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Even before we entered this darkest of winters, when Covid-19 is relentlessly causing more and more sickness and death not to mention additional stress, isolation and economic pain there was evidence suggesting that significantly more people have thought about ending their lives during the pandemic than in recent years. In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a nationwide survey conducted during the last week in June: More than 40 percent of those who responded reported symptoms of anxiety or depression or increased substance use, in addition to other struggles. And more than 10 percent said that they had seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days, compared with just over 4 percent who said the same thing in 2018 and who were referring to suicidal ideation over the previous 12 months. We want to know, who is most at risk from suicide in the pandemic, says Paul Nestadt, a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who was not involved in the survey. And yet, he adds, we wont know until its mostly over. Thats because it can take a year or two for the C.D.C. to collect and analyze national mortality data.

To try to get a sense of what might be happening now, Nestadt and colleagues looked at data from Maryland, a much smaller sample. The total number of suicide deaths from January to early July, 236, was actually lower than it was during the corresponding periods in the previous three years. When they looked at the data for Black and white suicide deaths separately, however, starkly different trends emerged. From March 5, when Maryland announced its first Covid cases and declared a statewide emergency, until May 7, when public spaces began to reopen, the number of suicide deaths among Black residents doubled compared with an average of the same period during the preceding three years; deaths among white residents fell by nearly half. Similar shifts have been observed in Connecticut and Chicago.

The data cant say whether the pandemic or any other factor caused those changes. But these results highlight how the experiences of vulnerable groups can be missed unless researchers look for them specifically. As Sean Joe, who is the director of the Race and Opportunity Lab at Washington University in St. Louis and who studies suicide among Black people in the United States, puts it, You cant assume the overall trend describes whats happening with all Americans.

Suicide may be the most difficult human behavior to study. Its relatively rare, meaning that mortality data can typically be broken down only into fairly broad categories like race and gender before the sample size possibly becomes too small to reveal clear patterns. Researchers can talk with people who have attempted suicide, but they may be categorically different from those who complete it. In the United States, women are more likely to attempt suicide, for instance, but men are more likely to die by it. Many more people contemplate suicide than act on those thoughts.

Novel ways of studying the behavior in experimental settings include giving participants the ability to choose suicide in virtual-reality simulations, which has been found safe. But to date, what we know about suicide comes primarily from in-depth psychiatric interviews with those close to the deceased and from national statistics. Such figures show that suicide rates over all have risen by about 30 percent in the United States during the past two decades. But an analysis of 50 years of research published in Psychological Bulletin in 2017 found that when it comes to warning signs that doctors or laypeople can use to determine whether someone is in imminent danger mood changes, say, or a history of self-harm any risk factor that we thought might be particularly useful is only marginally better than a coin flip, says Jessica Ribeiro, an author of the analysis and assistant professor of psychology at Florida State University. A similarly comprehensive 2020 analysis in the same journal by Ribeiro and her colleagues found that current interventions, including help lines, therapy, medicine and hospitalization, though they work for some, appear to reduce suicidal behavior by only about 9 percent across the board.

Looking at national data in more detail paints an even more complicated picture of those most at risk and thus how to reach them. Among white Americans, men age 45 and older are most likely to die by suicide. Because white Americans have the countrys highest suicide rate, the aggregate data implies its a problem that largely affects older people. But among Black Americans, those most likely to die by suicide are men between 25 and 34. And while the age group most at risk has remained roughly the same for white people in recent decades, Sean Joe says, it has been getting younger and younger for Black people. In 2018, a study in JAMA Pediatrics found that suicide rates increased for Black children between 5 and 11 in the periods from 1993 to 1997 and from 2008 to 2012. The rate decreased for their white counterparts. One of the myths thats challenging is that children do not die by suicide, Joe says. And they do.

Jan. 24, 2021, 5:31 p.m. ET

The biggest question, and the hardest to answer, is why. What factors cause some persons to kill themselves when far more in the same demographic and living in similar conditions do not? There are many subgroups whose members have an elevated risk of suicide, including the L.G.B.T.Q. community, Native Americans, military personnel and people experiencing a psychiatric illness. And the disproportionate burden of Covid may have created or illuminated others. In the C.D.C. survey, more than 30 percent of those who identified as unpaid caregivers for adults said they had seriously considered suicide in the past month, almost three times the overall average; so did more than one in four 18-to-24-year-olds and more than one in five essential workers. But these sorts of categories are only predictors, not causal mechanisms, Ribeiro says. We dont know that it works differently. The underlying causes of suicide are likely to be far more complex than statistical trends account for; rather, as with other complicated health problems, biology and environmental conditions make individuals in particular groups more vulnerable.

Studying the effect of Covid-19 on suicide rates could inform a longstanding scientific debate about the extent to which the behavior is driven by brain chemistry compared with external stressors. If Covid-19 increases suicidal behavior there was a rise in suicide among older adults in Hong Kong in 2003, the year of the SARS outbreak that might lend weight to the idea that socioeconomic pressures, like job loss or isolation, are key triggers. But as with any scientific debate, the answer is always both, Nestadt adds. This is a multifactorial behavior.

