title: The Effects of Network Relationships on Global Supply Chain Vulnerability

text: In this chapter, we analyze the effects of levels of social relationship on the global supply chain networks vulnerability. Relationship levels in our framework are assumed to influence transaction costs as well as risk for the decision-makers. We propose a network performance measure for the evaluation of the global supply chain networks efficiency and vulnerability. The measure captures risk, transaction cost, price, transaction flow, revenue, and demand information in the context of the decision-makers behavior the network. The network consists of manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. Manufacturers and retailers are multicriteria decisionmakers who decide about their production and transaction quantities as well as the level of social relationship they want to pursue in order to maximize net return and minimize risk. The model allows us to investigate the interplay of the heterogeneous decision-makers in the supply chain and to compute the resultant equilibrium pattern of product outputs, transactions, product prices, and levels of social relationship. The results show that high levels of relationship can lead to lower overall cost and therefore lower price and higher product transaction. Moreover, we use the performance measure to assess which nodes in the supply networks are themost vulnerable in the sense that their removal will impact the performance of the network in the most significant way.


docid: qythbtmf

title: Allografts in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

text: Usual allograft sources for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction are patellar ligament, Achilles tendon, tibialis anterior, and posterior. The advantages of the use of allograft include reduced donor-site morbidity, shorter operative time, smaller incisions, and no size restrictions. The disadvantages include increased cost, slower graft embodiment, and the risk of viral or bacterial infection, which may occur either by transmission from an infected donor or by contamination by the healthcare provider. Careful donor selection, aseptic graft procurement and processing, and tissue sterilization, by irradiation or proprietary chemical processing, are the three major steps of the graft preparation procedure. Successful allograft implantation depends on sterility, reduction of antigenicity, and preservation of the biomechanical properties of the graft. To date, reports on the clinical and functional outcomes of allograft compared to autograft ACL reconstruction are controversial. Overall, graft choice depends on surgeon and patient preference, since no graft can perfectly match the properties of the native ACL.


title: Pulmonary Manifestations of Predominantly Antibody Deficiencies

text: Predominantly antibody deficiencies (PADs) are the most frequent forms of primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs). Commonly accompanied with complications involving several body systems, immunoglobulin substitution therapy along with prophylactic antibiotics remained the cornerstone of treatment for PADs and related complications. Patients with respiratory complications should be prescribed an appropriate therapy as soon as possible and have to be adhering to more and longer medical therapies. Recent studies identified a gap for screening protocols to monitor respiratory manifestations in patients with PADs. In the present chapter, the pulmonary manifestations of different PADs for each have been discussed. The chapter is mainly focused on X-linked agammaglobulinemia, common variable immunodeficiency, activated PI3K-δ syndrome, LRBA deficiency, CD19 complex deficiencies, CD20 deficiency, other monogenic defects associated with hypogammaglobulinemia, immunoglobulin class switch recombination deficiencies affecting B-cells, transient hypogammaglobulinemia of infancy, and selective IgA deficiency.


title: Host–Symbiont Relationships: Understanding the Change from Guest to Pest

text: The several meanings for the term “symbiosis” create confusion, which can be avoided when the author provides details of the interrelationships between the symbiotic organism and the “host” so that a reader can clearly understand what definition is implied in each case. For example, we, as opposed to many other mentioned readers, consider a symbiont as an organism living in an association with another regardless of whether it causes a pathologic response or not, but from our title, the reader may incorrectly infer that we consider a parasite to be different from a symbiont. A symbiont is an organism that uses another organism as a habitat. This chapter discusses the primary associations and associated conflicts involving the terminology. It also provides both differentiation between and conflicting views regarding the interpretation of the terms “infect” and “infest,” “infection” and “disease,” and other terms. Many seemingly harmless symbionts of a wide array of taxonomic groups are triggered to become pathogenic or virulent, and we provide several examples of the provoking (stimulating) triggers, with the understanding that in most cases, the conditions for the triggered activities are much more complex and complicated than presented. Examples of triggers follow: environmental ones like temperature, toxic chemicals (dose), chemotherapeutics, dietary changes, and geographic habits; internal ones like host site, host resistance or susceptibility, and host modifications; and combinations of these and other conditions. We provide examples involving multiple triggers for organisms associated with termites, for an endemic virus being affected by multiple factors and having multiple effects on its commercial penaeid shrimp hosts, and for contrasting variables associated with two exotic viruses in wild and cultured commercial penaeid shrimps with an emphasis on hypothesizing how the pathogenicity developed in these two viruses. The chapter ends by trying to answer the question of why would a symbiont become pathogenic in some hosts and not in others from an evolutionary perspective. It uses two hypotheses to explain the increased virulence.


title: How Behaviour and the Environment Influence Transmission in Mobile Groups

text: The movement of individuals living in groups leads to the formation of physical interaction networks over which signals such as information or disease can be transmitted. Direct contacts represent the most obvious opportunities for a signal to be transmitted. However, because signals that persist after being deposited into the environment may later be acquired by other group members, indirect environmentally-mediated transmission is also possible. To date, studies of signal transmission within groups have focused on direct physical interactions and ignored the role of indirect pathways. Here, we use an agent-based model to study how the movement of individuals and characteristics of the signal being transmitted modulate transmission. By analysing the dynamic interaction networks generated from these simulations, we show that the addition of indirect pathways speeds up signal transmission, while the addition of physically-realistic collisions between individuals in densely packed environments hampers it. Furthermore, the inclusion of spatial biases that induce the formation of individual territories, reveals the existence of a trade-off such that optimal signal transmission at the group level is only achieved when territories are of intermediate sizes. Our findings provide insight into the selective pressures guiding the evolution of behavioural traits in natural groups, and offer a means by which multi-agent systems can be engineered to achieve desired transmission capabilities.


title: Upper Respiratory Infections and Acute Bronchitis

text: Upper respiratory infections include the following: uncomplicated upper respiratory infections also known as the “common cold,” acute otitis media, pharyngitis/tonsillitis, and acute sinusitis. These conditions, along with acute bronchitis, are very common illnesses that are commonly seen in outpatient settings and are widely treated with antibiotics. In fact, these conditions are the primary indications for outpatient antibiotic prescriptions. These conditions tend to have overlapping clinical characteristics yet evidence regarding the utility of antimicrobial treatments varies across conditions.


title: Knowledge-Based Tweet Classification for Disease Sentiment Monitoring

text: Disease monitoring and tracking is of tremendous value, not only for containing the spread of contagious diseases but also for avoiding unnecessary public concerns and even panic. In this chapter, we present a near real-time sentiment analysis service of public health-related tweets. Traditionally, it is impossible for humans to effectively measure the degree of public health concerns due to limited resources and significant time delays. To solve this problem, we have developed a computational intelligence approach for Epidemic Sentiment Monitoring System (ESMOS) to automatically analyze the disease sentiments and gauge the Measure of Concern (MOC) expressed by Twitter users. More specifically, we present a knowledge-based approach that employs a disease ontology to detect the outbreak of diseases and to analyze the linguistic expressions that convey subjective expressions and sentiment polarity of emotions, feelings, opinions, personal attitudes, etc. with a sentiment classifier. The two-step sentiment classification method utilizes the subjective vocabulary corpus (MPQA), sentiment strength corpus (AFINN), as well as emoticons and profanity words that are often used in social media postings. It first automatically classifies the tweets into personal and non-personal classes, eliminating many tweets such as non-personal “retweets” of news articles from further consideration. In the second stage, the personal tweets are classified into Negative and non-Negative sentiments. In addition, we present a model to quantify the public’s Measure of Concern (MOC) about a disease, based on sentiment classification results. The trends of the public MOC are visualized on a timeline. Correlation analyses between MOC timeline and disease-related sentiment category timelines show that the peaks of the MOC are weakly correlated with the peaks of the News timeline without any appreciable time delay or lead. Our sentiment analysis method and the MOC trend analyses can be generalized to other topical domains, such as mental health monitoring and crisis management. We present the ESMOS prototype for public health-related disease monitoring, for public concern trending and for mapping analyses.


title: Infectious Diseases in Cancer Patients: An Overview

text: The predisposition of cancer patients to infectious diseases which contribute to the gravity of their prognosis is well documented. The current success in therapy of both malignancies and infections is unprecedented. However, the overall co-morbidity of these conditions is still a major problem in management of these patients. Paradoxically, to some degree the problem of containing infectious complications is directly associated with the vigor of the anti-cancer therapeutic regimens. The objective of this chapter is to provide an up to date overview of our understanding of the infectious complications in cancer patients based on the type of infection and immune responses.


title: Microbiology, Antimicrobial Susceptibility, and Antibiotic Treatment

text: Acute otitis media (AOM) is among the largest drivers of antibiotic use in children. As such, it is critical to understand the microbiology of this condition in detail to best delineate which antibiotics are most appropriate to use for patients with AOM and under what circumstances. Importantly, bacteria and/or viruses can be detected in the middle ear fluid in up to 96 % of AOM cases. The bacteriology of the condition has dramatically changed since the advent of universal pneumococcal vaccination. This chapter examines in detail the changing microbiology of otitis media (OM), along with guidelines for most appropriate antibiotic usage.


docid: mcmfsusm

title: Teschovirus

text: Teschoviruses are emerging pathogens, belonging to the family Picornaviridae, and infects porcine population only. Among all, porcine teschoviruses (PTVs) are of high prominence leading to clinical illness and consequent economic loss to the livestock sector. These are associated with extremely lethal non-suppurative polioencephalomyelitis (Teschen disease) and are distributed world over. Its milder form, Talfan disease, inflicts low morbidity and mortality and general clinical disease. The first epizootics of Teschen disease occurred in 1929 in the Czech Republic. Mature virions are small (23–30 nm) and stable in environmental conditions (pH range 2–9, heat, lipid solvents). Genetic variations in the major surface protein, VP1, lead to the evolution of several new types. As of now, 13 genotypes in PTV are approved, namely PTV-1–13. Among all, PTV-1 is highly virulent and causes severe mortality and morbidity in the porcine population, domestic as well as wild. Ingestion is the main spreading route of infection, though intra-nasal infection and virus secretion in the urine are also noted. Along with encephalitis, PTVs are also responsible for reproductive disorders, diarrhoea, pneumonia, pericarditis and myocarditis. PTVs are also found as co-infection with several bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens. Several conventional and modern diagnostics tools are available for their detection. Alternative of serological typing, VP1 and VP2 gene-based molecular typing is now preferred to know the epidemiological pattern. Although initially vaccines were used for its eradication in Europe, due to the sporadic reports of mild PTV infection in several countries, the approach was discontinued. Moreover, due to the presence of multiple serotypes, developing a multivalent PTV vaccine to protect against all strains is a major challenge.


