A contact binary satellite of the asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh.

Asteroids with diameters less than about 5 km have complex histories because they are small enough for radiative torques (that is, YORP, short for the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack effect)1 to be a notable factor in their evolution2. (152830) Dinkinesh is a small asteroid orbiting the Sun near the inner edge of the main asteroid belt with a heliocentric semimajor axis of 2.19 AU; its S-type spectrum3,4 is typical of bodies in this part of the main belt5. Here we report observations by the Lucy spacecraft6,7 as it passed within 431 km of Dinkinesh. Lucy revealed Dinkinesh, which has an effective diameter of only 720 m, to be unexpectedly complex. Of particular note is the presence of a prominent longitudinal trough overlain by a substantial equatorial ridge and the discovery of the first confirmed contact binary satellite, now named (152830) Dinkinesh I Selam. Selam consists of two near-equal-sized lobes with diameters of 210 m and 230 m. It orbits Dinkinesh at a distance of 3.1 km with an orbital period of about 52.7 h and is tidally locked. The dynamical state, angular momentum and geomorphologic observations of the system lead us to infer that the ridge and trough of Dinkinesh are probably the result of mass failure resulting from spin-up by YORP followed by the partial reaccretion of the shed material. Selam probably accreted from material shed by this event.

COVID-19 transmission in a resource dependent community with heterogeneous populations: An agent-based modeling approach.

Outbreaks of COVID-19 in crowded work locations led to mass infection events during the pandemic that stressed health capacity in rural communities. This led to disparate responses - either isolating and restricting workers to facilities and potentially amplifying spread between them, more intense community wide restrictions, or an acceptance of higher disease spread. An extreme case is the salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska, where fishermen, factory workers, and residents all interact during the summer fishing season. During the pandemic, policy measures were debated, including community mask mandates, restricting workers to their boats and factories, and even closing the valuable seasonal fishery. We develop an agent-based SIR model (ABM) to examine COVID-19 transmission in a resource-dependent community populated by distinct subgroups. The model includes a virus spreading within and between three heterogenous populations who interact with other members of their type in their home location, and with different types of agents when out in the community. We simulate various non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination rates across these groups. Results demonstrate the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccinations, as well as tradeoffs between duration and intensity and tradeoffs between groups impacted by the outbreak. This ABM demonstrates the impact of public policy mechanisms on health outcomes in resource-dependent communities with distinct populations.

Outdoor Activity Associated with Higher Self-Reported Emotional Well-Being During COVID-19.

Shifts in activity patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic might have impacted the benefits of outdoor activities for mental health. By leveraging an existing mobile application, we collected self-reported data on daily outdoor activities, emotional well-being, and the influence of COVID-19 on participant's outdoor activity levels during April-July 2020. Individuals reporting outdoor activities, in greenspaces or in their residence, had higher well-being scores and this effect increased with age. Self-reported impacts of COVID-19 on emotional well-being were associated with lower well-being scores. This work suggests that outdoor activities may have improved mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assessing the Sampleability of Bennu's Surface for the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission.

NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, collected a sample from the surface of near-Earth asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and will deliver it to Earth in September 2023. Selecting a sample collection site on Bennu's surface was challenging due to the surprising lack of large ponded deposits of regolith particles exclusively fine enough ( ≤ 2 cm diameter) to be ingested by the spacecraft's Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM). Here we describe the Sampleability Map of Bennu, which was constructed to aid in the selection of candidate sampling sites and to estimate the probability of collecting sufficient sample. "Sampleability" is a numeric score that expresses the compatibility of a given area's surface properties with the sampling mechanism. The algorithm that determines sampleability is a best fit functional form to an extensive suite of laboratory testing outcomes tracking the TAGSAM performance as a function of four observable properties of the target asteroid. The algorithm and testing were designed to measure and subsequently predict TAGSAM collection amounts as a function of the minimum particle size, maximum particle size, particle size frequency distribution, and the tilt of the TAGSAM head off the surface. The sampleability algorithm operated at two general scales, consistent with the resolution and coverage of data collected during the mission. The first scale was global and evaluated nearly the full surface. Due to Bennu's unexpected boulder coverage and lack of ponded regolith deposits, the global sampleability efforts relied heavily on additional strategies to find and characterize regions of interest based on quantifying and avoiding areas heavily covered by material too large to be collected. The second scale was site-specific and used higher-resolution data to predict collected mass at a given contact location. The rigorous sampleability assessments gave the mission confidence to select the best possible sample collection site and directly enabled successful collection of hundreds of grams of material.

