20 research outputs found

    Fundamental principles of rehabilitation and musculoskeletal tissue healing

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    OBJECTIVE: To review fundamental principles of tissue healing and physical rehabilitation as they apply to dogs recovering from cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) surgery STUDY DESIGN: Invited Review SAMPLE POPULATION: None METHODS: A multidisciplinary group of specialists in small animal surgery, rehabilitation/sports medicine, and human physical and occupational therapy reviewed the currently available evidence for rehabilitation post-CCL surgery. Because current evidence is limited, this group proposes guidelines for rehabilitation after CCL surgery based on the fundamental principles of tissue healing and physical therapy RESULTS: This Review proposes four fundamental principles of small animal physical rehabilitation based on the foundations of tissue healing and patient-centric and goal-oriented therapy. Postoperative rehabilitation programs should be designed such that patient progress is based on individual assessment according to the degree of tissue healing, strength, and achievement of functional goals. Therapists must fully understand phases of tissue healing, reassess the patient frequently, and use clinical reasoning skills to progress treatment appropriately for the individual patient. CONCLUSION: Until more robust evidence is available to guide treatment protocols, fundamental principles of rehabilitation should ideally be adhered to when providing rehabilitation, including after CCL surgery. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: While this Review specifically addresses post-CCL surgery rehabilitation, these fundamental principles should be applied broadly to animals enrolled in rehabilitation programs

    A field and video-annotation guide for baited remote underwater stereo-video surveys of demersal fish assemblages

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    Researchers TL, BG, JW, NB and JM were supported by the Marine Biodiversity Hub through funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program. Data validation scripts and GlobalArchive.org were supported by the Australian Research Data Commons, the Gorgon-Barrow Island Gorgon Barrow Island Net Conservation Benefits Fund, administered by the Government of Western Australia and the BHP/UWA Biodiversity and Societal Benefits of Restricted Access Areas collaboration.1. Baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (stereo-BRUVs) are a popular tool to sample demersal fish assemblages and gather data on their relative abundance and body-size structure in a robust, cost-effective, and non-invasive manner. Given the rapid uptake of the method, subtle differences have emerged in the way stereo-BRUVs are deployed and how the resulting imagery are annotated. These disparities limit the interoperability of datasets obtained across studies, preventing broad-scale insights into the dynamics of ecological systems. 2. We provide the first globally accepted guide for using stereo-BRUVs to survey demersal fish assemblages and associated benthic habitats. 3. Information on stereo-BRUV design, camera settings, field operations, and image annotation are outlined. Additionally, we provide links to protocols for data validation, archiving, and sharing. 4. Globally, the use of stereo-BRUVs is spreading rapidly. We provide a standardised protocol that will reduce methodological variation among researchers and encourage the use of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible (FAIR) workflows to increase the ability to synthesise global datasets and answer a broad suite of ecological questions.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

    Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality

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    Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

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    Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

    Increasing frailty is associated with higher prevalence and reduced recognition of delirium in older hospitalised inpatients: results of a multi-centre study

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    Purpose: Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder delineated by an acute change in cognition, attention, and consciousness. It is common, particularly in older adults, but poorly recognised. Frailty is the accumulation of deficits conferring an increased risk of adverse outcomes. We set out to determine how severity of frailty, as measured using the CFS, affected delirium rates, and recognition in hospitalised older people in the United Kingdom. Methods: Adults over 65 years were included in an observational multi-centre audit across UK hospitals, two prospective rounds, and one retrospective note review. Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), delirium status, and 30-day outcomes were recorded. Results: The overall prevalence of delirium was 16.3% (483). Patients with delirium were more frail than patients without delirium (median CFS 6 vs 4). The risk of delirium was greater with increasing frailty [OR 2.9 (1.8–4.6) in CFS 4 vs 1–3; OR 12.4 (6.2–24.5) in CFS 8 vs 1–3]. Higher CFS was associated with reduced recognition of delirium (OR of 0.7 (0.3–1.9) in CFS 4 compared to 0.2 (0.1–0.7) in CFS 8). These risks were both independent of age and dementia. Conclusion: We have demonstrated an incremental increase in risk of delirium with increasing frailty. This has important clinical implications, suggesting that frailty may provide a more nuanced measure of vulnerability to delirium and poor outcomes. However, the most frail patients are least likely to have their delirium diagnosed and there is a significant lack of research into the underlying pathophysiology of both of these common geriatric syndromes

