Next in summer of player empowerment: Pac-12 players unite


FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2018, file photo, Oregon safety Jevon Holland (8) breaks up a pass for Utah wide receiver Jaylen Dixon (25) during the first half of the Pac-12 Conference championship NCAA college football game in Santa Clara, Calif. A group of Pac-12 football players on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, threatened to opt out of the coming season unless its concerns about competing during the COVID-19 pandemic and other racial and economic issues in college sports are addressed. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)


As college football leaders work to rescue a football season worth billions in revenue from the threat of COVID-19, the players have become emboldened.

They are calling out coaches and lawmakers, rallying for social cause s and asking for answers about how they are expected to safely play through a pandemic.

The latest act in this summer of college athlete empowerment comes from the West Coast, but there are already signs the movement could spread to other parts of the country.

A group of Pac-12 players Sunday presented a list of demands on issues ranging from healthy and safety to racial justice to economic rights. If they are not addressed — and exactly what that means is unclear — the players say they are prepared not to practice or play.

“It seems like the ball’s in the Pac-12′s court now,” Arizona State offensive lineman Cody Shear told AP.

Pac-12 referred to a statement it sent out Saturday, saying its support student-athletes “using their voices, and have regular communications with our student-athletes at many different levels on a range of topics.”

Shear was one of 13 players, including Oregon star safety Jevon Holland, from 10 schools listed on a news release sent to reporters. The players claim more than 400 of their Pac-12 peers have been communicating through a group chat app about a possible boycott. Oregon offensive lineman Penei Sewell, expected to be one of the first players taken in the next NFL draft, was among the players who showed support for the movement on social media along with Washington star defensive back Elijah Molden.



How many players would be willing to opt-out is hard to say.

“The Pac-12 players really want to play football,” Shear said, “I think this is a good opportunity for us to kind of make our voices heard given what’s happening in the world right now with the pandemic as well as the racial injustice. I think it’s a great opportunity for players to put their foot forward and make themselves heard.”

Shear said he was up front with Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards about being involved with the movement, and the coach was fully supportive.

Washington State defensive lineman Lamonte McDougle tweeted his support for the issues, but made clear he was playing: “I agree with everything this movement is fighting especially the health concerns but not playing this season isn’t an option for me I got ppl that need to eat. so if the NCAA wants to use me as a lab rat it is what it is.”

Utah quarterback Jake Bentley made a similar post.

The players have some supporters in high places.

“This is perhaps a watershed moment in college sports,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D.Conn.), who has been one of the leading voices among federal lawmakers pushing for changes to college athletics, said in one of several social media posts on the topic Sunday.

Some of the players’ demands seem radical: 50% of all revenue shared with the players. Some modest: A civic-engagement task force to address issues such as racial injustice in college sports. Some are already being addressed: NCAA rule changes allowing compensation for name, image and likeness. Of immediate concern with COVID-19, they’re asking for player-approved healthy and safety standards enforced by a third party.

“I think it’s all attainable,” said attorney Tim Nevius, a former NCAA investigator who has now represents college players in cases involving NCAA issues. “I think people see these as strong demands due to the historic denial of these basic rights to college athletes. People have trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that these are workers in a multibillion dollar industry.”

Less than two weeks ago, NCAA President Mark Emmert was on Capitol Hill, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing focused name, image and likeness compensation reform. Lawmakers also took the opportunity to pepper Emmert with other questions about long-term medical care for athletes and other issues.

College sports is entering an economic downturn even if the football season can be played and conferences can save the billions in television revenue that would disappear if there are no games to broadcast.

No football would mean massive shortfalls for athletic departments that could be forced to strip down programs and personnel.

With that knowledge, players are thinking about what they are getting for taking on the added risk of catching COVID-19.

“Student athlete’s lives shouldn’t be put at risk in order to prevent further financial backlash-especially when receiving insufficient compensation,” Washington receiver Ty Jones in one of several player statements released to reports.

