Knee power is an important parameter in understanding medial knee joint load in knee osteoarthritis.

Calder, K. M., Acker, S. M., Arora, N., Beattie, K. A., Callaghan, J. P., Adachi, J. D., & Maly, M. R. (2014). Knee Power Is an Important Parameter in Understanding Medial Knee Joint Load in Knee Osteoarthritis: Knee Power and OA. Arthritis Care & Research, 66(5), 687–694. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.22223Objective To determine the extent to which knee extensor strength and power explain variance in knee adduction moment (KAM) peak and impulse in clinical knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods Fifty-three adults (mean ± SD age 61.6 ± 6.3 years, 11 men) with clinical knee OA participated. The KAM waveform was calculated from motion and force data and ensemble averaged from 5 walking trials. The KAM peak was normalized to body mass (Nm/kg). The mean KAM impulse reflected the mean total medial knee load during stride (Nm × seconds). For strength, the maximum knee extensor moment attained from maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) was normalized to body mass (Nm/kg). For power, the maximum knee extensor power during isotonic contractions, with the resistance set at 25% of MVIC, was normalized to body mass (W/kg). Covariates included age, sex, knee pain on the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, gait speed, and body mass index (BMI). Relationships of the KAM peak and impulse with strength and power were examined using sequential stepwise forward linear regressions. Results Covariates did not explain variance in the KAM peak. While extensor strength did not, peak knee extensor power explained 8% of the variance in the KAM peak (P = 0.02). Sex and BMI explained 24% of the variance in the KAM impulse (P < 0.05). Sex, BMI, and knee extensor power explained 31% of the variance in the KAM impulse (P = 0.02), with power contributing 7% (P < 0.05). Conclusion Knee extensor power was more important than isometric knee strength in understanding medial knee loads during gait.Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Grant Number: 102643Canadian Institutes of Health Research Joint Motion Program Postdoctoral FellowshipNetwork Scholar Award through The Arthritis Society/Canadian Arthritis NetworkTier I Canada Research Chair in Spine Biomechanics and Injury PreventionAlliance for Better Bone Health Chair in RheumatologyNew Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Researc

Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants impair host immunity by activating host cell glycolysis and inducing necroptosis

Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants (SCVs) are frequently associated with chronic infection, yet they lack expression of many virulence determinants associated with the pathogenicity of wild-type strains. We found that both wild-type S. aureus and a ΔhemB SCV prototype potently activate glycolysis in host cells. Glycolysis and the generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species were sufficient to induce necroptosis, a caspase-independent mechanism of host cell death that failed to eradicate S. aureus and instead promoted ΔhemB SCV pathogenicity. To support ongoing glycolytic activity, the ΔhemB SCV induced over a 100-fold increase in the expression of fumC, which encodes an enzyme that catalyses the degradatin of fumarate, an inhibitor of glycolysis. Consistent with fumC-dependent depletion of local fumarate, the ΔhemB SCV failed to elicit trained immunity and protection from a secondary infectious challenge in the skin. The reliance of the S. aureus SCV population on glycolysis accounts for much of its role in the pathogenesis of S. aureus skin infection

The 2MASS Redshift Survey - Description and Data Release

We present the results of the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS), a ten-year project to map the full three-dimensional distribution of galaxies in the nearby Universe. The 2 Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) was completed in 2003 and its final data products, including an extended source catalog (XSC), are available on-line. The 2MASS XSC contains nearly a million galaxies with Ks <= 13.5 mag and is essentially complete and mostly unaffected by interstellar extinction and stellar confusion down to a galactic latitude of |b|=5 deg for bright galaxies. Near-infrared wavelengths are sensitive to the old stellar populations that dominate galaxy masses, making 2MASS an excellent starting point to study the distribution of matter in the nearby Universe. We selected a sample of 44,599 2MASS galaxies with Ks =5 deg (>= 8 deg towards the Galactic bulge) as the input catalog for our survey. We obtained spectroscopic observations for 11,000 galaxies and used previously-obtained velocities for the remainder of the sample to generate a redshift catalog that is 97.6% complete to well-defined limits and covers 91% of the sky. This provides an unprecedented census of galaxy (baryonic mass) concentrations within 300 Mpc. Earlier versions of our survey have been used in a number of publications that have studied the bulk motion of the Local Group, mapped the density and peculiar velocity fields out to 50 Mpc, detected galaxy groups, and estimated the values of several cosmological parameters. Additionally, we present morphological types for a nearly-complete sub-sample of 20,860 galaxies with Ks = 10 deg.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The 2MRS catalogs and a version of the paper with higher-resolution figures can be found at http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/2mrs

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Knee Power Is an Important Parameter in Understanding Medial Knee Joint Load in Knee Osteoarthritis

