Monthly Archives: January 2020

Neuroscience

The Neuroscience of Behavior: Five Famous Cases – Psychology Today

Considering everything, it seems we are dealing here with a special illness There are certainly more psychiatric illnesses than are listed in our textbooks. Alois Alzheimer

Once thought to be the product of demonic possession, immorality, or imbalanced humors, we now know that psychiatric symptoms are often caused by changes in the brain. Read on to learn about the people who helped us understand the brain as the driving force behind our behaviors.

Artist renditions estimating the rod path through Phineas Gage's brain.

Source: By Henry Jacob Bigelow; Ratiu et al.

Phineas Gage

In 1848, John Harlow first described the case of a 25-year-old railroad foreman named Phineas Gage. Gage was a "temperate" man: hardworking, polite, and well-liked by all those around him. One day, Gage was struck through the skull by an iron rod launched in an accidental explosion. The rod traveled through the prefrontal cortex of his brain. Remarkably, he survived with no deficits in his motor functionor memory. However, his family and friends noticed major changes in his personality. He became impatient, unreliable, vulgar, and was even described as developing the "animal passions of a strong man." This was the first glimpse into the important role of the prefrontal cortex in personality and social behavior.

Louis Victor Leborgne

Pierre Broca first published thecase of 50-year-old Louis Victor Leborgne in 1861. Despite normal intelligence, Leborgne inexplicably lost the ability to speak. His nickname was Tan, after thisbecame the only word he ever uttered. He was otherwise unaffected and seemed to follow directions and understand others without difficulty. After he died, Broca examined his brain, finding an abnormal area of brain tissue only in the left anterior frontal lobe. This suggested that the left and right sides of the brain were not always symmetric in their functions, as previously thought. Broca later went on to describe several other similar cases, cementing the role of the left anterior frontal lobe (now called Brocas area) as a crucial region for producing(but not understanding)language.

Auguste Deter, 1901.

Source: Unknown, Public Domain.

Auguste Deter

Psychiatrist and neuropathologist Aloysius Alzheimer described the case of Auguste Deter, a 56-year-old woman who passed away in 1906 after she developed strange behaviors, hallucinations, and memory loss. When Alzheimer looked at her brain under the microscope, he described amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that we now know are a hallmark of the disease that bears his name. This significant discovery was the first time that a biological molecule such as a protein was linked to a psychiatric illness.

JP

In 1933, Spafford Ackerly described the case of "JP who, beginning at a very young age, would do crude things like defecate in other's belongings, expose himself, and masturbate in front of other children at school. These behaviors worsened as he aged, leading to his arrest as a teenager. He was examined by Ackerly who found that the boy had a large cyst, likely present from birth, that caused severe damage to his prefrontal cortices. Like the case of Phineas Gage, JP helped us understand the crucial role that the prefrontal cortex plays in judgement, decision making, social behaviors and personality.

HM (Henry Gustav Molaison)

HM was a 29-year-old man who underwent an experimental surgery by William Beecher Scovillein 1953 to remove his medial temporal lobes (including the hippocampus and amygdala on both sides). The hope was that the surgery would control his severe epilepsy, and it did seem to help. But with that improvement came a very unexpected side effect: HM completely lost the ability to form certain kinds of new memories. While he was still able to form new implicit or procedural memories (like tying shoes or playing the piano), he was no longer able to form new semantic or declarative memories (like someones name or major life events). This taught us that memories were localized to a specific brain region, not distributed throughout the whole brain as previously thought.

View original post here:
The Neuroscience of Behavior: Five Famous Cases - Psychology Today

Neuroscience

Microglia: a new brain target for depression and Alzheimer’s? – STAT – STAT

More than a decade ago, I was diagnosed with a string of autoimmune diseases, one after another, including a bone marrow disorder, thyroiditis, and then Guillain-Barr syndrome, which left me paralyzed while raising two young children.

I recovered from Guillain-Barr only to relapse, becoming paralyzed again. My immune system was repeatedly and mistakenly attacking my body, causing the nerves in my arms, legs, and those I needed to swallow to stop communicating with my brain, leaving me confined to and raising my children from bed.

As I slowly began to recover and learn to walk again, I noticed that along with residual physical losses I had experienced shifts in my mood and clarity of mind. Although Id always been an optimistic person, I felt a bleak unshakable dread, which didnt feel like the old me.

advertisement

I also noticed cognitive glitches. Names, words, and facts were hard to bring to mind. I can still recall cutting up slices of watermelon, putting them in a bowl, and staring down at them thinking, What is this again? I knew the word but couldnt remember it. I covered my lapse by bringing the bowl to the table and waiting for my children to call out, Yay! Watermelon! And I thought, Yes. Of course. Watermelon.

As a science journalist whose niche spans neuroscience, immunology, and human emotion, I knew at the time that it didnt make scientific sense that inflammation in the body could be connected to much less cause illness in the brain. At that time, scientific dogma held that the brain was the only organ in the body not ruled by the immune system. The brain was considered to be immune privileged.

That began to change in the early 2010s. As neuroscience and immunology started to merge, they began dismantling that century-old tenet. Scientists pivoted away from believing that the brain and body function as church and state entities, and developed an entirely new brain-body paradigm which acknowledges that the brain is also governed by the immune system.

