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Human Behavior

The Science of Nerdiness – Scientific American

Do you get excited and energized by the possibility of learning something new and complex? Do you get turned on by nuance? Do you get really stimulated by new ideas and imaginative scenarios?

If so, you may have an influx of dopamine in your synapses, but not where we traditionally think of this neurotransmitter flowing.

In general, the potential for growth from disorder has been encoded deeply into our DNA. We didnt only evolve the capacity to regulate our defensive and destructive impulses, but we also evolved the capacity to make sense of the unknown. Engaging in exploration allows us to integrate novel or unexpected events with existing knowledge and experiences, a process necessary for growth.

Dopamine production is essential for growth. But there are so many misconceptions about the role of dopamine in cognition and behavior. Dopamine is often labeled the feel-good molecule, but this is a gross mischaracterization of this neurotransmitter. As personality neuroscientist Colin DeYoung (a close colleague of mine) notes, dopamine is actually the neuromodulator of exploration. Dopamines primary role is to make us want things, not necessarily like things. We get the biggest rush of dopamine coursing through our brains at the possibility of reward, but this rush is no guarantee that well actually like or even enjoy the thing once we get it. Dopamine is a huge energizing force in our lives, driving our motivation to explore and facilitating the cognitive and behavioral processes that allow us to extract the most delights from the unknown.

If dopamine is not all about feeling good, then why does the feel-good mythpersist in the public imagination? I think its because so much research on dopamine has been conducted with regard to its role in motivating exploration toward our more primal appetitive rewards, such as chocolate, social attention, social status, sexual partners, gambling or drugs like cocaine.

However, in recent years, other dopamine pathways in the brain have been proposed that are strongly linked to the reward value of information. People who score high in the general tendency toward exploration arenot only driven to engage in behavioral forms of exploration, but also tendto get energized through the possibility of discovering new information and extracting meaning and growth from their experiences. These cognitive needs, as the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow referred to them, are just as important as other human needs for becoming a whole person.

How active is your nerdy dopamine pathway? If some or all of these statements describe you, dopamine might well be flowing strongly to your prefrontal cortex:

Dont understand why everyone else around you is so interested in sex, drugs and money, and why you get so turned on by stimulating ideas and learning new and interesting things? Now you have a potential answer: You may be highly sensitive to the reward value of information.

This essay is adapted from Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization.

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The Science of Nerdiness - Scientific American

Genetics

Study reveals complex and vast diversity of African genetic variation – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 29 2020

The study, in which six Wits researchers were involved, show that these newly discovered variants were found mostly among newly sampled ethnolinguistic groups.

Researchers identified new evidence for natural selection in and around 62 previously unreported genes associated with viral immunity, DNA repair and metabolism.

They observed complex patterns of ancestral mixing within and between populations, alongside evidence that populations from Zambia was a likely intermediate site along the routes of expansion of Bantu-speaking populations.

These findings improve the current understanding of migration across the continent, and identify responses to human disease and gene flow as strong determinants of population variation.

The study contributes a new major source of African genomic data, which showcases the complex and vast diversity of African genetic variation and which will support research for decades to come.

Africa is the continent with greatest genetic diversity and this study shows the importance of African genomic data for taking science and health research forward. It is an important step in redressing existing biases in available data for research, which hamper the study of African health problems and narrows global research."

Zan Lombard, Study Senior Author and Associate Professor, Division of Human Genetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand and National Health Laboratory Service

Lombard led the study under the auspices of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium in association with Dr Neil Hanchard, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, U.S.A, and Dr Adebowale Adeyemo, National Human Genome Research Institute, Maryland, U.S.A.

Members of the H3Africa Consortium who contributed to this work comprise people from 24 institutions across Africa, including the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University.

The SBIMB's Dr Ananyo Choudhury, Dr Dhriti Sengupta, Professor Scott Hazelhurst and Mr Shaun Aron led analyses and writing the paper, while Professor Michle Ramsay, director of the SBIMB, participated in developing the study design and was a principal investigator who contributed samples towards this large-scale sequencing effort.

The study found a vast breadth of genomic diversity among these genomes, with each ethnolinguistic group harbouring thousands of unique genetic variants.

Not only populations from the same geographic region but even those from the same country showed a great deal of variation among themselves, reflecting the deep history and rich genomic diversity across Africa.

"We used a wide variety of computational techniques to gain insights into population history, environmental adaptation, and susceptibility to diseases from these genomes", says Choudhury, first author of the study and a senior scientist at the SBIMB.

"We were able to discover over 3 million novel variants within these genomes. This was after comparison with more than 1000 African genomes in public repositories, suggesting that the potential for discovering novel genetic variants by sequencing African populations is still far from saturation."

First evidence of East Africa to Nigeria migration 50+ generations ago

In addition to contributing to the vast amount of novel variation observed in African populations, the inclusion of previously unstudied population groups in the study enabled scientists to add puzzle pieces to the jigsaw of established historical interactions and migration events on the continent.

"Inclusion of novel African genomes in our study strongly supported Zambia as an intermediate site in the Bantu-migration route to the South and East of the continent," said Mr Shaun Aron, lead analyst on the population genetics component of the study and a lecturer in the SBIMB.

Evidence supporting movement from East Africa to central Nigeria between 1500 and 2000 years ago was revealed through the identification of a substantial amount of East African ancestry, particularly Nilo-Saharan from Chad, in a central Nigerian ethnolinguistic group, the Berom.

"This highlights the complex historical movement of people on the continent and diversity of even proximally close African groups," says Aron.

The researchers found more than 100 areas of the genome that had probably been under natural selection; a sizable proportion of which were associated with immunity related genes.

Natural selection - "selected by nature" - comes from Charles Darwin's work into survival of the fittest. It means that when individuals are exposed to certain environmental factors (diet, viral infection, etc.) some gene variants may give the humans that bear them in their genome an added advantage to survive.

"While genes involved in resistance to insect-transmitted diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness have long been known to be positively selected, our study shows that other viral infections could have also helped to shape genomic differences between people and groups by altering the frequency of genes that affect individuals' disease susceptibility," says Dr Dhriti Sengupta of the SBIMB and one of the lead analysts.

Also, the selection signals were not homogenous across the continent. Sengupta says, "There were noticeable variations in selection signals between different parts of the continent, indicating that large-scale local-adaptations might have accompanied the migration of populations to new geographies, and consequent exposure to new diets and pathogens."

Selection signals are parts of the genome that give us a signature (signal) that the specific part of the genome was under selection pressure at some point.

Lombard, a senior author on the paper and an Associate Professor in the Division of Human Genetics at Wits, says: "The findings have broad relevance, from population genetics research into human history and migration, to clinical research into the impact of specific variants on health outcomes".

Immediate next steps include further examination of the initial findings and leveraging the data to represent more African populations.

The researchers hope their work will lead to wider recognition of the extent of uncatalogued genomic variation across the African continent and the need for continued inclusion of the many diverse populations in Africa in genomics research.

"Adding genomic data from all global populations - including Africa - is essential to ensure that everyone can benefit from the advances in health that precision medicine offers," says Lombard. Precision medicine - or 'personalised' medicine - refers to disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.

