Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE) Mitigates the Effects of Spatial Disorientation to Simulated Orion Spacecraft Re-Entry: Individual Differences

NASA has identified a potential risk of spatial disorientation to future astronauts during re-entry of the proposed Orion spacecraft. The purpose of this study was to determine if a 6-hour physiological training procedure, Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE), can mitigate these effects. Twenty subjects were assigned to two groups (AFTE and Control) matched for motion sickness susceptibility and gender. All subjects received a standard rotating chair test to determine motion sickness susceptibility; three training sessions on a manual performance task; and four exposures to a simulated Orion re-entry test in the rotating chair. Treatment subjects were given two hours of AFTE training before each Orion test. A diagnostic scale was used to evaluate motion sickness symptom severity. Results showed that 2 hours of AFTE significantly reduced motion sickness symptoms during the second Orion test. AFTE subjects were able to maintain lower heart rates and skin conductance levels and other responses than the control group subjects during subsequent tests. Trends show that performance was less degraded for AFTE subjects. The results of this study indicate that astronauts could benefit from receiving at least 2 hours of preflight AFTE. In addition, flight crews could benefit further by practicing physiologic self-regulation using mobile devices

Care of older people and people requiring palliative care with COVID-19: guidance from the Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.

INTRODUCTION: Older people living with frailty and/or cognitive impairment who have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience higher rates of critical illness. There are also people who become critically ill with COVID-19 for whom a decision is made to take a palliative approach to their care. The need for clinical guidance in these two populations resulted in the formation of the Care of Older People and Palliative Care Panel of the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce in June 2020. This specialist panel consists of nursing, medical, pharmacy and allied health experts in geriatrics and palliative care from across Australia. MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS: The panel was tasked with developing two clinical flow charts for the management of people with COVID-19 who are i) older and living with frailty and/or cognitive impairment, and ii) receiving palliative care for COVID-19 or other underlying illnesses. The flow charts focus on goals of care, communication, medication management, escalation of care, active disease-directed care, and managing symptoms such as delirium, anxiety, agitation, breathlessness or cough. The Taskforce also developed living guideline recommendations for the care of adults with COVID-19, including a commentary to discuss special considerations when caring for older people and those requiring palliative care. CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT AS RESULT OF THE GUIDELINE: The practice points in the flow charts emphasise quality clinical care, with a focus on addressing the most important challenges when caring for older individuals and people with COVID-19 requiring palliative care. The adult recommendations contain additional considerations for the care of older people and those requiring palliative care

Deconstruction of rheumatoid arthritis synovium defines inflammatory subtypes

Rheumatoid arthritis is a prototypical autoimmune disease that causes joint inflammation and destruction1. There is currently no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, and the effectiveness of treatments varies across patients, suggesting an undefined pathogenic diversity1,2. Here, to deconstruct the cell states and pathways that characterize this pathogenic heterogeneity, we profiled the full spectrum of cells in inflamed synovium from patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We used multi-modal single-cell RNA-sequencing and surface protein data coupled with histology of synovial tissue from 79 donors to build single-cell atlas of rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue that includes more than 314,000 cells. We stratified tissues into six groups, referred to as cell-type abundance phenotypes (CTAPs), each characterized by selectively enriched cell states. These CTAPs demonstrate the diversity of synovial inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis, ranging from samples enriched for T and B cells to those largely lacking lymphocytes. Disease-relevant cell states, cytokines, risk genes, histology and serology metrics are associated with particular CTAPs. CTAPs are dynamic and can predict treatment response, highlighting the clinical utility of classifying rheumatoid arthritis synovial phenotypes. This comprehensive atlas and molecular, tissue-based stratification of rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue reveal new insights into rheumatoid arthritis pathology and heterogeneity that could inform novel targeted treatments

Molecular Mechanism of the Constitutive Activation of the L250Q Human Melanocortin-4 Receptor Polymorphism †

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65471/1/j.1747-0285.2006.00362.x.pd

A VERITAS/Breakthrough Listen Search for Optical Technosignatures

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative is conducting a program using multiple telescopes around the world to search for "technosignatures": artificial transmitters of extraterrestrial origin from beyond our solar system. The VERITAS Collaboration joined this program in 2018, and provides the capability to search for one particular technosignature: optical pulses of a few nanoseconds duration detectable over interstellar distances. We report here on the analysis and results of dedicated VERITAS observations of Breakthrough Listen targets conducted in 2019 and 2020 and of archival VERITAS data collected since 2012. Thirty hours of dedicated observations of 136 targets and 249 archival observations of 140 targets were analyzed and did not reveal any signals consistent with a technosignature. The results are used to place limits on the fraction of stars hosting transmitting civilizations. We also discuss the minimum-pulse sensitivity of our observations and present VERITAS observations of CALIOP: a space-based pulsed laser onboard the CALIPSO satellite. The detection of these pulses with VERITAS, using the analysis techniques developed for our technosignature search, allows a test of our analysis efficiency and serves as an important proof-of-principle.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

An exploration of the relationship between educational background and the coaching behaviours and practice activities of professional youth soccer coaches

