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This preliminary study investigated whether direct measurement of head rotation improves prediction of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Although many studies have implicated rotation as a primary cause of mTBI, regulatory safety standards use 3 degree-of-freedom (3DOF) translation-only kinematic criteria to predict injury. Direct 6DOF measurements of human head rotation (3DOF) and translation (3DOF) have not been previously available to examine whether additional DOFs improve injury prediction. We measured head impacts in American football, boxing, and mixed martial arts using 6DOF instrumented mouthguards, and predicted clinician-diagnosed injury using 12 existing kinematic criteria and 6 existing brain finite element (FE) criteria. Among 513 measured impacts were the first two 6DOF measurements of clinically diagnosed mTBI. For this dataset, 6DOF criteria were the most predictive of injury, more than 3DOF translation-only and 3DOF rotation-only criteria. Peak principal strain in the corpus callosum, a 6DOF FE criteria, was the strongest predictor, followed by two criteria that included rotation measurements, peak rotational acceleration magnitude and Head Impact Power (HIP). These results suggest head rotation measurements may improve injury prediction. However, more 6DOF data is needed to confirm this evaluation of existing injury criteria, and to develop new criteria that considers directional sensitivity to injury.

Cross-feeding, the exchange of nutrients between organisms, is ubiquitous in microbial communities. Despite its importance in natural and engineered microbial systems, our understanding of how inter-species cross-feeding arises is incomplete, with existing theories limited to specific scenarios. Here, we introduce a novel theory for the emergence of such cross-feeding, which we term noise-averaging cooperation (NAC). NAC is based on the idea that, due to their small size, bacteria are prone to noisy regulation of metabolism which limits their growth rate. To compensate, related bacteria can share metabolites with each other to ‘average out’ noise and improve their collective growth. According to the Black Queen Hypothesis, this metabolite sharing among kin, a form of ‘leakage’, then allows for the evolution of metabolic interdependencies among species including de novo speciation via gene deletions. We first characterize NAC in a simple ecological model of cell metabolism, showing that metabolite leakage can in principle substantially increase growth rate in a community context. Next, we develop a generalized framework for estimating the potential benefits of NAC among real bacteria. Using single-cell protein abundance data, we predict that bacteria suffer from substantial noise-driven growth inefficiencies, and may therefore benefit from NAC. We then discuss potential evolutionary pathways for the emergence of NAC. Finally, we review existing evidence for NAC and outline potential experimental approaches to detect NAC in microbial communities.

Erector spinae plane (ESP) blocks have been recently described for postoperative pain management following spine surgery but their effects on intraoperative neuromonitoring are unknown. Retrospective cohort study. Pediatric patients at a tertiary care center. 26 pediatric patients who received bilateral surgically-placed ESP catheters for single-stage posterior spine fusion (PSF) from August 2020 to June 2021. Patients in this study did not receive any special interventions as part of this observational retrospective study. This retrospective study investigated the effects of local anesthesia administration through bilateral surgically-placed ESP catheters on intraoperative intercostal transcranial motor evoked potentials (tcMEPs) in the setting of a disrupted erector spinae fascial plane in pediatric patients undergoing single-stage posterior spine fusion. Of the 26 patients that received bilateral surgically-placed ESP catheters for pediatric posterior spine fusion surgery, none exhibited any changes in intercostal tcMEPs attributable to intraoperative lidocaine administration through the ESP catheters. The administration of a local anesthetic into a disrupted erector spinae fascial plane does not appear to interfere with intraoperative neuromonitoring of posterior spine fusion surgeries. •Intraoperative lidocaine administration through surgically-placed ESP catheters does not appear to interfere with intraoperative neuromonitoring of adolescent patients undergoing posterior spine fusion surgery.•No sufficient amounts of local anesthetic spread into the epidural or intrathecal spaces to cause any detectable physiological changes in surgically disrupted fascial plane.

