Unusual Events Research Articles

NuSTAR observations of wind-fed X-ray pulsar GX 301–2 during unusual spin-up event

We report on NuSTAR observations of the well-known wind-accreting X-ray pulsar GX 301–2 during a strong spin-up episode that took place in January–March 2019. A measurement of high luminosity of the source in the most recent observation allowed us to detect a positive correlation of the cyclotron line energy with luminosity. Beyond that, only minor differences in spectral and temporal properties of the source during the spin-up, presumably associated with the formation of a transient accretion disk, and the normal wind-fed state could be detected. Finally, we discuss conditions for the formation of the disk and possible reasons for lack of any appreciable variations in most of the observed source properties induced by the change of the accretion mechanism, and conclude that the bulk of the observed X-ray emission is still likely powered by direct accretion from the wind.

Intense interseasonal influenza outbreaks, Australia, 2018/19.

BackgroundInterseasonal influenza outbreaks are not unusual in countries with temperate climates and well-defined influenza seasons. Usually, these are small and diminish before the main influenza season begins. However, the 2018/19 summer-autumn interseasonal influenza period in Australia saw unprecedented large and widespread influenza outbreaks.AimOur objective was to determine the extent of the intense 2018/19 interseasonal influenza outbreaks in Australia epidemiologically and examine the genetic, antigenic and structural properties of the viruses responsible for these outbreaks.MethodsThis observational study combined the epidemiological and virological surveillance data obtained from the Australian Government Department of Health, the New South Wales Ministry of Health, sentinel outpatient surveillance, public health laboratories and data generated by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne and the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research.ResultsThere was a record number of laboratory-confirmed influenza cases during the interseasonal period November 2018 to May 2019 (n= 85,286; 5 times the previous 3-year average) and also more institutional outbreaks, hospitalisations and deaths, than what is normally seen.ConclusionsThe unusually large interseasonal influenza outbreaks in 2018/19 followed a mild 2018 influenza season and resulted in a very early start to the 2019 influenza season across Australia. The reasons for this unusual event have yet to be fully elucidated but are likely to be a complex mix of climatic, virological and host immunity-related factors. These outbreaks reinforce the need for year-round surveillance of influenza, even in temperate climates with strong seasonality patterns.

Fungal and marine shell fouling in desalination plant equipment

Abstract The Saudi Arabian Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) aims to maintain an uninterrupted desalinated water output and has tasked its Desalination Technologies Research Institute (DTRI) with trouble-shooting operational problems and unusual events faced by its desalination plants. Three events were reported and investigated by DTRI. Two were found to involve fungal fouling, and one was found to involve fouling by marine shells. One case of fungal fouling involved a new seawater reverse osmosis membrane and the plant was advised to review the handling and storage practice of membranes. The other case involved product water hoses and manifested itself in the form of black slimy deposits arising from dense fungal growth. The fungus originated from new product hoses and was eliminated by shock-dosing replacement hoses with chlorine. The marine shell fouling involved a feed water line of a combined power/desalination plant. Chlorine, hydrochloric acid, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and fresh water were used to assess their ability to control marine shell fouling in laboratory experiments, with varying results. Since high doses of chlorine were not effective in controlling marine shell fouling, the practice of continuous chlorination should be abandoned in favor of an alternative chlorination regimen, e.g., pulse chlorination.

Flash Flood Climatology in the Lower Region of Southern Sindh

Climate change impact is felt at a global scale. One of its results is the abnormal rain occurrence during monsoon season. In recent years, visible changes due to unusual weather events in Pakistan’s hydrological cycle were observed in the form of intensification of the hydrological cycle with changing of precipitation events such as floods and prolonged droughts. Hence, abnormal rainfall occurred in regions of southern and northern parts of Sindh, like torrential river floods (2010), flash floods (2011-2012), unpredictable rainstorms, etc. causing loss of lives, damaging infrastructures and crops, structures, and inhabitant displacement. In 2011, heavy cumulative precipitation has been recorded in the southern Sindh districts and the coastal belt of Badin and the LBOD and Kotri surface drainage system achieved their extreme heights. Another example of erratic rain occurred from September 8 to September 13, 2011 and produced an extraordinary discharge of about 14000 cusecs against the designed discharge of 4600 cusecs in the LBOD and Kotri surface drainage systems overtopping drains from several locations and wreaking havoc in the whole area of the southern part of Sindh.

