The Global Rapid Identification of Threats System (GRITS) is a biosurveillance application that enables infectious disease analysts to monitor nontraditional information sources (e.g., social media, online news outlets, ProMED-mail reports, and blogs) for infectious disease threats. GRITS analyzes these textual data sources by identifying, extracting, and succinctly visualizing epidemiologic information and suggests potentially associated infectious diseases. This manuscript evaluates and verifies the diagnoses that GRITS performs and discusses novel aspects of the software package. Via GRITS' web interface, infectious disease analysts can examine dynamic visualizations of GRITS' analyses and explore historical infectious disease emergence events. The GRITS API can be used to continuously analyze information feeds, and the API enables GRITS technology to be easily incorporated into other biosurveillance systems. GRITS is a flexible tool that can be modified to conduct sophisticated medical report triaging, expanded to include customized alert systems, and tailored to address other biosurveillance needs.

Activating a previously consolidated memory trace brings it back into a labile state where it must then undergo a re-stabilisation process known as reconsolidation. During this process memories are susceptible to interference and may be updated with new information. In the studies showing this effect in human episodic memory, the reconsolidation process has been triggered primarily using spatial context or prediction error manipulations to reactivate an established memory. However, these studies have produced conflicting results, showing both that spatial context is necessary and sufficient to trigger reconsolidation and that prediction error is necessary and sufficient to trigger the process. We examined this conflict in two experiments, one investigating the role of context cues and another investigating the role of prediction error. In Experiment 1, spatial context triggered a reconsolidation process and prediction error was irrelevant. In Experiment 2, prediction error triggered reconsolidation, and spatial context cues were irrelevant. These findings replicate prior research but add to the puzzle concerning the roles of these two means of triggering reconsolidation.

Activating a previously consolidated memory trace brings it back into a labile state where it mustthen undergo a re-stabilization process known as reconsolidation. During this process memoriesare susceptible to interference and may be updated with new information. In the studies showingthis effect in human episodic memory, the reconsolidation process has been triggered primarilyby using spatial context or prediction error manipulations to reactivate an established memory.However, these studies have produced conflicting results, showing both that spatial context isnecessary and sufficient to trigger reconsolidation and that prediction error is necessary andsufficient to trigger the process. We examined this conflict in two experiments, one investigatingthe role of context cues and another investigating the role of prediction error. In Experiment 1,spatial context triggered a reconsolidation process and prediction error was irrelevant. InExperiment 2, prediction error triggered reconsolidation, and spatial context cues were irrelevant.These findings replicate prior research but add to the puzzle concerning the roles of these twomeans of triggering reconsolidation.

IntroductionThe Defense Threat Reduction Agency Chemical and Biological Technologies Directorate (DTRA CB) has initiated the Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE) research and development program. Operational biosurveillance capability gaps were analyzed and the required characteristics of new technology were outlined, the results of which will be described in this contribution. MethodsWork process flow diagrams, with associated explanations and historical examples, were developed based on in-person, structured interviews with public health and preventative medicine analysts from a variety of Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, and with one organization in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and with a major U.S. city health department. The particular nuanced job characteristics of each organization were documented and subsequently validated with the individual analysts. Additionally, the commonalities across different organizations were described in meta-workflow diagrams and descriptions. ResultsTwo meta-workflows were evident from the analysis. In the first type, epidemiologists identify and characterize health-impacting events, determine their cause, and determine community-level responses to the event. Analysts of this type monitor information (primarily statistical case information) from syndromic or disease reporting system or other sources to determine whether there are any unusual diseases or clusters of disease outbreaks in the jurisdiction. This workflow involved three consecutive processes: triage, analysis and reporting. Investigation and response processes to disease outbreaks are both parallel and overlapping in many circumstances. In the second meta-workflow type, analysts monitor for a potential health event through text-based sources and data reports within their particular area of responsibility. This surveillance activity is often interspersed with other activities required of their job. They may generate a daily/weekly/monthly report or only report when an event is detected that requires notification/response. There are similar triage, analysis and reporting workflow stages to the first meta-workflow type, but in contrast these analysts are focused on informing leadership and response in the form of policy modification. They are also subject to answering leadership-driven biosurveillance queries. ConclusionsIn these interviews, analysts described the shortcomings of various technologies that they use, or technology features that they wish were available. These can be grouped into the following feature categories:Data: Analysts want rapid access to all relevant data sources, advisories for data that may be relevant to their interests, and availability of information at the appropriate level for their analysis (e.g., output of interpretations from expert analysts instead of raw data).Enhanced search: Analysts would like customization of information based on relevance, selective filtering of sources, prioritization of search topics, and the ability to view other analysts search...

