Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

Organs-on-chips Market Competitive Analysis and Forecast 2017-2025 – Curious Desk

Global AC Organs-on-chips Market: Snapshot

Organs-on-chips or organ-on-a-chip is an electronic gadget that consists of a 3D microfluidic cell culture-based multi-channel structure. This gadget essentially is a chip that can control mechanisms, activities, and physiological responses of organs and organ systems, after being implanted in the body. In a more simplistic manner, this chip acts mainly as an artificial organ, or an artificial system that undertakes processes controlled by human bodies in a natural state. A brisk rise in research in the field of biomedical engineering, particularly to find alternatives for replacing failed human organs has formed a distinct organs-on-chips market.

This market is being pushed to attain substantial growth owing to a rise in healthcare industry applications. Surging cases of organ failure in the form of liver, kidneys, lungs, and heart also are prime reasons for fueling the search to find viable alternatives.

Know the Growth Opportunities in Emerging Markets

The bioelectronics components are mainly created on small microchips, which have tiny chambers formed by living cells. These cells are arranged in such a manner that they mimic human body physiology on a micro-level scale. These simulations are utilized on a macro scale by enhancing them with the help of various methods. According to the organs mentioned above, there are separate chips made for each organ, and even for some smaller constituents that make up an organ. For example, heart-on-a-chip, skin-on-a-chip, artery-on-a-chip, lung-on-a-chip, and kidney-on-a-chip are key organ-on-a-chip gadgets that are being extensively used. Installation of each of these chips depends on several factors such as body acceptability, medical condition of patient, and physiological responses, among others.

Organs-on-chips Market: Overview

Organ-on-chip is multichannel 3D micro-fluidic cell culture gadget, which prompts mechanisms, activities, and physiological reflexes of human organs. This chip builds up a thin channel for the air and blood flow in organs including gut, lung, heart, liver, and so on. This gadgets is created on a microchip, which has constantly perfused chambers made by living cells arranged in a way to invigorate tissue- level physiology and organ-level physiology. It is utilized to sustain interior organs with the support of silicone.

The worldwide organ-on-chip market is fragmented based on geography and type. On the basis of type, the market is partitioned into human-on-chip, heart-on-chip, lungs-on-chip, intestine on-chip, liver-on-chip, and kidney-on-chip. Based on geography the organs-on-chips market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.

The analysts of the report have utilized skilled procedures to anticipate the patterns in the market for organs-on-chips keeping in mind the end goal to make precise projections. The examination of different market components has been utilized to illustrate noteworthy, current, and provisional future patterns, which would enable the market players to get a domain of the market.

Organs-on-chips Market:Trends and Prospects

The development of the global organ-on-chip market is driven by rise in its applications in the healthcare industry, increase in demand for drug screening, and soaring demand for kidney applications and lung-based organ culture. Be that as it may, high cost and early stage in research and development obstruct the market development. These components are expected to either drive or hamper the market. But, nevertheless, rise in research processes on organ-on-chips is estimated to offer plenty of opportunities for the leading players.

Deficiency of donor lungs for transplantation has prompted increase in number of patients dying due to illness. In this way, increase in demand to create lab-engineered, functional organs is expected to supplement the development of the market. Recellularized strong organs can perform organ-specific tasks for limited amount of time, which shows the potential for clinical utilization of artificially designed strong organs later on.

Rise in demand for organ-on-chip gadgets in the medical industry is foreseen to help the development of the global market. Organ-on-chip gadgets are known to be useful in in-vitro analysis of biochemical, real-time imaging, and metabolic and genetic activities of living cells in a functional tissue, which majorly boost their adoption.

Drug screening is a practical technique utilized for quickly reviewing samples. Researchers and analysts utilize organ-on-chips culture gadgets to monitor the impacts of medications in the body. Moreover, drug effectiveness or drug toxicity in different organs of the body is checked utilizing this procedure, which helps the market development.

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Organs-on-chips Market:Regional Outlook

The heart-on-chip segment has higher potential for development in the global market. Lung-on-chip led the global organ-on-chip market in 2016, and is anticipated to continue its predominance within the forecast period. North America held the biggest market share, because of advanced technological innovations and rise in healthcare applications. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the most astounding development due to various growth opportunities offered by nations, for example, India, China, and Japan. The accessibility of new and advanced organs-on-chips in the market, and ideal government activities as far as financing and projects for essential drug advancement and research, and the advent of key pharmaceutical organizations. These are regions where the lions share of drug development activity is focused.

Organs-on-chips Market:Vendor Landscape

Emulate, Inc., CN Bio Innovations, Ascendance Biotechnology, Inc., Mimetas B.V., Organovo Holdings, Inc., Tara Biosystems, AxoSim Technologies LLC, Hurel Corporation, Insphero AG, and Nortis Inc. are among the major players in the global organs-on-chips market.

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Organs-on-chips Market Competitive Analysis and Forecast 2017-2025 - Curious Desk

Physiology

Equal roles for women in Indian Armed Forces: The road ahead – WION

The recent decisions of the Supreme Court regarding grant of permanent commission to women officersareseen as a landmark step towards women empowerment and corrective change to prevent perceived gender bias against women.

The concerns expressed by the government, on behalf of Indian Armed Forces, like physiology, motherhood and physical attributes, did not hold ground under the basic tenet of constitutional entitlement to dignity, which attaches to every individual irrespective of gender.

