Simulated inventory and distribution of Cs released from multiple sources in the global ocean.

Radioactive cesium (Cs) is distributed in the world's oceans as a result of global fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, releases from fuel reprocessing plants, and inputs from nuclear power plant accident. In order to detect future radionuclide contamination, it is necessary to establish a baseline global distribution of radionuclides such as Cs and to understand the ocean transport processes that lead to that distribution. In order to aid in the interpretation of the observed database, we have conducted a suite of simulations of the distribution of Cs using a global ocean general circulation model (OGCM).

Initial Laboratory Values Can Predict Mortality in Burn Patients.

Background: There are several burn scores used to predict mortality in burn patients. However, minimal data exists on the role of laboratory values in risk stratification. We hypothesized that laboratory derangements seen on admission can predict mortality in burn patients.

Wellbeing as Defined by Resident Physicians: A Qualitative Study.

The importance of resident wellbeing is increasingly recognized by the ACGME as essential. While prior studies have quantified wellbeing/burnout, few have defined wellbeing from the resident-physician perspective. A REDCap® survey was distributed to residents in various programs, responses were grouped by theme, and data analyzed via chi-square.

Changes in trends during the COVID-19 lockdown: An urban, Level-1 trauma center's experience.

Background: A community lockdown has a profound impact on its citizens. Our objective was to identify changes in trauma patient demographics, volume, and pattern of injury following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Methods: A retrospective review was conducted at a Level-1 Trauma Center from 2017 to 2020.

The Global Sink of Available Potential Energy by Mesoscale Air-Sea Interaction.

The thermal component of oceanic eddy available potential energy (EPE) generation due to air-sea interaction is proportional to the product of anomalous sea surface temperature (SST) and net air-sea heat flux (SHF). In this study we assess EPE generation and its timescale and space-scale dependence from observations and a high-resolution coupled climate model. A dichotomy exists in the literature with respect to the sign of this term, that is, whether it is a source or a sink of EPE.

Climate Process Team on Internal Wave-Driven Ocean Mixing.

Diapycnal mixing plays a primary role in the thermodynamic balance of the ocean and, consequently, in oceanic heat and carbon uptake and storage. Though observed mixing rates are on average consistent with values required by inverse models, recent attention has focused on the dramatic spatial variability, spanning several orders of magnitude, of mixing rates in both the upper and deep ocean. Away from ocean boundaries, the spatio-temporal patterns of mixing are largely driven by the geography of generation, propagation and dissipation of internal waves, which supply much of the power for turbulent mixing.

Western boundary currents regulated by interaction between ocean eddies and the atmosphere.

Current climate models systematically underestimate the strength of oceanic fronts associated with strong western boundary currents, such as the Kuroshio and Gulf Stream Extensions, and have difficulty simulating their positions at the mid-latitude ocean's western boundaries. Even with an enhanced grid resolution to resolve ocean mesoscale eddies-energetic circulations with horizontal scales of about a hundred kilometres that strongly interact with the fronts and currents-the bias problem can still persist; to improve climate models we need a better understanding of the dynamics governing these oceanic frontal regimes. Yet prevailing theories about the western boundary fronts are based on ocean internal dynamics without taking into consideration the intense air-sea feedbacks in these oceanic frontal regions.

Disambiguating the optic nerve from the surrounding cerebrospinal fluid: Application to MS-related atrophy.

Purpose: Our goal is to develop an accurate, automated tool to characterize the optic nerve (ON) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to better understand ON changes in disease.

Methods: Multi-atlas segmentation is used to localize the ON and sheath on T2-weighted MRI (0.6 mm(3) resolution).

Self-assessed performance improves statistical fusion of image labels.

Purpose: Expert manual labeling is the gold standard for image segmentation, but this process is difficult, time-consuming, and prone to inter-individual differences. While fully automated methods have successfully targeted many anatomies, automated methods have not yet been developed for numerous essential structures (e.g.

Groupwise multi-atlas segmentation of the spinal cord's internal structure.

The spinal cord is an essential and vulnerable component of the central nervous system. Differentiating and localizing the spinal cord internal structure (i.e.

Next Generation of the Java Image Science Toolkit (JIST): Visualization and Validation.

Modern medical imaging analyses often involve the concatenation of multiple steps, and neuroimaging analysis is no exception. The Java Image Science Toolkit (JIST) has provided a framework for both end users and engineers to synthesize processing modules into tailored, automatic multi-step processing pipelines ("layouts") and rapid prototyping of module development. Since its release, JIST has facilitated substantial neuroimaging research and fulfilled much of its intended goal.

An evaluation of radiation exposure from portal films taken during definitive course of pediatric radiotherapy.

Purpose: Recently, considerable attention has been directed toward computed tomography radiation doses (estimated 1 to 4 cGy) received by pediatric patients, because of the potential for increasing a pediatric patient's risk for developing a secondary malignancy. However, minimal attention has been given to the radiation exposure outside the treatment field resulting from the use of portal films to visualize surrounding anatomy. The objective of this study was to quantify the radiation dose from portal imaging delivered within and outside the radiation treatment field during a course of radiation therapy.

A prospective randomised controlled trial of nutritional supplementation in malnourished elderly in the community: clinical and health economic outcomes.

Background & Aims: Malnutrition is common in sick elderly people on admission to hospital and in the community. We conducted a randomised controlled trial to determine if nutritional supplementation after discharge from hospital improved nutritional status and functional outcomes, or reduced health-care costs.

