There are many advantages to transitioning from conducting marine wildlife surveys human observers onboard light-aircraft, to capturing aerial imagery using drones. However, it is important to maintain the validity of long-term data series whilst transitioning from observer to imagery surveys. We need to understand how the detection rates of target species in images compare to those collected from observers in piloted aircraft, and the factors influencing detection rates from each platform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) are particularly susceptible to dysphagia and malnutrition. Prophylactic percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) placement is a method used to manage these issues, but practices vary among institutions. At Midcentral District Health Board, patients receiving radiotherapy to the primary and bilateral neck regions routinely undergo prophylactic PEG placement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Improving hospital oxygen systems can improve quality of care and reduce mortality for children, but we lack data on cost-effectiveness or sustainability. This study evaluated medium-term sustainability and cost-effectiveness of the Nigeria Oxygen Implementation programme.
Methods: Prospective follow-up of a stepped-wedge trial involving 12 secondary-level hospitals.
Background: Oxygen reduces mortality from severe pneumonia and is a vital part of case management, but achieving reliable access to oxygen is challenging in low and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. We developed and field tested two oxygen supply solutions suitable for the realities of LMIC health facilities.
Methods: A Health Needs Assessment identified a technology gap preventing reliable oxygen supplies in Gambian hospitals.
Background: Hypoxaemia is a common complication of pneumonia and a major risk factor for death, but less is known about hypoxaemia in other common conditions. We evaluated the epidemiology of hypoxaemia and oxygen use in hospitalised neonates and children in Nigeria.
Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study among neonates and children (<15 years of age) admitted to 12 secondary-level hospitals in southwest Nigeria (November 2015-November 2017) using data extracted from clinical records (documented during routine care).
Background: Improving oxygen systems may improve clinical outcomes for hospitalised children with acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI). This paper reports the effects of an improved oxygen system on mortality and clinical practices in 12 general, paediatric, and maternity hospitals in southwest Nigeria.
Methods And Findings: We conducted an unblinded stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial comparing three study periods: baseline (usual care), pulse oximetry introduction, and stepped introduction of a multifaceted oxygen system.
Background: Oxygen is an essential medical therapy that is poorly available globally. We evaluated the quality of oxygen therapy in 12 secondary-level Nigerian hospitals, including access to oxygen equipment, equipment functionality, healthcare worker knowledge and appropriateness of use.
Methods: We conducted a three-part evaluation of oxygen access and use involving: (1) facility assessment (including technical evaluation of oxygen equipment), (2) clinical audit (children and neonates admitted January 2014-December 2015) and (3) survey of healthcare worker training and experience on the clinical use of oxygen (November 2015).
Eur J Cancer Care (Engl)
March 2019
Introduction: A shift in focus towards risk stratification and survivorship in early stage endometrial cancer (EC) has led to the replacement of hospital follow-up (HFU) with patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) schemes.
Methods: A mixed methods study was undertaken prospectively to investigate utility and patient satisfaction with a newly introduced PIFU scheme.
Results: Two hundred and twenty-eight women were enrolled onto PIFU in the first 18 months, median age 65 years (range 42-90 years).
