Neuroscience

How to make good decisions when you’re paralyzed by the stress of protests and the pandemic – WPBF West Palm Beach

Do you find it tough to make decisions these days? What used to be no-brainers, stopping at the grocery for bread and milk, making a pit stop at the gas station or meeting friends for dinner and drinks are now fraught with dangers.Are people wearing masks at the grocery and keeping their carts at a proper distance of 6 feet? Did you bring gloves or hand sanitizer for the gas pump? Will the restaurant have outdoor socially distant seating and just how does one eat with a mask?And now we're fighting back tears and struggling with rage over the killing of George Floyd, the unarmed and handcuffed black man in Minneapolis who died after gasping "I can't breathe" as a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck."It's crazy times, with protests and a pandemic and things at every level appearing untrustworthy," said biochemist Bita Moghaddam, who chairs the behavioral neuroscience department in the school of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.Moghaddam, who studies how anxiety affects the brain, said it's no wonder our stressed, overworked brains can't spit out a decision. We have become victims of "analysis paralysis.""We don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month," Daphna Shohamy, who is a professor of psychology at Columbia University, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a recent podcast.And we're all forced to make decisions in that state of uncertainty and to just rely on what we do know, which is not good enough," said Shohamy, who studies the cognitive neuroscience of learning, memory and decision-making."I notice it myself all the time," Gupta said in the podcast. "As simple as choosing a tie in the morning, what I'm going to have for lunch, whether I'm going to go for a run or a bike ride."Those were decisions that usually took me just a few seconds, and now sometimes I just find myself struggling," he said.How the brain makes decisionsThe headquarters for our decision-making capabilities is the prefrontal cortex, which controls our higher-level executive functions. Those include focusing our attention, creating and organizing thoughts, setting goals, planning actions and putting a stop to impulsive thoughts and behaviors.Under normal or mild stress conditions, the brain uses "working memory" to regulate our mood and actions from the top down. Working memory marries recent events with memories from long-term storage about what we learned from any experience, and it uses this to make decisions about how we should act, think and feel based on our experiences. And, of course, it helps us anticipate and predict possible consequences from our actions."The brain is constantly estimating risk," Moghaddam said."I'm hungry. I'm going to get up and drive to a pizzeria to grab some pizza. But driving involves risk because you could get into an accident," she said. "If you're suffering from anxiety disorders, you may say, 'No, I'm not going to even risk getting in the car because I couldn't relax.' If you're drunk, then the risk is even higher. And it becomes a computation game."It takes the first quarter of life for the decision-making area of the brain to fully mature in humans. Car rental companies recognize that fact and won't rent to anyone under 25.Other key milestones, such as a driver's license at age 16, voting at 18 and drinking at 21 occur when the brain's ability to make good decisions isn't fully baked.The prefrontal cortex is also the area of the brain that is most sensitive to stress. Even mild stress can cause "rapid and dramatic loss of prefrontal cognitive abilities," while prolonged stress can actually change the brain, according to Amy Arnsten, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Yale School of Medicine.When we are stressed all the time, certain neurotransmitters go awry, flooding the brain with chemicals that change the structure and functioning of the prefrontal cortex and the fight-or-flight emotion and memory centers of the brain. Working memory suffers, and our ability to make quick or well-thought-out decisions declines."In general, decision-making slows down," Moghaddam said. "You could argue it's better for our survival. You learned driving when it's icy is dangerous, you shouldn't be drinking and driving, and you've learned that this virus could kill you."The combo of stress with increased risk is making it much harder to make decisions during the pandemic."If you think about going to the grocery store right now, there's a fair amount of planning consciously or subconsciously what times will be less crowded, do I really need to go, and should I go," Moghaddam said. "Most of us didn't think of going to a grocery store as a dangerous thing before, yet now it has become an anxiety-provoking process."What to do next?Give your brain a break from its constant risk calculations.Try to take 10 to 15 minutes to close your eyes and meditate, pushing all of your worries and decisions to the side during that time.You can see physical changes in the brain in a short time, said psychology and psychiatry professor Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.Davidson did a randomized controlled trial of people who've never meditated before. Using direct measures of brain function and structure, he found it only took 30 minutes a day of meditation practice over the course of two weeks to produce a measurable change in the brain.There are other anxiety-busting activities that can help. Practice good sleep hygiene to improve your sleep quality, one of the best things you can do to ease stress and boost your mood.Studies show exercising at a moderate but not high intensity for 15 to 30 minutes at least three times a week does wonders for stress. Try rhythmic exercises, such as running, swimming, cycling and walking, to get your blood pumping in major muscle groups.Something as simple as taking deep, slow breaths can do amazing things to our brain and therefore our stress and anxiety, said Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, an editor for Contentment magazine, produced by the American Institute of Stress."When you physiologically calm yourself, you actually change your brainwaves," Ackrill said.Yoga, tai chi and qi gong are spiritual disciplines, designed to meld body and mind. A yoga lifestyle incorporates physical postures, breath regulation and mindfulness through the practice of meditation. Brain scans of people using tai chi and qi gong find increased alpha, beta and theta brain wave activity, suggesting increased relaxation and attentiveness.And finally, stop criticizing your brain for its indecisiveness."Why are we so worried about being paralyzed?" Moghaddam asked. "It's normal for a brain to take its time to make a decision. The brain is actually doing its job."

Do you find it tough to make decisions these days? What used to be no-brainers, stopping at the grocery for bread and milk, making a pit stop at the gas station or meeting friends for dinner and drinks are now fraught with dangers.