Much of the revelatory science fueling this reversal in how we see brain health was due to a radically new understanding of tiny cells called microglia. In healthy brains, microglia act as humble housekeepers, removing dead cells and bathing neurons in protective factors. A new understanding of these cells tells us that when they go rogue, they destroy synapses and cause inflammation in the brain.

In 2012, Beth Stevens, a young researcher at Childrens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and her then-postdoc, Dori Schafer, discovered that microglia also determine synaptic health, for good or ill, from cradle to grave a discovery for which Stevens was named a 2015 MacArthur genius award winner. They showed that these cells, which scientists had ignored since they were first noted in the 1920s, were actually powerful immune cells.

But just as the bodys immune system can rev into overdrive, causing inflammation and devastating physical symptoms, microglia can also become overexcited. When that happens, they can generate too much synaptic pruning, neuroinflammation, and symptoms of cognitive, mood, and behavioral disorders, from depression to Alzheimers disease.

This revelation, while scary to contemplate if you are a patient like me, is also the springboard for promise with a newly emerging and innovative set of tools that may help intervene in mental health disorders by treating the brains immune pathways much as we treat immune disorders of the body.

It turns out that people who have high levels of chronic inflammation, as measured by simple blood tests, also have higher levels of microglial activation in the brain, a keen and worrisome indicator that too many synapses are being lost.

This month, four hospitals from the National Network of Depression Centers the Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Emory University are wrapping up a clinical trial known as the Bio-K Study. It is investigating whether measuring individuals levels of inflammation and other related biomarkers can predict if infusions of ketamine (the K in the study name) will ease their depression. Originally used as an anesthetic, ketamine has been shown to have powerful antidepressant effects, and appears to work as an anti-inflammatory in the brain.

The Bio-K study is fueled by recent discoveries that individual differences in patients physical health can affect how well a treatment for depression helps the brain repair itself. Of particular interest is how inflammation, which can signal microglia to become overactive and destroy synapses in areas of the brain related to symptoms of depression and bipolar disorder, might limit someones response to treatment.

The Bio-K investigators are measuring participants levels of chronic inflammation before they receive ketamine infusions. After the infusions, blood samples are checked again to determine if changes in biomarkers are associated with improved outcomes.

If the findings are positive, it will help clinicians determine if inflammation is associated with patients positive, neutral, or negative responses to treatment, and may help them predict which treatments are best for which patients.

At Emory University School of Medicine, researchers have found that inflammation is linked to weakened reward circuits in depression and they can predict which patients neural circuits are going dark by measuring their level of inflammation via a simple blood draw. Also underway at Emory are clinical trials looking at the viability of using the same anti-inflammatories employed to treat autoimmune disease, such as infliximab, to treat depression. The hope is that by getting overexcited microglia to back off, important regions of the brain will be able to communicate again.

This new understanding of the working of the immune system in the brain is also leading to a clearer understanding of which oral antidepressant will work best in which patient. It turns out that for individuals who test positive for chronic inflammation, bupropion (Wellbutrin) may work better than drugs like escitalopram (Lexapro).

Immunotherapy also appears to show promise in treating Alzheimers disease. Last spring, news broke that Enbrel, Pfizers powerhouse anti-inflammatory drug for rheumatoid arthritis, appeared to help prevent Alzheimers disease. In data collected by a computer analysis of over 250,000 insurance claims, the drug reduced the risk of Alzheimers disease by 64% in patients who took it.

Others have picked up this research thread, and a number of labs are targeting the ways microglia express genes that increase the risk of Alzheimers. Piggybacking on work by an international team of researchers who identified a genetic mutation that seems to protect people from developing Alzheimers disease, Alector, an early-stage biotech company, identified a drug candidate called AL014 that shifts microglial gene expression in ways that prompt microglia to turn from the dark side to the light and begin clearing the brain of unwanted toxins. In theory, that may help stave off the onset of Alzheimers.

Why mental health disorders can be so difficult to treat in some people and not others is a mystery. The idea that microglia-led inflammation triggered by a combination of genes and environmental factors from emotional trauma to toxins can slowly brew within the brain throughout an individuals lifetime offers a clue to that enigma.

When microglia go haywire, they destroy synapses and neural connections in the brain that affect mood and behavior. There can be many consequences: overreaction to small problems, a dearth of joy, entrenched depression, pernicious anxiety, forgetfulness, lost memories. No two individuals brains are the same.

Over time, many small changes in neurocircuitry wrought by inflammation-led microglia can cause individuals to feel and behave very differently from the persons they once were or the ones they hoped to become.

Although the excessive forgetfulness I experienced in my post-paralysis years no longer plagues me, its been replaced by the kind of age-related glitches we all face. Having once struggled to add simple numbers and recall familiar words, Im eager to avoid going through that again. So Im keeping an eye out for where these trials lead, bearing in mind the first rule of medicine: We must first be sure to do no harm, and proceed with an abundance of caution.

As I get older, will I be brave enough to try an anti-inflammatory to help calm down the microglia that govern the 3-pound jelly universe that is my brain? I have a little time to decide. But not too much.

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is a science journalist and author of six books, including The Angel and The Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine (Random House/Ballantine, January 2020).

See more here:
Microglia: a new brain target for depression and Alzheimer's? - STAT - STAT

Neuroscience

How Alcohol Addiction and Abstinence Remodel the Brain – Technology Networks

Employing advanced technologies that allow whole brain imaging at single-cell resolution, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that in an alcohol-dependent mouse model, the rodent brain's functional architecture is substantially remodeled. But when deprived of alcohol, the mice displayed increased coordinated brain activity and reduced modularity compared to nondrinker or casual drinker mice.

