Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

The New Home of Sports Neuroscience: An Interview With Dr Jaime Tartar – Technology Networks

Jaime Tartar, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Nova Southeastern University and president of the Society for NeuroSports, an academic society dedicated to the interdisciplinary collaboration between the fields of exercise science and neuroscience. Dr. Tartar completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, where she studied the neurobiology of sleep. She is widely published in many areas of neuroscience on topics ranging from basic cell physiology to neurological impairments. Her research interests are focused on the mechanisms and consequences of acute and chronic stress in humans and the impact of normal sleep and sleep deprivation on emotion processing and physiological functioning. We spoke to Dr. Tartar about the need for sports neuroscience, and how this young field is rapidly advancing.As an academic society, how does the Society for NeuroSports hope to impact the world of sports neuroscience?Jamie Tartar (JT): We aim to be able to provide an academic home to researchers working across fields. For example, those working in neuroscience, exercise science, psychology or physical therapy who are looking at brain-exercise relationships. We would also like to be able to provide those working in the applied fields a place where they can interact with academics in the field to share information and strengthen their practice.A lot of people are currently doing work in the field of sports neuroscience, but because it doesn't have an established academic organization, I don't think that researchers right now identify themselves as sport neuroscientists, even though that's what they're doing.

Initially, our goal was to hold academic conferences and we had the first one in November 2019. This conference was exactly what we hoped it would be there were researchers across disciplines sharing information and learning from each other. In fact, new and interesting collaborations also came from this conference! We would like to see this happen more at future conferences as the field and the society grows.A secondary goal for us was to create and establish the first journal in the field of sports neuroscience. We have recently done that with the launch of the Journal of the Society for NeuroSports. We are very pleased to offer this as an open access journal that does not have submission fees. We were able to do this by partnering closely with our university library that runs the journal through a special program that they have.Because sports neuroscience often involves working across disciplines, we also offer a certification in the field of sports neuroscience. This allows academics and practitioners to share their knowledge across disciplines. People like me, for example I am a neuroscientist who is working closely in the field of exercise science.If money was no object, what subsets of sports neuroscience research deserve to see the light of the day the most?JT: I think that's a difficult question to answer. Most researchers would certainly pick their area because we love what we do!There has been a lot of attention given recently to the impact of exercise and physical activity on brain health. This is a hot and growing area in science. I'm not sure how much the general public is aware of the recent findings on just how powerful exercise can be as a way of keeping your brain healthy. If anything, I think that information needs to be translated better to the public.

Jaime Tartar, Ph.D. Credit: NOVA

Most people exercise for the physical benefits, but maybe more people would exercise for the brain benefits. Another area where we could use a lot of work is in brain injury in sports. Right now, the neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) that can develop as a result of impact sports is not well understood. CTE cannot be diagnosed currently until after death. It would be very helpful to have better translation or research in this area. Better understanding of one neurodegenerative disease can help the understanding of all of them so understanding more about CTE can also help with our understanding of Alzheimer's disease.In your presentation last year at the 16th Annual Conference of the International Society of Sports Nutrition in Las Vegas, you spoke at length about the deleterious effects insufficient sleep has on sports performance. Is sleep monitoring a part of the solution?JT: Sleep monitoring can definitely help in sports performance. Athletes spend a lot of time training for performance and eating the right nutrition to perform better. Improving sleep is also critical to performance, but many athletes are not aware of just how much of an impact poor sleep has on sports performance. Many people, not just athletes, restrict their sleep in order to increase their daytime waking activities, but for athletes studies have demonstrated very clearly that when they sleep better they perform better. Athletes and non-athletes alike need to give themselves permission to get better sleep and think of sleep as a basic hygiene, just like eating well and exercising. It's difficult to gauge ones sleep properly so monitoring this can be very helpful towards this goal.In your presentation on How to manage the misbehaving brain, you pointed out that in hunter-gatherer times, a drop in temperature was a reliable predictor of sleep onset, perhaps even more so than light. Would you expect this still to be the case today?JT: Not only would I expect this to be true today, but a good number ofstudies have demonstrated this to be the case. In general, sleep in humans and non-human animals is associated with a decrease in core body temperature. It has been clearly demonstrated that a decrease in core body temperature before sleep onset relates to faster sleep onset and better-quality sleep.Youve studied the role of acute and chronic stress, a topic of great interest in sports performance circles. Historically, most research was centeredaround cortisol and alpha amylase activity, however the latest advances in genotyping have allowed researchers to look at how genetic difference in dopamine levels affect athletic performance.In one of your recent studies, you investigated how a functional single-nucleotide polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene relates to catecholamine levels and allele types considered the warrior and the worrier genotypes. How does COMT allele status affect the athletes performance under stressful conditions? What about its impact on emotional processing?JT: People who carry 2 G nucleotide alleles for the COMT gene have less of a breakdown of dopamine in the brain and especially in the prefrontal cortex. We previously demonstrated that women who carry at least one copy of the "A" allele (who therefore have less dopamine breakdown/ more circulating dopamine in the prefrontal cortex) have better psychological health at baseline.However, with the onset of stress, dopamine levels rise so for people who carry the GG alleles this rise puts their dopamine levels at the sweet spot for performance whereas people who have higher baseline dopamine levels (people who carry at least one A allele) this pushes their dopamine levels too high to the point where they're not performing well. People with two G alleles are sometimes known as warrior allele carriers because they seem to be able to perform better under stress. In agreement with this idea, we recently published a paper showing that professional MMA fighters are more likely to carry the GG allele than would be expected based on population data.

