Abstract Background In the paediatric population careful attention needs to be made concerning techniques utilised for wound assessment to minimise discomfort and stress to the child. Aim To ...investigate whether 3D photography is a valid measure of burn wound area in children compared to the current clinical gold standard method of digital planimetry using Visitrak™. Method Twenty-five children presenting to the Stuart Pegg Paediatric Burn Centre for burn dressing change following acute burn injury were included in the study. Burn wound area measurement was undertaken using both digital planimetry (Visitrak™ system) and 3D camera analysis. Inter-rater reliability of the 3D camera software was determined by three investigators independently assessing the burn wound area. Results A comparison of wound area was assessed using intraclass correlation co-efficients (ICC) which demonstrated excellent agreement 0.994 (CI 0.986, 0.997). Inter-rater reliability measured using ICC 0.989 (95% CI 0.979, 0.995) demonstrated excellent inter-rater reliability. Time taken to map the wound was significantly quicker using the camera at bedside compared to Visitrak™ 14.68 (7.00) s versus 36.84 (23.51) s ( p < 0.001). In contrast, analysing wound area was significantly quicker using the Visitrak™ tablet compared to Dermapix® software for the 3D Images 31.36 (19.67) s versus 179.48 (56.86) s ( p < 0.001). Conclusion This study demonstrates that images taken with the 3D LifeViz™ camera and assessed with Dermapix® software is a reliable method for wound area assessment in the acute paediatric burn setting.
Mass COVID-19 vaccination commenced in December 2020 in Scotland. Monitoring vaccine safety relies on accurate background incidence rates (IRs) for health outcomes potentially associated with ...vaccination. This study aimed to quantify IRs in Scotland of adverse events of special interest (AESI) potentially associated with COVID-19 vaccination.
IRs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for 36 AESI were calculated retrospectively for the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (01 January 2015–31 December 2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic period (01 April 2020–30 November 2020), with age-sex stratification, and separately by calendar month and year. Incident cases were determined using International Classification of Diseases-10th Revision (ICD-10)–coded hospitalisations.
Prepandemic population-wide IRs ranged from 0.4 (0.3–0.5 CIs) cases per 100,000 person-years (PYRS) for neuromyelitis optica to 478.4 (475.8–481.0 CIs) cases per 100,000 PYRS for acute renal failure. Pandemic population-wide IRs ranged from 0.3 (0.2–0.5 CIs) cases per 100,000 PYRS for Kawasaki disease to 483.4 (473.2–493.7 CIs) cases per 100,000 PYRS for acute coronary syndrome. All AESI IRs varied by age and sex. Ten AESI (acute coronary syndrome, acute myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, heart failure, multiple sclerosis, polyneuropathies and peripheral neuropathies, respiratory failure, rheumatoid arthritis and polyarthritis, seizures and vasculitis) had lower pandemic than prepandemic period IRs overall. Only deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism had a higher pandemic IR.
Lower pandemic IRs likely resulted from reduced health-seeking behaviours and healthcare provision. Higher IRs may be associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections. AESI IRs will facilitate future vaccine safety studies in Scotland.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important cause of lower-respiratory-tract infection in children and elderly people, but its effect in other age-groups is uncertain. We did a community-based ...observational study of RSV infection in community-dwelling individuals of all ages who presented to general practices in the UK with influenza-like illnesses during three successive winters (1995–96, 1996–97, and 1997–98).
Nasopharyngeal swabs routinely submitted for virological surveillance were examined by multiplex reverse transcription PCR for influenza A and B viruses and RSV A and B, and findings were related to the clinical incidence of influenza-like illness and acute bronchitis at that time. RSV strains identified were compared with those obtained from hospital admissions.
480 RSV and 709 influenza viruses were identified from a total of 2226 swabs submitted. Both types of virus were found in all age-groups for between 12 and 20 weeks in each winter. RSV A accounted for 60% of RSV detections. Similar strains of RSV were present in hospital and community patients within the same year, but there were different lineages each year.
In individuals diagnosed with influenza-like illness, there is a substantial potential for confusion between illnesses caused by influenza and those caused by RSV. The burden of illness attributable to each needs to be clarified to define optimum management routines.
Using new J-band VLT ISAAC and Keck NIRSPEC spectroscopy, we have measured Ha and N II l6584 line fluxes for 0.47 < z < 0.92 CFRS galaxies that have O II l3727, Ub, and O III l5007 line fluxes ...available from optical spectroscopy to investigate how the properties of the star-forming gas in galaxies evolve with redshift. We derive the extinction and oxygen abundances for the sample using a method based on a set of ionization parameter and oxygen abundance diagnostics, simultaneously fitting the O II, Hb, O III, Ha, and N II line fluxes. The individual reddening measurements allow us to accurately correct the Ha-based star formation rate (SFR) estimates for extinction. Our most salient conclusions are as follows: (1) in all 30 CFRS galaxies, the source of the gas ionization is not due to AGN activity; (2) we find a range of 0 < A sub(V) < 3, suggesting that it is important to determine the extinction for every single galaxy in order to reliably measure SFRs and oxygen abundances in high-redshift galaxies; (3) high values of N super(II) l6584/Ha > 0.1 for most (but not all) of the CFRS galaxies indicate that they lie on the high-metallicity branch of the R sub(23) calibration; (4) about one-third of the 0.47 < z < 0.92 CFRS galaxies in our sample have lower metallicities than local galaxies with similar luminosities and star formation rates; (5) comparison with a chemical evolution model indicates that these low-metallicity galaxies are unlikely to be the progenitors of metal-poor dwarf galaxies at z 60.
