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Neuroscience

Backed by $1.1 million grant, UNR Med researcher studying root of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s diseases – Northern Nevada Business Weekly

RENO, Nev. Every person carries around a 3-pound universe filled with billions of cells that communicate and orchestrate everything we do from thinking to moving to sensing.

It makes sense that such a busy planet of activity can get stressed or damaged as we age.

For some, this can potentially lead to neurodegenerative diseases of the brain, such as Alzheimers, a type of dementia that slowly destroys memory skills, thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out daily activities.

In 2018, Nevada saw 874 people die from Alzheimers disease, making it the sixth-leading cause of death in the state, according to the Alzheimers Association. All told, that year the total number of Nevadans aged 65 and older with Alzheimers was 45,000, a number projected to jump to 64,000 by 2025.

Yet, despite decades of neuroscience research, scientists dont yet fully understand what causes neurodegenerative diseases of the brain like Alzheimers and Parkinsons and how to treat them.

One researcher at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, with the help of a federal grant, is on a mission to help change that.

Dr. Robert Renden, assistantprofessor in the department of physiology and cell biology at UNR Med and the UNR Neuroscience Institute, this summer was awarded a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Specifically, Renden will explore how brain cells maintain the energy needed to communicate at contact sites synapses which play a critical role in a variety of cognitive processes, learning and memory. Moreover, synapses play a crucial role in many brain diseases and disorders.

This project answers the NSF mission of really understanding the most basic biology of how synapses function, Renden said in a video interview with Peak NV. And also provide a component to help educate the next generation of researchers, which is part of the NSF mission. This will help UNR Med by providing research opportunities for med school students, physician assistants, postdocs thats the immediate payoff.

The longer-term payoff will be having the basic knowledge of how these synapses function. And then that will inform us what could probably be going wrong when we have disease states.

To that end, Renden said that his study aims to advance new approaches in the study of Alzheimers, Parkinsons and dementia, among others. Theseneurodegenerativediseases, he said, result from a loss of energy production, homeostasis and reduced mitochondria function.

That delivery of energy and utilization of energy is fundamentally and acutely important, Renden said. One of the goals of this research is to try to tie that together at a really fundamental level. And so the hope is that we can make really basic observations about how energy is utilized, generated and distributed at synapses.

Renden is collaborating with Dr. Ruben Dagda, associate professor in pharmacology at UNR Med, who is looking at brain disease models. Dagda said Alzheimers research is lagging behind severely in Nevada due to a lack of state funding, making Rendens research grant all the more important.

Our hope is that whatever we publish, our observations can lead us to a better understanding ofAlzheimers, Dagda told Peak NV. Its very important because in Nevada, 15% of its population is over 65. And by 2025, its going to be over 20%.

And people over 65 have a two-fold increase or 200% for developing Alzheimers, according to Dagda. In addition, they have an 80% increase in developing Parkinsons, he added.

Why?Dagdacontinued. We dont really know but the destructionand energy production and the utilization of energy and the brain makes the neurons very sensitive to dying. We know in those two diseases, theres an increase in stress and inflammation in the brain.

With that in mind, Renden said if research can lead to identifying the potential for these neurodegenerative problems early before clinical symptoms surface they could then be treated early with self-care, proper nutrition and exercise.

After all, Parkinsons and Alzheimers symptoms do now show up until significant damage in the brain has already been done, according to Renden.

You dont see Parkinsons disease motor symptoms until something like 80% of your dopaminergic neurons are dead, he explained. And for Alzheimers disease, youve got to see profound structural loss literally chunks of the brain dying off before you see the clinical manifestation.

Simply put, Renden and Dagda are using techniques to identify changes in synaptic function or cellular function far in advance of cellular death.

In the (petri) dish, we can see the cells as theyre starting to get stressed or just starting to get damaged, Renden said. And then the idea is that at that point youd want to go in and do some of these really early, noninvasive nutritional-type interventions, which have been shown to be really effective.

Go to unr.edu/neuroscience to learn more about the Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Nevada, Reno.

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Backed by $1.1 million grant, UNR Med researcher studying root of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's diseases - Northern Nevada Business Weekly

Neuroscience

Lessons From Teaching in a Pandemic | Duke Today – Duke Today

After teaching a doctoral course for the past five years that mixes in-person learning and online class sessions, Duke Divinity Schools Curtis Freeman is an online teaching veteran.

But with COVID-19 limiting in-person classes this fall, and making Freemans class an entirely online affair, even he knew hed need to keep evolving.

The delivery and interaction with students is different this fall, said Freeman, research director of theology and Baptist studies. I cant teach the class the same way I have before.

This has been a fall like no other at Duke as the pandemic leaves little unchanged. While many faculty members are trying new ways of connecting with students, after teaching moved online in the spring and summer, theyre not starting from scratch.

Here are some of the lessons Duke faculty members are leaning on during an unprecedented semester.

Maintain Connections

Makeba Wilbourn, associate professor of the practice of psychology and neuroscience, understands that, in addition to producing important research on the cognitive development of children,her labsgoal is to inspire students with a healthy atmosphere.

While studying how young minds process words and gestures, her labs team builds a welcoming culture with inside jokes, informal mentorship and occasional Family Feud clashes with other labs.

There are authentic experiences that happen in a lab environment, Wilbourn said. Theres a sense of community where youre seen for your contribution to the team, and all the beautiful things you bring with that are valued. Not tolerated but valued. Those are the sorts of things that are part of the culture of a lab when you do it right.

With most student team members now working remotely, COVID-19 has made building that culture challenging. But with technological tools she embraced in the spring, Wilbourn has kept the atmosphere alive.