Players have already begun opting out of the season for personal reasons. Most notably, Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley, another potential first-round NFL draft pick, announced last week he was skipping the season.

Right now this is the Pac-12′s problem. Already at Washington State it was reportedly causing disruptions in the program.

It might not stop out West.

Several players from outside the conference acknowledge the Pac-12′s movement on Sunday, including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the biggest star in the sport.

“This is in response to the growing inequities in college sports and coincides with a nation reckoning with racism and a global pandemic,” Nevius said. “These recent events have put a spotlight on critical issues in college sports.”

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/ap-top-25-college-football-podcast/

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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Cooling of Earth caused by eruptions, not meteors

Analysis of sediment found in Hall's cave shows volcanic eruptions responsible for cooling of Earth around 13,000 years ago

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: WORKERS EXCAVATING HALL'S CAVE IN CENTRAL TEXAS view more 

CREDIT: MIKE WATERS/TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Ancient sediment found in a central Texas cave appears to solve the mystery of why the Earth cooled suddenly about 13,000 years ago, according to a research study co-authored by a Texas A&M University professor.

Michael Waters, director of The Center for The Study of the First Americans and Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, and colleagues from Baylor University and the University of Houston have had their work published in Science Advances.

Some researchers believed the event - which cooled the Earth by about 3 degrees Centigrade, a huge amount - was caused by an extraterrestrial impact with the Earth, such as a meteor collision.

But Waters and the team found that the evidence left in layers of sediment in Hall's Cave were almost certainly the result of volcanic eruptions.

Waters said that Hall's Cave, located in the Texas hill country, has a sediment record extending over 20,000 years and he first began researching the cave in 2017.

"It is an exceptional record that offers a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary cooperation to investigate a number of important research questions," he said.

"One big question was, did an extraterrestrial impact occur near the end of the last ice age, about 13,000 years ago as the ice sheets covering Canada were melting, and cause an abrupt cooling that thrust the northern hemisphere back into the ice age for an extra 1,200 years?"

Waters and the team found that within the cave are layers of sediment, first identified by Thomas Stafford (Stafford Research Laboratories, Colorado), that dated to the time of the proposed impact that could answer the question and perhaps even identify the trigger that started the ancient cold snap.

The event also likely helped cause the extinction of large mammals such as mammoth, horse and camel that once roamed North America.

"This work shows that the geochemical signature associated with the cooling event is not unique but occurred four times between 9,000 and 15,000 years ago," said Alan Brandon, professor of geosciences at University of Houston and head of the research team.

"Thus, the trigger for this cooling event didn't come from space. Prior geochemical evidence for a large meteor exploding in the atmosphere instead reflects a period of major volcanic eruptions.

"I was skeptical," Brandon said. "We took every avenue we could to come up with an alternative explanation, or even avoid, this conclusion. A volcanic eruption had been considered one possible explanation but was generally dismissed because there was no associated geochemical fingerprint."

After a volcano erupts, the global spread of aerosols reflects incoming solar radiation away from Earth and may lead to global cooling post eruption for one to five years, depending on the size and timescales of the eruption, the team said.

"The Younger Dryas, which occurred about 13,000 years ago, disrupted distinct warming at the end of the last ice age," said co-author Steven Forman, professor of geosciences at Baylor.

The Earth's climate may have been at a tipping point at the end of Younger Dryas, possibly from the ice sheet discharge into the North Atlantic Ocean, enhanced snow cover and powerful volcanic eruptions that may have in combination led to intense Northern Hemisphere cooling, Forman said.

"This period of rapid cooling coincides with the extinction of a number of species, including camels and horses, and the appearance of the Clovis archaeological tradition," said Waters.

Brandon and fellow University of Houston scientist Nan Sun completed the isotopic analysis of sediments collected from Hall's Cave. They found that elements such as iridium, ruthenium, platinum, palladium and rhenium were not present in the correct proportions, meaning that a meteor or asteroid could not have caused the event.