Are people wearing masks at the grocery and keeping their carts at a proper distance of 6 feet? Did you bring gloves or hand sanitizer for the gas pump? Will the restaurant have outdoor socially distant seating and just how does one eat with a mask?

And now we're fighting back tears and struggling with rage over the killing of George Floyd, the unarmed and handcuffed black man in Minneapolis who died after gasping "I can't breathe" as a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck.

"It's crazy times, with protests and a pandemic and things at every level appearing untrustworthy," said biochemist Bita Moghaddam, who chairs the behavioral neuroscience department in the school of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.

Moghaddam, who studies how anxiety affects the brain, said it's no wonder our stressed, overworked brains can't spit out a decision. We have become victims of "analysis paralysis."

"We don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month," Daphna Shohamy, who is a professor of psychology at Columbia University, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a recent podcast.

And we're all forced to make decisions in that state of uncertainty and to just rely on what we do know, which is not good enough," said Shohamy, who studies the cognitive neuroscience of learning, memory and decision-making.

"I notice it myself all the time," Gupta said in the podcast. "As simple as choosing a tie in the morning, what I'm going to have for lunch, whether I'm going to go for a run or a bike ride.

"Those were decisions that usually took me just a few seconds, and now sometimes I just find myself struggling," he said.

The headquarters for our decision-making capabilities is the prefrontal cortex, which controls our higher-level executive functions. Those include focusing our attention, creating and organizing thoughts, setting goals, planning actions and putting a stop to impulsive thoughts and behaviors.

Under normal or mild stress conditions, the brain uses "working memory" to regulate our mood and actions from the top down. Working memory marries recent events with memories from long-term storage about what we learned from any experience, and it uses this to make decisions about how we should act, think and feel based on our experiences. And, of course, it helps us anticipate and predict possible consequences from our actions.

"The brain is constantly estimating risk," Moghaddam said.

"I'm hungry. I'm going to get up and drive to a pizzeria to grab some pizza. But driving involves risk because you could get into an accident," she said. "If you're suffering from anxiety disorders, you may say, 'No, I'm not going to even risk getting in the car because I couldn't relax.' If you're drunk, then the risk is even higher. And it becomes a computation game."

It takes the first quarter of life for the decision-making area of the brain to fully mature in humans. Car rental companies recognize that fact and won't rent to anyone under 25.

Other key milestones, such as a driver's license at age 16, voting at 18 and drinking at 21 occur when the brain's ability to make good decisions isn't fully baked.

The prefrontal cortex is also the area of the brain that is most sensitive to stress. Even mild stress can cause "rapid and dramatic loss of prefrontal cognitive abilities," while prolonged stress can actually change the brain, according to Amy Arnsten, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Yale School of Medicine.

When we are stressed all the time, certain neurotransmitters go awry, flooding the brain with chemicals that change the structure and functioning of the prefrontal cortex and the fight-or-flight emotion and memory centers of the brain. Working memory suffers, and our ability to make quick or well-thought-out decisions declines.

"In general, decision-making slows down," Moghaddam said. "You could argue it's better for our survival. You learned driving when it's icy is dangerous, you shouldn't be drinking and driving, and you've learned that this virus could kill you."

The combo of stress with increased risk is making it much harder to make decisions during the pandemic.

"If you think about going to the grocery store right now, there's a fair amount of planning consciously or subconsciously what times will be less crowded, do I really need to go, and should I go," Moghaddam said. "Most of us didn't think of going to a grocery store as a dangerous thing before, yet now it has become an anxiety-provoking process."

Give your brain a break from its constant risk calculations.

Try to take 10 to 15 minutes to close your eyes and meditate, pushing all of your worries and decisions to the side during that time.

You can see physical changes in the brain in a short time, said psychology and psychiatry professor Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Davidson did a randomized controlled trial of people who've never meditated before. Using direct measures of brain function and structure, he found it only took 30 minutes a day of meditation practice over the course of two weeks to produce a measurable change in the brain.

There are other anxiety-busting activities that can help. Practice good sleep hygiene to improve your sleep quality, one of the best things you can do to ease stress and boost your mood.

Studies show exercising at a moderate but not high intensity for 15 to 30 minutes at least three times a week does wonders for stress. Try rhythmic exercises, such as running, swimming, cycling and walking, to get your blood pumping in major muscle groups.

Something as simple as taking deep, slow breaths can do amazing things to our brain and therefore our stress and anxiety, said Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, an editor for Contentment magazine, produced by the American Institute of Stress.

"When you physiologically calm yourself, you actually change your brainwaves," Ackrill said.

Yoga, tai chi and qi gong are spiritual disciplines, designed to meld body and mind. A yoga lifestyle incorporates physical postures, breath regulation and mindfulness through the practice of meditation. Brain scans of people using tai chi and qi gong find increased alpha, beta and theta brain wave activity, suggesting increased relaxation and attentiveness.

And finally, stop criticizing your brain for its indecisiveness.

"Why are we so worried about being paralyzed?" Moghaddam asked. "It's normal for a brain to take its time to make a decision. The brain is actually doing its job."

Read the original here:
How to make good decisions when you're paralyzed by the stress of protests and the pandemic - WPBF West Palm Beach

Neuroscience

Opinion | The role that compassion could play in Indias economic revival – Livemint

In a recently published study of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, a group of Italian scholars found that government institutions and national health care services largely proved ineffective in facing the crisis, while civil society experienced a serious breakdown due to the climate of generalised suspicion. Potentially useful interventions, especially regarding social distancing, were negatively affected by mistakes in communication". The measures used to control the outbreak led to social division instead of greater unity and solidarity. (These) mistakes and failures in managing the Spanish flu had long-lasting negative economic consequences." Arnstein Aassve, Guido Alfani, Francesco Gandolfi, Marco Le Moglie conclude that experiencing the Spanish flu and the associated condition of social disruption and generalised mistrust had permanent consequences on individual behaviour in terms of lower social trust. This loss in social trust constrained economic growth for many decades to follow."