docid: nidaneiv

title: Flavonoids and Their Biological Secrets

text: Flavonoids are tricyclic polyphenolic compounds naturally occurring in plants. Being nature’s antioxidants flavonoids have been shown to reduce the damages induced by oxidative stress in cells. Besides being an antioxidant, flavonols are demonstrated to have anti-infective properties, i.e., antiviral, antifungal, anti-angiogenic, anti-tumorigenic, and immunomodulatory bioproperties. Plants use them as one of their defense mechanisms against radiation-induced DNA damage and also for fungal infections. The use of flavonols for fabrication of new drugs has been underway with objectives to develop safer and effective therapeutic agents. This review covers 15 flavonols for their structure, biological properties, role in plant metabolisms, and current research focused on computational drug design using flavonols for searching drug leads.


docid: fridlqhv

title: Selecting Accurate Classifier Models for a MERS-CoV Dataset

text: The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a viral respiratory disease that is spreading worldwide necessitating to have an accurate diagnosis system that accurately predicts infections. As data mining classifiers can greatly assist in enhancing the prediction accuracy of diseases in general. In this paper, classifier model performance for two classification types: (1) binary and (2) multi-class were tested on a MERS-CoV dataset that consists of all reported cases in Saudi Arabia between 2013 and 2017. A cross-validation model was applied to measure the accuracy of the Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree, and k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) classifiers. Experimental results demonstrate that SVM and Decision Tree classifiers achieved the highest accuracy of 86.44% for binary classification based on healthcare personnel class. On the other hand, for multiclass classification based on city class, the decision tree classifier had the highest accuracy among the remaining classifiers; although it did not reach a satisfactory accuracy level (42.80%). This work is intended to be a part of a MERS-CoV prediction system to enhance the diagnosis of MERS-CoV disease.


title: RNA helicase 3.6.4.13

text: EC number 3.6.4.13 Systematic name ATP phosphohydrolase (RNA helix unwinding) Recommended name RNA helicase Synonyms 1a NTPase/helicase <16> [5] ATP/dATP-dependent RNA helicase <1,42> [32] ATPase <10,12> [1,36] ATPase/RNA helicase <1,42> [32] ATPase/helicase <10> [36,41] BMV 1a protein <16> [5] BmL3-helicase <1,42> [32] Brr2p <6> [50] DBP2 <24> [30] DDX17 <33> [12] DDX19 <43> [56] DDX25 <23,34,35> [12,21] DDX3 <25> [8] DDX3X <25> (<25> the gene is localized to the X chromosome [12]) [12] DDX3Y <29> (<29> the gene is localized to the Y chromosome [12]) [12] DDX4 <30> [12] DDX5 <32> [12] DEAD box RNA helicase <1,2,3> [32,45,52] DEAD box helicase <2> [45] DEAD-box RNA helicase <4,5,7,38,47,48> [9,14,16,25,53,55] DEAD-box protein DED1 <38> [11] DEAD-box rRNA helicase <5> [26] DEAH-box RNA helicase <24> [30] DEAH-box protein 2 <24> [30] DED1 <38> [11,14] DENV NS3H <10> [41] DEXD/H-box RNA helicase <43> [56] DEx(H/D)RNA helicase <12> [23] DHX9 <44> [58] DbpA <5> [10,25,26] Dhx9/RNA helicase A <13> [61] EhDEAD1 <7> [16] EhDEAD1 RNA helicase <7> [16] FRH <9> [54] FRQ-interacting RNA helicase <9> [54] GRTH <3> [57] GRTH/DDX25 <3,35> [21,51] HCV NS3 helicase <12> [48] KOKV helicase <27> [7] Mtr4p <31> [22] NPH-II <8> [18,28] NS3 <10,12,17,20,39,41> (<12,39> ambiguous [27,42,44]) [1,2,4,27,35,36,39, 42,44,46] NS3 ATPase/helicase <10> [41] NS3 NTPase/helicase <17> (<17> ambiguous [46]) [46] NS3 helicase <10,12,17> [15,44,46] NS3 protein <10,12,17,18> (<12> ambiguous [39]) [15,39,40,41,62] NTPase/helicase <12> (<12> ambiguous [37]) [37,39] RHA <6> [31,49] RNA helicase <2> [45] RNA helicase A <6,44> [31,49,58] RNA helicase CrhR <14> [59] RNA helicase DDX3 <25> [8] RNA helicase Ddx39 <47> [53] RNA helicase Hera <4> [9] RNA-dependent ATPase <37> [34] RNA-dependent NTPase/helicase <12> [1] RTPase <10> [36] RhlB <5> [43] SpolvlgA <48> [55] Supv3L1 <46> [64] TGBp1 NTPase/helicase domain <22,28> [24] Tk-DeaD <15> [47] VRH1 <26> [33] YxiN <2> [45] eIF4A <36> [20] eIF4A helicase <36> [20] eIF4AIII <37> [34] eukaryotic initiation factor eIF 4A <36> [20] gonadotropin-regulated testicular RNA helicase <3> [51,57] helicase <10> [41] helicase B <5> [43] helicase/nucleoside triphosphatase <10> [4] non structural protein 3 <12> (<12> ambiguous [37,38]) [37,38] non-structural 3 <10> [36] non-structural protein 3 <17> [46] non-structural protein 3 protein <18> [40] nonstructural protein 3 <12,17,20,39,40,41> (<12,17,39,40> ambiguous [6,27, 39,42,44,46]) [1,2,6,27,35,39,42,44,46] nucleoside 5’-triphosphatase <10> [4] nucleoside triphosphatase/RNA helicase and 5’-RNA triphosphatase <20> [2] nucleoside triphosphatase/helicase <16> [5] p54 RNA helicase <45> [60] p68 RNA helicase <3,6> [52,63] protein NS3 <12> (<12> ambiguous [38]) [38]


title: Prioritization of Risks in Supply Chains

text: Modern supply chains are very complex, with physical, financial, and information flows occurring simultaneously in order to ensure that products are delivered in the right quantities, to the right place in a cost-effective manner. Maintaining uninterrupted supply chain flows is a prerequisite for the success of a supply chain in the marketplace. But there are always associated risks in each of these flows which require suitable strategies to mitigate them. The issue of risks in supply chains has assumed importance in wake of the understanding that supply chain failures are fatal to the existence of all the partners’ in a supply chain. The severity of supply chain failures are more felt by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who form the majority at tier II and tier III levels of a supply chain. This is because of the limited resources and lack of adequate planning to counter supply chain risks. Management of risk in supply chains is a multi-criteria decision making problem. The research presented in this chapter proposes a Fuzzy-AHP based framework to prioritize various risks in supply chains. An exhaustive literature review complimented with the experts’ opinion was undertaken from the perspective of SMEs to formulate a hierarchical structure of risks in supply chains. A fuzzy analytic hierarchical process (F-AHP) is then utilized to ascertain the relative weightings which are subsequently used to prioritize these risks. Understanding the priorities would help the firms to accord importance and develop suitable strategies to manage supply chain risks according to their relative importance. This provides effective management of scarce resources available to SMEs to manage risks resident in their supply chains.


title: The Political Economy of US Antibiotic Use in Animal Feed

text: This chapter examines the evidence for antibiotic resistance in the United States and globally, the public health implications, and the impact of—and related industry and political responses to—antibiotic use in animal feed. In 1969, the Swann Report in the United Kingdom noted a dramatic increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria in food animals receiving low levels of antibiotics in their feed. While the Food and Drug Administration of the United States sought to control antibiotics in animal feed as far back as 1977, only in 2016 were such regulations fully implemented. The farm-level costs of such controls are estimated by the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service to be minimal, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimates of the public health costs of antibiotic resistance without implementing controls are $7 billion annually. The complex interactions which exist between economic interests, regulatory policy, and human and animal health are explored in this chapter.


title: China’s Belt and Road: An Evolving Network

text: This chapter consolidates the accretive imagery presented by the proponents and managers of Beijing’s dynamic BRI vision, to enable an appreciation of the enterprise’s variegated, eclectic, even diffuse, nature. For an understanding of the physical manifestations of BRI’s ‘final’ impression as espoused by Xi Jinping, the CPC Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), the State Council and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the chapter focuses on the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) undertaking, reviewing the narrative’s variations and modifications refined by successive Chinese leaders since 1994. It finally examines longitudinal SREB/MSR connectors in an empirical preview of BRI’s purposes and prospects.


title: Acute Cough

text: A 62-year-old man, Mr. M., comes to your office with a chief complaint of a cough. He states that it started about 1 week ago with a “runny nose and scratchy throat.” The cough is dry, nonproductive, and is interfering with the patient (and his wife) being able to get a full, restful night’s sleep. Mr. M. denies any other symptoms, such as headache, sinus pressure, chest pain, and shortness of breath, but thinks that he may have had a fever “off and on the last few days.” He has taken Tylenol® and has been drinking fluids, but his cough won’t go away. The patient is requesting an antibiotic to “get this thing kicked out of my system.” Mr. M. states that he is “tired of people at work looking at me like I have the plague.”


docid: paxhlsyn

title: Portale Hypertension

text: Während die Pathologie, die zur portalen Hypertension führt, im prähepatischen, hepatischen und posthepatischen venösen Gefäßbett liegen kann, machen die intrahepatischen Erkrankungen mit Abstand den Großteil aus. In unseren Breitengraden ist es die durch Alkoholabusus bedingte ethyltoxische Leberzirrhose, weltweit die durch Infektionen (HCV, HBV) bedingten Zirrhosen. Die chronische Hepatitis C mit ihren Komplikationen (Leberzellversagen, portale Hypertension und hepatozelluläres Karzinom) wird in den kommenden Jahren trotz moderner Therapieverfahren noch an Bedeutung gewinnen.


