Policy Document on Earth Observation for Urban Planning and Management: State of the Art and Recommendations for Application of Earth Observation in Urban Planning

A policy document on earth observation for urban planning and management resulting from a workshop held in Hong Kong in November 2006 is presented. The aim of the workshop was to provide a forum for researchers and scientists specializing in earth observation to interact with practitioners working in different aspects of city planning, in a complex and dynamic city, Hong Kong. A summary of the current state of the art, limitations, and recommendations for the use of earth observation in urban areas is presented here as a policy document

Temocillin: a new candidate antibiotic for local antimicrobial delivery in orthopaedic surgery?

Objectives - To assess the performance of the Gram-negative-specific antibiotic temocillin in polymethylmethacrylate bone cement pre-loaded with gentamicin, as a strategy for local antibiotic delivery. Methods - Temocillin was added at varying concentrations to commercial gentamicin-loaded bone cement. The elution of the antibiotic from cement samples over a 2 week period was quantified by LC-MS. The eluted temocillin was purified by fast protein liquid chromatography and the MICs for a number of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli were determined. The impact strength of antibiotic-loaded samples was determined using a Charpy-type impact testing apparatus. Results - LC-MS data showed temocillin eluted to clinically significant concentrations within 1 h in this laboratory system and the eluted temocillin retained antimicrobial activity against all organisms tested. Impact strength analysis showed no significant difference between cement samples with or without temocillin. Conclusions - Temocillin can be added to bone cement and retains its antimicrobial activity after elution. The addition of up to 10% temocillin did not affect the impact strength of the cement. The results show that temocillin is a promising candidate for use in antibiotic-loaded bone cement.</p

A study of some manganese minerals

On the basis of the difficulty to recognise specific manganese minerals due to their frequent mode of occurrence as fine grained aggregates the present study has been directed towards investigating properties of the minerals which might serve as a readily accessible means of identification. Towards this end attention has been focussed on X-ray diffraction patterns, micro-hardness analysis, a study of various optical properties and differential thermal analysis characteristics. X-ray diffraction patterns using Cr(Ka) radiation have been established for some twenty mineral species and provide the most satisfactory means of recognising the constituents of fine grained mineral intergrowths. The applications and limitations of micro-hardness testing are reviewed and hardness values given for the minerals studied. Attention has been paid to the variation of hardness with applied load and crystal orientation and hardness values given in selected cases. Reflectivity values for white light and for eight wavelengths within the visible spectrum are given for both air and oil. Refractive and absorption indices as determined by the method of Cambon (1949) are quoted, the latter corresponding very well with values determined by classical methods. Differential thermal analysis curves are given for the majority of the minerals, including all the more important forms, and such provide a satisfactory means of distinguishing the main mineral groups

Implication of a retrovirus-like glycoprotein peptide in the immunopathogenesis of Ebola and Marburg viruses

Ebola and Marburg viruses can cause hemorrhagic fever (HF) outbreaks with high mortality in primates. Whereas Marburg (MARV), Ebola Zaire (ZEBOV), and Ebola Sudan (SEBOV) viruses are pathogenic in humans, apes, and monkeys, Ebola Reston (REBOV) is pathogenic only in monkeys. Early immunosuppression may contribute to pathogenesis by facilitating viral replication. Lymphocyte depletion, intravascular apoptosis, and cytokine dysregulation are prominent in fatal cases. Here we functionally characterize a 17 amino acid domain in filoviral glycoproteins that resembles an immunosuppressive motif in retroviral envelope proteins. Activated human or rhesus peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were exposed to inactivated ZEBOV or a panel of 17mer peptides representing all sequenced strains of filoviruses, then analyzed for CD4+ and CD8+ T cell activation, apoptosis, and cytokine expression. Exposure of human and rhesus PBMC to ZEBOV, SEBOV, or MARV peptides or inactivated ZEBOV resulted in decreased expression of activation markers on CD4 and CD8 cells; CD4 and CD8 cell apoptosis as early as 12 h postexposure; inhibition of CD4 and CD8 cell cycle progression; decreased interleukin (IL)-2, IFN-gamma, and IL12-p40 expression; and increased IL-10 expression. In contrast, only rhesus T cells were sensitive to REBOV peptides. These findings are consistent with the observation that REBOV is not pathogenic in humans and have implications for understanding the pathogenesis of filoviral HF

Support and Assessment for Fall Emergency Referrals (SAFER 1) trial protocol. Computerised on-scene decision support for emergency ambulance staff to assess and plan care for older people who have fallen: evaluation of costs and benefits using a pragmatic cluster randomised trial

