Rigid bronchoscopy: a consultant survey

INTRODUCTION

Inhalation of foreign bodies represents a potentially fatal emergency in both adults and children. Chest x-ray, in isolation, is neither sensitive nor specific. Rigid bronchoscopy represents the gold standard to diagnose and retrieve paediatric foreign bodies. Cases are encountered infrequently, creating anxieties about their management. Little is known about the confidence in, and maintenance of, rigid bronchoscopy skills by ear, nose and throat teams.

METHODS

A 15-question survey was completed by 50 practising otolaryngology consultants in England.

RESULTS

Results show that almost 40% of otolaryngology consultants covering rigid bronchoscopy have not performed bronchoscopy in more than 5 years. Consultants raised concerns about the anaesthetic support and the speed of equipment assembly. Questions on clinical practice showed disparities in practice in the same scenario.

CONCLUSIONS

The authors advocate addressing many of the issues raised by the study with a greater availability of simulation courses and regular scheduled intradepartmental teaching days for all professionals involved. National guidelines on criteria for transfer to tertiary centres would improve the consistency of practice.

Multimodal control of sensors on multiple simulated unmanned vehicles

The use of multimodal (speech plus manual) control of the sensors on combinations of one, two, three or five simulated unmanned vehicles (UVs) is explored. Novice controllers of simulated UVs complete a series of target checking tasks. Two experiments compare speech and gamepad control for one, two, three or five UVs in a simulated environment. Increasing the number of UVs has an impact on subjective rating of workload (measured by NASA-Task Load Index), particularly when moving from one to three UVs. Objective measures of performance showed that the participants tended to issue fewer commands as the number of vehicles increased (when using the gamepad control), but, while performance with a single UV was superior to that of multiple UVs, there was little difference across two, three or five UVs. Participants with low spatial ability (measured by the Object Perspectives Test) showed an increase in time to respond to warnings when controlling five UVs. Combining speech with gamepad control of sensors on UVs leads to superior performance on a secondary (respond-to-warnings) task (implying a reduction in demand) and use of fewer commands on primary (move-sensors and classify-target) tasks (implying more efficient operation). STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Benefits of multimodal control for unmanned vehicles are demonstrated. When controlling sensors on multiple UVs, participants with low spatial orientation scores have problems. It is proposed that the findings of these studies have implications for selection of UV operators and suggests that future UV workstations could benefit from multimodal control.

Fc24-01 - Ego defense mechanisms in pakistani medical students: a cross sectional analysis

Background

Ego defense mechanisms, defined by Freud as unconscious resources used by the ego to reduce conflict between the id and superego, are a reflection of how an individual deals with conflict and stress. Vaillants’ proposed Hierarchy of Defenses states that mature defenses are associated with better adaptive functioning and health, as opposed to immature defense which are correlated negatively with measures of adaptive adult functioning.

Objectives

This study assesses the prevalence of various ego defense mechanisms employed by medical students of Karachi, which is a group with higher stress levels than the general population.

Methods

A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted on 682 students from five major medical colleges of Karachi in November 2006. Ego defense mechanisms were assessed using the Defense Style Questionnaire(DSQ-40) individually and as grouped under Mature, Immature, and Neurotic factors.

Results

Neurotic defenses had a higher mean score(5.62) than Mature(5.60) and Immature(4.78) mechanisms. Immature mechanisms were more commonly employed by males whereas females employed more Neurotic mechanisms than males. Neurotic and Immature defenses were significantly more prevalent in first and second year students. Mature mechanisms were significantly higher in students enrolled in Government colleges than Private institutions (p< 0.05).

Conclusions

Neurotic mechanisms are more commonly encountered than Mature or Immature mechanisms among medical students of Karachi, and this could reflect greater stress levels than the general population. Employment of these mechanisms was associated with female gender, enrollment in a private medical college, and students enrolled in the first 2 years of medical school.