Contemporary economic policy discourse in India has largely missed this point. Even as governments, industry associations and think tanks have come out with recovery plans and stimulus recommendations, the all-too-important social dimension has been ignored. Let me offer a mea culpa: the economic reconstruction plan that I co-authored with my Takshashila colleagues declares three policy objectives: humanitarian relief, economic revival and long-term reconstructions. We called for monetary, fiscal and regulatory changes, but completely missed out the urgent need to halt the dangerous destruction of social capital and the conscious effort that public policy must make to rebuild it. For, if we allow social disruption and generalized mistrust to perpetuate, not only will an economic recovery prove elusive, but there will be worse to follow.

The challenge of bringing the pandemic under control requires us to set aside all other differences and focus on the public health crisis and its consequences. Had the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill and National Register of Citizens continued despite the pandemic and in defiance of the lockdown, Indias present situation would have been a whole lot worse.

Compare this to the United States, where over a thousand epidemiologists and public health experts supported the Black Lives Matter mass protests during an extant pandemic. Harvard epidemiologist Maia Majumder tweeted that police brutality is a public health problem; anything that causes mortality at such a scale is a public health problem." Politics has prevailed over science in such arguments. As The Atlantic magazines Conor Friedersdorf writes, The reinforcement of progressive social-justice narratives should not get in the way of simple truth-telling." Yet, they have, and thousands of people are on the streets risking their own health and those of others for a cause. Reasons Robby Soave rejects the view that the righteousness of the cause is somehow a mitigating factor for spreading the disease", but yet another chapter is now being written in the tragic tale of how the US has botched up its response to the covid-19 pandemic.

We should avoid getting there. The Indian government would do well to reconsider socially controversial aspects of its pre-pandemic political agenda. Locking up university students and street protesters in New Delhi at a time when courts are not fully functioning and police forces are overstretched should not be a priority at this time. Should the relationship between police forces and citizens takes an adversarial turn again, India will suffer a lot more damage than it already has, and that we can ill afford.

To rebuild the economy, we must focus on rebuilding social capital. To rebuild social capital, we need greater compassion across society. So many of the humanitarian tragedies that unfolded over the past few months could have been avoided or mitigated had we shown more compassion: in making migrants feel safe, making food available, in saving small businesses and giving money directly to those who are in most need. This is not merely an indictment of our Union and state governments. It is an indictment of our society as a whole.

It is easy to dismiss compassion as being a social issue or personal matter and absolve public policy of any role in it. That would be wrong, given its importance to national prosperity and well-being. Indeed, it is perhaps inattention to the need for a compassionate society that lies at the root of our social and economic problems. Across parties and ideologies, whether in the name of social justice, inclusion or nationalism, our politics tends to promote policies of us versus them" that creates resentment and undermines compassion.

To be clear, the call for compassion as a goal of public policy is not a call for redistribution of wealth. Higher taxes and mandatory corporate social responsibility do not create compassion. Then how do we go about it? The Buddhist philosophical traditions answer is to start with an internal transformation, brought about by reflection, meditation and the experience of benevolent living. Meanwhile, neuroscience is confirming the view that brain functions can be changed and compassion cultivated. The public policy challenge is to make this inner quest a social outcome. How do we create incentives for compassionate behaviour? We have to, well, reflect on this.

What is clear, though, is that political leaders and policymakers should avoid deepening social disruption and the generalized mistrust in society, especially at this time, tempting as the opportunities might be. A pandemic is not the time for taking political prisoners. Nor indeed for us to be imprisoned in our own politics.

Nitin Pai is co-founder and director of The Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy

Subscribe to newsletters

* Enter a valid email

* Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Originally posted here:
Opinion | The role that compassion could play in Indias economic revival - Livemint

Physiology

Letter to the editor: How to learn more about evolution – The Hutchinson News

SundayJun7,2020at12:00PM

I am writing in response the John Wojakowskis editoral questioning evolution. It is easy to ask questions about and misquote articles on evolution, but it is not as easy to explain the complex science supporting it. It cant be done in an editorial, but I would like to refer your readers to several online articles that refute his propositions.

The first is Four Famous Transitional Fossils That Support Evolution by Shaena Montanari on http://www.forbes.com. Wojakowskis claim of circular reasoning is both bad science and bad logic.

The second article is The Fossil Fallacy by Michael Shermer at www. scientificamerican.com. Shermer states that we know evolution happened because of a convergence of evidence from such diverse fields as geology, paleontology, biogeography, comparative anatomy and physiology and many more. Fossils are but one line of inquiry.

The third article is Did 90% of Animal Species Appear about the Same Time as Human Beings published at the website Biologos. The conclusion Wojakowski stated is nowhere given in the article quoted by him. This article asks if the title claim is true and concludes The answer is no.

Wojakowskis report on the University of Michigans results reveal as lack of insight regarding the time frame of evolution. Evolution occurred over hundreds of millions of years, so 1.5 million is the blink of an evolutionary eye.

Science is too complex to be discussed in the editorial page, but I hope this rebuttal will be printed.

Janet Stotts, Topeka

Visit link:
Letter to the editor: How to learn more about evolution - The Hutchinson News

Physiology

How ‘microgravity’ changes the bodies of astronauts – The Next Web

Being an astronaut looks like an exciting and glamorous career. But have you ever thought about the dangers that these people face by being exposed to extreme conditions, such as radiation and microgravity?

