Escalation to intensive care for the older patient. An exploratory qualitative study of patients aged 65 years and older and their next of kin during the COVID-19 pandemic: the ESCALATE study.

Background: older people comprise the majority of hospital medical inpatients so decision-making regarding admission of this cohort to the intensive care unit (ICU) is important. ICU can be perceived by clinicians as overly burdensome for patients and loved ones, and long-term impact on quality of life considered unacceptable, effecting potential bias against admitting older people to ICU. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the challenge of selecting those who could most benefit from ICU.

Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series.

A curated database of shark and ray biological data is increasingly necessary both to support fisheries management and conservation efforts, and to test the generality of hypotheses of vertebrate macroecology and macroevolution. Sharks and rays are one of the most charismatic, evolutionary distinct, and threatened lineages of vertebrates, comprising around 1,250 species. To accelerate shark and ray conservation and science, we developed Sharkipedia as a curated open-source database and research initiative to make all published biological traits and population trends accessible to everyone.

The Case for Early and Universal Screening for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Findings from 9314 Pregnant Women in a Major City in Nigeria.

Introduction: Risk-based screening has been replaced by universal screening as the recommended course of care for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). As of 2016, no state in Nigeria had implemented a policy of universal screening for GDM. This research aimed to assess findings from a universal screening programme and its implication for scaling up universal and early screening for GDM.

EMBRACE: One Small Story in Lupus-One Giant Challenge in Clinical Trials.

Clinical trials of novel therapeutics in the United States have not been adequately representative of diverse populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities. The challenges and consequences of underrepresentation in clinical trial recruitment are exemplified by the case of belimumab, a biologic treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a disease that is more prevalent in patients of Black African ancestry and of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity than in other patient populations. Although belimumab was found to be effective in phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in the general population, post hoc analyses of efficacy data in patients of Black African ancestry showed inconsistent results.

A Survey of Parents' and Carers' Perceptions of Parenting a Child With Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip.

Purpose: To explore parents' and carers' perceptions of parenting a child with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH).

Methods: A retrospective analysis of a questionnaire of parents and carers of children with hip dysplasia. Data analysis was guided by qualitative content analysis.

Adverse Events Following COVID-19 Vaccination in Rivers State, Nigeria: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Context: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to over 2,589,638 deaths globally as of March 2021 and speedy discovery of vaccines. Nigeria started the phase one COVID-19 vaccination in March 2021 using the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Reports of severe adverse events with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine resulted in its suspension in some countries necessitating the need to determine its safety.

Clinical trial diversity: An opportunity for improved insight into the determinants of variability in drug response.

Although the number of countries participating in pivotal trials submitted to enable drug registration has nearly doubled over the past 25 years, there has not been a substantial increase in the diversity of clinical trial populations. In parallel, our understanding of factors that influence medicine response and variability has continued to evolve. The notion of intrinsic and extrinsic sources of variability has been embedded into different regulatory guidelines, including the recent guideline on the importance of enhancing the diversity of clinical trial populations.

Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer: The Role of 68Gallium-DOTA-Somatostatin Analogue PET/CT and Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy.

Context: Metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare malignancy with minimal treatment options. Many, but not all, MTCs express somatostatin receptors.

Objective: Our aim was to explore the role of 68Ga-DOTA-somatostatin analogue (SSA) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in patients with metastatic MTC and to determine their eligibility for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT).

Intrapartum hemorrhage secondary to circumferential ectopic cervical deciduosis: A case report.

Introduction: Intrapartum hemorrhage constitutes a life-threatening obstetric complication and can have multiple etiologies. Some rare causes of intrapartum bleeding warrant consideration when assessing these patients. This case study represents one such instance where cervical deciduosis presented with bleeding relatively early in labor and explores the management that followed.

Investigating the effect of TRPV4 inhibition on pulmonary-vascular barrier permeability following segmental endotoxin challenge.

Background: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is associated with increased pulmonary-vascular permeability. In the lung, transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4), a Ca-permeable cation channel, is a regulator of endothelial permeability and pulmonary edema. We performed a Phase I, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized, parallel group, proof-of-mechanism study to investigate the effects of TRPV4 channel blocker, GSK2798745, on pulmonary-vascular barrier permeability using a model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung inflammation.

Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy is a feasible and potentially useful addition to the Community Rehabilitation tool kit after stroke: A pilot randomised control trial.

Background/aim: The National Stroke Foundation recommends that Occupational Therapists use Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) with stroke survivors that experience an upper limb deficit. CIMT involves constraining the unaffected upper limb coupled with intensive therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a modified, low intensity version of CIMT (mCIMT) provided within usual resources of an Australian community rehabilitation setting.

The feasibility of a clinical audit tool to investigate stillbirth in Australia - a single centre experience.

Background: The stillbirth rate in Australia is 7 per 1000 births (Australia's Mothers and Babies 2014-in brief. Perinatal Statistics Series no. 32.

Living on the edge: latitudinal variations in the reproductive biology of two coastal species of sharks.