What do sequential patterns say about the "El Niño" phenomenon?

El Nino phenomenon starts with an increase in the temperature of the sea surface in the equatorial zone of the Pacific Ocean. This increase is characterized by the arrival of a superficial mass of warm waters into the sea, which generates anomalous climate changes on land. These unusual events can be floods, droughts, intense rains, which endanger the urban population and infrastructure of cities. To be able to launch early warnings of possible catastrophic events in populated areas, it is necessary to know how and within how long the change in sea temperature impacts on continental characteristics. The present work describes a computational process based on techniques of extraction and visualization of sequential patterns to capture temporal variations of the variables describing the El Nino phenomenon. Results show the existence of correlations between the sea surface temperature and the flow of the rivers of the coast. These correlations can be used as monitoring tools for early warning releases.

Terrorist attacks in Paris: managing mass casualties in a remote trauma center.

On 13 November 2015, Paris was the target of multiple terrorist attacks responsible for a massive influx of casualties in emergency departments (EDs). Because of the activation of a local crisis plan and the arrival of extra staff, our capacities increased markedly. Our aim was to analyze whether our center, in this challenging context, efficiently managed this massive influx of patients. We carried out a monocentric retrospective study. All patients received in the first 24 h were included (isolated psychological trauma with no physical injury excluded). Our main endpoint was to assess patient diversion through early secondary transfers ( ≤ 24 h) because of an overrun of our capacities. A total of 53 victims were sent to our center in a 4 h timeframe; 12 patients were excluded (no physical injury). We analyzed 41 victims. Their median injury severity score was 4 (1;9). Three (7%) patients were transferred after ED management to a nearby hospital within the first 24 h for minor orthopedic surgery. There was a significant increase in medical/surgical staff (eight ED physicians instead of two; six intensivists vs. two; three orthopedic surgeons vs. one). Among the victims, 71% had firearms wounds and 30% had open fractures. Twenty surgeries were performed in the first 24 h. There were no in-hospital deaths. Faced with an unusual event and thanks to the increase in staff, our operating capacities increased. Our center took charge of almost all victims. Patient diversion concerned only three patients transferred to a nearby hospital for minor orthopedic surgery.

Implications of an exceptional autumn bud flush on subsequent cold tolerance of Garry oak (Quercus garryana)

In the fall of 2016, an unusual phenological event occurred in Quercus garryana Douglas ex Hook. in Victoria, British Columbia. After normal autumn leaf drop, some trees burst bud and leafed out prematurely in late October. This allowed a comparison of the cold hardiness of the prematurely flushed and non-flushed trees over the following year. Cold hardiness of five tree pairs (premature fall flush and non-flush) in three locations in Victoria was assessed bi-weekly over the dehardening period in January–March 2017 and again over the hardening period in September–December 2017. Cold hardiness of 10 non-flushed trees from the most northerly population of Q. garryana was also assessed twice in spring 2017. Between January and March, all trees dehardened, but cold hardiness was greatest in non-flushed trees on the first sampling date, and thereafter, the non-flushed trees dehardened more rapidly than the prematurely flushed trees. Index of injury was consistently 10% greater in Victoria than in northern trees. In fall 2017, trees that had flushed prematurely in fall 2016 had the same cold hardiness as non-flushed trees. Hardiness of all trees decreased from mid-September to the end of October, followed by rapid hardening in November and December of 2017.