The findings, published in the January 14, 2020 online issue of PNAS, also identified several previously unsuspected regions of the brain relevant to alcohol consumption, providing new research targets for better understanding and treatment of alcohol dependence in humans.

"The neuroscience of addiction has made tremendous progress, but the focus has always been on a limited number of brain circuits and neurotransmitters, primarily dopaminergic neurons, the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex," said senior author Olivier George, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

"Research groups have been fighting for years about whether 'their' brain circuit is the key to addiction. Our results confirm these regions are important, but the fact that we see such a massive remodeling of the functional brain architecture was a real shock. It's like studying the solar system and then discovering that there is an entire universe behind it. It shows that if you really want to understand the neurobiological mechanisms leading to addiction, you can't just look at a handful of brain regions, you need to look at the entire brain, you need to take a step back and consider the whole organ."

George said the findings further undermine the idea that addiction is simply a psychological condition or consequence of lifestyle. "You would be surprised at how prevalent this view remains," he said. "The brain-wide remodeling of the functional architecture observed here is not 'normal.' It is not observed in a nave animal. It is not observed in an animal that drinks recreationally. It is only observed in animals with a history of alcohol dependence and it is massive. Such a decrease in brain modularity has been observed in numerous brain disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury and seizure disorders."

Brain modularity is the theory that there are functionally specialized regions in the brain responsible for different, specific cognitive processes. For example, the frontal lobes of the human brain are involved in executive functions, such as reasoning and planning, while the fusiform face area located in the lower rear of the brain is involved in recognizing faces.

Reduced modularity, said George, likely interferes with "normal neuronal activity and information processing and contributes to cognitive impairment, emotional distress and intense craving observed in mice during abstinence from alcohol."

Due to the format of the testing, George said it was not clear if the reduced modularity was permanent. "So far, we only know that it lasts at least one week into abstinence. We have not tested longer durations of abstinence, but it's one of our goals."

George and colleagues used multiple new and emerging imaging technologies to create their whole-brain atlas of mouse brains, capable of being viewed at the level of single cells. The result was a first, they said, providing unprecedented data and insights.

"This new approach allows us to explore an entirely new universe. It can answer so many questions. What I am most interested in now is figuring out how early these brain changes start and how long do they last for. This would be critical to understanding when the switch to addiction happens and when does your brain come back to normal, if it ever does. We are also very interested in comparing the brain network of alcohol dependence with other drugs, such as cocaine, nicotine and methamphetamines."

The imaging approach cannot yet be used with human brains, which are far larger and more complex. "I don't think that it is possible to do it in humans now, the technology is just not there," said George. "But when I started doing this research 15 years ago, this technique didn't exist at all and I never ever imagined it would be possible, so who knows what the future will bring."

Reference: Kimbrough, A., Lurie, D. J., Collazo, A., Kreifeldt, M., Sidhu, H., Macedo, G. C., DEsposito, M., Contet, C., & George, O. (2020). Brain-wide functional architecture remodeling by alcohol dependence and abstinence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909915117

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.

Continue reading here:
How Alcohol Addiction and Abstinence Remodel the Brain - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

An algorithm that learns through rewards may show how our brain does too – MIT Technology Review

In 1951, Marvin Minsky, then a student at Harvard, borrowed observations from animal behavior to try to design an intelligent machine. Drawing on the work of physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who famously used dogs to show how animals learn through punishments and rewards, Minsky created a computer that could continuously learn through similar reinforcement to solve a virtual maze.

At the time, neuroscientists had yet to figure out the mechanisms within the brain that allow animals to learn in this way. But Minsky was still able to loosely mimic the behavior, thereby advancing artificial intelligence. Several decades later, as reinforcement learning continued to mature, it in turn helped the field of neuroscience discover those mechanisms, feeding into a virtuous cycle of advancement between the two fields.

In a paper published in Nature today, DeepMind, Alphabets AI subsidiary, has once again used lessons from reinforcement learning to propose a new theory about the reward mechanisms within our brains. The hypothesis, supported by initial experimental findings, could not only improve our understanding of mental health and motivation. It could also validate the current direction of AI research toward building more human-like general intelligence.

Sign up for The Algorithm artificial intelligence, demystified

At a high level, reinforcement learning follows the insight derived from Pavlovs dogs: its possible to teach an agent to master complex, novel tasks through only positive and negative feedback. An algorithm begins learning an assigned task by randomly predicting which action might earn it a reward. It then takes the action, observes the real reward, and adjusts its prediction based on the margin of error. Over millions or even billions of trials, the algorithms prediction errors converge to zero, at which point it knows precisely which actions to take to maximize its reward and so complete its task.

It turns out the brains reward system works in much the same waya discovery made in the 1990s, inspired by reinforcement-learning algorithms. When a human or animal is about to perform an action, its dopamine neurons make a prediction about the expected reward. Once the actual reward is received, they then fire off an amount of dopamine that corresponds to the prediction error. A better reward than expected triggers a strong dopamine release, while a worse reward than expected suppresses the chemicals production. The dopamine, in other words, serves as a correction signal, telling the neurons to adjust their predictions until they converge to reality. The phenomenon, known as reward prediction error, works much like a reinforcement-learning algorithm.

