The need for speed! 10 ways that WhatsApp and instant messaging can enhance communication (and clinical care) in sport & exercise medicine

Editorial

Breathe the Machine

Breathe the Machine interspecies morph edition featuring a video conference and solo or synched blow-ins Teresa Carmody Dengke Chen Matt Roberts Terri Witek The FaaS were future-oriented. Every day, they contemplated the question: what kind of ancestor will you be? A collaborative group composed of a prose writer, new media artist, 3-D animator, and poet enter your personal computers and suggest that in this particularly viral moment, individual breaths + machines may be the closest we get to community touch. An animated video conference offers the project\u27s conceptual framework, including questions about invasive species and intimacy in this new world where we stand masked and apart, not quite meeting another’s onscreen eyes. Participants in Breathe the Machine will each breathe into their own computer mics to both create onscreen reactions and change an animated world. Each transformation will become part of a larger story built from the computers’ individual data. At a designated moment in the conference, we\u27ll combine breaths in a synched group Blow-In. Their conceiving mind quit avoiding their body; their body, they realized, had already FaaD. Donna Haraway is just one theorist who argues that as we acquire more mechanical parts, and as technology takes on increasingly human functions, we are already participants in interspecies interactions; a fact made disturbingly clear and re-capitalized by the unseen transmissions of a global pandemic. Breathe the Machine challenges us to think of screens as partners in new, combinatory narratives that converge technology and the human into uneasy, resilient allies. Each breath, then, can become a cross-species touch, an interactive installation, an archive, a fiction, a world and a landscape. A prompt. This is how we morph. Project website: https://btm19.weebly.com/ To participate in this event, download and open the app, then blow onto your computer’s microphone. Using this app, we will meet at a specific time to participate in a live streamed event. The app, instructions, and story of the FaaS can be found on our project website

Application fever: Reviewing the causes, costs, and cures for residency application inflation

Over the past decade, the number of residency applications submitted per applicant has nearly doubled. This epidemic of Application Fever is expensive for applicants, burdensome for programs, and ultimately does not improve overall Match outcomes. In this review, we discuss the phenomenon of Application Fever, with a focus on contributing factors and costs of this behavior. Application Fever has its origins in the early 1990s. At that time, the number of residency applicants began to outpace the number of available positions. Because an applicant who applies to more residency programs has a greater probability of securing a residency position than an otherwise equivalent applicant who applies to fewer, overapplication became a dominant strategy and residency applicants began to apply to more residency programs each year. This trend was enhanced and enabled by the introduction of the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Although Application Fever is a rational decision for applicants, it imposes a substantial evaluative burden on program directors and necessitates the use of convenience screening metrics. We then briefly review potential solutions, including informational strategies, application limits, and marketplace incentives to reduce application numbers. Although a fixed cap on applications would reduce application numbers and facilitate a holistic selection process, greater transparency from residency programs regarding their selection criteria would be required to help applicants choose where to apply. To improve the residency application process for programs and applicants alike, we call upon the medical community to further study Application Fever and carefully consider solutions, including fixed application caps

A phylogenetically distinct lineage of Pyrenopeziza brassicae associated with chlorotic leaf spot of Brassicaceae in North America

Light leaf spot, caused by the ascomycete Pyrenopeziza brassicae Sutton & Rawlinson, is an established disease of Brassicaceae in the United Kingdom (UK), continental Europe, and Oceania (OC, including New Zealand and Australia). The disease was reported in North America (NA) for the first time in 2014 on Brassica spp. in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon, followed by detection in Brassica juncea cover crops and on B. rapa weeds in northwestern Washington in 2016. Preliminary DNA sequence data and field observations suggest that isolates of the pathogen present in NA might be distinct from those in the UK, continental Europe, and OC. Comparisons of isolates from these regions genetically (multilocus sequence analysis, MAT gene sequences, and rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting), pathogenically (B. rapa inoculation studies), biologically (sexual compatibility), and morphologically (colony and conidial morphology) demonstrated two genetically distinct evolutionary lineages. Lineage 1 comprised isolates from the UK, continental Europe, and OC, and included the P. brassicae type specimen. Lineage 2 contained the NA isolates associated with recent disease outbreaks in the Pacific Northwest region of the USA. Symptoms caused by isolates of the two lineages on B. rapa and B. juncea differed, so ‘chlorotic leaf spot’ is proposed for the disease caused by lineage 2 isolates of P. brassicae. Isolates of the two lineages differed in genetic diversity as well as sensitivity to the fungicides carbendazim and prothioconazole

The gut microbiome as a biomarker of differential susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to exact a devastating global toll. Ascertaining the factors underlying differential susceptibility and prognosis following viral exposure is critical to improving public health responses. We propose that gut microbes may contribute to variation in COVID-19 outcomes. We synthesise evidence for gut microbial contributions to immunity and inflammation, and associations with demographic factors affecting disease severity. We suggest mechanisms potentially underlying microbially mediated differential susceptibility to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). These include gut microbiome-mediated priming of host inflammatory responses and regulation of endocrine signalling, with consequences for the cellular features exploited by SARS-CoV-2 virions. We argue that considering gut microbiome-mediated mechanisms may offer a lens for appreciating differential susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, potentially contributing to clinical and epidemiological approaches to understanding and managing COVID-19