As confounding as that behavior remains, researchers do have strong evidence about some factors that could help protect those struggling during the pandemic. People shouldnt be afraid to ask if a friend or loved one has considered suicide; doing so wont plant the idea. Suicide is also surprisingly impulsive. A majority who decide to do it act within an hour, Nestadt says, and nearly a quarter act within five minutes. Not having access to a lethal weapon during that time greatly reduces the risk of death. In the United States, firearms are the most common means of suicide, and gun buying has surged over the past year. Getting rid of guns or making access to them harder would prevent more suicide deaths, as would more affordable and widely available mental health care.

Joe thinks we may not see the impact of the pandemic on suicide until vaccines have lessened the immediate dangers of the virus and Americans survey what theyve lost: traditions, celebrations, jobs, loved ones. All that complicated grief thats been occurring, thats what will hit America in the next year to 24 months, he says. And thats what we have to watch out for. That we dont have a behavioral health crisis following this Covid crisis and nobodys preparing for it.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). You can find a list of additional resources at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

Human Behavior

‘We could have prevented this’: America surpasses 400000 Covid-19 deaths – The Daily Briefing

January 24, 2021 medical

America's reported number of deaths linked to the novel coronavirus topped 400,000 on Tuesday. About 55,000 of those deaths occurred just this month, and public health experts anticipate the country will see a surge in newly reported coronavirus deaths in the coming weeks.

It took less than one year for the United States to reach more than 400,000 reported deaths linked to the novel coronavirus, and the country has reported the highest coronavirus-death total of any country in the world.

In February 2020, U.S. officials began reporting the first known deaths linked to the novel coronavirus in the countrywith the America's earliest known death linked to the virus occurring on Feb. 6, 2020, in Santa Clara County, Calif.. Nearly four months after the epidemic's first known death had occurred, U.S. officials by May 27 had reported the country's first 100,000 deaths linked to the virus. Four months later, U.S. officials had reported 200,000 deaths tied to the virus, and then about three months later, they had reported 300,000 deaths linked to the pathogen.

It took about five weeks for U.S. officials to report another 100,000 deaths tied to the virus, with American reaching more than 400,000 deaths on Tuesday. In recent weeks, the number of newly reported coronavirus deaths has accelerated, with officials reporting daily records of new deaths multiple times over the past few weeks, the New York Times reports. For instance, on Jan. 12, U.S. officials reported a record-high of more than 4,400 deaths linked to the virus in a single day.

Helen Branswell, STAT News' infectious disease reporter, in a tweet posted Wednesday noted that 55,000, or about 14%, of the United States' total number of deaths linked to the novel coronavirus so far occurred during just the first three weeks of this month.

According to data from the Times, U.S. officials reported about 2,770 new deaths linked to the novel coronavirus on Tuesday. As of Wednesday morning, officials had reported a total of about 401,823 U.S. deaths linked to the virus since the country's epidemic began, up from about 399,053 deaths reported as of Tuesday morning.

Public health experts anticipate the country's number of newly reported deaths tied to the virus will spike over the next few weeks as a result of surges in newly reported coronavirus cases the country saw because of Americans gathering with others over the recent holidays. According to the Times, experts estimate that the total number of U.S. deaths linked to the virus may reach 500,000 by February.

"This is just one step on an ominous path of fatalities," said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.

The somber milestone of reporting more than 400,000 deaths tied to the novel coronavirus comes as America continues to report persistently high rates of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

According to the datacompiled by the Times, U.S. officials as of Wednesday morning had reported a total of about 24.3 million cases of the novel coronavirus since America's epidemic beganup from about 24.1 million cases reported as of Tuesday morning.

According to the Times, the United States' average daily number of newly reported coronavirus cases over the past week was 201,117which is down by 11% when compared with the average from two weeks ago.

As of Wednesday morning, data from the Times showed that the rates of newly reported coronavirus cases were "staying high" in Puerto Rico; the U.S. Virgin Islands; Washington, D.C.; and 25 states that have had a daily average of at least 15 newly reported cases per 100,000 people over the past week. Those states are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The Times' data also showed that, as of Wednesday morning, the daily average of newly reported cases over the past seven days was "going down" in 24 states that had been seeing comparatively higher rates of coronavirus transmission. Those states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia.

Meanwhile, Guam has had a comparatively lower case rate, but that rate was "going up" as of Wednesday morning, according to theTimes. In Hawaii, the rate of newly reported coronavirus cases was "staying low" as of Wednesday morning, according to the Times' analysis.

U.S. hospitalizations for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, also have remained high. According to datafromThe Atlantic'sCOVID Tracking Project, there were 123,820 Americans with Covid-19 hospitalized for treatment on Tuesday, including 23,029 who were receiving care in an ICU and 7,688 who were on a ventilator.

America's numbers of reported coronavirus deaths, cases, and hospitalizations have remained high as the country has struggled to quickly roll out its two authorized Covid-19 vaccines. CDCdata shows that, as of Tuesday morning, the federal government had distributed about 31.2 million doses of the vaccines, and about 15.7 million Americans had received their first dose of the two-dose Covid-19 vaccines.

