Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Lyft is Tapping its Drivers to Collect Data for Improving its Self-Driving Vehicles and Build HD Maps – FutureCar

Author: Eric Walz

The robust software powering today's self-driving vehicles is not static, its continuously evolving and being refined using AI and machine-learning algorithms so autonomous vehicles (AVs) can better handle unexpected driving scenarios.

However, in order to do this, massive amounts of real-world data is needed to train AI-powered autonomous driving systems, so they can be improved over time. Ride-hailing company Lyft, is turning to its drivers for assistance in gathering all of this data. Turns out that simple dash cams used by Lyft's drivers are an ideal way to collect data while driving through urban areas.

Some drivers on Lyft's ride-hailing platform are using small, low-cost dash cameras to collect footage of intersections, bicyclists, pedestrians, as well as the behavior of other drivers while the Lyft driver is out and about picking up passengers.

By collecting the driver data, Lyft is helping to accelerate the development of autonomous driving technology as its highly valuable to improve the software and AI that powers the self-driving development vehicles.

Since Lyft's service its accessible to 95% of the U.S. population, it's one of the largest datasets in the world of real world driving scenarios.

The real-world data is used to train machine learning models so Lyft's engineering teams can better understand how human drivers behave in various traffic situations. For example, Lyft's data can be used to better predict how fast drivers travel on a particular stretch of road, or the probability that a human driver will enter an intersection when the traffic signal turns yellow.

The data can also be used to produce highly detailed 3D maps, which are an essential tool for self-driving vehicles to navigate with.

Using Driver Data to Improve HD Maps

Using rideshare data, Lyft was able to build city-scale 3D geometric maps using technology developed by Blue Vision Labs, an augmented reality software company acquired by Lyft in 2018.

High-definition maps contain much more detailed information compared with traditional maps. For instance, the maps used by self-driving vehicles contain the exact position of each lane and traffic light information of intersections, such as if an intersection has a traffic light that allows vehicles to make protected turn lefts. The HD maps even include elevation data and the location of street signs.

Lyft generates this information from its rideshare data by using a combination of 3D computer vision and machine learning to automatically identify traffic objects from the camera feed, such as other vehicles, pedestrians and road signs.

All of this information helps Lyft's engineers understand how drivers behave in risky situations, like a driver running a particular red light or failing to properly yield.

Lyft said it mapped thousands of miles using the wide geographic coverage of the vehicles on its ride-sharing network. Lyft continuously updates its maps from data collected from each trip. After it's collected, the data is immediately logged each time a ride is completed.

While mapping operations teams can build 3D maps for AVs, keeping them up-to-date is a challenge without continuously updated information. For example, a lane closure due to construction needs to be included in the 3D maps and pushed out to Lyft's autonomous vehicles for navigation. By using real data from driver's that traverse this area, Lyft can better train its AVs to better navigate through the hazard.

In addition to assisting Lyft to build 3D geometric maps, data rideshare network data helps the company to better understand human driving patterns. Using visual localization technology, Lyft is able to track the real-world trajectories that Lyft drivers follow when making turns or traveling in a lane with a greater level of accuracy.

This helps Lyft's self-driving vehicles to maintain the optimal location in their lane based on human driving patterns, so the software more closely mimics how drivers navigate urban road environments.

The data helps Lyft determine the optimum lane position for its AVs that more closely match how human drivers behave.

The data also helps Lyft's autonomous vehicles to better handle aggressive drivers and those who don't always obey road rules.

For example, if drivers are constantly being cut near a busy intersection where traffic merges, the data can be used to tune the software to anticipate this behavior and determine the appropriate deceleration profile, instead of having to slam on the brakes after being cut off by an aggressive driver.

This enables Lyfts's AVs to respond more safely in similar situations and behave more like a human driver, lessening the anxiety for passengers that will one day ride in Lyft's self-driving vehicles.

For developers of self-driving vehicles, building highly detailed maps and better understanding human driving behavior is critical. This data driven approach can help accelerate AV development, allowing developers to better address motion planning challenges of navigating in an urban environment.

By using this approach, Lyft is not just solely relying on previous AV trips or computer simulation simulation environments to determine how its vehicles should behave. Instead the company is leveraging real data from one of the largest ride-sharing networks in the world.

Lyft is not alone in its efforts. Waymo, which spun out of Google's self-driving car project, is also sharing its vehicle data with researchers.

In August 2019, Waymo released its "Waymo Open Dataset" for researchers and developers working on autonomous driving and other related mobility projects. Waymo says its dataset is the largest, richest, and most diverse self-driving dataset ever released for research purposes.

Like Lyft, the data was collected by a fleet of Waymo self-driving vehicles that traveled over 10 million miles in 25 different cities.

The dataset includes high-resolution sensor data covering a wide variety of environments, including dense urban areas and suburban streets. That data was also collected in a wide variety of real-world conditions, including day and night, bright sunlight and rain.

Waymo's own engineers use the same dataset to develop self-driving technology and innovative machine learning models and algorithms. With the release of Waymo's dataset, engineers outside of Waymo are getting access to the same data the Waymo's uses for the first time ever.

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Lyft is Tapping its Drivers to Collect Data for Improving its Self-Driving Vehicles and Build HD Maps - FutureCar

Human Behavior

Wet wipes and sanitary towels may end up as microplastic fibers in the sea – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jun 23 2020

Researchers from Earth and Ocean Sciences and the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway have carried out a study on the contribution of widely flushed personal care textile products (wet wipes and sanitary towels) to the ocean plastic crisis.

Dr. Liam Morrison led the study, which showed that sediments adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant are consistently strewn with white microplastic fibers that are comparable to those from commercially available consumer sanitary products (wet wipes and sanitary towels). The article has been published in the international journal Water Research and was co-authored by NUI Galway Ph.D. student Ana Mendes and Maynooth University graduate Oisn Briain.

In most studies to date, white fibers are likely underestimated, because of the commonly used filtration procedure to capture microplastic fibers as filters are commonly white, making visual identification of microscopic white fibers against a white background difficult. This is significant given the global growth of non-woven synthetic fiber products and their ubiquity in wastewater.

Our University has made sustainability a strategic priority, and for the world to address climate change, we have a duty to examine the behavior of individuals and corporations that can help our planet. This research highlights the need for us to adapt our behaviors and tackle the ubiquity of plastic in so many products."

Professor Ciarn hgartaigh, President of NUI Galway

An urban rural gradient involving three locations from Galway City (close to Mutton Island and adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant) to counties Clare (Bell Harbour) and Mayo (Bellacragher) were investigated in this study. The total number of fibers found near Mutton Island was 6083 microplastics fibers per kilogram of sediment, while the rural sites had much lower levels (Bell Harbour, 1627 and Bellacragher 316). The total number of white fibers was 5536, 788, and 265 per kilogram of sediment for Mutton Island, Bell harbor and Bellacragher respectively. Incredibly, 91% of microplastic fibers at Mutton Island are likely derived from wet wipes and sanitary towels.

Lead researcher of the study, Dr Liam Morrison from Earth and Ocean Sciences and Ryan Institute at NUI Galway, said: "COVID-19 may have brought its own challenges for the oceans including the increased use of disinfectant wipes during the pandemic which potentially may end up as microplastic fibers in the sea. It is widely known that microplastics can act as vectors for contaminants including bacteria and viruses and are potentially harmful for public health and marine life."