These are welcomed societal changes and the military system has to gear up accordingly to mitigate the concerns, yet ensuring that the operational effectiveness of the Armed Forces is not compromised. The issue was extensively covered by the media, and the Armed Forces responded positively with Army Chief indicating that the roadmap for granting permanent commission to women officers is being put in place. The implementation, however, needs some serious analysis of some key issues to.

Decoding Alleged Gender Bias in Indian Armed Forces

A glance at the open-source coverage of SC decisions, seemed to suggest that Indian Military had the patriarchal mindset and SC has bettered the system with this landmark judgement. The background needs to be put into perspective. The women were first inducted as Military Nursing Officers in 1927, as Medical Officers from 1943 in British Indian Army as per organisational needs to look after troops, families and public during deployments, which included female population. Post-independence, the Induction of women officers into the Indian Army through Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES) started in 1992, after the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.

In February 2019, the government granted a permanent commission to women officers in eight streams of the Army, in addition to the JAG and AEC, to which it was granted earlier in 2008. All these decisions were also pathbreaking, need-driven, societal changes taken voluntarily by Indian Military and not after the intervention of Courts; hence it may not be right to perceive that Indian Military carried patriarchal mindset and resisted such changes. It is a fact that there are different conditions of service for women officers and their men counterpart in most cases. These conditions of service keep getting modified to address concerns of women officers, starting from five years of service, changed to extendable by five years (5+5 years), followed by 5+5+4 and later made to 10+4 years.

The fact is that women officers are proud and essential members of the Indian military and their entry was need-based and not court driven.

The differences in conditions of service for women officers and their men counterparts can be perceived in favour, as well as, against them. No one can deny that women officers have concessions in physical standards during recruitment, in battle physical efficiency tests and are generally given softer appointments with due considerations to hygiene, sensitivities and privacy issues while accommodating them.

For selection they compete with female counterparts; hence selections of a specified number of women officers is assured, as they do not compete with men counterparts. The disadvantages of difference in service conditions were unequal growth opportunity to women officers, need for permanent commission and inadequate incentive, which have been the main reasons for the redressal given the Supreme Court. The cases wherein male officers tenures in difficult field stations have increased, in adjusting women officers for spouse postings, child care leave. This results in reduced leaves for male officers to be with family in peace locations, to attend to their family needs. Although male officers have not gone to courts against the resultant extra hardship caused in an attempt to help out women officers by the organisation.

This gender bias against men officers also needs to be set right. Gender Equality is the societal need of the hour and applies to both female and male officers and should be ensured in the spirit of the judgement.

Operational Efficiency and Command Assignments

To implement the latest rulings of the SC on the grant of permanent commission to all women officers, their terms of engagement will have to be revised. As per media report,s the Indian Military is already working out models for it and I am sure that the system will settle down in due course, with some adjustments. The selection for command assignments has to merit-based irrespective of gender, which must not be compromised to ensure operational efficiency of the Indian Armed Forces. Translating the same in the spirit of achieving gender equality and SC judgement, the same standards have to be applied across the board, without any gender bias.It entails same hardships be suffered by all officers and the same selection process followed for successive promotions, irrespective of the gender.

To implement the same, the selection for the command should be done through their confidential reports and closed promotion board, common for both genders, and the names and gender of the profile should be hidden from selection board.

The best officers should get the command irrespective of gender, as the troops respect competent leaders, who rough out inconvenient times with them. These are some basics of soldiering, which must not be violated to ensure operational efficiency. It means that the concessions given to women officers in recruitment and softer tenures must be withdrawn, and they must go through the field and rough appointments with troops, to be at par with male counterparts and be accepted as Leaders and not Appointed Officers.

Women Officersin Combat Arms

The fact that SC gave a decision, in March 2020, to induct women officers in all types of warships in Indian Navy, as a natural process of societal evolution, the possible induction of women into combat arms is going to be the next challenge, which Indian Military will be confronted with. The leadership in combat arms at each level, from detachment to highest formation, is laid on a bedrock principle of Leading from the front which must not be compromised.

It implies that all officers and soldiers must go through same selection, toughness schedule, promotion exams, command criteria assignments and appointments with no concessions. SC has also endorsed suitability of the candidate as one of the criteria for such assignments in its ruling on March 17, 2020. Most foreign armies having women officers already have gender neutrality in physical standards or are working towards it. The issues like physiology, minimal facilities for habitat, hygiene in combat ships, bunkers and long-range patrols, privacy needs, motherhood and childcare concerns are well known to women officers, as well as, courts and public.

The women officers who volunteer for combat arms must be determined to overcome these issues. The only aspect which needs to be ensured is that the standards should not be lowered to adjust women officers, otherwise it will amount to compromising operational effectiveness of military for appeasement of few.

The principle for selections in career progression should be the same as explained earlier for command assignments. It, therefore, implies that if every male infantry officer has to go through commando course, every women officer opting for infantry must go through the same. If every other combat arms officer has to go through Commando/Counterinsurgency/Mountain warfare course and serve in Rashtriya Rifle or Assam Rifle for at least one tenure, the same yardstick must apply to women officers.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

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Equal roles for women in Indian Armed Forces: The road ahead - WION

Physiology

Rutgers Researcher Partners with NYU in Creating Sleep Apnea Machine Alternative to Ventilators and a Virus-Trapping Hood – Newswise

Newswise A Rutgers researcher is testing modified sleep apnea machines intended to help relieve the shortage of mechanical ventilators for COVID-19 patients.

