ABSTRACT
Several protected troglobitic invertebrate species are known to occur in caves on Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, Bexar County, Texas, United States. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) identified red-imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta (hereafter RIFA) (Buren 1972) as the primary threat to cave species' nutrient sources, cave crickets, Ceuthophilus secretus (Scudder 1894). Per the service's recommendations, Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis currently implements boiling water mound injections with digging for RIFA control. However, treatment effectiveness is highly variable and largely dependent on the time of day, weather, and personnel diligence. Toxicants have been used for RIFA treatment throughout the world, but concerns exist that traditional applications of toxicant bait around caves might be accessible and inadvertently affect nontarget arthropods, including cricket populations. To mitigate this accessibility, physically limiting access to the toxicant from crickets may be an option. Our objectives were to (i) compare and evaluate the effectiveness of Amdro (Hydramethylnon) and Advion (Indoxacarb) granular baits housed in Ants-No-More Bait Stations (Kness MFG. Inc., Albia, IA) and (ii) evaluate the distance of effectiveness of each bait within a bait station. Ultimately, we observed a 98% reduction in RIFA mound abundance from both baits. Additionally, RIFA mounds within 10 m of the containerized toxicant were reduced by 70%. Our pilot study suggested that Ants-No-More Bait Stations are an effective way to reduce RIFA mounds by 70% if placed 10 m from each other. In practice, this could include bait stations completely covering a particular distance to a cave entrance or fewer bait stations in a ring barrier at a single radial distance to a cave entrance. Containerized toxicants may be a cost-effective and safe RIFA control option around protected cave environments, but further studies are needed to determine potential effects on nontarget arthropods, optimal bait station configuration, and potential effects of biomagnification.
Subject(s)
Ants , Fire Ants , Animals , Texas , Pilot Projects , CavesABSTRACT
The authors explore the impact of cumulative stress on United States (US) military service members (SM), including soldiers and medical personnel, deployed to serve in New York City (NYC) communities. Their mission was to assist in establishing emergency field hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Causative biopsychosocial factors are presented, as well as the impact of wellness checks, which were utilized to monitor the mood and morale of frontline healthcare providers, military personnel, and infected patients in a 2,500-bed emergency field hospital and a 1,000-bed Naval hospital ship operating in the metropolitan NYC area. The authors introduce a self-care and wellness tool, which assesses five core domains (physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual) for the purpose of assessing and improving individual overall well-being during periods of heightened stress. This instrument could aid attending medical personnel in identifying patients at risk of suicide. Likewise, the utility of this self-care tool is applicable to both military SM and civilians, and includes soldiers and medical personnel.
ABSTRACT
The diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are basic skills that should be mastered by neurosurgery specialists during the standardized training. In view of the lack of TBI patients in our center, TBI training was entrusted to a joint base with more TBI patients. Based on clinical training and practice experience of the authors in recent years, including joint base introduction, basic requirement, theory and skill training, research training, humanity accomplishment improvement, inter-base communication and evaluation standard, we discuss the appropriate joint base training mode of TBI in standardized training of neurosurgery specialists, so as to provide reference for cultivating qualified and comprehensively developed neurosurgery specialists.
ABSTRACT
Introduction to the efforts made in Shanghai's clinical residency training.With joint efforts of both clinical training bases and community training bases, this approach integrates the instructional resources of medical schools, and hands-on training at community bases, in order to ease shortage of general practitioners, backup talents, and that of teachers.These efforts can effectively elevate competency of general practitioners.
