Immersive Virtual Reality: A Safe, Scalable, Non-opioid Analgesic for Military and Veteran Patients

In Iraq and Afghanistan over 75% of the combat casualties suffered by U.S. troops have involved explosive devices. Improvements in body armor and advances in military medicine have significantly reduced the number of combat-related fatalities, but have greatly increased the number of U.S. active component personnel suffering painful trauma injuries. Unfortunately, so far, advances in pharmacologic analgesia pain medications have not kept pace with advances in survivability. For many active component personnel and Veterans, pain is a top health complaint from patients. The opioid epidemic has increased the urgency of developing powerful non-pharmacologic approaches for the management of pain. Immersive VR is proving to be a powerful non-opioid pain management technique for acute pain. However, the cost and usability limitations of pre-2016 VR clinical products resulted in limited treatment adoption rates for clinical use. In recent years, VR technology has become increasingly immersive, portable, and miniaturized, requiring minimal technical expertise to operate, and low-cost, factors that are likely contributing to the recent increase in the clinical use of VR analgesia. VR is greatly benefitting from a growing string of major technological breakthroughs and VR treatment improvements that will likely continue to increase the effectiveness and suitability of VR analgesia for military and VA patients. Regarding acute pain, we propose that the next revision to the current Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines consider including VR as an effective and hemodynamically safe approach to the current management of acute trauma pain in military personnel during medical procedures. With recent miniaturization and ruggedization, VR can potentially be used closer to the battlefield in the future. Beyond distraction, innovative VR therapy techniques designed to help reduce chronic pain are discussed. Recent breakthroughs in the mass production of inexpensive, highly immersive lightweight stand alone VR systems and augmented reality systems increase the potential for widespread dissemination of VR analgesia for acute and potentially for chronic pain. For example, the U.S. military recently purchased 22 billion dollar’s worth of Microsoft Hololens mixed reality systems (e.g., for training). Expanded research and development of VR analgesia customized for the unique needs of military and VA patients is recommended.

WEAPONS AND ACCOUTREMENTS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 14th - EARLY 15th CENTURIES FROM THE PRINCIPALITY OF YELETS

Находки, полученные в ходе раскопок последних лет в окрестностях г. Ельца, позволяют охарактеризовать военный аспект Елецкого княжества. Широкое распространение предметов вооружения на памятниках в бассейне нижнего течения Быстрой Сосны во второй половине XIV - XV в. соотносится с появлением Елецкого княжества, политически и генеалогически связанного с Козельским княжеством. Обнаруженные находки вооружения профессиональных воинов (шпоры, доспех, кольчуга, удила, бронебойные наконечники стрел и др.) маркирует путь продвижения «кованных ратей» с Верховских княжеств на восток до Верхнего Дона. В воинской амуниции прослеживаются тюркские традиции. The finds made during recent excavations near the town of Yelets provide an opportunity to characterize military activities of the Principality of Yelets. Wide spread of weapons at the sites in the lower reaches of the Bystraya Sosna river dating to the second half of the 14th - 15th centuries is correlated with appearance of the Principality of Yelets which was politically and genealogically linked to the Principality of Kozelsk. Retrieved weapons and accoutrements belonging to professional warriors (spurs, a body armor, a coat of mail, bridle bits, armor piercing arrowheads, etc.) mark the routes of the ‘armored hosts' running from the Upper Oka Principalities to the east as far as the Upper Don River. The accoutrements were clearly made in Turkic traditions.

Chemosensory Exploitation and Predator-Prey Arms Races

Thousands of armed predatory species, distributed widely across the metazoan tree-of-life, consume only hard-shell or exoskeleton-bearing organisms (called “durophagy”). Prey armor clearly has evolved in response to selection by predators, but there is little evidence of the contrary, counter-adaptation by predators. Evolved consumer responses to prey, in general, might be more readily expressed in ways other than morphological traits, including via sensory cues. Here, we explored the chemosensory basis for durophagy in a model predator-prey system, and identified intimate associations between durophagous predators and their shelled prey. Barnacles (Balanus glandula and Semibalanus cariosus) bear hard shells and secrete, respectively, a 199 or 201 kDa glycoprotein ortholog (named “MULTIFUNCin”), with expression limited to the body armor (epidermis, cuticle, and live shell). To test for effects of MULTIFUNCin on predators, we constructed faux prey to mimic meaningful physical and chemical characteristics of live barnacles. In separate experiments, each consumer species was presented MULTIFUNCin, purified from either B. glandula or S. cariosus, at a typical armor concentration. All six predatory species (sea star, Pisaster ochraceus; whelks, Acanthinucella spirata, Nucella emarginata, N. ostrina, N. canaliculata, and N. lamellosa) attacked and ate MULTIFUNCin-infused faux prey significantly more than controls. Akin to barnacles, secretion of glycoprotein-rich extracellular matrices is common among armored prey species—from marine sponges to terrestrial vertebrates. Our results, therefore, suggest that chemosensory exploitation of glycoproteins could be widespread, with notable consequences for life on land and in the sea.

Living Fossils: Sturgeon of the San Francisco Estuary

Sturgeon are fish that are considered living fossils. Their ancestors date back over 200 million years, to the same time as dinosaurs. These fish can grow taller than humans (over 2 m), weigh over 160 kg, and live as long as humans. Sturgeon species have special adaptations, such as a vacuum-like mouth and body armor called scutes. There are 27 species of sturgeon worldwide. Two species, green and white sturgeon, are native to California, USA, and are some of the largest animals in San Francisco Bay. Sturgeon populations have declined due to habitat loss, water management, overfishing, poaching, pollution, and climate change. Sturgeon cannot jump over barriers like salmon can, so structures like dams that block water also block sturgeon from reaching their natural spawning habitat farther upstream in the river. Scientists are using new technologies to monitor sturgeon populations and discover the unique behaviors of these dinosaur-era fish in California’s rivers and estuaries.

Imaging dragons in the Old Testament: Were Leviathan and Behemoth Mesozoic monsters?

ABSTRACT For much of the nineteenth century, the majority of respected stratigraphers were serial creationists who read the rocks as recording successive extinctions followed by new creations, a process that generated progress in vertebrate structure. Beginning after World War I, Leviathan and Behemoth were cited by Young Earth Creationists—a minority among anti-Darwinians—as Mesozoic species observed by humans. This view spread rapidly after World War II. However, the anatomy and behavior of these beings, as portrayed in Ugaritic and Hebrew literature, leads to a firmer identification. The Leviathan of Job has powerful jaws armed with great teeth; skull armor renders hooks impotent; body armor of scales set so close together that they repel spears; water is thrashed into foam by twisting death rolls; this is altogether an accurate rendition of the Nile Crocodile. The Behemoth is a young, adult male African Elephant distinguished by grass-eating habits and an enormous, uncontrolled male organ: “tail like a cedar tree.”