Questionnaire on the process of recovering horses from general anesthesia and associated personnel injury in equine practice

ObjectiveTo collect data about the current practice of recovering horses from general anesthesia and recovery personnel safety.Study designOnline survey.MethodsAn online questionnaire, including questions on general demographic data, recovery drugs, modality and characteristics of equine recovery and morbidity and mortality, was designed and distributed via e-mail to equine practitioners worldwide.ResultsPractitioners from 22 countries completed 373 questionnaires; 53% of the participants were board-certified equine surgeons, and the remainder were board-certified anesthesiologists (18%), large animal residents (8%), general practitioners (7%), large animal interns (6%), anesthesia residents (4.5%) and veterinary technicians (1.6%). Respondents were employed by academia (58%) or private practice (42%). Of the respondents employed at a university, 93% had a board-certified anesthesiologist on staff compared with 7% of respondents employed at a private practice. Most of the respondents assist horses during recovery, with 23% assisting every recovery and 44% assisting recovery in the majority of cases. Reasons for choosing to assist horses during recovery were: orthopedic procedures (57%), neurological deficits (49%), bad health (47%), history of poor recovery (44%), foals (42%), draft breeds (30%), magnetic resonance imaging (17%) and computed tomography (16%). Unacceptable recoveries were reported by 77% of participants. Commonly reported complications during recovery with any method were: orthopedic injury (66%), myopathy (54%), skin abrasion (53%) and airway obstruction (37%). The incidences of unacceptable quality of recovery (p = 0.09) or personnel injury (p = 0.56) were not different between assisted and nonassisted recoveries; however, more equine fatalities were reported for assisted recoveries (p < 0.006). Practitioners in academia reported more unacceptable recoveries (p < 0.0007) and personnel injuries (p < 0.002) compared with those in private practice.ConclusionsThe method of recovery differs among hospitals. Recovery personnel injuries associated with assisting horses during recovery are an important and previously unreported finding.     

Mechanical Testing and Evaluation of Eight Synthetic Casting Materials

Eight synthetic casting materials were evaluated with respect to tensile and fatigue strengths, exothermicity (evolution of heat during polymerization), permeability (porosity), radiolucency, and cost. Strength determination for a five-layer sample included measurement of the ultimate load at which a material failed, the ability to absorb energy, and the stiffness a material possessed after application of a cyclic stress. Results indicated that Vet Cast was superior with respect to tensile and fatigue strengths. The exothermic reaction associated with the "curing" or polymerization process was evaluated and not considered excessive although Ultra Cast attained a temperature of 48.0°C and was uncomfortable to handle during application. Permeability was determined. Delta Lite and Hexcelite NS were the most permeable materials and dried more rapidly and thoroughly after immersion than the other casting materials. Hexcelite NS was considered the least radiolucent material and was the most expensive material studied. Each of the synthetic casting materials demonstrated superiority in one or more of the categories tested. No one product demonstrated consistent superiority in criteria appropriate for clinical application.     

Aeta Magbukún of Mariveles: Traditional Indigenous Forest Resource Use Practices and the Sustainable Economic Development Challenge in Remote Philippine Regions

The Aeta Magbukún of Mariveles are one of the least known and researched Indigenous peoples remaining on the fringe of the bay, and within the remaining forests in Bataan province on Luzon Island in the Philippines. This work describes the unique cultural systems and language of the Aeta Magbukún tribe in Biaan, Mariveles, and both the traditional forest resource use and the evolving new subsistence practices developed to adapt to the encroachment of non-Indigenous peoples onto ancestral lands. The Aeta's forest resource use practices are discussed from a sustainable Indigenous development context within unique socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental circumstances in Bataan.     

The impact of thematic resolution on the patch-mosaic model of natural landscapes

We argue that thematic resolution, i.e., the level of categorical detail of a thematic map expressed by the number of classes included in the map legend, is an inherent component of the scale at which a landscape is analyzed. Changing the number of classes can change the configuration of the patch mosaic as much as changing the grain does. We address recent calls in this and other journals to deepen research in this topic. In particular, we report how thematic resolution affects the patchiness of mosaics representing natural landscapes, which have seldom been studied in this respect. We selected seven 50 × 50 km landscapes within national parks, each representative of a world biome. We applied an object-based unsupervised classification to Landsat TM imagery of these landscapes using increasing numbers of classes, between 2 and 50, and derived curves of mean patch size and patch density for each site. Our results are consistent with previous findings in that the patchiness of output mosaics increases monotonically with increasing thematic resolution, with a higher rate of increase up to eight classes that declines until it becomes roughly constant for more than 16 classes. However, this constant rate of increase is still considerable, meaning that, at least for natural landscapes, there is no threshold beyond which the patch-mosaic model is independent of the conceptual filter applied. This dependence on human fiat calls for re-thinking the patch-mosaic paradigm.