Daily Archives: September 20, 2021

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Evolution and dispersal of snakes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction - Nature.com

The level of public acceptance of evolution in the United States is now solidly above the halfway mark, according to a new study based on a series of national public opinion surveys conducted over the last 35 years.

From 1985 to 2010, there was a statistical dead heat between acceptance and rejection of evolution, said lead researcher Jon D. Miller of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. But acceptance then surged, becoming the majority position in 2016.

Examining data over 35 years, the study consistently identified aspects of educationcivic science literacy, taking college courses in science, and having a college degreeas the strongest factors leading to the acceptance of evolution.

Almost twice as many Americans held a college degree in 2018 as in 1988, said co-author Mark Ackerman, a researcher at Michigan Engineering, the U-M School of Information and Michigan Medicine. Its hard to earn a college degree without acquiring at least a little respect for the success of science.

The researchers analyzed a collection of biennial surveys from the National Science Board, several national surveys funded by units of the National Science Foundations, and a series focused on adult civic literacy funded by NASA. Beginning in 1985, these national samples of U.S. adults were asked to agree or disagree with this statement: Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.

The series of surveys showed that Americans were evenly divided on the question of evolution from 1985 to 2007. According to a 2005 study of the acceptance of evolution in 34 developed nations, led by Miller, only Turkey, at 27%, scored lower than the United States. But over the last decade, until 2019, the percentage of American adults who agreed with this statement increased from 40% to 54%.

The current study consistently identified religious fundamentalism as the strongest factor leading to the rejection of evolution. While their numbers declined slightly in the last decade, approximately 30% of Americans continue to be religious fundamentalists as defined in the study. But even those who scored highest on the scale of religious fundamentalism shifted toward acceptance of evolution, rising from 8% in 1988 to 32% in 2019.

Miller predicted that religious fundamentalism would continue to impede the public acceptance of evolution.

Such beliefs are not only tenacious but also, increasingly, politicized, he said, citing a widening gap between Republican and Democratic acceptance of evolution.

As of 2019, 34% of conservative Republicans accepted evolution compared to 83% of liberal Democrats.

The study is published in the journal Public Understanding of Science.

Reference: Public acceptance of evolution in the United States, 19852020 by Jon D. Miller, Eugenie C. Scott, Mark S. Ackerman, Beln Laspra, Glenn Branch, Carmelo Polino and Jordan S. Huffaker, 16 August 2021, Public Understanding of Science.DOI: 10.1177/09636625211035919

Besides Miller and Ackerman, the authors are Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education; Beln Laspra of the University of Oviedo in Spain; and Carmelo Polino of the University of Oviedo and Centre Redes in Argentina; and Jordan Huffaker of U-M.

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Evolution Now Accepted by Majority of Americans - SciTechDaily

Whenthe Globes Ben Volin inquired about the importance of having one player on the roster who specializes in long snapping, the Patriots head coach gave an extremely detailed answer that spanned nearly 10 minutes and was over 1,500 words.

Its an interesting conversation, Belichick said. One thats really, I would say, honestly during the course of my coaching career, has kind of traveled that long and winding road from when I came into the league.

Then he gave a history lesson. Heres the full transcript:

Its an interesting conversation. One thats really, I would say, honestly during the course of my coaching career, has kind of traveled that long and winding road from when I came into the league.

First of all, there were no long snappers, but the specialists, the kickers and the punters were frequently position players, and thats where they came from in college as well, so a lot of the good college punters and place kickers also played a position, and then as time evolved, starting with like [Pete] Gogolak and guys like that, you know, they specialized in kicking, and then you had some of the punters that specialized in punting, so players like Danny White and Tom Tupa and guys like that who were very good position players, you know, Gino Cappelletti, that evolved into specialists because of, I would say, the importance of the kicking game the number of plays that the kicking game and opportunities that it provided.

Same thing with returners. There were very few just pure returners. I think long snapping, to me, changed in the mid-80s, and really the key guy in that was [Steve] DeOssie, in my opinion because Steve was the first center that really, truly allowed a spread punt formation against all-out rush. Prior to that, teams would generally pull.