Despite the dismal state of America's coronavirus epidemic so far, public health experts say we can turn the tide and avoid more new cases and deaths by doubling down on evidence-backed public health measures to mitigate the virus's spread. And experts say it's especially important to do so now, in light of new, more-transmissible variants of the coronavirus that have emerged.

"[T]he 400,000th death is shameful," Cliff Daniels, chief strategy officer at Methodist Hospital of Southern California, said. "It's so incredibly, unimaginably sad that so many people have died that could have been avoided."

To change the tide, "[w]e need to follow the science," Daniels said.

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of epidemiology at the University of California-San Francisco, said it's also key to consider how human behavior factors into the epidemic. "It's important to understand virology. It's important to understand epidemiology. But ultimately, what we've learned is that human behavior and psychology is a major force in this pandemic," she said.

For instance, Panagis Galiatsatos, an assistant professor of medicine and a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said, "My heart breaks, because we could have prevented this. A lot of what we saw during the holiday travel was the inability to reach our loved ones or family membersnot like a public service announcement, but one on one, talking to them (about the exposure risks). I really felt like we failed." Galiatsatos noted, for example, an older patient he cared for who was transported six hours to his hospital, because there were no hospital beds available any closer. When he told the patient's family that she died, they were shocked, he said.

"They said, 'But she was so healthy. She cooked us all Thanksgiving dinner and we had all the family over.' They were saying it with sincerity, but that's probably where she got it."

In addition to behavioral changes, Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said the United States must look to scale up Covid-19 vaccinations as quickly as possible. "Right now what is required is getting people vaccinated with vaccines we already have," he said. "The fact that's going super slow still is incredibly frustrating" (Mazzei, New York Times, 1/19; Geller/Har, Associated Press, 1/20; Canipe, Reuters, 1/19; Stone, Kaiser Health News, 1/19; Branswell tweet, 1/19; New York Times, 1/20; "The COVID Tracking Project," The Atlantic, accessed 1/20; CDCdata, updated 1/19).

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'We could have prevented this': America surpasses 400000 Covid-19 deaths - The Daily Briefing

Human Behavior

Social Studies: Sons of the revolution, knee problems, and the baboon brain – The Boston Globe

January 24, 2021 medical

Founding fathers

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were likelier to vote for a strong national government if they had more sons and less likely to do so if they had more daughters, even controlling for the delegates age, whether he had been an officer in the Revolutionary War, the number of slaves he owned, and his financial situation. The effect of child gender on voting was as large as, or larger than, the effects of these other factors. The hypothesis is that fathers expected sons to have future roles in a strong national government.

Pope, J. & Schmidt, S., Father Founders: Did Child Gender Affect Voting at the Constitutional Convention? American Journal of Political Science (forthcoming).

Flexible treatment

Knee osteoarthritis patients who are Black report greater pain than non-Black patients. But doctors reading X-rays, using established standards for determining the severity of arthritis, dont pick up on most of the disparity. One consequence is that Black patients are less likely to receive the surgical treatment that might be applied to more serious problems and more likely to be prescribed opioids (which carry risk of addiction) in this context. To help address the diagnosis problem, a team of researchers trained an artificial-intelligence program to predict patients pain based on its own reading of the X-rays. The program did a much better job than the established (human) standards, though the researchers cant say exactly why, given the black-box nature of their program. The researchers suggest that established standards may be flawed because they were developed decades ago in white British populations. And indeed, the artificial-intelligence program got better as it was trained on X-rays from a more diverse set of patients.

Pierson, E. et al., An Algorithmic Approach to Reducing Unexplained Pain Disparities in Underserved Populations, Nature Medicine (January 2021).

Social intelligence

Brain scans revealed that captive baboons that had been allowed to live in larger social groups had larger brains. This suggests that bigger brains are needed to process more complex social situations and can adapt to do so even in a short period of time.

Meguerditchian, A. et al., Baboons (Papio Anubis) Living in Larger Social Groups Have Bigger Brains, Evolution and Human Behavior (January 2021).

Rise up

In a series of survey experiments, people thought inequality was more unjust, and they were more interested in countering it, when it was framed as disadvantage for the poor rather than advantage for the rich. In other words, helping the poor rise has broader support than bringing down the rich. This framing effect was largely the same regardless of the respondents class or ideology.

Dietze, P. & Craig, M., Framing Economic Inequality and Policy as Group Disadvantages (versus Group Advantages) Spurs Support for Action, Nature Human Behaviour (forthcoming).

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Social Studies: Sons of the revolution, knee problems, and the baboon brain - The Boston Globe

Human Behavior

Patient-specific model is needed to understand cancer cells and their impacts – News-Medical.Net

January 24, 2021 medical

Despite cancer being a leading cause of death worldwide, treatment options for many types of cancers remain limited. This is partly due to the in vitro tools used to model cancers, which cannot adequately predict the behavior of a cancer or its sensitivity to drugs.

Further, animal models, like mice, biologically differ from humans in ways that play a critical role in immunotherapy, and results from animal studies do not always translate well to human disease.

These shortcomings point to a clear need for a better, patient-specific model to improve the understanding of cancer cells and their impacts.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, San Francisco suggest bioengineered microscale organotypic models (BMOMs) can address this need. They discuss the advantages and capabilities of this technique, as well as its challenges, in the journal APL Bioengineering, from AIP Publishing.

