Covid-19: Emerging Considerations for Body Sourcing and Handling. A Perspective View from Nigeria

The current Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has spread to about 220 countries of the world and has resulted in a significant number of deaths globally. Infections are still on the rise, and the impact on the global death rate could be devastating. There are fears over the likely impact of a large number of deaths on body sourcing and handling of cadavers for teaching and research. Historically, epidemics come with several challenges and have often led to some level of negligence of ethical practices and health and safety regulations associated with body sourcing and handling. The authors highlighted some emerging problems in this article, focusing on Africa and Nigeria in particular. These problems include a higher risk of coronavirus exposure for body handlers, shortage of cadavers for teaching and learning, a lack of standard regulations leading to unethical body sourcing and handling, and a lack of monitoring and collaboration needed for a well-coordinated Covid-19 pandemic response strategy. If these issues are ignored, the previous gains made in anatomical ethical practices may be destroyed. Some useful recommendations for policymaking geared toward prevention or curtailing these emerging issues have been instilled in this article.     

The Unintentional Effects on Body Donation Programs of a Competency-Based Curriculum in Postgraduate Medical Education

As medical programs place increasing importance on competency-based training and surgical simulations for residents, anatomy laboratories, and body donation programs find themselves in a position of adapting to changing demands. To better assess the demand for “life-like” cadaveric specimens and evaluate the possible impacts that competency-based medical education could have upon the body donation program of McGill University, Canada, the authors tracked, over the course of the last 10 years, the number of soft-embalmed specimens, along with the number of teaching sessions and the residents enrolled in competency-based programs that are using cadaveric material. The results reveal that the number of soft-embalmed specimens used within residency training increased from 5 in 2009 to 35 in 2019, representing an increase from 6% of bodies to 36.5% of the total number of body donors embalmed in this institution. Correspondingly, the number of annual teaching sessions for residents increased from 19 in 2012 to 116 in 2019. These increases in teaching are correlated with increasing number of residents enrolled in competency-based programs over the last 3 years (Pearson r ranging from 0.9705 to 0.9903, and R² ranging from 0.9418 to 0.9808). Those results suggest that the new skill-centered curricula which require residents to perform specific tasks within realistic settings, exhibit a growing demand for “life-like” cadaveric specimens. Institutions’ body donation programs must, therefore, adapt to those greater need for cadaveric specimens, which presents many challenges, ranging from the logistical to the ethical.     

新冠肺炎疫情下专业图书馆科研新媒体服务探究——以中国科学院文献情报中心“中国科讯”为例

[目的/意义] 以中国科学院文献情报中心"中国科讯"为例，分析专业图书馆应急科学传播服务的举措及成效，为应急事件下专业图书馆科学传播服务提供借鉴。[方法/过程] 梳理新冠肺炎疫情期间"中国科讯"微信公众号推送的服务内容，从日均用户增长和阅读量分析用户对不同类型内容的关注程度，提出应急科学传播服务的思考。[结果/结论] 疫情期间，"中国科讯"日均用户增长明显，电子资源保障类内容阅读量最高，其次为新冠病毒科技攻关进展相关内容、科普类直播和信息素养教育直播观看人数达到数万人。应急事件下，专业图书馆应加强特色服务的宣传、加强信息甄选和审核机制，重大公共卫生事件下应急科学传播工作预案缺失也需引起重视。     

汇川H2U系列PLC之间RS-485通信的实现

主要研究了汇川公司H2U可编程控制器(PLC)的通信技术,实现了两个H2U系列PLC之间基于RS-485的通信,并详细介绍了PLC之间通信的硬件连接方式、通信串口参数配置、触摸屏画面的设计以及程序实现。所讨论的方法已在采用H2U PLC及辅助设备组建的"运动控制系统"课程的教学实验平台上进行了验证,可以拓展应用于多台H2U PLC之间以及其他设备与H2U PLC之间的RS-485通信实现,对工程应用具有一定的借鉴意义。     

