Monthly Archives: September 2021

Leader News Staffnews@ptleader.com

A Des Moines-based nonprofit known as Sealife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research or SR3 will present a virtual presentation on elephant seals at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29.

There are two species of elephant seals, the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal, and both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered.

These incredible animals spend up to 80 percent of their lives in the ocean, and can hold their breath longer than any other non-cetacean mammal, plunging to depths of 5,000 feet beneath the oceans surface.

Presenter Kenneth Bach is a resident of Jefferson County and on the board of SR3, a dedicated marine animal hospital. He has more than 20 years of experience with marine mammals, including volunteering with the Marine Mammal Center, Ano Nuevo State Preserve, and SR3.

Register for the free presentation online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-amazing-elephant-seals-tickets-170234846007?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch.

See more here:

Elephant seals are the star of free presentation this month - Port Townsend Leader

Robert Montgomery Thomas| The Patriot Ledger

To the editor:

The Massachusetts Legislature, in its grand and glorious wisdom, is considering banning or has banned Native American figures, caricatures and names from appearing as mascots and logos for all school sports teams throughout the commonwealth.

Meanwhile, they intend to keep the figure of Myles Standishs arm brandishing a broadsword above the head of the indigenous native on the State Seal with some holier-than-thou Latin verbiage that basically means, Peace… our way or the highway.

And for Standishs bravery in assassinating the-then tribal leaders under a flag of truce, a massive state park near Plymouth was named in his honor.

More: Hanover votes for Hawks to replace Indians mascot

More: Four indigenous people on what mascots mean to them

The solution is to just remove the offensive arm and broadsword from the State Seal and re-name the state park for someone truly honorable, like those who were butchered.

ROBERT MONTGOMERY THOMAS

Weymouth

Please note, our newsroom is currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Letters mailed to the newsroom may not be received and reviewed in a timely manner.Thereforewe are asking readers to submit their letter to the editor through email at editpage@patriotledger.com.

Letters should be 200 words or less. To give everyone a chance to be heard, we allow one letter per writer every 30 days. Please include your name,townand daytime phone number for verification only.

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Letter: It's time to remove reference to Myles Standish from State Seal - The Patriot Ledger

Heidi Klum had a lot to celebrate this past weekend.

The supermodel's eldest son, Henry, turned 16 on Sunday and the proud mom shared two photos of the birthday boy to mark the special occasion.

The 48-year-old posted a throwback photo with her baby boy and a rare current snapshot of her son with a colorful sunglasses graphic covering his eyes. The "America's Got Talent" star also sent a loving shoutout to Henry in the caption.

"One more year around the Moon and back I love you so much Henry Happy 16 th Birthday You have the kindest heart and the biggest SMILE ," she wrote.

Klum shares Henry with her ex-husband, singer Seal, and is also mom to Leni (17), Lou (11), and Johan (14). The former couple was married from 2005 to 2014 and Klum remarried in 2019 when she tied the knot with Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz.

The proud mom has shown us glimpses of her happy family over the years but often hides their faces in photographs. In June, she shared the following photo with her two sons and captioned the post, "How did i get so short?"

The same month, the proud mom appeared to cover her children's faces with smiley face emojis in a photo of the family chilling out on a boat.

Last October, the supermodel posted a video of herself working out with her two daughters and the trio were all rocking masks.

In 2019, the family celebrated Christmas together and all of Klum's children cleverly hid their faces while posing for a group photo.

The supermodel's daughter Leni does appear to be following in her mom's footsteps, though, and has been making her mark in the modeling world. In August, the proud mom posted a video of her daughter walking down the runway and over the weekend, she shared a photo of her budding model at work.

"Well done @leniklum & BFFs @aboutyoude It makes me so happy to see you this happy ," she wrote.

Go here to see the original:

Heidi Klum shares rare pics of son with Seal to celebrate his 16th birthday - Yahoo News

Dr. Jeff Hersh| Daily News Correspondent

Q:My almost2-year-oldsondevelopeda barking-like cough and fever. I was afraid it was COVID,so brought him to his pediatrician.She said it was croup and his COVID test was negative. What iscroup?

A:When we breathe the air enters through our nose or mouth, goes through the throat into the larynx (the voice box), then through the trachea (the windpipe), and on to the large airways (bronchi), thensmaller airways (bronchioles) and finally to the lungs where oxygen passes through the alveoli (the tiny air sacs) walls to be taken up by the blood and carbon dioxide leaves the blood to be exhaled.

Croup is a respiratory (breathing) illness due to narrowing of the upper airway,i.e., the larynx, trachea and/or the bronchi,frominflammation or other swelling.Older patients typically have larger airways so can tolerate some amount of swelling, and hence do not usuallydevelopcroup. Therefore, it is younger patients, particularly between the ages of 6 months and 7 years, that typically develop croup symptoms.

There are two major types of croup, infectious croup and spasmodic croup.

