Rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine mammals: An analysis of current views and practices.

Stranded marine mammals have long attracted public attention. Those that wash up dead are, for all their value to science, seldom seen by the public as more than curiosities. Animals that are sick, injured, orphaned or abandoned ignite a different response. Generally, public sentiment supports any effort to rescue, treat and return them to sea. Institutions displaying marine mammals showed an early interest in live-stranded animals as a source of specimens -- in 1948, Marine Studios in St. Augustine, Florida, rescued a young short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), the first ever in captivity (Kritzler 1952). Eventually, the public as well as government agencies looked to these institutions for their recognized expertise in marine mammal care and medicine. More recently, facilities have been established for the sole purpose of rehabilitating marine mammals and preparing them for return to the wild. Four such institutions are the Marine Mammal Center (Sausalito, CA), the Research Institute for Nature Management (Pieterburen, The Netherlands), the RSPCA, Norfolk Wildlife Hospital (Norfolk, United Kingdom) and the Institute for Wildlife Biology of Christian-Albrects University (Kiel, Germany).(PDF contains 68 pages.

Effect of electrolyzed high-pH alkaline water on blood viscosity in healthy adults.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown fluid replacement beverages ingested after exercise can affect hydration biomarkers. No specific hydration marker is universally accepted as an ideal rehydration parameter following strenuous exercise. Currently, changes in body mass are used as a parameter during post-exercise hydration. Additional parameters are needed to fully appreciate and better understand rehydration following strenuous exercise. This randomized, double-blind, parallel-arm trial assessed the effect of high-pH water on four biomarkers after exercise-induced dehydration. METHODS: One hundred healthy adults (50 M/50 F, 31 ± 6 years of age) were enrolled at a single clinical research center in Camden, NJ and completed this study with no adverse events. All individuals exercised in a warm environment (30 °C, 70% relative humidity) until their weight was reduced by a normally accepted level of 2.0 ± 0.2% due to perspiration, reflecting the effects of exercise in producing mild dehydration. Participants were randomized to rehydrate with an electrolyzed, high-pH (alkaline) water or standard water of equal volume (2% body weight) and assessed for an additional 2-h recovery period following exercise in order to assess any potential variations in measured parameters. The following biomarkers were assessed at baseline and during their recovery period: blood viscosity at high and low shear rates, plasma osmolality, bioimpedance, and body mass, as well as monitoring vital signs. Furthermore, a mixed model analysis was performed for additional validation. RESULTS: After exercise-induced dehydration, consumption of the electrolyzed, high-pH water reduced high-shear viscosity by an average of 6.30% compared to 3.36% with standard purified water (p = 0.03). Other measured biomarkers (plasma osmolality, bioimpedance, and body mass change) revealed no significant difference between the two types of water for rehydration. However, a mixed model analysis validated the effect of high-pH water on high-shear viscosity when compared to standard purified water (p = 0.0213) after controlling for covariates such as age and baseline values. CONCLUSIONS: A significant difference in whole blood viscosity was detected in this study when assessing a high-pH, electrolyte water versus an acceptable standard purified water during the recovery phase following strenuous exercise-induced dehydration

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity

In this chapter, Joseph Heath argues that we tend to overestimate the contribution that further productivity growth will make to the welfare of Canadians. Traditionally, productivity growth was thought to contribute to increased leisure time, greater consumer satisfaction, the elimination of poverty and greater public support for redistributive efforts to narrow social inequality. While accepting that such benefits have flowed in the past, Heath argues that in the last 25 years, productivity growth has contributed less and less to the well-being of Canadians. The key puzzle for Heath is why further economic growth does not lead to greater happiness. In attempting to solve this puzzle, he canvasses three currents of thought in the literature. One possible explanation is that increased consumption does not generate lasting increments in welfare because the process of satisfying our desires generates new desires. A second explanation, which Heath describes contends that consumption not only satisfies needs but also communicates status, class, upbringing and tastes. A third possible explanation draws on the work of Fred Hirsch, who argued that the supply of some goods such as waterfront property, which he labels positional goods, is fixed.Social Priority, Productivity, Social, Labour Productivity, Labor Productivity, Growth, Free Lunch, Redistribution, Poverty, Consumption, Happiness, Competitive Consumption, Positional Goods, Externalities, Leisure, Welfare, Satisfaction, Living Standards, Quality of Life, Public Goods, Wants, Needs

Healthcare Provider Attitudes Towards the Problem List in an Electronic Health Record: A Mixed-Methods Qualitative Study