Due to their very small size, BMOMs require only a tiny patient-derived biopsy sample to monitor biological processes. This reduces any concern about the translatability of findings, since all the associated models are developed directly from human material. In addition, BMOMs can be integrated with microscopes and miniaturized sensors to watch the response of the cell culture to test treatments in high resolution and real time.

"BMOMs attempt to merge the best of in vivo and in vitro models," said David Beebe, one of the authors. "These models place human cells in a more realistic environment context, where they are more likely to respond to treatment in a way more reflective of the patient response.

"The 3D and multicellular attributes of BMOMs capture more of the myriad and complex cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions that regulate treatment response."

Though promising, these devices have several limitations. They are difficult to fabricate in large quantities, and they require specialized training to use. Beyond these hurdles, BMOMs are also restricted in their capacity to consider human behavioral responses and fall short in modeling the interactions that occur between multiple organs in complex diseases.

With additional research and clinical trials, the authors are optimistic about the applications of BMOMs. Their use with primary cells taken directly from patient tissue can help with patient-specific cancer treatments and drug testing.

Source:

Journal reference:

Ayuso, J. M., et al. (2021) Toward improved in vitro models of human cancer. APL Bioengineering. doi.org/10.1063/5.0026857.

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Patient-specific model is needed to understand cancer cells and their impacts - News-Medical.Net

Human Behavior

KU faculty recognized for pivoting research to address COVID-19 pandemic – KU Today

January 24, 2021 medical

LAWRENCE Two University of Kansas faculty members are being recognized for adjusting their research to better understand the coronavirus pandemic and to provide valuable information to the public and policymakers.

The one-time COVID Research Pivot Awards honor one early career and one veteran KU faculty member for quickly refocusing their expertise to address the pandemic and its societal effects.

The recipients:

Awardees were selected by a multidisciplinary panel of KU faculty and staff. They will receive a $1,000 prize and recognition at a February event that is open to the entire KU community. Register online for the KU COVID Research Pivot Symposium.

The entire KU research community has shown tremendous resilience from the beginning of the pandemic, finding creative ways to adapt and advance their work while prioritizing health and safety, said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research. Dr. Agusto and Dr. Ginther each took extraordinary measures to substantially refocus their expertise and effort on challenges related to the pandemic itself, and the knowledge they continue to generate is helping meet pressing needs for people in Kansas and beyond.

More about the winners and their work:

Folashade Agusto is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. She is using mathematical models to understand the spread of tick-borne disease across Kansas. Previously, she has used models to study the impact of temperature change on malaria transmission and the development of insecticide resistance. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Agusto and collaborators developed a model to investigate the effects of pandemic control efforts. The model incorporates multiple factors that affect perception of risk, such as local case rates, behavior of neighboring communities, unpopular public health policies and media reporting. Agustos model lends insight into human behavior and perception, which provides information on the effectiveness of public health interventions. Her model can help inform regional control efforts and be applied to future disease management and policy decisions.

Donna Ginther is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Economics and director of KUs Institute for Policy & Social Research. In March 2020, Ginther created a COVID-19 web resource center to provide information on the viruss economic impact locally and globally. Her research has made her an adviser to Gov. Laura Kelly, the Kansas Department for Children and Families, the Kansas Department of Commerce, KU Public Affairs, KU Research, Mid-America Regional Council and other entities. Local and national news organizations have covered Ginthers research on COVID-19s effect on the economy, extending its reach to a broad public audience. Ginther and a colleague also conducted a study that found mask mandates can slow the spread of COVID-19. A presentation of those findings has been viewed more than 10,000 times on the institutes website and nearly 40,000 times on MSNBCs YouTube channel.

Both Augusto and Ginther serve on the Faculty Advising COVID Team, a group developing a body of research to support KU leaders as they make evidence-based decisions about how to control the spread of COVID-19 on the KU campus.

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KU faculty recognized for pivoting research to address COVID-19 pandemic - KU Today

Human Behavior

Ethical Evolution Of Humanity In Hybrid Form – Technology Times Pakistan

January 24, 2021 medical

New levels of interactivity with technology will inevitably change the experience of being human and the power of humanity continues to emerge.

OUR essential hybridity with other animal, plant and machine life is now in the emergent stages of a giant leap towards new forms of power which we cannot envision. New applications of biotech, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) mean that our hybrid humanity is about to expand exponentially in a way that is already changing what it means to be human. Todays technologists are focused hard on simplifying human-machine interfaces different types of dashboards which use our five human senses and recognize human gestures so that our humanity interacts seamlessly with AI of various kinds. These interfaces will increasingly be embedded in our bodies and minds as new levels of interactivity with technology, which will inevitably change the experience of being human and the power of humanity, continue to emerge.

The principle of humanity as currently expressed is a classic example of speciesism in ethics. It cares only about one species our own. We may claim that the principle of humanity is a niche ethic for calamitous human situations which rightly trumps wider ethical considerations in extremis, but this is neither true nor realistic. It is not true because the principle of humanity already takes account of the natural environment in the laws of war and the norms of disaster response and so recognizes the importance of non-human life in its own right and as means to human life. Nor is it realistic at a time when our biggest existential challenge as a specie arises from our relationship with the non-human world around us.