Background Effective community-partnered and patient-centered outcomes research needs to address community priorities. However, optimal sampling methods to engage stakeholders from hard-to-reach, vulnerable communities to generate research priorities have not been identified. Methods In two similar rural, largely Hispanic communities, a community advisory board guided recruitment of stakeholders affected by chronic pain using a different method in each community: 1) snowball sampling, a chain- referral method or 2) purposive sampling to recruit diverse stakeholders. In both communities, three groups of stakeholders attended a series of three facilitated meetings to orient, brainstorm, and prioritize ideas (9 meetings/community). Using mixed methods analysis, we compared stakeholder recruitment and retention as well as priorities from both communities’ stakeholders on mean ratings of their ideas based on importance and feasibility for implementation in their community. Results Of 65 eligible stakeholders in one community recruited by snowball sampling, 55 (85 %) consented, 52 (95 %) attended the first meeting, and 36 (65 %) attended all 3 meetings. In the second community, the purposive sampling method was supplemented by convenience sampling to increase recruitment. Of 69 stakeholders recruited by this combined strategy, 62 (90 %) consented, 36 (58 %) attended the first meeting, and 26 (42 %) attended all 3 meetings. Snowball sampling recruited more Hispanics and disabled persons (all P  < 0.05). Despite differing recruitment strategies, stakeholders from the two communities identified largely similar ideas for research, focusing on non-pharmacologic interventions for management of chronic pain. Ratings on importance and feasibility for community implementation differed only on the importance of massage services ( P  = 0.045) which was higher for the purposive/convenience sampling group and for city improvements/transportation services ( P  = 0.004) which was higher for the snowball sampling group. Conclusions In each of the two similar hard-to-reach communities, a community advisory board partnered with researchers to implement a different sampling method to recruit stakeholders. The snowball sampling method achieved greater participation with more Hispanics but also more individuals with disabilities than a purposive-convenience sampling method. However, priorities for research on chronic pain from both stakeholder groups were similar. Although utilizing a snowball sampling method appears to be superior, further research is needed on implementation costs and resources.

Microbial communities feature an immense diversity of species and this diversity is linked to outcomes ranging from ecosystem stability to medical prognoses. Yet the mechanisms underlying microbial diversity are under debate. While simple resource-competition models don't allow for coexistence of a large number of species, it was recently shown that metabolic trade-offs can allow unlimited diversity. Does this diversity persist with more realistic, intermittent nutrient supply? Here, we demonstrate theoretically that in serial dilution culture, metabolic trade-offs allow for high diversity. When a small amount of nutrient is supplied to each batch, the serial dilution dynamics mimic a chemostat-like steady state. If more nutrient is supplied, community diversity shifts due to an 'early-bird' effect. The interplay of this effect with different environmental factors and diversity-supporting mechanisms leads to a variety of relationships between nutrient supply and diversity, suggesting that real ecosystems may not obey a universal nutrient-diversity relationship. In most environments, organisms compete for limited resources. The number and relative abundance of species that an ecosystem can host is referred to as ‘species diversity’. The competitive-exclusion principle is a hypothesis which proposes that, in an ecosystem, competition for resources results in decreased diversity: only species best equipped to consume the available resources thrive, while their less successful competitors die off. However, many natural ecosystems foster a wide array of species despite offering relatively few resources. Researchers have proposed many competing theories to explain how this paradox can emerge, but they have mainly focused on ecosystems where nutrients are steadily supplied. By contrast, less is known about the way species diversity is maintained when nutrients are only intermittently available, for example in ecosystems that have seasons. To address this question, Erez, Lopez et al. modeled communities of bacteria in which nutrients were repeatedly added and then used up. Depending on conditions, a variety of relationships between the amount of nutrient supplied and community diversity could emerge, suggesting that ecosystems do not follow a simple, universal rule that dictates species diversity. In particular, the resulting communities displayed a higher diversity of microbes than the limit imposed by the competitive-exclusion principle. Further observations allowed Erez, Lopez et al. to suggest guiding principles for when diversity in ecosystems will be maintained or lost. In this framework, ‘early-bird’ species, which rapidly use a subset of the available nutrients, grow to dominate the ecosystem. Even though ‘late-bird’ species are more effective at consuming the remaining resources, they cannot compete with the increased sheer numbers of the ‘early-birds’, leading to a ‘rich-get-richer’ phenomenon. Oceanic plankton, arctic permafrost and many other threatened, resource-poor ecosystems across the world can dramatically influence our daily lives. Closer to home, shifts in the microbe communities that live on the surface of the human body and in the digestive system are linked to poor health. Understanding how species diversity emerges and changes will help to protect our external and internal environments.

The skin microbiome provides vital contributions to human health. However, the spatial organization and viability of its bacterial components remain unclear. Here, we apply culturing, imaging, and molecular approaches to human and mouse skin samples, and find that the skin surface is colonized by fewer viable bacteria than predicted by bacterial DNA levels. Instead, viable skin-associated bacteria are predominantly located in hair follicles and other cutaneous invaginations. Furthermore, we show that the skin microbiome has a uniquely low fraction of viable bacteria compared to other human microbiome sites, indicating that most bacterial DNA on the skin surface is not associated with viable cells Additionally, a small number of bacterial families dominate each skin site and traditional sequencing methods overestimate both the richness and diversity of the skin microbiome. Finally, we performed an in vivo skin microbiome perturbation-recovery study using human volunteers. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that, while the skin microbiome is remarkably stable even in the wake of aggressive perturbation, repopulation of the skin surface is driven by the underlying viable population. Our findings help explain the dynamics of skin microbiome perturbation as bacterial DNA on the skin surface can be transiently perturbed but is replenished by a stable underlying viable population. These results address multiple outstanding questions in skin microbiome biology with significant implications for future efforts to study and manipulate it.