title: Scrub Typhus and Its Causative Agent, Orientia tsutsugamushi

text: The obligate intracellular bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi is responsible for more than one million cases of scrub typhus annually throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Human infection occurs via the bite of the larval form (chigger) of several species of trombiculid mites. While in some patients the result of infection is a mild, febrile illness, others experience severe complications, which may even be fatal. This review discusses the genome and biology of the causative agent, the changing epidemiology of scrub typhus, the challenges of its diagnosis, and current treatment recommendations.


title: Medical Ethics Education in China

text: Medical ethics education has a long history in China. At the same time, it is also a new field of study, along with the introduction of western medicine to China in the past two centuries. Due to the different cultural traditions, different Chinese medical ethics scholars hold various viewpoints on medical ethics and bioethics research and practice. This paper is organized as follows: In the first section, a brief historical review of the overall development of Chinese medical ethics is presented. The next section presents three different schools of scholars in Chinese medical ethics and research. Then, section three discusses the current popular research topics, which represent state of the art Chinese medical ethics research. The last section analyzes and evaluates the viewpoints from different schools and concluding remarks are offered.


title: Arf Proteins and Their Regulators: At the Interface Between Membrane Lipids and the Protein Trafficking Machinery

text: The Arf small GTP-binding (G) proteins regulate membrane traffic and organelle structure in eukaryotic cells through a regulated cycle of GTP binding and hydrolysis. The first function identified for Arf proteins was recruitment of cytosolic coat complexes to membranes to mediate vesicle formation. However, subsequent studies have uncovered additional functions, including roles in plasma membrane signalling pathways, cytoskeleton regulation, lipid droplet function, and non-vesicular lipid transport. In contrast to other families of G proteins, there are only a few Arf proteins in each organism, yet they function specifically at many different cellular locations. Part of this specificity is achieved by formation of complexes with their guanine nucleotide-exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase activating proteins (GAPs) that catalyse GTP binding and hydrolysis, respectively. Because these regulators outnumber their Arf substrates by at least 3-to-1, an important aspect of understanding Arf function is elucidating the mechanisms by which a single Arf protein is incorporated into different GEF, GAP, and effector complexes. New insights into these mechanisms have come from recent studies showing GEF–effector interactions, Arf activation cascades, and positive feedback loops. A unifying theme in the function of Arf proteins, carried out in conjunction with their regulators and effectors, is sensing and modulating the properties of the lipids that make up cellular membranes.


title: Hygiene und Arbeitsschutz

text: Im Rettungsdienst werden unter dem Begriff »Hygiene« alle vorsorglichen Vorkehrungen und Maβnahmen zusammengefasst, die alle im Krankentransport und Rettungsdienst Tätigen, sowie die zu betreuenden Patienten, vor schädlichen und krankmachenden Einflüssen durch Mikroorganismen schützen sollen.


title: Pleural Disorders

text: This chapter provides an overview of both benign and malignant pleural disorders, starting with the relevant anatomy and physiology. The focus is on the management of pneumothoraces and pleural effusions—conditions that are commonly encountered on a general thoracic surgery service. The pleural cavity is lined by parietal and visceral pleura, which are smooth membranes that are continuous with one another at the hilum and pulmonary ligaments. Parietal Pleura: innermost chest wall layer, divided into cervical, costal, mediastinal and diaphragmatic pleura.


title: The Use of a Bookclub to Enhance Science Literacy and Understanding of Infectious Disease Epidemiology

text: This chapter describes the activities of the Bad Bugs Bookclub, which brings scientists and non-scientists together to read novels where infectious disease formed part of the plot, and considers how these novels could be used to promote a better understanding of disease, epidemiology and the work of the professional scientist. A particular focus of the bookclub was to suggest how teachers in Higher Education might use these novels in their practice, although this specialised format can be used to benefit a wide range of professional (and non-professional) audiences. The Bad Bugs Bookclub has also been targeted towards students reading for a degree in Biomedical Science, accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Sciences: graduates are professionally qualified to be employed as biomedical scientists.


title: Mikrobiologische Untersuchungstechniken

text: Ausgehend von den einzelnen Erregern werden im Folgenden Nachweismethoden vorgestellt und bewertet.


title: China Takes Charge of a Changing Epidemic

text: When the AIDS warriors in China’s academies and health institutions started experimenting with responses to the epidemic, their efforts were largely funded with foreign money. UN agencies; the international development wing of the governments of Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and other nations; multilateral organisations such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and private charities such as the Ford Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – all of these provided support for HIV prevention and/or treatment activities in China. The Chinese government’s contribution to the response rose dramatically following the “tipping point” described in Chap. 10.1007/978-981-10-3746-7_4. But even then, most of the original funding for provision of treatment to people in areas with epidemics driven by plasma sales was provided by the Global Fund.


title: Host Cell Proteases: Cathepsins

text: Cathepsins are proteolytic enzymes with a broad spectrum of substrates. They are known to reside within endo-lysosomes where they acquire optimal conditions for proteolytic activity and substrate cleavage. However, cathepsins have been detected in locations other than the canonical compartments of the endocytotic pathway. They are often secreted from cells in either proteolytically inactive proform or as mature and active enzyme; this may happen in both physiological and pathological conditions. Moreover, cytosolic and nuclear forms of cathepsins have been described and are currently an emerging field of research aiming at understanding their functions in such unexpected cellular locations. This chapter summarizes the canonical pathways of biosynthesis and transport of cathepsins in healthy cells. We further describe how cathepsins can reach unexpected locations such as the extracellular space or the cytosol and the nuclear matrix. No matter where viruses and cathepsins encounter, several outcomes can be perceived. Thus, scenarios are discussed on how cathepsins may support virus entry into host cells, involve in viral fusion factor and polyprotein processing in different host cell compartments, or help in packaging of viral particles during maturation. It is of note to mention that this review is not meant to comprehensively cover the present literature on viruses encountering cathepsins but rather illustrates, on some representative examples, the possible roles of cathepsins in replication of viruses and in the course of disease.


title: The role of animal models in influenza vaccine research

text: A major challenge for research on influenza vaccines is the selection of an appropriate animal model that accurately reflects the disease and the protective immune response to influenza infection in humans. Vaccines for seasonal influenza have been available for decades and there is a wealth of data available on the immune response to these vaccines in humans, with well-established correlates of protection for inactivated influenza virus vaccines. Many of the seminal studies on vaccines for epidemic influenza were conducted in human subjects. Studies in humans are performed less frequently now than they were in the past. Therefore, as the quest for improved influenza vaccines continues, it is important to consider the use of animal models for the evaluation of influenza vaccines, and a major challenge for research on influenza vaccines is the selection of an appropriate animal model that accurately reflects the disease and the protective immune response to influenza infection in humans. The emergence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (AI) viruses and the threat of a pandemic caused by AI viruses of this or another subtype has resulted in a resurgence of interest in influenza vaccine research. The development of vaccines for pandemic influenza presents a unique set of obstacles, not the least of which is that the demonstration of efficacy in humans is not possible. Since the correlates of protection from pandemic influenza are not known, we rely on extrapolation of lessons from seasonal influenza vaccines and on data from the evaluation of pandemic influenza vaccines in animal models to guide our decisions on vaccines for use in humans. The features and contributions of commonly used animal models for influenza vaccine research are discussed.


title: Thoracoabdominal Injuries

text: Trauma to the thorax and abdomen can occur during participation in sports. This chapter reviews some of the more common presentations of such injuries and how such injuries should be best managed. Thoracic injuries reviewed include internal injuries such as pneumothorax, pulmonary contusion, hemothorax, commotio cordis, and cardiac contusion. Chest wall injuries are also reviewed such as rib fractures, costochondritis, and slipping rib syndrome plus sternal and scapular fractures. Abdominal injuries reviewed are focused on internal organ trauma to the spleen and liver, kidney, pancreas, and bowel. There is attention to the effect of Epstein-Barr virus and infectious mononucleosis, seen very frequently in high school and collegiate athletes. Finally, groin pain and athletic pubalgia are described. In addition to anatomy and clinical presentation, imaging modalities that characterize such trauma are reviewed for each diagnosis. Prevention of thoracoabdominal injuries and return-to-play decisions are described at the chapter conclusion.


title: Cost-Benefit Analysis for China’s Influenza A (H1N1) Prevention and Control

text: The impact of a public health emergency on a society and economy depends upon two factors: one is the harmful nature of the event along with its duration, and the other is the effect of the social response and measures. Both of these factors are wrought with uncertainty. Firstly, the nature of the event itself is uncertain, for example there may be a lack of understanding regarding the virulence of the epidemic. Secondly, different intervention measures bring about varying uncertainties, such as the potentially infected cases reduced using the health campaigning measures to change people’s actions in an epidemic.


title: Acute Respiratory Failure in Patients with Hematologic and Solid Malignancies: Global Approach

text: Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is the principal cause for ICU admission and mortality in cancer patients. Early diagnosis and management of these patients entail unique challenges to the intensivist. This chapter reviews the common causes of ARF in cancer patients along with a global diagnostic and management approach. Oncologists and intensivists as a team must establish clear treatment goals for every cancer patient requiring mechanical ventilation.


title: Internationale Gesundheitsrisiken

text: Machtverhältnisse drücken sich in der Zuschreibung von Risiken aus. Spezifisches Wissen um Risiken dient dabei als Katalysator, Machtressourcen aufzubringen und steuernd in gesellschaftliche Prozesse einzugreifen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Steuerung trotz operativer Kooperation in internationalen Institutionen wie Europol oder geheimdienstlicher Zusammenarbeit noch weitgehend national organisiert ist, was die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen ebenso wie die diskursive Einbettung terroristischer Risiken betrifft. Weniger kontrovers sind ‚weiche‘ Themen wie Gesundheitsvorsorge und Management von Pandemien. Hier setzen internationale Institutionen Standards durch, die als Risikomanagement deutliche Eingriffe in staatliche Steuerungsautonomie bedeuten.