Differences in the reproductive biology of both the Australian weasel shark Hemigaleus australiensis and the Australian sharpnose shark Rhizoprionodon taylori were apparent between individuals from the southern-most extent of their range in eastern Australia (Moreton Bay) and those from northern Australia. For H. australiensis from Moreton Bay the total length (L ) at which 50% of individuals were mature (L ) was 759 mm for females and 756 mm for males, values that were respectively 17-26% larger than reported for the species in northern Australia.

Probabilistic Segmentation of Mass Spectrometry (MS) Images Helps Select Important Ions and Characterize Confidence in the Resulting Segments.

Mass spectrometry imaging is a powerful tool for investigating the spatial distribution of chemical compounds in a biological sample such as tissue. Two common goals of these experiments are unsupervised segmentation of images into newly discovered homogeneous segments and supervised classification of images into predefined classes. In both cases, the important secondary goals are to characterize the uncertainty associated with the segmentation and with the classification and to characterize the spectral features that define each segment or class.

Assessment of Different Quit Smoking Methods Selected by Patients in Tobacco Cessation Centers in Iran.

Background: Health systems play key roles in identifying tobacco users and providing evidence-based care to help them quit. This treatment includes different methods such as simple medical consultation, medication, and telephone counseling. To assess different quit smoking methods selected by patients in tobacco cessation centers in Iran in order to identify those that are most appropriate for the country health system.

Cardinal: an R package for statistical analysis of mass spectrometry-based imaging experiments.

Cardinal is an R package for statistical analysis of mass spectrometry-based imaging (MSI) experiments of biological samples such as tissues. Cardinal supports both Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) and Desorption Electrospray Ionization-based MSI workflows, and experiments with multiple tissues and complex designs. The main analytical functionalities include (1) image segmentation, which partitions a tissue into regions of homogeneous chemical composition, selects the number of segments and the subset of informative ions, and characterizes the associated uncertainty and (2) image classification, which assigns locations on the tissue to pre-defined classes, selects the subset of informative ions, and estimates the resulting classification error by (cross-) validation.

Age, growth and maturity of the pelagic thresher Alopias pelagicus and the scalloped hammerhead Sphyrna lewini.

Indonesia has the greatest reported chondrichthyan catches worldwide, with c.110,000 t caught annually. The pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus) and scalloped hammerhead (Sphryna lewini) together comprise about 25% of the total catches of sharks landed in Indonesia.

A likelihood-based approach to identifying contaminated food products using sales data: performance and challenges.

Foodborne disease outbreaks of recent years demonstrate that due to increasingly interconnected supply chains these type of crisis situations have the potential to affect thousands of people, leading to significant healthcare costs, loss of revenue for food companies, and--in the worst cases--death. When a disease outbreak is detected, identifying the contaminated food quickly is vital to minimize suffering and limit economic losses. Here we present a likelihood-based approach that has the potential to accelerate the time needed to identify possibly contaminated food products, which is based on exploitation of food products sales data and the distribution of foodborne illness case reports.

Is the Boston Naming Test still fit for purpose?

The Boston Naming Test (BNT) (Kaplan, Goodglass, & Weintraub, 1983) is the most commonly used test of confrontation naming in neuropsychology (Rabin, Barr, & Burton, 2005). However, there are significant criticisms of the BNT which suggest that it might not be the assessment measure of choice. These criticisms are that the BNT has poor psychometric properties, is not adequately standardized, and has inadequate norms.

Population expansion and genetic structure in Carcharhinus brevipinna in the southern Indo-Pacific.

Background: Quantifying genetic diversity and metapopulation structure provides insights into the evolutionary history of a species and helps develop appropriate management strategies. We provide the first assessment of genetic structure in spinner sharks (Carcharhinus brevipinna), a large cosmopolitan carcharhinid, sampled from eastern and northern Australia and South Africa.

Methods And Findings: Sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 gene for 430 individuals revealed 37 haplotypes and moderately high haplotype diversity (h = 0.

Comparison of the reproductive ecology of two sympatric blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus and Carcharhinus tilstoni) off north-eastern Australia with species identification inferred from vertebral counts.

Precaudal vertebral counts were used to distinguish between 237 morphologically similar Carcharhinus limbatus and Carcharhinus tilstoni and were congruent with differences in reproductive ecology between the species. In addition to differing lengths at maturity and adult body size, the two species had asynchronous parturition, were born at different sizes and the relative frequencies of neonates differed in two coastal nursery areas. Despite evidence that hybridization can occur, these differences suggest the species are largely reproductively isolated.

Global behavior of solutions of a periodically forced Sigmoid Beverton-Holt model.

Our aim in this paper is to investigate the boundedness, the extreme stability, and the periodicity of positive solutions of the periodically forced Sigmoid Beverton-Holt model: [Formula: see text] where {a ( n )} is a positive periodic sequence with period p and δ>0. In the special case when δ=1, the above equation reduces to the well-known periodic Pielou logistic equation which is known to be equivalent to the periodically forced Beverton-Holt model.