Monthly Archives: January 2020

Neuroscience

Victorian underwear reveals what it is like to live with epilepsy – Epilepsy Society

Last year we posted a call out on social media, asking people with epilepsy to share their thoughts about what it is like to live with seizures.

Now the artist, Susan Aldworth has turned those testimonies into an innovative exhibition using both antique Victorian underwear and sophisticated technology to explore the impact that epilepsy has on peoples lives.

And the exhibition, Out of the Blue, opens this weekend on 18 January at Hatton Gallery Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle. It will run until 9 May 2020.

The worst part is that no one else notices. It feels like Im going to explode but no one else sees a thing... Im just stuck, Im still conscious. I can see, feel, and think. But I cant do anything. Im trapped in a body that wont listen to me. Sophie

The exhibition is built around more than 100 pieces of Victorian underwear chemises, nightdresses, bloomers each embroidered by members of the Royal School of Needlework with extracts from individual testimonies.

The garments are stitched in ultraviolet yellow and light blue, and black. They are then suspended by the ceiling on pulleys programmed by computers to correspond to the algorithms of electrical activity in an epileptic brain.

Out of the Blue was commissioned by the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University and is funded by the Wellcome Trust. Scientists at the institute are developing experimental treatments for epilepsy that use optogenetics, a biological technique that controls the activity of neurons in the brain, using light and genetic engineering.

The fluorescent embroidery is lit by both natural and ultraviolet light to reflect the scientists light-sensitive gene therapies.

After a seizure my head feels like it has been smashed against a brick wall and my whole body aches. My epilepsy nurse once told me she had a patient who was hit by a bus and they said that was less painful than a seizure.Willow

As an artist I really wanted to explore how it makes people feel to have epilepsy and what it is like to live with it, explains Susan. I wanted to give people with epilepsy a voice and bring the condition out into the open.

Almost 100 people responded to Susans request for personal testimonies, describing the reality of how they and their families are affected by the condition.

I was really blown away by their responses, says Susan. They described their lived experience of epilepsy with amazing candour and detail. Their testimonies are incredibly emotional and real.

You can read a full interview with Susan Aldworth in our members magazine, Epilepsy Review. Find out how you can become a member and get a copy of Epilepsy Review twice a year for free. https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/become-member-epilepsy-society

Out of the Blue is at Hatton Gallery Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle and runs from 18 January 9 May 2020.

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Victorian underwear reveals what it is like to live with epilepsy - Epilepsy Society

Neuroscience

JPM: Biotech, VC execs on where the industry should look beyond cancer – FierceBiotech

SAN FRANCISCOOncology is clearly a major medical and societal issue: a major killer that, while predominately affecting the older population, can strike the young through a mixture of environmental factors or a genetic lottery. Its no wonder we struggle to even call it by its name, preferring just the "big C."

Biopharma has acted accordingly over the years and spent billions (and made many more billions) developing new oncology therapies, with the media and political focus falling on cancer drugs far more acutely than any other area, whether that be over pricing (the current average cost of a new cancer drug in the U.S. is around $100,000), effectiveness/safety or rejection from healthcare gatekeepers, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in England.

But cancer is only one disease area: Heart disease is the biggest killer in the U.S., yet there are very few new and innovative CV drugs out there, with influenza complications, such as pneumonia, Alzheimers disease, stroke and diabetes complications all leading causes of death in the U.S. There has been a war on cancer, but not a war on stroke.

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There is also the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, where decades-old antibiotics are ceasing to work against common forms of bacteria as they evolve; this, coupled with the fact that most life science companies arent working on a next generation of antibiotics (R&D costs are high with little or no ROI), means we could very well be facing a new surge in deaths in the future from once preventable diseases and infections.

At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week, we at FierceBiotech wondered what the industry was doing about this and asked a range of life science C-suite execs: What therapeutic areas beyond cancer are most important to the industry now? both in terms of unmet need as well as where there is some real innovation.

Jim Robinson, chief operating officer at Paragon Biosciences, said: I spent 10 years in oncology, so I understand that point. Still, the biggest issue we face today that has to be figured out is Alzheimers. Looking at the aftermath, its scaryits going to be trillions of dollars in 20 short years in terms of the expense treating patients with Alzheimers. In 20 short years, I might be one of those patients!

