The venoms of the lesser (Echiichthys vipera) and greater (Trachinus draco) weever fish– A review

In comparison with other animal venoms, fish venoms remain relatively understudied. This is especially true for that of the lesser Echiichthys vipera and greater weever fish Trachinus draco which, apart from the isolation of their unique venom cytolysins, trachinine and dracotoxin, respectively, remain relatively uncharacterised. Envenomation reports mainly include mild symptoms consisting of nociception and inflammation. However, like most fish venoms, if the venom becomes systemic it causes cardiorespiratory and blood pressure changes. Although T. draco venom has not been studied since the 1990's, recent studies on E. vipera venom have discovered novel cytotoxic components on human cancer cells, but due to the scarcity of research on the molecular make-up of the venom, the molecule(s) causing this cytotoxicity remains unknown. This review analyses past studies on E. vipera and T. draco venom, the methods used in the, the venom constituents characterised, the reported symptoms of envenomation and compares these findings with those from other venomous Scorpaeniformes

Accuracy of student paramedics when measuring adult respiratory rate : a pilot study

Introduction: Abnormal respiration rate (RR) is commonly undervalued in the out-of-hospital environment despite its use as a predictive marker for physiological decline. The need for paramedicine students to manually measure RR is therefore important. The aims of the study were: 1) to determine the accuracy of manually measured RR when performed by second-year paramedicine students on healthy volunteers in a simulated environment; and 2) to provide data to inform design of a larger study. Methods: This pilot study utilised a prospective double-blinded observational design, in which neither the participants nor the healthy volunteers knew the specific aim of the study. Paramedicine students manually recorded RR along with a range of vital signs including non-invasive manual blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, temperature and 4-lead electrocardiogram on healthy volunteers. Capnography was used as the gold standard to confirm observed respiratory rates. Intra-class correlation was used to assess agreement between manual RR and capnography. Results: Thirty-six complete sets of data were recorded. There was strong agreement between paramedicine student and capnography measurements (ICC 0.77; 95% CI 0.54–0.88). Accuracy of paramedicine students to measure RR of the opposite gender showed no statistical difference when female students (F=0.05, p=0.83) or male students (F=0.04, p=0.84) measured. Conclusion: The manual RR measured by paramedicine students agreed well with capnography irrespective of the gender of the patient or paramedicine student. These data suggest the two measurements could be used interchangeably, although the difference between statistical and clinical significance should be further investigated

Synthesis of Antenna Arrays and Parasitic Antenna Arrays with Mutual Couplings

A synthesis method to design multielement antennas with couplings is presented. The main objective is to perform a rigorous determination of the electromagnetic characteristics involved in the design, especially with arrays of moderate sizes. The aim is to conceive jointly and efficiently the antenna and the circuits to connect (feed distribution network, power amplifiers, reactive loads, etc.). The subsequent objective is to improve the understanding and capabilities of strongly coupled antennas. As a whole, the synthesis procedure is then applied to different antenna architectures in order to show its efficiency and versatility. A focus on some antenna concepts where the management of couplings is a key factor to improve the performances is presented. After describing the synthesis procedure, the first category of coupled multielement antenna studied concerns radiating arrays in linear or circular polarization. A design including couplings effects on an active array is also presented. Then, the method is applied to parasitic antenna arrays and a specific investigation on reflectarray antenna is performed as they can be considered as a particular case of parasitic arrays

Two-branch channelized N-path filter for reconfigurable receiver

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