A qualitative study to explore communication skills in veterinary medical education

OBJECTIVE: To explore and gain an understanding of what "clinical communication skills" mean to veterinarians working in private practice and what implications this might have for veterinary medical education. METHODS: Qualitative research methods were used to purposefully sample a range of veterinary practitioners from a pool of South Australian veterinary practices who were interviewed to determine their understanding of what communication skills mean in the context of veterinary practice. Interviews were conducted with fourteen veterinary practitioners. Participants were sampled from a range of ages, veterinary schools of graduation plus urban and rural locations. Interview transcripts were analysed for themes, definitions and contexts. RESULTS: Participants' accounts included a number of skills which they considered to be "communication". Some of the definitions of these skills parallel communication skills and competencies for human medicine on which communication skills training incorporated into veterinary curricula to date have largely been based. However, the veterinarians in this study also raised interesting contextual differences unique to the veterinary profession, such as communication with the animal, selling service, discussing money in relation to decisions for care, and communicating about euthanasia. CONCLUSIONS: Veterinary practitioners require high level communication skills. Education and training in veterinary medicine may be better tailored to reflect the unique context of the veterinary profession.Wendy J. Hamood, Anna Chur-Hansen, Michelle L. McArthu

The effectiveness of using raw sewage sludge (RSS) as a water replacement in cement mortar mixes containing unprocessed fly ash (u-FA)

The performance of two groups of mortar mixes containing Unprocessed Fly Ash (u-FA) with either Raw Sewage Sludge (RSS) or water was examined. Both groups included four mortar mixes containing Portland cement, sand, u-FA. Group 1 used RSS as a water replacement and Group 2 used water. Cement was replaced with 0, 10, 20 and 30% u-FA of total binder weight and one Liquid/Binder ratio of 0.8 was used. Mortar mixes were tested for their flowability, Total Water Absorption (TWA), Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV), compressive strength and drying shrinkage. The outcomes of the investigation were encouraging in that cement-based materials containing RSS demonstrated good engineering properties in comparison to the control mixes. The inclusion of u-FA significantly reduced flowability; however improved long-term compressive strength for both groups. The greatest compressive strength was recorded for the mixes with 10–20% u-FA replacement

A Newly Detected Left Ventricular Mass Following A Complex Intracardiac Repair

Appearance of unexpected masses in the chambers of the heart during cardiac surgery can be intriguing. We report the case of a mass in the left ventricle that appeared at the time of separation from cardiopulmonary bypass in a child after a complex intracardiac repair. The child presented for surgery to a tertiary care hospital in Muscat, Oman, in 2022. Prior to the surgical repair the mass was not appreciated by echocardiography. An intraventricular baffle was used to divert left ventricular blood flow towards the outflow tract, after which an intraventricular “mass” was observed. Intraoperative transoesophageal echocardiography identified the mass as a portion of the interventricular septum that was located between the inlet and outlet ventricular septal defects. Keywords: Echocardiography; Heart Septal Defects; Heart Ventricles; Diagnostic Imaging

The Sinus Venosus Veno-Venous Bridge: Not a septal defect

This review provides an update on the morphology of the sinus venosus defect. It was earlier believed that a 'common wall' separated the right pulmonary veins from the superior caval vein. In the sinus venosus defects, this wall was absent. Current evidence shows that the superior rim of the oval fossa, rather than forming a second septum or representing a common wall, is an infolding between the walls of the caval veins and the right pulmonary veins. The sinus venosus defect is caused by the anomalous connection of one or more pulmonary veins to a systemic vein. However, the pulmonary vein(s) retain their left atrial connections, leading to a veno-venous bridge that allows interatrial shunting outside the oval fossa. True atrial septal defects are located within the oval fossa or in the anteo-inferior buttress, while sinus venosus defects, ostium defects and coronary sinus defects are morphologically distinct from them. Keywords: Heart Septal Defects, Atrial; Diagnostic Imaging; Sinoatrial Node; Vena Cava, Superior

Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients Under 49 Years Including Adolescents: A single-centre study from Oman

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD0 in adult patients under the age of 49 years, including adolescents with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that presented to the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman, between January 2015 and December 2019. All patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were enrolled. The incidence of SCD was evaluated. Information about the patient's demographic data, the site of cardiac arrest, the mode of arrival, the duration of pre-arrest symptoms and if cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed was gathered. Survival data at 3-year follow-up was obtained. Results: A total of 117 out of 769 (15%) patients met the criteria for SCD. Male gender was predominant, with a median age of 33 years. In about 79.5% of the patients, cardiac arrest was witnessed. Only 43 patients (36.8%) received cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the arrest site; 21 patients (17.9%) had a shockable rhythm and 96 patients (82.1%) had a non-shockable rhythm. Spontaneous circulation was returned in 15 patients (12.8%). Nine patients (7.7%) were discharged from the hospital and 8 (6.8%) survived at least 36 months. Conclusion: The study findings indicate the prevalence of SCD among patients who experienced a cardiac arrest outside the hospital. Unfortunately, only a small number of patients were able to survive in the long term. By implementing preemptive screening for individuals and their families, it may be possible to prevent SCD and improve outcomes for those affected. Keywords: Death, Sudden, Cardiac; Epidemiology; Etiology; Risk Factors; Incidence; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; Retrospective Studies; Oman

