For those of you who love orderly patterns and grids, Charles Gaines will no doubt be a big inspiration. One of the first generation conceptualist artists of the 1960s and '70s, his groundbreaking work over the last five decades has explored the relationship between language and systems as well as politics, culture and identity. And now his latest artworks are on show at his first-ever solo show in the UK.

Comprising two new bodies from Gaines' critically acclaimed Plexiglas gridworks, the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London includes his Numbers and Trees and Numbers and Faces series where he literally paints by numbers onto a clear acrylic sheet. It's part of his ongoing exploration of formulas and systems with a closer look at ideas around identity and diversity.

With Numbers and Faces comes the piece, Multi-Racial/Ethnic Combinations Series 1, a continuation of the Faces series that Gaines began in 1978. Here, Gaines creates an amalgam of faces within one artwork and seeks to "interrogate ideas of representation, and more specifically the political and cultural ideas that shape one's understanding of the concept of multi-racial identity," as the Gallery explains it.

In preparing for this work, Gaines searched for people who self-identified as multiracial or multi-ethnic and invited them to be part of the work. "I believe that the system of mapping these faces over a series can, itself, become meaningful by being drawn into an analogy with certain concepts of human reproduction such as heredity, genealogy, descent, lineage, genetics," he says. "Concepts that exist within the same domain. One of the main issues that interest me in working with systems is that, at a certain point, its relationship to any idea is arbitrary."

Each face is assigned two colours: one for the contour lines of the face and the other for the space in between the contour lines. The faces are sequentially mapped out and overlaid one-by-one throughout. "When the image is overlaid, the colours of the faces merge in areas and remain unaltered in other areas; over the course of the series the merging of contours produces different patterns and colour effects that dynamically and formally play out a binary relationship; the generalised structure of a face and the differences between faces."

Formal black and white photographs of each successive sitter appear on the back panel of each work. "The concept of identity politics has played a central role within Gaines' oeuvre, and the radical approach he employs addresses issues of race in ways that transcend the limits of representation," adds the Gallery.

As with all Gaines' artworks, he applies a shared system of rules. But for Numbers and Trees, his latest piece, London Series 1, takes him down a slightly different route as these latest works are larger in scale and inspired by the vast English trees Gaines examined and photographed during a trip to Melbury in Dorst early last year.

Gaines plots each London tree by assigning it a distinctive colour and a numbered grid that reflects the full form of the tree depicted in the detail photo on the back panel of the work. Each successive work is realised by overlaying the forms of trees one at a time and in progression, following Gaines' systematic sequencing process. "As I watch the systems and works evolve, and images being produced, I'm totally reminded that what I'm seeing is not a product of my intention but is a product of a system, and the system has a completely arbitrary relationship with the object thats being represented," Gaines adds.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1944, Charles Gaines lives and works in Los Angeles and has been a member of the CalArts School of Art faculty since 1989, where he recently established a fellowship to provide critical scholarship support for black students in the M.F.A Art programme. His latest exhibition, Multiples of Nature, Trees and Faces, runs at Hauser & Wirth London until 1 May 2021. Check out the virtual show.

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New grid system works by Charles Gaines, the artist who paints faces and trees by numbers - Creative Boom

Evidence is emerging that vitamin D and possibly vitamins K and A might help combat COVID-19. A new study from the University of Bristol published in the journal of the German Chemical Society Angewandte Chemie has shown how they and other antiviral drugs might work. The research indicates that these dietary supplements and compounds could bind to the viral spike protein and so might reduce SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. In contrast, cholesterol may increase infectivity, which could explain why having high cholesterol is considered a risk factor for serious disease.

Recently, Bristol researchers showed that linoleic acid binds to a specific site in the viral spike protein, and that by doing so, it locks the spike into a closed, less infective form. Now, a research team has used computational methods to search for other compounds that might have the same effect, as potential treatments. They hope to prevent human cells becoming infected by preventing the viral spike protein from opening enough to interact with a human protein (ACE2). New anti-viral drugs can take years to design, develop and test, so the researchers looked through a library of approved drugs and vitamins to identify those which might bind to this recently discovered druggable pocket inside the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The team first studied the effects of linoleic acid on the spike, using computational simulations to show that it stabilizes the closed form. Further simulations showed that dexamethasone which is an effective treatment for COVID-19 might also bind to this site and help reduce viral infectivity in addition to its effects on the human immune system.

The team then conducted simulations to see which other compounds bind to the fatty acid site. This identified some drugs that have been found by experiments to be active against the virus, suggesting that this may be one mechanism by which they prevent viral replication such as, by locking the spike structure in the same way as linoleic acid.

The findings suggested several drug candidates among available pharmaceuticals and dietary components, including some that have been found to slow SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in the laboratory. These have the potential to bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and may help to prevent cell entry.

The simulations also predicted that the fat-soluble vitamins D, K and A bind to the spike in the same way making the spike less able to infect cells.

Dr Deborah Shoemark, Senior Research Associate (Biomolecular Modelling) in the School of Biochemistry, who modelled the spike, explained: Our findings help explain how some vitamins may play a more direct role in combatting COVID than their conventional support of the human immune system.

Obesity is a major risk factor for severe COVID. Vitamin D is fat soluble and tends to accumulate in fatty tissue. This can lower the amount of vitamin D available to obese individuals. Countries in which some of these vitamin deficiencies are more common have also suffered badly during the course of the pandemic. Our research suggests that some essential vitamins and fatty acids including linoleic acid may contribute to impeding the spike/ACE2 interaction. Deficiency in any one of them may make it easier for the virus to infect.

Pre-existing high cholesterol levels have been associated with increased risk for severe COVID-19. Reports that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds cholesterol led the team to investigate whether it could bind at the fatty acid binding site. Their simulations indicate that it could bind, but that it may have a destabilising effect on the spikes locked conformation, and favour the open, more infective conformation.

Dr Shoemark continued: We know that the use of cholesterol lowering statins reduces the risk of developing severe COVID and shortens recovery time in less severe cases. Whether cholesterol de-stabilises the benign, closed conformation or not, our results suggest that by directly interacting with the spike, the virus could sequester cholesterol to achieve the local concentrations required to facilitate cell entry and this may also account for the observed loss of circulating cholesterol post infection.

Professor Adrian Mulholland, of Bristols School of Chemistry, added: Our simulations show how some molecules binding at the linoleic acid site affect the spikes dynamics and lock it closed. They also show that drugs and vitamins active against the virus may work in the same way. Targeting this site may be a route to new anti-viral drugs. A next step would be to look at effects of dietary supplements and test viral replication in cells.

Alison Derbenwick Miller, Vice President, Oracle for Research, said: Its incredibly exciting that researchers are gaining new insights into how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with human cells, which ultimately will lead to new ways to fight COVID-19. We are delighted that Oracles high-performance cloud infrastructure is helping to advance this kind of world-changing research. Growing a globally-connected community of cloud-powered researchers is exactly what Oracle for Research is designed to do.

The team included experts fromBristol UNCOVER Group, including Bristols Schools of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, and BrisSynBio, using Bristols high performance computers and the UK supercomputer, ARCHER, as well as Oracle cloud computing. The study was supported by grants from theEPSRC and the BBSRC.

Paper

'Molecular simulations suggest vitamins, retinoids and steroids as ligands binding the free fatty acid pocket of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein' byDeborah Karen Shoemark, Charlotte K. Colenso, Christine Toelzer, Kapil Gupta, Richard B. Sessions, Andrew D. Davidson, Imre Berger, Christiane Schaffitzel, James SpencerandAdrian J. Mulhollandin Angewandte Chemie

About coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)The surface of the coronavirus particle has proteins sticking out of it known as Spike proteins which are embedded in a membrane. They have the appearance of tiny little crowns, giving the virus its name (corona). Inside the membrane is the viral genome wrapped up in other proteins. The genome contains all the genetic instruction to mass produce the virus. Once the virus attaches to the outside of a human cell, its membrane fuses with the human cell membrane and its genetic information into the human cell. Next, the virus instructs the cell to start replicating its genome and produce its proteins. These are then assembled into many new copies of the virus which, upon release, can infect many more cells. The viral proteins play diverse further roles in coronavirus pathology.

Support our COVID-19 researchBristols researchers are part of a global network of scientists responding urgently to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.

Find out how you can support their critical work.

Bristol UNCOVER GroupIn response to the COVID-19 crisis, researchers at the University of Bristol formed the Bristol COVID Emergency Research Group (UNCOVER) to pool resources, capacities and research efforts to combat this infection.

Bristol UNCOVER includes clinicians, immunologists, virologists, synthetic biologists, aerosol scientists, epidemiologists and mathematical modellers and has links to behavioural and social scientists, ethicists and lawyers.

Follow Bristol UNCOVER on Twitter at: twitter.com/BristolUncover

For more information about the University of Bristols coronavirus (COVID-19) research priorities visit: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/impact/coronavirus/research-priorities/

Bristol UNCOVER is supported by the Elizabeth Blackwell InstituteFind out more about the Institutes COVID-19 research looking into five key areas: virus natural history, therapeutics and diagnostics research; epidemiology; clinical management; vaccines; and ethics and social science.

About Bristol BioDesign InstituteBristol BioDesign Institute (BBI)is the University of Bristol's Specialist Research Institute for synthetic biology. With wide-ranging applications from health to food security, BBI combines pioneering synthetic biology approaches with understanding biomolecular systems to deliver the rational design and engineering of biological systems for useful purposes.

This is delivered through multidisciplinary research that brings together postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers, academics, policy makers and industry, whilst also engaging the public with emerging solutions to global challenges.

About BrisSynBio, a BBSRC/ EPSRC-funded Synthetic Biology Research CentreBrisSynBiois a multi-disciplinary research centre that focuses on the biomolecular design and engineering aspects of synthetic biology.

BrisSynBio is part of theBristol BioDesign Institute.

Our overarching aims are to:

About Oracle for Research

Oracle for Research is a global community that is working to address complex problems and drive meaningful change in the world. The program provides scientists, researchers, and university innovators with high-value, cost-effective Cloud technologies, participation in Oracle research user community, and access to Oracles technical support network. Through the programs free cloud credits, users can leverage Oracles proven technology and infrastructure while keeping research-developed IP private and secure.

Learn more at https://www.oracle.com/oracle-for-research/

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January: molecularsimulations-study | News and features - University of Bristol

ISLESBORO In a Jan. 8 joint announcement, the chair of the Islesboro Select Board,Gabe Pendleton, and the executive director of the Islesboro Islands Trust, Steve Miller, expressed dismay about the recent spill of baled mostly plastic trash into waters of Penobscot Bay, and demanded action by the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection.

The Select Board and land trust are urging, serious sanctions for the accidental but preventable discharge of more than two tons of plastic waste at Mack Point, Searsport, according to Miller, in a news release.

