Impact of Cardiorespiratory Fitness on COVID-19-Related Outcomes: The Exercise Testing and Health Outcomes Study (ETHOS).

Objective: To assess the association between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and COVID-19-related health outcomes including mortality, hospitalization, and mechanical ventilation.

Patients And Methods: In a retrospective analysis of 750,302 patients included in the Exercise Testing and Health Outcomes Study, we identified 23,140 who had a positive result on COVID-19 testing between March 2020 and September 2021 and underwent a maximal exercise test in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System between October 1, 1999 to September 3, 2020. The association between CRF and risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes, including mortality, hospitalization due to COVID-19, and need for intubation was assessed after adjustment for 15 covariates.

Towards a hybrid approach to unveil the Chimaira of neurosciences: philosophy, aperiodic activity and the neural correlates of consciousness.

Contemporary theories of consciousness, although very efficient in postulating testable hypotheses, seem to either neglect its relational aspect or to have a profound difficulty in operationalizing this aspect in a measurable manner. We further argue that the analysis of periodic brain activity is inadequate to reveal consciousness's subjective facet. This creates an important epistemic gap in the quest for the neural correlates of consciousness.

Prospective Memory, Sustained Attention and Response Inhibition in Poly-Substance Users Stable on Methadone Maintenance Treatment.

: Prospective memory and response inhibition are interrelated constructs, though studied separately in the drug addiction literature. Also, although sustained attention underlies response inhibition, its role in the relation between these functions has been largely neglected. The limited research on the cognitive effects of methadone-maintenance treatment (MMT) further stresses the importance of investigating these effects.

Arterial Stiffness Alterations in Simulated Microgravity and Reactive Sledge as a Countermeasure.

Introduction: Experiments during spaceflight and simulated microgravity as head-down tilt bedrest, demonstrated the role of arterial stiffness among others, in microgravity induced cardiovascular pathologies and emphasized the need for a robust countermeasure.

Aim: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the use of a new countermeasure, consisting of a high intensity Reactive Sledge (RSL) jumps training protocol, to counteract changes in arterial stiffness during long term head down tilt bedrest (LTBR).

Methods: The participants enrolled in the study were 23 male, healthy volunteers, aged between 20 and 45 years, subjected to LTBR for 60 days and randomly assigned either to a control (11) or to a training sledge (12) group using RSL 3-4 times per week, as a countermeasure.

Quantitative MRI in myositis patients: comparison with healthy volunteers and radiological visual assessment.

Aim: To assess whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based measurements of T2, fat fraction, diffusion tensor imaging, and muscle volume can detect differences between the muscles of myositis patients and healthy controls, and to identify how they compare with semi-quantitative MRI diagnosis.

Materials And Methods: Sixteen myositis patients and 16 age- and gender-matched healthy controls underwent MRI of their thigh. Quantitative MRI measurements and radiologists' semi-quantitative scores were assessed.

The European Society of Skeletal Radiology Quiz 2018.

This article consists of a series of clinical cases presented during the ESSR Quiz session at the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology in Amsterdam 2018. The first section contains the clinical information and an initial set of images for each case. The second section reveals the answers along with additional imaging followed by a short discussion about the pathologic processes presented.

Muscle shear wave elastography in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: a case-control study with MRI correlation.

Objective: To investigate muscle stiffness in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) using shear wave elastography (SWE) and to correlate the results with muscle strength and MRI features of myositis.

Materials And Methods: Muscle shear wave velocity (SWV) was measured in 23 active IIM patients (13 females, mean age 50.4 ± 16.

Enhancement of Visuospatial Working Memory by the Differential Outcomes Procedure in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease.

In the present study we investigated the efficacy of the differential outcomes procedure (DOP) to improve visuospatial working memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The DOP associates correct responses to the to-be-remember stimulus with unique outcomes. Eleven patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, 11 participants with MCI, and 17 healthy matched controls performed a spatial delayed memory task under the DOP and a control condition (non-differential outcomes -NOP-).