Living and working in microgravity can impact your whole body in different ways. On the other hand, the human body is capable of adapting its physiology to survive in diverse conditions.

[S]paceflight poses unique medical problems due to prolonged exposure to a combination of stressful stimuli, such as acceleration forces, radiation, and weightlessness. In particular, the latter condition is a critical feature of [spaceflight] and has effects on human physiology which were quite unexpected at the beginning of space exploration, TheNational Institutes of Healthdescribes.

Microgravity is the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless.

You may have heard that there is no gravity in space. This is not quite true. In fact, a small amount of gravity can be found everywhere in space.

Gravity becomes weaker with distance. The International Space Station orbits our planet at an altitude between 320 and 400 kilometers (200 and 250 miles) above the Earth. At that altitude, Earths gravity is about 90 percent of what it is on the planets surface.

The real reason people and objects float in orbit is because that they are in free fall. On Earth, objects with more air resistance fall more slowly than objects able to slip through air more easily. In a vacuum, gravity makes objects fall at the same rate.

Sometimes,astronauts have to spend months in microgravity, so NASA and other space agencies carefully study the effects of microgravity in order to keep astronauts safe and healthy.

Astronauts who live on the space station spend months in microgravity. Astronauts who travel to Mars also would spend months in microgravity traveling to and from the Red Planet,NASA reports.

Under gravity, standing upright, fluid distribution creates higher arterial pressure in the feet (200 mmHg) than in the head (70 mmHg) relative to the heart (100 mmHg).

On Earth, with its normal gravity, all changes in posture such as when lying down, sitting, or standing as well as changes in activity levels such as through exercising require the heart and vascular system to regulate blood pressure and distribution by adjusting the heart rate (beats per minute), amount of blood ejected by the heart (or stroke volume), and constriction or dilation of the distributing arteries. These adjustments assure continued consciousness by providing oxygen to the brain or continued ability to work, with oxygen going to the working muscles,NASA describes.

Inspace, blood redistribution toward the head causes altered responses of the nervous and endocrine systems.

Besides that, the increased fluid within the skull increases brain pressure, causing hearing loss, brain edema, and deformation of the eye known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS).

Acute exposure to microgravity can also cause symptoms of anorexia, vomiting, nausea, and headache, also known as space motion sickness. Fortunately,astronauts bodies can adaptto this in 4872 hours.

Because of microgravity, astronauts muscles are not required to support their body weight. Due to reduced use, they may suffer from muscle atrophy. This can make them unable to do physically demanding tasks while on a mission.

Its the same sensation you feel after spending the whole day laying down, and then try to take a walk right after. It feels like your muscles cant perform their job correctly.

In order to preventing thesehealth problems, astronauts exercise regularly, providing much-needed exercise in the microgravity environment.

Fluid distribution caused by microgravity affects the blood supply to the eye with an impact on its vascularization. Thats why someastronautsmay suffer from blurred vision, requiring them to wear glasses during the mission.

Gravity is the fundamental reference that tells us which way is down. To accomplish that function, we have receptors in our inner ears that act as our guidance system, helping to track the orientation of our bodies.

Microgravity makesastronautslose this reference, so they can feel disoriented and have difficulty coordinating their movements.

In space there is no gravitational force telling the inner ear which way is up and down. So while our eyes can certainly see a ceiling and floor in the spacecraft, our brains cannot register this. This causes nausea and dizziness. Some astronauts experience headaches and vertigo, theBBC reports.

Astronauts nervous systems usually adapt very quickly. By the third day of the flight, most of them cant feel the discomfort they felt when they first arrived in space.

Once they return to the Earth, they will have to face another process of adapting their physiological systems to gravity again.

On return to Earth, gravity once again pulls the blood and fluids into the abdomen and legs. The loss of blood volume, combined with atrophy of the heart and blood vessels that can occur in space, reduces the ability to regulate a drop in blood pressure that happens when we stand on Earth. Some astronauts experience orthostatic intolerance difficulty or inability to stand as a result of light headedness and/or fainting after return to Earth,NASA describes.

The human body is an incredible machine that can do amazing things. Of course, it requires a lot of training and dedication, and this is something at which astronauts excel.

This article was originally published on The Cosmic Companion byDr. Ana Luiza Dias.You can read this original piece here.

Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion is also available as a weekly podcast, carried on all major podcast providers. Tune in every Tuesday for updates on the latest astronomy news, and interviews with astronomers and other researchers working to uncover the nature of the Universe.

Read more from the original source:
How 'microgravity' changes the bodies of astronauts - The Next Web

Physiology

Fighting racism calls for action, not empty words – The Guardian

The statement from the college heads of Oxford University is a weak voice wafting over the perfectly trimmed college hedges answering the angry calls of protesters outside (Letters, 4 June). It is not good enough. Many colleges were built on the systematic abuse of black lives and livelihoods. The statement is passive and allows racism to breathe when black men and women cannot.

While recognising the role that education can play in building racial equality and fair inclusion of black voices, the heads fail to acknowledge that education perpetuates inequality and the silencing of black voices. If the Black Lives Matter movement is going to succeed, then we must recognise our past and present failures.

They write to reassert our belief in the need to promote, protect and advance equal dignity and respect, but to reassert statements only acknowledges that previous statements, like this one, have been ineffective. No marks are awarded for repetition in Oxford exams and I am not going to give them any for repeating hopes, wishes and acknowledgements, with no resultant action.