After testing for safety and efficacy, the design will be available free to medical professionals and can be created quickly using readily available components. It was created by a team led by Vikram Kapila, a professor at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

Patients using the modified breathing supports called the NYU Tandon AirMOD wear a non-vented mask with filters that trap the virus when they exhale and keep it from entering the environment. The machines also can be used as breathing support for critical care patients being eased off ventilators, thereby freeing those ventilators for other patients. Unlike other methods being used to convert these CPAP and BiPAP sleep apnea machines for COVID-19 use, these design modifications assemble in minutes and use FDA-approved off-the-shelf components in stock at most hospitals.

Rutgers is also testing a prototype for a second system called the NYU Tandon AirVENT. It is a portable, personal, negative pressure hood that sucks virus particles exhaled by the wearer into a filter and traps them. The hood was designed to allow health care workers easy access to the patient. It can be placed over possible COVID-19 patients in waiting rooms and be used in ICUs, while physicians intubate patients or during patient transfers.

Jorge Serrador, associate professor of pharmacology, physiology and neuroscience at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is testing both systems for safety and efficacy. A normal CPAP or BiPAP machine would spread the virus widely because not only is the mask vented, but pressurized air from the system would amplify the dispersion of the virus. The AirMOD design cuts off that avenue of exhaust and uses a system that filters out the virus before it enters the environment, he said.

To test the designs, Serrador measured how much carbon dioxide, which is expelled through breathing, is present outside the devices while they are being used. When we turn on the fan inside the hood, we see the level of carbon dioxide outside the hood decrease to the level seen in normal room air, which indicates that expired air and thus the virus is not escaping, he said. Negative pressure rooms are already used safely for infectious disease patients. We have just created a personal negative pressure area around the patients head. (See test results here.)

The AirMOD design is less expensive than ventilators and has other benefits to health care workers, such as being portable and requiring minimal set-up. There are also benefits to patients, Serrador said. It gives people the assistance they need in their natural breathing to maintain their oxygen levels while allowing their bodies to deal with the virus. Since they are not intubated, they do not need to be sedated and can talk, clear their throats and cough, which helps prevent pneumonia.

The AirMOD modifications were also reviewed by pulmonologists and physicians at NYU Langone and other centers. The designs can be downloaded here.

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Rutgers Researcher Partners with NYU in Creating Sleep Apnea Machine Alternative to Ventilators and a Virus-Trapping Hood - Newswise

Physiology

The patient gains substantially with combination of imaging and physiology : Dr. Shirish Hiremath (MS) – ETHealthworld.com

Shahid Akhter, Editor, ETHealthworld spoke to Dr. Shirish Hiremath (MS), Consultant Cardiologist and Director, Cardiac Cath Lab, Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune to know more about patients' clinical outcome amidst life saving medical devices. Edited excerpts:

Multi-vessel Coronary Artery Disease : Trends in IndiaClearly in India especially the multi vessel disease is growing rapidly. This is primarily because the Indians get the disease at a younger age. So, if somebody picks it up at the age of 35 or 40, by the time he gets to 80 it's always going to be multi vessel disease. Clearly, its something which is very important for this country.

All are important. Generally, I would imagine that when you sit in a car you put your seatbelt that's like taking care and taking aggressive medical therapy and continuing. But when an event happens the air bags come out so the angioplasty or a bypass surgery is like an emergency measure where artery or a person who is on a downward trend comes out very effectively and is ready to live effective life subsequently.

We are also spreading our wings to multi vessel disease, complex coronary angioplasties. So, for this you need a good support. So initially like say we use to have aortic balloon pump for somebody who had low blood pressure. Today, we have few devices like Ampyra, which make life very easy for angioplaster to give effective results.

More importantly, a conventional angioplasty can be perfected by doing testing at the end of the procedure. This can be done at the beginning of the procedure and repeated at the end of the procedures so we are talking of IVUS or OCT and this is to decide what kind of therapy we should be using. We have multiple options not anymore just balloon and stent.

It could be cutting balloon or scoring balloon or shockwave balloon or high pressure non-compliant balloon and so on. Also, there are procedures which soften a harden vessel which is so very crucial for a good stent placement. All these techniques can be implemented in each case according to the need and this is brought out by imaging before.

Imaging at the end of the procedure tells you that whether your stent is very effectively placed in a vessel, the result is acceptable, it will go for years and years very effectively.

So, either way, the patient gains substantially with combination of imaging and physiology. Absolutely, if you will see the evolution of angioplasty world over and especially in India, where we started doing angioplasty in 1987. Its almost three decades of angioplasty in India and we clearly realise that we were doing early in early years and the way we are doing today the newer technology has clearly benefitted. We are so confident. In fact, this debate comes up when we talk of the comparison for multi vessel disease between bypass surgery on one side and angioplasty on the other side. Innovation in medical devices : improved successWe have this SYNTAX study earlier which clearly indicated that if you have a high SYNTAX score or moderate SYNTAX score surgery is better. Same SYNTAX few years later was done as SYNTAX tool in which lot of physiology was used and lot of imaging was used and that clearly shows that angioplasty results can be very close to the surgical results. So, this is the kind of gain we have gained while perfecting the angioplasty with imaging and physiology.

Choice of stent : Who decides ?When I am talking to the patient and its family. What kind of stents? We tell them that this this this is available to you and I clearly tell them no one stent is the best in the world for everybody. It depends a lot on what kind of linear stent that you need from the stent, what kind of tortuosity through which the stent must go. Its the bed which is simple or difficult. The stent performance can change so we always take a lot of effort to create a good bed for the stent to land.

