Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

30 Years Ago, Romania Deprived Thousands of Babies of Human Contact – The Atlantic

Image above: Izidor Ruckel near his home outside Denver

For his first three years of life, Izidor lived at the hospital.

The dark-eyed, black-haired boy, born June 20, 1980, had been abandoned when he was a few weeks old. The reason was obvious to anyone who bothered to look: His right leg was a bit deformed. After a bout of illness (probably polio), he had been tossed into a sea of abandoned infants in the Socialist Republic of Romania.

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In films of the period documenting orphan care, you see nurses like assembly-line workers swaddling newborns out of a seemingly endless supply; with muscled arms and casual indifference, they sling each one onto a square of cloth, expertly knot it into a tidy package, and stick it at the end of a row of silent, worried-looking papooses. The women dont coo or sing to the babies. You see the small faces trying to fathom whats happening as their heads whip by during the wrapping maneuvers.

In his hospital, in the Southern Carpathian mountain town of Sighetu Marmaiei, Izidor would have been fed by a bottle stuck into his mouth and propped against the bars of a crib. Well past the age when children in the outside world began tasting solid food and then feeding themselves, he and his age-mates remained on their backs, sucking from bottles with widened openings to allow the passage of a watery gruel. Without proper care or physical therapy, the babys leg muscles wasted. At 3, he was deemed deficient and transferred across town to a Cmin Spital Pentru Copii Deficieni, a Home Hospital for Irrecoverable Children.

The cement fortress emitted no sounds of children playing, though as many as 500 lived inside at one time. It stood mournfully aloof from the cobblestone streets and sparkling river of the town where Elie Wiesel had been born, in 1928, and enjoyed a happy childhood before the Nazi deportations.

The windows on Izidors third-floor ward had been fitted with prison bars. In boyhood, he stood there often, gazing down on an empty mud yard enclosed by a barbed-wire fence. Through bare branches in winter, Izidor got a look at another hospital that sat right in front of his own and concealed it from the street. Real children, children wearing shoes and coats, children holding their parents hands, came and went from that hospital. No one from Izidors Cmin Spital was ever taken there, no matter how sick, not even if they were dying.

Like all the boys and girls who lived in the hospital for irrecoverables, Izidor was served nearly inedible, watered-down food at long tables where naked children on benches banged their tin bowls. He grew up in overcrowded rooms where his fellow orphans endlessly rocked, or punched themselves in the face, or shrieked. Out-of-control children were dosed with adult tranquilizers, administered through unsterilized needles, while many who fell ill received transfusions of unscreened blood. Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS ravaged the Romanian orphanages.

Izidor was destined to spend the rest of his childhood in this building, to exit the gates only at 18, at which time, if he were thoroughly incapacitated, hed be transferred to a home for old men; if he turned out to be minimally functional, hed be evicted to make his way on the streets. Odds were high that he wouldnt survive that long, that the boy with the shriveled leg would die in childhood, malnourished, shivering, unloved.

This past Christmas Day was the 30th anniversary of the public execution by firing squad of Romanias last Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceauescu, whod ruled for 24 years. In 1990, the outside world discovered his network of child gulags, in which an estimated 170,000 abandoned infants, children, and teens were being raised. Believing that a larger population would beef up Romanias economy, Ceauescu had curtailed contraception and abortion, imposed tax penalties on people who were childless, and celebrated as heroine mothers women who gave birth to 10 or more. Parents who couldnt possibly handle another baby might call their new arrival Ceauescus child, as in Let him raise it.

Read: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Nicolae Ceauescu, megalomaniacal tyrant, friend of America

To house a generation of unwanted or unaffordable children, Ceauescu ordered the construction or conversion of hundreds of structures around the country. Signs displayed the slogan: the state can take better care of your child than you can.

At age 3, abandoned children were sorted. Future workers would get clothes, shoes, food, and some schooling in Case de copiichildrens homeswhile deficient children wouldnt get much of anything in their Cmine Spitale. The Soviet science of defectology viewed disabilities in infants as intrinsic and uncurable. Even children with treatable issuesperhaps they were cross-eyed or anemic, or had a cleft lipwere classified as unsalvageable.

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After the Romanian revolution, children in unspeakable conditionsskeletal, splashing in urine on the floor, caked with feceswere discovered and filmed by foreign news programs, including ABCs 20/20, which broadcast Shame of a Nation in 1990. Like the liberators of Auschwitz 45 years before, early visitors to the institutions have been haunted all their lives by what they saw. We flew in by helicopter over the snow to Siret, landing after midnight, subzero weather, accompanied by Romanian bodyguards carrying Uzis, Jane Aronson tells me. A Manhattan-based pediatrician and adoption-medicine specialist, she was part of one of the first pediatric teams summoned to Romania by the new government. We walk into a pitch-black, freezing-cold building and discover there are youngsters lurking abouttheyre tiny, but older, something weird, like trolls, filthy, stinking. Theyre chanting in a dronelike way, gibberish. We open a door and find a population of cretinsnow its known as congenital iodine deficiency syndrome; untreated hypothyroidism stunts growth and brain development. I dont know how old they were, three feet tall, could have been in their 20s. In other rooms we see teenagers the size of 6- and 7-year-olds, with no secondary sexual characteristics. There were children with underlying genetic disorders lying in cages. You start almost to disassociate.

I walked into an institution in Bucharest one afternoon, and there was a small child standing there sobbing, recalls Charles A. Nelson III, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Boston Childrens Hospital. He was heartbroken and had wet his pants. I asked, Whats going on with that child? A worker said, Well, his mother abandoned him this morning and hes been like that all day. That was it. No one comforted the little boy or picked him up. That was my introduction.

The Romanian orphans were not the first devastatingly neglected children to be seen by psychologists in the 20th century. Unresponsive World War II orphans, as well as children kept isolated for long periods in hospitals, had deeply concerned mid-century child-development giants such as Ren Spitz and John Bowlby. In an era devoted to fighting malnutrition, injury, and infection, the idea that adequately fed and medically stable children could waste away because they missed their parents was hard to believe. Their research led to the then-bold notion, advanced especially by Bowlby, that simply lacking an attachment figure, a parent or caregiver, could wreak a lifetime of havoc on mental and physical health.

From the April 1996 issue: Anne F. Thurston describes life in a Chinese orphanage

Neuroscientists tended to view attachment theory as suggestive and thought-provoking work within the soft science of psychology. It largely relied on case studies or correlational evidence or animal research. In the psychologist Harry Harlows infamous maternal deprivation experiments, he caged baby rhesus monkeys alone, offering them only maternal facsimiles made of wire and wood, or foam and terry cloth.

In 1998, at a small scientific meeting, animal research presented back-to-back with images from Romanian orphanages changed the course of the study of attachment. First the University of Minnesota neonatal-pediatrics professor Dana Johnson shared photos and videos that hed collected in Romania of rooms teeming with children engaged in motor stereotypies: rocking, banging their heads, squawking. He was followed by a speaker who showed videos of her work with motherless primate infants like the ones Harlow had producedswaying, twirling, self-mutilating. The audience was shocked by the parallels. We were all in tears, Nelson told me.

In the decade after the fall of Ceauescu, the new Romanian government welcomed Western child-development experts to simultaneously help and study the tens of thousands of children still warehoused in state care. Researchers hoped to answer some long-standing questions: Are there sensitive periods in neural development, after which the brain of a deprived child cannot make full use of the mental, emotional, and physical stimulation later offered? Can the effects of maternal deprivation or caregiver absence be documented with modern neuroimaging techniques? Finally, if an institutionalized child is transferred into a family setting, can he or she recoup undeveloped capacities? Implicitly, poignantly: Can a person unloved in childhood learn to love?

Tract developments fan out from the Denver airport like playing cards on a table. The Great Plains have been ground down to almost nothing here, to wind and dirt and trash on the shoulder of the highway, to Walgreens and Arbys and AutoZone. In a rental car, I drive slowly around the semicircles and cul-de-sacs of Izidors subdivision until I see him step out of the shadow of a 4,500-square-foot McMansion with a polite half-wave. He sublets a room here, as do others, including some familiesan exurban commune in a single-family residence built for Goliaths. At 39, Izidor is an elegant, wiry man with mournful eyes. His manner is alert and tentative. A general manager for a KFC, he works 60-to-65-hour weeks.

Read: American child detention centers degrading, inhumane conditions

Welcome to Romania, he announces, opening his bedroom door. Its an entryway into another time, another place. From every visit to his home country, Izidor has brought back folk art and souvenirshand-painted glazed plates and teacups, embroidered tea towels, Romanian flags, shot glasses, wood figurines, cut-glass flasks of plum brandy, and CDs of Romanian folk music, heavy on the violins. He could stock a gift shop. There are thick wine-colored rugs, blankets, and wall hangings. The ambient light is maroon, the curtains closed against the high-altitude sunshine. Ten miles southwest of the Denver airport, Izidor is living in an ersatz Romanian cottage.

