The Wisdom of Athena

The Greek goddess Athene, also spelled Athena, is widely associated with the functions of the brain and referred to as the goddess of wisdom, but what type of wisdom does she have? This essay will focus on Athena and the many facets of one of her main characteristics, wisdom. It could be said that the two sides of her wisdom are reflective of the melding and balance of the male and female traits she possesses

The Liking Gap in Conversations: Do People Like Us More Than We Think?

Having conversations with new people is an important and rewarding part of social life. Yet conversations can also be intimidating and anxiety provoking, and this makes people wonder and worry about what their conversation partners really think of them. Are people accurate in their estimates? We found that following interactions, people systematically underestimated how much their conversation partners liked them and enjoyed their company, an illusion we call the liking gap. We observed the liking gap as strangers got acquainted in the laboratory, as first-year college students got to know their dorm mates, and as formerly unacquainted members of the general public got to know each other during a personal development workshop. The liking gap persisted in conversations of varying lengths and even lasted for several months, as college dorm mates developed new relationships. Our studies suggest that after people have conversations, they are liked more than they know

Thomas Jefferson Health System Medical Legal Partnership

Introduction: Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) provide civil legal services in concert with healthcare services to mitigate complex social conditions with health-harming effects. Currently, there are 333 MLPs in 46 states. Thomas Jefferson Health System (TJHS) does not have a systemwide MLP. (Magee Rehabilitation Hospital does have an MLP used by qualifying Magee patients). This project sought to identify the core components of an MLP and to demonstrate the value an MLP would provide TJHS. Methods: Assessed existing literature. Interviewed an existing MLP director. Patients from the Jefferson Hospital Ambulatory Practice (JHAP) clinic completed a written survey regarding health-harming social-legal issues. Entered survey data into Excel and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Six common core components of all MLPs were identified. Existing MLPs have demonstrated a reduction in readmission rates, decreased inpatient and emergency department visits, and recovery of payments for unreimbursed clinical services. Patients report improved health when unmet civil legal needs are addressed. Results of the JHAP clinic survey are pending, but preliminarily many patients appear to have social-legal issues. Conclusions: This project demonstrates that a TJHS MLP program could improve patient health and reduce overutilization of the health system. Over time the cost of the program would potentially be offset by the recovery of healthcare dollars. TJHS patients appear to have social-legal issues that negatively impact their health and could be addressed through legal remedies. Based on the analysis, an Opportunity Assessment was generated. Critical next steps are to draft a business plan and identify potential funding

Human milk feeding and cognitive outcome in preterm infants: the role of infection and NEC reduction

BACKGROUND: Breast milk has been associated with lower risk of infection and necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) and improved long-term cognitive outcomes in preterm infants but, if unsupplemented, does not meet the nutritional requirements of preterm infants. METHODS: Preterm infants were randomised to receive a high nutrient intervention diet: preterm formula (PTF) or the standard diet: term formula (TF) or banked donor breast milk (BBM), either as their sole diet or as supplement to maternal breast milk (MBM). IQ tests were performed at ages 7, 15, 20, and 30 years. RESULTS: An increase in MBM and BBM intake was associated with a lower chance of neonatal infection/NEC. Neonatal infection/NEC was associated with lower Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) and Performance IQ (PIQ) score at ages 7 and 30 years. The relationship between higher intake of MBM and PIQ at age 7 years was partly mediated by neonatal infection/NEC. The intervention diet was associated with higher Verbal IQ (VIQ) scores compared to the standard diet. There was no evidence that these effects changed from childhood through to adulthood. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal diet is an important modifiable factor that can affect long-term cognitive outcome through a 'human milk' factor, protecting against infection/NEC, and a 'nutrient content' factor. IMPACT: This is the first study to demonstrate the effects of neonatal infection/necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) on IQ in the same cohort in childhood and adulthood. Diet can be a key factor in long-term cognitive outcome in people born preterm by preventing neonatal infection/NEC and providing adequate nutrients. Human milk, whether MBM or BBM, is associated with a reduced risk of infection/NEC. A higher nutrient diet is associated with better cognitive outcome in childhood. Performance IQ is particularly vulnerable to the effects of infection/NEC and verbal IQ to the quantity of (macro)nutrients in the diet

An Objective Method to Assess and Recommend Exertion and Exercise Targets for Return to Play Post concussion

