Infographic: The Math Behind Social Distancing

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Source: Visual Capitalist

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Stir-fried Fish in Golden Cup

Ingredients

1 lb ground fish
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tbsp preserved radish, diced
2 tbsp coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
10 spring roll wrappers, 4-inch x 4-inch

Method

1. Pre-heat oven and roast pine nuts at 300°F until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
2. Increase oven temperature to 375°F.
3. Use a little oil to saute the preserved radish, set aside.
4. To make golden cup, place spring roll wrapper inside tart mould and press wrapper to form the shape of a cup. Bake in oven at 375°F for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from oven to cool.
5. Heat a wok at medium heat with 1 tbsp oil. Stir-fry the fish and use the spatula to press the fish into small pieces.
6. Add preserved radish, coriander and continue to stir-fry until the fish is cooked.
7. Add pine nuts and sesame oil. Toss to combine. Remove to the serving plate and serve with the golden cups.

Source: Cook It Easy

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Formula 1 Team Helps Build New UK Breathing Aid for Covid-19 Patients

Ian Sample wrote . . . . . . . . .

A breathing aid that was designed and built in less than a week to keep Covid-19 patients out of intensive care has been delivered to London hospitals for clinical trials.

The device delivers a steady stream of oxygen and air to patients who are struggling to breathe and can be used on standard wards, unlike ventilation, which requires patients to have an invasive procedure and sedation in an intensive care unit.

Such continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices, which are being used extensively in hospitals in Italy and China, bridge the gap between an oxygen mask and full ventilation. UK hospitals have the apparatus but it is in short supply.

Engineers from UCL and doctors at University College London hospital (UCLH) developed the device, which is claimed to be an improvement on existing Cpap systems, with Mercedes Formula One in less than 100 hours from first meeting to first production model. The device has been approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

“These devices will help to save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a limited resource, are used only for the most severely ill,” said Prof Mervyn Singer, a UCLH critical care consultant who worked on the design.

“While they will be tested at UCLH first, we hope they will make a real difference to hospitals across the UK by reducing demand on intensive care staff and beds, as well as helping patients recover without the need for more invasive ventilation.”

CPAP machines are used routinely in UK hospitals to support patients with breathing difficulties on wards or at home, but the equipment is in short supply. The devices use positive pressure to send a blend of air and oxygen into the mouth and hose at a steady rate, thereby boosting the amount of oxygen that enters the lungs.

The positive pressure means that when the patient breathes out, structures in the lung that exchange oxygen, the alveoli, stay open which aids oxygenation and makes breathing less effortful.

Tim Baker, an engineer on the UCL team, said: “Given the urgent need, we are thankful that we were able to reduce a process that could take years down to a matter of days.

“From being given the brief, we worked all hours of the day, disassembling and analysing an off-patent device. Using computer simulations, we improved the device further to create a state of the art version suited to mass production.”

Tim Cook, a professor of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine at the Royal United hospital Bath NHS foundation trust, said: “If the patient can stay on a Cpap machine they can stay on a ward looked after by specialised nurses rather than ICU nurses.

“A ward can probably look after 10 of these patients with two nurses and one doctor. Ten patients on ICU may need five or 10 nurses and three to four doctors. The cost and manpower needed on ICU is much, much greater, and ICU is a lot more complex and hazardous.”

Duncan Young, a professor of intensive care medicine at Oxford University, said the speed at which the device had been developed was “remarkable” but added that the use of Cpap machines in patients with contagious respiratory infections was controversial, as any small leaks around the mask could potentially spray droplets from patients’ airways on to clinical staff.

Singer said the risk of transmitting the virus through such droplets should be “very low” if care staff were wearing appropriate personal protective equipment.

Source : The Guardian

Sleep Inconsistency May Increase Risk of Cardiovascular Health

Jessica Sieff wrote . . . . . . . . .

Despite increasing awareness of how critical sleep is to our health, getting a good night’s rest remains increasingly difficult in a world that’s always “on” — responding to emails at all hours, news cycles that change with every tweet and staring endlessly into the blue light of cell phone, tablet and computers screens.

Scientists have stressed the importance of healthy sleep habits, recommending at least seven hours each night, and have linked lack of sleep to an increased risk in numerous health conditions, including diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

Now a new study shows whether or not you go to bed on time could also have an effect on your health. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame studied the correlation between bedtime regularity and resting heart rate (RHR) and found that individuals going to bed even 30 minutes later than their usual bedtime presented a significantly higher resting heart rate that lasted into the following day.

“We already know an increase in resting heart rate means an increased risk to cardiovascular health,” said Nitesh Chawla, the Frank M. Freimann professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame, director of the Center for Network and Data Science and a lead author of the study. “Through our study, we found that even if you get seven hours of sleep a night, if you’re not going to bed at the same time each night, not only does your resting heart rate increase while you sleep, it carries over into the next day.”

Chawla and his team analyzed data collected via Fitbit from 557 college students over the course of four years. They recorded 255,736 sleep sessions — measuring bedtimes, sleep and resting heart rate. Significant increases in RHR were observed when individuals went to bed anywhere between one and 30 minutes later than their normal bedtime. Normal bedtime was defined as the one-hour interval surrounding a person’s median bedtime. The later they went to bed, the higher the increase in RHR. Rates remained elevated into the following day.

Surprisingly, going to bed earlier than one’s standard bedtime also showed signs of increasing RHR, though it depended on just how early. Going to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual appeared to have little effect, while going to bed more than a half hour earlier significantly increased RHR. In cases of earlier bedtimes, however, RHR leveled out during the sleep session. Circadian rhythms, medications and lifestyle factors all come into play when it comes to healthy sleep habits, but Chawla said it’s vital to consider consistency as well.

“For some, it may be a matter of maintaining their regular ‘work week’ bedtime through the weekend,” said Chawla. “For shift workers and those who travel frequently, getting to bed at the same time each night is a challenge. Establishing a healthy bedtime routine — as best you can — is obviously step number one. But sticking to it is just as important.”

Source: University of Notre Dame

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