title: Epidemiologische Grundlagen nosokomialer Infektionen

text: Viele Faktoren tragen zu erhöhten nosokomialen Infektionsraten bei. Der Anteil alter Patienten mit chronischen Krankheiten und Immunsupprimierter steigt. Fortschritte in Diagnostik und Therapie resultieren immer häufiger in invasiven Eingriffen. Antibiotikaresistenzen und Folgen nosokomialer Infektionen erfordern daher eine verlässliche Epidemiologie. Konsequenzen nosokomialer Infektionen betreffen einerseits Patienten (Morbidität und Letalität), aber auch das Gesundheitswesen, dem zusätzliche, teilweise vermeidbare finanzielle Belastungen entstehen.


title: Other Pediatric Accidental Deaths

text: Injury, both intentional and accidental, is the most common cause of death in children throughout the world. Many injury patterns that are seen in children are similar to those in adult populations; however, others differ, reflecting the age, stature, and development of children. This chapter focuses on differences in injury patterns of children across the spectrum of childhood development and growth, including injuries and fatalities that primarily occur in infancy and early childhood. Risk factors for injury and death are identified within the context of childhood development. Topics covered include deaths associated with motorized and nonmotorized vehicles including pedestrian, occupant, and operator fatalities; farming and ranching deaths; drowning, boating, and diving deaths; fires and burns, including electrical deaths; animal-related deaths; falls; and airway-associated deaths. There are significant disparities in childhood injury and death among racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic groups. A brief consideration of these differences is provided to assist in forensic case examination.


title: Regulated Cell Death

text: In this chapter, the various subroutines of regulated cell death are neatly described by highlighting apoptosis and subforms of regulated necrosis such as necroptosis, ferroptosis, pyroptosis, and NETosis. Typically, all forms of regulated necrosis are defined by finite rupture of the plasma cell membrane. Apoptosis is characterized by an enzymatic machinery that consists of caspases which cause the morphologic features of this type of cell death. Mechanistically, apoptosis can be instigated by two major cellular signalling pathways: an intrinsic pathway that is initiated inside cells by mitochondrial release of pro-apoptotic factors or an extrinsic pathway that is initiated at the cell surface by various death receptors. In necroptosis, the biochemical processes are distinct from those found in apoptosis; in particular, there is no caspase activation. As such, necroptosis is a kinase-mediated cell death that relies on “receptor-interacting protein kinase 3” which mediates phosphorylation of the pseudokinase “mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein.” While ferroptosis is an iron-dependent, oxidative form of regulated necrosis that is biochemically characterized by accumulation of ROS from iron metabolism, oxidase activity, and lipid peroxidation products, pyroptosis is defined as a form of cell death (predominantly of phagocytes) that develops during inflammasome activation and is executed by caspase-mediated cleavage of the pore-forming protein gasdermin D. Finally, NETosis refers to a regulated death of neutrophils that is characterized by the release of chromatin-derived weblike structures released into the extracellular space. The chapter ends up with a discussion on the characteristic feature of regulated necrosis: the passive release of large amounts of constitutive DAMPs as a consequence of final plasma membrane rupture as well as the active secretion of inducible DAMPs earlier during the dying process. Notably, per cell death subroutine, the active secretion of inducible DAMPs varies, thereby determining different immunogenicity of dying cells.


title: Clinical Ethics and Professionalism

text: The act of confronting problems that are too large for the patients, helping them navigate their way through health, wellness, sickness, and dying, and trying to find a balance among conflicting values, beliefs, ethics, and morals can complicate the doctor–patient relationship. The doctor–patient relationship is complex and is built upon trust. That trust can be affected by many different factors, as discussed in Chap. 8. What happens when the ethical principles that create and strengthen the doctor–patient relationship conflict? In this chapter, we address many of the ethical principles that create a foundation for this relationship. Some of the principles that we explore include beneficence, acting in a patient’s best interests, and doing no harm. Balancing these principles with a patient’s right to make autonomous decisions to guide their own medical care, especially when a patient refuses a recommended treatment, can be difficult.


title: Analysis of Codon Usage Bias in Interferon Alpha Gene of the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca)

text: The analysis on codon usage bias of IFN-a gene of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) may provide a basis for understanding the evolution relationship of giant panda and for selecting appropriate host expression systems to improve the expression of target genes. In this paper, the codon usage bias in the mature IFN-a sequence of giant panda and 15 reference species have been analyzed. The results showed that the synonymous codons with G and C at the third codon position were widely used and the ENC-GC3S plot revealed that the genetic heterogeneity in IFN-a gene was main constrained by mutational bias. Contrastive analysis revealed that there were 40 codons showing distinct usage differences between GpIFN-a and Escherichia coli, 38 codons between GpIFN-a and yeast. and only 30 between GpIFN-a and Homo sapiens. Therefore the Homo expression system may be more suitable for the expression of GpIFN-a genes.


title: Narratives in Healthcare

text: In this chapter, the narrative is defined and the elements of the narrative are elucidated. Three lenses through which one can view the role of narratives in healthcare are discussed. First, organizational narratives help to foster social capital in the organization and, therefore, contribute to the people aspect of the knowledge management initiative in the organization. Second, the recuperative and relationship building roles of illness narratives are described. Third, narratives from the practice of narrative medicine are explored. The chapter concludes by proposing four requirements for narratives to be effective, namely, effective listening skills, the availability of time and place for storytelling, and the codification of narratives.


title: ARF-Like (ARL) Proteins

text: The ARF-like (ARL) proteins, within the ARF family, are a collection of functionally diverse GTPases that share extensive (>40 %) identity with the ARFs and each other and are assumed to share basic mechanisms of regulation and a very incompletely documented degree of overlapping regulators. At least four ARLs were already present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor, along with one ARF, and these have been expanded to >20 members in mammals. We know little about the majority of these proteins so our review will focus on those about which the most is known, including ARL1, ARL2, ARL3, ARL4s, ARL6, ARL13s, and ARFRP1. From this fragmentary information we extract some generalizations and conclusions regarding the sources and extent of specificity and functions of the ARLs.


title: Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Early Detection of Viral Outbreaks

text: The immense global burden of infectious disease outbreaks and the need to establish prediction and prevention systems have been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the international scientific community. Despite multiple efforts, this infectious burden is still increasing. For example, it has been reported that between 1.5 and 12 million people die each year from waterborne diseases and diarrheal diseases are listed within the top 15 leading causes of death worldwide. Rapid population growth, climate change, natural disasters, immigration, globalization, and the corresponding sanitation and waste management challenges are expected to intensify the problem in the years to come.


title: Remaking Eco-civilization by Sustainable Decision-Making

text: Is there something in humanity’s nature that makes us seek out unsafety and risk? Already in the hunter-gatherer society of prehistory, a pattern of communal living for the sake of survival and cooperation to obtain food, clothing, and shelter was universal. Well before recorded history, as humankind progressed from the New Stone Age to the Bronze Age and then the Iron Age, groups of people specialized in making farming tools, weapons, horse tackle, and other forms of metalworking and needed a system of cooperation at the level of the village, community, and state. Meanwhile, from the time of the first agricultural revolution, ruling the waters, for instance, by predicting the timing of river floods to assist with seed sowing, tilling, and harvesting, was the basis for the existence of the state.


Convergence Toward the Pan-Canadian Electronic Health Record


title: Adverse Medication Reactions

text: Cutaneous adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are among the most frequent adverse reactions in patients receiving drug therapy. They have a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, are caused by various drugs, and result from different pathophysiological mechanisms. Hence, their diagnosis and management is challenging. Severe cutaneous ADRs comprise a group of diseases with major morbidity and mortality, reaching 30 % mortality rate in cases of Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. This chapter covers the terminology, epidemiology, pathogenesis and classification of cutaneous ADR, describes the severe cutaneous ADRs and the clinical and laboratory approach to the patient with cutaneous ADR and presents the translation of laboratory-based discoveries on the genetic predisposition and pathogenesis of cutaneous ADRs to clinical management guidelines.


title: The Respiratory System

text: One of the most critical events of birth is the conversion of the fluid-filled lung, unimportant to fetal intrauterine existence, into a hollow organ distended with air and capable of gaseous exchange sufficient to support life. Indeed, it has been argued that the major determinant of perinatal survival is respiratory function (Wigglesworth and Desai 1982). The failure to make this conversion adequately may lead, directly or indirectly, to infant death, and the pathologist often needs to assess the contribution made by respiratory inadequacy to the sequence of events leading to death. In the preterm infant, problems are mainly related to pulmonary immaturity and associated therapy. In the mature infant, birth asphyxia primarily results in cerebral damage but can engender significant respiratory complications when associated with aspiration of meconium. Even in stillbirths, where primary pulmonary pathology is rarely a cause of death, lung pathology may provide clues to antecedent events. Poor lung growth and maturation may point to the presence of pathology elsewhere. Consequently, adequate pathological investigation of the fetal or infant respiratory system is critical in any perinatal autopsy.


title: Pneumologie

text: Die Pneumologie als Teilgebiet der Inneren Medizin widmet sich den Erkrankungen des Lungenparenchyms, des Lungenkreislaufes, der Atmung und der Pleura. Entsprechend werden in diesem Kapitel die wesentlichen medizinischen Fakten zu folgenden Themen dargestellt: obstruktive Lungenerkrankungen (u. a. Asthma bronchiale, chronische Bronchitis, Mukoviszidose), Lungenparenchymerkrankungen (hierzu zählt das Lungenemphysem ebenso wie die Lungenfibrose, aber auch das ARDS und die Silikose etc.) und Störungen im kleinen Kreislauf (Embolie, Blutung, Ödem, Hypertonie). Darüber hinaus wird auf das Schlafapnoe-Syndrom, das Hyperventilationssyndrom, den Pneumothorax und die Pleuritis/den Pleuraerguss näher eingegangen.