This statement comes from the high echelons of academia, yet I can only conclude that the authors are either out of touch or unable to admit their part in the problem. Despite the influence these heads wield, they have offered no suggestions or ideas to create effective and meaningful change. This statement means nothing other than we made a statement so weve done something, please stop shouting at us. This is a failure to support the ignored and unheard.

It is time to see statements of performative justice not just as ineffective, but offensive. And all this anger from a privileged white girl. Imagine the anger and pain of those who feel the effects of this prejudice constantly.Ginny GoughCambridge

Concerning the letter by the heads of Oxford colleges, may we make three points. First, while education, open discussion, etc, are useful tools to tackle racism, they are never enough. As many reports have pointed out, economic inequality also plays a crucial role, and all attempts should be made to reduce its blatant forms. Second, racism does not begin at the age of 18. It starts much earlier and we need to mobilise pre-university institutions as well. Third, we hope the authors are not using the term black just to mean black members of our community but in the modern political sense of non-whites. While recent events in the US continue to reveal the egregious treatment of members of the black community, one should not forget the Chinese, the Indians, the Pakistanis and the Jews, among others, who too have been frequent victims of systemic racism.Anant Parekh Department of Physiology, University of Oxford, Bhikhu Parekh Labour, House of Lords

In the surreal times we are living through, the simple act of breathing has taken on a disturbing dual symbolism. On the one hand, we have seen the tireless efforts of NHS staff to help Covid-19 patients breathe, while on the other, we witness the horrific events in the United States where police officers have killed a black man by denying him the ability to breathe (Trump and Biden offer starkly different visions with nation at a crossroads, 2 June).

Covid-19 has disproportionately affected minority communities in both the UK and the US. The persistence of racial inequality in both countries should be yet another wake-up call to put adequate measures in place to deal with structural racism. The question is will either government really be committed to addressing this issue?Dr Edie FriedmanExecutive director, Jewish Council for Racial Equality

Join the debate email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Read more Guardian letters click here to visit gu.com/letters

See the original post:
Fighting racism calls for action, not empty words - The Guardian

Physiology

Big Bang Theory: What is the Nobel Prize? What did Sheldon and Amy win a Nobel Prize for? – Express

He established the five prizes to be awarded for those working in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine in 1895.

The executors of the will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist formed the Nobel Foundation and the first award ceremony took place in 1901.

Each winner is known as a laureate and as part of their award, they receive a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation.

The Nobel Prize may not be shared by more than three individuals.

The Nobel Foundation website states as of 220, each prize is worth 9,000,000 SEK, which is approximately $935,366 and 716,224.

Originally posted here:
Big Bang Theory: What is the Nobel Prize? What did Sheldon and Amy win a Nobel Prize for? - Express

Physiology

5 tips to get you off the sofa because sitting more during COVID-19 is hurting your health – The Conversation CA

With the Canadian government continuing to recommend physical distancing measures, many people are finding themselves confined to their homes more than ever before. While some are citing the benefits of being able to work from home and having time for self-care, the closures of recreational facilities and commercial gyms make physical distancing a barrier to physical activity for many.

In response, several health organizations and groups are emphasizing the importance of meeting physical activity guidelines. The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology recommends 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, which is roughly 30 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week. Assuming people are spending half an hour a day exercising, and then factoring in the 7.5 to eight hours of sleep the average adult gets, that leaves 15.5 waking hours unaccounted for.

So, what are people doing in the other 97 per cent of the day they spend awake? If youre like the average Canadian, then 9.5 hours of your day is spent sitting.

Sitting, a form of sedentary behaviour (along with lying down and reclining), is one of the most prevalent, habitual and invisible behaviours we perform. We sit in nearly every aspect of our lives from eating to commuting and working to screen time and more.

This is especially true of home-based sitting given the current stay-at-home recommendations. Netflix and other streaming services announced significant increases in traffic and new subscribers recently, while app downloads and weekly time spent on apps have also skyrocketed in the past months.

But why is sitting this much so bad? It may sound harmless, but chronic excessive levels of sitting have been associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and even some cancers. Even among young people, for whom chronic disease risk isnt as immediately concerning, excessive sitting poses a potential harm through an increased risk of depression and anxiety.

Perhaps most concerning is that these increased risks are independent of physical activity levels meaning even if you exercise regularly, youre still placing yourself at risk for all of these diseases if you spend too much time sitting.

So, what can be done to combat all the sitting we do? Put simply just standing up. Merely standing up or walking for about five minutes for every 30 minutes of sitting can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer and even death.

Unfortunately, its not as easy as it sounds. As a health behaviour researcher at Western University, I help people to develop action plans to reduce their sitting. Because we are so used to sitting everywhere, all the time, we typically dont mention sitting when describing activities we are doing. For example, we think of watching TV, not sitting down and watching TV.

Its difficult enough to change a habit or behaviour when you know its happening. Things get harder when you also consider that nearly every environment is designed for sitting: couches, chairs, cars, offices, etc. However, there are things we can do to make sitting less easier. Here are some practical strategies that Ive found to be useful for my participants to leave you in good standing:

Shape your environment: Just like being physically active is easier with the right equipment, modifying your space for standing and moving will make it easier to do so. This can be done by stacking some books for a standing desk or creating a route to pace in the house while on chatting on your phone.

Remind yourself youre sitting: Because sitting is so habitual for most of us, we often need a reminder to break it up. Setting an alarm for every 30 minutes before sitting down, or simply putting a sticky note on your computer screen or desk of when you sat down can be a useful prompt to get up more often.