Calder, K. M., Acker, S. M., Arora, N., Beattie, K. A., Callaghan, J. P., Adachi, J. D., & Maly, M. R. (2014). Knee Power Is an Important Parameter in Understanding Medial Knee Joint Load in Knee Osteoarthritis: Knee Power and OA. Arthritis Care & Research, 66(5), 687–694. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.22223Objective To determine the extent to which knee extensor strength and power explain variance in knee adduction moment (KAM) peak and impulse in clinical knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods Fifty-three adults (mean ± SD age 61.6 ± 6.3 years, 11 men) with clinical knee OA participated. The KAM waveform was calculated from motion and force data and ensemble averaged from 5 walking trials. The KAM peak was normalized to body mass (Nm/kg). The mean KAM impulse reflected the mean total medial knee load during stride (Nm × seconds). For strength, the maximum knee extensor moment attained from maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) was normalized to body mass (Nm/kg). For power, the maximum knee extensor power during isotonic contractions, with the resistance set at 25% of MVIC, was normalized to body mass (W/kg). Covariates included age, sex, knee pain on the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, gait speed, and body mass index (BMI). Relationships of the KAM peak and impulse with strength and power were examined using sequential stepwise forward linear regressions. Results Covariates did not explain variance in the KAM peak. While extensor strength did not, peak knee extensor power explained 8% of the variance in the KAM peak (P = 0.02). Sex and BMI explained 24% of the variance in the KAM impulse (P < 0.05). Sex, BMI, and knee extensor power explained 31% of the variance in the KAM impulse (P = 0.02), with power contributing 7% (P < 0.05). Conclusion Knee extensor power was more important than isometric knee strength in understanding medial knee loads during gait.Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Grant Number: 102643Canadian Institutes of Health Research Joint Motion Program Postdoctoral FellowshipNetwork Scholar Award through The Arthritis Society/Canadian Arthritis NetworkTier I Canada Research Chair in Spine Biomechanics and Injury PreventionAlliance for Better Bone Health Chair in RheumatologyNew Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Researc

Donor-recipient sex is associated with transfusion-related outcomes in critically ill patients

Transfusion of red blood cells (RBCs) from female donors has been associated with increased risk of mortality. This study aims to investigate the associations between donor-recipient sex and posttransfusion mortality and morbidity in critically ill patients who received RBC transfusions from either male-only donors or from female-only donors (unisex-transfusion cases). Survival analysis was used to compare 4 groups: female-to-female, female-to-male, male-to-female, and male-to-male transfusion. Multivariate logistic model was used to evaluate the association between donor sex and intensive care unit (ICU) mortality. Associations between transfusion and acute kidney injury (AKI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and nosocomial infections were assessed. Of the 6992 patients included in the original cohort study, 403 patients received unisex-transfusion. Survival analysis and the logistic model showed that transfusion of female RBCs to male patients was associated with an increased ICU mortality compared with transfusion of female RBCs to female patients (odds ratio, 2.43; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-5.77; P <.05). There was a trend toward increased ARDS in patients receiving RBC from female donors compared with those receiving blood from males (P = .06), whereas AKI was higher in donor-recipient sex-matched transfusion groups compared with sex-mismatched groups (P = .05). This was an exploratory study with potential uncontrolled confounders that limits broad generalization of the findings. Results warrant further studies investigating biological mechanisms underlying the association between donor sex with adverse outcomes as well as studies on the benefit of matching of blood between donor and recipient

Indications for Hospitalization in Children with SARS-CoV-2 Infection during the Omicron Wave in New York City

The emergence of the Omicron variant was accompanied by an acute increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in New York City. An increased incidence of COVID-19-associated croup in children during the Omicron wave has been recognized, suggesting that there may be other changes in clinical symptoms and severity. To better understand clinical outcomes and health care utilization in children infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the Omicron wave, we performed a cross-sectional study in pediatric patients aged &le;18 years who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric emergency departments within a large medical system in New York City from 2 December 2021 to 23 January 2022. We described the clinical characteristics and outcomes of pediatric patients who presented to the pediatric emergency department and were hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron wave in New York City. There were 2515 children tested in the ED for SARS-CoV-2 of whom 794 (31.6%) tested positive. Fifty-eight children were hospitalized for a COVID-19-related indication, representing 7.3% of all COVID-19-positive children and 72% of hospitalized COVID-19-positive children. Most (64%) children hospitalized for a COVID-19-related indication were less than 5 years old. Indications for hospitalization included respiratory symptoms, clinical monitoring of patients with comorbid conditions, and exacerbations of underlying disease. Eleven (19%) hospitalized children were admitted to the ICU and six (10%) required mechanical ventilation. Children infected with COVID-19 during the Omicron wave, particularly those less than 5 years old, were at risk for hospitalization. A majority of hospitalizations were directly related to COVID-19 infection although clinical indications varied with less than a half being admitted for respiratory diseases including croup. Our findings underscore the need for an effective COVID-19 vaccine in those less than 5 years old, continued monitoring for changes in clinical outcomes and health care utilization in children as more SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge, and understanding that children are often admitted for non-respiratory diseases with COVID-19