Perceived Benefits of a Cadaver-Based Ultrasound Procedure Workshop for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Trainees.

Ultrasound-guided musculoskeletal and spasticity injections have become common procedures in physical medicine and rehabilitation practices, but there are currently no guidelines for teaching these procedures in residency and fellowship training programs. As part of a quality improvement initiative, the authors aimed to assess the educational value of a hands-on cadaver-based workshop for enhancing these skills in residents and fellows. Twenty-seven physical medicine and rehabilitation trainees in a single institution were asked to complete surveys before and after the workshop to assess self-perceived benefits.

Design and Implementation of a Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Curriculum for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residents: Pilot Data on Improvement of Palpation Accuracy in Physical Examination.

Studies have shown that physical medicine and rehabilitation residents have poor surface anatomy palpation accuracy, suggesting that new methods of teaching musculoskeletal (MSK) examination need to be found. This study describes the design of a novel MSK ultrasound course that integrated ultrasonography skills with palpation skills. Ultrasound was used to teach, validate, and refine physical medicine and rehabilitation residents' palpation of MSK structures.

Identifying and Monitoring Deficiencies in Physical Examination of the Foot and Ankle With Diagnostic Ultrasound: Experience From a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Training Program.

Despite the high incidence of foot and ankle injuries and their biomechanical importance to more proximal joints, the foot and ankle are some of the most daunting and underemphasized musculoskeletal structures in medical training. This study used musculoskeletal ultrasound to identify a knowledge gap in physical medicine and rehabilitation residents in foot and ankle surface anatomy palpation and to determine whether senior residents had higher examination performance compared with more junior residents. Physical medicine and rehabilitation residents at different levels of training were tested cross-sectionally, and palpation accuracy was compared by class year.

Energetics of life on the deep seafloor.

With frigid temperatures and virtually no in situ productivity, the deep oceans, Earth's largest ecosystem, are especially energy-deprived systems. Our knowledge of the effects of this energy limitation on all levels of biological organization is very incomplete. Here, we use the Metabolic Theory of Ecology to examine the relative roles of carbon flux and temperature in influencing metabolic rate, growth rate, lifespan, body size, abundance, biomass, and biodiversity for life on the deep seafloor.

Species-energy relationships in deep-sea molluscs.

Consensus is growing among ecologists that energy and the factors influencing its utilization can play overarching roles in regulating large-scale patterns of biodiversity. The deep sea--the world's largest ecosystem--has simplified energetic inputs and thus provides an excellent opportunity to study how these processes structure spatial diversity patterns. Two factors influencing energy availability and use are chemical (productive) and thermal energy, here represented as seafloor particulate organic carbon (POC) flux and temperature.

Bathymetric and geographic population structure in the pan-Atlantic deep-sea bivalve Deminucula atacellana (Schenck, 1939).

The deep-sea soft-sediment environment hosts a diverse and highly endemic fauna of uncertain origin. We know little about how this fauna evolved because geographic patterns of genetic variation, the essential information for inferring patterns of population differentiation and speciation are poorly understood. Using formalin-fixed specimens from archival collections, we quantify patterns of genetic variation in the protobranch bivalve Deminucula atacellana, a species widespread throughout the Atlantic Ocean at bathyal and abyssal depths.

Population differentiation decreases with depth in deep-sea bivalves.

The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on Earth. Recent exploration has revealed that it supports a highly diverse and endemic benthic invertebrate fauna, yet the evolutionary processes that generate this remarkable species richness are virtually unknown. Environmental heterogeneity, topographic complexity, and morphological divergence all tend to decrease with depth, suggesting that the potential for population differentiation may decrease with depth.

A source-sink hypothesis for abyssal biodiversity.

Bathymetric gradients of biodiversity in the deep-sea benthos constitute a major class of large-scale biogeographic phenomena. They are typically portrayed and interpreted as variation in alpha diversity (the number of species recovered in individual samples) along depth transects. Here, we examine the depth ranges of deep-sea gastropods and bivalves in the eastern and western North Atlantic.

Morphological disparity as a biodiversity metric in lower bathyal and abyssal gastropod assemblages.

Studies of deep-sea biodiversity focus almost exclusively on geographic patterns of alpha-diversity. Few include the morphological or ecological properties of species that indicate their actual roles in community assembly. Here, we explore morphological disparity of shell architecture in gastropods from lower bathyal and abyssal environments of the western North Atlantic as a new dimension of deep-sea biodiversity.