Humanity in this sense is human behavior that cares for other humans because of a profound and universally held conviction that life is better than death, and that to live well means being treated humanely in relationships of mutual respect. This commitment is a driving principle in the rules of behavior in the Geneva Conventions and in the Disaster Laws recommended by the Movement to ensure better disaster prevention, preparedness and response around the world. Humanity is used to describe a certain moral value that we can see operating across humankind as kindness and compassion for one another. We can, therefore, understand this meaning as the kindness of humans. This humanity is our first Fundamental Principle and primary purpose in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and has been summarized as follows since 1965:To prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found (and) to protect life and health and ensure respect for the human being.

Over the last 200 years, a third sense of humanity has increasingly referred to a single global identity across all human societies. This is not a simple biological identity but the idea that as a conflicted species we can and must build a single global political identity in which every human has a stake. This global identity is a Meta identity which transcends smaller identities shaped by culture, nation, class, political opinion and religion. The purpose of this single political humanity is to build a human we in which can share a common species consciousness as one group sharing a single planetary home and so work together on common problems and common opportunities that face the whole of humanity.

This political sense of being a single global group is experiencing push-back today as a broad-based politics of ethnic and economic nationalism expresses skepticism about globalism of all kinds. This political turn sees many people asking national politicians to think more about us here and less about them over there. But our movement continues to argue that it is important to imagine and build a global sense of humanity because our common human problems are intense and interdependent, and can only be solved internationally not just nationally. This time-space compression and its resulting context collapse which began with radio and television is an ever-increasing feature of being human. Some of our grandchildren will probably be talking and listening simultaneously in a hundred different places at once in embodied replicas as holograms or humanoid drones. They will probably be fluent in all languages, move through space much faster than us and live forever on earth and in space because of biological and AI enhancements. Our machines will develop new levels of autonomy which, although created by humans, are inevitably adapted by machine learning into new forms of non-human and non-animal life.

There are five truly existential problems that we all share as members of the human species, and always have done. Threats from each one can be significantly reduced if we work together to solve them in the spirit of Dumas Three Musketeers: all for one and one for all. This is what we try to do at the International Conferences. Our perennial five problems are:(i) The problem of our violence as a species as it plays out terribly in war and violent crime,(ii) our struggle for fairness and our desire to reduce inequalities between us,(iii) our predators and their threat to our health which now take mainly microscopic form as infectious microbes, or chronic and auto immune diseases in which we attack ourselves,(iv) our relationship with the non-human environment and its impact on human survival,(v) the promethean risk of our creativity and how our technological inventions help and harm as they change the world around us and redefine humanity itself in new hybrid forms.

These five deep species problems need to be raised in various forms at different world forums to identify, analyze and find solutions to the core issues. They will require a powerful response by all humanity, with an ethic of humanity, to ensure the survival of humanity. The principle of humanity must, therefore, keep pace with the ethical evolution of humanity (the species) and needs to expand its purpose and behaviour towards non-human life. This currently includes all animal and vegetative life. But, in future, it is increasingly also likely to include non-human machines like robots and AI which may develop their own levels of consciousness, feelings and rights as they increasingly merge with humanity the species and its ethics in hybrid forms. Here time is pressing. We may have little time to work out what it means to apply humane behaviour within non-human machines and towards non-human machines. This means agreeing how non-human machines and new models of human-machine interactions can behave with humanity, especially as new weapons systems. It will also mean thinking about how we should show humanity to increasingly machine-like humans and human-like machines.

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Ethical Evolution Of Humanity In Hybrid Form - Technology Times Pakistan

Human Behavior

Why Pink Floyd Needed Three Tries to Shoot the ‘Animals’ Cover – Ultimate Classic Rock

January 24, 2021 medical

Pink Floyd delivered another iconic cover for 1977's Animals, but it took three attempts and a bit of post-production to get the image for the artwork.

As they had done on every record since 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, Pink Floyd turned to Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of the design firm Hipgnosis. Thorgerson's original Animals concept featured a child opening the door to his parents' bedroom, only to find them in the midst of a lovemaking session.

"We knew that the music and lyrics were fueled and characterized by anger," Thorgerson explained in the 2008 Hipgnosis bookFor the Love of Vinyl. "So was it an angry animal? A dull thought. Perhaps it was more like human behavior of an animal nature which gets described as animal-like, as in Get your hands off me, youre being an animal, etc., all of which have a degree of double meaning. What came to mind was a child, a three- or four-year-old boy, accidentally witnessing his parents having sex. Does he see it as a loving, though passionate, act or as a violent act? Does it excite, confuse or traumatize him? Are they suddenly animals in his eyes and no longer his loving parents?"

But Pink Floyd bassist and principal songwriter Roger Waters rejected that idea. Instead, he came up with the concept featuring a photograph of London's Battersea Power Station - an Art Deco complex of two joined buildings near where he lived - with a pig floating between its chimneys.

Thorgerson felt it was too obvious.