不同负荷运动训练对大鼠骨骼肌线粒体三羧酸循环的影响及其机制研究

目的：探讨不同负荷运动训练对大鼠骨骼肌线粒体三羧酸循环的影响及其机制。方法：将雄性Wistar大鼠50只随机均分为5组：安静对照组（C）、低负荷运动训练组（LT）、中等负荷运动训练组（MT）、高负荷运动训练组（HT）和极高负荷运动训练组（ST），每组10只。各运动组分别进行6周的跑台运动训练。训练方案结束后，取腓肠肌样本，提取线粒体，测定线粒体柠檬酸合成酶（CS）、异柠檬酸脱氢酶（ICD）和α-酮戊二酸脱氢酶（α-KGDHC）活性；线粒体Ga²⁺含量、胞浆NADH、NAD⁺、ATP和ADP含量，以及ICD mRNA转录水平。结果：（1）不同负荷运动训练组线粒体CS、ICD和α-KGDHC的活性均显著高于安静对照组（P < 0.01），且CS和ICD活性由高到低顺序均为：MT组 > HT组 > ST组 > LT组 > C组，α-KGDHC活性由高到低顺序为：HT组 > MT组 > ST组 > LT组 > C组。（2）不同负荷运动训练组线粒体Ca²⁺ 含量均显著高于安静对照组（P < 0.01），其含量由高到低顺序为：MT组 > HT组 > ST组 > LT组 > C组；胞浆NADH/NAD⁺和ATP/ADP的比值均显著低于安静对照组（P < 0.01），其比值由低到高顺序为：MT组 < ST组 < HT组 < LT组 < C组。（3）不同负荷运动训练组ICD mRNA转录水平均高于安静对照组（P < 0.01），其水平由高到低顺序为： MT组 > HT组 > ST组 > LT组 > C组。结论：低负荷、中等负荷、高负荷及极高负荷运动训练均可提高大鼠骨骼肌线粒体三羧酸循环功能，且中等负荷运动训练效果最佳。其机制与胞浆NADH/NAD⁺和ATP/ADP比值、线粒体摄钙能力及限速酶基因的表达有关。     

Comparing cumulative index and factor analytic approaches to measuring maltreatment in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

Child maltreatment is a complex and multifaceted construct in need of advanced statistical techniques to improve its measurement. The current study compared the predictive utility of a cumulative index to a factor analytic approach for constructing a measure of maltreatment. Data were from Waves III and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Wave III: n = 14,800; Wave IV: n = 12,288). As adults, participants retrospectively reported on their childhood experiences of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, supervisory neglect, and social services investigations. Both the cumulative index and a two-factor solution showed evidence of convergent validity, predicting lifetime incidence of homelessness, being paid for sex, and various measures of running away or living apart from biological parents, and prospectively predicting depression, substance use, and criminal behavior. The latent variables, derived from a factor analytic approach, had greater explanatory power for many outcomes compared to the cumulative index, even when controlling for sociodemographic variables. Results suggest that factor analysis is a better methodology than a cumulative index for measuring maltreatment in large datasets when explanatory power for external outcomes is of greatest concern.     

Carnosine in health and disease

Abstract

Carnosine was originally discovered in skeletal muscle, where it exists in larger amounts than in other tissues. The majority of research into the physiological roles of carnosine have been conducted on skeletal muscle. Given this and the potential for muscle carnosine content to be increased with supplementation, there is now a large body of research examining the ergogenic effects (or otherwise) of carnosine. More recent research, however, points towards a potential for carnosine to exert a wider range of physiological effects in other tissues, including the brain, heart, pancreas, kidney and cancer cells. Taken together, this is suggestive of a potential for carnosine to have therapeutic benefits in health and disease, although this is by no means without complication. Herein, we will provide a review of the current literature relating to the potential therapeutic effects of carnosine in health and disease.     

A Bioethos for Bodies: Respecting a Priceless Resource

The value that willed body donors provide to medical education is priceless. Their precious gift helps to teach anatomy, spatial relationships between morphological structures, anatomical variation, and professionalism to medical students in a way that plastic models, podcasts, and lectures cannot. They are also an important resource for medical research and a wide variety of postgraduate training opportunities. While many body donation programs throughout the world are nonprofit organizations, there are body donation companies in the United States that sell donors for-profit. These “body brokers” have accumulated large profits from this business. It is incongruous that others would profit from such a priceless, freely donated gift. To prevent this incongruity, it is proposed that the international anatomical community develop a normative culture (a bioethos) for body donation programs. This would involve the conscious and systematic development of ethical principles for the day-to-day policies and practices of institutions that collect and use human bodies. With the development of this bioethos, a cultural shift in how donors are treated would occur and, over time, this would become the normal practice. These principles would become fundamental and foundational for the procurement and use of priceless human tissues.     

Food (in)security communication: a Journal of Applied Communication Research forum addressing current challenges and future possibilities

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together food, (in)security, and communication. The authors participating in this forum center communication as both process and tool for understanding, mitigating, and making meaning of food (in)security. The nine authors together discuss the role of communication in food (in)security, the central challenges for scholars and practitioners working on food (in)security, and the creative possibilities and impacts influencing the future of food (in)security. The forum produces a call for applied scholars to re-imagine communication frameworks in order to make meaningful differences in their communities.     

奇效骨伤散在治疗老年运动性骨损伤中的应用

老年运动性骨损伤是近期逐渐增多的疾患 ,本门诊部近 1年半以来接诊此类病人 38例 ,应用外敷自拟奇效骨伤散为主进行治疗 ,可迅速使骨折端达到牢靠连接 ,解除制动进行功能锻炼 ,肢体功能恢复快。与常规骨损伤疗效相比 ,疗程显著缩短 ,具快捷安全、方便经济、适用范围广等特点。优良率达 10 0 % ,且无明显并发症及后遗症。