Bronchiectasis Occurs Independently of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.

Introduction: Bronchiectasis occurs in patients with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), but it is unknown whether an association exists independently of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We assessed whether bronchiectasis was associated with COPD in our cohort, and whether it has clinical significance for lung function decline, exacerbation rate, or symptoms.

Study Design And Methods: PiZZ, PiSZ, and PiMZ patients from the Birmingham AATD Research Database were studied.

Trust, confidence, familiarity, and support for land-based recirculating aquaculture facilities.

Surveys in three U.S. localities (n = 523) with proposed or existing land-based aquaculture facilities probed trust's relationship with perceived net benefits and public intentions to cooperate with siting of this novel technology.

The Semantics of 'Hip Pain' and its Impact on Clinical Practice in Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) of Disease: Results from a Clinical and Radiological Evaluation Cohort.

Introduction: The item 'hip pain' is widely used in questionnaires related to Spondyloarthritis and/or Ankylosing spondylitis (AS), either in clinics with patients being physically present or remotely, as the hip joint is known to affect AS in particular. Patients in clinics often claim to have hip pain. However, by stating "hip" they are referring to variable structures located in the hip region not necessarily related to hip joint itself.

Support for deer herd reduction on offshore Islands of Maine, U.S.A.

Over the past three decades, citizens of Maine in the northeastern United States have experienced increasing blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) abundance and rising incidence of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) overabundance has been considered one cause of the high incidence of tick-borne diseases on offshore islands of New England. Most of Maine's 15 offshore, unbridged island communities have a history of concern about ticks, Lyme disease, and white-tailed deer overabundance, but have been challenged to keep deer numbers down through hunting or culls.

Pragmatic and (or) Constitutive? On the Foundations of Contemporary Risk Communication Research.

A diffuse and interdisciplinary field, risk communication research, is founded on how we understand the process and purpose of communication more generally. To that end, this article outlines two fundamental functions of risk communication: (1) a pragmatic function, in which senders direct messages at audiences (and vice versa), with various intended (and sometimes unintended) effects; and (2) a constitutive function, in which messages re(create) what we mean by "risk" in a given social context, including how we can, and/or should relate to it. Although representing distinct epistemological and theoretical social scientific traditions, these functions necessarily coexist in a broader understanding of risk communication, including its so-called "effectiveness.

Three wound-dressing strategies to reduce surgical site infection after abdominal surgery: the Bluebelle feasibility study and pilot RCT.

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) affects up to 20% of people with a primary closed wound after surgery. Wound dressings may reduce SSI.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of a multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of dressing types or no dressing to reduce SSI in primary surgical wounds.

Public understanding of One Health messages: The role of temporal framing.

Building on research in motivated reasoning and framing in science communication, we examine how messages that vary attribution of responsibility (human vs animal) and temporal orientation (now vs in the next 10 years) for wildlife disease risk influence individuals' conservation intentions. We conducted a randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of US adults ( N = 355), which revealed that for people low in biospheric concern, messages that highlighted both human responsibility for and the imminent nature of the risk failed to enhance conservation intentions compared with messages highlighting animal responsibility. However, when messages highlighting human responsibility placed the risk in a temporally distal frame, conservation intentions increased among people low in biospheric concern.

Phosphate replacement in the critically ill: potential implications for military patients.

Background: Severe hypophosphataemia in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting has been widely associated with adverse clinical outcomes across multiple organ systems, as well as increased mortality. However, the clinical significance of mild or moderate hypophosphataemia remains uncertain. This can lead to heterogeneous phosphate replacement protocols across different institutions.

Sizing Up a Superstorm: Exploring the Role of Recalled Experience and Attribution of Responsibility in Judgments of Future Hurricane Risk.

Research suggests that hurricane-related risk perception is a critical predictor of behavioral response, such as evacuation. Less is known, however, about the precursors of these subjective risk judgments, especially when time has elapsed from a focal event. Drawing broadly from the risk communication, social psychology, and natural hazards literature, and specifically from concepts adapted from the risk information seeking and processing model and the protective action decision model, we examine how individuals' distant recollections, including attribution of responsibility for the effects of a storm, attitude toward relevant information, and past hurricane experience, relate to risk judgment for a future, similar event.

Perception of risk and the attribution of responsibility for accidents.

Accidents, one often hears, "happen"; we accept, and even expect, that they will be part of daily life. But in situations in which injury or death result, judgments of responsibility become critical. How might our perceptions of risk influence the ways in which we allocate responsibility for an accident? Drawing from attribution and risk perception theory, this study investigates how perceived controllability and desirability of risk, in addition to perceived danger and recreational risk-taking, relate to attributions of responsibility for the cause of unintentional injury in a unique setting: U.

In backyards, on front lawns: examining informal risk communication and communicators.

Risk communicators are often envisioned as government officials, public relations practitioners, or health workers. Yet much of the public's risk information comes from informal messages and unofficial carriers. Referred to in this study as "informal risk communicators" (IRCs), these individuals are often service workers who relay risk information to public audiences, though often outside of their formal job descriptions.

Two-dimensional synthetic aperture imaging in the optical domain.

In scan-mode synthetic aperture imaging radar, spatial resolution in a range is given by a frequency-swept waveform, whereas resolution in the orthogonal direction is derived from the record of phase as the beam footprint executes linear motion over the object. We demonstrate here what is to our knowledge the first two-dimensional imaging that uses exactly this process in the optical domain for a 1 cm x 1 cm object with 90 mumx170 mum resolution.