This paper describes a Mission Definition System and the automated flight process it enables to implement measurement plans for discrete infrastructure inspections using aerial platforms, and specifically multi-rotor drones. The mission definition aims at improving planning efficiency with respect to state-of-the-art waypoint-based techniques, using high-level mission definition primitives and linking them with realistic flight models to simulate the inspection in advance. It also provides flight scripts and measurement plans which can be executed by commercial drones. Its user interfaces facilitate mission definition, pre-flight 3D synthetic mission visualisation and flight evaluation. Results are delivered for a set of representative infrastructure inspection flights, showing the accuracy of the flight prediction tools in actual operations using automated flight control.

Hypercoagulability and endothelial dysfunction are strongly involved in the worsening of the clinical condition in COVID-19 patients. In severe cases, the inflammatory process triggers the release of angiopoietin 2, which could decrease circulating thrombomodulin (TM), a major regulatory mechanism in thrombin generation. Although some studies have described an increased TM resistance, further data are needed to obtain robust results. The objective of our study was to evaluate TM resistance in hospitalized COVID-19 patients using the thrombin generation test and its correlation with development of any severe clinical events (SCE). Forty-seven hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included (median age was 59 years (50–75); 42.6% women). Measurement of endogenous thrombin potential (ETP) revealed that 54.8% of patients had a percentage (%) of ETP inhibition < 40%, suggesting TM resistance. 23% (23%) of patients ( n  = 11/47) presented at least one SCE. Significant resistance to TM was observed in patients with SCE: percentage (%) of ETP inhibition was 24.3% vs. 47.6% ( p  = 0.019) in the non-SCE group. Furthermore, lower percentage (%) of ETP inhibition significantly correlated with increased clot stiffness ( r = -0.372, p  = 0.0167). The percentage (%) of ETP inhibition was a strong predictor of SCE, with an AUC of 0.803 (95%CI: 0.670–0.936). To conclude, thrombin generation can be a powerful tool for risk stratification in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. In addition, increased TM resistance, quantified by a lower percentage (%) of ETP inhibition is strongly associated with the development of SCE and shows promise as a powerful and new independent marker of poor prognosis.

Although organizational sustainability and organizational resilience are critical dynamic capabilities for business continuity management, especially in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there are few studies that analyze the relationship between these three concepts to understand risks management. For this reason, our study analyzes these relationships to contribute to a better understanding of the subject and to propose future lines of research. We use bibliometric and content analysis, based on the Web Of Science and Scopus databases, during the period between 1998 and 13 May 2021. Main findings indicate that there is a bidirectional relationship between organizational sustainability capabilities and organizational resilience capabilities, but there is not enough evidence of their relationship with business continuity management. Additionally, results allow us to infer that there are four groups of relationships between them: (1) From Risk Management to Business Continuity Management and Organizational Resilience; (2) Resilience and Business Continuity practices; (3) Business Continuity contribution to Innovation and Sustainability; (4) Dynamic Capabilities for Organizational Sustainability and Organizational Resilience to enhance Business Continuity Management. Moreover, different stages were identified to understand the impact of organizational sustainability capabilities and organizational resilience capabilities on business continuity management facing disruptive events.

Spontaneous mammary gland tumors are common in elderly humans and rodents. While benign tumors are the most frequently detected, some tumors can also develop malignancy. Tumor gene expression profile predicts their neoplastic transformation, and total DNA could be associated with differential degradation and changes in its electrical properties; such characterizations might contribute to analyzing their pathophysiology to control their development. The objective of this study was to establish the gene expression profile characteristic of the histology of spontaneous mammary gland tumors and correlate it with changes in their electrical properties measured through Electrical Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (EBIS). The study included sixteen female Wistar rats, 10 of which spontaneously developed mammary gland tumors, and six without tumors used as control group. A histological study was carried out, and the tumors were grouped according to their anatomopathological characteristics and categorized as malignant and benign. Subsequently, gene expression of hexokinase I (HXKI) and 18S ribosomal subunit (18SrRNA) was performed. EBIS measurements were developed in pool samples of total DNA for every tumor, benign and control groups. Malignant tumors showed overexpression of glycolytic enzymes HXKI, while benign tumors showed higher expression of 18SrRNA. EBIS measurement showed differential spectra for every experimental group explored. In conclusion, benign and malignant mammary gland tumors in aged rats exhibit a distinct genetic expression profile, and their differential electrical properties of total DNA could be characterized through EBIS measurements.