"The isotope analysis and the relative proportion of the elements matched those that were found in previous volcanic gases," said Sun, lead author of the report.

Volcanic eruptions cause their most severe cooling near the source, usually in the year of the eruption, with substantially less cooling in the years after the eruption, the team said.

The Younger Dryas cooling lasted about 1,200 years, "so a sole volcanic eruptive cause is an important initiating factor, but other Earth system changes, such as cooling of the oceans and more snow cover were needed to sustain this colder period, "Forman said.

Waters added that the bottom line is that "the chemical anomalies found in sediments dating to the beginning of the Younger Dryas are the result of volcanism and not an extraterrestrial impact."

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New studies show how to save parasites and why it's important

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

IMAGE: CHELSEA WOOD, RIGHT, AND THE TEAM PREPARE TO COLLECT TRAIL CAMERAS, WHICH WERE DEPLOYED TO QUANTIFY BIRD BIODIVERSITY AT EACH POND. view more 

CREDIT: EMILY WOOD

Parasites have a public relations problem.

Unlike the many charismatic mammals, fishes and birds that receive our attention (and our conservation dollars), parasites are thought of as something to eradicate -- and certainly not something to protect.

But only 4% of known parasites can infect humans, and the majority actually serve critical ecological roles, like regulating wildlife that might otherwise balloon in population size and become pests. Still, only about 10% of parasites have been identified and, as a result, they are mostly left out of conservation activities and research.

An international group of scientists wants to change that. About a dozen leading parasite ecologists, including University of Washington's Chelsea Wood, published a paper Aug. 1 in the journal Biological Conservation, which lays out an ambitious global conservation plan for parasites.

"Parasites are an incredibly diverse group of species, but as a society, we do not recognize this biological diversity as valuable," said Wood, an assistant professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "The point of this paper is to emphasize that we are losing parasites and the functions they serve without even recognizing it."

The authors propose 12 goals for the next decade that could advance parasite biodiversity conservation through a mix of research, advocacy and management.

"Even though we know little to nothing about most parasite species, we can still take action now to conserve parasite biodiversity," said Skylar Hopkins, paper and project co-lead and an assistant professor at North Carolina State University.

Perhaps the most ambitious goal is to describe half of the world's parasites within the next 10 years. Providing taxonomic descriptions allow species to be named, which is an important part of the conservation process, the researchers said.

"If species don't have a name, we can't save them," said Colin Carlson, the other project co-lead and an assistant professor at Georgetown University. "We've accepted that for decades about most animals and plants, but scientists have only discovered a fraction of a percentage of all the parasites on the planet. Those are the last frontiers: the deep sea, deep space, and the world that's living inside every species on Earth."

Importantly, the researchers stress that none of the parasites that infect humans or domesticated animals are included in their conservation plan. They say these parasites should be controlled to safeguard human and animal health.

The paper is part of an entire special edition devoted to parasite conservation. Wood is the lead author on one study in the collection that finds the responses of parasites to environmental change are likely to be complex, and that a changing world probably will see both outbreaks of some parasites and a total loss of other parasite species.

"We need to recognize that there will be a diversity of responses among parasite taxa and not take for granted that every parasite is dwindling toward extinction or about to cause a major outbreak," Wood said.

Parasites often need two or more host species to complete their lifecycle. For example, some parasites first infect fish or amphibians, but ultimately must get transmitted to birds to reproduce and multiply. They ensure that this happens through ingenious ways, Wood explained, often by manipulating the behavior or even the anatomy of their first host to make these fish or amphibians more susceptible to being eaten by birds. In this way, the parasite then gets transmitted to a bird -- its ultimate destination.

Given this dynamic, Wood and colleagues wanted to see what would happen to the abundance of parasites if the ecosystems in which they live changed. They designed an experiment across 16 ponds in central California's East Bay region. In half of the ponds, they installed structures such as bird houses, floating perches and mallard decoys intended to attract more birds, thus temporarily altering the natural ecosystem and boosting biodiversity in these ponds.