All‐Sky Imaging Observations and Modeling of Bright 630‐nm Airglow Structures Associated With MSTIDs

AbstractAn all‐sky imager at El Leoncito Observatory (−31.8°, 69.3°W, 18.2° magnetic latitude) is used to study 630.0‐nm airglow emissions related to medium‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs). On the night of 6 December 2007 an unusual event consisting of bright bands propagating northwestward was observed. Enhancements in total electron content from ground‐based Global Positioning System receivers were observed collocated with the bright airglow bands. A regional Global Positioning System‐derived total electron content map matches the direction of motion, scale size, and location of these bright bands. Model results including F region coupling with E region structures reproduce the characteristics of the bright bands. Specific conditions in the E region must exist in order to observe these unusual MSTIDs consisting of propagating bright bands only.

Intelligent Pattern Recognition Algorithms based on Dust, Vision and Activity Sensors for User Unusual Event Detection

Intelligent Pattern Recognition Algorithms based on Dust, Vision and Activity Sensors for User Unusual Event Detection

High Glass‐Transition Temperature Polymer Networks Harnessing the Dynamic Ring Opening of Pinacol Boronates

AbstractDifferential scanning calorimetry of high molar mass poly(4‐vinylphenylboronic acid, pinacol ester)s evidenced unusual reactive events above 120 °C, resulting in a high glass‐transition temperature of 220 °C. A reversible ring‐opening reactivity of pinacol boronates is proposed, involving a nucleophilic attack on the sp2 boron and subsequent bridging between boron atoms by interconnected pinacol moieties to form a densely crosslinked network with high Tg. FTIR, solid‐state NMR investigations, and rheology studies on the polymer as well as double‐tagging analyses on molecular model structures and theoretical calculations further support this hypothesis and indicate a ring‐opening inducing crosslinking. When diluted in an apolar solvent such as toluene, the polymer network can be resolubilized via ring closing, thus recovering the entropically favored linear chains featuring cyclic boronate esters.

High Glass-Transition Temperature Polymer Networks Harnessing the Dynamic Ring Opening of Pinacol Boronates.

Differential scanning calorimetry of high molar mass poly(4-vinylphenylboronic acid, pinacol ester)s evidenced unusual reactive events above 120 °C, resulting in a high glass-transition temperature of 220 °C. A reversible ring-opening reactivity of pinacol boronates is proposed, involving a nucleophilic attack on the sp2 boron and subsequent bridging between boron atoms by interconnected pinacol moieties to form a densely crosslinked network with high Tg . FTIR, solid-state NMR investigations, and rheology studies on the polymer as well as double-tagging analyses on molecular model structures and theoretical calculations further support this hypothesis and indicate a ring-opening inducing crosslinking. When diluted in an apolar solvent such as toluene, the polymer network can be resolubilized via ring closing, thus recovering the entropically favored linear chains featuring cyclic boronate esters.

Integrated Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Peridinin Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae Plastid

The plastid genomes of peridinin-containing dinoflagellates are highly unusual, possessing very few genes, which are located on small chromosomal elements termed "minicircles". These minicircles may contain genes, or no recognisable coding information. Transcripts produced from minicircles may undergo unusual processing events, such as the addition of a 3' poly(U) tail. To date, little is known about the genetic or transcriptional diversity of non-coding sequences in peridinin dinoflagellate plastids. These sequences include empty minicircles, and regions of non-coding DNA in coding minicircles. Here, we present an integrated plastid genome and transcriptome for the model peridinin dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae, identifying a previously undescribed minicircle. We also profile transcripts covering non-coding regions of the psbA and petB/atpA minicircles. We present evidence that antisense transcripts are produced within the A. carterae plastid, but show that these transcripts undergo different end cleavage events from sense transcripts, and do not receive 3' poly(U) tails. The difference in processing events between sense and antisense transcripts may enable the removal of non-coding transcripts from peridinin dinoflagellate plastid transcript pools.

