Injury prevention, drowning prevention habits and resuscitation knowledge of Portuguese surfing instructors. A cross-sectional study

Surfing instructors can play an important role both in preventing sport related injuries and as first responders in water emergencies events. Even though Portugal is a predominantly oceanic country, with many people enrolling in water sports activities, we still don’t have a clear insight of the knowledge and educational practices of surfing instructors concerning both injury prevention and first response actions. This study aimed to analyze the educational practices on prevention of surf-related injuries of Portuguese surfing instructors and their knowledge and experience acting as first responders in the sea. A cross-sectional study was designed, using an online survey distributed by all surfing schools registered at Portuguese Surfing Federation to their instructors. The survey included a brief demographic characterization, questions regarding teaching practices about prevention of surfing-related injuries and knowledge/experience acting as first responders at the sea. Data was collected anonymously using Google Forms. A total of 102 instructors participated in the study. The analysis of the survey responses showed that 93.2% of surfing instructors are aware of the importance of prevention habits for teaching but skip some major preventive measures when teaching novice surfers. Nevertheless, the instructors with more than 15 years of experience provide more feedback on prevention habits during classes than instructors with less experience (p=0.019). When looking at self-perceptions of own competence to act in a drowning event, the instructors who have attended a basic life support course asserted to be more competent than those who never attended a course (p<0.05). These findings suggest that it would be very positive that all surfing schools followed the same protocol, giving due importance to prevention measures. Moreover, surfing instructors can play an important role in first response to drowning events but might have some training flaws that should be considered as part of a Water Safety National Strategy. © JPES

Perception, knowledge and education for drowning prevention in adolescent

Objective: Drowning is a major problem of public health in Spain, with a high number of deaths. The main strategy to address it is prevention, going through knowledge and education. The aim of this study was to analyze from a public health perspective a) the knowledge of young participants from 14 to 16 years old about drowning prevention, swimming skills and risks on the beach and b) to evaluate a pilot program with educational video for drowning prevention due to rip currents. Methods: For this purpose, a three-phase study was carried out: (1) application of a questionnaire to identify bath habits, risk perception in relation to rip currents and swimming level, (2) evaluation of a video for the identification of rip current risk and (3) evaluation of the assimilation of the visualized content one month after the intervention. 120 adolescents participated in this study during march, april and may, 2019. A descriptive analysis and comparisons with Chi-Square were performed in SPSS. Results: 120 adolescents participated in this study during March, April and May, 2019. 96.7% knew how to swim, but 44.1% had a basic level. More than half of the participants did not know rip currents or did not identify them in swimming areas. The video achieves the assimilation of concepts related to rip currents and drowning prevention. Conclusions: These findings suggest that adolescents have a lack of knowledge about rip currents and are not able to identify safe swimming areas. The use of health communication strategies based on the interests and profiles of young people have shown an improvement in the perception of risks at beaches on the sample studied

Monthly variation in the probability of presence of adult Culicoides populations in nine European countries and the implications for targeted surveillance

Background: Biting midges of the genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are small hematophagous insects responsible for the transmission of bluetongue virus, Schmallenberg virus and African horse sickness virus to wild and domestic ruminants and equids. Outbreaks of these viruses have caused economic damage within the European Union. The spatio-temporal distribution of biting midges is a key factor in identifying areas with the potential for disease spread. The aim of this study was to identify and map areas of neglectable adult activity for each month in an average year. Average monthly risk maps can be used as a tool when allocating resources for surveillance and control programs within Europe. Methods : We modelled the occurrence of C. imicola and the Obsoletus and Pulicaris ensembles using existing entomological surveillance data from Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland. The monthly probability of each vector species and ensembles being present in Europe based on climatic and environmental input variables was estimated with the machine learning technique Random Forest. Subsequently, the monthly probability was classified into three classes: Absence, Presence and Uncertain status. These three classes are useful for mapping areas of no risk, areas of high-risk targeted for animal movement restrictions, and areas with an uncertain status that need active entomological surveillance to determine whether or not vectors are present. Results: The distribution of Culicoides species ensembles were in agreement with their previously reported distribution in Europe. The Random Forest models were very accurate in predicting the probability of presence for C. imicola (mean AUC = 0.95), less accurate for the Obsoletus ensemble (mean AUC = 0.84), while the lowest accuracy was found for the Pulicaris ensemble (mean AUC = 0.71). The most important environmental variables in the models were related to temperature and precipitation for all three groups. Conclusions: The duration periods with low or null adult activity can be derived from the associated monthly distribution maps, and it was also possible to identify and map areas with uncertain predictions. In the absence of ongoing vector surveillance, these maps can be used by veterinary authorities to classify areas as likely vector-free or as likely risk areas from southern Spain to northern Sweden with acceptable precision. The maps can also focus costly entomological surveillance to seasons and areas where the predictions and vector-free status remain uncertain

A Deep Insight into the Sialotranscriptome of the Gulf Coast Tick, Amblyomma maculatum

Background: Saliva of blood sucking arthropods contains compounds that antagonize their hosts ’ hemostasis, which include platelet aggregation, vasoconstriction and blood clotting; saliva of these organisms also has anti-inflammatory and immunomodullatory properties. Perhaps because hosts mount an active immune response against these compounds, the diversity of these compounds is large even among related blood sucking species. Because of these properties, saliva helps blood feeding as well as help the establishment of pathogens that can be transmitted during blood feeding. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have obtained 1,626,969 reads by pyrosequencing a salivary gland cDNA library from adult females Amblyomma maculatum ticks at different times of feeding. Assembly of this data produced 72,441 sequences larger than 149 nucleotides from which 15,914 coding sequences were extracted. Of these, 5,353 had.75 % coverage to their best match in the non-redundant database from the National Center for Biotechnology information, allowing for the deposition of 4,850 sequences to GenBank. The annotated data sets are available as hyperlinked spreadsheets. Putative secreted proteins were classified in 133 families, most of which have no known function. Conclusions/Significance: This data set of proteins constitutes a mining platform for novel pharmacologically activ

Synthesis and high ranked NLT properties of new sulfonamide-substituted indium phthalocyanines

The synthesis and characterization of three new indium phthalocyanines bearing eight N-alkyl- or N-arylsulfonamide groups is described. The new compounds are {2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24-octakis[4-(4-methoxyphenylaminosulfonyl] phenoxy]phthalocyaninato}indium(III) chloride (7), {2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24- octakis[4-diethylaminosulfonyl)phenoxy]phthalocyaninato}indium(III) chloride (8) and {2,3,9,10,16,17, 23,24-octakis[4-didodecylaminosulfonyl)phenoxy]phthalocyaninato}indium(III) chloride (9), and were obtained in 23\u201349% yields. The precursors of phthalocyanines 7\u20139 are sulfonamide-substituted phthalonitriles that can be prepared by reacting 4,5-bis(4-chlorosulfonylphenoxy)phthalonitrile (3) with amines. The nonlinear transmission (NLT) of complexes 7\u20139 was determined at 532 nm using ns pulses. All three phthalocyanines behave as reverse saturable absorbers with increasing efficiency of optical limiting in the order 7 < 8 < 9. A comparative analysis of the NLT results is attempted in terms of the structural differences in 7\u20139