Monthly Archives: January 2022

Anatomy

Grays anatomy: what to expect from yet another big week in politics – Yahoo News UK

(Evening Standard )

Its just another manic Monday in Whitehall: a tale of unravelling prime ministerial authority, while a Number 10 staff warily assesses which of their masters is likely to be leaving permanently as the reckoning for Partygate draws near.

Add to that the row in the Whips office over alleged arm-twisting of critics of the PM, and one charge from a former minister of outright racism over the weekend, and Brand Boris has taken a battering which has brought it to the verge of political bankruptcy. On the account of those who have dealt with him over the last week, the PMs mood ranges from bullish to bunker mentality and secretive about his next moves.

The prospect of Sue Grays investigation concluding this week has explosive ramifications for Johnsons premiership. It is, as one insider puts it, a rumbling volcanic eruption set to resonate through the Number 10 operation and the Cabinet Office in the coming days AKA the twin nerve centres of Johnsons political operation. The report by Gray, a senior civil servant, has included talking to members of the Metropolitan Polices Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command on duty when the nine social events covered by the inquiry were held, and some of their statements are reported to be extremely damning.

Today, the Telegraph cites a source who claims they would be very surprised if Johnson could last the week in the light of new information. This is, of course, still only a surmise but any sense that police were encouraged to turn a blind eye to lockdown-breaking in Number 10 would deepen the PMs difficulties and possibly kick off a more concerted attempt by panicking Tories to stem the damage to the party by ditching its leader.

The document painstakingly put together by Gray after dozens of interviews is, according to one figure familiar with her thinking, likely to hone in on the chaos and lack of grip and discipline in Number 10. She is also set to reveal how ambiguity about Downing Streets status of workplace and PMs residence led to unclear (indeed, largely absent) messaging internally about Covid rules and unnecessary mixing. It is said to have allowed a party and drinking culture to thrive while for large swathes of 2020 and 2021 strict lockdowns constrained social life and family gatherings for the rest of the country.

Story continues

A radical changing of the guard in Downing Street is unavoidable, with Martin Reynolds Party Marty, Johnsons principal private secretary who sent the ill-advised jaunty email inviting staff to BYOB drinks in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 first in the firing line. Dan Rosenfield, the rebarbative chief of staff, has some support among colleagues who insist he was a more cautious figure, but the charge of a badly-run administration will land at his door not least when Dominic Cummings, the apostate ex-strategist who claims he warned Johnson personally about breaches of rules, speaks to Gray today. Jack Doyle, director of communications, is rumoured to be one of the figures likely to want to check out as a colleague daintily puts it, having made a speech at a Christmas party in 2020.

Party Marty, Johnsons principal private secretary who sent the BYOB email, is first in the firing line

Officials and staffers losing their jobs is necessary to show that the Government accepts Downing Street culture went badly awry in its values and conduct during the pandemic. Resignations, however, are also a shield for the PM. Credibly or otherwise, Johnsons position when the report is published is very likely to be a continuation of his embattled but stubborn posture last week: that he was given no clear guidance that anything that occurred while he was in the building was actually against the rules.

The urgent matter for the PM is how far the report is likely to reignite moves on the Tory backbenches towards a no confidence vote which surged and stuttered last week. Loyalists claim this is off the boil but it would not take much to heat it up again, for which reason the police and protection squads evidence is treacherous territory for the leader. The PM hunkered down at Chequers at the weekend, bypassing the Whips office to rally support directly or via trusted MPs. As he often does when times are difficult, he contacted loyalists with plans to get the band together again convening supporters who were at his side through the tortuous Brexit votes and the prorogation of Parliament in 2019, and deploying them to sound out MPs on his behalf. As things stand, Boris would win a vote of no confidence, assures one Cabinet minister. But the sense of division and controversy would linger even so.

Johnson, according to one of his confidants, is playing his card close to his chest. That very tendency will pull against the other advice likely to flow from the Gray report namely, that the Johnson clique needs to break out of its self-congratulatory clannishness and allow for a culture of greater self-questioning than it has done in his premiership. For all his public gregariousness, Johnson is often a secretive figure. Even ministers who are close to his political agenda can find themselves without a clear signal of his intentions.

When troubled, Johnson often seeks advice from his old election Svengali from his City Hall days, Sir Lynton Crosby, although friends of the strategist claim that he is more likely to help Johnson on a temporary basis than seek a full-time role now. Crosby is currently working in his native Australia and will not be back in the UK till February. The same goes for Lord (Eddie) Lister, a veteran local government figure whom Johnson trusted to drive through his ideas as London mayor. Lister had a brief and tense stay in Number 10, not least because he was reportedly unhappy at the involvement of the PMs wife in important decisions and staffing. In many ways, Boris needs these steadying figures more than ever, reflects a former City Hall ally. But the band frankly dont relish Carries political input and his old allies have moved on to focus on their businesses. Theyre not up for being mopper-uppers.

