The effects of sedation cessation within the first four hours of intensive care unit admission in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients - a quality improvement study.

Background: Early deep sedation in mechanically ventilated patients during the first 48 h of intensive care unit (ICU) admission can be associated with adverse outcomes. We hypothesised that moving the 'daily sedation break' process forwards, might allow earlier titration of sedation to target levels - an 'early sedation cessation' (ESC).

Methods: We commenced a quality improvement project with the primary outcome being to stop sedation completely, within 4 h of ICU admission, in 95% of eligible patients.

Questionnaire survey assessing the leisure-time physical activity of hospital doctors and awareness of UK physical activity recommendations.

Objective: The UK Government Physical Activity Recommendations suggest that adults should aim for 150 min of physical activity each week to maintain health. We assessed the total volume, frequency, intensity and type of exercise taken by hospital doctors in association with their specialty, age and knowledge of the specific components of the recommendations.

Methods: An anonymous paper-based questionnaire was distributed to doctors working in the two largest teaching hospitals in Glasgow.

Author Correction: Integrated records of environmental change and evolution challenge the Cambrian Explosion.

In the version of this article initially published, the reference "Mitchell, E. G., & Kenchington, C.

Integrated records of environmental change and evolution challenge the Cambrian Explosion.

The 'Cambrian Explosion' describes the rapid increase in animal diversity and abundance, as manifest in the fossil record, between ~540 and 520 million years ago (Ma). This event, however, is nested within a far more ancient record of macrofossils extending at least into the late Ediacaran at ~571 Ma. The evolutionary events documented during the Ediacaran-Cambrian interval coincide with geochemical evidence for the modernisation of Earth's biogeochemical cycles.

A simple model explains the dynamics of preferential host switching among mammal RNA viruses.

A growing number of studies support a tendency toward preferential host switching, by parasites and pathogens, over relatively short phylogenetic distances. This suggests that a host switch is more probable if a potential host is closely related to the original host than if it is a more distant relative. However, despite its importance for the health of humans, livestock, and wildlife, the detailed dynamics of preferential host switching have, so far, been little studied.