DeepMinds new paper builds on the tight connection between these natural and artificial learning mechanisms. In 2017, its researchers introduced an improved reinforcement-learning algorithm that has since unlocked increasingly impressive performance on various tasks. They now believe this new method could offer an even more precise explanation of how dopamine neurons work in the brain.

Specifically, the improved algorithm changes the way it predicts rewards. Whereas the old approach estimated rewards as a single numbermeant to equal the average expected outcomethe new approach represents them more accurately as a distribution. (Think for a moment about a slot machine: you can either win or lose following some distribution. But in no instance would you ever receive the average expected outcome.)

The modification lends itself to a new hypothesis: Do dopamine neurons also predict rewards in the same distributional way?

To test this theory, DeepMind partnered with a group at Harvard to observe dopamine neuron behavior in mice. They set the mice on a task and rewarded them based on the roll of dice, measuring the firing patterns of their dopamine neurons throughout. They found that every neuron released different amounts of dopamine, meaning they had all predicted different outcomes. While some were too optimistic, predicting higher rewards than actually received, others were more pessimistic, lowballing the reality. When the researchers mapped out the distribution of those predictions, it closely followed the distribution of the actual rewards. This data offers compelling evidence that the brain indeed uses distributional reward predictions to strengthen its learning algorithm.

DeepMind

This is a nice extension to the notion of dopamine coding of reward prediction error, wrote Wolfram Schultz, a pioneer in dopamine neuron behavior who wasnt involved in the study, in an email. It is amazing how this very simple dopamine response predictably follows intuitive patterns of basic biological learning processes that are now becoming a component of AI.

The study has implications for both AI and neuroscience. First, it validates distributional reinforcement learning as a promising path to more advanced AI capabilities. If the brain is using it, its probably a good idea, said Matt Botvinick, DeepMinds director of neuroscience research and one of the lead authors on the paper, during a press briefing. It tells us that this is a computational technique that can scale in real-world situations. Its going to fit well with other computational processes.

Second, it could offer an important update to one of the canonical theories in neuroscience about reward systems in the brain, which in turn could improve our understanding of everything from motivation to mental health. What might it mean, for example, to have pessimistic and optimistic dopamine neurons? If the brain selectively listened to only one or the other, could it lead to chemical imbalances and induce depression?

Fundamentally, by further decoding processes in the brain, the results also shed light on what creates human intelligence. It gives us a new perspective on what's going on in our brains during everyday life, Botvinick said.

Read the original post:
An algorithm that learns through rewards may show how our brain does too - MIT Technology Review

Neuroscience

8-Year-Old Whiz Kid Teaches Neuroscience Online from Home – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - SomTribune) Amoy Antunet got hooked on science at the age of three after coming across a microscope owned by her father, who was a college student.

The young whiz kid from Atlanta, Georgia, soon became her father's 'study buddy.' Davin Shepherd, who was then 43, began explaining everything he was learning during his biology classes to his daughter.

Subsequently, the second-grader began experiments from a lab in her bedroom with a collection of test tubes, replica organs, microscopes, and chemicals she built for herself.

By the age of five, she had started appearing on the internet with her dad, conducting experiments and giving lessons from the lab.

'Donning a white lab coat, Amoy dissects mind-boggling topics including cell division, the heart, pH testing and her favorite the brain,' theDaily Mailwrote recently.

At the moment, her explainer videos on her Facebook page, Science For Children with Amoy Antunet, have over a million views.

Antunet, who also loves math and gymnastics, said she makes her videos because she wants to 'help people understand different types of science.'

'When I was a little girl I said I wanted to be a pharmacist but now I want to be a neurosurgeon who helps people with neurological disorders.

'So far I've mostly learnt about the heart and the brain and I want to learn about Multiple Sclerosis in the future so I can help sick people like my aunt, who has it.

'My daddy will teach me.'

Antunet with her dad. Photo: Daily Mail

Shepherd, who is proud of her daughter, said he will continue to help his talented daughter to achieve her goals.

'At first I thought it was cute but then I started seeing how she really grasped some of it,' he said.

'After a while it became something we did together. We would go through lessons and she would pretend to teach me, and that's how we learned.

'It's one of the things she does for playtime now. She will put on a lab coat and run to the lab and do all the stuff she wants.'

Amoy Antunet

Antunet, who was invited to the University of Alabama's Neuroscience Lab, has also appeared on CNN, the BBC and other major media outlets as well as conferences where she has spoken on Alzheimer's.

She was recently a keynote speaker at a Youth Innovation Summit that helps students get more interested in the STEAM and the STEM programs.

'If you scratch out the science stuff, I'm actually pretty normal,' the 8-year-old genius said while advising students at the summit this January: 'They should act on their potential, and if there's something that you really like you should act on it.'

The following video has more:

By

MILDRED EUROPA TAYLOR

MENAFN1001202002070000ID1099535015

Read the original here:
8-Year-Old Whiz Kid Teaches Neuroscience Online from Home - MENAFN.COM

Neuroscience

Global Neuroscience Market Will Grow Over USD 34800 million by 2024 – TheInfobiz

Zion Market Researchincludes new market research reportGlobal Neuroscience Market Expected to Reach USD 34,800 million by 2024to its huge collection ofresearch reports.TheNeuroscience Marketreport presents an all-inclusive approach to the Neuroscience Market growth along with a defined and methodical examination of the overall market. To start with, the report provides better insights of the competitive landscape of the global Neuroscience Market and also puts forth the several prominent market players along with their profiles.