Background: The problem list is a key part of the electronic health record (EHR) that allows practitioners to see a patient’s diagnoses and health issues. Yet, as the content of the problem list largely represents the subjective decisions of those who edit it, patients’ problem lists are often unreliable when shared across practitioners. The lack of standards for how the problem list is compiled in the EHR limits its effectiveness in improving patient care, particularly as a resource for clinical decision support and population management tools. The purpose of this study is to discover practitioner opinions towards the problem list and the logic behind their decisions during clinical situations. Materials and methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted at two major Boston teaching hospitals. Practitioners’ opinions about the problem list were collected through both in-person interviews and an online questionnaire. Questions were framed using vignettes of clinical scenarios asking practitioners about their preferred actions towards the problem list. Results: These data confirmed prior research that practitioners differ in their opinions over managing the problem list, but in most responses to a questionnaire, there was a common approach among the relative majority of respondents. Further, basic demographic characteristics of providers (age, medical experience, etc.) did not appear to strongly affect attitudes towards the problem list. Conclusion: The results supported the premise that policies and EHR tools are needed to bring about a common approach. Further, the findings helped identify what issues might benefit the most from a defined policy and the level of restriction a problem list policy should place on the addition of different types of information

Kingella kingae expresses type IV pili that mediate adherence to respiratory epithelial and synovial cells

Kingella kingae is a gram-negative bacterium that colonizes the respiratory tract and is a common cause of septic arthritis and osteomyelitis. Despite the increasing frequency of K. kingae disease, little is known about the mechanism by which this organism adheres to respiratory epithelium and seeds joints and bones. Previous work showed that K. kingae expresses long surface fibers that vary in surface density. In the current study, we found that these fibers are type IV pili and are necessary for efficient adherence to respiratory epithelial and synovial cells and that the number of pili expressed by the bacterium correlates with the level of adherence to synovial cells but not with the level of adherence to respiratory cells. In addition, we established that the major pilin subunit is encoded by a pilA homolog in a conserved region of the chromosome that also contains a second pilin gene and a type IV pilus accessory gene, both of which are dispensable for pilus assembly and pilus-mediated adherence. Upon examination of the K. kingae genome, we identified two genes in physically separate locations on the chromosome that encode homologs of the Neisseria PilC proteins and that have only a low level homology to each other. Examination of mutant strains revealed that both of the K. kingae PilC homologs are essential for a wild-type level of adherence to both respiratory epithelial and synovial cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that type IV pili and the two PilC homologs play important roles in mediating K. kingae adherence

Evolutionary and functional relationships among the nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae HMW family of adhesins

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a common cause of localized respiratory tract disease and initiates infection by colonizing the nasopharynx. Approximately 75 to 80% of NTHi clinical isolates produce proteins that belong to the HMW family of adhesins, which are believed to facilitate colonization. The prototype HMW adhesins are designated HMW1 and HMW2 and were identified in NTHi strain 12. HMW1 and HMW2 are 71% identical and 80% similar overall, yet display differing cellular binding specificities. In the present study we set out to define more clearly the relationships between HMW1 and HMW2 and other members of the HMW family of adhesins. PCR analysis of 49 epidemiologically distinct isolates revealed that all strains possessing hmw genes as determined by Southern analysis contain two hmw loci in conserved, unlinked physical locations on the chromosome. Functional analysis of the HMW adhesins produced by three unrelated strains demonstrated that each isolate possesses one protein with HMW1-like adherence properties and another with HMW2-like adherence properties. These findings suggest that the hmw1 and hmw2 loci may have arisen via a gene duplication event in an ancestral strain. In addition, they support the hypothesis that the distinct binding specificities of HMW1 and HMW2 emerged early and have persisted over time, suggesting an ongoing selective advantage

The Haemophilus influenzae HMW1C protein is a glycosyltransferase that transfers hexose residues to asparagine sites in the HMW1 adhesin

The Haemophilus influenzae HMW1 adhesin is a high-molecular weight protein that is secreted by the bacterial two-partner secretion pathway and mediates adherence to respiratory epithelium, an essential early step in the pathogenesis of H. influenzae disease. In recent work, we discovered that HMW1 is a glycoprotein and undergoes N-linked glycosylation at multiple asparagine residues with simple hexose units rather than N-acetylated hexose units, revealing an unusual N-glycosidic linkage and suggesting a new glycosyltransferase activity. Glycosylation protects HMW1 against premature degradation during the process of secretion and facilitates HMW1 tethering to the bacterial surface, a prerequisite for HMW1-mediated adherence. In the current study, we establish that the enzyme responsible for glycosylation of HMW1 is a protein called HMW1C, which is encoded by the hmw1 gene cluster and shares homology with a group of bacterial proteins that are generally associated with two-partner secretion systems. In addition, we demonstrate that HMW1C is capable of transferring glucose and galactose to HMW1 and is also able to generate hexose-hexose bonds. Our results define a new family of bacterial glycosyltransferases

Progress in research on Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a heritable neuropsychiatric disorder commonly complicated by obsessions and compulsions, but defined by frequent unwanted movements (motor tics) and vocalizations (phonic tics) that develop in childhood or adolescence. In recent years, research on TS has progressed rapidly on several fronts. Inspired by the Fifth International Scientific Symposium on Tourette Syndrome, the articles in this special issue review advances in the phenomenology, epidemiology, genetics, pathophysiology, and treatment of TS