Abstract
In a household study, loss of taste and/or smell was the fourth most reported symptom (26/42 62%) among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case patients and had the highest positive ...predictive value (83% 95% confidence interval CI, 55%–95%) among household contacts. Olfactory and taste dysfunctions should be considered for COVID-19 case identification and testing prioritization.
To determine whether modified K-12 student quarantine policies that allow some students to continue in-person education during their quarantine period increase schoolwide SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk ...following the increase in cases in winter 2020-2021. We conducted a prospective cohort study of COVID-19 cases and close contacts among students and staff (n = 65,621) in 103 Missouri public schools. Participants were offered free, saliva-based RT-PCR testing. The projected number of school-based transmission events among untested close contacts was extrapolated from the percentage of events detected among tested asymptomatic close contacts and summed with the number of detected events for a projected total. An adjusted Cox regression model compared hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy. From January-March 2021, a projected 23 (1%) school-based transmission events occurred among 1,636 school close contacts. There was no difference in the adjusted hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy (hazard ratio = 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.97-1.03). School-based SARS-CoV-2 transmission was rare in 103 K-12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies. Modified student quarantine policies were not associated with increased school incidence of COVID-19. Modifications to student quarantine policies may be a useful strategy for K-12 schools to safely reduce disruptions to in-person education during times of increased COVID-19 community incidence.
Presentists deny that past or future things exist. Some presentists also deny that there are any underlying truths about the past or future. While this seems to conflict with our everyday tensed ...discourse, presentists might avoid conflict by adopting a theory of hermeneutic fictionalism about the non-present. Under such a theory, everyday utterances of non-present-tensed sentences are taken to engage with a fiction, rather than expressing truths about the past or future. In this paper I defend a specific version of this view: meta-fictionalism about the non-present. Under this view there is a socially-understood non-present fiction, a
story of history
, derived from apparent records existing in the present. Meta-fictionalists take our everyday tensed discourse to involve assertions about the content of that fiction. I argue that this view is plausible, and that it fares better than pretence fictionalism, a competing view that has already seen discussion in the literature.
Background:
It has been suggested that patellofemoral contact pressures and contact forces may be altered secondary to an opening wedge high tibial osteotomy, yet few data are available that quantify ...the effect of varying degrees of medial opening wedge osteotomy on the patellofemoral joint contact characteristics.
Hypothesis:
Opening wedge medial proximal tibial osteotomy will increase patellofemoral contact force and pressure.
Study Design:
Controlled laboratory study.
Methods:
Nine human cadaver knees were used. Pressure-sensitive film was placed in the suprapatellar pouch, leaving the patellar tendon and medial and lateral retinacula intact. The quadriceps tendon was attached to a materials testing machine along the axis of the femur, whereby a pulley mechanism generated 950 N of force. Patellofemoral contact characteristics were measured with pressure-sensitive film at 30°, 60°, 90°, and 120° of flexion for the native knee and after subsequent 10-mm and 15-mm medial opening wedge proximal tibial osteotomies. The film was analyzed with imaging software.
Results:
There was a statistically significant increase (P < .05) in mean contact pressure at 30° and 120° between the 10-mm osteotomy and native knee and across all flexion angles between the 15-mm osteotomy and native knee. Furthermore, a significant difference was seen in peak pressures when native knees were compared with 10-mm and 15-mm opening wedge osteotomies at all flexion angles.
Conclusion:
There was a significant increase in patellofemoral pressures at varying degrees of knee flexion after medial opening wedge proximal tibial osteotomies of only 10 mm; a larger osteotomy resulted in a greater increase.
Clinical Relevance:
When performing a medial opening wedge proximal tibial osteotomy, the surgeon should consider the negative effects of increased patellofemoral peak pressure.
Nearly all cases of melioidosis in the continental United States are related to international travel to areas to which Burkholderia pseudomallei, the bacterium that causes melioidosis, is endemic. We ...report the diagnosis and clinical course of melioidosis in a patient from the United States who had no international travel history and the public health investigation to determine the source of exposure. We tested environmental samples collected from the patient’s home for B. pseudomallei by PCR and culture. Whole-genome sequencing was conducted on PCR-positive environmental samples, and results were compared with sequences from the patient’s clinical specimen. Three PCR-positive environmental samples, all collected from a freshwater home aquarium that had contained imported tropical fish, were a genetic match to the clinical isolate from the patient. This finding suggests a novel route of exposure and a potential for importation of B. pseudomallei, a select agent, into the United States from disease-endemic areas.