First of all, there wasnt that many gunners, but when teams started using gunners, they would pull one in and kick away from the free guy on the back side, and that was kind of the idea that protection was not to let the snapper block against a nine-man rush with a split player. The return team would have one guy on the gun or the split, and one guy returns, so you got nine guys rushing against essentially the punter who wasnt a blocker or the split guy who wasnt a blocker and the snapper who really wasnt a blocker, so it was nine on eight, and the idea was to block the most dangerous eight and let the ninth guy go and punt away from him, and then when the Cowboys went to spread punt and then the Cardinals followed that pretty quickly, and they kept two gunners split, and the snapper blocked a guy, then that created an eight on eight situation but put a lot of pressure on the snapper to deliver the ball 15 yards deep on the money and still block a good rusher offsetting and the A-gap.

I mean, weve all seen offensive linemen have trouble making that block on a pass play, and so now youre talking about a deep snap and a block, but as players got better at that, that skill became more, I would say, players became more efficient at that, then teams decided to carry a long snapper rather than worry about getting a punt block. Plus, there was also a level of consistency and durability with those players, so if you lose a position player who is also a long snapper, youre looking at some real problems, and that evolved into the punters, for the most part, becoming holders because of the amount of time that they could spend with the kickers versus having a wide receiver or quarterback be the holder, which again, you dont see very much of that anymore. Assuming a punter is, you know, capable and good enough and has good enough hands to be the holder, and so then that kind of whole unit has really evolved into, you know, specified snapper or a specified kicker, a specific punter, and generally the punter as the holder, so the three of those guys could work together all practice because theyre all available.

I know, again, going back to when I first came into league, you worked on field goals, and, I mean, it was maybe five minutes because that was only time the starting center and the starting receiver or backup quarterback or whatever were available to practice that, so, like, is it that hard? Its a pretty hard job. Yeah. Its a pretty hard job. Its not as hard as it used to be because youre not allowed to hit the center, especially on field goals and run them over.

There are some limitations on the punt rush based on what the formation is and so forth, but generally speaking, its a hard block, and I think you see most punt rushes attack the snapper. They loop guys back so the center thinks hes going right, but then he has to come back to the left, or maybe they fake like theyre coming back, but they dont come back, so he not only has to snap, and so then that gets into whether youre a blind snapper and you look at the rush and just snap the ball, or whether youre a look back snapper and snap it, and then after the snap you have to look up and recognize whats happened and make a proper block, but again, its man-to-man blocking. Like that guys got to block somebody or youre a guy short, so it is a hard job, and the accuracy of the placekickers through the years, which has gone up dramatically. Part of thats the surface. Part of thats the not kicking outdoors and so forth. Part of it is the operation between the snapper, the holder and the kicker, which I would say, generally speaking, is at a pretty high level, which it should be in the National Football League.

I think if you go back and look at kicks from back when that wasnt the case, you see balls rolling back and the holder coming out of a stance that catch the ball and the kind of things you see at times in a high school game and that kind of thing. Theres just a much higher level of skill, which there should be, but yeah. I think its a pretty tough position, and nobody knows or cares who the snapper is if there was a bad snap and all of a sudden, thats front-page story. Theres a decent amount of pressure on that player as well, and not just the snap, but also, as I said, to the block and punt protection.

The roster sizes have increased. Its been a lot easier to carry that player just like its a lot easier to carry a true returner, and so in terms of depth and availability, you know, you really dont want to be looking for one of those players in the middle of any time. In the middle of the game or middle of the season, but when you have him as a starting receiver, Lou Groza, a starting tackle, or whoever. Those guys and theyre playing and something happens and not only do you lose a player, but you lose a key specialist as well, so yeah.

I mean, its a great question. There would be so much value in a player that could do a couple of things and save a roster spot, but I would say there are so few of those players available, even at the point where, you know, [Matt] Amendola did a great job last week. Its so rare that you even see a combination punter and place kicker.

Usually, its one or the other, and I think part of that is at one level its, Ill say, relatively easy to put your foot on the ball, but at this level, you know, the difference in kicking mechanics and punting mechanics are so different that its really hard to be good at both, but you know, if a guys got a good leg and hes a good athlete and he can make good contact with a ball, theres a point where, high school, college, that maybe its good enough.

Maybe hes the best guy on the team to do that, but Id say at this level, that will be asking a lot. Now like Jake [Bailey] can punt. Jake can kick-off. Jake can kick field goals. To be at the kind of level you want it to be at, to have the person split their time between the two of those, again, I think is a lot to ask. Im not saying its impossible or unheard of, but its a lot to ask, and thats why you dont see it very much.

Thats a good question. Its really interesting, and Id say if you look at the evolution of those positions since Ive been in the league, but even a little bit before then, because thats really where it started to go was in the late sixties. I think [Pete] Gogolak was the first, or one of the first, where that trend really started to, okay, were just going to keep a guy, and all he does is kick. [Garo] Yepremian and guys like that. Thats all they did. That was a little bit unusual, but you know, gradually that has become the new normal.