Introduction. Concussions are of significant concern for athletic trainers, and there is a critical need to objectively and safely allow an athlete to return to play. In sports the objective is return as safely and soon as possible. Exertion is a consideration regarding progressing an athlete back to play. The ability to exert in cardiovascular and strength and conditioning contexts are two critical steps in most return to play protocols. Being able to make objective recommendations is urgently needed, as trial and error leads to unnecessary risk of eliciting symptoms and/or causing setbacks. Objective. The object of this paper is to present the athletic trainer with data associated with a methodology that can be used to aid in designing a cardiovascular and strength training program post concussion. This objective measure does not rely on subjective patient reports of symptoms and utilizes a reflex based assessment method. Description. The transient exertion related carotid (TERC) murmur is a murmur that is heard at the carotid arteries during exercise. It normally is heard at around a heart rate of 150, but is heard at lower heart rates in patients who have sustained a concussion. Listening for the TERC murmur during a cardiovascular and strength training assessment can be used to provide information to the athletic trainer about safer target heart rates or safer lifting strategies post-concussion. We present data concerning 71 athletes (mean age 20.8 years) who were assessed for cardiovascular conditioning and body weight assessment. With 73% of the cardio assessment subjects, a TERC murmur was detected at a heart rate of 127.2 bpm (± 16 SD). For the strength assessment 42.1% had a TERC murmur. Clinical advantages. The clinical advantage of the TERC murmur is that it can be utilized by any athletic trainer trained to take a blood pressure. It provides objective information concerning safe target heart rates that will allow an athletic trainer to recommend appropriate exercise prescriptions. The TERC murmur assessment can also be used to help guide strength training protocols to facilitate safe return. Being able to safely recommend a means by which an athlete can recommence their training (cardiovascular and/or strength training) may accelerate return to play as well as aid in keeping the athlete happy, healthy and engaged

Transcriptional frontloading contributes to cross‐tolerance between stressors

The adaptive value of phenotypic plasticity for performance under single stressors is well documented. However, plasticity may only truly be adaptive in the natural multifactorial environment if it confers resilience to stressors of a different nature, a phenomenon known as cross‐tolerance. An understanding of the mechanistic basis of cross‐tolerance is essential to aid prediction of species resilience to future environmental change. Here, we identified mechanisms underpinning cross‐tolerance between two stressors predicted to increasingly challenge aquatic ecosystems under climate change, chronic warming and hypoxia, in an ecologically‐important aquatic invertebrate. Warm acclimation improved hypoxic performance through an adaptive hypometabolic strategy and changes in the expression of hundreds of genes that are important in the response to hypoxia. These ‘frontloaded’ genes showed a reduced reaction to hypoxia in the warm acclimated compared to the cold acclimated group. Frontloaded genes included stress indicators, immune response and protein synthesis genes that are protective at the cellular level. We conclude that increased constitutive gene expression as a result of warm acclimation reduced the requirement for inducible stress responses to hypoxia. We propose that transcriptional frontloading contributes to cross‐tolerance between stressors and may promote fitness of organisms in environments increasingly challenged by multiple anthropogenic threats

Organisms in a changing world

Since its foundation in 1999 by Lawrence Hightower, the Cell Stress Society International (CSSI) has actively promoted international collaboration in the field of stress research. Over the years, the Society has gone from strength to strength, with one of its main, and highly, visible outputs being the journal ‘Cell Stress & Chaperones’. Although initially, the full title of the journal was ‘Cell Stress & Chaperones: An Integrative Journal of Stress Biology and Medicine’ with an emphasis on the medical feld, original scientifc articles were always welcomed from a wide range of organisms and diferent aspects of stress molecular biology. However, in 2020, the sub-title was expanded to ‘An Integrative Journal of Stress Biology, Medicine and the Environment’, in acknowledgement of the increasing importance of understanding the cellular stress response in nonmodel environmental species in the context of the current climate crisis. Initial plans to celebrate the change in subtitle with a special environmental issue were somewhat stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, fnally, 3 years later, we are proud to present this special issue ‘Organisms in a Changing Environment’, which highlights the wide variety of stress response research being carried out in environmental species. In particular, these studies demonstrate how important it is to understand not only the environmental cellular stress response but also their integration with higher levels of biological organisation to understand future biodiversity, and inform conservation measures and policy in our changing world

Pilot Study For Using Fitbit Activity Trackers To Monitor And Predict Onset Of CAR-T Cell Immunotherapy Related Adverse Events Including Cytokine Release Syndrome

Introduction: Immunotherapy using T Cells with engineered chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) is a revolutionary modality for treating cancer, especially B cell malignancies. It also has specific toxicities. The most common toxicities observed are cytokine-release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity. These therapy-related adverse events can range from mild to fatal. If appropriately and timely treated, they have a good prognosis. Thus, further insight into predictive biomarkers can help clinical management of patients and reduce morbidity and mortality. Objective: One of the constitutional symptoms associated with CRS is fatigue. With the advent of activity tracking digital technology, I propose a pilot study exploring the use of fitness trackers to quantify activity level as a potential predictive biomarker of CRS due to CAR T-Cell immunotherapy. Methods: The proposed study would be a single-arm trial. Patients who are receiving CAR-T Cell immunotherapy will be given a Fitbit Flex 2™ tracker. One week of activity data (measured as steps per day) prior to CAR-T Cell infusion will establish patient baseline activity. From the date of infusion, activity levels will continue to be tracked and analyzed through CRS onset. The patient data will be gathered from Fitbit’s server via a customized app built using Fitbit’s Web Application Programming Interface (API). Results: This is a proposed study. No results have been gathered. Discussion: If a correlation is established between activity levels and onset of CRS, it would enhance the current predictive algorithm, allow easier outpatient management and remote monitoring, decrease costs, and reduce morbidity and mortality