Latitudinal gradients of species richness in the deep-sea benthos of the North Atlantic.

Latitudinal species diversity gradients (LSDGs) in the Northern Hemisphere are the most well established biogeographic patterns on Earth. Despite long-standing interest in LSDGs as a central problem in ecology, their explanation remains uncertain. In terrestrial as well as coastal and pelagic marine ecosystems, these poleward declines in diversity typically have been represented and interpreted in terms of species richness, the number of coexisting species.

BATHYMETRIC PATTERNS OF BODY SIZE IN DEEP-SEA GASTROPODS.

The shift to smaller body size in marine invertebrates at the deep-sea threshold and size-depth clines within the deep-sea ecosystem are global biogeographic phenomena that remain poorly understood. We present the first standardized measurements of larval and adult size among ecologically and phylogenetically similar species across a broad and continuous depth range, using the largest family of deep-sea gastropods (the Turridae). Size at all life stages increases significantly with depth from the upper bathyal region to the abyssal plain.

Universal cytochrome b primers facilitate intraspecific studies in molluscan taxa.

We describe the construction of amplification primers designed to target a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome b locus in a variety of molluscan taxa. Combinations of two sets of primers successfully amplified cytochrome b from several species of gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods. Sequence analysis of these amplified products revealed nucleotide diversity in small samples within several of these taxa.

Electromyography of some respiratory muscles in the horse.

To investigate activity in respiratory muscles, insulated wire electrodes were used to record electromyographic activity in the costal diaphragm and in the intercostal, serratus ventralis, internal abdominal oblique, transversalis and rectus abdominis muscles in conscious horses and in the same animals when anaesthetised. Electromyographic activity was related to respiratory phases as recorded by a stethograph around the chest wall. The costal diaphragm showed tonic and inspiratory activity in both conscious and anaesthetised animals.

Distribution of indicator bacteria and Vibrio parahaemolyticus in sewage-polluted intertidal sediments.

The impact of a sewage point source on the bacterial densities in an intertidal mud flat in Boston Harbor, Mass., was investigated. The area, Savin Hill Cove, acts as a receiving basin for a combined storm and sewage outlet (CSO).

A comparison of different concentrations of lignocaine hydrochloride used for topical anaesthesia of the larynx of the cat.

Electromyographic (EMG) recordings were made from the intrinsic laryngeal muscles (cricothyroid, thyroarytenoid) and the diaphragm of the cat to compare the effect of the same dose of different concentrations of lignocaine hydrocholoride applied topically to the laryngeal mucosa. All concentrations of lignocaine hydrochloride tested, two, five and ten per cent, produced desensitisation of the larynx, as demonstrated by a loss of response of the crocothyroid and thyroarytenoid to mechanical stimulation of the mucosa. Desensitisation was produced in a mean of 1.

Electromyographic study of the cat's diaphragm during oesophageal distension.

In 10 cats, under acute experimental conditions, the effects of distension of the oesophagus on diaphragmatic activity were studied. Bipolar recording electrodes were implanted in the diaphragmatic dome muscular fibres and crura muscular fibres. Electrodes similar to those in the diaphragm were inserted in the oesophageal muscular wall above the hiatus and in the rectus abdominis muscle.

Observations on the use of glyceryl guaiacolate as an adjunct to general anaesthesia in horses.

Twenty-one horses undergoing clinical surgery and diagnostic procedures received 15% glyceryl guaiacolate followed by a rapid intravenous injection of a thiobarbiturate for induction of anaesthesia. Premedication was with atropine and acepromazine. Induction was smooth and free from problems apart from transient apnoea in some horses.

The effects of lignocaine spray on the laryngeal mucosa of the cat.

The laryngeal mucosa of cats which had been treated with a lignocaine aerosol spray prior to endotracheal intubation was examined histologically. A degree of oedema and cell damage was apparent. When one side of the larynx was sprayed before intubation and the other side protected in the same cat, cellular damage was greater on the side which received the lignocaine spray.

Deep-sea species diversity: decreased gastropod diversity at abyssal depths.

Gastropod species diversity is low on the continental shelf, high on the continental slope and abyssal rise, and then decreases with increasing distance out onto the abyssal plain. Increased diversity below the continental shelf has been attributed to increased environmental stability. Decreased diversity on the abyss may result from extremely low productivity.