During many Zoom lab meetings, shell have an extra 30 minutes for everyone to catch up and discuss how theyre doing. The team also uses Marco Polo, a video chat app forAndroidorAppledevices, to share quick, fun updates.

I study non-verbal communication, so its hard for me to get a sense of how my students are doing if I cant see their faces, Wilbourn said. There are times when Ive done a roll call. I sent a video message to the lab and said, I need to see your faces.

Wilbourn got a rush of short video responses, providing peppy snapshots of everyones lives.

Traditionally, team members show up in large numbers to support seniors defending their honors thesis. This spring, when those defenses moved to Zoom, Wilbourn recalls the sessions drawing around 60 people, including many of their lab colleagues.

Were doing the best we can to stay connected, Wilbourn said. You want to keep that sense that theres a group of people who care about you.

Remember Who You Are

When COVID-19 disrupted the spring semester, the changes at theDuke University Marine Labwere especially obvious.

In mid-March, the labs few dozen residential students went home. Trips to Singapore, Mexico and the Caribbean were called off. The labs new research vessel, the R/V Shearwater, stayed in port.

But this semester, the familiar rhythm of life at the lab has returned, though with slight differences.

We pride ourselves on experiential learning, getting kids out into salt marshes, out on boats, said Duke University Marine Lab Director Andy Read. Our kids are passionate about the ocean and marine science and we didnt want to give that up. So were trying to do as much as we would do in a normal term as safely as possible.

While the lab can house as many as 70 students, only 24 will be there this fall. Each student will have their own dorm room and the labs, classrooms and dining facilities will have strict social distancing protocols in place. Student daytrips on the R/V Shearwater will only be done on nice days so passengers can be outdoors as much as possible.

Much like in the spring, the lab is incorporating more online courses, including four fully online courses and Reads Biology of Marine Mammals class, which will feature a hybrid online and in-person approach.

Were dealing with online learning differently now, were all better at it, Read said. So that gives us some new capabilities moving forward. Were trying to do what we do best, just modify it for the era of COVID.

Embrace the Challenge

Duke Divinitys Freeman saw challenges posed by COVID-19 as opportunities. Getting students to engage with him, his material and their classmates would be more difficult, so he knew he needed a deeper knowledge of technological tools and an open mind.

This has forced us to step up our game and use the technology in some ways that can really be fantastic, Freeman said.

Freeman teaches course for doctoral students on leadership approaches derived from the worlds of both business and faith. In the past, the semester-long course featured a week of in-person classes and eight weeks of online learning.

Knowing hed be doing the course entirely online this fall, Freeman leaned on the resources provided by theDuke Divinity School, including workshops about Zoom and Sakai, the online learning hub for Duke students.

Among the new approaches hes embracing are condensing 45-minute lectures down to 15 minutes and recording them. Hes also helping students set up book clubs where they can discuss material outside of class.

I think whatever the new normal will be after this pandemic is over, it will not be what the old normal was in terms of teaching, Freeman said. The pandemic jump-started us into what we saw need to happen anyway. Theres probably no going back.

Help share the proactive and extensive work being done by all Duke community members during the COVID-19 outbreak. Send ideas, shout-outs and photographs throughour story idea formor writeworking@duke.edu.

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Lessons From Teaching in a Pandemic | Duke Today - Duke Today

Neuroscience

New molecular therapeutics center established at MIT’s McGovern Institute – MIT News

More than 1 million Americans are diagnosed with a chronic brain disorder each year, yet effective treatments for most complex brain disorders are inadequate or even nonexistent.

A major new research effort at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT aims to change how we treat brain disorders by developing innovative molecular tools that precisely target dysfunctional genetic, molecular, and circuit pathways.

The K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics in Neuroscience was established at MIT through a $28 million gift from philanthropist Lisa Yang and MIT alumnus Hock Tan 75. Yang is a former investment banker who has devoted much of her time to advocacy for individuals with disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. Tan is president and CEO of Broadcom, a global technology infrastructure company.This latest gift brings Yang and Tans total philanthropy to MIT to more than $72 million.

In the best MIT spirit, Lisa and Hock have always focused their generosity on insights that lead to real impact," says MIT President L. Rafael Reif. Scientifically, we stand at a moment when the tools and insights to make progress against major brain disorders are finally within reach. By accelerating the development of promising treatments, the new center opens the door to a hopeful new future for all those who suffer from these disorders and those who love them. I am deeply grateful to Lisa and Hock for making MIT the home of this pivotal research.

Engineering with precision

Research at the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics in Neuroscience will initially focus on three major lines of investigation: genetic engineering using CRISPR tools, delivery of genetic and molecular cargo across the blood-brain barrier, and the translation of basic research into the clinical setting. The center will serve as a hub for researchers with backgrounds ranging from biological engineering and genetics to computer science and medicine.

Developing the next generation of molecular therapeutics demands collaboration among researchers with diverse backgrounds, says Robert Desimone, McGovern Institute director and the Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience at MIT. I am confident that the multidisciplinary expertise convened by this center will revolutionize how we improve our health and fight disease in the coming decade. Although our initial focus will be on the brain and its relationship to the body, many of the new therapies could have other health applications.

There are an estimated 19,000 to 22,000 genes in the human genome and a third of those genes are active in the brain the highest proportion of genes expressed in any part of the body. Variations in genetic code have been linked to many complex brain disorders, including depression and Parkinsons disease. Emerging genetic technologies, such as the CRISPR gene editing platform pioneered by McGovern Investigator Feng Zhang, hold great potential in both targeting and fixing these errant genes. But the safe and effective delivery of this genetic cargo to the brain remains a challenge.

