Prolonged paralysis in a child with organophosphate pesticide poisoning

17-month-old boy presented to a local community health centre in Cape Town, South Africa, with severe organophosphate pesticide poisoning (OPP), necessitating the use of intravenous atropine to control cholinergic symptoms, as well as emergency intubation for ongoing respiratory distress. He required prolonged ventilatory support in the intensive care unit at his referral hospital and had subsequent delayed neurological recovery, spending 8 days in hospital.We present this case to emphasise the importance of adequate atropinisation in the management of severe OPP and to highlight the dangers of inappropriate use of suxamethonium for intubation in patients with OPP

The changing trends of childhood poisoning at a tertiary children’s hospital in South Africa

Context. Information on childhood poisoning in the developingworld, including South Africa, is scarce, despite its contribution tomorbidity and mortality.Objective. We describe the profile of children with exposuresand poisonings presenting to Red Cross War Memorial Children’sHospital (RCWMCH) in Cape Town, South Africa, from 2003 to2008 and compare the trends of causative agents over the past twodecades.Methods. Cases were identified by review of the RCWMCH caserecords.Results. Of the total incidents (N=2 872), paraffin (kerosene)was the commonest agent (n=692, 24%) with 124 poisoningsincluding two deaths. Drugs were the most common toxin group(n=988, 34%), including 139 single-drug poisonings with 5deaths; 4 associated with traditional medicine use. Householdcleaning product incidents (n=302, 10%) resulted in 29 singleproductpoisonings with no deaths. Pesticide incidents (n=311,10%) included 6 deaths; 203 (65%) incidents were due toorganophosphates or carbamates. The suburban distribution ofthe main toxin groups varied. Comparing 1987 and 2008, thenumber of incidents decreased from 1 116 to 447; drug and paraffinincidents decreased respectively (from 673 to 150 and from 332 to87), household cleaning products and cosmetics increased (21 to69) and pesticide incidents increased (7 to 69).Conclusion. Despite a decrease in the overall number of incidentsover two decades at RCWMCH, paraffin and drugs remainthe principal agents responsible for paediatric exposures andpoisonings, with increasing incidents due to household cleaningproducts and pesticides. Identification of these toxin groups comingfrom specific suburbs allows for targeted prevention initiatives

Prolonged paralysis in a child with organophosphate pesticide poisoning

A 17-month-old boy presented to a local community health centre in Cape Town, South Africa, with severe organophosphate pesticide poisoning (OPP), necessitating the use of intravenous atropine to control cholinergic symptoms, as well as emergency intubation for ongoing respiratory distress. He required prolonged ventilatory support in the intensive care unit at his referral hospital and had subsequent delayed neurological recovery, spending 8 days in hospital.We present this case to emphasise the importance of adequate atropinisation in the management of severe OPP and to highlight the dangers of inappropriate use of suxamethonium for intubation in patients with OPP

Usability of Nomadic User Interfaces

Abstract. During the last decade, a number of research activities have been performed to enable user interfaces and the underlying user activities to be migrated from one device to another. We call this “Nomadic User Interfaces”. The primary goal of these research activities has been to develop the technologies to enable this. However, not much is known about the usability aspects of Nomadic User Interfaces. In this paper we present the results of three different user tests that we conducted to investigate the usefulness and the usability issues of several prototype Nomadic User Interface systems that we developed

Field Measurements of Terrestrial and Martian Dust Devils

Surface-based measurements of terrestrial and martian dust devils/convective vortices provided from mobile and stationary platforms are discussed. Imaging of terrestrial dust devils has quantified their rotational and vertical wind speeds, translation speeds, dimensions, dust load, and frequency of occurrence. Imaging of martian dust devils has provided translation speeds and constraints on dimensions, but only limited constraints on vertical motion within a vortex. The longer mission durations on Mars afforded by long operating robotic landers and rovers have provided statistical quantification of vortex occurrence (time-of-sol, and recently seasonal) that has until recently not been a primary outcome of more temporally limited terrestrial dust devil measurement campaigns. Terrestrial measurement campaigns have included a more extensive range of measured vortex parameters (pressure, wind, morphology, etc.) than have martian opportunities, with electric field and direct measure of dust abundance not yet obtained on Mars. No martian robotic mission has yet provided contemporaneous high frequency wind and pressure measurements. Comparison of measured terrestrial and martian dust devil characteristics suggests that martian dust devils are larger and possess faster maximum rotational wind speeds, that the absolute magnitude of the pressure deficit within a terrestrial dust devil is an order of magnitude greater than a martian dust devil, and that the time-of-day variation in vortex frequency is similar. Recent terrestrial investigations have demonstrated the presence of diagnostic dust devil signals within seismic and infrasound measurements; an upcoming Mars robotic mission will obtain similar measurement types

Limitations to recording larger mammalian predators in savannah using camera traps and spoor

Traditionally, spoor (tracks, pug marks) have been used as a cost effective tool to assess the presence of larger mammals. Automated camera traps are now increasingly utilized to monitor wildlife, primarily as the cost has greatly declined and statistical approaches to data analysis have improved. While camera traps have become ubiquitous, we have little understanding of their effectiveness when compared to traditional approaches using spoor in the field. Here, we a) test the success of camera traps in recording a range of carnivore species against spoor; b) ask if simple measures of spoor size taken by amateur volunteers is likely to allow individual identification of leopards and c) for a trained tracker, ask if this approach may allow individual leopards to be followed with confidence in savannah habitat. We found that camera traps significantly under-recorded mammalian top and meso-carnivores, with camera traps more likely under-record the presence of smaller carnivores (civet 64%; genet 46%, Meller’s mongoose 45%) than larger (jackal sp. 30%, brown hyena 22%), while leopard was more likely to be recorded by camera trap (all recorded by camera trap only). We found that amateur trackers could be beneficial in regards to collecting presence data; however the large variance in measurements of spoor taken in the field by volunteers suggests that this approach is unlikely to add further data. Nevertheless, the use of simple spoor measurements in the field by a trained field researcher increases their ability to reliably follow a leopard trail in difficult terrain. This allows researchers to glean further data on leopard behaviour and habitat utilisation without the need for complex analysis

Water induced sediment levitation enhances downslope transport on Mars

On Mars, locally warm surface temperatures (~293 K) occur, leading to the possibility of (transient) liquid water on the surface. However, water exposed to the martian atmosphere will boil, and the sediment transport capacity of such unstable water is not well understood. Here, we present laboratory studies of a newly recognized transport mechanism: “levitation” of saturated sediment bodies on a cushion of vapor released by boiling. Sediment transport where this mechanism is active is about nine times greater than without this effect, reducing the amount of water required to transport comparable sediment volumes by nearly an order of magnitude. Our calculations show that the effect of levitation could persist up to ~48 times longer under reduced martian gravity. Sediment levitation must therefore be considered when evaluating the formation of recent and present-day martian mass wasting features, as much less water may be required to form such features than previously thought