Search

Abstract Ontogenetic changes in area use, habitat use, and trophic interactions play an important role in the ecology, demography, and ultimately population dynamics of many species. Assumed to be driven by shifting life‐history requirements, trophic niche shifts in white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are well documented, but the timing of the spatial niche shift that is hypothesized to occur with the trophic niche shift remains poorly understood. To document how fine‐scale area use varies as sharks age and the timing of the ontogenetic spatial shift of this top predator, we tracked individual white sharks tagged as young‐of‐the‐year or young juveniles over multiple years. Using data from juvenile white sharks detected over multiple years in a nursery habitat with a high‐density receiver array, we found no difference in area use with age. However, using a coast‐wide receiver array including nursery and adult habitat, we found the probability of detecting a juvenile white shark in nursery habitat decreased with age, with a concurrent increasing probability of detection in adult habitat. As the conservation and management of this species relies on understanding nursery habitat use and age‐related movements, data presented here address an important knowledge gap for the understudied juvenile to subadult life stages and the ontogenetic habitat shift of this species.

Abstract Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of a hands‐on simulation‐based course with emphasis on procedural techniques, clinical reasoning, and communication skills developed to improve junior Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS) residents' preparedness in managing otolaryngologic emergencies. Methods Junior OHNS residents and faculty from residency programs in California, Nevada, and Arizona participated in this workshop in 2020 and 2021. The stations featured airway management techniques, ultrasound‐guided needle aspiration, nasoseptal hematoma evacuation, and facial fracture repair using various models and cadavers. Participants completed a pre‐workshop survey, post‐workshop survey, and 2‐month follow‐up survey that assessed resident anxiety and confidence in three OHNS emergency situations across knowledge, manual skills, and teamwork using a 5‐point Likert scale. Results Pre‐workshop surveys reported the least anxiety and most confidence in teamwork, but the most anxiety and least confidence in technical skills and knowledge related to foreign body retrieval and airway management. Immediately post‐workshop participants reported significant reductions in anxiety and increases in confidence, largest in the manual skills domain, in foreign body retrieval (anxiety: −0.99, confidence: +0.95, p

Abstract Objective Facial palsy affects patients of all backgrounds, yet no existing studies describe differences in its treatment patterns between demographic groups. Methods We used the National Surgical Quality Improvement Project database to investigate whether race and sex disparities exist in facial reanimation surgery. Patients were identified using CPT codes corresponding to facial‐nerve procedures. Results Seven hundred sixty‐one patients met criteria; 681 self‐identified as White (89.5%), 51 as Black (6.7%), 43 as Hispanic (5.6%), 23 as Asian (3.0%), and 5 patients as other (0.61%). White patients were more than twice as likely to undergo brow ptosis repair than Non‐White patients (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.16–6.15, p = .03). After controlling for malignancy, men had longer operative times than women (480.2 vs. 413.9 min, p = .04) and higher likelihood of free tissue transfer (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.9–9.8), fascial free tissue transfer (OR 10.7, 95% CI 2.1–195), and ectropion repair (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.2–2.8). Conclusion Most patients undergoing facial reanimation surgery in the United States are White. Men have longer operative times and a higher likelihood of undergoing free fascial grafts and cutaneous and fascial free tissue transfer than women regardless of malignancy status. Level of Evidence 2c.

Introduction The risk of tandem occlusion treatment in the setting of intravenous thrombolysis is unclear. Angioplasty and stenting typically require the administration of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and/or dual‐antiplatelets which may increase the risk of hemorrhage in the setting of recent thrombolysis administration. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained patient registry at a comprehensive stroke center. Patients who received thrombolysis and subsequently underwent endovascular therapy for acute ischemic stroke between 2012 and 2022 were included. Patients were separated into two groups depending on whether or not rescue angioplasty or stenting was performed. Per local practice patterns, patients who underwent angioplasty or stenting were immediately started on dual antiplatelets with or without a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor bridge. Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics were compared. Outcomes of interest included symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), asymptomatic ICH, hemorrhagic transformation, mass effect and death. Analysis was completed using Chi Square and Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and Mann‐Whitney U for continuous variables. Results Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics were compared between groups. Patients who underwent treatment of a tandem occlusion were on average younger (67 vs 73, p=0.08) and male (70.1% vs 55%, p=0.03). Median LDL was higher (94 vs 67, p=0.01) and there was a higher rate of diabetes (55.2% vs 40%, p=0.03) and lower rate of atrial fibrillation (12.1% vs 26.6%, p=0.01). Median NIHSS on admission was lower in the tandem occlusion group (15 vs 18, 0.02). Otherwise groups did not significantly differ in level of hemoglobin a1c or rates of hypertension, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, smoking status or prior stroke or transient ischemic attack. There was no significant different in hemorrhagic transformation (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.49, 2.13), mass effect (OR 1.73, 95% CI 0.79, 3.79), symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (OR 1.27, 95% CI (0.54, 2.99), asymptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.12, 2.43) or death (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.24, 1.22) between groups. Limitations include a single center study and the retrospective nature of this analysis. Conclusion We did not find significant risk associated with the treatment of tandem occlusions in the setting of intravenous thrombolysis. Future prospective, multi‐center studies would be beneficial.

