Linear videos continue to be useful technologies for both formal and informal learning. The advent of YouTube has seen the rise of educational channels engaging millions of viewers informally, in the spirit of ‘lifelong learning’. This article investigates the potential of a particular kind of video to engage viewers in reflective thinking. The premise is that viewers, followers who find the channel worthwhile or interesting, should reflect, affirming or changing their answers. The channel Veritasium, with more than 5 million subscribers at the time of this study, posed four questions as ‘riddles’, and then a week later provided solutions. A survey appended to the solutions video was completed by 2220 respondents. About 16%–43% of respondents across all riddles indicated that their answer was correct or that they changed their answer, and 49%–73% reported to have changed their answers. The reasons for not changing answers were inductively coded for each riddle. The emergent categories were the same for the different riddles, from outward focused to inward focused, matching the types of reflective thinking in the extant literature. The responses illustrated how the riddles engaged the viewers in reflective thinking in this social media informal learning context.

Typically, the format of online physics educational videos is closer in style to direct instruction rather than being interactive. One simple way of making videos more interactive is asking questions in one video, providing solutions in the second and seeking student reflection. This study utilises two physics education videos by Derek Muller (Veritasium) which were deployed with 508 first year physics students at The University of Sydney. The students watched the first video, which asked four physics questions, and were prompted to write down their answers. After this, the students were shown the solutions video and asked whether they changed, or did not change their answer, and their reasons for doing so. Data were analysed with a mixed-methods approach. While students whose answers did not match the solutions mostly modified their answers, a nontrivial percentage did not. An interesting finding is that the reasons provided for modifying or not modifying their answers are similar, or ‘mirrors’ of each other. We comment on the nature of the questions and the opportunities for learning by incorporating reflective thinking, particularly through videos that use a question, solution & reflection style.

Background/Objectives: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a significant public health concern, affecting millions of people worldwide. This study aims to use Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) technology to detect the presence of respiratory conditions, with a focus on COPD. Methods: The samples of human serum from 41 patients with respiratory diseases (11 patients with COPD, 20 with bronchial asthma (BA), and 10 with asthma–COPD overlap syndrome) and 103 patients with ischemic heart disease, complicated by chronic heart failure (CHF), were analyzed using SERS. A multivariate analysis of the SERS characteristics of human serum was performed using Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) to classify the following groups: (1) all respiratory disease patients versus the pathological referent group, which included CHF patients, and (2) patients with COPD versus those with BA. Results: We found that a combination of SERS characteristics at 638 and 1051 cm⁻¹ could help to identify respiratory diseases. The PLS-DA model achieved a mean predictive accuracy of 0.92 for classifying respiratory diseases and the pathological referent group (0.85 sensitivity, 0.97 specificity). However, in the case of differentiating between COPD and BA, the mean predictive accuracy was only 0.61. Conclusions: Therefore, the metabolic and proteomic composition of human serum shows significant differences in respiratory disease patients compared to the pathological referent group, but the differences between patients with COPD and BA are less significant, suggesting a similarity in the serum and general pathogenetic mechanisms of these two conditions.

From modern perspective, hyperuricemia should be considered as a trigger of inflammatory activity in tissues and organs, leading to the formation of tophi, arthropathy, kidneys and cardiovascular system damage. Similarly, hypercholesterolemia, a proven factor in atherogenesis-far from all patients leads to the development of relevant clinical events. This commonality may be explained by the involvement of universal inflammatory mechanism. The key mediator of gout attacks is recognized as IL-1β, a product of NLRP3 (NLR family pyrin domain containing 3) inflammasome activation (complex multiprotein), responsible for local inflammatory response in synovial membrane and periarticular tissues with participation of macrophages and neutrophils. NLRP3 inflammasome activation is carried out by uric acid crystals, cholesterol exclusively after priming by lipopolysaccharides, peroxidation products and other damage factors associated with aging and comorbid conditions typical for gout and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, NLRP3 inflammasome activity is genetically determined and determines the frequency of these conditions. The discussed mechanism explains why the impact on factors associated with comorbidity is able to reduce the frequency of gout attacks along with cardiovascular outcomes. New clinically relevant pleotorpic effects of statins, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, which have advantages over urates-lowering therapy in patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia and can modify the course of gout, are demonstrated. Their anti-inflammatory properties, cardio and renoprotective effects, and tolerability advantages are emphasized. Blocking the activity of inflammasome is considered as a new universal therapeutic target for rheumatology and cardiology.

POEMS syndrome is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome whose name is an acronym formed from the initial letters of the names of the symptoms originally used to determine it: polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal protein and skin changes. Due to the rarity of the disease and the small number of cases described in the literature, its diagnosis is difficult. The average time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis is 18 months. Moreover, the prognosis of the disease depends on the early onset of specific treatment. The article describes a clinical case of POEMS-syndrome in a 53-year-old man, which illustrates the difficulties associated with the timely recognition of this unusual disease.

The article discusses the modern principles of lipid-lowering therapy and approaches to its administration in terms of levels of cardiovascular risk. The characteristics of groups of patients with different levels of cardiovascular risk (from low to high) in primary prevention are given. The article defines the target levels of low- density lipoprotein cholesterol, which should be achieved with the modern lipid-lowering therapy. The clinical effects of statins in primary prevention are presented. The clinical results of two large studies of rosuvastatin that have changed the approach to statin prescribing in primary prevention are discussed. The article presents the results of the analysis of long-term follow-up of patients in the primary prevention after the completion of randomized clinical studies. Approaches to the use of statins for novel coronavirus infection are considered.