AntiPORT: adaptation of a transfusion prediction score to an Australian cardiac surgery population.

Risk scoring systems exist to predict perioperative blood transfusion risk in cardiac surgery, but none have been validated in the Australian or New Zealand population. The ACTA-PORT score was developed in the United Kingdom for this purpose. In this study, we validate and recalibrate the ACTA-PORT score in a large national database.

Sentience, Harmony and the Value of Nature.

Concern for nature and for animal sentience are important public and political moral concerns. Using frameworks such as Harmony for Nature and One Health and the recent IPBES report on the Diverse Values of Nature, this paper considers how the two issues interrelate, in terms of our concepts of sentience and nature, and sentience-based values' importance in relation to nature-based values. Animals' sentience is part of nature, and part of its diversity, harmony, health and value.

Ascribing Sentience: Evidential and Ethical Considerations in Policymaking.

Deciding which animals are sentient is an important precursor for decisions about the application of animal welfare legislation, and the wider assessment of the impacts of policies on animal suffering. We ascribe sentience in order to inform decisions about how animals should be treated, and how their treatment should be regulated. This ascription is both an ethical and an evidential process, and what evidence to use and require are ethical questions.

A One Medicine Mission for an Effective Rabies Therapy.

Despite the disease's long history, little progress has been made toward a treatment for rabies. The prognosis for patient recovery remains dire. For any prospect of survival, patients require aggressive critical care, which physicians in rabies endemic areas may be reluctant or unable to provide given the cost, clinical expertise required, and uncertain outcome.

Preoperative anaemia management in patients undergoing vascular surgery.

CAVIAR is a multicentre prospective stepped observational study encompassing 160 patients undergoing vascular intervention. The aim was to identify whether it was feasible to establish a preoperative anaemia pathway and, if so, the efficacy of intravenous iron for treatment of preoperative anaemia. Large barriers prevented implementation of an intravenous iron pathway, with only ten patients receiving intravenous iron and a small increase in haemoglobin level (mean 5·7 (95 per cent c.

Can youth get the contraception they want? Results of a pilot study in the province of Quebec.

Objectives: Canadian contraceptive providers report many barriers to access to contraception, and perceive youth as particularly vulnerable to these barriers. This study explores Quebec youth's experience of obtaining contraception.

Methods: A convenience sample of Quebec youth (aged 14 to 21 years) participated in an online anonymous survey of their experiences obtaining contraception.

Preoperative intravenous iron before cardiac surgery: a prospective multicentre feasibility study.

Background: Preoperative anaemia affects one third of patients undergoing cardiac surgery and is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Although it is recommended that perioperative teams should identify and treat patients with preoperative anaemia before surgery, introducing new treatment protocols can be challenging in surgical pathways. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of introducing a preoperative intravenous iron service as a national initiative in cardiac surgery.

Assessment of quality of life and chronic pain in dogs.

Assessment of chronic pain and quality of life (QOL) are integral to clinical veterinary research and practice, and recent years have seen an increase in the published tools available for the assessment of both. However, the relationship between chronic pain and QOL in veterinary patients has received insufficient attention. This narrative review for the first time explores similarities, differences and interactions between chronic pain and quality of life and identifies common challenges to their assessment in dogs.

Naturalness and Animal Welfare.

Naturalness is considered important for animals, and is one criterion for assessing how we care for them. However, it is a vague and ambiguous term, which needs definition and assessments suitable for scientific and ethical questions. This paper makes a start on that aim.

Using the Five Domains Model to Assess the Adverse Impacts of Husbandry, Veterinary, and Equitation Interventions on Horse Welfare.

The aim of this study was to conduct a series of paper-based exercises in order to assess the negative (adverse) welfare impacts, if any, of common interventions on domestic horses across a broad range of different contexts of equine care and training. An international panel (with professional expertise in psychology, equitation science, veterinary science, education, welfare, equestrian coaching, advocacy, and community engagement; = 16) met over a four-day period to define and assess these interventions, using an adaptation of the domain-based assessment model. The interventions were considered within 14 contexts: C1 Weaning; C2 Diet; C3 Housing; C4 Foundation training; C5 Ill-health and veterinary interventions (chiefly medical); C6 Ill-health and veterinary interventions (chiefly surgical); C7 Elective procedures; C8 Care procedures; C9 Restraint for management procedures; C10 Road transport; C11 Activity-competition; C12 Activity-work; C13 Activity-breeding females; and C14 Activity-breeding males.