Eliciting and Characterizing Porcine Vocalizations: When Pigs Fly.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: While voice-related therapeutic interventions are often researched preclinically in the porcine model, there are no well-established methods to induce porcine glottic phonation. Described approaches, such as training animals to phonate for positive reinforcement are time-consuming and plagued by inherent variability in the type of phonation produced and contamination of background noise. Thus, a reliable method of assessing glottic phonation in the porcine model is needed. METHODS: In this study, we have created a novel pulley-based apparatus with harness for "pig-lifting" with surrounding acoustic insulation and high-directional microphone with digital recorder for recording phonation. Praat and Matlab were used to analyze all porcine vocalizations for fundamental frequency (F0), intensity, duration of phonation and cepstral peak prominence (CPP). Glottic phonation was detected using F0 (≥2000 hz), duration (≥3 seconds) and researcher perceptual judgment. Partial-glottic phonations were also analyzed. Reliability between researcher judgment and acoustic measures for glottic phonation detection was high. RESULTS: Acoustic analysis demonstrated that glottic and partial-glottic phonation was consistently elicited, with no formal training of the minipigs required. Glottic vocalizations increased with multiple lifts. Glottic phonation continued to be elicited after multiple days but became less frequent. Glottic and partial-glottic phonations had similar CPP values over the 6 experimental days. CONCLUSION: Our cost-effective, reliable method of inducing and recording glottic phonation in the porcine model may provide a cost effective, preclinical tool in voice research.

Investing to Both Prevent and Prepare for COVID-XX.

One cause of the high rate of COVID-19 cases in the USA is thought to be insufficient prior capital investment in national health programs to preemptively reduce the likelihood of an outbreak and in national capacity to reduce the severity of any outbreak that does occur. We analyze the choice of capital investments (e.g. testing capacity, stockpiles of PPE, and information sharing capacity) and find the economically efficient capital stock associated with mitigating pandemic risk should be dramatically expanded. Policymakers who fail to invest in public health forgo significant expected cost savings from being prepared.

Temporomandibular joint findings in CBCT images: A retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate radiological characteristics of the temporomandibular joint. METHODS: Retrospective study of images of 20-80 year-old patients. Two independent clinicians analyzed the images, and a radiological score was obtained, considering sclerosis, osteophites, cysts, and erosion. RESULTS: Seventy eight percent of the joints belonged to females. The main complaints were pain and headache (54.5%) and reduced motion (21.2%). The most common diagnoses were disc dislocation with reduction (35.9%), myofascial pain (20.7%), and osteoarthritis (15.2%). The majority of the joints (96.5%) showed degeneration, with an average radiological score of 3.86 ± 1.47 (0-8). Non-parametric tests showed that females had significantly higher radiological scores (p = 0.014), and TMD-joint patients had higher scores than TMD-muscle patients (p = 0.013). No statistically significant association between radiological scores and chief complaint. CONCLUSION: There were differences among the radiological findings between genders and joint/ muscle TMD, as well as across diagnoses, as expected.

Conditional Recommendations for Specific Dietary Ingredients as an Approach to Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Evidence-Based Decision Aid for Health Care Providers, Participants, and Policy Makers.

