Determining the role of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in the death of domestic pets: 10 cases (2020-2021).

OBJECTIVE: To establish a pathoepidemiological model to evaluate the role of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first 10 companion animals that died while infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the US. ANIMALS: 10 cats and dogs that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and died or were euthanized in the US between March 2020 and January 2021. PROCEDURES: A standardized algorithm was developed to direct case investigations, determine the necessity of certain diagnostic procedures, and evaluate the role, if any, that SARS-CoV-2 infection played in the animals' course of disease and death. Using clinical and diagnostic information collected by state animal health officials, state public health veterinarians, and other state and local partners, this algorithm was applied to each animal case. RESULTS: SARS-CoV-2 was an incidental finding in 8 animals, was suspected to have contributed to the severity of clinical signs leading to euthanasia in 1 dog, and was the primary reason for death for 1 cat. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This report provides the global community with a standardized process for directing case investigations, determining the necessity of certain diagnostic procedures, and determining the clinical significance of SARS-CoV-2 infections in animals with fatal outcomes and provides evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can, in rare circumstances, cause or contribute to death in pets.

The Joyful Life: An Existential-Humanistic Approach to Positive Psychology in the Time of a Pandemic.

In the midst of a global pandemic, psychology has a duty to identify dispositional or character traits that can be cultivated in citizens in order to create resiliency in the face of profound losses, suffering and distress. Dispositional joy holds some promise as such a trait that could be especially important for well-being during the current pandemic and its consequences. The concept of the Joyful Life may operate as bridge between positive psychology and humanistic, existential, and spiritual views of the good life, by integrating hedonic, prudential, eudaimonic and chaironic visions of the good life. Previous phenomenological research on state joy suggests that momentary states of joy may have features that overlap with happiness but go beyond mere hedonic interests, and point to the experience of a life oriented toward virtue and a sense of the transcendent or the sacred. However, qualitative research on the Joyful Life, or dispositional joy, is sorely lacking. This study utilized a dialogical phenomenological analysis to conduct a group-based analysis of 17 volunteer students, who produced 51 autobiographical narrative descriptions of the joyful life. The dialogical analyses were assisted by integration of the Imagery in Movement Method, which incorporated expressive drawing and psychodrama as an aid to explicate implicit themes in the experiences of the participants. The analyses yielded ten invariant themes found across the autobiographical narrative descriptions: Being broken, being grounded, being centered, breaking open, being uplifted, being supertemporal, being open to the mystery, being grateful, opening up and out, and being together. The descriptions of a Joyful Life were consistent with a meaning orientation to happiness, due to their emphasis on the cultivation of virtue in the service of a higher calling, the realization of which was felt to be a gift or blessing. The discussion examines implications for future research, including the current relevance of a joyful disposition during a global pandemic. Due to the joyful disposition's tendency to transform suffering and tragedy into meaning, and its theme of an orientation to prosocial motivations, the Joyful Life may occupy a central place in the study of resiliency and personal growth in response to personal and collective trauma such as COVID-19.

Practical Cooling Strategies During Continuous Exercise in Hot Environments: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Performing exercise in thermally stressful environments impairs exercise capacity and performance. Cooling during exercise has the potential to attenuate detrimental increases in body temperature and improve exercise capacity and performance. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of practical cooling strategies applied during continuous exercise in hot environments on body temperature, heart rate, whole body sweat production, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), thermal perception and exercise performance. METHODS: Electronic database searches of MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, Scopus and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) were conducted using medical subject headings, indexing terms and keywords. Studies were eligible if participants were defined as 'healthy', the exercise task was conducted in an environment ≥25 °C, it used a cooling strategy that would be practical for athletes to use during competition, cooling was applied during a self-paced or fixed-intensity trial, participants exercised continuously, and the study was a randomised controlled trial with the comparator either a thermoneutral equivalent or no cooling. Data for experimental and comparator groups were meta-analysed and expressed as a standardised mean difference and 95 % confidence interval. RESULTS: Fourteen studies including 135 participants met the eligibility criteria. Confidence intervals for meta-analysed data included beneficial and detrimental effects for cooling during exercise on core temperature, mean skin temperature, heart rate and sweat production during fixed-intensity exercise. Cooling benefited RPE and thermal perception during fixed-intensity exercise and improved self-paced exercise performance. CONCLUSION: Cooling during fixed-intensity exercise, particularly before a self-paced exercise trial, improves endurance performance in hot environments by benefiting RPE and thermal perception, but does not appear to attenuate increases in body temperature.

Lessons from the dead: the experiences of undergraduates working with cadavers.

Dissection of a human cadaver is a time-honored tradition for teaching anatomy in medical education. However, in recent years, for a variety of reasons, including costs and ethical concerns, some medical programs have ceased cadaver dissection in exchange for virtual dissection of cadavers in cyberspace. Past research suggests that students find work on a cadaver to be distressing, but also rewarding. This study analyzed journal entries from 21 undergraduate students working with a cadaver in a gross anatomy course. An empirical, phenomenological analysis of the data identified 19 common themes among the participant's journal entries. In addition, the analysis disclosed how participants usually felt a need to justify the act of dissection. Finally, the analysis identified how students differed in the varied ways they coped with the ambiguous status of the cadaver, which was sometimes viewed as a deceased person while at other times experienced as a fascinating machine. Based on the findings, the researchers offer recommendations for helping students to better cope with the experience of cadaver dissection and to use the experience pedagogically to better prepare students for the stress of the medical world, especially issues surrounding death and dying.

Serologic survey of cats and dogs during an epidemic of West Nile virus infection in humans.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate West Nile virus (WNV) infection rates, assess environmental variables that correlated with seropositivity in dogs and cats, and assess whether pets should be considered as possible sentinels for WNV and therefore of potential human exposure. DESIGN: Cross-sectional serosurvey. ANIMALS: 442 dogs and 138 cats. PROCEDURE: Serum samples were screened for seropositivity against WNV by use of the plaque reduction neutralization test. RESULTS: 116 (26%) dogs and 13 (9%) cats yielded positive results. The odds of seropositivity against WNV for outdoor-only family dogs were almost 19 times as great as those for indoor-only family dogs and almost twice as great for stray dogs as for family dogs. Family dogs not receiving heartworm medication were 2.5 times as likely to yield positive results for antibodies against WNV as family dogs receiving heartworm medication. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Seropositivity was greater for outdoor family dogs than for indoor family dogs. Further investigation of the potential use of stray dogs as sentinel indicators for WNV infection and the potential risk of human exposure is warranted.