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University of Oregon researchers are exploring heat therapy as a route to better health, and volunteers are needed to either relax in a hot tub while watching TV or riding a stationary bicycle three times a week for 10 weeks.

Its a clinical trial that aims to determine if heat therapy alone can bring down elevated blood pressure as much as or more than exercise. Doctors routinely recommend exercise.

We know that exercise is beneficial to human health, said study co-leader Christopher Minson, who holds the Kenneth and Kenda Singer Endowed Professorship in Human Physiology. It really is a polypill. We know that rates of cardiovascular, metabolic and memory diseases, and cancers all decrease with exercise. The problem with exercise is that not enough people are doing it.

To be eligible, volunteers must be 35-60 years old, diagnosed with elevated blood pressure or stage 1 hypertension, not regularly exercising and not taking medications for the condition. Minsons team is seeking 50 people, who will be randomly assigned to one of the study groups.

National statistics, Minson said, suggest plenty of people should be available for the $2.5 million study, which is being funded by the National Institutes of Healths National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Since the American Heart Association changed the threshold for high blood pressure in 2017, some 46 percent of U.S. residents now are hypertensive. Under the new guidelines, the previously defined normal systolic-to-diastolic ratio of 120/80 is now considered high. Anything above 130/90 puts a person into stage 1 hypertension, a clinical disease level.

And, according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 23 percent of U.S. residents aged 18 and over meet recommended guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.

Studies have shown that exercise reduces blood pressure, but not in a dramatic way at most about 5-6 millimeters of mercury pressure. Minson said. Thats for formal exercise programs. In reality, most people get less exercise.

Minson and John Halliwill, professor and head of the Department of Human Physiology, pursued federal funding for the clinical trial following a series of studies in Minsons Cardiovascular Control Lab found preliminary evidence for the benefits of heat therapy.

In the Journal of Physiology in 2016, Minsons group found that eight weeks of hot-water therapy for 10 sedentary young adults led to several vascular-related improvements, including reduced arterial stiffness, reduced mean arterial and diastolic blood pressure, whereas no such improvements were seen in a control group of sedentary participants who sat for the same amount of time in water that did not change their body temperature.

Two other studies published last year in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism and the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, explored heat therapy in obese women suffering with polycystic ovary syndrome.

In the first, improved glucose tolerance and key metabolic signaling were seen in nine women getting heat therapy, compared to nine women in a control group. In the second, nine women in a heat-therapy group realized a reduction in key sympathetic nervous system activity related to blood pressure and improved profiles in heart-disease risks.

As those three studies were being completed, Minson noted, published results of a study done in Finland found that regular sauna exposure in men tracked for 25 years resulted in reduced mortality for all health-related risks, lower rates of hypertension and improved memory.

Participants in the clinical study, which will be done over three years, will need to visit the UO some 40 times over three months to allow for pre-, mid- and post-testing. Participants will be eligible for up to $600 in remuneration for their time.

For more information, call 541-600-4095 or send an email to the Department of Human Physiologys exercise lab.

By Jim Barlow, University Communications

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Study will ask if hot tubbing can lower blood pressure - AroundtheO

Physiology

She’s an ultrarunning champion, studying the genetics of sports injury – Scope

February 22, 2020 medical

Any given morning,Megan Roche, MD, is probably out running -- but we're not talking about a standard 5K. Roche is the2016 USA Track and Field ultrarunner and sub-ultrarunner of the year, a five-time national ultrarunning champion, a North American Mountain Running Champion and six-time member of the U.S. world ultrarunning team.

When she's not scaling muddy mountains or competing in races up to 50 miles long, Roche is working on her PhD in epidemiology, after completing a medical degree at Stanford in 2018. Her research enables her to continue running, coaching andwriting about runningwith her husband, a fellow ultramarathon winner, all while delving into the science of athletic performance.

She slowed down long enough to talk with me about her love of running and science, and how these two passions shape her career path.

How did you become interested in running and taking on longer distances?

I always knew I loved running. I played field hockey in college and then I took a fifth year to run track. From there, it was just a natural progression. I love nature and time out on trails, so running longer distances just means covering more ground in beautiful places. Plus, I enjoy the physiology element of longer-distance running. I think there's a lot of different variables that go into the longer distances, like fueling, the mental mindset and metering out your effort.

Do you think about what's happening in your body while running longer races?

I do sometimes. But honestly, when it hurts, I try to turn that off and just have a completely blank brain. After the fact, it's fun to go through and think about the different cellular processes that are going on as your body is going through that pain and putting out power. Even though it's unpleasant, it's a really beautiful element of human physiology that we can push the body to its limits.

How do you balance a sport and a profession that are both so time-intensive?

I get almost all my training done in the early morning. I'm a morning person, which helps. When I run or exercise it actually makes me more time efficient -- I feel like I need that energy release. Getting in the training is a way to prime my brain for the rest of the day. I probably spend about 13 or 14 hours a week training, so in the grand scheme of things, these are just hours that make me more productive down the road.

Does your running impact your research and vice versa?

It definitely does. One of my research focuses is genetic predictors of sports injury in athletes, working withStuart Kim, PhD. Some of that research involves genetic consulting with athletes and oftentimes training questions come up.

Another study I'm working on is the Healthy Runner Project withMichael Fredericson, MD;Emily Kraus, MD, andKristin Sainani, MD, PhD. There, we're looking at stress fracture rates in Stanford track and field athletes, and looking at preventing bone stress injuries, primarily through a nutrition intervention and making sure that athletes have sufficient energy availability. Being able to connect with the research participants as athletes is helpful. I also apply Healthy Runner research in my work as a running coach and in my writing.

Have you tested your own genetics?

I have. Fortunately, they're actually pretty good, in terms of injury markers. I did rupture my high hamstring tendons, recently, so I will be searching for a hamstring marker down the road.

What are you most proud of in your life thus far?

