A multiscale entropy-based tool for scoring severity of systemic inflammation.

Objective: Early detection and start of appropriate treatment are highly correlated with survival of sepsis and septic shock, but the currently available predictive tools are not sensitive enough to identify patients at risk.

Design: Linear (time and frequency domain) and nonlinear (unifractal and multiscale complexity dynamics) measures of beat-to-beat interval variability were analyzed in two mouse models of inflammatory shock to determine if they are sensitive enough to predict outcome.

Setting: University research laboratory.

Theoretical study of the relation between radon and its long-lived progeny in a room.

We present a theoretical study of the complex relation between radon and its long-lived progeny implanted in glass surfaces. The well known (extended) Jacobi room model, which is normally used to describe radon and its progeny in a room, was transformed into a two-parameter model revealing a linear correlation between long term radon exposure and surface activity due to implanted radon decay products. Furthermore, this new approach made integration into a Monte Carlo simulation possible so that the large variation of different room model parameters could be taken into account.

An improved model for the reconstruction of past radon exposure.

If the behavior of long-lived radon progeny was well understood, measurements of these could be used in epidemiological studies to estimate past radon exposure. Field measurements were done in a radon-prone area in the Ardennes (Belgium). The surface activity of several glass sheets was measured using detectors that were fixed on indoor glass surfaces.