From FiveThirtyEight.com (April 13, 2020):
Daily Archives: April 14, 2020
Health Study: Physical Therapy Superior To Steroid Injection For Knee Osteoarthritis
Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who underwent physical therapy had less pain and functional disability at 1 year than patients who received an intraarticular glucocorticoid injection.
Osteoarthritis of the knee is a leading cause of disability.1 Current management is typically limited to the treatment of symptoms until late stages of arthritis lead to knee replacement.2 Intraarticular glucocorticoid injections are commonly used as a primary treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee,3 but there are conflicting reports regarding the extent and duration of the relief of symptoms with this therapy.4-6 Complications from these injections occur infrequently but include joint infection,7 accelerated degradation of articular cartilage,8 and subchondral insufficiency fractures.9
PHYSICAL THERAPY
The physical therapy intervention, which is described in the protocol,26 included instructions and images for exercises, joint mobilizations, and the clinical reasoning underlying the priorities, dosing, and progression of treatment. During a typical clinical session, the physical therapist would implement hands-on, manual techniques immediately before the patient performed reinforcing exercises to help the patient perform the movements with little or no pain. For example, if a patient could not fully extend or flex the knee, or those movements were painful, the physical therapist would use a hands-on, passive mobilizing technique to repeatedly move the knee to reduce stiffness while altering the mechanics of the technique to avoid pain. The patient would then perform repeated active knee movements in the same direction.
Travel & Culture Books: “Mykonos Muse” In The Greek Islands (Assouline)
With such names as ‘Paradise’ and ‘Super Paradise,’ the sands of these shores have captured the imaginations and hearts of industry titans, artists, and party-goers alike from all around the globe, marking it as a stable cosmopolitan destination and as a paramount it haven on the jet-set circuit.
Located in the Cyclades and surrounded by the blue-green water of the Aegean sits whitewashed, windmill-strewn Mykonos, the island of the winds. This ancient island and those surrounding it, mythologized as the bodies of gods felled by Hercules in the time of antiquity, are older than legend and have played host to countless cultures for more than millennia. At forty-square-miles and boasting a population of only ten-thousand, the ‘Ibiza of Greece’ has become prized for gorgeous architecture, welcoming and open-minded locals, and fantastic beaches.
This book chronicles the culture and society that has defined Mykonos over the past century—from its days as a hideout for such luminaries and elites as Le Corbusier and Antonis Benakis, to its moment as a sanctuary for the gay community,to its predominant party scene—all the while indulging the reader with the ruins and myths hidden there.
Lizy Manola is a Greek photographer. A freelancer, her focus is on documentary photography. For more than fifteen years, she has traveled and shot in distant places, where culture and everyday life preserve their natural authenticity. She has published two books with Assouline, Certain Realities and Ethiopian Highlands. Her work has featured in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and worldwide. She lives and works in Athens and New York. Thirty years ago, she bought a house on Mykonos; she has spent endless summers holidays on the island ever since.
Medical: Diagnosis And Treatment Of “Parkinson’s Disease” (JAMA Podcast)
More than 6 million people worldwide have Parkinson disease. Even though it is classically associated with tremors, the disease has many manifestations and is very treatable for most patients.
Michael S. Okun, MD, from the Department of Neurology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, discusses the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of Parkinson disease.
Travel: Streets Of Paris Under Quarantine – April 2020 (New Yorker Videos)
Scenes from a day of weirdness in quarantine in Paris, France as Parisians socially distance to avoid spreading the coronavirus. The city’s landmarks and streets appear eerily empty while residents have taken shelter at home to curb the outbreak of COVID-19.
FINE ARTS: 4K VIDEO TOUR – THE VAN GOGH MUSEUM “COLOR IN WHEAT FIELDS”
The Wheat Fields is a series of dozens of paintings by Vincent van Gogh, borne out of his religious studies and sermons, connection to nature, appreciation of manual laborers and desire to provide a means of offering comfort to others. The wheat field works demonstrate his progression as an artist from the drab Wheat Sheaves made in 1885 in the Netherlands to the colorful, dramatic paintings from Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise of rural France.
Coronavirus/Covid-19: “Face Shields” Are Best In Preventing Transmission Says Epidemiologist
From web post by Michael B. Edmond (April 11, 2020):
Our goal should be to have a face shield for every person in the country. It should be worn anytime a person leaves their home, while in any public place, and even at work. From news reports, it appears that face shields are already being more commonly worn in other nations, particularly in some Asian countries.
The advantages of face shields are their durability allowing them to be worn an indefinite number of times, the ability to easily clean them after use, their comfort, and they prevent the wearer from touching their face. Importantly, they cover all the portals of entry for this virus–the eyes, the nose, and the mouth. Moreover, the supply chain is significantly more diversified than that of face masks, so availability is much greater.
Some are critical of any strategy that isn’t perfect. But let’s think about the influenza vaccine. Although the effectiveness varies from year to year, on average it’s 40%. We push this vaccine hard in the hospital and in the community. Could we expect that face shields are at least 40% effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19? I think so. Universal shielding would bend the curve more quickly and accelerate the ability to reduce social distancing and restrictions on movement.
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Face shields are a simple solution that if implemented universally would have a major impact on public health. Until we have a vaccine, this may be our best intervention for preventing transmission in the community.
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Michael B. Edmond, MD, MPH, MPA, MBA is the Chief Quality Officer and Associate Chief Medical Officer for University of Iowa Health Care and Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He previously served as the Richard P. Wenzel Professor of Internal Medicine, Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and Hospital Epidemiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Art History: “Emotional Expression” In Artwork Of Venetian Painter “Titian” (National Gallery Video)
The way Titian painted was unlike other artists of his day. With little in the way of preliminary drawings, Titian worked very freely straight onto the canvas. Watch artist Andy Pankhurst show us how Titian would have worked.
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, ‘from Cadore’, taken from his native region.
Classic Autos: The “1966 Amphicar Amphibious Car”
The Amphicar Model 770 is an amphibious automobile, launched at the 1961 New York Auto Show, manufactured in West Germany and marketed from 1961 to 1968. Production stopped in 1965.
Designed by Hans Trippel, the amphibious vehicle was manufactured by the Quandt Group at Lübeck and at Berlin-Borsigwalde, with a total of 3,878 manufactured in a single generation.
A descendant of the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen,[4] the Amphicar offered only modest performance compared to most contemporary boats or cars, featured navigation lights and flag as mandated by the US Coast Guard — and after operation in water, required greasing at 13 points, one of which required removal of the rear seat.
Boomers Daily 