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Wildland fires are diminishing air quality on a seasonal and regional basis, raising concerns about respiratory health risks to the public and occupational groups. This American Thoracic Society (ATS) workshop was convened in 2019 to meet the growing health threat of wildland fire smoke. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of 19 experts, including wildland fire managers, public health officials, epidemiologists, toxicologists, and pediatric and adult pulmonologists. The workshop examined the following four major topics: 1) the science of wildland fire incidence and fire management, 2) the respiratory and cardiovascular health effects of wildland fire smoke exposure, 3) communication strategies to address these health risks, and 4) actions to address wildland fire health impacts. Through formal presentations followed by group discussion, workshop participants identified top priorities for fire management, research, communication, and public policy to address health risks of wildland fires. The workshop concluded that short-term exposure to wildland smoke causes acute respiratory health effects, especially among those with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Research is needed to understand long-term health effects of repeated smoke exposures across fire seasons for children, adults, and highly exposed occupational groups (especially firefighters). Other research priorities include fire data collection and modeling, toxicology of different fire fuel sources, and the efficacy of health protective measures to prevent respiratory effects of smoke exposure. The workshop committee recommends a unified federal response to the growing problem of wildland fires, including investment in fire behavior and smoke air quality modeling, research on the health impacts of smoke, and development of robust clinical and public health communication tools.

Bathymetry (seafloor depth), is a critical parameter providing the geospatial context for a multitude of marine scientific studies. Since 1997, the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) has been the authoritative source of bathymetry for the Arctic Ocean. IBCAO has merged its efforts with the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO-Seabed 2030 Project, with the goal of mapping all of the oceans by 2030. Here we present the latest version (IBCAO Ver. 4.0), with more than twice the resolution (200 × 200 m versus 500 × 500 m) and with individual depth soundings constraining three times more area of the Arctic Ocean (∼19.8% versus 6.7%), than the previous IBCAO Ver. 3.0 released in 2012. Modern multibeam bathymetry comprises ∼14.3% in Ver. 4.0 compared to ∼5.4% in Ver. 3.0. Thus, the new IBCAO Ver. 4.0 has substantially more seafloor morphological information that offers new insights into a range of submarine features and processes; for example, the improved portrayal of Greenland fjords better serves predictive modelling of the fate of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Research on flipped instruction with English Language Learners (ELLs) is sparse. Data-driven flipped research conducted with ELLs primarily involves adult learners attending a college or university. This study examined the academic performance of secondary ELLs who received flipped instruction in an algebra course at a newcomer school compared to ELLs enrolled in the same course who received traditional instruction, and investigated ELLs' perceptions of flipped instruction. Findings indicate students enrolled in the flipped course enjoyed the course structure more than a traditional classroom and performed slightly higher than ELLs who received traditional instruction. However, there was no statistical significant mean difference in the academic performance from students enrolled in algebra with flipped instruction compared to students enrolled in the same course with no flipped instruction.