So, today stents performed well. The deliverability is of course very important, and this is where stents have improved the great deal so not only the stent thickness but the shaft, the way the stent is crimped on the balloon, everything has changed. So, the stents are getting easier and easier to deliver. Also, we have techniques like Guide Catheter Extension which can help you to take the stent to a correct location relatively easily and that's how the stent delivery is not any more an issue.

However, the stent will have its own sort of specifications, which make them run for longer years and this is where I would feel I tell the patients that this particular stent has this much documentation, this much data and this is going to be my choice for your case and it depends on person to person and patient to patient.

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The patient gains substantially with combination of imaging and physiology : Dr. Shirish Hiremath (MS) - ETHealthworld.com

Physiology

Together all the time: An expert’s advice for maintaining a positive relationship while at home – Las Vegas Weekly

Youve memorized the curves of that face. Youd recognize that laugh anywhere. And to you, that voice makes the sweetest sound in the world.

But now its going on Week Four of the COVID-19 lockdown. Youre working from home. Your partner is working from home. The toilet paper is running low. And youre not feeling so warm and fuzzy about that face, that laugh or that voice.

Were at a place where everyone is anxious, and theyre all sharing the same space, says Dr. Katherine Hertlein, a professor in UNLVs Couple and Family Therapy program. The coping strategies that we used to use before, we dont have anymore. You cant go out shopping. You cant go to the gym. So now were stuck in the house. Weve got a very high level of anxiety, because this is really a very serious issue. So this creates challenges for some couples, because they werent aware that they were using some of those individual strategies to cope before.

Was your partner using the last of the milk really what caused you to explode? Or was it those four hours glued to CNN or reading yet another news story about COVID-19 that began to affect your attitude toward one another?

Youre upset and angry or let down by the government, your senator, your employer,and it seems out of your controlthats really just your grief, Hertlein says. You have to acknowledge the grief. Life has changed. Your world has changed. Sit in that grief.

Hertleins second tip: Recognize that everything has changed. If you go through your world and pretend like it hasnt, that tends to come out as physical symptomologyyoure getting headaches more often, your stomach is tight, your shoulders are tight. Your body is your first indicator that something is going on, and were really good at ignoring our body. So check in with your body and make sure youre feeling what you need to feel to get through each moment.

And third: You have to have some type of strategy to negotiate with your partner about the rules that have now changed.

For some couples, more time together can be no big deal. For others its a huge departure. Before playing a heated round of the blame game, sit down with your partner to make a plan. Discuss and decide: Whos in charge of the kids? Whos going to cook dinner tonight? Who gets to choose the next show to stream?

When we think about couples and change and process, we need to be thinking about the assumption of good intent, Hertlein says. What are some things where you can still look at your partner and say, They still have good intentions toward me, and I have good intentions toward my partner. You have to have this active strategy about looking for those opportunities of good intent.

Remember that your partner holds you in high regard and you hold them in high regard, and there are good intentions even if theres a misstep along the way in terms of the roles and rules and how youre going to negotiate things.

Remember, youre in this together. Take the time to laugh. Fall in love all over again with that face and look to your partner as your rock in an ocean of uncertainty.

How to defuse aheated argument

Hertlein says research shows its best to take a physical time-out. Separate from one another for at least 20 minutes to calm your physiology. Then come back to the conversation, so the partner knows you havent forgotten about them.

Where to get help

Hertlein recommends these local teletherapycounseling options:

Bridge Counseling 702-474-6450

ICLV Wellness Center 702-673-4745

Kayenta Therapy 702-438-7800

Next Chapter Therapy 702-508-5920

Pathways Therapy and Wellness Center 702-363-7284

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Together all the time: An expert's advice for maintaining a positive relationship while at home - Las Vegas Weekly

Physiology

The Effect of Visceral Abdominal Fat Volume on Oxidative Stress and Pr | DMSO – Dove Medical Press

Andrs Garca-Snchez, Jorge Ivn Gmez-Nava, Elodia Nataly Daz-de la Cruz, Ernesto Germn Cardona-Muoz, Itzel Nayar Becerra-Alvarado, Javier Alejandro Aceves-Aceves, Esther Nrida Snchez-Rodrguez, Alejandra Guillermina Miranda-Daz

Department of Physiology, University Health Sciences Centre, University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Correspondence: Alejandra Guillermina Miranda-DazDepartment of Physiology, University Health Sciences Centre, University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, MexicoEmail kindalex1@outlook.com