The nearby intertidal zone at Mutton Island is prone to the accumulation of high volumes of washed-up sewage-derived debris on a frequent basis. Excessive microplastic loading in sediments in December 2017 was likely induced by heavy precipitation episodes during a south-westerly storm front. Elevated debris loading on this occasion may result from combined sewer overflows, where excessive input of drainage water exceeds wastewater treatment effluent capacity and is released untreated in the overflow. Dr Morrison said: "This was significant in the context of climate change, where we are likely to see increased rainfall events and flooding."

While most microplastics may be removed by the wastewater treatment process, combined sewage overflows associated with periods of heavy rainfall give rise to the release of sewage waste containing wipes and sanitary towels, impacting on public health and the environment. Combined sewer overflows and the subsequent shoreline deposition of sanitary waste have not previously been thoroughly investigated as a source of white microplastic fibers in the marine environment. The study found that wet wipes and sanitary towels are a source of unaccounted white microplastic fibers in the marine environment and not all flushable wipes are biodegradable. In fact 50% of the wipes labeled "flushable" in this study were shown to contain microplastics. The lack of regulation for hygiene and sanitary products results in a failure to identify the plastic composition of these materials. This demonstrates the consequences of misleading labeling of non-woven textile personal care products.

The samples of sanitary-related macro debris (wipes and sanitary towels) collected from the intertidal zone near Mutton Island in Galway City following a heavy rainfall event were mostly comprised of the plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET), with only a quarter of the samples analyzed presenting as a mix of PET and cellulose, and over 80% of the wipes in the shoreline waste were identified as non-flushable due to their polymer composition following the International Water Services Flushability Group and non-woven textile industry guidelines (INDA/EDANA, 2018; IWSFG, 2018).

Given the global distribution and projected growth of the non-woven textile industry (as non-woven textiles form the base material of many sanitary products), this is a concern. European production of non-woven textiles for hygiene and sanitary products exceeded one million tonnes in 2016 alone and these products frequently cause blockages in sewage systems globally, incurring significant technical and financial costs to wastewater utilities.

These products are a consistent feature of global plastic pollution surveys and in comparison, microplastic fibers from clothing are generally colored or multi-colored. To date the role of these white microplastic fibers as significant components of wastewater effluent remained poorly understood. The quantities of wet wipes washing up on beaches in the UK has increased 400% in the last decade (Marine Conservation Society, 2019).

Dr Morrison added: "There is a need for increased public awareness of microplastic pollution in the environment and human behavior should shift away from the inapt disposal of sanitary products down the toilet and instead divert to alternative land-based waste management."

Source:

Journal reference:

Briain, O.O., et al. (2020) The role of wet wipes and sanitary towels as a source of white microplastic fibres in the marine environment. Water Research. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116021.

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Wet wipes and sanitary towels may end up as microplastic fibers in the sea - News-Medical.Net

Human Behavior

The General Education Curriculum We Need | Higher Ed Gamma – Inside Higher Ed

The time to rethink and reimagine general education is long past due.

Surveys suggest that students view gen ed requirements as little more than a checklist. Certainly, the value of gen ed isnt self-evident to many students, who consider it an obstacle course and a diversion from the true interests.

"Irrelevant" is a word that crops up again and again. And I can assure you, irrelevant won't cut it following this summer's protests.

Some students also point to the hypocrisy of baby boomer faculty imposing requirements that they themselves didnt have to fulfill during their college days.

Distribution requirements remain the dominant form of general education, and were all familiar with the criticisms:

Even those academics who are sympathetic to the view that students should receive a well-rounded liberal education and be introduced to subjects that they havent previously encountered often concludes that the dominant approach to gen ed results in the worst of all worlds: unmotivated, disengaged students; overly complex, prescriptive and confusing requirements; and an overabundance of narrow, disciplinary-focused courses that do little to advance the true goal of general education, to provide sweeping introductions to the texts, ideas, methodologies and modes of analysis and interpretation that every educated person should be familiar with.

The history of the college curriculum has, for the past century and a half, involved swings between programs emphasizing choice and courses of study mandating certain requirements.

In a reaction against the rigid, highly prescriptive curriculum of the early American college, the late-19th-century research university embraced electives. Indeed, in 1900, Harvard had just one required class, English composition.

But the early 20th century witnessed a reaction, with the advent of the first general education requirements. Gen eds founding principles were twofold:

A few institutions, led by Columbia, embraced a common core of required courses. A few others, like Reed, introduced a core course, to be taken by every undergraduate. Still others instituted thematic or problem-oriented courses, like the University of Chicagos interdisciplinary classes on American political institutions, personality and culture, and freedom and order.

But most institutions adopted distribution requirements as the most scalable and cost-effective way to ensure that students acquired a basic understanding of humanities and the arts, contemporary social issues, and mathematics and science.

With the turn toward mass higher education following World War II, general education struck many as more important than ever. Reports from Columbia, Harvard, the University of Chicago and a presidential commission upheld gen ed as a way to give coherence to a fragmented curriculum, familiarize undergraduates with liberal and humanistic traditions, and cultivate responsible citizenship.

But by the late 1960s and early 1970s, choice was ascendant again, with many institutions abandoning distribution requirements. Many students and faculty did not lament their disappearance. A 1977 Carnegie Foundation report concluded that general education had become so "poorly defined and so diluted with options that it has no recognizable substance of its own."

Then the tide shifted yet again, with many campuses reviving gen ed requirements, partly in response to the increasing diversity and perceived academic unpreparedness of entering students and in part to ensure breadth, a common skill set and exposure to topics deemed essential by faculty.

UC Santa Cruzs gen ed curriculum illustrates the extensive range and specificity of such requirements. It includes courses in composition; cross-cultural analysis; ethnicity and race; the interpretation of arts and media; mathematical, statistical and formal reasoning; scientific inquiry; and textual analysis and interpretation, plus a choice of classes in such areas as collaborative endeavor, the creative process, environmental awareness, human behavior, service learning and technology and society.

Many states and many public university systems have standardized the gen ed curriculum to make it easier for students to transfer from one institution to another -- often provoking resistance from faculty who consider this a threat to their control over the curriculum.

At the same time, a number of private colleges, like Hiram College, have looked to gen ed as a way to differentiate their institution within the highly competitive higher education marketplace. Hirams Urgent Challenge Curriculum is organized around skills and themes: ways of knowing (which includes creative, interpretive, modeling, experimental scientific and social and cultural analysis methods); responsible citizenship (including an understanding of international issues, foreign cultures and diversity within the United States); and meaning, ethics and social responsibility.

However quixotic the idea may seem, the time has come, I am convinced, to radically rethink gen ed and increase student choice once again. But this need not mean abandoning the idea of a uniform undergraduate experience altogether. We need to give students attractive options.

At public colleges and universities, where curricular coherence is a pipe dream, some Purdue University faculty found a workaround. Their Cornerstone certificate program offers first-year students an experience somewhat analogous to that provided by Honors Colleges. Students take two courses on transformative texts, followed by three courses that address cultural impact and representation in one of five areas: science and technology, environment and sustainability, health care and medicine, management and organization, and conflict resolution and justice.

Georgetown initiated a series of modular courses that engage in interdisciplinary topics and projects and give students the opportunity to work with faculty from a variety of disciplines. Current topics include challenges in childhood and society, climate change, and social justice immersion experiences.

A number of faculty at CUNYs Hunter College have taken another different tack. Humanities 20100 combines off-campus arts experiences at museums and archives, and dance, music, theater and opera performances with a signature seminar led by a faculty mentor, along with visits by New York Citys cultural professionals, in which students investigate the historical contexts and the aesthetic, cultural and philosophical significance of the works they see and hear.