Abstract BMI‐matched normal‐ (NGT, n = 10, 41 ± 4y, 35.6 ± 3.0 kg/m2) and abnormal‐glucose‐tolerant (AGT, n = 16, 51 ± 3y, 34.3 ± 1.5 kg/m2) participants were evaluated for body composition, metabolic health (oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT]), and VO2max. Participants also completed a treadmill walking test at 65% VO2max for 30 min. Total sRAGE, esRAGE, sTLR2, and sTLR4 were assessed via ELISA, and cRAGE was calculated. AGT exhibited greater (p 0.05) following AE. sTLR4 tended to be 36% lower in AGT than NGT (main effect, p = 0.096) and did not change following AE (p > 0.05). Total sRAGE and isoforms were similar (p > 0.05) between groups and did not change following AE (p > 0.05). sTLR2 was correlated with (p

Abstract Objective To identify factors associated with cervical‐thoracic spine posture in otolaryngology surgeries and evaluate the efficacy of a commercially available posture‐training device in enhancing surgeon ergonomics. Methods Over 3 months, neck and spine posture from individuals performing otolaryngology surgeries was recorded using UpRight Go 2™. Average baseline posture was first recorded and biofeedback was later introduced to attempt to correct posture. The proportion of time spent in upright/neutral cervical‐thoracic spine posture was correlated with surgeon and procedure characteristics and compared to proportion of upright posture time after biofeedback intervention. Results The proportion of upright operating time was significantly different between procedure subtypes and surgical approaches with best performance in rhinology procedures and worst performance in head and neck surgeries (90% vs. 62%; both p

Abstract Objective To describe the issues related to the assignment of surgical wound classification as it pertains to Otolaryngology—Head & Neck surgery, and to present a simple framework by which providers can assign wound classification. Data Sources Literature review. Conclusion Surgical wound classification in its current state is limited in its utility. It has recently been disregarded by major risk assessment models, likely due to inaccurate and inconsistent reporting by providers and operative staff. However, if data accuracy is improved, this metric may be useful to inform the risk of surgical site infection. In an era of quality‐driven care and reimbursement, surgical wound classification may become an equally important indicator of quality.

Abstract In response to the growing interest in offshore wind energy development in California, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management delineated three Call Areas for potential leasing. This study provides a comprehensive characterization and comparison of offshore wind power potential within the two Central California Call Areas (Diablo Canyon and Morro Bay) using 12‐ and 15‐MW turbines under different inter‐turbine spacing and wind farm size scenarios. Our analysis shows similar daily and seasonal patterns of wind power produced within the Call Areas, which peak in spring and during evening hours. Per‐turbine power production is higher in the Morro Bay Call Area due to slightly higher hub‐height wind speeds, whereas total power production is higher in the Diablo Canyon Call Area due to its larger size. Turbine type had a negligible impact on average power production per‐unit‐area because while larger turbines produce more power, they require greater inter‐turbine spacing. Combined power production from the two fully built out Call Areas could equal nearly a quarter of California's current annual electrical energy production. A commercial‐scale wind farm with a realized power output of 960 MW would require a footprint of at least half of the Morro Bay Call Area or at least a quarter of the Diablo Canyon Call Area. These results provide guidance on offshore wind development over the Central California Coast, and the framework demonstrated here could be applied to other wind data sets in other regions.

Abstract De Araujo et al. (Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041‐210X.13516) described the development and application of a wire foot snare trap for the capture of jaguars Panthera onca and cougars Puma concolor. Snares are a commonly used and effective means of studying large carnivores. However, the article presented insufficient information to replicate the work and inadequate consideration and description of animal welfare considerations, thereby risking the perpetuation of poor standards of reporting. Appropriate animal welfare assessments are essential in studies that collect data from animals, especially those that use invasive techniques, and are key in assisting researchers to choose the most appropriate capture method. It is critical that authors detail all possible associated harms and benefits to support thorough review, including equipment composition, intervention processes, general body assessments, injuries (i.e. cause, type, severity) and post‐release behaviour. We offer a detailed discussion of these shortcomings. We also discuss broader but highly relevant issues, including the capture of non‐target animals and the omission of key methodological details. The level of detail provided by authors should allow the method to be properly assessed and replicated, including those that improve trap selectivity and minimize or eliminate the capture of non‐target animals. Finally, we discuss the central role that journals must play in ensuring that published research conforms to ethical, animal welfare and reporting standards. Scientific studies are subject to ever‐increasing scrutiny by peers and the public, making it more important than ever that standards are upheld and reviewed. We conclude that the proposal of a new or refined method must be supported by substantial contextual discussion, a robust rationale and analyses and comprehensive documentation.