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The New Home of Sports Neuroscience: An Interview With Dr Jaime Tartar - Technology Networks

Physiology

Stomach SIDT1 mediates dietary microRNA absorption: ending of the 10-year debate – Science Codex

In a new study published in Cell Research, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University School of Life Sciences, China, reports that SIDT1 in the mammalian stomach mediates host uptake of dietary and orally administered microRNAs (miRNAs), thus exerting biological functions in the host.

In previous studies, Chen-Yu Zhang's group has demonstrated that intact plant miRNA in foods can be absorbed through the mammalian digestive system and mediate cross-kingdom gene regulation. The discoveries also provide new insight into the oral administration of RNA therapeutic drugs. Although accumulated evidences showing the existence of intact dietary miRNAs within mammalian host, the absorption of dietary miRNAs in animal gastrointestinal tract has been frequently questioned, mainly due to the unknown mechanism of absorption.

In the current study, they show that SID-1 transmembrane family member 1 (SIDT1), mammalian homolog of SID-1 expressed on gastric pit cells in the stomach is required for the absorption of dietary miRNAs. SIDT1-deficient mice show reduced basal levels and impaired dynamic absorption of dietary miRNAs. Notably, they identified the stomach as the primary site for dietary miRNA absorption, which is dramatically attenuated in the stomachs of SIDT1-deficient mice. Mechanistic analyses revealed that the uptake of exogenous miRNAs by gastric pit cells is SIDT1 and low-pH dependent. Furthermore, oral administration of plant-derived miR2911 retards liver fibrosis, and the protective effect was abolished in SIDT1-deficient mice. This study not only reveals the major mechanism of dietary miRNA absorption, uncovers a novel physiological function of the mammalian stomach, but also shed light on orally delivered small-RNA therapeutics.

This work is important for the following reasons:

1.In this study, they demonstrated the molecular mechanism of mammalian dietary miRNA absorption, which is one of the most groundbreaking as well as most controversial discoveries in the field of extracellular RNA research in the last decade. Identification of the absorption mechanism provides strong evidence of the physiological existence and functionality of mammalian dietary miRNA absorption, thus ending the 10-year debate on this topic.2.This work also newly found that the stomach not only absorbs water and alcohol, as is broadly known in classic physiology, but also senses and takes up functional dietary miRNAs. This provides a unique new understanding of digestion physiology.3.A low-pH condition is required for efficient exogenous miRNA uptake via SIDT1. This finding reveals an evolutionary explanation for functional dietary miRNA absorption, in which the stability of dietary miRNAs is granted in stomach, where RNase activity is largely absent in this low-physiological-pH gastric environment.4.By oral administration, plant-derived miR2911 can be absorbed via SIDT1 and can subsequently alleviate liver fibrosis in mice, providing a new therapeutic strategy for small-RNA-based treatment. This natural mammalian absorption pathway of dietary miRNA will be easily harnessed for the oral delivery of therapeutic miRNAs, which could be a potential direction in for the development of RNA-based medicine.

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Stomach SIDT1 mediates dietary microRNA absorption: ending of the 10-year debate - Science Codex

Physiology

Unique high-tech track waiting for competition at Baldwin Wallace University – cleveland.com

BEREA, Ohio - Anyone watching track and field sees athletes who lace up the spikes, stretch, and take off. Practice and training shaves tenths of seconds off times. But at Baldwin Wallace University, a new track aims to give an added edge to competitive runners.

A lot of science, dedicated research, a keen understanding of physiology and a tree indigenous to the rainforest have contributed to the quarter-mile track at George Finnie Stadium.

We're a far cry from the days when runners traversed grass, dirt, cinder and asphalt surfaces in competition.

Synthetic material began to be developed in the 1950s and '60s, which makes Roger Bannister's 1954 vanguard achievement of becoming the first person to break the 4-minute mile all that impressive.

Some surfaces used to be poured to form a track, buckets of "goop" squeegeed out, said Joe Eby, who coaches B-W's men's and women's teams. It yielded an imperfect, uneven oval.

Technological advancements have resulted in surfaces like the Mondo Super X 720. It sounds like a video game, but it's a state-of-the-art-track.