Pair it up: A break from sitting isnt necessarily a break from what youre doing, such as working or watching TV. But if standing/moving distracts you from your task, then pair it with another healthy behaviour like drinking more water. Getting up to drink water will break up your sitting time, as will going to the washroom more often as a result. Plus, youll get all the benefits of drinking more water too.

Go the distance: When it comes to breaking up sitting time, the more frequent the breaks, the better. Incidental movement the moving we do while going about our day such as doing laundry or the steps we take while walking around our home is an easy way to break up sitting time. Try tracking your steps, and setting a step goal (aim for 2,000 more this week!) to help you monitor your progress.

Tell a friend: Keeping accountable with a housemate or friend can help keep you motivated. Most smartphones have a built-in activity tracker that can track your steps, with apps available to share this data with your social network. Competing for steps with a friend can put the health in healthy competition!

More here:
5 tips to get you off the sofa because sitting more during COVID-19 is hurting your health - The Conversation CA

Physiology

The Death of Wolverine Really DID Kill Logan in Marvel Canon – Screen Rant

When Wolverine died and returned to life a few years later, some suspected that he simply healed himself. But Logan was actually, truly dead.

Comic book characters in general are notorious for dying and coming back to life, but Wolverine is a special case. With his healing factor, its essentially impossible for Logan to actually die - even when his entire skeleton is torn out of him - which made people skeptical of his supposed demise in theDeath of Wolverine series. But believe it or not, that was one instance where Wolverine did, in fact, die.

InDeath of Wolverine, a four-part series published in 2014, Logans healing factor suddenly stops working after he is exposed to a virus from the microverse. Since Wolverines entire physiology is based on the fact that he can heal himself, this was a pretty big problem. Even using his claws was now dangerous, since his hands could no longer heal right away after retracting them. Despite this, Logan refuses to try to find a cure.

Related: How Wolverine Brought Charlie Brown To Marvel's Universe

Soon after, a bounty is put on Wolverine's head, and he decides to track down whoever is after him. It turns out to be Doctor Abraham Cornelius, the founder of the Weapon X program that gave Wolverine his adamantium-covered skeleton. Cornelius has been trying to recreate the experiment performed on Wolverine all those years ago, but it cant be done without Logans healing factor, which he hopes to replicate. Wolverine proceeds to cut his hand and show Cornelius that his healing factor is gone. Enraged, Cornelius forces Wolverine to fight one of his test subjects. Logan wins, but in the process covers himself in liquid adamantium, which proceeds to harden around his body and suffocate him.

Fortunately, the admantium cocoon would not be Logans final resting place. The one-shot Hunt for Wolverine in 2018 revealed that Logan had somehow escaped his seemingly unbreakable tomb, but exactly how was not explained until the Return of Wolverine miniseries later that year.

As it turns out, this was not a case of Wolverines healing factor simply keeping alive for all that time. Logan was actually dead, and his return was only possible through a mutant called Persephone, who has the power to resurrect people. Usually, those she resurrects come back as her mindless, zombie-like servants, but Wolverine managed to remember who he was over time, perhaps due to his healing factor returning as a result of his resurrection. He tells Persephone, Im back and Im Wolverine and thats the way it's gonna be. Classic Logan.

The plot for Death of Wolverine has quite a few similarities to James Mangolds two Wolverine movies, The Wolverine from 2013 and Logan from 2017. The Wolverine also saw Logan lose his healing factor - though he regained it by the end - and the character famously died at the end of Logan as Hugh Jackmans final outing as the character, who he played for almost twenty years. While Jackman has insisted hes hung up the claws for good, the Return of Wolverine could serve as a template for his comeback if he has a change of heart.

More: Why Hugh Jackman Never Wore Wolverine's Mask

How She-Hulk Originally Got Her Powers in Marvel Comics

Eddie is a recent graduate of Skidmore College. He has written for publications such as Silverpen Productions, PreLaw Land, and Clifton Park Neighbors Magazine. Now, he is very excited to be writing for Screen Rant. His hobbies include creative writing, reading, gaming, and constantly re-watching the Marvel movies.

Read more:
The Death of Wolverine Really DID Kill Logan in Marvel Canon - Screen Rant

Physiology

Exclusive: Nearly 600 And Counting US Health Workers Have Died Of COVID-19 – Kaiser Health News

Nearly 600 front-line health care workers appear to have died of COVID-19, according to Lost on the Frontline, a project launched by The Guardian and KHN that aims to count, verify and memorialize every health care worker who dies during the pandemic.

The tally includes doctors, nurses and paramedics, as well as crucial health care support staff such as hospital janitors, administrators and nursing home workers, who have put their own lives at risk during the pandemic to help care for others. Lost on the Frontline has now published the names and obituaries for more than 100 workers.

A majority of those documented were identified as people of color, mostly African American and Asian/Pacific Islander. Profiles of more victims, and an updated count, will be added to our news sites twice weekly going forward.

There is no other comprehensive accounting of U.S. health care workers deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted 368 COVID deaths among health care workers, but acknowledges its tally is an undercount. The CDC does not identify individuals.

The Guardian and KHN are building an interactive, public-facing database that will also track factors such as race and ethnicity, age, profession, location and whether the workers had adequate access to protective gear. The database to be released this summer will offer insight into the workings and failings of the U.S. health care system during the pandemic.

In addition to tracking deaths, Lost on the Frontline reports on the challenges health care workers are facing during the pandemic. Many were forced to reuse masks countless times amid widespread equipment shortages. Others had only trash bags for protection. Some deaths have been met with employers silence or denials that they were infected at work.

