Although the development and increasingly widespread availability of effective and safe vaccines provides the greatest hope for the future recovery from the increasingly devastating COVID-19 pandemic, there are other preventive efforts that offer an immediate route to decreasing morbidity and mortality. Genomic surveillance is emerging as a vital necessity to achieve effective mitigation and containment. Since SARS-CoV-2 variants have already been detected, it is crucial to obtain reliable evidence about whether they are more contagious, virulent, or more resistant to the available COVID-19 vaccines well before they spread throughout the world. Genomic surveillance leverages applications of next-generation sequencing, creates the availability of whole genome data, and advances phylogenetic methods. These methods offer novel means to detect variants that are phenotypically or antigenically different. Genomic surveillance will facilitate greater early anticipation as well as initiation of effective strategies to mitigate and contain outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 variants and other novel viruses.

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This study examined whether the positive or negative valence of a news story, and the race of the character portrayed in the story, would influence Black or White readers' selection of a story. The study employed selective exposure methodology to unobtrusively measure story selections among Black and White readers as they browsed a news site. The results demonstrated Black newsreaders were more likely to select and read positive and negative stories featuring their racial ingroup, and more likely to select and read negative vis-à-vis positive stories about their outgroup. In contrast, Whites' story preference was not affected by story valence or character race. Theoretical assumptions from social identity, social comparison, and social cognitive theories are used to explain the findings.

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IntroductionAortic dissection is a rare event. While the most frequent symptom is chest pain, that is a common emergency department (ED) chief complaint and other diseases causing chest pain occur much more often. Furthermore, 20% of dissections are without chest pain and 6% are painless. For these reasons, diagnosing dissections may be challenging. Our goal was to determine the number of total ED and atraumatic chest pain patients for every aortic dissection diagnosed by emergency physicians.MethodsDesign: Retrospective cohort. Setting: 33 suburban and urban New York and New Jersey EDs with annual visits between 8,000 and 80,000. Participants: Consecutive patients seen by emergency physicians from 1-1-1996 through 12-31-2010. Observations: We identified aortic dissection and atraumatic chest pain patients using the International Classification of Diseases 9th Revision and Clinical Modification codes. We then calculated the number of total ED and atraumatic chest pain patients for every aortic dissection, along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsFrom a database of 9.5 million ED visits, we identified 782 aortic dissections or one for every 12,200 (95% CI [11,400–13,100]) visits. The mean age of dissection patients was 66±16 years and 38% were female. There were 763,000 (8%) with atraumatic chest pain diagnoses. Thus, there is one dissection for every 980 (95% CI [910–1,050]) atraumatic chest pain patients.ConclusionThe diagnosis of aortic dissections by emergency physicians is rare and challenging. An emergency physician seeing 3,000 to 4,000 patients a year would diagnose an aortic dissection approximately every three to four years.

Mood adjustment goals served to explain gender differences regarding media preferences. Before reacting to antagonism, females are likely to prevent aggression by dissolving aversive states through media consumption, whereas males could preserve aggression by choosing negative content. In a computerized procedure, participants (N = 86) were provoked by supervisor feedback to instigate angry moods. Half of the sample was led to anticipate a retaliation opportunity. In a purportedly separate study, participants were free to choose from online news while software unobtrusively logged their selective news exposure. The articles had been classified as positive or negative news in a pretest. When anticipating a retaliation opportunity, females spent more time reading positive news to dissipate their anger. Males expecting a retaliation opportunity spent more time on negative news to sustain their anger. Males’ generally lower news consumption, especially when anticipating a chance to retaliate, indicated anger rumination through news avoidance altogether.

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To examine psychological origins of sex-typed news preferences, an online newsmagazine was presented to 196 American participants in an experimental setting. The presented articles featured the same portions of social/interpersonal and achievement/ performance topics. Newsreaders' selective news exposure was unobtrusively logged. Results show that, in line with gender stereotypes, women favor social/interpersonal topics and men prefer achievement/performance issues. Newsreaders' affiliation motive, self-esteem, and, to a small extent, gender schemata influenced what news content was preferred.