In this study, 16 women with POI, aged from 27 to 46years old, and a POI duration of 125years were interviewed. The age range of women at the time of POI and definitive diagnosis was 13 to 40years. Among the participants, three women had remarried, two of whom had divorced after diagnosis POI due to infertility. The level of education of women was from primary to doctorate. The cause of the POI was mainly unknown, but in 2 participants, POI occurred after cancer treatment and a participant afflicted to POI following an autoimmune disease. The Other demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1.

After content analysis of the interviews with a focus on the perception and experience of women with POI of reproductive-sexual health, four categories emerged (endangerment of women's health, psychological agitation, disruption of social life disturbance in sexual life), explained as follows.

The results showed that all participants were concerned about the effects of decreased ovarian function and changes in hormone levels on their future health.

This main category consists of four subcategories (irregular menstruation, emergence of menopausal symptoms, infertility, signs of early aging) as follows:

Menstrual cycle changes (irregular menstrual cycle, primary amenorrhea or sudden cessation of menstrual bleeding) are one of the first suspicious signs of POI in women that resulted mostly to consult a physician.

One of the participants, who had POI for 8years, said:

The first time my period became irregular, I went to the doctor and she told me that I should take hormone therapy. Before that, I had regular periods, but after 2-3years, I did not have regular periods, and the doctor said there was a possibility of premature ovarian insufficiency (p. 9, 43 y).

Another participant who had regular periods for 27years, stated:

Suddenly, I did not have another period. I went to the doctor. I had an ultrasound and found that I no longer had an ovum (p. 3, 46 y).

A number of participants did not experience menstruation at puberty and had primary amenorrhea, or spotted only once.

One participant that had a spontaneous POI, said:

I did not menstruate at all from the beginning, like my sister (p. 1, 30 y).

Following changes in hormone levels, participants experienced some degree of menopausal complications.

One of the participants who had POI following treatment of cancer, said:

Dry uterus bothers me a lot, especially during sex (p. 10, 46 y).

Another participant who had POI for 10years, stated:

It was very hard at first. In particular, flushing much annoyed me (p. 11, 44 y).

The other participant had POI with an autoimmune disease origin and had one live child with successful spontaneous pregnancy, said:

Premature ovarian insufficiency reduced libido (p. 8, 35 y).

This issue was the main concern of most participants and one of the main complaints of participants with POI was infertility.

A participant who had underwent chemotherapy for cancer treatment in 2008 and had lost her fertility for 11years, said:

I did not know before, but when I inclined to have a baby, I later realized that POI result to infertility (p.2, 4 y).

Another woman who had divorced due to have a 17-year-old history of infertility and remarried, stated:

When I did ultrasound check for infertility, the report showed that my ovaries are very small like as ovaries in menopause women (p.12, 43 y).

Due to decreased levels of estrogen in afflicted women, some of them reported conditions like loss of beauty, wrinkling of the skin and decreased feeling of youth.

One participant, who had been suffering from premature ovarian failure since the age of 22 and for 10years, said:

My first concern was this: I was no longer beautiful (p.16, 34 y).

The other participant that is pregnant currently with donated egg, said:

Eventually you f1eel the changes in your body. For example, you notice wrinkles on your skin (p.9, 43 y).

One participant that had POI for 13years, stated:

Although I am 37years old, I do not feel young I feel aging and I am old (p.13, 38 y).

POI occur in women is less than 40years old, while the normal age of menopause in women is 4555years. Hence the acceptance of POI for participants was accompanied with psychological reactions.

This main category consists of three subcategories [anxiety reaction, mood reaction, agitation in the selection of childbearing] as following:

Participants experienced an onslaught of negative emotions after being diagnosed with POI by a physician, including feelings of despair, depression, a sense of aging, and shock from menopause.

A participant who had POI since the beginning of her marriage and for 5years said:

When it told me to get menopause, I tried for traditional medicine but, due to that was not successful, I was disappointed (p.7, 37 y).

Another participant expressed:

At that time, when I realized my problem, I became depressed and thought that I was the only one. It had a great effect on my mood (p.1, 30 y).

A participant told in despair:

Because I dont have children, I be early menopause, that is, I got oldThese are other signs of aging (p.4, 46 y).

Another participant, who had POI since the age of 22 and had been struggling with it for 12years, said:

I really didnt expect such a thing at all. I was planning to have a planned pregnancy. But the exact opposite happened. The shock was so great it was the biggest shock of my life I have ever experienced (p.16, 34 y).

Popular reactions in afflicted women with POI were included: feeling of uncertainty of future conditions, fear of disease outcome, feeling eternal problems [eternal infertility] negative effect on mood and weakness of the nerves.

One of the participants expressed with surprise and confusion:

I have no idea about the future. I'm very confused. I dont know what will happen to me (p.4, 42 y).

Also part of the conversation with a participant was as follows:

I think more about the fact that this [pregnancy] may never have happened to me (p.14, 27 y).

Another participant said:

Premature ovarian insufficiency makes me angry quickly. I'll get mad soon (p.10, 46 y).

A participant told:

I am worried that I will not have any problems after the age of 40. I am afraid of the consequences of this disease (p.2, 34 y).

Considering that the options available to solve the problem of infertility in women with POI are currently limited and unfortunately there is no definitive treatment for female infertility in these women and the issue of cell therapy is being researched on animal models and do not use so far on humans, the only options offered to couples are the use of donated egg and adoption. Nevertheless, some participants opposed to accept them. If a participant commented on the issue of donated egg as follow:

I think to myself about the baby Because the egg is not mine, I am afraid I will not feel like a mother when she was born. Also she continue:

I must convince myself about this pregnancy and deal with it (p.15, 43 y).

Spiritual aspects of donated egg were important for some participants.

A participant was concerned about this, saying,

I do not care if I conceive with the donated egg, but its religious issue is important to me. It bothers me a little (p.1, 30y).

Moreover, it was important for a number of participants to know that the donor be a familiar person.

A participant stated:

I'm happy to have an ovum from my sister rather than a stranger (p.2, 34 y).

Most participants expressed POI has disrupted the social aspects of their lives. Social isolation, having privacy, unconscious jealousy and seeking support are four subcategories that related to this main category and be explain as follows:

Patients stated that they were reluctant to be in public because of impatience, a tendency to be alone, and to become nervous about social relationships.

A participant said:

I'm not bored totally. I like to be at home, to be alone (p.13, 38y).

Most afflicted women tended to maintain their privacy for fear of being judged by others, the importance of hiding the problem of infertility and believing in the privacy of the subject.

Some of the statements of the participants are as follows:

It is important for us that the donated egg is kept secret. Because if I get a donated egg, I will not be my own child and I will not judge (p.6, 34 y).

This is a personal matter and has nothing to do with anyone (p.13, 38 y).

Some participants expressed a reluctance to associate with families that have children and they are jealous of pregnancies in others or seeing children.

If a participant that had POI for 26years, said:

I was upset when I saw that others had children and became pregnant. Because I have a problem getting pregnant myself (p.12, 43 y).

This issue was the most important item that as a motivation factor helped afflicted women not only to accept complicated condition but also to pursue infertility treatment seriously. According to participants, the support of husbands, family and friends helped to increase hope and reduce psychological threat to women. In the meantime, the supportive role of the husbands was very prominent for women, as one of the participants that had POI for 18years, said:

I am most supported by my husband. If he did not help me, I wouldn't be able to control the situation and control myself. He encourages me to continue my treatment and does not let me Disappointed. (p.5, 30 y).

Another participant stated:

My sister, like me, had an early menopause. He tells me you are young now. Get treated sooner. You get the result. She is very hopeful and encourages me (p.7, 37 y).

In most patients, POI had a negative effect on the couple's sexual relationship.

Due to changes in hormone levels, women experienced sexual function disorders such as dyspareunia, reduced libido, and anorgasmia. These factors caused women to worry about the stability of their married life and the instability in marriage that they formed two subcategories from three.

In contrast, a number of other patients reported that POI had no effect on their sexuality.

The third subcategory was the ambivalence sensations that all of them explained as follows:

The disease had a negative effect on sexual intercourse and sexual pleasure of affected women and on the other hand, sexual intercourse was important for the husband. As a result, a number of participants were concerned about the stability of married life.

A participant stated:

Before my problem, I had sexual desire, but now I do not have it at all, and this causes us to have sex more often with fights, and it has disrupted our relationship (p.10, 46 y).

Beside to decreased sexual satisfaction in couple, infertility also, leaded to some women felt insecure and worried about divorce. A few others threated to divorce from the spouse's family, and some be feared from their husband remarriage.

A participant said:

From the beginning of my marriage, I was stressed until now because I did not have children. My concern is to have children and that our marriage will fall apart (p.1, 30 y).

Another participant stated:

Now my mother-in-law can easily divorce me. She says either bring a child or we will divorce you (p.4, 42 y).

The cessation of menstrual bleeding on the one hand created negative feelings for the participants and caused a kind of psychological pressure on them, but on the other hand had different effects on the participants spouses such as sexual satisfaction and helping to improve sexuality. Moreover, in the context of Iran religiously, having sex during a woman's period is against the Sharia, some patients even said that their partners were delighted with stopping in their menstruation to have sex freely. Therefore, these conditions caused women had been had a dual feeling about the negative impact of POI on their sexuality.

One of the participants said:

My husband says how good I am. I am comfortable without a condom. No man is happier than me (p.5, 31y).

Another participant, who has been suffering from POI since the age of 22 and for 12years, said:

We are trying to cope with and we are trying to control and improve the condition ourselves. For example, we use lubricant for dyspareunia (p.16, 34 y).

Or another participant said:

My husband thought POI meant we could no longer have sex. But when he saw that we had no problem with sex, he said it didn't matter. The important thing is that we can have sex without any limitation (p.11, 44 y).

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Perceptions and experiences of women with premature ovarian insufficiency about sexual health and reproductive health - BMC Blogs Network

The CNNM/CorC family proteins are Mg2+ transporters that are widely distributed in all domains of life. In bacteria, CorC has been implicated in the survival of pathogenic microorganisms. In humans, CNNM proteins are involved in various biological events, such as body absorption/reabsorption of Mg2+ and genetic disorders. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the Mg2+-bound CorC TM domain dimer. Each protomer has a single Mg2+ binding site with a fully dehydrated Mg2+ ion. The residues at the Mg2+ binding site are strictly conserved in both human CNNM2 and CNNM4, and many of these residues are associated with genetic diseases. Furthermore, we determined the structures of the CorC cytoplasmic region containing its regulatory ATP-binding domain. A combination of structural and functional analyses not only revealed the potential interface between the TM and cytoplasmic domains but also showed that ATP binding is important for the Mg2+ export activity of CorC.

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Structural basis for the Mg2+ recognition and regulation of the CorC Mg2+ transporter - Science Advances

It's Valentine's Day, when couples all over the world planspecial dinners and dessertsto "get in the mood," as it were. Indeed, in the Western World, our sole holiday celebrating love and romance has its own concomitant food culture: chocolates, strawberries, oysters, caviar and red wine are all intrinsicto Valentine's Day menus because of their reputation for being aphrodisiacs meaning food that can, supposedly, make one feel more amorous.

The idea that some food or drink are aphrodisiacs dates back millennia: The ancient Greeks believed in the sensual power of pomegranates, truffles and garlic; the ancient Roman poet Ovidrecommended everything from eggs to "honey from MountHymettus" (a range in the Athens area) to get into the mood; and the medieval philosopher St. Thomas Aquinasargued that meat and red wine could produce the "vital spirit."And Americans seem to believe that certain foods enhance the mood:after all, Americans on average buy roughly 58 million pounds of chocolate in the week leading up to Valentine's Day.And though the idea of aphrodisiac food is widespread, is there any science to it? Do certain foods really make us feel more horny, or romantic?

As it turns out, they do. Nutrition experts say that aphrodisiacs do have some science to them, although that doesn't mean that there are foods which automatically heighten sexual desire.

"Food can act as an aphrodisiac in several ways,"Dr. Lauri Wright, spokesperson for the US Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and associate professor at the University of North Florida, told Salon by email. "Some foods relax blood vessels and improve blood flow to the genitals, similar to Viagra. Foods that increase blood flow include red wine, dark chocolate, strawberries, beef, walnuts and avocado. Individuals that don't have compromised circulation won't see any changes from consuming these foods."

She added that, in the case of foods like chocolate, caviar and oysters, which pop culture has accepted asaphrodisiacs,"there is no scientific evidence to support" the belief that they are,and "in fact, no evidence has shown that there is any food that heightens sexual desire." She said that "one 'food'that has been shown to increase sexual arousal is alcohol, by decreasing inhibitions. The downside however is alcohol can decrease sexual performance."

Likewise, there is a psychological component to certain foods acting as aphrodisiacs that is complimented by the way our bodies naturally respond to them.

"Typically things that become associated with sex or as aphrodisiacs are either foods that are very sensual so that the sight, touch, smell and taste are enticing. I would probably put strawberries kind of in that category,"Dr. Nan Wise, a sex therapist and behavioral neuroscientist, told Salon. "They stimulate the senses which can stimulate desire, but I would not call them scientifically anything that is actually an aphrodisiac." Wise also noted that foods can mentally have an aphrodisiac effect, regardless of their actual chemical properties, because they look like things that reminds us of sex in other words, acting as subtle psychological hints.