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Bill Belichick gave a nearly 10-minute history lesson about the evolution of the long snapper - The Boston Globe

Uterine transplantation (UTx) is acknowledged to be on the second (2A) of five steps of development in accordance with the staging system for the evaluation of surgical innovations. Accordingly, we aimed to systematically review the available evidence of the surgical techniques and outcomes of UTx in terms of graft survival.A comprehensive search was conducted across PubMed Medline, Cochrane-EBMR, Scopus, Web of Science, and CENTRAL through November 2020.Forty studies, reporting 64 recipients and 64 donors, satisfied inclusion criteria. The surgical time and the estimated blood loss were 515minutes and 679mL for graft procurement via laparotomy, 210minutes and 100mL for laparoscopic-assisted graft harvest, and 660minutes and 173mL for robotic-assisted procedures, respectively. Urinary tract infections (=8) and injury to the urinary system (=6) were the most common donor complications. Using the donors internal iliac system, two arterial anastomoses were performed in all cases. Venous outflow was accomplished through the uterine veins (UVs) in 13 cases, a combination of the UVs and the ovarian/uteroovarian veins (OVs/UOVs) in 36 cases, and solely through the OVs/UOVs in 13 cases. Ischemia time was 161 and 258minutes when using living donors (LD) and deceased donors (DD), respectively. Forty-eight uteri were successfully transplanted or fulfilled the purpose of transplantation, 41 from LDs and 7 from DDs. Twenty-five and four live childbirths from LDs and DDs have been reported, respectively.UTx is still experimental. Further series are required to recommend specific surgical techniques that best yield a successful transplant and reduce complications for donors and recipients.Thieme. All rights reserved.

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Evolution and Transformation of Uterine Transplantation: A Systematic Review of Surgical Techniques and Out... - Physician's Weekly

Designed for both form and function, the Lyric is indispensable to any lifestyle. The Lyric's beautiful design, available in five attractive colors, means no hiding it in a drawer or closet like most massage devices. Users can proudly display the device in their homes, serving as a steady reminder to use it daily and develop positive wellness habits.

The Lyric provides an intuitive experience. Its easy-to-use touchscreen guides users through therapies and, unlike other connected massagers and their respective apps, it eliminates the need to juggle a device and phone simultaneously, allowing people to truly be in the moment and focus on their holistic wellbeing.

As a self-care companion, the Lyric provideson-board guidance for temporary relief of muscle aches and pains, as well as therapies designed to relax and energize. The Lyric's Wi-Fi technology offers users peace of mind knowing they'll always have the latest software upgrades, therapies and wellness content.

"Never before has a massage device offered the technology, aesthetic and experience to answer so many unmet consumer needs, not just those of serious athletes," said Hugh Williams, Lyric co-founder. "Each detail of the Lyric has been thoughtfully designed based on extensive research and feedback to create an unmatched wellness experience. Now, people won't have to choose between what they want and what their bodies and minds need with the Lyric, they can have it all in one device."

Stimulate Your Nervous System with Rhythm TherapyWith the introduction of the Lyric comes a breakthrough in massage technology, Rhythm Therapy. Rather than a mono-frequency or "flat line" experience, which is what most massage devices deliver, the Lyric vibrates in a wavelike pattern mimicking naturally occurring rhythms that can have a profound impact on the body and mind. Rhythm is deeply humanand connected to our ability to rest, invigorate and renew. Rhythm promotes a feeling of happiness; it helps center and connect the mind and body. Rhythm helps people to be fully well. The Lyric's Rhythm Therapy creates an exquisite experience it's like Mozart for your muscles.

Rhythmic frequencies have been shown to affect the endocrine, musculoskeletal and nervous systems, and can temporarily alleviate minor muscle pain, shift stress and positively affect both emotions and overall mental state.

"Therapies that incorporate rhythmic frequencies have the ability to guide the body to its parasympathetic mode, allowing it to slow down and rest, but they can also activate the body's sympathetic mode, leading to feeling alert, awake and energized," said Dr. Jena Gatses, DPT, LMT, SFMA,CSCS. "The therapy options provided by the Lyric offer a range of benefits, including pain relief, calm and energy, for an intuitive and customized experience."