Students encounter both contemporary and canonical works that address timely and timeless issues involving justice, identity, power and privilege, prompting insights into ethics, psychology and the dynamics of social and cultural change.

If I am right, if the history of general education has been a pendulum swaying between choice and prescription, then the time has come to break the cycle and draw on the best of the past and imagine something new. We might consider replacing distribution requirements with:

In my studies of the history of childhood, I argue that contemporary upper-middle-class society has juvenilized and segregated the young and given them few ways to demonstrate their growing competence, apart from sports. Their parents worry incessantly about their mental and physical well-being and whether they are bored and fail to recognize that children, even young children, are far more capable than we generally assume. To perpetuate their class status, these parents shower their children with adult-directed enrichment activities.

Lets not juvenilize our college students. Lets give them options that do precisely what gen ed is supposed to do: promote student development along multiple vectors -- cognitive, emotional, interpersonal and ethical -- expose them to a variety of methodologies and interpretive strategies; and teach them to look, listen, read, think, speak and write critically and analytically.

Lets not dictate a single path, no matter how carefully considered or well intentioned. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

Steven Mintz is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin.

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The General Education Curriculum We Need | Higher Ed Gamma - Inside Higher Ed

Human Behavior

How Framing Coronavirus Risks Impacts A States Willingness To Reopen Its Economy – Forbes

Dr. Joshua Liao explains why it is important for citizens to pay attention to how leaders frame reopening plans because willingness to take risks can depend on how it is being framed.

Kathia Joseph, Blue Paris Bistro owner, poses for a photo during an interview with the AFP in Miami ... [+] Beach, Florida. Florida is reporting record daily totals of new coronavirus cases, but you'd never know it looking at the Sunshine State's increasingly busy beaches and hotels.

Few deny the immense tragedy of lost lives and livelihoods due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet many argue that the best way to stop the loss of either lives or livelihoods will require increasing the loss of the other. Public health experts assert that economic restrictions are needed to minimize deaths until states have robust data surveillance systems to guide reopenings. But even though only a few states are actually prepared by these criteria to reopen, every single one has started reopening decisions driven by calls to stop throttling the economy.

Of course, economic hardship factors prominently into this willingness to risk personal and public health in order to reopen the country. Many Americans already face significant financial losses, and dire financial straits have driven some to defiantly protest stay-at-home orders.

But there is more than just economics driving these decisions. Policies and behaviors are shaped by how leaders frame reopening solutions to themselves and their constituents. As a behavioral principle, framing describes how humans tend to make decisions using the framework within which choices are presented. The phenomenon has been observed in many different situations, but perhaps none more relevant to the current situation than seminal experiments conducted by economists nearly four decades ago.

In those tests, participants were asked to imagine that the U.S. was considering two solutions to combat an unusual disease outbreak from Asia that was expected to kill 600 people. The first solution would guarantee that 200 people survived. The second solution would have a 1 in 3 chance of saving all 600 and a 2 in 3 chance that all 600 would die. Faced with the certainty of saving some and the possibility of saving all, over 70% of participants favored the former.

The experiment was repeated using the same scenario but different solutions. Participants were asked which they favored: a solution that would result in the death of 400 people, or one that had a 1 in 3 probability of no one dying and a 2 in 3 probability of all 600 people dying. Nearly 80% of participants chose the latter, favoring the potential to save everyone over the certainty of losing some.

The insight is two-fold: framing matters, and our willingness to take risks can depend on how it is being framed. When solutions were framed as the prospect of gains (definitely saving 200 people versus potentially saving all 600), most participants were risk-averse and took the proverbial bird in hand. But when solutions were framed as the prospect of losses (definitely losing 400 people versus potentially losing all 600), most people were more willing to take risks and roll the dice.

These are useful lessons amid Covid-19. As states progress through phases of reopening, leaders and communities will face many decisions and data points, all of which are affected by framing. Recognizing this reality can help leaders thoughtfully choose frames that fit local circumstances, and the rest of us make better decisions for ourselves and our loved ones.

Leaders can also recognize that solutions framed around loss (rapid reopenings could cost more lives) may resonate differently than those framed around gain (gradual reopenings could save more lives). The same can be true of economic recovery (the difference between jobs lost through closures and families benefiting from reopenings).

These are not trivial distinctions: by affecting Americans risk tolerance, framing can affect behavior and the actual risks we create for our communities as they are reopened. Getting the framing right is doubly important because of the connection between health and finances business viability requires a healthy workforce, and an unstable economy can cause health problems.

To be clear, appropriate framing is not a panacea; strong science, policy and public health measures remain critical for sustainable recovery. But human behavior not science or politics is the final common pathway to all interventions, and the psychology behind those behaviors may determine the success of our recovery efforts. Addressing that psychology means not just grappling with challenging health and economic issues, but paying attention to how we talk about them.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

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How Framing Coronavirus Risks Impacts A States Willingness To Reopen Its Economy - Forbes

Human Behavior

THROUGH THE LENS: An interview with Kathy Triolo – The Union of Grass Valley

Its no wonder Kathy Triolo is elected President of the Nevada County Camera Club.

After years of adventure and pursuit of career and family, Kathy returned to the passion she had as a 7-year-old kid with a Brownie camera, and reignited it into a stunning photography presence. Her reentry is highlighted by the multi-award winning Starry Night at the Fair.

Competing with thousands of photographers statewide, she won the coveted Best of Show in Photography at the California State Fair (2018) and received the Golden Bear award (a bronze casting of the CA state bear symbol). After that, she won first place and Best of Division at the Nevada County District Fair.

This photo represents her mastery of digital photo processing with the compositing of three photos into one can you recognize them? Before I reveal her technique, consider her beginnings, which became a basis for photographic achievement.

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BACK TO THE BEGINNING

While a teen, Kathy kept photographically active and built a dark room for processing color slides, the then affordable medium. Although growing up in San Francisco provided unlimited subject matter, especially for the street photography genre, going off to college expanded her view. Humboldt State University offered a photography major and enabled a year of travel abroad; Europe and Israel were her photographic school ground. But the Eureka area also offered photo opportunities.

The early photo Fishing in Eureka (1973) is delightful and shows her sense of humor with two fishermen appearing to abandon ship at days end.

However, a photography major didnt look like a viable career path, so Kathy got a degree in psychology. Well, psychology didnt look very promising either without an advanced degree, so she went on to get a MS in rehabilitation counseling at San Francisco State University. You might wonder what this has to do with photography, but studying human behavior does influence ones photographic sensitivity.

Kathy took her counseling work very seriously. For example, she took a challenging position doing psychiatric triage in locked wards in Redwood City and San Jose. Experiencing the depths of human behavior can deepen ones sensitivity to photographic subjects. Consider this photo of Rodney, juried into the California State Fine Arts Exhibition at the State Fair. This portrait has enduring appeal arising from portraying lifes struggle in the spirit of the great master painters, like Rembrandt.

TRAVELING FAR AND NEAR

Kathy and her camera (and her husband) have traveled to the far reaches of the world which often inspires her to combine photos from totally different locations (photographers call it compositing, using software such as Photoshop). Recently, she developed a noir theme to the delight of many subjects who ended up in exotic settings. This example, A Night in Barcelona, has a sinister couple (taken in Kathys studio) on the streets of Barcelona, Spain. Staging photos like this is not only intriguing but entertaining.

With Kathys penchant for travel we are fortunate to have her home in Nevada City for this interview. But the real reason for her availability is not so fortunate: COVID-19, which has halted most travel.