For me, the decision not to go to residency was one that was very difficult. Heading into medical school, I was interested in being an orthopedic surgeon, but I realized that it just wasn't conducive to all the other things I have going on in life.

I'm proud of being able to step off that path, being okay with taking a "career swerve" and ultimately finding what I love. Every morning I wake up, and I'm so excited to do the science and the running that I do with inspiring mentors and people that I care about. I'm proud of the decisions that got me to that point and grateful for the balance that I've found.

Photo by Daphne Sashin

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She's an ultrarunning champion, studying the genetics of sports injury - Scope

Physiology

Ruffles and Sphincters Control the Spigot of Fresh Blood in the Brain – Alzforum

February 22, 2020 medical

21 Feb 2020

As the bodys most energy- and oxygen-hungry organ, the brain also happens to be the most dynamic, and it's devilishly complex. How does nutrient-rich blood wend its way through the vast labyrinth of cerebral blood vessels to nourish the neurons that need it most? Two new studies describe elements of neurovascular physiology that make this feat possible. One, published in Nature on February 19 and led by Chenghua Gu at Harvard Medical School, reports that endothelial cells that line arterioles sport myriad inlets, called caveolae, which somehow control the rapid dilation of arterioles in response to neuronal stimulation. The other, published January 20 in Nature Communications and led by Martin Lauritzen of the University of Copenhagen, describes specialized sphincters that control the flow of blood from the brains arterioles into its vast capillary beds.

"The two papers, by Chow et al and Grubb et. al, significantly advance our understanding of neurovascular physiology and blood flow control," Lei Tong and Jamie Grutzendler of Yale University Medical School, wrote to Alzforum.

Neuronal activity triggers a boost in the regional supply of oxygenated blood within milliseconds. Known as neurovascular coupling, this phenomenon facilitates the coordinated activity of neural networks throughout the brain. It is also the basis of functional brain imaging. While the exact mechanisms involved remain unclear, and controversial, the conventional view is that in response to stimuli, neurons and astrocytes release factors that relax smooth muscle cells surrounding arterioles, thus dilating the vessels and upping the flow of oxygenated blood into the capillary beds connected to them (Jun 2015 news; Iadecola, 2017).However, other reports implicate the endothelial cells lining the arterioles in modulating neurovascular coupling (Chen et al., 2014; Longden et al., 2017).

In their Nature paper, first authors Brian Chow and Vicente Nuez cast arteriolar endothelial cells as key players, as opposed to mere bystanders, in neurovascular coupling. The researchers observed that, in contrast to the smooth lumen of brain capillaries, the inner surface of arterioles was ruffled, marked by numerous inlets called caveolae.

Ruffled Arterioles. Compared with the smooth surface of the capillary lumen (left, purple), the endothelial cells of arterioles (right, purple) were covered with caveolae. [Courtesy of Chow et al., Nature, 2020.]

To investigate the potential role of these caveolae in neurovascular coupling, the researchers used two-photon imaging to peer through cranial windows. They simultaneously measured neuronal activity and dilation of arterioles. Specifically, they brushed a mouses whiskers, then assessed the resulting neuronal and vascular responses in the barrel cortex, a region of the rodent somatosensory cortex. As expected, whisker brushing evoked a rapid uptick in neuronal calcium signaling in the region, then local arterioles dilated and red blood cells in downstream capillaries accelerated.

Using conditional knockout mice lacking caveolin-1, a key element of caveolae, the researchers confirmed that caveolae in arteriolar endothelial cells, but not in the smooth muscle cells encircling the vessels, were required for neurovascular coupling. They also found that arteriolar caveolae influenced neurovascular coupling independently of nitric oxidea critical vasodilatory factor.

Finally, Chow and Nuez reported that the reason arterioles have caveolae, while capillaries dont, comes down to expression of MFSD2A. Previously, Gu had reported that capillaries express high levels of this protein, which inhibits caveolae and maintains the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (Ben-Zvi et al., 2014). They found that arterioles express scant MFSD2A. When they overexpressed the protein in arterioles, caveolae largely disappeared, along with neurovascular coupling.

How do caveolae facilitate neurovascular coupling? Thats still unclear, and piecing together the signals among neurons, capillaries, and arterioles is a major focus in her lab, Gu said. She proposed that the caveolae cluster critical ion channels necessary to respond to incoming signals from capillaries, which release factors in response to neuronal stimulation. The arteriolar endothelial cells then signal to smooth muscle cells on the outside of the vessel, triggering dilation.

This proposed chain of events stands in contrast to the conventional outside-in model, which posits that vasodilatory factors released from neurons directly relax smooth muscle cells on the outside of the vessel. In our model, arteriolar endothelial cells play an active role in neurovascular coupling, Gu said. Neurovascular coupling is disrupted in aging and neurodegeneration, but whether this is a cause or consequence of disease, and how arteriolar caveolae come into play, remain to be deciphered.

In a joint comment to Alzforum, Andrew Yang and Tony Wyss-Coray of Stanford University articulated questions stimulated by these findings. Scientists have reported changes in expression of multiple genes, including caveolin-1, in brain endothelial cells with age and disease, implicating them in the diminution of neurovascular coupling (Nov 2019 news; May 2019 news).The current study provides new impetus for studying the fascinating complexity of the brain vasculature and will hopefully pave the way toward a better understanding of how this structure degenerates with age and disease, they wrote.

[The study] also raises the question whether a similar mechanism operates at the level of brain capillaries, since some recent studies have suggested that capillary dilation precedes arteriolar dilation during neurovascular coupling, noted Berislav Zlokovic of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In a joint comment to Alzforum, Thomas Pfeiffer, Chanawee Hirunpattarasilp, and David Attwell of University College London made a similar point, noting that caveolin-1 expression on arterioles greatly influenced blood flow in capillaries, more than would be predicted by arteriolar dilation alone. This raises the question of whether the change of neurovascular coupling that they see on deleting caveolin-1 is not, as one might expect, occurring at the arteriole smooth muscle adjacent to the endothelial cells where the caveolae are being suppressed, but somehow instead at downstream capillary pericytes, they wrote. Attwell and others have proposed that cerebral blood flow slows in the AD brain because contractile pericytes constrict capillaries, not because smooth muscle cells encircling arterioles squeeze those vessels (Jun 2019 news).