The DEP said in early December that it was investigating thecompacted trash from Ireland that spilled into Penobscot Bay waters while being unloaded from a ocean freighter. A report or enforcement action has yet to be issued.

The Islesboro Select Board also strongly recommended enactment of policies to prevent plastics discharge to all Maine waters, including Penobscot Bay, in the future, he said.

On Jan. 3, the Islesboro Islands Trust sent a letter to Brian Kavanah, who is the director of the DEPs Bureau of Water Quality, advising zero tolerance, for this kind of preventable dumping into the marine waters.

Additionally, the Select Board is also submitting a letter to the DEP, which said, in part,"We are especially concerned about this serious water quality threat to our local economy."

(Read the attached PDF for the entire two letters)

Sprague Operating Resources must be sanctioned for not immediately reporting the above cited plastics discharge; protocols must be developed that ensure thorough, rapid and effective clean-up of any such waste spill in future; and waste transportation regulations must be imposed that represent zero tolerance for discharge of plastics into Maine waters, the IIT letter said. (See below for full letter)

Pendleton agreed to send the Islesboro Select Board letter, with copies of the IIT letter, to other municipalities in the Penobscot Bay region and apprise them of their concerns.

"Please undertake all steps necessary to discipline the responsible parties and establish zero tolerance for discharging plastic waste into the marine waters of Maine," the Select Board wrote.

Islesboro Islands Trust listed 12 specific concerns related to the discharge of waste plastics in Penobscot Bay.

The IIT letter reminded the Maine DEP that, Plastics in our bay are unacceptable in all cases but this was preventable, should have been reported immediately, should have been attended to more thoroughly and effectively and should cause officials to take steps to prevent this from happening again.

Miller said an increasing body of research clearly demonstrates that microplastics pose a serious health risk to marine life and humans who eat seafood.

Maine DEP needs to send an unambiguous message that discharges of waste plastics into marine waters is an unacceptable health hazard, Miller said.

Islesboro Islands Trust letter

Dear Mr. Kavanah:

Islesboro Islands Trust (IIT) advances land conservation, ecosystem education and environmental advocacy in the Penobscot Watershed. For more than 30 years, IITs education, advocacy, water quality monitoring, and research demonstrate particular interest in the quality and integrity of water throughout the watershed. IIT advocates for the extremely important Penobscot Bay marine economy. Sprague Operating Resources at Mack Point, Searsport, must be held accountable for the accidental but preventable discharge of more than 2 tons of plastic waste into Penobscot Bay and a policy of zero tolerance for plastic discharge into Maine waters must be adopted.

Plastics in our bay are unacceptable in all cases but this was preventable, should have been reported immediately, should have been attended to more thoroughly and effectively and should cause officials to take steps to prevent this from happening again.

Concerns include:

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Islesboro Select Board, Land Trust send strong message to state over two-ton trash spill in Penobscot Bay - PenBayPilot.com

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 08: A patient arrives by ambulance at the Royal London hospital on January ... [+] 8, 2021 in London, England. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that "if we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die" as cases of Covid-19 in the capital skyrocket. There are currently 7,034 people in London hospitals with COVID-19, over a third higher than the first peak of the pandemic in spring 2020. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The second wave of Covid-19 is proving to be the deadliest. This week, the U.S. has had three days in succession of record numbers of Covid-19 deaths. The daily death tally swelled to more than 4,000, with numbers of hospitalizations also reaching record levels at more than 133,000. Daily increases in caseload have also been staggeringly high. While vaccines offer the prospect that better days lie ahead sometime later this year, the reality is that we are currently in the grimmest phase of the pandemic.

For a plethora of reasons the rate of vaccinations has been insufficient to this point in time to have a significant impact. And so, with hospitals running at or near capacity in many areas, hospital administrators and physicians in the U.S. - as in many other nations - are grappling with extremely difficult choices. They are determining who can be treated and who cant.

As Covid-19 continues to overwhelm California hospitals, Los Angeles County officials are doing what they previously deemed unthinkable: Explicit rationing of medical supplies, including oxygen and drug treatments, and ICU space.

The Los Angeles Emergency Medical Services Agency has also instructed emergency responders to limit the use of supplemental oxygen and not transport patients who cannot be revived.

In the event a crisis level of care is declared - which appears to be imminent - the Los Angeles countys four public hospitals are also preparing to designate specially appointed triage officers who would decide which patients are likely to benefit from continued treatment in hospital and which are not. As case numbers in Southern California continue their seemingly inexorable rise, the use of triage officers will surely be brought to bear.

In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan said today that one in 30 Londoners now has coronavirus. We will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically. The occupancy of hospital beds is nearing 100%. Indeed, as a whole the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain is under the most intense pressure it has experienced yet during this pandemic.

All this is happening as the new B.1.1.7 variant of the coronavirus is leading to exponential growth in cases in the U.K. The Imperial College in London has researched the B.1.1.7 variant and calculated that its as much as 70% more contagious than the previously dominant variant. This has caused the R0, or reproduction number, to rise by between 0.4 and 0.7. Accordingly, this explains the almost vertical ascent in cases in recent weeks in Britain. At the beginning of December, the number of daily new coronavirus cases was around 13,000. This week the average daily number exceeds 60,000.

In light of this, four days ago Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the strictest lockdown yet deployed. It is an enforceable stay-at-home order, which bans people from mixing with other households, and prohibits people from leaving their homes for anything other than essential activities. Police will break up public gatherings and fine people found violating the rules. Universities, most schools, and all shops, gyms, and places of worship are closed until mid-February.

Rationing in the Context of Covid-19

In the 1930s, the British economist Lionel Robbins defined economics as the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.

This definition encapsulates the essence of allocation decisions. For an economist the ends are different from a hospital decision-maker or physician. But, ultimately, no matter what the ends, decisions must be made about how to allocate scarce resources with alternate uses.

There are multiple such scarce resources for critically ill Covid-19 patients, including ventilators, oxygen, drug treatments, and ICU space. Invariably, the question is how to allocate such scarce resources. Should allocation go towards patients in the greatest need or those most likely to benefit? Or should age or disability be a factor? Alternatively, should a patients profession or status be taken into consideration? These are the kinds of questions triage officers in Los Angeles and London will be faced with.

Americans may not like the word rationing. But, like all other healthcare systems the U.S. rations, and not just in circumstances such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Most healthcare rationing in the U.S. is implicit rather than explicit. For example, access to private health insurance is rationed on availability of employer-sponsored coverage and price of premiums.

In addition, private health insurers ration, but do so implicitly. For example, they may, under cover of vaguely worded medical necessity clauses, deny coverage of treatments, remove drugs from formulary, raise out-of-pocket patient cost-sharing which could make certain medical therapies un-affordable for some, or impose onerous conditions of reimbursement, such as prior authorization, step edits, and indication restrictions.

By contrast, Britains NHS has always been quite explicit and transparent about rationing of healthcare services. In this regard, having to now explicitly make, implement, and justify hard choices regarding which critically ill Covid-19 patients to care for will not be entirely foreign to those involved in the decision-making.

In the context of Covid-19, it turns out, for instance, that from the outset of the pandemic the use of intensive care services for Covid-19 patients has consistently been limited in Britain to those reasonably certain to survive. Furthermore, ventilator treatment is not considered in many elderly patients best interests.

Until the vaccination rollout improves dramatically, stronger mitigation measures are adopted, and the effects of such policies are felt, the continued extremely elevated level of new caseload of infections will lead to situations like the ones being experienced in the Los Angeles area, as well as Greater London.

What this implies is that hospital administrators and clinicians will be placed in an especially uncomfortable role of being the ones rationing care, effectively granting death sentences to some. Not every patient can be helped, and this of course will also include non-Covid-19 patients as lack of ICU space applies to them as well.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

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The Grimmest Days Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Coincide With The Most Severe Forms Of Rationing - Forbes

The Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an interfaith organization dedicated to religious freedom and human rights, will present the 2021 Appeal of Conscience Award to Dr. Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer at the Appeal of Conscience Foundation 56th Annual Awards virtually on March 22, 2021. He will be recognized for his "leadership in helping to heal a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and for his tireless work in service of the global community." said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Founder and President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

During his more than 25 years at Pfizer, Dr. Bourla has built a diverse and successful career, holding a number of senior global positions across a range of markets and disciplines. Prior to taking the reins as CEO in January 2019, he served as Pfizer's Chief Operating Officer beginning in January 2018, responsible for overseeing the Company's commercial strategy, manufacturing, and global product development functions. Previously, Dr. Bourla served as Group President of Pfizer Innovative Health, which comprised the Consumer Healthcare, Inflammation & Immunology, Internal Medicine, Oncology, Rare Disease and Vaccines business groups.

He began his career with Pfizer in 1993 in the Animal Health Division as Technical Director of Greece. He held positions of increasing responsibility within Animal Health across Europe, before moving to Pfizer's New York Global Headquarters in 2001. From there Albert went on to assume a succession of leadership roles. Bourla a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, holds a PhD in the Biotechnology of Reproduction from the Veterinary School of Aristotle University.

Previous Honorees:Past recipients of the Appeal of Conscience Award include: Bernard Arnault, Mary Barra, Barbara Bush, Michael Bloomberg, John Elkann, Alex Gorsky, Timetheus Httges, Robert Iger, Muhtar Kent,Coretta Scott King, Christine Lagarde, Brian Moynihan,Virginia Rometty, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Stephen Ross, Johann Peter Rupert, Daniel Vasella and Paul Volcker.

About the Appeal of Conscience Foundation:

The Appeal of Conscience Foundation, under the leadership of Rabbi Arthur Schneier, has worked worldwide on behalf of religious freedom, human rights, peace co-existence and mutual understanding since 1965. To uphold the principle "live and let live" is the Appeal of Conscience Foundation's continuing goal. An interfaith coalition of business, religious and foreign policy leaders, this international organization promotes mutual understanding, peace and interreligious cooperation and provides a voice of conscience to protect minorities. http://www.appealofconscience.org

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Dr. Albert Bourla Chairman and CEO of Pfizer will Receive 2021 Appeal of Conscience Award - Citybizlist

A new theory from researchers at the School of Biological Sciences at Queens University Belfast, Ireland, suggests animals experience emotions much like humans exhibiting positive moods when they win and negative moods when they encounter a loss.

Their findings have been published in the journal Proceedings Of The Royal Society B.

Animal contests are interactions between organisms when both are trying to use the same resource related to growth, reproduction, or survivability.

Competition stems from the fact that resources are limited. There are simply not enough of some resources for all individuals to have equal access and supply.

Until now, contest researchers have focused on how animals assess the resources value and their opponents fighting ability.

The new paper argues that these assessments contribute to animals emotional state and these emotions drive animal behaviour.

Using animal contests as a case study, the researchers suggest just as depressed or anxious humans are more pessimistic about the future, animals that lose fights will be in a more negative emotional state, more pessimistic about whether they can win, and so are less willing to engage in future fights.