The study represents a major milestone in advancing African genomics research capacity. Instead of African data being analysed elsewhere - as has been the general trend over the last decade - this research was conducted predominantly by local African researchers using local computational facilities.

Studies like this one highlight the importance of computing infrastructure and storage capacity for large data projects at Wits and in South Africa.

Infrastructure such as the computing cluster at Wits, established and managed by Professor Scott Hazelhurst, director of Wits Bioinformatics, is essential to support genomics research and growing African datasets. He says: "Initiatives such as the H3Africa Consortium have laid the foundation to foster and encourage collaborative research in Africa, which has made studies like these possible."

Professor Michle Ramsay, director of the SBIMB, says: "This study, in a sense, announces the availability of both infrastructure and analytic skills for large-scale genomics research on the continent."

Source:

Journal reference:

Choudhury, A., et al.(2020) High-depth African genomes inform human migration and health. Nature. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2859-7.

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Study reveals complex and vast diversity of African genetic variation - News-Medical.Net

Genetics

Experts Say One Of Largest Federal Genetics Study In History Could Leave People Of Color Behind – KPBS

In 2009, when Los Angeles resident Estela Mata was 35 years old, her sister, Juana Mata, was diagnosed with lupus.

And we didn't know what lupus was back then. It wasn't really talked about a lot. And she literally almost died, Estela Mata said.

Aired 10/26/20 on KPBS News

Listen to this story by Shalina Chatlani.

The Mata family moved to the U.S. when she was just a child. And her mother, who didnt speak English well, had to learn quickly about the disease. But, treatments for lupus were hard to find. The rare genetic disease still doesnt have a cure.

When we found out that lupus was genetic, we're like, oh, my gosh, like we need to get more involved into clinical trials, she said.

Estela Mata and her sister found a National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical trial called the All of Us Research Program and enrolled in Los Angeles. She now works for the program with Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.

The 10-year $1.5 billion tax-payer funded program started enrolling patients in 2018, with the goal of collecting genetic information of 1 million people across the United States.

Half of that genetic information will come from "racial or ethnic minorities." The objective is to rectify a decades-long problem: most clinical trials have only collected data on white men, and not Latinas like the Matas.

We're talking about precision medicine, right? So, if you have this illness, take this medication or this treatment plan. It's not customized to the individual especially in the Hispanic community, we wanted to make sure that we were included, Estela Mata said. She consented to giving her genetic information because she believes it will be used to help low-income people of color receive treatments that could help them.

Colonized Science Means People Of Color Are Often Left Behind

But, some genetics experts say, the All of Us program is not really for all of us.

You can't really talk about science in America without talking about colonialism. We use bodies to derive data, said Keolu Fox, an anthropologist at UC San Diego.

In terms of underrepresented people being ... validated or recognized in science, that's kind of unfortunate because there aren't enough Ph.D. carrying brown, Black, indigenous people to represent our interests.

Fox, who grew up in Hawaii, got into genetics because he wanted to study why people with his indigenous heritage are more prone to develop certain diseases. But throughout his career, he says he found that people of color are often exploited in science.

And he says that exploitation will happen with the All of Us study. The data is open to everyone.

Is it actually going to benefit indigenous, Black and brown communities in the same way that it's going to benefit a handful of people that work for Pfizer, Merck, GSK, et cetera? I don't think so, he said.

Fox says big data, including digital and genetic data from humans, has become one of the most valuable commodities on Earth. One report from Global Market Insights found that the global digital genome market value is expected to cross $50.4 billion by 2025, a doubling from its value in 2018.

What key genetic mutations have allowed humans to subsist in the harshest, most remote environments on planet Earth? And can those signatures of natural selection lead to therapeutic value? he said. We're talking about deriving genetic information from populations that have been in sync with their land and characteristics that they earned through their diaspora, through natural selection.

Precedent For Expensive Treatments

Arizona State University biomedical historian Ben Hurlbut says exploitation of people of color and underserved communities happened before in medicine. In the 1990s, a lot of academic researchers started teaming up with rare disease groups to identity genes causing disease.

The academic researchers would patent the gene and control diagnostics and drug development without the involvement of the rare disease group who brought them the resources to do the research in the first place, said Hurlbut.

In fact, after scientists discovered the gene causing cystic fibrosis in 1989, a rare disease group and NIH funded researchers partnered to study the condition. Vertex Pharmaceuticals used the decades of research to create a therapy that could help 90% of patients.

But the treatment costs around $300,000 a year.

When that drug came out, one of my daughters best friend had cystic fibrosis and was a candidate for that drug. His mom took on a full-time job in order to pay for the drug like that was the sole purpose of her job was to pay the copay, said Hurlbut.

The solution to unequal health-care access isnt easy, he says that doesnt mean it can be ignored. Especially when to date, more than 270,000 people have gone through All of Us.

We as a society and a public put in place the regulatory structures, the public research investment, the market structures that produce the dynamics that we have, Hurlbut said.

We could change those tomorrow if there was the political will to do so.

Solutions Aren't Easy

Pharmaceutical companies are working on the All of US study. Alyssa Cotler, a spokeswoman for the program, says participants get information before they consent. And she says private-public partnerships are productive. Theyve led to life saving therapies.

It really is important to bring together all of these different voices and resources to make sure that we're building a resource that will really be available to answer this very ambitious call, Cotler said.

She says the data has been made anonymous and theres a code of conduct that researchers have to follow in order to get the data. She says the NIH is aware future treatments from the program may be unaffordable. But, she said the NIH doesnt have an answer to that problem yet.

We think that the goal of our program is really to ensure that we can accelerate these breakthroughs so that everybody has access to the outcomes. And it's important to us that we have diverse representation, that we have people who have not been included in research in the past so that the findings will be relevant to everybody, Cotler said.

We want to ensure that they have access to those treatments. So, it's an area of ongoing conversation that I think is not very simple to answer in an easy way. There have been a lot of conversations with different communities to really help us think this through, Cotler said.

As for All of Us participant Estela Mata, she says shes OK with the idea of her data going to a pharmaceutical company, if people like her sister, who need the therapies, will be able to afford them.

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I cover all things science and technology from the biotech industry in San Diego to rooftop solar energy on new homes. I'm interested in covering the human side of science and technology, like barriers to entry for people of color or gender equity issues on biotech boards.

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Experts Say One Of Largest Federal Genetics Study In History Could Leave People Of Color Behind - KPBS

Genetics

Study suggests a role for the hypothalamus in genetic susceptibility to IBD – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 29 2020

Using sophisticated 3D genomic mapping and integrating with public data resulting from genome-wide association studies (GWAS), researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found significant genetic correlations between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and stress and depression. The researchers went on to implicate new genes involved in IBD risk that are enriched in both derived hypothalamic neurons, from a part of the brain that has a vital role in controlling stress and depression, and organoids derived from colon cells, a region more commonly studied in the context of IBD.

The findings were published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Our results implicate a role for the hypothalamus in the genetic susceptibility to IBD. Epidemiological data has previously shown overlap between IBD and stress and depression, and now we have generated genomics data to support that association. Our results suggest that the hypothalamus warrants further study in the context of IBD pathogenesis."