Researchers within the new Yang-Tan Center will improve and fine-tune CRISPR gene therapies and develop innovative ways of delivering gene therapy cargo into the brain and other organs. In addition, the center will leverage newly developed single-cell analysis technologies that are revealing cellular targets for modulating brain functions with unprecedented precision, opening the door for noninvasive neuromodulation as well as the development of medicines. The center will also focus on developing novel engineering approaches to delivering small molecules and proteins from the bloodstream into the brain. Desimone will direct the center and some of the initial research initiatives will be led by associate professor of materials science and engineering Polina Anikeeva; Ed Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology at MIT; Guoping Feng, the James W. (1963) and Patricia T. Poitras Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT; and Feng Zhang, James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT.

Building a research hub

My goal in creating this center is to cement the Cambridge and Boston region as the global epicenter of next-generation therapeutics research. The novel ideas I have seen undertaken at MITs McGovern Institute and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard leave no doubt in my mind that major therapeutic breakthroughs for mental illness, neurodegenerative disease, autism, and epilepsy are just around the corner, says Yang.

Center funding will also be earmarked to create the Y. Eva Tan Fellows program, named for Tan and Yangs daughter Eva, which will support fellowships for young neuroscientists and engineers eager to design revolutionary treatments for human diseases.

We want to build a strong pipeline for tomorrows scientists and neuroengineers, explains Hock Tan. We depend on the next generation of bright young minds to help improve the lives of people suffering from chronic illnesses, and I can think of no better place to provide the very best education and training than MIT.

The molecular therapeutics center is the second research center established by Yang and Tan at MIT. In 2017, they launched the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research, and, two years later, they created a sister center at Harvard Medical School, with the unique strengths of each institution converging toward a shared goal: understanding the basic biology of autism and how genetic and environmental influences converge to give rise to the condition, then translating those insights into novel treatment approaches.

All tools developed at the molecular therapeutics center will be shared globally with academic and clinical researchers with the goal of bringing one or more novel molecular tools to human clinical trials by 2025.

We are hopeful that our centers, located in the heart of the Cambridge-Boston biotech ecosystem, will spur further innovation and fuel critical new insights to our understanding of health and disease, says Yang.

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New molecular therapeutics center established at MIT's McGovern Institute - MIT News

Neuroscience

Are The Big Bang Cast Really Smart? Ranking The Actors On Their University Degrees – Screen Rant

Most of the characters on The Big Bang Theory have advanced degrees, but what educational background do the actors have - and who is a dropout?

Science and geeky smarts are at the heart ofThe Big Bang Theory,and the CBS sitcom has charmed audiences around the world with the plucky physicists and aerospace engineers at the center of it. But whereas their characters hold multiple Ph.D.s and could hold their own alongside guest stars like Bill Nye, the cast is varying degrees of academically accomplished.

RELATED:The Big Bang Theory: Every Character Ranked By Likability

Leonard, Sheldon, Raj, and Howard get their expertise fromUCLA professor David Saltzberg, tasked with supplying technical material for jokes that have to factually check out, but only Raj (Kunal Nayyar) has the superior space knowledge. Though the cast ranges from holding degrees in neuroscience to being high school dropouts, they're some of the highest-paid actors in television history, so a few Ph.D.s aren't standing in the way of their stardom.

Genius Leonard Hofstadtermight have gotten his PhD at 24, but theonly time Johnny Galecki spent at college was when he and the cast went to UCLA to visit the physics departmentto gather initial research for the show. But what he lacked in book smarts he made up for in street smarts, and thatwashim really playing the cello!

Born in Bree, Belgium, Galecki's American parents moved constantly due to his father's position in the US Air Force. According to him, he's a self-professed "school drop out"at 14 who constantly ditched class, and wanted topursue his dream of acting. When he started work onRoseanne,his most famous series outside ofThe Big Bang Theory,he was in his early teens and living completely on his own.

In some ways Kaley Cuoco may get a pass for not understanding the scientific concepts thrown around her at warp speed by the rest of the gang, because as Penny she was never expected to. In interviews, Cuoco has said that she hasn't picked up on anything they've been talking about even after more than a decade.

RELATED:The Big Bang Theory: Pennys Slow Transformation Over The Years (In Pictures)

Cuoco received her general education via home schooling, enabling her to graduate two years ahead of most of her peers. This freed her up to begin working onseries like8 Simple Rules.While she studied, she also ranked regionally as an amateur tennis player, from the time she was 3 until shewas 16.

BernadetteRostenkowski pursued her degree in microbiology, something which actress Melissa Rauch knew nothing about prior to joining the cast but enjoyed exploring (her favorite experiment involvedrhesus monkeys). Bernadette did grow up in a religious household, something the character shares with Rauch.

While attending Marlboro High School, Rauch became interested in acting and improvisation, going so far as to make her Bat Mitzvah a Comedy Club" theme. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City with a focus on art and acting, and even produced her own performance piece that toured in Los Angeles.

John Ross Bowie, who played snide physicist Barry Kripke, almost didn't pursue acting at all, having grown up in New York City's theater district and seen so many of his friends struggle. He knew if he never pursued it he'd regret it, but he could have easily fallen back on a career as a writer thanks to his English degree from Ithaca College.

Prior to her debut onThe Big Bang Theoryas Raj's fiancee Anu,Rati Gupta was on a pre-med track at Northwestern University, where she also double majored in dance and psychology. She was a "medical geek" before ultimately deciding that dancing was her true love.

RELATED:The Big Bang Theory: Heres Who The Cast Is Married To IRL

She moved to Los Angeles and decided to become a hip-hop dancer, and her work can be seen in videos for Flo Rida and Lupe Fiasco, among others. Her commitment to excellence certainly reflected the all-business no-nonsense hotel concierge that Raj's parents arranged for him to marry.

