On April 1, 2020, the confirmed global burden of COVID-19 was more than 900,000 with 46,413 deaths. Despite worldwide calls for social distancing and containment, the incidence of the disease continues to increase. COVID-19 is a respiratory tract infection caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2). Preliminary analyses from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicated an overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 2.3%; however the CFR was higher in older adults (14.8% in those 80± years) and 49% of all critical cases. Those with preexisting conditions (cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, hypertension, and cancer) also had higher CRFs. In the United States, 116 million adults have hypertension, 26 million US adults have diabetes mellitus, 9% have preexisting CVD and may therefore be at greater risk of complications or adverse health outcomes from COVID-19 infection.Background – Atrial fibrillation (AF) adversely impacts health-related quality of life (hrQoL). While some patients demonstrate improvements in hrQoL, the factors associated with large improvements in hrQoL are not well described. Methods – We assessed factors associated with a 1-year increase in AFEQT of 1 standard deviation (≥18 points; 3x clinically important difference), among outpatients in the ORBIT-AF I registry. Results – Overall, 28% (181/636) of patients had such a hrQoL improvement. Compared with patients not showing large hrQoL improvement, they were of similar age (median 73 vs. 74, p=0.3), equally likely to be female (44% vs. 48%, p=0.3), but more likely to have newly-diagnosed AF at baseline (18% vs. 8%; p=0.0004), prior antiarrhythmic drug use (52% vs. 40%, 0.005), baseline antiarrhythmic drug use (34.8% vs, 26.8%, p=0.045), and more likely to undergo AF-related procedures during follow-up (AF ablation 6.6% vs. 2.0%, p=0.003; cardioversion12.2% vs. 5.9% p=0.008). In multivariable analysis, a history of alcohol abuse (adjusted OR 2.41, p=0.01) and increased baseline diastolic BP (adjusted OR 1.23 per 10-point increase and >65 mm Hg, p=0.04) were associated with large improvements in hrQoL at 1 year, whereas patients with prior stroke/TIA, COPD, and PAD were less likely to improve (p less then 0.05 for each). Conclusions – In this national registry of AF patients, potentially treatable AF risk factors are associated with large hrQoL improvement, whereas less reversible conditions appeared negatively associated with hrQoL improvement. Understanding which patients are most likely to have large hrQoL improvement may facilitate targeting interventions for high-value care that optimizes patient reported outcomes in AF. Clinical Trial Registration – clinicaltrials.gov.; Unique Identifier NCT01165710.CONTEXT The National Collegiate Athletic Association and U.S. Department of Defense have called for educational programs to change the culture of concussion reporting, increase reporting behavior, and enhance the safety of players. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of a novel peer concussion-education program (PCEP) in changing knowledge, attitudes, and norms about concussion reporting among collegiate student-athletes and assess program implementation. selleck chemicals DESIGN Randomized controlled trial and qualitative analysis of interviews. SETTING National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic teams from randomly selected colleges or universities. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 1614 male and female student-athletes from 60 teams at 10 colleges and universities and 8 athletic trainers. INTERVENTION(S) The PCEP intervention trains 2 peer concussion educators to provide 2 education modules to their teammates. Knowledge, attitudes (oneself and teammates), and concussion occurrence or reporting were assessed at b,1396 = 6.62, P less then .001). Qualitative program analysis revealed both positive aspects of the PCEP and areas for improvement. CONCLUSIONS The PCEP showed promise in increasing concussion knowledge, intention to report concussion, reporting a teammate’s concussion, and facilitating attitudinal changes that support reporting among student-athletes.The purpose of this article is to explore how the social work discipline could provide a complementary lens through which yoga therapy can be analyzed and evaluated by engaging in knowledge-creation practices and procedures that prioritize the “epistemic responsibility” described by philosopher Lorraine Code. More specifically, by seeking to strategically include often-subjugated types of knowledge and by focusing on redistributing epistemic power to agents that typically have been excluded from epistemic participation in contemporary yoga therapy research, the social work discipline, with its strong commitment to social justice, has the potential to contribute to filling an important gap in scientific literature. We begin by presenting the relevance of the social work perspective in relation to the field of yoga therapy. We next offer a reserved critical analysis of the dominant technical knowledge base that currently informs yoga therapy practice. This analysis highlights the social parameters that may be rendered invisible or left aside when adopting a positivist epistemological lens and justifies how the conceptual apparatus of epistemic responsibility serves as a potential platform for rethinking social work’s position and future contributions to the field of yoga therapy. Finally, we mobilize the concept of cultural appropriation to illustrate how striving for epistemic responsibility provides an entry point for addressing the multilevel, complex social processes embedded in yoga therapy practice and research while aiming to capture the many voices-and hence the various truths-implicated in a democratic, reflexive, and inclusive research process.CONTEXT.— Automated analyzers have advanced the field of clinical hematology, mandating updated complete blood count (CBC) reference intervals (RIs) to be clinically useful. Contemporary newborn CBC RI publications are mostly retrospective, which some authors have cited as one of their cardinal limitations and recommended future prospective studies. OBJECTIVE.— To prospectively establish accurate hematologic RIs for normal healthy term newborns at 24 hours of life given the limitations of the current medical literature. DESIGN.— This prospective study was conducted at an academic tertiary care center, and hematology samples were collected from 120 participants deemed to be normal healthy term newborns. Distributions were assessed for normality and tested for outliers. Reference intervals were values between the 2.5th percentile and 97.5th percentile. RESULTS.— The novel RIs obtained for this study population are as follows absolute immature granulocyte count, 80/μL to 1700/μL; immature granulocyte percentage, 0.