"We're the only (college) track in the state of Ohio to have a Mondo surface," Eby said. "This is like the Cadillac of track surfaces."

The biggest challenge for Eby is the litany of coronavirus restrictions the Ohio Athletic Conference and other conferences are facing. So the school of just more than 3,000 students has a pristine track with no formal competitions scheduled.

The latex-based track is about half an inch thick and laid over the school's previous track, which was installed in 2008 and lies atop asphalt and a French drain. Workers in May began the installation process, laying it down from 49-foot rolls and assembling it with glue between seams. It took about a week or two, Eby said, and another week to paint the lines.

Mondo Super X 720 has a hexagon shape designed for "the way people move," said Phil Rickaby, regional sales manager for Kiefer USA, which distributes the line of tracks.

But as Eby strode on the surface recently, he sees a simple yet important necessity: "These tracks are built for competition."

Eby - who grew up in Silver Lake and went to Walsh Jesuit High School and ran for the University of Mount Union - has been coaching at Baldwin Wallace since 2015. He knows about competition. In 2016, the B-W women were national indoor champs and runner-up outdoors.

"This was always one of my favorite places to run," he said. "I've run multiple PRs (personal best times) at this facility on this surface. It's always been known as the fastest track in the area."

But behind the speed is a lot of science.

Baldwin Wallace University track coach Joe Eby checks out the new Mondo track.

It's a "dual durometer" surface, meaning it's a two-layered product. The top layer serves primarily for durability, energy return and traction. The bottom strip is a performance layer for shock absorption and energy return.

The track holds a "three-dimensional component of the way people move," said Rickaby, who competed for and coached at Kent State.

Down a straightaway, runners need that "forward and backward horizontal-type movement."

When taking off in a jumping event - like hurdles and pole vault, for instance - "you want that vertical energy return and also that shock absorption as you take off the ground and when you hit back down."

Then there are curves in the 400 or 800 meters, distance events and high jump. "You want that energy return," Rickaby said.

It all comes from the track's hexagon shape that allows for consistent energy return - athlete to athlete, lane to lane, event to event.

Rickaby puts the science into layman's terms:

"If you imagine a bow string, when energy is stored in a particular product, that energy return is very important to an athlete. If you have a track that is too soft - consider sand. It's a good shock absorber, but it has no energy return. You want to have a very fine balance of having a product that stores that energy with the force that an athlete applies to the ground but is able to return that energy without that energy disbursing through that surface."

Mondo, an Italian company, has had years to study tracks. The company has been around for about 70 years, starting with toy and bike-tire production, Rickaby said.

Its first Olympic track was for the 1976 Games in Montreal, and recently the company finished work for the 2020/2021 Games slated for Tokyo. To date, Mondo has installed tracks in 170 countries, with dozens throughout the United States, as well as flooring for recreation centers, weight rooms and multi-purpose gyms.

And it all starts with a tree.

All the product is extracted from the Hevea tree, much like latex is, he said. So its a latex-based product from a rubber tree where they take the product from the tree and then they harvest the raw material and turn it into a running track. Its a product of nature.

The sustainable effort is like tapping a tree for maple syrup. Bark is cut, latex is extracted. That liquid will harden and undergo vulcanization. The resulting surface is anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, decreasing staph infections, Rickaby said.

Surfaces have come a long way since Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile on May 6, 1954. AP

The physiology of the foot is the basis for much of the research.

"As the athlete hits the ground, they don't hit flat-footed; they actually roll from the first out to the fifth metatarsal. As the pressure is put onto the foot, it moves effectively from one toe out to the next toe. The track allows the energy to be stored, and as the pressure is applied and then released that energy also is released back to the foot as it lifts off the track."

The metatarsal bones are one to five, middle joints numbered from big toe on out.

The track minimizes contact time, allowing more energy to be returned. It helps reduce injuries because the track allows athletes to apply less force to take another step, Rickaby said.

Over time, those steps add up. The track's lifespan ranges with use. Some of the Mondo tracks in indoor facilities have lasted 29 years, Rickaby said. Outdoor surfaces can go about 15 years, and the tracks come in multiple colors.

Prices are based on square footage, from half a million dollars on up. B-W's was paid for mostly through donors, Eby said. Indoor hydraulic systems, creating banked curves resembling a NASCAR track for athletes to stay within the curve, "can run upwards of $3 million," Rickaby said.

This is B-W's third iteration of a Mondo track, and its newness compares to the football field turf, which is a year old.

All the technology can improve performance, but it cannot conquer coronavirus and its ever-changing restrictions. For now, the OAC has postponed all sports until Jan. 1, 2021, Eby said.

I feel so bad for the kids, he said. We had our spring season taken away, and all summer theyve been training and training and training, and now fall season is taken away. So a lot of them are Whats the point? Eventually were going to get back to it. Its hard to just train with no light at the end of the tunnel.

