Molecular xenomonitoring of Schistosoma mansoni infections in Biomphalaria choanomphala at Lake Victoria, East Africa: Assessing roles of abiotic and biotic factors.

Lake Victoria is a well-known hot spot for intestinal schistosomiasis, caused by infection with the trematode Schistosoma mansoni. The snail intermediate hosts of this parasite are Biomphalaria snails, with Biomphalaria choanomphala being the predominant intermediate host within Lake Victoria. The prevalence of S.

Development and Implementation of a Multicenter Registry for Resuscitation-Focused Transesophageal Echocardiography.

Study Objective: To evaluate the clinical effect, safety, and clinical outcomes of focused transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in the evaluation of critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED) and ICUs.

Methods: We established a prospective, multicenter, observational registry involving adult critically ill patients in whom focused TEE was performed for evaluation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), inhospital cardiac arrest, evaluation of undifferentiated shock, hemodynamic monitoring, and/or procedural guidance in the ED, ICU, or operating room setting. The primary objective of the current investigation was to evaluate the clinical influence and safety of focused, point-of-care TEE in critically ill patients.

A new diagnostic technique for identifying Angiostrongylus spp. larvae in intermediate snail species by examining the buccal cavity.

Background: Angiostrongyliasis is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by the rat lungworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis. The intermediate hosts of A. cantonensis are gastropods, and snail species such as Pomacea canaliculata play a key role in the transmission of human angiostrongyliasis.

Differentiation of Bulinus senegalensis and Bulinus forskalii Snails in West Africa Using Morphometric Analysis.

Purpose: Accurate identification of medically important intermediate host and vector species is crucial for understanding disease transmission and control. Identifying Bulinus snails which act as intermediate host species for the transmission of schistosomiasis is typically undertaken using conchological and genital morphology as well as molecular methods.

Methods: Here, a landmark-based morphometric analysis of shell morphology was undertaken to determine its utility to distinguish the closely related and morphologically similar sister species Bulinus senegalensis and Bulinus forskalii.

Resuscitative transesophageal echocardiography in emergency departments in the United States and Canada: A cross-sectional survey.

Introduction: Over the past two decades, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has been used with increasing frequency to evaluate critically ill patients outside of traditional settings. The purpose of this study was to characterize the number of programs, users, practice characteristics, training and competency requirements and barriers for the current use of resuscitative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in Emergency Departments (EDs) in the United States and Canada.

Methods: A closed internet-based, cross-sectional, point-prevalence survey was administered via email to 120 program directors of emergency ultrasound fellowships (EUSF) and 43 physicians from EDs without EUSF from the United States and Canada.

Seasonal patterns of Schistosoma mansoni infection within Biomphalaria snails at the Ugandan shorelines of Lake Albert and Lake Victoria.

Intestinal schistosomiasis is hyperendemic in many sub-Saharan African countries. In Uganda, it is endemic at both Lake Albert (LA) and Lake Victoria (LV) and caused by S. mansoni that uses Biomphalaria snails as obligatory intermediate snail hosts.

Nematodes and trematodes associated with terrestrial gastropods in Nottingham, England.

A parasitological survey of terrestrial slugs and snails was conducted at popular dog walking locations across the city of Nottingham, with the intensions of finding gastropods infected with parasites of medical (or veterinary) importance such as lungworm (metastrongyloid nematodes) and trematodes. A total of 800 gastropods were collected from 16 sites over a 225 km area. The extracted nematodes and trematodes were identified by molecular barcoding.

Comparison of in-person versus tele-ultrasound point-of-care ultrasound training during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Lack of training is currently the most common barrier to implementation of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) use in clinical practice, and in-person POCUS continuing medical education (CME) courses have been paramount in improving this training gap. Due to travel restrictions and physical distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, most in-person POCUS training courses were cancelled. Though tele-ultrasound technology has existed for several years, use of tele-ultrasound technology to deliver hands-on training during a POCUS CME course has not been previously described.

Comparing PCR techniques against conventional cercarial shedding methods for detecting Schistosoma mansoni infection in Biomphalaria snails.

The detection of Schistosoma mansoni infection in both its intermediate (snail) and definitive (human) hosts is useful in providing information on the transmission of schistosomiasis. Three pairs of previously designed PCR primers (SM, SM & ND5) used for the detection of S. mansoni infection were tested.

Development and Validation of the Performance-Based Situation Awareness Observation Schedule (PBSAOS): The Process and Lessons Learned.

Background: No instruments are currently available to assess nursing students' maintenance of situation awareness. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Performance-Based Situation Awareness Observation Schedule for measuring nursing students' use of situation awareness.

Method: Twelve expert clinicians participated in a qualitative, reiterative consensus-driven process to establish the content validity of the tool.

Point-of-care ultrasound diagnosis of stump appendicitis in the emergency department.

Background: Stump appendicitis (SA) is a rare entity in patients with a history of appendectomy and may result in missed or delayed diagnosis. We report a case of SA diagnosed by emergency department (ED) point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) in an elderly woman, thus expediting her care.

