Third international challenge to model the medium- to long-range transport of radioxenon to four Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations.

In 2015 and 2016, atmospheric transport modeling challenges were conducted in the context of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) verification, however, with a more limited scope with respect to emission inventories, simulation period and number of relevant samples (i.e., those above the Minimum Detectable Concentration (MDC)) involved. Therefore, a more comprehensive atmospheric transport modeling challenge was organized in 2019. Stack release data of Xe-133 were provided by the Institut National des Radioéléments/IRE (Belgium) and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories/CNL (Canada) and accounted for in the simulations over a three (mandatory) or six (optional) months period. Best estimate emissions of additional facilities (radiopharmaceutical production and nuclear research facilities, commercial reactors or relevant research reactors) of the Northern Hemisphere were included as well. Model results were compared with observed atmospheric activity concentrations at four International Monitoring System (IMS) stations located in Europe and North America with overall considerable influence of IRE and/or CNL emissions for evaluation of the participants' runs. Participants were prompted to work with controlled and harmonized model set-ups to make runs more comparable, but also to increase diversity. It was found that using the stack emissions of IRE and CNL with daily resolution does not lead to better results than disaggregating annual emissions of these two facilities taken from the literature if an overall score for all stations covering all valid observed samples is considered. A moderate benefit of roughly 10% is visible in statistical scores for samples influenced by IRE and/or CNL to at least 50% and there can be considerable benefit for individual samples. Effects of transport errors, not properly characterized remaining emitters and long IMS sampling times (12-24 h) undoubtedly are in contrast to and reduce the benefit of high-quality IRE and CNL stack data. Complementary best estimates for remaining emitters push the scores up by 18% compared to just considering IRE and CNL emissions alone. Despite the efforts undertaken the full multi-model ensemble built is highly redundant. An ensemble based on a few arbitrary runs is sufficient to model the Xe-133 background at the stations investigated. The effective ensemble size is below five. An optimized ensemble at each station has on average slightly higher skill compared to the full ensemble. However, the improvement (maximum of 20% and minimum of 3% in RMSE) in skill is likely being too small for being exploited for an independent period.

Influence of the meteorological input on the atmospheric transport modelling with FLEXPART of radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

In the present paper the role of precipitation as FLEXPART model input is investigated for one possible release scenario of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Precipitation data from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF), the NOAA's National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the Japan Meteorological Agency's (JMA) mesoscale analysis and a JMA radar-rain gauge precipitation analysis product were utilized. The accident of Fukushima in March 2011 and the following observations enable us to assess the impact of these precipitation products at least for this single case. As expected the differences in the statistical scores are visible but not large. Increasing the ECMWF resolution of all the fields from 0.5° to 0.2° rises the correlation from 0.71 to 0.80 and an overall rank from 3.38 to 3.44. Substituting ECMWF precipitation, while the rest of the variables remains unmodified, by the JMA mesoscale precipitation analysis and the JMA radar gauge precipitation data yield the best results on a regional scale, specially when a new and more robust wet deposition scheme is introduced. The best results are obtained with a combination of ECMWF 0.2° data with precipitation from JMA mesoscale analyses and the modified wet deposition with a correlation of 0.83 and an overall rank of 3.58. NCEP-based results with the same source term are generally poorer, giving correlations around 0.66, and comparatively large negative biases and an overall rank of 3.05 that worsens when regional precipitation data is introduced.

Cranio-cervical stabilization of traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation with minimal resultant neurological deficit.

Our purpose is to describe a case of atlanto-occipital dislocation and discuss treatment approaches to minimize subsequent neurological deficits. Traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, has traditionally been considered rare and lethal, due to resulting high levels of spinal cord injury. Outcomes are generally expected to be poor. However, recent case reports indicate that survival is increasing. Of patients who survive cranio-cervical dislocation, many endure resulting neurological deficits. We present a rare case of a 23-year-old male, who sustained an atlanto-occipital dislocation in a motor vehicle accident. The patient presented with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 11T. Lateral C-spine x-ray and thin-section slices CT delineated a C1 ring fracture on the left side with approximately 1 cm anterior and superior subluxation of the occipital condyles of the cranium in reference to C1. The patient was completely awake, alert, and was following commands. The patient underwent a cranio-cervical stabilization from occiput to C3, using lateral mas screws (C1-C3) and transarticular screws (C2-C3). The Vertex (Medtronics) system used included longitudinal bars connected to the lateral mas plating system, which was subsequently used to place screws within the keel of the occipital bone. Motor strength and sensation remained intact following surgery. One-week post-operation, the patient was ambulating 140 feet, conversationally appropriate, and had a GCS of 15. This case illustrates the possibility for neurosurgical intervention of cranio-cervical dislocations to achieve optimal outcome and demonstrates that survival from this injury is not only conceivable, but recovery of function is also possible.