"Things like oysters look a little bit like a vulva, so anything that looks like a genital has been associated historically with sex," Wise explained. "Things that look like penises or in some waylike female genitalia that have been associated with sex by looking like that. People make the connection with that, but that's not aphrodisiacs." She said that in history sometimes have people taken this more literally, such as when cultures have eaten animal testicles because they are related to reproduction.

"The idea of something being reproduction-related is sensual or exotic," Wise told Salon, adding that "caviar fits both of those categories."

There are some studies which claim to have discovered aphrodisiac qualities in certain herbs.A 2013 study in Pharmacognosy Reviews found that ambrein, a major ingredient in the Arab aphrodisiacAmbra grisea, "contains a tricyclic triterpene alcohol which increases the concentration of several anterior pituitary hormones and serum testosterone." The same study found that Panax ginseng, which is used as an aphrodisiac in traditional Chinese medicine, "works as an antioxidant by enhancing nitric oxide synthesis" in erectile tissue in the genitals.

A 2018 studyin theJournal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research also identified Panax ginseng as a useful herb in helping sexual dysfunction, noting that the same is true of "Cannabis sativa L." and a number of other herbs.

Martha Hopkins, co-author of "Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook,"told Salon that there is another psychological way in which food can heighten arousal: The mere fact that you put the thought into preparing someone a meal that you believe they will enjoy and find to be romantic.

When cooking an "aphrodisiac" meal, it is "truly the thought that counts," Hopkins told Salon. She said that most partners feel flattered and turned on byseeing their partners do an elaborate task for them, like cooking, regardless of outcome of the food or ingredients.

Still, the scientific jury is out on whether so-called aphrodisiacs have more than a minimal effect. A 2011 scientific reviewthat analyzed multiple studies into aphrodisiacs concluded that "although most studies showed positive effects of aphrodisiacs on sexual enhancement, more studies are needed to understand their mechanism of action. . . . The need for clinical trials using larger populations is also evident to prove the effectiveness of aphrodisiacs for human use."

Clinical trials aside, the human mind is complex, and humans can be turned on by all sorts of things unrelated to physiological stimuli. If a food seems to put you and your partner in the mood and doesn't hurt anyone, have fun with it.

"I think it really speaks to human beings having a desire to have a desire for sex and mixing up a whole lot of stories... [we] invest in certain substances with the power to turn this on giving the substances the power of the belief," Wise told Salon.

Excerpt from:
The science behind aphrodisiacs - Salon

One year after its emergence, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become so widespread that there is little hope of elimination. There are, however, several other human coronaviruses that are endemic and cause multiple reinfections that engender sufficient immunity to protect against severe adult disease. By making assumptions about acquired immunity from its already endemic relatives, Lavine et al. developed a model with which to analyze the trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 into endemicity. The model accounts for SARS-CoV-2's age-structured disease profile and assesses the impact of vaccination. The transition from epidemic to endemic dynamics is associated with a shift in the age distribution of primary infections to younger age groups, which in turn depends on how fast the virus spreads. Longer-lasting sterilizing immunity will slow the transition to endemicity. Depending on the type of immune response it engenders, a vaccine could accelerate establishment of a state of mild disease endemicity.

Science, this issue p. 741

See more here:
Immunological characteristics govern the transition of COVID-19 to endemicity - Science

The New York Times

When reports emerged that a new, potentially more contagious version of the coronavirus was circulating in Britain, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York implored major airlines to require anyone entering the state from another country to first submit a negative coronavirus test. Scientists still had much to learn about the variant, but Cuomo was following a principle that has become scripture among public health experts: To defeat the coronavirus, you must act quickly. You cannot wait for certainty to arrive.

Today, we know much more about not only B.1.1.7, the so-called U.K. variant, but also several other variants that have since emerged. For instance, we know that B.1.1.7 is more contagious than its known siblings and that it is already in New York and other states. Experts warn that if not addressed carefully, B.1.1.7 could become the dominant version of the virus in the United States in a matter of months.

In light of this knowledge, Cuomos plan to reopen New York City restaurants for indoor dining Sunday, at 25% capacity and to soon relax other strictures, like those for weddings is baffling.

This is a precarious moment in the fight against the coronavirus in the United States. Case counts are declining. The death rate is slowing down. The country finally has a president who takes the crisis seriously. The vaccination rollout has been a bumbling mess, but the situation is improving, and it will get better still: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been activated to help administer shots, the Food and Drug Administration could authorize a third vaccine for emergency use by the end of this month, and President Joe Biden is partnering with clinics in underserved communities to correct for early vaccination inequities.

In the meantime, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pleading with the American public to strengthen its resolve on measures to reduce viral spread, like physical distancing, mask wearing and avoidance of settings where the virus is likely to spread most easily think a restaurants dining room or a large, indoor wedding. The CDC is also asking state leaders not to let up on closings and restrictions just yet.

Too many leaders not just Cuomo are ignoring that call. Massachusetts and New Jersey are allowing businesses, including restaurants, to expand capacity for indoor services, and Iowa just lifted its mask mandate. The impulse behind these moves is understandable. Restaurants and the people who earn their living through them are in dire straits because they have not received sufficient government assistance. State and local economies are hanging by a thread, and everyone is exhausted by restrictions and desperate to return to some semblance of normal life.

But the number of people who get sick or die from COVID-19 in the coming year will depend on the outcome of a desperate race thats underway, between human vaccination and viral mutation. State leaders should consider the dynamics of that race before they change course. Mutation is a function of viral reproduction, which is a function of viral spread. That is, the more the virus is allowed to pass from one person to the next, the more it is able to mutate. And the more it mutates, the greater the chances that it will evolve into something that is even more transmissible, or even less susceptible to existing vaccines, or even deadlier than the virus already is.

By relaxing restrictions now, state and local leaders are undermining their own vaccination efforts. To get a sense of what this looks like to scientists and public health experts, imagine a military general leading the fight against a foreign enemy and then selling that enemy deadly weapons on the side.

Its not just their own efforts they are undermining. They are also thwarting their citizens who have been making collective sacrifices all along. Average people have spent the better part of the past year waiting for leaders to take charge. America finally has those leaders in place at the national level, but the nation needs better and more consistent leadership on this issue at the state level.

The decisions those leaders make in the coming weeks will determine whether America will finally crush this pandemic, or whether the pandemic will be allowed to crush America all over again.

The New York Times Editorial Board

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Editorial: The wrong time to ease restrictions - The Register-Guard

A gathering body of evidence has indicated that the Earths magnetic field is one of the likeliest solutions toadult birds develop a navigational map thats helps them migrate

Every year, billions of songbirds migrate thousands of miles between Europe and Africa and then repeat that same journey again, year after year, to nest in exactly the same place that they chose on their first great journey.

The remarkable navigational precision displayed by these tiny birds as they travel alone over stormy seas, across vast deserts, and through extremes in weather and temperature has been one of the enduring mysteries of behavioural biology.

We know that birds buffeted by winds so much that theyre significantly displaced from their migratory route are able to realign their course if theyve already performed one migration.

This has suggested that birds navigational abilities, some of which is built around a sense of compass direction, includes a mechanism for finding their way back home from parts of the world theyve never before visited.

Now, our new study of Eurasian reed warblers has found that this remarkable ability involves a magnetic map that works like our human system of coordinates.

Surprisingly, our study found that these birds understand the magnetic field of places thousands of miles into territory theyve never before visited suggesting some birds could possess a global GPS system that can tell them how to get home from anywhere on Earth.

Mind maps

Its long been known that adult birds develop some sort of navigational map to help them migrate. How they do this has remained controversial. Several cues have been proposed as guides for migratory birds including odours, infra-sound, and even variations in gravity.

However, a gathering body of evidence has indicated that the Earths magnetic field is one of the likeliest solutions to this mystery. It has been suggested that different parameters of the Earths magnetic field could form a grid, which birds follow, of north-south and east-west lines.

Thats because magnetic intensity (the strength of the magnetic field) and magnetic inclination (the angle formed between the magnetic field lines and the surface of the Earth, also called the dip angle) both run approximately north to south.

Magnetic declination the difference between the direction to the magnetic north pole and the geographical north pole provides the east-west axis.

Despite largely agreeing that certain birds navigate via the Earths magnetic field, scientists havent worked out precisely what sensory apparatus they use to detect it or whether multiple systems are used to detect different parameters of the field. Other animals, like turtles, can also sense the magnetic field, but the same uncertainties apply.

Read more: Migrating birds use a magnetic map to travel long distances

Regardless, if birds have learned that magnetic intensity increases as they go north, they should be able to detect their position on the north-south axis wherever they happen to be. Similarly, if they experience a declination value that is greater than anything theyve previously experienced, they should know theyre further east. On this basis, the theory is that they can calculate their position on the grid and correct their orientation.

This would mean that birds essentially navigate using a system similar to our Cartesian coordinates the basis of modern GPS navigation. If this coordinates theory is accurate, it would mean that birds should be able to use their knowledge of magnetic field parameters to estimate their location anywhere on Earth through the extrapolation or extension of their navigational rules.

To date, however, there has been no clear evidence that birds can use the magnetic field in this way. But our new study on the migratory Eurasian reed warbler or the Acrocephalus scirpaceus is the first to show clear evidence that they can in fact do this.

Untrue north

To prove the coordinates theory, we used a technique called virtual displacement. We tested birds orientation behaviour by placing them in a small cage called an Emlen funnel. When a bird tries to fly from the cage, it leaves scratches in the direction its trying to fly towards.

Remarkably, we found that this corresponded to the direction that it would be trying to migrate in the wild, which we know from previous experiments. To test whether birds plot their course from takeoff using magnetic fields, we put the Emlen funnels inside a Helmholtz coil a device that allows us to change the nature of the magnetic field in the immediate vicinity of the bird.

In doing so, we created a virtual displacement. The bird does not move: It is tested at the site where it is captured, with all other variables remaining the same apart from the magnetic field, which we changed to match a location far to the north east of their normal range. We chose the location so that it would be far beyond any magnetic field the warblers would have previously experienced.

Only if the birds were able to map their location based on the magnetic field around them would they recognise their displacement and indeed they did, shifting their takeoff to fly in the wrong direction in the real world, but the right direction in the magnetic world wed created around their Emlen funnels.

Winging it

While this cue may be relevant for reed warblers and other migratory songbirds, it is by no means the only navigation system used by birds. Other birds, including seabirds and homing pigeons, have been shown to require olfactory cues (scents and smells) to navigate. At this stage, we dont understand the reason behind these different preferences.

And, while we are closer to understanding the mystery of how birds navigate using magnetic cues, it still remains something of a mystery as to how they sense the magnetic field. Its been suggested that birds sense magnetic values through a light-sensitive molecule called cryptochrome, or through sensory cells containing magnetic iron oxide particles, but definitive evidence for either of these has not yet been provided.

However, behavioural evidence continues to underscore how the Earths magnetic field is crucial in helping some birds make their epic journeys to breed each year, providing a global positioning system that might just provide birds with a complete navigational map of the world.

Richard Holland, Professor in Animal Behaviour, School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University and Dmitry Kishkinev, Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Behavioural Neuroscience, Keele University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Birds use massive magnetic maps to migrate and some could cover the whole world - Down To Earth Magazine

Its been suggested that an advance party of robots will be needed if humans are ever to settle on other planets. Sent ahead to create conditions favourable for humankind, these robots will need to be tough, adaptable and recyclable if theyre to survive within the inhospitable cosmic climates that await them.

Collaborating with roboticists and computer scientists, my team and I have been working on just such a set of robots. Produced via 3D printer and assembled autonomously the robots were creating continually evolve in order to rapidly optimise for the conditions they find themselves in.

Our work represents the latest progress towards the kind of autonomous robot ecosystems that could help build humanitys future homes, far away from Earth and far away from human oversight.

Robots have come a long way since our first clumsy forays into artificial movement many decades ago. Today, companies such as Boston Dynamics produce ultra-efficient robots which load trucks, build pallets, and move boxes around factories, undertaking tasks you might think only humans could perform.

Despite these advances, designing robots to work in unknown or inhospitable environments like exoplanets or deep ocean trenches still poses a considerable challenge for scientists and engineers. Out in the cosmos, what shape and size should the ideal robot be? Should it crawl or walk? What tools will it need to manipulate its environment and how will it survive extremes of pressure, temperature and chemical corrosion?

An impossible brainteaser for humans, nature has already solved this problem. Darwinian evolution has resulted in millions of species that are perfectly adapted to their environment. Although biological evolution takes millions of years, artificial evolution modelling evolutionary processes inside a computer can take place in hours, or even minutes. Computer scientists have been harnessing its power for decades, resulting in gas nozzles to satellite antennas that are ideally suited to their function, for instance.

Read more: How we built a robot that can evolve and why it won't take over the world

But current artificial evolution of moving, physical objects still requires a great deal of human oversight, requiring a tight feedback loop between robot and human. If artificial evolution is to design a useful robot for exoplanetary exploration, well need to remove the human from the loop. In essence, evolved robot designs must manufacture, assemble and test themselves autonomously untethered from human oversight.