Struan Grant, PhD, senior author, director of the Center for Spatial and Functional Genomics at CHOP and the Daniel B. Burke Endowed Chair for Diabetes Research

IBD, which includes both Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is principally an immune-mediated condition characterized by dysregulated inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The disease course ranges from chronically active to intermittent or rare flares. Multiple genetic and environmental factors are known to contribute to the pathogenesis of IBD, including more than 230 loci for the disease that have been reported through GWAS analyses. Many of the genes residing at these loci have been implicated in pathways related to the immune system and the microbiome.

However, there is also increasing evidence for a clinical association of IBD with stress and depression. Given the role of the hypothalamus in stress responses and in the pathogenesis of depression, the researchers decided to explore the genetic role of the hypothalamus in IBD.

To begin, the researchers performed genetic correlation analyses between IBD and depression to assess the degree of genetic commonality between the two conditions, using publicly available data. The research team used depression as a proxy for stress because there are a limited number of GWAS efforts focused on a consistent definition of stress, while in contrast, the genetics of depression has been relatively well-studied, resulting in a large, relatively uniform body of work.

Analyzing eleven autoimmune diseases for correlations with depression, the researchers found IBD was the most statistically significantly trait positively correlated with depression, though asthma and multiple sclerosis were noted as being highly correlated as well.

The research team then performed further analyses in order to validate the correlation between IBD and depression. First, they measured the enrichment of IBD-associated genetic variants in the 3D genomic patterns within hypothalamic-like neurons (HNs) and colonoids from rectal biopsies and found a highly significant four-fold increase in HNs and a seven-fold increase in the better-known colonoid setting. The researchers then used a sophisticated "variant-to-gene mapping" approach devised at CHOP to determine which genes are implicated in the pathogenesis of IBD at these enriched signals. Then, assessing those implicated genes, the researchers looked for pathways potentially influenced by IBD-associated genetic variants.

Through this variant-to-gene mapping effort, the researchers implicated 25 genes in HNs for conferring risk for IBD. Eleven of those genes have known functions in the brain, in particular CREM, CNTF and RHOA, which are genes that encode key regulators of stress. Seven of those genes were also implicated in the colonoids. In terms of pathways, the researchers observed an overall enrichment for hormonal signaling pathways, in addition to the expected enrichment in immune and microbiome signaling pathways.

"We propose that some IBD-associated variants alter the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and stress responses, which could in turn play a role in predisposing patients to this disease and exacerbating its presentation," Grant said. "Future studies are warranted to refine our understanding of the role of the hypothalamus in IBD onset."

Source:

Journal reference:

Lasconi, C., et al. (2020) Variant-to-gene-mapping analyses reveal a role for the hypothalamus in genetic susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease. Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology. doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmgh.2020.10.004.

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Study suggests a role for the hypothalamus in genetic susceptibility to IBD - News-Medical.Net

Genetics

Prowess of Bionano Genomics’ Saphyr System in Uncovering Novel Genetic Variations That Cause Cancer and Genetic Disease in Full Display at ASHG 2020 -…

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bionano Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNGO) announced that human genetics researchers using the Saphyr system will present their results at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting, being held virtually at http://www.ashg.org between October 27-30. The impact of structural variation analysis using the Saphyr system will be demonstrated at ASHG with 18 oral and poster presentations which cover an expanding array of diseases like cancer predisposition, microdeletion syndromes, repeat expansion disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, disorders of sex development and a variety of other genetic diseases. Additionally, these presentations show Saphyrs abilities to elucidate the exact structure of complex genomic rearrangements such as large inversions, chromothripsis and low copy repeats.

The scientific importance and quality of the studies utilizing Saphyr and presented at ASHG have increased year over year, said Erik Holmlin, Ph.D., CEO of Bionano. As more scientists present and publish their important discoveries made with Saphyr, an increasing number of potential future Saphyr users become aware of its prowess in uncovering novel genetic variants that contribute to cancer and genetic disease, which could drive more adoption and utilization for basic genetic research and clinical studies alike.

Below is a summary of key presentations to be given at ASHG 2020 featuring the use of Bionanos optical genome mapping technology:

Live Presentation October 29, 2020, 11:45AM-12:00PMDeciphering Genomic InversionsChristopher M. Grochowski, Baylor College of MedicineGenomic inversions are a class of structural variation (SV) relevant in evolution, speciation, and human disease but challenging to detect and resolve using current genomic assays. While short-read WGS can detect a fraction of copy number neutral inversions, those mediated by repeats or accompanied by CNVs remain challenging. The utilization of multiple technologies and visualization of unbroken DNA through long molecule approaches facilitate detection ofin cisevents and resolution of SVs containing two or more breakpoint junctions.

The following Co-Labs, Poster Sessions and Abstracts are available for on-demand viewing during and after ASHG 2020:

Bionano Laboratory Co-Lab Session: Resolving Complex Haplotypes Implicated in Alzheimers and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases.Mark T. W. Ebbert, Neuroscience Department, Mayo ClinicAlzheimers disease is genetically complex with no meaningful therapies or pre-symptomatic disease diagnostics. Most of the genes implicated in Alzheimers disease do not have a known functional mutation, meaning there are no known molecular mechanisms to help understand disease etiology.

In this co-lab session, Mark T. W. Ebbert of the Mayo Clinic will discuss his teams work toward identifying functional structural mutations that drive disease in order to facilitate a meaningful therapy and pre-symptomatic disease diagnostic. Some of the genes and regions implicated in Alzheimers disease are genomically complex and cannot be resolved with short-read sequencing technologies. These regions include MAPT, CR1, and the histocompatibility complex (including the HLA genes).

3342 Bionano Poster Session: High Throughput Analysis of Disease Repeat Expansions and Contractions by Optical MappingErnest Lam, Sr Manager Bioinformatics, Bionano GenomicsRepeat expansions and contractions are associated with degenerative disorders such as facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Southern Blotting is the gold standard for long repeat analysis but has many limitations. Optical genome mapping allows for efficient analysis of diseases associated with repeat expansion and contraction.

2190 Bionano Poster Session: Rapid Automated large Structural Variation Detection in Mouse Genome by Whole Genome SequencingJill Lai, Sr Applications Scientist, Bionano GenomicsIdentifying SVs for key model organisms such as mouse and rat is essential for genome interpretation and disease studies but has been historically difficult due to limitations inherent to available genome technologies. We updated the Saphyr analysis pipeline such that copy number variant (CNV) and SV analyses could now be applied to mouse and other non-human species, and constructed a control SV database for annotating variants, and identified strain-specific SVs/CNVs as well as variation shared among strains.

Additional presentations/abstracts featuring optical genome mapping:

3208 - Long-read sequencing and optical mapping decipher structural composition ofATXN10repeat in kindred with spinocerebellar ataxia and Parkinsons diseasePresented by Birgitt Schuele, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine

3270 - Uniparental isodisomy, structural and noncoding variants involved in inherited retinal degeneration (IRD) in three pedigreesPresented by Pooja Biswas, Ophthalmology Department, University of California, San Diego

Data CoLab: Whole Genome Map Assembly and Structural Variation Analysis with Hitachi Human Chromosome ExplorerPresented by Hitachi-High-Tech America, Inc.