The Effects of Resistance Exercise Training on Quality of Life and Muscle Strength in Patients Undergoing Cancer Treatment: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer and prostate cancer are two of the most common cancers seen in females and males respectively worldwide. Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and androgen deprivation therapy are essential to combat cancerous cells. However, the lasting side effects of these lifesaving treatments can impact an individual’s quality of life and muscle strength without appropriate intervention. While exercise has been shown to be beneficial for patients with cancer, there is limited understanding of the effects of resistance training when performed concurrently with medical interventions. PURPOSE: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the impact of resistance training on quality of life and muscle strength in patients with breast and prostate cancer undergoing cancer treatment. METHODS: An academic search was conducted beginning August of 2020 and ending January 2021. The databases searched consisted of PubMed, EBSCO, Academic Search Ultimate, CINAHL, and Medline. This search yielded 18 randomized controlled trials, 11 pertaining to breast cancer and 7 pertaining to prostate cancer. RESULTS: All articles utilized a myriad of outcome measures to see changes in QoL and muscle strength. Studies evaluated resulted in either a positive short term or no improvement during the period of active intervention. However, some studies did note a lack of long-term significant differences in outcome measures between the intervention and control groups. Review of the literature did not reveal patient attrition was due to adverse effects of the intervention. CONCLUSION: Resistance training can be a safe and effective intervention to improve quality and life and muscle strength in patients undergoing cancer treatment. Current studies demonstrate the need for physical therapists to be included in the interdisciplinary approach from the moment of a cancer diagnosis.https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/research_posters2021/1044/thumbnail.jp

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: Decreasing length of stay

Background: The number of robotic operations performed with the da Vinci Surgical System has increased during the past decade. This system allows for greater maneuverability and control than hand-assisted laparoscopic procedures, resulting in less tissue manipulation and irritation

The Thermal Structure of Gas in Pre-Stellar Cores: A Case Study of Barnard 68

We present a direct comparison of a chemical/physical model to multitransitional observations of C18O and 13CO towards the Barnard 68 pre-stellar core. These observations provide a sensitive test for models of low UV field photodissociation regions and offer the best constraint on the gas temperature of a pre-stellar core. We find that the gas temperature of this object is surprisingly low (~7-8 K), and significantly below the dust temperature, in the outer layers (Av < 5 mag) that are traced by C18O and 13CO emission. As shown previously, the inner layers (Av > 5 mag) exhibit significant freeze-out of CO onto grain surfaces. Because the dust and gas are not fully coupled, depletion of key coolants in the densest layers raises the core (gas) temperature, but only by ~1 K. The gas temperature in layers not traced by C18O and 13CO emission can be probed by NH3 emission, with a previously estimated temperature of ~10-11 K. To reach these temperatures in the inner core requires an order of magnitude reduction in the gas to dust coupling rate. This potentially argues for a lack of small grains in the densest gas, presumably due to grain coagulation.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Astrophysical Journa

Cerebellar infarction requiring surgical decompression in patient with COVID 19 pathological analysis and brief review

© 2020 The Authors Background: This report and literature review describes a case of a COVID-19 patient who suffered a cerebellar stroke requiring neurosurgical decompression. This is the first reported case of a sub-occipital craniectomy with brain biopsy in a COVID-19 patient showing leptomeningeal venous intimal inflammation. Clinical description: The patient is a 48-year-old SARS-COV-2 positive male with multiple comorbidities, who presented with fevers and respiratory symptoms, and imaging consistent with multifocal pneumonia. On day 5 of admission, the patient had sudden change in mental status, increased C-Reactive Protein, ferritin and elevated Interleukin-6 levels. Head CT showed cerebral infarction from vertebral artery occlusion. Given subsequent rapid neurologic decline from cerebellar swelling and mass effect on his brainstem emergent neurosurgical intervention was performed. Brain biopsy found a vein with small organizing thrombus adjacent to focally proliferative intima with focal intimal neutrophils. Conclusion: A young man with COVID-19 and suspected immune dysregulation, complicated by a large cerebrovascular ischemic stroke secondary to vertebral artery thrombosis requiring emergent neurosurgical intervention for decompression with improved neurological outcomes. Brain biopsy was suggestive of inflammation from thrombosed vessel, and neutrophilic infiltration of cerebellar tissue

EMC Test Report: StangSat - CubeSat Program

This report documents the Electromagnetic Interference E M I testing performed on the StangSat; the unit under test (UUT). Testing was per the requirements of MIL STD-461F. The UUT was characterized and passed the radiated emissions (RE102 limit for Spacecraft) testing