When they do get back, having a high-tech track can lead to a "wow factor" for recruiting, Eby said.

"We've got a brand new facility at this point," he said. "I'm glad we got it in when we did."

I am on cleveland.coms life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, heres a directory on cleveland.com.

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Unique high-tech track waiting for competition at Baldwin Wallace University - cleveland.com

Physiology

Gregory Carter, MD, MS, Honored With Ernest Johnson Outstanding Educator Award – Newswise

Newswise The American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) is honoring Gregory Carter, MD, MS, with the Ernest Johnson Outstanding Educator Award for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR). This award honors a PMR AANEM member for significant contributions related to neuromuscular (NM) and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine.

"Teaching, like the practice of medicine and research endeavors, is a challenging intellectual task," said Dr. Carter. "It is one of the most important things we can do in the course of our careers. Even in this age of nearly instantaneous information transfer, the most important aspects of clinical medicine cannot be learned off of a smartphone, website, or even a YouTube video. It is the hands-on, personal interactions with our trainees that passes on the knowledge that ensures the future of our field."

Dr. Carter's contributions to the AANEM Annual Meeting were a determining factor in his receiving the award. He has presented at over 20 sessions and was always a popular speaker. He is adamant about the value of being an AANEM member.

"The AANEM is an outstanding organization and has the highest quality training and educational materials, including an excellent journal in Muscle and Nerve. The meetings are always top-notch, and bring in a mix of educational and research topics, said Dr. Carter.

Dr. Carter graduated from Loyola University of Chicagos Stritch School of Medicine. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He completed a residency for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a research fellowship for neuromuscular disease at the University of California, Davis. He also earned a Masters degree in physiology there, before accepting a MayDay pain fellowship at the University of Washington. He holds faculty appointments at both University of Washington and Washington State University medical schools. He currently serves as chief medical officer for St Lukes Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Washington. He is now in the process of starting a new PM&R residency program. Dr. Carter served on the AANEM Board from 2013-2016 and served on the Muscle & Nerve Editorial Board as Senior Associate Editor. He also was a member of the following AANEM Committees: Research, Podcasting Editorial Board, and the NM Update Course Committee.

About the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM)

Based in Rochester, Minnesota, the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) is the premier nonprofit membership association dedicated to the advancement of neuromuscular (NM), musculoskeletal and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine. The organization and its members work to improve the quality of patient care and advance the science of NM diseases and EDX medicine by serving physicians and allied health professionals who care for those with muscle and nerve disorders.

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Gregory Carter, MD, MS, Honored With Ernest Johnson Outstanding Educator Award - Newswise

Physiology

Free Webinar: Multi-Year Contraception for Wild Horses & Deer – Patch.com

FREE WEBINAR ADDRESSES MULTI-YEAR REVERSIBLE CONTRACEPTION FOR WILD HORSES AND DEER

The Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control (BIWFC) will host a free webinar addressing the development, assessment and application of PZP-22 controlled-release vaccine as a wildlife management tool, with a focus on wild horses and deer. "PZP-22: Multi-Year Reversible Contraception for Wild Horses and Deer" is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18 at 1:00 PM (EDT).

The management of wildlife in the face of robust reproduction and changing habitats is a major issue for both the present and future. The development and testing of contraceptive vaccines for this purpose began with a porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP)-adjuvant emulsion, which proved highly effective in preventing fertilization. This vaccine remains in use, but eventually the practical benefits of reducing the need to access animals repeatedly for treatment led to the development of PZP-22 as a single-injection, multi-year vaccine.

This webinar will be presented by John Turner, Jr. PhD, Professor of Physiology engaged in teaching and research at the University of Toledo College of Medicine (UTCOM) and Allen Rutberg, PhD, Director, Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy and Research Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

For more information or to register visit wwwwildlifefertilitycontrol.org/pzp22/.

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Free Webinar: Multi-Year Contraception for Wild Horses & Deer - Patch.com

Physiology

What you need to know about 13 common mask types – Webster County Citizen

Every day, we seem to have more scientific data about what type of actions best protect us (and others) from COVID-19. When scientists look at the effectiveness of masks, they consider both the safety of the wearer and those around them. Some of the latest insights are from an August 2020 study by researchers from Duke Universitys physics department, who looked at the capacity of 14 face coverings and a no-mask control to minimize transmission of respiratory droplets when the wearer was speaking.

The researchers used a simple, low-cost measurement of the effectiveness of different facemask types, and focused primarily on the effectiveness of the testing method, rather than the impact of specific masks in avoiding COVID-19 infection. The study used a proven optical measurement method: an enclosure into which subjects could speak, outfitted with a green laser light that illuminated droplets and a cell phone camera that allowed the team to capture video and count droplets via a simple algorithm.

The tests looked at droplet transmission only when the subject was speaking and not other methods of transmission such as coughing or sneezing. The study had a sample size of only one for all masks, and only four for some of the masks (very uncommon in scientific research), and the team stressed that inter-subject variations are to be expected, for example due to difference in physiology, mask fit, head position, speech pattern, and such.