Influence of emotions

Andrew Crump, Postdoctoral Researcher from the School of Biological Sciences at Queens and lead author of the paper said: Human emotion influences unrelated cognition and behaviour. For example, people rate their overall life satisfaction higher on sunny days than rainy days.

"We have found that animals emotions also influence unrelated cognition and behaviour. For example, animals that won a contest experienced a more positive mood and expected fewer predators in their environment.

"Similarly, animals that lost a contest experienced negative emotions and took part in less future contests. These carryover effects may lead to maladaptive behaviour.

Stimuli or events that elicit emotional responses might influence virtually any decision potentially with life-or-death consequences. For example, are rustling leaves a predator or the wind? Anxious animals will probably interpret the rustling as a predator and run away. This mood is adaptive when the anxiety is relevant, e.g. if it was induced by previous experience of predator attacks.

"But the mood is maladaptive if it was induced by something else say, losing a contest. In these circumstances, when the emotional basis of the decision is unrelated to the decision itself, we predict maladaptive decision-making.

In addition, despite the studys focus on contests, the research proposes this emotion theory may underpin all non-reflexive behaviour in animals from signalling, to mate choice and parental care. The authors suggest animal behaviour researchers may want to consider animal emotions in their work.

Future of animal welfare

Dr Gareth Arnott, Senior Lecturer from the School of Biological Sciences and principal investigator on the paper said: Animal behaviour researchers typically do not currently consider animal emotions in their work.

"However, the results of this study show that this may need to be considered as the role of animals emotion is crucial in relation to understanding their subsequent behaviour.

Understanding these emotions also has practical benefits for the future of animal welfare.

"Good welfare requires animals to have few negative emotions and lots of opportunities for positive experiences.

"Understanding animal emotions and why they evolved will, therefore, help us to measure and improve animals' emotional states and welfare.

The research team involved researchers from Liverpool John Moore's University, University of Alabama, Scotlands Rural College, and the University of Bristol and was funded by Northern Ireland's Department for the Economy.

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Animals have emotions, just like humans - The Star Online

Be it a passion they are born with or one they learn through circumstance, this year's Young Australian of the Year finalists all share the same drive to better the world for others.

But with a variety of backgrounds behind their drive, including poverty, disability, misfortune or a foundation in humanitarianism, any award will be a footnote on what is already a long list of achievements.

When AFLW footballer Tayla Harris was taken, aged 12, by her father to a boxing gym to learn a "combat sport for self defence", the coaches unearthed a fighting spirit.

At 23, the Victorian Young Australian of the Year remains undefeated in eight professional fights and holds the Australian super welterweight title.

"I loved the sport and learning about all the skills, discipline and hard work that it takes to become a fighter," Harris said.

But it is was her prowess on the football field that brought Harris to the attention of the wider Australian public, becoming Carlton Football Club's (CFC) leading goalkicker in 2019 and the AFLW Mark of the Year winner for two years running.

In 2019, a brilliantly captured image of Harris hovering above the field in full extension after kicking a football was tweeted by the AFL broadcaster.

Social media trolls swamped the feed with abusive, sexualised commentary, prompting the Seven Network to remove the image in an ill-fated response that drew widespread condemnation.

"I have always been taught by my parents to stand up for others in need and, of course, stand up for myself when I believed it was right," Harris said.

She went on to become an advocate for respectful relationships, visiting schools and workplaces through a CFC initiative to promote gender equality, and became an ambassador for Our Watch, an organisation aiming to prevent violence against women.

Harris has also co-authored a book entitled More Than a Kick, which provides young people with advice about social media and dealing with online bullying.

Modern slavery could be as close as the imported seafood and chocolate products we buy from the local supermarket, according to Western Australia's Young Australian of the Year Grace Forrest.

The 27-year-old founding director of international abolition organisation, Walk Free, said Australia imports an estimated $12 billion worth of products derived from modern slavery annually.

"Modern slavery could also have touched the clothes on your back, the toys you buy your children or the device you are reading this on," Ms Forrest said.

Ms Forrest said she first came face-to-face with modern slavery at 15 when she met children as young as three who had been rescued from human trafficking an experience that "fundamentally" shifted her perspective of the world.

"Globally, there is still an enduring belief that slavery has been abolished, that it's a dark legacy of our past relegated to history books," she said.

Ms Forrest's all-female Walk Free team in 2018 successfully campaigned for the implementation of the Australian Modern Slavery Act, which requires businesses turning over more than $100 million annually to report their supply chain details along with any risks of exploitation.

Walk Free's Global Slavery Index [GSI] estimates there are more than 40 million people living in slave conditions worldwide.

"Modern slavery is also an innately gendered issue; 70 per cent of victims are women and girls," Ms Forrest said.

Ms Forrest speaks regularly on the topic and has presented several times for the United Nations, most recently to its Security Council on Walk Free's new report, Stacked Odds.

She has also presented at the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings Women's Forum, and has been appointed the UN Association of Australia's youngest ever Goodwill Ambassador for Anti-Slavery.

Drawn to flying from a young age, Nathan Parker was captured by its demand to focus on the moment and leave everything else in the hangar.

That was until a military bus accident left him without his left hand and stole his dream to become a fighter pilot just days away from climbing into the cockpit.

But rather than wallow in self-pity, Mr Parker returned to civilian flying in three months and resumed military and university duties within seven months.

"I think I'm far more passionate about flying now, especially due to the countless times I thought I would never fly again following the bus accident," the NSW Young Australian of the Year said.

At 25, Mr Parker is a commercial pilot and senior Recreational Aviation Australia flying instructor in Lismore, pursuing a dream to fly aerobatics and provide joy flights for sick children.

He is also a motivational speaker and mentor who seeks to "assist, encourage and inspire as many people as possible to transform their toughest times into their greatest opportunities".

While overcoming his own "loss", Mr Parker represented Australia in the 2017 and 2018 Invictus Games where he won three golds, four silvers and two bronze, and found an affinity for indoor rowing.

"Not only was the atmosphere at the indoor rowing events electrifying, but throughout my recovery, indoor rowing provided me a means to see continual improvement," Mr Parker said.

His original love for flying, of course, knows no bounds.

"I have a number of big goals, including pursuing competition aerobatics and aspiring to win an Australian Aerobatic Championship," he said.

Ask 19-year-old climate action and youth empowerment advocate Toby Thorpe what he wants to be doing in 10 years and last on his list is fighting for change.

"I want to not have to worry and second-guess life decisions due to the impact of climate change," he said.

"I want to be able to look back on my life and say, 'I was on the right side of history'."

Mr Thorpe founded Tasmania's first state-wide climate leaders' conference across three cities when he was 14, attracting more than 350 students and professionals and encouraging them to lead sustainability projects for the environment and their communities.

He was later team leader of 14 Huonville High School students who were congratulated by world leaders in 2017 after designing a range of sustainable energy solutions for their school.

In recent years, the 2021 Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year led the island state's Youth Delegation for two United Nations Climate Change Conferences.

He says his passion is driven by opportunities to "revolutionise our systems toward being fairer and more equal" but he is under no illusions about the complexities involved in making change.

"I try and leave frustration out of the equation when advocating for action on climate change because I believe that it is an issue that should not require debate and should not be about politics," Mr Thorpe said.

"No one should drop out of school, cease employment or disengage from society simply because of their period," says South Australia's Young Australian of the Year Isobel Marshall.

But for millions of young women across the globe, period poverty is a reality and one that the 22-year-old wants to end.

After crowdfunding $56,000 in 2018, Ms Marshall and fellow South Australian Eloise Hall launched TABOO, a brand of ethically sourced organic pads and tampons.

All TABOO's net profits are sent to its charity partner (One Girls) in Sierra Leone and Uganda, where they are used to fight period poverty.

Pads are also donated to Australian women, including those who have escaped domestic violence, girls "sent to school with no products", those living in rural Australia with limited access, and women requiring emergency accommodation.

Ms Marshall said they travelled to Kenya and India in 2018 where they shadowed organisations working in areas including menstrual health care.

"We met girls who walk three hours everyday to get to school with nothing but dirty rags to soak up the blood and dealing with period cramps but nothing to help the pain," she said.

"We met girls who had dropped out of school at 13 because of their gender and biology.

"The trip was confronting but we left with a deep sense of conviction that we were right where we needed to be."

Ms Marshall is also studying for a Bachelor of Surgery and a Bachelor of Medicine.

"The more I learn about the human body, the more I am convinced that its incredible abilities, including menstruation and reproduction, should be celebrated and respected, not shamed," she said.

For a young Daniel Clarke, watching the late Steve Irwin sit in a tree as an orangutan handed him her baby was a "magical" sight he will never forget.

"That was the first time I saw how an orangutan can show such emotion towards a human," Daniel said.

Daniel has cerebral palsy and, when he was approached as a child by the Starlight Foundation charity to make a wish, he did not request anything for himself but instead wanted to "save the orangutans in Borneo".

Fast forward 14 years and Daniel, 24, and his brother, William, 22, have raised more than $900,000 to protect critically endangered orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo, sponsoring more than 50,000 hectares of habitat and adopting more than 100 animals.

The brothers have subsequently been named Queensland's Young Australians of the Year.

William said they had both always shared a love of wildlife and nature but when he witnessed Daniel's determination to save the orangutan, he saw "an amazing opportunity" to help his brother.

"Since working together we have both grown more passionate in wanting to make a a difference and are so proud of what we have been able to achieve, so far, as brothers," he said.

Their literary work on orangutan conservation has been incorporated into the NSW Department of Education Curriculum and, to date, they have spoken in about 80 Australian schools.

Their efforts have been recognised by former US president Barack Obama, famed primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, and former prime minister John Howard, who arranged a $500,000 grant over four years towards orangutan protection after meeting Daniel.

With a goal of $1,000,000, the brothers said they wanted the animals to be safe with no threat from palm oil plantations and illegal logging, pointing out that if the orangutans can be saved from extinction, other animals in the same habitat could be saved as well.

Aboriginal health practitioner Stuart McGrath knows all about poverty.

He had a nomadic upbringing in remote Northern Territory Indigenous communities where he described his own poverty as a "dark tunnel".

"It took me roughly 15 years to get out of that cycle," Mr McGrath said.

But the NT's Young Australian of the Year also recognised at an early age that education was the "key to a good life".

"That's what separated me among my peers and my childhood friends I figured out if I go to school every day it may be the way out," Mr McGrath said.

He moved to Galiwin'ku, a Yolngu community on Elcho Island north-east of Darwin, where his education progressed, before he schooling in Canberra and later studying in Darwin.

"Anyone can break that cycle," Mr McGrath said.

"Whether you're Caucasian, or black, or an immigrant or refugee, everyone has that one thing in common we're all chasing the Australian dream."

When he graduates, Mr McGrath will become the first Yolngu registered nurse, a task he has undertaken while working full-time and bringing up two young girls.