Any evolved robots will need to be capable of sensing their environment and have diverse means of moving for example using wheels, jointed legs or even mixtures of the two. And to address the inevitable reality gap that occurs when transferring a design from software to hardware, it is also desirable for at least some evolution to take place in hardware within an ecosystem of robots that evolve in real time and real space.

The Autonomous Robot Evolution (ARE) project addresses exactly this, bringing together scientists and engineers from four universities in an ambitious four-year project to develop this radical new technology.

As depicted above, robots will be born through the use of 3D manufacturing. We use a new kind of hybrid hardware-software evolutionary architecture for design. That means that every physical robot has a digital clone. Physical robots are performance-tested in real-world environments, while their digital clones enter a software programme, where they undergo rapid simulated evolution. This hybrid system introduces a novel type of evolution: new generations can be produced from a union of the most successful traits from a virtual mother and a physical father.

As well as being rendered in our simulator, child robots produced via our hybrid evolution are also 3D-printed and introduced into a real-world, creche-like environment. The most successful individuals within this physical training centre make their genetic code available for reproduction and for the improvement of future generations, while less fit robots can simply be hoisted away and recycled into new ones as part of an ongoing evolutionary cycle.

Two years into the project, significant advances have been made. From a scientific perspective, we have designed new artificial evolutionary algorithms that have produced a diverse set of robots that drive or crawl, and can learn to navigate through complex mazes. These algorithms evolve both the body-plan and brain of the robot.

The brain contains a controller that determines how the robot moves, interpreting sensory information from the environment and translating this into motor controls. Once the robot is built, a learning algorithm quickly refines the child brain to account for any potential mismatch between its new body and its inherited brain.

From an engineering perspective, we have designed the RoboFab to fully automate manufacturing. This robotic arm attaches wires, sensors and other organs chosen by evolution to the robots 3D-printed chassis. We designed these components to facilitate swift assembly, giving the RoboFab access to a big toolbox of robot limbs and organs.

The first major use case we plan to address is deploying this technology to design robots to undertake clean-up of legacy waste in a nuclear reactor like that seen in the TV miniseries Chernobyl. Using humans for this task is both dangerous and expensive, and necessary robotic solutions remain to be developed.

Looking forward, the long-term vision is to develop the technology sufficiently to enable the evolution of entire autonomous robotic ecosystems that live and work for long periods in challenging and dynamic environments without the need for direct human oversight.

In this radical new paradigm, robots are conceived and born, rather than designed and manufactured. Such robots will fundamentally change the concept of machines, showcasing a new breed that can change their form and behaviour over time just like us.

See more here:
Were teaching robots to evolve autonomously so they can adapt to life alone on distant planets - The Conversation US

Active Citizens, Africa, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Editors' Choice, Featured, Gender, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, Poverty & SDGs, Regional Categories, TerraViva United Nations, Women's Health

Human Rights

Youth in Nigeria protested against the brutalities and extrajudicial killings by the rogue police unit known as SARS. The #EndSARS protests became a global movement as international corporations and celebrities offered their support.Photo by Ayoola Salako on Unsplash

Jan 28 2021 (IPS) - As Nigerias biggest city, Lagos, reportedly experienced a massive shortage of oxygen cylinders last week with demand increasing fivefold in one of the citys main hospitals just as the country recorded some of its highest number of coronavirus cases its youth leaders are concerned about the impact on vulnerable women.

It is a dire situation across the country, not only in Lagos state, Kelechukwu (Lucky)Nwachukwu, a Nigerian feminist and activist, told IPS. Many health facilities are largely underfunded with minimal to zero equipment. What is concerning is what this means for vulnerable women and girls who need regular health services and attention.

Our health sector is struggling per usual, says Obianuju Maria Onwuasor, founder of PeriodRichOrg, an organisation working at the intersection of human rights and reproductive justice, commenting on the countrys low health budget. The health sector alone ruins all the work of other thriving agencies without trying too hard.

Both Nwachukwu and Onwuasor are youth ambassadors in Nigeria for Women Deliver, a gender advocacy organisation. Through their work, the ambassadors examine the intersection of sexual and reproductive health with other issues: from COVID-19 to the #EndSARS movement.

In October, massive protests broke across the country, demanding an end to the killing of civilians by the police force and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) authorities for almost three decades. The #EndSARS protests became a global movement as international corporations and celebrities offered their support.

Onwuasor of PeriodRichOrg told IPS that gender equity plays a crucial role in the end of police brutality, and in turn, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) in Nigeria.

Far too many times, women and girls have been indiscriminately arrested and put behind bars for many frivolous reasons such as being outside too late in the night, being prostitutes, or evening just being women, added Nwachukwu.

In the wake of the protests, many states imposed total curfews, he told IPS. These curfews limited many people, especially vulnerable groups from accessing health, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) facilities.

Excerpts of their interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): What are your thoughts about the governments response to COVID-19 in Nigeria?

Obianuju Onwuasor (OO): I feel like the government is doing their best in some sectors; we have government ministries like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who have set measures in places to tackle the impact of the coronavirus; CBN has funds in place to help/support households and SMEs, and they also reduced interest rates on intervention loans. Nigerian Customs reduced its tariffs on custom duty charges.

Kelechukwu Nwachukwu(KN): There have been concerns about the testing capacity and numbers given the population of Nigeria. I believe given the resources available, Nigeria is doing her best to handle the situation. There has been massive sensitisation and awareness creation.

However, the Nigerian government should make walk-in test facilities available as well as subsidised testing costs for Nigerian citizens. I also think it is a critical time for Nigeria to review and strengthen our health systems and infectious diseases response mechanism. Nigeria must make a statement to be committed to improving the health indices of the country by investing intentionally in health care for all.

IPS: How has the #EndSARS movement impacted the specific issues you work on?

OO: At PeriodRichOrg, our primary goal is to create a platform thats safe to talk about human rights as it relates to sexuality, sexual health and reproduction. During Octobers Lekki massacre that killed 12, we witnessed peaceful protestors trying to save a gunshot victim the wrong way. Through my reach and multiple re-shares, I was able to create infographics that helped provide better understanding on how to better handle situations like this.

KN: As an activist, campaigner and development worker, one cannot anymore carry on normal operations and day to day work of social commentary, community interventions and activism without being labeled as an opposition or being part of the #EndSARS movement. But it is only a matter of time and all Nigerians desirous of lasting peace and respecting human rights will ride on shoulders of giants who are the feminists that championed this cause in addition to thousands of Nigerians who stood up to face the singular enemy.

IPS: The SARS force has been around since 1992. How does it affect gender rights?

OO: The role of gender equality in policing cannot be overemphasised as its important in achieving SDGs five and 16 the elimination of violence against women, and strong and stable judicial institutions. These goals can only be achieved by creating the right composition and culture of our nations policing force which isnt happening at the moment.

KN: Many women, girls and vulnerable groups in Nigeria have long suffered from injustices from SARS. In addition to gender rights, violations have been exacerbated against sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria such as the LGBTQ+ community.

IPS: According to Amaka Anku, head of Africa Practice at Eurasia Group, the movement will likely lead to higher political turnout in 2023 and has helped define campaign issues. What policies in your area of work do you think should be prioritised for 2023 elections?

OO: What could be learnt from this #EndSARS movement is the amount of power we have when we all have one voice. All core demands may not have been met but our voices were heard across the world. We clamored and the world responded to our shouts and screams.

As regards to political turnout in 2023, in the past in Nigeria mostly the uneducated came out to vote. But with the #EndSARS peaceful protests, we could see people from all walks of life come together to fight for one cause. If this happens in 2023, we would probably have campaigners who want to address the issues we constantly complain about, younger people who have come out to run for electable positions, more voter turnout and conscious politicians who know that they would be held accountable for their actions. Our biggest issue in Nigeria is bad leadership and governance, and once we can resolve this pending issue we are one step closer to finding solutions to all the numerous issues we face daily.

In the 2023 elections, I am hoping that the government pays attention to policies that relate closely to SRHR and gender equality, including policies addressing female genital mutilation (FGM), easy access to contraceptives, and safer abortions.

KN: It is true that the movement will trigger a lot more conversations and discourses around key issues. On a professional level, I am keen to see the protection of the rights of LGBTQI+ persons in Nigeria it is of paramount importance that the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act be revisited, repealed and thrown out the door. Sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria must enjoy protection from the law as well as fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution.

In addition, sexual and reproductive rights of women, girls and vulnerable populations should be at the forefront of policies. We have seen the global pandemic expose the deeper vulnerabilities these groups face. Women and girls should be allowed free and unhindered access to reproductive services such as safe and legal abortion, quality of care and an end to menstrual poverty.

Finally, the government must come out boldly to work towards the end of FGM which has affected over 200 million women and girls globally. Until there is a political will from both government and donors, little progress will be made.

More:
Q&A: What some Nigerian Feminists Hope will Come Out of the #EndSARS Movement - Inter Press Service

The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

I attended graduate school, in geography, in Tucson, Arizona, United States, in the late 1990s. Tucson draws fame from a number of things, including its Mexican-American heritage, its chimichangas, its sky islands, and its abundant population of saguaro cacti.

Plenty of things about Tucson, though, are perfectly, achingly ordinary. Perhaps the most ordinary thing about Tucson led me to develop something halfway between a hobby and an academic pursuit. On occasion, whether for sport or research, friends and I used to go sprawl-watching. We were not exactly, say, Walter Benjamin strolling through the arcades, embracing the human pageantry of Paris. But we did our best to plumb Tucsons depths.

Needless to say, sprawl-watching is not an action sport. It does not happen before ones eyes the way trains pass (for trainspotters, to cite another essential 90s reference) or planes land. And yet, there it was, bright as day, churning ever so slowly across the priceless desert habitat.

I grew up in a place that had once engaged in the action of sprawling but had solidified long before I came along. West Los Angeles of the 1970s and 1980s was, if not urban, at least built-out. But in the tract housing developments on Tucsons outskirts, or whatever the outskirts were at the time, sprawl was indeed a verb.

Naturally, you dont gobble up desert by the acre with anything resembling original architecture. The offenses of tract-home design have been cataloged prodigiously, and I wont belabor them here. Ill simply say that the uniformity dazzled me. A half-century after the heyday of Levittown, the business model was thriving.

If you spend any time around saguaro cacti, before long you cant help but marvel at the conditions that enable a tiny seed to take root, bubble up into a pup, and climb slowly skyward. The process requires just the right conditions, and it yields mighty succulents that are each mighty in their own way. Like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two are alike.

We cannot say the same for their neighbors, the tract homes, with their identical floorplans, identical facades, and identical amenities.

As modernity advanced, mass-produced housing arrived relatively late. The British manufactured ceramics and textiles by the late 1700s. Carnegies furnaces were on full blast by the early 1900s, and Ford developed the assembly line soon thereafter. During World War II, Douglas and Lockheed produced fighter planes by the tens of thousands. Craftsmanship and artisanal skill had been on the wane for a long time. In fact, by 1936, not much was unique anymore.

Thats the year Walter Benjamin published The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I prefer the more literal translation of its title: The Work of Art in the Age of Its Mechanical Reproducibility, implying that art does not merely accompany mechanical reproduction but it is, in many ways, superseded and changed by mechanical reproduction. Benjamin argued that art which is supposedly the apotheosis of uniqueness, originality, and human imaginativenesswas not merely a bystander in the industrial revolution, as the common title implies, but was, or could be, itself a product of technological production.

Even in the 1930s, it wasnt hard to imagine that the same mechanical processes that were producing cars and phones and chemicals could be trained to produce art as well. Or, rather, reproduce it. Benjamin does not discount the importance of the artist in the creation of original work. But he implies that human mastery of chemistry and materials science, paired with the precision of the assembly line, could essentially produce copies indistinguishable from their originals and do so in limitless numbers.

Mechanical arms could create brushstrokes in oil to mimic those of Da Vinci and Van Gogh, while mechanical chisels would turn fresh blocks of marble into new Davids and Birds in Space. They would not be forgeries but rather true reproductions. Originals would retain their importance only through their aurasthat ineffable contact with their respective creators, however arbitrary and immaterial that connection may be.

Benjamin probably overstepped. Even today, the originality of artworkits imperfectnessprovides one of our few steadfast links to our own humanity, even as technology eclipses anything Benjamin could have imagined. And yet, his thesis remains haunting, nihilistic, even: what if the mechanical can obliterate the artistic?

This question vexed me from the moment I read Benjamin as an undergraduate all the way up to the moment I visited my first Tucson tract home development. There, in the most unassuming, offensive landscape, I discovered that architecture may yet preserve our sense of humanity.

What struck me then as I strolled those expectant streets (possibly in ways that the residents never will) was that, for all the sameness of the homes, each one retained an essential uniqueness. Those developments, like most such developments, offered a few designs, each with lame, disembodied names like The Nantucket or whatever. They werent so many designs as they were collections of amenities and necessities united under roofs. And yet, each occupied its own special, if not necessarily distinctive, plot of desert.