More: What's Up Doc? My hip snaps when I exercise. What's going on?

Infectious croup is usually due to a viral illness (although bacterial tracheitis, where pus forms in reaction to a bacterial infection of the trachea,is a rare infectious cause), most commonly parainfluenzavirusalthough many other viruses have been implicated as well.The symptoms of infectious croup typically begin with cold-like symptoms, sometimes with a fever, and then develop intothe classic symptoms of croup, including stridor (a harsh typically high-pitched vibrating/whistling noise during inhalation), a hoarse voice and/or a high-pitched cough (oftendescribed assoundinglike a barking seal)and/orotherbreathing problems.These symptoms are typically worse at night,andwhen the patient is agitated or anxious.Theyareusually mild, last three to five days and resolve on their own.However, if the symptoms become more severe (the child develops high-pitched noises during both inhalation and exhalation, they turn blue/gray around the nose/mouth/anywhere else, they struggle to breathe, they become listlessor they develop any other worrisome changes)they should be brought to medical careimmediately.

More: What's Up Doc? Even people who have already had COVID-19 should get vaccinated. Here's why

Spasmodic croup(sometimes called recurrent croup as the child may get it multiple times)is due to non-infectiousupper airwayswelling due to edema (a fluid collection in the tissues which may be of an allergic or other etiology).Otherwise,itis similar toinfectious croup(although since it is not due to infection there is usually no fever).

Croup is very common, accounting forup to15% of visits to pediatric clinicsand 1% to 2%of visits to theemergency department.Overall, croup has a very good prognosis.Over85%-95%of children seen for croup can be discharged home after being treated. Of theless than5%-15%requiring hospitalization,only a tiny percentage (overall only 0.1%of all croup patients seen) are severe enough to require a breathing tube (intubation)for a machine to assist/breath for them. Of this very small number requiring intubation, less than one percent die (so less than 1 in 100,000 who were brought for medical evaluation).

More: What's Up Doc? No, we have not had enough people vaccinated to reach herd immunity

Kids with croup usually do not need any laboratory or imaging tests (although these may be ordered to rule out other possible causes of their symptoms).Instead, the severity of a childs croupisevaluatedbased ontheir symptoms, with some scoringsystemshaving been created to quantify the severity. One such system, the Westly croup severity score, assigns pointsper the clinicians assessmentas follows:

Treatment for mild croup usually includes supportive care such as over-the-counter medicationsfor fever, increased fluidsand keeping a close eye outto identify any worsening. Although cool mist/humidification has not been shown to significantly impact the disease, it also has not been shown tocause harm, and this home remedy is commonly used by many families.

More: What's Up Doc? Why all the worry about the COVID Delta variant?

Moderate and severe croup will commonly be treated with steroid medications (a single dose of dexamethasone has been shown to be beneficial as it is thought to decrease inflammation), nebulized racemic epinephrine (which decreases spasm of the smooth muscles hence opening up theupperairways), oxygen as needed, and possiblyheliox(a mixture of helium and oxygen as opposed to normal air which is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, thought to help since helium is smaller than nitrogen and this mixture is thought to decrease the work needed to breath).

Patients,specifically includingthose treated with nebulized epinephrine,should be closely observed for at least 3 hours aftertheirtreatment even if theyhavegreatly improved, as sometimes therecanbea rebound of more severe symptoms when the treatments wear off.Patients whose symptoms are so severe that they cannot breatheon their own, although rare, may require intubation.

More: Over the Counter: COVID-19 precautions that can benefit us into the future

If your child develops croup-like symptoms and you haveaconcernthatthey are not breathingwellyou should seek medical care immediately. If they are seen and discharged they will still need to be very closely monitored in case symptoms return and/or worsen.

Jeff Hersh, Ph.D., M.D., can be reached at DrHersh@juno.com.

Read more:

What's Up Doc? COVID test is negative; barking cough and fever may mean toddler has croup - MetroWest Daily News

More than 2,000 health workers across NSW, Victoria and the ACT are currently in isolation, placing more pressure on the remaining workforce as Covid cases continue to climb.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association says many health workers in that states hospitals are working shifts of up to 16 hours to cover the shortfall, while PPE issues have left some staff without access to fit-tested masks.

In NSW, which reported 1,259 new cases and 12 deaths on Wednesday, there are understood to be 1,190 health workers currently unavailable because of Covid exposure or infection, with 101 new cases across 11 different facilities in the past week.

In Victoria, the average number of unavailable staff due to Covid-19 across all Victorian public hospitals is 736, according to the most recent data available from 6 September.

Since then, community-acquired cases have almost doubled, with 423 new cases reported in the state on Wednesday.

The 736 health workers unavailable because of Covid in Victoria includes all hospital staff not just clinical staff and those exposed who are not infected.