Wellness HarmonizedThe Lyric establishes a new category in wellness, thanks to its therapeutic range of frequencies coupled with lower amplitude (the distance traveled by the massage head). This combination requires less pressure from the device to achieve the same result, allowing for a more comfortable, enjoyable and nonaggressive massage experience that feels good and promotes positive wellbeing.

The Lyric offers a slim handle with ergonomic grip and includes an optional extension handle for easier maneuvering and accessing hard-to-reach spots. Also included with each massager are four attachments neatly stored in the docking station: Cone, Dome, Thumb and Double. Each attachment helps to deliver a personalized experience that provides exactly what the body needs, regardless of the ache or pain. The Lyric also has induction charging built intothe docking station (as well as a USB-C) for grab-n-go charging.

Elevated DesignSleek, stylish and lightweight, the Lyric merits public display as a constant reminder to use and benefit from it daily. Offered in Blueprint (light blue), Terracotta (soft orange), Stone (off white), Slate (dark grey with blue undertone) and Granite (black), the Lyric features beautiful hues to fit any taste or dcor. Its $199.95 MSRP makes the Lyric a premium experience for a broad range of users, lifestyles and needs, for hundreds of dollars less than other devices offering fewer features.

Find Your Rhythmwith the Lyric therapeutic massager atExperienceLyric.com or at select retailers including Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Meijer, REI and Target. Join the Lyric wellness movement by following @ExperienceLyric on Facebook, Instagramand Twitter.

About The LyricThe Lyricis the result of a two-year project by a distinguished team of leading designers, therapists, entrepreneurs and investors drawing on consumer research and experience working across some of the world's most iconic brands. In partnership with global leaders in design and innovation, the Lyric was developed to address unmet consumer needs around form, function and accessibility. Say goodbye to ugly, aggressive and heavy massage guns made only for elite athletes.The stylishly designed Lyric was created with everybody and every body in mind, delivering an intuitive and easy-to-use experience. Now, you don't have to sacrifice quality or choose between features when deciding on self-care. With the Lyric, you can have what you want as well as what your body and mind need. Visit ExperienceLyric.comto Find Your Rhythm and join the Lyric wellness movement by following @ExperienceLyric on Facebook, Instagramand Twitter.

SOURCE The Lyric

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Introducing The Lyric Therapeutic Massager, An Evolution In Self-Care - PRNewswire

An African lily (Agapanthus africanus) flower is broken into component parts. According to a new classification of plant complexity, an African lily has 12 types of parts in its reproductive structure, some of which are on the seed or inside the ovary and not pictured here. In comparison, a typical fern has one type of reproductive part. Credit: Andrew Leslie

A Stanford-led studyreveals that rather than evolving gradually over hundreds of millions of years, land plants underwent major diversification in two dramatic bursts, 250 million years apart. The first occurred early in plant history, giving rise to the development of seeds, and the second took place during the diversification of flowering plants.

The research uses a novel but simple metric to classify plant complexity based on the arrangement and number of basic parts in their reproductive structures. While scientists have long assumed that plants became more complex with the advent of seeds and flowers, the new findings, published on September 17, 2021, in Science, offer insight into the timing and magnitude of those changes.

The most surprising thing is this kind of stasis, this plateau in complexity after the initial evolution of seeds and then the total change that happened when flowering plants started diversifying, said lead study authorAndrew Leslie, an assistant professor of geological sciences at StanfordsSchool of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences(Stanford Earth). The reproductive structures look different in all these plants, but they all have about the same number of parts during that stasis.

Flowers are more diverse than every other group of plants, producing colors, smells, and shapes that nourish animals and delight the senses. They are also intricate: petals, anthers and pistils interweave in precise arrangements to lure pollinators and trick them into spreading pollen from one flower to another.

This complexity makes it difficult for scientists to compare flowering plants to plants with simpler reproductive systems, such as ferns or some conifers. As a result, botanists have long focused on characteristics within family groups and typically study evolution in non-flowering plants separately from their more intricate flowering relatives.

Leslie and his co-authors overcame these differences by designing a system that classifies the number of different kinds of parts in reproductive structures based on observation alone. Each species was scored according to how many types of parts it has and the degree to which it exhibited clustering of those parts. They categorized about 1,300 land plant species from about 420 million years ago until the present.

This tells a pretty simple story about plant reproductive evolution in terms of form and function: The more functions the plants have and the more specific they are, the more parts they have,Leslie said. Its a useful way of thinking about broad-scale changes encompassing the whole of plant history.