Everyone in Maramure lives like this, he tells me, referring to the cultural region in northern Romania where he was born.

Im thinking, Do they, though?

You will see that many people there have these things in their homes, he clarifies.

That sounds more accurate. People like knickknacks. Do you sound like a Romanian when you visit? I ask.

No, he says. When I start to speak, they ask, Where are you from? I tell them: From Maramure! No one believes him, because of his accent, so he has to explain: Technically, if you want to be logical about it, I am Romanian, but Ive lived in America for more than 20 years.

When you meet new people, do you talk about your history?

No, I try not to. I want to experience Romania as a normal human being. I dont want to be known everywhere as the Orphan.

His precise English makes even casual phrases sound formal. In his room, Izidor has captured the Romanian folk aesthetic, but something else stirs beneath the surface. Im reminded of the book he self-published at age 22, titled Abandoned for Life. Its a grim tale, but once, when he was about 8, Izidor had a happy day.

A kind nanny had started working at the hospital. Onisa was a young lady, a bit chubby, with long black hair and round rosy cheeks, Izidor writes in his memoir. She loved to sing and often taught us some of her music. One day, Onisa intervened when another nanny was striking Izidor with a broomstick. Like a few others before her, Onisa had spotted his intelligence. On the ward of semi-ambulatory (some crawled or creeped), slightly verbal (some just made noises) children, Izidor was the go-to kid if an adult had questions, like what was that ones name or when had that one died. The director would occasionally peek in and ask Izidor if he and the other children were being hit; to avoid retribution, Izidor always said no.

Annie Lowrey: How America treats its own children

On that day, to cheer him up after his beating, Onisa promised that someday shed take him home with her for an overnight visit. Skeptical that such an extraordinary event would ever happen, Izidor thanked her for the nice idea.

A few weeks later, on a snowy winter day, Onisa dressed Izidor in warm clothes and shoes shed brought from home, took him by the hand, and led him out the front door and through the orphanage gate. Walking slowly, she took the small boy, who swayed on uneven legs with a deep, tilting limp, down the lane past the public hospital and into the town. Cold, fresh air brushed his cheeks, and snow squeaked under his shoes; the wind rattled the branches; a bird stood on a chimney. It was my first time ever going out into the world, he tells me now. He looked in astonishment at the cars and houses and shops. He tried to absorb and memorize everything to report back to the kids on his ward.

When I stepped into Onisas apartment, he writes, I could not believe how beautiful it was; the walls were covered with dark rugs and there was a picture of the Last Supper on one of them. The carpets on the floor were red. Neighborhood children knocked on Onisas door to see if the strange boy from the orphanage wanted to come out and play, and he did. Onisas children arrived home from school, and Izidor learned that it was the start of their Christmas holiday. He feasted alongside Onisas family at their friends dinner table that night, tasting Romanian specialties for the first time, including sarmale (stuffed cabbage), potato goulash with thick noodles, and sweet yellow sponge cake with cream filling. He remembers every bite. On the living-room floor after dinner, the child of that household let Izidor play with his toys. Izidor followed the boys lead and drove little trains across the rug. Back at Onisas, he slept in his first-ever soft, clean bed.

The next morning, Onisa asked Izidor if he wanted to go to work with her or to stay with her children. Here he made a mistake so terrible that, 31 years later, he still remembers it with grief.

I want to go to work with you! he called. He was deep into a fantasy that Onisa was his mother, and he didnt want to be parted from her. I got dressed as fast as I could, and we headed out the door, he remembers. When we were near her work, I realized that her work was at the hospital, my hospital, and I began to cry It had only been 24 hours but somehow I thought I was going to be part of Onisas family now. It didnt occur to me that her work was actually at the hospital until we were at the gate again. I felt so shocked when we turned into the yard it was like Id forgotten I came from there.

He tried to turn back but wasnt permitted. Hed found the most wonderful spot on EarthOnisas apartmentand, through his own stupidity, had let it slip away. He sobbed like a newcomer until the other nannies threatened to slap him.

Today Izidor lives 6,000 miles from Romania. He leads a solitary life. But in his bedroom in a subdivision on a paved-over prairie, he has re-created the setting from the happiest night in his childhood.

That night at Onisas, I ask, do you think you sensed that there were family relationships and emotions happening there that youd never seen or felt before?

No, I was too young to perceive that.

But you did notice the beautiful furnishings?

Yes! You see this? Izidor says, picking up a tapestry woven with burgundy roses on a dark, leafy background. This is almost identical to Onisas. I bought it in Romania for that reason!

All these things I gesture.

Yes.

But not because they signify family to you?

No, but they signify peace to me. It was the first time I slept in a real home. For many years I thought, Why cant I have a home like that?

Now he does. But he knows there are missing partsno matter how many shot glasses he collects.

In the early 1990s, Danny and Marlys Ruckel lived with their three young daughters in a San Diego condo. They thought it would be nice to add a boy to the mix, and heard about a local independent filmmaker, John Upton, who was arranging adoptions of Romanian orphans. Marlys called and told him they wanted to adopt a baby boy. Theres thousands of kids there, Upton replied. Thatll be easy.

Marlys laughs. Not much of that was accurate! she tells me. Were seated in the living room of a white-stucco house in the Southern California wine-country town of Temecula. Kids and dogs bang in and out of the dazzling hot day (the Ruckels have adopted five children from foster care in recent years). Marlys, now a job coach for adults with special needs, is like a Diane Keaton character, shyly retreating behind large glasses and a fall of long hair, but occasionally making brave outbursts. Danny, a programmer, is an easygoing guy. Marlys describes herself as a homebody, but then there was that time she moved to Romania for two months to try to adopt a boy she saw on a video.

Undone by Shame of a Nation, Upton had flown to Romania four days after the broadcast, and made his way to the worst place on the show, the Home Hospital for Irrecoverable Children in Sighetu Marmaiei. He went back a few times. On one visit, he gathered a bunch of kids in an empty room to film them for prospective adoptive parents. His video would not show children packed together naked like little reptiles in an aquarium, as hed described them, but as people, wearing clothes and speaking.

By then, donations had started to come in from charities around the world. Little reached the children, because the staff skimmed the best items, but on that day, in deference to the American, nannies put donated sweaters on the kids. Though the children seemed excited to be the center of attention, Upton and his Romanian assistant found it slow-going. Some didnt speak at all, and others were unable to stand up or to stand still. When the filmmakers asked for the childrens names and ages, the nannies shrugged.

At the end of a wooden bench sat a boy the size of a 6-year-oldat age 10, Izidor weighed about 50 pounds. Upton was the first American hed ever seen. Izidor knew about Americans from the TV show Dallas. A donated television had arrived one day, and he had lobbied for this one thing to stay at the hospital. The director had assented. On Sunday nights at 8 oclock, ambulatory kids, nannies, and workers from other floors gathered to watch Dallas together. When rumors flew up the stairs that day that an American had arrived, the reaction inside the orphanage was, Almighty God, someone from the land of the giant houses!

Izidor knew the information the nannies didnt. He tells me: John Upton would ask a kid, How old are you?, and the kid would say, I dont know, and the nanny would say, I dont know, and Id yell, Hes 14! Hed ask about another kid, Whats his last name?, and Id yell, Dumka!

Izidor knows the children here better than the staff, Upton grouses in one of the tapes. Before wrapping up the session, he lifts Izidor into his lap and asks if hed like to go to America. Izidor says that he would.

Back in San Diego, Upton told the Ruckels about the bright boy of about 7 who hoped to come to the United States. Wed wanted to adopt a baby, Marlys says. Then we saw Johns video and fell in love with Izidor.

In May 1991, Marlys flew to Romania to meet the child and try to bring him home. Just before traveling, she learned that Izidor was almost 11, but she was undaunted. She traveled with a new friend, Debbie Principe, who had also been matched with a child by Upton. In the directors office, Marlys waited to meet Izidor, and Debbie waited to meet a little blond live wire named Ciprian.

When Izidor entered, Marlys says, all I saw was him, like everything else was fuzzy. He was as beautiful as Id imagined. Our translator asked him which of the visitors in the office he hoped would be his new mother, and he pointed to me!

Izidor had a question for the translator: Where will I live? Is it like Dallas?

Well no, we live in a condo, like an apartment, Marlys said. But youll have three sisters. Youll love them.

This did not strike Izidor as an interesting trade-off. He dryly replied to the translator: We will see.

That night, Marlys rejoiced about what an angel Izidor was.

Debbie laughed. He struck me more like a cool operator, a savvy politician type, she told Marlys. He was much more on top of things than Chippy. Ciprian had spent the time in the office rummaging wildly through everything, including desk drawers and the pockets of everyone in the room.

No, hes an innocent. Hes adorable, Marlys said. Did you see him pick me to be his mother?