Detecting Abnormal Massive Crowd Flows: Characterizing Fleeing En Masse by Analyzing the Acceleration of Object Vectors

Surveillance systems play an important role in mitigating various types of misconduct. However, observing a vast number of surveillance feeds is an arduous task that can be solved with a computerized system. A motion-based estimation method is proposed to measure the weighted temporal difference between consecutive frames by using spatial mean-sigma observations. It calculates the temporal frame differences that indicate the object vectors (OVs), of which statistical characteristics are evaluated periodically to identify any crowd abnormality. The proposed method is able to accurately detect the unusual event at the earliest scene, based on original and public data sets.

Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation Is Driven by Large-Scale Conformational Unwinding and Fluctuations of Intrinsically Disordered Protein Molecules.

Liquid-liquid phase separation occurs via a multitude of transient, noncovalent, and intermolecular interactions resulting in phase transition of intrinsically disordered proteins/regions (IDPs/IDRs) and other biopolymers into mesoscopic, dynamic, nonstoichiometric, and supramolecular condensates. Here we present a unique case to demonstrate that unusual conformational expansion events coupled with solvation and fluctuations drive phase separation of tau, an IDP associated with Alzheimer's disease. Using intramolecular excimer emission as a powerful proximity readout, we show the unraveling of polypeptide chains within the protein-rich interior environment that can promote critical interchain contacts. Using highly sensitive picosecond time-resolved fluorescence depolarization measurements, we directly capture rapid large-amplitude torsional fluctuations in the extended chains that can control the relay of making-and-breaking of noncovalent intermolecular contacts maintaining the internal fluidity. The interplay of these key molecular parameters can be of prime importance in modulating the mesoscale material property of liquid-like condensates and their maturation into pathological gel-like and solid-like aggregates.

Understanding Urban Dynamics From Massive Mobile Traffic Data

Understanding the patterns of mobile data consumption is extremely valuable to reveal human activities and ecology in urban areas. This task is nontrivial in terms of three challenges: the complexity of mobile data consumption in large urban environment, the disturbance of abnormal events, and lack of prior knowledge for urban traffic patterns. We propose a novel approach to design a powerful system that consists of three subsystems: time series decomposing of mobile traffic data, extracting patterns from different components of the original traffic, and detecting anomalous events from noises. Our investigation involving the mobile traffic records of 6,400 cellular towers in Shanghai reveals three important observations. First, among all the 6,400 cellular towers, we identify five daily patterns corresponding to different human daily activity patterns. Second, we find that two natural patterns can be extracted from the weekly trend of mobile traffic consumption, which reflects modes of human activities. Last but not least, besides the regular patterns, we investigate how irregular activities affect mobile traffic consumption, and exploit this knowledge to successfully detect unusual events like concerts and soccer matches. Our proposed methodology therefore will aid a comprehensive understanding of large-scale mobile traffic consumption in urban areas.

Nonstationary frequency analysis of the recent extreme precipitation events in the United States

The intensification of the hydrologic cycle due to climate change is likely to influence the extreme precipitation characteristics (i.e., intensity, duration and frequency). These precipitation characteristics are integrated to construct Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves that are widely used to design civil infrastructure systems. These IDF curves are typically derived based on the stationary assumption, however, the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events likely to become nonstationary as a consequence of climate change. During the past decades, unusual extreme precipitation events with more than thousand-year return periods were recorded in the United States. This study investigates the nonstationary nature of the most recent extreme precipitation events occurred over different durations (1-, 3- and 5-days) by incorporating time-varying covariates, such as time, maximum temperature, mean temperature, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation cycle (ENSO). The nonstationary frequency analysis for these extreme events was conducted using nonstationary Generalized Extreme Value distribution by incorporating the time-varying covariates. It was observed that most of the temporal evolution of extreme precipitation events follow the nonstationary pattern, which may be due to the increase in the magnitude of recent extreme precipitation events, especially during hurricane events. Different combination of covariates can potentially influence the nonstationary frequency analysis, and the type of covariate may differ when the accumulated period of extreme precipitation event increased. Based on the Nonstationary Extreme Value Analysis, the return periods associated with extreme precipitation events significantly reduced compared to the stationary approach.

