Did racial representation change at our outpatient sports medicine clinic during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Introduction/Objective • COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) • Increased infection, hospitalization, and death rates1,2 • Black Americans unequal access to outpatient care vs. White Americans 3 • Inequity worsened during the COVID-19 Pandemic 4 • Maine population: 94.25% “White;” 1.42% “Black” 5 • July 2020 COVID cases: 66.8% “White;” 22% “Black” 6 • Did this disparity reflect in in our sports medicine clinic?https://knowledgeconnection.mainehealth.org/lambrew-retreat-2021/1006/thumbnail.jp

Missed Opportunities: Documentation and Referral Rates Among Children and Adults with Obesity

Introduction: Our study reports rates of obesity documentation on the problem list (PL) and numbers of referrals to obesity medicine specialists and dietitians among pediatric and adult patients with obesity. Methods: All pediatric and adult patients with obesity seen at 14 primary care clinics between 7/1/2017 and 6/30/2019 were evaluated for inclusion of obesity on the PL and referrals to obesity medicine specialists or dietitians. Results: For children with BMI \u3e95% for age, obesity was documented in 31.2%, and 12.5% received a referral. For adults with BMI \u3e30, obesity was documented in 54.2%, and 8.4% received a referral. Significantly more subjects received referrals when obesity was on the PL (both age-groups) compared to those without (children: 20.2% vs 9.0%; adults: 12.12% vs 3.9%, p values \u3c 0.0001). Higher BMI and more comorbidities were also associated with higher referral rates (children: 26.6% vs 8.6% for those with a BMI ≥ 99 percentile; adults: 19.9% vs 5.8% for those with a BMI ≥ 40; children: 20.2% vs 10.7% for ≥ 1 comorbidity vs 1 or fewer; adults: 22.7% vs 5.1% with ≥ 3 comorbidities compared to 0 comorbidities). Discussion: The low rates of documentation of obesity and low rates of referral raise concern that providers may be missing opportunities to identify and manage their patients affected by obesity. Conclusions: Children and adults with obesity are more likely to be referred to a dietitian or obesity medicine specialist if obesity is on the PL, they have a higher BMI, and they have more medical comorbidities

Mouse Performance on a Novel Touchscreen Continuous Performance Task is Dependent on Signaling in the Prelimbic Cortex

Attention is the cognitive processing that facilitates the ability to target and attend to relevant environmental stimuli, while filtering out irrelevant or distracting stimuli. Control over selective attention is theorized to be dependent on organized neural communication that stems from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). To evaluate selective and sustained attention, mice were trained on the novel touchscreen rodent continuous performance task (rCPT), a task designed to emulate the human CPT. In the rodent version, images are continuously presented on a touchscreen, where mice have been trained to selectively respond to one image type while suppressing responses to all others. Following training on the rCPT, bilateral cannulas were implanted into the prelimbic region of the mPFC. Immediately prior to cognitive testing, a mixture of GABA A and B agonists were infused into the prelimbic to temporarily inactivate the structure. Inactivating the prelimbic cortex significantly impaired performance on this task, resulting in a reduced ability to discriminate the target from non-target images, as well as a reduction in speed and overall responding. Currently, mice expressing optogenetic receptors are being used to evaluate how parvalbumin interneuron activity within the prelimbic cortex influences attentional performance on the rCPT. As the parvalbumin interneuron population is heavily implicated in generating coordinated neuronal activity and supporting cognition, it is predicted that inhibiting these interneurons and altering synchronous prelimbic activity will impair rCPT performance