Alpha- and beta-secretase activity as a function of age and beta-amyloid in Down syndrome and normal brain

Aged individuals with Down syndrome (DS) develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology by the age of 40 years. The purpose of the current study was to measure age-associated changes in APP processing in 36 individuals with DS (5 months-69 years) and in 26 controls (5 months-100 years). Alpha-secretase significantly decreased with age in DS, particularly in cases over the age of 40 years and was stable in controls. The levels of C-terminal fragments of APP reflecting alpha-secretase processing (CTF-alpha) decreased with age in both groups. In both groups, there was significant increase in beta-secretase activity with age. CTF-beta remained constant with age in controls suggesting compensatory increases in turnover/clearance mechanisms. In DS, young individuals had the lowest CTF-beta levels that may reflect rapid conversion of beta-amyloid (Abeta) to soluble pools or efficient CTF-beta clearance mechanisms. Treatments to slow or prevent AD in the general population targeting secretase activity may be more efficacious in adults with DS if combined with approaches that enhance Abeta degradation and clearance.

Bidirectional transformation of aromatic aldehydes by Desulfovibrio desulfuricans under nitrate-dissimilating conditions

Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 was screened for reactivity against aromatic compounds during lactate-dependent, nitrate-dissimilating growth. Only aromatic aldehydes (benzaldehyde, 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 3-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillin, iso-vanillin and o-vanillin) were reactive and, with the exception of 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde, were stimulatory to lactate-dependent growth. Aromatic aldehydes were transformed to their corresponding benzoate and benzyl alcohol derivatives, with the ratio of benzoate-to-benzyl alcohol derivatives being dependent upon lactate availability. In presence of lactate, aromatic aldehydes were primarily reduced to their corresponding benzyl alcohol derivatives; in the absence of lactate, aromatic aldehydes were mainly oxidized to their corresponding benzoate derivatives. In the absence of nitrate, 3-hydroxybenzaldehyde was neither reduced nor oxidized. These results indicate that D. desulfuricans is competent in the bidirectional transformation of aromatic aldehydes under nitrate-dissimilating conditions and that the direction of transformation (i.e. reduction or oxidation) is regulated by reductant availability.

Comparative evaluation of the metabolic potentials of different strains of Peptostreptococcus productus: utilization and transformation of aromatic compounds

Three strains of Peptostreptococcus productus were tested for growth at the expense of methoxylated aromatic compounds. Strain M8A-18 (human fecal isolate) was unable to utilize methoxylated aromatic compounds. While the type strain ATCC 27340 (human septicemia isolate) was capable of minimal growth with methoxylated aromatic compounds, ATCC 35244 (sewage sludge isolate) displayed significant growth on methoxylated aromatic compounds. Methoxylated phenols, benzoates, benzyl alcohol and phenylacrylates supported the growth of ATCC 35244 and were O-demethylated to their respective hydroxylated derivatives. During O-methyl- or CO-dependent growth, the double bond of the acrylate side chain of certain methoxylated and non-methoxylated phenylacrylates was reduced. Although other aromatic substituent groups (-COOH and -CH3) were transformed during CO-dependent growth, in short-term growth studies, the aromatic ring was not subject to reduction or degradation. Of the three strains tested, only strain M8A-18 failed to grow at the expense of carbon monoxide (CO).

Solvent effects on the boron–fluorine coupling constant and on fluorine exchange in the tetrafluoroborate anion

The 11B—19F spin–spin coupling constant in AgBF4 is shown to have an opposite sign in water from that found in a number of organic solvents. Application of the hypothesis of Bell and Danyluk indicates that it has a positive sign in water. Evidence is presented for association, probably in the form of solvent-separated ion pairs, in aqueous LiBF4 and NaBF4 solutions, and for the formation of more tightly bound ion pairs in solvents of lower dielectric constant. In contrast, there apparently is no solute association in AgBF4 solutions in water, DMSO, DMF, or acetonitrile. The pronounced changes observed in the 11B—19F coupling constant support the postulate that its small size is a result of near cancellation of large opposing terms.The collapse of the 10B—11B isotope shift at high temperatures in the 19F spectra of solutions of AgBF4 in acetonitrile and in acetone provides evidence for exchange of fluorine among boron atoms; a mechanism is proposed for this process.