Evidence and innovation in humanitarian assistance: ‘Conference without Borders’ to address Syrian conflict #MSFSci

The MSF Scientific Days are a round of conferences looking at how humanitarian action can be improved by scientific research and innovation. On behalf of the organisers, Sarah Venis presents an overview. This year will feature a strong focus on the effects of the Syrian conflict and the resultant refugee and migration crisis. Another theme will also look at how to use technology to help and not hinder medical care. Join the discussion online and share your thoughts on the conference using the Twitter hashtag #MSFSci

MSF Scientific Days 2017: improving the effectiveness of humanitarian programmes through scientific research and innovation

MSF Scientific Days is a global network of events focused on how scientific research and innovation can improve the effectiveness of humanitarian medical programmes. Sarah Venis presents some of the highlights of this year’s programme, including discussion of how to best gather evidence from emergency settings, and the challenges of community engagement; as well as an examination of different approaches to managing projects’ processes and partnerships, and of innovations around mapping and surveillance data. You can contribute to discussions online using the hashtag #MSFsci

Design and performance of a 39cm balloon-borne telescope

A system for stabilizing a balloon-borne telescope using a star sensor device is described. Guide stars from minus four to plus four magnitude can be used and the sensor may be offset with respect to the telescope by as much as plus or minus five degrees in elevation and cross elevation to enable parts of the sky containing no suitable guide stars to be viewed. Acquisition of the guide star and setting of the offset coordinates is carried out by ground command and both may be changed in flight. The main design parameters of the equipment are summarized. Block diagrams and circuit diagrams of the star tracker are provided

Counselling in humanitarian settings: a retrospective analysis of 18 individual-focused non-specialised counselling programmes

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) provides individual counselling interventions in medical humanitarian programmes in contexts affected by conflict and violence. Although mental health and psychosocial interventions are a common part of the humanitarian response, little is known about how the profile and outcomes for individuals seeking care differs across contexts. We did a retrospective analysis of routine programme data to determine who accessed MSF counselling services and why, and the individual and programmatic risk factors for poor outcomes

Generic knowledge-based analysis of social media for recommendations

Recommender systems have been around for decades to help people find the best matching item in a pre-defined item set. Knowledge-based recommender systems are used to match users based on information that links the two, but they often focus on a single, specific application, such as movies to watch or music to listen to. In this presentation, we present our Interest-Based Recommender System (IBRS). This knowledge-based recommender system provides recommendations that are generic in three dimensions: IBRS is (1) domain-independent, (2) language-independent, and (3) independent of the used social medium. To match user interests with items, the first are derived from the user's social media profile, enriched with a deeper semantic embedding obtained from the generic knowledge base DBpedia. These interests are used to extract personalized recommendations from a tagged item set from any domain, in any language. We also present the results of a validation of IBRS by a test user group of 44 people using two item sets from separate domains: greeting cards and holiday homes

A level-set method for moving material-void interfaces

This report is a feasibility study of a level-set method for the computation of moving interfaces, in an Eulerian formulation. The report briefly introduces level-set methods and focuses on the development of such a method for moving material-void interfaces. Results are presented for illustrative model problems. As concerns its ability to improve the geometrical resolution of free boundaries, the level-set method appears to perform excellently. Concerning the improvement of other than merely geometrical free-boundary properties, the method performs very well for downstream-facing fronts and is promising for upstream-facing ones

Delineation of signalling pathway in alpha adrenoceptor mediated vasorelaxation using goat arterial strips

Phenylephrine (PE) is a sympathomimetic agent belonging to a class of drugs known commonly as the alpha adrenergic agonists. This drug group is long known to cause constriction in vascular smooth muscles. Recently, our department has demonstrated that PE can also induce vasorelaxation in a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent manner under certain circumstances in goat leg arteries. Such vasorelaxation is shown to be mediated through alpha adrenergic receptors, particularly α1, and was demonstrated on spiral strip preparations of goat arteries. However, it was later demonstrated that the relaxant response was seen only in longitudinal strips and not in transverse preparations. In this study, we have tested if either the ring or longitudinal strip preparations of goat aorta demonstrate a vasorelaxant response to PE. AIM OF THE STUDY: To determine if the alpha adrenoceptor mediated vasorelaxant pathway described in small artery preparations is present in goat aorta too. OBJECTIVES: 1. To test the effect of vasoconstrictors on two different preparations of aorta – the longitudinal strip and transverse cylinder. a) To test if the alpha adrenergic agonist PE produces vasoconstriction or vasorelaxation in longitudinal strips made from aorta. b) To test if the alpha adrenergic agonist PE produces vasoconstriction or vasorelaxation in transverse cylinders (rings) made from aorta. 2. If vasoconstriction occurs in either of the above cases, then to test the response of PE in the presence of NO donors, SNP and L-Arginine. 3. If vasorelaxation occurs in objectives 1a and 1b, or 2, to test if the vasorelaxation produced by PE alone or PE/NO combination is preventable by prazosin (specific α1-blocker). METHODS: Aortae were isolated from fresh goat hearts and were cut into rings or longitudinal strips. The preparations were then suspended in an organ bath of 25 ml capacity which was filled with physiological salt solution, maintained at 37ºC by means of a circulating water bath, and also aerated with carbogen (95% oxygen and 5% carbondioxide). One end of the aortic preparation was fixed to the organ bath and the other end of the isolated tissue was connected to a force transducer and tension was recorded using a data acquisition system (PowerLab from AD Instruments). Drugs were then added to the organ bath and any change in tension recorded by the force transducer was recorded. Data of the viable tissue was analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and visualized using Igor pro. RESULTS: In both ring and longitudinal strips of aorta, Phenylephrine (PE) caused vasoconstriction under normal and high NO environment, unlike in small arteries. CONCLUSION: There is no alpha-adrenoceptor mediated vasorelaxant pathway in aortic smooth muscle