(back, left to right) Martin Reynolds, the Prime Ministers principal private secretary, and Dan Rosenfield, the Prime Ministers chief of staff, and (front, left to right) Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, attending a Cabinet meeting in 10 Downing Street (Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard)

Appointing more women to formative and high-profile Number 10 roles is one proposal the PM may well act on, not least because the impression of a lads lair in Downing Street has persisted since Dominic Cummings threw his weight about, and there has been a seemingly endless succession of men ruling the roost in the Boris years. The key exception has been Munira Mirza, the quietly-spoken head of the policy unit providing red meat policies for Johnson, including the attack on the BBC licence fee. Another senior woman, Jess Glover, the Cabinet Offices director general of transition who deals with the knotty problems of Brexit legislation and its effects on business, is also tipped for a leading role. She knows the machinery of government and she has the authority and network to change things, says a colleague.

Present insiders like Simone Finn, the deputy chief of staff, will also sense opportunities to advance. Little love has been lost between Finn, an import from the Cabinet Office, and her boss Rosenfield. Ebullient and vastly experienced, Finn is a loyal ally of Michael Gove and Carrie Johnson. Downing Street needs more Anji Hunters and Kate Falls [key female aides to Blair and Cameron] who calmed stuff down and could warn of trouble brewing, and fewer blokes running around buying cases of Malbec, says an old friend of the PM.

The Red Wall is the other factor which will ultimately determine whether the PM is now on a downward slide towards a precipitous exit, or can miraculously extricate himself from a mess which has left the voters he wooed to win his majority angry and confused. Influential figures have spoken out. Dehenna Davison, the outspoken MP for Bishop Auckland a constituency that represented a totemic Tory win from Labour has denied being part of a prospective coup to topple Johnson, but has made no secret of her fury over his lack of grip and stopped short of endorsing him remaining in post. I am incredibly angry about the Downing Street parties and the Prime Ministers response. It will be for the Prime Minister himself, or the Conservative Party collectively, to decide the PMs future.

Appointing more women like Simone Finn to formative roles at No 10 is one proposal

When I ask a friend in my native Durham one of the Red Wall seats which fell dramatically to Johnson for a take, the response is swift and devastating. When Covid started, friends and family really sympathised with the situation he was in and couldnt see Labour doing any better. Now thats all forgotten. I cant see how he can recover from this. Up here, the Red Wall is half rebuilt now.

Brand Boris has morphed from eventful and exciting to giddy self-harm, and loyalists are thinner on the ground than ever. Internal enemies and competitors know they are dealing with a leader on borrowed time. The question is now not so much whether the Number 10 reboot will work, but whether the master of the unruly house survives the transition. His best hope is expressed by an old friend turned arch critic: It is touch and go for Boris. But do we really need a leadership contest now?

Whatever transpires on the Gray day of reckoning, there will be plenty of Whitehall roles vacant. Prospects: eventful, duration: uncertain. Must bring own flak jacket. Tee-totallers ardently preferred.

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Grays anatomy: what to expect from yet another big week in politics - Yahoo News UK

Anatomy

Anatomy of a Failure: The Demographic Mistargeting That Doomed Scion – InsideHook

Targeting youthful dollars has been a sound strategy for dozens of industries, with the marketing creation of the American teenager in the 1950s giving birth to a kaleidoscope of entertainment, fashion, food and lifestyle brands catering exclusively to the countrys newest consumers.

In the automotive world, things have always been a little different. New cars are expensive, often well beyond the budgets of even the hardest working high schooler or college student, which means advertising campaigns that skewed towards entry-level buyers traditionally took into account a wider demographic. It was easier, and more profitable, to make older folks feel young by feeding them a line or two about the rejuvenating effects of a vehicle than it was to build something exclusively for the sub-25 set.

In the early 2000s, Toyota turned this conventional wisdom on its ear by launching not just a sales campaign, but an entire brand built on a perceived gap in youth-oriented automobiles. Dubbed Scion, it was intended to sop up dollars from teens and twenty-somethings, who had given the Japanese manufacturer the cold shoulder due to its apparent frumpiness, by importing quirkier fare from the motherland. The effort even went so far as to target preteens before they had a chance to form their auto-brand affiliations.

Miraculously, for a very short period of time, the gambit worked. A few years after its debut, however, it became clear that Toyota had seriously miscalculated Scions appeal.

Once the initial surge of youth energy had been absorbed, a new demographic infiltrated showrooms, intent on rewarding themselves with a funky-looking, affordable automobile that would counter some of the salt-and-pepper streaking their once-full heads of hair.

Toyota was completely unprepared for the invasion of elders who suddenly appeared at dealerships, AARP membership cards in hand, eager to cash in on Scions no-haggle pricing model. Always wary of being told what they should find cool in the first place, and detecting the distinct odor of Werthers Originals wafting from the lot, the younger generations Toyota had once courted with Scion evaporated quickly, leaving behind leadership too stunned to steer into the skid.