Years later, in his memoir, Izidor explained that moment:

The pediatric neuroscientist Charles Nelson is famously gregarious and kind, with wavy, graying blond hair and a mustache like Captain Kangaroos. In the fall of 2000, he, along with his colleagues Nathan A. Fox, a human-development professor at the University of Maryland, and Charles H. Zeanah, a child-psychiatry professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine, launched the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. They had permission to work with 136 children, ages six months to 2.5 years, from six Bucharest leagne, baby institutions. None was a Home Hospital for Irrecoverable Children, like Izidors; they were somewhat better supplied and staffed.

By design, 68 of the children would continue to receive care as usual, while the other 68 would be placed with foster families recruited and trained by BEIP. (Romania didnt have a tradition of foster care; officials believed orphanages were safer for children.) Local kids whose parents volunteered to participate made up a third group. The BEIP study would become the first-ever randomized controlled trial to measure the impact of early institutionalization on brain and behavioral development and to examine high-quality foster care as an alternative.

To start, the researchers employed Mary Ainsworths classic strange situation procedure to assess the quality of the attachment relationships between the children and their caregivers or parents. In a typical setup, a baby between nine and 18 months old enters an unfamiliar playroom with her attachment figure and experiences some increasingly unsettling events, including the arrival of a stranger and the departure of her grown-up, as researchers code the babys behavior from behind a one-way mirror. Our coders, unaware of any childs background, assessed 100 percent of the community kids as having fully developed attachment relationships with their mothers, Zeanah told me. That was true of 3 percent of the institutionalized kids.

Nearly two-thirds of the children were coded as disorganized, meaning they displayed contradictory, jerky behaviors, perhaps freezing in place or suddenly reversing direction after starting to approach the adult. This pattern is the one most closely related to later psychopathology. Even more disturbing, Zeanah told me, 13 percent were deemed unclassified, meaning they displayed no attachment behaviors at all. Ainsworth and John Bowlby believed infants would attach to an adult even if the adult were abusive, he said. They hadnt considered the possibility of infants without attachments.

Until the Bucharest project, Zeanah said, he hadnt realized that seeking comfort for distress is a learned behavior. These children had no idea that an adult could make them feel better, he told me. Imagine how that must feelto be miserable and not even know that another human being could help.

In October 1991, Izidor and Ciprian flew with Romanian escorts to San Diego. The boys new families waited at the airport to greet them, along with Upton and previously adopted Romanian childrena small crowd holding balloons and signs, cheering and waving. Izidor gazed around the terminal with satisfaction. Where is my bedroom? he asked. When Marlys told him they were in an airport, not his new home, Izidor was taken aback. Though shed explained that the Ruckels did not live like the Ewings in Dallas, he hadnt believed her. Now hed mistaken the arrivals area for his new living room.

A 17-year-old from the orphanage, Izabela, was part of the airport welcoming committee. Born with hydrocephalus and unable to walk after being left all her life in a crib, she was in a wheelchair, dressed up and looking pretty. Rescued by Upton on an earlier trip, shed been admitted to the U.S. on a humanitarian medical basis and was being fostered by the Ruckels.

Izidor was startled to see Izabela: Who is your mother?

My mother is your mother, Izidor.

I didnt like the sound of that, he remembers. To make sure hed heard correctly, he asked again: Who is your mother here in America?

Izidor, you and I have the same mother, she said, pointing at Marlys.

So now he had to get used to four sisters.

In the car, when Danny tried to click a seat belt across Izidors waist, he bucked and yelled, fearing he was being straitjacketed.

Marlys homeschooled the girls, but Izidor insisted on starting fourth grade in the local school, where he quickly learned English. His canny ability to read the room put him in good stead with the teachers, but at home, he seemed constantly irritated. Suddenly insulted, hed storm off to his room and tear things apart. He shredded books, posters, family pictures, Marlys tells me, and then stood on the balcony to sprinkle the pieces onto the yard. If I had to leave for an hour, by the time I got home, everyone would be upset: He did this; he did that. He didnt like the girls.

Marlys and Danny had hoped to expand the family fun and happiness by bringing in another child. But the newest family member almost never laughed. He didnt like to be touched. He was vigilant, hurt, proud. By about 14, he was angry about everything, she tells me. He decided hed grow up and become the American president. When he found out that wouldnt be possible because of his foreign birth, he said, Fine, Ill go back to Romania. Thats when that startedhis goal of returning to Romania. We thought it was a good thing for him to have a goal, so we said, Sure, get a job, save your money, and when youre 18, you can move back to Romania. Izidor worked every day after school at a fast-food restaurant.

Those were rough years. I was walking on eggshells, trying not to set him off. The girls were so over it. It was me they were mad at. Not for bringing Izidor into the family but for being so so whipped by him. Theyd say, Mom, all you do is try to fix him! I was so focused on helping him adjust, I lost sight of the fact that the other children were scraping by with a fraction of my time.

Danny and I tried taking him to therapy, but he refused to go back. He said, I dont need therapy. You two need therapy. Why dont you go? So we did.

Hed say: Im fine when nobodys in the house.

Wed say: But Izidor, its our house.

As early as 2003, it was evident to the BEIP scientists and their Romanian research partners that the foster-care children were making progress. Glimmering through the data was a sensitive period of 24 months during which it was crucial for a child to establish an attachment relationship with a caregiver, Zeanah says. Children taken out of orphanages before their second birthday were benefiting from being with families far more than those who stayed longer. When youre doing a trial and your preliminary evidence is that the intervention is effective, you have to ask, Do we stop now and make the drug available to everyone? he told me. For us, the effective drug happened to be foster care, and we werent capable of creating a national foster-care system. Instead, the researchers announced their results publicly, and the next year, the Romanian government banned the institutionalization of children under the age of 2. Since then, it has raised the minimum age to 7, and government-sponsored foster care has expanded dramatically.

Meanwhile, the study continued. When the children were reassessed in a strange situation playroom at age 3.5, the portion who displayed secure attachments climbed from the baseline of 3 percent to nearly 50 percent among the foster-care kids, but to only 18 percent among those who remained institutionalizedand, again, the children moved before their second birthday did best. Timing is critical, the researchers wrote. Brain plasticity wasnt unlimited, they warned. Earlier is better.

The benefits for children whod achieved secure attachments accrued as time went on. At age 4.5, they had significantly lower rates of depression and anxiety and fewer callous unemotional traits (limited empathy, lack of guilt, shallow affect) than their peers still in institutions. About 40 percent of teenagers in the study whod ever been in orphanages, in fact, were eventually diagnosed with a major psychiatric condition. Their growth was stunted, and their motor skills and language development stalled. MRI studies revealed that the brain volume of the still-institutionalized children was below that of the never institutionalized, and EEGs showed profoundly less brain activity. If you think of the brain as a light bulb, Charles Nelson has said, its as though there was a dimmer that had reduced them from a 100-watt bulb to 30 watts.

One purpose of a baby attaching to just a small number of adults, according to evolutionary theory, is that its the most efficient way to get help. If there were many attachment figures and danger emerged, the infant wouldnt know to whom to direct the signal, explains Martha Pott, a senior lecturer in child development at Tufts. Unattached children see threats everywhere, an idea borne out in the brain studies. Flooded with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, the amygdalathe main part of the brain dealing with fear and emotionseemingly worked overtime in the still-institutionalized children.

Comparing data from orphanages worldwide shows the profound impact institutionalization has on social-emotional development even in the best cases. In Englands residential nurseries in the 1960s, there was a reasonable number of caregivers, and the children were materially well provided for. Their IQs, though lower than those of children in families, were well within the average range, up in the 90s, Zeanah told me. More recently, the caregiver-child ratio in Greek orphanages was not as good, nor were they as materially well equipped; those kids had IQs in the low-average range. Then, in Romania, you have our kids with really major-league deficits. But heres the remarkable thing: Across all those settings, the attachment impairments are similar.

When the children in the Bucharest study were 8, the researchers set up playdates, hoping to learn how early attachment impairments might inhibit a childs later ability to interact with peers. In a video I watched, two boys, strangers to each other, enter a playroom. Within seconds, things go off the rails. One boy, wearing a white turtleneck, eagerly seizes the other boys hand and gnaws on it. That boy, in a striped pullover, yanks back his hand and checks for teeth marks. The researcher offers a toy, but the boy in white is busy trying to hold hands with the other kid, or grab him by the wrists, or hug him, as if he were trying to carry a giant teddy bear. He tries to overturn the table. The other boy makes a feeble effort to save the table, then lets it fall. Hes weird, you can imagine him thinking. Can I go home now?

The boy in the white turtleneck lived in an institution; the boy in the striped pullover was a neighborhood kid.

Nelson cautions that the door doesnt slam shut for children left in institutions beyond 24 months of age. But the longer you wait to get children into a family, he says, the harder it is to get them back on an even keel.

Every time we got into another fight, Izidor remembers, I wanted one of them to say: Izidor, we wish we had never adopted you and we are going to send you back to the hospital. But they didnt say it.