The 29-year-old has also helped produce the Ask the Specialist podcast with the Menzies School of Health Research, and is committed to addressing preventable diseases in Indigenous communities.

"There are a lot of poor health outcomes where I'm from that aren't even necessary because they are modifiable diseases, like rheumatic heart disease, diabetes, cardio diseases," Mr McGrath said.

"They [community members] can make informed decisions and take ownership and responsibility on the information I can relay in my native tongue."

He also has his eyes on postgraduate health studies with a focus on Aboriginal affairs policy making.

"That's where the real impacts can be made," Mr McGrath said.

The drive to help people can be "born inside you", says Salvation Army youth worker Tara McClelland.

At 24, the ACT Young Australian of the Year puts her efforts into assisting 16-to-24-year-olds at risk of or experiencing homelessness, and increasing their skills while in crisis accommodation.

"[Young people] are so resilient," Ms McClelland said.

"They can be dealt the toughest cards but they still manage to have a smile on their face and get going and make positive steps."

Ms McClelland also volunteers for the Headspace Canberra Young Reference Group, applying for funding and organising events to support mental health, including school information sessions.

She is on the Canberra Youth Theatre's Youth Artists Advisory Panel and has contributed to the Commissioner for Children and Young People's work to reduce family violence.

"Sometimes young people are afraid to ask for help because they are afraid of judgement, but you don't know what someone's gone through, or what's just under the surface," Ms McClelland said.

"Being able to help them by providing the simple things, like living skills for young people who don't know how to budget, or don't know how to cook, or access services ... to walk beside them and help is something that I'm just so proud to be a part of."

Ms McClelland has been recognised with a 2019 Annual Yogie Award commendation and a nomination for 2020 Young Canberra Citizen of the Year.

"I want to be using this platform to reach as many young people as possible," she said.

Read more from the original source:
Young Australian of the Year 2021: Standing up to help those in need - ABC News

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A large new study suggests that men who plan to be fathers should try to get themselves in shape first.

Researchers found that when fathers-to-be had health conditions like high blood pressure or obesity, the odds that their partner might experience miscarriage or stillbirth increased.

The findings do not prove that a father's health directly affects his partner's pregnancy, experts said. But given that men's health and lifestyle habits can affect sperm quality, it's plausible that dads make a difference in pregnancy outcomes.

"We do need more studies to figure out the mechanisms," said senior researcher Dr. Michael Eisenberg, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

In the meantime, he said, there's certainly no harm in encouraging men to eat healthfully, exercise and get any chronic health conditions under better control.

The findings, published online Dec. 18 in the journal Human Reproduction, are based on insurance records covering nearly 959,000 U.S. pregnancies. Almost 173,000 ended in a pregnancy loss -- a miscarriage, stillbirth or ectopic pregnancy (when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus).

Eisenberg's team looked at whether fathers' health diagnoses before conception showed any correlation with the risk of pregnancy loss.

In fact, they did. In general, the study found, the risk of pregnancy loss inched up with the number of health issues a father-to-be had.

If a man had one component of metabolic syndrome, for instance, the risk of pregnancy loss rose 10%. If he had three or more components, it rose by 19%, the investigators found.

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risk factors for heart disease and stroke. It includes obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes.

Past studies have linked older age in the father to poorer pregnancy outcomes, possibly because sperm quality diminishes with age.

But, in this study, the findings were not explained by older age, Eisenberg said. At any age, poorer health in the father mattered.

Of course, men with more health conditions might have a partner who is in poorer health, too. But Eisenberg's team accounted for the health of moms-to-be, and it did not fully explain the findings on fathers' health.

Dr. Rahul Gupta is chief medical and health officer for the nonprofit March of Dimes. He said, "We've known that the family's health is important to the health of a child." One reason is because children learn diet, exercise and other lifestyle habits from the adults around them, he noted.

The new findings, according to Gupta, suggest that a father's influence begins as early as conception.

Exactly why is unclear. But, he said, past research has shown that genes from the father help form the placenta -- and pregnancy loss is often associated with problems with the placenta.

"This is a field of science that needs to be developed more," Gupta said.

For now, he agreed with Eisenberg that the health of dads-to-be should not be ignored.

"For a long time," Gupta noted, "we didn't think that way."

Women's health remains "paramount" when it comes to pregnancy outcomes, Eisenberg said. But, he added, fathers-to-be can only do themselves and their family good by taking their own health seriously, too.

More information

The March of Dimes has more on pregnancy loss.

SOURCES: Michael Eisenberg, MD, associate professor, urology, and director, male reproductive medicine and surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Rahul Gupta, MD, MPH, MBA, chief medical and health officer, and senior vice president, March of Dimes, Arlington, Va.; Human Reproduction, Dec. 18, 2020, online

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Dads' Health Linked to Odds of Pregnancy Loss in Moms-to-Be - HealthDay News

Lead is a naturally occurring metal found in ore with silver, zinc, and copper and is extracted together with these metals, but native lead is rare in nature. This bluish-white lustrous metal is resistant to corrosion, malleable, ductile but is soft and a poor conductor of electricity. These qualities have made lead useful since the Roman Empire era as water pipes. Its current uses are in lead-acid car batteries, as a component of glass in computer and television screens, as weight in sports equipment, and as a container of corrosive liquids. It is also used in some solders and some grades of petrol (gasoline).

However, as useful as this element may seem, lead is also a dangerous and toxic metal. It has caused various health issues that may date back to its first widespread use. Even now, lead poisoning and toxicity are still significant issues that need to be addressed. Here, well discuss the harmful effects of lead poisoning and how you can avoid it.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the toxicity and harmful effects of lead. Compared to adults, children absorb lead 4-5 times more from a given source. Lead can enter the human body through the intake of food, water, and air. Lead is a cumulative toxicant, meaning its concentration increases after regular and repeated ingestion. Thus, at high levels of exposure, lead poisoning can cause convulsions, coma, or death. Low to moderate lead exposure levels in children can cause changes in cognition and behavior such as reduced attention span, increased antisocial behavior, and decreased intelligence quotient (IQ). Health symptoms include renal impairment, weakened immune system, anemia, and hypertension.

Many countries have taken steps to reduce lead contamination by lowering or eliminating lead-glazed or lead-soldered containers of food and food items and removing the lead content from gasoline and aviation fuel. Leaded paints are also being phased out due to health and environmental reasons. However, different countries have varying progress regarding programs eliminating or reducing the adverse health effects of lead.

Even in the United States, the water piping systems across the country are not fully updated, and there are still some communities that use old lead water pipes or pipes with leaded welding solder and fittings. If you live in an old house, especially one that was built earlier than 1986, there is a high chance that it may still be using lead pipes or metal pipes with lead solder or pipe fittings. The plumbing fixtures may also contain lead, which is why you need the best water filter for lead removal to safeguard yourself and your family, especially your children. Lead contaminates drinking water through the corrosion of pipes. This usually happens when the pH level of water is slightly acidic. Public water treatment facilities are applying pH-adjustment in addition to filtration measures to ensure that water from your faucet is safe to drink. As an added measure of protection, installing a water filter system at home filters out not just impurities but also heavy metal contaminants such as lead.

When lead is ingested in the body, it is distributed to different organs, particularly the kidney, liver, bones, and brain. At low concentrations, the symptoms of lead poisoning cannot be felt or noticed immediately. As you continue to ingest lead particles into your body, they accumulate in the different organs of the body and slowly deteriorate their functions. You may notice an early onset of high blood pressure, unexplained weakness, anemia, and kidney damage.

Some mild symptoms such as constipation, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, memory loss episodes, headaches, and pain or tingling in the hands or feet may surface. However, these symptoms share the same features as other ailments, diseases, and conditions, making them easily overlooked and mistaken for a different condition. If you suspect that the symptoms you are experiencing are caused by lead exposure, you can consult your doctor and have your blood tested.

Blood testing is a reliable way of measuring and assessing human exposure to lead. When you experience a recurrence of the symptoms mentioned above, even if you feel relatively fine or healthy and recall being exposed to sources of lead exposure, have your blood tested as soon as possible. Various diseases and conditions, including lead exposure, can be detected from testing your blood samples, which is why it pays to err on the side of caution when it comes to your health. Early detection can help mitigate the physiological effects of lead poisoning, but the neurological and behavioral effects of lead poisoning are difficult to reverse or even irreversible.

Fortunately, lead exposure is preventable. There are many ways you can keep yourself, your family, and the people around you safe from the adverse health effects of lead poisoning by educating yourself and coordinating with your doctor and individuals advocating lead regulation and banning.

Another significant cause of concern when it comes to lead exposure is its adverse effects on human reproduction. We mentioned earlier, the capability of lead to be transported and distributed to different organs of the body and the human reproductive system isnt safe either. Lead poisoning deteriorates the reproductive organs and their functions, causing infertility in both males and females, miscarriages, and stillbirths.

There is also a connection between the accumulation of lead in the bone and congenital disabilities in children whose mothers have been exposed to lead. Lead in the bone is circulated in the blood during pregnancy and crosses the blood-placenta barrier, affecting the fetus. Fetal exposure to lead causes damage to the nervous system and brain of the unborn child. As no known blood lead concentration is considered safe or does not have harmful effects, even low-level lead exposure in a developing fetus can have cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

Lead is one of the harmful heavy metals that can gravely affect our health. Its a cumulative toxicant, and most of the time, you notice the symptoms when the level of exposure is already high. Nevertheless, lead poisoning is preventable, and there are many precautions you can take to avoid exposing yourself and your family to the harmful effects of lead. Keep yourself well-informed about lead and its sources and effects and use products that are free of lead. With these small steps, you are safeguarding your health and well-being.

Continued here:
The Harmful Effects Of Lead Poisoning - Emagazine.com - E/The Environmental Magazine

My own experience of over 60 years in biomedical research amply demonstrated that without the use of human beings, it would have been impossible to acquire the important knowledge needed to prevent much suffering and premature death among humans. Albert Sabin

Albert Sabin, the medical researcher best known for developing the oral polio vaccine, highlights the importance of biomedical research in his quotation mentioned above.

This importance has not diminished with time. The opposite is true. With the arrival of new diseases caused by viral infections, cancers, and other conditions such as kidney disease, the only way to improve human life and help people combat these diseases is through biomedical research.

While the COVID-19 illness caused by the zoonosis, SARS-CoV-2, is not directly related to this discussion; it is a useful and relevant example of how scientific research plays a pivotal role in answering the questions asked by the virus as it continues to rampage its way through the worlds populations. Understanding the viruss behavior, epidemiology, etiology, genotype, and phenotype will help medical professionals combat the disease, reduce the reproduction (or R) rate, and prevent people from dying. Biomedical research is also playing a primary role in the development of a vaccine.

What is biomedical research?

Biomedical research is defined as the broad area of science that looks for ways to prevent and treat diseases that cause illness and death in people and in animals.

Researchers utilize biotechnology techniques such as the use of human plasma samples to determine whether the studys stated hypothesis is correct or not.

