Impact on clinical outcomes, surgical interventions, anaesthetic decisions and complication rates following implementation of the NICE obstructive sleep apnoea guidelines during preoperative screening.

Introduction: Unidentified obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can lead to unexpected perioperative complications, unplanned postoperative admissions and increased length of hospital stay. NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) recommends a rapid preoperative assessment for patients undergoing elective surgery.

Methods: We have evaluated the impact on implementing the NICE guidelines on clinical outcomes, surgical interventions, anaesthetic decisions and complication rates in surgical patients referred from the pre-assessment clinic prior to an elective intervention.

Insights from a chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) genome assembly regarding whole-genome duplication and nucleotide variation influencing gene function.

Chum salmon are ecologically important to Pacific Ocean ecosystems and commercially important to fisheries. To improve the genetic resources available for this species, we sequenced and assembled the genome of a male chum salmon using Oxford Nanopore read technology and the Flye genome assembly software (contig N50: ∼2 Mbp, complete BUSCOs: ∼98.1%).

The pink salmon genome: Uncovering the genomic consequences of a two-year life cycle.

Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) adults are the smallest of the five Pacific salmon native to the western Pacific Ocean. Pink salmon are also the most abundant of these species and account for a large proportion of the commercial value of the salmon fishery worldwide. A two-year life history of pink salmon generates temporally isolated populations that spawn either in even-years or odd-years.

Using problem formulation for fit-for-purpose pre-market environmental risk assessments of regulated stressors.

Pre-market/prospective environmental risk assessments (ERAs) contribute to risk analyses performed to facilitate decisions about the market introduction of regulated stressors. Robust ERAs begin with an explicit problem formulation, which involves among other steps: (1) formally devising plausible pathways to harm that describe how the deployment of a regulated stressor could be harmful; (2) formulating risk hypotheses about the likelihood and severity of such events; (3) identifying the information that will be useful to test the risk hypotheses; and (4) developing a plan to acquire new data for hypothesis testing should tests with existing information be insufficient for decision-making. Here, we apply problem formulation to the assessment of possible adverse effects of RNA interference-based insecticidal genetically modified (GM) plants, GM growth hormone coho salmon, gene drive-modified mosquitoes and classical biological weed control agents on non-target organisms in a prospective manner, and of neonicotinoid insecticides on bees in a retrospective manner.

Fluorescent protein transgenesis has varied effects on behaviour and cold tolerance in a tropical fish (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi): implications for risk assessment.

Fluorescent protein (FP) transgenesis is used in the ornamental aquarium trade to produce new colour morphs in tropical fish. Understanding whether such genetic modification could alter ability to survive temperate waters, or interactions with native fish, should such fish be released to natural systems is critical in developing policy on their commercial use. We examined the competitive foraging ability and cold tolerance of unrelated pet-trade sourced adult green FP transgenic tetra and non-transgenic white tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi), as well as white non-transgenic and green FP transgenic juvenile progeny of these groups.