I think its been a vast wasteland of failure. Im hoping something comes about before Im 70 to allow us to treat it. Whether the industry is willing to shift more resources to pursue treatments or not remains to be seen, especially after the latest failures. I dont know if the industry will shift to Alzheimers or more CNS treatments associated with cognition, but Im hoping.

Oncology good news is when the industry shifted and thousands of drugs moved through development. We see a significant transformation in certain cancers. If the incentive or the approach from a regulatory pathway that shifts incentives to research in Alzheimers, we will find some answers.

The biotechs CEO, Jeff Aronin, who is also CEO of Paragon Capital Partners, echoed this need for answers. I have a focus there with one of our companies, but in general, I would answer a little broader, he explained. Ive been involved in CNS drug development for a very long time and remember the 90s, which they called the decade of the brain, but we really didnt make a lot of advances in neuroscience and psychiatry that we thought we would have.

I think over the next few years is where we are really going to see many medicines approved. We have learned so much more and advancing in many different areas. In neuroscience and psychiatry, I would add theyre also an area of tremendous cost to the healthcare system and we still dont have a lot of great solutions, whether its Alzheimers or any of the neuropsychiatry areas were working in.

BioNTechs Sean Marrett also saw Alzheimers and other neuroscience areas, such as Parkinsons disease, as still major and unmet issues, as well as multiple sclerosis, which has seen great strides but still needs work.

Alzheimers is certainly a major issue, but also one that is more entrenched in the west: We live longer and are therefore more susceptible to diseases associated with aging.

Lyndra Therapeutics CEO Patricia Hurter asked us whether we meant our question in relation to the developed world or the developing world? We asked her two cents on both.

Women in Africa either get pregnant or get HIV, she said starkly. Their economic prospects are horrendous. It means their childrens economic prospects are horrendous. Were working with Gilead on HIV prophylaxis and on an oral birth control. Eventually, when the drugs are potent enough, we could do a once-a-month pill of each. To have them in one capsulethat would be fabulous. That would be transformative for developing countries.

For America, I think so many things like hypertension and diabetes are a chronic epidemic and people are having bad health outcomes [that could be avoided] if they took well proven drugs in an adherent way. Its an adherence issue. Theyre not feeling sick so they dont take the medicine. But in fact, it is still progressing [it, referring to stuff like hypertension, NASH that progressively gets worse without you feeling sick until its advanced].

It leads to unnecessary hospitalizations. If we could combine modern methods of distribution that a poly-pill combination that a person neededonce a week they would take one thing to keep them from progressing.

Karuna Therapeutics CEO Steve Paul also pointed to suicide rates that keep going up, whereas in certain types of cancer and cardiovascular disease theyve started tracking down.

And, finally, Westlake Village Biopartners Managing Partner Sean Harper said: Because there are so many areas of unmet need, its hard to say just one therapeutic area or one modality. Its exciting: the cellular engineering thats going to result in the ability to do regenerative medicine type efforts is I think going to be the next really amazing sort of thing.

With the fact that you can manipulate human cells now the way you can, and make multiple difficult edits to engineer things out of them and so on, that is just a new frontier. There are a lot of settings where you can just imagine what that can do. Its not 100 years away. Its now. Its happening already, people are doing it. I think that, to me, is the most exciting area.

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JPM: Biotech, VC execs on where the industry should look beyond cancer - FierceBiotech

Neuroscience

Brain Mapping Instruments Market: Qualitative Analysis of the Leading Players and Competitive Industry Scenario, 2026 Dagoretti News – Dagoretti News

The utilization of brain mapping instruments has expanded because of increasing occurrences of brain ailments in different parts of the world. Increasing health concerns and enhanced healthcare infrastructure are a few of the foremost aspects driving the expansion of the worldwide market for brain mapping instruments. Furthermore, an increasing number of diagnostics centers is likewise driving the expansion of the market. Nonetheless, poor healthcare insurance coverage and high expenses related to the brain mapping procedure are limiting the expansion of the worldwide market for brain mapping instruments. Also, lack of helium for magnetic resonance imaging systems, saturation in mature markets and technological constraints related to independent systems are likewise constraining expansion of the worldwide market.