Earlier this year, when the pandemic wreaked travel havoc, she and her husband almost didnt make it back home. She laments, We traveled a long way to Sydney, Australia, for a Royal Caribbean cruise to New Zealand only to find out that the borders had closed right before we sailed. They had to quickly fly back, leaving Australia just in time.

Many of Kathys trips are in our region such as the eastern Sierras. Heres a photo that magnificently illustrates another popular genre, night photography.

The photo, Convict Lake Night Beauty, required positioning at the perfect place and time with tripod set up for a long exposure (which cant be too long or the stars will look like streaks). This photo took the photographic community by storm and was juried into California State Fair 2017 Fine Arts Competition, which accepts very few photos. It also won Photo of the Year for Nevada County Camera Club (2018), and was celebrated at the Clubs annual dinner.

ADDING ART TO ARTISTRY

Artistry is subjective and can be difficult to define, but we know it when we see it. De Chambeau Hotel, Bodie is an illustration of Kathys photographic artistry, and captures part of the Bodie ghost town (Bodie CA State Historic Park near the Nevada border) in a spectacular sunset. In contrast to other art forms, photography depends upon shooting at the exact right moment to capture natural light. In this case, the composition also contributes to a terrific photo. Notice the leading lines from the lower left into the colorful sunset above a blue sky.

This photo was featured in the 2018 Bodie Foundation Calendar and was made into a postcard for sale in the Bodie Foundation Gift Shop. It also won Best Color Photograph at the Nevada County District Fair in 2018.

Kathy has taken the art of photography to inspiring levels through her use of compositing. For Starry Night at the Fair (see our first photo), she combined a night sky photo of the Milky Way and a sunset shot of the California State Fair ride and then applied a color filter (selectively enhances colors) in Photoshop.

In the photo Wild Iris, the wild describes the iriss leaping out of a picture frame. This whimsical addition along with the other photographic elements renders the photo a work of art in our opinion.

SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT

Kathys presence in the photographic community includes shows, competitions and awards too numerous to mention here. But her work goes far beyond personal photography to leading and inspiring the Camera Club. She enables numerous shows, competitions and activities for members.

We are delighted at opportunities she creates working with her club board, such as shows at Nevada City Picture Framing and Gallery (571 Searles Ave., Nevada City) running through August, and a show at the office of Edward Jones Investments (580 Brunswick Road, Grass Valley) running now through July.

Sometimes the spotlight is all hers as with Underworld, which received the 2019 Award of Merit at the California State Fair Photography Competition. This photo then was then accepted for the KVIE Auction, a regional TV show airing in October. As noted in previous articles, printing photos is a surprisingly challenging process. Underworld not only creates a mysterious mood but the sharpness, tonal range and subtle lighting make it a winning print.

This just in: another example of Kathys awesome artistry, Butterfly Ballet, has been selected to show at Blue Line Arts, a prominent gallery in Roseville (405 Vernon St.) June 12 July 25. Kathy has created a dreamlike fantasy with many elements including flora, fauna, and young girls with color coordinated egrets.

I invite you to peruse Kathys compelling creations on her website:http://www.ktriolo.wixsite.com/triolography, Facebook, and Instagram.

Jim Bair, a former VP of the Nevada County Camera Club, has many of his award winning photos onhttp://www.JimBairPhotography.comand in this newspaper athttp://www.theunion.com/news/through-the-lens-a-qa-with-photographer-featured-artist-jim-bair.

Link:
THROUGH THE LENS: An interview with Kathy Triolo - The Union of Grass Valley

Human Behavior

Scholarly Perspectives on COVID-19, Part 1: This Was Only a Matter of Time – Southern Newsroom

In retrospect, December 2019 seems like an altogether different era now. For most of the U.S. population, at least, those were the halcyon days when students were doggedly completing final exams and papers, teachers were grading and looking forward to winter break, shoppers were checking off gift lists online and in stores, the faithful were making pilgrimages to holy sites, families were crisscrossing states and oceans to visit loved ones, football fans were celebrating the NFL playoffs, tourists were crowding into theaters on and off Broadway, crafters were selling their wares at holiday bazaars, farmers were repairing their equipment, and friends were meeting up for peppermint and eggnog latts.

On New Years Eve, meanwhile, the China Country Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports that a cluster of pneumonia cases had presented in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Provinceplace names that have since become ominously familiar but were then still unknown to many Americans. Six days later, the cause of the illness was still obscure, but by January 7, 2020, scientists in China had already isolated the pathogen and shared its full genetic sequence with the global scientific community. They identified it as a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Combining visual metaphor and perhaps not a little irony, coronaviruses are named for their crown- or halo-like appearance when peered at through an electron microscope; corona in Latin denotes an honorific garland worn on the head or else a halo encircling a celestial body, such as the sun. The pathogens, of which there are currently four main types known to affect humans, were first characterized in 1965 and are the source of mild to serious upper respiratory syndromes; some coronaviruses, for example, are known to cause the common cold (as do more than 200 other viruses, such as rhinoviruses). This newest coronavirus, however, had within a week caused 44 patients to seek in-hospital care, with 11 reported as severely ill.

Back in Georgetown, Texas, microbiologist Martn Gonzalez was just one Southwestern scientist who was carefully following updates on the epidemic as news emerged each day in the popular media and within the scholarly community. A novel virus is always cause for keen interest among researchers and healthcare practitioners alike, certainly, but its not necessarily a source of surprise. After all, in reflecting on the long history of human disease, researchers started predicting a pandemic like COVID-19 decades ago and more recently in articles such as The Next Plague Is Coming; Is America Ready? by science journalist Ed Yong and in the 2020 Netflix documentary series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak (whose first episode, Gonzalez says, is the one to watch if you want an accessible explanation of how a global disease affects communities, how researchers and healthcare providers approach them, and how difficult it is to develop vaccines).

With all the past epidemics and pandemics that weve seen, this was only a matter of time, Gonzalez says. I think most people in the sciences realized this was the case.

Gonzalez was teaching microbiology in January. On the first day of class, he posed the same question he asks at the beginning of every lecture: Has anybody heard anything going on in science? That day, he received a lot of blank stares; his students, like most people across the nation, had not yet started paying attention to the 2019-nCoV coverage, blissfully unaware of how the virus and the disease it causes would soon take center stage during classroom discussions and, of course, disrupt their very lives. But Gonzalez knew that the virus was one to watch: the first case of a 2019-nCoV infection in the U.S. was confirmed on January 20, in Snohomish County, Washington; by the end of the same month, the infected were numbering nearly 10,000 in at least 21 countries, and the WHO had declared a public health emergency of international concern. So he asked his students to start sharing the latest information at the top of each class meeting.

It didnt take long, he says, for students to start realizing that this was going to be much bigger than we originally thought.

Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of COVID-19. The spherical viral particles, colorized blue, contain a cross-section through the viral genome, seen as black dots. Credit: CDC Image Library, ID# 23354.