2123 - High-throughput sequencing and mapping technologies applied to 10 human genomes with chromothripsis-like rearrangementsPresented by Uir Souto Melo, Mundlos Lab, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany

2165 -nanotatoR: A tool for enhanced annotation of genomic structural variantsPresented by Emmanuele Delot, Center for Genetic Medicine Research, Childrens National Hospital, Washington, DC

2998 - Highly variable structure and organization of the human 3q29 subtelomeric segmental duplicationsPresented by Umamaheswaran Gurusamy, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco

2304 - Enlightening the dark matter of the genome: Whole genome imaging identifies a germline retrotransposon insertion inSMARCB1in two siblings with atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumorPresented by Mariangela Sabatella, Princess Mxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Utrecht, Netherlands

2318 - FaNDOM: Fast Nested Distance-based seeding of Optical MapsPresented by Siavash Raeisi Dehkordi, Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla

3023 - Structural hypervariability of low copy repeats on chromosome 22 is human specificPresented by Lisanne Vervoort, Department of Human Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

3024 - Telomere-to-telomere assembly and complete comparative sequence analysis of the human chromosome 8 centromereReviewer's Choice Award RecipientPresented by Glennis Logsdon, Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

3311 - Comprehensive structural variant identification with optical genome mapping and short-read sequencing for diagnosis of disorders/differences of sex development (DSD)Reviewer's Choice Award RecipientPresented by Hayk Barseghyan, Center for Genetic Medicine Research, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC

3318 - De novo mutation and skewed X-inactivation in girl with BCAP31-related syndromePresented by H.J. Kao, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

3560 - Resolving genomic structures inMECP2Duplication Syndrome provides insight into genotype-phenotype correlationsReviewer's Choice Award RecipientPresented by Davut Pehlivan, Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

2157 -methometR: quantification of long-range haplotype specific methylation levels from Optical Genome MapsPresented by Surajit Bhattacharya, Center for Genetic Medicine Research, Childrens Research Institute, Childrens National Hospital, Washington, DC

About Bionano GenomicsBionano is a genome analysis company providing tools and services based on its Saphyr system to scientists and clinicians conducting genetic research and patient testing, and providing diagnostic testing for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disabilities through its Lineagen business. Bionanos Saphyr system is a platform for ultra-sensitive and ultra-specific structural variation detection that enables researchers and clinicians to accelerate the search for new diagnostics and therapeutic targets and to streamline the study of changes in chromosomes, which is known as cytogenetics. The Saphyr system is comprised of an instrument, chip consumables, reagents and a suite of data analysis tools, and genome analysis services to provide access to data generated by the Saphyr system for researchers who prefer not to adopt the Saphyr system in their labs. Lineagen has been providing genetic testing services to families and their healthcare providers for over nine years and has performed over 65,000 tests for those with neurodevelopmental concerns. For more information, visitwww.bionanogenomics.com or http://www.lineagen.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as may, will, expect, plan, anticipate, estimate, intend and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes and are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, among other things: the timing and content of the presentations identified in this press release; the effectiveness and utility of Bionanos technology in basic genetic research and clinical settings; the contribution of Saphyr to uncovering novel genetic variants that contribute to cancer and genetic disease; the benefits of Bionanos optical mapping technology and its ability to facilitate genomic analysis in future studies; and Bionanos strategic plans. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such a difference include the risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and the global economy; general market conditions; changes in the competitive landscape and the introduction of competitive products; changes in our strategic and commercial plans; our ability to obtain sufficient financing to fund our strategic plans and commercialization efforts; the ability of medical and research institutions to obtain funding to support adoption or continued use of our technologies; the loss of key members of management and our commercial team; and the risks and uncertainties associated withour business and financial condition in general, including the risks and uncertainties described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and in other filings subsequently made by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made and are based on management's assumptions and estimates as of such date. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of the receipt of new information, the occurrence of future events or otherwise.

CONTACTSCompany Contact:Erik Holmlin, CEOBionano Genomics, Inc.+1 (858) 888-7610eholmlin@bionanogenomics.com

Investor Relations Contact:Ashley R. RobinsonLifeSci Advisors, LLC+1 (617) 430-7577arr@lifesciadvisors.com

Media Contact:Darren Opland, PhDLifeSci Communications+1 (617) 733-7668darren@lifescicomms.com

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Prowess of Bionano Genomics' Saphyr System in Uncovering Novel Genetic Variations That Cause Cancer and Genetic Disease in Full Display at ASHG 2020 -...

Genetics

How Long Does It Take to Grow a Beard? Tips, Genetics, and More – Healthline

Facial hair, like scalp hair, grows in stages and understanding it may help you maximize your beard-growing potential.

A full beard can take 2 to 4 months to grow, as facial hair tends to grow between 0.3 and 0.5 millimeters (mm) every 24 hours. This works out to between one third and one half an inch per month.

Many factors can affect the growth of your beard, but there are some lifestyle strategies you can try to enhance your beard growth. Read on to learn more about what influences beard growth and if it can be influenced.

Once you stop shaving, you can expect facial hair to grow in stages. Hair may grow fuller and faster in certain areas, especially at first. Be patient, though, as this is a normal growth pattern for most guys.

Your ethnicity, age, genetics, and hormones not to mention various medical conditions can all affect whether your beard comes in faster or slower, or in all the places you desire.

If your beard seems to be taking a long time to grow in, one of the following factors may be at play.

You may remember guys in high school who seemed to have a full beard before they got their drivers license. Theyre the exception, not the rule.

Typically, full beard growth is possible starting at around age 18, but for many men, that time may not arrive until theyre 30. So, if youre not getting the beard growth you want, it may be because its not your time.

Certain ethnic groups tend to be more hirsute than others. Chinese men, for example, generally have less facial hair than white men, and men of Mediterranean descent generally have thicker beards.

Beyond your ethnic origins, your direct family traits have much to do with whether you can grow a full beard. Likewise, your genetics also determine the texture of your hair, your likelihood of going bald, and so forth.

For clues about your beards future, look to your male relatives. While theres no guarantee that a dad with a full beard will have a son who can pull off the same thing, hair patterns do tend to be hereditary.

Low levels of testosterone can make it more difficult to grow a beard. Talk with your doctor about taking supplements or trying testosterone therapy to help combat low testosterone.

If you want to grow your beard faster, there are a few strategies worth trying. Understand, however, that these tips may not work for everyone.

For general health, its recommended you have a balanced diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins, while avoiding processed food and added sugars.

For healthy hair growth, some key nutrients should have a place in your diet, including:

Too much stress and too little sleep can cause countless health problems, not to mention affect your beard growth.

Aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night, and try strategies such as meditation or deep-breathing techniques to help de-stress.

Its not uncommon for guys to have thicker hair around their mouths and parts of their sideburns but a little less on their cheeks.