First author Sren Grubb and colleagues addressed connections between arterioles and capillaries in their Nature Communications paper. As their name suggests, penetrating arterioles flow deep into the brain. They supply freshly oxygenated blood to numerous capillaries that branch off along the way. These capillaries, in turn, deliver oxygen and glucose to the neurons and other cells that need it. But how is this process managed in such a way that the capillaries receive an adequate, but not overwhelming, supply of arterial blood? Grubb and colleagues reported that specialized sphincters, positioned on capillaries just as they branch off of arterioles, tightly control the flow of blood into capillary beds.

The researchers used two-photon microscopy to visualize penetrating arterioles in mice that expressed a red fluorescent protein under the control of NG2 promoter, which is expressed in mural cells that surround vessels, including smooth muscle cells and pericytes. They spotted numerous pinched regions of capillaries, each surrounded by a single mural cell, at numerous branch points along penetrating arterioles. Many of these sphincters were followed by a distended region, or bulb. Out of 108 penetrating arterioles with 602 branches that they examined, 433 (72 percent) contained at least one of these sphincters. Most resided on first-order capillaries, at the proximal branch point from arterioles, and were bolstered by a structural skeleton of collagen and elastin that helped maintain the indentation.

Vascular Bottlenecks. Precapillary sphincters (boxed region) appeared at branch points between arterioles and capillaries. The indentations were surrounded by a single mural cell (red). [Courtesy of Grubb et al., Nature Communications, 2020.]

These sphincters dilated rapidly in response to whisker stimulation, then constricted for about 20 seconds before returning to their baseline diameter. During stimulation, the sphincters relative diameter increased two to three times more than did the diameter of the arteriole and capillary, and the dilation was controlled by the encircling mural cell.

Based on the morphology of the mural cells and the markers they expressed, Lauritzen said the sphincter-forming cells are most likely giant, contractile pericytes, as opposed to smooth muscle cells. The sphincters shortened during dilation, and elongated during constriction. Using computational modeling, the researchers concluded that the sphincters serve as vascular bottlenecks, shielding tiny capillaries from relatively high blood pressure in arterioles, while easing in just the right amount of oxygenated blood in response to stimulation. The sphincters also ensured an even distribution of blood along the cerebrovascular tree.

Manning the Flood Gates. A precapillary sphincter widens in response to stimulation of nearby neurons. [Courtesy of Grubb et al., Nature Communications, 2020.]

Lauritzen told Alzforum that the sphincters not only ensure adequate brain perfusion and neurovascular coupling, but also protect the brain from the hearts pulse. Lauritzen believes that, as blood vessels stiffen with age, they become less adept at attenuating the rush of blood into the brain. To compensate, precapillary sphincters may clinch up, he proposed. This would lead to inadequate perfusion of the brain, and also cause microhemorrhages in backed-up arterioles. Both these problems occur with age and during neurodegeneration, he noted.

How does neuronal stimulation control the sphincters? The signaling pathway remains unclear, but Pfeiffer, Hirunpattarasilp, and Attwell commented that conceivably, pericytes or endothelial cells on capillaries downstream of the sphincter-containing vessel may sense neuronal activity and send a signal back to the sphincter to alter blood flow. It will be exciting to determine whether, in AD, constriction of the pericytes forming the sphincters has a larger effect on cerebral blood flow than constriction of contractile pericytes that are not forming sphincters, or whether the sphincter-fed vessels are relatively protected from constriction, they wrote.

Apart from preventing cerebrovascular complications related to high blood pressure, the sphincters may have a role in smooth vasomotion and the motive force for drainage of interstitial fluid from the brain, commented Roxana Carare of the University of Southampton, U.K. (Carare et al., 2020). The molecular pathways of neurovascular coupling and dysregulation may contai therapeutic targets for stroke or subarachnoid hemorrhage, Carare noted. Jessica Shugart.

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Ruffles and Sphincters Control the Spigot of Fresh Blood in the Brain - Alzforum

Physiology

Fix The Nobels Already – Science Magazine

February 22, 2020 medical

That the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been waylaid by achievements in the life sciences is neither a reflection that chemistry has been intellectually stagnant nor that chemists have been undeserving of the Nobel Prize. In fact, there are many chemists-in-waiting whose research contributions merit a Nobel Prize. Indeed, there is an increasing population of unannointed but dead chemists deserving the onetime though now-nonexistent Posthumous Nobel Prize. And the same can be said for unannointed but deserving life scientists.

To the disadvantage of deserving chemists, the glaring fact is, there are so many achievements in the life sciences that they cannot all be recognized within the rubric of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine where such achievements were once honored. Indeed, there is not enough space to honor all the chemists who deserve Nobel Prize, and perhaps there never could be enough space. . .

Ill bet that many of you (like me) were unaware that there had ever been posthumous Nobel awards, and its true that there were never any in the sciences. But this article notes that the 1931 Literature prize went to Erik Axel Karlfeldt after his death, as did the 1961 Peace prize to Dag Hammarskjld, both in apparent flat contradiction to the terms of Nobels will. In 1974 the rules were quietly modified to eliminate such awards. Theres another change like that which I also had no idea about: in 1968, the three or fewer awardees rule was made explicit. Apparently before that a Nobel could in theory be shared by up to four people, although in practice that never happened. I had no idea; I had thought that Nobels original terms had the limit of three people. And while were talking changes to the Nobel process, 1968 was of course the year that the Swedish Central Bank instituted an Economics prize in memory of Alfred Nobel. Every year during the awards season people point out that the Economics prize isnt technically a real Nobel, since its not actually affiliated with the Nobel Foundation and was not provided for in Nobels will, but its interesting that (1) the Nobel Foundation let this parallel prize be established that first time and (2) that nothing like that has ever happened since.