Unable to process his familys affection, he just wanted to know where he stood. It was simpler in the orphanage, where either you were being beaten or you werent. I responded better to being smacked around, Izidor tells me. In America, they had rules and consequences. So much talk. I hated Lets talk about this. As a child, Id never heard words like You are special or Youre our kid. Later, if your adoption parents tell you words like that, you feel, Okay, whatever, thanks. I dont even know what youre talking about. I dont know what you want from me, or what Im supposed to do for you. When banished to his room, for rudeness or cursing or being mean to the girls, Izidor would stomp up the stairs and blast Romanian music or bang on his door from the inside with his fists or a shoe.

Marlys blamed herself. He said he wanted to go back to his first mother, a woman who hadnt even wanted him, a woman he didnt remember. When I took him to the bank to set up his savings account, the bank official filling out the form asked Izidor, Whats your mothers maiden name? I opened my mouth to answer, but he immediately said Maria. Thats his birth mothers name. I know it was probably dumb to feel hurt by that.

One night when Izidor was 16, Marlys and Danny felt so scared by Izidors outburst that they called the police. Im going to kill you! hed screamed at them. After an officer escorted Izidor to the police car, he insisted that his parents abused him.

Oh, for Christs sake, Danny said when informed of his sons accusation.

Continued here:
30 Years Ago, Romania Deprived Thousands of Babies of Human Contact - The Atlantic

Human Behavior

Ditch Factory Farms: Health Experts Say Pandemic Is Telling Humanity To End Animal Agriculture – Green Queen Media

A new editorial article authored by leading academic physicians from the US to New Zealand says that the coronavirus pandemic is showing humanity that unsustainable and dangerous factory farming must be phased out for alternative proteins. While acknowledging the role of the wildlife industry, which they say must be eradicated as well, the experts believe that ultimately, the intensive factory farming industry and global appetite for animal meat should be discontinued in order to prevent future pandemics.

The paper, published in peer-reviewed journal Neuroepidemiology, was authored by Mayo Clinic Emeritus Professor David O. Wiebers, MD., and neuroscience professor at Auckland University of Technology and editor-in-chief of Neuroepidemiology Valery Feigin.

As we begin to find our way through this crisis, it is imperative for us as a society and species to focus and reflect deeply upon what this and other related human health crises are telling us about our role in these increasingly frequent events and about what we can do to avoid them in the future, wrote Weibers and Feigin.

Although it is tempting for us to lay the blame for pandemics such as COVID-19 on bats, pangolins, or other wild species, it is human behavior that is responsible for the vast majority of zoonotic diseases that jump the species barrier from animals to humans.

The experts detailed the relation between the alarming increase in frequency of deadly zoonotic diseases to the unnaturally close contact between animals and humans due to humanitys continued exploitation of nature and animals for human purposes.

From destruction of animal habitats to overcrowded factory farms, the authors believe that continuing such practices will mean that more deadly pandemics are on the horizon.

While acknowledging the role of the hunting and selling of wild animals as a key public health risk that must be eliminated, the paper also points to the global livestock industry that has exploded in the past decades due to humanitys appetite for meat.

Over the last 40 years, as the factory farm model has become a global phenomenonNow, serious outbreaks are occurring regularly more in the past 15 years than in the entire 20th century.

It points out that livestock farming not only raises the threat of emerging infectious diseases, but also contributes to habitat destruction, deforestation and greenhouse gases that further exacerbate climate change all of which are factors cycling back to increase the likelihood of deadly pandemics.

Read: Pandemic Meat Crisis Pushes Consumers Towards Plant-Based Alternatives From HK To US

Intensive confinement of animals in factory farm operations should be discontinued worldwide for the sake of animals, humans, and the environment, and we should rapidly evolve to eating other forms of protein that are safer for humans, including plant-based meat alternatives and cultured meat, they wrote.

Additional investment in plant-based agriculture to grow crops to feed humans rather than livestock for human consumption would feed more people while utilising far less land and water, allowing for the preservation of vital ecosystems for innumerable species.

Similar warnings have been issued by other scientific experts in recent months. In an article published in late April, the worlds leading wildlife and biodiversity scientists said that the combination of global air travel, unsustainable urbanisation and industrial livestock farming has created a perfect storm for haunting diseases.

The experts cautioned that while trillion-dollar packages now being implemented are necessary measures, they cannot come at the cost of failing to enforce environmental protection, which would make future pandemics happen more rapidly, frequently and with even more destructive consequences.

Lead image courtesy of Friso Gentsch / DPA / AFP via Getty Images.

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Ditch Factory Farms: Health Experts Say Pandemic Is Telling Humanity To End Animal Agriculture - Green Queen Media

Human Behavior

Global inequality and exploitation – Daily Times

Around the world, inequality is a significant determinant of human behavior, opening doors of opportunity to some and closing them to others. A very few centuries ago, such Vast divides in global wealth did not exist. Except for a very few rulers and land Owners everyone in the world was poor. In much of Europe, life was as difficult as it was in Asia or South America. This was true until the industrial revolution and rising agricultural productivity produced explosive economic growth. The resulting rise in the living standards was not evenly distributed across the world.

In 2005 the United Nations launched the millennium project whose objective is to eliminate poverty and to raise the level and standard of living of the people. Industrial nations had the role and goal to set aside a percentage of their gross national product (GNP) for aid to developing nations.

While the divide between industry and developing nations was sharp, sociologists recognize a continuum of nations, from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor. Three forces considered responsible, particularly for the domination of the world marketplace by a few nations were the legacy of colonialism; the advent of the multinational companies and modernization.

Relations between the colonial nation and colonized people are similar to those between the dominant capitalist class and the proletariat, as described by Karl Marx.

By the 1980s, colonialism had largely disappeared. For colonies having achieved political independence and established their own governments the complete transition to genuine self-rule was essential to leave behind the established patterns of economic exploitation. Former colonies were unable to develop their own industry and technology. Their dependence on more industrialized nations, including their former colonial masters, for managerial and technical expertise, investment capital, and manufactured goods kept former colonies in a subservient position. Such continuing dependence and foreign domination are referred to as neocolonialism.

Some observers see globalization and its effects as the natural result of advances in communications technology, particularly the Internet and satellite transmission of the mass media

The economic and political consequences of colonialism and neocolonialism are readily apparent. Drawing on the conflict perspective, sociologist Immanuel Wallenstein (1974, 1979 a, 2000) views the global economic system as being divided between nations that control wealth and nations from which resources are taken. Through his world systems analysis, Wallenstein has described the unequal economic and political relationships in which certain industrialized nations (among them the United States, Japan, and Germany) and their global corporations dominate the core of this system. Ultimately it is the exploitative relationship of core nations toward non core nation. Core nations and their corporations control and exploit noncore nations economies.

In the view of world Systems analysis and dependency theory, a growing Share of human and natural resources of developing Countries is being redistributed to the Core industrialized nations. This redistribution happens in part because developing countries owe huge sums of money to industrialized nations as a result of foreign aid, loans, and trade deficits. The global debt crisis has intensified the Third World dependency begun under colonialism, neocolonialism and multinational investment. International financial institutions are pressuring indebted Countries to take severe measures to meet their interest payments. The result is that developing nations may be forced to devalue their currencies, freeze Workers wages, increase privatization of industry, and reduce government services and employment.

Closely related to these problems is globalization, the worldwide integration of government policies, cultures and social movements and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas. Because World financial markets transcend Governance by conventional nation states, international organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have emerged as major players in the global economy. The function of these institutions which are heavily funded and influenced by Core nations, is to encourage economic trade and development and to ensure the smooth operation of international financial markets. As such, they are seen as promoters of globalization and defenders primarily of interests of Core nations.

Critics call attention to a variety of issues, including violations of workers rights, the destruction of the environment, the loss of cultural identity and discrimination against minority groups in periphery nations.

Some observers see globalization and its effects as the natural result of advances in communications technology, particularly the Internet and satellite transmission of the mass media. Others view it more critically as a process that allows multinational corporations to expand unchecked.

Conflict theorists challenge the favorable evaluation of the impact of multinational corporations. They emphasize the multinationals exploit local workers to maximize profit. The pool of cheap labor in the developing world prompts multinationals to move factories out of core countries.

The writer is former Director National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) Government of Pakistan, a political analyst, a public policy expert

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Global inequality and exploitation - Daily Times

Human Behavior

Widely cited health institute keeps missing the mark on Maine death projections – Press Herald

A research group that has been widely cited by national health experts and government officials for its COVID-19 models has twice projected enormous increases in COVID-19 deaths in Maine.

But in both cases, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington published new data within a matter of days that sharply reduced its projected death counts.

The institute published projections last week that Maine could surpass 1,000 COVID-19 deaths by the fall a 10-fold increase over current deaths but revised that figure to less than 200 deaths just five days later. And in March, the institute published a projection of more than 3,000 deaths in Maine by August, only to lower that figure to 334 deaths a few days later, after making adjustments to its data.