One way to help mask thinner (or zero) growth in those spots is to let the hair around them grow longer. You can hide those sparse spots a little with longer beard hair nearby.

Hair growth, whether its on your scalp or your face, is subject to many changes in your health.

Underlying medical conditions such as alopecia barbae or alopecia areata can cause hair loss from your beard or make it harder to grow a beard that isnt patchy or thin in places.

Alopecia areata is the more common condition. It occurs when the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks healthy hair follicles. When beard alopecia areata develops, men are usually middle-aged and hair loss is typically along the jawline.

Unusual conditions, such as prolactinoma a noncancerous tumor of the pituitary gland can also result in thin or missing facial hair.

Conversely, a noncancerous birthmark called Beckers nevus can sometimes cause excessive, coarse hair to form at the site of the birthmark.

The time it takes to grow a beard not to mention the look of the final product varies from person to person.

If youre trying to grow a full beard, plan on waiting a couple of months before you reach your goal. That means being patient and watching for signs of medical conditions that may affect your beard growth.

If youre concerned about a lack of beard growth, talk with your doctor or a dermatologist.

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How Long Does It Take to Grow a Beard? Tips, Genetics, and More - Healthline

Anatomy

Why ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ almost didn’t address the pandemic – CNN

Speaking during Variety's Power of Women virtual event, Vernoff said she had seriously considered opting out of pandemic storylines to preserve the sense of "escapism" many enjoy about the beloved primetime medical drama. And, after months of mulling her options, had believed it might be best to not go there.

With her writers, she defended her position, but then asked, "who wants to be brave and convince me that I'm wrong?"

Several did. And it worked pretty quickly.

"But it became my job to make sure that we had exciting -- I call it fan candy -- fun things that aren't just about PPE and the pandemic and to let you breathe and to let you laugh and we've come up with some really fun, creative ways to do that," she said on the panel, where she was joined by stars Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and Debbie Allen.

Pompeo pointed out that "Grey's Anatomy" has a luxury that many series filming amid the pandemic don't, in that wearing personal protective equipment on screen is nothing new. Since the characters are doctors, it fits into the fabric of the series. Behind the camera, great care has been taken to keep the production safe, actress Wilson added.

"Not only are we in scenes that have been written in order to keep us safe, but our production goal all around is to be safe here as well as when we go home," she said. "So I really feel that all the time -- that we're all really doing everything we can to take care of each other. So it's a privilege and an honor to be in this situation right now."

It is also not lost on them that -- as arguably the most influential medical drama on television -- they have a responsibility to honor the shift felt in the profession in light of the pandemic, Vernoff said.

"The stakes have just they've changed, and that is the thing that I noticed. Every time a doctor or a nurse came to our writer's room to talk to us, they were changed as human beings," she said.

Vernoff added that their opportunity to spread credible information about prevention is also on their minds.

"I want to inspire people to take care of each other, to wear their masks, to help this pandemic end," she said.

The first two episodes were directed by the show's executive producer and star Allen, who said she feels positive about their progress, despite the adjustments that have had to be made to production.

"We're tested three times a week and we have all of our protocols. So it's very different, but we're still getting great work done," she said.

Vernoff said that though she's never regretted their decision to tackle the pandemic, "I was worried."

"And I'm no longer worried," she said. "I'm excited by our show."

The new season of "Grey's Anatomy" will premiere November 12.

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Why 'Grey's Anatomy' almost didn't address the pandemic - CNN

Anatomy

ANATOMY OF A ROBBERY: PART I – The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Law Enforcement Deputies Give Witness Testimonies for T-Mobile and Verizon Store Robbery

By Tiffany Devlin

SACRAMENTO Four deputy law enforcement officers and a detective from the Sacramento Sheriffs Department gave witness testimony last week in a preliminary hearing at Sacramento County Superior Court about a one-day mobile phone store robbery spree.

Co-defendants Glenn Burgler and David Fritz are charged in a four-count felony complaint with robbing a T-Mobile store and a Verizon store on June 10, 2018. Burgler is alleged to have been personally armed with a handgun. It is alleged the duo stole $39,000 worth of cell phones.

Defense attorney Carmen Butler, representing Burgler, objected multiple times, claiming that there is no evidence that Fritz or Burgler actually sent the text messages observed in court.

These are messages that someone sent from a phone labeled, on one phone, David Walmart. Theres no last name, its not David Fritz, and even if it is Mr. Fritzs phone number, theres no proof that Mr. Fritz is the person who is actually sending the text messages, argued Butler.

During Deputy District Attorney Matthew Moores direct examination, Deputy Stevi Zigler claimed that she spoke with a T-Mobile employee who was one of the victims in the robbery, reporting that the T-Mobile employee and a customer were forced into a back room while a gun was pointed at them.

The gunman told the employee to unlock the back door, however, the employee said that her partner was the only one with access. She told the gunman not to be alarmed if her partner comes through the back door.

The gunman took both the customers and the employees cell phones. A second suspect came into the store, yelling at the gunman saying that they needed to leave. The gunman then dropped the two cell phones and ran out.

Zigler stated that the gunman and the second suspect were both wearing all black and were seen wearing black motorcycle helmets. Butler cross-examined, asking if the employee gave deputy Zigler a description of the suspects weights, heights, or races, however Zigler did not recall indication of any of those descriptions.

Defense attorney John Gonzalez, representing Fritz, cross-examined, asking which code and which door the gunman was referring to. Deputy Zigler did not recall, and also did not recall whether the interaction took place in the back room or in the front of the store.

Moore called Deputy David Conger, who said a customer saw two motorcycles pull up: one black and yellow Harley-Davidson with two people riding it, and one red and black Yamaha G6 with one person. All three motorcyclists were wearing all black.

The recollection of the robbery was similar to Ziglers since the customer and employee were in the same room, except that the customer heard someone say, Face the wall. He turned around to see a male subject with a black Glock-style handgun, wearing a black helmet and a black leather jacket.

When Butler questioned Conger about further descriptions of the culprits, he claimed that he did not ask, and did not have any other descriptions. The customer also did not give any indication of any height differences between the culprits.

Deputy Conger recalled that the customer did not actually see a second person come into the store, nor did he know what was said when he heard someone yell after the customers and the employees phones were taken. Furthermore, the customer did not see what direction the culprit in the store went toward once he left.

Deputy Lacey Nelson was next to testify, and claimed to have spoken to a different employee who was walking back from his lunch break.

The employee saw the two motorcycles and the three suspects, giving the same descriptions as prior testimony from Conger and Zigler. The employee was walking back from Raleys when he saw through the window one suspect holding a gun to his co-worker and the customer.

After the employee called 911, he saw the gunman get on one of the motorcycles. All three suspects drove off.

Deputy Nelson claimed that the employee was standing approximately 10-15 feet close to the motorcycles, which was not indicated in her police report. Deputy Nelson also claimed that the employee saw the gunman go inside the store, while the other two suspects were on the motorcycles.

Nelson stated that the employee did not give any descriptors whatsoever of the subjects on the Harley-Davidson, nor on the Yamaha. The employee only said that the first suspect with the gun was seen wearing all black and a full-face motorcycle helmet.