The paper goes into a great amount of detail on the question of how separate chemistry and biochemistry are (and have been) and how separate the latter is from the ostensible domain of the Physiology or Medicine prize. Prize winners over time in these categories are analyzed by where they published during their careers, as a reasonable proxy for what field they were in (or at least thought that they were in!) Overall, the Physiology/Medicine prize has stayed almost exclusively in the life sciences, while the Chemistry prize has undergone its easily demonstrated broadening/dilution/shift in focus.

Theres also an extensive analysis of the makeup of the Chemistry Nobels committee members and their scientific fields of expertise over the years. And as you might have guessed, there is indeed an increasing percentage of biochemistry/life sciences members, with presumably a parallel appreciation for scientific accomplishments in these areas. But theres a chicken-and-egg question there, too: no one can deny that these fields have been of great scientific interest over the last few decades, either, so its not like this is necessarily some top-down decision to recast the awards committees.

This does lead to some quietly awkward moments, though. The paper notes that a 2001 essay on the 100 years of the chemistry prize (an official review endorsed by the Nobel Foundation) was written by two biochemists, and contains several errors of fact and arguable statements, all of which have to do with chemical topics (see Talbe SI-6 here). Similarly, a 2015 book on crystallography and the Nobel awards, edited by (and partially written by) members of the awards committee, gives the impression that Dorothy Hodgkins crystallography work (in itself absolutely unimpeachable, of course) was the first determination that what we now know as the beta-lactam antibiotics had that four-membered ring structure. But that structure had been proposed with a lot of solid chemical evidence behind it some time before by several chemists R.B. Woodward advocated it, for example, although there were others before him and he came around to the idea a bit later. For organic chemists, Hodgkins results were a confirmation of the beta-lactam structure, but the Nobel crystallography book would make a person think that the X-ray marked its discovery instead.

The paper has a great deal of detail more than many readers will want to work though about the organization of the various Nobel prize committees. Suffice it to say that they are very much in communication with each other, and have been for decades, and that they clearly engage in a good deal of coordination about which prizes might go where, and when. That goes for planning for future awards, too. The expansion of the Chemistry award (whatever ones opinion of it) is no accident, whether its been done via some directive of the Nobel Foundation or via the preferences of the individual committee members themselves. But is this the best way to handle things? The authors think not:

Is the current structure of the Nobel Prizes optimal for the future? The evidence is, certainly not. In a way, the Nobel Foundation and the Nobels prize-awarding bodies have produced a patchwork of change over the past several decades, a force-fit into the schema of Alfred Nobel. That strategy will not suffice forever.

Truly, the question is not if but when. Todays packaging of the Nobel Prizes must change. . .

Thats the question: if the Nobel folks have decided that posthumous prizes are awardable, at least in some categories (and why just those?) and then decided that they arent, if theyve resisted expansion of the prize categories but given tacit blessing to the Economics prize decades after the others were instituted, etc., then the argument that theyre just bound by the terms of Nobels will arent tenable. There have been cases where a foundation established via a detailed bequest has held on to the original terms for as long as it could (indeed, until it faced bankruptcy, as in the case of the Barnes Foundation art collection). Albert Barnes (himself a chemist, actually, who made his fortune off a silver nitrate antiseptic preparation) would surely be horrified that his artworks are now displayed in Philadelphia rather than in the gallery he had built for them, and are open to the public year-round rather than on his explicitly stated and restrictive schedule. But you know what? Barnes has been dead for a long time now, and so has Alfred Nobel, whose foundation hasnt even always honored his wishes as much as Barnes honored his.

As for those terms: Ive thought for some time that such posthumous foundations should probably have some sort of sunset provision in them. There is a limit to how long the living should have to honor the wishes of the dead. Deciding that there Is Not and Must Never Be a Nobel prize in biology (to pick one big example) seems increasingly ridiculous as the decades go on. Science goes on the way it goes no matter what Alfred Nobel thought before his death in 1896 he was no prophet and no Hari Seldon proposing some centuries-long plan. He didnt even set up a body to administer the prizes all that was done on the fly after his death, and we dont even know how long he envisioned them being awarded.

So I agree with the authors of this paper: the Nobel Foundation should admit to what theyve been doing in private, which is to alter the character of the prizes over time. And they should not only admit it, they should embrace it, and modernize the whole system to get rid of the weird unfair quirkiness that disfigures the process as it stands. Will that cheapen the prizes in general? Well, it could, but it doesnt have to and frankly, the way things have been going, the alternative is that they go on cheapening themselves through endless controversies. And if you think the science prizes are a mess, wander over to Peace and Literature and behold the smoking wasteland the appalling mess that is the Nobel Prize for Literature should be warning enough for anyone. This is the danger that all long-running awards face, and if nothing is done you end up with people paying attention (if they do at all) mostly because of the arguments, the slights, and the mistakes, which is like going to an auto race just to see some spectacular crashes. Do it. The chance of Nobels ghost coming back to haunt the committee seem worth the risk.

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Fix The Nobels Already - Science Magazine

Physiology

Rights Group Says Hospital Rejected Doctor’s Claim to Teaching Post Due to Her Multiple Sclerosis – The Wire

February 22, 2020 medical

New Delhi: A decision by the Safdarjung Hospital and Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College (VMMC) to deny a doctor the teaching post of senior resident in the department of Physiology, allegedly because of her disabilities, has been challenged by a forum representing doctors with disabilities.

The groups main contention is that no doctor with disability or a disability rights activist was involved in the evaluation process, as has been mandated by the Court of Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD).