On February 11, 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) announced that, given the genetic relationship between the novel coronavirus and the coronavirus responsible for the 2003 outbreak of SARS, the new pathogen would be named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. The same day, the WHO christened the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez and his students discussed how viruses, the smallest of all microbes, consist of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat called a capsid and sometimes, as with SARS-CoV-2, by a lipid envelope that can be dissolved with soap, thereby destroying the entire particle (TL;DR? wash those hands!). They knew how viruses attach to the plasma membranes of living host cells and hack the cells mechanisms to replicate before detaching and invading other cells, usually destroying those cells, damaging tissues, and sickening or even killing the host organism. They discussed how viruses spread through the human population in many ways. For example, some can be passed on by skin-to-skin contact. Others can be transmitted via contaminated surfaces (disinfect those countertops!). They can spread through exposure to others bodily fluids and secretions, such as through sharing needles, sexual contact, or coughing and sneezing (again, wash those hands! but also wear masks to keep from infecting others!). And viruses can be carried by vectors, or disease-bearing organisms, such as mosquitoes, fleas, or bats, the last of which may have served as a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 before it jumped to an intermediate host and then eventually infected humanswho are also possible vectors.

It was a great learning experience, Gonzalez reflects.

But he noticed that as the days went by, his students began expressing frustration about the governmental and public responses to the outbreak. By late February, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 had topped approximately 84,000 in at least 56 countries, and the death toll had climbed to 3,900, but many nations, including the U.S., were slow to react and failed to implement a unified, strategic approach to testing and prevention based on classic epidemiological models.

Gonzalezs students wanted to know why. And I told them, We can talk about politics, but I have no idea why were approaching this the way we are, he remembers.

They also wondered aloud whether the novel coronavirus was something to be worried about considering comparisons that were being drawn between COVID-19 and seasonal influenza. Gonzalezs response was to remind them of the flus grave statistics: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, estimates that in the U.S. in 20162017 alone, 29 million people contracted symptoms of the seasonal flu, with 14 million seeking medical care, 500,000 requiring hospitalization, and 38,000 dying. Moreover, many people worldwide have developed immunity to seasonal flu strains, and flu vaccines exist to combat infection. By contrast, although mortality rates are impossible to confirm while an epidemic or pandemic is ongoing, the risk of death from COVID-19 appears to be higher than that from the flu. In addition, it remains unclear even now whether those who have survived COVID-19 have developed immunity, how long that immunity lasts, when a safe vaccine will be available, and when a large enough swathe of the global population will be inoculated to develop herd immunity.

Gonzalez says that his students became more educated in all this. They became aware of the power of knowledge. And they became aware of the stress of knowledge.

Given the store of knowledge scientists have developed based on previous epidemics, including the more recent outbreaks of coronavirus-caused diseases such as SARS (in 2003) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, in 2012), you would think that we would have been more prepared and known how to respond more quickly. And countries such as Taiwan, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark have been highly successful in limiting both infection and mortality because they relied on science, prioritized public health, coordinated responses among institutions, acted swiftly, and garnered the trust and cooperation of its citizens.

But elsewhere, as in the U.S., Gonzalez says, its been clear we havent learned the lessons of past outbreaks. A significant etiology of the chaotic and ineffective response has been misinformation, and he believes that platforms such as Nextdoor, Facebook, Twitter are just some of the vectors to blame for the spread of false or misleading information. One of the things that concerns me is were very much a social-media society now, he explains. Social media can be an incredible tool to get your message out, but if your message is filled with misinformation, its devastating to the cause . Lives are at stake here.

Social media can be an incredible tool to get your message out, but if your message is filled with misinformation, its devastating to the cause . Lives are at stake here.

Ironically, one flagrant inaccuracy Gonzalez saw floating about was a comment about vaccines in which the poster opined that scientists were lying. Understandably, Gonzalez had to refrain from responding, and he now limits his media diet to reporting by the CDC and the BBC, the British news channel. I havent checked it recently, but I can imagine my blood pressure is up a little bit, he laughs.

In the absence of accurate and clear communicationnot to mention the lack of other standard epidemiological strategies, including widespread reliable testing, quick diagnosis and quarantine, and contact tracing and isolationthe U.S. federal response to the disaster has been, well, disastrous. The most glaring symptom of this failure is that the countrys tally of infections and deaths far surpasses that of any other country: on May 24, the U.S. exceeded 1.6 million confirmed cases and 100,000 deaths, and at the time of this publication, a day shy of one month later, that death toll has risen to 120,225, with well more than 2.29 million confirmed cases. Another complication of the U.S.s messy response has been a host of avoidable draconian interventions with wide-ranging impacts on human behavior and the economy, such as social distancing, stay-at-home mandates, and school and business closuressacrifices that became necessary to flatten the curve (i.e., reduce the number of infections to prevent overburdening the healthcare system) but would also lead to upheaval in the lives and learning of Southwesterns own staff, faculty, and students.

But one other adverse effect of the lack of a coordinated national response has been a shortage of life-saving medical supplies. States, for example, were left to compete for ventilators, and healthcare providers were forced to reuse or go without personal protective equipment (PPE), jeopardizing the lives of the very people who can actually treat the disease. I think what is most frustrating is were putting people on the frontlines of this pandemic in danger, Gonzalez shares. He felt so strongly about the supply crisis, in fact, that he broached to his colleagues in the Biology Department a way they could help. I said, We have all these gloves were not going to be using because were not having labs or classes, and we have a good stock, so we can donate them! he recalls. The biology faculty consulted with Southwesterns administration, and their colleagues in the Chemistry Department volunteered to donate their equipment as well. Its one of those things where youre saying, I shouldnt have to be doing this, but were doing it, Gonzalez adds.

Despite his and his students deep concerns about the way the COVID-19 pandemic has been handled, Gonzalez saw some glimmers of positivity and hope when stay-at-home orders were in effectfrom the community wanting to support local restaurants by ordering takeout and neighbors offering to pick up items from the grocery store to help protect those who are greater risk of developing serious illness, such as those 65 years and older or those with underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, or compromised immunity. From that standpoint, its been very uplifting for me, he says. Some of the community is wanting to make a difference and looking to help.

He also celebrates the many breakthroughs of his STEM colleagues around the world, who have worked tirelessly in the past few months to advance knowledge of COVID-19 and over the years and decades to improve our learning about infectious diseases more broadly. He loves seeing publications such as Nature encouraging scientists to share their latest findings to expand our understanding and build this knowledge base. And he looks forward to discoveries that might be just around the corner, such as a universal vaccine that provides long-term immunization against all influenza types or a platform vaccine, long advocated by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, which would enable researchers to begin the first phase of clinical trials for new vaccines within months rather than years. You have no idea how much pride I had when it was less than two weeks after [the COVID-19 pandemic] started rolling that the global scientific community came out with a genetic sequence for [SARS-CoV-2], he says excitedly. Thats why I fell in love with science: its truly a community. When we publish papers, we police each other by doing peer review, and people will try to reproduce some of your results. Weve been doing this for a long time, and its worked. Ive been really happy with that.

You have no idea how much pride I had when it was less than two weeks after [the COVID-19 pandemic] started rolling that the global scientific community came out with a genetic sequence for [SARS-CoV-2].

Gonzalez says that we still have much to learn about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, but even after the current pandemic ends, we cannot be complacent going forward; instead, we must apply the lessons of yesterday and today. We can look at some of the earliest Old World infectious diseasesthings like dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria. It took something like 300 years for those three diseases to be found on most places on this planet, he explains. And then you look at the global society we are now and look at some of these new emerging infectious diseases, such as West Nile virus, Zika virus, and Chinkungunya virus. Its taken them less than 16 years to be found pretty much on a very large percentage of this Earth.