The number released today reflects the 586 names currently in the Lost on the Frontline internal database, which have been collected from family members, friends and colleagues of the deceased, health workers unions, media reports, unions, among other sources. Reporters at KHN and The Guardian are independently confirming each death by contacting family members, employers, medical examiners and others before publishing names and obituaries on our sites. More than a dozen journalists across two newsrooms as well as student journalists are involved in the project.

Many of the health care workers included here studied physiology and anatomy for years. They steeled themselves against the long hours theyd endure. Emergency medical technicians raced by ambulance to help. Others did the cleanup, maintenance, security or transportation jobs needed to keep operations running smoothly.

They undertook their work with passion and dedication. They were also beloved spouses, parents, friends, military veterans and community activists.

None started 2020 knowing that simply showing up to work would expose them to a virus that would kill them.

This project aims to capture the human stories, compassion and heroism behind the statistics. Among those lost were Dr. Priya Khanna, a nephrologist, who continued to review her patients charts until she was put on a ventilator. Her father, a retired surgeon, succumbed to the disease just days after his daughter.

Susana Pabatao, one of thousands of Philippine health providers in the United States, became a nurse in her late 40s. Susana died just days after her husband, Alfredo, who was also infected with COVID-19.

Dr. James Goodrich, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, acclaimed for separating conjoined twins, was also remembered as a renaissance man who collected antique medical books, loved fine wines and played the didgeridoo.

Some of the first to die faced troubling conditions at work. Rose Harrison, 60, a registered nurse, wore no mask while taking care of a COVID-19 patient at an Alabama nursing home, according to her daughter. She felt pressured to work until the day she was hospitalized. The nursing home did not respond to requests for comment.

Thomas Soto, 59, a Brooklyn radiology clerk faced delays in accessing protective gear, including a mask, even as the hospital where he worked was overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, his son said. The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.

The Lost on the Frontline team is documenting other worrying trends. Health care workers across the U.S. said failures in communication left them unaware they were working alongside people infected with the virus. And occupational safety experts raised alarms about CDC guidance permitting workers treating COVID patients to wear surgical masks which are far less protective than N95 masks.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency responsible for protecting workers, has launched dozens of fatality investigations into health workers deaths. But recent agency memos raise doubts that many employers will be held responsible for negligence.

As public health guidelines have largely prevented traditional gatherings of mourners, survivors have found new ways to honor the dead: In Manhattan, a medical resident played a violin tribute for a fallen co-worker; a nurses union placed 88 pairs of shoes outside the White House commemorating those who had died among their ranks; fire departments have lined up trucks for funeral processions and held last call ceremonies for EMTs.

The Lost on the Frontline death toll includes only health care workers who were potentially exposed while caring for or supporting COVID-19 patients. It does not, for example, include retired doctors who died from the virus but were not working during the pandemic.

The number of reported deaths is expected to grow. But as reporters work to confirm each case, individual deaths may not meet our criteria for inclusion and, therefore, may be removed from our count.

You can read our first 100 profiles here. And if you know of a health care worker who died of COVID-19, please share their story with us.

See the article here:
Exclusive: Nearly 600 And Counting US Health Workers Have Died Of COVID-19 - Kaiser Health News

Immunology

Are we underestimating how many people are resistant to Covid-19? – The Guardian

During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, cities were in general affected worse than smaller conurbations or rural areas. Yet in Italy, Rome was relatively spared while the villages of Lombardy experienced very high rates of sickness and death. Then again, one Lombard village Ferrara Erbognone stood out for not recording a single case of Covid-19 at the height of the wave. Nobody knows why.

The puzzle is not just Italian. From the beginning, Covid-19 struck unevenly across the globe, and scientists have been trying to understand the reasons. Why are some populations or sectors of a population more vulnerable than others? Or to turn the question around, why are some groups relatively protected?

In the Observer last weekend, neuroscientist and Covid-19 modeller Karl Friston of University College London suggested on the basis of his comparison of German and British data that the relatively low fatality rates recorded in Germany were due to unknown protective factors at play. This is like dark matter in the universe: we cant see it, but we know it must be there to account for what we can see, he said.

While this is a novel view most experts praise Germanys lockdown and systematic testing regime others are working hard to identify factors which are modulating the spread of Covid-19 and in doing so could explain other puzzles such as why Japan seems to have avoided a lethal first wave despite its relatively old population and lacklustre public health response, or why Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic have reported no surge in cases despite their early easing of lockdown measures. That could shape how governments manage the risks of a second wave.

One thing seems clear: there are many reasons why one population is more protected than another. Theoretical epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta of the University of Oxford thinks that a key one is immunity that was built up prior to this pandemic. Its been my hunch for a very long time that there is a lot of cross-protection from severe disease and death conferred by other circulating, related bugs, she says. Though that cross-protection may not protect a person from infection in the first place, it could ensure they only experience relatively mild symptoms.

Guptas hunch has remained just that, because of the lack of data on immunity to Covid-19. Antibody testing, as we know, was slow to get going and unreliable to begin with, and the results to date suggest that the proportions of populations carrying antibodies to the Covid-19 virus are often in single or low-double digits. New, more sensitive antibody tests that have become available in recent weeks could soon provide a much more accurate picture if deployed widely enough, but there are already hints that the results to date may be underestimates.

First there was evidence based on diagnostic testing of postmortem samples from patients who died in December that the virus was circulating in western countries notably France and the US about a month earlier than was initially thought. New research shows that another component of the human immune response T cells, which help orchestrate the antibody response show memory for coronavirus infection when exposed to Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

In a paper published in Cell on 14 May, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California reported that T cells in blood drawn from people between 2015 and 2018 recognised and reacted to fragments of the Sars-CoV-2 virus. These people could not have possibly seen Sars-CoV-2, says one of the papers senior authors, Alessandro Sette. The most reasonable hypothesis is that this reactivity is really cross-reactivity with the cousins of Sars-CoV-2 the common cold coronaviruses which circulate very broadly and generally give rather mild disease.

