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Eric D Kirby,1 Katherine Jones,2 Natasha Campbell,2 Shaun D Fickling,1,2 Ryan CN D’Arcy1– 3 1Brainnet, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada; 2Centre for Neurology Studies, HealthTech Connex, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada; 3DM Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Metro Vancouver, CanadaCorrespondence: Ryan CN D’Arcy, Centre for Neurology Studies, HealthTech Connex, Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada, Email Ryan@healthtechconnex.comIntroduction: Athletic peak performance is increasingly focused on cognitive and mental factors. In the current study, cognitive performance was measured by neurophysiological responses in elite Junior-A hockey players.Methods: Neurophysiological brain vital signs were extracted from event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate auditory sensation (the N100), basic attention (the P300), and cognitive processing (the N400). In total, we evaluated 348 athletes, across 17 teams, throughout different hockey arenas in British Columbia, Canada. While brain vital signs were collected to help manage concussion, the current investigation focused on a retrospective performance analysis of cognitive processing differences.Results: The results revealed three interesting findings: 1) Player position differences were detectable in sensory N100 latency, with significantly faster responses for forwards compared to defense; 2) Goalies showed significantly higher attention P300 amplitude compared to all other positions; and 3) Cognitive N400 processing differences were detectable only during competitive combine testing, showing 60ms latency differences between forwards and defense on average.Discussion: The current findings suggest that neurophysiological responses, which are also sensitive to concussion, may be used to identify sensory, attentional, and cognitive processing differences to help optimize peak performance.Keywords: electroencephalography, event-related potentials, brain vital signs, performance optimization, ice hockey

Wood-feeding termites harbor specialized protists in their hindguts in a classic nutritional mutualism. The protists are vertically inherited, which has generated a broad-scale pattern of codiversification over ∼150 million years, but there are many incongruences due to lineage-specific loss and transfer of symbionts. Despite the evolutionary and economic importance of this symbiosis, the symbiont communities of most termite species are incompletely characterized or entirely unstudied. Here, we have investigated the protist symbiont community of Reticulitermes tibialis, using single-cell PCR to link morphology to 18S rRNA gene sequences. The protists belong to at least 41 species in 3 major lineages within Metamonada: Spirotrichonymphida, Pyrsonymphidae, and Trichonympha. The Spirotrichonymphida symbionts belong to 6 genera, including Pseudospironympha, which has not been found in Reticulitermes until now, and Dexiohelix, a new genus. Pyrsonymphidae traditionally include just Pyrsonympha and Dinenympha, but our morphology-linked 18S phylogeny indicates that both genera are polyphyletic. We accordingly restrict the definitions of Pyrsonympha and Dinenympha to the clades that include their type species, and we propose 5 new genera to accommodate the remaining clades. Short-read 18S amplicon sequencing revealed considerable variation in community composition across R. tibialis colonies in Arizona, suggestive of a symbiont metacommunity. Symbiont species varied in their prevalence across colonies, with a core set of about 12 highly prevalent symbiont species, 11 species with intermediate prevalence, and 18 rare species. This pattern contrasts with the traditional paradigm of consistent symbiont community composition across colonies of a termite species., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Background: The use of electronic health record (EHR) data for research is limited by a lack of structure and a standard data model. The objective of the ICAREdata (Integrating Clinical Trials and Real-World Endpoints Data) project was to structure key research data elements in EHRs using a minimal Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE) data model to extract and transmit data., Methods: The ICAREdata project captured two EHR data elements essential to clinical trials: cancer disease status and treatment plan change. The project was implemented in clinical sites participating in Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology trials. Data were extracted from EHRs and sent by secure Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource messaging (a standard for exchanging EHRs) to a database. Selected elements were compared with corresponding data from the trial's electronic data capture (EDC) system, Medidata Rave., Results: By December 2023, data were extracted and transmitted from 10 sites for 35 patients, involving 367 clinical encounters across 15 clinical trials. Data through March 2023 demonstrated that concordance for the elements treatment plan change and cancer disease status was 79% and 34%, respectively. When disease evaluation was reported by both EHR and EDC (n = 15), there was 87% agreement on cancer disease status., Conclusions: Documentation, extraction, and aggregation of structured data elements in EHRs using mCODE and ICAREdata methods is feasible in multi-institutional cancer clinical trials. EDC as a reference data set allowed assessment of the completeness of EHR data capture. Future initiatives will focus on elements with shared definitions in clinical and research environments and efficient workflows., Plain Language Summary: Clinical trials use electronic case report forms to report data, and data must be manually entered on these forms, which is costly and time consuming. ICAREdata methods use structured, organized data from clinical trials that can be more easily shared instead having to enter free text into electronic health records., (© 2024 The MITRE Corporation and The Author(s). Cancer published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Cancer Society. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)