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In recent times, the usage of virtual teams has been accelerated, and virtual teams are being used exponentially in higher education and industry - driven by, and in response to, the Covid-19 pandemic - aided by developments in innovative technologies and globalisation. Teams have suddenly become an essential and necessary approach for collaborative learning as well as task completion. In examining the components of social interaction and its respective distinguished components, this paper positively points to virtual teams being an appropriate means for social interaction and team performance, albeit with some challenges. This qualitative study brings to the fore constructive and affirmative themes, along with various challenges that virtual teams present and also highlights areas for further research.

Inhaled epoprostenol is a selective pulmonary vasodilator that has shown a potentially broad number of applications in the management of critically ill patients. To date, the vast majority of the literature with regard to efficacy, indications for use, and adverse effects of inhaled epoprostenol is focused on use of this agent in critical care settings, with relatively little literature describing use of inhaled epoprostenol in the Emergency Department. This retrospective review sought to examine instances in which inhaled epoprostenol was administered in the Emergency Department of a tertiary-care, Level I trauma center following implementation of a clinical pathway for administration of this medication for cases of refractory hypoxemia, RV dysfunction, and refractory hypoxemia. Primary outcomes were monitoring for adverse effects (i.e. hypotension), trend in FiO2 requirement over time, and clinical indication for initiation of inhaled epoprostenol.An automated review was performed to query cases in which inhaled epoprostenol had been initiated in the Emergency Department following adoption of the inhaled epoprostenol clinical pathway. Cases were excluded if the medication was initiated in the prehospital setting, ordered but not administered, or administered for a period of1 h. Vital signs and co-administration of vasopressors were followed before and following epoprostenol administration to assess for change over time. Clinical indication of epoprostenol administration was assessed via manual chart review.Inhaled epoprostenol was administered in 20 instances, with 15 cases ultimately meeting inclusion criteria. There were no cases of clinically significant hypotension (MAP65) in any of the cases in which inhaled epoprostenol was administered in the Emergency Department, and mean vasopressor requirement did not increase over time. A majority of patients saw a reduction in FiO2 requirement following administration of inhaled epoprostenol. The most common indication for initiation of inhaled epoprostenol based on manual chart review was pulmonary embolism.In this review of cases in which inhaled epoprostenol was administered following adoption of a clinical pathway for medication administration, there were no cases of hypotension or other adverse effects that appear to be attributable to medication administration. Pulmonary embolism and refractory hypoxemia were the most common noted indications for administration of inhaled epoprostenol. Further research is warranted regarding development of clinical protocols for administration of inhaled pulmonary vasodilators in the Emergency Department setting.

INTRODUCTION: Periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) is often performed in patients with hip dysplasia. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the harms and benefits of PAO in patients with hip dysplasia in studies reporting both adverse events and patient-reported hip pain and function.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic search combing PAO and patient-reported outcomes was performed in the databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Sports Discuss and PsychINFO. Studies including both harms and benefits defined as adverse events and patient-reported hip pain and function were included. Risk of bias was assessed using The Cochrane Risk of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies - of Interventions.RESULTS: Twenty-nine cohort studies were included, of which six studies included a comparison group. The majority of studies had serious risk of bias and the certainty of evidence was very low. The proportion of adverse events was 4.3 (95% CI 3.7; 4.9) for major adverse events and 14.0 (95% CI 13.0; 15.1) for minor adverse events. Peroneal nerve dysfunction was the most frequent adverse event among the major adverse events, followed by acetabular necrosis and delayed union or non-union. All patient-reported hip pain and function scores improved and exceeded the minimal clinically important differences after PAO. After 5 years, scores were still higher than the preoperative scores.CONCLUSION: PAO surgery has a 4% risk of major, and 14% risk of minor adverse events and a positive effect on patient-reported hip pain and function among patients with hip dysplasia.

TFIIB is implicated in multiple aspects of eukaryotic transcription. To investigate the broader role of TFIIB in transcription, we performed quantitative proteomic analysis of yeast TFIIB. We purified TFIIB from soluble cell lysate and the chromatin fraction. TFIIB purified from the chromatin exhibits a number of interactions that explain its non-canonical roles in transcription. Apart from preinitiation components RNAPII, TFIIF and TFIIH, all three 3’ end processing-termination complexes; CF1, CPF and Rat1, are significantly enriched in chromatin-TFIIB preparation. These results explain the presence of TFIIB at the 3’ end of genes, its role in gene looping, and its newly identified role in termination of transcription. Presence of the Lsm complex as well as TREX complex subunit Sub2 in chromatin-TFIIB opens up the possibility of novel roles of TFIIB in synthesis-decay coupling and nucleocytoplasmic transport of mRNA. This multiplicity of functions may contribute to the preferential targeting of TFIIB during viral pathogenesis.