It didn't take much for Kevin Sussman to relate to Stuart Bloom, who's only interest seemed to be in comic books and getting women's phone numbers, because the writers drew from his own experienceworking at a mom and pop comic shop in New York Cityduring his college years.

Sussman attended the College of Staten Island for a year before he went on to graduate from Manhattan's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. His theater training was finalized by studying under acting coach Uta Hagen for an additional four years,before hemoved to Los Angeles to pursue his love of acting, cast soon after as Betty's boyfriend Walter onUgly Betty.

Asastrophysicist Raj Koothrappali, Kunal Nayyarneeded to sound knowledgeable about the cosmos, and as it turns out Nayyar is adept at topics of space, evidenced by his great success duringa pop quiz via Huffpost Live.

Nayyar pursued his higher education at the University of Portland, Oregon, earning a BA in Business Administration. He got bitten by the acting bug and, after participating in the American College Theater Festival, decided to attend Temple University in Philedelphia, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in theater. He's also a published author, and his bookYes, My Accent Is Realis out now.

Though he played engineer Howard Wolowitz onThe Big Bang Theory,Simon Helberg has admitted in interviews that in order to get Howard's space dialogue down, he had to study the scripts very carefully, and get thehelp of real engineers on the set.

RELATED:The Big Bang Theory: 5 Times Howard Was An Overrated Character (& 5 He Was Underrated)

Herlberg studied acting at New York University's famous Tisch School of Arts, and trained with the Atlantic Theater Company. Howard may have been delusional when it came to dating women but he was great at the piano, and Helberg's real skills as a pianist were allowed to shine.

Sheldon Cooper may have been known for rattling off extensive monologues overflowing with polysyllabic science jargon, butJim Parsons doesn't have a degree in science, and had to study his dialogue like a foreign language he recitedwithout knowing its meaning.

Parsons received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston, andreceived his master's degree from the University of San Diego in classical theater. A well respected thespian, Parsons has long been found on the stage, and will soon be seen on Broadway for the new revival of "The Boys in the Band," which is produced by Ryan Murphy and David Stone.

Of all the cast, Mayim Bialik is the only one to have an actual degree relevant to her character - neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. Bialik has a PhD in neuroscience from the Universe of California, Los Angeles, and was able to understand a great deal of the dialogue she was given to recite, making her expertise grounded in reality.

Prior to pursuing higher education, Bialik was a child star, appearing on the '90s hit seriesBlossom.When she's not onThe Big Bang Theory,she can be found discussing neuroscience and the behavioral hormone bonding between mothers and infants.

NEXT:Every Major Big Bang Theory Character If They Were A Bad Ex-Boyfriend

Next SNL: 10 Best Recurring Weekend Update Characters, Ranked

Kayleena has been raised on Star Wars and Indiana Jones from the crib. A film buff, she has a Western collection of 250+ titles and counting that she's particularly proud of. When she isn't writing for ScreenRant, CBR, or The Gamer, she's working on her fiction novel, lifting weights, going to synthwave concerts, or cosplaying. With degrees in anthropology and archaeology, she plans to continue pretending to be Lara Croft as long as she can.

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Are The Big Bang Cast Really Smart? Ranking The Actors On Their University Degrees - Screen Rant

Neuroscience

How much you believe in God could be wired to your brain, study suggests – The Christian Post

Upsplash/Haley Rivera

In Hebrews 11:1in the Bible, faith is described as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, according to a new study by Georgetown University neuroscientists, the strength of one's faith in God is likely linked to the brain.

In their study, Implicit pattern learning predicts individual differences in belief in God in the United States and Afghanistan, published this month in the journal Nature Communications, the neuroscientists found that an individuals ability to unconsciously predict complex patterns, through an ability known as implicit pattern learning, had a strong correlation with the strength of their belief in a god who creates patterns of events in the universe.

This is not a study about whether God exists, this is a study about why and how brains come to believe in gods. Our hypothesis is that people whose brains are good at subconsciously discerning patterns in their environment may ascribe those patterns to the hand of a higher power, the studys senior investigator, Adam Green, an associate professor in the department of psychology and interdisciplinary program in neuroscience at Georgetown, said in a release.

The Georgetown study, which involved a predominantly Christian group of 199 participants from Washington, D.C., and a group of 149 Muslim participants in Kabul, Afghanistan, is the first of its kind to explore religious belief through implicit pattern learning.

Adam Weinberger, a postdoctoral researcher in Greens lab at Georgetown and at the University of Pennsylvania, was the studys lead author. Co-authors Zachery Warren and Fathali Moghaddam led a team of Afghan researchers who collected data in Kabul.

To measure the implicit pattern learning ability of participants in the study, researchers used a well-established cognitive test in which they had to watch a sequence of dots appear and disappear quickly on a computer screen.

They pressed a button for each of the moving dots but some participants in the study the ones who registered the strongest implicit learning ability began to subconsciously learn the patterns hidden in the sequence. They pressed the button for dots before they appeared. Even the best implicit learners in the study did not know that the dots formed patterns which demonstrated that the learning had happened at an unconscious level.

The study showed that even among children, those with implicit pattern learning ability were more likely to increase belief in God even if they were raised in a household that was not religious.

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The most interesting aspect of this study, for me, and also for the Afghan research team, was seeing patterns in cognitive processes and beliefs replicated across these two cultures, Warren said. Afghans and Americans may be more alike than different, at least in certain cognitive processes involved in religious belief and making meaning of the world around us. Irrespective of ones faith, the findings suggest exciting insights into the nature of belief.

