Correction: Monitoring independence in daily life activities after trauma in humanitarian settings: Item reduction and assessment of content validity of the Activity Independence Measure-Trauma (AIM-T).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001334.].

A New Lavender (Lavandula multifida L.) Ecotype from Arid Tunisia, with Differential Essential Oil Composition and Higher Antimicrobial Potential.

The lavender Lavandula multifida L., a medicinal plant grown in arid regions of Tunisia, was recently considered an endangered species; thus, its habitats regressed to some difficult zones in terms of access, such as the watershed of Oued Agareb in central-eastern Tunisia. This species was recorded only in deep and narrow shady Wadi of the watershed and benefited from protection against overgrazing, erosion and sunlight. L. multifida was rarely observed in an open area, such as a plateau or large-bed valley. The plant's metabolism is linked to its response to environmental conditions, which is of particular interest to understanding the components of the considered population of L. multifida. Consequently, biochemical and antimicrobial analyses have been evaluated. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis reveals that among the 58 compounds identified in L. multifida essential oil extracted from aboveground plant tissues, camphor was the major component (15.68%), followed by 1,8-cineole (14.14%) and alpha-pinene (13.82%). Moreover, it has been observed that Escherichia coli was more susceptible than Staphylococcus aureus to the antimicrobial properties of L. multifida essential oil, while in the case of camphor, S. aureus was more susceptible than E. coli. The protected population of L. multifida exhibits a distinctive vegetative development and growth cycle, resulting in specific secondary metabolites and distinguished antimicrobial activity.

Monitoring independence in daily life activities after trauma in humanitarian settings: Item reduction and assessment of content validity of the Activity Independence Measure-Trauma (AIM-T).

A standardized set of measures to assess functioning after trauma in humanitarian settings has been called for. The Activity Independence Measure for Trauma (AIM-T) is a clinician-rated measure of independence in 20 daily activities among patients after trauma. Designed in Afghanistan, it has since been used in other contexts. Before recommending the AIM-T for wider use, its measurement properties required confirmation. This study aims at item reduction followed by content validity assessment of the AIM-T. Using a two-step revision process, first, routinely collected data from 635 patients at five facilities managing patients after trauma in Haiti, Burundi, Yemen, and Iraq were used for item reduction. This was performed by analyzing inter-item redundancy and distribution of the first version of the AIM-T (AIM-T1) item scores, resulting in a shortened version (AIM-T2). Second, content validity of the AIM-T2 was assessed by item content validity indices (I-CVI, 0-1) based on structured interviews with 23 health care professionals and 60 patients in Haiti, Burundi, and Iraq. Through the analyses, nine pairs of redundant items (r≥0.90) were identified in the AIM-T1, leading to the removal of nine items, and resulting in AIM-T2. All remaining items were judged highly relevant, appropriate, clear, feasible and representative by most of participants (I-CVI>0.5). Ten items with I-CVI 0.5-0.85 were revised to improve their cultural relevance or appropriateness and one item was added, resulting in the AIM-T3. In conclusion, the proposed 12-item AIM-T3 is overall relevant, clear, and representative of independence in daily activity after trauma and it includes items appropriate and feasible to be observed by clinicians across different humanitarian settings. While some additional measurement properties remain to be evaluated, the present version already has the potential to serve as a routine measure to assess patients after trauma in humanitarian settings.

Epidemiology of Patients Treated at the Emergency Department of a Médecins Sans Frontières Field Hospital During the Mosul Offensive: Iraq, 2017.

BACKGROUND: Armed conflicts constitute a significant public health problem, and the advent of asymmetric warfare tactics creates unique and new challenges to health care organizations providing trauma care in conflicts. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiology of presentations to a civilian field hospital deployed close to an ongoing conflict. METHODS: During the 2016-2017 Mosul offensive, the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières deployed a field hospital 30 km south of Mosul. This study is a retrospective analysis of routinely collected patient data of all presentations to the emergency department (ED) during its period of operation between February 23 and July 18, 2017. Data were collected in Microsoft Excel by health care workers and analyzed in JMP, version 13. Chi-square test was used to compare proportions. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: The analysis included 3946 presentations. Most were due to conflict-related injuries, including explosives (40.4%) and firearms (12.9%), which presented in consecutive waves over time. Approximately one-third of presentations (32.3%) were due to medical issues, which outweighed conflict-related presentations toward the latter half of the operational period. Explosives caused most of the mass casualty events. A total of 20 patients (0.5%) died in the ED. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrated a cyclical burden of conflict-related injuries and extensive medical needs, which increased over time. Among conflict-related injuries, explosive etiology predominated and was likely to result in mass casualty incidents. The low mortality might be due to critical but potentially salvageable patients not reaching the hospital in time, owing to the adverse context.

The Use of Social Media among Saudi Ophthalmologists: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of and beliefs toward social media (SM) among Saudi ophthalmologists. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. A web-based, self-administered questionnaire was e-mailed to ophthalmologists within Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: Out of 392 recipients, 293 completed the survey (74.7% response rate). The vast majority (90.1%) used at least one platform for personal and professional purposes or either. The three most commonly used applications were Twitter (72.3%), Snapchat (65.9%), and Instagram (51.9%). The opinions of respondents with regard to the different aspects of SM varied widely. Around half (56.7%) believed that it was permissible for ophthalmologists to promote themselves on SM and 70.6% agreed that SM usage by health-care professionals should be regulated. Participants believe that SM had both a positive and a negative impact on their daily life and clinical practice. For example, 94 (32.1%) respondents stated that it improved their ability to educate patients, on the other hand, 80 (27.3%) reported that SM wastes quality time that can be spent on something more productive. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate an increased utilization of SM among Saudi ophthalmologists. The ethical aspects of SM usage were a matter of controversy among our respondents. This necessitates the establishment of guidelines by regulatory bodies and/or individual health-care organizations.

Steepest-entropy-ascent nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamic framework to model chemical reaction rates at an atomistic level.

The steepest entropy ascent (SEA) dynamical principle provides a general framework for modeling the dynamics of nonequilibrium (NE) phenomena at any level of description, including the atomistic one. It has recently been shown to provide a precise implementation and meaning to the maximum entropy production principle and to encompass many well-established theories of nonequilibrium thermodynamics into a single unifying geometrical framework. Its original formulation in the framework of quantum thermodynamics (QT) assumes the simplest and most natural Fisher-Rao metric to geometrize from a dynamical standpoint the manifold of density operators, which represent the thermodynamic NE states of the system. This simplest SEAQT formulation is used here to develop a general mathematical framework for modeling the NE time evolution of the quantum state of a chemically reactive mixture at an atomistic level. The method is illustrated for a simple two-reaction kinetic scheme of the overall reaction F+H_{2}⇔HF+F in an isolated tank of fixed volume. However, the general formalism is developed for a reactive system subject to multiple reaction mechanisms. To explicitly implement the SEAQT nonlinear law of evolution for the density operator, both the energy and the particle number eigenvalue problems are set up and solved analytically under the dilute gas approximation. The system-level energy and particle number eigenvalues and eigenstates are used in the SEAQT equation of motion to determine the time evolution of the density operator, thus effectively describing the overall kinetics of the reacting system as it relaxes toward stable chemical equilibrium. The predicted time evolution in the near-equilibrium limit is compared to the reaction rates given by a standard detailed kinetic model so as to extract the single time constant needed by the present SEA model.