After a couple of years, the researchers analyzed parasite biodiversity in each of the 16 ponds. What they found was a mixed bag: Some parasite species responded to elevated bird biodiversity by declining in abundance. But other parasites actually increased in number when bird biodiversity increased. The authors concluded that as biodiversity changes -- due to climate change, development pressure or other reasons -- we can expect to see divergent responses by parasites, even those living within the same ecosystem.

Traditionally, the field of disease ecology assumes one of two paths: That we are either heading toward a future of more disease and massive outbreaks or toward a future of parasite extinction. This paper shows that both trajectories are happening simultaneously, Wood explained.

"This particular experiment suggests that we need to anticipate both trajectories going forward. It starts to resolve the conflict in the literature by showing that everyone is right -- it's all happening," Wood said. "The trick now is to figure out what traits will predict which parasites will decline and which will increase in response to biodiversity loss."

Wood's lab is working on that question now by reconstructing the history of parasites over time, documenting which parasites increased in abundance and which declined. However, there's almost no historical record of parasites and without this information, it's difficult to know how to conserve them. By dissecting museum specimens of fish, the researchers are identifying and counting various parasites found in the specimens at different places and times.

"These pickled animals are like parasite time capsules," Wood explained. "We can open them up and identify the parasites that infected a fish at its death. In this way, we can reconstruct and resurrect information that previously we didn't think was possible to get."

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Co-authors on this paper are Pieter Johnson and Margaret Summerside of the University of Colorado Boulder. This research was funded by the Michigan Society of Fellows, National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the University of Washington, the University of Colorado, the National Institutes of Health and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

See the journal for the full list of authors and funders for the special edition.

FROM: Michelle Ma
University of Washington
mcma@uw.edu
(NOTE: Researcher contact information at end)

For more information, contact Wood at chelwood@uw.edu and Hopkins at hopkins@nceas.ucsb.edu.

Grant numbers:

NSF: OCE-1829509, DEB-1149308, DEB-1754171
NIH: RI0 GM109499

New method lets scientists peer deeper into ocean

BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST BARNEY BALCH COLLECTS OCEAN OPTICS DATA DURING A RESEARCH CRUISE IN THE GULF OF MAINE. BALCH IS PART OF A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS THAT HAS ESTABLISHED A... view more 

CREDIT: BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES

Researchers have advanced a new way to see into the ocean's depths, establishing an approach to detect algae and measure key properties using light. A paper published in Applied Optics reports using a laser-based tool, lidar, to collect these measurements far deeper than has been typically possible using satellites.

"Traditional satellite remote sensing approaches can collect a wide range of information about the upper ocean, but satellites typically can't 'see' deeper than the top five or 10 meters of the sea," said Barney Balch, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and an author of the paper. "Harnessing a tool that lets us look so much deeper into the ocean is like having a new set of eyes."

Lidar uses light emitted by lasers to gain information about particles in seawater, much as animals like bats and dolphins use sound to echolocate targets. By sending out pulses of light and timing how long it takes the beams to hit something and bounce back, lidar senses reflective particles like algae in the water.

Lead study author Brian Collister used a shipboard lidar system to detect algae and learn about conditions deeper in the ocean than satellites can measure. The research team on this 2018 cruise was composed of scientists from Old Dominion University and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

"The lidar approach has the potential to fill some important gaps in our ability to measure ocean biology from space," said Collister, a PhD student at Old Dominion University. "This technique will shed new light on the distribution of biology in the upper oceans, and allow us to better understand their role in Earth's climate."

In the Gulf of Maine, the team used lidar to detect and measure particles of the mineral calcium carbonate, gathering information about a bloom of coccolithophores. These algae surround themselves with calcium carbonate plates, which are white in color and highly reflective. The plates scatter light in a unique way, fundamentally changing how the light waves are oriented - and creating an identifiable signature that the lidar system can recognize.

