Emergency egress for the elderly in care home fire situations

Practitioners are continuing to develop egress modelling software for the design of the built environment. These models require data about human behaviour and factors for calibration, validation and verification. This study aims to address the specific data and knowledge gap: emergency egress of the elderly. Such data are difficult to collect given privacy and consent concerns, with strong relationships generally being required between residences and researchers. Through the observation of nine fire drills at six Canadian long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes, specific evacuation actions and behaviour were observed for 37 staff members and information about the evacuation of 56 residents was collected. These drills demonstrated that emergency egress in LTC and retirement homes is highly staff dependent with 72% of residents recorded requiring full assistance at all stages of movement in evacuation, and that the type of announced/unannounced drill and level of resident care will affect the type of data collected. The development of travel speed and pre-movement is discussed subject to limitation with qualitative behavioural insights of residents that were observed. This study provides valuable methodological discussion on how to conduct behavioural studies in similar highly restricted research environments. Specific attention is given to understanding the considerations that must be made when using fire drills as data sources, and the impact that these can have on using such data for modelling. This study may inform the initial setup and programming of evacuation models from an actions and behavioural perspectives of staff members and residents.     

Income, Time Effects and Direct Preferences in a Multimodal Choice Context: Application of Mixed RP/SP Models with Non-Linear Utilities

Transport problems typically involve at least two types of constraints, on income and on time. Therefore, the indirect utility function depends either on the income available after having subtracted the cost of the discrete alternative and on the free time left after having worked and travelled by each competing option. In the typical linear-in-the-attributes and in-the-parameters specification, that represents the first grade approximation of the indirect utility function, the effect of income and time constraints cancel out and only the cost and time of the alternatives matter in the comparison between them. From a microeconomic point of view this is equivalent to assume that income and time effects could be disregarded; which is not always the case. To account for these effects the utility function should include second order attributes; however, in non-linear utility functions it may not be easy to distinguish among several effects that could be relevant: direct preferences for good and leisure, and simple interactions between attributes other than income and time effects. This paper analyses these effects from a theoretical point of view focusing on the possible confounding problem in detecting income and time effects. We use a dataset collected for a modal choice context and containing both revealed and stated preference data, and estimate several NL models examining the effect of the different second-order terms on detecting income and time effects. We compared specifications including square cost and time attributes, interactions between time and cost, cost divided by the income available to be spent on free time, and time multiplied by free time. Our results confirm the strong effect of direct preferences for goods and leisure time on choice, and the potential confounding effect between quadratic attributes and other non-linear omitted terms. Finally, we also found that care should be taken in highlighting income and time effects using mixed data sources, since confounding effects can occur when non-linearities are accounted for in both data sets.     

Response of captive lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) to different housing conditions: Testing the aggression-density and coping models.

Several studies have suggested that primates react differently to spatial reduction. In this article, the authors tested some general hypotheses on primate response to spatial reduction by studying the Apenheul lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla; Apeldoorn, the Netherlands). The frequency of conflicts did not greatly change between the 2 housing settings, thus not supporting the density- aggression model. Indoor, gorillas performed touching behavior more often and increased their level of reconciliation. These findings support the coping model. Indoor, the gorillas also maintained broader interindividual distances by increasing the levels of sitting alone, avoidance, and dismissing behaviors. In conclusion, the Apenheul gorillas modified selectively the distribution of some patterns typical of their behavioral repertoire in response to a high-density condition. Both avoidance and coping tactics were used, thus revealing high levels of behavioral flexibility in this species. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of optical surfaces by means of surface plasmonspectroscopy

The sensitivity to material parameters of surface plasmon oscillations is explored for the design of a prototype system operating at a wavelength of 670 nm, for the simultaneous determination of thickness, complex permittivity and surface roughness of metal films. The apparatus was employed for characterization of gold and silver films with thicknesses within the 10-100 nm range. Thickness data measured with the prototype system were well correlated with those measured on a conventional surface profilometer. The Fourier spectrum of surface irregularities extracted from scattered light, enhanced by surface plasmon oscillations, was used to determine surface roughness parameters for the distinct samples. Those parameters were shown to be representative of typical surface structures observed with the atomic force microscope     

TGF-beta-induced apoptosis of cerebellar granule neurons is prevented by depolarization