"I thought Rogers idea of the pig was a tad silly, not to mention low on mystery and meaning, he noted. "We asked if we might submit alternatives which they could take or leave, for they could always return to the pig if necessary. Okay, they said. Try your luck.'

To create the 40-foot helium-filled pig, which Waters named Algie, Pink Floyd hired Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw and German company Ballon Fabrik. Then came the difficult process of getting everything to work as planned. On the first day, Powell arrived with some marksmen with the intention of shooting down the pig in the event it broke from the cable securing it. But a problem with the cablepreventedthe pigfrom moving fromits spot on one of Battersea's southern smokestacks.

They returned on Dec. 3, 1976, but without the sharpshooters this time. Murphy's Law will tell you what happened next: The pig went airborne, but wind caused the cable to snap, and Algie found himself midair and in the path of flights landing at London's Heathrow Airport.All flights then had to be grounded, and Powellwas forced to return to the studio and stay there until the pig was located. Later that night, Powell got a phone call from a farmer in Kent saying that Algie had landed in his field and was scaring his cows.

Athird attempt - again with gunmen - finally succeeded. But even then there was a problem: The weather was too sunny. Powell found a more ominous-looking photo from the first day's shoot and superimposed the pig from the third day to come up with the cover.

The flying pig worked its way into stage show, on Pink Floyd tours with and without Waters and during Waters' solo concerts. In 2011, the band recreated the cover to announcea reissue of Animals. Algie was eventually given to Robin Harries of Air Artists,which manufactures inflatable items.

In 2015, the pigwaslistedfor auction, but Pink Floyd intervened and Algie was returned to them. Battersea Power Station, which opened in 1933, was decommissioned in 1983. The plant and its environs have since beenredeveloped into a mixed-use neighborhood encompassing residential, office and retail facilities.

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Why Pink Floyd Needed Three Tries to Shoot the 'Animals' Cover - Ultimate Classic Rock

Human Behavior

Shanna Swan: Toxic Chemicals Threaten Ability to Reproduce – The Intercept

January 24, 2021 medical

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

There was so much media coverage when that sperm study came out. Did that spark any policy changes or substantive actions around chemical exposure?

No, it did not. Speaking in scientific meetings and writing scientific papers hasnt done it either. So maybe the book will help.

How did you get into studying chemicals and reproduction?

It started with the phthalate syndrome.

That was the discovery that fetal rats exposed tophthalates 18 to 21 days after mating were more likely to be born with malformed genitals, but the ones that were exposed to those endocrine-disrupting chemicals before or after that window didnt have the problem, right?

Right. In 2000, a colleague from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told me they were able to measure lots of chemicals, including phthalates, at low doses for little cost in lots of people. This was a breakthrough in the field. And I had just done a study of the mothers of young babies, and I still had the urine from the pregnant women, and the babies were very young. He said I should study phthalates. So I thought, OK, what if I mimic the animal study and look for the same endpoints they found in rats? What if I could see those in humans and link them to phthalates?

And you did it?

I did. We found the syndrome in humans.

Your study showed that baby boyswho had been exposed to four different phthalates at the end of the first trimester in the womb had a shorter anogenital distance, or AGD. Can you explain what AGD is and why its important?

Nobody is going to like that term, so you could use taint or gooch instead. But basically its the distance between the anus and the beginning of the genitals. And scientists have recognized its importance for a long time. I have a paper from 1912 that looks at AGD and showed that they were nearly 100 percent longer in males than in females. Our work has shown that chemicals, including the diethylhexyl phthalate, shorten the AGD in males.

Youve also linked phthalate exposure to a lack of interest in sex.

Yes, we found a relationship between womens phthalate levels and their sexual satisfaction. And researchers in China found that workers with higher levels of bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, in their blood were more likely to have sexual problems, including decreased desire.

Of course, phthalates, which are added to plastics, food, cosmetics, and other products, arent the only problem. You write about lots of chemicals that interfere with the hormonal system and reproduction, including the pesticide atrazine, which youve linked to lower sperm quality, and glyphosate, which youve recently shown decreases AGD in rats and perhaps also in humans. Its worth pointing out that all of these chemicals were talking about are still in use in the U.S., while some other countries have banned them. Anyway, tell me about the relationship between endocrine disrupting chemicals and how children play?

Sexually dimorphic play is controversial. Some people say its all socially determined. And it undoubtedly does have social determinants, but it also has physiological determinants. And we showed that in two studies. We asked mothers of young children to tell us how their children play. Its pretty simple: How often do they play with guns? Play with dolls? Play dress-up? Play with tea sets, etc. And it turns out that when boys are exposed to the same chemicals that affect AGD, they play in a less male-typical manner.

The chemicals can change how boys and girls learn to speak too?

One of the parts of the brain thats sexually dimorphic has to do with language acquisition, and females are typically at an advantage. When you ask the mother of a young child how many words her child understands, girls generally have many more words. But this sex difference is decreased by phthalates. And that is an overriding theme: Whether you look at AGD or play behavior or language acquisition, these chemicals decrease sex differences.

