Decompression sickness

Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompression. DCS most commonly occurs during or soon after a decompression ascent from underwater diving, but can also result from other causes of depressurisation, such as emerging from a caisson, decompression from saturation, flying in an unpressurised aircraft at high altitude, and extravehicular activity from spacecraft. DCS and arterial gas embolism are collectively referred to as decompression illness. Since bubbles can form in or migrate to any part of the body, DCS can produce many symptoms, and its effects may vary from joint pain and rashes to paralysis and death. DCS often causes air bubbles to settle in major joints like knees or elbows, causing individuals to bend over in excruciating pain, hence its common name, the bends. Individual suscepti

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (3)

Related publications

Related people

Related units

Related concepts (39)

Related concepts

Related courses (4)

Related courses

Related lectures (4)

Related lectures

Grammar-Based Tree Compression

Grammar-based compression means to find a small grammar that generates a given object. Such a grammar reveals the structure of the object (according to the grammar formalism used); the main advantage of this compression method is that the resulting grammar can often be used in further computations without prior decompression. A linear time bottom-up algorithm is presented which transforms a tree into a particular context-free tree grammar. For common XML documents the algorithm performs well, compressing the tree structure to about 5 per cent of the original size. The validation of an XML document against an XML type can be done without decompression, in linear time w.r.t. the size of the grammar (for a fixed type). While the involved grammars can be double exponentially smaller than the represented trees, testing them for equivalence can be done in polynomial space w.r.t. the sum of their sizes.

2004

Selection of Water-Soluble Chitosan by Microwave-Assisted Degradation and pH-Controlled Precipitation

Sandrine Gerber, Céline Marie Anne Journot, Yann Lavanchy, Laura Camille Louise Nicolle

In the field of gene therapy, chitosan (CS) gained interest for its promise as a non-viral DNA vector. However, commercial sources of CS lack precise characterization and do not generally reach sufficient solubility in aqueous media for in vitro and in vivo evaluation. As low molecular weight CS showed improved solubility, we investigated the process of CS depolymerization by acidic hydrolysis, using either long time heating at 80 °C or short time microwave-enhanced heating. The resulting depolymerized chitosan (dCS) were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to determine their average molecular weight (Mn, Mp and Mw), polydispersity index (PD) and degree of deacetylation (DD). We emphasized the production of water-soluble CS (solubility > 5 mg/mL), obtained in reproducible yield and characteristics, and suitable for downstream functionalization. Optimal microwave-assisted conditions provided dCS with a molecular weight (MW) = 12.6 ± 0.6 kDa, PD = 1.41 ± 0.05 and DD = 85%. While almost never discussed in the literature, we observed the partial post-production aggregation of dCS when exposed to phase changes (from liquid to solid). Repeated cycles of freezing/thawing allowed the selection of dCS fractions which were exempt of crystalline particles formation upon solubilization from frozen samples.

2020

1999

Underwater diving

Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. It is also often referred to as diving, an ambiguous term with seve

Breathing gas

A breathing gas is a mixture of gaseous chemical elements and compounds used for respiration. Air is the most common and only natural breathing gas, but other mixtures of gases, or pure oxygen, are

Oxygen toxicity

Oxygen toxicity is a condition resulting from the harmful effects of breathing molecular oxygen (O2) at increased partial pressures. Severe cases can result in cell damage and death, with effects most

MICRO-621: MOOC: Micro and Nanofabrication (MEMS)

Micro- and nanofabrication can be taught to students and professionals by textbooks and ex-cathedra lectures, but the real learning comes from seeing the manufacturing steps as they happen. This MOOC will not only explain the basics of microfabrication but also show the practice through videos.

CH-416: Chemical biology of cell imaging

This course will introduce basic concepts of fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy applied to the observation of biological systems. The course will focus on the design, preparation and implementation of small-molecule and protein-based probes.

CIVIL-403: Geology for construction and environment

Détermination des roches principales, physique des écoulements souterrains en rapport avec les ouvrages, relations entre milieu géologique et construit. Determination of the main rocks, physics of underground flows in relation to the works, relations between geological and built environment.