More research on this topic is necessary to definitively say which masks are most effective, particularly in the realm of cloth and other types of homemade masks. However, Stacker has found this study to be a useful jumping-off point for discussing 13 common masks and other covering types used by Americans across the country. The masks tested in the Duke University study are organized in this story from least protective to most protective, according to the studys results. Our slideshow excludes the no-mask control from the study.

Continue reading to learn more about the latest research on this topic.

You may also like: Biggest sources of stress for today's adults

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What you need to know about 13 common mask types - Webster County Citizen

Physiology

Why more heatwaves endanger our health and ability to work – Horizon magazine

It's actually quite easy for us to point out the problem we have increasing temperatures, increasing frequency of heatwavesit affects our physical and cognitive performance, said Lars Nybo, a professor of integrative physiology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is working on a project called HEAT-SHIELD designed to examine the effects of heat exposure on worker productivity in industrial sectors that employhalf of Europes workforce: manufacturing, construction, transportation, tourism, and agriculture.

Precipitated by a series of heatwaves, 2019 was thehottest year ever recorded in Europe. Over the past five years, mean temperatures in the continent are averaging almost 2C warmer than pre-industrial figures,a worrying sign for the achievementof the Paris climateagreement to keep global mean temperatureincreases well below2C.

Data from the project suggestthat exposure to external heat in combination with physical activity, which elevates the bodys production of heat, can result in physiological changes that can diminish occupational performance, via reduced working endurance, vision, motor coordination and concentration. This can lead to more mistakes as well as injuries.

Roughly 70% of all European workers, at some time during the working day, are not optimally hydrated, Prof. Nybo said. The solution to the problem, he adds, is intuitive: drink water, replace electrolytes and reduce physical activity, but implementing these measures whilst maintaining productivity is where things get tricky.

You could just say to the worker stay at home and drink cold margaritas in the shadow to prevent heat stress, he joked. But that will not help productivity.

Productivity

As coordinator of HEAT-SHIELD, Prof. Nybo and his team are tasked with not just assessing the extent of the problem modelling the expected rise in temperature in Europe in the coming years and its impact on worker productivity but also devising and implementing solutions that are location and vocation specific to adjust to the inevitable increases in temperature.

A construction worker wears a safety helmet, which impairs the bodys ability to purge heat, but the worker thinks this problem cannot be solved because it is intrinsic to their work, Prof. Nybo notes.

Surmounting challenges like this is one of the key objectives of the project conceiving ways to weave in heat mitigation strategies alongside the practicalities of the job.

For instance, outdoor workers should be vigilant of weather patterns and plan work earlier in the day during periods of extreme heat, take a short break every hour and secure easy access to water. Similar remedies for workers in enclosed settings could mean a combination of air conditioning, working in shade and improving ventilation keeping in mind the ecological footprint of such measures.

But on a macro level, for climate change policymakers to take concrete action here and now the numbers are key, Prof. Nybo says.

In Europe, agricultural and construction workers for instance, lose some 15% of effective working time when the temperature goes beyond 30C, which works out to almost one working day per week, he notes, citing HEAT-SHIELD analyses.

If you are a policymaker, he says, the numbers show that theres an incentive to act now: if you mitigate the problem the cost will stabilise at a lower level in the long run than if you dont.

Excessive heat

Diminished worker productivity and the downstream economic damage are prominent impacts of rising temperatures caused by climate change. But to get a full picture of the consequences, its necessary to understand what excessive heat does to the human body.

It can damage organs such as the heart and the lungs, exacerbate a range of diseases, and increase the risk of death.

Extreme heat can increasethe occurrence of heart attacksand strokes in susceptible patients due to increased blood viscosity, and raise the risk of cardiovascular death in vulnerable patients. Hot, humid days can also triggerasthma symptomsand have been shown to increase airway resistance, while warmer climates tend to extend the pollen season.

Another side effect of rising temperatures is the association with air pollution the largest environmental killer in Europe,causing roughly 500,000 premature deaths annually.

Observational data and modelling suggest that as it gets warmer, air pollution levels particularly surface ozone gas (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increase in some populated regions, even whenemissions of air pollutants have not risen, as well as create conditions favourable for forest fires.

Both extreme heat and air pollution raise the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease, which currently costs the European Union anestimated 600bna year.If these environmental stressors continue to accumulate unabated, these costs could jump.

We think there are reasons to believe that being able to comply with a Paris agreement will save very many lives and reduce human suffering.

Dr Kristin Aunan, Center for International Climate Research, Norway

Projections

But the synergistic relationship between air pollutants and rising temperatures is not well understood and existing health-risk projections in Europe do not properly account for adaptive measures that can be taken to ameliorate associated health risks, according to Dr Kristin Aunan, a senior researcher at the Norway-based Center for International Climate Research.