A checklist to facilitate cultural awareness and sensitivity.

United States of America demographic profiles illustrate a nation rich in cultural and racial diversity. Approximately 29% of the population are minorities and demographic projections indicate an increase to 50% by the year 2050. This creates a highly mobile and constantly changing environment, revealing the need for new levels of cultural awareness and sensitivity. These issues are particularly critical in the medical community where medical professionals must understand the impact cultural differences and barriers can have on evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation. During times of stress, such as when injury strikes, problems associated with lack of cultural sensitivity are intensified. Cultural diversity is of particular concern when standard measures for diagnosis and prognosis are derived from established norms for responding, because culture defines norms. This paper details a ten point checklist designed to facilitate cultural awareness and sensitivity in medical settings to ensure maximum successful recovery and outcomes for all patients.

Music and the brain: the impact of music on an oboist's fight for recovery.

A 20-year-old female, alias Sara, was an aspiring professional oboist who studied music performance at college level. While wading across a river she lost her balance, was swept down river, and suffered profound injuries including severe hypothermia, cardiac arrest, and hypoxic brain injury. While recovering, her family and friends surrounded Sara with music. Her oboe teacher placed Sara's oboe in her hand and played tapes of Sara's past performances. Her mother played recordings of her favourite music in hopes that the music would remind her of her life's passion and, thus, stimulate her mind and soul while she recovered. Two years post-injury, Sara continues to strive to improve her quality of life. In this case study, Sara's musical and medical recovery is detailed using quantitative and qualitative data. This data gathered allows one to provide an analysis of the powerful role of music in Sara's fight to recover.

Conscious and unconscious retrieval in picture recognition: a framework for exploring gender differences.

The authors explored gender differences by examining 2 distinct memory processes involved in recognizing pictures that were scenes captured from videotapes. For Study 1, the authors used a process dissociation procedure (L.J. Anooshian & P.S. Seibert, 1995; L.L. Jacoby, 1991) to obtain separate estimates of the contributions of recollection (conscious retrieval) and sense of familiarity (unconscious retrieval) in recognizing scenes along previously viewed routes of travel. Women obtained higher familiarity scores than did men, whereas no gender difference emerged for conscious recollection. In Study 2, the authors tested both preschool children and adults and found results similar to those in Study 1 for a task with pictures captured from children's cartoons, regardless of age. The results from these studies illustrate the need for greater attention to diverse memory processes when investigating individual differences, including gender differences, in diverse task domains.

Hazards in the hospital.

In an earlier article (JAVMA, Jan 15, 1994), the author outlined some of the first steps necessary in establishing a hospital safety program that will comply with current Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. One of the main concerns of the OSHA guidelines is that there be written plans for managing hazardous materials, performing dangerous jobs, and dealing with other potential safety problems. In this article, the author discusses potentially hazardous situations commonly found in veterinary practices and provides details on how to minimize the risks associated with those situations and how to implement safety procedures that will comply with the OSHA guidelines.

Irrelevant thoughts, emotional mood states, and cognitive task performance.

In two experiments, we investigated the relationship shared by irrelevant thoughts, emotional mood states, and cognitive task performance. At an empirical level, irrelevant thoughts were defined as thoughts that did not facilitate successful task performance. We used the same general procedure for both experiments: three groups of college students received happy-, neutral-(control), or sad-mood inductions and performed a memory task. The procedure for obtaining thoughts varied between experiments. The subjects in Experiment 1 listed their thoughts after the memory recall task. In Experiment 2, the subjects were tape-recorded while performing a memory task and producing concurrent verbal protocols. The subjects in both experiments then judged their thoughts in terms of frequency, intensity, and irrelevance. We found a similar pattern of results in both experiments: (1) The proportions of irrelevant thoughts and recall performance were negatively related, and (2) happy and sad students produced reliably greater proportions of irrelevant thoughts than did neutral (control) students.