High-resolution Chirp sub-bottom data were obtained offshore from the Northern Channel Islands (NCI), California, to image submerged paleoshorelines and assess local uplift rates. Although modern bathymetry is often used for modeling paleoshorelines, Chirp data image paleoshorelines buried beneath sediment that obscures their seafloor expression. The NCI were a unified landmass during the last glacial maximum (LGM; ~20 ka), when eustatic sea level was ~120 m lower than present. We identified seven paleoshorelines, ranging from ~28 to 104 m in depth, across this now-submerged LGM platform. Paleoshoreline depths were compared to local sea-level curves to estimate ages, which suggest that some were reoccupied over multiple sea-level cycles. Additionally, previous studies determined conflicting uplift rates for the NCI, ranging from 0.16 to 1.5 m/ka. Our results suggest that a rate on the lower end of this range better fits the observed submerged paleoshorelines. Using the uplift rate of ~0.16 m/ka, we estimate that paleoshorelines formed during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3, the LGM, and the Younger Dryas stade are preserved on the NCI platform. These results help clarify uplift rates for the NCI and illustrate the importance of sub-bottom data for mapping submerged paleoshorelines.

Introduction: In Ottawa, STEMI patients are transported directly to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by advanced care paramedics (ACPs), primary care paramedics (PCPs), or transferred from PCP to ACP crew (ACP-intercept). PCPs have a limited skill set to address complications during transport.The objective of this study was to determine what clinically important events (CIEs) occurred in STEMI patients transported for primary PCI via a PCP crew, and what proportion of such events could only be treated by ACP protocols. Methods: We conducted a health record review of STEMI patients transported for primary PCI from Jan 1, 2011-Dec 21, 2015. Ottawa has a single PCI center and its EMS system employs both PCP and ACP paramedics. We identified consecutive STEMI bypass patients transported by PCP-only and ACP-intercept using the dispatch database. A data extraction form was piloted and used to extract patient demographics, transport times, and primary outcomes: CIEs and interventions performed during transport, and secondary outcomes: hospital diagnosis, and mortality. CIEs were reviewed by two investigators to determine if they would be treated differently by ACP protocols. We present descriptive statistics. Results: We identified 967 STEMI bypass cases among which 214 (118 PCP-only and 96 ACP-intercept) met all inclusion criteria. Characteristics were: mean age 61.4 years, 78% male, 31.8% anterior and 44.4% inferior infarcts, mean response time 6 min, total paramedic contact time 29 min, and in cases of ACP-intercept 7 min of PCP-only contact time.A CIE occurred in 127 (59%) of cases: SBP<90 mmHg 26.2%, HR<60 30.4%, HR>100 20.6%, malignant arrhythmias 7.5%, altered mental status 6.5%, airway intervention 2.3%, 2 patients (0.9%) arrested, both survived. Of the CIE identified, 54 (42.5%) could be addressed differently by ACP vs PCP protocols (25.2% of total cases). The majority related to fluid boluses for hypotension (44 cases; 35% of CIE). ACP intervention for CIEs within the ACP intercept group was 51.6%. There were 6 in-hospital deaths (2.8%) with no difference in transport crew type. Conclusion: CIEs are common in STEMI bypass patients however a smaller proportion of such CIE would be addressed differently by ACP protocols compared to PCP protocols. The vast majority of CIE appeared to be transient and of limited clinical significance.