Purpose: The increase of visceral abdominal fat (VAF) and oxidative stress (OS) are independent predictors for cardiovascular risk. This study aimed to determine the association of VAF with proinflammatory cytokines, oxidants, antioxidants, and oxidative damage to DNA in subjects with normalweight, overweight, and obesity.PatientsandMethods: A cross-sectional study that included 21 men and 71 women whoattended for a medical check-up was conducted. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to measure the VAF volume. ELISA and colorimetric techniques were used for chemical analysis.Results: Low activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) was found in overweight and obese subjects compared to the normalweight group (p=0.005). In contrast, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) was higher in the overweight and obesity groups compared to the normalweight subjects (p=0.017). The total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was alsoincreased in the overweight group compared to the normalweight group (p=0.04). According to the volume of VAF, the levels of tumor necrosis factor alfa and interleukin 6 showed no differences between subjects with normal and high VAF. Subjects with high VAF show higher levels of 8-isoprostans compared to normal VAF group (p=0.039). Less concentration of 8-oxoguanine-DNA-N-glycosylase-1 (hOGG1) was found in the high VAF group (p=0.032) compared to thenormal VAF subjects. VAF was positively correlated with lipoperoxides (LPO) (r=0.27, p< 0.05) and 8-isoprostanes (r=0.25, p< 0.05). We also found correlations between oxidative stress markers and anthropometric ratios for intra-abdominal fat. The waist-hip ratio was positively correlated with LPO (r=0.30, p< 0.05) and TAC (r=0.24, p< 0.05).Conclusion: These findings suggest that the predominantly oxidative damage associated with VAF in overweight or obesity is lipoperoxidation and oxidative DNA damage. Alterations in endogenous antioxidant defenses may not be linked to the amount of VAF.

Keywords: oxidative stress, oxidative DNA damage, antioxidant enzymes, Lunar iDXA, visceral fat cutoff score

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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The Effect of Visceral Abdominal Fat Volume on Oxidative Stress and Pr | DMSO - Dove Medical Press

Physiology

Growing from there to here – Good Fruit Grower

In its natural habitat, a sweet cherry tree can grow up to 135 feet, much higher than an apple trees 40 feet, or even a pear trees 65 feet. Combine that height with small, delicate fruit that needs to be picked by the stem, and its safe to say the cherry tree poses some unique management challenges.

Its a forest tree, said Greg Lang, a professor of horticulture at Michigan State University. Lang spoke during the International Fruit Tree Associations 2020 conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It evolved over centuries to survive in forests.

But over the last few decades, researchers, nurserymen and growers have manipulated the giant forest trees physiology into the small yet productive tree we see in modern, high-density orchards today. Cherry trees, it turns out, can grow into unusual shapes. Lang focused especially on the UFO system upright fruiting offshoots named by Matt Whiting, a Washington State University professor.

Lang expects the UFO system to be common a decade from now. Its yields can be equal to or greater than other systems, crop load management and fruit quality are more uniform, hand harvest is more efficient, and the structure is more amenable to precision tools and technology.

But how did we get from there to here from the forest giant to the UFO? Lang started by explaining how a seedling survives.

A cherry seedlings top priority is to grow a vertical leader that can capture as much light as possible in a crowded forest. To achieve apical dominance, all of the trees energy and growth goes toward its top in the first year, he said.

Vigor is always greatest in the tops of trees, Lang said. Even when they are 35 or more years old.

Beginning in the second year, the leader keeps growing, but the tree also initiates upright primary lateral growth just below it (so if the leader dies, one of the laterals can take over). Lower secondary branches grow horizontally beneath the primary laterals, to capture light the leader isnt getting and to shade out forest competitors, he said.

As the tree ages, its extreme vigor is dispersed into the laterals. In order to capture new light, its large leaves arise as far away from the previously formed leaves as possible.

(The cherry tree) still thinks its in the forest and (it is) trying to grow up and capture light, Lang said. Thats what were trying to manage throughout the life of the orchard.

For a long time, commercial growers had to focus on managing a freestanding cherry trees incredible vigor keeping it at a reasonable size rather than managing its crop load. Things changed in the 1990s, however, when dwarfing rootstocks became available.

The question we started wrestling with when we got dwarfing rootstocks for sweet cherries was: How can we get toward precise crop load management of a cherry tree now that we have a smaller tree than that forest tree? Lang said.

He turned to grapevines for inspiration.

I said, Lets grow a cherry tree like a grape, where it is easy to prune to a specific number of spurs and buds that lead to a specific spacing and quantity of shoots and fruit clusters.

With this in mind, in 1999, Lang, who was with WSU at the time, developed a planar cherry tree canopy structure to emulate the two cordons and vertical shoot position training of wine grapes. WSUs Whiting further developed the concept with UFO a system that utilizes the natural growth habit the cherry tree evolved over centuries to most efficiently capture sunlight, Lang said.

UFO takes advantage of the trees natural upright growth by establishing multiple vertical fruiting units in a narrowly aligned row arising from a primary trunk thats trained horizontally. The number of vertical fruiting units is varied to diffuse vigor in proportion to the overall vigor of the rootstock-scion-soil-climate matrix yielding the only training system that can be adapted to any rootstock. The system also takes advantage of the leaves natural arrangement forming on the vertical shoot as far away, horizontally, from previous leaves as possible to minimize shading and maximize light penetration, Lang said.

by Matt Milkovich

Related:Precision vision on 2020 IFTA Michigan tourStill no answer for bitter pitBattle of the cherry architecturesGrowers gain UFO experience

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Growing from there to here - Good Fruit Grower

Physiology

Is there a best time to train? A sports scientist investigates – Cycling Weekly

Lets face it, no matter what we tell our friends, cycling comes quite far down the priority list when drawing up the days to-do list. We ride when we can fit it in, rather than at the best possible time for making fitness gains.

As amateur riders, our family, friends, work and sleep you choose the order of priority put the squeeze on our windows of opportunity for getting in quality saddle-time. The question is, does it matter what time you train?

The evidence suggests that, yes, it does. For various reasons, our bodies may have a preference that affects the training response. This feature will investigate the physical and mental effects of riding at different times of day. Should you schedule different types of session at particular times? And are there certain times of day you should actively avoid?