There's quite a lot of literature on short-term impact in terms of the day-to-day variation on the impact of heat stress on mortality but when it comes to long-term impact, there is not a lot of information, she said.

As part of a project calledEXHAUSTIONthat kicked off last year, researchers including project coordinator Dr Aunan, are focused on quantifying the risks of cardiopulmonary disease in different temperatures.

The project is also working on identifying interventions to minimise the risks to health sparked by environmental stressors and demystifying the link between air pollution and temperature hikes.

Quantifying the cascading effect of cardiopulmonary diseases on the economy is key to affecting action on climate change, she suggests.

EXHAUSTION researchers, for instance, are devising a macro-economic model that tracks increased hospitalisation and mortality in different age groups to measure the impact on the broader economy in different European countries. We also have a bottom-up model where you put a price on every premature death or hospital admission and add up to estimate the economic cost.

One of the main questions the researchers hope to answer is the magnitude of impact limiting temperature spikes to 1.5C the aim of the Paris climate agreement will have on health.

I have no answer to that today but the reason why were doing this projectis that we think there are reasons to believe that being able to comply with a Paris agreement will save very many lives and reduce human suffering, Dr Aunan said.

When you discuss climate policy and discuss the costs of it its very expensive to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, etc. But you also need to consider the benefits and that's what we are doing with this project hoping that we can contribute to the other side of the coin.

The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

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Why more heatwaves endanger our health and ability to work - Horizon magazine

Physiology

How an ultra-fast screening test and a team of contact tracers aim to keep campus safe – CU Boulder Today

A CU Boulder athlete spits into a tube as part of a new, 45-minute screening test for COVID-19. (Credit: CU Boulder)

Watch the webinar series

CU Boulder researchers, including Sara Sawyer and Matthew McQueen, took part in a series of webinars focusing on how the campus is preparing for the fall semester.

See the recordings

Incoming Buffs moving to campus next week will be among the first to access a new 45-minute COVID-19 test aimed at identifying asymptomatic individuals before they can spread the virus.

Before ever entering a residence hall, theyll spit in a tube, close the lid, hand it over to a gloved and masked volunteerand wait.

The idea is that if we can keep unknowingly infected students from ever stepping into the dorm on the first day, many of those transmission chains that would have started will not start, said Professor Sara Sawyer, whose team of virologists began work on the so-called RT-LAMP test shortly after word of the novel coronavirus began to make headlines. Its an incredible feeling to see something developed in our own lab now out in the world helping people.

The new test is just the first step in a unique, multi-pronged campus surveillance program being built from the ground up by CU Boulder scientists and staff members.

To work around national bottlenecks that have kept patients in some areas of the country waiting weeks for COVID-19 test results, biochemists at the BioFrontiers Institute have also developed a version of the more sensitive nasal-swab test known as PCR (Polymerase chain reaction).

Meanwhile, epidemiologists from the CU Boulder Department of Integrative Physiology have amassed a team of contact tracers, including about 80 students who are doing it for course credit. Theyll assist fellow students who test positive and help notify those they may have exposed.

A number of people on campus recognized very early on that, in order to avoid the problems associated with commercial testing and overburdened public health agencies, we needed to develop the capacity to do some things on our own, said Roy Parker, director of the BioFrontiers Institute, a biomedical research facility that will house two new testing labs. The community effort among scientists across this campus ever since has been awe-inspiring.

When more than 7,500 first-year students arrive next week, those who havent been tested or who are still awaiting results will begin their day with not one but two tests developed and processed at no cost to the student.

First, theyll spit in a tube. Then, theyll scrape a swab across the inside of each nostril. Finally, theyll hand off their samples to a team of students, postdoctoral researchers or EMTs-in- training who will whisk the samples away for processing.

A mobile lab screen newcomers to the CU Boulder campus for COVID-19. (Credit: CU Boulder)

Each test has its pros and cons.

The saliva test, based on a technology known as reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), requires little more than pipettes, a heating source and an enzyme mixture that changes color when it interacts with bits of the viruss genome. If the sample turns from pink to yellow, the test is positive. If it doesnt, its negative.

Results can be returned in as little as 45 minutes.

The PCR test uses more sophisticated equipmentthe now ubiquitous nasal swabto amplify and detect viral DNA from the sample.

It is FDA approved so you can give a clinical diagnosis, and it is slightly more sensitive, but the disadvantage is that it is expensive to run and takes more time and more staff, said Parker, pointing to nine- to 14-day waits and $100 price tags at labs around the country.

The CU Boulder effort is designed to return results, even for the PCR tests, within 24 hours.

Because the new saliva test is cheap, fast, easily scalable and deployable just about anywhere think factories, homeless shelters, school campusesit holds great promise as a triaging tool to find the occasional needle in a haystack of asymptomatic people, said Sawyer. Her team is currently working with the state of Colorado to further validate the test and make it more broadly available.