Introducing forensic entomology in cases of suspected animal neglect.

Cases of arthropod-infested, abandoned or abused animals are sometimes brought to the attention of veterinarians by animal welfare authorities, with the requirement for a full postmortem examination towards criminal or civil proceedings. In these situations, entomology is an important support tool for the pathologists' investigation since the presence of arthropod life cycle stages serve as reliable forensic markers, especially for blowflies which form the first waves of activity following death. In the present study, 70 cadavers from a total of 544 referred to the Institute of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, between 2009 and 2014 displayed evidence of infestation.

The ACTA PORT-score for predicting perioperative risk of blood transfusion for adult cardiac surgery.

Background: A simple and accurate scoring system to predict risk of transfusion for patients undergoing cardiac surgery is lacking.

Methods: We identified independent risk factors associated with transfusion by performing univariate analysis, followed by logistic regression. We then simplified the score to an integer-based system and tested it using the area under the receiver operator characteristic (AUC) statistic with a Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test.

Topological and thermodynamic factors that influence the evolution of small networks of catalytic RNA species.

An RNA-directed recombination reaction can result in a network of interacting RNA species. It is now becoming increasingly apparent that such networks could have been an important feature of the RNA world during the nascent evolution of life on the Earth. However, the means by which such small RNA networks assimilate other available genotypes in the environment to grow and evolve into the more complex networks that are thought to have existed in the prebiotic milieu are not known.

Group I Intron Internal Guide Sequence Binding Strength as a Component of Ribozyme Network Formation.

Origins-of-life research requires searching for a plausible transition from simple chemicals to larger macromolecules that can both hold information and catalyze their own production. We have previously shown that some group I intron ribozymes possess the ability to help synthesize other ribozyme genotypes by recombination reactions in small networks in an autocatalytic fashion. By simplifying these recombination reactions, using fluorescent anisotropy, we quantified the thermodynamic binding strength between two nucleotides of two group I intron RNA fragments for all 16 possible genotype combinations.

Dynamics of prebiotic RNA reproduction illuminated by chemical game theory.

Many origins-of-life scenarios depict a situation in which there are common and potentially scarce resources needed by molecules that compete for survival and reproduction. The dynamics of RNA assembly in a complex mixture of sequences is a frequency-dependent process and mimics such scenarios. By synthesizing Azoarcus ribozyme genotypes that differ in their single-nucleotide interactions with other genotypes, we can create molecules that interact among each other to reproduce.

Ethical principles for novel therapies in veterinary practice.

Objectives: To present insights to aid decision-making about novel veterinary treatments from regulations concerning animal experimentation and human clinical medical trials.

Materials And Methods: EU Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and EU Regulation 536/2014 on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use were analysed, evaluated and "translated" into relevant principles for veterinary surgeons.

Results: A number of principles are relevant, relating to treatment expectations, thresholds and objectives; client consent; minimising harms; personnel; review committees; assessment and publication.

Prebiotic network evolution: six key parameters.

The origins of life likely required the cooperation among a set of molecular species interacting in a network. If so, then the earliest modes of evolutionary change would have been governed by the manners and mechanisms by which networks change their compositions over time. For molecular events, especially those in a pre-biological setting, these mechanisms have rarely been considered.

A Critical Analysis of the British Horseracing Authority's Review of the Use of the Whip in Horseracing.

There is increasing controversy about the use of the whip as a performance aid in Thoroughbred horseracing and its impact on horse welfare. This paper offers a critical analysis of the British Horseracing Authority's (BHA) 2011 Report Responsible Regulation: A Review of the Use of the Whip in Horseracing. It examines the BHA's process of consultation and use of science and public opinion research through the application of current scientific literature and legal analysis.