Diagnosis, treatment and outcome following chronic encircling hobbling wounds in a group of working Donkeys in Morocco

Owners of working equids in Morocco, as in other low and middle-income countries hobble their animals around the pastern using different materials (wire, baling twine and ropes). Resulting wounds are very common and can cause serious damage. Some hobbles even embed into the soft tissue and bony structures of the pastern. Using a retrospective study of The American Fondouk hospital’s clinical records, the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of embedding hobbling injuries are described. From 2012 to 2020, sixteen donkeys were presented suffering from unilateral severe lameness (4/5 to 5/5 lameness on AAEP scale) associated with hobble wounds. Circumferential wounds and/or fibrosis in the pastern were present in all these cases. Because of the suspicion of the presence of wire or baling twine, radiographs of the pasterns of all animals were routinely taken. Ten out of sixteen showed wire in situ encircling the pastern and the others showed a ghost outline of a baling twine hobble with similar periosteal reactions. All animals were treated by surgical removal of the hobble, wound flushing, systemic antibiotics, and bandaging. The outcome was good to excellent in all cases. In these authors’ knowledge, this is the first report in the literature of the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of embedded hobbles in Equidae

An Alumni survey of the School of Social Work, Portland State University

The alumni survey conducted at Portland State University School of Social Work by second year students had two purposes. One purpose was to fulfill the research practicum requirements of a Masters of Social Work degree by providing experience in the area of applied survey research. The other was to provide a data base for future alumni research at the school

The CMS Event Builder

The data acquisition system of the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider will employ an event builder which will combine data from about 500 data sources into full events at an aggregate throughput of 100 GByte/s. Several architectures and switch technologies have been evaluated for the DAQ Technical Design Report by measurements with test benches and by simulation. This paper describes studies of an EVB test-bench based on 64 PCs acting as data sources and data consumers and employing both Gigabit Ethernet and Myrinet technologies as the interconnect. In the case of Ethernet, protocols based on Layer-2 frames and on TCP/IP are evaluated. Results from ongoing studies, including measurements on throughput and scaling are presented. The architecture of the baseline CMS event builder will be outlined. The event builder is organised into two stages with intelligent buffers in between. The first stage contains 64 switches performing a first level of data concentration by building super-fragments from fragments of 8 data sources. The second stage combines the 64 super-fragments into full events. This architecture allows installation of the second stage of the event builder in steps, with the overall throughput scaling linearly with the number of switches in the second stage. Possible implementations of the components of the event builder are discussed and the expected performance of the full event builder is outlined.Comment: Conference CHEP0

The next frontier: Fostering innovation by improving health data access and utilization

Beneath most lively policy debates sit dry-as-dust theoretical and methodological discussions. Current disputes over the EU Adaptive Pathways initiative and the proposed US 21st Century Cures Act may ultimately rest on addressing arcane issues of data curation, standardization, and utilization. Improved extraction of inform ation on the safety and effectiveness of drugs-in-use must parallel adjustments in evidence requirements at the time of licensing. To do otherwise may compromise safety and efficacy in the name of fostering innovation

Scope and mortality of adult medical ICU patients in an Eastern Cape tertiary hospital

Background. The characteristics and mortality outcomes of patients admitted to South African intensive care units (ICUs) owing to medical conditions are unknown. Available literature is derived from studies based on data from high-income countries. Objectives. To determine ICU utilisation by medical patients and evaluate the scope of admissions and clinical associations with hospital mortality in ICU patients 12 years and older admitted to an Eastern Cape tertiary ICU, particularly in the subset with HIV disease. Methods. A retrospective descriptive one-year cohort study. Data were obtained from the LivAKI study database and demographic data, comorbidities, diagnosis, and mortality outcomes and associations were determined. Results. There were 261 (29.8%) medical ICU admissions. The mean age of the cohort was 40.2 years; 51.7% were female. When compared with the surgical emergencies, the medical subgroup had higher sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores (median score 5 v. 4, respectively) and simplified acute physiology score III (SAPS 3) scores (median 52.7 v. 48.5), a higher incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (7.7% v. 2.9%) and required more frequent dialysis (20.3% v. 5.5%). Of the medical admissions, sepsis accounted for 32.4% of admission diagnoses. The HIV seroprevalence rate was 34.0%, of whom 57.4% were on antiretroviral therapy. ICU and hospital mortality rates were 11.1% and 21.5% respectively, while only acute kidney injury (AKI) and sepsis were independently associated with mortality. The HIV-positive subgroup had a higher burden of tuberculosis (TB), higher admission SOFA and SAPS 3 scores and required more organ support. Conclusion. Among medical patients admitted to ICU, there was a high HIV seroprevalence with low uptake of antiretroviral therapy. Sepsis was the most frequently identified ICU admission diagnosis. Sepsis and AKI (not HIV) were independent predictors of mortality. Co-infection with HIV and TB was associated with increased mortality

Ready, Set, BABY Live Virtual Prenatal Breastfeeding Education for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unforeseen challenges in the delivery of lactation training, education, and skilled support worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed global recommendations for the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding when COVID-19 is suspected or confirmed (World Health Organization, 2020). This interim guidance, which is grounded in the best available clinical evidence and epidemiology, brings attention to the importance of integrating breastfeeding education and skilled lactation support into the COVID-19 pandemic response (Gribble, 2018; UNICEF, 2020)