In a cohort of 483 high-risk patients treated with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for COVID-19, 2 patients (0.4%) required hospitalization by day 30. Four patients (0.8%) experienced rebound of symptoms, which were generally mild, at a median of 9 days after treatment, and all resolved without additional COVID-19–directed therapy.

The use of temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) for patients with refractory cardiogenic shock has increased over the past decade. Impella devices (intravascular microaxial ventricular assist devices [VADs]) have become common MCS options but reportedly cause thrombocytopenia. Limited published data regarding the incidence or severity of microaxial VAD-associated thrombocytopenia exists.The goal of this study was to determine the incidence, timing, and severity of thrombocytopenia in a microaxial VAD population.A retrospective multicenter review of electronic medical records identified all patients implanted with microaxial VAD at three US academic teaching hospitals between June 2015 and August 2017. Patients were excluded for short-term procedural microaxial VAD use during percutaneous coronary intervention.Sixty-four patients underwent microaxial VAD insertion (95% for left-sided support) during the observed time period. Support was in place for a median duration of 5.2 (interquartile range [IQR]: 2.4-10.0) days. Within 7 days postinsertion, 98.5% of patients developed thrombocytopenia (platelet count150,000/μl) and 81.3% of patients experienced a 50% platelet decrease. Average platelet count nadir was 68,200/μl or 63.9% from baseline occurring on median day 3.8 (IQR: 2.4-5.4). Twenty-four patients (38.1%) were tested for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia by the heparin-dependent antibody (HDA) test. All HDAs were either negative or had serotonin release assay negative confirmation. Postdevice removal, platelet counts returned to baseline or150,000/μl in 63% of patients by Day 5.Microaxial VAD-associated thrombocytopenia is common. Practitioners should consider this when evaluating supported patients for other causes of thrombocytopenia. Platelet counts return to preimplantation levels within days of device removal.

In the health spending debate, what policy makers need most is an honest, realistic, and evidence-based discussion. Unfortunately, many studies in the public arena fall far short.

Periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) is often performed in patients with hip dysplasia. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the harms and benefits of PAO in patients with hip dysplasia in studies reporting both adverse events and patient-reported hip pain and function.A systematic search combing PAO and patient-reported outcomes was performed in the databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Sports Discuss and PsychINFO. Studies including both harms and benefits defined as adverse events and patient-reported hip pain and function were included. Risk of bias was assessed using The Cochrane Risk of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies - of Interventions.Twenty-nine cohort studies were included, of which six studies included a comparison group. The majority of studies had serious risk of bias and the certainty of evidence was very low. The proportion of adverse events was 4.3 (95% CI 3.7; 4.9) for major adverse events and 14.0 (95% CI 13.0; 15.1) for minor adverse events. Peroneal nerve dysfunction was the most frequent adverse event among the major adverse events, followed by acetabular necrosis and delayed union or non-union. All patient-reported hip pain and function scores improved and exceeded the minimal clinically important differences after PAO. After 5 years, scores were still higher than the preoperative scores.PAO surgery has a 4% risk of major, and 14% risk of minor adverse events and a positive effect on patient-reported hip pain and function among patients with hip dysplasia.

In a cohort of 483 high-risk patients treated with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for coronavirus disease-2019, two patients (0.4%) required hospitalization by day 30. Four patients (0.8%) experienced rebound of symptoms, which were generally mild, at median of 9 days after treatment, and all resolved without additional COVID-19-directed therapy.

Emergency medicine (EM) training programs incorporate simulation for teaching as well as formative and summative assessment. The development of a simulation curriculum for Canadian postgraduate EM programs is underway and would be facilitated by a standardized, user-friendly, nationally endorsed simulation template. We convened a nationally representative group of simulation educators to participate in a three-phase process to develop and refine a simulation case template for Canadian EM educators. Participants provided feedback by means of free text comments and focus groups which were analyzed to inform modification of the template. We anticipate that this template will facilitate the sharing of cases across sites and the development of standardized cases for simulation-based assessment.

