The clinical and laboratory impact of reporting faecal elastase-1 in watery stool samples.

Background: Low faecal elastase-1 (FE-1) results are suggestive of pancreatic insufficiency, but watery diarrhoea may lead to falsely low results.

Methods: FE-1 results reported on watery samples over a three-year period were reviewed. Results in watery samples were compared to those from a formed sample.

A population genetic assessment of coral recovery on highly disturbed reefs of the Keppel Island archipelago in the southern Great Barrier Reef.

Coral reefs surrounding the islands lying close to the coast are unique to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in that they are frequently exposed to disturbance events including floods caused by cyclonic rainfall, strong winds and occasional periods of prolonged above-average temperatures during summer. In one such group of islands in the southern GBR, the Keppel Island archipelago, climate-driven disturbances frequently result in major coral mortality. Whilst these island reefs have clearly survived such dramatic disturbances in the past, the consequences of extreme mortality events may include the loss of genetic diversity, and hence adaptive potential, and a reduction in fitness due to inbreeding, especially if new recruitment from external sources is limited.

Flood impacts in Keppel Bay, southern great barrier reef in the aftermath of cyclonic rainfall.

In December 2010, the highest recorded Queensland rainfall associated with Tropical Cyclone 'Tasha' caused flooding of the Fitzroy River in Queensland, Australia. A massive flood plume inundated coral reefs lying 12 km offshore of the Central Queensland coast near Yeppoon and caused 40-100% mortality to coral fringing many of the islands of Keppel Bay down to a depth of ∼8 m. The severity of coral mortality was influenced by the level of exposure to low salinity seawater as a result of the reef's distance from the flood plume and to a lesser extent, water depth and whether or not the reef faced the plume source.

Environmental factors controlling the distribution of symbiodinium harboured by the coral Acropora millepora on the Great Barrier Reef.

Background: The Symbiodinium community associated with scleractinian corals is widely considered to be shaped by seawater temperature, as the coral's upper temperature tolerance is largely contingent on the Symbiodinium types harboured. Few studies have challenged this paradigm as knowledge of other environmental drivers on the distribution of Symbiodinium is limited. Here, we examine the influence of a range of environmental variables on the distribution of Symbiodinium associated with Acropora millepora collected from 47 coral reefs spanning 1,400 km on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia.

Substantial regional differences in human herpesvirus 8 seroprevalence in sub-Saharan Africa: insights on the origin of the "Kaposi's sarcoma belt".

Equatorial Africa has among the highest incidences of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in the world, thus earning the name "KS Belt." This was the case even before the HIV epidemic. To date, there is no clear evidence that HHV-8 seroprevalence is higher in this region but interpretation of the available literature is tempered by differences in serologic assays used across studies.

Comparison of flow rates produced by two frequently used manual hyperinflation circuits: a benchtop study.

Background: Manual hyperinflation is a treatment technique commonly used by physiotherapists in intensive care units to reverse or prevent atelectasis and mobilize airway secretions in intubated patients. The aim of this study was to determine which of the Magill (Rusch Manufacturing Ltd, Craigavon, UK) or Mapleson-C (CIG DF 655, CIG Medishield, Sydney, Australia) manual hyperinflation circuits was theoretically more effective at mobilizing secretions.

Methods: A semi-blinded crossover study of 12 physiotherapists with tertiary level intensive care unit experience was conducted on a benchtop model.