While noting that further research was needed, Green said: A brain that is more predisposed to implicit pattern learning may be more inclined to believe in a god no matter where in the world that brain happens to find itself, or in which religious context.

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How much you believe in God could be wired to your brain, study suggests - The Christian Post

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Market to Witness a Pronounce Growth During 2020 to 2025 – Scientect

Market Study Report adds Global Neuroscience Market Research its online database. The report provides information on Industry Trends, Demand, Top Manufacturers, Countries, Material and Application.

The research report covers an extensive gist of the Neuroscience market with regards to certain vital aspects. A brief synopsis of the business, in addition to the market share, growth potential, and an in-depth application spectrum are provided in the study. Also included in the report is a concise brief about the main manufacturers of this industry that accumulate the maximum returns. In essence, the Neuroscience market research report aims to provide a pivotal synopsis of the industry pertaining to current and future trends.

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Neuroscience Market to Witness a Pronounce Growth During 2020 to 2025 - Scientect

Human Behavior

California Doing Okay, Not Bad, on Walkability But It’s a Low Bar – Streetsblog California

In 2015, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a call to action to promote walking and walkable communities to encourage Americans to take up this simple physical activity to improve their health.

Safe Routes Partnership is using the five-year anniversary of this directive to call attention to what states are doing in response. This summer, the organization issued a report card grading each state on a range of metrics related to encouraging walkable communities.

Californias grade is: Not Terrible. The state earned the highest overall score of all fifty states: 163 points out of a total of 200. The scores are based on metrics like whether the states have policies or offer funding in support of walkability, whether they focus on high-need communities, and whether they do anything to support active schools and neighborhoods.

But its a low bar. Many states have no Complete Streets policy whatsoever, for example. Also, an increasing number of states are diverting federal money meant for active transportation to other purposes like highways. And 21 states offer no state funding at all for active transportation.

California, on the other hand, not only puts its own money into its Active Transportation Program, but it has not opted to use any federal active transportation money for other uses. Also, Caltrans first adopted a statewide Complete Streets policy in 2014. Although for many years that sat on the books as guidance largely ignored by its engineers, that is much less true today. That is, a strong push to seriously consider what it means to take into account all road users is taking shape. This is happening both as a result of pressure from advocates and elected leaders as well as within Caltrans itself, stemming from years of work setting up new programs and training employees as well as new leadership willing to focus on active transportation.

There is still work to be done, of course. The states Complete Streets policy only rates five of a total of ten possible points according to Safe Routes National Partnerships rubric, which is fair. Caltrans policy states, rather vaguely, that The Department provides for the needs of travelers of all ages and abilities in all planning, programming, design, construction, operations, and maintenance activities and products on the State Highway System. While travelers should include everybody no matter which mode they use, this leaves an awful lot of wiggle room.

Where California really gets dinged is in its lack of funding for Safe Routes to Schools. This is especially true for programming that encourages active transportation, whether it be through education, events, or other ways of getting people out walking or biking. This has been an ongoing issue with Californias Active Transportation Program, which has tended to reflect leadership preferences for building infrastructure rather than funding what they tend to see as amorphous, ambivalent, squishy strategies to change human behavior despite the fact that events like CicLAvia and bike education programs can have a profound influence on said behavior.

Appropriately, the Safe Route Partnerships rubric divides state scores into the general categories of Lacing Up, Warming Up, Making Strides, and Building Speed. That last, highest category has only been reached by two states, California and Massachusetts. It seems fitting: California cities are, with the exception of a few small areas, utterly car-dependent in a way that means walking for transportation still lies somewhere between difficult and dangerous in most places. California has started the work, and built a bit on its foundation, but the results so far are spotty.

So: Okay, California, not too bad. Keep up the good work.

Find Californias report here [PDF], and information about the scoring system, and other state scores, here.

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California Doing Okay, Not Bad, on Walkability But It's a Low Bar - Streetsblog California

Human Behavior

Reframing the Importance of Industry 4.0: Protect to promote – ITProPortal

The unprecedented pace at which businesses have been forced to adapt since the onset of Covid-19 has led to a revaluation of what is desired - and what is necessary - when it comes to future-proofing operations. In the case of manufacturing, the fallout from the pandemic has been twofold; the immediate need to protect workers through minimizing exposure to the virus and now, increasingly prevalent, the economic concerns in regard to reduced output.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) suggests that overall industrial production in the United States has experienced the sharpest decline since the country demobilized after World War Two. The dual concerns of health and long-term stability are not easily solved in tandem, with one often to the detriment of the other. New forms of lean manufacturing, however, do possess the potential to simultaneously protect and promote organizations. The WEF claims Industry 4.0 technologies are necessary for survival. While true, this statement does not paint the full picture. Innovation will become the lifeblood of manufacturing in the years to come; not just to get-by, but to fuel smarter rebuilding than weve ever seen previously.

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable. -M. Scott Peck

Although a reference to human behavior at an individual level, psychiatrist M. Scott Pecks assessment of discovering a better way through discomfort can also be applied to businesses and industries in todays world. The current challenge - one that could have been foreseen in a general sense but is nigh on impossible to prepare for - has forced manufacturers to question the very foundations of their operations.

According to the latest research from McKinsey, 39 percent of manufacturers have already implemented a nerve-center or control-tower approach, to increase end-to-end transparency across the whole of the supply chain. In addition, almost a quarter want to fast-track automation programs, in a bid to help stem worker shortages following Covid-19. Granted, much of this would have been implemented at some point in the near future, but the shock of removing workers from factory floors almost overnight, along with a reduced capacity for production, has forced the hand of manufacturing leadership and resulted in a re-prioritization of certain technologies.