The wildly different death projections over the course of less than a week raises questions about the value of the modeling and spotlights the potential perils of relying on any one model to anticipate how the coronavirus could spread across the U.S.

Maines top public health epidemiologist, Dr. Nirav Shah, said he still lists the institute among the infectious disease modeling groups that he checks regularly as part of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Preventions own internal modeling exercises.

But the Maine CDC director added: It has diminished as a website that I check on a daily basis.

The institute is among dozens of academic and research groups trying to model how this new, somewhat unpredictable virus will spread across the globe. But IHMEs projections have been used by federal and state public health officials as they make decisions impacting the daily lives of nearly all Americans, as well as the economic health of the country.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White Houses coronavirus response coordinator, has cited the IHME model several times, as have numerous governors. The institutes projections, both for the nation and individual states, are often quoted in news articles in a wide array of national publications.

On June 5, IHME released updated state-by-state and national forecasts that projected Maine could see 614 deaths by Sept. 21 six times higher than the current total of 101 deaths. A forecast from the institute in early April, by comparison, had projected Maine that could experience 115 COVID-related deaths by Aug. 1.

On June 10, the institutes projection for Maine jumped to 1,076 deaths. But in a June 15 update, IHME researchers slashed the projected number of deaths to 185 by Oct. 1.

Asked about the wild fluctuations over a period of just 10 days, an IHME spokeswoman attributed the swings to changes in Maines virus transmission rate. Also referred to as the reproduction rate or the R-naught, a transmission rate of 1 means that every person with COVID-19 would be expected to infect one other person, while a value of 3 means every person would infect three others.

The higher the number creeps above 1, even by decimal points, the faster the situation gets to a point where the virus is increasing exponentially to the point where hospitals and health care systems are overwhelmed.

In the earlier model, the modeling showed the transmission rate (R naught) going above 1, which leads to fast growth, Amelia Apfel wrote in an email. With the additional data in the latest update, we arent seeing that increase in transmission rate. The (institutes) models are pretty sensitive to this type of change.

Institute staff did not respond to requests for additional information on the data underlying the projections.

Shah, the Maine CDC director, said he saw the dramatic swings in IHMEs projections but attributed it to the institutes data sources and methodology, as well as Maines relatively small number of COVID-19 cases.

Maine did see an increase in its transmission rate several weeks ago, largely because of an outbreak at the Cape Memory Care nursing home in Cape Elizabeth. Over the course of a few days, Cape Memory went from zero cases to more than 60 among residents and staff as the Maine CDC helped test everyone at the facility.

Ultimately, Cape Memory Care had 84 cases with six deaths, to date. But Shah said models such as those run by IHME do not distinguish between isolated and contained outbreaks at facilities and a surge in cases in the community.

I kind of attributed them to statistical noise, Shah said Wednesday of the institutes surging death projections. What happens in Maine is what I call the law of small numbers.'

Shah said that Maine has very few cases compared to many other states, with his agency reporting 2,836 cases and 102 deaths as of Wednesday compared to a nationwide total of 2.1 million cases and 117,000 deaths. So when Maine reports 30 new confirmed or probable infections one day but 36 new cases the next day, Shah said, that equates to a 20 percent jump.

Shah said IHME relies largely on historical data, in this case, how COVID-19 spread, faded and may have surged again in other countries and more recently in the U.S. The institute said its most recent models also include such factors as testing rates, mobility data, mask use and population densities.

But while Shah said such models are useful and informative, comparing them to an almanac for weather projections, he has come to prefer more dynamic models that he compares to the supercomputers used by meteorologists to make weather forecasts. Those disease models take into account more things happening on the ground and, in some cases, individual policies at the state level.

But we dont use models to predict the future, Shah said. We use them to project scenarios that might happen and then respond accordingly.

IHMEs projections for Maine now fall within the range of more than a dozen other modeling organizations tracked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those models which include projections from researchers at IHME, Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UCLA, the University of Massachusetts and other institutions project Maine will experience between 103 and 151 deaths by July, with an ensemble average of between 115 and 123 depending on the confidence interval.

Shah stressed that modeling was a particularly important exercise early on as the state tried to gauge hospital capacity and critical care needs on a range of COVID-19 scenarios. But more than three months later, Maine has so far avoided uncontrolled transmission overwhelming the states health care system thanks, in large part, to physical distancing and other restrictions.

Maine CDC epidemiologists still consult outside models, including IHMEs projections, as they try to prepare for future scenarios. But the prime directives that influence decisions such as whether to lift or impose restrictions on businesses and people include metrics like the daily and rolling averages of new cases and deaths, hospitalization trends, testing rates and the percent of tests that come back positive.

Experts said, however, that models are valuable in infectious disease tracking even if they are inherently imprecise.

I think models get a bad rap because they are not perfectly, numerically precise, but that is just the nature of dealing with complex systems, said Chris Moore, an assistant professor of biology at Colby College.

That imprecision factor becomes even greater, Moore added, when you consider that the progression of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases is often dependent on unpredictable human behavior.

Moore, who taught courses last semester on the evolution of infectious disease and ecological modeling, said weather forecasts are often fairly precise in the short term and can generally predict, based on history, trends over the longer-term. The middle-range is more problematic.

Instead, Moore liked one of his students comparisons of infectious disease modeling to using a smartphone for driving directions. Your phones GPS should be able to predict with some precision when you will arrive in, say, nearby Fairfield from Waterville. But your ETA in Boston from Waterville depends on traffic, accidents and other factors.

When you are watching your phone and traveling, it is dynamically updating and taking into account all of these variables, Moore said.

Mathematical modeling expert Raj Saha said one of his major criticisms of COVID-19 modeling is that organizations need to be clearer about the underlying assumptions and data that are used to build the projections. For instance, the public should be able to clearly see and understand from non-scientific language whether a models projections take into account policies such as stay-at-home orders and other factors when they see the results.

Thats important because Saha, an interdisciplinary lecturer in environmental geophysics at Bates College, said people could change their behaviors based on projections, with potentially dire consequences during an outbreak of highly infectious disease.

People can look at low projections and assume things are OK, but they are OK because of the lockdown measures, Saha said.

Saha said he would rather see disease projections offer several scenarios based on easily understandable factors. As examples, Saha said one scenario could include a continuation of lockdown measures and physical distancing, another scenario where those measures are eased, and one with little or no restrictions.

Without knowing those assumptions, any projections, regardless of how sophisticated themodels are, can be interpreted in unintended ways, Saha said. We are all used to seeing weather projections for example the path of a hurricane which always comes with error zones. But how a public reacts to the projected paths of a hurricane is not going to affect the actual path of the hurricane. The same cannot be said here in the case of disease projections.

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Human Behavior

Consumer Expectations for Autonomous Vehicles Focus on Safety and Utility – Business Wire

LIVONIA, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, today released proprietary research exploring the future of the relationship between drivers and their cars in the wake of broad autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption. Friend, Servant or Evil Twin: Forging a Positive Driver-Car Relationship with Self-Driving Vehicles offers AV technology developers a new look at consumer attitudes regarding the idealized autonomous experience, from comfort with various levels of AV-enabled experiences to expectations regarding the likely winners of the AV adoption race.

While the study confirms drivers wariness with ceding control to AV technology, nearly two in five respondents (43% in Europe, 37% in the United States) express comfort with low-speed self-driving cars in ideal conditions, such as Teslas Smart Summon. However, that willingness drops to 20%35% for autonomous driving at higher speeds and less-than-ideal-conditions. Like the development cycle for AV technologies, consumers are likely to exhibit incremental shifts in attitudes over time, with seeing self-driving cars on the road in daily situations playing a key role in increased trust and comfort.

Manufacturers biggest challenge is understanding the expectations drivers have for their daily use of AVs and aligning marketing of such vehicles to those needs. Over half of consumers (52%) envision a service-oriented relationship with AVs, categorizing future self-driving vehicles as personal assistants or servants. Consumers over the age of 60 share an even more skeptical and less humanized view of future interactions with an AV-enabled vehicle. By contrast, the highly tech savvy under-30 age group demonstrates a more optimistic and personalized view of its use of AVs, with responses reflecting much higher rates for friendship and guardianship.

AV manufacturers have not yet captured the imagination of consumers to envision a future with a self-driving car that enhances the driving experience beyond the traditional, functional role of a vehicle, said Paul Hartley, managing director of Escalents technology group. It is paramount for AV developers to engage a nuanced and iterative adoption process to build consumer trust, comfort and excitement for AV technology.

Furthermore, a significant percentage of consumers trust and look to big tech developers to win the race to develop fully autonomous vehicles. While a majority of respondents in the United States and Europe expect traditional and specialist automakers to make slow, steady strides in AV development, 27% of Americans predict hardware or software tech firms will be most successful. By comparison, 18% of Europeans surveyed see tech developers as the companies most likely to put AVs on their roads.

