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Simple Summary: Proton therapy enables the delivery of a high radiation dose to tumors while sparing surrounding normal tissues. Inaccurate patient positioning may lead to underdosing of the targeted tumor and overdosing of nearby healthy tissues. Before a course of proton therapy, a CT scan is acquired for treatment planning with the patient in the treatment position, and this image dataset is used as a reference for patient localization at each treatment fraction. Radiation therapists perform daily cone-beam CT (CBCT) image guidance to align the patient to closely match the planning CT and minimize inaccuracies in radiation delivery. In this study, CBCT scans were systematically collected with clinical and treatment information to investigate questions related to image guidance, setup uncertainty, and patient motion during the treatment of pediatric brain tumors. Knowledge gained from this study provides a basis for designing safe and optimal proton treatments. This study quantifies setup uncertainty in brain tumor patients who received image-guided proton therapy. Patients analyzed include 165 children, adolescents, and young adults (median age at radiotherapy: 9 years (range: 10 months to 24 years); 80 anesthetized and 85 awake) enrolled in a single-institution prospective study from 2020 to 2023. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) was performed daily to calculate and correct manual setup errors, once per course after setup correction to measure residual errors, and weekly after treatments to assess intrafractional motion. Orthogonal radiographs were acquired consecutively with CBCT for paired comparisons of 40 patients. Translational and rotational errors were converted from 6 degrees of freedom to a scalar by a statistical approach that considers the distance from the target to the isocenter. The 95th percentile of setup uncertainty was reduced by daily CBCT from 10 mm (manual positioning) to 1–1.5 mm (after correction) and increased to 2 mm by the end of fractional treatment. A larger variation existed between the roll corrections reported by radiographs vs. CBCT than for pitch and yaw, while there was no statistically significant difference in translational variation. A quantile mixed regression model showed that the 95th percentile of intrafractional motion was 0.40 mm lower for anesthetized patients ( p = 0.0016 ). Considering additional uncertainty in radiation-imaging isocentricity, the commonly used total plan robustness of 3 mm against positional uncertainty would be appropriate for our study cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. South Atlantic region has many long‐standing data needs and limited data collection resources for federally managed marine fish stocks. Much of the harvest is dominated by recreational fisheries, where data are limited, especially during historic time periods. FISHstory, a pilot project developed through the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's Citizen Science Program, developed a standardized protocol for archiving and analyzing historic photos from the 1940s to 1970s from a for‐hire fleet based in Florida. These photos document the beginnings of the South Atlantic for‐hire fishery and are potentially an untapped source of data that can help recreate information on catch and length composition prior to when dedicated fishery dependent surveys began. Many careful steps were taken in the design of FISHstory to ensure data collected would be fit for purpose and useful to management. This paper highlights these steps and describes lessons learned through project development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract--Seasonal trawling was conducted randomly in coastal (depths of 4.6-17 m) waters from St. Augustine, Florida, (29.9°N) to Winyah Bay, South Carolina (33.1°N), during 2000-03, 2008-09, and 2011 to assess [...]

Abstract--Trawling was conducted in the Charleston, South Carolina, shipping channel between May and August during 2004-07 to evaluate loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) catch rates and demographic distributions. Two hundred [...]