Often, we have to resort to training at the only time available to us. Mercifully, now that were emerging from the dark, wet winter, well soon have a few extra hours of daylight to play with at each end of the day. What does the science tell us about the best time to choose? Chronobiology is the study of lifes rhythms: heart rate, body temperature, and a variety of hormonal responses that follow the daily (or circadian) pattern. These rhythms are programmed genetically as well as being influenced by our environment and activity. Exercise performance can be dramatically affected up to 15 per cent by variations in these rhythms.

Dr Brendan Gabriel, from the University of Edinburgh, studies circadian biology in clinical conditions and sport.

Rhythmic changes in core/muscle temperature and hormonal signalling particularly adrenaline can affect exercise performance, including oxygen uptake and mechanical power, explains Gabriel. The hypothalamus, our brains regulatory control centre, is very reactive to daylight and receives this signal mainly from the eyes the reason why light is such an important trigger.

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This reactivity to light is why humans are diurnal active during the day, asleep at night. But we are not all the same. There are differences between individuals sleep/wake behaviours and our preferred pattern is known as our chronotype. Owls prefer to rise late and retire late (e.g. get up at 10am and go to bed at midnight), while at the other extreme, larks favour an early start and early bedtime (e.g. awake by 7am, asleep by 9pm). Most of us fit somewhere in between, with our physiological rhythms set accordingly.

You probably know straight away which side of the chronotype fence you sit on, but if you want to make sure, check out a Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. Depending on where you fit on this spectrum, there are implications for which times of the day best suit you for training, bearing in mind that circadian rhythms can be affected by activities including exercise and meal times.

Regardless of your chronotype, riding before work probably feels harder than at mid-morning, owing to sleep inertia the drowsiness that gradually dissipates after waking. However, if early morning is your only option, there are some useful tips for shifting or resetting your rhythm so as to get through the first few kilometres and out of the circadian trough.

The simplest solution is often the best: get up earlier. Dragging yourself out of bed kick-starts the myriad physiological processes, which during the early hours of the morning were at their lowest point. Consistently rising a little earlier could have a lasting effect on your circadian rhythms with an important footnote: make sure you balance this with a suitably earlier bedtime, and stick to it. Relapsing over a weekend off or a holiday will set you back to square one.

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Once youre awake and moving around, continued exposure to light is a major stimulus. If drawing back the curtains reveals only more darkness, artificial light is an effective substitute, and there is some evidence that daylight bulbs are effective. Eating also has a pronounced effect on your daily highs and lows, so have breakfast in good time, at least an hour before heading out. This not only provides you with the energy you need, but helps to wake you up too. Even so, you are unlikely to snatch a KOM or PB first thing in the morning.

Illustration: David Lyttleton

The answer here is to adjust your expectations to suit the time of day. When riding at a time that is not optimal for your physiology, pay less attention to the external outputs such as speed and power, and rely instead on internal parameters such as heart rate and perceived exertion. If you must squeeze in a Zone 2 training ride before breakfast, ride at the speed that elicits a Zone 2 physiological response rather than the wattage or speed that would usually equate to Zone 2 later in the day.

Keep records and have morning and evening ranges these will allow you to monitor shifts in your chronotype, should they occur. The evidence suggests that diurnal fluctuations have a greater effect on strength and power events than on endurance exercise, so short intense efforts may feel harder in the morning than in the evening. If this is true for you, avoid high-intensity interval sessions or strength training early in the day.

Human physiological systems appear to become more efficient as the day progresses. Annoyingly, we are probably best ready to ride during the middle part of the day, when most of us are at work. Does this mean that riding after work is seriously disadvantaged? Thankfully not. There is evidence to suggest that the psychological effects of work add another dimension to our ability to apply effort later in the day.

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Professor Samuele Marcora, of the University of Bologna, has published several papers investigating the effects of mentally fatiguing tasks on sports performance. This research has established that mental fatigue can have a debilitating effect on exercise performance. When the mentally fatiguing stimulus is removed, athletes perceive subsequent exercise as being easier and thus perform better. A day at work may have a similar effect on your training session. Have you felt a lack of motivation while training after a stressful day? Pushing through might make you stronger.

A further disadvantage when training late in the day is its effect on subsequent sleep. As we have learnt, training can disrupt our circadian rhythm, meaning we may not be ready for bed until later than normal (particularly if youve taken a caffeine supplement). Eating later adds to the potential for sleep trouble. If you cant drop off, avoid lying awake for hours getting frustrated; instead, read or get up and do something different (avoiding screens) until you feel weary.

Marcora advises that the best time to train, from a psycho-biological perspective, is late morning or lunchtime.

Mentally, we are fresher, and the perception of effort is lower enabling us to push harder. Most people are understandably mentally fatigued in the evening after a day at work, so if this is your only option, taking caffeine prior to your workout will help reduce the perceived effort.

As we have seen, there are pros and cons to riding at either end of the day. This poses an intriguing question: is there an edge to be gained by facing down the fatigue and training at a time when you are less primed or motivated? Marcora believes there may be. If the aim of a session is to develop brain endurance that is, mental resilience for long or intense exercise the professor postulates that training in the evening might increase the perceived effort of a session and subsequently lead to improved endurance performance.

Physiologically, there appears to be little evidence to suggest that training early (or late) improves subsequent performance during optimal hours.