Introduction: The Canadian C-Spine Rule (CCR) was validated by emergency physicians and triage nurses to determine the need for radiography in alert and stable Emergency Department trauma patients. It was modified and validated for use by paramedics in 1,949 patients. The prehospital CCR calls for evaluation of active neck rotation if patients have none of 3 high-risk criteria and at least 1 of 4 low-risk criteria. This study evaluated the impact and safety of the implementation of the CCR by paramedics. Methods: This single-centre prospective cohort implementation study took place in Ottawa, Canada. Advanced and primary care paramedics received on-line and in-person training on the CCR, allowing them to use the CCR to evaluate eligible patients and selectively transport them without immobilization. We evaluated all consecutive eligible adult patients (GCS 15, stable vital signs) at risk for neck injury. Paramedics were required to complete a standardized study data form for each eligible patient evaluated. Study staff reviewed paramedic documentation and corresponding hospital records and diagnostic imaging reports. We followed all patients without initial radiologic evaluation for 30 days for referral to our spine service, or subsequent visit with radiologic evaluation. Analyses included sensitivity, specificity, kappa coefficient, t-test, and descriptive statistics with 95% CIs. Results: The 4,034 patients enrolled between Jan. 2011 and Aug. 2015 were: mean age 43 (range 16-99), female 53.3%, motor vehicle collision 51.9%, fall 23.8%, admitted to hospital 7.0%, acute c-spine injury 0.8%, and clinically important c-spine injury (0.3%). The CCR classified patients for 11 important injuries with sensitivity 91% (95% CI 58-100%), and specificity 67% (95% CI 65-68%). Kappa agreement for interpretation of the CCR between paramedics and study investigators was 0.94 (95% CI 0.92-0.95). Paramedics were comfortable or very comfortable using the CCR in 89.8% of cases. Mean scene time was 3 min (15.6%) shorter for those not immobilized (17 min vs. 20 min; p=0.0001). A total of 2,569 (63.7%) immobilizations were safely avoided using the CCR. Conclusion: Paramedics could safely and accurately apply the CCR to low-risk trauma patients. This had a significant impact on scene times and the number of prehospital immobilizations.

Introduction/Innovation Concept: In 2014, Eastern Ontario paramedic services, their medical director staff and area community colleges developed an EMS Boot Camp experience to orient Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa emergency medicine residents to the role of paramedics and the challenges they face in the field. Current EMS ride-alongs and didactic classroom sessions were deemed ineffective at adequately preparing residents to provide online medical control. From those early discussions came the creation of a real-world, real-time (RWRT) educational experience. Methods: Specific challenges unique to paramedicine are difficult to communicate to a medical control physician at the other end of a telephone. The goal of this one-day educational experience is for residents to gain insight into the complexity and time sensitive nature of delivering medical care in the field. Residents are immersed as responding paramedics in a day of intense RWRT simulation exercises reflecting the common paramedic logistical challenges to delivering patient care in an uncontrolled and dynamic environment. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: Scenarios, run by paramedic students, are overseen by working paramedics from participating paramedic services. Residents learn proper use of key equipment found on an Ontario ambulance while familiarize themselves with patient care standards and medical directives. Scenarios focus on prehospital-specific clinical care issues; performing dynamic CPR in a moving vehicle, extricating a bariatric patient with limited personnel, large scale multi-casualty triage as well as other time sensitive, high risk procedures requiring online medical control approval (i.e. chest needle thoracostomy). Conclusion: EMS Boot Camp dispels preconceived biases regarding “what it’s really like” to deliver high quality prehospital clinical care. When providing online medical control in the future, the residents will be primed to understand and expect certain challenges that may arise. The educational experience fosters collaboration between prehospital and hospital-based providers. The sessions provide a reproducible, standardized experience for all participants; something that cannot be guaranteed with traditional EMS ride-alongs. Future sessions will evaluate participant satisfaction and self-efficacy with the use of a standard evaluation form including pre/post self-evaluations.

Epidemiology formed the basis of ‘the Barker hypothesis’, the concept of ‘developmental programming’ and today’s discipline of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). Animal experimentation provided proof of the underlying concepts, and continues to generate knowledge of underlying mechanisms. Interventions in humans, based on DOHaD principles, will be informed by experiments in animals. As knowledge in this discipline has accumulated, from studies of humans and other animals, the complexity of interactions between genome, environment and epigenetics, has been revealed. The vast nature of programming stimuli and breadth of effects is becoming known. As a result of our accumulating knowledge we now appreciate the impact of many variables that contribute to programmed outcomes. To guide further animal research in this field, the Australia and New Zealand DOHaD society (ANZ DOHaD) Animals Models of DOHaD Research Working Group convened at the 2nd Annual ANZ DOHaD Congress in Melbourne, Australia in April 2015. This review summarizes the contributions of animal research to the understanding of DOHaD, and makes recommendations for the design and conduct of animal experiments to maximize relevance, reproducibility and translation of knowledge into improving health and well-being.