The coolest toaster youve ever seen.

Toyota

At the outset, it appeared as though Toyota was making all the right moves with Scions market position. The quirky, toaster-shaped xB hatchback was an immediate success, followed closely by the flat-roofed tC coupe. After a soft launch in limited U.S. markets, by 2004 the company was selling 100,000 units total, a number that crested 173,000 sales by 2006.

So what if Scions full lineup numbers didnt match half a good year for the Toyota Camry? And pay no attention to the fact that the utilitarian xA subcompact trailed its more attractive siblings by as much as 75% on the sales sheet. There was plenty of time to convince Scions fresh-blooded customers to merge into Toyotas lane down the road and upgrade to something a little more adult (and more profitable). Until that day, Scions momentum seemed to be trending ever upward.

Then, the unthinkable. The brands sales began to plummet. In 2007, the company bled a quarter of its customers, and the following years global recession took most of the rest. By 2010, the company was down nearly 70% from where its tumble began, with a mere 45,678 units heading out the door.

What teen wouldnt want individual DVD players in the headrests?

Toyota

What happened? On the outside, it appeared as though the combination of an unpopular redesign of the standard-bearing xB (puffing it out past its previously cute proportions) plus the financial chaos of 2008-2009 were the primary culprits for Scions tumble. A closer look reveals a company that was unwilling to confront an uncomfortable truth about who its buyers actually were.

While it was accurate that back in 2004, the average age of its customer was roughly 35 years old (considerably younger than both Toyota and industry averages at the time), the crossover appeal of both the xB and the tC were already starting to dilute that figure. Media reports at the time were happy to turn the lens towards the drivers in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who were drawn in by Scion, a process that created a feedback loop that attracted the curiosity of an increasingly middle-aged clientele. In the space of just three years, Scions average customer was pushing 43, with some models skewing closer to 50.

At the same time as Scion was attracting a more experienced crowd, the initial groundswell of support from the younger set was fading as its occasionally bare-bones sales model failed to catch on. Instead of options, Toyota had counted on its extensive accessory program to fill coffers, figuring that a more energetic and engaged buyer base would want to soup up or otherwise customize their vehicles to reflect their individual tastes.

This revenue stream failed to materialize, as Toyota didnt understand that its original batch of Scion customers were attracted to bargain basement pricing and didnt necessarily have the means to explore fancy exhaust kits or decal sets. That went double for the increasingly silver-haired clientele elbowing out Scions disenchanted youth.

The compact Scion tC started off hot but sales numbers started to dip in 2007 and never fully recovered.

Toyota

By 2007, it should have been clear that Scions initial pitch to the under-30 crowd had failed in two crucial aspects.

Rather than seeing these vehicles as a blank canvas for self-expression via accessorizing, college grads and minimum-wage workers alike perceived the Scion badge as the mark of basic transportation, a budget-conscious sub-brand of Toyota rather than anything new or exciting. Toyota conflated youth spending on CDs and clothes in malls across America as an indication that maybe there was enough left under their mattresses for anything other than a reliable ride to work in the morning.

At the same time, Scions appeal to more experienced drivers should have made it abundantly clear that it was time to shift gears and start outfitting its automobiles with the kind of features that could keep this momentum going. The older crowd appreciated the easy-to-get-into xBs ride height and practicality, as well as the tCs comfortable ride matched with sporty looks that recalled their glory days without requiring them to open their wallets too wide. Packing more features into these models, including modern infotainment, and eliminating the accessory catalog in favor of a traditional options sheet could have helped squeeze lemonade from the increasingly sour sales reports.

Maybe Scion should have stuck with the original xB.

Toyota

As history has shown, Toyota made almost no effort to deviate from its youthful focus/senior results dichotomy. As late as 2011 it was introducing a (legitimately fun to drive) sports coupe in the form of the FR-S, followed by the curious iQ hatchback (a pint-size vehicle outshone by the more capable, and cheaper, Toyota Yaris), two vehicles that couldnt have been more different. The former was designed to tackle Japans mountain roads, while the latter seemed destined to be towed behind an RV being driven by a retired couple discovering America on a fixed income.

The message inside Scion showrooms was likewise confusing at best, as also-rans like the iA were sourced from Mazdas entry-level dregs and the iM did its best Corolla impression in the companys final years. The tC and the xB languished, each receiving only a single redesign during nearly a decade of existence. Young buyers had by that point defected almost entirely to Toyota, which had rehabbed its image and the lower limits of its lineup to compete harder for first-timers. Scion was dragged down-market in the eyes of potential shoppers even as the mothership accrued greater respect, with the net effect of Toyota stealing sales from itself.