In essence, biomedical researchers or scientists study biological processes and diseases with the ultimate goal of developing effective treatments and cures.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): The need for research is ongoing

While COVID-19 is a primary global concern and will be for the foreseeable future, lets move away from this scenario and consider another disease that requires ongoing research, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), including the use of human plasma samples in the testing phase of related research studies.

As an aside, CKD is a risk factor for COVID-19 morbidity. Thus, it makes even more sense to find ways to manage the disease and its progression, especially under the current circumstances.

The medical journal article titled Kidney Disease: new technologies translate mechanisms to cure, notes that kidney disease is one of the worlds most prevalent conditions and is a frequent complication of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

The introduction to this study goes on to state that recent advances in biomedical research and novel technologies have created opportunities to study kidney disease on a variety of platforms, applied to human populations.

Statistics reported by the CDC estimate that over 20 million Americans have CDK, of which 40% of sufferers are over 65 years of age. Secondly, it is estimated that the global prevalence of CDK is more than 10% of the worlds population.

Clearly, something must be done to treat this scourge.

It is also perhaps interesting to be mindful that a recent uniform definition of the term kidney disease altered the medical industrys perceptivity and outlook on CKDs impact on human health. Before the publication of this definition, the only kidney disease that was considered a significant health issue was the type that required a kidney transplant.

Fortunately, through continued biomedical research studies and heightened exposure to the overarching meaning of the phrase kidney disease, much has changed for the better. Researchers and medical professionals are now working together to understand the archetype Chronic Kidney Disease and its impact on human health and quality of life, especially within the COVID-19 paradigm.

The relationship between blood plasma and kidney disease

Finally, the question that begs is, what is the relationship between blood plasma and kidney disease. In other words, why are in-vitro human blood plasma samples an imperative in the study of the various parts to the all-encompassing term, chronic kidney disease?

By way of answering this question, lets consider the role that blood plasma plays in the human body, with particular reference to both kidneys.

Theprimary function of the human kidneysis to remove excess fluids and waste products from the body. A secondary role is to control the manufacture of red blood cells. Thus, in summary, it stands to reason that it is essential to take care of the kidneys, as with all other human organs, to ensure their optimal functioning.

The website, mcb.berkeley.edu reports that about 180 liters of fluids are filtered through the kidneys in a 24-hour period. The total blood plasma volume is only 3 liters, so it is filtered over 60 times a day.

Blood plasma, on the other hand, is an element of whole blood. Unfortunately, it is often the forgotten part of human blood. The other, more well-known elements are white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Plasma is the largest part of human blood. It makes up more than 50% of the bloods overall content. And its primary role is to transport hormones, nutrients, and proteins to the parts of the body that need it. During the process where cells interact with the blood plasma, receiving the nutrients, they also return waste products to the plasma, which is then carried to the kidneys where it is extracted and processed into urine.

Apart from the hormones, nutrients, and proteins, plasma also contains critical components, including clotting factors, antibodies, and albumin and fibrinogen.

Chronic Kidney Disease negatively impacts many different functions of the human body, especially the production of red blood cells and the ability to filter out waste products from the blood plasma. It is vital that the waste products, including toxins, are removed rapidly and efficiently.

Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that it is a severe problem when the kidneys are no longer able to filter out the waste and toxins from the human blood plasma. Thus, the need for in-vitro blood plasma samples as a mechanism to develop a greater insight into CKD as well as new treatments for CKD. Succinctly stated, it is vital for human health and well-being.

Final thought

AtSolomon Park, we would not be able to provide research studies with the necessary blood plasma samples without human blood donations. Please consider donating blood today by consideringthe requirements to donate whole blood, which is then spun out into its individual components, including serum, plasma, and platelets.

And, if you are a biomedical research study manager or researcher, we have the right blood plasma samples to help you answer the questions asked by the studys hypothesis.

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Biomedical Research: Defining the relationship between Blood Plasma and Kidney Disease - MarylandReporter.com

The 1997 science fiction film Gattaca is set in a dystopic future in which the practice of eugenics selective breeding designed to pass on desired genetic traits is the norm.

In this society, couples who want to have children pursue technological reproduction rather than natural procreation. This allows them to pick which of their embryonic children they want to bear after surveying their genomes.

The moral imperative is for parents to conceive and bear the best possible child, not only with preferred physical traits or predispositions for particular talents, but also free from hereditary disease and disability.

To roll the dice and welcome whatever child you get is seen as irresponsible: Not only would you be knowingly disadvantaging your child, you would also be risking reintroducing undesirable genes back into the gene pool.

Sadly, what was science fiction just a few years ago has become a reality.

In the cover story of the December issue of The Atlantic, reporter Sarah Zhang visits Denmark, a country considered moral pioneers in the field of prenatal genetic testing, diagnosis, and decision-making.

In her conversations with families and experts, Zhang uncovers a devastating trend: more than 95% of pregnancies that have a test result showing a likelihood of Trisomy 21, known more commonly as Down syndrome, end in abortion. The phenomenon of selective abortion is gaining traction despite the fact that some results are false positives, and the fact that persons with Trisomy 21 have excellent survival rates and life expectancies.

Persons with Trisomy 21 have varying symptoms (and varying degrees of severity of symptoms), including intellectual disabilities and muscular-skeletal issues. They are more susceptible to heart problems, gastrointestinal abnormalities, and speech issues. Severe cases require significant intervention, therapy, and resources.

Yet others with Down syndrome go to college, find employment, live independently, and get married. Just like any person, their particular challenges and strengths become evident over time, in part due to their genetic makeup as well as the environment in which they develop.

Within hours of the 8,000-word articles publication online, some were praising Zhangs reporting for humanizing and giving a voice to people with Down syndrome. Others, including pro-lifers, expressed outrage: For instance, one writer at The Federalist accused the author of seeking to create sympathy and understanding for eugenics and a modern-day genocide.

But beyond the pieces implications for the pro-life and pro-choice movements, Zhang identifies an uncomfortable, telling paradox one that signals the dawn of what has been called the genetic information age. She writes:

In wealthy countries, it seems to be at once the best and the worst time for Down syndrome. Better health care has more than doubled life expectancy. Better access to education means most children with Down syndrome will learn to read and write. Few people speak publicly about wanting to eliminate Down syndrome. Yet individual choices are adding up to something very close to that.

Put in other words, the article is an invitation for the world to ask itself: How can a society that celebrates diversity, inclusion, and tolerance allow its members who have genetic differences to be systematically, surgically extracted from its population?

During an amniocentesis, a doctor punctures the abdominal wall of a pregnant woman to withdraw the fluid. The fluid is then analyzed for various chromosomal abnormalities. Today, that information can be gleaned from a mothers blood sample by the 10th week of pregnancy. (Shutterstock)

Three overlapping factors have created new moral questions around child-bearing: 1) reproductive technologies, originally designed to assist couples struggling with infertility, have proliferated in type and availability; 2) the project to map the human genome, completed in 2003, has given scientists and doctors a window into the genes of their patients as well as their patients gametes; and 3) prenatal genetic testing has become a routine part of obstetric care.

While originally developed to assist couples who were unable to conceive children through natural procreation, artificial reproductive technologies (ART) now comprise a booming fertility industry. Services like in vitro fertilization are now cheaper, less riskier to women, and more likely to be covered by insurance and thus more widely available.

Because marriage and child-bearing are increasingly delayed in wealthier nations, both infertility and the risk of chromosomal abnormalities are on the rise. This makes in vitro fertilization, now paired with genetic testing, a more desirable method of reproduction: From a consumer standpoint, getting the healthiest possible child is the best investment in terms of time, cost, and risk.

But even if a woman gets pregnant naturally, she is likely to be offered prenatal screening for major chromosomal abnormalities. In the U.S., prenatal testing was generally offered to women over 35 or those with high-risk pregnancies. As of 2019, more than 60% of OBGYNs had offered it as part of their standard care to all patients.

In Denmark, nearly all pregnant women choose to have their developing children screened for genetic abnormalities.

Prenatal testing used to be done later in the second trimester if an ultrasound revealed atypical development, or if parents knew they were carriers for genetic conditions. Today, that information as well as the sex of the baby can be gleaned from a mothers blood sample by the 10th week of pregnancy.

Genetic counselors are supposed to present findings with value neutrality, meaning their language and affect is not supposed to sway patients decision-making. But Zhang spoke to advocates for persons with Down syndrome who were actively lobbying health care providers to change their language, for fear that the increase in selective abortion was correlated to language that increased parental fear.

Even shifting language from risk to probability could help open parents up to choosing life, they argued.

In many of the cases Zhang learned about, the children were originally wanted sometimes desperately so but in one catastrophic moment, they became unwanted. Parental fears about their childs quality of life as well as disappointment over losing the family that they had hoped for swayed them toward abortion.

Suddenly, Zhang writes, a new power was thrust into the hands of ordinary people the power to decide what kind of life is worth bringing into the world.

The world that The Atlantic article describes is one shaped by what Notre Dame law and political science professor O. Carter Snead calls expressive individualism in his new book What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics (Harvard University Press, $39.95).

This philosophy equates being fully human with finding the unique truth within ourselves and freely constructing our individual lives to reflect it, writes Snead. It considers human relationships as transactional, formed by agreements, promises, and consent for the mutual benefits of the parties involved.

Such a philosophy, he argues, leaves us without a coherent vision of our moral obligations to one another, especially the most vulnerable. This is illustrated in Zhangs piece by a series of moral quandaries that selective abortion poses.

Pope Francis kisses Peter Lombardi, 12, of Columbus, Ohio, after the boy rode in the popemobile during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in 2018. (Catholic News Service/Vatican Media)

If reproductive decision-making is an individual choice, what should a society do when thousands (or millions) of individual choices result in massive demographic or sociological changes?

Is a eugenic movement brought about by a societys own choosing any less problematic than one which is forced on a people, such as the campaign to eradicate persons with disabilities designed by the Nazis or the current campaign by the Chinese government to eliminate its Uyghurs population?

Zhang uncovers what she calls the most perverse moral problem in an exchange with a Danish woman who heads the National Down Syndrome Association. The woman, who is also a mother to 18-year-old son with Down syndrome, educates expectant parents about the condition.

During one of their conversations, the teenage boy leans over and looks at his mothers phone. The title of a controversial documentary called Death to Down Syndrome was displayed on the screen, and he immediately recoiled.

The reporter realized that he was cognizant of the fact that there are people who dont want people like him to be born. Moreover, his mother supports the right to abortion, even in cases like his.

The scene illustrates the ultimate conundrum for a society that supports the unrestricted right to abortion while claiming to uphold the equality of all human beings as a foundational moral principle: A woman must convince her child that his life is valuable, dignified, and worthy of living, while also supporting the rights of others to end the life of their child with his same genetic markers.