The employee did not give any description in regard to what the two suspects on the motorcycles were doing outside, nor did he tell Nelson if he remained in a position where he could see the store in order to see what was happening.

The employee also did not indicate that the two suspects outside ever got off their motorcycles. When Gonzalez questioned Nelson about whether one of the suspects got off their motorcycle to go inside the store and yell that they needed to leave, Nelson said that there was no indication from the employee of that happening.

Moore then called Deputy Calvin Penwell, who said he spoke with an employee at the Verizon store, where the employee stated they saw two male suspects walk in.

The first suspect was described by the employee to be six feet tall and approximately 220 pounds, wearing a black full-face helmet with the word scorpion in gold lettering on the left side. The subject was also seen wearing a face mask and gloves, with a darker skin tone seen under the nose area. The handle of a handgun was seen in his front waistband.

The second suspect was six feet and two inches, approximately 230-240 pounds. He was wearing all dark clothing, gloves, and a full-face clown motorcycle helmet. No handgun was seen.

He (the employee) said the first subject walked up to him, made a comment along the lines of you know what this is, and made a motion toward the gun in the front waistband and told him to give him his phone and to basically give him access to the safe where the phones were located, said Penwell.

The employee gave the first suspect his phone and took both suspects to the safe in the back room. There was a 10-minute delay in opening the safe, to which one suspect said it was okay and waited.

The first suspect asked where the tracker phone was, and the employee separated the tracker phone. The suspect then loaded a black and blue colored duffel bag with the cell phones from the safe.

When Moore asked if the second suspect assisted, Butler objected after Penwell was seen reading directly from his report on the Zoom call. Penwell continued to answer after refreshing his memory, to which he stated that both suspects put the phones in the duffel bag.

Once the cell phones were loaded, Penwell said that the gunman directed both the employee and his manager to wait in the bathroom, which is also located in the back room of the store. The gunman gave the employees phone back after he asked for it back.

Moore asked if the employee indicated the monetary value of the phones taken, to which Penwell responded $39,000. Moore also asked if the employee recalled the suspects appearing to communicate with a third party via Bluetooth, to which they were.

Butler began questioning Penwell, asking if there were any motorcycles. Penwell said that the employee did not recall seeing any motorcycles outside. The employee stated that he did not see the two culprits until they were inside the store.

When Butler asked if the employee saw anyone else outside in regard to the third party on the Bluetooth device, Penwell said he did not. Penwell also said yes when Butler asked if they could have been talking to someone at a totally separate location.

Gonzalez asked Penwell if the gun ever left the first suspects waistband. Penwell said that the gun was never pulled out, nor was it used to point at the employee or demand anything.

When Gonzalez asked about the tracker phone, Penwell said that the suspect with the scorpion lettering on his helmet was the one who asked about the tracker phone.

That was the testimony for the day.

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ANATOMY OF A ROBBERY: PART I - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Anatomy

Anatomy of a Revolution – The Cairo Review of Global Affairs

From May to August 2020, protests calling for justice for black people in the United States were held from Minneapolis to Portland; New York City to its surrounding suburbs; London to South Africa; and Iraq to Palestine. These are not new, they are the latest step in a racial justice movement that has been in effect for more than a century. However, todays movement is unprecedented in scope; this time, anger has found a new outlet in social media, demands have taken a fiscal orientation, and, as a result, protests have reverberated far wider than they had before.

After Michael Brown was killed in 2014, the largest racial justice demonstrations seen since the 1960s erupted in the city of Ferguson, Missouri. In 2020, the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, among many others, incited protests that dwarfed Ferguson, both throughout the United States and abroad.

If todays moment is to be analyzed, the victims that inspired it deserve to have their stories told. Forty-six-year-old George Floyd was killed on May 25 when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, despite the illegality of the restraint and Floyds pleas of I cant breathe. On May 29, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; on June 3, those charges were upgraded to include second-degree murder, and three other officers who were involvedThomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thaowere also charged.

Protests began in Minneapolis after a cell phone video showing Floyds death was circulated online, and the demonstrations quickly reverberated through surrounding states. At that point, the story of Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old medical worker from Louisville, Kentucky, also gained traction. Taylor was shot dead in her bed on the night of March 13. Police officers had entered her home under the authority of a no-knock warrant in connection to a drug case, and later realized that they had entered the wrong house. The officers names are Brett Hankinson, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove. Though none have been charged for Breonnas death, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was charged with assault and attempted murder for firing his gun in defense, unaware of who was barging into the home. The charges against Walker have been dropped, but there has been no accountability for the killing. Of the three officers, only Hankinson has been fired from the police force.

Although Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population as of 2019, they comprise 23 percent of the victims of police brutality; 1,098 Americans were shot and killed by police in 2019, 249 of which were Black. Each year, a few stories make national news; consider Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, and Sandra Bland. However, the vast majority of the stories of the black victims of American policing remain untold. Social media is making some progress in putting names to this statistic. However, drawing attention to the scope of the policing problem is just one tenet of the movements objective. To prevent further deaths, the movement seeks to dramatically alter the ways that communities solve problems.

The objectives of the 2020 movement can be boiled down to one core demand: Quite simply, it is to keep from dying, Stefan Bradley, professor of AfricanAmerican studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Ivy League, told the Cairo Review. Hence the movements rallying cry: Black Lives Matter (BLM).

As a result, the phrase defund the police has become part of the movements lexicon. The language reflects the idea that taxpayers deserve resources that work for them; thus, the movement to defund looks to lower police budgets and reallocate their funds toward underfunded preventative crime measures such as social work, education, and mental health resources. On June 8, Congressional Democrats introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which includes a bundle of reforms, requiring the use of body cameras, banning chokeholds, ending no-knock warrants in drug cases, and making lynching a federal hate crime. But, there was no mention of ending federal funding for local police, which reached over $1 billion in fiscal year 2020 through various initiatives.

In addition, many are arguing that reforms just do not work. In an op-ed for the New York Times, anti-criminalization organizer Mariame Kaba pointed out that reforms rely on the assumption that rules will be followed; although Minneapolis had passed a duty to intervene policy in 2016 in an attempt to force officers to hold each other accountable for inappropriate use of force, Keung, Lane, and Lao stood by as Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd. What weve got to get to is the culture of policing at this point, said Bradley, noting that it was the culture of policing that caused the other three officers to value Chauvins seniority over Floyds life.

Some activists take the call to defund a step further; for them, it demands the complete abolition of police forces. We can build other ways of responding to harms in our society, Kaba wrote. She suggested that trained community care workers could do mental health checks if someone needs help. Towns could use restorative-justice models instead of throwing people in prison. Such models include holding offenders accountable by rehabilitating their relationship with victims and their families rather than isolating them in the criminal justice system.

The abolition argument asserts that reform is impossible in a system with inherent malintent. Federally-funded, official police departments began to spring up in the North in the nineteenth century, but during the post-Civil War Reconstruction of the late 1800s in the southern United States, many local sheriffs functioned in a way analogous to the earlier slave patrols, enforcing segregation and the disenfranchisement of freed slaves, writes Olivia B. Waxman for Time. Those slave patrols were fully sanctioned in any state where slavery was legal, and had the authority to enter lodgings, quell uprisings, inflict punishment, and return slaves who had run away from their plantations.