But it may help to train at the time of day you intend to race. According to Dr Gabriel, you should regularly train at the time you intend to race as part of your preparation so as to get your physiological rhythms primed and adapted. For example, if your long sportive has an early morning start time, make sure you head out early on some of your training rides in the weeks before.

With cycling holidays becoming ever more popular, another situation where managing your circadian variation becomes crucial is around travel. When flying abroad, you should aim to adjust to the new time zone (no matter how small) as quickly as possible by getting into your new normal daily routine. This has long been a concern for elite athletes who travel the world to train and compete. The primary cause of jet lag is disruptions to the sleep-wake cycle. To overcome this problem, Team GB athletes travelling to the Tokyo Olympics in August will be advised to allow one day per time zone crossed to fully adjust in time to compete.

For shorter trips, when the time difference is only an hour or two, you could tweak your routine in the few days before you leave to match the destination time zone just make sure to turn up to the airport on time!While your daily biological rhythms are largely pre-programmed, it is worth being strategic about the time of day you train. Sometimes training while mentally tired may elicit an extra adaptation, provided you dont overdo it and risk falling into a state of burn-out.

Whenever possible, train at the time of day when you feel most energised. If youre forced to train early or late in the day, remember that extending your waking hours will take its toll if you do not make adjustments to compensate for the reduction in sleep. Training counts for nothing unless you allow your body to recover, repair and adapt. The benefits of sleep, particularly in athletes, are well reported and far greater than any potential gains induced through a tweak in circadian rhythms, so whatever you do, dont go burning the candle at both ends.

Being ready to compete is key to good performance. Early start times can be commonplace in amateur cyclo-cross or time trial competitions, so what can you do to maximise your mental and physical alertness in preparation?

Wake time

The earlier you rise before your start time, the better within reason. T-minus two hours is a good starting point, but experiment and find out what works for you, especially when travelling is involved.

Light

If you need to be up before the sun rises, a useful compromise can be a light therapy product such as a Lumie light (lumie.com), which simulates natural light more effective than simply putting the big light on.

Warm up

Gentle exercise before you eat is a smart move, particularly combined with some fresh air. A walk or spin on the rollers helps kick-start your systems.

Breakfast

Eat a high-carbohydrate breakfast, and make sure it is plain and palatable, as your digestive system is not firing on all cylinders early in the day. Porridge is a safe, reliable choice for most people. And, of course, make sure you are well hydrated (this applies to the night before too).

Written by Dr Mark Homer

This feature originally appeared in the print edition of Cycling Weekly, on sale in newsagents and supermarkets, priced 3.25.

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Is there a best time to train? A sports scientist investigates - Cycling Weekly

Physiology

Connect Health teams up with EQL on digital physiology triage app – LaingBuisson

Integrated community musculoskeletal services provider Connect Health has teamed up with EQL to offer enhanced AI triage for its physiotherapy patients. Under the deal, Connect Health patients will be able to access PhysioNow an AI-enabled triage applicationbased on EQLs Phio app, that provides support and self-management while identifying and evaluating the right treatment pathway.

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Maria has more than two decades' experience as a business and financial journalist. She has specialised in writing about the UKs private and voluntary healthcare sector for the last 15 years. Maria covered the historic Condordat signed by the NHS and independent healthcare providers, which paved the way for the Labour governments radical market-based reform of the NHS at the turn of the Millennium. Since then, she has tracked the key trends in independent healthcare from the advent of patient choice and the emerging NHS market to multi-million pound flotations and game-changing deals.

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Connect Health teams up with EQL on digital physiology triage app - LaingBuisson

Physiology

Research finds similarities between the way humans, chimpanzees age – UNM Newsroom

A team of researchers from The University of New Mexico, working with the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda, have found similarities in the way chimpanzees and humans age. In their recently published paper, Wild chimpanzees exhibit humanlike aging of glucocorticoid regulation, the researchers relate findings of their decades-long study.

The New Mexico team is led by associate professor of Anthropology and co-director of the Comparative Human and Primate Physiology Center Melissa Emery Thompson. Other team members are Ph.D. candidates Stephanie A. Fox, Sarah Phillips-Garcia, Drew K. Enigk, and Kris Sabbi, evolutionary anthropologist Andreas Berghnel, and associate professor of Anthropology and co-director of the Comparative Human and Primate Physiology Center Martin N. Muller.

The research group has studied a community of about 55 wild chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, for the past 32 years. They are currently trying to understand the aging process in chimpanzees and how it compares with that in humans.

Chimpanzees can live past the age of 60 in the wild and are human's closest living relatives, so the reason for this comparison is to determine which aspects of aging are unique to the human species, or not, Emery Thompson explained. This kind of research may help provide clues as to what factors shaped the prolonged human lifespan, as well as the extent to which aging processes are influenced by environment. As an example, neither chimpanzees nor humans living in small-scale subsistence groups are susceptible to atherosclerosis (clogged arteries), suggesting that it may be the unusual diets and activity levels of industrialized societies that places us at risk.

Cortisol is the key product of the stress response and plays an essential role in energy metabolism. But, high levels of cortisol contribute to many of the degenerative processes of human aging, including bone loss, cardiovascular disease, immunosenescence, which is the gradual deterioration of the immune system brought on by natural age advancement, and cognitive impairments.

Emery Thompson explained that this problem is exacerbated because the system that regulates cortisol production wears out as humans age, so the amount of cortisol we produce increases, along with its negative consequences.