Spezifische Infektionen


title: Avian influenza viruses: a severe threat of a pandemic in children?

text: Influenza virus is a leading cause of human respiratory illnesses, causing significant annual morbidity and mortality. The greatest severity of illness due to seasonal influenza occurs in infants less than 6 months of age and the elderly. In recent years, avian influenza virus infections with high mortality have occurred in humans. Many of these avian influenza virus infections have occurred in children, and unlike seasonal influenza, the most severe disease and highest death rates have occurred in children and young adults. Treatment and prevention options for avian influenza viruses are limited at present, although much research effort is directed toward these areas. Avian-derived influenza viruses are potential causes of pandemic influenza that could have a dramatic impact on children worldwide.


title: Hygiene und Arbeitsschutz

text: In diesem Kapitel wird ein Überblick über Impfungen, meldepflichtige Erkrankungen sowie allgemeine Hinweise zur Hygiene im notfallmedizinischen Umfeld gegeben.


title: Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

text: The first description of the circulation of blood through the lungs has been attributed to Ibn Nafis (1210–1288).1 The concept was rediscovered by Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician during the Renaissance (1511–1553) and recorded, oddly enough, in two pages of his religious treatise, Christianismi Restitutio (1553).2 The definitive exposition of the pulmonary circulation was made by William Harvey in DeMotu Cordis (1628).3 The first observation of the pulmonary capillaries was first reported by Marcellus Malpighi (1661).4 Heart catheterization in humans, driven by a desire to obtain the perfect mixed venous specimen and measure cardiac output, was first performed in 1929 by the German urologist Forssmann,5 using a ureteral catheter to access his own right atrium. Over a decade later, Cournand and Richards at Columbia University in New York subsequently used right heart catheterization to record pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) in patients with shock and secondary forms of pulmonary hypertension (PHT). For these accomplishments, which were inspired by an interest in the pulmonary circulation and PHT related to mitral stenosis, Forssmann, Cournand, and Richards received the Nobel Prize in 1956.


Coronaviridae: a review of coronaviruses and toroviruses


title: Conclusion

text: This book has discussed the history of disease in ancient times. The purpose of this book was to show that disease was a significant contributing causal factor in history; especially in ancient times and reflects the fact that history is not just made up of dates of battles and the list of monarchs and when they reigned. Second it looked at the possible diseases may of the era and third it questioned the status quo such as whether the 1322 bce Hittite epidemic ended the Hittite Empire.


title: Assessment Considerations in Pediatric Patients

text: Pharmacy assessment of pediatric patients is similar in many ways to that of adults; however there are many specific nuances that need to be considered in addition to the typical aspects included in an adult assessment. There is a lack of pediatric-specific medication research and a much higher rate of “off label” medication use, so children are at higher risk of medication errors and related harm. Pharmacokinetic differences and other age-related differences result in highly variable responses to medications throughout childhood. Pharmacists need to be aware of this variability and use every patient encounter as an opportunity for assessment of many aspects of medication including dose, formulation, administration, and indication. Infants and children also have physiological differences that need to be considered especially when assessing efficacy, toxicity, and the patient’s overall response to medications through physical exam or use of laboratory values. Lastly, a lack of appropriate medication formulations for children creates a requirement for pharmacists to specifically assess the formulations, measurement, and administration of pediatric medications. This chapter provides an approach to pediatric assessment, highlights common sources of error, and provides strategies for managing pediatric medications.


title: Prioritätensetzung im Katastrophenschutz

text: Die Frage der „Prioritätensetzung bei Rettungsmaßnahmen“ lässt sich in unterschiedlichen Reichweiten betrachten. Sehr eng fokussiert kann man sie auf die Auswahl reduzieren, wer von mehreren Verletzten zuerst behandelt wird, wenn (zunächst) zu wenige Rettungskräfte vorhanden sind, um alle zugleich zu behandeln. Im Zusammenhang mit komplexen Schadenslagen stellt sich die Frage der Prioritätensetzung jedoch sehr viel umfassender dar. Sie betrifft bereits die Katastrophenvermeidung und -vorsorge. In der konkreten Lagebewältigung spielen verschiedene Rechtsgüter und die Wechselwirkungen zwischen ihnen eine erhebliche Rolle. Dabei existieren kaum rechtliche Regelungen, die die Prioritätensetzung steuern.


Introduction to Survival Analysis


title: Epidemiology of Acute Respiratory Failure in Patients with HM (ICU Only)

text: Pulmonary complications are common in hematological patients, particularly those receiving a hematological stem cell transplant (HSCT), and a significant percentage of them will require intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Acute respiratory failure in these patients is a threatening event, with a very poor outcome, particularly when mechanical ventilation (MV) is required. For many years, oncologists and intensivists had a pessimistic vision of the dismal outcome of those hematological patients requiring admission to the ICU. The bleak experience in this population led some authors to suggest early withdrawal of support, or even withholding the option of mechanical ventilation altogether. However, over the last years this vision seems to be changing. Great progress has been made in stem cell transplantation that can be ascribed to a better understanding of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system for donor selection, more effective and less toxic immunosupression for prevention and treatment of graft-versus host disease (GVHD), and significant advances in infectious disease therapy. Also improvements in ventilatory and supportive care, such as the early implantation of noninvasive ventilation (NIV), may avoid intubation in a significant percentage of patients suffering from acute respiratory failure. As a result of all this, the proportion of both hematological patients requiring management in the ICU and those requiring MV is decreasing. Also the survival rate of HSCT recipients admitted to the ICU has been steadily improving. In this chapter we will report on the epidemiology of acute respiratory failure in patients with hematological malignancies.


title: Consolidation

text: Consolidation refers to an area of homogeneous increase in lung parenchymal attenuation that obscures the margins of vessels and airway walls [1]. Air bronchograms may be present with consolidative area. Pathologically, consolidation represents an exudate or other product of disease that replaces alveolar air, rendering the lung solid [2, 3].


title: Fluorescence Observables and Enzyme Kinetics in the Investigation of PPI Modulation by Small Molecules: Detection, Mechanistic Insight, and Functional Consequences

text: The potential of fluorescence-based methods and kinetic analysis in the screening and molecular-scale mechanistic investigation of PPI modulation by small molecules is discussed through several representative examples collected and commented. These experimental approaches take advantage of a variety of observables. Changes in the protein aggregation pattern have been monitored through fluorescence properties such as spectra, intensities (related to quantum yields), time-decays, and anisotropies of intrinsic protein fluorophores, of extrinsic fluorescent tags and, even, of the same small molecules added to modulate PPIs, as well as through bimolecular excited-state processes such as static and collisional quenching, including electron and excitation-energy transfer, or exciton interaction, whose efficiencies are crucially structure dependent. Besides allowing for qualitative and quantitative information on the small-molecule induced PPI modulation, these approaches can take advantage from the sensitivity of fluorescence observables on fine structural details to shed light on the molecular-scale mechanisms of action and their functional consequences. Direct investigation of the latter by kinetic inhibition analysis represents a useful change in perspective whenever PPI are relevant for enzyme activity. Dissociative inhibition, that is, the ability of some small molecules to inhibit enzymes by disrupting their active oligomeric assembly is shortly reviewed.


title: Infection Prevention and Control Issues After Solid Organ Transplantation

text: Infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in solid organ transplant recipients. Consequently, infection prevention is an essential component of any organ transplant program. Given their frequent and often prolonged contact with the healthcare system, solid organ transplant recipients are at high risk for healthcare-associated infections, including those caused by antibiotic-resistant organisms. In this chapter we review several different healthcare-associated infections of importance to transplant recipients, including those caused by bacterial, viral, and fungal organisms. We also describe infection prevention and control strategies applicable to this patient population. These practices focus on clinical interventions and environmental controls designed to prevent the spread of potentially pathogenic organisms in the healthcare setting. We also describe post-exposure interventions applicable to solid organ transplant recipients exposed to potential pathogens in order to reduce their risk of subsequent infection.


title: Krankheiten der Atmungsorgane

text: gereinigt (Filterwirkung der Nasenhaare, Partikelniederschlag auf dem Nasenschleim, rachenwärts gerichtete Zilienbewegung des Epithels); erwärmt (fast bis auf Körpertemperatur); befeuchtet (nahezu vollst.ndige Sättigung mit Wasserdampf).


Specialized Agencies of the UN


title: The Last Natural Brain

text: The work of the brain would be easy if we knew what we needed to remember or understand in the future. Life is full of surprises – new people whom we need to know, names we have to remember, problems we try to solve.


title: Vaccines, Sera and “New” Viruses: Ebola, Zika and Other Infectious Challenges for Human Health

text: Following the basic description of the immunological science, we may now go in more detail into the practical applications involving immunological prevention against infectious diseases (vaccine use, requiring availability of suitable antigenic preparations, safe and effective immunization schedules and time to allow for immunity to develop) and immunotherapy of dangerous infective conditions (serotherapy, involving availability of immune sera and their use for injection in subjects needing protection against infectious agents). All this is discussed with special regard of the many new micro-organisms described in human pathology and also in situations in which the deliberate use of them for biological warfare or related menace (bioterrorism) is realized.


title: Information Diffusion in Social Networks

text: In this chapter, we will discuss concepts of information diffusion in social networks. We are interested in knowing how a piece of information (knowledge) is spread through a network. These may be computer viruses spreading on the Internet or a network of computers, diseases through a social network, or rumors and ideas through a social network. Information diffusion methods are commonly used in viral marketing, in collaborative filtering systems, in emergency management, in community detection, and in the study of citation networks.


title: Effects of the West African Ebola Epidemic on Health Care of Pregnant Women: Stigmatization With and Without Infection

text: Following the end of the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa in March 2016, the lingering effects of stigma on Ebola survivors, as well as children orphaned by the disease, have become evident. However, there was little scholarly attention paid to stigma while the outbreak was still active. This chapter explores the effects of stigmatization on the health care services that pregnant women, both with and without Ebola, were able to access and receive during the outbreak. We propose three primary ways in which stigma operated to reduce pregnant women’s access to health care services during the outbreak: (1) Women and their relatives were afraid to go to health facilities for fear of being infected with Ebola while there, i.e., stigmatization of health care facilities; (2) Health care workers frequently died due to their occupational exposure to EVD while caring for others, i.e., they were stigmatized as carriers or transmitters of Ebola; and (3) Pregnant women themselves were refused services at health facilities due to fears that they were infected with Ebola, i.e., the physiological processes of birth, which involve high levels of potential for exposure to bodily fluids, led to health care workers’ stigmatization of these women when they sought services during pregnancy or, particularly, at the time of giving birth. In several of the countries that experienced the worst of the outbreak, women already faced some of the world’s highest rates of pregnancy-related death even prior to the advent of the epidemic. We argue that the high fatality rate for pregnant women with Ebola, the drastic effects of the epidemic on countries’ health care workforce, and the inherent messiness of birth, all coalesced to create heightened discrimination and stigma around seeking care during pregnancy and birth.