African slavery was fully institutionalized when the first trading ship from Angola arrived in Jamestown as early as 1619. All this is to demonstrate that the United States benefited from African subordination before it even became a state that could sanction it on its own; racial violence toward Black people is in the countrys DNA, and it created a hierarchy that was grandfathered into the creation of American institutions.

Though slavery, in the strictest sense of the word, was ended by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, this is a half-blind interpretation of history. Historically, every structure of racial oppression in the United States has been abolished simply to be rebranded; slavery warped into sharecropping agreements, which warped into Jim Crow segregation, which warped into a system of mass incarceration and violent policing that disproportionately affects Black people. As such, the fight for racial justice has evolved in turn. Abolitionists became the civil rights leaders of the 1960s, the Black Panther Party and the followers of Martin Luther King, Jr., who became the people on the streets today.

Social media was integral in the formation and organization of the 2020 protests, and further distinguishes the 2020 movement from past phases of the racial justice struggle. Anyone who has one of these, said Diana Carlin, Professor Emerita of Communication at St. Louis University, holding up her phone, is a journalist and can tell a story.

The American public was brought face-to-face with police brutality when a video of Floyds death captured by seventeen-year-old Darnella Frazier went viral. As individuals took their phones to protests, they shed light on brutal tactics used by police to repress the demonstrations, which just further galvanized support for the cause. T. Greg Doucette, a Virginia-based attorney, is just one example of the rise in citizen journalism. His Police Brutality Mega-Thread on Twitter documented over 850 instances of excessive force against protestors from May to July 31, 2020.

Doucette documented a host of the tactics utilized by police, including the use of rubber bullets and tear gas. As of June 18, the New York Times had documented the use of tear gas in one hundred U.S. cities, despite the substances illegality in warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). USA Today reported on June 22 that at least seven people had lost eyes after being shot with rubber bullets, which are sometimes used even despite bans within local departments. Law enforcement justify their use of force under the pretext of quelling looting, rioting, and other violence aimed at officers. However, although acts of violence have been committed by some protesters, over 93 percent of protests have been peaceful, and the level of violence committed by law enforcement has exceeded what is necessary.

At the end of July, the city of Portland emerged as the epicenter of violence. The beginning of August marked over sixty consecutive nights of protest in the city. Like its counterparts in other U.S. cities, Portlands demonstrations were mostly peaceful; however, after a federal courthouse was vandalized and fire was set to the Portland Police Association, federal agents entered the city under the authority of an executive order issued on June 26 to protect monuments and statues. These federal officers began seizing protesters from the street, transporting them in unmarked vans, and detaining them without cause. Though the federal agents vacated the city in the beginning of August, they left behind a legacy of state-sanctioned brutality. Physicians for Human Rights concluded that the response by federal agents that it documented in Portland was disproportionate, excessive, and indiscriminate, and deployed in ways that caused severe injury to innocent civilians, including medics. President Trump dismissed reports about these abuses as fake news.

Lastly, journalists in the United States have themselves been targeted by police. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented over six hundred press freedom violations in the country from May 26 to August 6. In its own analysis on press freedom violations with Bellingcat, The Guardian wrote: Reporters in Minneapolis, Louisville, or the dozens of other places that witnessed protests and riots in the days after the alleged murder of George Floyd were not killed or prosecuted, as they increasingly are elsewhere in the world. But they were blinded, beaten, maced, and arrested by police in numbers never before documented in the U.S. Moreover, The Guardian notes that, in seven out of ten instances, journalists attacked by police forces were visibly displaying press credentials. Take, for example, CNN reporter Omar Jiminez, who was arrested along with his production team while broadcasting on-air. It is worth noting that Jiminez is Black and Latino, and that white CNN reporter Josh Campbell was allowed to remain in the area.

We always said Ferguson was everywhere, but I dont know if we ever imagined this kind of reaction throughout the world, Bradley said, remarking that it would have been unfathomable in 2015 to imagine solidarity protests in over forty countries like those that have been held since May. This global spread is also unique to the 2020 phase of the racial justice movement, and owes at least part of its breadth to the role of social media.

The countries standing in solidarity with the United States are diverse; protests have been held on every continent besides Antarctica. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and former British Commonwealth countries led the solidarity protests, with demonstrations in twenty-four cities in the United Kingdom; thirteen in Australia; six in Germany and France each; and four in Canada. Activists in Middle Eastern countries have also responded, including in Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. In Bethlehem, Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen painted a mural of George Floyd on the barrier wall separating Israel from the West Bank. I want the people in America who see this mural to know that we in Palestine are standing with them, because we know what its like to be strangled every day, Spateen said in an interview with Mondoweiss. I want justice, not O2, the mural proclaims in English.

As seen in the Palestinian case, the global protests often refract the message of BLM to their own governments. In Australia, for instance, protests are in solidarity with the countrys Aboriginal population as much as they are for George Floyd. Since 1991, over four hundred Aboriginal people have died in police custody, and Aboriginal adults are fifteen times more likely than their non-Aboriginal counterparts to enter the prison system. Australia is not innocent, the countrys protesters shouted.

Bradley spoke to the effect that watching global protests for Black justice has had on him, having grown up being taught that America was supposed to fight for freedom for others. I never thought Id get to the point where there are people in other nations lobbying for justice for American citizens in such a loud and resonant way, Bradley told the Cairo Review I feel comforted that the world recognized us, but I also feel embarrassed that that had to happen.

It has been proven that protests can force change. George Floyds killers are being prosecuted, and twelve cities have heeded the call to cut police budgets. However, most budget cuts remain incremental. New York City cut funding to the New York Police Department by the largest dollar amount$1 billion from roughly $5.6 billion in FY20but it had the largest budget in the country to begin with, and about half of that reduction is accounted for by shifting personnel and departments to other agencies, writes Steve Malanga for the Manhattan Institute.

Some officials have voiced support for radical changea veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council voted to disband their police department, and the same quorum of the Seattle City Council voted to slash the police budget by 50 percentbut their promises have been blocked by bureaucracy and are yet to be realized on the ground. Though Breonnas Law, which bans no-knock warrants, was passed in Louisville, her killers walk (and work) freely.

In these cases, officials make clear that they view placation, or acts that appease the public but are not serious steps toward reform, as an adequate substitute for justice. Take, for instance, the assortment of murals proclaiming Black Lives Matter that have appeared across the country. BLM murals have been publicly funded in over thirty states; however, those same states refuse to make tangible changes to their budgets (i.e. New York). Art is powerful, but the people know when its being used as an opiate.

However, at least the movement has thrust such conversations into the spotlight, Bradley and Carlin agreed. With the movement plastered across social media, it is difficult for politicians to skirt the subject. Bradley acknowledged that structural change will be more difficult at the federal level, which is distanced from local police units. However, there is a common desire among protesters for a change in the administration come November. I think for a lot of young peopleparticularly those who are coming of age, turning 18 years old, voting in their first electionthis is going to be a changing of the guard in a lot of ways, he said. But, Im also skeptical of the contingent of people that says If you vote, all this will go away. Thats not how American history works, he warned. It is not enough just to create laws; they need to be enforced as well. At the end of the day, theres a culture constituted by communitypolice relations that needs to be drastically changed.

