Search for: All records

Most physical therapists would agree that physical rehabilitation is difficult to perform remotely. Consequently, the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced many physical therapists and their clients to adapt to telehealth, especially with video conferencing. In this article, we ask: How has telehealth for physical rehabilitation evolved with the global pandemic and what are the largest technological needs, treatment methodologies, and patient barriers? With the increased widespread use of telehealth for physical therapy, we present a qualitative study towards examining the shortcomings of current physical therapy mediums and how to steer future virtual reality technologies to promote remote patient evaluation and rehabilitation. We interviewed 130 physical rehabilitation professionals across the United States through video conferencing during the COVID19 pandemic from July—August 2020. Interviews lasted 30–45 min using a semi-structured template developed from an initial pilot of 20 interviews to examine potential barriers, facilitators, and technological needs. Our findings suggest that physical therapists utilizing existing telehealth solutions have lost their ability to feel their patients’ injuries, easily assess range of motion and strength, and freely move about to examine their movements when using telehealth. This makes it difficult to fully evaluate a patient and many feel that they are more of a “life coach” giving advice to a patient rather than a traditional in-person rehabilitation session. The most common solutions that emerged during the interviews include: immersive technologies which allow physical therapists and clients 1) to remotely walk around each other in 3D, 2) enable evidence-based measures, 3) automate documentation, and 4) provider clinical practice operation through the cloud. We conclude with a discussion on opportunities for immersive virtual reality towards telehealth for physical rehabilitation. 

Abstract Indirect genetic effects (IGE) occur when an individual’s phenotype is influenced by genetic variation in conspecifics. Opportunities for IGE are ubiquitous, and, when present, IGE have profound implications for behavioral, evolutionary, agricultural, and biomedical genetics. Despite their importance, the empirical study of IGE lags behind the development of theory. In large part, this lag can be attributed to the fact that measuring IGE, and deconvoluting them from the direct genetic effects of an individual’s own genotype, is subject to many potential pitfalls. In this Perspective, we describe current challenges that empiricists across all disciplines will encounter in measuring and understanding IGE. Using ideas and examples spanning evolutionary, agricultural, and biomedical genetics, we also describe potential solutions to these challenges, focusing on opportunities provided by recent advances in genomic, monitoring, and phenotyping technologies. We hope that this cross-disciplinary assessment will advance the goal of understanding the pervasive effects of conspecific interactions in biology. 

Abstract We investigated the potential mechanisms driving habitat‐linked genetic divergence within a bird species endemic to a single 250‐km²island. The island scrub‐jay (Aphelocoma insularis) exhibits microgeographic divergence in bill morphology across pine–oak ecotones on Santa Cruz Island, California (USA), similar to adaptive differences described in mainland congeners over much larger geographic scales. To test whether individuals exhibit genetic differentiation related to habitat type and divergence in bill length, we genotyped over 3000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 123 adult island scrub‐jay males from across Santa Cruz Island using restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing. Neutral landscape genomic analyses revealed that genome‐wide genetic differentiation was primarily related to geographic distance and differences in habitat composition. We also found 168 putatively adaptive loci associated with habitat type using multivariate redundancy analysis while controlling for spatial effects. Finally, two genome‐wide association analyses revealed a polygenic basis to variation in bill length with multiple loci detected in or near genes known to affect bill morphology in other birds. Our findings support the hypothesis that divergent selection at microgeographic scales can cause adaptive divergence in the presence of ongoing gene flow. 

Abstract Single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are preferred over microsatellite markers in many evolutionary studies, but have only recently been applied to studies of parentage. Evaluations ofSNPs and microsatellites for assigning parentage have mostly focused on special cases that require a relatively large number of heterozygous loci, such as species with low genetic diversity or with complex social structures. We developed 120SNPmarkers from a transcriptome assembled usingRNA‐sequencing of a songbird with the most common avian mating system—social monogamy. We compared the effectiveness of 97 novelSNPs and six previously described microsatellites for assigning paternity in the black‐throated blue warbler,Setophaga caerulescens. We show that the full panel of 97SNPs (meanH_o = 0.19) was as powerful for assigning paternity as the panel of multiallelic microsatellites (meanH_o = 0.86). Paternity assignments using the two marker types were in agreement for 92% of the offspring. Filtering individual samples by a 50% call rate andSNPs by a 75% call rate maximized the number of offspring assigned with 95% confidence usingSNPs. We also found that the 40 most heterozygousSNPs (meanH_o = 0.37) had similar power to assign paternity as the full panel of 97SNPs. These findings demonstrate that a relatively small number of variableSNPs can be effective for parentage analyses in a socially monogamous species. We suggest that the development ofSNPmarkers is advantageous for studies that require high‐throughput genotyping or that plan to address a range of ecological and evolutionary questions.