Sure, machines can reproduce structures. But architecture is more than just structures. The one and only thing that we cannot reproduce, be it in a chugging factory a humming 3D printer, or a laboratory staffed by autodidactic nanobots, is landscape. I say landscape deliberately. We can absolutely produce and reproduce land. Many cities sit on landfill of some sort, from the Battery to the Bay Bay to Murano Island and The Palm Jumeirah. But, what every piece of land can claimwhether created by man or plate tectonicsis its uniqueness. We have one Earth, and every piece of it differs from every other piece. The totality of architecture encompasses structures, setting, relationships, uses, and even ideas that, in combination, create a landscape.

Lets consider obvious exemplars: the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, the monasteries of Tibet, the five-star bungalows of Tahiti, the Houses of Parliament, the Getty Center, Notre Dame, and the Casa Malaparte, and, yes, the Guggenheim Bilbao. (Esoteric though they may be, lets also add works of land art, like Spiral Jetty and The Lightning Field.) A great many architectural masterpieces owe their acclaim not just to their designthe part that lives on paper and could be constructed almost anywhere, but from their relationship with the land. Each of these structures looks the way it does because of its site and situation; from inside, they each look upon different views and, therefore, are capable of inspiring their own unique versions of awe. Its in these landscapes where humanism, if not humanity itself, may make its last stand.

My own home is not a masterpiece because it enjoys a slightly different view and slightly different elevation from the one across the street. But the uniqueness of landscape ensures that architecture can be unique. And, just as Benjamins point about reproducibility was subtle yet powerful, so is the importance of landscape.

Benjamin was a weird one. On the one hand, he celebrated the extreme humanity of the city and the elemental activity of walking. On the other hand, he helped usher in not just the modern agecharacterized by mechanical productionbut indeed the postmodern age, characterized by reproduction and simulacrum. As intellectually interesting as postmodern ideas may be, they remain distressing. Nothing is special when everything is fake. Taken to its extreme, postmodernism presages the day when artificial intelligence does all our work for us and when no human relationship is unmediated by technology.

Thats why I take solace in special places and un-special places alike. And its why I put a degree of faith in architecture, even when so many other human endeavors have slid into banality and self-reference. Of course, not every architect can, or should, be another Utzon or Meier. The world will always need far more workaday structures than it does masterpieces. The more we must strain to see our auras amid the banality of postmodern life, the more we may need to tighten our grip on the incredible places humanity has created.

Nearly two decades later, I hope that plenty of happy families are living in those Nantuckets and Saratogas and whatevers. By now, many have raised children and perhaps sent them off to graduate school. They may or may not appreciate their unique places in the world. Indeed, placelessness is more prevalent than we ever could have imagined, with so much of life taking place online and in the cloud. But, while deserts sands may shift and buildings may topple, the fundamental facts of the land persist.

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The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction - ArchDaily

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a zoonotic virusone that spilled over from another species to infect and transmit among humans. We know that humans can infect other animals with SARS-CoV-2, such as domestic cats and even tigers in zoos. Oude Munnink et al. used whole-genome sequencing to show that SARS-CoV-2 infections were rife among mink farms in the southeastern Netherlands, all of which are destined to be closed by March 2021 (see the Perspective by Zhou and Shi). Toward the end of June 2020, 68% of mink farm workers tested positive for the virus or had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. These large clusters of infection were initiated by human COVID-19 cases with viruses that bear the D614G mutation. Sequencing has subsequently shown that mink-to-human transmission also occurred. More work must be done to understand whether there is a risk that mustelids may become a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2.

Science, this issue p. 172; see also p. 120

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Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on mink farms between humans and mink and back to humans - Science Magazine

Were all human. And humans are all, to one degree or another, vengeful. Even those of us who work so hard to overcome the lesser angels of our nature love a good car-keying breakup song or cant help dropping a snarky Yelp review when crossed.

Why do we feel the need for revenge? It doesnt seem to have an obvious biological value, yet thats the likely point of origin. Science demonstrates that vengeance activates the reward centers of our brain. So thats at least an indicator that biology is somehow involved in our desire for revenge.

But why? What purpose does revenge have for our biology? Why is it hardwired into our brains that we need to get back at someone for pissing us off? Clearly, its something we deem to be of great importance to our civilization that we curtail this natural desire through our laws and faith systems designed around a goal to sublimate the human instinct for revenge. Christianity is based almost entirely on this single idea alone: Love your enemy.

One study acknowledges that what the angry mind really wants is not so much the meting out of punishment or suffering, but to accomplish a change of heart in those who have trespassed against us. We want the other person to change, to acknowledge what they did, to understand how it made us feel, to promise never to do it again. Most of the time, thats a tall order. But thats what we want.

And theres a clue here about why we are intrinsically wired for revenge. The clue is in our desire to accomplish a change of heart in the one who acted against us.

Its true that revenge feels good. At least for a moment. Its the subject of nearly all television, film and books. We cheer when the villain gets their reward. It translates into our own lives and personal experiences where we think we will feel as good by committing our own vengeful acts as we did when seeing the villain get theirs. The irony is that revenge gives us only a short-term boost of positive brain chemicals followed by a long period of slow deterioration of that feeling. We eventually end up feeling worse than we did before. We end up re-injuring ourselves. The villain wins in the end to the same degree as our unwillingness to let our sense of vengeance go.

It turns out that there are deeply biological reasons for revenge. They hinge upon the fact that we are a communal species. Biologically, revenge is a social deterrent. Through our retributive actions, be they wise or not so much, we are attempting to cultivate behavioral change for the better within our tribes and social groups. When employed judiciously, revenge is actually meant to prevent negative actions taken upon us in the future. Its meant to deter predators or those who would encroach upon our territory and modify behavior among the members of a society. It is also a demonstration of prowess and strength, things that are of prime importance in reproduction of any species. Standing up for ourselves is attractive.

But knowing that standing up for ourselves can go too far because we are a greedy species our tendency toward gluttony will take the form of revenge if not careful. We can deteriorate into obsessively fixating on getting back at those who have hurt us. Hence, the formation of laws and life practices.

Having demonstrated that revenge is an inevitable reality for us all, how might we choose to handle it? Of course, theres plenty of advice out there. But how to choose from among them? When in doubt, always choose the most loving alternative.

I practice a form of revenge, whenever possible, that entertains me to no end. Kindness. It really drives an enemy crazy. They dont know what to make of it.

Years ago, I used to love to shovel my cranky neighbors sidewalk in the winter. He was so mean he even made a report once to the citys building department that I am gay. (As if that somehow would make a zoning impact upon the community?) He was a perfect candidate for a revenge of utter kindness. He really had it coming to him.

I dont think I ever enjoyed shoveling so much in my life as I did his sidewalk, watching from the corner of my eye as he peered out through the curtains. I would imagine him flummoxed and confused. He was far too old to shovel for himself, and as the laws require the sidewalks be cleared in front of everyones homes, he actually needed someone to do it. But he had no friends of which I was aware and certainly was too cheap to hire someone. I know he was a stickler for law and order. It probably rankled him that the sidewalk wasnt clear. He may even have worried about getting a citation. He needed me. Ha ha.

Its true that he may have been sitting inside thinking he was the one taking revenge upon me rather than the other way around. He may very well have thought that he was the winner of this little battle. But I know he was wrong. Im just as happy to entertain a thought that he was smugly satisfied, because the brain chemicals we both had were good ones, and Im the one who caused it.

In the final analysis, its up to us how we manipulate our desire for revenge within us. There are many things about our human nature we cannot change but for which we can create balance. The prime directive is to feel good. Not just in the short term, but also the long term. The main goal of life is joy, and anything that interferes with that is anathema. It will not rise to the top, for it is not natural to us.

Our biology may wish to enact measures to protect itself and its interests that is logical. But make careful note of this desire and take steps to ensure that what tastes good right now wont make you sick later. Revenge is a drug with harmful side effects. See to it that you make loving use of it. Surprising and positive changes will occur that you could not have imagined.

Congratulations in advance.

Wil Darcangelo, M.Div., is the minister at First Parish UU Church of Fitchburg and of First Church of Christ Unitarian in Lancaster. He is the producer of The UU Virtual Church of Fitchburg and Lancaster on YouTube and host of the Our Common Dharma podcast series. Email wildarcangelo@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @wildarcangelo. His blog, Hopeful Thinking, can be found at http://www.hopefulthinkingworld.blogspot.com.

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Revenge is a dish best served with a side of kindness - Sentinel & Enterprise

New Delhi, January 9

Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, about 200 vaccine candidates are in the works and 10 have been either approved by several countries or are under limited emergency use.

As India prepares to launch its vaccine drive on January 16, here is a look at the options:

COVAXIN

Developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, the indigenous vaccine was granted emergency use authorisation in clinical trial mode by the Indian government this week.

It is an inactivated vaccine developed by chemically treating novel coronavirus samples to make them incapable of reproduction. This process leaves the viral proteins, including the spike protein of the coronavirus which it uses to enter the human cells, intact.

Given as two doses, three weeks apart, the viral proteins in the vaccine activate the immune systemand prepare people for future infections with the actual infectious virus. According to Bharat Biotech, the therapeutic can be stored at room temperature for at least a week.

A study on thePhase trial published in the preprint server medRxiv in December showed thetherapeutic doesnt cause any serious side effects. However, there has been no further data released in the public domain which could demonstrate that the vaccine is safe and effective.

ICMR-Bharat Biotech vaccine is a killed whole-virus vaccine and there are absolutely no data available so far on its protective efficacy. I am critical of its getting approval by the authorities, immunologist Vineeta Bal, affiliated with the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, told PTI.

COVISHIELD

Co-developed bythe University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and known as Covishield in India, the vaccine was the first on which a scientific study was published based on Phase 3 clinical trials.

It has so far been given emergency use authorisation in the UK, Argentina, Mexico and India.

Scientists have engineered a version of adenoviruses that infect chimpanzees to carry the gene responsible for the spike protein of the novel coronavirus.

It requires two doses, provided four weeks apart, to produce the desired effects.

Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Covishield will be sold at Rs 1,000 per dose in the private market but cost the Indian government only Rs 200, said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.

Oxford-AstraZeneca-Serum Institute vaccine has shown protective efficacy in global trials to the tune of 60-70 per cent. While clear data from bridging trials in India are not available, the vaccine is certainly proven safe, Bal said.

According to virologist Upasana Ray from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is less restricted in terms of cold storage as it can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerator temperatures (2-8 degrees Celsius) for at least six months.

MODERNA

The mRNA vaccine by US-based company Moderna has so far been approved for use in Israel, the EU, Canada and the US.

A studyof the efficacy of Moderna vaccine revealed it has 94.1 per cent efficacy in preventing the disease. In this type of vaccine, the messenger RNAor mRNAacts as a blueprint for the production of the coronavirus spike protein and is encapsulated by lipid molecules and delivered into human cells.

The cells of the vaccine recipient then use this mRNA genetic code to produce the viral protein to train the immune system for a future encounter with the infectious coronavirus. Administered as two doses, four weeks apart, the Moderna vaccine can reportedly be stored in the refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius for up to 30 days. At -20 degrees Celsius it can be stored for up to six months. This is still a challenge for many developing countries in the tropical regions that experiencevery high temperatures in the summer months.

In November last year, Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told a German weekly that the companywould charge governments between USD 25 and 37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered.

PFIZER-BIONTECH

The US-backed Pfizer-Biontechs COVID-19 preventive, like the Moderna vaccine, is based on the segments of the genetic material of the novel coronavirus.Preliminary data from the clinical trials showed that two doses of the vaccine, given three weeks apart, provided an efficacy of over 90 per cent.

Following the results, the UK, Canada, the EU and Saudi Arabia have approved the Pfizer vaccine for use. Several countries, including the US, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico, have given emergency use authorisation.

One limitation for the Pfizervaccine has been its requirement for ultracold storageup to -70 degrees Celsius.

Each dose is reportedly priced at USD 37.

PUTNIK V

Sputnik V from RussiasGamaleya Research Institute has been approved for emergency use by several countries but awaits more results from Phase 3 trials.

An adenovirus vectored vaccine, Sputnik V is produced using a combination of two adenoviruses called Ad5 and Ad26.Preliminary evidence from Phase 3 trials indicates it is 90 per cent effective when given as two doses, three weeks apart.

In November, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said the cost of the vaccine would be less than USD 10 per dose starting from February 2021. It said the dry form of the vaccine can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius, and does not need freeze storage.

CONVIDECIA

The adenovirus vectored vaccine developed by the Chinese company CanSino Biologics is also under Phase 3 trials and has already been approved for limited use by the Chinese military.

Since August, the vaccine has been part of Phase 3 trials in several countries, including Russia, Mexico and Pakistan.

CORONAVAC

Another Chinese company, Sinopharm, has also made progress with itsinactivated vaccine dubbed CoronaVac. It has been given emergency approval for limited use in the country. The vaccine is reportedly provided as two doses, administered two weeks apart. Scientists are yet to publish a study on the trial conducted so far.

VECTOR INSTITUTE

Russias Vector Institute has developed a protein vaccine. It is currently under Phase 3 clinical trials. It uses modified versions of the coronavirus spike protein to induce immunity. The vaccine reportedly can be stored at 2-8 degrees celsius for up to two years. Data on the efficacy of the therapeutic is yet to be released.