Balch's research team has studied the Gulf of Maine for over two decades through the Gulf of Maine North Atlantic Time Series. Their experience in finding and identifying algae in this ecosystem provided key background information for testing the lidar system in what turned out to be the largest coccolithophore bloom observed in the region in 30 years.

"This cruise allowed us an ideal opportunity to try the lidar system out with the ability to sample the water and know exactly what species were in it," Balch said. "Lidar has been used in the ocean for decades, but few, if any, studies have been done inside a confirmed coccolithophore bloom, which profoundly changes how light behaves in the environment."

Coccolithophores thrive around the global ocean and exert a huge level of control on the biogeochemical cycles that shape the planet. Studying them is key to understanding global ocean dynamics, but field research is always costly. The team established that using lidar could potentially allow researchers to remotely estimate coccolithophore populations without stopping the ship to collect water samples - increasing their ability to collect valuable data, thus also conserving precious ship-time funds.

The research team also tested this approach in ocean environments that included the clear depths of the Sargasso Sea and the turbid waters off the coast of New York City. They found it to be effective across these diverse environments. Lidar systems can probe the ocean up to three times deeper than passive satellite remote sensing techniques that rely on the sun. Further research may establish approaches that allow lidar measurements to be taken by satellites, as well.

"It's a huge deal that we are learning to reliably identify particles in the ocean from a lidar system positioned above the water," said Richard Zimmerman, a study author and professor at Old Dominion University. "This is a significant advance, and it could revolutionize our ability to characterize and model marine ecosystems."

This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Virginia SpaceGrant Consortium.

CAPTION

Brian Collister, a doctoral student at Old Dominion University, tends to a laser-based lidar system during a research cruise in the Bahamas. Collister is part of a team of researchers that has established a new approach to detect algae and measure key ocean properties using this tool.

Speech processing hierarchy in the dog brain

The study reveals exciting speech processing similarities between us and a speechless species

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE), FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: A DOG AND RESEARCHERS (MÁRTA GÁCSI (LEFT), ATTILA ANDICS, ANNA GÁBOR (RIGHT)) AT THE SCANNER. view more 

CREDIT: ENIK? KUBINYI / EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY

Dog brains, just as human brains, process speech hierarchically: intonations at lower, word meanings at higher stages, according to a new study by Hungarian researchers at the Department of Ethology, Faculty of Science, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) using functional MRI on awake dogs. The study, which reveals exciting speech processing similarities between us and a speechless species, will be published in Scientific Reports.

Humans keep talking to dogs whose sensitivity to human communicative signs is well known. Both the words what we say and the intonation how we say them carry information for them. For example, when we tell 'sit' many dogs can sit down. Similarly, when we praise dogs with a high toned voice, they may notice the positive intent. We know very little, however, on what is going on in their brains during these.

In this study, Hungarian researchers measured awake, cooperative dogs' brain activity via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Dogs listened to known, praise words (clever, well done, that's it) and unknown, neutral words (such, as if, yet) both in praising and neutral intonation.

"Exploring speech processing similarities and differences between dog and human brains can help a lot in understanding the steps that led to the emergence of speech during evolution. Human brains process speech hierarchically: first, intonations at lower-, next, word meanings at higher stages. Some years ago, we discovered that dog brains, just as human brains, separate intonation and word meaning. But is the hierarchy also similar? To find it out, we used a special technique this time: we measured how dog brain activity decreases to repeatedly played stimuli. During brain scanning, sometimes we repeated words, sometimes intonations. Stronger decrease in a given brain region to certain repetitions shows the region's involvement" - Anna Gábor, postdoctoral researcher at the MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group, lead author of the study explains.

The results show that dog brains, just like human brains, process speech hierarchically: intonation at lower stages (mostly in subcortical regions), while known words at higher stages (in cortical regions). Interestingly, older dogs distinguished words less than younger dogs.