The long use of ephedrine, amphetamines, cocaine, LSD and more recently 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA; “Ecstasy”) allows us to predict with some confidence what cardiovascular risks ...are likely to be associated with novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Once the probably multiple biological activities of a compound are known it is possible to define the likely risks of cardiovascular toxicity. Agonists of 5-HT2A receptors or alpha-adrenoceptors may cause vasoconstriction and tissue ischemia. Drugs which have agonist affinity for 5-HT2B receptors will probably promote heart valve fibrosis leading to heart failure. Compounds that interfere with uptake of dopamine or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) are likely to also have effects on noradrenergic neurotransmission and lead to sympathomimetic effects on the heart and vasculature. Drugs that cause dopamine release, or inhibit uptake are likely to be addictive and lead to chronic use. Other drugs (particularly the so-called empathogens) are associated with weekly usage in social settings; over time such use can lead to cardiovascular harm. Defining which of these effects NPS have is an important element of predicting the harm they may cause and informing those appointed to introduce regulations to control them.
► We review the recent history of psychoactive drug abuse. ► We describe the associations between drugs of abuse and cardiovascular toxicity. ► We highlight potential risks associated with novel psychoactive substances.
In supporting a process ontology, qualitative longitudinal data are analysed in an examination of processes of becoming in the establishment of a new high tech company aiming to get a foothold in the ...highly competitive global healthcare market. Researching the process from idea generation, through funding, design, manufacture and marketing spotlights how the social and material exist in relation to each other and constitutively entangle. These sociomaterial relations shape and are shaped by narratives and temporal storying as actors seek to make and give sense, not only retrospectively, but in continually drawing upon an interplay of shifting interpretations of past, present and future. Although in the information systems literature sociomateriality is a central concept, there is little discussion in business. In addressing this gap, the paper adopts a sociomaterial process perspective in drawing out findings that both align with the extant literature and extend our current understanding. New insights critically assess the problem of dualism in the separation of the social and material, the need to broaden our conceptualization of temporality and make explicit our use of time, and the need to more fully accommodate processes of sensemaking and storying that shape and our shaped within broader processes of becoming.
•Examines concept of sociomateriality outside of the information systems discipline.•Highlights importance of viewing temporality as multiple, non-linear and dynamic.•Shows how sensemaking and storying link to sociomateriality in processual unfolding.•Provides new empirical material on a company journey from start-up to global player.•Distils practical insights on the design, development and launch of a new innovative product in a global competitive market.
In November 2020, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Missouri allowed local public health jurisdictions the option to implement a modified quarantine policy allowing kindergarten through 12 (K-12) ...students with low-risk exposures to continue in-person learning. We assessed adherence to quarantine among participants in modified quarantine and standard home quarantine and the psychosocial impacts of quarantine on students and families.
In January-March 2021, as part of an investigation of in-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2, parents of 586 participating K-12 students identified as a close contact with a person with SARS-CoV-2 were sent a survey to assess their activities and psychosocial impacts to the child and family.
Among the 227 (39%) survey respondents, 26 (11%) participated in modified quarantine and 201 (89%) participated in standard home quarantine. Forty-six percent of students in modified quarantine and 72% of students in standard home quarantine reported abstaining from non-school activities during quarantine. Parents of 17 (65%) students in modified quarantine and 80 (40%) in standard home quarantine reported low or neutral levels of stress in their children. Parents of students in standard home quarantine described greater stress, negative impacts to family functioning, and interruptions to educational opportunities for students.
Students in modified quarantine reported lower adherence to quarantine recommendations but lower daily impact and stressors than those in standard home quarantine. Because in-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to be low when layered prevention strategies are in place regardless of the use of modified or standard home quarantine, this modified quarantine approach provides a reasonable option for balancing the needs of students and families with SARS-CoV-2 prevention measures.
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