    An Iceberg I can’t handle: A qualitative inquiry on perceptions towards paediatric rheumatology among healthcare workers in Kenya.

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    Delay in diagnosis and access to specialist care are huge problems for many children and young people with rheumatic disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Most children with symptoms of rheumatic disease present to non-specialists for care. There is an urgent need to understand and scale-up paediatric rheumatology knowledge and skills amongst non-specialist clinicians, to promote early diagnosis, prompt referral, and management. Purpose We evaluated the knowledge, attitudes and practices towards diagnosis and care of paediatric rheumatology patients among health care workers in Kenya. Methods We conducted 12 focus group discussions with clinical officers (third-tier community health workers) nurses, general practitioners and paediatricians across 6 regions in Kenya. Interviews were conducted on zoom, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using NVIVO software. Results A total of 68 individuals participated; 11 clinical officers, 12 nurses, 10 general practitioners, 27 paediatricians and 7 others. Most (n = 53) were female, and the median age was 36 years (range 31–40 years). Half the participants (34 of 68) worked in public health facilities. Our study revealed gaps in knowledge of paediatric rheumatology amongst healthcare workers, which contributes to late disease diagnosis and poor management. Healthcare workers reported both positive and negative attitudes towards diagnosis and care of paediatric rheumatological diseases. Perceived complexity and lack of knowledge in the diagnosis and management, in addition to unclear health system clinical pathways, made all cadres of healthcare workers feel helpless, frustrated, inadequate and incompetent to manage paediatric rheumatology patients. Positive attitudes arose from a perceived feeling that paediatric rheumatology patients pose unique challenges and learning opportunities. Conclusion There is an urgent need to educate healthcare workers and improve health systems for paediatric rheumatology patients

    Hydrogen Cycling by the Unicellular Marine Diazotroph Crocosphaera watsonii Strain WH8501 ▿

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    The hydrogen (H2) cycle associated with the dinitrogen (N2) fixation process was studied in laboratory cultures of the marine cyanobacterium Crocosphaera watsonii. The rates of H2 production and acetylene (C2H2) reduction were continuously measured over the diel cycle with simultaneous measurements of fast repetition rate fluorometry and dissolved oxygen. The maximum rate of H2 production was coincident with the maximum rates of C2H2 reduction. Theoretical stoichiometry for N2 fixation predicts an equimolar ratio of H2 produced to N2 fixed. However, the maximum rate of net H2 production observed was 0.09 nmol H2 μg chlorophyll a (chl a)−1 h−1 compared to the N2 fixation rate of 5.5 nmol N2 μg chl a−1 h−1, with an H2 production/N2 fixation ratio of 0.02. The 50-fold discrepancy between expected and observed rates of H2 production was hypothesized to be a result of H2 reassimilation by uptake hydrogenase. This was confirmed by the addition of carbon monoxide (CO), a potent inhibitor of hydrogenase, which increased net H2 production rates ∼40-fold to a maximum rate of 3.5 nmol H2 μg chl a−1 h−1. We conclude that the reassimilation of H2 by C. watsonii is highly efficient (>98%) and hypothesize that the tight coupling between H2 production and consumption is a consequence of fixing N2 at nighttime using a finite pool of respiratory carbon and electrons acquired from daytime solar energy capture. The H2 cycle provides unique insight into N2 fixation and associated metabolic processes in C. watsonii
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