This Research will help you grow your Business: [Download free Sample PDF of This Research Report]

Our Free Complimentary Sample Report Accommodate a Brief Introduction of the research report, TOC, List of Tables and Figures, Competitive Landscape and Geographic Segmentation, Innovation and Future Developments Based on Research Methodology

The global market 2020reportNeuroscience Marketincludes identifying and comparing major competitors

For this, the Neuroscience Market report covers the company overview, financial metrics, tactics, business strategies, trends, acquisitions, and merger of the key participants active in the global Neuroscience Market. Further, the analysis offers a thorough evaluation of the latest key trends and technologies playing an imperative part in the Neuroscience Market growth.

Moreover, a range of characteristics such as challenges, opportunities, restraints, and drivers are taken into consideration, which has an impact on market growth. To offer such a comprehensive assessment of the market, numerous competent analytical tools are used. The Neuroscience Market report covers every part related to the globe Neuroscience Market and its development. Moving further from the primary data, the report advances to present the market segmentation based on diverse factors such as [Product, Applications, End-Users, and Major Regions].

Download Free PDF Report Brochure @https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/requestbrochure/neuroscience-market

Also, the report will provide an in-depth analysis of future prospects as well as market penetration. A methodical approach is being mentioned in the report for each product and application such as which application is developing at a remarkable rate and which product has the utmost penetration.

To provide one with insightful data of the market scope globally, the analysis also evaluates sub-segments and key regions [Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle & East Africa, and Europe] of the Neuroscience Market. Furthermore, it assesses the market by evaluating the manufacturers, suppliers, supply chain, or value chain management. The regional markets also assessed by evaluating the products pricing, production capacity, demand, logistics, supply, as well as the historical performance in a specific region of the Neuroscience Market.

Promising Regions & Countries Mentioned In The Neuroscience Market Report:

Browse Press Release:https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/news/neuroscience-market

Some of the key questions answered in this report:

Inquire more about this report @https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/neuroscience-market

In order to get a deeper view of Neuroscience Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2015-2025), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2015-2025) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.

Purposes Behind Buying Neuroscience Market Report:-

Also, Research Report Examines:

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

Read the original post:
Global Neuroscience Market Will Grow Over USD 34800 million by 2024 - TheInfobiz

Neuroscience

CCST introduces expanded class of 2020 CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellows, now placed in the Legislative and Executive Branch | California…

Interested in becoming a CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellow? CCST is currently accepting applications for the 2021 class year until March 1st.

SACRAMENTO, CAWe are proud to introduce the2020 Classof CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellows a program that trains scientists and engineers for careers in public policy, while helping to equip Californias decision makers with science-savvy staff.

This year, the CCST Science Fellows class was expanded to 15 fellows and, in a historic first for the program, five CCST Science Fellows were placed in the Executive Branch working in California State Agencies and the Governors office. This is in addition to the 10 CCST Science Fellows who were placed in the California State Legislature and are working in policy committees and member offices.

The expansion of the fellowship program was made possible by a major investment from the State of Californiachampioned by the California State Legislature and approved by Governor Newsomas well as continued philanthropic support.

Our2020 CCST Science Fellowshave completed PhD research at the likes ofUC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, University of Washington, University of Utah, Cornell University, Harvard University, Penn State University, Emory University, University of Florida,University of Virginia,and the Rockefeller University.

Their technical expertise spans fields including the use of plants to learn about atmospheric pollution, materials for hydrogen fueled vehicles, crop disease, impacts of US air quality regulations, nanoparticles, efficient solar panels, effects of air pollution on pollination, how animals process odors, Alzheimers, novel birth control products, and antibiotic resistance genes.

These fifteen PhD scientists reported to our downtown Sacramento headquartersin November to participate inour annual policy boot camp a crash course on the process, history, and landscape of California policymaking, as well as skills development and communications workshops to prepare them for the intense, dynamic pace of the Capitol policy world.

Who are these talented, passionate professionals, and whichoffices are they working in now?

Lets meet our2020 CCST Science Fellows:

LaShaye Cobley | California Air Resources BoardPhD: Biology, University of Utah

Brynn Cook | Office of Senator GonzalezPhD: Ecology, University of Virginia

Sierra Cook | Assembly Education CommitteePhD: Applied Physics, Cornell University

May Dobosiewicz | Assembly Water, Parks, & Wildlife CommitteePhD: Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University

Grayson Doucette | Senate Natural Resources and Water CommitteePhD: Materials Science, Penn State University

Rae Eaton | California Natural Resources AgencyPhD: Chemistry, University of Washington

Cristina Echeverria | Strategic Growth CouncilPhD: Civil and Environmental Engineering, UCLA

Geoff Hollett | Office of Senator ArchuletaPhD: Materials Science and Engineering, UC San Diego

Jacy Hyde | Assembly Natural Resources CommitteePhD: Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida

Ken McCullough | Governors Office of Planning and Research / Office of Surgeon GeneralPhD: Neuroscience, Emory University

Maria Montchal | Senate Environmental Quality CommitteePhD: Biological Sciences, UC Irvine

Rachel Silvern | Assembly Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials CommitteePhD: Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University

Nikki Soltis | Governors Office of Business and Economic DevelopmentPhD: Plant Biology, UC Davis

Meron Tesfaye | Senate Budget and Fiscal Review CommitteePhD: Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley

Emily Wonder | Assembly Judiciary CommitteePhD: Materials, UC Santa Barbara

About CCST

CCST is a nonpartisan nonprofit created via the California Legislature in 1988 to provide objective advice from Californias leading scientists and research institutions on policy issues involving science. Californias policies are stronger with science, and CCST is uniquely qualified as an expert organization, modeled after the National Academies of Sciences, to convene a statewide network of experts across disciplines and institutions.