Brett Holmes, the general secretary of the NSW nurses association, said the result of the furloughed workforce was that remaining staff were working harder and often doing double shifts as long as 16 hours.

It is harder they are working extraordinarily hard, Holmes said. The effect is often that other people have to pick up these shifts, of course, or they are working longer shifts.

A spokesperson for the Victorian health department said the state government was prepared for the workforce shortfall.

Our hospitals have been preparing for coronavirus since January last year, creating extra capacity and ensuring we have enough beds, equipment and PPE to manage any surge in patients, they said.

All health services are able to access Victorias surge workforce if required, which will become more and more important if case numbers increase and more staff are furloughed.

Holmes said that while the vaccination mandate would help address the problem in NSW, the experience in the UK had shown that Covid cases among the vaccinated health workforce had only dropped by 50%.

We need all of our nurses and midwives and other health workers at the bedside and yes, I think there is hope by the minister and the government that the requirement for full vaccination will somehow eliminate this problem of isolating health workers, but given the overseas research, I dont agree that that will be the case, Holmes said.

It is not clear that the need to isolate will be removed because you cannot really be sending someone to work who is carrying the virus and for them to be able to contain that behind their mask for eight to 16 hours a day.

On the issue of PPE, Holmes said that there had been a supply shortage of three types of mask, which had left health workers using masks that had not been fit-tested.

Fit testing is the process by which a mask is fitted and tested to ensure it has an adequate seal and is working correctly.

There is a supply issue and I dont know how long it will be before it is corrected, Holmes said. They have had to shift to other masks and if they have not been fit-tested for the other masks then that requires another round of fit testing.

On Wednesday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the NSW health workforce was close to reaching a 90% first dose vaccination rate ahead of a mandate for the sector that comes into force on 30 September.

Berejiklian said she was confident health workers would get vaccinated and she was not concerned about people leaving the sector.

I am really confident that healthcare workers will put the interests of their patients and the interests of their own health [first] and Im very convinced we will achieve very high vaccine coverage, Berejiklian said.

Our health staff are seeing the consequences day in, day out, of Covid infection. They are seeing patients in ICU, hearing stories, and Id be very surprised if wed have a much hesitancy in our healthcare workers.

NSW was the first state to introduce a mandate for health workers but Western Australia and Queensland have since followed suit. Victoria is expected to announce a mandate for health workers with a plan to be discussed at Fridays meeting of national cabinet.

Original post:

More than 2,000 healthcare workers in isolation placing hospital systems under pressure - The Guardian Australia

Google hasnt brought any Pixel phones into India of late, but they did recently launch a set of earbuds, the Pixel Buds A-Series. This is an offering that goes particularly well with Googles Pixel phones and services like the assistant. In many ways though, the buds are rather ordinary. While they do offer reasonable sound, there doesnt seem to be any real standout feature.

The design is much like the previous edition, a little plastic case which is rather egg-like in shape but easy to carry and light enough. The buds themselves are also extremely light and when compared to many others they came out amongst the lightest. The biggest advantage of that, of course, is that they can be worn for long hours with little to no fatigue.

As is standard with many earbuds, the A-Series come with three sizes of ear tips. Since the buds actually sit in your ear canal, getting a good fit is important. While the material used on these buds is mainly plastic, they dont feel cheap. They are dual-tone with grey and white and you have an option for green as well. But no other colours.

The buds do have a little wing tip which is comfortable for some and not so much for others. Google even suggests that you may want to try different size ear tips for each ear till you find a good seal and comfort. There is no active noise cancellation, just passive isolation. The design is such that you can hear ambient sounds without too much trouble and yet pay attention to what is playing on the buds.

In terms of sound, the buds seem rather flat with not much by way of dynamic range. On a Pixel phone you can use the EQ settings that do make a substantial difference. I used the Bass Boost and immediately heard the change. There is also a setting for adaptive sound which is quite interesting: based on the ambient sound it actually increases or decreases the volume. This is a response to sustained noise rather than a one-off loud bang or noise. The buds are perfectly suited for casual music listening, podcasts and calls.

For Android phones, you can download the Pixel Buds app, which lets you manage all the options including the touch controls, the EQ and adaptive sound options, and firmware updates. The app also lets you see the battery status of each bud separately as well as that of the case. These settings get integrated into the settings of a Pixel device so no separate app is needed. Sadly, there is no app for iOS devices on which these buds work like any other Bluetooth headset.

The killer feature of the these buds is using your voice for Google Assistant. It works really well. You can invoke the assistant with Hey Google or Ok Google and it wakes up instantly. You can also touch and hold either bud and it will read your notifications and wait for additional commands.

Overall, the buds are a reasonable pair of headphones, good for calls, casual listening and podcasts, comfortable to wear for long durations, and most of all, integrated with the assistant. But theres no end of competition around and at 9,999, theyre still a bit expensive.

See the rest here:

Say OK Google to the new Pixel Buds - BusinessLine