Pacific Hagfish, Eptatretus stouti, and Black Hagfish, E. deani: The Oregon Fishery and Port Sampling Observations, 1988-92

In 1988, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife began sampling and monitoring the development of a new fishery for Pacific hagfish, Eptatretus stouti, and black hagfish, E. deani. Hagfish landings by Oregon trap vessels have ranged from 11,695 kg in 1988 to 340,774 kg in 1992. Whole frozen fish were shipped to South Korea for the "eel skin" leather market. From 1988 through 1989, I sampled 924 Pacific hagfish and 897 black hagfish from commercial and research catches. Mean length of fish sampled from commercial landings was 39.6 cmf or Pacific hagfish and 34.5 cm for black hagfish. Weight-length relationships (W=aLb) were calculated for males and females of both species. Fifty percent maturity for male and female Pacific hagfish was 35 cm and 42 cm, respectively, while 50% maturityf or male and female black hagfish was 34 cm and 38 cm, respectively. Examination of gonads for both species indicated that spawning either occurs throughout the year or the spawning period is protracted. Mature females of both species had from one to three distinct sizes of eggs, but they usually carried only one group of eggs over 5 mm in length. Mature Pacific hagfish females averaged 28 eggs over 5 mm in length, and black hagfish females averaged 14 eggs over 5 mm in length. Hermaphroditism was found in 0.2% of the Pacific hagfish examined

Use of the Haddon matrix as a tool for assessing risk factors for sharps injury in emergency departments in the United Arab Emirates

We investigated the epidemiology and prevention of sharps injuries in the United Arab Emirates. Among 82 emergency nurses and 38 doctors who responded to our questionnaire, risk factors for sharp device injuries identified using the Haddon matrix included personal factors (for the pre‐event phase, a lack of infection control training, a lack of immunization, and recapping needles, and for the postevent phase, underreporting of sharps injuries) and equipment‐related factors (for the pre‐event phase, failure to use safe devices; for the event phase, failure to use gloves in all appropriate situations). Nearly all injuries to doctors were caused by suture needles, and among nurses more than 50% of injuries were caused by hollow‐bore needles

Comparative Mortality-Rates

n/

The effect of velocity of contraction on the repeated bout effect

The 'repeated bout effect'(RBE) is an adaptation whereby a single eccentric (ECC) exercise session protects against muscle damage during subsequent ECC exercise bouts and is characterized by faster strength recovery and a reduction in soreness and inflammation. The purpose was to determine if the protective capacity of the RBE is greater when both bouts of ECC exercise are performed at the same compared to a different velocity of contraction as well as at a fast or slow velocity. Thirty-one right handed participants were randomly assigned to perform an initial unilateral bout of either fast (180°/s) or slow (30°/s) maximal isokinetic ECC elbow flexion. Three weeks later 16 participants completed a repeated bout of ECC exercise at the same velocity as the initial bout (SAME)(FAST-FAST[n=8] and SLOW-SLOW[n=8]), while 15 participants completed a bout at the corresponding different velocity (DIFF) (FAST-SLOW[n=8] and SLOW-FAST[n=7]). Elbow flexor function and damage was measured prior to, immediately after, and at 24, 48, and 72 hours post exercise. Dependant variables included maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) isometric strength (Dynamometer), muscle thickness (MT; Ultrasound), delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS; Visual Analog Scale), biceps and triceps electromyography (EMG), percent activation (Interpolated twitch), and twitch torque. There were no group differences for height, weight, training experience, or total work performed during the ECC bouts (p>0.05). After the repeated bout, there was a significant reduction in MVC strength, MT, and DOMS at 24, 48, and 72 hours, pooled across participants (

Maria Ganczak, Peter Barss: Nosocomial HIV Infection: Epidemiology and Prevention -A Global Perspective Nosocomial HIV Infection: Epidemiology and Prevention -A Global Perspective