Background: Many emergency ambulance calls are for older people who have fallen. As half of them are left at home, a community-based response may often be more appropriate than hospital attendance. The SAFER 1 trial will assess the costs and benefits of a new healthcare technology - hand-held computers with computerised clinical decision support (CCDS) software - to help paramedics decide who needs hospital attendance, and who can be safely left at home with referral to community falls services. Methods/Design: Pragmatic cluster randomised trial with a qualitative component. We shall allocate 72 paramedics ('clusters') at random between receiving the intervention and a control group delivering care as usual, of whom we expect 60 to complete the trial. Patients are eligible if they are aged 65 or older, live in the study area but not in residential care, and are attended by a study paramedic following an emergency call for a fall. Seven to 10 days after the index fall we shall offer patients the opportunity to opt out of further follow up. Continuing participants will receive questionnaires after one and 6 months, and we shall monitor their routine clinical data for 6 months. We shall interview 20 of these patients in depth. We shall conduct focus groups or semi-structured interviews with paramedics and other stakeholders. The primary outcome is the interval to the first subsequent reported fall (or death). We shall analyse this and other measures of outcome, process and cost by 'intention to treat'. We shall analyse qualitative data thematically. Discussion: Since the SAFER 1 trial received funding in August 2006, implementation has come to terms with ambulance service reorganisation and a new national electronic patient record in England. In response to these hurdles the research team has adapted the research design, including aspects of the intervention, to meet the needs of the ambulance services. In conclusion this complex emergency care trial will provide rigorous evidence on the clinical and cost effectiveness of CCDS for paramedics in the care of older people who have fallen

Panmicrobial oligonucleotide array for diagnosis of infectious diseases

To facilitate rapid, unbiased, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, we designed GreeneChipPm, a panmicrobial microarray comprising 29,455 sixty-mer oligonucleotide probes for vertebrate viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Methods for nucleic acid preparation, random primed PCR amplification, and labeling were optimized to allow the sensitivity required for application with nucleic acid extracted from clinical materials and cultured isolates. Analysis of nasopharyngeal aspirates, blood, urine, and tissue from persons with various infectious diseases confirmed the presence of viruses and bacteria identified by other methods, and implicated Plasmodium falciparum in an unexplained fatal case of hemorrhagic feverlike disease during the Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Angola in 2004-2005

Nosocomial outbreak of novel arenavirus infection, Southern Africa

A nosocomial outbreak of disease involving 5 patients, 4 of whom died, occurred in South Africa during September—October 2008. The first patient had been transferred from Zambia to South Africa for medical management. Three cases involved secondary spread of infection from the first patient, and 1 was a tertiary infection. A novel arenavirus was identified. The source of the first patient's infection remains undetermined

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from submitted version

Early versus Later Rhythm Analysis in Patients with Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Background In a departure from the previous strategy of immediate defibrillation, the 2005 resuscitation guidelines from the American Heart Association–International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation suggested that emergency medical service (EMS) personnel could provide 2 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before the first analysis of cardiac rhythm. We compared the strategy of a brief period of CPR with early analysis of rhythm with the strategy of a longer period of CPR with delayed analysis of rhythm. Methods We conducted a cluster-randomized trial involving adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest at 10 Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium sites in the United States and Canada. Patients in the early-analysis group were assigned to receive 30 to 60 seconds of EMS-administered CPR and those in the later-analysis group were assigned to receive 180 seconds of CPR, before the initial electrocardiographic analysis. The primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge with satisfactory functional status (a modified Rankin scale score of ≤3, on a scale of 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating greater disability). Results We included 9933 patients, of whom 5290 were assigned to early analysis of cardiac rhythm and 4643 to later analysis. A total of 273 patients (5.9%) in the later-analysis group and 310 patients (5.9%) in the early-analysis group met the criteria for the primary outcome, with a cluster-adjusted difference of −0.2 percentage points (95% confidence interval, −1.1 to 0.7; P=0.59). Analyses of the data with adjustment for confounding factors, as well as subgroup analyses, also showed no survival benefit for either study group. Conclusions Among patients who had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, we found no difference in the outcomes with a brief period, as compared with a longer period, of EMS-administered CPR before the first analysis of cardiac rhythm. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others; ROC PRIMED ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00394706.

Newly discovered Ebola virus associated with hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Uganda

In this report we describe a newly discovered ebolavirus species which caused a large hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Uganda. The virus is genetically distinct, differing by more than 30% at the genome level from all other known ebolavirus species. The unique nature of this virus created challenges for traditional filovirus molecular based diagnostic assays and genome sequencing approaches. Instead, we quickly determined over 70% of the virus genome using a recently developed random-primed pyrosequencing approach that allowed the rapid development of a molecular detection assay that was deployed in the disease outbreak response. This draft sequence allowed easy completion of the whole genome sequence using a traditional primer walking approach and prompt confirmation that this virus represented a new ebolavirus species. Current efforts to design effective diagnostics, antivirals and vaccines will need to take into account the distinct nature of this important new member of the filovirus family