The response of a Catholic reader to the article would seem clear-cut: Because abortion is the taking of human life in its most vulnerable stage, it violates the fundamental right of all human beings to continue their life until natural death. Abortion, as well as any reproductive technology involving the creation, testing, and destruction of embryos, must be rejected.

But Catholic teaching does not stop at the moral evaluation of the technology or the act of abortion. The Gospel goes deeper it speaks to the heart of parents who receive a devastating diagnosis. It speaks to the vocation of health care workers and geneticists to heal when they can and offer comfort when they cannot. And it speaks to families about what it means to be open to the mystery of Gods design for family life.

In a 2019 speech, Pope Francis lamented the fact that thanks to modern prenatal testing techniques, even the suspicion of an illness, and especially the certainty of a disease, changes the experience of pregnancy and causes deep distress to women and couples.

The isolation and worry about the suffering that lies ahead, the pope said, is like a silent cry, a call for help in the darkness, when faced with an illness whose outcome cannot be foreseen with certainty.

In the face of fear and isolation, parents need support from a larger community, whether through their extended family, the parish, or others who have been in their situation. Support from a community is the first antidote to the individualism and isolation of reproductive choice.

When it comes to the issue of medical language, The Atlantic article notes that while genetic counselors and obstetricians are trained and required to present genetic information in as neutral a way as possible to patients, that doesnt always happen.

Pope Francis has admonished clinicians who use the phrase incompatible with life to describe genetic conditions that correspond with short lifespans or severe physical and cognitive impairments. For one thing, where there is a living human being, there is life.

Second, he says:

No human being can ever be unfit for life, whether due to age, state of health or quality of existence. Every child who appears in a womans womb is a gift that changes a familys history, the life of fathers and mothers, grandparents and of brothers and sisters. That child needs to be welcomed, loved and nurtured.

The fact that so many parents, when faced with a diagnosis of Down syndrome or other genetic anomalies, choose abortion tells Catholics a few things about why and where the Gospel is needed.

A society that reveres health and wellness is one that will have trouble in the face of sickness, aging, and death. It needs to hear the good news that suffering has been redeemed, and that it stretches the hearts of patients, caregivers, and the people they encounter.

A scene from the movie Gattaca. (IMDB)

Being mortals, bodily decay or dysfunction will come to all of us; some members of our human family experience it more acutely or earlier than others. They should receive more care, not more marginalization, because of it.

A materialist society that reduces people to their bodies and even microscopically, to their genetic material needs to know the truth that human beings have a body and a soul. The most important quality that children have and develop is their capacity to love, something that does not depend on their physical or cognitive ability.

A consumer-driven society, one that has become accustomed to customizable, curated lifestyles, is one that considers parenthood as a fulfillment of desires or a way to construct meaning and identity. Such a society which does not pause at the ways it commodifies its children needs to be reminded to protect the little ones. And a society that has unlimited access to information desperately needs wisdom.

The opening credits of Gattaca include a cautionary line from the Book of Ecclesiastes: Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what He has made crooked?

The answer to this rhetorical question should humble us. It should also help us to see all children not as something owed, but as gifts to be received as is, with all of their challenges and strengths.

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The Genetic Information Age is here. Are we ready? - Angelus News

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Bengaluru: A new study has found that the Himalayas generate large quantities of natural aerosols that may play an important role in cloud formation and the Earths climate.

The Himalayas act as a giant barrier to wind flow, facilitating the accumulation of aerosols that are then transported to high altitudes by mountain winds. Aerosols are airborne particles that are formed from both natural sources, such as gases released by plants, and pollutants emitted by human activities.

The study has shown that a large quantity of natural aerosols are transported by winds and pumped into the upper troposphere in the Himalayas. Knowing this is also likely to help scientists understand the quantity and effect of human-made aerosols in the future.

The study was aimed at understanding the formation of clouds and aerosols, as well as the levels of natural aerosol in the Himalayas. The observations were taken at the remote Nepal Climate Observatory Pyramid station, situated 5,079 m above the sea level and a few kilometres below the Everests summit.

The findings were published this month in Nature Geoscience journal.

Also read: Celestial fireworks tonight as Geminids meteor shower set to peak

Aerosols are microscopic solid, liquid, or mixed particles that remain suspended in the air. These form condensation nuclei particles on which water vapour condenses when they rise up the atmosphere, thus forming clouds.

However, since water content in the atmosphere doesnt change in relation to aerosol change, an increased quantity of aerosols hold on to smaller droplets that fall to the ground slowly. Understanding clouds and cloud formation also helps scientists in predicting climate changes.

The key process when studying aerosols and their cloud-forming properties is new particle formation (NPF), the process that is behind aerosol numbers in the atmosphere.

NPF is a two-step process. First, aerosols about the size of 1 nanometer are formed from liquids or gases (called precursors), and then they grow to larger sizes by condensation as they rise through the cool atmosphere. NPF events are typically observed at high altitude or mountain atmospheric observatories regularly.

At the Nepal Climate Observatory Pyramid, NPF was observed almost on a daily basis.

The international research team conducted observations from 28 November to 25 December 2014, after the monsoon, when there was no wind blowing from the Indo-Gangetic plains towards the Himalayas. The researchers noticed that there was a high frequency of NPF events, where particles wider than 1 nanometer and ions wider than 0.8 nanometer formed clusters quickly, and rapidly grew to sizes larger than 10 nanometers.

The researchers were able to tell, via wind direction, that the majority of nanoparticles came from southwesterly winds. An analysis of these particles and ions also indicated that a large fraction of the particles were organic, originating from plants.

Plants emit a variety of volatile organic compounds from leaves, flowers, and roots. These are released as a response to stress, during reproduction or pollination, or as defence against insects.

Owing to the nature of the winds, these organic aerosols are transported over large distances and to higher altitudes of the Himalayas. The researchers concluded that the Himalayas act as an free tropospheric aerosol factory, and discovered that natural aerosols could be the source of nearly half of the atmospheres cloud condensation nuclei in the region, and thus influence cloud properties.

When the Suns radiation and heat penetrates the Earths atmosphere, about a half of it reaches the surface. About a third gets scattered back to space, while the rest is absorbed within the atmosphere.

The land gets heated and this heat is then radiated back into space via the atmosphere. This heat is absorbed by greenhouses gases as well, further heating up the atmosphere.

The Earth remains in a radiation balance. It is exposed to tremendous amounts of heat and radiation from the Sun, which is balanced by the amount of heat and radiation escaping Earth. And this balance is important to maintain the planets climate.

When this natural balance gets affected, the phenomenon is known as radiative forcing. Understanding aerosol concentrations is important for monitoring radiative forcing.

When incoming radiation or trapped heat increases, there is positive forcing, and when the heat emitted into space increases, there is negative forcing.

Radiative forcing can be affected by many factors other than aerosols, and the global average of radiation absorption is about 240 watts per square metre.

It has been well established that when an imbalance in the radiation forces occur in the upper atmosphere, it is directly reflected as a change in surface temperature. Therefore, monitoring radiative forcing gives an approximate idea of the effects that could be seen on the surface.

Radiative forcing can be measured into the past, by looking at past aerosol records, and the effects of temperature on the surface. It is also useful for identifying new gases that humans may emit in future and the impact these would have on surface temperature, including assessing NPF.

The new study helps in understanding the effects of radiative forcing from the Himalayas and the extent of anthropogenic or human contribution to aerosols in the upper atmosphere.

Also read: Yale study finds why large mammals like elephants, tigers still exist in India

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There is a natural aerosol factory in the Himalayas and it affects climate, study finds - ThePrint

The presence of the Babinski sign has already been reported for some Renaissance paintings, and the first observations date from the beginning of the 20th century.23 More recently, several articles have highlighted paintings by Botticelli containing the Babinski sign.789 However, some other paintings with the toe phenomenon have scarcely been written about,810 and, until now, no systematic study of the Babinski sign in paintings of the Christ Child from the Renaissance period (1400-1550 CE) has been reported. We did such a study using a specific and strict method, and we observed that 30% (90/302) of the corpus of paintings portrayed the Babinski sign, with a stimulating factor in 53% (48/90) of cases.

This frequency mainly results from the artistic revolution of the 15th century. In the Middle Ages, when trying to illustrate Jesus Christ, painters often represented him as a small man, with a childs height but the body and the face of an adult. Even though this way of depicting the Christ Child is still used in some Orthodox traditions, it might be regarded as an incongruity, as highlighted by Huysmans: To make the inexpressible childhood of a God () they created a hybrid being, who is no longer a child, and who is not a God, some kind of monster.11 During the Renaissance, artists began to represent the nudity of the Christ Child to demonstrate the incarnation of Christ, who was subsequently portrayed in a very realistic form. Modern art historians postulate that the imagery of the overtly sexed Christ was an affirmation of kinship with the human condition.12

As a consequence of a growing desire for realism, most Renaissance painters no longer depicted the Christ Child as a small man but as a real infant. If they had live infants as models, they were more likely to involuntarily reproduce the Babinski sign. This realism was not merely the consequence of the Italian Renaissance revolution, as it is much more the hallmark of Flemish and Rhenish painters (particularly van der Weyden, Memling, Schongauer, and Grnewald), known for their tendency to paint precise, sometimes trivial, realistic details from everyday life. This trend towards realistic depictions is also shown by the fact that in these paintings, the infants, clothes, and general surroundings belong to the Western world contemporary to the painters and are not representative of the Middle East in the first century CE. This tendency may also explain the painters frequent reproduction of the Babinski sign as soon as representation of the infants nudity became acceptable, examples of which are given in figure 2 (A-C and E). By contrast, Italian painters tended to depict idealised human bodies, with a quest for perfect beauty, as seen in the models of antiquity. Therefore, some painters, such as Fra Angelico, Masaccio, or Tiziano, failed to reproduce the Babinski sign in paintings of the Christ Child.

