Due to COVID-19's strain on health systems across the globe, triage protocols determine how to allocate scarce medical resources with the worthy goal of maximising the number of lives saved. However, due to racial biases and long-standing health inequities, the common method of ranking patients based on impersonal numeric representations of their morbidity is associated with disproportionately pronounced racial disparities. In response, policymakers have issued statements of solidarity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a reply to Ross, I argue that, as head injuries often lack external indicators, it is imperative that youth-patient-athletes themselves be convinced to report these injuries. Parents, although part of the pediatric triad, will be no help if the adolescent chooses to conceal the information from them as well. Further, I explain why a more deliberate focus on the role of parents in this relationship does not alter my support of the compromising interpretive model as a harm reduction strategy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParticipation in sports such as football puts youth-athletes at high risk of injury. Helmets cannot protect players from the possibility of traumatic brain injury, and repeated concussive injuries can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy later in life. In light of such facts, the morally appropriate role of physicians who treat patient-athletes comes into question.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cancer metastasis and drug resistance have traditionally been studied separately, though these two lethal pathological phenomena almost always occur concurrently. Brain metastasis occurs in a large proportion of lung cancer patients (~ 30%). Once diagnosed, patients have a poor prognosis surviving typically less than 1 year due to lack of treatment efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Brain tumor vasculature can be significantly compromised and leakier than that of normal brain blood vessels. Little is known if there are vascular permeability alterations in the brain adjacent to tumor (BAT). Changes in BAT permeability may also lead to increased drug permeation in the BAT, which may exert toxicity on cells of the central nervous system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFColorectal cancer ranks third among the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States. Current therapies have a range of side effects, and the development of a reliable animal model to speed the discovery of safe effective preventative therapies would be of great value. A cross-sectional study in a large Appalachian population recently showed an association between low circulating levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and a reduced prevalence of colorectal cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsymmetrical intraguild predation (AIGP), which combines both predation and competition between predator species, is pervasive in nature with relative strengths varying by prey availability. But with species redistributions associated with climate change, the response by endemic predators within an AIGP context to changing biotic-abiotic conditions over time (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMigration is a ubiquitous life history trait with profound evolutionary and ecological consequences. Recent developments in telemetry and genomics, when combined, can bring significant insights on the migratory ecology of nonmodel organisms in the wild. Here, we used this integrative approach to document dispersal, gene flow and potential for local adaptation in anadromous Arctic Char from six rivers in the Canadian Arctic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing massively parallel sequencing data from two species with different life history traits, American lobster (Homarus americanus) and Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus), we highlight how an unbalanced sex ratio in the samples and a few sex-linked markers may lead to false interpretations of population structure and thus to potentially erroneous management recommendations. Here, multivariate analyses revealed two genetic clusters separating samples by sex instead of by expected spatial variation: inshore and offshore locations in lobster, or east and west locations in Arctic Char. To further investigate this, we created several subsamples artificially varying the sex ratio in the inshore/offshore and east/west groups and then demonstrated that significant genetic differentiation could be observed despite panmixia in lobster, and that F values were overestimated in Arctic Char.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree populations of Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus from southern Baffin Island were previously identified to display variable migratory phenotypes, with an anadromous component of the population and another remaining resident in fresh water. In this study, 14 microsatellite markers were used to help distinguish between two alternative hypotheses to explain the co-existence of the two ecotypes: that the two ecotypes originate from a single population and are the result of a conditional mating tactic or that the migratory ecotypes are reproductively isolated populations utilizing alternative migratory strategies. In two of the three replicate systems, F(ST) values between the resident and anadromous individuals were non-significant, while they were significant in a third sampling location.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, I argue that the 'modified youngest first' principle provides a morally appropriate criterion for making decisions regarding the distribution of scarce medical resources, and that it is morally preferable to the simple 'youngest first' principle. Based on the complete lives system's goal of maximizing complete lives rather than individual life episodes, I argue that essential to the value we see in complete lives is the first person value attributed by the experiencer of that life. For a life to be 'complete' or 'incomplete,' the subject of that life must be able to understand the concept of a complete life, to have started goals and projects, and to know what it would be for that life to be complete.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, the magnitude and direction of gene flow and estimates of effective population sizes (N(e) ) were quantified among two life-history types (lacustrine and anadromous) of broad whitefish Coregonus nasus in the lower Mackenzie River system. The data suggest that dispersal and subsequent gene flow occurs between these groups, with the former appearing to be asymmetrical. Gene flow may potentially be directionally biased as well, a result attributed to source-sink population dynamics and the ongoing process of post-glacial colonization and contemporary range expansion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus is a diverse and abundant resource in Canada's Nunavut. The anadromous form is primarily targeted by exploitation in small-scale fisheries. The continued importance of subsistence fisheries and growing interest in further developing commercial fisheries underline the need for proper management of S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe presence of two morphotypes of Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus was confirmed via morphological variation and otolith strontium (Sr) within three open-lake systems of southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada: Qinngu (LH001), Iqalugaarjuit Lake (PG082) and Qasigiat (PG015). Analysis of otolith Sr indicates that a component of each S. alpinus population within lakes LH001 and PG082 is migratory (large-maturing S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Extra Corpor Technol
June 2010
Simulator exercises are used at Midwestern University to augment academic and laboratory training toward consolidating particular skills, increasing situation awareness, and preparing the student for practice within the team environment of an operating room. This paper describes an enhanced cardiopulmonary bypass simulator consisting of a self-priming hemodynamic reservoir that includes an inline flow meter. A typical cardiopulmonary bypass adult perfusion circuit was assembled using a roller pump console and integrated oxygenator/heat exchanger/reservoir and primed with 2 liters of water.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFisheries for arctic freshwater and diadromous fish species contribute significantly to northern economies. Climate change, and to a lesser extent increased ultraviolet radiation, effects in freshwaters will have profound effects on fisheries from three perspectives: quantity of fish available, quality of fish available, and success of the fishers. Accordingly, substantive adaptation will very likely be required to conduct fisheries sustainably in the future as these effects take hold.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNurs Leadersh (Tor Ont)
September 2006
Retention of health professionals is a serious problem in northern and rural Canada. Magnet hospital factors are known to increase job satisfaction, which contributes to retention. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which magnet hospital characteristics (management support, nurse-doctor and nurse-manager relationships, professional autonomy and responsibility) contribute to northwestern Canadian hospital nurses' job satisfaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Extra Corpor Technol
March 2006
The perfusion education program at The Ohio State University uses a step exam to rank students and identify incompetent students in regard to the program learning objectives. The step exam determines student progress from the didactic to the clinical phase. Each student must pass the competency step exam to gain entry to the clinical rotations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Care Manag (Frederick)
May 2005
Retaining nurses is of significant concern to all hospitals but even more of a concern to northern and rural hospital managers. This study provides insights into factors related to nurses' intentions to remain. A sample of 122 nurses from 13 northern hospitals in Western Canada participated in the study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHyperthermia above a critical threshold results in multisystemic changes that include neurological manifestations of heat stroke. It is unknown if the latter represents an intrinsic thermal sensitivity of the CNS or whether injury is secondary to physiological responses of non-CNS origin. To address this issue, the present work examined functional, structural, and biochemical changes in the CNS of dogs subjected to a thermal dosage immediately below that which induces disseminated intravascular coagulation with secondary multiple organ injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe abnormal conditions to which blood is subjected during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) trigger an activation of the inflammatory response in all patients to varying degrees. Both complement activation and the release of cytokines characterize this response. Most inflammatory mediators have a molecular weight that is below the membrane pore size of commonly used ultrafilters, which should allow them to be freely filtered.
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