When land plants first diversified in the early Devonian about 420 million to 360 million years ago, Earth was a warmer world devoid of trees or terrestrial vertebrate animals. Arachnids like scorpions and mites roamed the land amongst short, patchy plants and the tallest land organism was a 20-foot fungus resembling a tree trunk. After the Devonian, huge changes occurred in the animal kingdom: Land animals evolved to have large body sizes and more varied diets, insects diversified, dinosaurs appeared but plants didnt see a major change in reproductive complexity until they developed flowers.

Insect pollination and animal seed dispersal may have appeared as early as 300 million years ago, but its not until the last 100 million years that these really intricate interactions with pollinators are driving this super high complexity in flowering plants, Leslie said. There was such a long period of time where plants could have interacted with insects in the way that flowering plants do now, but they didnt to the same degree of intricacy.

In the Late Cretaceous, about 100 to 66 million years ago, Earth more closely resembled the planet we know today a bit like Yosemite National Park without the flowering trees and bushes. The second burst of complexity was more dramatic than the first, emphasizing the unique nature of flowering plants, according to Leslie. That period gave rise to plants like the passionflower, which can have 20 different types of parts, more than twice the number found in non-flowering plants.

The researchers classified 472 living species, part of which Leslie carried out on and around Stanfords campus by simply pulling apart local plants and counting their reproductive organs. The analysis includes vascular land plants everything except mosses and a few early plants that lack supportive tissue for conducting water and minerals.

One thing we argue in this paper is that this classification simply reflects their functional diversity, Leslie said. They basically split up their labor in order to be more efficient at doing what they needed to do.

Reference: Reproductive innovations and pulsed rise in plant complexity by Andrew B. Leslie, Carl Simpson and Luke Mander, 17 September 2021, Science.DOI: 10.1126/science.abi6984

Study co-authors include Carl Simpson of the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and Luke Mander of The Open University.

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Plants Didnt Evolve Gradually They Evolved Complexity in Two Dramatic Bursts 250-Million-Years Apart - SciTechDaily

CardioNerds(Amit Goyal,Daniel Ambinder) and Dr. Mark Belkin, (CardioNerds Correspondent) and Dr. Shirlene Obuobi (CardioNerds Ambassador) from University of Chicago are honored to bring to you the Dr. Milton Packer perspective on the evolution of the neurohormonal hypothesis as part of The CardioNerds Heart Success Series. In part 2 Dr. Packer shares his journey as the trailing spouse and tells the story of how the neurohormonal hypothesis was developed.

Check out theCardioNerdsHeart Failure Success Series Pagefor more heart success episodes and content!

This is a non CME episode. Disclosures: Milton Packer reports receiving consulting fees fromAbbvie, Actavis,Amgen, Amarin,AstraZeneca,Boehringer Ingelheim,Bristol Myers Squibb, Casana, CSL Behring,Cytokinetics,Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc., Eli Lilly and Company,Moderna, Novartis, ParatusRx, Pfizer, Relypsa, Salamandra, Synthetic Biologics,Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.and Theravance Biopharma Inc.

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This CardioNerdsHeart Failure Success Series was created in memory of Dr. David Taylor. We thank our partners at the Heart Failure Society of Americawhich is a multidisciplinary organization working to improve and expand heart failure care through collaboration, education, research, innovation, and advocacy. Its members include physicians, scientists, nurses, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists. Learn more athfsa.org.

147. The Evolution of the Neurohormonal Hypothesis with Dr. Milton Packer: Part 2 The Secret to Happiness, The Aha Moment, & The Birth Of The...

Telehealth continues to grow as a crucial part of patient care, especially when supporting patients who live in remote areas and senior citizens. Research firm Frost & Sullivan forecasts a sevenfold growthin telehealth by 2025 a five-year compound annual growth rate of 38%.

The bottom line is that people want to have access to healthcare anytime, anywhere, across multiple devices and in the language of their choice. In fact, many new areas of telehealth such as tele-oncology and tele-stroke have become part of the mainstream healthcare system.

The idea of triaging patient issues and prescribing medication or assigning tasks such as physical therapy is just a part of the picture. There also has been an uptick in the use of telepsychiatry, especially for patients who are suffering from anxiety, depression and isolation.

For healthcare providers, telehealth presents an opportunity to address patient care needs, improve the customer experience and reduce costs. Healthcare IT News sat down with Linda Comp-Noto, division president forhealthcare enterprise operationsat telemedicine technology and services vendor Teleperformance, to discuss the evolution of telehealth, unique aspects of supporting remote customers and senior citizens, approval of more than 80 new medical services that can be delivered via telehealth and the creation of new diagnostic codes, and tackling privacy issues related to HIPAA.