The finding supported an earlier one from a group at the Charit hospital in Berlin, detecting T cell reactivity to proteins in the Sars-CoV-2 virus in 83% of Covid-19 patients but also in 34% of healthy volunteers who had tested negative for the virus itself.

David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who advises the World Health Organization on Covid-19, says these results are important, but cautions that cross-reactivity doesnt necessarily translate into immunity. To determine whether it does would involve following a large number of people who show such cross-reactivity to see if they are protected, if not from infection with Covid-19, then at least from severe forms of the disease.

It is, however, a reasonable hypothesis that exposure to other coronaviruses could confer protection, Sette says. Weve seen it before, for example with the 2009 H1N1 flu. Older people fared well compared to other age groups in that pandemic, he says, probably because their immune systems had been primed by exposure to similar flu strains from decades before. That could be the reason the 2009 pandemic was less lethal than other flu pandemics in history, killing an estimated 200,000 people globally.

If exposure to other coronaviruses does protect against Covid-19, Gupta says, then variability in that exposure could explain much of the difference in fatality rates between countries or regions. Exposure to the related virus that caused the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2002-4 might have afforded some protection to east Asians against Covid-19, for example.

In late March, Guptas group published a paper that drew attention because it generated very different forecasts from those of epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London and his colleagues to whom the UK government was listening most closely. The Oxford group suggested that up to half of the UK population could already have been infected by Sars-CoV-2, meaning the infection fatality rate (IFR) the proportion of infected people who went on to die was much lower than Fergusons group was indicating, and the disease was therefore less dangerous. Neither group had much data at that point, and Gupta says that her intention was to highlight that, in the absence of data, a wide range of scenarios should be considered.

Two months on, she stands by her model, but wishes that she had made its implications clearer. The truth is that the IFR is not a hardwired property of the virus or of our interaction with the virus, she says. Its the vulnerable fraction [of the population] that is determining the average overall risk of dying. Once an elderly care home is infiltrated by the virus, for example, the virus spreads rapidly through it and is often lethal, pushing up the IFR. This means it is critical to understand why some people are resistant and others are not, so that those who are vulnerable can be protected.

We know some of those vulnerability factors. Age is the most obvious one. Unlike with the 2009 flu, elderly people are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 a fact that might reflect the history of exposure to coronaviruses of different age cohorts. Comorbidity is another, and a third is being male. According to Garima Sharma of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who with colleagues recently published a paper on sex differences in Covid-19 mortality, women are protected by virtue of having a backup X chromosome. X chromosomes contain a high density of immune-related genes, so women generally mount stronger immune responses, she says.

Socioeconomic status, climate, culture and genetic makeup could also shape vulnerability, as could certain childhood vaccines and vitamin D levels. And all of these factors can vary between countries. The Japanese might have been afforded some protection, for example, by their custom of bowing rather than shaking hands. And though most of the disparity between the sexes is down to biology, Sharma says some of it is due to social and behavioural factors, with women being more likely to wash their hands and seek preventive care.

It is also becoming clear that protecting the vulnerable has made a big difference to outcomes so far. Italy and Germany, for example, have similar proportions of over-65-year-olds just over 20% of the population in both cases and yet the two have reported strikingly different fatality rates. The case fatality rate (CFR) the proportion of the sick who go on to die is less informative but easier to measure than the IFR, because sick people are more visible than merely infected ones, and as at 26 May the CFR in Italy was about 14%, compared to 5% in Germany.

Italy is more densely populated than Germany, and Italian homes tend to be smaller than German ones. Many Italians in their 20s and 30s live at home with their extended families, which meant that transmission to the elderly was high and, when critical care units were overwhelmed, so were deaths. This is rarer in Germany, where many elderly care homes also enacted a strict isolation regime. In Germany, says Heymann, they did a better job in keeping the elderly protected. Some estimates suggest that only 20% of German Covid-19 cases were over 60, as compared to more than 90% in Italy.

The UK, which has recorded the second highest death rate from Covid-19 after Spain, has not looked after its elderly so well deciding at one point to discharge patients from hospitals back to care homes without testing them for the disease. The governments advice to 1.5 million UK citizens with underlying health conditions to self-isolate for three months from late March may have helped protect those people, but for Gupta the UKs high death rate reflects a deeper problem years of erosion of community support services that provided pastoral care. There is just not enough investment in the NHS and in that GP or other frontline individual who advises the vulnerable person, she says.

Holding to her hunch, she believes that lockdown was an overreaction and that frontline care and protection of the vulnerable which should have been a priority from the beginning should be prioritised now. She also thinks that the worst is behind us, and that while subsequent waves cant be ruled out, they will probably be less bad than what we have experienced so far. The disease will settle into an endemic equilibrium, in her view, perhaps returning each winter like a seasonal flu.

Fristons models also suggest that immunity in the population is higher than data indicates, but for him its not clear how long that immunity will last and he argues that test-and-trace protocols should be put in place now, ahead of any possible second wave that might erupt once that immunity drops off. Heymann remains wary of models, which he says have too often been mistaken for reality in this pandemic, and he awaits more data: I dont think anybody can predict the destiny of this virus at this point in time, he says.

Continue reading here:
Are we underestimating how many people are resistant to Covid-19? - The Guardian