Community-based Approaches to Reduce Chronic Disease Disparities in Georgia

Background: Among underserved and racial/ethnic minority populations in Georgia, there are profound health disparities and a burden of chronic diseases. Such diseases, which are preventable, are influenced by risk factors, including poor nutrition, physical inactivity, lack of quality health care, and tobacco use and exposure. Awardees of the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) and Partnerships to Improve Community Health (PICH) are implementing community-based initiatives using evidence-based, policy, systems, and environmental approaches to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities and the chronic disease burden in underserved urban and rural Georgia communities. Methods: Within the context of a social ecological framework, the REACH and PICH awardees selected interventions. Their impact in the areas of tobacco use and exposure, chronic disease prevention and management, and nutrition are described. Results: To date, the interventions of Georgia’s PICH and REACH awardees have reached approximately 805,000 Georgia residents. Conclusions: By implementing strategies for community-based policy, systems, and environmental improvement, Georgia’s PICH and REACH awardees are reducing tobacco use and exposure; increasing access to healthy foods; and providing chronic disease prevention, risk reduction, and management opportunities for underserved communities in urban and rural Georgia communities. Their efforts to address chronic disease risk factors at various social and ecological levels are contributing to a reduction in racial/ethnic health disparities and the chronic disease burden in Georgia

Miscellany

Art Literature Roy F. Powell Creditshttps://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/miscell/1001/thumbnail.jp

Two distinct genomic lineages of sinaivirus detected in Guyanese Africanized honey bees

Over the past decade or so, PCR-based screening programs have reported that Africanized honey bees (AHB) are also hosts to viruses commonly found in European honey bees. Very little is known about the genomic variants found in AHB. Here, we present two distinct lineages of sinaiviruses in AHB

Correlative imaging of trace elements and intact molecular species in a single-tissue sample at the 50 μm scale

Elemental and molecular imaging play a crucial role in understanding disease pathogenesis. To accurately correlate elemental and molecular markers, it is desirable to perform sequential elemental and molecular imaging on a single-tissue section. However, very little is known about the impact of performing these measurements in sequence. In this work, we highlight some of the challenges and successes associated with performing elemental mapping in sequence with mass spectrometry imaging. Specifically, the feasibility of molecular mapping using the mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) techniques matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) and desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) in sequence with the elemental mapping technique particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) is explored. Challenges for integration include substrate compatibility, as well as delocalization and spectral changes. We demonstrate that while sequential imaging comes with some compromises, sequential DESI-PIXE imaging is sufficient to correlate sulfur, iron, and lipid markers in a single tissue section at the 50 μm scale

Miscellany

Art Writinghttps://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/miscell/1000/thumbnail.jp

Anoxia begets anoxia: a positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Declining oxygen concentrations in the deep waters of lakes worldwide pose a pressing environmental and societal challenge. Existing theory suggests that low deep-water dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations could trigger a positive feedback through which anoxia (i.e., very low DO) during a given summer begets increasingly severe occurrences of anoxia in following summers. Specifically, anoxic conditions can promote nutrient release from sediments, thereby stimulating phytoplankton growth, and subsequent phytoplankton decomposition can fuel heterotrophic respiration, resulting in increased spatial extent and duration of anoxia. However, while the individual relationships in this feedback are well established, to our knowledge, there has not been a systematic analysis within or across lakes that simultaneously demonstrates all of the mechanisms necessary to produce a positive feedback that reinforces anoxia. Here, we compiled data from 656 widespread temperate lakes and reservoirs to analyze the proposed anoxia begets anoxia feedback. Lakes in the dataset span a broad range of surface area (1–126,909 ha), maximum depth (6–370 m), and morphometry, with a median time-series duration of 30 years at each lake. Using linear mixed models, we found support for each of the positive feedback relationships between anoxia, phosphorus concentrations, chlorophyll a concentrations, and oxygen demand across the 656-lake dataset. Likewise, we found further support for these relationships by analyzing time-series data from individual lakes. Our results indicate that the strength of these feedback relationships may vary with lake-specific characteristics: For example, we found that surface phosphorus concentrations were more positively associated with chlorophyll a in high-phosphorus lakes, and oxygen demand had a stronger influence on the extent of anoxia in deep lakes. Taken together, these results support the existence of a positive feedback that could magnify the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic pressures driving the development of anoxia in lakes around the world