OBJECTIVE: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons; although such use has become popular for a wide range of pain conditions, decisions to use supplements are often driven by information that is not evidence-based. This work evaluates whether the current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain provides sufficient evidence to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel. METHODS: A steering committee convened to develop research questions and factors required for decision-making. Key databases were searched through August 2016. Eligible systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials were assessed for methodological quality. Meta-analysis was applied where feasible. GRADE was used to determine confidence in the effect estimates. A decision table was constructed to make evidence-informed judgments across factors required for decision-making, and recommendations were made for practice and self-care use. RESULTS: Nineteen dietary ingredients were included. Conditional evidence-based recommendations were made for the use of avocado soybean unsaponifiables, capsaicin, curcuma, ginger, glucosamine, melatonin, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and vitamin D. In these cases, desirable effects outweighed undesirable effects, but there was uncertainty about the trade-offs, either because the evidence was low quality or because benefits and downsides were closely balanced. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence showed that certain dietary ingredients, when taken as part of a balanced diet and/or as a supplement (e.g., pill, tablet, capsule, cream), may alleviate musculoskeletal pain with no to minimal risk of harm. This finding emphasizes and reinforces the critical importance of shared decision-making between Operators and their health care providers.

Dietary Ingredients as an Alternative Approach for Mitigating Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: Evidence-Based Recommendations for Practice and Research in the Military.

OBJECTIVE: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons, including pain and related outcomes. This work evaluates current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel. METHODS: A steering committee convened to develop research questions and factors required for decision-making. Key databases were searched through August 2016. Eligible systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials were assessed for methodological quality. Meta-analysis was applied where feasible. GRADE was used to determine confidence in the effect estimates. The committee made evidence-informed judgments and recommendations for practice and self-care use. RESULTS: Nineteen eligible dietary ingredients were assessed for quality, efficacy, and safety. Avocado soybean unsaponifiables, capsaicin, curcuma, ginger (as a food source), glucosamine, melatonin, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and vitamin D were conditionally recommended as their benefits outweighed risks, but there was still some uncertainty about the trade-offs. No recommendations were made for boswellia, ginger (as a dietary supplement), rose hip, or s-adenosyl-L-methionine. Recommendations were made against the use of collagen, creatine, devil's claw, l-carnitine, methylsulfonylmethane, pycnogenol, willow bark extract, and vitamin E. Research priorities were developed to address gaps precluding stronger recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: Currently the scientific evidence is insufficiently robust to establish definitive clinical practice guidelines, but processes could be established to track the impact of these ingredients. Until then, providers have the evidence needed to make informed decisions about the safe use of these dietary ingredients, and future research can address existing gaps.

Dietary Ingredients Requiring Further Research Before Evidence-Based Recommendations Can Be Made for Their Use as an Approach to Mitigating Pain.

OBJECTIVE: Approximately 55-76% of Service members use dietary supplements for various reasons; although such use has become popular, decisions are often driven by information that is not evidence-based. This work evaluates whether current research on dietary ingredients for chronic musculoskeletal pain provides sufficient evidence to inform decisions for practice and self-care, specifically for Special Operations Forces personnel. METHODS: A steering committee convened to develop research questions and factors required for decision-making. Key databases were searched through August 2016. Eligible systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials were assessed for methodological quality. Meta-analysis was applied where feasible. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation was used to determine confidence in the effect estimates. The committee used a decision table to make evidence-informed judgments across decision-making factors and recommendations for practice and self-care use. RESULTS: Nineteen dietary ingredients were assessed. No recommendations were given for boswellia, ginger, rose hip, or s-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe); specifically, although ginger can be obtained via food, no recommendation is provided for use as a supplement due to unclear research. Further, there were insufficient strong research on boswellia and SAMe and possible compliance issues (i.e., high number of capsules required daily) associated with rose hip. CONCLUSIONS: No recommendations were made when the evidence was low quality or trade-offs were so closely balanced that any recommendation would be too speculative. Research recommendations are provided to enhance the quality and body of evidence for the most promising ingredients. Clinicians and those with chronic pain can rely on evidence-based recommendations to inform their decisions.

Measuring Special Operations Forces Readiness.

Special Operations Force (SOF) Operators, spouses, and component representatives were asked to describe what readiness looks like to them and what is needed to achieve it. Their views informed a broad and deep dive into the academic and gray literature for believable measures relevant to operational readiness. This commentary is a synthesis of that work and provides recommendations for ways to improve "readying" strategies, practices, and outcomes to better achieve human- based mission performance. The key modifiers of Operator readiness are family, SOF culture and leadership, and time. Recommendations are to measure SOF mission performance to define premission Operator readiness; conceptualize mission readiness in terms of assets and not just deficits; combine experiential wisdom with that gained from the study of in-mission performance and premission readiness data; establish SOF phenotypes for use by all components; address emerging fields (doping, sleep, mental toughness, spiritual readiness, moral injury); and develop a simple readiness index.