Gains in cognition through combined cognitive and physical training: the role of training dosage and severity of neurocognitive disorder.

Physical as well as cognitive training interventions improve specific cognitive functions but effects barely generalize on global cognition. Combined physical and cognitive training may overcome this shortcoming as physical training may facilitate the neuroplastic potential which, in turn, may be guided by cognitive training. This study aimed at investigating the benefits of combined training on global cognition while assessing the effect of training dosage and exploring the role of several potential effect modifiers.

Attentional processes in low-socioeconomic status bilingual children: are they modulated by the amount of bilingual experience?

Recent research indicates that bilingual children are more proficient in resolving cognitive conflict than monolinguals. However, the replicability of such findings has been questioned, with poor control of participants' socioeconomic status (SES) as a possible confounding factor. Two experiments are reported here, in which the main attentional functions and pragmatic ability of 54 bilingual and 56 monolingual low-SES children were assessed (Experiment 1: 6- to 12-year-olds; Experiment 2: 6- to 8-year-olds).

Cognitive and physical training for the elderly: evaluating outcome efficacy by means of neurophysiological synchronization.

Recent neuroscientific research has demonstrated that both healthy and pathological aging induces alterations in the co-operative capacity of neuronal populations in the brain. Both compensatory and neurodegenerative mechanisms contribute to neurophysiological synchronization patterns, which provide a valuable marker for age-related cognitive decline. In this study, we propose that neuroplasticity-based training may facilitate coherent interaction of distant brain regions and consequently enhance cognitive performance in elderly people.

Eye Blink Rate as a biological marker of Mild Cognitive Impairment.

We investigated the relationship between dopamine activity (DA), as measured by Eye Blink Rate (EBR), and cognitive function in old adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and healthy controls. Research has been inconclusive so far about the factors responsible for the transition from MCI to dementia. However, some studies suggest that cortical hyperexcitability in very early stages of pathological aging may progressively lead to cell death, and thus to Alzheimer's disease.

[Prognosis of malignant melanoma following dissection regional lymph node metastases].

Background: Malignant melanomas usually metastasize in the regional lymph nodes. This generally leads to a worsening of prognosis. Survival probability after extirpation of the tumorous regions is conditioned by various factors.

Structure of tandem RNA recognition motifs from polypyrimidine tract binding protein reveals novel features of the RRM fold.

Polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTB), an RNA binding protein containing four RNA recognition motifs (RRMs), is involved in both pre-mRNA splicing and translation initiation directed by picornaviral internal ribosome entry sites. Sequence comparisons previously indicated that PTB is a non-canonical RRM protein. The solution structure of a PTB fragment containing RRMs 3 and 4 shows that the protein consists of two domains connected by a long, flexible linker.

Callus formation and fixation rigidity: a fracture model in rats.

To produce different amounts of callus in rats, we devised a procedure to fix leg fractures using intramedullary nails that differ in bending rigidity. We inserted a silicone cannula into the intact diaphysis of the tibia of rats that had already been killed and then fractured the tibia by a three-point bending technique. The fracture was stabilised by insertion of either a stainless-steel or polypropylene nail into the silicone cannula.

[Functional complaints--healthy or ill? A study of 780 working men].

The frequency of functional complaints was examined in a group of 780 health men, employees of an industrial firm, who had no evidence of organic disease, were not under medical treatment and thought of themselves as healthy. As part of a standardised examination, questions were asked about 11 possible functional complaints, in addition to ten characteristics of their work. The presence of at least one functional symptom was affirmed by 48.

[Sodium, potassium and magnesium in plasma and erythrocytes during haemodialysis of children (author's transl)].

In 19 children with chronic renal insufficiency sodium, potassium and magnesium in plasma and erythrocytes were measured before and after haemodialysis. Creatinine and the acid-base status were also determined. The mean predialysis values of sodium in plasma were within normal limits, in erythrocytes in the lower normal range.