The stimulating atmosphere of the Renaissance period and the need for a scientific approach and precise observation of live infants to improve likenesses has been proposed as a possible explanation of the representation of the Babinski sign in paintings of the Christ Child. The particular influence of the Renaissance led to accurate depiction of natural phenomena, especially in painting. Botticelli was an example of this new focus; 40% (12/30) of his paintings in this study depict a Babinski sign. Nevertheless, many great painters such as Raphael, known to have an eye for the finest details of their subjects, almost never depicted the Christ Child with an upgoing toe. Many Renaissance painters were aware of medical and anatomical realities; neurological abnormalities such as ulnar claw or facial dystonia appear in Renaissance paintings,1314 and some painters, such as Michelangelo and da Vinci, did anatomical dissections. However, this pursuit of anatomical knowledge seems not to have been a determining factor for the depiction of the Babinski sign in painting; da Vinci, who was an anatomist and contributed to the study of the nervous system,15 depicted the Babinski sign in only 22% (2/9) of his paintings of the Christ Child. Similarly, no Tiziano paintings portray the toe phenomenon. However, Tiziano, with his student Jan van Calcar (c1499-1545), certainly participated in the illustrations for the anatomical masterpiece De Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius (1514-64).16

To explain about 30% of the paintings displaying a Babinski sign in our study, two other mechanisms can be discussed: the master-student effect, and the copying effect. In our corpus, a master-student effect could be suspected regarding Leonardo da Vinci and his master Andrea del Verrochio. It is interesting to note that the three paintings of the Christ Child with a bilateral Babinski sign were produced by Andrea del Verrochio (The Virgin and Child with Two Angels, c1470) (fig 2, D) and Leonardo da Vinci (Madonna of the Carnation, c1479, and Madonna Benois, c1480). This hypothesis of artistic filiation is supported by the bilateral Babinski sign that was recently observed on a sculpture attributed to da Vinci (Virgin with the Laughing Child).17

The practice of copying works of art was frequent during the Renaissance, particularly for Virgin and Christ Child paintings. The painting Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, of which many copies exist, is a clear example of this.18 However, examples of serial paintings, such as Madonna and Child with the Milk Soup by Grard David, which was reproduced in at least three versions, are rare. The Babinski sign is not present in the version of this painting exhibited in the Palazzo Bianco in Genoa, whereas it is present in the other two versions. Cranach the Elder frequently produced serial paintings of the Madonna and Child, reproducing the Babinski sign each time, but this phenomenon cannot explain the occurrence of the sign in other paintings by the same artist, such as The Virgin and Child with a Bunch of Grapes (Fig 2, E).

An alternative hypothesis is that the dorsiflexion of the toes in some of Botticellis or Cranachs infants is a Mannerist stylistic choice, as shown also by the formalised placements of the fingers.9 However, this cannot be the correct explanation, as Mannerism is an artistic style that emerged only in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance (around 1520), breaking all the codes of anatomical accuracy, proportion, and balance.19 Mannerism is clearly absent in paintings by Flemish painters such as Rogier van der Weyden or Grard David or Rhenish painters such as Martin Schongauer, who frequently depicted the Babinski sign. Examples of works containing the Babinski sign by these artists are in figure 2 (A, B, and C).

Many studies of the plantar reflex in infants have been published. These have sometimes reported contradictory findings about the flexion or extension response (Babinski sign) of this reflex. One reason for these heterogeneous results may be the interference of the grasp reflex of the toes, which is generally present during the first year of life. Taking the grasp reflex into account, the physiological response of the plantar reflex until the age of 6 months is hallux extension. The main factor in eliciting the hallux extension in infants seems to be the intensity of the stimulus.420 In our corpus, we observed stimulation of the foot in 53% (48/90) of the paintings. We obviously could not evaluate the intensity of this stimulus. Nevertheless, as already noted, in some cases the stimulus was directly applied to the lateral part of the sole, the site known to elicit the Babinski sign.7

At the age of 6 months, hallux extension usually ceases to be the manifestation of the plantar reflex.420 Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, and Presentation at the Temple paintings are supposed to be set during the first week of Jesuss life, and Madonna and Child paintings during the first year. Evidently, the age of the Christ Child as depicted in paintings does not correspond to the chronological reality of these events. We therefore cannot show a relation between the frequency of the Babinski sign and the subject matter of the paintings in our series. Even if a preoccupation with realism dominated in this artistic period, the painted Christ Child usually appears older than the reality. As determining the precise age of the model is difficult, we are not able to establish a correlation with the myelinisation of the nervous system. The use of older children as models might therefore explain the low frequency of the depiction of the Babinski sign by some painters.

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The Babinski sign in Renaissance paintingsa reappraisal of the toe phenomenon in representations of the Christ Child: observational analysis - The BMJ

Hadley Horch and Scott McEachern

The second session featured Horch alongside noted anthropologist and former Bowdoin professor Scott MacEachern, who is now vice chancellor for academic affairs at Duke Kunshan University in China. This discussion, titled Eugenics and the IQ Test, revisited the theme of the misuse of scientific knowledge. Particular attention was paid to the problems of trying to define and measure intelligence. Any documented difference in IQ scores between different racial and ethnic groups says more about inequality in societies than it does about intelligence, said Horch. Environmental and cultural factors are rarely well-controlled in these comparison studies, she added.

There are important lessons to be learned from studying the impact of eugenics in the last century, said Horch and Logan. Today we are exposed to brand new sources of information, vast troves of genomic information that weve never had before, said Logan, and in managing that there comes huge ethical responsibility. He is referring to the era ushered in by the Human Genome Projecta multiyear international scientific effort to map all human genes. The thirteen-year project, which concluded in 2003, has given scientists the most accurate reading yet of the entire human genetic sequence and greater increased our capacity to survey the genomes of humans and other organisms. The discovery, said Logan, marked a quantum leap in human knowledge. There are, however, problems with the huge data sets used in the project, said Horch, because about 70 percent of the genetic information sampled is from people of white European stock. This points to an inherent bias in the data, she explained, so there is much in the way of complexity and richness that is not represented.

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Seminars Explore the Immorality of the Eugenics Movement and Its Implications Today - Bowdoin News

Not only does "WALL-E" have a premise that's both horrifically sad and unnervingly environmentally relevant, it's also largely about two robots that only say a half-dozen words or so between them. It's amazing, when you think about it, that audiences were able to connect with the story emotionally, and it's actually thanks in large part to songs from the 1969 movie musical "Hello, Dolly!" WALL-E has managed to find a VHS copy of the film that improbably still works, and repeated clips of just two songs serve as emotion shorthand at several different points of the story.

The jaunty, peppy "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" serves as the enervating, ironic choice to open the movie as we zoom in on the polluted, empty Earth, and then goes on to be a theme song for both WALL-E's curiosity and optimism, as well as a rallying cry for his robot brethren aboard the Axiom. Meanwhile, "It Only Takes A Moment" is the theme song for WALL-E and EVE's romantic connection. There's also a scene set to "La Vie En Rose" by Louis Armstrong, who was also part of "Hello, Dolly!" Between lifting the moods of an old musical and Thomas Newman's subtle, wonderful score, revisiting "WALL-E" as an adult really makes you consider how much music can accomplish in a nearly wordless film.

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Things In WALL-E That You Only Notice As An Adult - Looper

UPDATED HEALTH EDUCATION STANDARDS WILL PROVIDE TEXAS STUDENTS WITH ESSENTIAL INFORMATION FOR HEALTHY LIVES, HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

UPDATED HEALTH EDUCATION STANDARDS WILL PROVIDE TEXAS STUDENTS WITH ESSENTIAL INFORMATION FOR HEALTHY LIVES, HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

AUSTIN, TEXAS--For the first time in more than two decades, the State Board of Education (SBOE) has updated the minimum curriculum standards that guide sex education in Texas with key information that students need for healthy lives and healthy relationships.

SBOE members today approved the new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Health Education at their quarterly meeting.

Public opinionpolling dataconducted in March by the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found widespread, bipartisan support for abstinence-plus sex education, which includes content on contraception, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and healthy relationships, in addition to abstinence. The polling data also found strong support for teaching about consent and teaching content that is respectful of LGBTQ youth, topics which SBOE voted against including in the standards.

Were pleased to see state leaders embracing curriculum standards that rely on medically accurate, developmentally appropriate classroom instruction for health and sex education, said Molly Clayton, Executive Director of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. It is regrettable that the standards dont reflect what the data tell us about the need for education on consent and LGBTQ inclusivity, but the new standards are an important step in the right direction to better prepare Texas students for healthy, productive futures.

Research shows this type of evidence-based sex education can effectively reduce teen pregnancy rates and does not make teens more likely to become sexually active. Texas currently has the 9th highest teen birth rate in the nation, with about 2.4% of teens aged 15-19 giving birth in 2019. A baby was born to a teen parent once every 22 minutes in Texas in 2019.

The new curriculum standards at the middle and high school levels include age-appropriate, medically accurate content including human anatomy, puberty, reproduction, abstinence, contraception, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and healthy relationships. For the first time, TEKS include content such as the HPV vaccination, postpartum depression, online safety, human trafficking, cyberbullying, and other 21st century topics.

While the standards do not include education on consent, they do include instruction on setting boundaries and respecting the boundaries of other people, an improvement over the current TEKS which only focus on refusal. Consent is a foundational topic in the prevention of sexual abuse and assault. Unfortunately, the standards do not include any content that is inclusive of LGBTQ youth. However, Texas school districts have the option to teach beyond the TEKS and adopt curricula that include additional content, so long as it prioritizes abstinence.

Next year, the State Board of Education will adopt instructional materials that cover these new standards.

# # #

About the Texas is Ready Coalition

The Texas is Ready Coalition has advocated extensively around positive, evidence-based revisions to health education standards. The coalition of statewide and regional teen pregnancy prevention groups includes:

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UPDATED HEALTH EDUCATION STANDARDS WILL PROVIDE TEXAS STUDENTS WITH ESSENTIAL INFORMATION FOR HEALTHY LIVES HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS - UPDATED HEALTH...

If youre having a hard time processing the scale of death produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, heres a California alternative for wrapping your mind around the carnage: Visit the largest, prettiest cemetery you can find.

I recommend the original Forest Lawn, in Glendale, the most Californian of cemeteries. I recently walked the 290 acres of this memorial park, the first of six Forest Lawn parks in Southern California, and found that it clarified my thinking and improved my mood.

It also helped me to put in perspective the full human toll of COVID-19. Since Forest Lawn opened 114 years ago, in 1906, it has interred 340,000 souls on this property. Under current projections, the United States will reach 340,000 COVID deaths in January.

If youre looking for global perspective, try Colma, the Bay Areas city of cemeteries, the final resting place for 1.5 million people. The world should surpass 1.5 million COVID deaths before Christmas.

Such statistics are tragic and reflect a fundamental human failure: We experience individual death intensely (be it a friends death or the killing of George Floyd) but struggle to recognize death in the aggregate. This myopia is why we need cemeteries right now.

Cemeteries are not just a place to reflect on the past, wrote longtime Forest Lawn chief executive John Llewelyn in A Cemetery Should Be Forever. They remind us to keep the present in perspective.

Especially when the present is so frightening.

Forest Lawns mission was about putting a sunny California spin on death.

I believe in a happy eternal life, Forest Lawns first real leader, Hubert Eaton, wrote in 1917. I therefore know the cemeteries of today are wrong, because they depict an end, not a beginning. I shall try to build at Forest Lawn a Great Park filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns, splashing fountains, singing birds, beautiful statuary, cheerful flowers, noble memorial architecture with interiors full of light and color, and redolent of the worlds best history and romances.

The resulting memorial park has been critiqued as a Disneyland of Death. But at this moment, I found visiting the happiest cemetery on earth soothing, and thought-provoking.

I encountered joggers, bikers, painters and babies in strollers. I heard birds sing as I enjoyed 360-degree Los Angeles views from the esplanade. A half-dozen people chatted amiably while admiring The Mystery of Life, a sculpture group of 18 human figures gathered at a stream that flows toward an unknown destination.

