Scabies is a neglected tropical disease and has been highlighted as a target for control. Sarcoptic mange affects animals, but mange is also considered a zoonosis. We present rapid assessment data on scabies and sarcoptic mange collected from key informants via a web-based questionnaire in Ceará State (1265 data entries). A total of 181/184 (98.3%) municipalities reported the occurrence of human scabies; 149 (80.9%) current occurrence; 168 (91.3%) severe cases; and 113 (61.4%) severe cases currently. Sarcoptic mange was reported from 149/184 (80.9%) municipalities, and severe mange from 128 (69.9%), most commonly in dogs (117 municipalities), cats (79), pigs (17), cattle (15), horses (15), and goats (2). Respondents from 171 (92.9%) municipalities observed seasonality of occurrence. Scabies and sarcoptic mange are important public health issues in a northeast Brazilian state. The wide distribution of severe cases requires an integrated One Health approach effectively and sustainably to reduce the disease burden.

Freshwater aquatic ecosystems are threatened globally. Biological monitoring is required to deliver rapid and replicable assessment of changes in habitat quality. The Ephemeroptera, Plectoptera, Trichoptera (EPT) index is a globally recognised rapid bioassessment that measures taxa richness of three insect orders whose larvae are considered sensitive to freshwater habitat degradation. South-western Australia contains threatened freshwater ecosystems but has depauperate EPT fauna and high endemism, potentially reducing the capacity of the EPT index to track degradation. This study investigated if EPT species richness, composition or individual species tracked physical or chemical river degradation in three catchments in south-western Australia. We sampled EPT fauna and measured water chemistry, erosion, sedimentation, riparian vegetation cover and instream habitat at 98 sites in the winters of 2007 and 2023. We found 35 EPT taxa across the study area with a median number of species per site of two. EPT species richness had weak positive associations with a composite water quality index and dissolved oxygen and weak negative associations with electrical conductivity and total nitrogen. No association was found between physical and fringing zone degradation measures and EPT species richness. EPT community structure generally did not distinguish between sites with high or low degradation levels. The presence of the mayfly Nyungara bunni tracked salinity, dissolved oxygen and nitrogen levels, but its usefulness as a bioindicator could be limited by its restricted range. This study suggests that the EPT index would need modification or combination with other indices to be a useful rapid bioassessment in south-western Australia.

The listing of Bombus affinis Cresson 1863 (Rusty Patched Bumble Bee; RPBB) in 2017 under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) created a regulatory need for assessment methods, in order to limit take of this species by construction and development. As the first social insect listed under the ESA, the listing of RPBB has required new methods for biological assessment. This species has a complex life cycle requiring a mosaic of different habitat types, with each life cycle stage facing unique challenges and threats. I have established a method for separately assessing habitats critical to each vulnerable life history stage, using a combination of aerial photography, GIS maps and target-specific ground survey efforts. This method identifies factors that may potentially limit bumble bee colony success in each stage and provides project planners with facts about physical structures or plant communities that may have elevated importance to bumble bees during certain seasonal windows. Previous efforts to assess bumble bee habitat considered landscape features thought to be linked to bumble bee colony success. This effort extends these methods to estimate project specific impacts of construction and development projects, necessary for Section 7 Consultation with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the ESA. •Systematic spatial assessment of landscape features linked to critical periods in the life history trajectory of a bumble bee colony across a season•Construction and development project proponents can approach USFWS consultation with quantitative estimates of the area of a project area classified by habitat types and qualities•Factors limiting bumble bee recovery may be inferred from the distribution and abundance of the constituent elements of quality bumble bee habitat.

The presence of contaminants in the environment has increased in recent years, and studies have demonstrated that these contaminants have the ability to penetrate the blood-retinal barrier and directly affect the visual systems of organisms. Zebrafish are recognized as an ideal model for human eye diseases due to their anatomical and functional similarities to the human eye, making them an efficient and versatile organism for studying ocular toxicity caused by environmental contaminants in the field of environmental toxicology. Meanwhile, zebrafish exhibit a diverse repertoire of visually mediated behaviors, and their visual system undergoes complex changes in behavioral responses when exposed to environmental contaminants, enabling rapid assessment of the ocular toxicity induced by such pollutants. Therefore, this review aimed to highlight the effectiveness of zebrafish as a model for examining the effects of environmental contaminants on ocular development. Special attention is given to the visually mediated behavior of zebrafish, which allows for a rapid assessment of ocular toxicity resulting from exposure to environmental contaminants. Additionally, the potential mechanisms by which environmental contaminants may induce ocular toxicity are briefly outlined.