Case Presentation: An elderly female patient with a history of appendectomy 27 years ago was referred by her physician to the ED with right lower quadrant pain for 2 days.

Performance based situation awareness observations in a simulated clinical scenario pre and post an educational intervention.

This study compared final year nursing students' error rate and use of strategies to maintain SA when undertaking specific nursing care in a simulated clinical environment pre and 10 weeks post a planned SA education intervention. Students were observed using a Performance Based Situation Awareness Observation Schedule (PBSAOS) undertaking two tasks in a simulated clinical environment pre and post the SA education. For task 1, post educational intervention, there was no significant increase in the error rate for any performance measures, and there were significant decreases in the error rates for three performance measures.

Gastropod parasitic nematodes ( sp.) are attracted to hyaluronic acid in snail mucus by cGMP signalling.

Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita is a parasitic nematode of terrestrial gastropods that has been formulated into a biological control agent for farmers and gardeners to kill slugs and snails. In order to locate slugs it is attracted to mucus, faeces and volatile cues; however, there is no information about whether these nematodes are attracted to snail cues. It is also unknown how wild isolates of P.

Development of Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita (and members of the Phasmarhabditis genus) as new genetic model nematodes to study the genetic basis of parasitism.

The genetic mechanisms of how free-living nematodes evolved into parasites are unknown. Current genetic model nematodes (e.g.

The influence of situation awareness training on nurses' confidence about patient safety skills: A prospective cohort study.

Background: Several studies report that patient safety skills, especially non-technical skills, receive scant attention in nursing curricula. Hence, there is a compelling reason to incorporate material that enhances non-technical skills, such as situation awareness, in nursing curricula in order to assist in the reduction of healthcare related adverse events.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to: 1) understand final year nursing students' confidence in their patient safety skills; and 2) examine the impact of situation awareness training on final year nursing students' confidence in their patient safety skills.

Variability in Interpretation of Cardiac Standstill Among Physician Sonographers.

Study Objective: Cardiac standstill on point-of-care ultrasonography has been widely studied as a marker of prognosis in cardiac arrest. Return of spontaneous circulation has been reported in as few as 0% and as many as 45% of patients with cardiac standstill. When explicitly documented, the definition of cardiac activity in these studies varied from any slight change in echogenicity of the myocardium to any kinetic cardiac activity.

Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Diagnosis of Intravascular Air After Lower Extremity Intraosseous Access.

Background: Vascular air embolism is a rare but potentially deadly phenomenon. Early diagnosis allows providers to initiate measures aimed at preventing further air entry, preventing the migration of air to the lungs, and mitigating the hemodynamic effects of pulmonary air embolism.

Case Report: An emergency physician used point-of-care ultrasound to identify intravascular air before embolization to the pulmonary vasculature.

Focused cardiac ultrasound.

The use of point-of-care ultrasound of the heart is becoming more widespread. A variety of users have joined traditional users of cardiac ultrasound, cardiologists, and are imaging their patients in real time at the point of care. Patients with undifferentiated shock, hypotension, chest pain, or dyspnea are ideal candidates for focused cardiac ultrasound (FOCUS).

Lung ultrasound in the management of acute decompensated heart failure.

Once thought impracticable, lung ultrasound is now used in patients with a variety of pulmonary processes. This review seeks to describe the utility of lung ultrasound in the management of patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). A literature search was carried out on PubMed/Medline using search terms related to the topic.

Measurement of oxygen radicals and lipid peroxidation in neural tissues.

An important role for oxygen radical-mediated neuronal damage has been implicated in a number of acute and chronic neurodegenerative disorders. Particular interest has centered upon oxygen radical-induced, iron-catalyzed lipid peroxidation (LP) as the principal mechanism of the neuronal injury associated with oxygen radicals. Thus, there has been a growing interest in methods for monitoring increased oxygen radical levels as an index of oxidative stress as well as markers of LP-associated oxidative injury in a number of in vitro and in vivo model systems.

Cancer monitoring by FTIR spectroscopy.

Evidence for balanced cell growth where protein and RNA content rise at a constant relative rate with respect to DNA content with increasing grade of cancer and with malignant transformation, is derived from analysis of infrared spectra of malignant lymphoma and transformed fibroblasts within the literature. This evidence is consistent with flow cytometry derived RNA-protein relationships, and supports the biosynthetic connection proposed here between the RNA/DNA ratio as calculated from the absorbance pulse at 1121 cm(-1), and the protein/nucleic acid ratio as measured by the absorbance ratio A1650 cm(-1)/A1084 cm(-1). The present analysis is the first to explain and show evidence for a simple unifying biomolecular content theory for interdependent changes seen within the fingerprint region (900 cm(-1)-1750 cm(-1)) of the infrared spectrum of cells.

Time course of production of hydroxyl free radical after subarachnoid hemorrhage in dogs.

Vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is associated with lipid peroxidation. However, lipid peroxides increase in a delayed fashion after SAH and may be a byproduct of but not a cause of vasospasm. This study correlated vasospasm with hydroxyl free radical and lipid peroxide levels.