Q. How has telehealth evolved over the past few years?

A. Telehealth is defined as the provision of healthcare virtually by use of digital information and communication technologies. According to Mayo Clinic, telehealth is used to access healthcare servicesremotelyto manage one's healthcare. These may be technologies used from the home or that a doctor uses to improve or support healthcare services.

Over the years, while digital technology was quickly advancing, telehealth had a relatively low adoption rate due to poor reimbursement rates and regulatory challenges when it came to patient privacy and HIPAA compliance.

Telehealth providers saw a rapid rise in the need for remote services with the initial spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Healthcare providers needed to find an immediate solution to care for their patients while keeping them home and maintaining the safety of the community. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began to allow for reimbursement for videoconferencing between healthcare provider and patient.

According to HHS.gov, CMS created a provisional policy during the coronavirus pandemic to help support the use of telehealth. CMS issued temporary measures to make it easier for people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to receive medical care through telehealth services during the COVID-19 public health emergency. This trend in remote access to care has expanded widely and is expected to continue.

Q. What are some of the unique aspects of supporting patients remotely?

A. Going beyond a global pandemic with a critical need to support patients remotely, there are many other situations where telehealth plays an important role in a person's healthcare.

It can be critical in helping people who don't have physical access to care due to their geography, lack of transportation or socioeconomic situation. Telehealth also can be extremely helpful in care coordination between primary healthcare providers and specialists by enhancing communication on a real-time basis, allowing faster response time and access to life-changing treatment.

Now more than ever, patients need to be their own advocates and engage in proper self-care techniques for treating and preventing diseases. Telehealth allows access to online portals to track symptoms and progress in a person's quest for wellness.

Portals can contain information from a patient's electronic health records from various providerstest results,digital device results such as heart rate, weight, oxygen levels, blood pressure and activity level,just to name a few. This is an exciting time for the future of telehealth for all people to lead longer and healthier lives.

Q. Please discuss the importance of the approval of more than 80 new medical services that can be delivered via telehealth and the creation of new diagnostic codes.

A. Last year, Congress eliminated barriers to patient care by approving a bill called the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020. This allowed telehealth to be used to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since then, CMS has now expanded coverage for telehealth and telemedicine. Eighty services can now be offered at the same reimbursement rates as traditional in-person office care.

According to CMS.gov, CMS is expanding access to telehealth services with Medicare. This means patients can receive care wherever they are at home, nursing home, assisted living, etc. If they have COVID-19, they can continue in isolation and prevent the spread of the illness. If they are not infected, they can get care without risking exposure to others who may be ill.

The 80 services that have now been approved include emergency department visits, initial nursing facility and discharge visits, and at-home visits that must be provided by a clinician who is allowed to provide telehealth.

This is important for the future of healthcarebecause it is helping remove the restrictions on access to care for many people. The new rules allow for some audio-only options that can help people who do not have access to computer equipment or video phones. There also are new provisions allowing telehealth use for ambulatory surgery, mental health centers and other healthcare settings that were restricted in the past. Further updates can be found at Coronavirus.gov.

Q. How can healthcare provider organizations tackle privacy issues related to HIPPA when it comes to telemedicine?

A. Patient privacy and data security are paramount when it comes to a successful telehealth operation. It is imperative that provider organizations ensure patient information is fully protected, as patients are trusting them to do so. There are many ways to effectively ensure privacy and security.

According to HIMSS, there are four best practices for data privacy and telehealth: strong authentication, end-to-end encryption, clean machines,and, when in doubt, throw it out. When addressing authentication, the telehealth platform should provide a strong authentication method. This means both parties need to be authenticated prior to the sharing of access to any confidential information.

This often involves platforms that require individuals to log in with unique usernames and passwords. Passwords need to be strong and contain a complex combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Biometrics can be implemented, along with multifactor authentication when required.

Second, end-to-end encryption is important for ensuring that only the people intended to be part of the conversation are able to access any part of communication and no one can break through.

Third, keeping a clean machine ensures that all operating systems and applications are fully up to date and working properly. This includes, but is not limited to, antivirus and appropriate firewalls. WiFi should be secure and not open to the public whenever personal or proprietary information is exchanged.

Lastly, when in doubt, throw it out. If any electronic communication appears to be suspicious, it's best to delete it and avoid clicking on any links.