Objectives: Describe the h index as a bibliometric that can be utilized to objectively evaluate scholarly impact. Identify which otolaryngology subspecialties are the most scholarly. Describe if NIH funding to one’s choice of medical school, residency, or fellowship has any impact on one’s scholarly output. Determine other factors predictive of an academic otolaryngologist’s productivity. Study design: Analysis of bibliometric data of academic otolaryngologists. Methods: Active grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to otolaryngology departments were ascertained via the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Reports database. Faculty listings from these departments were gleaned from departmental websites. H index was calculated using the Scopus database. Results: Forty-seven otolaryngology programs were actively receiving NIH funding. There were 838 faculty members from those departments who had a mean h index of 9.61. Otology (h index 12.50) and head and neck (h index 11.96) were significantly (P

Abstract Motion‐activated wildlife cameras (or “camera traps”) are frequently used to remotely and noninvasively observe animals. The vast number of images collected from camera trap projects has prompted some biologists to employ machine learning algorithms to automatically recognize species in these images, or at least filter‐out images that do not contain animals. These approaches are often limited by model transferability, as a model trained to recognize species from one location might not work as well for the same species in different locations. Furthermore, these methods often require advanced computational skills, making them inaccessible to many biologists. We used 3 million camera trap images from 18 studies in 10 states across the United States of America to train two deep neural networks, one that recognizes 58 species, the “species model,” and one that determines if an image is empty or if it contains an animal, the “empty‐animal model.” Our species model and empty‐animal model had accuracies of 96.8% and 97.3%, respectively. Furthermore, the models performed well on some out‐of‐sample datasets, as the species model had 91% accuracy on species from Canada (accuracy range 36%–91% across all out‐of‐sample datasets) and the empty‐animal model achieved an accuracy of 91%–94% on out‐of‐sample datasets from different continents. Our software addresses some of the limitations of using machine learning to classify images from camera traps. By including many species from several locations, our species model is potentially applicable to many camera trap studies in North America. We also found that our empty‐animal model can facilitate removal of images without animals globally. We provide the trained models in an R package (MLWIC2: Machine Learning for Wildlife Image Classification in R), which contains Shiny Applications that allow scientists with minimal programming experience to use trained models and train new models in six neural network architectures with varying depths.

Abstract Among major vertebrate groups, anurans (frogs and toads) are understudied with regard to their visual systems, and little is known about variation among species that differ in ecology. We sampled North American anurans representing diverse evolutionary and life histories that likely possess visual systems adapted to meet different ecological needs. Using standard molecular techniques, visual opsin genes, which encode the protein component of visual pigments, were obtained from anuran retinas. Additionally, we extracted the visual opsins from publicly available genome and transcriptome assemblies, further increasing the phylogenetic and ecological diversity of our dataset to 33 species in total. We found that anurans consistently express four visual opsin genes (RH1, LWS, SWS1, and SWS2, but not RH2) even though reported photoreceptor complements vary widely among species. The proteins encoded by these genes showed considerable sequence variation among species, including at sites known to shift the spectral sensitivity of visual pigments in other vertebrates and had conserved substitutions that may be related to dim‐light adaptation. Using molecular evolutionary analyses of selection (dN/dS) we found significant evidence for positive selection at a subset of sites in the dim‐light rod opsin gene RH1 and the long wavelength sensitive cone opsin LWS. The function of sites inferred to be under positive selection are largely unknown, but a few are likely to affect spectral sensitivity and other visual pigment functions based on proximity to previously identified sites in other vertebrates. We also found the first evidence of visual opsin duplication in an amphibian with the duplication of the LWS gene in the African bullfrog, which had distinct LWS copies on the sex chromosomes suggesting the possibility of sex‐specific visual adaptation. Taken together, our results indicate that ecological factors, such as habitat and life history, as well as behavior, may be driving changes to anuran visual systems.

Abstract This patient was found to have a scirrhous carcinoma with extensive perineural invasion and without any evidence of minor salivary gland carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of isolated scirrhous carcinoma of the oral cavity. Treatment was surgery and adjuvant chemoradiation, and there was complete disease response.

Background Animal and in vitro experiments implicate the Wnt pathway in cardiac development, fibrosis, vascular calcification, and atherosclerosis, but research in humans is lacking. We examined peripheral blood Wnt pathway gene expression and arterial stiffness in 369 healthy African ancestry men (mean age, 64 years). Methods and Results Gene expression was assessed using a custom Nanostring nCounter gene expression panel (N=43 genes) and normalized to housekeeping genes and background signal. Arterial stiffness was assessed via brachial‐ankle pulse‐wave velocity. Fourteen Wnt genes showed detectable expression and were tested individually as predictors of pulse‐wave velocity using linear regression, adjusting for age, height, weight, blood pressure, medication use, resting heart rate, current smoking, alcohol intake, and sedentary lifestyle. Adenomatous polyposis coli regulator of Wnt signaling pathway (APC), glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3B), and transcription factor 4 (TCF4) were significantly associated with arterial stiffness (P