High affecting aspects, for example, continuous brain mapping investigation and examination projects, neuroscience-based activities by government bodies as well as technological progressions in algorithms and tools which are applied in neuroscience space are considered to enhance the market expansion. These variables are foreseen to support revenue generation by impelling the product implementation in this market over the years to follow.

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The existence of institutes & organizations, for example, NIH, University of Utah, NeuroScience Canada, Ontario Brain Institute, Max Planck Florida Institute, along with the University of Pennsylvania; in the space are anticipated to significantly affect the advancement of neuroscience field. These entities act a significant part in quickening neuroscience-based r&d to enhance patient results in those suffering from neurological ailments.

Various activities are embraced by the healthcare communities to take cerebrum related innovations and studies above and beyond. For example, in 2014, the University of Utah presented the Neuroscience Initiative keeping in mind the end goal to help mitigate the staggering impacts of brain disorders. The launch was made for developing the understanding of the impacts of brain disorders on wellbeing and channelizing the learning into inventive solutions for patient care.

Constant presentation of new products by prominent market players in the market to the battle different neurological issue will probably support the Y-O-Y development of this market. For example, in September 2015, Codman Neuro (functioning unit of DePuy Synthes) presented CODMAN CERTAS plus programmable valve, an MRI-safe programmable valve along with eight dissimilar weight settings.

Moreover, key aspects that have quickened the research studies about in this field is the development of a number of different harmful CNS issues, for example, Alzheimers and Parkinsonism sickness. As geriatric populace is inclined to different central sensory systems related disorders, for example, Alzheimers, schizophrenia and Parkinsonism with the rise in the aging populace, this market is foreseen to see lucrative development.

The requirement for minimally invasive, more precise along with manifold neuron recording system is additionally anticipated that would drive r&d of hardware and software utilized for neuro-scientific analyses. This, thusly, is considered to reinforce the overall product portfolio accessible in the market and enhance revenues all through the years to come.

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Enhancing healthcare infrastructure in developing nations, for example, India and China would generate prospects for the worldwide market for brain mapping instruments. Expanding implementation of refurbished diagnostic imaging systems would represent a challenge for expansion of the mind-brain mapping instruments market globally. A few of the foremost companies functioning in the global market are Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Natus Medical, Inc and Siemens Healthcare. Other market players active in the market are Nihon Kohden Corporation, Covidien, PLC., and Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc.

Partnerships and collaboration are preferred as a feasible strategy to remain competitory in the market by foremost companies. Companies are engrossed in strategic alliances outside the region and within the region, which helps the expansion of both the parties along with the connected regional market.

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Brain Mapping Instruments Market: Qualitative Analysis of the Leading Players and Competitive Industry Scenario, 2026 Dagoretti News - Dagoretti News

Neuroscience

Twenty-year Follow-up Study Finds Schizophrenia Medication To Be Safe – Technology Networks

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and their colleagues in Germany, the USA and Finland have studied the safety of very long-term antipsychotic therapy for schizophrenia. According to the study, which is published in the scientific journal World Psychiatry, mortality was higher during periods when patients were not on medication than when they were.

People with schizophrenia have an average life expectancy ten to twenty years below the norm, and there has long been concern that one of the causes is the long-term use of antipsychotic drugs. Earlier compilations (meta-analyses) of results from randomised studies, however, indicated that the mortality rate for people with schizophrenia on antipsychotic medication was 30 to 50 per cent lower than those who have received placebo.

However, most of the studies done have been shorter than six months, which does not reflect the reality of treatment often being life-long. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and their international colleagues have now done a long-term follow-up, substantiating previous results and demonstrating that antipsychotic drugs are not associated with increased risk of co-morbid complications, such as cardiovascular disease. The study is the largest conducted in the field to date.

"It's difficult to make comparisons between people on permanent medication and those who aren't, as these groups differ in many ways," says Heidi Taipale, assistant professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. "One common method of dealing with this has been to try to take account of such differences when making comparisons. However, we chose another method, in which each person was their own control, making it possible for us to make individual comparisons of hospitalisation during periods of antipsychotic medication and periods of no treatment."