NOVAVAX

After showing promising results in Phase 1-2 trials, and in animal experiments, the vaccine developed by US company Novavax is currently under Phase 3 clinical trials. It uses modified versions of the coronavirus spike protein to induce immunity, and can reportedly be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius. After some setbacks in manufacturing the doses required for the Phase 3 study in the US, the trial was finally launched on December 28.

JOHNSON&JOHNSON

The adenovirus vectored vaccine by the American company has shown protection against the coronavirus in experiments in monkeys and is currently part of Phase 3 clinical trials. Unlike other vaccines, this vaccine is reportedly provided as a single dose, but trials are currently underway to test its efficacy as two doses. The company had noted that the therapeutic can be stored for up to three months when refrigerated at 2-8 degrees Celsius, and up to two years when frozen at -20 degrees Celsius. PTI

See more here:
COVID-19 vaccine race: Where they stand currently - The Tribune India

A FURTHER WAIT is facing people who were hoping that publicly-funded IVF would be rolled out in the new year, as promised by the then Minister for Health Simon Harris last December.

Details of the model of care were announced by the Department last December with phase two seeing the introduction of tertiary infertility services, including IVF, in the public health system.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told Noteworthy that it is not possible at this time to give a definitive timeline for the completion of phase two of the rollout of the model of care. They added that it is contingent on the [assisted human reproduction] AHR legislation being commenced, as well as the required resources being in place.

At the time of the announcement this time last year, Minister Harris told TheJournal.ie: I think its likely to take most of 2020 to pass and commence the legislation. So realistically I think youre looking at 2021, in terms of IVF being available through the public health service and being publicly funded.

A public fund which promised financial support for people undergoing fertility treatment was first announced in 2017.

Its really regrettable, said Professor Mary Wingfield, clinical director of the Merrion Fertility Clinic.

The model of care will be rolled out on a phased basis over the course of the coming years, according to Health Minister Stephen Donnellyin response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond on fertility funding.

Phase one involves the setting up of Regional Fertility Hubs and 2 million was provided for 2020 in order to commence the development of these, a Department spokesperson told Noteworthy.

Donnelly also said that the development of these hubs has slowed due to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic but additional funding is being made available in 2021 to facilitate the continuation and completion of phase one.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly Source: Sasko Lazarov via RollingNews.ie

Legislation link convenient

Wingfield said there has been a little bit of progress with funding provided to locations around the country to develop secondary level care. One of these will be set up in Holles Street and she said theyre hoping to set that up next year.

This covers investigations into why a couple might not be getting pregnant and surgery for a small group of women who arent ovulating, according to Wingfield. Its a step towards trying to have a more organised system which would then act as a referral system. However, she added that theres still no funding for IVF once referred.

That comes in phase two of the model of care. In the recent parliamentary question response Donnelly stated that this phase will not commence until such time as infertility services at secondary level have been developed across the country and the AHR legislation is commenced.

This link of the model of care to legislation is a convenient way of putting it off, according to Wingfield.

I dont see why the funding has to be linked to the legislation. I cant see any medical reason. People are allowed to have treatment if they can afford it so I dont think the legislation should be linked to it.

When asked about the need to link the model of care and legislation, a Department spokesperson said while the number of people accessing AHR treatments and services in Ireland is increasing, the provision of these services remains largely unregulated, which means that individuals are availing of often highly complex procedures in a legal vacuum.

They added that this legislation is required in order to assist people to have children safely, to clarify the legal position of children born from these practices, and to ensure research and new reproductive technologies are carried out within a prescribed ethical framework. It will also provide for the establishment of the AHR Regulatory Authority.

Decades of waiting for bills

The legislation has not yet gone through any of the necessary stages of the Seanad and Dil. Drafting has been ongoing for a number of years, with many iterations of human reproduction bills going through the Oireachtas unsuccessfully over the past 20 years.

Thecurrent draft billis on the Departments priority list for publication during the spring legislative term, said the spokesperson. They stated:

We understand the impact that the issues of infertility and subfertility can have at an individual level. A diagnosis of infertility can be a source of severe emotional and psychological distress, physical discomfort and financial hardship.

In a separate statement toNoteworthythe spokesperson also said that while AHR treatment is not currently funded by the Irish public health service, a defined list of fertility medicines needed for fertility treatment is covered under the High Tech Arrangements administered by the HSE in addition to tax relief on costs of AHR treatment.

Lack of public funding unjust

Lack of public funding for fertility treatment is socially unjust, according to Rory Tallon. Source: Rory Tallon

Around one in four couples in Ireland experience difficulty when trying to have children and many face thousands of euro in costs if they seek assisted human reproduction (AHR) treatment. This has led many people to travel overseas for cheaper fertility treatment something that the pandemic has impactedas reported recently byTheJournal.ie.

The cost of IVF is quoted as around 4,500 on the main Irish fertility clinic websites but this can quickly turn to tens of thousands when multiple cycles as well as other tests and treatments are needed, according to Rory Tallon, who underwent IVF with his wife Sarah.

Tallon has cystic fibrosis (CF) which causes infertility in about 98% of men due to the absence of the sperm canal the vas deferens. However, sperm can be extracted by clinicians and through IVF it is possible for men with cystic fibrosis to become fathers.

It was a comparable cost to a wedding or a house deposit, said Tallon who added that he was lucky his wife already had a house when they met so he could use the money he saved to help fund the treatment. The couple had to undergo a number of cycles of IVF before the birth of each of their two daughters.

Its unjust that because its so expensive it is practically only available to the middle and upper classes that can afford it. If youre a couple from a lower socioeconomic position, you just wouldnt be able to.

With new treatment, the health and quality of life of people with cystic fibrosis is improving year on year, but many adults work part-time or are not able to work due to health reasons, according to Tallon who is also employed as an advocate for CF Ireland. A survey conducted by the charity in 2017 found that 14% of respondents were too ill to work.

Unless youve been very prudent with your finances, you probably wont have a huge savings reservoir capable of meeting [the cost] of IVF.

CF Ireland gives 55,000 worth offertility grantsto around 20 people 80% men with cystic fibrosis every year from money raised through fundraising. This money covers a portion of the cost of fertility treatment.

The charity also gives a grant to cover part of the cost of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Three cycles of this test are covered for couples who are carriers of a genetic disorder on the NHS but not in Ireland.

With infertility a growing issue in the general population, Tallon said this is not just a niche CF issue and there is a need for Government funding for infertility. Couples might think it will cost a few thousand but very quickly could find themselves on their third or fourth cycle, he explained.

Thats where it is difficult. Thats where the Government should really play a part.

People want answers

Another group that often requires fertility treatment are people who have undergone treatment for cancer. Paul Gordan, policy and public affairs manager of the Irish Cancer Society said that we dont want to see people who cant afford IVF not having access to a treatment that is available in most European countries.

Ireland is the only EU country not to offer state funding for assisted reproduction even though the World Health Organisation recognises infertility as a medical condition. Lithuania joined us up to recently but now their national compulsory health insurance reimburses providers for two cycles of IVF per couple treated.

Gordan said there has been some development in terms of regional hubs but we have seen a couple of missed timelines that have been set about when people will have access to publicly funded IVF. He added that IVF is what people really want to see as its really important for people with cancer and cancer survivors when they progress into a life [after treatment].

The fertility of both women and men can be impacted by both different types of cancer as well as cancer treatment. Some have the option of freezing their semen or eggs in order to preserve their fertility but may then need treatment such as IVF in order to have a baby.

Fertility preservation for people with cancer is currently provided by the State but to date was only offered to adults in one location the Rotunda Hospital.

Professor Mary Wingfield is calling on the implementation of publicly funded fertility treatment. Source: Prof Mary Wingfield

This is another area that needs to be looked at, according to Prof Mary Wingfield. There is some funding at the moment but it goes to one clinic and its inadequate.

A spokesperson for the HSE told Noteworthy that while this service was originally provided by the Rotunda, it subsequently was acquired by a private provider who continued to provide the service at the Rotunda. This private provider has since relocated and is no longer based there. They continued:

As the range of services that can potentially be offered in the area of fertility preservation is expanding it is now timely to review the service provision.

The Irish Cancer Society in conjunction with Merrion Fertility are funding a Childhood Cancer Fertility Project over the coming years in order to improve access to fertility preservation for children and young adults, according to Gordan. He hopes that a more sustainable funding line will be obtained once their project demonstrates its effectiveness.

We feel there should be a system where there is equity of access to fertility treatment. We want cancer patients to have the same opportunities as others to have children regardless of their background or income.

Gordon said there was an expectation that publicly funded IVF would become available sooner which has led to frustration for everyone as there is a timeline a clock on this for many people. He added there needs to be more urgency for the progression of both public funding and the passing of the AHR legislation.

It would be great to understand the timeline for both but in reality people want publicly funded fertility treatment and want answers as to when that will happen.

Funding Fertility Investigation

Has the delay in publicly funding IVF destroyed peoples chance to have children?

ThroughNoteworthy, we want to do an in-depth investigation intothe impact of the wait for public fertility funding andlook at the potential obstacles to overcome in order to put IVF through the public system.

We want to compare fertility costs in Ireland to other EU countries and look into the type of state funding offered. We also want to investigate the supports offered to people who need fertility-related procedures or treatments due to health complications or illness.

Heres how to help support this proposal>

Continued here:
Department of Health can't give timeline for rollout of publicly-funded IVF - TheJournal.ie

MINDANAO, Philippines Efforts to conserve the critically endangered Philippine eagle, one of the rarest raptors in the world, soared high even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the global havoc wreaked by the health crisis, the year 2020 ended on a high note for eagle conservationists, with at least two eagle families sighted in the Davao region of the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

The Philippine eagle (Pithecopaga jefferyi) enjoys a special status as the national bird of the Southeast Asian nation, but faces extinction due to hunting and loss of habitat. Growing the population is difficult, as the birds are slow to reproduce. It takes them five to seven years to mature sexually, after which the female lays a single egg every two years.

There are only an estimated 400 nesting pairs of Philippine eagles left in the wild, so the sighting of new eagle families is always a milestone to celebrate for the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), a nonprofit that has worked for more than 30 years in conserving the species.

Dennis Joseph Salvador, executive director of the PEF, said hes optimistic the protection of the Philippine eagle is off to a good start for 2021, given the achievements of 2020, which came despite the debilitating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the threats the birds face daily from human activities such as hunting and illegal logging.

We have demonstrated over the past 30 years our commitment to conserve the mighty Philippine eagle and by hook or by crook, we will sustain that next year and in the years to come, he told Mongabay.

In addition to the sighting of new families, in the seven months that followed the March 2020 start of lockdown in the Philippines, the foundation rescued seven birds with the help of mobile technology and social media.

PEF credited this record number of rescues to heightened public awareness and involvement of local governments in eagle conservation, rather than to an uptick in the number of captured or injured birds.

Most of the rescued birds had been captured by trappers, with one sold for 8,000 pesos (around $170) by the trapper to an outdoors enthusiast.

In some instances, rescuers had to work in the dead of night and traverse rugged terrain to fetch the distressed eagles hundreds of kilometers away in remote mountain villages.

Of the seven Philippine eagles rescued since the start of the lockdown, one died due to malnutrition, three were released back to the wild, and three remained at the PEFs rehabilitation center.

We are very glad that despite the pandemics travel and movement restrictions, we were able to save six of these seven precious birds, with three of them healed and successfully released back to their respective forest homes, Salvador said.

The PEF says successful rescues involve collaborating with a wide variety of actors, including concerned citizens reporting eagles in distress; officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and local governments; as well as organizations that support the PEF. After each birds release, it continues to be monitored with the aid of community volunteers and their respective village and Indigenous community organizations.

One such release came on July 28, as the world celebrated World Nature Conservation Day. The rescued eagle, named Makilala Hiraya, was released back into the wild, tagged with a GPS/GSM tracker on her back, in the first such event ever livestreamed on Facebook.

But what astonished Philippine eagle conservationists last year were the sightings, a few weeks apart, of two families of the raptors: mated pairs and their offspring. The first family was spotted within Mount Apo Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) in November and the other in December within Mount Kampalili-Putting Bato KBA. Both KBAs are on the island of Mindanao.

Jayson Ibaez, research and conservation director at the PEF, said the organization has for years been searching for eagle nesting sites, particularly in Mindanao, where half of the estimated 400 nesting pairs of Philippine eagles are believed to live.

The recent sightings of two families of Philippine eagles indicate that the forests where theyre seen are still pristine and rich in prey items for the raptors such as macaques, flying lemurs, hornbills, palm civets and snakes, among others, he told Mongabay.

Unless disturbed or destroyed by human activities, Philippine eagle nest sites are considered ancient breeding grounds, since generations of eagle pairs will occupy the nest over and over again.

Conserving these core areas of reproduction and keeping the nesting pair and their young safe is pivotal to the success of saving the species from being lost forever, Ibaez said.

In November, the PEF team, in collaboration with state-run Energy Development Corporation, which runs a geothermal power plant within Mount Apo, launched the Search for the King of Birds campaign in the area.

The team spent 192 observation hours deep in the forest and emerged victorious after at least eight sightings of nesting pairs of Philippine eagles and their offspring.