Link:
CCST introduces expanded class of 2020 CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellows, now placed in the Legislative and Executive Branch | California...

Anatomy

‘Uncut Gems’ | Anatomy of a Scene – The New York Times

Hello, this is Josh Safdie. And this is Benny Safdie. Were the directors of Uncut Gems. Were jumping in here after a good stretch of Howards life. But he was just abandoned and ditched at a practice facility, so hes a little concerned about his gem. And hes here back with his family, his domicile, basically, his pack. And were meeting him in the middle of a status exchange with another Long Island family. What greater setting to be than in a school play, a mandatory attendance thing. And youre here with people who I think identify setting more than anything. O.K. What are you going to do for Passover? Is your sister coming? Uh, yeah. What are doing? Who do you got? Watching for LeBron. I got six different people playing six different games. Hey, were all making salt. Hey! Who tapped me? Who was that? I call this the head turning scene because theres so many head turns back and forth, back and forth, between each person, like perspective switches. Whats going on in Howards life. And this here, the narrative here, these two gentlemen are a reminder of the bigger threat in Howards life, the money that he owes, and figuring out a way to get into it. Overt narrative plotting is always something we feel so self-conscious about, so having it come through a Where you going? Daddys got to game in jest with his kid. The way he bonds with everybody is through jest, and the classic tap shoulder gag actually leads him to the reminder of the things that are lurking behind him. And it was on this scene, I remember the AD was trying to have everybody be quiet, and we got very upset, because we wanted everybody to be talking. In this scenario, everybody needed to be loud, because it needed to reflect a real auditorium. And of course, it causes problems later on with editing, but the whole point is to get the performances to be real. This action sequence, as well call it, we shot at the end of a 14, 15-hour day. And I kind of like that pressure, because I believe that violence is sloppy. It is unchoreographed. It is matter-of-fact. And that little sequence in the hallway we just saw was that. And here This too. This as well. One take, remember? And his daughter thats probably one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to you. Your psychotic, maniacal, loving weird dad is running through I actually love watching certain parts of the movie when you know it was the last thing you filmed on a day. Something that always that scene in the hallway is one of those. This sequence, this exterior sequence here, Darius spent a day or two lighting, I think a day of pre-lighting. And Eric Bogosian, who plays Arno, his brother-in-law, this is his introduction to his character, and to meet him in slow motion where you cant hear him, I find it to be even more menacing. And Eric actually said because he had done that drive a bunch of times. The first time he pulled up, and he saw Sandler run out of that school wearing loafers, running on that grass, getting tackled by these guys, he says, O.K., this is a different kind of movie. I remember when we did that scene, it was a very complicated choreography with a big cart, and a camera. And you kind of feel the pressure of everybody saying, oh, I wonder how theyre going to do this with non-actors, all this stuff. And on the first take, everybody just nailed it. It was very exciting.

Read the original post:
'Uncut Gems' | Anatomy of a Scene - The New York Times

Anatomy

Anatomy of a DUI: What happens when you get pulled over in Colorado? – Vail Daily News

A traveler being pulled over for driving under the influence is common in Summit County.

The Fifth Judicial District composed of Summit, Lake, Eagle and Clear Creek counties and nestled among a number of other trouble areas in northwest Colorado reports the second highest rate of DUIs per capita in the state.

The underlying causes of the areas problem are varied and inflated by tourists flocking to the county during high seasons in winter and summer along with a culture of heavy substance use among visitors and residents.

Punishments for getting behind the wheel while impaired can also be wide-ranging, including losing your drivers license, hefty fines and even significant jail time in more serious cases. But according to officials, many community members dont fully understand the potential consequences of a DUI offense or what to expect when they first see the flashing lights in their rearview mirror.

The idea of getting pulled over is never a fun prospect, and while sober drivers are more likely to leave the interaction with an officers business card than a ticket, anyone exhibiting clear signs of intoxication could be in for a long night.

The biggest thing is that we consider a totality of the circumstances, said Summit County Sheriffs Office Sgt. Mark Gafari, who allowed the Summit Daily News to participate in a ride-along earlier this month to get a first-hand look at how law enforcement agents patrol the area and what theyre looking for in regard to impaired drivers.

Alcohol can affect people very differently, Gafari said. It depends on if they ate, how much, are they used to drinking and a number of other factors. For us, it comes down to the driving actions and our personal observations. But we also have to remember that someone could be driving poorly because theyre lost, or they could be having a medical episode or something else. Our job is to go and have a polite conversation and check whats going on.

Getting pulled over

Gafari said impaired driving arrests are largely based around three factors. The first is called vehicle in motion observations, or the reason a traffic stop was initiated in the first place, such as a driver weaving on the roadway, driving at unusually slow or fast speeds, or exhibiting delayed or strange reactions like stopping at a green light, among other possible reasons.