The researchers monitored just over 62,000 Finns who had received a schizophrenia diagnosis at some time between 1972 and 2014. This they did by accessing various Finnish registries up until 2015, giving an average follow-up period of over 14 years. They found that the likelihood of being hospitalised for a somatic disease was just as high during the periods when the patients were on antipsychotic drugs as when they were not. The differences in mortality, however, were noticeable. The cumulative mortality rate in the follow-up period at periods of medication and non-medication was 26 and 46 per cent respectively.

The researchers believe that there is overwhelming support for continual antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia being a safer option than no medication. At the same time, treatment brings the risk of adverse reactions, such as an increase in weight, which can raise the risk of cardiovascular disease. The finding that treatment with antipsychotic drugs does not increase the likelihood of hospitalisation for cardiovascular disease may be attributable, argue the researchers, to the fact that the drugs can also have an antihypertensive effect and can reduce anxiety and the risk of substance abuse. Antipsychotic treatment may also help patients adopt a healthier lifestyle and make them more likely to seek care when needed.

"Antipsychotics get something of a bad press, which can make it difficult to reach out to the patient group with information on how important they are," says Jari Tiihonen, professor of psychiatry at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. "We know from previous studies that only half of those who have been discharged from hospital after their first psychotic episode with a schizophrenia diagnosis take antipsychotic drugs. Besides, there are many people with schizophrenia who are on long-term benzodiazepine medication, which is in breach of existing guidelines and is associated with increased mortality risk. Building trust and understanding towards the efficacy and safety of antipsychotic drugs is important, and we hope that this study can contribute to this end."

Reference: Taipale, H., Tanskanen, A., Mehtl, J., Vattulainen, P., Correll, C. U., & Tiihonen, J. (2020). 20-year follow-up study of physical morbidity and mortality in relationship to antipsychotic treatment in a nationwide cohort of 62,250 patients with schizophrenia (FIN20). World Psychiatry, 19(1), 6168. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20699

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Cell Biology

Spatial and Temporal Control of Synaptic Transmission Jan. 20 – Vanderbilt University News

Shigeki Watanabe, assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins University, will discuss Spatial and Temporal Control of Synaptic Transmission on Monday, Jan. 20, beginning at 12:15 p.m. in MRBIII, Room 1220.

The event is hosted by the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Student Association and part of the departments spring 2020 seminar series.

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Spatial and Temporal Control of Synaptic Transmission Jan. 20 - Vanderbilt University News

Cell Biology

Out of Deep-Sea Mud, a Strange Blob May Hold Secrets to the Origins of Complex Life – Livescience.com

A microbe found in the muddy depths of the Pacific Ocean doesn't look like much other than a blob with tentacles. But this unassuming little organism may hold the secrets to how the first multicellular life-forms evolved, according to new research.

Long before complex organisms existed, the world was home to simple single-celled organisms, archaea and bacteria. Between 2 billion and 1.8 billion years ago, these microorganisms began to evolve, leading to the emergence of more complex life-forms called eukaryotes, a group that includes humans, animals, plants and fungi. But this incredible journey over which life transitioned from swimming blobs to walking (and, in some cases, thinking and feeling) animals is still poorly understood.

Scientists had previously hypothesized that a group of microbes called Asgard archaea were the much-sought ancestors of eukaryotes, because they contain similar genes to their complex counterparts, according to a statement. To analyze what these microbes looked like and how this transition might have happened, a group of researchers in Japan spent a decade collecting and analyzing mud from the bottom of the Omine Ridge off the coast of Japan.

Related: Earth's Oldest Living Things Immortalized in Stunning Photos

The team kept the mud samples and the microorganisms in them in a special bioreactor in the lab that mimicked conditions of the deep sea in which they were found. Years later, they began to isolate the microorganisms within the samples. The scientists' initial purpose was to find microbes that eat methane and that might be able to clean up sewage, according to the New York Times. But when they discovered that their samples contained a previously unknown strain of Asgard archaea, they decided to analyze it and grow it in the lab.

They named the newly found strain of Asgard archaea Prometheoarchaeum syntrophicum after the Greek god Prometheus, who is said to have created humans from mud. They found that these archaea were relatively slow growers, only doubling in number every 14 to 25 days.