Introduction: Recent years have brought an epidemic of opioid abuse to Canada. At present, in Ontario, Naloxone may not be administered by any paramedic without the direct online medical approval of a Base Hospital Physician (BHP). The objective of this study was to review the use of Naloxone by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel, under the existing Advanced Life Support Patient Care Standards (ALS-PCS) medical directive for opioid toxicity, for safety and potential complications that may occur with removal of the mandatory patch point. Methods: This study was a retrospective ambulance call report review of consecutive Naloxone requests placed to a BHP of the Regional Paramedic Program of Eastern Ontario (RPPEO) between Oct 1st, 2013 and Oct 31st, 2015. The RPPEO consists of 10 prehospital services, both urban and rural jurisdictions, and has a mix of advance care and primary care paramedics. All ambulance call reports are electronically stored at the secured RPPEO data warehouse. Data was extracted using a standardized data collection tool. All ambulance call reports were reviewed by 2 independent authors (VC, NC). Compliance with the existing medical directive for opioid toxicity was determined. We calculated the frequency of denied Naloxone requests and the rationale for each patch refusal was recorded. We also categorized all adverse events associated with Naloxone administration. Results: From 244 patches, 215 patients were administered Naloxone. Only 7.8% (19/215) of requests for Naloxone were refused; 78.9% (15/19) did not meet existing inclusion criteria for Naloxone administration in the ALS-PCS medical directive for opioid toxicity because the patient’s respiration rate was above 12/min. Of the 215 patients who were administered Naloxone, adverse events were extremely uncommon: 5 (2.3%) became violent or verbally abusive, 1 (0.5%) was transiently hypertensive and 4 (1.9%) vomited. Conclusion: Requests for Naloxone to a BHP are common and yet are seldom declined. The use of prehospital Naloxone is associated with few adverse events. These results demonstrate that it would be safe to remove online medical direction for Naloxone from the ALS-PCS medical directive for opioid toxicity if combined with updated paramedic education.

Acinetobacter is a well-recognized nosocomial pathogen. Previous reports of community-associated Acinetobacter infections have lacked clear case definitions and assessment of healthcare-associated (HCA) risk factors. We identified Acinetobacter bacteraemia cases from blood cultures obtained <3 days after hospitalization in rural Thailand and performed medical record reviews to assess HCA risk factors in the previous year and compare clinical and microbiological characteristics between cases with and without HCA risk factors. Of 72 Acinetobacter cases, 32 (44%) had no HCA risk factors. Compared to HCA infections, non-HCA infections were more often caused by Acinetobacter species other than calcoaceticus–baumannii complex species and by antibiotic-susceptible organisms. Despite similar symptoms, the case-fatality proportion was lower in non-HCA than HCA cases (9% vs. 45%, P < 0·01). Clinicians should be aware of Acinetobacter as a potential cause of community-associated infections in Thailand; prospective studies are needed to improve understanding of associated risk factors and disease burden.

There has been much debate in recent decades as to what fraction of ionising photons from star-forming regions in the Galactic disk escape into the halo. The recent detection of the Magellanic Stream in optical line emission at the CTIO 4 m and the AAT 3·9 m telescopes may now provide the strongest evidence that at least some of the radiation escapes the disk completely. We present a simple model to demonstrate that, while the distance to the Magellanic Stream is uncertain, the observed emission measures (ε m ≈ 0·5 – 1 cm−6 pc) are most plausibly explained by photoionisation due to hot, young stars. This model requires that the mean Lyman-limit opacity perpendicular to the disk is τ LL ≈ 3, and the covering fraction of the resolved clouds is close to unity. Alternative sources (e.g. shock, halo, LMC or metagalactic radiation) contribute negligible ionising flux.