The second factor is observations during the personal contact phase, in which an officer will try to determine if the abnormal driving behavior may be related to substance use, such as a strong smell of alcohol, slurred speech, trouble understanding an officers questions, slow reactions when handing over paperwork and more.

If an officer feels inebriation might be a contributor to the strange driving behavior, the driver will be asked to complete a standard field sobriety test three roadside maneuvers that have been scientifically validated to obtain indicators of impairment based on International Association of Chiefs of Police and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standards.

The tests include looking for a horizontal gaze nystagmus (involuntary jerking of the eyes), a walk and turn, and one-leg stand.

We try to do all we can to consider everything that might be going on and give them a chance and have a conversation with them, Gafari said. Because there may be things I dont know, and its important for us to be human about it and explain the reason for the stop and why were doing what were doing.

But if I think you may be unsafe to operate a motor vehicle, I may want to check, and the voluntary roadside maneuver is the best way to do that. That totality including the driving behavior and our interaction will come together to determine if youre placed into custody for suspicion of DUI or not.

After an arrest

If the driver is taken into custody, theyll be asked to submit to their choice of a chemical blood or breath test under the states express consent law. In Colorado, and the rest of the nation, drivers give consent to be tested when theyre applying for their drivers license. If substances other than alcohol are suspected, the test has to be a blood test. Blood tests are performed by medical professionals, who typically take two samples to be sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and an independent lab of the suspects choosing for analysis.

When you sign on the dotted line on the application for a drivers license, youre consenting, when reasonably requested, to give a blood or breath test, Fifth Judicial District Attorney Bruce Brown said. They cant just pull you over for speeding and ask for a test. They have to have a reasonable suspicion that you were driving under the influence.

Drivers can refuse to submit to a test, though that triggers an automatic yearlong suspension of their driving privileges by the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Beyond criminal charges, driving under the influence cases also can include a substantial administrative process at the Department of Revenues Division of Motor Vehicles. For example, if a breath or blood test returns a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or above the national threshold for DUI offenses the DMV automatically will revoke that individuals right to drive for nine to 24 months, depending on whether theyre a repeat offender.

A driver can have their driving privileges reinstated earlier in most cases, even as soon as one month or two months if they refused a blood or breath test though that typically involves agreeing to install an interlock device in their car, essentially a blow-and-go breathalyzer that prevents the car from starting if any alcohol is detected.

Its understandable people get lost in that quagmire because it seems like the court is the place to address this, said Summit County Judge Edward Casias, who handles a majority of the countys DUI cases. Thats purely an administrative process, and the court has nothing to do with it. I cant order the DMV to let someone drive.

After an arrest, offenders will typically be booked into the jail, fingerprinted, photographed, released on bond usually about $1,000 on a first offense and are either issued a summons to return to court or appear before a judge. After the first advisement, theres usually a period between hearings so the alleged offender can review their police reports, properly understand their charges, consult with an attorney and determine what path to take whether its pleading guilty, preparing a defense or providing new information to the District Attorneys Office.

Going to court

According to Brown, first-time DUI offenders frequently negotiate a settlement to a less severe charge of driving while ability impaired (DWAI), and a huge majority of offenders end up pleading guilty.

Over 90% of people who are charged with driving under the influence end up pleading guilty, Brown said. About 5% of those cases are dismissed or reduced to a charge less than a DWAI, and 5% or less would go to trial. Thats based on a nationwide statistical analysis, and weve done them here, and we are pretty consistent.

According to the 2019 Driving Under the Influence of Drugs and Alcohol report prepared by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, suspects were found guilty in more than 81% of DUI cases in 2017 statewide, and cases were dismissed in 9.7% of cases.

Driving under the influence charges are typically misdemeanor offenses, but can rise to the level of a felony for individuals with three prior convictions. By Colorado statute, the possible penalties for a DUI offense typically include five days to a year in jail (not mandatory), a $600 to $1,000 fine, 48-96 hours of useful public service, an alcohol evaluation, DUI classes and treatment, and the likely suspension of the drivers license along with court fees. Penalties for a DWAI are somewhat less severe, including a potential two to 180 days in jail, a $200 to $500 fine, 24-48 hours of useful public service, an alcohol evaluation, classes, court costs and eight points off the drivers license.

Casias said individuals with aggravating factors in their cases, such as a high blood alcohol content, also could get supervised probation as part of their sentence, which requires an additional $600 supervision fee per year. Casias also noted that hell almost always include at least a small jail sentence for anyone who comes in with a blood alcoholcontent higher than 0.159.

Its more than twice the legal limit and over three times the limit for a DWAI, Casias said. That indicates the person definitely should have felt it and should have known they were too drunk to get behind the wheel. So theyre going to do a weekend in jail.

But offenders typically end up paying more than just fines, and the costs can add up. With court costs and required treatment classes alone not factoring in potential costs of an interlock device, attorney fees, rising insurance costs or any loss of wages a first-time DWAI offender will end up paying about $1,971, according to Casias. For a first-time DUI offender, the price tag goes up to about $2,560. These numbers assume the lowest level education and treatment course, which requires 21 weeks of treatment and 12 weeks of education courses at $35 a session.

Brown said drivers can receive some form of DUI charge even if their blood alcohol content doesnt reach the presumptive limits for a DUI (0.08) or DWAI (0.05), but said its fairly rare.