To learn more about the impact software will have on AV adoption and to read the full paper, visit: https://landing.escalent.co/download-friend-servant-or-evil-twin-forging-a-positive-driver-car-relationship-with-self-driving-vehicles

About the Study

This paper references data from two Escalent studies.

In one, Escalent interviewed a sample of 1,012 consumers from Germany, Spain and the UK aged 18 and up between June 25 and July 9, 2019. Respondents were recruited from the Full Circle opt-in online panel of European adults and interviewed online. The data were weighted by age, gender and census region to match the demographics of the European population.

In the other, Escalent interviewed a US-based sample of 1,000 consumers aged 18 and up in May 2019. Respondents were recruited from the Dynata and Ipsos panels of US adults and interviewed online. Quotas were put in place to achieve a sample of age, gender, income and ethnicity that matches the demographics of the US population.

Due to their opt-in nature, these online panels (like most others) do not yield a random probability sample of the target population. As such, it is not possible to compute a margin of error or to statistically quantify the accuracy of projections. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.

About Escalent

Escalent is a top human behavior and analytics firm specializing in industries facing disruption and business transformation. As catalysts of progress for more than 40 years, we tell stories that transform data and insight into a profound understanding of what drives human beings. And we help businesses turn those drivers into actions that build brands, enhance customer experiences and inspire product innovation. Visit escalent.co to see how we are helping shape the brands that are reshaping the world.

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Consumer Expectations for Autonomous Vehicles Focus on Safety and Utility - Business Wire

Human Behavior

Ask the Expert: Avoiding ticks and preventing tick-borne diseases – MSUToday

June 17, 2020

Jean Tsao is an associate professor in theDepartment of Fisheries and Wildlifein theCollege of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She and her colleagues developed a mobile health app,The Tick App, that informs users how human behavior affects tick bites. Tsao answers questions on ticks and tick-borne disease prevention.

Q:How can people avoid tick bites while enjoying the outdoors? Is there any proper attire or bug spray to use?

A: There are generallythree principleswith various options to carry out: avoid tick habitat; use an EPA-approved repellant following the manufacturers instructions (most of the ones approved for mosquitoes are approved for ticks; just check the label; it will say); conduct thorough tick checks.

I would do it when youre recreating/working in tick habitat,before you get back in your car check yourselves as well as yourpets and then do another through check when you take a shower/bath within two hours of coming back from recreating/working in tick habitat.

There is one more thing you can do to reduce any loose blacklegged ticks from later finding you/others/your pets: Put your clothes that you wore directly into the dryer for ten minutes on high heat to kill ticks.

Q:What should we do if we find a tick on us? Whats the proper removal process?

Dont panic!Carefully grab it with tweezers at the point closest to your skin to remove it. Then, take a clear photo and submit it to The Tick App so the team can identify the species.

Afterwards, put the tick in a plastic bag labeled with the date and geographic location where you think you may have contacted it; then, store it in your freezer.

If you start feeling ill, go to a doctor and show them your tick. The species and degree of swelling can help with diagnosis and treatment.

Q: What are telltale signs of Lyme disease or other tick-borne illnesses?

A:Not being a medical worker, Im not comfortable answering this question, so I suggest looking to the links on theCDC website. But, I would comment that my impression is that many people who have tick-borne illnesses experience general flu-like symptoms fever, malaise, achiness, which is why they might be difficult to diagnose as a particulartick-borne disease.

Q: Why/how do ticks and tick bites lead to Lyme disease?

A: People can become infected with the agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, if they are bitten by an infected tick.

There are three stages of ticks that look for a host so that they can get a blood meal: the larva (baby), nymph (teenager) and the adult female (adult). The larva needs a blood meal in order to become a nymph; the nymph needs a blood meal in order to become an adult; and an adult female needs a blood meal in order to lay eggs. The adult male doesnt feed so does not need a blood meal.

The larva hatches uninfected so its through the bloodmeal from an infected host, that it acquires Lyme disease bacteria. Then when it molts to become a nymph, the bacteria survive the developmental process and the new nymph that emerges carries the bacteria in its gut. When the flat, infected nymph finds a host and feeds, the bacteria in the gut multiply then they break out of the gut, swim through the hemocoel of the tick (where the ticks blood bathes its organs), invades the salivary glands, and then gets injected into the host.

This is why it is so important to try to find and remove ticks as soon as possible. Even if the tick has attached, if its < 36 hours of feeding, youre very unlikely to become infected. If the tick has fed > 72 hours, youre much more likely to become infected and experience signs of disease.

Q: What are the chances of getting Lyme disease from a tick, and what are the chances of being bitten at all?

A:Not all tick species transmit the Lyme disease pathogen.Your chances of getting Lyme disease from a tick depends geographically. More than95% of cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. are caused by the blacklegged ticks distributed among the states in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and North Central regions.

In these regions, ~20-30% of blacklegged nymphs are infected and ~40-60% of adult females are infected.But, as stated above, even if an infected tick bites you, if you can remove it before it has fed > 36 hours, your chances of becoming sick are very low.

Q:What time of day are they most active? Where do they often hide?

A:These ticks are active day and night if its warm enough, but if it becomes too dry, they become less active. Ticks are prone to dessication, and so if its dry, they hunker down below the leaf litter, where its more moist, and re-hydrate and conserve energy.

Research from the 80s suggests that adult and nymphal ticks were the most active during their study, which was from 6 a.m. 9 p.m., but most active from 6 a.m. - noon. But the fact that you can find blacklegged larvae and nymphs on wildlife that are nocturnal, diurnal and crepuscular tells you that the ticks are active all the time.

The American dog tick is a tick that is can be found in woods, but can survive and do well in grassy areas, too. Lone star ticks also are more associated with wooded areas, but they can be found in areas outside woods.

Q:How can people create a tick-free zone around a camping area or campsite? And subsequently how can people avoid bringing them back home?

A:Knowing that ticks are associated with leaf litter and vegetation, I would recommend people to place their campsite in a more open area within the designated campsite not right up against the vegetation.

It wont be tick free, but at least for blacklegged ticks, they do not tend to crawl out from the vegetation towards people.

And, just as one can treat clothes and shoes, one can also treat camping gear with permethrin, which will prevent you from bringing ticks home. Permethrin can stun and/or kill ticks on contact and so if they get on clothes/gear, they will fall off, and potentially die.

But, one should always inspect their gear before packing up everything regardless if you use permethrin.

For more information about ticks, visitCDC.gov.

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Ask the Expert: Avoiding ticks and preventing tick-borne diseases - MSUToday

Human Behavior

Gut bacteria may modify behavior in worms, influencing eating habits – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

NIH-funded study suggests microbiome may influence neural circuit activity.

Gut bacteria are tiny but may play an outsized role not only in the host animals digestive health, but in their overall well-being. According to a new study in Nature, specific gut bacteria in the worm may modify the animals behavior, directing its eating decisions. The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

We keep finding surprising roles for gut bacteria that go beyond the stomach, said Robert Riddle, Ph.D., program director at the NIHs National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which supported the study. Here, the gut bacteria are influencing how the animal senses its environment and causing it to move toward an external source of the same bacteria. The gut bacteria are literally making their species tastier to the animal.

Researchers at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, led by Michael ODonnell, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow and first author of the paper, and Piali Sengupta, Ph.D., professor of biology and senior author of the study, were interested in seeing whether it was possible for gut bacteria to control a host animals behavior. The group investigated the effects of gut bacteria on how worms, called C. elegans, sniff out and choose their next meal.

Bacteria are the worms primary food. In this study, the researchers measured how worms fed different strains of bacteria reacted to octanol, a large alcohol molecule secreted by some bacteria, which worms normally avoid when it is present at high concentrations.

Dr. ODonnell and his colleagues discovered that worms grown on Providencia alcalifaciens (JUb39) were less likely to avoid octanol compared to animals grown on other bacteria. Curiously, they found that live JUb39 bacteria were present in the gut of the worms that moved toward octanol, suggesting that the behavior may be determined in part by a substance produced by these bacteria.

Next, the researchers wanted to know how the bacteria exerted control over the worms.

We were able to connect the dots, all the way from microbe to behavior, and determine the entire pathway that could be involved in this process, said Dr. ODonnell.

The brain chemical tyramine may play an important role in this response. In the worms, tyramine is transformed into the chemical octopamine, which targets a receptor on sensory neurons that controls avoidance behavior. The results of this study suggested that tyramine produced by bacteria increased levels of octopamine, which made the worms more tolerant of octanol by suppressing the avoidance of octanol that is driven by these neurons.

Using other behavioral tests, the researchers found that genetically engineering worms so that they did not produce tyramine did not affect suppression of octanol avoidance when the worms were grown on JUb39. This suggests that tyramine made by the bacteria may be able to compensate for the endogenous tyramine missing in those animals.