In letters sent to the Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and CCPD, the group called Doctors With Disabilities: Agents of Change has slammed the approach of the hospital in dealing with the case of Nonita Gangwani, who completed her MBBS and MD in Physiology from Swami Vivekanand Subharti University at Meerut.

Applicant had benchmark disability of 70%

The group said Gangwani is registered with the Delhi Medical Council, is a wheelchair user and has a benchmark disability of 70% because of multiple sclerosis.

Writing on behalf of the group, disability rights activist Satendra Singh has urged the CCPD to consider this representation as a petition under Section 75(1)(b) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPDA), 2016. The Act, he said, was implemented by the Centre on April 19, 2017 to provide equality to PwDs, to ensure that they are not discriminated against and to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The group also urged the CCPD to inquire into the discrimination against Gangwani and to initiate corrective action in the matter.

Selected after exam, interview

The group pointed out that Gangwani had applied for the post of senior resident in the department of physiology under the general category on a regular basis for a tenure of three years, as per the residency scheme of the government of India.

Also read: Doctors With Disabilities Seek Removal of Discriminatory MCI Guidelines

After written examination and interview, she was selected for the post of senior resident in general category in the department of physiology on September 5, 2019, it said.

After three months and two assessments by the Multi-Specialty Medical Board, she was declared unfit for the teaching post. No reason was given in the memorandum as to how her disability can affect her job responsibilities of teaching physiology to medical students. She has already completed her MD fulfilling these expectations, it argued.

Gangwani wasquoted by the media as having said that she was already teaching in Subharti Medical College when she applied for the job. After the second medical board assessment, she said she was told to shift to a career in research rather than teaching.

Cerebral palsy case

The group said non-disabled doctors have for long questioned the abilities of doctors with disabilities. In 2008, Syed Bashir-Ud-Din Qadri, a person with cerebral palsy in Jammu and Kashmir, in spite of having stood first in the merit list for a teaching post, was not given an employment letter on the ground of his disability. It was said he cannot hold a piece of chalk, so how will he write on blackboard?. He challenged the decision in the Supreme Court and the apex court in 2010 upheld the rights of the persons with cerebral palsy to employment, the group alleged.

In that case of Qadri, the group noted that the Supreme Court for the first time used the principle of reasonable accommodation.

Likewise, the group pointed out:

This case (of Gangwani) is not one of the normal cases relating to a persons claim for employment. This case involves a beneficial piece of social legislation to enable persons with certain forms of disability to live a life of purpose and human dignity. This is a case which has to be handled with sensitivity and not with bureaucratic apathy, as appears to have been done as far as the appellant is concerned.

Lack of reasonable adjustment

In the case of Gangwani, the group said the same mistake of not understanding that a doctor with disability needs reasonable adjustment to perform on a level playing field was being committed. It said the hospital and medical college must know that accommodations in educational and clinical settings are a right, not a special privilege or special advantage.

Also read: Doctors from US, UK and Australia Lend Support to Indian Disabled Doctors in Court Case

In this regard, it also cited Section 3(5) of the RPDA 2016 which makes this aspect mandatory by laying down that the appropriate government shall take necessary steps to ensure reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities.

Also, it said, Section 3(3) of the same enabling Act notes that no person with disability shall be discriminated on the ground of disability, unless it is shown that the impugned act or omission is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

The group also highlighted that Safdarjung Hospital and VMCC did not involve any doctor with disability or a disability rights activist while taking the decision. It stated that this was in violation of the order the CCPD, sent to all States and Union Territories on July 31, 2012 which highlighted concerns of inadequate appreciation in situations of candidates with disabilities in interview boards for selection to various posts.

The order had clearly spelled out that at least one person-with-disability, who is a member of a public service commission or selection committee should have been on the selection board whenever an appointment was considered.

In view of these violations, the group has urged that the letter rejecting the appointment of Gangwani be withdrawn and her candidature be considered for the post which she had qualified for through merit.

Among the other demands, it also sought implementation of the CCPD on involving doctors with disabilities in selection boards.

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Rights Group Says Hospital Rejected Doctor's Claim to Teaching Post Due to Her Multiple Sclerosis - The Wire

Physiology

Improving shoes, showers, 3D printing: research launching to the Space Station – Space Daily

February 22, 2020 medical

Houston TX (SPX) Feb 21, 2020A variety of science investigations, along with supplies and equipment, launch to the International Space Station on the 20th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. The Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to leave Earth March 2 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its cargo includes research on particle foam manufacturing, water droplet formation, the human intestine and other cutting-edge investigations.

The space station, now in its 20th year of continuous human presence, provides opportunities for research by government agencies, private industry, and academic and research institutions. Such research supports Artemis, NASA's missions to the Moon and Mars, and leads to new technologies, medical treatments and products that improve life on Earth.

High-tech shoes from spaceParticle foam molding is a manufacturing process that blows thousands of pellets into a mold where they fuse together. The shoe company Adidas uses this process to make performance midsoles, the layer between the sole of a shoe and the insole under your foot, for its products.

The BOOST Orbital Operations on Spheroid Tesellation (Adidas BOOST) investigation looks at how multiple types of pellets behave in this molding process. Using one type of pellet creates a foam with the same properties throughout the sole component. Using multiple pellet types can allow engineers to change mechanical properties and optimize shoe performance and comfort. Removing gravity from the process enables a closer look at pellet motion and location during the process.

Results of this investigation could demonstrate the benefits of microgravity research for manufacturing methods, contributing to increased commercial use of the space station. New processes for particle foam molding could benefit a variety of other industries, including packaging and cushioning materials.

New facility outside the space stationThe Bartolomeo facility, created by ESA (European Space Agency) and Airbus, attaches to the exterior of the European Columbus Module. Designed to provide new scientific opportunities on the outside of the space station for commercial and institutional users, the facility offers unobstructed views both toward Earth and into space. Experiments hosted in Bartolomeo receive comprehensive mission services, including technical support in preparing the payload, launch and installation, operations and data transfer and optional return to Earth. Potential applications include Earth observation, robotics, material science and astrophysics.