This paper is closed access until 12 December 2019.Background and purpose: Despite the proliferation in recent years of higher education establishments offering tertiary-level study in the field of sports coaching, there is a lack of research into the impact of such courses on coaching practice. The behaviours employed and activities used by coaches during practice sessions is an area where one might expect to see such impact, indeed certain studies have tentatively noted the educational qualifications of coaches and suggested that this may play a role in the application of behaviours more aligned with player learning. The purpose of this study was therefore to compare youth soccer coaches with and without tertiary-level qualifications, examining their coaching behaviours and practice activities. Method: The participants were 10 male professional youth soccer coaches aged 24–55 with an average of 13 years coaching experience. Five of the coaches had completed undergraduate degree courses related to sport coaching. All of the coaches worked with players aged under 9 to under 18 in the youth academy of an English professional soccer club. Systematic observation of coach behaviour and practice activities was carried out using the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (Cushion et al. 2012), while follow-up interviews were used to elicit the coaches’ perceptions of, and rationale for, their behaviour. Findings: The observation data showed that graduate coaches used significantly more divergent questioning than non-graduate coaches, while the interview data revealed a general trend for graduate coaches to show greater self-awareness of behaviours and changes in behaviour between practice types. Graduate coaches also provided more comprehensive rationales, for example, seeing silence as a means of facilitating player decision-making as well as for observation. In contrast to previous research, sessions featured a higher proportion of playing form than training form activities and at over 20% of session duration, the ‘other’ practice state was a prominent feature of contact time with players. While some coaches saw ‘other’ as wasted time, graduate coaches identified this as an opportunity for group discussion and social interaction. The study adds to existing data about coach behaviours and practice activities, providing evidence that education background may indeed influence coaching practice

The 28 November 2020 landslide, tsunami, and outburst flood – a hazard cascade associated with rapid deglaciation at Elliot Creek, British Columbia, Canada

We describe and model the evolution of a recent landslide, tsunami, outburst flood, and sediment plume in the southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. On November 28, 2020, about 18 million m3 of rock descended 1,000 m from a steep valley wall and traveled across the toe of a glacier before entering a 0.6 km2 glacier lake and producing >100-m high run-up. Water overtopped the lake outlet and scoured a 10-km long channel before depositing debris on a 2-km2 fan below the lake outlet. Floodwater, organic debris, and fine sediment entered a fjord where it produced a 60+km long sediment plume and altered turbidity, water temperature, and water chemistry for weeks. The outburst flood destroyed forest and salmon spawning habitat. Physically based models of the landslide, tsunami, and flood provide real-time simulations of the event and can improve understanding of similar hazard cascades and the risk they pose

Psychosocial impact of undergoing prostate cancer screening for men with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

OBJECTIVES: To report the baseline results of a longitudinal psychosocial study that forms part of the IMPACT study, a multi-national investigation of targeted prostate cancer (PCa) screening among men with a known pathogenic germline mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. PARTICPANTS AND METHODS: Men enrolled in the IMPACT study were invited to complete a questionnaire at collaborating sites prior to each annual screening visit. The questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics and the following measures: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Impact of Event Scale (IES), 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36), Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer, Cancer Worry Scale-Revised, risk perception and knowledge. The results of the baseline questionnaire are presented. RESULTS: A total of 432 men completed questionnaires: 98 and 160 had mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, respectively, and 174 were controls (familial mutation negative). Participants' perception of PCa risk was influenced by genetic status. Knowledge levels were high and unrelated to genetic status. Mean scores for the HADS and SF-36 were within reported general population norms and mean IES scores were within normal range. IES mean intrusion and avoidance scores were significantly higher in BRCA1/BRCA2 carriers than in controls and were higher in men with increased PCa risk perception. At the multivariate level, risk perception contributed more significantly to variance in IES scores than genetic status. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to report the psychosocial profile of men with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations undergoing PCa screening. No clinically concerning levels of general or cancer-specific distress or poor quality of life were detected in the cohort as a whole. A small subset of participants reported higher levels of distress, suggesting the need for healthcare professionals offering PCa screening to identify these risk factors and offer additional information and support to men seeking PCa screening

Physics case for an LHCb Upgrade II - Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

The LHCb Upgrade II will fully exploit the flavour-physics opportunities of the HL-LHC, and study additional physics topics that take advantage of the forward acceptance of the LHCb spectrometer. The LHCb Upgrade I will begin operation in 2020. Consolidation will occur, and modest enhancements of the Upgrade I detector will be installed, in Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC (2025) and these are discussed here. The main Upgrade II detector will be installed in long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030) and will build on the strengths of the current LHCb experiment and the Upgrade I. It will operate at a luminosity up to 2×1034 cm−2s−1, ten times that of the Upgrade I detector. New detector components will improve the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. An Expression Of Interest proposing Upgrade II was submitted in February 2017. The physics case for the Upgrade II is presented here in more depth. CP-violating phases will be measured with precisions unattainable at any other envisaged facility. The experiment will probe b → sl+l−and b → dl+l− transitions in both muon and electron decays in modes not accessible at Upgrade I. Minimal flavour violation will be tested with a precision measurement of the ratio of B(B0 → μ+μ−)/B(Bs → μ+μ−). Probing charm CP violation at the 10−5 level may result in its long sought discovery. Major advances in hadron spectroscopy will be possible, which will be powerful probes of low energy QCD. Upgrade II potentially will have the highest sensitivity of all the LHC experiments on the Higgs to charm-quark couplings. Generically, the new physics mass scale probed, for fixed couplings, will almost double compared with the pre-HL-LHC era; this extended reach for flavour physics is similar to that which would be achieved by the HE-LHC proposal for the energy frontier

LHCb upgrade software and computing : technical design report

This document reports the Research and Development activities that are carried out in the software and computing domains in view of the upgrade of the LHCb experiment. The implementation of a full software trigger implies major changes in the core software framework, in the event data model, and in the reconstruction algorithms. The increase of the data volumes for both real and simulated datasets requires a corresponding scaling of the distributed computing infrastructure. An implementation plan in both domains is presented, together with a risk assessment analysis