The impact of religion on changes in end-of-life practices in European intensive care units: a comparative analysis over 16 years.

Purpose: Religious beliefs affect end-of-life practices in intensive care units (ICUs). Changes over time in end-of-life practices were not investigated regarding religions.

Methods: Twenty-two European ICUs (3 regions: Northern, Central, and Southern Europe) participated in both Ethicus-1 (years 1999-2000) and Ethicus-2 studies (years 2015-2016).

Global Comparison of Communication of End-of-Life Decisions in the ICU.

Background: Prolonging life in the ICU increasingly is possible, so decisions to limit life-sustaining therapies frequently are made and communicated to patients and families or surrogates. Little is known about worldwide communication practices and influencing factors.

Research Question: Are there regional differences in end-of-life communication practices in ICUs worldwide?

Study Design And Methods: This analysis of data from a prospective, international study specifically addressed end-of-life communications in consecutive patients who died or had limitation of life-sustaining therapy over 6 months in 199 ICUs in 36 countries, grouped regionally.

Drug Content Uniformity: Quantifying Loratadine in Tablets Using a Created Raman Excipient Spectrum.

Raman spectroscopy has proven valuable for determining the composition of manufactured drug products, as well as identifying counterfeit drugs. Here we present a simple method to determine the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) mass percent in a sample that does not require knowledge of the identities or relative mass percents of the inactive pharmaceutical ingredients (excipients). And further, we demonstrated the ability of the method to pass or fail a manufactured drug product batch based on a calculated acceptance value in accordance with the US Pharmacopeia method for content uniformity.

A practical approach to Events Medicine provision.

In the past three decades, mass casualty incidents have occurred worldwide at multiple sporting events and other mass gatherings. Organisational safety and healthcare provision can consequently be scrutinised post-event. Within the UK, such incidents in the 1980s provided incentives to improve medical services and subsequent high profile UK-based international sporting events (London Olympics and Paralympics 2012, Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014, Rugby World Cup 2015) added a further catalyst for developing services.

Aircraft engine-mounted camera system for long wavelength infrared imaging of in-service thermal barrier coated turbine blades.

This paper announces the implementation of a long wavelength infrared camera to obtain high-speed thermal images of an aircraft engine's in-service thermal barrier coated turbine blades. Long wavelength thermal images were captured of first-stage blades. The achieved temporal and spatial resolutions allowed for the identification of cooling-hole locations.

A double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial to assess the effect of Doppler optimized intraoperative fluid management on outcome following radical cystectomy.

Purpose: Cardiovascular optimization via esophageal Doppler can minimize gastrointestinal hypoperfusion, reducing the risk of multiple organ dysfunction and postoperative complications during major surgery. We assessed the effect of esophageal Doppler guided cardiovascular optimization in patients undergoing radical cystectomy.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a prospective, randomized, double-blind controlled trial at a United Kingdom teaching hospital between 2006 and 2009.

Acute renal failure and the critically ill surgical patient.

Acute renal failure can occur following major surgery. Predisposing factors include massive haemorrhage, sepsis, diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal impairment and age. Understanding epidemiology, aetiology and pathophysiology can aid effective diagnosis and management.

The DNA-damage signature in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is associated with single-strand breaks in DNA.

Background: Upon exposure to agents that damage DNA, Saccharomyces cerevisiae undergo widespread reprogramming of gene expression. Such a vast response may be due not only to damage to DNA but also damage to proteins, RNA, and lipids. Here the transcriptional response of S.