A survey, Pathogenicity assay, and Molecular Identification of the Pathogenic Fungi Associated with Pistachio in Anbar Province, Iraq

This study was carried out in 6 different locations in the Anbar Province, between January and February 2021. The locations with higher pistachio cultivation, such as Kabisa, Al-Haditha, Al-Baghdadi, Anah, Al-Qaim, and Rawa were selected to study the prevalence of fungal diseases affecting pistachio crops. Twenty-six distinct fungal isolates were identified, and each isolate was examined for the pathogenicity. Although the level of pathogenicity of each isolate varied from high to moderate, they all caused lesions, damaged vascular tissue, signs of root rot and seed rot in pistachio seedlings. The fungal strains were identified depending on ITS marker. Twelve of the isolates belonged to Fusarium solani, 10 of F. falciforme isolates, 2 of F. oxysporum isolates, while 1 isolate of F. vanettenii and Xylaria sp. The most frequently-occurring species were F. falciforme and F. solani in the Anbar Province. Out of all the studied isolates, Al-Qaim and Al-Baghdadi were the highest pathogenic isolates. The pathogenic effects of F. vanettenii and Xylaria sp. on pistachio plants as well as the existence of F. solani and F. falciforme in Iraq were all recorded in this study for the first time

Low computational complexity for optimizing energy efficiency in mm-wave hybrid precoding system for 5G

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communication is the spectral frontier to meet the anticipated significant volume of high data traffic processing in next-generation systems. The primary challenges in mm-wave can be overcome by reducing complexity and power consumption by large antenna arrays for massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) systems. However, the circuit power consumption is expected to increase rapidly. The precoding in mm-wave mMIMO systems cannot be successfully achieved at baseband using digital precoders, owing to the high cost and power consumption of signal mixers and analog-to-digital converters. Nevertheless, hybrid analog–digital precoders are considered a cost-effective solution. In this work, we introduce a novel method for optimizing energy efficiency (EE) in the upper-bound multiuser (MU) - mMIMO system and the cost efficiency of quantized hybrid precoding (HP) design. We propose effective alternating minimization algorithms based on the zero gradient method to establish fully-connected structures (FCSs) and partially-connected structures (PCSs). In the alternating minimization algorithms, low complexity is proposed by enforcing an orthogonal constraint on the digital precoders to realize the joint optimization of computational complexity and communication power. Therefore, the alternating minimization algorithm enhances HP by improving the performance of the FCS through advanced phase extraction, which involves high complexity. Meanwhile, the alternating minimization algorithm develops a PCS to achieve low complexity using HP. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm for MU - mMIMO systems improves EE. The power-saving ratio is also enhanced for PCS and FCS by 48.3% and 17.12%, respectively

Study of optical stochastic solitons of Biswas-Arshed equation with multiplicative noise

In many nonlinear partial differential equations, noise or random fluctuation is an inherent part of the system being modeled and have vast applications in different areas of engineering and sciences. This objective of this paper is to construct stochastic solitons of Biswas-Arshed equation (BAE) under the influence of multiplicative white noise in the terms of the Itô calculus. Bright, singular, dark, periodic, singular and combined singular-dark stochastic solitons are attained by using the Sardar subequation method. The results prove that the suggested approach is a very straightforward, concise and dynamic addition in literature. By using Mathematica 11, some 3D and 2D plots are illustrated to check the influence of multiplicative noise on solutions. The presence of multiplicative noise leads the fluctuations and have significant effects on the long-term behavior of the system. So, it is observed that multiplicative noise stabilizes the solutions of BAE around zero

Circularly polarized transmitarray antenna design using meander line polarizer for ku-band applications

In this paper, a circularly polarized Transmitarray antenna design for the Ku-band frequency range is presented. The transmitarray antenna with 121 elements is designed using a four-layer double square ring with a center patch unit cell. The Unit cell parametric analysis shows a high transmission coefficient magnitude of -1.26 dBi and a wide phase range of 256 degrees. A meander line polarizer is designed at 12GHz to convert the polarization from linear to circular. This meander line polarizer is placed in front of the horn antenna as a superstrate layer. The final measurement results show a high gain circular polarized TA antenna with a maximum gain of 20.17dBic and a value of 1.89 for the axial ratio is achieved at 11.2 GHz. The 1dB antenna gain and 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth are calculated as 0.65GHz and 1.07GHz, respectively. The proposed design offers a low profile and less complex structure, making it suitable for long-range communication systems, especially in Ku band applicati