By its usual standards, Forest Lawn was pretty quiet. Its art museum which houses an important collection of stained glass and William Bouguereaus 1881 painting Song of the Angels was closed. There were no school field trips on the grounds. Tens of thousands of people, including Ronald Reagan, have been married at Forest Lawn, but during my visit there were no weddings in the cemeterys three churches, which were locked.

Still, I enjoyed the way the place resembles Southern California in miniature, with its varied topographies (windswept hills, cool valleys, a sprawling basin), and obsession with being big (Forest Lawns wrought-iron gates are twice as wide as those at Buckingham Palace, and the Hall of Crucifixion houses the worlds largest permanently mounted religious painting).

In an older, flatter cemetery section I walked amidst the century-old graves of people who died in their 20s of Spanish flu. In the Court of Freedom, I admired a giant outdoor reproduction of John Trumbulls Signing of the Declaration of Independence and reflected on Jeffersons wisdom in putting life before liberty and pursuit of happiness.

This pandemic is killing so fast that were not stopping to appreciate the lives lost. We will need to remember the plagues lessons, to honor its sacrifices, so we might see its afterlife as a beginning, not an end.

Here in California, we should memorialize every one of our pandemic dead, with a monument that is beautiful and big, and makes people happy when they visit it.

Joe Mathews wrote this column for Zcalo Public Square.

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Mathews: Two cemeteries put scale to the coronavirus carnage - The Mercury News

Researchers have found evidence that womens menstrual cycles are synchronized with lunar cycles, including the intensity of moonlight and the moons gravitational pull. The experts theorize that this synchronization was strongest in ancient times and has been widely lost due to modern lifestyles and exposure to artificial light at night.

Study lead author Charlotte Frster holds the Chair of Neurobiology and Genetics at the University of Wrzburg (JMU). We know many animal species in which the reproductive behavior is synchronized with the lunar cycle to increase reproductive success, said Frster.

Both menstrual and lunar cycles have a length of around 29.5 days, which indicates that there is a correlation. The idea is also supported by the results of previous research. For example, multiple older studies show that women who have menstrual cycles that are synced up with the moon have the greatest chances of becoming pregnant.

In addition, two longitudinal studies found a significant connection between lunar cycles and birth rate, with an increase in births during the full moon and a decline in births during the new moon. Further evidence suggests that births are more likely to take place at night when there is a full moon, and in the daytime when there is a new moon.

To investigate, Frster and her team analyzed the timing of the menstrual cycles of 22 women who had kept menstrual diaries for up to 32 years. To our knowledge, this approach to analyzing this type of long-term data has not been used before.

Frster explained that the moon exhibits three distinct cycles that periodically change the intensity of moonlight and its gravitational pull here on Earth.

The researchers determined that all three lunar cycles influence the onset of menstruation in women. They found that moonlight seems to have the strongest effect, while gravitational forces of the moon also contribute.

Not all women follow the cycle of moonlight, and those that do only sync up for certain periods of time. Women under 35 years of age have menstrual cycles that follow the light and dark phases of the moon for an average of 25 percent of the time.

The connection between menstrual and lunar cycles decreases as women age, and also decreases with exposure to artificial light sources at night. For example, women who go to bed late and leave lights on longer do not show signs of synchronization with the moon.

The fact that humans follow the rhythm of gravity could explain why other cycles, such as when we fall asleep or how long we sleep, are temporarily influenced by a full moon or new moon.

According to the researchers, the observations suggest that humans respond not only to rapid changes in gravity, like when we are thrown off balance, but also to slow, recurring gravitational changes.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

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Lunar cycles have a secret influence on human reproduction Earth.com - Earth.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- There have long been theories that women's menstrual cycles align with the moon, and now a new study suggests there's some truth to that.

Using years of records kept by 22 women, researchers found that for many, menstrual cycles "intermittently" synced up with the phases of the moon.

The link happened only about one-quarter of the time for women aged 35 or younger, and just 9% of the time for older women. There was a great deal of variance, though, among individuals.

And for a few women, there were hints that excessive exposure to artificial light at night could have thrown off any moon-menstruation synchrony.

One expert called the findings "interesting," and said they might reflect remnants of a lunar influence that benefited humans' ancient ancestors.

Early primates were nocturnal creatures, so a degree of moon-influenced behavior would make sense for them, according to Deena Emera.

Emera, who was not involved in the study, is an evolutionary geneticist based at the Buck Institute's Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality, in California.

Mating is risky business, Emera noted, as it makes animals vulnerable to predators. So mating during the new moon, under cover of more darkness, would be a "reasonable strategy," she said.

That also means there would be an advantage to ovulation being timed to the new moon.

"I think any [moon-menstruation] synchronization seen today is probably a relic of an ancient primate trait," Emera said.

She also stressed that women need not worry if their menstrual cycles are not wedded to the moon.

"We're so different from those early rodent-like primates," Emera said. "We certainly don't need to sync our cycles to the moon to successfully reproduce."

The study, published online Jan. 27 in the journal Science Advances, is far from the first to investigate moon-menstruation correlations.

The most obvious one is that both lunar and menstrual cycles are roughly one month long. But research dating back to the 1950s has suggested other links: Women were found to commonly start their periods around the time of the full moon. That would mean ovulation happened near the new moon, two weeks before.

However, relatively more recent studies uncovered no such links.

"I was puzzled by the discrepancy between these quite old results and later studies," said Charlotte Helfrich-Frster, the lead researcher on the new study. She's chair of neurobiology and genetics at the University of Wrzburg, in Germany.

Helfrich-Frster's team took a different approach. Instead of studying a large group of women and looking for broad patterns, they had 22 women keep menstruation diaries, which they did for an average of 15 years, and up to 32 years.

Among women aged 35 or younger, the researchers found, menstrual periods synced up with the moon phases about 24% of the time. But the women varied widely: Some were aligned with the moon more often than not, while others never were.

Three women in the "never" category also reported substantial exposure to artificial light at night.

However, Helfrich-Frster said, it's not possible to say whether the bright lights of modern life have disrupted any synchrony between women's cycles and the moon.

Like Emera, she framed the findings in evolutionary terms, but within human history.

Long ago, Helfrich-Frster said, it would have been prudent to stay inside on dark new-moon nights. And why not use that time to mate? In theory, she explained, women who regularly ovulated around new-moon time would have more children and "spread their genes that inherit the timing to the moon."

When it comes to links between lunar rhythms and reproduction, many studies have found them in sea animals, said Satchidananda Panda, an adjunct professor of biological sciences at the University of California, San Diego.

But, he said, that is seen only rarely in today's primates.

Panda said the current study "opens up another line of scientific investigation on biological rhythms."

He also speculated that in humans, the moon might indirectly influence menstrual cycles.

"For example," Panda said, "many cultural activities in ancestral societies, or even in modern-day Asia and Africa, are on full-moon days or tied to the lunar cycle."

Certain foods consumed during those events, like soybeans, might affect hormonal activity, he added.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more on the menstrual cycle.

SOURCES: Charlotte Helfrich-Frster, PhD, chair, neurobiology and genetics, University of Wrzburg, Germany; Deena Emera, PhD, Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality, Buck Institute, Novato, Calif.; Satchidananda Panda, PhD, adjunct professor, biological sciences, University of California, San Diego, and professor, Salk Institute, La Jolla, Calif.; Science Advances, Jan. 27, 2021, online

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Women's Menstrual Cycles Tied to Moon's Phases - HealthDay News

Since the late 1800s, kissing under the mistletoe has been a popular part of U.S. holiday season traditions, but this unique and interesting plant has long been associated with holiday rituals in other countries around the world.

It is an interesting plant with an even more interesting life history, which is why it is no wonder that it has captivated human attention throughout history.

The common name mistletoe refers to a group of parasitic plants across several genera that include over 1,400 species around the globe.

While I always thought of this plant as exotic, there is actually a species of mistletoe native to Illinois.

The American mistletoe (Phoradendron serotinum) is native to much of the eastern U.S., including Illinois and Indiana. The plant is hardy to Zone 6, which encompasses most of southern Illinois, although central Illinois is just out of its natural range.

The genus name for American mistletoe, Phoradendron, is derived from the Greek language, with phor meaning thief and dendron meaning of a tree. The aptly-named plant could certainly be considered a thief given its parasitic nature.

Mistletoe does not have roots as we know them in other plants, but rather has a modified root structure, called a haustorium, that penetrates bark and attaches to the host trees conductive tissue to collect water and nutrients.

In this way, mistletoe collects a good portion of what it needs from the host plant, although this parasite does have leaves that photosynthesize, enabling production of some of its own energy.

Mistletoes are evergreen, which is why this plant draws such attention in winter. It commonly sticks out as a green tuft of stems in the canopy of otherwise barren deciduous trees.

American mistletoe infects a wide range of deciduous trees, from oaks and maples to many other very common Midwestern trees.

Other mistletoe species are more host-specific, with a narrower range of potential plants they may infect and some species actually infect evergreen hosts, making them a bit less conspicuous this time of year.

The fruits of American mistletoe are tiny, white berries that ripen in winter to provide its only means of reproduction, it does not have a vegetative means of reproduction as many other plants do. The ripe berries in winter are a favorite among birds, which readily spread the sticky berries while feeding.

Across its range, American mistletoe is often considered a pest or problem for the trees it infects. While it may reduce tree vigor somewhat, it typically has a minimal impact on overall plant health in a healthy, mature tree.

In fact, its actually a symbol of a healthy forest ecosystem since this native plant has high bird and insect value. Although it does remove some energy from the host, by and large, the presence of mistletoe in a woodland is a positive addition to the overall diversity of forested ecosystems.

The unique nature of these mysterious tree parasites has captured human attention for many centuries in America and Europe.

Early accounts of human interaction with mistletoe date back to Druid cultures that inhabited modern day Great Britain as early as the 4th century BCE. The plant was sacred to the Druids, and they believed it held special powders of fate along with medicinal values.

Due to the plants pagan connection, Christian cultures banned use of the plant during some time periods. However, Christina leaders eventually began to re-incorporate mistletoe into holiday dcor and celebration due to its long-standing relationship with humankind and to promote inclusion of the old tribes of Brittan and Europe.

In 16th century Europe, the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe began and eventually gained mainstream attention in the New World around the late 1800s.

Whether its legend and lore or mistletoes unique place in the plant kingdom, it has long been a plant of human interest and meaning.

Its a wonder that even to this day, a small parasitic plant can still demand a kiss from any passerby caught in its presence during the holidays.

Ryan Pankau is a horticulture educator with the UI Extension, serving Champaign, Ford, Iroquois and Vermilion counties. This column also appears on his Garden Scoop blog at go.illinois.edu/GardenScoopBlog.

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In the Garden | A species native to southern Illinois is a staple in many holiday traditions - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette