. ACTRN12615001319561.
There has been much prescriptive work in project management, exemplified in various "Bodies of Knowledge". However, experience shows some projects overspending considerably. Recently, systemic ...modeling research into the behavior of large projects explains project oversponds by "systemic" effects and the (sometimes counterintuitive) effect of management actions. However, while this work is becoming more widely known, embedding the lessons in project-management practice is not straightforward. The current prescriptive dominant discourse of project management contains implicit underlying assumptions with which the systemic modeling work clashes, indeed showing how conventional methods can exacerbate rather than alleviate project problems. Exploration of this modeling suggests that for projects that are complex, uncertain, and time-limited, conventional methods might be inappropriate, and aspects of newer methodologies in which the project "emerges" rather than being fully preplanned might be more appropriate. Some of the current literature on project-classification schemes also suggests similar parameters, without the rationale that the systemic modeling provides, thus providing useful backup to this analysis. The eventual aim of this line of work is to enable project managers to choose effective ways to manage projects based on understanding and model-based theory.
Online misinformation about climate change Treen, Kathie M. d'I.; Williams, Hywel T. P.; O'Neill, Saffron J.
Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Climate change,
September/October 2020, Letnik:
11, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Policymakers, scholars, and practitioners have all called attention to the issue of misinformation in the climate change debate. But what is climate change misinformation, who is involved, how does ...it spread, why does it matter, and what can be done about it? Climate change misinformation is closely linked to climate change skepticism, denial, and contrarianism. A network of actors are involved in financing, producing, and amplifying misinformation. Once in the public domain, characteristics of online social networks, such as homophily, polarization, and echo chambers—characteristics also found in climate change debate—provide fertile ground for misinformation to spread. Underlying belief systems and social norms, as well as psychological heuristics such as confirmation bias, are further factors which contribute to the spread of misinformation. A variety of ways to understand and address misinformation, from a diversity of disciplines, are discussed. These include educational, technological, regulatory, and psychological‐based approaches. No single approach addresses all concerns about misinformation, and all have limitations, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach to tackle this multifaceted issue. Key research gaps include understanding the diffusion of climate change misinformation on social media, and examining whether misinformation extends to climate alarmism, as well as climate denial. This article explores the concepts of misinformation and disinformation and defines disinformation to be a subset of misinformation. A diversity of disciplinary and interdisciplinary literature is reviewed to fully interrogate the concept of misinformation—and within this, disinformation—particularly as it pertains to climate change.
This article is categorized under:
Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Communication
An overview of climate change misinformation answering the questions what is climate change misinformation, who is involved, how does it spread, why does it matter, and what can be done about it?
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•Co-production of hydrogen and carbon nanotubes from real-world waste plastics.•Bimetallic Ni-Fe catalysts are studied for pyrolysis-catalysis of waste plastics.•Hydrogen yield is ...higher with the catalyst with Ni to Fe molar ratio of 1–3.•Catalyst with higher Ni fraction generates higher quality of carbon nanotubes.
To explore the mechanism of the influence of Ni-Fe bimetallic catalyst for the producing high-value carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with clean hydrogen from waste plastic pyrolysis, the pyrolysis-catalysis of plastics were performed using a two stage fixed bed reaction system with Ni and Fe loading at variant molar ratios. The catalysts and produced carbon were analysed with various characterization method, including temperature-programed reduction/oxidation, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy or/and Raman spectroscopy. Both the H2 concentration and H2 yield reached maximum values of 73.93vol.% and 84.72mgg−1 plastic, respectively, as the ratio of Ni:Fe at 1:3. The amount and quality of CNTs were greatly influenced by the catalyst composition, and Ni and Fe display different roles to the overall reactivity of Ni-Fe catalyst for the pyrolysis-catalysis of waste plastics. Catalyst with more Fe loading produced more hydrogen and deposited carbon, due to higher cracking ability and the relatively lower interaction between active sites and support. The presence of Ni in Ni-Fe bimetallic catalyst enhanced the thermal stability and graphitization degree of produced carbons. The thermal quality of filamentous carbons might be associated with carbon defects.
IMPORTANCE: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected routine vaccine delivery in the US and globally. The magnitude of these disruptions and their association with childhood vaccination coverage are ...unclear. OBJECTIVES: To compare trends in pediatric vaccination before and during the pandemic and to evaluate the proportion of children up to date (UTD) with vaccinations by age, race, and ethnicity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This surveillance study used a prepandemic-postpandemic control design with data from 8 health systems in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. Children from age groups younger than 24 months and 4 to 6, 11 to 13, and 16 to 18 years were included if they had at least 1 week of health system enrollment from January 5, 2020, through October 3, 2020, over periods before the US COVID-19 pandemic (January 5, 2020, through March 14, 2020), during age-limited preventive care (March 15, 2020, through May 16, 2020), and during expanded primary care (May 17, 2020, through October 3, 2020). These individuals were compared with those enrolled during analogous weeks in 2019. EXPOSURES: This study evaluated UTD status among children reaching specific ages in February, May, and September 2020, compared with those reaching these ages in 2019. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Weekly vaccination rates for routine age-specific vaccines and the proportion of children UTD for all age-specific recommended vaccines. RESULTS: Of 1 399 708 children in 2019 and 1 402 227 in 2020, 1 371 718 were female (49.0%) and 1 429 979 were male (51.0%); 334 216 Asian individuals (11.9%), 900 226 were Hispanic individuals (32.1%), and 201 619 non-Hispanic Black individuals (7.2%). Compared with the prepandemic period and 2019, the age-limited preventive care period was associated with lower weekly vaccination rates, with ratios of rate ratios of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.80-0.85) among those younger than 24 months, 0.18 (95% CI, 0.16-0.20) among those aged 4 to 6 years, 0.16 (95% CI, 0.14-0.17) among those aged 11 to 13 years, and 0.10 (95% CI, 0.08-0.13) among those aged 16 to 18 years. Vaccination rates during expanded primary care remained lower for most ages (ratios of rate ratios: <24 months, 0.96 95% CI, 0.93-0.98; 11-13 years, 0.81 95% CI, 0.76-0.86; 16-18 years, 0.57 95% CI, 0.51-0.63). In September 2020, 74% (95% CI, 73%-76%) of infants aged 7 months and 57% (95% CI, 56%-58%) of infants aged 18 months were UTD vs 81% (95% CI, 80%-82%) and 61% (95% CI, 60%-62%), respectively, in September 2019. The proportion UTD was lowest in non-Hispanic Black children across most age groups, both during and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (eg, in May 2019, 70% 95% CI, 64%-75% of non-Hispanic Black infants aged 7 months were UTD vs 82% 95% CI, 81%-83% in all infants aged 7 months combined). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: As of September 2020, childhood vaccination rates and the proportion who were UTD remained lower than 2019 levels. Interventions are needed to promote catch-up vaccination, particularly in populations at risk for underimmunization.
A comprehensive morphological study was used to elucidate chloride’s role in CH3NH3PbI3–x Cl x film evolution on a conducting polymer, PEDOT:PSS. Complex ion equilibria and aggregation in solution, ...as well as the role they play in nucleation, are found to ultimately be responsible for the unique morphological diversity observed in perovskite films grown in the presence of the chloride ion. An intermediate phase that is generated upon deposition and initial annealing templates continued self-assembly in the case of CH3NH3PbI3–x Cl x . In the absence of chloride, the film growth of CH3NH3PbI3 is directed by substrate interfacial energy. By employing the through-plane TEM analysis, we gain detailed insight into the unique crystallographic textures, grain structures, and elemental distributions across the breadth of films grown from precursor solutions with different chemistries. The lattice coherence seen in morphologies generated under the influence of chloride provides a physical rational for the enhancement in carrier diffusion length and lifetime.
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