Airbus is collaborating with the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs to offer UN Member States the opportunity to fly a payload on Bartolomeo. Developing countries are particularly encouraged to participate, and the mission is devoted to addressing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Bartolomeo is named for the younger brother of Christopher Columbus.

Conserving water in the showerDroplet Formation Studies in Microgravity (Droplet Formation Study) evaluates water droplet formation and water flow of Delta Faucet's H2Okinetic showerhead technology. Reduced flow rates in shower devices conserve water, but also can reduce their effectiveness. That can cause people to take longer showers, undermining the goal of using less water. Gravity's full effects on the formation of water droplets are unknown, and research in microgravity could help improve the technology, creating better performance and improved user experience while conserving water and energy.

Insight gained from this investigation also has potential applications in various uses of fluids on spacecraft, from human consumption of liquids to waste management and use of fluids for cooling and as propellants.

Studying the human intestine on a chipOrgan-Chips as a Platform for Studying Effects of Space on Human Enteric Physiology (Gut on Chip) examines the effect of microgravity and other space-related stress factors on biotechnology company Emulate's human innervated Intestine-Chip (hiIC). This Organ-Chip device enables the study of organ physiology and diseases in a laboratory setting. It allows for automated maintenance, including imaging, sampling, and storage on orbit and data downlink for molecular analysis on Earth.

A better understanding of how microgravity and other potential space travel stressors affect intestine immune cells and susceptibility to infection could help protect astronaut health on future long-term missions. It also could help identify the mechanisms that underlie development of intestinal diseases and possible targets for therapies to treat them on Earth.

Toward better 3D printingSelf-assembly and self-replication of materials and devices could enable 3D printing of replacement parts and repair facilities on future long-duration space voyages. Better design and assembly of structures in microgravity also could benefit a variety of fields on Earth, from medicine to electronics.

The Nonequilibrium Processing of Particle Suspensions with Thermal and Electrical Field Gradients (ACE-T-Ellipsoids) experiment designs and assembles complex three-dimensional colloids - small particles suspended within a fluid - and controls density and behavior of the particles with temperature. Called self-assembled colloidal structures, these are vital to the design of advanced optical materials, but control of particle density and behavior is especially important for their use in 3D printing. Microgravity provides insight into the relationships among particle shape, crystal symmetry, density and other characteristics.

Functional structures based on colloids could lead to new devices for chemical energy, communication, and photonics.

Growing human heart cellsGeneration of Cardiomyocytes From Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Cardiac Progenitors Expanded in Microgravity (MVP Cell-03) examines whether microgravity increases the production of heart cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). HiPSCs are adult cells genetically reprogrammed back into an embryonic-like pluripotent state, which means they can give rise to several different types of cells. This makes them capable of providing an unlimited source of human cells for research or therapeutic purposes. For MVP Cell-03, scientists induce the stem cells to generate heart precursor cells, then culture those cells on the space station for analysis and comparison with cultures grown on Earth.

These heart cells or cardiomyocytes (CMs) could help treat cardiac abnormalities caused by spaceflight. In addition, scientists could use them to replenish cells damaged or lost due to cardiac disease on Earth and for cell therapy, disease modeling and drug development. Human cardiac tissues damaged by disease cannot repair themselves, and loss of CMs contributes to eventual heart failure and death.

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Improving shoes, showers, 3D printing: research launching to the Space Station - Space Daily

Physiology

This protein is involved in the progression of a fatty liver towards cancer – Tech Explorist

February 22, 2020 medical

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer. The risk is higher in people with long-term liver diseases or if the liver is scarred by infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is more common in people who drink large amounts of alcohol and who have an accumulation of fat in the liver. Obesity is, therefore, a significant risk factor for the development of this cancer. The trouble in distinguishing it and the absence of targeted treatment contribute to the severity of this disease, which causes the death of more than 700,000 people each year around the world.

Michelangelo Foti, Professor and Director of the Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, We already know that a fatty liver can become inflamed and progress into cancer, but very little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for these pathologies. The fatty liver disease already affects nearly 30% of the worlds population and will very quickly become a major public health problem.

Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have discovered a protein involved in the progression of a fatty liver towards cancer. The protein called S100A11, could not only allow early detection of the risk of developing liver cancer, but also open the way to new targeted therapies.

Scientists, through this study, sought to determine changes in the expression of specific proteins that could promote cancer development. Several studies, until now, had focused mainly on genetic mutations associated with liver cancer, but this has not led to effective treatments. Thus, scientists wanted to determine other alterations that could explain the progression of a fatty liver towards an inflammatory state and cancer.

Cyril Sobolewski, scientists at the Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism and first author of this work, said, It turns out that a whole network of proteins becomes deregulated, in the absence of any genetic alterations, thereby creating an amenable environment to the development of cancer. Among this network, the protein S100A11 particularly caught the attention of scientists.

We first discovered that S100A11 promotes inflammation and build-up of fibrous tissue in the liver. Additional tests showed that the more S100A11 was expressed, the greater the severity of cancer.

The discrete symptoms of liver inflammation and cancer play an essential role in their dangerousness. Still, the presence of S100A11 in the blood raises the possibility of early detection by simple blood sampling. The earlier the patient is treated, the greater the chances of survival.

Also, S100A11 may be a promising therapeutic target, says Cyril Sobolewski. The next step would be to generate specific antibodies able to neutralize the protein and prevent its carcinogenic effect. This type of approach, called immunotherapy, has already shown promising results in the fight against several cancers.

These results, published in the journal Gut, highlight the close links between our diet and cancer development.

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This protein is involved in the progression of a fatty liver towards cancer - Tech Explorist

Physiology

Sugar Valley Lions honor Students of the Month | News, Sports, Jobs – Lock Haven Express

February 22, 2020 medical

PHOTOPROVIDEDFrom left are Nick Verrelli, Dakota Lavallee, Lane Harbach, Naaman Conoway, Lion Maureen Albright and Brian Stugart.