Aims/hypothesis
The objective of this study was to use Scottish national data to assess the influence of type 2 diabetes on the risk of cancer at 16 different sites, while specifically investigating ...the role of confounding by socioeconomic status in the diabetes–cancer relationship.
Methods
All people in Scotland aged 55–79 years diagnosed with any of the cancers of interest during the period 2001–2007 were identified and classified by the presence/absence of co-morbid type 2 diabetes. The influence of diabetes on cancer risk for each site was assessed via Poisson regression, initially with adjustment for age only, then adjusted for both age and socioeconomic status.
Results
There were 4,285 incident cancers in people with type 2 diabetes. RR for any cancers (adjusted for age only) was 1.11 (95% CI 1.05, 1.17) for men and 1.33 (1.28, 1.40) for women. Corresponding values after additional adjustment for socioeconomic status were 1.10 (1.04, 1.15) and 1.31 (1.25, 1.38), respectively. RRs for individual cancer sites varied markedly.
Conclusions/interpretation
Socioeconomic status was found to have little influence on the association between type 2 diabetes and cancer.
This scoping review of population-based epidemiological studies was done to provide background information on the prevalences and distribution of psychiatric disorders in Africa for calls to broaden ...diversity in psychiatric genetic studies. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science to retrieve relevant literature in English, French, and Portuguese from Jan 1, 1984, to Aug 18, 2020. In 36 studies from 12 African countries, the lifetime prevalence ranged from 3·3% to 9·8% for mood disorders, from 5·7% to 15·8% for anxiety disorders, from 3·7% to 13·3% for substance use disorders, and from 1·0% to 4·4% for psychotic disorders. Although the prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders appears to be lower than that observed in research outside the continent, we identified similar distributions by gender, although not by age or urbanicity. This review reveals gaps in epidemiological research on psychiatric disorders and opportunities to leverage existing epidemiological and genetic research within Africa to advance our understanding of psychiatric disorders. Studies that are methodologically comparable but diverse in geographical context are needed to advance psychiatric epidemiology and provide a foundation for understanding environmental risk in genetic studies of diverse populations globally.
Understanding the biology of heifer maturity and its relationship to calving difficulty and subsequent breeding success is a vital step in building a bioeconomic model to identify optimal production ...and profitability. A limited dependent variable probit model is used to quantify the responses among heifer maturities, measured by a maturity index (MI), on dystocia and second pregnancy. The MI account for heifer age, birth BW, prebreeding BW, nutrition level, and dam size and age and is found to be inversely related to dystocia occurrence. On average there is a 2.2% increase in the probability of dystocia with every 1 point drop in the MI between the MI scores of 50 and 70. Statistically, MI does not directly alter second pregnancy rate; however, dystocia does. The presence of dystocia reduced second pregnancy rates by 10.67%. Using the probability of dystocia predicted from the MI in the sample, it is found that on average, every 1 point increase in MI added 0.62% to the probability of the occurrence of second pregnancy over the range represented by the data. Relationships among MI, dystocia, and second pregnancy are nonlinear and exhibit diminishing marginal effects. These relationships indicate optimal production and profitability occur at varying maturities, which are altered by animal type, economic environment, production system, and management regime. With these captured relationships, any single group of heifers may be ranked by profitability given their physical characteristics and the applicable production, management, and economic conditions.
Natural disasters increase nicotine dependence and cigarette consumption, but the exact mechanisms and conditions responsible for this increase are relatively unclear. This study explored whether ...posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms were pathways to increased nicotine dependence and cigarette consumption after disaster exposure using a representative sample of current smokers who were living in New Orleans at the time Hurricane Katrina struck (n = 175), and a comparison sample of smokers from Memphis (n = 222) who were not directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. We assessed whether nicotine dependence and daily cigarette consumption differed by city and evaluated potential mediators and moderators of this association using conditional process analysis. Results showed that though nicotine dependence (B = 0.46, SE = 0.20, p = .02) and average daily cigarette consumption (B = 2.19, SE = 0.80, p = .01) were higher among New Orleans than Memphis smokers 27 months after Hurricane Katrina, hurricane exposure did not indirectly affect nicotine dependence and average daily cigarette consumption through increases in posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. Smokers who are exposed to disasters may not be increasing their cigarette use and their dependency on nicotine because of post-disaster psychological distress. Future studies should investigate other mechanisms and conditions to explain post-disaster changes in smoking behavior.
•Natural disasters may increase daily cigarette intake by 14%.•Natural disasters may also increase nicotine dependence.•Psychological distress does not explain these increases in smoking behavior.
PDF