The regulation of programmed cell death in the developing nervous system involves target-derived survival factors, afferent synaptic activity, and hormone- and cytokine-dependent signaling. Cultured immature cerebellar granule neurons die by apoptosis within several days in vitro unless maintained in depolarizing (high) concentrations of potassium (25 mM K+). Here we report that transforming growth factors (TGF)-beta1, -beta2, and -beta3 accelerate apoptosis of these neurons when maintained in physiological (low) K+ medium (5mM K+) as assessed by measures of viability, quantitative DNA fragmentation, and nuclear morphology. TGF-beta-induced apoptosis of these neurons is not blocked by CNTF and LIF, cytokines that enhance neuronal survival when applied alone, or by IGF-I, which prevents apoptosis upon potassium withdrawal. In contrast, neurons that differentiate in high K+ medium for several days in vitro acquire resistance to TGF-beta-mediated cell death. Granule neurons maintained in either low or high K+ medium produce latent, but not bioactive, TGF-beta1 and -beta2. Because neutralizing TGF-beta antibodies fail to augment survival of low K+ neurons, the cerebellar neurons are apparently unable to activate latent TGF-beta. Thus, apoptosis of low K+ neurons is not attributable to endogenous production of TGF-beta. Taken together, our data suggest that TGF-beta may limit the expansion of postmitotic neuronal precursor populations by promoting their apoptosis but may support survival of those neurons that have maturated, differentiated, and established supportive synaptic connectivity.     

Defensive allomones in three species ofHypselodoris (gastropoda: Nudibranchia) from the Cantabrian sea

ThreeHypselodoris species,H. villafranca, H. cantabrica, and H. tricolor, have been studied in order to further investigate the defensive strategies of Chromodorididae mollusks from Iberian coasts. All animals possess large amounts of furanosesquiterpenoids, probably derived from their diet of sponges. The products are transferred and stored in specific sites of the mantle (mantle dermal formations, MDFs) to be used as chemical deterrents against predators. Chemical analysis of CantabrianHypselodoris species has led to the characterization of eight sesquiterpenoids. Among these, six have been found previously in both sponges and nudibranchs, while two are new natural products.Hypselodoris species cooccurring in the same area contained comparable mixtures of sesquiterpenoids. However, two populations ofH. cantabrica from different sites of the Cantabrian sea showed different metabolic patterns. All sesquiterpenoids induce feeding deterrence inCarassius auratus and two are also toxic toGambusia affinis.     

X-ray Fluorescence Uptake Measurement of Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles in Tumor Cell Microsamples

Quantitative cellular in vitro nanoparticle uptake measurements are possible with a large number of different techniques, however, all have their respective restrictions. Here, we demonstrate the application of synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence imaging (XFI) on prostate tumor cells, which have internalized differently functionalized gold nanoparticles. Total nanoparticle uptake on the order of a few hundred picograms could be conveniently observed with microsamples consisting of only a few hundreds of cells. A comparison with mass spectroscopy quantification is provided, experimental results are both supported and sensitivity limits of this XFI approach extrapolated by Monte-Carlo simulations, yielding a minimum detectable nanoparticle mass of just 5 pg. This study demonstrates the high sensitivity level of XFI, allowing non-destructive uptake measurements with very small microsamples within just seconds of irradiation time.     

Lipofilling in Breast Oncological Surgery: A Safe Opportunity or Risk for Cancer Recurrence?

Lipofilling (LF) is a largely employed technique in reconstructive and esthetic breast surgery. Over the years, it has demonstrated to be extremely useful for treatment of soft tissue defects after demolitive or conservative breast cancer surgery and different procedures have been developed to improve the survival of transplanted fat graft. The regenerative potential of LF is attributed to the multipotent stem cells found in large quantity in adipose tissue. However, a growing body of pre-clinical evidence shows that adipocytes and adipose-derived stromal cells may have pro-tumorigenic potential. Despite no clear indication from clinical studies has demonstrated an increased risk of cancer recurrence upon LF, these observations challenge the oncologic safety of the procedure. This review aims to provide an updated overview of both the clinical and the pre-clinical indications to the suitability and safety of LF in breast oncological surgery. Cellular and molecular players in the crosstalk between adipose tissue and cancer are described, and heterogeneous contradictory results are discussed, highlighting that important issues still remain to be solved to get a clear understanding of LF safety in breast cancer patients.