Golden-agers continued to power Scions sales throughout this period, but the returns were clearly diminishing; sales climbed briefly to 73,000 for 2012, yet as of the 2016 date of execution they had once again tumbled to just over 56,000 units. By the time younger buyers began to circle back to Scions rock-bottom pricing and claw the average customer age down from its mid-century crisis, it was too little, too late. With little money to be made from its unusual combination of skinflint Boomer devotees and blood-from-a-stone entry-level kids, Toyota shuttered Scion at the end of that year.

Not even the tantalizing FR-S could revive Scion.

Toyota

Corporate inertia is a powerful force, none more so than when its backed up by an unrealistic appraisal of how a market perceives a product. Unlike Amazons same-era Kindle, which wholeheartedly embraced the unexpected boon of elderly readers drawn by the devices promise of easy access to endless Danielle Steel ebooks, Toyota was unwilling to concede that it had missed the boat on who was really buying Scions.

How much did this single-minded focus hurt Toyota? In the long run, the effects were likely minimal. Scions portfolio was either based on JDM models or farmed out to corporate partners, which kept production costs minimal especially considering that only a million or so models were sold over the course of its entire existence. What few popular models were left after the shutdown were shunted off to other areas of the Toyota lineup, and with dealers sharing space on the Toyota lot the American investment was also far from onerous, making this an embarrassing, but not altogether financially painful experience for the automaker overall.

The true impact of Scions legacy is likely to be a kibosh on any future attempts to harness the alleged spending power of Millennials/Gen Z/whoevers next in line to bear the brunt of the generational hype. A sticker package here, an outdoorsy trim level there why not? An entire brand dedicated to scooping up dollars that simply dont exist?

Can we instead interest you in this fine, uh, Toyota?

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Anatomy of a Failure: The Demographic Mistargeting That Doomed Scion - InsideHook

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Jesse Williams’ Ex-Wife Demands Primary Custody Of Kids, Claims Actor’s ‘Erratic Behavior’ Causes Her To Fear For Her Safety -…

Despite my repeated requests, he routinely refuses to share the details of his schedule. Rather, he tells me hes leaving without sharing specifics, only making vague references as to when he might be back, she tells the court.

Aryn says she went and rehired the longtime nanny. She has been paying for the expenses out of her pocket.

In her declaration, Aryn says Jesse has canceled time with his kids over 15 times. She claims he will cancel and then call back to un-cancel.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Star Jesse Williams' Ex-Wife Demands Primary Custody Of Kids, Claims Actor's 'Erratic Behavior' Causes Her To Fear For Her Safety -...

Anatomy

Video: ‘The Power of the Dog’ | Anatomy of a Scene – The New York Times

Hello. Im Jane Campion. Im the screenwriter and director of The Power of the Dog. This is the scene I call the love scene. Its a scene that happens in the barn at night with Phil, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, and Peter, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee. Its really a scene I love very much, because its a culmination of their relationship. And so many different parts of the film that really have been seeded right from the very beginning coming together, like the completion of the rope with all its freighted meanings, the change of the relationship between Peter and Phil towards intimacy, and then the surprising power shift from Phil to Peter as Peter boldly holds out the cigarette to Phils lips, then to his own, and the laying out of the murder scene. The aim for me in directing the scene was to find a way to really build tension as Peter watches Phil finishing the rope. And this is something Phil has actually asked him to do. Will you watch me finish the rope? Its a kind of vulnerability that, actually, Phil shows towards him. Here, were seeing the moment where the actual murder scene has been hinted at, when Phils wound pinks the water. And its also a scene where I added a lot, a lot of details during the filming of it and later. But this shot here was the one that made me really excited, like, just doing this move of focus pulls between Peter, the rope, Phils hands played in it at his crotch. And pulling back to Peter as hes watching it. And then, he goes over to Bronco Henrys saddle and begins to fiddle with that, which is actually a way of Peter subversively flirting with Phil, because anybody touching Broncos saddle, especially Peter, is probably eroticizing for Phil. And you know, its interesting that these saddles, they have so many all the spurs actually, kind of little romantic aspects inside the little silver heart and the actual spurs themselves. You know? How old were you when you met Bronco Henry? About the age you are now. Phil and Peter are really sensing each other out here. Phils not really sure, I dont think, whether Peter is aware of the atmosphere, because Peters really hard to read. And he starts a story about Bronco Henry and himself when they got caught out in a storm to illustrate how their friendship actually was not only the most important friendship in his life, but the one that saved his life. And he talks about lying body to body in a body roll together. And you know, meanwhile, fingering the rope and all the other erotic objects in this scene. And Peter asks Naked? Which is the really important moment for me and especially the way these great actors work with the lines and with whats happening. Here, we just see the rope that Peter has made being inserted into the main rope. And so it becomes a rope that they both made together. And initially, the scene didnt have dialogue in it. In fact, it wasnt even in the book. But Benedict really resisted the idea of the dialogue. And actually, initially, I had thought it shouldnt have dialogue too. I thought it should just have Jonny Greenwoods beautiful music and it would kind of be a moment where it would be really strong. However, Benedict and I came to a kind of compromise, where we just used the most innocent of the dialogue. You know, nothing really suggestive, but just something simple, like innocent questions. And the scene is setting out a lot of complicated things. But the most important, I think, is that its erotic and tense. And this moment, when they are actually sharing the cigarette, Peter gives him this little smile, where we know that he knows he has Phil. And we move on here to the horses, with the horns still playing. And these are raw animals. I think theyre very sexy in a way, because of just how natural they are and seeing them in these details and their strength and beauty and the intimacy that they have with each other is, I think, incredibly important as well.