LOGANTON The Sugar Valley Lions Club honored three local students at its February dinner meeting.

This program recognizes outstanding students from two area schools for their achievements. They are selected for this award by their teachers and the administration of the schools they attend based on their academic, technical, and/or community involvement.

Sugar Valley Rural Charter School administrator Brian Stugart introduced Naaman Conoway, accompanied by his parents, Nathanael and Holly Conoway.

Naaman is very active in school activities such as soccer, wrestling, baseball, FFA, Envirothon, and the National Honor Society. Outside of school he enjoys hunting, fishing, 4-H and the church choir.

For his Senior Project he is building a Memorial bench in memory of Richard Miller. It will be placed at St. Johns United Church of Christ in Tylersville. He is also helping the American Cancer Society. After graduation Naaman will be attending the Pennslyvania College of Technology this fall with a duel major in Construction and Residential Construction Management.

Central Mountains High School Principal Nick Verrelli introduced Lane Harbach accompanied by his parents, Doug and Angie Harbach. His school activities include soccer, FFA and tractor restoration. Outside of school he enjoys hunting, fishing and 4-H.

For his Senior Project he is selling Nans donuts as a fundraiser for Ben Fortescue, a member of his soccer team diagnosed with cancer. Hes also cutting trash barrels for the Clinton County Fairgrounds. In the fall he will be attending Penn College for Metal Fabrication.

Verrelli also introduced Dakota Lavallee, accompanied by parents Nathan and Danielle Lavallee. Dakotas school activities include Central Mountain Concert Band, Central Mountain Choir and Central Mountain Theatre Production Crew. Outside of school activities are writing, playing piano and guitar, hiking and bike riding.

For his Senior Project he has 24-plus hours in Hazardous Materials Management Training at Fire Station #13, giving various presentations in the importance of Haz-Mat education not only for First Responders but for everyone else as well. He will be attending Susquehanna University majoring in Biology with a focus on Plant Physiology.

All three students were excellent representatives of their schools.

Certificates of Achievement were presented to the three students by the Lions Club Secretary Maureen Albright.

BELLEFONTE The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is advising motorists that work to trim and ...

GOOD DAYand Happy 80th Birthday to Jean Wingard, of Aaronsburg, Harold Heaton, Brayden Lee Berry and Camden ...

By TAMMY COAKLEYCHICKEN BBQHoward Fire Company will host a chicken bbq at the fire station tommorrow, Feb. 22 ...

Old MH School Scholarships available MILL HALL The reunion committee of former students and faculty of the ...

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Sugar Valley Lions honor Students of the Month | News, Sports, Jobs - Lock Haven Express

Neuroscience

Learning, the Brain and Memory – Southern New Hampshire University

February 22, 2020 medical

While most educators are not trained in neuroscience, of particular interest to educational research are advancing discoveries in learning, the brain and memory. Dr. Thad A. Polk, a cognitive neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, defines learning as acquiring knowledge or behavioral response from experience and memory as the result of the product of learning. Learning is about acquiring new information and memory is the storage and retrieval of this information.

Dr. Polk encourages students of all ages to adopt a holistic approach to optimize learning, improve brain health and increase the power of memory skills. This holistic approach is based on scientific research from the fields of neuroscience, psychology and education. The areas where these fields intersect is often referred to as neuroeducation.

To paraphrase Dr. Mariale Hardiman of Johns Hopkins University and founder of Brain Targeted Teaching, neuroeducation may help educators focus on how students learn rather than on merely what they learn. And we may also need to unlearn certain practices that students and educators perceive as effective yet have minimal impact on memory retention. In this article, we will explore 5 points to effective learning promoted by Polk, and supported by decades of research.

The work of Dr. Carol Dweck from Stanford University and co-founder of Mindset Works shows that adopting a positive attitude or growth mindset is the most important first step of learning success. A growth mindset is our belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed.

A basic understanding of neuroanatomy helps us appreciate the human brain is the most sophisticated biological organism in the known universe and we each have one. The brain always learns whether we want to or not for our brains are always in the on position for learning through a process called neuroplasticity. We need to take advantage of this wonderful learning function through a positive belief in our ability to learn.

This positive mindset leads the learner down a path of achieving higher self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is our overall belief in our ability to learn and succeed. A growth mindset drives a higher desire to learn and achieve; the more we learn, the more our brains want to learn. The better we perform in learning, the more we believe in our abilities to learn. Belief in success breeds more success.

Effective learning requires a strategic and deliberate approach to optimize effort and time. Establishing 2-3 realistic, achievable yet stretch goals is an effective strategy to reach larger learning targets. These 2-3 goals help us scaffold our learning to more difficult levels. Each time we meet our goals, we will be more motivated to move forward to the next goal.

For example, say my goal is to learn a new language (Spanish). A realistic yet stretch goal for me is to learn and use 100 new words a month until I learn 1,200 words by the end of the year. Practice time of 15 minutes a day (spacing learning) will assist me in this long-term learning and memory retrieval process.

Practice is a powerful use of time in learning. Polk encourages students to use proven learning science strategies like spacing learning over time periods and avoiding cramming, challenging ourselves with stretch tasks beyond our current skills, interleaving learning by switching between different types of topics and problems , and testing or quizzing ourselves on learned material. These strategies will produce better long term memory similar to how daily exercise builds muscle mass.

In the words of Polk, we learn better when we are actively engaged in processing information rather than passively encoding it. A great article published by the American Psychological Association shows that highlighting information in a book, or underlining information in lecture notes, or re-reading/re-listening to a lecture more than once, has minimal impact on the retention of that information or success in tests and assessments. While many students believe these practices are impactful, science tells us otherwise. These strategies are passive approaches and detract us from active and more successful strategies. Active learning strategies include:

Practices that engage us with material are more successful than passive approaches. Finally, in the words of New York University neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki, The best way to learn something deeply is to teach others about it.