"Although speech processing in humans is unique in many aspects, this study revealed exciting similarities between us and a speechless species. The similarity does not imply, however, that this hierarchy evolved for speech processing" - says Attila Andics, principal investigator of the MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group. "Instead, the hierarchy following intonation and word meaning processing reported here and also in humans may reflect a more general, not speech-specific processing principle. Simpler, emotionally loaded cues (such as intonation) are typically analysed at lower stages; while more complex, learnt cues (such as word meaning) are analysed at higher stages in multiple species. What our results really shed light on is that human speech processing may also follow this more basic, more general hierarchy."

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Video abstract about the research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EhI80fdEbw

This study was published in Scientific Reports titled "Multilevel fMRI adaptation for spoken word processing in the awake dog brain", written by Anna Gábor, Márta Gácsi, Dóra Szabó, Ádám Miklósi, Enik? Kubinyi and Attila Andics. This research was funded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ('Lendület' Program), the European Research Council (ERC), the Ministry of Human Capacities, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund and the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE).

Survey finds Americans social media habits changing as national tensions rise

A new national survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found more than half of Americans have changed their social media habits because of tensions surrounding current events this year

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER

Social Media Stress (VIDEO)

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER

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A new national survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found more than half of Americans have changed their social media habits because of tensions surrounding current events this year

CREDIT: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER


COLUMBUS, Ohio - As national tensions rise, a new national survey of 2,000 people commissioned by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds more Americans are adjusting how they use social media platforms.


Many participants cited stress from the global COVID-19 pandemic, along with the movement to end racial inequality and other divisive political issues in our country as reasons for taking a social media break.

While it may seem impossible to disconnect and step away from social media, some survey participants reported changing their social media habits this year. The survey found:


More than half of Americans (56%) say their social media habits have changed because of tensions surrounding current events this year.
Almost 3 in 10 Americans (29%) say their social media use has increased because of tensions surrounding current events this year.
And 1 in 5 Americans (20%) say they've taken breaks from social media because of tensions surrounding current events this year.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by information, opinions and arguments while scrolling through social media channels, said Ken Yeager, Ph.D., director of the Stress, Trauma and Resilience (STAR) Program at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

"Stepping away and reconnecting with reality offline is an important step to take for your mental health," Yeager said. "Being constantly immersed in this stressful environment and being overexposed to contentious or traumatic events can make you feel like the world is a less safe place to be. And because these stressors have persisted over a long period of time, it's wearing on people's ability to cope with that stress."

CAPTION

When the negativity of social media posts and comment sections becomes overwhelming, Andrea Koder feels empowered by volunteering for causes she cares about, like fostering shelter animals.

Across the United States, there's been an increase in cases of depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance abuse over the past several months, said Yeager, who is a clinical professor in The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

"Even though you can't control what happens on social media, it's important to recognize how it may affect you and take steps to limit your exposure," Yeager said.

He offers these tips to go on a social media diet:


Reconnect with family and friends - Disconnect from your devices and stop scrolling on social media for a night. Instead, make plans with the people you care about, even if that's a group Zoom call. An evening of friendly conversation can be a welcome break from social media.
Create positive change in your community - Volunteer at a food bank, clean up a park or do anything that makes your neighborhood a better place. Seeing the good that you and others in your community are doing can help you realize what's truly important.
Use your power - Not only do you have the power of your vote, but you also have the power to voice your concerns and enact local change. Get involved in the issues that are important to you. Feeling like you're part of the process can be empowering and calming.
Talk about it - There can be a lot of misunderstandings in conversations about the biggest issues we are facing now, especially when they take place in social media comment sections. Talking to family and friends one-on-one about what is important to them and how they believe these issues affect them can help you understand where they're coming from.

Anyone who is regularly feeling panicked or having trouble controlling their mood or connecting with others should seek help from a mental health professional to learn ways to cope, Yeager said.