Moreover, Gonzalez adds, we have yet to fully comprehend the many twists and turns of infectious disease. For example, how might climate change accelerate or exacerbate the spread of such illnesses? When will the next single mutation in a known virus enable the sudden transmission of the pathogen from animals to humans, as was the case of SARS-Co-V-2? We were fortunate that the coronavirus that causes MERS, a disease with a 35% casefatality rate, did not easily transfer between human beings, but what if a more robust MERS-CoV-2 were to emerge? And what if Ebolaa fast-spreading disease with quickly manifesting symptoms and a shocking mortality rate as high as 90% in some WHO estimateswere suddenly contagious when carriers were asymptomatic (i.e., not exhibiting symptoms)?

We need to be prepared for this, he asserts. This is not something where we can sit there and say, As soon as this starts happening, well jump. We need to be working at this right now.

However, scientific discovery and innovation require opportunity and resourcesincluding both money and time. The medias pursuit of big stories and eye-catching headlines might suggest that scientific progress happens by leaps and bounds within days or weeks; the anxious public may be impatient for answers about a public-health crisis that is shaping individual lives. Nevertheless, good science requires time: time for research and development, time for experimentation and failure, time for correcting errors and replicating results, and time for collaboration and peer review. Yes, [scientists] can figure it out, but it takes time, Gonzalez says. Science is not do one experiment and have a result. It just didnt work that way. I wish it did! he laughs.

And with the COVID-19 pandemic, that scientific progress is actually happening fairly quickly, regardless of what naysayers might think or say. But because of the relatively rapid pace of research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, scientific findings and recommendations shared with the public can change, sometimes in the course of just weeks. After all, scientists are constantly expanding on previous work, discovering new phenomena, and drawing conclusions from the latest evidence. Their work can also be misinterpreted and misreportedaccidentally or intentionallyby journalists, pundits, and social-media frequenters. And in a heightened atmosphere characterized by fear of the unknown and suspicion of the very science we should be relying on, Gonzalez knows moving forward will require a lot of education.

As Ive always said, trust the science, he says. The science will police itself and will let you know if theres something you shouldnt be listening to.

Gonzalez will continue urging his students to use the communication skills theyve gained at Southwestern to share their scientific knowledge with their families, friends, and communities.

In the meantime, Gonzalez will continue urging his students to use the communication skills theyve gained at Southwestern to share their scientific knowledge with their families, friends, and communities. Its a practice that he hopes will prevent his students from caving to fear, will keep their circle of connections informed, and will ensure the health and safety of their loved ones. Says Gonzalez, Thats the one thing Ive really told my students: Whether this [pandemic] was going on or not, youre going to be part of a community, and there are times when a community requires a voice of reason. Your job is to go out there, use what youve learned, and bring that voice. I hope they do it; I really do.

Bibliography/further reading

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Scholarly Perspectives on COVID-19, Part 1: This Was Only a Matter of Time - Southern Newsroom

Human Behavior

Study explores the heritability of affectionate communication – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jun 23 2020

A new study of twins finds that genetics play a significant role in how affectionate women are, but the same can't be said for men.

Researchers examined differences in the level of affection people express in an effort to determine how much affectionate behavior is influenced by genetics versus a person's environment. They found that, in women, variability in affectionate behavior can be explained 45% by hereditary and 55% by environmental influences, such as the media, personal relationships and other unique life experiences.

Genetics do not appear to influence how affectionate men are. Men's variation in affectionate behavior instead seems to be solely influenced by environmental factors, a finding that came as a surprise to the researchers.

The study, published in Communication Monographs, was led by Kory Floyd, a professor in the University Arizona Department of Communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

"The question that drove the study was: Recognizing that some people are more affectionate than others, what accounts for that variation, and is any part of that variation genetic?" said Floyd, whose research focuses on the communication of affection in close relationships and its effects on stress and physiological functioning.

"In my field, there is a really strong underlying assumption that whenever we see differences in a trait level in people's social behaviors - like how talkative they are or how shy they are or how affectionate they are - those differences are learned; they're a function of the environment," Floyd said. "A study like this makes room for us to talk about the possibility that a number of social and behavioral traits that we automatically assume are learned may also have a genetic component."

Floyd and his collaborators studied 464 pairs of adult twins - about half identical and half fraternal - between the ages 19 and 84.

Twin studies often are used to look at how environmental and genetic factors influence specific traits. Because twins typically are raised in the same household, they've usually had very similar upbringings and early experiences. However, twins' genetic similarities vary based on what type of twins they are. While identical twins share 100% of their genetic material, fraternal twins share only 50% - the same as regular siblings.

Each participant in the study rated a series of statements designed to measure how much affection they typically express. The researchers then looked at how similar each twin pair's responses were.

If genetics didn't play any role, one could assume that the scores of people in fraternal twin pairs would be just as similar as the scores of people in identical twin pairs, who are more alike genetically. However, that was not the case. The identical twin pairs scored more similarly than the fraternal twin pairs - at least in the case of women - suggesting that there is, in fact, a genetic component to affectionate behavior.

The researchers don't know why affectionate behavior seems to be heritable in women but not men. However, Floyd notes that men, on average, tend to express less affection overall than women, as evidenced by previous research.

When we measure people's tendency to be affectionate and to receive affection from other people, almost without exception we find that women score higher than men. The trait of being affectionate may be more adaptive for women in an evolutionary sense. There is some speculation that affectionate behavior is more health supportive for women than it is for men, and that it helps women to manage the effects of stress more than it does for men. That may be partly why women are more likely than men to inherit the tendency to behave that way rather than that tendency simply being a product of their environment."

Kory Floyd, Professor, University Arizona Department of Communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

The researchers also found that twins' shared environment - such as how they were raised or their socioeconomic background - had little bearing on how affectionate they were. Rather, unique environmental factors, such as an individual's friends and experiences apart from their twin, were what mattered more.

"It's not exactly what we would expect, but for many behaviors and personality characteristics - including how affectionate you are - what twins do and experience differently in their lives plays a much bigger role than anything they experience together," Floyd said.

It's important to note, Floyd said, that the study's findings are at the population level and not the individual level. In other words, they don't suggest that every woman's level of affectionate behavior can be attributed 45% to heredity and 55% to environmental influences. Nor do they mean a person can't be more or less affectionate than what their genes suggest.

"Our genes simply predispose us to certain kinds of behaviors; that doesn't automatically mean we're going to engage in those behaviors," Floyd said. "And it certainly doesn't mean that we have no control over them."

How 'huggers' can deal with COVID-19 'skin hunger'

Those who are more predisposed to being affectionate might especially miss hugs and handshakes in the era of COVID-19 physical distancing, Floyd said.

But it's not just "huggers" who crave regular affection. We all are wired to need human touch.

"There's something special about touch that I think relates back to the fact that we, as human beings, are born in such a state of immaturity that we have no ability to take care of our own needs," Floyd said. "Touch equals survival as infants. If we don't have someone touching us and helping to meet our needs, then we don't survive."

People who live alone or who are limiting social interactions during the pandemic may experience what's referred to as "skin hunger," Floyd said.

"Just like regular hunger reminds us that we're not getting enough to eat, skin hunger is the recognition that we're not getting enough touch in our lives," Floyd said. "Many people these days are recognizing that they miss getting hugs, they miss touch, and it's maybe the one thing technology hasn't really figured out how to give us yet."

While there is no real substitute for human touch, Floyd says there are a few things people can do.

--Pet your dog or cat. Petting an animal can help relieve stress, which is why canine and equine therapies are so successful, Floyd says. If you don't have a pet, you might consider heading to the local Humane Society or shelter to interact with an animal there.

--Cuddle your pillow or blanket. Many of us grew up with a favorite stuffed toy or security blanket. Adults, too, can experience calm and comfort from snuggling up to a pillow, blanket or other soft object that feels good against the skin, Floyd says.