Ron Taraya, senior biologist and expedition leader at the PEF, told of how he and the team got within 200-300 meters (660-980 feet) of a juvenile Philippine eagle in the wild. The bird exhibited characteristics typical of a 2-year-old of the species: awkward hunting moves, lower flight confidence, and limited flight duration.

It amused us watching the bird take on a group of long-tailed macaques foraging on an escarpment just in front of the waterfalls, Taraya said.

The young raptor failed to kill the target macaque, as the group faced off with the bird and grunted threateningly, prompting the eagle to back off and fly into a tree above the ledge.

A few days prior to the close encounter with the juvenile, the team saw a pair of eagles feeding their young one with freshly killed prey following the latters food begging calls. During the expedition, the team also documented the juveniles parents aerial rituals that appeared to be a courtship routine.

The two eagles mutually presented their talons in mid-air, called talon presentation,' Taraya said. They also did several bouts of flying together in spirals, or mutual soaring. Then they flew to different directions; one disappearing inside the deep gorge, while the other landed on an emergent tree. There, the eagle stayed on its perch cleaning its feathers with its beak, called preening. It was also seen scratching, stretching and moving its head. After performing these general maintenance behaviors, the eagle finally flew off and glided beyond the waterfalls until it disappeared behind the tree line.

In Mindanao, September to January is typically nesting season for Philippine eagles, and courtship displays precede each egg-laying event. Eagle pairs at several nest sites across Mindanao start their courtship rituals as early as July, and the routine can persist even after the pair has started rearing a chick.

The second sighting of a family of Philippine eagles, in early December, was in the town of Lupon, in the province of Davao Oriental, within Mount Kampalili-Puting Bato KBA. A team from the provincial government was assessing the areas potential tourism sites when it spotted the birds.

Images of the juvenile perched on a tree and two bigger eagles were captured by a government photographer, Eden Jhan Licayan, which the PEFs Ibaez later confirmed as being Philippine eagles.

Ibaez said a single eagle pair needs 4,000-11,000 hectares (10,000-27,000 acres) of forest to thrive and multiply.

While roughly 200 eagle pairs are believed to survive in Mindanao, Ibaez said only 39 pairs have actually been documented. This means more expeditions are needed to get the real numbers, he said.

We are very happy every time we discover new pairs, Ibaez said. It is important to locate the nesting sites so that we can put in place protective measures to ensure they will be out of harms way so that the species can reproduce and will not become extinct.

The oldest nesting site within Mount Apo was discovered in the 1970s, near its foot. An eagle pair continues to frequent the area today, according to Ibaez. The birds can live up to 40 years.

The wider Mount Apo range spans at least 90,000 hectares (222,000 acres), of which only two-thirds are classified as a protected area, adding extra complexity to the task of protecting eagle habitat and nesting sites.

To help with the conservation of the forest and the Philippine eagles in Mount Apo KBA, the Davao City government engages Indigenous communities through its Bantay Bukid (Forest Guard) initiative. Under the scheme, some 200 Indigenous men have been recruited as volunteer forest guards, for which they get a monthly allowance of 2,000 pesos (about $40), to patrol four identified nesting sites. Together, they keep watch over some 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of forest.

The Bantay Bukid program has significantly augmented the forest protection work force of the DENR in the area. From a ratio of one personnel for every 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest, the Bantay Bukid scheme has improved the guard presence to one person for every 200 hectares (500 acres).

With many pairs of eyes watching over the forests, it helped deter timber and wildlife poaching activities, Ibaez said, noting that the Indigenous women also benefit through livelihood projects.

Despite the successes in the field last year, the PEF has taken a financial beating from the COVID-19 pandemic, according toIbaez and Salvador. The foundation has had to appeal to the public for donations to keep its work going amid the health crisis.

Salvador said the PEFs rehabilitation center, which usually welcomes about 200,000 visitors annually, lost its main income stream as the pandemic forced it to shut to the public from March.

We lost about a third of our revenues The large chunk of conservation money came from the gate receipts of the center, he said, adding that the PEF has received the bulk of its funding from corporate and private contributors rather than from the government.

Ibaez said the center had lost some 2 million pesos (about $40,000) per month due to the lockdown.

With the pandemic still unfolding, Salvador said short-term conservation efforts for the national bird pose a big challenge.

Were [financially] crippled due to lack of resources. Until this pandemic is effectively handled, the problem of lack of resources and policies associated in curtailing this pandemic will keep us grounded and unable to respond to the needs of the eagles in the wild, he said.

But despite the debilitating impact of COVID-19 on the PEF, Salvador said the foundation will try its best to respond to the needs of the Philippine eagles in captivity and in the wild. The foundation hasnt had to lay off any of its nearly 50 workers, thanks to the continuing support of its corporate sponsors, including some of the biggest companies in the Philippines.

To help get through the COVID-19 crisis, Salvador said they have launched crowdfunding initiatives through social media, appealing to the public for help in conserving the Philippine eagles.

The rehabilitation center reopened to the public in October, operating at a limited capacity and requiring visitors to book at least 24 hours in advance. To help recover the months of losses, the center raised its entrance fee to 300 pesos ($6) and added extra activities, including a viewing of the short film Kalayaan, about a juvenile Philippine eagles journey in the wild. Visitors need to wear face masks and face shields and observe physical distancing while in the facility, in line with wider efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19.

Since we reopened our gates to the public, we have been receiving very few visitors but in some days, theres no one visiting at all, Ibaez said.

Related stories:

Banner image of Philippine eagle Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) was turned over by residents in the province of Surigao last September. Balikatan has an impaired eye and could no longer be released back into the wild, making him a permanent resident of the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City. Image courtesy of the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF).

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A good year for the Philippine eagle in 2020, but not for its supporters - Mongabay.com

(Image via Getty)

Last week, theNew York Postreported on a Tik Tok influencer who was experiencing a phenomenon thats called superfetation. Its an exceptionally rare condition, where a pregnant woman becomes pregnant again at the same time as another pregnancy. In the Tik Tokers case, she was actually already pregnant with twins, when she conceived athirdchild! She reports that the situation occurred entirely naturally, and that she was not taking fertility medication.

Of course, thanks to a bizarre surrogacycasefrom several years ago, loyal readers of this column were already familiar with the unusual condition of superfetation. The New York Post article even referenced that surrogacy case - that of Jessica Allen, a California woman who unknowingly became pregnant with her own child, while already pregnant as a gestational surrogate for a Chinese couple. Those twins were born in December 2016, and a lawsuit was filed in 2018 by Allen against the surrogacy agency.

Whatever happened to that case? A lot, it turns out. Including a recent filing of cross claims, in December 2020, by the surrogacy agency against Allen!

Refresher On The Case.This case blew a lot of minds, as most people didnt know that it was scientifically possible for a woman to become double pregnant. In the unusual fact pattern, Jessica Allen agreed to be a gestational surrogate, and was matched with a couple through Omega Family Global, Inc., an ominously named surrogacy agency out of San Diego. The hopeful intended parents were from China, but thats not uncommon. Per typical gestational surrogacy terms, Allen entered into a contract with the intended parents that they would compensate her for time and efforts as a gestational surrogate, including additional compensation of $1,000 per month starting the 20th week of pregnancy, if she were carrying twins.

Only one of the Chinese intended parents embryos was transferred to Allens uterus as part of the gestational surrogacy process. So it was a bit of a surprise when ultrasounds later showed that Allen was carrying two fetuses. But not that much of a surprise, really. In a small percentage of pregnancies, an embryo splits to become twins. And that is what everyone assumed had happened.

Per the contract, the intended parents paid Allen additional expenses and compensation related to the twin pregnancy. However, after the birth, it became clear that the babies were not, in fact, identical twins from a split embryo. Instead, after some confusion and genetic testing, it was revealed that one baby was the genetic child of the Chinese intended parents, while the other was the genetic child of Allen and her partner. Allen and her baby were reunited in February 2017, which was almost two months after the birth.

Allen filed suit against the surrogacy agency in July 2018, with a scathing account of her treatment after the birth. We are just now hearing the other side of the story through the recently filed cross complaint.

The Other Side.The basic facts of the case are undisputed. Allen agreed to be a surrogate, and she became pregnant with her own child at the same time as the surrogacy pregnancy. However, one of the biggest points that the surrogacy agency makes repeatedly is that Allen agreed in her contract with the intended parents, not [to] have sexual intercourse from the first day of her menstrual cycle before the embryo transfer until the date that pregnancy has been confirmed by the IVF Physician. In other words, this situation is entirely Allens fault. She contracted away her right to have sex during a key period during the surrogacy process. By breaking her agreement, she caused an emotionally traumatic and expensive situation for all involved.

The Intended Parents Devastation.The cross complaint describes how when the twin discovery was made during the ultrasound, the Intended Parents were elated about the opportunity of having twins, so they started making arrangements to accommodate each baby. They also shared the news with their friends and family. It goes on to describe the devastation of the intended parents when they found out one of their babies was not, in fact, theirs.

And, of course, there was the issue of the money. The cross complaint explains how the surrogacy agency entered a settlement with the intended parents where it paid them $8,000, reimbursing them for the extra payments they made to Allen for the twin pregnancy. In exchange, the intended parents transferred and assigned all of their rights under the contract with Allen including any and all causes of action against Allen.

When Did Everyone Know There Was An Issue?In the original complaint filed by Allen, she described sounding the alarm as to the twins not looking alike when the intended mother showed her a picture of the twins shortly after the birth. Allen described her observations being brushed off by the surrogacy agency. By contrast, the surrogacy agencys filing disputes Allens description of her own responsible conduct, instead claiming that Ms. Allen alleged that the twins both seemed of Asian descent. And that later, when Allen was informed that DNA testing showed that one of the babies was not a child of the Chinese intended parents, Allens first concern was whether there would be any ramifications for [her] as the surrogate. The cross complaint goes on to allege that Allen initially denied having sex during the contractually prohibited time period, and argued that the baby was not hers. In support of [her] argument, Ms. Allen alleged that the babies had similar eye bags and noses.

The baby at issue is now four years old. I have to admit that Im surprised that a case like this didnt settle years ago. It was a rough situation for everyone, and hopefully one that all parties can move on from in a healthy way. In the meantime, the case serves as a warning for all participants in a gestational surrogacy arrangement of the importance of those contractual sexual activity restrictions and that those 5th-grade health education classes may have left out some surprising facts about human reproduction.

Ellen Trachman is the Managing Attorney ofTrachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, and co-host of the podcastI Want To Put A Baby In You. You can reach her atbabies@abovethelaw.com.

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She Signed A Contract Not To Have Sex, Then She Got Pregnant - Above the Law

Country selection and data sources

Figure1 illustrates the cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases and the incidence of malaria infection in Africa. The four countries are located in eastern Africa, western Africa, and central and southern Africa, where the infection risk of both COVID-19 and malaria is relatively high. First, to estimate the epidemiological parameters of COVID-19 in each country, we use the time series of cumulative COVID-19 cases in each country till June 2, 2020. The reported COVID-19 cases in each country are collected from the website of the World Health Organization (Source: https://covid19.who.int/). Then, we characterize the annual pattern of malaria transmission potential in each country based on the historical values of VCAP from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2019. The values of VCAP are downloaded from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (Source: http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/Health/Regional/Africa/Malaria/VCAP/index.html). Finally, to quantify the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on malaria transmission potential, we have also collected the population size, the ITN coverage, and the total number of ITNs available for each country. Based on the Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) in each country, the ITN coverage rate before 2020 is estimated by the percentage of de facto household population who slept under an ITN the night before the survey. While the total number of ITNs available in 2020 can be obtained from the Malaria Operational Plan (FY 2019) of each country. All data and their sources are summarized in Table1.

An illustration of the cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases and the incidence of malaria infection in Africa. The left shows the total number of reported COVID-19 cases till June 30, 2020. The right shows the incidence of malaria infection (per 1000 population at risk) in 2018. The figure was generated using the Free Software R with version 3.6.3

To accurately predict the trend of COVID-19 pandemic, we first estimate the epidemiological parameters of COVID-19 by fitting the time series of reported COVID-19 cases in each country. Here, the time series is about the reported date of the COVID-19 infections as of June 2, 2020. Evidence has shown that asymptomatic infections play essential roles in the spread of COVID-19. However, due to limited public health resources in the four countries in Africa, it is difficult to identify asymptomatic infections in the early stages of the epidemic. In this case, following existing studies[26, 27], we resort to the classical susceptibleexposedinfectiousremoved (SEIR) model to simulate the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in a population of size N:

$$begin{aligned} {left{ begin{array}{ll} frac{dS(t)}{dt} = - frac{R_0}{D_I} cdot frac{ S(t) I(t)}{N}\ frac{dE(t)}{dt} = frac{R_0}{D_I} cdot frac{ S(t) I(t)}{N} - frac{E(t)}{D_E} \ frac{dI(t)}{dt} = frac{E(t)}{D_E} - frac{I(t)}{D_I} \ frac{dR(t)}{dt} = frac{I(t)}{D_I} end{array}right. } end{aligned}$$

(1)

where S(t), E(t), I(t), and R(t) represent the number of susceptible, exposed, infectious, and removed individuals at time t. In this study, we assume that the reported COVID-19 cases are removed or quarantined from the population and can no longer infect others. Along this line, the time series of reported cases we observed is actually the states of R(t) over time.

There are three epidemiological parameters in the SEIR model: (R_0) is the basic reproduction number; (D_E) is the average latent period; and (D_I) is the average contagious period (i.e., the average duration that an infectious individual is confirmed to be infected). Following the study in[26], we assume that the latent period is the same as the incubation period. Further, based on the estimation in[1], the mean incubation period of COVID-19 was 5.2 days. In this case, we set (D_E=5.2). The infectious rate, (beta =R_0/D_I), controls the rate of spread that represents the probability of transmitting disease between a susceptible and an infectious individual. In this study, we adopt the particle Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to estimate epidemiological parameters (R_0) and (D_I) in each country by fitting the time series of the cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases[16, 20].

We implement the PMCMC method and simulate the COVID-19 epidemic using python programming language version 3.8.5 (source: https://www.python.org/). We assume that the first exposed case [i.e., E(0)] appears d days before the date of the first reported case in each country. According to the Bayesian inference method, uninformative uniform priors are assigned to model parameters to reduce their influence on the posteriors, that is, (R_0 sim U(0,8)), (D_I sim U(1,20)), and (d sim U(0,30)). Since the interval of each prior covers almost all possible values of the corresponding parameter, such settings have little effect on the inference results as long as the number of iterations is enough. With careful pre-testing, we set the proposal distribution of each parameter to be normal distribution: (q(R_0^{*}|R_0)=norm(R_0^{*}|R_0,0.5)), (q(D_I^{*}|D_I)=norm(D_I^{*}|D_I,0.5)), and (q(d^{*}|d)=norm(d^{*}|d,0.5)). After initializing the values of model parameters as (R_0=2.5), (D_I=5), and (d=14), we run the PMCMC algorithm with 200 particles for 100,000 iterations. Finally, the posterior of each parameter is built upon the last (80%) iterations with a discarded burn-in of 20,000 iterations.

Based on the estimated model parameters, we simulate the dynamics of COVID-19 under two groups of NPIs: (1) contact restriction and social distancing (e.g., contact restrictions and personal preventive actions), and (2) early identification and isolation of cases. Generally speaking, contact restrictions can reduce the infectious rate (beta) of COVID-19; while early identification and isolation of potential cases can reduce the average duration of infection (D_I). On the one hand, we assess the effects of social distancing interventions by reducing the estimated infectious rate (beta) to 25% and 10%, while keeping the duration of infection unchanged. This is equivalent to reducing (R_0) to 25% and 10% of its original value. On the other hand, we also evaluate the impact of combined intervention strategies, where both social distancing and early identification and isolation are implemented. Specifically, the epidemic dynamics of COVID-19 are simulated when reducing (R_0) to 25% and (D_I) to 2 (or 4) at the same time. In addition to what types of NPIs are implemented, it is also important when to implement the interventions. Accordingly, we further simulate the epidemic dynamics of COVID-19 under various settings of NPIs that are implemented on May 18 and June 17, 2020, respectively.

We adopt the notion of vectorial capacity to evaluate malaria transmission potential in malaria-endemic countries in Africa. Based on the Macdonald model[21], the VCAP can be formulated as:

$$begin{aligned} V=frac{ma^2e^{-gn}}{g} = frac{-ma^2p^n}{ln p}, end{aligned}$$

(2)

where m is the average mosquito density per person; a is the expected number of bites on humans per mosquito, per day (i.e., human feeding rate); g is the per-capita daily death rate of a mosquito (i.e., the force of mortality); n is the sporogonic cycle length of the Plasmodium; (p=e^{-g}) represents the probability of a mosquito survives through one whole day. Conceptually, the VCAP incorporates all information about mosquito population (e.g., human biting rate, life expectancy), which is defined as the number of potentially infective contacts a person makes, through the mosquito population, per day. Many studies have shown that the value of VCAP can be calculated based on meteorological factors, such as temperature and precipitation[22, 23]. For example, Ceccato et al. have calculated the average vectorial capacity per 8 days for areas where malaria is considered to be an epidemic in Africa[19]. If there is no abnormal climate change, the annual pattern of malaria transmission potential in each country should be relatively stable across different years. On this basis, we download and extract the 8-day average vectorial capacity for each county from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2019. We then use the means of the 16-year VCAP as a baseline of the annual pattern of malaria transmission potential.

In this study, we focus mainly on assessing the impact of COVID-19 response on the disruption of ITN distribution, and further on the transmission potential of malaria. Launched in 2005, the Presidents Malaria Initiative (PMI) strives to reduce the burden of malaria across 15 high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa through a rapid scale-up of four proven and highly effective malaria prevention and treatment measures, including insecticide-treated mosquito nets. In most countries, the PMI has supported ITN distribution through universal mass campaigns and continuous distribution channels. Based on the Malaria Operational Plan (FY 2019) in each country, we can obtain the total ITNs available from different partner contributions in 2020 (see Table1). In this study, we assume that the available ITNs are distributed throughout the year in a way that the number of distributed ITNs is proportional to the annual pattern of malaria transmission potential in each time interval (eight days in this study). In doing so, the newly increased number of ITNs in a specific time interval t in 2020 can be estimated as:

$$begin{aligned} Delta _i(t) = frac{V_i(t)}{sum _t V_i(t)}Delta _i, end{aligned}$$

(3)

where (Delta _i) represents the total number of available ITNs in country i throughout 2020, and (V_i(t)) represents the mean value of 16-year VCAP in time interval t of each year.

As the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases (Delta _{R_i}(t)=R_i(t)-R_i(t-1)) increases, it is assumed that the distribution of ITNs will be disrupted accordingly. Moreover, when the COVID-19 becomes serious (e.g., the number reaches a threshold value (tau)), the distribution of ITNs will be suspended. Mathematically, we assume that the number of distributed ITNs in time interval t, (D_i(t)), is inversely proportional to the number of reported COVID-19 cases. Thus, we have:

$$begin{aligned} D_i(t) = {left{ begin{array}{ll} (1-Delta _{R_i}(t)/tau )Delta _i(t), &{} text {if } Delta _{R_i}(t) < tau , \ 0, &{} text {otherwise}. end{array}right. } end{aligned}$$

(4)

Let (D_i(1:t)= sum _t D_i(t)) represent the cumulative number of distributed ITNs from the first time interval to the tth interval in 2020. Then, the newly increased ITN coverage rate till time interval t becomes (D_i(1:t)/N_i), where (N_i) is the population size of country i. For case studies in each of the four African countries, the threshold value (tau) is set to be the number of reported cases when various NPIs are implemented.

The disruption or cessation of distribution of ITNs may reduce the expected ITN coverage in a country, which may lead to the increase in human feeding rate a, as well as the transmission potential of malaria. Denote (C_i) as the ITN coverage rate in country i before 2020. In this study, we treat (C_i) as a reference value, which corresponds to human feeding rate of the baseline value of VCAP. Then, if all available ITNs are distributed as expected, the relative change of human feeding rate can be estimated as follows:

$$begin{aligned} r_i^{exp}(t) = frac{1-alpha (C_i+Delta _i(1:t)/N_i)}{1-alpha C_i}, end{aligned}$$

(5)

where (alpha) indicates the efficiency of ITNs against mosquito bites. According to the definition of vectorial capacity, the expected transmission potential of malaria at time interval t can be calculated as:

$$begin{aligned} V_i^{exp}(t) = (r_i^{exp}(t))^2cdot V_i(t). end{aligned}$$

(6)

Similarly, if the distribution of ITNs is disrupted, the relative change of human feeding rate is:

$$begin{aligned} r_i^{dis}(t) = frac{1-alpha (C_i+D_i(1:t)/N_i)}{1-alpha C_i}, end{aligned}$$

(7)

and the transmission potential becomes:

$$begin{aligned} V_i^{dis}(t) = (r_i^{dis}(t))^2cdot V_i(t). end{aligned}$$

(8)

In this study, we set (alpha =1). Note that if the ITN distribution is disrupted, we have (V_i^{exp}(t)

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Accessing the syndemic of COVID-19 and malaria intervention in Africa - Infectious Diseases of Poverty - BioMed Central

According to NASA, no humans have ever had sex in space, but with the swift ascent of private space tourism, you can bet that humankind will soon join the 62-mile-high club.

This impending achievement, coupled with renewed efforts to populate Earth orbit, build a colony on the Moon, and travel to Mars, lay bare the urgent need for scientific research into all aspects of sex in space, a team of Canadian researchers from Concordia University and Laval University argue in a paper just published in the Journal of Sex Research.

The team, led by Simon Dub, a Concordia University PhD candidate in psychology specializing in human sexuality, sextech, and erobotics, calls for space programs to seriously explore space sexology, defined as the comprehensive scientific study of extraterrestrial intimacy and sexuality.

Until now, space agencies like NASA have ignored the topic of sex almost entirely, perhaps fearful of generating a controversy that could jeopardize their funding. When queried about sex, NASA officials have brushed the matter aside. Astronauts are apparently prohibited from having sex or developing intimate relationships onboard the International Space Station.

But, again, as humankind increasingly begins to embrace the prospect of colonizing low-Earth orbit and beyond through private missions, disregarding research into a basic human drive is growing less tenable. Dub and his co-authors outlined a number of potential risks related to space sex that merit study.

For starters, ionizing radiation could interfere with sexual reproduction by altering the DNA of sperm cells, egg cells, and even human embryos (though one study suggested that mammal embryos can develop normally in space). Moreover, microgravity could make sex both difficult and messy a big problem in a setting where cleanliness is paramount. Space habitats are also cramped, remote, and not always private, making sexual needs hard to satisfy. Thinking even farther into the future, small settlements with limited intimate partners will undoubtedly breed stress, conflicts, and even sexual harrassment or assault. The further people are from Earth and the longer they are in space, the more likely that sexual and relationship-related problems will arise, Dub and his colleagues write.

They make the case for researching solutions to these risks right away. As technology makes extraterrestrial life and travel more accessible to the public, the people who go into space in the future from scientists to tourists may not have to undergo the same kind of stringent training or selection process as current astronauts, they argue. Producing quality science and implementing systemic changes take time, so why not start immediately, rather than wait for problems to arise?

Dub and his co-authors have already fleshed out a few potential areas for research. The first is designing systems and spaces that allow for eroticism to be safe, private, and hygienic. This effort may also include preliminary planning for delivering babies in space and treating any sex-related health issues. The second is creating training programs that prepare space travelers for intimacy, sexual activity, and any social problems that may arise. The third is engineering sexual technologies like toys or robots that permit clean and satisfying sexual experiences.

Ultimately, if properly researched and planned for, intimacy and sexuality like leisure could help endure and normalize life in space by making it more enjoyable and less lonely, the researchers say. Sexual activity relieves stress, lowers blood pressure, and helps with sleep, among many other benefits.

Facilitating intimacy and sexuality in space could improve the life of astronauts and future space inhabitants, Dub and his colleagues add. Intimate and sexual activities can arguably help people adapt to space contexts and normalize spacelife.

Original post:
Space sex: the trouble with joining the 62-mile-high club - Big Think

Strip away modernity. Unlearn everything you know about the complexity of your average day. The ordinary interaction, the workaday worries, the pinging of your phone, the relentless roll of the inbox. You are left with the human condition. Our most basic needs, as the American psychologist Abraham Maslow noted, are the physiological needs: food and water, sufficient rest, clothing, shelter, health and reproduction.

In Australia and much of the developed world, we often forget that food and water are central to the human story. Food is so plentiful, so present, it is not even secondary.

Yet in 2020, when we saw the shelves stripped empty in a Covid panic, how quickly the instinct to protect those basic needs kicked in. Those of us in developed countries were transported back through history, to the many moments of scarcity, as if living past lives or responding to genetic memories. In a flash, the basics became important. The impermanence of gathering food was underlined.

Although I am primarily a journalist, I have been living alongside food production for 25 years since I moved to a sheep and wheat farm. As I moved my political journalism away from insider reporting to outsider rural coverage, I was alerted to fractures in the farming system that are becoming clear after decades of economic reforms.

How food is grown and where it comes from are choices for every individual and country to make.

Think about how this currently happens in Australia. At its most basic, farmers use soil and water to grow crops and raise animals. In the act of growing, farmers must look after landscapes. Australian farmers manage up to 60% of the countrys land mass and account for up to 70% of its diverted fresh-water extractions. So we all have a stake in farmers doing their job well.

But it is not only that. Farmers are at the interface of the worlds most wicked problems.

Farming both contributes to and is endangered by the biggest existential threats of our time: climate change, water shortages, soil loss, energy production, natural disasters, zoonotic diseases, population displacement and geopolitical trade wars.

In the face of such pressure, there is a barrage of contradictory policies around food growing, and no Australian political party is doing serious thinking about how to knit together food, farming and environmental policies to continue feeding the population while mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss.

Here are some messages farmers receive from governments and consumers.