Abstract Because, globally, HIV is transmitted mainly by sexual practices and intravenous drug use and because of a long asymptomatic period, healthcare-associated HIV transmission receives little attention even though an estimated 5.4% of global HIV infections result from contaminated injections alone. It is an important personal issue for healthcare workers, especially those who work with unsafe equipment or have insufficient training. They may acquire HIV occupationally or find themselves before courts, facing severe penalties for causing HIV infections. Prevention of blood-borne nosocomial infections such as HIV differs from traditional infection control measures such as hand washing and isolation and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Since there has not been a review of healthcare-associated HIV contrasting circumstances in poor and rich regions of the world, the aim of this article is to review and compare the epidemiology of HIV in healthcare facilities in such settings, followed by a consideration of general approaches to prevention, specific countermeasures, and a synthesis of approaches used in infection control, injury prevention, and occupational safety. These actions concentrated on identifying research on specific modes of healthcare-associated HIV transmission and on methods of prevention. Searches included studies in English and Russian cited in PubMed and citations in Google Scholar in any language. MeSH keywords such as nosocomial, hospital-acquired, iatrogenic, healthcare associated, occupationally acquired infection and HIV were used together with mode of transmission, such as "HIV and hemodialysis". References of relevant articles were also reviewed. The evidence indicates that while occasional incidents of healthcare-related HIV infection in high-income countries continue to be reported, the situation in many low-income countries is alarming, with transmission ranging from frequent to endemic. Viral transmission in health facilities occurs by unexpected and unusual as well as more frequent modes. HIV can be transmitted to patients and to donors of blood products by specific vehicles and vectors during blood transfusion, plasma donation, and artificial insemination, by improperly sterilized sharps, by medical equipment during activities such as dialysis and organ transplantation, and by healthcare workers infected by occupational exposure to hazards such as blood-contaminated sharps. Personal, equipment, and environmental factors predispose to acquisition of nosocomial HIV and all are pertinent for prevention. For infection and injury control, poverty is often an underlying determinant. While sophisticated new tests offer improved HIV detection, increasingly higher marginal costs limit their feasibility in many settings. Modest investment in safer equipment and appropriate integrated training in infection control, injury prevention, and occupational safety should provide greater benefit. (AIDS Rev. 2008;10:-61) Corresponding author: Peter Barss, [email protected]

Fear of HIV infection and impact of training on the attitudes of surgical and emergency nurses toward inpatient HIV testing

This study evaluates the association between the degree of fear of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and support for different HIV testing policies. A strong fear of acquiring HIV infection at work was widespread among a sample of 601 Polish surgical and emergency nurses. Most favored inappropriate HIV testing of all surgical patients and inpatients. Previous training about HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and experience caring for HIV‐positive patients had a significant impact on reducing support for testing of all inpatients but not for testing of surgical patients

Environmental Agency in Read-Alouds

Despite growing interest in helping students become agents of environmental change who can, through informed decision-making and action-taking, transform environmentally detrimental forms of human activity, science educators have reduced agency to rationality by overlooking sociocultural influences such as norms and values. We tackle this issue by examining how elementary teachers and students negotiate and attribute responsibility, credit, or blame for environmental events during three environmental read-alouds. Our verbal analysis and visual representation of meta-agentive discourse revealed varied patterns of agential attribution. First, humans were simultaneously attributed negative agentive roles (agents of endangerment and imbalance) and positive agentive roles (agents of prevention, mitigation, and balance). Second, while wolves at Yellowstone were constructed as intentional (human-like) agents when they crossed over into the human world to kill livestock in nearby farms, polar bears in the Arctic were denied any form of agential responsibility when they approached people’s homes. Third, anthropogenic causation of global warming was constructed as distal and indirect chains of cause and effect (i.e., sophisticated sequences of ripple effects), whereas its mitigation and prevention assumed the form of simple and unidirectional causative links (direct and proximal causality). Fourth, the notion of balance of nature was repeatedly used as a justification for environmental conservation but its cause and dynamic nature remained unclear. And, fifth, while one teacher promoted environmental agency by encouraging students to experience positive emotions such as love of nature, freedom, and oneness with nature, the other teachers encouraged students to experience negative emotions such as self-blame and guilt. This study’s main significance is that it highlights the need for environmental educators who set out to promote environmental agency to expand the focus of their instructional efforts beyond rational argumentation and reasoning. It also underscores the importance of increasing school teachers’ awareness of implicit discursive messages in particular patterns of environmental agency attribution when discussing environmental issues with students and implementing pedagogical strategies centered on oral deliberation such as read-alouds

Linguistics

Contains research summary and abstracts for nine theses