CAPTION

Ken Yeager, Ph.D., counsels a patient at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Yeager says the stress of being constantly connected to the negativity on social media during this contentious time in our country has led to an increase in depression and anxiety.

Children's National Hospital case report sounds the alarm for antibiotic resistance

Isolated bacterium tests positive for resistance to two antibiotics for which it has historically been susceptible, highlights importance of antibiotic stewardship

CHILDREN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL

WASHINGTON-(August, 3, 2020)- A recent meningitis case at Children's National Hospital raises serious concerns about antibiotic resistance in the common bacterium that caused it, researchers from the hospital write in a case report. Their findings, published online August 3 in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, could change laboratory and clinical practice across the U.S. and potentially around the globe.

Neisseria meningitidis is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in adolescents and an important cause of disease in younger children as well, say case report authors Gillian Taormina,D.O., a third year fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's National, who was on service for this recent case, and Joseph Campos, Ph.D., D(ABMM), FAAM, director of the Microbiology Laboratory and the Infectious Diseases Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at Children's National. As standard clinical practice in the U.S., they explain, patients who are thought to have this infection are typically treated first with the broad spectrum antibiotic ceftriaxone while they wait for a microbiology lab to identify the causative organism from blood or cerebrospinal fluid samples. Once the organism is identified as N meningitidis, patients are typically treated with penicillin or ampicillin, antibiotics with a narrower spectrum of activity that's less likely to lead to ceftriaxone resistance. Family members and other close contacts are often prophylactically treated with an antibiotic called ciprofloxacin.

Because N. meningitidis has historically been sensitive to these antibiotics, most laboratories do not perform tests to confirm drug susceptibility, Dr. Campos says. But the protocol at Children's National is to screen these isolates for penicillin and ampicillin resistance with a rapid 5-minute test. The isolate from Dr. Taormina's five-month-old patient -- a previously healthy infant from Maryland who came to the Children's National emergency room after six days of fever and congestion -- yielded surprising results: N. meningitidis grown from the patient's blood was positive for beta-lactamase, an enzyme that destroys the active component in the family of antibiotics that includes penicillin and ampicillin. This isolate was also found resistant to ciprofloxacin.

"The lab used a rapid test, and after just a few minutes, it was positive," Dr. Campos says. "We did it again to make sure it was accurate, and the results were reproducible. That's when we knew we needed to share this finding with the public health authorities."

Dr. Campos, Dr. Taormina and their colleagues sent samples of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria first to the Washington, D.C. Public Health Laboratory and the Maryland Department of Health, and later to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). When the CDC asked other state laboratories to send their own N. meningitidis samples to be tested, 33 were positive for beta-lactamase. And like the bacterium isolated from Dr. Taormina's patient, 11 of these were also resistant to ciprofloxacin.

"These bacteria wouldn't have been susceptible to the common antibiotics that we would normally use for this infection," Dr. Taormina says, "so it's entirely possible that the infections caused by these bacteria could have been treated inappropriately if doctors used the standard protocol."

Dr. Taormina says that her patient cleared his infection after staying on ceftriaxone, the original antibiotic he'd been prescribed, for the recommended seven days. His six family members and close contacts were prophylactically treated with rifampin instead of ciprofloxacin.

Although this case had a positive outcome, Dr. Campos says it raises the alarm for other N. meningitidis infections in the U.S., where antibiotic resistance is a growing concern. The danger is even higher in other countries, where the vaccine that children in the U.S. commonly receive for N. meningitidis at age 11 isn't available.

In the meantime, Drs. Taormina and Campos say their case highlights the need for the appropriate use of antibiotics, known as antibiotic stewardship, which is only possible with close partnerships between infectious disease doctors and microbiology laboratories.

"Our lab and the infectious diseases service at Children's National interact every day on cases like this to make sure we're doing the best job we can in diagnosing and managing infections," says Dr. Campos. "We're a team."