Lets talk about gender fluidity. You devote an entire chapter to exploring whether environmental chemicals could be affecting peoples genders. As you note, thats a really sensitive question. I know I dont want to feel that something so fundamental and personal could be affected by chemicals. Still, you point to established science that shows how these chemicals affect biological sex and mating habits in animals studies showing that environmental chemicals can change male frogs into females, feminize toads and alligators, and change mating and sexual behavior in birds and fish. And you explain in the book that interference with hormone levels in the womb can alter the babies genitals. Animals dont have gender consciousness, as far as we know,and biological factors dont necessarily affect peoples genders, but whats the direct evidence that these chemicals are affecting human gender and sex?

Its tentative and limited at this point. Our cohort of children are 8 and 9 years old now, so it will be a long time before we can report on their sexuality or gender identity.

The chemical exposures you describe can impact generations. Can you explain how a persons grandchildren might also be affected by their exposures?

Grandchildren are easy to explain. If youre pregnant, and youre carrying a boy, the chemicals youre exposed tocan pass to him through the placenta. So the germ cells that will create his children are already affected. Plus that boy is exposed to chemicals again as an adult. Its a two-hit model. Or, for subsequent generations, a three-hit or four-hit model. Because you get the inherited contribution, and then you get your own life course contribution when you grow up.

How does that end?

Badly. Thats why we have this continuing decline in fertility and sperm quality. If we didnt have a hit from our parents and our grandparents, then each generation would just start all over again. It would be bad, but the impact would be at the same level each time. The fact that we carry with us the problems of the past generations means that were starting at a lower level and getting hit again and again and again.

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Shanna Swan: Toxic Chemicals Threaten Ability to Reproduce - The Intercept

Anatomy

Alpert Medical School adapts first-year anatomy course to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines – The Brown Daily Herald

January 22, 2021 medical

Since the Warren Alpert Medical School moved the majority of its curriculum to a remote format beginning in fall 2020 to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines, lectures have been given live over Zoom or pre-recorded. The components of the curriculum that do meet in person, such as the first-year anatomy course, have been adjusted to meet social distancing requirements.

Because of the pandemic, the anatomy course no longer includes a year-long cadaver dissection, which had long been considered an integral part of the Med School experience, said Amy Chew, lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology and one of the lecturers for the anatomy course.

Traditionally, groups of five to six students would spend about three hours a week dissecting a cadaver themselves, but this required many students to be in a confined lab space for a prolonged period of time, Chew said. Given the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions recommendations against indoor gatherings, this aspect of the course needed to evolve with the onset of COVID-19.

Med School staff now perform the dissections beforehand for the students to study later a method known as prosection, Chew said. Students are required to spend one hour a week in the lab, but during this time, only two students may be present together, which allows for enforcement of social distancing guidelines.

While the switch to prosection means that students miss out on the dissection experience, there are benefits to this teaching method, Chew said. The one major advantage is that students arent so tied up in lab, she said, adding that the new method gives medical students more time to study the content they learn during the anatomy lab outside of class.

Other medical schools had already stopped using dissection pre-pandemic, Associate Dean for Medical Education Paul George 01 MD05 said. By switching to prosection format, were actually more in line with what other medical schools are doing at this point, he added.

Students who spoke with The Herald voiced mixed feelings about the Med Schools switch to prosection.

With (COVID-19), Im grateful we get to go to the anatomy lab, Wendy Gonzalez 19 MD24 said. But I do feel like we missed out. I feel like we would remember so much more if we actually got to find everything ourselves. She believes that the more hands-on aspects of dissection would have helped her as a visual and tactile learner and better prepared her for a career in surgery.

But understanding the need for adjustment during the pandemic, Gonzalez said she thinks learning using prosection is still helpful.

Other first-year medical students prefer the prosection method.

Im somebody who is definitely not going to go into surgery, so its maybe less heartbreaking for me than for somebody whos really into anatomy and the body, said Jessica Moore MD24. Moore says she has been able to learn effectively using prosection because of her independent learning style. For me, its been a better experience, she added.

Navya Baranwal 20 MD24 said, At first I was a little apprehensive: What is my medical education going to be like? But overall I feel like its still been very meaningful and educational, and its been a nice balance of ensuring medical students safety but also (ensuring) that we have a good education.

Despite the change in the course structure, student engagement and performance has remained steady; course ratings and exam scores have been about the same as they were in past years, according to George.

In years prior, performance in the anatomy course was partly evaluated through a practical exam. But that component was eliminated in the fall, which made the efficacy of the course harder to judge, Chew said. It was replaced with 20 additional multiple choice questions on the lab material in the written exams.

It is challenging for us to try to figure out what (students) have been able to absorb from the lab without the practical exam, Chew said. I think we wont really know until these students take their step exams next year, she added.

The COVID-19 anatomy experience raises questions about the future of the Med Schools anatomy course after pandemic restrictions are lifted.

I think well go back to a more normal overall Med School structure at some point in the not-so-distant future, George said, but in regards to anatomy, its hard to predict when that will occur.

But theres certainly lessons we can learn from (COVID-19) about the curriculum and how to make it more efficient, George added.