We found strong evidence that a similar kind of dysregulation occurs in chimpanzees. Their levels of cortisol increased with age, and this could not explained by changes in social status or reproductive activity. Like humans, chimpanzees have a circadian rhythm of cortisol production with a peak early in the morning followed by a decline throughout the day. We found that aging chimpanzees had a blunted circadian rhythm, paralleling an important feature of aging in humans, Emery Thompson said.

In order to study the cortisol levels in the chimpanzees, the team members had to collect urine samples from the primates.

Most people want to know how we collect urine, Emery Thompson laughed. Chimpanzees spend about half of their day up in the trees, where they find most of their food. They also sleep in the trees in nests they make from branches.

Our research staff uses catchpoles fashioned from forked sticks with small plastic bags on the end to collect the urine as it falls. Like people, chimpanzees usually pee just after they wake up and when they are leaving one location to go to another. We go out before dawn to make sure we find the chimpanzees in their nests and collect urine just as they are beginning their day. Since 1998, we have collected over 40,000 urine samples from this one group of chimpanzees. We can use these samples to monitor reproductive function, stress, energetic condition, lean body mass, hydration, and indicators of health.

Many of the same things that stress humans also stress the chimpanzees.

Chimpanzees live in complex social networks, which can cause all kinds of stress as individuals compete for food, status, and mating opportunities, Emery Thompson noted.

In our study, male chimpanzees with high rank had higher cortisol levels, which is the opposite of the pattern in humans where high status is less stressful. But, high-ranking chimpanzee males expend a lot of energy in status displays and engage in high rates of aggression. We also found that male chimpanzees had higher cortisol when there was a sexually receptive female present. Females get large swellings of their genital skin for 10 to 12 days around the time of ovulation, and this instigates a lot of competition among the males.

The males arent the only ones stressing during this time.

We also found that this was stressful for the females being competed over, as males not only fight with each other, but intimidate and harass the females. Females with swellings often have males bugging them all day long, so they also don't get to feed as much.

In many primate studies, seasonal food shortages are stressful, as are periods when females are nursing young infants, because their energetic demands increase.

However, we did not find that here. Kibale National Park is a high-quality habitat for chimpanzees, and the area we work in has improved over the 30 years of the project because the forest, which was previously logged, has regenerated, Emery Thompson said.

Researchers expected that older males would produce a higher cortisol response when competing for mates and status, but they did not, perhaps because older males pursue less risky behaviors. They had also expected that high cortisol would indicate an increased cost of nursing infants for older females, because this is so energetically taxing. Again, this was not the case. Instead, females produced the most cortisol when they were sexually receptive, a time when they are exposed to a lot of aggression, both attacked by males and are near a lot of males competing over them. This effect did increase with age. Older females experienced disproportionately more stress when they were sexually receptive.

Taken together, our results indicate that dysregulation in production of cortisol is a common pathway for aging in both humans and chimpanzees. This suggests that humans inherited this feature, and it is neither a byproduct of our extended lifespans nor our unusual modern environments. What is not yet clear is whether humans and chimpanzees differ in the effects of cortisol on age-related disease. We are currently examining a number of other features of aging such as immune function, physical frailty, social behavior, and fertility to try to build a cohesive picture of chimpanzee aging, Emery Thompson explained.

Despite collecting the chimps urine every day, researchers maintain their distance from them, unlike the renowned primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, who is often portrayed in photos and documentaries interacting and even hugging the chimps.

In fact, no field studies do that anymore. We maintain a distance of at least 15 feet from the chimpanzees at all times. Because we are interested in their natural behavior, our goal is that they go about their business without interacting with or worrying about us. We also do that for the chimpanzees' protection. Cold and flu viruses from humans are extremely dangerous for great apes because they are closely enough related to us that the same viruses infect them, but they do not have acquired immunity to these viruses, so they have a high risk of death if infected. We have largely suspended research activities in light of COVID-19, Emery Thompson noted.

One of the biggest limitations the research team faces is that they are studying an endangered species in the wild, meaning that everything they do has to be non-invasive.

We cannot weigh animals, conduct direct exams, or collect blood samples. And since the animals are not in cages, we have to go out and find them every day, and if they die, we may never locate them. This means we have very little understanding of how older chimpanzees die. On the other hand, it is clear that aging is affected by the environment and by lifestyle, so it is essential to understand how a species ages 'naturally' in the kind of environment in which it normally lives. Our study necessarily involves fewer subjects than a typical human clinical study, but it features much more comprehensive sampling of individuals, both for cortisol and for features of the social and physical environment.

Like much of the rest of the world, the researchers are isolating from the world, including the chimpanzees.

Uganda is now closed off due to COVID-19, so all of our foreign researchers have gone home. I typically visit one or two times a year, as do my fellow co-directors, including Martin Muller. Our Ph.D. students conduct field research for longer stints, typically six to 18 months, Emery Thompson said.

The chimpanzee study will bring new insight into aging in humans, she concluded.

Most research on aging is targeted either at curing the diseases of aging, such as heart disease, or treats aging itself as a disease. We are addressing an underdeveloped area of research on the basic biology of aging. While this might not lead to extension of the human lifespan, understanding how our aging pattern evolved can help us to figure out how to age more successfully. This is just one piece of the puzzle, but we are interested in sorting out which features of aging humans have in common with our closest relatives, which are unique to humans and their extended lifespan, and which are unnatural products of living in industrialized environments.

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Research finds similarities between the way humans, chimpanzees age - UNM Newsroom