Their analysis confirmed that P. syntrophicum had a great number of genes that resembled those of eukaryotes. Indeed, these genes held the instructions for creating certain proteins found inside these microbes; but the proteins did not, as expected, create any organelle-like structures like the ones found inside eukaryotes.

They also found that the microbes had long, branching tentacle-like protrusions on their outside that might be used to snatch up passerby bacteria. Indeed, the team found that the microbes tended to stick onto other bacteria in the lab dishes.

The authors propose a hypothesis for what went on in these ancient waters: Around 2.7 billion years ago, oxygen began to accumulate on our planet. But having lived in a world without oxygen for so long, this element would prove toxic to P. syntrophicum, the authors explained in a video.

So the P. syntrophicum may have developed a new adaptation: a way to form partnerships with bacteria that were oxygen-tolerant. These bacteria would give P. syntrophicum the necessary vitamins and compounds to live, while, in turn, feeding on the archaea's waste.

As oxygen levels increased even further, P. syntrophicum might have become more aggressive, snatching passerby bacteria with its long tentacle-like structures and internalizing it. Inside the P. syntrophicum, this bacteria might have eventually evolved into an energy-producing organelle key to eukaryote-survival: the mitochondria.

The team's "success in culturing Prometheoarchaeum after efforts spanning more than a decade represents a huge breakthrough for microbiology," Christa Schleper and Filipa L. Sousa, both researchers at the University of Vienna who were not involved in the study, wrote in an accompanying editorial in the journal Nature. "It sets the stage for the use of molecular and imaging techniques to further elucidate the metabolism of Prometheoarchaeum and the role of [eukaryotic signature proteins] in archaeal cell biology."

The findings were published Jan. 15 in the journal Nature.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Out of Deep-Sea Mud, a Strange Blob May Hold Secrets to the Origins of Complex Life - Livescience.com

Cell Biology

Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation to Host Genomic Medicine Symposium – P&T Community

NUTLEY, N.J., Jan. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Genomic medicine's groundbreaking treatments, and its future promise, will be the focus of a full-day symposium at the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) on Wednesday, February 19.

This emerging discipline for tailoring active clinical care and disease prevention to individual patients will be the focus of presentations given by eight experts from medical centers in the U.S.A. and Canada.

"The Genomic Medicine Symposium convenes a diverse group of scientific experts who help serve as a vanguard for precision medicine," said David Perlin, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and vice president of the CDI. "At the Center for Discovery and Innovation, we are working to make genomics a central component of clinical care, and we are delighted to host our peers and partners from other institutions."

"The event is one-of-a-kind," said Benjamin Tycko, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the CDI working in this area, and one of the hosts. "We are bringing together great minds with the hope it will help inform our planning for genomic medicine within Hackensack Meridian Health and inspire further clinical and scientific breakthroughs."

Cancer treatments, neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders, cardiometabolic conditions, autoimmune disease, infectious disease, and a wide array of pediatric conditions are areas where DNA-based strategies of this type are already employed, and new ones are being tested and refined continually.

The speakers come from diverse medical institutions and will talk about a variety of clinical disorders in which prevention, screening, and treatment can be informed through genomic and epigenomic data.

Among the speakers are: Daniel Auclair, Ph.D., the scientific vice president of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation; Joel Gelernter, M.D., Ph.D., Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and of Neuroscience and Director, Division of Human Genetics (Psychiatry) at Yale University; James Knowles, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of Cell Biology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn; Tom Maniatis, Ph.D., the Isidore S. Edelman Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, director of the Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative, and the chief executive officer of the New York Genome Center; Bekim Sadikovic, Ph.D., associate professor and head of the Molecular Diagnostic Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Western University in Ontario; Helio Pedro, M.D., the section chief of the Center for Genetic and Genomic Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center; Kevin White, Ph.D., the chief scientific officer of Chicago-based TEMPUS Genetics; and Jean-Pierre Issa, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of the Coriell Research Institute.

The event is complimentary, but registration is required. It will be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the auditorium of the CDI, located at 111 Ideation Way, Nutley, N.J.

The event counts for continuing medical education (CME) credits, since Hackensack University Medical Center is accredited by the Medical Society of New Jersey to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Hackensack University Medical Center additionally designates this live activity for a maximum of 7 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

For more information, visit https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/CDIsymposium.