Increasing costs are challenging the capacity for resource management agencies to keep up with mounting needs for robust data about fish populations and their habitats. Furthermore, trust among scientists, government agencies, and the public is fundamental to effective fisheries management, and relations among these three groups are increasingly strained when decisions about fishing limits are made (or are perceived to be made) on the basis of limited information or analysis. In the South Atlantic region of the United States, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has begun building a citizen science program to increase the quantity and quality of data used for fisheries management decisions throughout the region and to build trust and foster mutual understanding among those involved in the process. The goal is to build on existing management infrastructure to address key challenges to managing fisheries for long-term sustainability. In the present article, we examine the collaborative process used to establish the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood glucose measurements provide important diagnostic information regarding stress, disease, and nutritional status. Glucose analytical methodologies include dry chemistry analysis (DCA) of plasma and point-of-care (POC) glucometer analysis of whole blood; however, these 2 methods differ in cost, required sample volume, and processing time. Because POC glucometers use built-in equations based on features of mammalian blood to convert whole blood measurements to plasma equivalent units, obtained glucose data must be compared and validated using gold-standard chemistry analytical methodology in reptiles. For in-water, trawl-captured, immature Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) from Georgia, USA, we observed significant, positive agreement between the 2 glucose determination methods; however, the glucometer overestimated glucose concentrations by 1.4 mmol/L on average in comparison to DCA and produced a wider range of results. The discordance of these results suggests that POC glucometer glucose data should be interpreted in the context of methodology- and brand-specific reference intervals along with concurrent packed cell volume data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To quantitatively describe the structural corneal changes from infancy to early adulthood using ultrasound biomicroscopy. Methods: In this prospective study, 168 ultrasound biomicroscopy images were obtained from 24 healthy eyes of 24 patients who consented and enrolled in the Pediatric Anterior Segment Imaging Innovation Study. Their ages ranged from birth to 26 years. An established ultrasound biomicroscopy imaging protocol including seven views of one eye per patient were obtained and measured using ImageJ software (National Institutes of Health). Twelve corneal structural parameters were measured. Means were compared between younger and older groups. Results: Among the 12 measured structures, 5 demonstrated statistically significant differences (Among the 12 measured structures, 5 demonstrated statistically significant differences (P <.05) between patients younger than 1 year and patients older than 1 year. The mean values for corneal cross-sectional width and length, central corneal thickness, and radii of curvature (anterior and posterior) were significantly different in patients younger than 1 year. Curvature and limbus-to-limbus dimensions changed more dramatically than thickness and tissue density. When comparing the youngest to oldest subgroups, anterior curvature flattened (6.14 to 7.55 radius), posterior curvature flattened (5.53 to 6.72 radius), angle-to-angle distance increased (8.93 to 11.40 mm), and endothelial cross-sectional distance increased (10.63 to 13.61 mm). Conclusions: Pediatric corneal structures change with age. The most significant changes occur in the first months of life, with additional changes later in childhood. This study further demonstrates the importance of age in pediatric corneal imaging analysis. [[J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2020;57(4):238–245.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health assessments of wildlife species are becoming increasingly important in an ever-changing environment. Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii ; hereafter, Kemp's ridleys) are critically endangered and incur several on-going threats to their population recovery; therefore, it is imperative to advance the understanding of baseline blood analyte data as a diagnostic and monitoring tool. For in-water, trawl-captured, immature Kemp's ridleys (minimum N  = 31) from Georgia, USA, the objectives of this study were to (1) establish reference intervals (RIs) for packed cell volume (PCV) and 27 plasma biochemistry analytes and (2) determine length-specific relationships in blood analytes. We observed significant positive correlations between minimum straight carapace length and PCV, amylase, calcium:phosphorus ratio, cholesterol, magnesium, triglycerides, total solids, total protein and all protein fractions (e.g. alpha-, beta- and gamma-globulins); aspartate aminotransferase and chloride showed significant negative relationships. These results suggest that certain blood analytes in Kemp's ridleys change as these animals grow, presumptively due to somatic growth and dietary shifts. The information presented herein, in due consideration of capture technique that may have impacted glucose and potassium concentrations, represents the first report of blood analyte RIs for Kemp's ridley sea turtles established by guidelines of the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology and will have direct applications for stranded individuals in rehabilitative care and for future investigations into the health status of wild individuals from this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the consistency of incision architecture utilizing a traditional diamond keratome and a newly designed diamond keratome., Methods: We used a traditional diamond keratome and newly designed diamond keratome to create clear corneal incisions in human cadaveric donor eyes. Three surgeons with varying levels of experience made 30 incisions with each keratome; and the wound architecture was measured including incision lengths, epithelial and endothelial widths, and the central epithelial incision's deviation from a straight line entrance., Results: The mean absolute difference in right and left incision lengths (traditional: 0.182 ± 0.158 mm and new 0.088±0.077 mm [P<0.003]), mean absolute difference in epithelial and endothelial incision width (traditional: 0.181±0.144 mm and new 0.080±0.092 mm [P<0.002]), endothelial incision central deviation from a straight line (traditional: 0.128±0.242 mm and new -0.046±0.124 mm [P<0.001]) were all significantly more consistent with the newly designed diamond keratome than with the traditional diamond keratome., Conclusion: The newly designed diamond keratome creates a more consistent clear corneal incision than a traditional diamond keratome across a variety of surgical skill levels and does not require advanced levels of training to achieve this consistency.