Phishing is used to infect users' machines with malware and viruses. Both patients and providers can receive phishing emails, and they should always be disregarded. Privacy and data security go hand in hand and should involve technology combined with solid standard operating procedures that are audited and adhered to.

Twitter:@SiwickiHealthITEmail the writer:bsiwicki@himss.orgHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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Taking stock of the sudden evolution of telemedicine - Healthcare IT News

As humans, we have a large and intricately folded neocortex that accounts for many of our intellectual abilities and sets us apart from all other species. A research team headed by Dr. Tran Tuoc from the Department of Human Genetics at the Faculty of Medicine at Ruhr-Universitt Bochum (RUB) has identified an important factor that could have led to this brain development in the course of evolution: the so-called H3 acetylation of basal neural precursor cells. This finding could also pave the way for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The paper was published in the journal Science Advances on 15. September 2021.

In order to test whether cortical expansion in evolution is linked to a change in the epigenetic landscape, the authors started by investigating whether epigenetic marks differ between TBR2-positive (+) BPs from mouse and human cortices. They performed intranuclear immunofluorescence staining with TBR2 antibodies and with single cell suspensions isolated from developing mouse and human cortices, followed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to purify TBR2+ BPs.

The team used a new mass spectrometry-based technique to detect differences in the epigenetic landscape between the developing mouse and human brain. Our studies showed that what is known as histone H3 lysine 9 acetylation, or H3K9ac, is low in mouse basal progenitor cells but high in human cells, points out Tran Tuoc. When the researchers increased the acetylation of mouse neurons in the experiment, this stimulated their proliferation, which led to growth and folding of the typically smooth mouse cortex. The pathway is via increased expression of the TRNP1 gene.

These results suggest that manipulating H3 acetylation in basal progenitor cells could help generate more neurons, which in turn could be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Reference:Kerimoglu C, Pham L, Tonchev AB, et al. H3 acetylation selectively promotes basal progenitor proliferation and neocortex expansion. Sci Adv. 7(38):eabc6792. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc6792

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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New Technique Reveals Secrets of Brain Evolution - Technology Networks

On the eve of 'Operation Searchlight,'the infamous genocidal attempt of the Pakistani military to wipe out East Pakistani resistancefamous British journalist Simon Dring along with other foreign journalists were confined to the Intercontinental at Shahbagh. The West Pakistani administration wanted to deport him and others to keep their crimes against humanity under the rug. But Simon, then a 26-year-old man, had other ideas.

"He hid in our kitchen where our chefs had helped disguise him in chef's clothing. While the Pakistani army was successful in preventing other foreign journalists from covering the issue, Simon Dring was unstoppable," said Shahidus Sadeque, Director, Marketing and Business Promotions at Intercontinental Dhaka.

"Staying here, he wrote reports about the unspeakable things that were done to our people by the Pakistani military. Moreover, since the University of Dhaka was nearby, he was able to cover the atrocities committed in those areas as well, as in other areas in 1971," he added.

Later, Simon Dring risked his life to report Pakistan's atrocities on 25 March. After the country's independence, Simon went on to found the first Bangladeshi private channel called Ekushey TV. Dring's story, like many others, echo between the tall columns of the Intercontinental, while the longstanding history of this 55-year-old hotel wraps around its walls like timeless tapestry.

The Business Standard team wanted to get a first-hand look at the history and evolution of this prestigious establishment with Shahidus Sadeque, who had many more stories to share.

At present, the Intercontinental is not only reeling back from the effects of the pandemic, but also from an earlier hotel closure.

"It would ideally take more than a few years for any hotel to get going in full swing," said Sadeque, after a major renovation closure, which lasted for four years, starting in 2014. "Unfortunately, just a little more than a year after reopening, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the tourism industry. Since our customer base primarily constituted foreigners, it was an unfair blow for all of us," explained Sadeque.

"So, we customised our marketing strategy to attract the domestic consumers more," he added.

Elements (a restaurant in the Intercontinental) is currently the best restaurant in Dhaka according to Tripadvisor. It has a perfect 5.0 rating.

He also said that the hotel was organising wedding ceremonies, seminars etc in their halls for community programmes while maintaining the health guidelines from WHO and InterContinental Hotels Group.

Currently, the room tariff for different rooms and suites in the Intercontinental range from Tk10,000 for the standard deluxe rooms to Tk 60,000 for the Presidential suites, on average, although they may vary based on season, day and demand. And the local occupancy rate is 25% to 30%, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

History of the Intercontinental

When Intercontinental began its journey, Dhaka (erstwhile Dacca) was the capital of East Pakistan. Much like many other monuments that adorn this grand metropolis, Intercontinental Dacca was built in 1966 at Shahbagh.