Methods: Elderly malnourished subjects were randomised to 8 weeks of supplementation or no supplementation post discharge, and followed up for 24 weeks.

Reflections on a career in public health: evolving foodborne pathogens, environmental health, and food safety programs.

Events affecting environmental health and food safety policy, programs and organization and emerging or identified foodborne diseases are reviewed by decade. The review starts with the impact of the 1940s war years on environmental sanitation, as it was called, and disease control. It continues with the intensifying disease surveillance and improvements in sanitation of the 1950s and the improvements in foodborne-disease surveillance and the reorganization of environmental programs of the 1960s.

Where we are in retail food safety, how we got to where we are, and how do we get there?

Food safety has not yet been attained. This is evident from reported foodborne-disease outbreaks, laboratory-confirmed cases of diseases that can be foodborne, estimates of foodborne illness based on surveillance data, and out-of-compliance risk factors. Several activities have had an impact on food safety, but there are limitations in the way each of those activities has been or is being conducted.

Bowel interposition for esophageal replacement: twenty-five-year experience.

Background: From 1972 to 1996, bowel interposition reconstruction after esophagectomy for benign and malignant conditions was performed in 129 of 131 patients. The indication for operation was benign disease in 94 patients (72.9%) and malignant disease in 35 patients (27.

Surveillance of Foodborne Disease III. Summary and Presentation of Data on Vehicles and Contributory Factors; Their Value and Limitations.

Foodborne disease outbreak data are collected, collated, interpreted and disseminated to improve food safety programs at all organizational levels. Part II of this series described the disease aspects of foodborne surveillance. This part (III) focuses on the food components, with collation of data to list vehicles, significant ingredients, the places where foods were mishandled, the methods of processing or preparation, and operations that contributed to outbreaks.

Surveillance of Foodborne Disease IV. Dissemination and Uses of Surveillance Data.

Comparisons of etiologic agents, vehicles, significant ingredients, place of mishandling, and method of food processing or preparation with specific contributory factors are particularly useful in identifying specific hazards, specifying operations that are candidates for designation as critical control points, and assessing risks. After foodborne disease surveillance data have been received, tabulated, and appropriately interpreted, summary information needs to be disseminated in a timely fashion to those who can use it for preventing foodborne diseases. This action should be taken at all levels of the surveillance network.

Surveillance of Foodborne Disease I. Purposes and Types of Surveillance Systems and Networks.

This is the first part of a four-part series on foodborne disease surveillance. Although these articles are primarily built on expertise gained within North America, the substance is of value to any community or country wishing to initiate or improve its surveillance system. Foodborne disease surveillance is necessary for preventing further spread of foodborne disease and includes identifying and controlling outbreaks at the time they are occurring; gathering data on incidence of these diseases and prevalence of their etiologic agents, vehicles, and reservoirs; identifying factors that led to the outbreaks; providing a data bank for HACCP systems and risk assessments; estimating health and economic impacts of foodborne diseases; and providing information upon which to base rational food safety program goals and priorities.

Surveillance of Foodborne Disease II. Summary and Presentation of Descriptive Data and Epidemiologic Patterns; Their Value and Limitations.

This second part of a four-part series on foodborne disease surveillance concentrates on tabulation of data to show the common diseases and to detect those emerging in a community, region or nation. Over several years, these data give a continued description of foodborne illnesses. The presentation starts with a summarization of the incidents, outbreaks, and cases that occur over a defined interval and continues with a breakdown of specific etiologic agents or diseases that make up the summary figures.

Hazards Associated with Holding and Reheating Foods at Vending Sites in a Small Town in Zambia.

Hazard analyses were done at 11 cooked-food-vending sites and related food-vending operations in a small-town market along a highway in Zambia. The analyses consisted of observations and time-temperature measurements at the vending sites and interpretations of results of laboratory tests of samples of foods (including leftovers) collected after holding and reheating. Salmonellae were isolated from dried ants, a cooked meatball on display, and pumped river water used by the vendors.

Hazards and Critical Control Points of Food Vending Operations in a City in Zambia.

Hazard analyses were conducted at several cooked food vending operations in a large city in Zambia, near a downtown bus park and at a large market. Samples of raw, processed, and cooked foods sold on streets or by small food shops were collected and tested for common foodborne pathogens and indicator organisms. Results showed that some raw foods (ground meat, chicken, chicken intestine) or processed foods (dried minnows; ) were contaminated by salmonellae or contained high populations of Staphylococcus aureus (pasteurized milk) or Bacillus cereus (caterpillars).

Hazards and Critical Control Points of Food Preparation in Homes in Which Persons Had Diarrhea in Zambia.

Following identification of some cases of diarrhea from persons who either sought treatment at a health clinic that served two townships near a large city in Zambia or got water from a deep protected well in one of the townships, hazard analyses were done of food preparation and storage practices at 17 homes. Samples of foods at various stages of preparation, foods held overnight, and drinking water were collected from the homes of the ill persons and were tested for common foodborne pathogens and indicator organisms. Salmonella was isolated from a sample of leftover (cooked dried minnows).

Another Decision-Tree Approach for Identification of Critical Control Points.

Decision trees have been used as an aid to selection of critical control points as part of the development of hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) systems. The background for those in existence is described. Another decision-tree approach that follows the logic in the IAMFES manual is presented.