We present Herschel-SPIRE imaging spectroscopy (194-671 μm) of the bright starburst galaxy M82. We use RADEX and a Bayesian Likelihood Analysis to simultaneously model the temperature, density, column density, and filling factor of both the cool and warm components of molecular gas traced by the entire CO ladder up to J=13-12. The high-J lines observed by SPIRE trace much warmer gas (~500 K) than those observable from the ground. The addition of 13CO (and [C I]) is new and indicates that [C I] may be tracing different gas than 12CO. At such a high temperature, cooling is dominated by molecular hydrogen; we conclude with a discussion on the possible excitation processes in this warm component. Photon-dominated region (PDR) models require significantly higher densities than those indicated by our Bayesian likelihood analysis in order to explain the high-J CO line ratios, though cosmic-ray enhanced PDR models can do a better job reproducing the emission at lower densities. Shocks and turbulent heating are likely required to explain the bright high-J emission.

In the Magellanic Clouds, the [CII]/CO and the [CII]/FIR ratios are much higher than seen in Milky Way star-forming regions. The enhanced relative strength of the [CII] line reflects the physical environment characterised by the low metallicities, dust abundances, and PAH abundances of the LMC, and especially the SMC.

The upper shelf fracture toughness of ultra high strength steels is dependent on both the microstructure, which is determined by composition and heat treatment, and on the inclusions present in the steel. The inclusions In ultra high strength steels are typically oxides and sulfides [1]. In most ultra high strength steels the sulfides are manganese sulfides, although depending on the composition of the steel and the melt practice used, other sulfides are found, such as chromium sulfide, calcium sulfide and lanthanum oxy-sulfide [2]. If the inclusions can be regarded as pre-existing voids then the inclusion volume fraction and spacing appear to be sufficient to characterize the inclusion population from the standpoint of fracture toughness [3,4]. The purpose of this paper is to discuss results which show sulfur can be gettered as particles which are much more resistant to void nucleation than manganese sulfides and that this increased resistance to void nucleation can result in vastly improved upper shelf fracture toughness. In particular, when HY180 steel contains manganese sulfides the fracture toughness is about 250 MPa but when the sulfur is gettered as particles containing titanium, carbon and sulfur the fracture toughness of HY180 steel will approach 550 MPa . These particles, believed to be titanium carbosulfides, are much more resistant to void nucleation than manganese sulfides and this increased resistance to void nucleation appears to be the reason for the improved fracture toughness.

A rapidly solidified Fe-10Cr-8Al alloy that contained a dispersion of very fine MnS and Al203 particles was produced by a gas atomization/twin-roll quenching technique. The RS particulates were consolidated by hot isostatic pressing, and the consolidated alloy was hot forged, and then hot and cold rolled. Grain growth took place during primary recrystallization of the alloy; however, once primary recrystallization was complete, the dispersion of second phase particles was effective in pinning alloy grain boundaries.

Biopolymer self assembly in heterogeneous lipid monolayers at the air-water interface was investigated. Fluorescence microscopy allowed the visualization of protein recognition and binding to these microstructured membranes. Mimicking proteininduced membrane microstructuring and protein docking was achieved in ternary mixed lipid monolayer systems.

Among different MEMS wafer level bonding processes glass frit bonding provides reliable vacuum tight seals in volume production. The quality of the seal is a function of both seal glass materials and the processing parameters used in glass frit bonding. Therefore, in this study Taguchi L18 screening Design of Experiment (DOE) was used to study the effect of materials and process variables on the quality of the glass seal in 6” silicon wafers bonded in EVG520IS bonder. Six bonding process variables at three levels and two types of sealing glass pastes were considered. The seals were characterized by Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM), cross sectional Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX). The results were quantified into four responses for DOE analysis. Key results are a) peak temperature has the strongest influence on seal properties, b) hot melt paste has significantly lower defects compared to liquid paste, and c) peak firing temperatures can be as low as 400°C under certain conditions.