Unsurprisingly, many significant historical events took place here. Since it was the only five-star hotel back then, renowned individuals and celebrities chose to stay at this hotel during their visits to Bangladesh.

From the South African legend Nelson Mandela, the world's first female Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike from Sri Lanka to Marlon Brando-the Godfather himself, the Intercontinental boasts a rather exemplary guest roster. From the Queen of Spain to Shahid Afridi (a regular guest), many remarkable individuals have spent nights under the Intercontinental roof.

But the 11 storied establishment has been more than just a hotel for international figures. Its place in the chronicles of Dhaka's history is well established too.

"Operation Hotel Intercontinental run by the Crack Platoon made this hotel a significant part of our history because that particular guerilla operation made the world aware of the abnormal situation of our country and how the Pakistani army was suppressing the news of the atrocities they had committed," recalled Sadeque.

The hotel management transitions through time

Since its inception, the Hotel Intercontinental has been owned by BSL (Bangladesh Services Limited) and was initially managed by the Inter-Continental Hotel Corporations, USA.

Sadeque shared that the hotel was the brainchild of Pan American Airways. After World War 2, the company realised that the airline crew needed comfortable places to stay in the airline's prime destinations. Consequently, the Intercontinental Hotel's journey began.

Furthermore, it was also built to meet the necessity for a five-star ambient hotel in then Dacca. Before the Intercontinental, the only high-standard hotel in Dhaka was called the Hotel Shahbagh, a three-star hotel with modern facilities. Later it was turned into a hospital, popularly known as the PG hospital, and BSMMU at present.

The 4.5-acre property on which Intercontinental stands was initially a part of Ramna park. The property was always owned by the state but the management has changed over time.

Interestingly, this five-star hotel evolved architecturally as well. Before the grand renovation in 2018, each room measured 20 to 25 square meters, which is far too small for a five-star establishment.

The hotel previously had 272 rooms, but the number was reduced to 220, each with a minimum area of 40 square meters.

"I have been working here for 16 years and I have seen the transition of the hotel from the Sheraton to Ruposhi Bangla and from Ruposhi Bangla to the Intercontinental. Currently, we have 226 rooms and among them, there are 25 suites," said Sadeque.

"From my long experience of working here, I can say we have upgraded ourselves in the right manner, not only from the architectural perspective but also with our services," Sadeque further explained.

Returning to history, from 1966 to 1983 the hotel was managed by the Inter-Continental Hotel group. Later in 1983, the hotel started its journey as Hotel Sheraton Dhaka, which was then managed by Starwood. They managed the hotel till the year 2011, which was the longest time period of management, comparatively.

For the next two years, the BSL managed the hotel by itself and changed the name to 'Ruposhi Bangla', which was chosen by the Prime Minister. Later, the hotel made a deal with the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), who started managing it in full swing from December 2018 as the InterContinental Dhaka.

The architectural evolution of the hotel

The architectural designs of this hotel reflect an Arab influence, which can be recognised through the arcs of its windows. These window designs are still preserved and a part of the hotel's identity.

Initially, it was designed by the world-famous hotel architect William B. Tabler who followed similar designs in each and every hotel he worked on.

The design needed a modern touch with a supreme dose of luxury, to match the standard of the IHG. Thus, a major renovation was underway, bringing noticeable changes to both the exterior and the interior. Notably, the glass dome of the hotel is the most eye-catching of all.

Moreover, you can see the majestic Persian designs with Bangladeshi floral-inspired patterns, here and there, when you walk around any part of the hotel. A minimalist touch with conceptual design is visible in the 'social cafe' as well.

Even around the open-air swimming pool on the second floor, there is a mesmerising reflection of Arabian and 'Deshi'-inspired architecture.

When asked about the person who redesigned the hotel, Sadeque replied that there was no specific architect this time. In fact, multiple firms were involved in the planning and design.

"Some designed the restaurant well and some designed the rooms well, hence we contracted multiple agencies to get the best of everything this time."

It is beyond a foregone conclusion that the Intercontinental has evolved with time. During its inception, it was the pioneer in luxury hotels in Bangladesh. While it holds a special place as a monument of historic significance, the luxury hotel will hopefully keep on innovating to compete with others in this business and to keep itself from becoming a relic of the past.

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History, luxury and rebirth: Hotel Intercontinental Dhakas evolution over 55 years - The Business Standard