The allocation of time and risk of Lyme: A case of ecosystem service income and substitution effects.

Forests are often touted for their ecosystem services, including outdoor recreation. Historically forests were a source of danger and were avoided. Forests continue to be reservoirs for infectious diseases and their vectors - a disservice. We examine how this disservice undermines the potential recreational services by measuring the human response to environmental risk using exogenous variation in the risk of contracting Lyme Disease. We find evidence that individuals substitute away from spending time outdoors when there is greater risk of Lyme Disease infection. Individuals facing a higher risk of infection substitute away from outdoor leisure. On average individuals spent 1.54 fewer minutes outdoors at the average, 72 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), confirmed cases of Lyme Disease. We estimate lost outdoor recreation of 9.41 hours per year per person in an average county in the North Eastern United States and an aggregate welfare loss on the order $2.8 billion to $5.0 billion per year.

The Economic Case for a Pandemic Fund.

The rapid urban spread of Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014 and consequent breakdown of control measures led to a significant economic impact as well as the burden on public health and wellbeing. The US government appropriated $5.4 Billion for FY2015 and WHO proposed a $100 Million emergency fund largely to curtail the threat of future outbreaks. Using epidemiological analyses and economic modeling, we propose that the best use of these and similar funds would be to serve as global insurance against the continued threat of emerging infectious diseases. An effective strategy would involve the initial investment in strengthening mobile and adaptable capacity to deal with the threat and reality of disease emergence, coupled with repeated investment to maintain what is effectively a 'national guard' for pandemic prevention and response. This investment would create a capital stock that could also provide access to safe treatment during and between crises in developing countries, lowering risk to developed countries.

Managing Wildlife Faced with Pathogen Risks Involving Multi-Stable Outcomes.

Most models designed to understand how to manage infected wildlife systems with bioeconomic multi-stability take the initial conditions as given, thereby treating pathogen invasion as unanticipated. We examine how ex ante management is an opportunity to influence the ex post conditions, which in turn affect the ex post optimal outcome. To capture these ex ante management choices, we extend the Poisson "collapse" model of Reed and Heras (Bull Math Biol 54:185-207, 1992) to allow for endogenous initial conditions and ex post multi-stability. We account for two uncertain processes: the introduction and establishment of the pathogen. Introduction is conditional on anthropogenic investments in prevention, and both random processes are conditional on how we manage the native population to provide natural prevention of invasion and natural insurance against establishment placing the system in an undesirable basin of attraction. We find that both multi-stability of the invaded system and these uncertainty processes can create economic non-convexities that yield multiple candidate solutions to the ex ante optimization problem. Additionally, we illustrate how the nature of natural protection against introduction and establishment risks can play an important role in the allocation of anthropogenic investments.

Linking Time-Use Data to Explore Health Outcomes: Choosing to Vaccinate Against Influenza.

To inform public health and medical decision makers concerning vaccination interventions, a methodology for merging and analyzing detailed activity data and health outcomes is presented. The objective is to investigate relationships between individual's activity choices and their decision to receive an influenza vaccination. Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) are used to predict vaccination rates in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data between 2003 and 2013 by using combined socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The correlations between the extensive (do or not do) and intensive (how much) decisions to perform activities and influenza vaccination are further explored. Significant positive and negative correlations were found between several activities and vaccination. For some activities, the sign of the correlation flips when considering either the intensive or the extensive decision. This flip occurs with highly studied activities, like smoking. Correlations between activities and vaccination can provide an additional metric for targeting those least likely to vaccinate. The methodology outlined in this paper can be replicated to explore correlation among actions and other health outcomes.

Phytochemicals to optimize cognitive function for military mission-readiness: a systematic review and recommendations for the field.