The term 'zero responder' was initially devised in 2010 to describe those passing by or unharmed in a mass casualty incident, who provide life-saving care for injured persons before qualified professionals arrive. This review aims to determine how the literature defines the role of the zero responder and to explore how they can be better integrated into the emergency response. Current definitions of the zero responder in a medical setting were found through a literature search of several databases and online libraries using defined search terms. Additionally, a manual search of citations in included articles was performed to yield more results. In total, 16 papers defining the zero responder were included. These definitions were evaluated, and a revised definition was suggested to clarify the role in a medical setting relating to mass casualty incidents. The role of the zero responder can be facilitated through authority recognition and adequate equipment provision. Familiarisation with the term and role of zero responders among ambulance services is essential for effective collaboration. Further research and clarity on the integration of these two groups is necessary to facilitate effective and safe working between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of landslide hazards often depends on the ability to track possible changes in natural slopes. To that end, historical air photos can be useful, particularly when slope stability is compromised by visible cracking. Undocumented landsliding rejuvenates a paleo-landslide on a busy motorway connecting Jerusalem to a small Jewish settlement. Recently, a plan for broadening the motorway was approved, and we were asked to study the hazards of the road by Israeli NGOs and Palestinian residents of the area. We captured high-resolution topography around the unstable slope using drone-borne photogrammetry and LiDAR surveys. The modern data allow us to analyze historic air photos and topo maps to assess the level of sliding prior to and during modern landscaping. Our results indicate horizontal offsets of ~0.9–1.8 m and vertical offsets of 1.54–2.95 m at selected sites. We next assess the possible role of anthropogenic versus natural factors in compromising slope stability. We analyze monthly rain records together with seismic catalogs spanning several decades. Shortly after the motorway construction in 1995, a January 1996 rainstorm triggered a massive rockfall. The rockfall blocked traffic with up to 4 m-diameter boulders. We found that while a certain level of rain is a necessary condition for mobilizing the rock mass, it is the anthropogenic intervention that caused the rockfall in this site. We conclude that the recent plan for broadening the motorway jeopardizes the lives of vehicle passengers and the lives of future residents should the development materialize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2016, Zygmunt Bauman's self-described “recent heart failure” did not deter him from providing the author with “three pieces I have scribbled” to use in revising Bauman's chapter for the second edition of the Handbook of Cultural Sociology. The author draws from this experience working with Bauman at the end of his life to reflect on the man as a person, a scholar, and a public intellectual. He argues that Bauman had a broad methodological strategy that derived from his 1978 book, Hermeneutics and the Social Sciences. Reconciling himself to the historicist relativity of Gadamer's hermeneutic circle, Bauman proposed that the hermeneutic self-understanding of society “is the way in which history itself moves” (Bauman, 1978: 46). The author connects this hermeneutic project to Bauman's conceptualization of “liquid modernity” as the condition of contemporary society, and he draws on Bauman's three “scribbled” pieces to show how Bauman connected recent “liquid” developments -especially shifts in the character of migration- to recent political events (Brexit and the us election of Donald Trump as President). For Bauman, the goal of cosmopolitan tolerance in a global society is undercut by a lag between new worldly conditions and “outdated consciousness.”

Worldwide every year, acute gastroenteritis causes a loss of [approximately equal to] 89.5 million disability-adjusted life-years and 1.45 million deaths (1). In 2010, an estimated 16.6 million persons in Australia [...]

With the increasing use of data-driven modeling methods, new approaches to complex problems in the field of wind energy can be addressed. Topics reviewed through the literature include wake modeling, performance monitoring and controls applications, condition monitoring and fault detection, and other data-driven research. The literature shows the advantages of data-driven methods: a reduction in computational expense or complexity, particularly in the cases of wake modeling and controls, as well as various data-driven methodologies' aptitudes for predictive modeling and classification, as in the cases of fault detection and diagnosis. Significant work exists for fault detection, while less work is found for controls applications. A methodology for creating data-driven wind turbine models for arbitrary performance parameters is proposed. Results are presented utilizing the methodology to create wind turbine models relating active adaptive twist to steady-state rotor thrust as a performance parameter of interest. Resulting models are evaluated by comparing root-mean-square-error (RMSE) on both the training and validation datasets, with Gaussian process regression (GPR), deemed an accurate model for this application. The resulting model undergoes particle swarm optimization to determine the optimal aerostructure twist shape at a given wind speed with respect to the modeled performance parameter, aerodynamic thrust load. The optimization process shows an improvement of 3.15% in thrust loading for the 10 MW reference turbine, and 2.66% for the 15 MW reference turbine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two‐dimensional ultrasound (2DUS) echocardiography is the main noninvasive method used to evaluate cardiac function in animal models of myocardial infarction (MI). However, 2DUS echocardiography does not capture regional differences in cardiac contractility since it relies on planar images to estimate left ventricular (LV) geometry and global function. Thus, the current study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a newly developed 4‐dimensional ultrasound (4DUS) method in detecting cardiac functional differences between two models of MI, permanent ligation (PL), and ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in rats. We found that only 4DUS was able to detect LV global functional differences between the two models and that 4DUS‐derived surface area strain accurately detected infarcted regions within the myocardium that correlated well with histological infarct size analysis. We also found that 4DUS‐derived strain, which includes circumferential, longitudinal, and surface area strain, correlated with the peak positive of the first derivative of left ventricular pressure (+dP/dtmax). In conclusion, 4DUS strain echocardiography effectively assesses myocardial mechanics following experimentally induced ischemia in rats and accurately estimates infarct size as early as 1 day after injury. 4DUS also correlates well with +dP/dtmax, a widely used marker of cardiac contractility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]