The punishments get more severe for reoffenders, though Brown said sentences for first-time offenders are designed to send a message and hopefully push that individual into making better decisions in the future or seeking out substance use treatment, if necessary.

If you go out and talk to your friends or co-workers, many people have suffered a DUI, Brown said. So the fact that someone is convicted doesnt become a moral judgment but an indicator that they might have a substance abuse problem. The primary purpose is to make sure that they get an opportunity to recognize the danger involved, to understand their relationship with alcohol and that they may have behavior that needs to be changed.

Attending classes

To that end, every offender is asked to complete an alcohol and drug education course or, in more severe cases, months of education courses and treatment programs.

For individuals in treatment, sessions are largely based around removing the shame around the offense, increasing awareness and responsibility, and better understanding the circumstances behind the offense.

I think its really important that people understand that this can happen to anybody, said Andrea Brown, a substance use counselor at Alpine Springs Counseling, who teaches courses out of Breckenridge. Ive had first responders, attorneys and everyone else. But this treatment is absolutely, though frustrating, essential. It can help people make better decisions and take the shame out of the equation. Its also important that people know theyll be treated respectfully when they come into one of our groups.

While the education groups are fairly structured, with an actual curriculum mandated by the state, Andrea Brown said counseling sessions are much more flexible allowing participants to push the conversation in the direction most useful to them, whether that means discussions around what is contributing to the areas problems, overcoming triggers or other topics.

According to Andrea Brown, the classes often pay dividends for participants.

Ive only seen a couple of instances where people have come back into the system, she said. That doesnt mean its perfect, but it does mean the average person has learned something, even if its just that they can download Uber. I think what were seeing is that its not just teaching them about sobriety. Were not here to make you feel bad about drinking but rather looking at where your drinking leads to poor decision making that resulted in getting in a car. Were looking at how we can have a more healthy awareness of how to care for ourselves and other people. I do think these groups help dramatically.

See original here:
Anatomy of a DUI: What happens when you get pulled over in Colorado? - Vail Daily News

Anatomy

Mapped: The Anatomy of Land Use in the United States – Visual Capitalist

The United States is not just an economic and political giant on the global stagethe country also has one of the largest land masses at its disposal.

Altogether, the country spans 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km)making it the third largest country in the world. Even without factoring Alaska and Hawaii into the calculations, the contiguous U.S. land mass can fit up to 30 European countries within it.

With this much ground to work with, it raises the natural question of how land actually gets used by Americas economy. For example, what percentage of land is taken up by urban areas, and how much farmland and forests exist in comparison?

Todays maps from the McHarg Center put Americas wide variety of land uses into perspective.

As the U.S. prepares to add 100 million more people this century, the 2100 Project: An Atlas for the Green New Deal provides a snapshot of U.S. land use (as of 2017), aimed at managing resources to support this future.

According to this data, here is a snapshot of land use in the Lower 48 States:

Lets dive into the specifics of three types of land: urban areas, forests, and agriculture.

Editors note: click on any map below to see a large, high-resolution version, which will open in a new window.

Its clear that even a little space goes a long way. Although urban areas take up only 2% of land, an overwhelming majority of Americans call cities their home. As of 2018, urbanites made up over 82% of the U.S. population.

Where people go, productivity often follows. In 2018, its estimated that 31 county economies made up a whopping 32% of national GDP. Most of these counties were located in and around major cities, such as Los Angeles or New York.

Although urban areas are a small part of the overall land theyre built on, theyre integral to the nations continued growth. According to research by the McKinsey Global Institute, its estimated that by 2030, 60% of job growth could come from just 25 hubs.

On the flipside, forests account for over a quarter of land in the U.S., divided almost evenly between deciduous and evergreen trees. Many protected national and state parks can also be found in and around forests.

On the mainland, California and Oregon are the states with the most forested landunfortunately, they have also been plagued by wildfires in recent, dry summer months.

Wetlands are also included in the map above, particularly around the southern tip of Florida, where Everglades National Park is located. Over the years, many wetlands were drained to make way for agriculture, particularly in the Great Lakes megaregion. As a result, its estimated that their area today is only half of what they once used to be.

Last but not least, the final set of maps show where America grows its food. Agricultural, food, and related industries contributed $1.05 trillion (5.4%) to U.S. GDP in 2017.

Wheat, corn, and soybeans are the major crops grown in the U.S.and cotton also makes the cut as a profitable non-food crop. Much of these crops feed not only Americans, but other parts of the world too. Soybeans, corn, and wheat are exported across the Pacific mainly to China and Japan.

Corn, in particular, is a unique crop with a myriad of uses, from food to fuels. Up to 40% of U.S. corn is turned into livestock feed, with cows consuming over half (56%) of this amount.

At present, the U.S. is the worlds largest beef producer, followed by Brazil. In fact, beef production takes up 40% of total livestock-related land use domestically.

Although fewer American consumers are opting for meat in their diets, production has remained at high rates. Further, as incomes continues to increase worldwide, the global appetite for meat is set to rise along with it.

The U.S. population is set to grow by 100 million more people over the coming decades, raising the pressure on limited U.S. land and natural resources. This pressure will be felt everywhere, from dense urban land to agricultural farmland.

How the land gets utilized will shape the countrys future for years to come.

Thank you!

Given email address is already subscribed, thank you!

Please provide a valid email address.

Please complete the CAPTCHA.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Read the original here:
Mapped: The Anatomy of Land Use in the United States - Visual Capitalist