title: Split Blood Products

text: The last 20 years have seen many advances in transfusion therapy and safety. Blood products are biological products engendering complex interactions with the immune system. Prestorage leukoreduction results in a reduced risk of febrile reactions, CMV transmission, and immune modulation, proving to be safer for patients than non-leuko reduced products. Simple patient identification issues and clerical error continue to be the primary causes of ABO-incompatible transfusions. Rigorous donor screening as well as serologic and nucleic acid testing for transfusion transmitted infection have brought the blood supply to a very safe level, although transmission of these agents continues to be a problem in underdeveloped countries. Emerging infectious diseases, beyond current laboratory detection capabilities, combined with global travel, pose unknown imminent risks everywhere. We also briefly discuss the current risks of transfusion-transmitted infections. We review currently available hemostatic blood products, their compositions, and their clinical indications; we mention product modifications currently in development; and we touch upon the hemostatic properties and drawbacks of whole blood, which is currently gaining popularity as an alternative to split blood products. We conclude with an in-depth overview of the risks associated with transfusion, including incompatibility, hemolytic transfusion reactions, transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO), and transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI).


title: Allgemeine Hygiene- und Präventionsmaßnahmen

text: a. Robert Koch gilt als Begründer der modernen Händehygiene in der Medizin. b. Der Einsatz von Wasser und Seife ist genauso effektiv wie die alkoholische Händedesinfektion. c. Die Händedesinfektion wird vor und nach jedem Patientenkontakt empfohlen. d. Die »Aktion Saubere Hände« richtet sich gegen Korruption in Ländern der Dritten Welt. e. Die Compliance mit der erforderlichen Händehygiene beträgt auf Intensivstationen je nach Beobachtungsstudie ca. 50 %, wobei der ärztliche Dienst tendenziell schlechter abschneidet als das Pflegepersonal.


title: A Survey of Social Web Mining Applications for Disease Outbreak Detection

text: Social Web Media is one of the most important sources of big data to extract and acquire new knowledge. Social Networks have become an important environment where users provide information of their preferences and relationships. This information can be used to measure the influence of ideas and the society opinions in real time, being very useful on several fields and research areas such as marketing campaigns, financial prediction or public healthcare among others. Recently, the research on artificial intelligence techniques applied to develop technologies allowing monitoring web data sources for detecting public health events has emerged as a new relevant discipline called Epidemic Intelligence. Epidemic Intelligence Systems are nowadays widely used by public health organizations like monitoring mechanisms for early detection of disease outbreaks to reduce the impact of epidemics. This paper presents a survey on current data mining applications and web systems based on web data for public healthcare over the last years. It tries to take special attention to machine learning and data mining techniques and how they have been applied to these web data to extract collective knowledge from Twitter.


title: Hepatic Failure

text: The progression of liver disease can cause several physiologic derangements that may precipitate hepatic failure and require admission to an intensive care unit. The underlying pathology may be acute, acute-on chronic, or chronic in nature. Liver failure may manifest with a variety of clinical signs and symptoms that need prompt attention. The compromised synthetic and metabolic activity of the failing liver affects all organ systems, from neurologic to integumentary. Supportive care and specific therapies should be instituted in order to improve outcome and minimize time of recovery. In this chapter we will discuss the definition, clinical manifestations, workup, and management of acute and chronic liver failure and the general principles of treatment of these patients. Management of liver failure secondary to certain common etiologies will also be presented. Finally, liver transplantation and alternative therapies will also be discussed.


title: The Current Bioweapons Threat

text: According to unclassified U.S. government sources, states of biological weapons (BW) proliferation concern include China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Syria. Assessing the BW threat is challenging, however, because illicit development and production can be concealed at dual-use industrial sites such as vaccine plants, and only tens of kilograms of an agent like dried anthrax spores can be militarily significant. The lack of unambiguous technical signatures of BW-related activity means that most estimates of foreign capabilities draw heavily on human intelligence sources, yet spies and defectors are notoriously unreliable. A key factor driving BW proliferation is the perceived military utility of biological weapons, which may include strategic deterrence, asymmetric warfare, or covert operations. Globalization of the biotechnology industry has expanded trade in dual-use materials and production equipment, increasing the risks of diversion and misuse for BW purposes. With the advent of flexible biological manufacturing systems, it has also become possible for countries to acquire a “latent” capacity for BW production during a crisis or war. Since the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, sub-state actors have become a prominent part of the threat matrix, but terrorist acquisition and use of BW requires both the motivation to use disease as a weapon and the technical capability to do so, a combination that is quite rare. At present the threat of mass-casualty BW attacks emanates primarily from nation-states, while terrorist use of biological weapons will likely remain limited in scale and impact. Nevertheless, the emergence of new biotechnologies with a potential for misuse could result in more damaging incidents of bioterrorism in the future.


Nephrologie


title: The Physical Burden of Immunoperception

text: The previous chapter introduced the ImmunoEmotional Regulatory System (IMMERS). Also, there was a brief discussion about psychological states/psychiatric disorders that so far have been linked to the IMMERS. The present chapter considers another aspect of the IMMERS in which physiological states/physical diseases can be fit to the IMMERS.


docid: kjzzlypt

title: Making Universities Grow: The New Zealand Experience

text: The New Zealand tertiary education system consists of eight Universities, numerous polytechnical institutes and other smaller tertiary providers. Despite the preferential treatment for international doctoral students, the New Zealand sector suffered a serious drop in international student enrolments beginning in 2004, after the damaging closure of two English-language institutes which received significant negative media coverage in one of New Zealand’s most important markets for international students—the People’s Republic of China. New Zealand Universities have aspired to create stronger linkages with institutions overseas to access external research income that may be funnelled through principal investigators at overseas Universities. In November 2015, the New Zealand government asked the “Productivity Commission” to write a report with recommendations on how to create “new models” for tertiary education. The Commission was tasked to investigate “how trends in technology, internationalisation, population, tuition costs and demand for skills may drive changes in models of tertiary education”. For future growth, the Universities need to partner more effectively with industry and create a culture that truly believes that a country like New Zealand deserves a great University system, and that the Universities are a true asset, essential for the country to thrive. This kind of strategy will ensure that the Universities continue to grow despite the vicissitudes of chance events or geopolitical developments beyond the control of the New Zealand government or University administrators.


title: Mikrobiologie und Antiinfektiva

text: Bei einem 38-jährigen Patienten wurde eine Analfistel operiert. Am 3. postoperativen Tag kommt es zur akuten Verschlechterung des Gesundheitszustands mit hämodynamischer Instabilität und Fieber. Daraufhin wird der Patient in eine Klinik der Maximalversorgung verlegt. Beim Eintreffen im Schockraum ist der Patient somnolent und kaltschweißig. Der Blutdruck beträgt 70/40 mmHg, die Herzfrequenz 120/min und die Körpertemperatur 39,6°C. Das Hautkolorit ist blass-grau. Im Verlegungsbericht wird bei stark ödematös geschwollenem Skrotum der Verdacht auf eine Fournier-Gangrän nach Analfistel- OP gestellt. Der diensthabende Intensivmediziner muss nun parallel die hämodynamische Situation stabilisieren, mikrobiologisches Material gewinnen, eine kalkulierte antimikrobielle Therapie beginnen und weitere Maßnahmen zur Diagnosesicherung einleiten.


title: Pneumologie

text: —. : —. allergisches Asthma („extrinsic asthma“): IgE-vermittelte Sofortreaktion vom Typ I auf Inhalationsallergene; —. : • Analgetikaasthma: pseudoallergische Reaktion bei erhöhter Aktivität der LTC(4)-Synthetase in Mastzellen und eosinophilen Granu- lozyten, ausgelöst durch ASS oder andere NSAR, meist auch Intoleranz gegenüber Sulfit (Wein), Tyramin (Käse), Glutamat; • Infektasthma; • durch Exposition gegenüber chemisch-toxischen Stoffen; • infolge gastroösophagealen Refluxes; —. unspezifische Stimuli: kalte Luft, körperliche Belastung, Aerosole, Rauche, Gase und Stäube; —. Prävalenz 5-10%; <30. Lebensjahr meist allergisches Asthma, >40. Lebensjahr überwiegend nicht-allergisches Asthma; —. bei allergischem Asthma polygene Anlage auch für andere atopische Erkrankungen, z. B. allergische Rhinitis, Neurodermitis; —. bei 25% der Patienten „Etagenwechsel“ nach allergischer Rhinitis; —. Allergenexposition/Infektion → Degranulation bzw. Aktivierung von Mastzellen, eosinophilen Granulozyten, T-Lymphozyten → Entzündung der Bronchialschleimhaut → Freisetzung von Mediatoren (Histamin, Leu- kotriene, Bradykinin) → bronchiale Hyperreaktivität → Bronchokonstriktion (Sofortreaktion) → Schleimhautödem (Spätreaktion) → Hyperkrinie/ Dyskrinie (chronische Entzündungsreaktion);