The researchers say its unlikely that a student would get a positive result on the saliva screening test and then test negative on the diagnostic nasal swab test.

But to cover all bases and get a sense of how the tests compare, CU Boulder will give incoming students both tests.

Our campus is going to be one of the first places in the country where mass screening of healthy people is being undertaken with two tests on a broad scale, said Sawyer. While students wait their 24 hours to get their diagnostic test, they can get a quick read-out that lets them know they should modify their behavior in the meantime.

Throughout the semester, the campus plans to conduct surveillance test of students both on and off-campus to get a sense of how the virus is moving through the community.If a student was to test positive at move-in, they would be asked to either return home to isolate or do so at on-campus housing set aside for such use. During the semester, they would be asked to isolate on campus or, if they live off-campus, isolate in place.

Thats where contact tracers would step in.

One person, under normal conditions, could infect three or four or more people, but with contact tracing you could get that number down to one or even none, said integrative physiology Professor Matt McQueen.

In March, McQueen teamed up with Professor Todd Gleeson, director of the Health Professions Residential Academic Program, to develop Public Health Practicum: Contact Tracing, a course that enables students to play a critical role in breaking the COVID-19 transmission chain.

If a student tests positive, the contact tracers, overseen by Medical Services staff, will try to get a sense of anyone the student has been within 6 feet of for 15 minutes or more in the last 48 hours. Then, theyll reach out to encourage those individuals to quarantine, and offer testing when appropriate.

In the case of a faculty or staff member testing positive, Medical Services has amassed a team of about two dozen staffers and paid temporary workers to serve as contact tracers for that population.

In addition to providing campus with an additional tool for keeping the COVID curve flat and contained, McQueen sees the course as a historic opportunity for students.

This is something they will tell their grandchildren about years from now, he said.

In the long-run, studies that grow out of these testing and tracing efforts could help people better prepare for, or even fend off, the next pandemic.

A year from now, due to the efforts of this scientific community, we will know a lot more about this virus, said Parker.

Continued here:
How an ultra-fast screening test and a team of contact tracers aim to keep campus safe - CU Boulder Today

Physiology

Learning good breathing habits from a freediver | Life Examined – KCRW

Taking a deep breath has long been known to calm down the body; athletes before a race do it or performers and speakers before going on stage. So how can we learn to breathe better? KCRWs Joanthan Bastian talks to a freediver and a breath practitioner about the mechanics of breathing well and the impacts on our mental and physical well-being.

The following interview excerpts have been abbreviated and edited for clarity.

KCRW: Youre a four time freediving World Champion. How did that get started for you?

Stig Severinsen:Well as with any child, once you start freediving, going under the surface of the ocean, or even in a swimming pool, you pretty quickly realize that in order to be able to stay down, you need to be relaxed. So mental relaxation, physiological relaxation is very important. As children we subconsciously train a lot of different breathing techniques you experiment and find your own way. When you get more into competitive freediving, most of your focus is actually on breathing and the preparation, so if you don't really understand breathing and you kind of have a bad start. So it sounds like a paradox, you're a free diver, you need to hold your breath but you're working with breathing, they go hand in hand and I look at it as a brother and a sister.

In yoga, the fourth element of Ashtanga Yoga, the fourth limb or the fourth step is called pranayama and that deals with breathing and particularly the breath holding but that's what freediving is, investigating the pause in the breath.

KCRW: How much training is involved in becoming a freediver?

Stig Severinsen:It depends. Once you get older, your metabolism slows down, which is an advantage. Whereas in most any other sport, once you get older you lose your stamina, your muscles, your coordination and balance you had in your youth. But in freediving, it's actually an advantage and you also have a lifelong experience to look back on and to lean against so I would say with decent freediving a few times a week. In addition you do a cardiovascular workout, the apnea training, the breath training, hypoxic training, all the kind of crazy, stuff that I do with the Navy Seals, the Royal Air Force, Olympic athletes, but for an average person its not too hard and thats the great thing about freediving.

The first rule of any diving is to never dive alone, never hold your breath alone because you can black out and drown. But if you experiment at home, in your bed, on the couch on your yoga mat, it's super safe, and you go into all these crevices of your mind and your body and your neurophysiology anatomy - thats extraordinary.

And the wonderful thing about freediving is that the learning curve is incredibly fast: you see people after 1,2, 3 introductory dives, doubling or tripling the performance. There are not many things in life where you can double or triple your performance; think about running or weightlifting. If you could triple the weight you could lift that would be amazing. So it takes dedication and patience but people can learn very quickly.

Annelies Richmond. Photo courtesy of Annelies Richmond.

KCRW: Annelies Richmond where did your interest in the breath begin and what kinds of results have you seen in the mental health space?