--Practice self-massage. Some people massage their own necks or shoulders to relieve stress and physical pain. Floyd recommends pressing your thumb into the palm of your opposite hand as one type of stress-relieving massage.

"None of these is a perfect substitute," Floyd said, "but when being able to hug or hold hands with our loved ones isn't feasible or safe for us, these sorts of things are certainly better than nothing."

Source:

Journal reference:

Floyd, K., et al. (2020) Heritability of affectionate communication: A twins study. Communication Monographs. doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2020.1760327.

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Human Behavior

Alabama Has the 2nd Highest Number of New Cases in Nation – Tv24

Over the past two weeks, Alabama had the second highest number of new COVID-19 cases in the nation, based on each states total population.State Health Officer Scott Harris says the numbers are concerning and that if the new cases continue to grow, we will see more hospitalizations and deaths. According to the dean of the UAB School of Medicine, one of the hardest parts of fighting this pandemic is human behavior.

The Director of the Division Infectious Diseases at UAB, Jeanne Marrazzo explains the importance of wearing face masks. Marrazzo says they know masks are effective in protecting against the virus when used in conjunction with social distancing because theyve seen large cities contain the virus through those measures. However, just over the weekend, the CDC said it has been reviewing the use of face masks during the pandemic and they expect to release new guidelines regarding masks soon.

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Alabama Has the 2nd Highest Number of New Cases in Nation - Tv24

Human Behavior

Covid Spike in Florida Gives NBA Players More Reason to Hesitate – The New York Times

Robert A. Iger, the executive chairman of the Walt Disney Company, introduced the phrase into the N.B.A. lexicon. Adam Silver, the leagues commissioner, passed it on to the news media.

In a virtual meeting with N.B.A. team owners on April 17, Iger counseled his audience to make data and not the date the focus of the leagues comeback efforts.

Some two months later, as 22 teams ramp up activities in practice facilities and prepare to begin regular coronavirus testing for players and staff members on Tuesday, fretting about the data is suddenly one of the most popular pastimes in the N.B.A. universe.

The main reason: Since Tuesday night, when the league began distributing a 113-page guide of health and safety protocols to govern its planned restart of the 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World next month, the rate of confirmed coronavirus cases in Orange County, Fla., has risen dramatically.

Last Tuesday through Saturday, according to state data, 17 percent of coronavirus tests in the county returned positive results. That was a significant jump from the 10-day period before that, from June 6 to 15, when the positive rate was 5 percent.

The spike is yet another source of apprehension to manage for league and union officials, who just emerged from weeks of complicated discussions to come to terms on all the health and safety restrictions for its restart beginning July 7.

As a Wednesday deadline approaches for players to notify their teams whether they wish to withdraw from participation, for whatever reason, there are three main sources of anxiety among the players and executives in the league:

The location of the contained campus for the restart is a fresh source of unease. The N.B.A. chose Disney World for its single-site resumption of play for many reasons business reasons among them given Disneys status as the leagues top media partner. But Orange Countys increase in positive tests over the past two weeks has made it an infection hotbed, as described by Perry Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health.

As Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers said last week in a video chat with fans, some players are wrestling with fears that returning to full-time basketball may divert momentum from the Black Lives Matter movement, which has surged worldwide since the May 25 death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

In six weeks, the world may need some healing, they may need us to be on the floor, Williams said. But if more black kids or more black adults or any adults dealing with police brutality are getting killed and were still outraged, I dont know if its in our best interests to suit up, because it looks like we dont care.

A third prime worry that has been routinely overlooked with so much else happening is the injury risk players will face after what has been, for many, the longest layoff of their career from full-speed, five-on-five play.

There are certainly several players who have been participating for weeks in unauthorized workouts and pickup games a photo of LeBron James and Ben Simmons training together was posted on Instagram last week by the Klutch Sports Group, the agency that represents both players but there are likewise many players who struggled in the initial stages of the pandemic to find places to get shots up.

Through June 29, there will be a maximum of four players allowed in team practice facilities. The next week, until teams begin arriving at Disney World on July 7, up to eight players will be allowed. Players can thus only count on roughly 20 days of full practices and scrimmages with five-on-five work in Florida before the season resumes considerably less than the norm. A months worth of pickup games in team practice facilities every September typically precede the start of N.B.A. training camps.

Regarding the first (and perhaps foremost) concern, Halkitis, like many in his field, has praised the scope of the N.B.A.s plans to combat the coronavirus at the Disney campus near Orlando.

It is very, very, very well structured, Halkitis said of the 113-page document in a telephone interview. My reaction is that it makes the best use of the science we have to date, knowing perfectly well that things can change tomorrow.

The main weakness in the N.B.A.s approach, Halkitis said, is the prospect of players or team staff members leaving the campus without authorization and exposing themselves to the coronavirus or workers who are not staying on the grounds bringing it in.

Do I 100 percent believe that people arent going to leave? Halkitis said. I mean, these are adults, right? Human behavior is really hard to control.

Updated June 22, 2020

A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort and requires balancing benefits versus possible adverse events. Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. In my personal experience, he says, heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask. Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who dont typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the countrys largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was very rare, but she later walked back that statement.

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus whether its surface transmission or close human contact is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nations job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you arent being told to stay at home, its still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

If youve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

Yet he also acknowledged that the worrying trajectory of the testing data, at the very least, is bound to prompt questions about whether even the N.B.A.s strict protocols will be sufficient. The Florida Department of Health has seemed to acknowledge the shifting situation, issuing a lengthy health advisory on Saturday that included a reminder to wear masks in any setting where social distancing is not possible, and a recommendation that all individuals should refrain from participation in social or recreational gatherings of more than 50 people.

Another concerning development in the state from the weekend: Major League Baseball, while still searching for the labor agreement it needs to salvage some semblance of a 2020 season, ordered all team facilities in Florida and Arizona to shut down after players in both locations tested positive for the coronavirus.

If the numbers were staying stable or they were going down, Id have lots of confidence in the plan, Halkitis said of the N.B.A.s restart. The numbers going up mean you have a different circumstance now, which increases the probability of transmission and makes the plan which is excellent but not foolproof more susceptible to infiltration by the virus.

I keep using the flood and the dam example: A dam holds water, but if theres a lot of pressure on the dam, like lots of infections, its more likely to crack. And thats the problem here. They have to keep an eye on whats going on.

As players and coaches begin to reunite in earnest, with only two weeks to go before charter planes are revved up to take them straight to Disney World, one suspects that no one on the N.B.A. map will have to hear that advice twice.

Sopan Deb contributed reporting.

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Covid Spike in Florida Gives NBA Players More Reason to Hesitate - The New York Times

Human Behavior

In new documentary, ‘rewilding’ a home painstakingly crafted in the Alaska Bush – Anchorage Daily News

This week, 360 North will screen Rewilding Kernwood, the concluding documentary in a trilogy by Jean Aspen and Tom Irons. Their story is one of the many family tales about leaving civilization to build a cabin and live in the Alaska Bush. Because of the way they lived and how they left, this story is unlike any other.

It begins with Aspens early childhood in the wilderness. My belonging to wild places and the urge to explore my dreams was a legacy from my parents, Aspen said in a recent interview.

Her story was featured in a story in the 1953 issue of Life Magazine (Back Home to the Arctic: A couple that fought wilderness now embrace it and settle down). One full-page photo pictured 2-year-old Aspen on snowshoes, toddling behind her mother. In another, she watches her father skin a polar bear at the familys camp on the pack ice. She was also featured in the 1953 documentary Jeanie of Alaska, shown on national lecture tours.