The silver lining for manufacturing is that, as an industry, it was already primed for evolution. Around 80 percent of process lines included some form of automation before the pandemic hit, so the groundwork was already there. The removal of the human 20 percent naturally brought things to a halt - as a business, you cannot deliver 80 percent of a project or only build 80 percent of a product - but the distance needed to travel to fill the gap does not represent a particularly big leap of faith. Especially because the shift to adopting robots is not technological; it is purely socio-psychological.

Technology has always been leaps and bounds ahead of public perception. When it comes to robots, however, there has been a whole generation that grew up with the Terminators and the iRobots of this world. It means the existing narrative around robots is predominately one of threat, which then trickles down within industry to manifest in the idea that robots will take jobs. This is far from the truth. In fact, manufacturing can become synonymous with early-adoption, full-scale robotics, that allows for businesses to redefine where real value from both person and machine is added.

Greater automation is supported by the availability of predictive analytics on factory floors and within supply chains, which many manufacturers have already embraced. Achieved through a web of connected sensors and nodes, this technology can help businesses extend the life cycles of the industrial devices on their roster by knowing the exact state of each machine. These techniques also provide the infrastructure for other Industry 4.0 technologies, including robots, as the sensors can track performance in near real-time and identify where additional opportunities can be incorporated into the manufacturing proposition. In other words, it is the existence of data-driven, smart machinery that can boost confidence in an automation uptake.

The introduction of advanced robotics alongside this IoT machinery, therefore, is the next logical step, and will allow businesses to physically protect employees, retrain workers, and learn from current pitfalls induced by Covid-19. A largely roboticized supply chain would change the role of human beings as those boots on the ground workers. Moving into supervisory roles or freshly created ones, a lot of which can be done remotely, would allow more people to contribute to the discovery of new innovations within manufacturing, and ensure talent is retained within the industry.

Greater innovation and output, however, is not simply realized through individual pieces of robotics hardware. Software has a vital role to play and will, in fact, be the aspect that allows manufacturers to not only survive but actually thrive.

Manufacturer owned robotics app stores, where businesses can tap into software to increase the purpose of their robotics hardware, will allow manufacturers to modify what their hardware can produce or the services they provide. This will enable all companies to prepare for the highest and lowest levels of demand, to fully optimize their robotic workforce and be ready for any unforeseen developments. In other words, downtime at a minimum at the worst of times and streamlined activity at the best. It is the modular capabilities of robots, via an app store, that will allow the manufacturing industry to be more flexible when unpredicted challenges present themselves.

Over time, software will replace hardware as the fundamental element in a robots value. Security and reliability will remain the building blocks, with collaboration opening the doors to smarter robots, able to extend their lifespans through a range of third-party apps. To address this need, containerized software packages - easy to create, safe to run, and able to update automatically and transactionally - have begun to emerge. Once a manufacturer opens up a robots APIs, 3rd party developers can create their own programs and evolve the use cases of a machine. The real value of a robot, therefore, will soon arrive alongside a comprehensive app store, which continually adds value to the hardware by extending its functionality.

The fact that Industry 4.0 is a collection of technologies means that it is often regarded as a form of high-level thinking and not entirely practical to implement, especially when industries like manufacturing are experiencing issues. But as individuals and organizations adapt to a culture of new priorities - the dual concerns of health and economic stability - intelligent infrastructure and roboticized workforces can help alleviate some of the strain. Together they represent the building blocks of manufacturings path out of the current landscape, and can position businesses to subsequently thrive.

Industry 4.0 will not only identify issues within a manufacturers supply chain preemptively, but contribute to more intuitive processes: better results, less downtime, and the removal of unexpected costs. Overlaying every device with IoT intelligence can be the answer to the pressures the manufacturing industry currently faces.

Tom Canning, Vice President of IoT and Devices, Canonical - The company behind Ubuntu

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Reframing the Importance of Industry 4.0: Protect to promote - ITProPortal

Human Behavior

She Lost Her Son to Suicide, Then Created a Foundation to Help Others – Healthline

Lee Thompson Young was a bright light and accomplished actor. At 13 years old, he appeared in the Disney Channels original series The Famous Jett Jackson.

A few years later, he went on to star in a McDonalds commercial with Michael Jordan.

From there, he landed roles in various prime-time television shows, such as Friday Night Lights, Smallville, and Scrubs, as well as films, including The Hills Have Eyes 2.

While his career was flourishing, Young began struggling with mental health issues.

In his late teens, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental health condition that is associated with episodes of mood changes ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.

He managed his illness with medication and therapy for several years, all while continuing to build a successful acting career and being a loving brother and son.

However, in 2013, Young died by suicide at 29 years old.

At the time, I didnt live near Lee. I lived across the country. When Id talk to him on the phone, I couldnt tell he was in crisis. He was a very good actor, his mother, Velma Love, told Healthline.

Love remembers her son as a caring, kind person who was deeply aware of social issues and sought out creative ways to impact society. To memorialize his life, Love and her daughter, Tamu Lewis, established the Lee Thompson Young Foundation in 2014.

Losing Lee was a tremendous shock, and immediately it brought to my mind the need for more education about mental illness, especially the stigma associated with it. We [wanted] to do something to help other people and prevent other families from losing someone by suicide, said Love.

The Lee Thompson Young Foundation focuses on erasing the stigma associated with mental illness through various awareness efforts, including its Mind program.

The Mind program is for administrators and school personnel working with children K-12 so they can learn the broad spectrum of mental health trends, what to look for in children, when to recognize help is needed, and how to create bridges to resources in their communities, Stephanie E. Johnson, owner of NaviPsych and executive director of the Lee Thompson Young Foundation, told Healthline.