Coronavirus main proteinase: target for antiviral drug therapy


title: Neusverstopping

text: Acute neusverstopping is een frequente aandoening. Meestal is het geen geïsoleerd symptoom, maar treedt zij gecombineerd op met andere klachten van de neus. In overgrote meerderheid is de oorzaak een virale infectie die vanzelf overgaat, en heeft verdere diagnostiek geen consequenties voor de therapie. Bij chronische klachten is verdere diagnostiek wel zinvol; een allergie of hyperreactiviteit is het meest waarschijnlijk. Bij chronische neusverstopping is aandacht voor chronisch gebruik van decongestieve neusdruppels van belang. Persisterende eenzijdige neusverstopping, zeker wanneer dit gepaard gaat met bloederige afscheiding, is een alarmsymptoom. ELEKTRONISCH AANVULLEND MATERIAAL: De online versie van dit hoofdstuk (doi:10.1007/978-90-368-1274-0_15) bevat aanvullend materiaal, dat beschikbaar is voor geautoriseerde gebruikers.


title: Seltene Infektionen und Hygiene auf der Intensivstation

text: Ein Patient wird seit 2 Wochen auf der Intensivstation aufgrund einer infektexazerbierten chronisch obstruktiven Lungenerkrankung beatmet. Der Verlauf wurde durch eine nosokomiale Pneumonie kompliziert. Bei der Morgenvisite wird berichtet, dass der Patient innerhalb der letzten 2 h 4-mal massiv wässrig abgeführt hat. Die Temperatur beträgt 38,7°C, die Leukozyten 16.000/μl. Der Intensivarzt und seine Oberärztin besprechen die möglichen Ursachen und überlegen, ob spezielle Hygienemaßnahmen erforderlich sind.


title: Komplexe Gerinnungsstörungen

text: Die thrombotisch-thrombozytopenische Purpura (TTP) und das hämolytischurämische Syndrom (HUS) sind thrombotische Mikroangiopathien, gekennzeichnet durch eine Endothelzellschädigung mit nachfolgender Bildung von Thromben in der Mikrozirkulation mit intravasaler Hämolyse und Thrombozytopenie. Ischämische Organdysfunktionen im Gehirn, den Nieren und anderen Organen Prägen das klinische Bild. Während bei Erwachsenen das Auftreten einer neurologischen Symptomatik zur Diagnose TTP führt, wird bei Kindern mit dem Leitsymptom Nierenversagen die Diagnose HUS gestellt.


title: SARS Coronavirus Pathogenesis and Therapeutic Treatment Design

text: Emerging pathogens are either new or newly recognized or those that are increasing in incidence and spread. Since the identity of emerging pathogens from animal reservoirs is difficult to predict, the development for pathogen-specific therapeutics and vaccines is problematic. The highly pathogenic SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) emerged from zoonotic pools in 2002 to cause a global epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Many patients with SARS-CoV experienced an exacerbated form of disease called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requiring mechanical ventilation and supplemental oxygen and half of these patients died. Similar to other viral pathogens like influenza and West Nile Virus, the severity of SARS-CoV disease increased with age. Unfortunately, successful vaccination in the most vulnerable populations is a difficult task because of immunological deficiencies associated with aging (immune senescence). Due to the rapidity of virus emergence, technologies like synthetic biology can be harnessed to facilitate rapid recombinant virus construction for studying the novel virus biology, pathogenesis and the evaluation of therapeutic interventions. Since predicting the antigenic identity of future emergence is difficult, candidate vaccines and therapeutics should have a maximal breadth of cross-protection, and panels of antigenically divergent synthetically reconstructed viruses can be used as tools for this evaluation. We discuss how synthetic reconstruction of many animal and human SARS-CoV has provided a model to study the molecular mechanisms governing emergence and pathogenesis of viral diseases. In addition, we review the evolution, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of epidemic and zoonotic SARS-CoV with focus on the development of broadly reactive therapeutics and vaccines that protect aged populations from the zoonotic pool.


title: Artificial Intelligence Applications in Tracking Health Behaviors During Disease Epidemics

text: The threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases to global population health remains significantly enormous, and the pandemic preparedness capabilities necessary to confront such threats must be of greater potency. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers new hope in not only effectively pre-empting, preventing and combating the threats of infectious disease epidemics, but also facilitating the understanding of health-seeking behaviors and public emotions during epidemics. From a systems-thinking perspective, and in today’s world of seamless boundaries and global interconnectivity, AI offers enormous potential for public health practitioners and policy makers to revolutionize healthcare and population health through focussed, context-specific interventions that promote cost-savings on therapeutic care, expand access to health information and services, and enhance individual responsibility for their health and well-being. This chapter systematically appraises the dawn of AI technology towards empowering population health to combat the rise of infectious disease epidemics.


title: Recombinant Live Vaccines to Protect Against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

text: The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV) was identified as the etiological agent of an acute respiratory disease causing atypical pneumonia and diarrhea with high mortality. Different types of SARS-CoV vaccines, including nonreplicative and vectored vaccines, have been developed. Administration of these vaccines to animal model systems has shown promise for the generation of efficacious and safe vaccines. Nevertheless, the identification of side effects, preferentially in the elderly animal models, indicates the need to develop novel vaccines that should be tested in improved animal model systems. Live attenuated viruses have generally proven to be the most effective vaccines against viral infections. A limited number of SARS-CoV attenuating modifications have been described, including mutations, and partial or complete gene deletions affecting the replicase, like the nonstructural proteins (nsp1 or nsp2), or the structural genes, and drastic changes in the sequences that regulate the expression of viral subgenomic mRNAs. A promising vaccine candidate developed in our laboratory was based on deletion of the envelope E gene alone, or in combination with the removal of six additional genes nonessential for virus replication. Viruses lacking E protein were attenuated, grew in the lung, and provided homologous and heterologous protection. Improvements of this vaccine candidate have been directed toward increasing virus titers using the power of viruses with mutator phenotypes, while maintaining the attenuated phenotype. The safety of the live SARS-CoV vaccines is being increased by the insertion of complementary modifications in genes nsp1, nsp2, and 3a, by gene scrambling to prevent the rescue of a virulent phenotype by recombination or remodeling of vaccine genomes based on codon deoptimization using synthetic biology. The newly generated vaccine candidates are very promising, but need to be evaluated in animal model systems that include young and aged animals.


title: Carbon Nanostructures for Enhanced Photocatalysis for Biocidal Applications

text: In the last few decades, the demand for safer environmental conditions has increased dramatically. The burden of infectious diseases worldwide, related to contamination via contact with contaminated surfaces (fomites), is a growing issue. Globally, these infections are linked to an estimated 1.7 million deaths a year from diarrheal disease and 1.5 million deaths from respiratory infections [1]. Apart from hospitals, the problem has become a growing liability at places where food is prepared and handled [2], where there is a growing risk associated with the cross-contamination of edible goods and where large amounts are handled by a single facility [3]. Already many E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks have been recorded and linked to single a facility [2, 4, 5]. The problem of cross-contamination via surfaces can also be traced, in smaller scale, to households where common areas can accumulate pathogens that can potentially become a threat, especially to more sensitive population groups [6]. There are also biological threats in forms of dangerous epidemic outbreaks (Ebola and SARS) and biological warfare weapons (anthrax and smallpox). The need for effective and efficient disinfection is driving the industry in the development of a wide range of products. These products can currently be divided into three major categories:


title: Pulmonary and Hepatic Complications of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

text: Significant advances have been made in allogeneic transplantation for both adults and pediatric transplant recipients over the past 20 years, corresponding with dramatic declines in treatment-related mortality (TRM). The cumulative incidence of TRM at 1 year following unrelated donor transplants has decreased from 40 to 15 % between 1987 and 2006 for children with acute leukemia, the primary indication for transplant in the pediatric population (MacMillan et al., Biol Blood Marrow Transpl 14(9 Suppl):16–22, 2008). Improvements in conditioning regimen, supportive care, and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) testing have all been associated with incremental improvements in survival during this period. In particular, the management of both infectious and noninfectious organ complications has changed dramatically, with improved sensitivity for diagnostic testing for pathogens and tremendous improvements in our understanding of organ complications. Two organ complications in particular, pulmonary and hepatic, have been a major focus of investigation over the past several decades. The introduction of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors for the management of acute, noninfectious lung injury and the introduction of an endothelial stabilizing agent (defibrotide) for the management of hepatic veno-occlusive disease have been major advances in the past decade.


title: Probabilistic Reasoning for Closed-Room People Monitoring

text: In this chapter, we present a probabilistic reasoning approach to recognizing people entering and leaving a closed room by exploiting low-level visual features and high-level domain-specific knowledge. Specifically, people in the view of a monitoring camera are first detected and tracked so that their color and facial features can be extracted and analyzed. Then, recognition of people is carried out using a mapped feature similarity measure and exploiting the temporal correlation and constraints among each sequence of observations. The optimality of recognition is achieved in the sense of maximizing the joint posterior probability of the multiple observations. Experimental results of real and synthetic data are reported to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


title: Antimicrobial Agents in Ophthalmology

text: Many types of antimicrobial agents have been introduced for the treatment of ocular infectious diseases. Some ocular infections have been eradicated such as smallpox, while others have been controlled by public health measures such as trachoma. The resilience of viruses and the tenacity of bacteria have led to the evolution of old diseases and the emergence of new infections. Continuous search for new antimicrobial agents for the treatment of infectious diseases is, therefore, highly desirable. New infectious agents are discovering the human race, and the ecological changes are exposing mankind to new viruses and bacteria. In addition, air travel and disruption of geographic barriers are leading to new forms of infectious diseases. In the twentieth century, there was a widespread false optimism that infectious diseases are eradicated by antimicrobial agents. It was soon discovered that many infections require new strategies for the treatment of ocular infections. The new antimicrobial agents that have been introduced over the past century can be classified into four major categories including (1) antibiotics that inhibit cell wall synthesis and integrity, (2) antibiotics that inhibit and suppress cell membrane functions, (3) antibiotics that interfere the protein synthesis, and (4) antibiotics that modulate nucleic acid synthesis. The selection of antimicrobial agents for the treatment of ocular infectious diseases is based on the most frequently encountered organisms, the pharmacokinetics of the antibiotics, the dosage required, the ocular penetration, and the cost of therapy. The stumbling blocks to safe and effective antimicrobial therapy in ocular infections include the resistance of the microorganisms, toxicity of the drug, and poor ocular penetration of antimicrobial agents.