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Video: 'The Power of the Dog' | Anatomy of a Scene - The New York Times

Anatomy

Choosing The Right Fit For Your Business Anatomy Of A Cash Drawer – VARinsights

The cash drawer, in varying forms, has been a core component of the retail business for as long as people have exchanged money for goods. Any business accepting hard currency needs one but choosing the best cash drawer requires planning, consideration, and a little research. Drawers are available in a variety of models, colors, sizes, features, connectivity options, till configurations and construction materials. Determining which best suits your business requires an assessment of your specific needs:

Cash drawers range from basic to full-featured models and offer different levels of durability. A fast-food environment, where drawers are opened and closed frequently, demands a heavy-duty model with an all-steel case while a boutique store selling clothes or specialty items has more modest requirements. Drawer placement also comes into play, as some will fit under the counter (this normally requires a cash drawer under counter mounting bracket) while others sit on the counter with all of the related POS hardware monitor, keyboard, scanner and printer typically located on top of it. Different types of cash drawer mounting brackets allow you to locate your drawer and till solution in the most convenient place for operation.

Whatever the needs of the business, APG has a drawer for you. This document explains the different parts of the cash drawer to acquaint you with available options in type, size, accessories, components and features. We also discuss important differences between drawers and which models best suit which types of businesses.

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Choosing The Right Fit For Your Business Anatomy Of A Cash Drawer - VARinsights

Anatomy

These are the must-watch television shows of 2022: from Bridgerton to Anatomy of a Scandal – Tatler

No show does aristocratic escapism quite like The Great. Tatler cover star, Elle Fanning, and Nicholas Hoult, star as Empress Catherine the Great and Emperor Peter III, in this flamboyant and wild rendition of their lives. Superb comic timing and fiercely witty comebacks make for an energetic and hilarious retelling of the escapades (and weren't they just) of the imperial Russian couple. It is advised that you do not, however, watch this in the hope of educating yourself on the countrys colourful history as the show describes itself as an occasionally true story. The 10-part-series is an aesthetic feast of extravagance, and the costumes, setting and makeup provide a cocktail of over-the-top indulgence, so much so, that one begins to understand the incitement of a revolution, caused by the country's monumentous disparity of wealth, in the coming century

Season three of The Great will air in late 2022 on Hulu

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These are the must-watch television shows of 2022: from Bridgerton to Anatomy of a Scandal - Tatler

Anatomy

The Anatomy Of Love: Mating And Marriage In India’s Tribal Culture – Outlook India

Sex is the consolation you have when you cant have love Gabriel Garca MrquezKali and Ponna did everything that a couple unable to conceive would do, except going to the chariot festival of Maadhorubaagan, a half-woman and half-man god a rather radical act. Its a festival where a childless woman would go and mate with a stranger breaching rules of marriage. If a child is born out of such a union, everyone would embrace that child as a gift of god Maadhorubaagan. But for a couple besotted with each other, doing such a thing was tough.This is the story of Tamil writer Perumal Murugans novel One Part Woman, in which Ponna finally decides to go to the chariot festival. The book created a huge controversy as it talked about a phenomenon that is considered to be a morally deviant act. But is it an aberration? Do we have nothing of this sort in our society? The answer is no. Murugan had not created this festival out of imagination. He found that such a festival existed some 50 years ago in the region around Tiruchengode hill in Tamil Nadu. He encountered many men born through this festival, where a childless woman could have sex with a stranger and the child born out of this union would be called Ardhanari (half-woman) or Sami Pillai (god-given child). It is very hard for the mainstream culture to accept such deviancies even when many such practices exist.Premarital sex is one such practice. A nomadic tribe in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, Bison-Horn Maria, doesnt give primacy to premarital chastity. In fact, it values sexual comfort between lovers. British civil servant Wilfrid Grigson did a comprehensive ethnographic study of this tribe, The Maria Gonds of Bastar, which was published in 1938. In the book, he documented a marriage he once attended. He wrote that the couple had sex multiple times to check their sexual compatibility. It was only when they were satisfied with each other that they married. Vice India reported last year that there is almost no sex crime in Horn Maria tribe. Experts attribute this to their sexually liberating practices. Strangely, premarital chastity is revered in our society, especially for girls. If a girl gets sexually involved with someone before marriage, it becomes a question of character for her because as late woman rights activist Kamla Bhasin put it the patriarchal society familys honour lies in the vagina of a woman.