Large Scale Mobile Medical Service Programme: Data Insights for strengthening local surveillance

ObjectiveWe report the findings of Andhra Pradesh state’s mobile medical service programme and how It is currently used to strengthen the disease surveillance mechanisms at the village level.IntroductionIndia has an Integrated Disease Surveillance project that reports key communicable and infectious diseases at the district and sub-district level. However, recent reviews suggest structural and functional deficiencies resulting in poor data quality (1). Hence evidence-based actions are often delayed. Piramal Swasthya in collaboration with Government of Andhra Pradesh launched a mobile medical unit (MMU) programme in 2016. This Mobile medical service delivers primary care services to rural population besides reporting and alerting unusual health events to district and state health authorities for timely and appropriate action.The MMU service in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is one of the oldest and largest public-private initiatives in India. Two hundred and ninety-two MMUs provide fixed-day services to nearly 20,000 patients a day across 14,000 villages in rural Andhra Pradesh. Every day an MMU equipped with medical ( a doctor) and non-medical (1 nurse, 1 registration officer, 1 driver, 1 pharmacist, 1 lab technician, 1 driver) staff visit 2 service points (villages) as per prefixed route map. Each MMU also has its own mobile tablet operated by registration officer for capturing patient details. The core services delivered through MMUs are the diagnosis, treatment, counseling, and free drug distribution to the beneficiaries suffering from common ailments ranging from seasonal diseases to acute communicable and common chronic non-communicable diseases. The routinely collected patient data is daily synchronized on a centrally managed data servers.MethodsFor this analysis, we used aggregated and pooled data that were routinely collected from August 2016-March 2018. Patient details such as socio-demographic variables (age, sex etc.) medical history and key vitals (random blood sugar, blood pressure, pulse rate etc.) and disease diagnosis variables were analyzed. Besides, communication and action taken reports shared with Government of Andhra Pradesh were also analyzed. We report the findings of the programme with reference to strengthing the village level communicable disease surveillance. Unusual health events were defined as more than 3 patients reporting the epidemiologically linked and similar conditions clustered in the same village.ResultsWe observed 4,352,859 unique beneficiaries registrations and 9,122,349 patient visits. Of all unique beneficiaries, 79.3% had complete diagnosis details (53% non-communicable disease, 39% communicable and 8% others conditions). A total of 7 unusual health events related to specific and suspected conditions (3 vector-borne diseases related, 4 diarrhea-related) were reported to district health authorities, of which 3 were confirmed outbreaks (1 dengue, 1 malaria, and 1 typhoid) as investigated by local health authorities.ConclusionsMobile medical services are useful to detect unusual health events in areas with limited resources. It increases accountability and response from the Government authorities if the timely information is shared with competent health authorities. Careful evaluation of the mobile health interventions is needed before scaling-up such services in other remote rural areas.

Impact of a new diagnoses thesaurus on the French ED syndromic surveillance system

Impact of a new diagnoses thesaurus on the French ED syndromic surveillance system

Use of the OSCOUR network data to describe low back pain attendances in French ED