Instead, in Ferguson, some of the activists become candidates for political roles, Bradley continued. This is already happening via state primaries. In August, Cori Bush, who was a lead organizer of the Ferguson movement, ousted twenty-year incumbent William Lacy Clay in the Missouri Democratic Primary.This new wave of leaders is already being bred. In the United States, 90 percent of adult social media users are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine, many of whom took to and used Instagram, their third-most favored platform, as a depository for activism and justice. After George Floyds death, users began to share petitions, links to organizations seeking donations, photos of protests, antiracist readings, and other informational plaques on their Stories with unprecedented frequency.

The watershed moment that racial justice organization is at in 2020 is not the movements first, nor will it be the last. But, to make progress, the country needs to understand just how deep the issue cuts; to think that racism is relegated to the past or that racial justice organization is uniquely modern is yet another symptom of white supremacy. Without first extinguishing this core fallacy, any change will fail to assess the entirety of the problem. Whats different about todays moment is that, with the world completely connected online, it is significantly more difficult to turn a blind eye to the history of your country. And, with the world at a unique pause, the manpower dedicated to sharing information has significantly increased. Hence, the creation of new ideas, like defunding the police. What is yet to be seen is if the momentum can make its way to the pollsnot only on November 3, but at the local leveland whether sitting politicians will have the courage to respond to their constituents demands.

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Anatomy of a Revolution - The Cairo Review of Global Affairs

Anatomy

The Anatomy of the Human Brain – News-Medical.net

Each distinct part of the brain plays a different role in allowing humans to have thoughts and memories, move their arms and legs, sense smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste, as well as maintain the functions of many organs within the body.

Image Credit: Tefi/Shutterstock.com

The two predominant cell types that the brain is comprised of include neurons and glial cells, the latter of which can also be referred to as neuroglia or glia. Depending upon their location throughout both the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS, respectively), neurons can have varying morphologies.

While this may be true, all neurons will share four common regions that include the cell body, dendrites, axon, and axon terminal, each of which has their own respective functions. The cell body of the neuron, for example, has a nucleus that is responsible for the synthesis of proteins that travel through microtubules down to the axons and axon terminals through a process known as anterograde transport.

Glial cells can be further subdivided into oligodendrocytes, microglial cells, and astrocytes, the latter of which is the most abundant type of glial cell and occupies approximately 25% of the total brain volume. Astrocytes can be further classified as either protoplasmic or fibrous. Protoplasmic astrocytes are present in the gray matter of the brain and have several branches that can interact with both synapses and blood vessels.

Comparatively, fibrous astrocytes, which can only be found in the white matter of the brain, have long fiber-like processes that also interact with blood vessels, as well as the nodes of Ranvier. Taken together, both types of astrocytes interact with blood vessels by adjusting their blood flow in response to synaptic activity.

Like the Schwan cells of the PNS, oligodendrocytes, which are only present in the CNS, are responsible for the production of myelin, which maintains the electrical impulse conduction of nerve signals and maximizes their velocity as needed.

The final type of glial cells includes microglia, which is part of the macrophage population of the CNS that also includes perivascular macrophages, meningeal macrophages, macrophages of the circumventricular organs (CVO), and the microglia of the choroid plexus. Like any other type of macrophage, microglia are immune phagocytic cells and thus function to protect the CNS from potential pathogens.

The human brain can often be divided into three distinct parts, which include the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brainstem.

The major portion of the brain is the cerebrum, which divides the left and right cerebral hemispheres, both of which have numerous folds and convolutions present on their surface. Between these convolutions are ridges known as gyri. Small grooves that are present between the gyri are known as the plural of sulcus or sulci, whereas larger grooves are referred to as fissures.

The right and left cerebral hemispheres, both of which are covered in the cerebral cortex that is otherwise known as gray matter, are joined together by the corpus callosum. Whereas the left hemisphere controls speech and abstract thinking, the right hemisphere controls spatial thinking.

The frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes are the four lobes that make up the cerebrum. The frontal lobes, which are present directly behind the forehead, are the largest lobes of the human brain. The frontal lobes are primarily responsible for controlling language, motor function, and various cognitive processes including self-awareness, mood, affect, memory, attention, as well as both social and moral reasoning.

Within the frontal lobe is Brocas area, which is responsible for speech production. The parietal lobes, who can be found near the center of the brain between the frontal and occipital lobes, are responsible for interpreting different sensory and memory functions.

The temporal lobes, which is commonly referred to as the neocortex, is located close to the base of the skull. Within the temporal lobe is the Wernicke area, which allows individuals to understand both spoken and written language. In addition to processing speech, the temporal lobe also processes sensory information that contributes to the retention of memories, languages, and emotions.

The fourth and final lobe of the cerebrum is the occipital lobe, which is the smallest lobe of the cerebrum and forms the caudal part of the brain. The primary function of the occipital lobe is the interpretation of visual information.

The largest of the hindbrain is the cerebellum. Upon reception of motor information from both the cerebral cortex and the musculoskeletal structures of the body, the cerebellum coordinates these signals to maintain the gait and posture of humans in motion.

Although the cerebellum itself does not initiate muscle contraction, it aids in the refinement and accuracy of motor activity by controlling muscle tone. In addition to its role in controlling balance and regulating motor movement, the cerebellum also plays a role in the regulation of fear and other cognitive functions such as attention, language, and the human response to pleasure.

Image Credit: SciePro/Shutterstock.com

The cerebellum and spinal cord are connected to the cerebral hemispheres by the brainstem. The brain stem can be classified into four distinct sections that include the diencephalon, midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata. The diencephalon, which is the most superior portion of the brainstem, is further subdivided into four portions that include the epithalamus, subthalamus, hypothalamus, and thalamus.

The thalamus, which is the largest portion of the diencephalon, serves as a relay point for all sensory information that enters the cortex and eventually gets transmitted to the cerebrum for processing. The hypothalamus also processes incoming sensory information; however, all of the information processed by the hypothalamus is derived from the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

As a result, the hypothalamus maintains eating habits, sexual behavior, and sleep patterns in addition to maintaining an individuals body temperature. Additionally, the secretions of the pituitary gland, which develops from a downward extension of the hypothalamus, is controlled by the hypothalamus.

The midbrain, which connects the diencephalon to the pons, controls ocular motion, whereas the pons is involved in the regulation of eye and facial movements, hearing and balance, as well as all sensory information processed by the facial nerves.

The medulla oblongata, which is located between the pons and the spinal cord and is therefore the most inferior portion of the brainstem, controls autonomic functions such as breathing, blood pressure, cardiac rhythms, and swallowing. Notably, brain death of patients in a clinical setting is declared when there is significant destruction of the medulla oblongata.

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The Anatomy of the Human Brain - News-Medical.net