Muria Gond, another tribe in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, constructs ghotul, a typical hut surrounded by walls made of wood, where young boys and girls can spend time. The idea behind this is to provide an environment for young members of the tribe to explore their sexuality and develop a feeling of togetherness. Boys and girls can have sex with one or more partners. They are encouraged to change partners after a period of a maximum of seven days.The elders of the Muria tribe assist young boys and girls of ghotul by teaching them discipline and inculcating the value of cleanliness and hard work. Food and toddy are served. Anthropologist Verrier Elwin wrote in his memoir, The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin (1964): The message of the ghotul that youth must be served, that freedom and happiness are more to be treasured than any material gain, that friendliness and sympathy, hospitality and unity are of the first importance, and above all that human love and its physical expression is beautiful, clean and precious, is typically Indian.

The sexually liberated design of tribal lifestyle challenges all definitions that recognise them as primitive by mainstream standards. They, in fact, come as a prototype of a progressive set-up in some way. The model they offer a notion eerie for traditionalists can provide a cue to our search for a new sex education model. In a hit show on Netflix called Sex Education, considered to be ground-breaking, the fictional Moordale Secondary School is some kind of dormitory, a ghotul of sorts. Everyone knows that teenagers would confront their sexuality, indulge in sex. But a good sex education can help them do it better. Sex Education depicts the healthy ways of exploring sexuality; it shines a light on the role parents can play in providing a healthy environment to teenagers where they are introduced to sex-ed.

A study by Columbia Universitys Sexual Health Imitative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) suggests sex education before 18 can reduce the risk of sexual assault; it helps in better relationship-building, understanding and intimacy. However, Muria, a 1982 documentary by the BBC, and the subsequent media attention affected the image of ghotuls many found them polyamorous. Thus, ghotuls went through a lot of changes. Currently, while the ghotuls still exist, they are more recreational centres for the tribal youth to interact in the evenings, before returning home for the night, writes Shruti Chakraborty, editor of Sahapedia, an open online resource website on the arts, cultures and heritage of India.

The Garasia tribe of Rajasthan and Gujarat not only allows youngsters to choose their partner but also live-in relationships this practice is called dapa. An annual festival, Siyawa-ka-Gaur Mela, is organised, where young boys and girls come and choose the partners they wish to live with. For members of the Garasia tribe, marriage is not mandatory to live with a partner but love. If a Garasia woman falls in love with someone else and wants to leave her partner, she is allowed to do that. But, in that case, her new lover has to pay some amount to her ex-husband, which often becomes an issue of contention, and physical fights between families occur. A member of the Garasia tribe said, Rich members of our community get married early while the poor remain unmarried for long. In that case, live-in is the option marriage can happen at a later age. He added, Deadly fights happen in our tribe on the issue of marriage. Obviously, if somebodys wife dumped him, how can a man wear such a badge of shame? So, in such cases fights between families and even between villages occur.

In mainstream societies, on the other hand, regressive practices like honour killing, child marriage and dowry deaths are still prevalent, particularly in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Live-in relationship is still a strange phenomenon in Indian society, except in metropolitan cities. In 2021, a couple had to file pleas in Punjab and Haryana High Court to seek protection as the family of a petitioner was against their live-in. The Court observed that the individual had the right to formalise the relationship with the partner through marriage or to adopt the non-formal approach of a live-in-relationship. It said that it was a part of the Right to Life enshrined under Article 21 in the Indian Constitution.

Another interesting thing about the Garasia tribe is that members can marry even after the age of 50 or 60, which is rare in the mainstream culture. Old people falling in love are often looked down upon. But the Garasia tribe doesn't censor that: anyone at any age can fall in love, choose a partner, and marry. The Munda, Oraon and Ho tribes of Jharkhand also practice dhuku marriage, which is in principle a live-in relationship. But that practice has its root in poverty because, for marriage, families have to organise a big feast and to avoid that, couples can live-in a relationship until they have enough to organise a feast.

In many tribal cultures, both boys and girls have to agree for a marriage to happen. In the Garasia tribe, the bride and groom often choose each other at an annual fair and the groom has to pay the brides family what is termed as bride-price. Bhil, Bhilala, Pateliya and Gond tribes of Malwa region (central India) also celebrate an annual festival around Holi called Bhagoriya Haat (elopement fair), where boys and girls can meet and elope. Later, families negotiate bride price and then only decisions on marriages are made.While in the mainstream culture, choice is a function of parents and family, especially for girls. Parents often select a groom or bride, mostly from the same caste and religion. It doesnt consider love as a necessary precondition for marriage, which results in many problems like domestic violence, divorce, dowry etc. If someone marries in a different caste or religion that person faces social sanction or even honour killing. Tribal cultures, therefore, provide an important lesson that for marriage the constructs of love and choice are important preconditions. Though endogamy is prevalent in tribes, too, tribal women have some agency to choose their partners and that is celebrated, not denounced.