ObjectiveThe study describes the characteristics of attendances for low back pain (LBP) in the French emergency departments (ED) network Oscour®, in order to give an overview of this disease before launching a prevention campaign.IntroductionLBP is one of the leading contributors to disease burden worldwide [1]. In France, LBP is a frequent reason of general practice consultations. According to a study published in 2017 and based on 2014 data issued of the National Health Insurance Cross-Schemes Information System (Sniiram) [2], this pathology stands for 30% of thickness leave and 4 of 5 people will suffer of low back pain during their own life. Most often, LBP is a chronic pathology with acute episodes which most often require emergency care.In order to prevent chronicity, French health care insurance launched into a mainstream national prevention campaign during spring 2018. This campaign was also targeted for health professional to inform them of the best recommendations to provide to their patients. Then the French society of emergency medicine (SFMU) has been asked to relay this campaign to emergency departments (ED) where LBP is a frequent reason of attendance.Since 2004, the French syndromic surveillance system SurSaUD® [3] coordinated by the French Public Health Agency (Santé publique France) daily collects morbidity data from the emergency departments (ED) network Oscour®. Almost 92% of the French ED attendances were recorded by the system in 2017.The availability of this large ED dataset on the whole territory since several years gives the opportunity to describe LBP attendances before the potential fallout of the national prevention campaign.MethodsFor each ED attendance, the SurSaUD® system daily collects individual data containing demographic (age, gender, zip code), administrative (ED unit, date of attendance, transport…) and medical information (medical diagnosis (ICD10), chief complaint, severity, hospit.). These data are routinely analyzed to detect and follow-up various expected or unusual public health events all over the territory [3] and also constitute a large database to perform in-depth studies on specific public health issues.ED attendances with a medical diagnosis of LBP have been identified using at least one of the following ICD10 codes “M545”, “M5450”, “M5456”, “M5457”, “M5458”, “M5459”. Those data have been analyzed from 01/01/2014 to 31/12/2017 (504 ED) for the following age groups; less than 18 years old (yo), 18 to 34 yo, 35 to 49 yo, 50 to 64 yo, 65 to 84 yo and 85 yo and over, at national and regional levels. ED attendances have been also described by month, day of week and hour of day. Hospitalizations after discharge, stay duration in ED services, transport and associated diagnoses were also analyzed.ResultsFrom 2014 to 2017, 481,291 ED attendances for LBP were recorded corresponding to 1.12% of the total number of ED attendances with a coded diagnosis. 60% of annual ED attendances for LBP concern 18 to 50 years old adults. The proportion of LBP attendances among the all-cause activity remains stable between 2014 and 2017.At the regional level, LBP proportion among the all-cause activity is similar to the national value in metropolitan regions (0.8% in Brittany to 1.6% in Corsica) and is lower than the national value in overseas regions (0.4% in Mayotte to 0.8% in Guyane) except for Saint-Barthélémy (1.8%).At the national level, almost 10% of ED attendances for LBP are hospitalized after discharge. This proportion increases with age to reach 43% for the 85 years old and more. Proportion of hospitalization ranges between 5.6% (in Paris area) and 17.1% (in Brittany) in metropolitan regions and between 2.8% (Guyane) and 9.3% (Reunion island) in overseas regions.From 2014 to 2017, ED attendances for LBP remain stable by month. However, we observed a slight decrease along the week with more attendances on Monday (17.8% of LBP attendances) than the other days. The attendances are more frequent in the morning (between 6 and 12 AM).At the national level, mean stay duration for LBP attendances in ED is almost 5 hours whereas median stay duration is 2 hours and 45 minutes. Stay duration is longer for patient arrived during night hours (from midnight to 6 AM) and for those hospitalized after discharge. Stay duration is also increasing with age. At the regional level, mean stay duration varies from 3 to more than 6 hours.ConclusionsThe broad coverage of the French ED network on the whole territory since several years enables to give an overview of ED attendances for acute LBP and their characteristics.One strength of the system is its strong partnership between epidemiologists and the ED physicians. It enables to verify that the results of the study are consistent with their perception on the field.The results of this study will be used as reference to evaluate potential benefits of this campaign.Finally, this study is a good illustration of how the syndromic surveillance system in collaboration with ED physicians, can quickly provide valuable data to support political strategies.

Selection of a geographic area of interest for syndromic surveillance

Selection of a geographic area of interest for syndromic surveillance