Additional experiments indicated that worms grown on JUb39 preferred eating that type of bacteria over other bacterial food sources. Tyramine produced by the bacteria was also found to be required for this decision.

In this way, the bacteria can take control over the host animals sensory decision-making process, which affects their responses to odors and may influence food choices said Dr. Sengupta.

Future studies will identify additional brain chemicals produced by bacteria that may be involved in changing other worm behaviors. In addition, it is unknown whether specific combinations of bacterial strains present in the gut will result in different responses to environmental cues. Although worms and mammals share many of the same genes and biochemical processes, it is not known whether similar pathways and outcomes exist in higher order animals.

This study was supported by NINDS (NS007292 and NS101702); the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC013711); the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM088290, GM131877, and GM122463); and the National Science Foundation (IOS 1655118).

For more information, please visit:ninds.nih.gov

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research.

The NINDS (http://www.ninds.nih.gov) is the nations leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system.The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

MP ODonnell et al. Modulation of olfactory behavior by a gut bacteria-produced neurotransmitter. Nature, 2020.

###

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Gut bacteria may modify behavior in worms, influencing eating habits - National Institutes of Health

Human Behavior

How Colorado is getting the reopening right – Politico

With Leah Nylen and Alice Miranda Ollstein

Editors Note: POLITICO Pulse is a free version of POLITICO Pro Health Care's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the days biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.

Colorado has so far sidestepped the coronavirus surges hitting its neighbors, despite being one of the earlier states to begin reopening.

House lawmakers will be required to wear masks during committee hearings under new guidance issued by the Capitols attending physician.

The heads of several gig economy companies are calling on Congress to create a one-time special enrollment period.

A message from PhRMA:

Americas biopharmaceutical companies are sharing their knowledge and resources more than ever before to speed up the development of new medicines to fight COVID-19. Theyre working with doctors and hospitals on over 1,100 clinical trials. Because science is how we get back to normal. More.

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE where NBA players trying to safely resume the season are going to Disney World but, according to the leagues very detailed handbook, their pets will not be joining them.

PULSEs inbox is always pet friendly: send pics and tips to [emailprotected] and [emailprotected].

HOW COLORADO IS GETTING THE REOPENING RIGHT Colorado raised some eyebrows when it became the first Democratic-run state to start lifting its lockdown but a few weeks later, the state is sticking out for all the right reasons.

Colorado has so far avoided the Covid-19 resurgence rippling across the West, thanks in large part to its measured reopening strategy and residents who have largely followed public health officials advice, POLITICOs Dan Goldberg reports.

The states go-slow approach appears to be succeeding. Gov. Jared Polis began reopening the economy in April, but has progressed slowly since then a marked contrast to states like Arizona that sped through their early phases.

Colorado also benefited from its relatively young, healthy population. The state is the least obese in the nation, meaning fewer people have health conditions that make them especially susceptible to the virus. And some health experts think early outbreaks may have scared Coloradans into following recommendations around mask wearing and social distancing.

Polis is still counseling vigilance. Colorado is averaging about 150 new infections a day and new clusters in surrounding states raise the odds of a resurgence. The minute human behavior lapses, this will surge back, Polis said Monday.

CAPITOL DOC ESCALATES HOUSES MASK DEBATE House lawmakers will be required to wear face coverings during committee hearings under new guidance issued by the Capitol physician late on Tuesday.

The change follows complaints from Democrats that several Republicans were not wearing masks in a hearing last week, and a couple days after Rep. Tom Rice disclosed hed contracted Covid-19. Rice had been on the House floor without a mask in late May.

The guidance bars members who refuse to wear a mask. Individual entry will be denied to those House of Representatives limited enclosed spaces where face coverings are required but not used by the individual, Brian Monahan, the Capitol physician, wrote.

A senior Democratic aide told POLITICOs Heather Caygle that the requirement will be enforced by the Sergeant at Arms and that committee chairs will have the option not to recognize lawmakers who fail to follow the rules.

The first test will come today. President Donald Trump and other White House officials have flaunted their own CDCs recommendations that people wear face coverings to prevent coronavirus transmission an attitude many in the GOP have copied and thats helped turn the refusal to wear a mask into a political statement.

The House will have its first opportunity to enforce the new guidance this morning during a Judiciary Committee markup of Democrats police reform bill, H.R. 7120 (116).

FIRST IN PULSE: GIG ECONOMY CEOs CALL FOR SPECIAL ENROLLMENT PERIOD The leaders of firms like Postmates, Instacart and DoorDash are asking Congress to create a one-time sign-up period that lasts for at least eight weeks, in a letter shared first with PULSE.

Obama veterans Andy Slavitt, Bob Kocher, Zeke Emanuel and Aneesh Chopra also signed on to the letter. The ideas separately received support from AHIP, but the Trump administration rejected the concept of re-opening HealthCare.gov for sign-ups earlier this year.

As many as 27 million people could be at risk of losing their job-based health insurance given the recent surge in unemployment, per a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis in May. Thats created urgency to get legislation into the next congressional stimulus package.

Its something that I think needs to happen, said Noah Lang, CEO of Stride Health, whos leading the letter to congressional leaders and the Senate HELP committee. Lang noted that states like California that run their own insurance exchanges have already opened Covid-19 special enrollment periods. But if youre in a state that relies on the federally facilitated marketplace, you dont have the same liberty, Lang said.

Lang also said that Stride which serves as an ACA broker is seeing five times the enrollment that it normally would at this time of year, driven by states that set up special enrollment periods.

The number one enrollment reason is Covid-19, he said.

COVID-19 IS KILLING YOUNGER MINORITIES AT DISPROPORTIONATE RATES Black Americans aged 35-44 are dying from coronavirus at nine times the rate of whites a figure that offers the starkest evidence yet of the pandemics disproportionate toll on communities of color.

In a new working paper, Harvard researchers analyzing mortality rates by race/ethnic group and age found massive disparities among younger minority populations when compared to their white counterparts.

Black coronavirus patients 25 to 34 years old had a mortality rate 7.3 times higher than whites. For Latinos in the same age range, the rate was 5.5 times that of whites. The researchers found similar results among Native Americans, where those 25-34 had a rate 7.3 times higher than whites, and those aged 35-44 died at rates more than 8 times higher.

That translates to more than 45,000 years of life lost for black Americans, and 48,204 for Latinos figures that compare to an estimated 33,446 for white coronavirus patients.

SUMMER SNAFU: DC TOSSES COVID TESTS AFTER HEAT EXPOSURE Washington, D.C., threw out just over 400 coronavirus tests collected from a pair of free testing sites last week because the samples were unable to be processed due to heat exposure, the city confirmed to POLITICOs Alice Miranda Ollstein.

The sites were located at Judiciary Square between Capitol Hill and downtown D.C. and across the river in Anacostia. The city will let affected residents cut the line and get re-tested today and Thursday in Judiciary Square, but Anacostia wont have extra hours.

A spokesperson for Washingtons health department said its adding more refrigeration at each testing site to make sure more tests arent compromised in the future.

FIRST IN PULSE: DOJS SILENCE ON TEVA LEADS TO QUESTIONS A progressive watchdog group is raising questions about whether Teva Pharmaceuticals donations of a potential Covid-19 treatment affected discussions with the Justice Department about resolving a criminal probe into generic drug price-fixing.

In a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr on Tuesday, Accountable.US urged the DOJ to reveal whether the White House or other political actors have played a role in its negotiations with Teva, POLITICO's Leah Nylen writes. The Israeli drugmaker has been under investigation by U.S. antitrust prosecutors who allege the company conspired with rivals to fix prices on commonly used drugs, though DOJ has yet to announce charges or a settlement with the company.

Teva was among several drugmakers to donate doses of hydroxychloroquine, a drug President Donald Trump touted as a treatment for Covid-19 but which has shown no clinical benefit. The FDA this week pulled the drug's emergency use authorization.

FIRST IN PULSE: HOSPITAL GROUP SEEKS CHANGES TO EMERGENCY LOAN PROGRAM The Federation of American Hospitals is lobbying Congress to revamp the terms of a Medicare advance payment program, warning that facilities could face steep losses if lawmakers dont intervene before August.

The trade group representing for-profit hospitals launched a website focused on the issue today, highlighting the risk that providers that borrowed money early in the crisis could soon be forced to begin repayment through a garnishing of their Medicare reimbursement even though the pandemic has yet to subside.

FAH is asking Congress to push back the repayment start date into 2021 and waive or limit the interest rate attached to the loans, among a series of other tweaks aimed at easing the potential pressure on hospitals finances.

FDA PULLS ANTIBODY TESTS EMERGENCY AUTHORIZATION The agency is citing accuracy concerns in revoking the emergency use authorization for an antibody test made by Chembio, POLITICOs David Lim reports.

That makes it the first coronavirus test of any type to lose its EUA, a decision that came after an independent evaluation found it had a higher than expected rate of false results.