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The Anatomy Of Love: Mating And Marriage In India's Tribal Culture - Outlook India

Anatomy

Anatomy of a Clinical Trial: The Purpose, People, and Phases of Clinical Research – Pfizer

From 2010 to July 2021, ClinicalTrials.gov reports that the number of registered clinical trials more than tripled, growing from 100,208 to 384,288 and counting.1

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine made clinical trials headline news in 2020 and 2021, with thousands of people worldwide volunteering to take part in vaccine studies. Still, for some, the details of what clinical trials do and how they work may not be clear.

Judy Sewards, Head of Clinical Trial Experience at Pfizer, offers some insight into the purpose, people, and phases of clinical trials.

Clinical trials study whether potential new therapies are safe for humans and that they work as intended.

Some clinical trials study whether investigational therapies may help prevent disease, and others help scientists understand whether these therapies may treat disease. No matter the type of trial, Sewards says they all have one thing in common.

Clinical trials are designed to prioritize protecting the participants, she says. Trials are examined by entities that provide oversight of the research study, such as institutional review boards, data and safety monitoring committees, and regulatory agencies or health authorities, to ensure it stays that way throughout the trial.

Establishing and maintaining participants' trust is important to successfully conducting clinical trial studies, but it's just one piece of a much bigger commitment to upholding the highest ethical standards and principles in the exploration of safe and effective ways to prevent or treat diseases..

Clinical trials operate from an infrastructure of ethics, Sewards says. You don't want to design a clinical trial that disadvantages somebody from getting standard of care treatment theyd otherwise get if they werent in the trial. For example, in cancer we know that patients are unlikely to benefit from a placebo so this wouldnt generally be an option. Cancer trials typically compare the potential treatment with the existing treatment or add something new onto the existing treatment to see if the potential treatment an improve outcomesover what is available outside of the trial.

Behind every clinical trial is a team of people who keep research on track:

As a participant, your primary relationship is with the study doctor, the stucy coordinator, and the staff who work at the site where you go to participate in the trial, Sewards says.

Clinical trials take place in several phases. Phase 1 helps scientists understand the safety of a particular medicine or vaccine. Phase 2 begins to understand early efficacy. Phase 3 focuses on broader efficacy and dosing in preparation for health authority approval. And Phase 4 continues to monitor and collect data after a drug has been approved.

Your experience in the trial can vary by phase, Sewards says, adding that while early-phase drug trials often include healthy volunteers, late-stage research typically involves study activities for a specific health problem. In later phases, and depending on the type of study or disease, youre the patientbut instead of getting the current standard of care, you might receive a potential new solution.

No matter the phase, participants can expect to be monitored throughout their participation in the study. Monitoring can take place through checkups at the research site or remotely.

Ultimately, Sewards says participating in clinical research supports the greater good. Participants can help to bring progress to science, medicine, and, in some cases, to the world at large.

When you volunteer for a clinical trial, its a wonderful gift to society and something were all grateful for, including people that are patiently waiting for breakthroughs, she says.

And as more people take an interest in participating in clinical trials, it also stands to make research more diverse.

Representation across different ages, genders, races, and ethnicities in clinical trials makes a difference, Sewards says. The more diverse a group of clinical trial participants, the more we can learn about how a potential medicine or vaccine works within those populations. Participation in clinical trials by people of all backgrounds can make a difference by reducing health disparities among underrepresented populations and improving the development of medicines and vaccines for everyone.

When you participate," she says, "youre representing people like you.

References:

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Anatomy of a Clinical Trial: The Purpose, People, and Phases of Clinical Research - Pfizer

Physiology

Applied Physiology Lab Seeking Participants for Birth Control Survey | Newsroom – UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine

Data from the 15-minute survey will be completely confidential and de-identified during analysis.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Applied Physiology Lab is seeking female participants who are 18-years-old or older to share their experiences with birth control methods in a 15-minute survey.

The survey is available online and it aims to characterize the prevalence of and attitudes toward female contraception in adult females. A secondary aim is to understand the factors impacting contraception satisfaction and usage history. All survey data will be completely confidential and will be de-identified during analysis.

For more information on the study, please contact aplresearch@unc.edu.

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Applied Physiology Lab Seeking Participants for Birth Control Survey | Newsroom - UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine

Physiology

How can Insects be Used to Study Physiology? – News-Medical.net

Insects outnumber humans, and indeed almost all animals, in the number of organisms belonging to this class. Scientists say they make up over 950,000 insect species, with about 25,000 being bees, 12,000 species of ants, and over 350,000 beetle species. When the number of individuals in each species is counted up, they far exceed the number and total mass of all other creatures.

