Alga-dominated geothermal spring communities in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), USA, have been the focus of many studies, however, relatively little is known about the composition and community interactions which underpin these ecosystems. Our goal was to determine, in three neighboring yet distinct environments in Lemonade Creek, YNP, how cells cope with abiotic stressors over the diurnal cycle. All three environments are colonized by two photosynthetic lineages, and , both of which are extremophilic Cyanidiophyceae red algae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPneumothorax resulting from injury is a common phenomenon in both civilian and military trauma. A pneumothorax or simple pneumothorax is defined as air in the pleural space. A tension pneumothorax can evolve from a simple pneumothorax if there is a continued air leak from the lung without mechanism for egress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cancer and diabetes are increasingly prevalent, and it is not unusual for an individual to have both conditions at the same time. This occurrence has significant ramifications to the person, the clinical team providing care, and the broader health system.
Research Design And Methods: For the period 2006-2019, we used national-level diabetes (Virtual Diabetes Register) and cancer (New Zealand Cancer Registry) data on nearly five million individuals over 44 million person-years of follow-up.
Trauma Surg Acute Care Open
November 2024
Introduction: Graduate medical education (GME) lacks a standardized military training program for general surgery residents, and concern exists that they may not be prepared to serve as combat surgeons on training completion. The purpose of this study was to assess military surgery trainee satisfaction with their programs. Our hypothesis was that military residents were not completely confident to care for combat casualties on completion of current GME training.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThroughout history, seafarers have been exposed to potential thermal injuries during naval warfare; however, injury prevention, including advances in personal protective equipment, has saved lives. Thankfully, burn injuries have decreased over time, which has resulted in a significant clinical skills gap. Ships with only Role 1 (no surgical capability) assets have worse outcomes after burn injury compared to those with Role 2 (surgical capability) assets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Māori are less likely to survive their lung cancer once diagnosed, but it remains unclear whether this is partially driven by poorer access to best-practice diagnostic services.
Methods: We examined all lung cancer registrations in Aotearoa New Zealand between 2007-2019 (n=27,869) linked to national administrative health datasets and further stratified by ethnicity, tumour type and stage of disease. Using descriptive and regression analyses, we compared ethnic groups in terms of the basis of diagnosis (e.
Herein, we present a simplified approach to prehospital mass casualty event (MASCAL) management called "Move, Treat, and Transport." Prior publications demonstrate a disconnect between MASCAL response training and actions taken during real-world incidents. Overly complex algorithms, infrequent training on their use, and chaotic events all contribute to the low utilization of formal triage systems in the real world.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Resuscitation with cold-stored whole blood (WB) has outcome benefits, but benefits varied by patient sex is unknown. There are also concerns about alloimmunization risk for premenopausal females given WB, leading to some protocols excluding this cohort. We sought to analyze WB utilization, outcomes, and disparities by patient sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Epidemiol
December 2024
Background: Haematological ('blood') cancers are a diverse group of non-solid cancers with varying incidence, mortality and survival. While there is some evidence that Māori experience disparities in blood cancer outcomes relative to New Zealand's majority European population, there is a need for a comprehensive overview of the current state of evidence in this context.
Methods: Blood cancer registrations were derived from the NZ Cancer Registry for the 2007-2019 period (combined blood cancers: 2653 Māori, 20,458 Europeans), and linked to Mortality records.
Introduction: Emergency resuscitative thoracotomy (ERT) is a resource-intensive procedure that can deplete a combat surgical team's supply and divert attention from casualties with more survivable injuries. An understanding of survival after ERT in the combat trauma population will inform surgical decision-making.
Methods: We requested all encounters from 2007 to 2023 from the Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DoDTR).
Introduction: Mass casualty events (MASCALs) in the combat environment, which involve large numbers of casualties that overwhelm immediately available resources, are fundamentally chaotic and dynamic and inherently dangerous. Formal triage systems use diagnostic algorithms, colored markers, and four or more named categories. We hypothesized that formal triage systems are inadequately trained and practiced and too complex to successfully implement in true MASCAL events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) is a military adaptation aimed at providing pre-hospital care in austere settings when evacuation is delayed or even impossible. Current lack of standardized medical equipment and size/weight restrictions of military packs during dismounted operations hinder effective PCC. We sought to design a standardized, practical, and effective prolonged field care kit (PFAK) to enable widespread implementation of PCC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The association between hypothermia, coagulopathy, and acidosis in trauma is well described. Hypothermia mitigation starts in the prehospital setting; however, it is often a secondary focus after other life-saving interventions. The deployed environment further compounds the problem due to prolonged evacuation times in rotary wing aircraft, resource limitations, and competing priorities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lung cancer is a deadly cancer. Early diagnosis and access to timely treatment are essential to maximizing the likelihood of survival. Indigenous peoples experience enduring disparities in lung cancer survival, and disparities in access to and through lung cancer services is one of the important drivers of these disparities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Damage-control resuscitation has come full circle, with the use of whole blood and balanced components. Lack of platelet availability may limit effective damage-control resuscitation. Platelets are typically stored and transfused at room temperature and have a short shelf-life, while cold-stored platelets (CSPs) have the advantage of a longer shelf-life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Extremity tourniquets have proven to be lifesaving in both civilian and military settings and should continue to be used by first responders for trauma patients with life-threatening extremity bleeding. This is especially true in combat scenarios in which both the casualty and the first responder may be confronted by the imminent threat of death from hostile fire as the extremity hemorrhage is being treated. Not every extremity wound, however, needs a tourniquet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Trauma Acute Care Surg
August 2024
The first Fallen Surgeons Military Educational Symposium was convened in conjunction with the the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) 23 meeting, under the guidance of the AAST Military Liaison Committee. The daylong session included a 1.5-hour segment on military medical ethics in combat and its unique challenges.
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