We want clean, green food to feed the world. We want scale because we want cheap food. We want family farmers. We want the mums and dads. We want big global capital. We want lots to export to help our balance of payments. We want resilience. We want farmers to stand on their own two feet. We want to pay no subsidies. We want farming to be like any other business. We want farmers to use the latest technology for productivity. We want them to look after the environment. We want farmers to look after native habitat for declining species. And now we want them to sequester carbon to turn around both their own emissions and some of the rest of the populations emissions. I think that just about covers it.

It is a lot to get your head around, so here are three things to ponder as we reimagine Australia in the pandemic world.

Firstly, the only way most farmers currently get a pay rise is to make cheap food cheaper. Australia is one of only eight countries where households spend less than 10% of their income on food.

Farmers are paid on yield. Pushed by governments under the deregulation agenda, farmers largely traded the market power of compulsory trading desks and cooperatives for greater freedom to manage their own affairs. This has left them on a productivity treadmill that requires farmers to grow more with less.

The rules of the economy, the policies laid down by our governments, are set on one goal only: farmer economicus maximising economic profit as a food producer. Those are the only signals food producers get right now, and a farmer needs to feed their family.

Secondly, expectations are rising that all land managers look after the environment.

Global food processors want food production that meets their Environment, Social and Governance requirements. A cohort of eaters want to know their food is grown without harming the environment. They want to know animal welfare practice is sound. Global governments need to meet their climate change commitments.

But the simple truth is the food price does not account for the environmental costs and, sometimes, the labour costs in the modern farming system. We have seen this labour shortage play out in the pandemic. Australia farmers are some of the least subsidised food growers in the world.

As a result of these pressures, global governments have starting paying farmers for environmental services to meet their commitments and ensure farmers have an adequate income source. This will require strong environmental accounting of natural systems to ensure farmers are making verifiable improvements.

By 2028, for example, the United Kingdom is phasing out the 1.6bn subsidy farmers receive every year for owning or renting land. Instead the funds will pay farmers to restore wild habitats, create new woodlands, boost soils and cut pesticide use.

This will change the economic signals away from production and towards restoration and regeneration of the landscape. Agriculture minister David Littleproud is working with the Australian National University on a biodiversity package, announced in this years budget, to verify environmental improvements in return for payments. This is a heartening policy development but we can only watch this space.

In Australia, Indigenous farmers, custodians and land managers need parity on this count too. Already some Indigenous managers are paid for cool burning and ranger programs. These could be expanded if we are to change the way we think about this as a revolution for land management.

Thirdly, the shift is away from small to mid sized family farms towards niche producers on one end and large agribusiness in the form of global companies or large family businesses. Big corporates can access cheaper finance and bulk buying outside the regions. This is causing the great hollowing out of farming and rural communities.

High-revenue farms now account for one fifth of the broadacre population but two thirds of land, income and output, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences. In 2021, a Weekly Times investigation found the top three Australian landowners by value were the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Macquarie Agriculture (as in the bank) and the New York based pension fund Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America.

A 2021 Guardian Australia investigation of pastoral-lease data found the person who held the most land was Western Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart. She controls 9.2m hectares, or 1.2%, of Australias land mass, through three different corporate entities. Corporate interests are bullish and larger family farms are buying out the neighbours.

Here is the bottom line. In the face of tectonic shifts in economic, environmental and social systems, government policy to promote economically and environmentally diverse, robust food and farming systems remains contradictory at best. Silent at worst.

Meanwhile, our communities and landscapes warp and change. Single farm failures are often put down to useless management, lack of scale, bad seasons and bad luck. You were not nimble enough for the marketing demands. You were not big enough at 500 hectares. You were not fast enough to buy the temporary water. Those high jumps keep creeping up. You are not big enough at 5000 hectares. You were not nimble enough to do the future trades. You didnt have the nous to do the water trades. You dont have the technology to shave your production costs.

Right now, the water market is designed to favour high return products. Currently that is nuts. So do we say to whole food-growing industries, sorry, dairy farmers, you werent nimble enough. Milk doesnt earn enough. Sorry, wine grape growers, almonds make more money. Sorry, rice growers, we will buy from Vietnam (until they turn off the tap in a pandemic as they did in 2020). Eventually 90,000 farm businesses may drop down to 9000. Or even 900. Just as the supermarkets have settled into a duopoly over my lifetime. Thats how it works. We turn around one day and the landscape has changed.

The good news is that Australians have created a lot of innovative natural resource management programs, which have brought together formerly warring tribes like the green movement and the farmer groups. The bad news is that in the past decades, small-minded political parties have thrown out many policy programs because they were implemented by the opposite side of politics.

We have killed more clever policy institutes than Ive had hot breakfasts: the National Water Commission, Land and Water Australia and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, to name a few. All were doing good work to try to synthesise and build the foundations for some connected food and farming policy solutions for managing our very tricky and ancient land mass.

We dont back good ideas for the long term and then we wonder why evidence-based policies dont work.

We are bright enough to reimagine an interconnected system that rewards economic diversity in farming that produces healthy food and landscapes. We just need to start connecting the dots.

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Farmers manage more than half of Australia. We all have a stake in them getting it right - The Guardian

A wizened eastern bald cypress dwells in an expanse of North Carolinas wetlands.

It lives among a cluster of eastern bald cypress trees in the states Black River, some with origins dating back a millennium. But this singular tree has witnessed more than its comrades; a 2019 study found its been alive since at least 605BCE. Its the oldest-known living tree in eastern North America and the fifth-oldest living non-clonal tree species in the world.

If these ancient trees could talk, they might wail a warning a message about the coalescing threats to their continued survival. What we can learn from a 2,624-year-old bald cypress may help piece together how humanity can best mitigate and adapt to the unprecedented impacts of the climate crisis.

They have personality, said Julie Moore, a retired botanist and former coordinator at the US Fish and Wildlife service. Ive mapped wetlands for years, so every big swamp in the United States in the south, Ive seen. But when I see these trees, I know theyre different.

Back in 1985, Moore introduced David Stahle to the Black Rivers bald cypress stand. A dendrochronologist, Stahle began using tree ring mapping and radiocarbon dating on the trees, leading to his discovery of Methuselah, a bald cypress dating back to 364AD.

It would take another quarter of a century for Stahle to return to the site, a maze-like waterway navigable only by small watercraft. This trip would lead him farther into the Black River, to the Three Sisters swamp. After coring hundreds of old trees, he identified the 2,624-year-old cypress nearly a thousand years older than Methuselah.

Stahle and his team have since continued their Black River research, reconstructing rainfall patterns and mapping the ancient forest. But climate change is a dangerous foe. Intensifying heatwaves, storms, flooding and droughts compound with warming temperatures to produce problems for plant growth, resilience and reproduction.

The principal threat to our forests is people and human activity. One consequence of human activity is climate change, Stahle said.

A little over six feet of elevation stands between the oldest-known cypress and the Atlantic Ocean. While sea level rise is increasing by two inches a decade now, its accelerating at a rapid pace. Sea levels are all but certain to rise by at least 20ft over the next 100 to 200 years. In a worst-case scenario, the worlds oldest bald cypress may already be underwater by 2080.

With those bald cypress only two meters above sea level, thats a really serious threat, said Harvard Forests senior ecologist, Neil Pederson. I see sea level rise as a train alarm, on a really long, overloaded train. And its going to take a long time to slow that train down.

Pederson is one of the researchers behind a 2014 study that found that increasing drought conditions and extreme events of the past which led to unusually high tree mortality rates could be a forecast for the future.

Even though our forests seem to change slowly over time, every once in a while these things, like black swans, these unprecedented or unforeseen events, come and change an ecosystem, he said.

A 2020 study found that even though older trees can adapt to stresses and migrate as conditions change, its unlikely that these characteristics will be enough to ensure their survival.

Nate McDowell, earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the lead author of that study, describes trees as functionally sweating because of warming temperatures, reducing plant productivity.

The world lost more than a third of its old-growth forests from 1900 to 2015. All the models, all the projections, everything points in the same direction: that were going to lose trees, McDowell said.

His prediction is supported by the years of recently documented increases in the mortality of older trees, which researchers are identifying across the globe. Last year, more than 10% of all mature giant sequoias were killed.

When trees die, entire ecosystems are disrupted. Once you have changes in the plant community, which is really the foundation for the whole forest, you in turn see changes in rodents, birds, even large mammals, said plant ecophysiologist Angelica Patterson.

A 2018 study found that tree loss in the Pacific north-west can even negatively affect the climate in the eastern US. Old-growth forests act as carbon sinks, meaning they sequester and store carbon emissions, steadily accumulating carbon for centuries. If they die, that carbon is released back into the atmosphere, creating a vicious cycle that further perpetuates climate change.

Forest loss even translates to the disappearance of natural coastal barriers during storms.

Locals living along North Carolinas Black River know all about the immemorial trees. Were just amazed that those trees are here. The time we first heard about it, they were saying they were over 2,000 years old. And I said, Well, they were here when Jesus was on Earth, said Dwight Horrell.

At 76, Horrell has called Ivanhoe, a rural town off the Black River, home his entire life. Climate change isnt something hes concerned about. Yet, dotted along a nearby shoreline are signs that suggest he should be.

Across the coastal wetlands of North Carolina, a new study found that climate change-driven sea level rise and saltwater intrusion have been killing large swaths of trees. In some cases, these ghost forests have even expanded inland. More than 10% of forested wetland was lost over the last 35 years in one wildlife refuge.

Charles Robbins, owner of the boating service Cape Fear River Adventures, has led Stahle through the Black Rivers charcoal-colored waters for the past decade. Hes also seen first-hand how extreme flood events disrupt ecosystems and livelihoods. There was a full foot of water on the ground and 15ft of water in the swamp, Robbins said. Peoples houses were underwater.

He was describing the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew which in 2016 flooded Horrells parents house so severely they didnt even try to rebuild. My parents house was in an area that had never been flooded, said Horrell. The first time it flooded, it got up to about three feet off the floor. The last time, it got up to the ceiling, he said.

Two years later, Hurricane Florence swept through, leaving a submerged town in its wake. The lowest-lying side was inundated with up to 36 inches of rain and record floods.

Everyone has since moved to higher ground, but the waterlogged shells of a few broken homes remain. Im telling you, it just looks morbid in that place, said Horrell.

The chance of dangerous flash flooding increases with intensifying storms; by 2050 North Carolinas inland flooding events are projected to rise by 40%.

Even so, Horrell isnt bothered by severe floods looming ahead. What hes most concerned about is strangers disrupting his way of life. You see how isolated this is down here? I enjoy the quietness, he said.

In 2017, a legislative motion for a Black River state park, intended to boost tourism, caused an uproar. The following year, the North Carolina parks and recreation division recommended the state not move forward after four town halls and a petition made up of 1,300 signatures communicated the same message: those living closest to the Black River were overwhelmingly opposed.

Three years later, signs still frame a building bordering one of Ivanhoes river boat ramps; the bolded words NO BLACK RIVER STATE PARK serving as a veiled promise.

Conservationists like Moore agree with the protesting community. Its not climate change imperiling the survival of the oldest cypress tree shes nervous about, but state-managed recreation, which opens the door to increased pollution, depletion of natural resources and ecosystem disturbance.

But Hervey McIver, a land protection specialist at the North Carolina chapter of the Nature Conservancy, attended those state park meetings to garner community support for the initiative. His point is simple: establishing a state park could fund and amplify conservation efforts.

The most vocal ones were against it. There were some people who were open to it, maybe in favor of it, but not against it. But they were quiet, McIver said. Hes optimistic that the state legislature will eventually reconsider. Even these rural, conservative, Republican folks, they see it. They understand it, and they dont they know they cant fight it.

The Nature Conservancy has invested in the preservation of the Black River since 1989. Today, the nonprofit, alongside state conservation agencies and the NC Coastal Land Trust, owns 17,960 acres along the 66-mile Black River and its upstream tributaries, including the Three Sisters swamp.

McIver says the conservancy protects the ancient trees by acquiring the land surrounding them, which then minimizes human activity. But he isnt sure what more can be done.

What can you do? Ill be long dead before the water gets that high, McIver said, emphasizing how sea level rise is a global problem, one that requires large-scale solutions like cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But then, you cant stop it. I mean, if its going to rise, its going to rise.

Some believe that question can be answered by using thousand-year-old windows into the past.

Environmental archaeologist Katharine Napora analyzed deceased eastern bald cypress trees along the Georgia coast, ranging from 65 to 1,078 years old, whose preserved remains date back to 3161BCE.

From these ancient trees, we see that even very long-lived cypress trees in the ancient past can be killed very fast with either rising sea levels or the storm surge from hurricanes, Napora said.

Solutions to fortifying wetlands and preserving old-growth forests, beyond curbing emissions, include creating living shorelines that act as a buffer for ecosystems from storm surges, sustainably harvesting coastal resources, lobbying for stricter regulations on companies emitting pollutants into the environment and even introducing marsh plants that double as salination sponges.

Napora believes we need to do everything in our power to preserve the Black Rivers treasure trove of climate insight.

She compares the loss of old-growth forests to the burning of the Library of Alexandria, one of the greatest archives of all time. These forests are like libraries informing us about the ancient past, she said. Just picture the huge amount of knowledge that would be lost if these forests no longer survive.

More:
The oldest tree in eastern US survived millennia but rising seas could kill it - The Guardian

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