Scholars have called for ethical preparedness for public health practice and research to address the challenges of special ethical considerations under time and resource pressure during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose the idea of a rapid ethical assessment (REA) that aims to provide ethical justifications and policy recommendations for a specific public health policy, which is necessary for the ethical legitimacy of health policymaking and implementation. We suggest that an REA task force be established and incorporated into the administrative procedure to perform an REA in the early, middle, and terminal stages of a policy proposed by the health authority and to determine to what extent the tradeoffs between values and priorities required by the policy are ethically acceptable. The REA task force\'s role is consultative, with the final decisionmaking power and political responsibilities falling on the health authority. The REA task force should adopt 4 substantial ethical principles: utilitarianism, equity, human rights, and solidarity. The REA task force would consist of a multidisciplinary team of experts and a group of representatives from those who would be affected by the proposed policy. The REA task force would operate with a 5-step procedure of (1) convening, (2) investigation, (3) determination, (4) reporting and communication, and (5) decision and reassessment. We use 2 real incidents in Taiwan to demonstrate how the REA task force could work to enhance the ethical acceptance of a policy.

UNASSIGNED: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that surges in critical care demand can overwhelm existing healthcare infrastructures, most evident in the acute shortage of mechanical ventilators across the globe. Despite efforts to encourage urgent authorization of newly developed emergency ventilators, the currently available testing protocols are not internationally accepted, standardized and none address testing in clinical settings. The aim of this study was to compile and perform a comprehensive clinical testing protocol for a newly developed emergency ventilator.
UNASSIGNED: Using previously available guidance, we compiled a sequential testing protocol with a: 1. preclinical, 2. safety testing, 3. clinician usability test and 4. clinical stage involving respiratory failure patients. The protocol was then tested on the Luca ventilator, a mechanical ventilator capable of sophisticated ventilator settings rapidly developed specifically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNASSIGNED: During the pre-clinical/safety stages, the ventilator produced pressure and volume changes deemed acceptable by the Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator System guideline. Furthermore, our protocol allowed the identification of a number of issues that were easily resolved with minor software adjustments. Usability was excellent (overall System Usability Scale score = 90.5). Clinical testing revealed that a sampling frame of 15 critically ill patients was sufficiently powered to detect any significant, clinically relevant differences between the Luca ventilator and a standard ICU ventilator.
UNASSIGNED: The ventilator was accurate, reliable, safe, and user-friendly. The implementation of a comprehensive, standardized pre-clinical/clinical testing protocol is feasible, potentially enabling the safe and timely emergency authorization of rapidly developed mechanical ventilators crucial in pandemic situations.
UNASSIGNED: La pandemia de COVID-19 ha puesto de manifiesto que las sobrecargas en los cuidados intensivos pueden desbordar las infraestructuras sanitarias existentes, que fue evidente en la escasez inmediata de respiradores mecánicos observada en todo el mundo. A pesar de las tentativas de alentar la autorización urgente de respiradores de emergencia recién desarrollados, los protocolos de ensayos existentes no están aceptados en todo el mundo, no están normalizados y ninguno trata los ensayos en entornos clínicos. El objetivo de este estudio fue recopilar y ejecutar un protocolo de ensayos clínicos exhaustivo para un respirador de emergencia recién desarrollado.
UNASSIGNED: Aplicando las directrices previas recopilamos un protocolo secuencial de ensayos con: 1. estudio preclínico, 2. estudio de seguridad, 3. ensayo de operabilidad por los facultativos y 4. fase clínica con participación de pacientes con insuficiencia respiratoria. Se analizó el protocolo con el respirador Luca, un respirador mecánico con configuraciones sofisticadas desarrollado rápida y específicamente para responder a la pandemia de la COVID-19.
UNASSIGNED: Durante las fases preclínicas/de seguridad, los cambios de presión y volumen que produjo el respirador se consideraron aceptables, según la directriz Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator System. Asimismo, nuestro protocolo permitió identificar varios problemas que se resolvieron fácilmente con mínimos ajustes de software. La operabilidad resultó excelente (puntuación total de la escala de operabilidad del sistema = 90,5). Los ensayos clínicos revelaron que una muestra de 15 pacientes graves presentaba suficiente potencia estadística para detectar todas las diferencias significativas de interés clínico entre el respirador Luca y uno de Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos ordinario.
UNASSIGNED: El respirador resultó exacto, fiable, seguro y fácil de usar. La implantación de un protocolo de ensayos preclínicos y clínicos exhaustivo y normalizado es factible y puede habilitar la autorización de emergencia oportuna de respiradores mecánicos de desarrollo rápido, cruciales en situaciones pandémicas.