Context: Optimizing cognitive performance and preventing cognitive impairments that result from exposure to high-stress situations are important to ensure mission-readiness for military personnel. Objective: This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence for plant-based foods and beverages, or their phytochemical constituents, across various outcomes related to cognitive function in healthy adult populations to develop research recommendations for the military. Data Sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane Library were searched. Study Selection: Peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials published in the English language were eligible. Data Extraction: Twenty-five trials were included and assessed for methodological quality, and descriptive data were extracted. Data Synthesis: The acceptable (n = 16) to high-quality (n = 4) studies produced either no statistically significant effect or mixed results for enhancing cognitive function. Conclusions: The evidence suggested that healthy populations do not experience significant changes in cognitive performance when consuming soy- and non-soy-sourced isoflavones or cocoa. Heterogeneity among other interventions precluded reaching formal conclusions surrounding the evidence. Research recommendations are offered, including conducting more studies on the effect of plant-based interventions on populations reflective of military populations when exposed to military-like situations.

Caffeine to optimize cognitive function for military mission-readiness: a systematic review and recommendations for the field.

Context: In 2001 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report on the use of caffeine during sustained military operations in which recommendations for research and practice were made. Objective: This systematic review serves as an update on the current quality of the evidence and addresses gaps in the current literature surrounding the effects of caffeinated foods and beverages on cognitive functioning in healthy adult populations exposed to military-like moderators. Data Sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane Library were searched. Study Selection: Peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials published in the English language since 1998 were eligible. Data Extraction: Twenty-five trials were included and assessed for methodological quality, and descriptive data were extracted according to each military-like moderator identified. Data Synthesis: Moderators included sleep deprivation (n = 17), physical or mental exertion (n = 4), sleep deprivation combined with a sustained military operation (n = 3), and physical exertion combined with low ambient temperature (n = 1). Conclusions: The effects of caffeine supplementation on cognitive functioning in sleep-deprived subjects included improvements in attention and vigilance, complex reaction time, and problem solving and reasoning in the trials reviewed. These findings are consistent with the conclusions reached in the 2001 IOM report. This review contributes to the field by addressing gaps outlined in the IOM report.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids to optimize cognitive function for military mission-readiness: a systematic review and recommendations for the field.

Context: There has been interest in identifying whether nutrients might help optimize cognitive performance, especially for the military tasked with ensuring mission-readiness. Objective: This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence for n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) across various outcomes related to cognitive function in healthy adult populations in order to develop research recommendations concerning n-3 PUFAs for mission-readiness. Data Sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane Library were searched. Study Selection: Peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials published in the English language were eligible. Data Extraction: Thirteen included trials were assessed for methodological quality, and descriptive data were extracted. Data Synthesis: Of the acceptable-quality (n = 8) and high-quality (n = 1) studies, 2 produced no statistically significant results, 5 produced mixed results, and 2 did not report between-group results. Conclusions: Results indicate that ingestion of n-3 PUFAs does not significantly alter cognitive performance in cognitively healthy persons. Studies exposing subjects to adverse circumstances that would be most relevant for drawing conclusions specifically for the military population are lacking. Several research recommendations are offered to enhance understanding of the role of fatty acids on cognitive functioning.

Whole dietary patterns to optimize cognitive function for military mission-readiness: a systematic review and recommendations for the field.

Context: Optimizing cognitive performance, particularly during times of high stress, is a prerequisite to mission-readiness among military personnel. It has been of interest to determine whether such performance could be enhanced through diet. Objective: This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence for whole dietary patterns across various outcomes related to cognitive function in healthy adult populations to develop research recommendations for the military. Data Sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane Library were searched. Study Selection: Peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials published in the English language were eligible. Data Extraction: Fifteen included trials were assessed for methodological quality, and descriptive data were extracted. Data Synthesis: Of the 6 acceptable-quality studies, 1 demonstrated statistically nonsignificant results, whereas the other 5 showed conflicting results across the cognitive outcomes assessed. Conclusions: Due to the heterogeneity across the included studies, no recommendations could be reached concerning whether certain whole dietary patterns have an effect on cognitive outcomes in healthy populations. Specific recommendations for future research are offered.