Johnson also developed a 5-week resilience and training program on behalf of the foundation based on psychological principles and techniques of Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, Daniel Golemans Emotional Intelligence, and the Needs, Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Behavior (NEICB) model.

The program teaches participants (both students and school personnel) to nurture their overall mental wellness by:

We ask teachers to be moved to do their own training and experience it for themselves, so they can relate to kids and engage with them firsthand, Johnson said.

She is working to expand the foundations efforts with new offerings, such as online mindfulness sessions, in which a therapist teaches young adults how to cope with anxiety and depression.

This is geared toward college students because there is not enough support for them as they transition out of high school and go to college. They are a vulnerable group right now. We want to provide something easy to access that will help them self-regulate and self-empower, said Johnson.

The foundation also recently partnered with The Gottman Institute, which aims to help families create and maintain healthy relationships.

We will be working together to provide an emotion coaching program for parents because being home working and managing children all day long is a huge challenge right now, said Johnson.

The organizations latest endeavor is partnering with the AAKOMA Project, which offers teletherapy.

We are paying for 20 sessions for individuals who are looking to get help right away. When people are in crisis, its about surviving and meeting the basic needs of food, shelter, and safety. This program allows people to get mental health support without them having to think about it or stress about it and create more anxiety around it, Johnson said.

When Young was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, his mom wasnt familiar with the condition.

I had a friend who was a mental health counselor who I spoke with because I didnt know anything about the condition. She told me about suicide and how prevalent it was, but it was something I didnt even register at the time, said Love.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 46% of people who die by suicide have a diagnosed mental health condition, and 90% of people who die by suicide have experienced symptoms of a mental health condition.

While people with severe mental illness, such as depression and bipolar disorder, are at increased risk for suicide, Julie Cerel, PhD, licensed psychologist and past president of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), says not everyone who has these illnesses will die by suicide.

In fact, a greater percentage of people with schizophrenia and eating disorders die by suicide than those with depression and bipolar disorder. Depression is quite common and, fortunately, a small percentage of people with depression die by suicide even though popularly, people think of depression being the only cause of suicide, Cerel told Healthline.

She adds that while mental health conditions play a role in suicide, not all suicide is the result of mental health issues.

Many people who die by suicide do not have diagnosable mental health problems, but also have relationship problems, physical health problems, job- or money-related stress, legal or housing problems. It is important for people to know that mental health issues are common and treatable and to reduce the stigma of getting help, said Cerel.

The stigma to get help is especially present in the African American community, says Love.

In African American communities, there is such a stigma that people dont want to talk about it or get treatment. Whenever I give public presentations, there are people who will come up to me and speak in their hushed tones about a family member who needs help, but they do not openly talk about it. With suicide there are all kinds of judgment placed on families, Love said.

Part of the stigma is due to mental health disparities experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Cerel says these disparities are also an issue in suicide prevention.

Following the death of George Floyd in May, the AAS issued a statement pledging to become anti-racist.

Other leaders in the field of suicide prevention pledged to make change too.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention set out to make diversity a priority for grants. Vibrant Emotional Health, which operates the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, distributed tip sheets to mental health professionals that give guidance on how to talk about racism and civil unrest.

Love believes more efforts like these are needed.

The larger scope of the problem beyond the therapeutic needs and clinical practices and programs is the stress factors of being Black in America, she said.

We live in a highly racially charged environment, and the day-to-day life and microaggressions that happen, the fear that is exacerbated whenever a child watches a shooting on TV all those factors contribute to the need for mental health professionals and well-being counselors and therapies and modalities.

Love added, As a cultural worker and educator, I see the systemic issues that are so imbedded in this society, and these are issues Lee was concerned about.

The foundation in her sons memory plans to address these issues.

Its a matter of having more conversations and addressing things in gentle ways. For the Black community, and African men, boys, and teenagers, we are present, said Johnson.

The reasons people become suicidal are complex, and Cerel says that there isnt one type of person who attempts or dies by suicide. In fact, people of all races, ages, and walks of life can be suicidal.

The biggest warning sign that someone may be suicidal is if they talk about suicide, says Cerel.

It is really OK to ask someone if they are thinking of suicide if you are worried about them. You wont put any ideas in their head that arent there already. Having the means to end their lives can be fatal, so someone who is suicidal with a firearm is at risk. It is best to figure out how to separate people who are suicidal from the means they could use, she said.

The most common misconception she wants to debunk is that people who are suicidal are selfish.

In fact, their brain is telling them that the people they love would be better off without them. This is one of the great tragedies of suicide, as each suicide touches about 135 people we found in our work, and those left behind often have their lives permanently changed, Cerel said.

If you are in need of help or know someone who is, contact:

Cathy Cassata is a freelance writer who specializes in stories around health, mental health, and human behavior. She has a knack for writing with emotion and connecting with readers in an insightful and engaging way. Read more of her work here.

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She Lost Her Son to Suicide, Then Created a Foundation to Help Others - Healthline

Human Behavior

"Enemies of the State" director on the twisty new doc with "too many secrets still in the story" – Salon

The legal cases against Matthew DeHart are the subject of the fascinating documentary "Enemies of the State," which received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week.

Directed by Sonia Kennebeck, and executive produced by Errol Morris, the film chronicles what happened after DeHart,who is described as "a pioneer with Anonymous and Wikileaks,"is investigated for allegedly possessing child pornography. The accused, along with his parents, Paul and Leann, insist that these are trumped-up charges. DeHart claims he possessed sensitive information he received over the dark web that the government wants, and they are using the legal caseto target him and get access to his computer files.