ABOUTHACKENSACKMERIDIAN HEALTH

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.

Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children's hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin; a behavioral health hospital Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.

Additionally, the network has more than 500 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has more than 34,100 team members, and 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The network's notable distinctions include having four hospitals among the top 10 in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and being named to Becker's Healthcare's "150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2019" list.

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, the first private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years, welcomed its first class of students in 2018 to its On3 campus in Nutley and Clifton. Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it.

Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit http://www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

About the Center for Discovery and Innovation:

The Center for Discovery and Innovation, a newly established member of Hackensack Meridian Health, seeks to translate current innovations in science to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer, infectious diseases and other life-threatening and disabling conditions. The CDI, housed in a fully renovated state-of-the-art facility, offers world-class researchers a support infrastructure and culture of discovery that promotes science innovation and rapid translation to the clinic.

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Human Behavior

Q&A: The impact of Australia’s fires on humans and animals – University of Denver

For months, massive swaths of Australia have been on fire, leaving more than 20 people dead, tens of thousands in flight from their homes, 15 million acres burned and millions of animals dead. Shocked by the destruction, the world has turned its eyes Down Under.

With the fires still blazing, the DU Newsroom invited Shannon Murphy, associate professor of biology, to explain the long-term implications for the countrys environment. Philip Tedeschi and Sarah Bexell of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at DUs Graduate School of Social Work joined the email conversation to share their insights about the fires toll on animals and humans alike.

The fires in Australia are devastating in scale. What long-term ramifications could this have for human society?

Murphy: Its hard to understand the scale of this disaster right now since its still ongoing, but its likely we will feel the effects for decades or longer. We dont know yet how much of the native ecosystems will be lost, since the fire season still has another month to go, but it sounds like a lot of endemic species may have already suffered huge population losses. These are species that are found nowhere else on Earth. For people who value biodiversity, this is a huge tragedy.

Tedeschi/Bexell: Human behavior is causing mass environmental changes, such as climate change, mass extinction, desertification and countless forms of pollution not just air and water, but also light, noise, soil and more. Due to our inability to address the size of our population and our additions to economic growth, events [like this] will only grow in number and severity.

In addition to grieving the loss of homes and communities, Australians are mourning the dramatic loss of their wildlife. Why is that loss so profound?Tedeschi/Bexell: Whether humans realize it or not, other species are deeply embedded in our psychology and mental health. We also, thankfully, have strong aversions to suffering. To see the magnitude of animal suffering and death occurring in Australia right now is painful and traumatic. That pain is exacerbated by feelings of helplessness, as many [people] do not have the skills or financial resources to help the animals who survive the fires but are left with injuries and/or trauma. Yes, other species also experience trauma.

Humans evolved living alongside other species, and as we lose them, many of us also experience a devastating loneliness and, of course, despair and loss. There is a known term called solastalgia that refers to watching places we love changed, altered or destroyed. This causes a sense of homesickness while still at home or feeling like a stranger in your own land.

Many attribute the cause of the fires to climate change. Is that the case? What could have prevented this?

Murphy: Climate change is known to be altering fire regimes around the world, primarily because droughts are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, and when the landscape dries out, its more likely to burn severely. Natural wildfires are a normal part of many ecosystems, including some in Australia. In these ecosystems where fire is an important periodic disturbance, many species are fire-adapted. Indeed, not only are species that live there adapted to survive fire, many even benefit from periodic fires or require fire to reproduce. For example, some tree species require heat for their cones to open and allow seeds to germinate. However, the problem is that fires today are happening more frequently than normal and even fire-adapted species cannot recover when fires happen so quickly in succession. More pertinent to whats happening in Australia right now is that many fires that we see are much more intense than fires have been historically. Long-term droughts are causing the plants and soil to be much drier than they should be, and so there is a greater fuel load than if there had been normal amounts of rain. This means that fires that would normally have been low-severity fires and may have actually helped the ecosystem are now high-severity fires that are scorching the landscape.

Some reports are saying koalas are effectively extinct, and certainly other animal populations have been significantly harmed. What could it mean to lose a creature so emblematic of their national identity?