Genotypic analysis of Giardia duodenalis in domestic cats.

Background: Giardia duodenalis is an intestinal flagellated protozoan that affects many mammalian species often causing severe diarrheal disease. Several different genotypes have been identified (Assemblages A-G). Most isolates recovered from domestic cats have been assigned to either Assemblage A, the zoonotic form of the parasite, or Assemblage F, identified thus far only in cats.

Prevalence and factors associated with fecal shedding of Giardia spp. in domestic cats.

The prevalence of cats shedding Giardia cysts (13.6%) in the present study was found to be higher than previously reported (1% to 11%) and may reflect a higher sensitivity for the diagnostic test used. The presence of Cryptosporidium spp.

Prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. in five marine mammal species.

Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. are protozoan parasites that are often associated with severe diarrheal disease in a variety of mammals.

Phylogeny for genera of Nematodirinae (Nematoda: Trichostrongylina).

Monophyly for the Nematodirinae, with 5 genera, Murielus, Rauschia, Nematodiroides, Nematodirus, and Nematodirella was confirmed based on comparative morphology and phylogenetic analysis of structural characters. This concept for the nematodirines excludes the monotypic Lamanema chavezi, but otherwise corroborates generic-level diversity as defined in prior studies. Exhaustive analysis resulted in 1 most parsimonious tree (36 steps; consistency index [CI] = 0.

Photon-limited synthetic-aperture imaging for planet surface studies.

The carrier-to-noise ratio that results from phase-sensitive heterodyne detection in a photon-limited synthetic-aperture ladar (SAL) is developed, propagated through synthetic-aperture signal processing, and combined with speckle to give the signal-to-noise ratio of the resultant image. Carrier- and signal-to-noise ratios are defined in such a way as to be familiar to the optical imaging community. Design equations are presented to show that a 10-microm SAL in orbit around Mars can give centimeter-class resolution with reasonable laser power.

Establishment of Besnoitia darlingi from opossums (Didelphis virginiana) in experimental intermediate and definitive hosts, propagation in cell culture, and description of ultrastructural and genetic characteristics.

Besnoitia darlingi from naturally infected opossums (Didelphis virginiana) from Mississippi, USA, was propagated experimentally in mice, cats, and cell culture and was characterised according to ultrastructural, genetic, and life-history characteristics. Cats fed tissue cysts from opossums shed oocysts with a prepatent period of nine or 11 days. Oocysts, bradyzoites, or tachyzoites were infective to outbred and interferon-gamma gene knockout mice.

Molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium sp. isolated from northern Alaskan caribou (Rangifer tarandus).

Cryptosporidium sp. was found in 3 out of 49 caribou (Rangifer tarandus) from northern Alaska. Segments of both the 18S ribosomal RNA and the heat shock protein genes were amplified from the caribou isolate and compared with that obtained from an isolate from a wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Virginia as well as other species and isolates available from GenBank.

Risk factors associated with the presence of Sarcocystis neurona sporocysts in opossums (Didelphis virginiana).

Sarcocystis neurona is the most important cause of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) in horse in the Americas. The only known definitive host for this parasite in the United States is the opossum (Didelphis virginiana); however, despite the importance of the disease, the epidemiology of the parasite in the definitive host is poorly understood. To begin addressing these data gaps, potential risk factors were evaluated for their association with the presence of sporocysts of S.

First report of Lamanema chavezi (Nematoda: Trichostrongyloidea) in llamas (Lama glama) from Argentina.

Lamanema chavezi is a characteristic helminth of llamas and alpacas in Peru and Chile. However, its overall geographic range has not been well defined. This report documents the presence of L.

Prevalence of Sarcocystis neurona sporocysts in opossums (Didelphis virginiana) from rural Mississippi.

Sarcocystis species sporocysts were found in intestinal scrapings from 24 of 72 opossums (Didelphis virginiana) from rural Mississippi. The number of sporocysts in each opossum varied from a few ( < 100000) to 187 million. Sporocysts from 24 opossums were bioassayed for Sarcocystis neurona infections by feeding to gamma-interferon knockout (KO) mice.

Evaluation of host preferences by helminths and ectoparasites among black-tailed jackrabbits in northern California.

Fifty-four black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) (five juvenile males, 22 adult males, five juvenile females, and 22 adult females) from Humboldt County, California (USA) were evaluated for sex and age-specific differences in parasite prevalences and intensities, 26 February through 30 October 1996. Nematodes found included Biogastranema leporis in 42 hares (78% prevalence), Rauschia triangularis in 26 hares (48%), Trichostrongylus calcaratus in 14 hares (26%), and Trichuris sylvilagi in two hares (4%). Cestodes found included Taenia sp.

Reassignment of Lamanema from Nematodirinae to Molineinae (Nematoda: Trichostronglyloidea).

The monospecific Lamanema historically has been assigned to the Nematodirinae within the Molineidae. Inconsistencies in morphological characters, within a phylogenetic context for Nematodirinae, led to a re-evaluation of the putative relationships and taxonomic placement of Lamanema. Among 7 putative synapomorphies for Nematodirinae, Lamanema possesses only 1, large eggs.