Mccormicklundgaard0503

COVID-19 pandemic has boosted telemedicine in medical clinical practice. Experiences in the management of chronic neurological disorders are limited and scattered. The aim of the study was to evaluate feasibility and efficacy of virtual visit for chronic neurological disorders during COVID-19 pandemic.

All patients scheduled for a visit during the lockdown period were contacted. The patients fell into four categories (1) long-term follow-up, the patient was re-scheduled; (2) visit was necessary, teleconsultation was accepted; (3) problem was solved by phone call; and (4) visit was necessary and teleconsultation was not feasible, then visit was maintained. Google Meet was used. During the virtual visit, neurological examination was performed, and demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded.

At the end of May 2020, 184 virtual visits for 178 patients were performed for the following diseases myasthenia gravis (47 patients), multiple sclerosis (79), epilepsy (12), headache (6), and parkinsonism (34). The patients were 70 males and 108 females with a mean age of 53.5 years (range 13-90). During virtual visit, we were able to obtain a satisfactory neurological examination.

We demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness of virtual visit in the management of a large group of patients with common chronic neurological disorders.

We demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness of virtual visit in the management of a large group of patients with common chronic neurological disorders.

Balance disturbance is one of the main complications of the Parkinson's disease (PD). As studies have shown that impairments in some cognitive processescan lead to balance problems, we investigated the relationship between focused and divided attention and static balance in patients with PD and a healthycontrol group.

We included 111 patients with PD (M age = 49.41, SD = 6.33 years) and 142 healthy individuals (M age = 50.62, SD = 6.07 years). All participants wereevaluated with the Trails Making Test A and B (TMT), and all participants' balance was evaluated with a Wii Balance Board, from which we measured theantero-posterior (AP), medio-lateral (ML), and total center of pressure (COP) velocity. We compared the two groups in terms of TMT-A, TMT-B, and COPvelocity tests in both eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions with independent t-tests, and we calculated Pearson's correlation coefficients between thebalance board-derived outcomes and the TMT scores.

The two groups differed significantly on TMT-A and TMT-B scores, in total and ML COP velocity in both eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions, and in APCOP velocity only in eyes-open condition. Among patients with PD, TMT-A and TMT-B scores were positively correlated with total, ML, and AP COPvelocity, in both eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions.

Associated attention deficits may be among the causes of balance disturbances in patients with PD, though both attention and balance may have a commonroot in brain circuitry.

Associated attention deficits may be among the causes of balance disturbances in patients with PD, though both attention and balance may have a common root in brain circuitry.A novel endophytic actinomycete with antagonistic activity against various phytopathogenic fungi, designated strain p1417T, was isolated from the root of cattail (Typha angustifolia L.) collected from Yunnan Province, Southwest China. A polyphasic taxonomic study was carried out to establish the taxonomic status of this strain. Strain p1417T was found to have morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics typical of the genus Streptomyces. The diamino acid present in the cell wall was LL-diaminopimelic acid. Xylose and arabinose occurred in whole cell hydrolysates. The menaquinones were identified as MK-9(H8), MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H4). The polar lipid profile was found to contain diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol mannoside. The major fatty acids were found to be iso-C160, anteiso-C150, iso-C150 and C160. The genomic DNA G + C content of strain p1417T based on the genome sequence was 72.0 mol%. Based on 16 S rRNA gene, five housekeeping genes and whole genome sequences analysis, strain p1417T was most closely related to Streptomyces flavofungini JCM 4753T (99.4% 16 S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Streptomyces alboflavus JCM 4615T (98.8%) and Streptomyces aureoverticillatus JCM 4347T (98.2%). However, the average nucleotide identity values, the digital DNA-DNA hybridization values and the multilocus sequence analysis evolutionary distances between this strain and its closely related strains showed that it belonged to one distinct species. In addition, these results were also supported by differences in the phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics between strain p1417T and three closely related type strains. Therefore, it is concluded that strain p1417T represents a novel species of the genus of Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces typhae sp. SR1 antagonist nov. is proposed. The type strain is p1417T (= CCTCC AA 2019091T = DSM 110636T).A facultatively anaerobic bacterium, strain M1531T, was isolated from a red alga (Porphyra) at coastal water in Weihai, China. Cells of the novel strain were Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, motile by means of a single polar flagellum and around 0.6-0.8 × 2.0-3.0 µm in size. Optimum growth occurred at 30 °C, with 2% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.5-7.0. On the basis of the result of phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence, stain M1531T had close relative with Thalassotalea euphylliae KCTC 42743T (96.9%). Genome sequencing revealed a genome size of 4,061,950 bp, a G + C content of 39.1 mol% and four protein-coding genes related to the degradation of alginate. According to the data obtained, strain M1531T shared ANI value below 95-96%, dDDH value below 23.8% with the closely related type species. Strain M1531T had Q-8 as the predominant isoprenoid quinone and possessed Summed Features 3 (C161 ω7c/C161 ω6c), C160 and Summed Features 8 (C181 ω7c/C181 ω6c) as the major fatty acids. The polar lipids of strain M1531T were identified as phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, one unidentified aminolipid and four unidentified lipids.