Tedeschi/Bexell: We should assume that we will see human depression and deep anxiety about these losses. Often they can be as profound as the losses of human members of our family, in part because these relationships are so reliable and often seen as permanent parts of our lives. This type of serious biodiversity loss is occurring all over the world. [Consider] the U.S. nearly losing bald eagles and China nearly losing giant pandas. These species are emblematic of entire nations, and to lose them would cause sadness and feelings of loss, but perhaps also guilt and shame. The loss of any of these three species would be due to deleterious human behavior, including pesticide use, overdevelopment and climate change. Earth is undergoing [its] sixth mass extinction event, as we know from the fossil record. This current extinction event is caused entirely by the behavior of one species humans.

Once the fire is out, what happens next? How do the environment and the animal population begin to recover?

Murphy: Recovery can be a very slow process, especially from high-severity fires like we see happening now. When fire-adapted landscapes burn with low-severity fires, recovery starts relatively quickly, with plants re-growing from belowground roots or seeds in the seedbank. However, when fires burn with the severity that we are seeing in Australia, sometimes the heat from the fire kills belowground roots and destroys the seedbank in the soil, which means that recovery depends on recolonization from undisturbed areas. Depending on the extent of the fire, this could take a long time because undisturbed areas may be really far away.

Recovery of animal communities depends on the recovery of the plant community, so [that] may be even more delayed. Lastly, the community may never recover to what it was, and depending on which species arrive, [the communities] may end up very different from the ones we knew.

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Q&A: The impact of Australia's fires on humans and animals - University of Denver

Human Behavior

Ken Nystrom to be inducted into Moose Lake Wall of Fame – Moose Lake Star-Gazette

Moose Lake High School will be inducting 1991 graduate Ken Nystrom into the Wall of Fame on Friday January 24, 2020 at 7:00 at the school between the girls junior varsity and varsity games. The public is invited to attend the ceremony and visit with Ken.

Ken Nystrom is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He graduated from Moose Lake High School in 1991 and attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Following college, he went to the University of New Mexico where he received his Ph.D. in biological anthropology. His research and training focuses on reconstructing human behavior in the past from skeletal remains. Over the years, this background has provided him the opportunity to travel to many different countries including Italy, Honduras, Greece, Greenland, the Canary Islands, Peru, Brazil, Chile, and Egypt. His research has covered many different topics, from examining the impact of imperial conquest in precontact Peru to the impact of manumission on population structure in historic New York. His most significant work looks at social inequality in the past and how this informs on social issues facing todays society.

Moose Lake is proud to induct Ken into the diverse Wall of Fame members. The Wall of Fame qualifications are for the person to have been out of school at least 10 years past graduation or five years past retirement for a staff member. The honorees have been coaches, teachers, lawyers, civic leaders, artists, and academics. Among the honorees in the Wall of Fame are Robert Youso, Paulette Paulson, Triple Crown Winners, Richard Pionk, and Stan Dodge.

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Ken Nystrom to be inducted into Moose Lake Wall of Fame - Moose Lake Star-Gazette

Human Behavior

2020 EGHS Wall of Honor Ceremony Is April 29 – East Greenwich News

East Greenwich High School

The Wall of Honor Committee for the East Greenwich High School Wall of Honor has announced that this years ceremony will be held April 29, at 6 p.m. in the East Greenwich High School auditorium.

Being honored this year are Susan Stevens Crummel, a nationally recognized childrens book author and her sister who is renowned illustrator for childrens books; Dr. Francis J. Pescosolido, currently working at Bradley Hospital and as the clinical associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Dennis Lynch, chairman of the board at Cardtronics and chairman of the South Health board of trustees, and Phil Garvey, an outstanding East Greenwich High School athlete who went on to coach and teach at several Rhode Island schools and served his country as a U.S. Marine Corps officer serving in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom as operation officer for the 3rd Marine Air Wing.

They will be honored on the above mentioned night, and all family, friends, schoolmates, teammates and EG enthusiasts are welcome to attend. The ceremony usually lasts an hour and a half and is followed by a collation in the school cafeteria.

The event is sponsored by Allan Britt Gammons of Gammons Realty in East Greenwich. For further information and details contact Robert Houghtaling at 230-2246 or Chris Cobain at 398-1562.

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2020 EGHS Wall of Honor Ceremony Is April 29 - East Greenwich News