I run a program called Sky Campus Happiness, which we have at 58 universities in the US. I first got into this 22 years ago in New York City when I was a professional ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. I used to experience lots of stage anxiety, I would walk on the stage and I would have so much anxiety that I wouldn't perform as well. That was probably the worst part of my career and I just happened to walk into an Art of Living Course; a weekend course that taught me Sky Breath meditation, a breath-based meditation practice.

I had no idea what I was walking into but I had been exploring meditation, but this was the deepest by far and the most effective by far. I practiced it for about two weeks and then I walked onto stage one night and there was just zero anxiety. All of a sudden and I thought this is phenomenal. What happened to the stage anxiety that had been plaguing me for about eight or nine years.

So I vowed I would learn to teach this to others and I retired from dance and started this program 10 years ago specifically for university student populations, because student anxiety and depression has doubled in just in the last eight years. Mental health is really poor on campuses, more than 60% of college students say they report overwhelming anxiety. Suicidal ideation and severe depression has doubled since 2012. So I wanted to see how we could help in a very effective group setting to help cure some of these ills, or give students really practical tools. I knew that Sky Breath meditation was so phenomenal for anxiety and depression, so we combined the deep practice of meditation with the Art of Living Programs; which offer social connection and emotional intelligence skills.

KCRW: So is your practice different from meditation?Richmond: Yes, entirely different. Our classes are three days long. So I think we all probably notice that you cannot talk yourself out of a negative emotion. It's very difficult to tell your mind, don't be anxious or calm down. It's the worst thing someone tells you, is hey, calm down, don't be depressed. The more you resist negative emotions in the mind, the more they persist and the breath work gives us a way into the autonomic nervous system. It directly affects the physiology and takes us from the sympathetic mode of the nervous system, which is fight or flight. So a breath automatically puts you into parasympathetic mode very quickly, within the first session. And that trains your system to be in rest and digest mode, which brings calm and focus.

More:
Learning good breathing habits from a freediver | Life Examined - KCRW

Physiology

NASA-backed mobile gravity suit helps astronauts fight health hazards of zero-gravity space flight – Brinkwire

With the successful launch and return of SpaceXs Crew Dragon in May, space travel is getting closer to becoming a reality for the average person.

But spending extended periods outside Earths gravity can have serious health consequences, including bone decalcification, muscle atrophy, and decreased oxygen to the brain.

Astronauts in microgravity are also susceptible to Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS), a condition associated with blurry vision, headaches, and seeing spots.

Now a savvy young engineer has developed a mobile gravity suitthat could help future space jockeys fend off those deleterious effects.

The suit uses portable vacuum system that applies negative pressure, shifting blood flow to the lower body and generating ground-reaction forces to preserve bone and muscle density.

Neeki Ashari, a graduate bioengineering student at University of California San Diego, designed the space-age slacks while interning at the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute in La Jolla.

Ashari scored two NASA grants for her project, and assistance from Alan Hargens, director of UC-San Diegos Orthopaedic Clinical Physiology Lab and former chief of the space physiology department at NASAs Ames Research Center.

We designed and developed the mobile gravity suit in the form of wearable trousers, the pair detailed in a new report in Frontiers in Physiology.

[Its] fully equipped with its own portable vacuum system, pressure and thermal control system, safety shut-off system, and spinal loading system.

Here on Earth, we rely on gravity to provide resistance. Our body weight GRFs under our feet as we move.

In space, though, theres no external resistance and bones are more prone to breaks and fractures.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station use treadmills and other exercise to simulate GRFs.

But they only generate a fraction of what we get on Earth.

Lower body negative pressure (LBNP) chambers do better, but they require users to remain stationary for hours at a time.

And theyre too cumbersome to be included on missions outside Earths orbit.

Asharis pants allow a free range of motion and generate far greater GRFs than a standard LBNP chamber.

The mobile gravity suit is a small, untethered, and flexible intravehicular activity (IVA) suit, its creators write.

This trouser-like suit is designed for astronauts to comfortably wear and begin applying the LBNP technique without reducing crew time.

Made of an airtight yet breathable Hyprotex fabric, the pants exoskeleton envelops the user from the waist down, including their feet, maintaining the pressure and regulating temperature and humidity.

Last year, the first all-female space walk was delayed because NASA couldnt find enough spacesuits to fit the womens bodies.

Ashari had the opposite problem with her gravity trousers: Their tailored volume limited sizing, meaning her test subjects were all women.

When theyre actually produced, Ashari says, the suits will be custom designed for each astronauts biometrics.

For commercial use, though, she foresees five different sizes: XS, SM, M, L, and XL.

Once space travel becomes commercialized, this device may ensure the health of future civilian space travelers, the report reads. It is important to develop effective devices, like the mobile gravity suit, that simulate the very conditions our bodies on Earth depend on.

See the rest here:
NASA-backed mobile gravity suit helps astronauts fight health hazards of zero-gravity space flight - Brinkwire