Most insects are known for their nuisance value or danger, though some are accepted to be valuable, such as honeybees.

Image Credit:pitaksin/Shutterstock.com

Insects and humans are quite different in their morphology and anatomy but do have bodily processes that are very similar. This is partially explained by the fact that human and insect genes are often very similar in sequence and function they are conserved, in other words.

Moreover, insects and humans have the most enzymes in common. The mechanism of operation of muscle and nerve cells in both classes of the organism also has a high degree of similarity.

The pattern of organization, by organ systems dedicated to one or a few functions, is also very similar in humans and insects, both of which need digestive, reproductive, muscular, and excretory systems. Both require food and oxygen, and both must eliminate wastes efficiently.

Skeletal muscle cells in insects and humans are identical in structure and function. Neurons in both classes are found to transmit electrical impulses, which spread from synapse to synapse via chemical signaling mediated by neurotransmitters. Insects also have strong sexual impulses, show typical attracting behavior to secure mates for themselves, and fight for territory.

Social insects are particularly fascinating as they specialize in their jobs, have armies to wage war and work in teams to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks.

The use of insects allows a quick estimate to be formed about the effects of different types of food, changes in ambient temperature, and other environmental conditions.

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an excellent candidate for the study of gene modifications, making it the archetypal genetic model organism. Others include the bee Apis mellifera, the silkworm Bombyx mori, the cockroach Periplaneta americana, and the locust Locusta migratoria.

These features of insects also allow them to be used as model organisms in uncovering the pathogenesis of human diseases and to examine drug toxicity.

The neuroendocrine system shows a basic similarity of structure, function, and development, as do insects and human hormones and neuropeptides. In humans, specialized neurosecretory cells (NSCs) are found in this system, comprising hormone-producing neurons.

These not only supply nerve centers in the brain to modulate neural circuits, but also project to the posterior pituitary gland that stores hormones produced in these cells, releasing them in response to specific feedback signals. Stimulatory hormones are also produced by some NSCs and are transported to the anterior pituitary gland to trigger the release of a specific pituitary hormone.

Insects lack a hypothalamic homolog but do have groups of NSCs in various regions. Some of these groups project to peripheral targets that resemble the human pituitary in having an anterior lobe to store neurohormones secreted by the NSCs, and a lateral lobe that has its own NSCs. Understanding these systems could help how neuroendocrine regulation works in larger animals, as well as the mechanism of disease in various disorders.

Insect neuropeptides that have the same structure, function, or sometimes origin are important in studies of animal feeding and energy regulation, for instance. These include homologs of vertebrate metabolic hormones like leptin, ghrelin, and cholecystokinin (CCK), or other neuropeptides such as neuropeptide Y or the orexins.

With cardiovascular disease being among the top killers in almost all regions of the world that have shown some industrial development, the underlying mechanism of disease is an important area of research. Beetles and other insects are key to such studies since they provide a convenient model for the heart and myocardium.

The peptide hormones, neuropeptides, and classical neurotransmitters are also often conserved, in part or the whole, between invertebrates and vertebrates. These could form candidates for drug discovery.

Insects have innate immune systems with both cellular and humoral components. Pathogen recognition is fundamental to the activation of humoral immunity which in turn stimulates hemocyte activity.

These immune mechanisms are similar to those in vertebrates, and the components have vertebrate counterparts, from peripheral receptors to transcription factors, including immune regulators. Thus, insects are good models for studying the vertebrate immune response at the molecular level, and the results of its manipulation at the genetic level.

Aging is a biological process in which changes occur in the tissues and cells, observable at the molecular level, to affect the lifespan of an organism. Genetic and phenotypic similarities exist between aging in insects and larger animals, including vertebrates. However, disease states and lifestyle factors also play a role, which makes the relationship between them more complex.

For this reason, insects offer a useful model of aging mechanisms, with their conserved genes and simple structure, which helps discover changes in tissues and molecules with aging. Such research helped reveal that the resting heart rate in many insects goes down with age, as well as the cardiac response to stimulation and stress.

Heart rhythm abnormalities are also more common in older insects. Thus, insect heart preparations may serve as a good model for aging studies and drug development in this field.

Image Credit:Bodor Tivadar/Shutterstock.com

The small scale of insects has led to the adoption of advanced microscopy and X-ray imaging, along with micro-assays for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of insect chemicals and functions. Understanding how insect chemicals work in neural signaling and other processes can help understand how the same or similar signaling molecules operate in humans and animals.

The small size and short lifespan of insects reduce the cost of rearing them in the laboratory so that rapid studies can be carried out for later extrapolation to larger vertebrates. In fact, such neurobiological research in insects could be potentially useful in the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease in humans.

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How can Insects be Used to Study Physiology? - News-Medical.net