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Other Children's National authors who contributed to this case report include infectious disease specialist Benjamin Hanisch, M.D.

Properly-equipped laypersons can potentially reverse opioid overdose mortality

In the race against time to reverse overdose, community members supplied with naloxone and a smartphone application can act in the crucial moments prior to EMS arrival

IN THE SEVENTIES I WORKED AT A YOUTH CENTRE THAT PROVIDED OD AND DRUG CRISIS COUNSELLING CITIZEN ACTIVISM WORKS I ALSO WORKED AS A STREET MEDIC IN VANCOUVER AT THE OCCUPATION OF THE FOUR SEASONS OCEAN FRONT WHERE HEROIN OD'S WERE NOT UNCOMMON

BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

Without timely reversal, opioid overdose causes respiratory depression that may deteriorate into apnea, leading to brain injury and even death. Naloxone, a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose, can quickly restore normal respiration to a person whose breathing has slowed or stopped as a result of overdose with heroin or prescription opioid pain medications.

One of the major challenges in decreasing lethal opioid overdose is ensuring that naloxone reaches those in need at short notice. For opioid overdose, as for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), layperson response is a key link in the "chain of survival", the complex relationship between bystanders, emergency services, and hospitals. Locating a nearby volunteer with naloxone presents various challenges that may be addressed by means of collective mobilization.

In a paper published today in The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine journal, researchers from Bar-Ilan University and Drexel University report the results of the first observational cohort study of community members equipped with naloxone and a smartphone application to signal and respond to opioid overdoses. The cohort was comprised of individuals who lived and/or worked in a neighborhood with high incidence of opioid overdose in the US city of Philadelphia. After tracking the group for more than a year, the researchers showed that laypersons, including people who use opioids, can effectively signal and respond to overdose incident to administer nasal naloxone in advance of emergency medical service (EMS) arrival.

Volunteers were trained in recognizing opioid overdose, the use of intranasal naloxone, and use of a dedicated smartphone app to signal and/or respond to a suspected overdose alert. The app was activated by volunteers witnessing an overdose to signal other nearby volunteers. The researchers looked for three possible scenarios when volunteers received an alert: those who received the alert and chose to respond and help, those who explicitly declined to respond, or those who missed/ignored the alert. The witnessing volunteer was connected to speak with 9-1-1 dispatch through a semi-automated telephone call. The primary outcome was layperson-initiated overdose reversal before the arrival of EMS/first responders.

"We observed 202 layperson-initiated overdose true alerts with a rate of layperson naloxone administration of 36?6% (74/202) and found that naloxone-based reversal was initiated over five minutes prior to EMS arrival in 59?6% of these cases," said Prof. David Schwartz, of Bar-Ilan University's Graduate School of Business Administration. "We observed layperson support behaviors, including contacting EMS and remaining with the victim until recovery, that are consistent with American Heart Association guidelines and that strengthen the chain of survival that begins in the community," added Schwartz, who led the study with Dr. Stephen Lankenau, of Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health.

Equipping laypersons with naloxone and an emergency response community app to signal suspected opioid overdose and alert other nearby volunteers to provide naloxone can result in naloxone administration prior to EMS arrival and overdose reversal, potentially reducing mortality in opioid overdose. The findings support further study of smartphone-based naloxone intervention to strengthen the chain of survival starting at the community level.

There are striking parallels for emergency healthcare delivery between opioid overdose in the community and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Studies have shown that CPR and early defibrillation by a layperson, in advance of EMS, contributes to positive outcomes after OHCA. "It is time to recognize that opioid use disorder patients can benefit from similar forms of community support that we advance for OHCA." write the authors. Locating a nearby volunteer with naloxone presents some unique challenges but is not inherently different than locating a nearby defibrillator. Creating and studying smartphone-based emergency response communities for naloxone provision can help address this important challenge.

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This study was funded by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse.