Purpose: Critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are frequently prescribed antibiotics, with many reporting an antibiotic allergy label, predominantly to penicillin. Mislabeling contributes to suboptimal antibiotic use, increasing multidrug-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile infections, and increased hospital length of stay. This prospective study implemented an antibiotic allergy assessment and testing program in the ICU, independently of clinical immunology/allergy services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPremaxillary protrusion and the performance advantages it confers are implicated in the success of diverse lineages of teleost fishes, such as Cypriniformes and Acanthomorpha. Although premaxillary protrusion has evolved independently at least five times within bony fishes, much of the functional work investigating this kinesis relates to mechanisms found only in these two clades. Few studies have characterized feeding mechanisms in less-diverse premaxilla-protruding lineages and fewer yet have investigated the distinctive anatomy underlying jaw kinesis in these lineages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany ecological factors influence animal movement, including properties of the media that they move on or through. Animals moving in terrestrial environments encounter conditions that can be challenging for generating propulsion and maintaining stability, such as inclines and deformable substrates that can cause slipping and sinking. In response, tetrapods tend to adopt a more crouched posture and lower their center of mass on inclines and increase the surface area of contact on deformable substrates, such as sand.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong the most specialized integumentary outgrowths in amniotes are the adhesive, scale-like scansors and lamellae on the digits of anoles and geckos. Less well-known are adhesive tail pads exhibited by 21 gecko genera. While described over 120 years ago, no studies have quantified their possible adhesive function or described their embryonic development.
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