From personal experience, the preparation for and teaching of others brings me to actively engage with information and improve retention. Preparing quiz material, tests and study questions for students enhances my understanding and motivates me to learn more and deeply.

Identifying solid and reliable sources of research and/or scholarly-based information that will challenge and engage us is a critical strategy to enhance and strengthen our neural networks. Learning new, challenging information enhances cell growth in the section of our brain called the hippocampus and strengthens the connection of cells in surrounding areas of the cerebral cortex (neuroplasticity). Learning makes our brains bigger and stronger.

In the internet age, we must consider the source, question the information, verify the qualifications of the provider and consider the evidence that supports the research. A healthy skepticism is a good measure to verify reliable sources of information. Finally, seeking different points of view from our own helps us to learn and grow. Engaging with different perspectives will stretch our knowledge and make us better, more patient learners in the long term.

Scientific research proves that taking care of our bodies protects our brains. In particular, to optimize our learning, we need to stay active, eat right and sleep well. Staying active includes intellectual stimulation and physical movement.

Current research shows that engaging and challenging mental stimulation such as learning another language, practicing a musical instrument or mastering a difficult hobby like painting, improves brain function. Stronger evidence exists that physical exercise, or whatever helps the heart, helps the brain. Current research from the Mayo Clinic displays that, for the average adult, 10,000 steps per day, 150 minutes of cardio activity per week and 30-60 minutes of strengthening exercises completed two times per week, are optimal for a healthy heart and brain.

Regarding diet, research displays that a variant of the Mediterranean diet is most impactful for heart health and cognitive function. Finally, a restful 7-8 hours of sleep per day, for most adults, improves brain function and protects brain health.

Dr. Mark F. Hobson is Senior Associate Dean of Business Programs at Southern New Hampshire University and has 25 years business administration experience in private industry, education and public administration. He holds advanced degrees in Business and Education, a doctorate in Business Administration, and is pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education Administration.

Neuroscience

Do Bilinguals Have Better Cognitive Control? – Technology Networks

February 22, 2020 medical

An international team of researchers carried out an experiment at HSE University demonstrating that knowledge of several languages can improve the performance of the human brain. In their study, they registered a correlation between participants' cognitive control and their proficiency in a second language.It is widely believed that bilinguals and multilinguals are better equipped to deal with multiple tasks and that they have a better attention than those who speak only one language. This would seem reasonable: bilinguals and multilinguals have to constantly switch their attention between languages they speak, and alternate between words and grammar structures that are quite different from one another. As a result, their cognitive control function action-monitoring and decision-making systems works more efficiently than that of monolinguals.

Meanwhile, the scientific evidence regarding this phenomenon is rather controversial, as not all of the findings demonstrating this "bilingual advantage" effect have been replicated. According to Nikolay Novitskiy, the paper's first author, one study comparing bilingual children from the Basque Country with Spanish monolingual children found little evidence for the bilingual advantage effect. Similarly, this effect has not been observed in another study comparing the cognitive abilities of senior speakers in the region, while earlier studies had demonstrated the opposite.

Several researchers maintain that the bilingual advantage has only been seen in a subset of studies, which used limited participant samples and did not rigorously control for a variety of variables including the participants' socio-economic status (SES). In other words, the reported findings may reflect imbalances in the selection of participants rather than a genuine bilingual advantage effect as bilinguals are often recruited from immigrant or ethnic minority populations whose SES may often be quite different from that of the monolingual population. When group studies use participants widely varying in their education level, income, and other factors, the observed differences in their cognitive abilities may reflect these and other uncontrolled variables rather than their language skills.

Imbalanced parameters in group experiments is a common problem in behavioral studies, said Yury Shtyrov, Professor at Aarhus University and an invited leading scientist at the HSE Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. He also notes: It is virtually impossible to control all potentially relevant parameters in a group design, and many factors including social ones may influence the results of individual studies.

In order to avoid the problem of respondents' heterogeneity, the team's study analyzed the effect of bilingualism on executive control in a homogeneous group of participants. The authors selected 50 unbalanced bilinguals for their study, all HSE University students, who did not speak their second language (English) from early childhood (unlike balanced bilinguals), but started learning it later -- during their school years.

As a result, the participants' proficiency in English varied, and the researchers suggested that the relative level of proficiency in second language might correlate with an individual's cognitive control efficiency.

In order to test this hypothesis, they measured the students' English proficiency and also asked them to perform on a cognitive control task. Our working hypothesis was that a higher second language proficiency would correlate with how often participants have to use it, said Andriy Myachykov, Associate Professor at Northumbria University and a leading research fellow at the HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, adding: Therefore, the more often they must switch their attention between their mother tongue, Russian, and the second language, English, the stronger bilingual advantage effect on their cognitive control efficiency we should find.

Cognitive control efficiency was tested with the help of the so-called Attention Network Test, which measures the efficiency of an individual's attention by comparing response times in conditions requiring different degree of focusing and switching attention from one stimulus to another. As such, the task measures the efficiency of main attention networks: alertness (readiness for the stimulus), orientation (directing attention to the stimulus), and executive control (switching attention from one stimulus to another).

The results of the study demonstrated a correlation between the performance on the attention network test and language proficiency: The better the students knew the second language, the better they could perform on the executive control task.

First, this study demonstrates that an approach taking into account relative levels of the respondents' second language skills rather than a group design may help researchers better understand a complex interplay between language and cognition at the level of individual speakers. Second, the study used an objective method (translation task) in order to evaluate second language proficiency while many other studies are based largely on subjective language proficiency self-evaluation and associated measures, such as the nominal length of learning a second language.ReferenceNovitskiy et al. (2020) Conflict Resolution Ability in Late Bilinguals Improves With Increased Second-Language Proficiency: ANT Evidence. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02825

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