Probiotic bacteria can be introduced to stresses during the culturing phase as an alternative to the use of protectants and coating substances during drying. Accurate enumeration of the bacterial count in a probiotic formulation can be provided using imaging flow cytometry (IFC). IFC overcomes the weak points of conventional, commonly used flow cytometry by combining its statistical power with the imaging content of microscopy in one system. Traditional flow cytometers only collect the fluorescence signal intensities, while IFC provides many more steps as it correlates the data on the measured parameters of fluorescence light with digitally processed images of the analyzed cells. As an alternative to standard methods (plate cell counts and traditional flow cytometry) IFC provides additional insight into the physiology and morphology of the cell. The use of complementary dyes (RedoxSensorTM Green and propidium iodide) allows for the designation of groups based on their metabolic activity and membrane damage. Additionally, cell sorting is incorporated to assess each group in terms of growth on different media (MRS-Agar and MRS broth). Results show that the groups with intermediate metabolic activity and some degree of cellular damage correspond with the description of viable but nonculturable cells.

Salt marshes are valuable coastal ecosystems, but many have been degraded by roads, railways, and other infrastructure that restrict tidal flow and impound watershed runoff. Restoration of tidal flow to tide-restricted salt marshes generally aims to restore native vegetation and habitat functions. Biological communities may take one or more decades to recover following tidal restoration, but outcomes are seldom assessed on that timescale. We assessed the long-term outcomes of eight tidal restorations in Rhode Island, USA using observed changes in plant and nekton communities from pre-restoration to present, and newly-collected data from a rapid assessment method. The time-series vegetation and nekton data suggest that while restoration actions promoted biological recovery, ambient factors such as inundation stress and eutrophication have worked to offset it. Rapid assessment results indicate that the cover of Phragmites australis is higher and the cover of meadow high marsh is lower at restoration marshes compared with a broad reference sample, suggesting incomplete recovery on average, although outcomes varied across the restoration marshes. Habitat integrity increased with the degree of adaptive management following restoration, as well as the age of restoration, but salt marsh restoration practitioners may need to shift their methods and expectations to accommodate human influences on ambient environmental conditions, particularly prevalent, increasing inundation stress associated with sea-level rise. Our study highlights the value of standardized long-term biological monitoring in assessing salt marsh restoration outcomes, and demonstrates how rapid assessment data can add valuable context to restoration findings.

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relative validity of food and nutrient intakes and overall diet quality scores derived using a newly developed dietary assessment questionnaire (food combination questionnaire, FCQ). Dietary data were collected from 222 Japanese adults (111 for each sex) aged 30-76 years using the online FCQ and then the 4-non-consective-day weighed dietary record (DR). The median of Spearman correlation coefficients for sixteen food groups was 0⋅32 among women and 0⋅38 among men. The median of Pearson correlation coefficients for forty-six nutrients was 0⋅34 among women and 0⋅31 among men. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the total scores of Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) derived from the DR and FCQ was 0⋅37 among women and 0⋅39 among men. The corresponding value for the Nutrient-Rich Food Index 9.3 (NRF9.3) total scores was 0⋅39 among women and 0⋅46 among men. Bland-Altman plots for these diet quality scores showed poor agreement at the individual level, although mean difference was small for the HEI-2015 (but not NRF9.3). Similar results were obtained using the paper version of FCQ, which was answered after conducting the DR, except for somewhat high Pearson correlation coefficients for the total scores of HEI-2015 (0⋅50 among both women and men) and NRF9.3 (0⋅37 among women and 0⋅53 among men). In conclusion, this analysis may lend support to the possible use of the FCQ as a rapid dietary assessment tool in large-scale epidemiologic studies in Japan, but further refinement of this tool should be pursued.

BACKGROUND: The tibial tuberosity-trochlear groove (TTTG) distance is used to assess patellofemoral instability (PFI) and the likelihood of the development of patellofemoral disorders. The current gold standard in the assessment of the TTTG is computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The current image software used for viewing these CT images does not allow for easy assessment of the TTTG.
OBJECTIVE: This study presents a simple method to measure the TTTG on any image software, utilizing easily available and affordable stationary.
METHODS: Four consecutive patients with no known knee pathologies were selected from recent studies at our institution. Their TTTGs were measured using this study\'s method and validated using the standard, freely available image analysis software Fiji. Pre-defined anatomical landmarks were located and marked using adhesive pieces of paper. The TTTG was defined as the distance between parallel lines through the apex of the tibial tuberosity and trough of the trochlear groove, where each of these lines is perpendicular to the Dorsal Condylar Line.
RESULTS: The TTTG measured using this study\'s method was found to be in agreement with the measurements made using Fiji software.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the TTTG can be simply and quickly assessed using readily available and affordable stationery, without the need for expensive or complex secondary analysis software. This could allow for the assessment of PFI in the outpatient clinic whilst the patient is present, offering valuable assistance to the orthopaedic surgeon in clinical decision making.