The filmmakers were her parents, Bud and Constance Helmericks. Readers of Alaska adventure know the Helmericks through their books about their explorations in Alaskas remote Brooks Range and along the North Coast, including Connies 1944 book, We live in Alaska, and Buds 1969 The Last of the Bush Pilots.

In 1972, Aspen took a break from college and with her boyfriend, Phil Beisel, canoed down the Yukon River and lined upriver into the Brooks Range, where they built a cabin and lived off the land for almost four years. It was through her book about this experience, Arctic Daughter: A Wilderness Journey that I first came to know her. She told me that she chose the name Aspen, because unlike spruce trees, aspens are always changing.

In 1990, Aspen, her husband Tom Irons and their 4-year-old son Lucas paddled down Aspens familiar old river, stopping to visit her old cabin site. Around campfires, they talked about their dreams. One evening, camped at a spot they would later call Kernwood, and they imagined returning to build a cabin.

There were good reasons to leave the idea of living in the Bush to the realm of memory and dream. Irons was 44 and had never lived in the wilderness; Aspen was 40, soft and a bit chubby now. They had little in the way of savings and would have to sell much of what they owned. Letting go of security was like prying my fingers from a ledge, Aspen said. The venture didnt seem sensible, But we burned our bridges and never looked back, Irons said.

They returned in the spring of 1992 for a year-and-a-half sojourn. A chartered bush plane flew them to Kernwood with everything theyd need for building a woodcutters cottage out of a fairytale. But this time, We didnt come to live off the land, Jean said, but to live with it.

The family decided to cut no living trees an ethic they lived by for the next 26 years. Over those years they would have to travel further and further upriver to find and cut the right trees, carry them to the river, then raft them back to Kernwood. Their standard required more work and strain on aging bodies, but the effort provided the satisfaction of minimizing their effect on the community of life here, of which we became a part.

The family brought most of their food with them but caught grayling and pike and harvested six moose over the years. Wildlife became accustomed to their presence and seemed to be drawn into their yard. A pair of weasels would scamper over their feet and follow them around. Gray jays landed on their shoulders. For nearly 20 years, a raven family, the Blackhearts, were their curious neighbors. A white wolf sometimes denned across the river. They lived in respectful peace with Goldilocks, a grizzly bear who occasionally investigated their yard. When one lives harmlessly in nature, Jean said, the land knows.

Baking shed at Kernwood (Photo from Jean Aspen and Tom Irons)

While preparing for the move, the couple had borrowed money to buy professional video equipment and taught themselves to use it. They wanted to share their experiences and whatever insights might emerge. Arctic Daughter: A Lifetime of Wilderness and Arctic Son: Fulfilling the Dream are the first two of what has become a trilogy of documentaries. All chronicle life in the wilderness, but their message is more about families, dreams and living purposefully. We hope to inspire others to live authentic lives, honor the Earth, and be kind to one another, Aspen said

Between stays at Kernwood, Aspen finished a nursing degree and worked as a travel nurse. Irons worked in hospice. At 17, their son Lucas set out to obtain a degree in nursing, later taking a position in Washington. Irons and Aspen settled into a rural Alaskan community with a small hospital, where Aspen got a job that enabled them to return to the river every summer.

But each year, their knees and backs sent more reminders that the couples days of carrying logs, hauling water and backpacking the high ridges were limited. The time was coming when the demands of Bush life would exceed their capabilities.

When Aspen and Beisel left their cabin in 1976, they had followed the old Alaskan standard of leaving it set up for others to use. However, when Aspens family floated by, they were saddened to find the deteriorating cabin surrounded by gas cans and the trash of airplane hunters. They shuddered to think of that future for Kernwood.

Alaska has become a different place and its a different world now, Aspen said. In the 1970s, she seldom saw planes. Now, every fall, hunters and hunting guides arrive in numbers: flying the river, spotting game and sometimes illegally shooting the same day or wasting meat. Irons and Aspen reported violations and cleaned up messy camps along the river. We became concerned that Kernwood would be used as a portal for exploiting the area, Irons said.

The Kernwood cabin site after restoration (Photo from Jean Aspen and Tom Irons)

Jean Aspen during the deconstruction of Kernwood (Photo from Jean Aspen and Tom Irons)

Tom Irons during the deconstruction of Kernwood (Photo from Jean Aspen and Tom Irons)

And humans are rapidly changing the planet, Aspen added. Tom and I came to view our relationship with Kernwood from this larger perspective. The couple tells of how the river and creek have warmed, ice is forming later, theres more smoke from forest fires, the permafrost is melting, and muskegs and ponds are drying up. Human behavior is degrading the systems that support life, Aspen said. We need to recognize that we each change the world by the choices we make.

In the summer of 2015 these concerns led Tom and Jean to a decision: They would rewild Kernwood, then leave. We decided to give the land back to itself, Tom said. Rewilding meant dismantling the cabin and other structures they had painstakingly built, removing everything not natural to the area and replanting the ground with sod from the roofs.

I visited Kernwood, and mentioned that it seemed a shame to tear down such beautiful work. Irons had become an artist with logs; seldom had a bush cabin exhibited such whimsy and artistry. It was a bittersweet decision, he explained. Yes, well miss our life here, he said, looking out over the river. But dreams have a lifespan. We feel it is our responsibility to restore the areas wildness while we are still physically able.

In 2016 they began by taking down the storehouse. The following year they dismantled their cabin, and by the fall of 2018 the bakehouse/smokehouse, outdoor kitchen and outhouse were all gone. They pulled every nail and backed out every screw. Logs with spikes that couldnt be pulled with a crowbar were split and burned for firewood. Others were carried down to the river so, as Irons said, they could continue the journey we interrupted when we borrowed them. They were carried, not dragged, because the vegetation here is delicate and heals slowly.

They carefully cut sod from the roofs and used it to revegetate areas where the buildings had stood. Aspen spent countless hours on hands and knees preparing the disturbed ground by burying cabin logs with wet composted sawdust, chinking moss and dirt. Then she meticulously fit each piece of sod over the irregular surface to restore the tundra mat. A few rotting logs were carefully inserted to mimic nature and support growth.

During their final years, they flew out about 8,000 pounds of supplies, metal, tools, and books for recycling and reuse, using each flight that came in to also take things out. Nothing that wasnt native to the area was left behind. We never had a trash pile, Irons said, and we were always careful about what we brought in.

Handcrafted rocking chair left behind at the Kernwood cabin site (Photo from Jean Aspen and Tom Irons)

On July 24, 2018, they floated downriver one last time. Now, its hard to tell that Kernwood had once existedexcept for one thing: facing the place where the cabin had been, a rocking chair, crafted from a single dead tree, remains. I couldnt bring myself to take it apart, Irons said, so we left it as a memento to the years we spent there. Its only wood, so it will return to the Earth.

We should strive to enrich the future, not use it up, Aspen said. The children of tomorrow dont need our moldering edifices. They need a healthy, living world in which to envision their own dreams.

ReWilding Kernwood will be aired on 360 North at 8 p.m., June 24 and 4 p.m., June 25.

For more of Jean Aspen and Tom Irons:

Their earlier documentaries are available at jeanaspen.com. Also available are Aspens books, Arctic Daughter, Arctic Son, and Trusting the River. Aspen is currently working to get six of her mothers early books back into print.

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In new documentary, 'rewilding' a home painstakingly crafted in the Alaska Bush - Anchorage Daily News