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is collecting spaceborne full waveform lidar data with a primary science goal of producing accurate estimates of forest aboveground biomass density (AGBD). This paper presents the development of the models used to create GEDI’s footprint-level (~25 m) AGBD (GEDI04_A) product, including a description of the datasets used and the procedure for final model selection. The data used to fit our models are from a compilation of globally distributed spatially and temporally coincident field and airborne lidar datasets, whereby we simulated GEDI-like waveforms from airborne lidar to build a calibration database. We used this database to expand the geographic extent of past waveform lidar studies and divided the globe into four broad strata by Plant Functional Type (PFT) and six geographic regions. GEDI’s waveform-to- biomass models take the form of parametric Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models with simulated Relative Height (RH) metrics as predictor variables. From an exhaustive set of candidate models, we selected the best input predictor variables, and data transformations for each geographic stratum in the GEDI domain to produce a set of comprehensive predictive footprint-level models. We found that model selection frequently favored combinations of RH metrics at the 98th, 90th, 50th, and 10th height above ground-level percentiles (RH98, RH90, RH50, and RH10, respectively), but that inclusion of lower RH metrics (e.g., RH10) did not markedly improve model performance. Second, forced inclusion of RH98 in all models was important and did not degrade model performance, and the best performing models were parsimonious, typically having only 1-3 predictors. Third, stratification by geographic domain (PFT, geographic region) improved model performance in comparison to global models without stratification. Fourth, for the vast majority of strata, the best performing models were fit using square root transformation of field AGBD and/or height metrics. There was considerable variability in model performance across geographic strata, and areas with sparse training data and/or high AGBD values had the poorest performance. These models are used to produce global predictions of AGBD, but will be improved in the future as more and better training data become available.

Objectives: Shoulder pain in the young overhead athlete is commonly thought to result from instability and SLAP pathology, but not from a primary subacromial space pathology. We encountered a series of young overhead athletes with shoulder pain not due to instability or SLAP pathology. All had pain at the anterolateral (AL) corner of the acromion. We report the clinical characteristics, pathology, and results of treatment of this previously unreported association. Methods: 92 young (mean age 19 [13-26]) overhand athletes presented with shoulder pain unresponsive to conservative treatment. There were 54 (59%) males and 38 (41%) females. 76% had pain at the AL acromial corner. 71% had pain with an overhand arc of motion from Abd/ER to Abd/IR position. 53% had SLAP-type physical exam findings, but none had instability symptoms. Patients most commonly participated in the following sports: Baseball 38.5%, Swimming 16%, Softball 15%, and Volleyball 11%. Pre-op mean scores were: ASES= 60, SST= 7.5, and VAS pain= 4.3. All underwent EUA and arthroscopy. There was no evidence of instability or SLAP pathology. All had varying degrees of subacromial bursitis. But, the primary pathology was a thickened anterior CA ligament (CAL). The hypertrophic CAL inserted on the acromion, but also extended far laterally under the deltoid muscle. This formed an “awning” at the AL acromial corner which resulted in significant subacromial space compromise. The hypertrophic CAL anterior edge and lateral extension was excised and bursectomy performed in all and in 90% an osseous acromioplasty was performed as well. There were associated pathologic findings: 15 (16%) had posterior capsular contracture with GIRD, 10 (11%) had a posterior labral split tear at the equator of the glenoid. Results: At average follow-up of 2.2 years (1-5), all had returned to the former level of overhead sport activity. Rapid rehabilitation was possible and average time to return to sport was 19 weeks (8-52, SD 10.2). Seventy-five (81.5%) returned to the same level of sport. At final follow-up, mean VAS decreased from a preoperative level of 3.7 (SD 2.5, range 0-8) to a postoperative level of 0.6 (SD 1.1, range 0-4) (pConclusions: Younger age (avg 19 yrs, high school and collegiate athletes) participating in overhand sports, typically year-round were defining, consistent factors in this patient population. Female athletes made up a substantial 41% of the series. We feel that symptomatic, hypertrophic anterior CAL is a variant of impingement, most likely due to use and overuse in a repetitive overhead sport. Overuse is recognized as an etiology for shoulder pathology including instability, SLAP lesion, and labral injury, but subacromial pathology is more thought of as a condition of an older age group. This clinical entity in this series, we feel, is another form of overuse pathology and is a primary subacromial space pathology. It was not secondary to occult instability or posterior capsule tightness or SLAP pathology. Thus, not all shoulder problems in young, overhead athletes should be attributed to occult instability or SLAP pathology. We have developed a mnemonic for this clinical entity: CALYPSO. C: Coracoacromial ligament A: Anterior band hypertrophy and L: Lateral extension under the deltoid. Y: Youth (high school and college age) P: Posterior capsular contracture and labral pathology. S: Subacromial bursitis; O: Overuse and Overhead sport Clinicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for this clinical entity when evaluating young overhead athletes. In all cases, arthroscopy was successful in identifying and treating the pathology and all athletes were able to return to their previous level of sport.