But, as someone in the film asks, "Where do you go if the U.S. government has you on National Security offenses?" Matt and his parents are a patriotic military family, however, given this situation, they pack up in the middle of the night and seek asylum in Canada. DeHart was eventually jailed; moreover, he claims he was tortured in prison.

"Enemies of the State" unpacks this twisty story, which was also covered by journalist Adrian Humphreys, who is interviewed in the film. Kennebeck uses recreations of events, original audio recordings, and testimonies from police, lawyersand others involved in the case, along with the interviews with the DeHart family, to ferret out the truth. What is revealed is both surprising and perhaps not. It all depends on who or what viewers believe: Is DeHart a criminal or a scapegoat? What happened to the USB drive with the sensitive files?

Salon spoke with Kennebeck about the DeHart case and her intriguing new film.

Perhaps one of the most revealing anecdotes in the film is one that his high school buddy Josh Weinstein provides about Matt running for student body president. I am curious what your impression of Matt is?

I think he is an enigma. I spent so many years digging into the story, and it was a challenging investigation. I think what's important to know is that we went into the story with an open mind. We didn't know the outcome when we embarked on this investigation and journey. As time went along, we interviewed the parents and people who knew [Matt] as well as prosecutors and detectives. [We were curious] to hear from Matt himself and not just through an interview on a prison phone line, where everything was recorded.

As Adrian Humphreys says about some of the questions we have in his case, Matt might be the only one to answer them in the absence of a number of documents and parts of the investigation.

What attracted you to tell this story which involves untangling the truth and lies? The real issue of "Enemies of the State" may be deciding who or what to believe. Someone is an unreliable narrator here.

I gravitate towards these types of stories. I'm interested in stories that have a lot of secrecy. I love researching and investigating. I first heard about Matt during production of "National Bird." When I heard it involves Anonymous, Wikileaks, the FBI, child pornography, and torture there are so many strange elements, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. My production team and I wanted to make a film about alleged U.S. government torture, so that connected us to the Matt DeHart story. But we realized very quickly there is another side to it, and we found different perspectives. As we went along, it was clearer to me that it was a film and a story about the truth. Through trying to find truth in the world we live in now, where so many strange stories exist on the internet, this film became a timely piece and a commentary on the times. We have trouble figuring out what to believe and how to get to the bottom of things.

You use interviews and reenactments as well as audio recordings to tell this story which practically folds in on itself. I admire the high-wire balancing act. Can you talk about access to the subjects and how you constructed the narrative?

What I tried to do is take the audience on the investigation we went on. We disclosed the steps and timeline as we received information, so the viewer could experience what we experienced, because that is the most accurate approach to a complicated story like this. When we started interviewing people it was clear how much was "he said/she said," and how contradictory their statements were.

My editor did an excellent job. We gathered all the evidence and went through the story and timeline and used as many documents as we could to show as much reliable information and present that to the audience so they could piece together the story and form their own opinion. Human behavior is complicated.

That's the beauty of the film too; you have the voices, and sound is important because there is so much original audio, but then the visuals and the music and what you see in people's eyes the film presents all these dimensions.

There is a discussion in the film by journalist Adrian Humphreys who talks about an image of DeHart. A photo of him looking bleary-eyed in an orange prison jumpsuit was sent for publication. DeHart, of course, preferred a smiling photo of him in a Canadian hockey shirt. There is a manipulation of representation. Can you talk about that and how you, as a filmmaker, confront the image that best reflects the story versus one that might show bias?

That soundbite has so much depth it represents how on one hand, the journalist has to be fair, and should try to listen to and ask questions of both sides, whenever possible. The government too, often blocks interview requests, and has too much secrecy. As journalists and investigative reporters, we try to get to the bottom of things. But we must acknowledge that there are opposing viewpoints that people try to present their story in the best possible way and in the best light. Humphreys understands this and tells us to pay attention and be critical about what you are being presented.

What we are doing, and the images in the film, are very important and the credit goes to my cinematographer. The images in the film often carry multiple messages. We have a shot of Matt sitting in his room reflected in multiple mirrors. That image represents the [multiple] sides of the story, and we tried to use film as a medium to its fullest.

The documentary has footage and recreations that were done with accuracy and thought. A lot of the film is what you believe and want to believe but also how the surveillance state induces paranoia. When we investigate stories like this, what we know is that the U.S. government has been doing terrible things: torture, the drone program, mass data collection, surveillance. etc. That is the world we live in. There is a history of government misconduct in this country.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the film team makes a startling discovery. And someone does state what may have been on the USB drive, which would be pretty shocking iftrue. What surprised you about the DeHart case in making this film?

There were a lot of things that we didn't see coming. What is on the USB drive, and when it was revealed to us of course, you need to see the evidence as a journalist. All the attorneys were speculating where these drives could be.

One of the questions the film asks is how do people take a stance when there is incomplete information? I love the point that people need to think critically; it's just not done enough. What are your observations on that?

What I take away is that you really have to go into a true investigation with an open mind and be open to different opinions and perspectives. I want people to probe and investigate, listen and question, and think critically. The story isn't entirely over.

Where do your sympathies lie?

There is a reason I'm not including my voice in the film. I think there are too many secrets still in the story, and I think part of it is the responsibility of the government classifying too many documents. I have a lot more questions. I gave everyone who wanted to speak with us an opportunity to present their perspective. We presented all the evidence we could find. I'm not a judge or jury, but it is important for people to think for themselves and come to their own conclusion.

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"Enemies of the State" director on the twisty new doc with "too many secrets still in the story" - Salon