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Alpert Medical School adapts first-year anatomy course to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines - The Brown Daily Herald

Anatomy

‘God, Guns, & Trump’: Anatomy of the Crowd – The New York Review of Books

January 22, 2021 medical

Against the silver light of an impenetrably clouded sky was a small orange glow. The waning flame throbbed like a pulse as it descended, before finally disappearing behind the blue and white patch of stars on an American flag.

The insurrection on January 6 was not a singular event. It was the end of a prelude that began on November 4, 2020. The night after the presidential election, with a number of states yet to report, photographer Ruddy Roye and I were outside Miamis Versailles Restaurant on Little Havanas famed Calle Ocho. A small but booming crowd had gathered to demand a fair ballot count, oscillating between jubilationbelieving in the victory of their partyand rage, fearing the final tally would be corrupt. The following night at La Carreta restaurant locally known as the one on Birda larger, more agitated crowd had a pain in their eyes not unlike that on the faces of Democratic voters in 2016it was a fear that the fundamental values they believe America to stand for were under threat.

As the night progressed their fever became more frenzied. Police pushed the crowd back to prevent them from lunging at passing cars that carried Biden signs and thrusting flag poles toward the windows. The crowd attacked a Telemundo cameraman almost immediately after his arrival, and then turned on us, swarming and jostling us until police said they could not guarantee our safety and escorted us away.

This was when Ruddy and I decided we would observe the postures of those who lost the election, reading their body language to see what it might tell us about how America would transition on Inauguration Day, and into the future.

The weekend of November 14, in Washington, D.C., Trumps supporters formed caravans flying flags for God, Guns, and Trump in a procession to Freedom Plaza.The Million MAGA March was an extravagant performance of support and adoration amid his refusal to concede the White House. The crowd was flamboyant then, brightly colored and celebratory: men and women dressed in glittering stars and stripes, wearing flags as capes like superheroes and smiling wide for cameras. They flew flags that depicted Trump as the Hulk, Rambo, or a character from Fight Club. Everywhere there was brand promotion, with everyone streaming their own personal live feeds. Groups like the Proud Boys, in their signature yellow and black Fred Perry shirts and body armor adorned with their insignia, broke character only to run after drag queen Lady MAGA for a selfierevealing that, in the pageantry of patriotism, everything becomes permissible.

As the crowd dispersed, and the sun began to set, a woman walking down Constitution Avenue and talking about The Left said to her friends: Its the fact that they feel like theyre safe, that theyre able to do these violent things. Because the government wont do anything. While listening, I looked over and saw Proud Boys standing around chatting with the police on the perimeter later applauding them as they left. That night, the streets of downtown D.C. erupted into brawls between the Proud Boys and Antifa.

By January, the jubilance had become the resistance.

On the day of the siege, Nicholas Fuentes, American First podcaster and leader of the far-right Groypers Army played preacher atop the Peace Monument on the Capitol lawn. Every conservative in this country knows that the legitimacy of this democratic system is over, Fuentes bellowed. It means nothing anymore. The situation looks a lot like 1776, frankly. The crowd broke into cheers and a roaring chant of U.S.A! U.S.A! as they thrust their fists into the air. Later, they called for the destruction of the GOP. We know that the Democrats are our enemies, Fuentes said. What we dont expect is that Republicans will betray us at every turn.

The main enemy that day wasnt Antifa, Black Lives Matter, or Democratslike Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said she feared her colleagues would betray her to the rioters. It was the Republicans who werent falling in line, and anyone who stood between the crowd and the party. The same group that stood chatting with and applauding the police in D.C. just months earlier were storming the Capitol, shouting into the crowd, Dont let those police stop youIts time for chaoskeep moving forward. They cant stop us all!

During debate on the article of impeachment following the riot, which the House passed on January 13, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, declared that violence will not win, insurrection will not win, sedition will not win, terror will not win. But the last two months have made clear that violence, and terror, and insurrection can be waged in the name of righteousness, so easily inflamed and so furiously impassioned. As Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said, the necessary response is force rooted in justice and backed by moral courage. But that is precisely what the crowd believes it hasa cause with God on their sideand many say they are ready to die for it.

On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was sworn in as the next president of the United States. His amplified voice carried across an empty mall, with downtown D.C. under a militarized lockdown. The spectators within the security zones were mostly military and media. The battle is perennial and victory is never assured, the president said, following his oath. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature, he went on, explaining that disagreement must not lead to disunion. Without understanding that, he said, we could have no nation, only a state of chaos.

But the quiet that befell the capital this week is its own sign of a continued underlying chaosone that revolves around a disunity over morals and values that will be much harder to bridge in this uncivil war, as Biden called it. And while many watched the days events, marking them as ends, and new dawns, and pages that can be turned on the last four years, the quiet wrath of those who lost continues to seethe.

Ruddy Roye

The Million MAGA March, Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Trump supporters rallying the night after the election, Miami, Florida, November 4, 2020

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Miami, Florida, November 4, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Nicholas Fuentes (center with bullhorn), surrounded by Trump supporters, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Lady MAGA, Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., November 14, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Miami, Florida, November 4, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Miami, Florida, November 4, 2020

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021

Inauguration Day, Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

Ruddy Roye

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021

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'God, Guns, & Trump': Anatomy of the Crowd - The New York Review of Books