Understanding the circuit mechanisms behind motion detection is a long-standing question in visual neuroscience. In , recently discovered synapse-level connectomes in the optic lobe, particularly in ON-pathway (T4) receptive-field circuits, in concert with physiological studies, suggest a motion model that is increasingly intricate when compared with the ubiquitous Hassenstein-Reichardt model. By contrast, our knowledge of OFF-pathway (T5) has been incomplete.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEfficient monitoring of organisms is at the foundation of protected area and biodiversity management. Such monitoring programs are based on a systematically selected set of survey locations that, while able to track trends at those locations through time, lack inference for the overall region being "monitored". Advances in spatially-balanced sampling approaches offer alternatives but remain largely untested in marine ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutomatic Identification Systems (AIS) are a standard feature of ocean-going vessels, designed to allow vessels to notify each other of their position and route, to reduce collisions. Increasingly, the system is being used to monitor vessels remotely, particularly with the advent of satellite receivers. One fundamental problem with AIS transmission is the issue of gaps in transmissions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIllegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities pose one of the most significant threats to sustainable fisheries worldwide. Identifying illegal behaviour, specifically fishing and at-sea transhipment, continues to be a fundamental hurdle in combating IUU fishing. Here, we explore the use of spatial statistical methods to identify vessels behaving anomalously, in particular with regard to loitering, using the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and surrounding waters as a case-study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hypoxaemia is a common and potentially fatal complication of many childhood, newborn and maternal conditions but often not well recognised or managed in settings where resources are limited. Oxygen itself is often inaccessible due to cost or logistics. This paper describes implementation of oxygen systems in Lao district hospitals, clinical outcomes after 24 months and equipment outcomes after 40 months postimplementation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Oxygen is a life-saving, essential medicine that is important for the treatment of many common childhood conditions. Improved oxygen systems can reduce childhood pneumonia mortality substantially. However, providing oxygen to children is challenging, especially in small hospitals with weak infrastructure and low human resource capacity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify and describe interventions to improve oxygen therapy in hospitals in low-resource settings, and to determine the factors that contribute to success and failure in different contexts.
Methods: Using realist review methods, we scanned the literature and contacted experts in the field to identify possible mechanistic theories of how interventions to improve oxygen therapy systems might work. Then we systematically searched online databases for evaluations of improved oxygen systems in hospitals in low- or middle-income countries.
Aerial surveys are conducted for various fauna to assess abundance, distribution, and habitat use over large spatial scales. They are traditionally conducted using light aircraft with observers recording sightings in real time. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer an alternative with many potential advantages, including eliminating human risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo properly conserve and manage wild populations, it is important to have information on abundance and population dynamics. In the case of rare and cryptic species, especially in remote locations, surveys can be difficult and expensive, and run the risk of not producing sample sizes large enough to produce precise estimates. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct preliminary analysis to determine if the study will produce useable estimates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobally, 6.4 million tons of fishing gear are lost in the oceans annually. This gear (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCollecting enough data to obtain reasonable abundance estimates of whales is often difficult, particularly when studying rare species. Passive acoustics can be used to detect whale sounds and are increasingly used to estimate whale abundance. Much of the existing effort centres on the use of acoustics to estimate abundance directly, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAerial surveys of marine mammals are routinely conducted to assess and monitor species' habitat use and population status. In Australia, dugongs (Dugong dugon) are regularly surveyed and long-term datasets have formed the basis for defining habitat of high conservation value and risk assessments of human impacts. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may facilitate more accurate, human-risk free, and cheaper aerial surveys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxygen therapy is essential in all wards, emergency departments and operating theatres of hospitals at all levels, and oxygen is life-saving. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), an effective oxygen system that improved the detection and treatment of hypoxaemia in provincial and district hospitals reduced death rates from pneumonia in children by as much as 35%. The methods for providing oxygen in PNG are reviewed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study was designed to discover blood biomarkers of cancer susceptibility using invasive multiple (n = 21), single primary breast cancer (n = 21), and control subjects (n = 20). Heparinized whole blood was incubated at 37 degrees C for 2 hours after 0-10 Gy of radiation, then cell cycle arrest marker CDKN1A and apoptosis marker BBC3 mRNA were quantified. This epidemiological study was practically feasible because radiation-induced mRNA was preserved for at least 1 day whenever blood was stored at 4 degrees C (r(2) = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBull World Health Organ
October 2009
Objective: To compare oxygen supply options for health facilities in the Gambia and develop a decision-making algorithm for choosing oxygen delivery systems in Africa and the rest of the developing world.
Methods: Oxygen cylinders and concentrators were compared in terms of functionality and cost. Interviews with key informants using locally developed and adapted WHO instruments, operational assessments, cost-modelling and cost measurements were undertaken to determine whether oxygen cylinders or concentrators were the better choice.
Background: In rural hospitals of developing countries, oxygen supplies are poor and detection of hypoxaemia is difficult. Oxygen concentrators and pulse oximeters might help to manage the disease; however, use of such technology in developing countries needs comprehensive assessment. We studied the effect of an improved oxygen system on death rate in children with pneumonia in Papua New Guinea.
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