title: Kawasaki Disease

text: Kawasaki disease (KD) is the commonest cause of acquired heart disease in children in the developed world and is increasingly being reported from developing countries. KD has a predilection for the coronary arteries. Etiology of this disorder is remains an enigma. Diagnosis of KD is essentially clinical with the help of set of clinical criteria. Incomplete KD is said to occur when these criteria are not fulfilled. However, incomplete KD should not be considered as a milder form of the disease. 2D-echocardiography remains the imaging modality of choice for evaluation and monitoring of cardiac complications but often needs to be supplemented by CT coronary angiography. Intravenous immunoglobulin along with aspirin is the gold standard therapy of treatment for KD. However, there is no consensus on treatment of resistant forms of KD. Patients with KD should be on long-term follow-up especially if they have developed coronary artery abnormalities during the acute stage.


title: Bushmeat and Emerging Infectious Diseases: Lessons from Africa

text: Zoonotic diseases are the main contributor to emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and present a major threat to global public health. Bushmeat is an important source of protein and income for many African people, but bushmeat-related activities have been linked to numerous EID outbreaks, such as Ebola, HIV, and SARS. Importantly, increasing demand and commercialization of bushmeat is exposing more people to pathogens and facilitating the geographic spread of diseases. To date, these linkages have not been systematically assessed. Here we review the literature on bushmeat and EIDs for sub-Saharan Africa, summarizing pathogens (viruses, fungi, bacteria, helminths, protozoan, and prions) by bushmeat taxonomic group to provide for the first time a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge concerning zoonotic disease transmission from bushmeat into humans. We conclude by drawing lessons that we believe are applicable to other developing and developed regions and highlight areas requiring further research to mitigate disease risk.


title: Antibiotic Resistance of Non-pneumococcal Streptococci and Its Clinical Impact

text: The taxonomy of streptococci has undergone major changes during the last two decades. The present classification is based on both phenotypic and genotypic data. Phylogenetic classification of streptococci is based on 16S rRNA sequences [1], and it forms the backbone of the overall classification system of streptococci. Phenotypic properties are also important, especially for clinical microbiologists. The type of hemolysis on blood agar, reaction with Lancefield grouping antisera, resistance to optochin, and bile solubility remain important for grouping of clinical Streptococcus isolates and therefore treatment options [2]. In the following chapter, two phenotypic classification groups, viridans group streptococci (VGS) and beta-hemolytic streptococci, will be discussed.


title: THE INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ECOLOGY AND HEALTH

text: The built environment (BE) affects ecosystems, ecosystem services and human health and well being. While, formally, the BE ranges from the smallest hut to the largest city, this chapter focuses upon the health effects of urban areas, which increasingly are the preferred human habitat. Urban areas have many attractive and beneficial influences to human well‐being. But at the same time, many effects of urban areas are harmful to well‐being, and many are not even recognized as such. Most publications about these topics have described the effects of the BE separately, on either ecosystems or on human health. The interconnectivity between these two effects relative to BE is rarely studied. This paper focuses on the mutual influence and interactions between three related aspects of the BE which can impact ecosystems and human health: transportation, land use, and life style. It also explores some of the links between the BE, human health, and human security.


title: Of Ducks and Men: Ecology and Evolution of a Zoonotic Pathogen in a Wild Reservoir Host

text: A hallmark of disease is that most pathogens are able to infect more than one host species. However, for most pathogens, we still have a limited understanding of how this affects epidemiology, persistence and virulence of infections—including several zoonotic pathogens that reside in wild animal reservoirs and spillover into humans. In this chapter, we review the current knowledge of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) as host for pathogens. This species is widely distributed, often occupying habitats close to humans and livestock, and is an important game bird species and the ancestor to domestic ducks—thereby being an excellent model species to highlight aspects of the wildlife, domestic animal interface and the relevance for human health. We discuss mallard as host for a range of pathogens but focus more in depth of it as a reservoir host for influenza A virus (IAV). Over the last decades, IAV research has surged, prompted in part to the genesis and spread of highly pathogenic virus variants that have been devastating to domestic poultry and caused a number of human spillover infections. The aim of this chapter is to synthesise and review the intricate interactions of virus, host and environmental factors governing IAV epidemiology and evolution.


title: Flashes

text: Because punctuated reality is episodic—waves come and go—the social structure of modern life is also episodic. Social groups form spontaneously and often without obvious reasons. Flashmobs ravage innocent bystanders, online raves spring up and just as quickly die out, protesters flair-up on Wall Street and then disappear. Why? These bursts occur because of the increasingly connected super hive we call the Internet. More importantly, they rise and fall because of how society is wired together. Ever-tightening self-organization and the resulting hub-like structure of society magnifies the impact and spreads these events like a wildfire. If you want to control the Internet animali, seek out and control the center.


title: A Global Ethical Framework for Public Health Disasters

text: Public health disasters reflect a class of global problems that generate moral quandaries and challenges. As such, they demand a global bioethical response involving an approach that is sufficiently nuanced at the local, trans-national, and global domains. Using the overlapping ethical issues engendered by Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis, and earthquakes, this chapter develops a global ethical framework for engaging PHDs. This framework exhibits sufficient responsiveness to local, global, microbial, and metaphysical realities as well as scientific concerns.


title: Immunität und Ansteckung: Roberto Espositos Kritik des Sicherheitsdenkens

text: Todd Haynes’ Film [SAFE] (USA 1995) erzählt die Geschichte von Carol White, die in einer US-amerikanischen Vorstadt ein sehr tristes und einsames Leben als Hausfrau führt, bis sie plötzlich an immer stärker werdenden körperlichen (Über-) Reaktionen auf chemische Stoffe und Abgase zu leiden beginnt. Sie bricht beim Baby shower einer Freundin und im Waschsalon zusammen oder bekommt im Straßenverkehr keine Luft mehr. Ihre immer schlimmer werdenden Attacken bringen sie dazu, dass sie sich bei verschiedenen Stellen Hilfe sucht, wodurch sie erfährt, dass sie in ihrem Leiden nicht allein ist: „Multiple Chemical Sensitivity“ sei eine „environmental illness“ oder auch „die Krankheit des 20. Jahrhunderts“, die mittlerweile pandemische Ausmaße angenommen habe.Todd Haynes’ Film [SAFE] (USA 1995) erzählt die Geschichte von Carol White, die in einer US-amerikanischen Vorstadt ein sehr tristes und einsames Leben als Hausfrau führt, bis sie plötzlich an immer stärker werdenden körperlichen (Über-) Reaktionen auf chemische Stoffe und Abgase zu leiden beginnt. Sie bricht beim Baby shower einer Freundin und im Waschsalon zusammen oder bekommt im Straßenverkehr keine Luft mehr. Ihre immer schlimmer werdenden Attacken bringen sie dazu, dass sie sich bei verschiedenen Stellen Hilfe sucht, wodurch sie erfährt, dass sie in ihrem Leiden nicht allein ist: „Multiple Chemical Sensitivity“ sei eine „environmental illness“ oder auch „die Krankheit des 20. Jahrhunderts“, die mittlerweile pandemische Ausmaße angenommen habe. Ihr wird geraten, sich von Umwelteinflüssen möglichst fern zu halten und ihren Körper weitestgehend zu „reinigen“, so dass sich Carol letztlich entschließt, in eine Art spirituelles Sanatorium zu ziehen, das in der Wüste liegt und von der Außenwelt abgeschieden ist. Doch auch hier hören ihre Anfälle nicht auf, am Ende bewegt sich Carol nur noch mit einer Sauerstoffflasche umher und bewohnt schließlich ein Porzellan-Iglu, das sie in größtmöglichem Maße vor allen schädlichen Umwelteinflüssen schützen soll. Die letzten Szenen von [SAFE] wirken, als zeigten sie eine surreale Mondlandschaft. Während also der Film die Existenz der Gefahr, der Carol ausgesetzt ist, nicht leugnet, macht er auf eine grundlegende Ironie aufmerksam: Das exzessive Streben nach Sicherheit für das Leben führt letztlich in eine Isolation, die selbst absolut unlebbar ist.


title: Brief History of Pandemics (Pandemics Throughout History)

text: Intermittent outbreaks of infectious diseases have had profound and lasting effects on societies throughout history. Those events have powerfully shaped the economic, political, and social aspects of human civilization, with their effects often lasting for centuries. Epidemic outbreaks have defined some of the basic tenets of modern medicine, pushing the scientific community to develop principles of epidemiology, prevention, immunization, and antimicrobial treatments. This chapter outlines some of the most notable outbreaks that took place in human history and are relevant for a better understanding of the rest of the material. Starting with religious texts, which heavily reference plagues, this chapter establishes the fundamentals for our understanding of the scope, social, medical, and psychological impact that some pandemics effected on civilization, including the Black Death (a plague outbreak from the fourteenth century), the Spanish Flu of 1918, and the more recent outbreaks in the twenty-first century, including SARS, Ebola, and Zika.


title: Plant Nanobionics: Application of Nanobiosensors in Plant Biology

text: Nanobiosensors (NBSs) are a class of chemical sensors which are sensitive to a physical or chemical stimulus (heat, acidity, metabolism transformations) that conveys information about vital processes. NBSs detect physiological signals and convert them into standardized signals, often electrical, to be quantified from analog to digital. NBSs are classified according to the transducer element (electrochemical, piezoelectric, optical, and thermal) in accordance with biorecognition principle (enzyme recognition, affinity immunoassay, whole sensors, DNA). NBSs have varied forms, depending on the degree of interpretation of natural processes in plants. Plant nanobionics uses mathematical models based on qualitative and less quantitative records. NBSs can give information about endogenous concentrations or endogenous fluxes of signaling molecules (phytohormones). The properties of NBSs are temporal and spatial resolution, the ability of being used without significantly interfering with the system. NBSs with the best properties are the optically genetically coded NBSs, but each NBS needs specific development efforts. NBS technologies using antibodies as a recognition domain are generic and tend to be more invasive, and there are examples of their use in plant nanobionics. Through opportunities that develop along with technologies, we hope that more and more NBSs will become available for plant nanobionics. The main advantages of NBSs are short analysis time, low-cost tests and portability, real-time measurements, and remote control.