An audit of the adequacy of acute wound care documentation of surgical inpatients.

Aims And Objectives: This study examined the degree to which acute wound care documentation by doctors and nurses meets the standards set in the Australian Wound Management Association guidelines, focusing on clinical history with regard to the wound, wound characteristics, evidence of a management plan and factors such as wound pain.

Background: Wound care documentation is an important component of 'best practice' wound management. Evidence suggests that wound documentation by hospital staff is often ad hoc and incomplete.

Osteoarthritis management of the knee--treatment options post the NSAID cardiotoxicity controversy.

This series of articles facilitated by the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group (CMSG) aims to place the findings of recent Cochrane musculoskeletal reviews in a context immediately relevant to general practitioners. This article considers treatment options for osteoarthritis management of the knee post the 'NSAID cardiotoxicity controversy'.

GP workforce participation in Tasmania.

Background: Predicting future general practitioner workforce requires information about how demographic factors affect GP workforce participation. Regional differences might not be accounted for in national studies. The authors aimed to determine GP characteristics associated with workforce participation in Tasmania.

General practice research and research skill needs--attitudes of GP supervisors.

Background: General practice research is an important learning area in general practice registrar training. General practitioner supervisors have a central role in registrar training. Registrar training in Tasmania has the added component of a research project.

A simple enzyme assay for dry matter digestibility and its value in studying food selection by generalist herbivores.

The dry matter digestibility of 94 species of leaf was assayed by a simple method involving sequential treatment with pepsin and fungal cellulase enzymes. It was demonstrated that for foliage from rainforest trees of a wide range of dicotyledonous plant families the assay showed high positive correlation with estimates of dry matter digestibility obtained using rumenliquor from a fistulated steer. Both assays were found to reflect negative correlates of digestibility, notably fibre and condensed tannin, rather than the nutritional value of an item.

African rainforest vegetation and rumen microbes: Phenolic compounds and nutrients as correlates of digestibility.

In order to refine hypotheses concerning food selection by generalist herbivores with ruminant-like digestive systems the chemical correlates of digestibility in such a system have been studied. Samples of seeds and leaves from tree species growing in two African rainforests (Douala-Edea Forest Reserve, Cameroon, and Kibale Forest, Uganda) were assayed for phenolic content and nutrient content, and in-vitro dry matter digestibility was analysed utilizing rumen inoculum from a fistulated steer. Both forests studied carry populations of colobine monkeys with ruminant like digestive tracts.