Reactivating a memory trace has been argued to put it in a fragile state where it must undergo a stabilization process known as reconsolidation. During this process, memories are thought to be susceptible to interference and can be updated with new information. In the spatial context paradigm, memory updating has been shown to occur when new information is presented in the same spatial context as old information, an effect attributed to a reconsolidation process. However, the integration concept holds that memory change can only occur when reactivation and test states are the same, similar to a state-dependent effect. Thus, in human episodic memory, memory updating should only be found when state is the same across the study, reactivation, and test sessions. We investigated whether memory updating can be attributed to state dependency in two experiments using mood as a state. We found evidence of memory updating only when mood was the same across all sessions of the experiments, lending support to the integration concept and posing a challenge to a reconsolidation explanation.

(DTRA J9 CB) have partnered to codevelop the Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE), an emerging capability that aims to provide a virtual, customizable analyst workbench that integrates health and non-health data. This partnership promotes engagement between diverse health surveillance entities to increase awareness and improve decision-making capabilities. IntroductionNBIC collects, analyzes, and shares key biosurveillance information to support the nation's response to biological events of concern. Integration of this information enables early warning and shared situational awareness to inform critical decision making, and direct response and recovery efforts.DTRA J9 CB leads DoD S&T to anticipate, defend, and safeguard against chemical and biological threats for the warfighter and the nation.These agencies have partnered to meet the evolving needs of the biosurveillance community and address gaps in technology and data sharing capabilities. High-profile events such as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the West African Ebola outbreak, and the recent emergence of Zika virus disease have underscored the need for integration of disparate biosurveillance systems to provide a more functional infrastructure. This allows analysts and others in the community to collect, analyze, and share relevant data across organizations securely and efficiently. Leveraging existing biosurveillance efforts provides the federal public health community, and its partners, with a comprehensive interagency platform that enables engagement and data sharing.

Reconsolidation is a process by which a consolidated memory that has been destabilized by reactivation is updated, strengthened, or weakened by the restabilization of the trace. A critical assumption of the reconsolidation theory is that reconsolidation is a time-dependent process. Hupbach, Gomez, Hardt, and Nadel ( 2007 , Learning & Memory , 14 , 47–53) conducted a set of experiments demonstrating that memory updating is only found when the reconsolidation process has time to complete. This finding strengthens reconsolidation theory and poses a challenge to other accounts of memory updating (e.g., context and interference accounts). Because this finding is so critical to the reconsolidation theory, we attempted to directly replicate these experiments, which showed memory updating in a 3-day paradigm (when reconsolidation has time to complete), but not in a 2-day paradigm (when reconsolidation does not have time to complete). We replicated these results, thereby bolstering the reconsolidation theory of memory updating. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13423-022-02102-3.

Reactivating a memory trace has been argued to put it in a fragile state where it must undergo a stabilization process known as reconsolidation. During this process, memories are thought to be susceptible to interference and can be updated with new information. In the spatial context paradigm, memory updating has been shown to occur when new information is presented in the same spatial context as old information, an effect attributed to a reconsolidation process. However, the integration concept holds that memory change can only occur when reactivation and test states are the same, similar to a state-dependent effect. Thus, in human episodic memory, memory updating should only be found when state is the same across the study, reactivation, and test sessions. We investigated whether memory updating can be attributed to state dependency in two experiments using mood as a state. We found evidence of memory updating only when mood was the same across all sessions of the experiments, lending support to the integration concept and posing a challenge to a reconsolidation explanation.