A message from PhRMA:

Americas biopharmaceutical companies are sharing their knowledge and resources more than ever before to speed up the development of new medicines to fight COVID-19. Theyre working with doctors and hospitals on over 1,100 clinical trials.

And theres no slowing down. Americas biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. Because science is how we get back to normal.

See how biopharmaceutical companies are working together to get people what they need during this pandemic.

Wisconsin is seeking permission to offer federal pandemic aid to laid off workers with disabilities an abrupt reversal from its repeated denials of those seeking the benefits, Bram Sable-Smith reports for Wisconsin Watch.

Montgomery, Ala.s city council voted down an ordinance mandating mask wearing despite doctors warnings the areas hospitals could soon be overrun, the Montgomery Advertisers Brad Harper writes.

There is growing consensus around how people tend to catch Covid-19, the Wall Street Journals Daniela Hernandez, Sarah Toy and Betsy McKay report.

One coronavirus transmission risk thats received less attention to date, the New York Times Knvul Sheikh writes: the toilet plume.

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How Colorado is getting the reopening right - Politico

Human Behavior

OPINION: Everyone should take more than COMM 101 – Argonaut

Fundamentals of Oral Communication,more commonly calledCOMM 101,is taken by undergraduate studentsat the University of Idaho as apart of the general education curriculum.Although only one communications course is requiredto graduate,it is a good idea to explore other communications coursesUIoffers.

The university offers many communications courses for students, whichcan help relationships and interactions with others. Communication iscrucialto humanlife, so why not learn more aboutit?

COMM 101 isan important part of the universitys teachings, preparing students for communication in the workplace and speaking in front of an audience.The course gives students experience preparing slides, brainstorming ideas and speaking while learning about presenting skills.

While teaching students some communication skills is important,COMM101 doesnt do justiceto the communication field and, yes, I amsaying this because Im a communications major.

Learning more about communication has made me more introspective about what others mean when they say and do things. Communication is an untapped resource everyone can take advantage of.Coursesin the fieldhave made a difference in my life andholdpotentialto do sofor othersopen to learning.

There is something fascinating about human behavior. Learning about how we and others act canshow us new perspectives. This can be started by delving into more communications classes.

Communicationisnt just about what we say.Oral communication is only the tip of thecommunicationiceberg. When people think about communication,they think of speech, and thats what I thoughtbefore I started taking moreclasses.

Communication has more depth than what we learn in courses. Over 50%ofhumancommunication is non-verbal. Thisdoesnt include just body language. Non-verbal is all communication that isnt saidthis can be pitch, physical spaceand even odor.

COMM 101 only offerssome briefbasics of speech and oral communication.

Communication isa big factor in our everyday lives.Because it isso woven into oureverydaylives, it is vital to learn more about it.

UI teaches courses likeinterpersonalcommunication, conflict management, non-verbalcommunicationand more.Taking these courses will help make a well-rounded college experience and perspective on how we communicate.

Communication can be applied to any major. Manyclasses require COMM 101,which is already fulfilled by the general education curriculum.

UI alsooffers fun, non-conventional classes,like the dark side of communication. There is a class for everyone.

Courses can be found at the university schedule website.Someare offered online,if going out poses concernforCOVID-19. Communication is abroad, interesting subjectswhichoffers something for everything.Work, relationships andeveryday life can be better understood by acknowledging and learning skills communication courses have to offer.

Take a lookat what the university has to offer and sign up for some communication courses outside of COMM 101.

Emily Pearce can be reached atarg-opinion@uidaho.eduor on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce

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OPINION: Everyone should take more than COMM 101 - Argonaut

Human Behavior

No, Things Still Aren’t ‘Back to Normal’ With the Coronavirus Pandemic – Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

In recent weeks, many local governments have relaxed restrictions related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, rolling back stay-at-home orders and allowing businesses and restaurants to slowly reopen.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services.Policy

While many are still following CDC guidelines like social distancing and wearing masks in public to fight the spread of the virus, recent headlines have put a spotlight on packed patios and crowded bars and restaurants where those precautions arent being heeded as closely.

Its an understandably difficult balance to achieve: the need to remain vigilant about the virus while seeking out a feeling of normalcy. But normalcy is relative in the middle of a pandemic and while there is more flexibility about what we can do and where we can go, that doesnt mean we can disregard the risks associated with COVID-19.

In fact, the death toll from COVID-19 recently surpassed 100,000 in the United States and several states have experienced a spike in new cases in recent weeks as re-openings commenced.

Its a really tough spot, says pulmonary and critical care physician Joseph Khabbaza, MD.

Even though active cases may be trending down or at a plateau, reopening is probably going to lead to at least a slight rise in cases, he says. But there are also significant consequences to keeping the economy shut down which include non-COVID-19-related health consequences: losing your job, your health insurance, and your ability to feed your family.

Dr. Khabbaza shared his insight as to how we can navigate this measured reopening by remaining cautious and adapting to a new coronavirus reality.

While healthcare providers and researchers are constantly learning new things about the coronavirus, one thing that has stayed consistent is how it spreads and how we can protect ourselves from spreading it to others.

If you put three simple measures in place, youre going to make it hard for that virus to get transmitted while youre out, Dr. Khabbaza points out. Wearing a mask when youre around other people minimizes the amount of droplets you deposit in your immediate environment if you sneeze, cough, or simply speaking.

Its mostly through close, sustained contacts, even just 10 to 15 minutes, that youre most at risk, he says. If youre keeping your distance, youre less likely to acquire an infection from being near somebody who is infected. And if you frequently wash your hands and youre aware of not touching your face, its going to be very hard to get infected.

But dropping your guard can still lead to infection and, worse, spreading the infection to friends and family you come in contact with.

As cities and states have rolled back restrictions, many people rushed to gather in large groups and celebrate despite these ongoing concerns. But the danger remains and its not just about exposing yourself to the virus; theres also the risk of taking it with you to your loved ones.

Weve seen a lot of cringe-worthy photos lately of crowded pools and other gatherings, Dr. Khabbaza says, and theres definitely a risk there. A person could be doing everything perfectly, protecting themselves against the virus but then a part of their small social circle or family member goes into a higher risk setting like that and brings the virus home, increasing a risk of pre-symptomatically spreading it without being aware.

Thats why its so important to still maintain limited close contact with a small social circle, he says, so you always know where everybody has been. If somebody has been in a higher risk setting in your social circle, its probably best to take a week or two break from being close with them just to make sure no symptoms develop in that time, he says.

Even though the expelled respiratory droplets that can spread the coronavirus are usually heavy enough to fall to the ground after travelling several feet, its still possible for the virus to be spread via an airborne route.

As an example, Dr. Khabbaza points to a well-known case from Washington state where, during a choir practice, just 1 symptomatic person was able to infect 52 out of 60 other people.

Just the act of singing produces a lot of smaller droplets and those can float about in the air for a bit, he explains. If youre singing around someone long enough whos making these smaller droplets, its possible to have enough viral particles transmitted to your upper respiratory tract to cause infection.

He likens this to being in close contact with someone in a crowded restaurant or bar, too. There are settings when youre up close to people and if someone is speaking loudly, that creates the potential that youre going to be breathing those droplets in the air or them directly reaching your eyes. Its a closer, sustained contact with somebody whos constantly generating particles that allows the opportunity for direct transmission.

While new cases in the United States have plateaued and even climbed slightly in recent weeks, Dr. Khabbaza is optimistic that a bigger second wave, whether fueled by more re-openings or a seasonal wave, will be mitigated somewhat by the precautions that have been taken already and remain in place.

He admits there are too many variables to be able to accurately predict what might happen in the coming months. Im optimistic but its very hard to predict. In models, trying to predict how human behavior or large numbers of people can affect things tends to not be very accurate. There are just too many variables.

Still, as businesses particularly restaurants reopen, theyre implementing new rules about the number of people allowed in at one time, cleaning and disinfecting their premises and addressing physical distance concerns. And while the risk remains, even this new way of doing business could mitigate new cases at least as long as most people continue to follow the social distancing guidelines.

The new normal is very far from the old one, Dr. Khabbaza says. Things are so different than they were before the first outbreak and the changes that a majority of places put in place could help blunt the number of cases.

When the virus first really hit, no one was thinking about sanitizing their hands, how many times they touched their face, about being in crowded spaces or the importance of wearing a mask, he adds. But if we keep these habits up, hopefully any second wave will be of a lower magnitude.

While there certainly have been instances in which people havent practiced what wed consider ideal social distancing, Dr. Khabbaza is optimistic about the way most of the country has adopted the preferred guidelines.

When you go to the grocery store, most people are wearing masks and carts are being sanitized regularly, he says. I think its a minority of people that feel its nothing to worry about or nothing more than the cold or flu. That does have the potential to infect others who are doing their part, but most people do seem to be taking this seriously.

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No, Things Still Aren't 'Back to Normal' With the Coronavirus Pandemic - Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic