Neuroscience

Events this week: Managing stress through neuroscience, Yoga, and story time – mysouthborough

by beth on April 21, 2020

Above: Dont forget, SYFS is inviting you to join a special online talk Wednesday night by an expert to help manage stress

Here are highlights of whats happening around town this week. (There is one more potential event later this week, but the details are still TBD, so Im holding off on sharing.)

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Friday, April 24, 2020

Tagged as:southborough-events-this-week

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Events this week: Managing stress through neuroscience, Yoga, and story time - mysouthborough

Neuroscience

Five from UAB awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships – The Mix

Such competitive awards demonstrate that UAB provides students an exceptionally strong foundation for research success.

Such competitive awards demonstrate that UAB provides students an exceptionally strong foundation for research success.A University of Alabama at Birmingham doctoral student and four recent alumni have been awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

The full fellowships provide up to three years of support for graduate education, including a $34,000 annual stipend plus $12,000 per year toward the cost of their graduate work. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program receives more than 12,000 applications each year and selects about 2,000 students.

Awardees include:

Queenisha Crichlow, who is pursuing a doctorate in medical clinical psychology at UAB, works in the lab of Sylvie Mrug, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Psychology in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. Crichlow is studying socio-cultural risk and protective factors that reduce the likelihood of poor academic achievement, substance use and delinquency among African American youth.

Niharika Loomba (18), a UAB Honors College alumna who earned a degree in neuroscience, will begin graduate studies at Vanderbilt University this fall. She researches connectivity between specific brain regions in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Beau Johnson (18), a UAB Honors College alumnus who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, is pursuing a doctorate at Vanderbilt University. He is conducting research in biomechanics and assistive technologies, such as exoskeletons and prostheses.

Don Long (19) completed UABs Prep Scholars Program, which prepares under-represented students in biomedical/behavioral research for graduate degrees. He is a first-year doctoral student at Cornell University studying the gut microbiome as it pertains to starch degradation.

Catherine Marie Porter (17) who graduated from UAB with a degree in biomedical engineering, is continuing her studies in the same field at the University of Pennsylvania.

Three current students and two recent alumni received honorable mentions during the application process:

Indonesia Jordan, a graduate of Alabama A&M University, is studying behavioral neuroscience at UAB. She works in the lab of David Knight, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology, studying the impact of chronic pain on emotional learning, memory and expression processes.

Tiffany DeVaughn Tucker, a first-year doctoral student in medical/clinical psychology, is using neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessments to study risk factors of cognitive deficits in patients with sickle cell disease. Tucker works in the lab of Donna Murdaugh, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAB School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.

Haley Beck, a post-baccalaureate student, is completing the UAB Prep Scholars Program and working in the lab of Despina Stavrinos, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychology. She will begin a doctoral program in experimental psychology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville this fall.

Roshan Darji (18) completed degrees in biology, mathematics and chemistry at UAB and is a graduate of the UAB Honors College. He is studying bioinformatics and computational biology at Emory University.

Anastasia Niver (18) completed dual degrees in chemistry and neuroscience and was a student in the UAB Honors Colleges University Honors Program. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in chemistry at Duke University.

NSF fellowships are highly competitive, said Ashley Kuntz, Ph.D., director of UAB National and International Fellowships and Scholarships. It speaks highly of all the UAB faculty who have trained these students and continue to invest in their success. Time spent studying at UAB obviously provides an exceptionally strong foundation for research success.

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become lifelong leaders who contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching. Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners, such as former United States Secretary of EnergySteven Chu, Google founderSergey BrinandFreakonomicsco-authorSteven Levitt.

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Five from UAB awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships - The Mix

Neuroscience

Keeping the zen in college | UDaily – UDaily

Article by Diane Stopyra Illustrations by Jeffrey C. Chase April 20, 2020

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic unfolds, there are few certainties. Among them? Netflix is a saving grace. Go ahead and binge that show about a tiger-obsessed man in Oklahoma or a money-laundering accountant in the Ozarks. Getting lost in someone elses story is a reprieve from your own. Zoning out is good for you.

But as it turns out zoning in is even better.

This is the philosophy behind mindfulness, the practice of paying close attention to the present moment. This means tuning in to external happenings say, the sound of a dog breathing at your feet or the sight of a tree branch blowing in the wind. It also means bringing attention to your internal state. Rather than trying to suppress or ignore thoughts, emotions or sensations as they arise, the goal is acknowledging these feelings and letting them pass without judgement. Research indicates the benefits are myriad: less stress, more self-compassion and greater immunity.

Escape activities like bingeing on Netflix are fine, said Amy Griffin, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware who specializes in mindfulness training for the 20-something demographic. Theres nothing wrong with that. But introducing a little bit of mindfulness into your day can ease some suffering longer term. Such a practice allows us to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable, so were better equipped to deal with whatever comes up.

Since the beginning of the spring semester, Griffin has been teaching a class for undergraduate neuroscience and psychology students on mindfulness and the brain. But once the coronavirus outbreak forced the UD community along with the rest of the world into quarantine, she figured more people might be craving a stress-coping mechanism, so she launched a free, four-week, virtual class on mindfulness for graduate students, happening now. She will also run a second section beginning April 30. Participants in each course will learn the benefits of two major mindfulness strategies: the body-mind integration you see with activities like yoga or deep-breathing exercises, and meditation.

People think you need to be a monk on a mountaintop to do this kind of thing, Griffin said. But if you can breathe, you can meditate.

Big caveat: Not all meditators are created equal. Take 20-somethings, for instance.

They dont respond very well to being told they need to sit on a cushion with their thoughts for 20 minutes a day, said Griffin, whose classes cater specifically to this demographic. That kind of strict sitting-with-your-thoughts thing may work for some people, but for college-aged students, graduate students and people with a lot on their plate, its good to have a variety of options.

For these individuals, Griffin, who is training as a mindfulness teacher with the North Carolina-based Koru Center, suggests guided meditation apps like the Ten percent Happier or Insight Timer options so that someone is holding your hand through the process. She also recommends a simple breath practice in which you breathe in for four counts, hold for two counts and breathe out for six counts this will trick the brain into relaxing, she said. Shoot for 10 mindful minutes per day, Griffin added, keeping in mind that consistency is more important than quantity.

But if youre finding it difficult to devote any time at all to nothing but mindfulness, dont despair. It is possible to bring such a practice to existing activities. Consider the (socially distanced) walk you are already taking around the neighborhood every afternoon. Dont spend it fretting over what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. Rather, focus on the present moment by paying mind to the sensory input all around you the sound of a leaf crunching underfoot, the sight of paint chipping from a nearby fire hydrant, or the smell of barbeque coming from the house next door.

When it comes time to brush your teeth? Dont rush through the ritual while thinking about the answers to your last online quiz or that email you need to send your boss in the morning. Instead, bring attention to the circular motion of the activity or the sensation of the bristles in your mouth.

Focusing on just one thing at a time feels like a luxury, but its the way we should be conducting ourselves all the time for brain health and wellbeing, Griffin said. We love to multitask, but multitasking is actually very bad for the brain. If you can focus on just one thing at a time, youll be amazed at how much more you get out of it.

This is all easier said than done, as humans are easily hijacked by every passing notion.

We give so much credence to our thoughts, Griffin said. We take them so seriously. And theyre really just thoughts. Most of the time, we cant even verify whether theyre true.

Part of the problem is that, when a thought or feeling pops into the head of a typical human, the usual response is not to simply acknowledge it and let it go but, rather, to assign a story to it. Say, for example, you feel irritated by your spouse or your siblings during this period of national lockdown, in which families are enduring forced togetherness. The urge is rarely to feel the irritation and move on. Instead, people pile on extra feelings of guilt or anger, thinking something along the lines of: It is so selfish to feel irritated when so many people are truly suffering.

You judge yourself, and you try to analyze, analyze, analyze, Griffin said. But you cant think your way out of a feeling. The counterintuitive practice is to watch the feeling arise and then to watch it go away.

And remember, Griffin said, mindfulness is not meant only for some enlightened group of sherpas or transcendent yogis. People who struggle to stay in the present moment likely have the most to gain, so if thats you keep at it.

Something I hear frequently is I cant meditate, because I cant shut off my thoughts, Griffin said. But mindfulness is not about achieving a blank mind. Its about becoming familiar with what your mind is doing. Whatever strong emotion comes up, you can handle it, as long as you face it. Lean into it. Dont try to stuff it down.

Besides, if you ever do want a blank mind?

You already have Netflix for that.

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Keeping the zen in college | UDaily - UDaily

Neuroscience

Corona Virus Outbreak: NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market 2020 Industry Growth Analysis, Segmentation, Size, Share, Trend, Future Demand And…

NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data:Company, Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors, Product Category, Application and Specification with Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Main Business/Business Overview.

The report presents a highly comprehensive and accurate research study on the globalNEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS market. It offers PESTLE analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis, and absolute dollar opportunity analysis to help players improve their business strategies. It also sheds light on critical NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Marketdynamics such as trends and opportunities, drivers, restraints, and challenges to help market participants stay informed and cement a strong position in the industry. With competitive landscape analysis, the authors of the report have made a brilliant attempt to help readers understand important business tactics that leading companies use to maintainNEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS market sustainability.

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Global NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market to reach USD 5.1 billion by 2025.

Global NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market valued approximately USD 2.1 billion in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 10.3% over the forecast period 2017-2025. The increasing automation of high-throughput screening and the availability of robust data management software tools, which enable researchers to develop systemic and process-oriented approaches toward neuroscience antibodies and assays techniques are some of the factors contributing to the growth of this segment.

The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:

By Product

oReagents

oInstruments

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oImmunoassay

oMolecular Diagnostics

By End User

oResearch Institutes

oHospitals

By Regions:

oNorth America

oU.S.

oCanada

oEurope

oUK

oGermany

oAsia Pacific

oChina

oIndia

oJapan

oRest of the World

Furthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year 2015

Base year 2016

Forecast period 2017 to 2025

Some of the key manufacturers involved in the market are. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Abcam, Bio-Rad, Merck KGAA, Cell Signaling Technology, Genscript, Rockland Immunochemicals. Bio Legend, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Tecan, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Siemens. Acquisitions and effective mergers are some of the strategies adopted by the key manufacturers. New product launches and continuous technological innovations are the key strategies adopted by the major players.

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Corona Virus Outbreak: NEUROSCIENCE ANTIBODIES AND ASSAYS Market 2020 Industry Growth Analysis, Segmentation, Size, Share, Trend, Future Demand And...

Human Behavior

The tricky thing about predicting coronavirus and climate change: Human behavior – Grist

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Just a few weeks ago, researchers at Imperial College London released a model of the coronavirus pandemic that shocked policymakers into action. It predicted a staggering 2.2 million deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S., and up to 510,000 in the U.K. causing both countries to abruptly change course on containing the outbreak.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had said that he wanted to allow the virus to spread through the country to build herd immunity, instituted a nationwide stay-at-home order. President Trump also changed direction, switching from calling it a hoax one week to saying every one of us has a critical role to play in slowing the disease.

But 10 days after the reports release, the epidemiologist who led the modeling effort, Neil Ferguson, appeared before the U.K. parliament, arguing that he now expected the countrys fatalities to be less than 20,000. (He didnt touch on projections for the U.S.) Some saw this as a troubling reversal. The conservative media outlet the Federalist announced that Ferguson had retracted the findings of his doomsday pandemic model.

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Models are simplified representations of reality and an often-maligned tool of modern science. Those that estimate how much greenhouse gases will heat up the planet have been attacked for years by deniers who argue that they have little connection to the real world. In the face of a global pandemic, when lives and jobs are on the line, epidemiologists are suddenly facing the same criticism. (Senator John Cornyn from Texas complained on Twitter that modeling of both the current pandemic and climate change isnt the scientific method, folks.)

Built using statistics and mathematics, scientific models can present possible futures how a disease might spread, for example, or how rising CO2 levels will change our climate. But they cant account for all aspects of reality, and will always come with uncertainty. They are tools, not crystal balls.

So those who criticized the Imperial College model for wrongly predicting millions of deaths in the U.S. and U.K. were off-base. Ferguson and his colleagues had predicted that over half a million Britons would die without mitigation measures and that approximately 250,000 would die with the measures the government was implementing. With optimal social-distancing measures, which the U.K. put into place shortly after the report was released, the researchers expected deaths in the tens of thousands. (The Imperial College group did not model U.S. deaths with strict social-distancing measures.)

So the model didnt change; the policies did. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has been relying on a model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. That model initially projected between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from the coronavirus now, that estimate has been revised down to between 30,000 and 170,000. Thats because it incorporated new social distancing data from Spain and Italy, suggesting that lockdown measures could be more effective at slowing the spread in the United States than previously believed.

I think in this pandemic its particularly difficult because were making assumptions in these models about human behaviors which are incredibly difficult to capture in a model and put a single number to, said Helen Jenkins, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University. Most epidemiological models simulate the number of people who are susceptible, infected, and have recovered: a so-called S-I-R model. But that requires making estimates for how often people interact and how much social distancing they are doing a difficult job in a country of 300 million people and 50 states pursuing slightly different lockdown strategies.

Researchers face similar hurdles when predicting climate change. On the one hand, they use easier-to-model processes like convection, heat and fluid transfer. But at some point they also have to incorporate human and group behavior, at least if they want to predict how greenhouse gas emissions might change in the future.

You could have the very best physical model in the world, but if you get future human behavior wrong, youd end up with a pretty bad future projection, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the Breakthrough Institute. The uncertainties in climate change to our choices as individuals and as societies matter just as much if not more than the uncertainties in the physical climate system that were trying to model.

What makes the job even trickier is that once a projection is made public, the model itself can lead people to change their behaviors. If it projects millions of deaths from a pandemic, governments might tighten travel restrictions and people might decide to stay indoors. Zeynep Tufekci, associate professor at the University of North Carolina, wrote in the Atlantic that this is part of what models are supposed to do. They present a range, or a tree of possibilities, some of which are so disastrous that immediate action should be taken to prevent them. By changing behavior, she argues, we can prune those catastrophic branches and direct governments towards a safer future.

Hausfather and other scientists argue that we have already trimmed one potentially catastrophic branch when it comes to climate change. Back in the mid-2000s, it seemed possible that business-as-usual carbon emissions could lead to 5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100. China was in a rush to open coal plants, and it looked like coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, was on track to dominate for another century. Today, a business-as-usual approach would likely lead to around 3 degrees Celsius of warming in part because world governments have begun cracking down on coal and boosting renewable energy.

Even though its nowhere near the level of action that would be required to meet Paris commitments, its still enough to start bending the curve away from these worst-case outcomes, Hausfather said.

Thats part of why Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White Houses coronavirus task force, has repeatedly said that appropriate action in hindsight will look like an overreaction. If it looks like youre overreacting, youre probably doing the right thing, he told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation. Success can wind up looking like a failure.

What does that mean for addressing the pandemic? Social distancing appears to have helped the U.S. avoid the worst-case scenarios, but other questions remain. Researchers are now trying to understand which measures have been most effective (Closing schools? Limiting social gatherings?), so that some restrictions can be slowly lifted. But not every option can easily fit into epidemiological models. Public health officials and governors still have to use their own judgement, balancing health risks with other social and economic needs.

The German sociologist Ulrich Beck once wrote that expected risks are the whip to keep the present in line. Models are intended to do just that, to keep things from going off the rails. They cant provide certainty but for both climate change and coronavirus, they can help us avoid the worst.

The way that humanity tackles this pandemic parallels how it might fight climate change. Sign up for our semi-weekly newsletter,Climate in the Time of Coronavirus.

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The tricky thing about predicting coronavirus and climate change: Human behavior - Grist

Human Behavior

Different Types of Stress and Their Associated Cost – The Great Courses Daily News

By Mark Leary, Ph.D., Duke UniversityA stress and performance curve shows the different levels of acute and chronic stress and their impact on our performance. (Image: Arka38 /Shutterstock)

Most of the people we know are stressed out. Many of them are busy with work, or school, or family, or other activities. Not only do they have too much to do, but they also have to deal with all kinds of frustrating and stressful events, including problems at work, deadlines at school, and conflicts at home.

Some people are stressed out by their financial situation or legal problems, while some are dealing with the problems of people they care about, such as aging parents, children who are struggling, and friends or family members battling alcohol or drugs, among others.

There are also people whose everyday lives are just inherently stressful, such as police officers and members of the armed forces. And, of course, everybody occasionally experiences traumatic life events, such as the death of a loved one, or losing ones job, or having ones primary relationship fall apart.

This is a transcript from the video series Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

One research study found that 75 percent of Americans say they experience extreme stress at least one day a week, on average. Another study that had people keep a daily record of stressful events found that respondents experienced at least one stressful event on 40 percent of the days, during the length of the study, and multiple stressful events on 10 percent of the days. Thats a lot of stress.

As you have probably experienced personally, stress takes a major toll on both psychological and physical well-being. Its hard for people to enjoy life when their stress levels are high. People who are under stress are often moody and hostile, and chronic stress leads some people to become depressed.

Stress interferes with peoples ability to perform well at work and at school. They are often juggling so many things that they cant do a good job on anything, and they are so preoccupied by whatever is causing their stress that they cant focus on the things they need to do. As stress mounts, people feel unable to handle even everyday tasks, so they often begin to avoid challenging situations. Studies show that about half the time that people stay home from work or from school, is not because they are sick, but because they feel too stressed out to deal with work or class.

And, of course, stress takes a tremendous toll on peoples health: high blood pressure, infections, and illnesses; weight gain, digestive problems, insomnia, skin conditions, and asthma are just a few of the health problems that can be caused by stress.

The financial costs of stress are also very high. Its beenestimated that stress costs American businesses $300 billion a year in missedwork, employee turnover, reduced productivity, and health-care costs.

Stress is such a serious and common problem that its not an understatement to suggest that we have a stress epidemic. But have you ever wondered where all this stress comes from, and why we dont deal with stress better than we do? Its almost as if human beings were designed with some sort of flaw that prevents them from coping with the stresses they experience in life.

Learn more about solving psychological mysteries.

To understand the causes of stress, we need to make a distinction between acute and chronic stress. Acute stress occurs when people experience an immediate threat to their well-being. Something happens that needs an immediate response from our side. Acute stress is a normal part of life for all animals, including human beings.

In fact, animals in the wild experience brief, acute stressors intermittently all day long. Theyre sitting in a tree, or grazing in a field, or swimming in a river, when suddenly a possible threat arisesa threatening animal, a loud noiseand their body spring into action to deal with the threat. Their heart rate and blood pressure increase, and their muscles become tense to prepare them to take action.

The same with people: you nearly have an accident while driving your car, or you think someone is following you while walking down a dark street, or you get a piece of bad news, or you lose your wallet. When these kinds of events happen, the stress response kicks in as natures way of helping you respond to the event. But, then, once the event is over, your body returns to normal and acute stress goes away, with little or no lingering effects.

Learn more about how human nature evolve.

Chronic stress is another matter altogether. When people talk about being under stress, theyre usually talking about chronic stress; stress thats almost always there. Even when the person is doing something else, its in the background ready to rise up at any time.

Most animals dont appear to experience chronic stress. Have you ever seen a chronically stressed-out animal in the wild? We have no evidence that between those occasional episodes of acute stress that occur throughout an animals day, animals are chronically worried, uptight, and stressed out.

A deer may be startled by a loud noise and take off through the forest, but as soon as the threat is gone, the deer immediately calms down and starts grazing. It doesnt appear to be tied in knots the way that many of us are. Throw a rock in the water and the fish scatter in a flurry of acute stress, but then they quickly return to normal.

The only animals that seem to show signs of chronic stress are some that live around human beings. Animals that are kept in cages or abused by people certainly show signs of chronic stress, but when left to their own devices, far away from people, animals dont appear to experience chronic stress the way that people do.

Both acute stress and chronic stress have an impact on us humans, but the negative impact of chronic stress is far greater. Every individual needs to be aware of it and needs to adopt measures to counter stress. American businesses need to equally cognizant of the impact stress has on their employees. Even if they think purely from a profit perspective, it makes sense to lower stress to reduce losses. Stress is a major problem that we all must address in order to make the best use of our bodies and time.

Some emotional signs of stress include depression or anxiety; anger, irritability or restlessness; feeling unmotivated or unfocused; trouble sleeping or sleeping too much; racing thoughts or constant worry; and problems with memory or concentration.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the three different types of stress are acutestress, episodic acutestress, and chronicstress.

Stress or chronic stress does a lot of harm to our bodies. Over a periodoftime,it cancontribute to long-term problems of heart and blood vessels.

To relieve chronic stress, we should educate ourselves regarding the complications, set limits to our goals, get better sleep, try belly breathing, and get professional help.

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Different Types of Stress and Their Associated Cost - The Great Courses Daily News

Human Behavior

What can the Black Plague teach us about America’s reaction to the COVID-19 crisis? – LGBTQ Nation

As we navigate scary and uncertain times, its important to look to history as a guide. During my quarantine, I re-read A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Its a book by Barbara Tuchman and Chapter 5 discusses how people reacted during the ominous Black Plague. It offers lessons we can apply to todays COVID-19 pandemic.

Ironically, the book actually cheered me up.

Related: Right-wing minister claims being trans is a Jewish plot to make humanity androgynous

If you think things are bleak today, remember that the Black Plague wiped out nearly one in three people in Europe and the Middle East between 1347 and 1351. This translates into more than 20 million corpses.

At the time it was widely thought God had given up on humanity to punish them for sin. Much of the population thought it might be the end of the world. So, as bad as things are and as frustrating as they may be, its important to count our blessings and realize that it could be significantly worse.

In October 1347, trading ships arrived from the Black Sea and pulled into the harbor of Messina, Sicily. The sailors on those doomed ships were sick and quickly dying with a horrific new disease. With its trademark black boils and rapid death the illness quickly spread like wildfire across Europe.

Of course, we are a much more advanced civilization today, but some things havent changed. Chiefly human nature which means there are direct parallels between then and now that we can learn from.

When people are frightened, they seek answers. Unfortunately, a significant subset also seeks out scapegoats. In Medieval Europe, Jews were falsely blamed for creating the Black Plague by poisoning the wells.

In Savoy in 1348, Jews were rounded up, put on trial and tortured until they confessed to poisoning the wells with packets of poison pills that they allegedly kept in a narrow stitched leather bag. These coerced confessions were distributed by a letter from town to town and formed the basis for mass retribution. A brutal and deadly wave of false allegations and savage attacks ensued.

The first assaults occurred in the Spring of 1348 in the French towns of Narbonne and Carcassonne. Jews were dragged out of their homes and thrown into bonfires.

In Freiburg, Augsburg, Nurnberg, Munich, Koenigsberg, Regensburg and other city centers, Jews were slaughtered by mobs with a thoroughness that seemed to seek a final solution.

Today, in 2020, there is no shortage of ignorant people and demagogues looking to point fingers, stir up trouble, assign blame and inflame tensions. They are opportunistically attempting to exploit the COVID-19 crisis to provoke hated against groups they dislike.

Shamefully, this effort has been led, in part, by President Donald Trump.

Trump is doing this, in spite of the fact we now know that Asian Americans have been targeted, attacked and victimized. While they arent being burned alive, like Jews during the Black Plague, they have been harassed, spit on and assaulted. Asian Americans now have targets on their backs.

There are those trying to blame LGBT people for the spread of the coronavirus. Obviously, this is irrational, but our opponents are looking to foment hate and provoke a violent backlash.

Homophobes are deliberately spreading a conspiracy theory that gay people caused coronavirus by partying too much in Italy, by using an old video from a carnival in Brazil. Unfortunately, the fake video has gone viral. No pun intended.

Televangelist Pat Robertson blamed the coronavirus on same-sex marriage.The Rev. Ralph Drollinger, Trumps Cabinet Bible teacher, said that LGBT people caused Gods wrath in a blog post on COVID-19.

This obnoxious behavior should surprise no one. After the terrorist attacks of 9-11, LGBT people were conveniently targeted by well-known televangelists, including Revs. Jerry Falwell and Robertson.

Had this finger-pointing occurred only a couple decades earlier, its likely the consequences would have been far greater. And in other countries, where LGBT rights are less secure, the effects of such reckless rhetoric could still prove deadly today.

In fact, a Ukrainian LGBT organization pushed back against such bigotry by suing Orthodox Patriarch Filaret over comments blaming the spread of the coronavirus on same-sex marriage. The gay rights activists said that his backward comments risked fueling hatred and discrimination.

And, most predictably, the Jews are still being scapegoated today. Rick Wiles, a Florida pastor and the founder of the far-right website TruNews, said on March 26 that God is giving the Jews the coronavirus because they oppose his son Jesus.

There is also a wild, online conspiracy theory that 5G wireless technology is responsible for spreading COVID-19. As a result, people are burning down cell towers. Whether its the 14th Century or the 21st Century, irrational human behavior is quite predictable.

Some religious fanatics will brazenly disobey social distancing rules, with little regard for the people they harm. They are selfish and dont care about anybody but themselves. They wantonly infect people, and if those individuals get sick or die they chalk it up to Gods will.

In 1349, a group of roaming Christian religious zealots called the flagellants erupted in a sudden frenzy, Tuchman wrote. Members of this cult would literally whip their own bodies in penance until they bled. They roamed in large bands that sped across Europe with the same fiery contagion as the plague, merrily slaughtering Jews at every stop along the way.

These extremists had very strict rules. They were forbidden to bathe or shave, change their clothes, sleep in beds, talk, or have intercourse with women without the group Masters permission. Unsurprisingly, similar to todays moralizing hypocrites, the flagellants were later charged with having orgies in which whipping was combined with sex.

According to Tuchmans book:

Organized groups of 200 to 1,000 flagellants stripped to the waist beat themselves with leather whips tipped with iron spikes until they bled. While they cried aloud to Christ and the Virgin for pity, and called upon God to spare us, the watching townspeople sobbed and groaned in sympathy. These bands put on regular performances in towns including church squares. The inhabitants greeted them with reverence and ringing of church bells, lodged them in their houses, and brought children to be healedthey dipped clothes in blood, which they pressed against their eyes and preserved as relics.

As you can well imagine, this caused an explosion of new cases of Black Plague, leading to even more sickness, death, and despair. This was done at a time when they actually did know about social distancing. They didnt know the science behind the theory or about the bacteria that caused the plague, but they did have an understanding that it was spread from close human contact. So, even in the 14th Century, what the flagellants did was grossly reckless and irresponsible.

Which brings us to the year 2020, where we have the same self-absorbed religious zealots who have apparently learned nothing from history. Mired in ignorance and superstition, they flout the law, flock to megachurches, and foolishly believe that God will protect them. Some of those arrogant and thoughtless people will get sick and they will die. They will also infect other innocent people who dont share their beliefs.

One pastor who learned the hard way was Bishop Gerald Glenn of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Richmond, VA. During his infamous in-person service, the Bishop said he firmly believed God was larger than the virus and said he was proud of being controversial for violating safety protocols. The Bishop also claimed he was an essential worker, saying hes a preacher and he talks to God.

Proving God has a sense of humor, the good pastor died from the coronavirus on Easter Sunday.

A third similarity with the 14th Century are efforts by unethical charlatans to promote quack cures. Some of these magic elixirs to treat the Black Plague included: drawing out the infection by making the infected person bleed, purging it with laxatives or enemas, lancing the black boils, application of hot plasters, pills of powdered stags horn, compounds of rare spices, and emeralds.

There was also a bizarre belief that latrine attendants were immune to the Black Plague, so many people visited the public latrines on the theory that the odors were efficacious.

Of course, this was at a time when people thought washing the scalp with a boys urine cured ringworm, and gout was treated with goat dung, mixed with rosemary and honey. Talk about the cure being worse than the curse!

The final similarity between then and now is the role social and financial inequality plays in spreading diseases.

The rich fled to their country places with wells of cool water and vaults of rare wines. The urban poor died in their burrows, and only the stench of their bodies informed neighbors of their death. That the poor were more heavily afflicted than the rich was clearly remarked at the time in the north and the south. A Scottish chronicler, John of Fordun, stated flatly that the pest attacked especially the meaner sort and common peopleseldom the magnates.

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, then and now, different incomes often lead to different health outcomes. I guess they didnt have universal healthcare back then either.

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What can the Black Plague teach us about America's reaction to the COVID-19 crisis? - LGBTQ Nation

Human Behavior

Counties Where Hannity Viewers Outnumber Tucker Carlsons Have Had More COVID-19 Deaths, Study Finds – Yahoo Entertainment

Counties where viewers of Fox News Hannity outnumbered Tucker Carlson Tonight were associated with a higher number of COVID-19 deaths in the early stages of the pandemic, according to a new study from the University of Chicagos Becker Friedman Institute for Economics.

Although the two most-watched cable shows air on the same network, the studys authors analyzed transcripts from each and concluded that Carlson warned viewers about the threat posed by the coronavirus from early February, while Hannity originally dismissed the risks associated with the virus before gradually adjusting his position starting late February.

The studys authors Leonardo Bursztyn, Aakaash Rao, Christopher Roth and David Yanagizawa-Drott wrote in the working paper that they were interested in studying the effects of the two most-watched cable news shows in the U.S. to monitor for an effect on viewer behavior and health outcomes.

The researchers surveyed 1,045 Fox News viewers aged 55 and older in April on their changes in behavior such as with more hand washing, canceling travel plans and social distancing in response to the virus. The study found that Hannitys viewers changed their behaviors five days later than other Fox News viewers, while Carlsons viewers changed their behaviors three days earlier than other Fox News viewers.

Also Read: Hannity Accuses NY Times of Libel for Linking His Show to Man's Coronavirus Death

The studys authors then looked at county-by-county viewership of the shows and confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Accounting for a number of unobservable dimensions that could independently affect the spread of the virus, the studys authors found that an increase in exposure to Hannity in comparison to Tucker Carlson Tonight was associated with roughly 30% more COVID-19 cases on March 14 and 21% more COVID-19 deaths on March 28. But the effects of the shows on COVID-19 cases began to decline by mid-March, the researchers found, after they detected a shift in tone on Hannitys show transcripts beginning in late February.

In response to the study, a spokesperson for Fox News said that the clips from Hannitys coverage were cherry-picked and that the study was reckless and irresponsible.

As this timeline proves, Hannity has covered COVID-19 since the early days of the story. The study almost completely ignores his coverage and repeated, specific warnings and concerns from January 27-February 26 including an early interview with Dr. Fauci in January, the spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement. This is a reckless disregard for the truth.

Also Read: 74 Journalism Professors Sign Letter Calling Fox News' Coronavirus Coverage a 'Danger to Public Health'

Hannity also defended his comments about the virus in an interview with Newsweek earlier this month a day after 74 journalism professors and journalists wrote an open letter to him, criticizing his coverage as being a danger to public health. The Fox News host alsopointed to his January 27 conversation with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, who told the Fox News host that America was prepared to handle the virus and that there was a low risk at the time, but with the possibility that it could get much worse.

Also Read: Roger Stone Tells Tucker Carlson His 40-Month Prison Judgment Is a 'Death Sentence' Amid Pandemic

In March, Hannity also faced pushback after using the word hoax in relation to the coronavirus a phrase he claims he was using in reference to how Democrats were using the pandemic to supposedly bludgeon Trump.

Theyre scaring the living hell out of people and I see it again like, Oh, lets bludgeon Trump with this new hoax,' Hannity said on a March 9 episode of his show.

The University of Chicago studys authors acknowledged that their findings could not speak to the longer-term effects of exposure to the two shows, which might include additional health and information spillovers, nor does it speak to the overall effect on the total cases and death toll associated with the coronavirus in the U.S., but that it did add to the ongoing conversation about how media coverage can impact human behavior.

We provide evidence that greater exposure to Hannity relative to Tucker Carlson Tonight increased cases and deaths throughout March and early April. However, it is possible that these effects will fade and even possibly flip over time, the study said. While our findings cannot yet speak to long-term effects, they indicate that provision of misinformation in the early stages of a pandemic can have important consequences for how a disease ultimately affects the population.

Read original story Counties Where Hannity Viewers Outnumber Tucker Carlsons Have Had More COVID-19 Deaths, Study Finds At TheWrap

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Counties Where Hannity Viewers Outnumber Tucker Carlsons Have Had More COVID-19 Deaths, Study Finds - Yahoo Entertainment

Human Behavior

The Lowdown Revelations – Sarnia Observer

Recent times have made for vast introspect and reflection on past moments in my life; Ive found myself in a deep state of observation while I navigate my way through my days. My work helps bring normalcy while I confess to feeling guilty that many of you dont have the same outlet currently. It truly is difficult for every one of us in our own way and that is something I think is overlooked by many. Based on what I come across on social media and comment sections in news columns I am finding myself intrigued in what I am reading. There is a great opportunity to see society for what it is to many, by way of their contribution. You can see their intent, clear as day as their person self exposes who they really are in the depths between their sentences. This social behavior is frightening in its re-emergence once more in our cultural breath; my grandfather would have a hard time with this.

Its important for humans to fit in and there is a wave of collective belonging when it comes to COVID19. Like a movement, its crucial that the message is carried forward. Its bigger than all of us and there is a feeling of belonging to something. People want to fit in, and once they find their common circle, they can sometimes lash out at those who either choose to create their own place of comfort or those who choose to criticize. Similar behaviors occur in marketing; therefore, fads catch on. No one wants to be left behind, belonging is important to the collective physiology. I recall from my school days that if you wore Levi red tab jeans, you were in, your family had money. Orange tabs were a sign of poverty and came with ridicule and shame; I hated those jeans but wore them because I knew how hard my mother was trying.

As old as time, power ultimately corrupts regardless of social status. People who can dominate, immediately show their truculence in their commentary towards others who may not be falling into the same line as they have found their comfort and acceptance. Weve come a long way from that guy at the house party who spoke of counterculture truths that he believed about the government; He was not only cool but accepted. Today, weve made words like conspiracy, weapons of control when we ourselves may not hold enough information to counter what were struggling to comprehend. We only really know what we accept and somehow, weve come to where its encouraged to strip our neighbour of their right to disagree, with contempt. Many people lack the life experience to think critically on matters beyond their own point of view and want nothing more than to silence and discredit those who differ in opinion.

I dont think there is anything wrong, whatsoever, in understanding that natural human behavior occurs on all levels. Simply consider your immediate life as you read my words. If you hold any position today in your workplace and answer to someone above you, I guarantee that you do not know the all inner details of that business. Your top leadership has a vision that very likely hasnt been entirely cascaded down to you yet and there is a plethora of good reasons for this. In fact, in this very community, most people dont know who really runs Airdrie, let alone the pathway of decisions that have taken place to bring our city to where it is today. In saying all of that Im simply sharing my revelation to create an inner dialogue of hope, understanding and empathy for those we may not see parallel with.

One incredible thing I think Ive taken from COVID19 is what an essential worker really is. As Ive grown through life, Ive held a significant range of careers and jobs; Everything from dishwasher to headlining stand up comedian. Currently, I am a component repair machinist and a small business owner. Both deemed essential. Ive come across many people in my time who held their titles as the beacon of their value while openly chastising those theyve deemed as beneath them. Matter of fact, back in the middle 90s I worked as an Auto Tech and Service Writer at Walmart St. Vital in Winnipeg. One day a specific customer thought so little of my place in their imagined Caste system, they felt entitled to verbally and physically assault me for not immediately satisfying their unreasonable demand. Ironically today, both Walmart and the Hospital are considered essential and are open. I remember that day very well and as this man finished his assault, customers who transitioned organically by mere happenstance of their presence, became witnesses to this nonsense. After he left the store, those people immediately surrounded me with their kind words, support and general commentary of how this event made them feel. They all handed me their home phone numbers and offered their testimony to my defence if this situation should escalate to the store management, which it did.

In the end, were all just people. Regardless of the situation, together is the only way forward. Compassion teaches that listening is almost always a great approach to everything; a skill I confess to still be studying. The sad truth is, ignorance is like wisdom in that theyre both acquired as we go. Once possessed, we build the foundations of our lives from what weve learned.

Noam Chomsky once said, If we dont believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we dont believe in it at all.

Thanks again for reading The Lowdown. You can read this and archived columns at timlowing.com.

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Human Behavior

Jez Rose on being vulnerable, human, and proactive at work – HR Dive

Jez Rose is a man of many successes. Hes a broadcaster, award-winning writer, speaker, and host, and he lives on the world's first certified carbon neutral honey farm, helping to reverse Britain's honeybee decline.

In anticipation of his keynote for Perspectives 2020, we connected with Jez to talk about topics ranging from vulnerability and authenticity, to being proactive, human, and connected to nature in the workplace.

Here are some key highlights and takeaways from the interview.

I've spent a lot of time in 15 years working with senior leadership teams and at the board level and one of the things I think I'm a bit more intrinsically aware of now that resonates much deeper is the need for authenticity and vulnerability. I think this whole global situation has demonstrated just how vulnerable we are and just how much we need connection with people.

There's an old maxim in healthcare, which is: "Patients don't need to know how much you know, but they need to know how much you care." And I think there's a really interesting takeaway, in that vulnerability is about being human.

It doesn't make you any less of a good person; it doesn't make you any less competent at your job. In fact, if anything, it makes you better at both of those things, because you expose yourself to the fact youre just human. To be able to hold up your hands and say, "I don't know, I don't have the answer, but together, let's find the answer is a very powerful way of moving groups of people forward.

We know that, for example, minimal interactions with nature change us. You can have a potted plant on your desk, and the presence of a plant on your desk increases happiness and efficiency by as much as 15%, and those people also score happier and enjoy their immediate working environment.

The greater the void between our connection with nature, the more unhappy and the less effective we are as human beings.

Even seeing pictures of nature or having a potted plant on your desk, even in the most technical job involving a computer all day, will make you happier and more efficient, and you'll enjoy your immediate working environment simply by having a connection with nature.

There are two questions I encourage everybody to ask themselves, both at home and at work, and it's a two-step process. The first question is, "What are we doing?" And the second is, "Why are we doing it?" Because it offers you immediate recognition, to just take a moment to pause.

The "what" is very important, but the "why" is fundamentally important because that's what drives all human behavior. So why we're doing what we're doing is very important.

No behavior just happens. Every behavior is caused; it happens for a reason. And those organizations and individuals that seem to achieve really remarkable things are the people who don't wait for behaviors to happen and then react; those are the people who are proactive. They say, "Okay what's the desirable consequence? What's the end result we're looking for? Now, how do we influence the right behaviors to achieve the right consequence?"

And it sounds like a relatively complex construct, but it's just exactly what we do right now, but the other way around. Most people kind of start at the beginning, step by step by step, and end up with a behavior; they end up having to manage a consequence.

But what I'm saying is, let's look at it the other way around, long-term. What do we want to achieve now? Then work our way backwards, one step at the time, to where we are right now, so we know how we can influence behavior to create something more extraordinary.

If youd like to hear more from Jez, listen to our full podcast interview on the Perspectives 2020 homepage. And if youd like to tune into his upcoming keynote speech on May 13, register for Perspectives 2020 for a 24-hour digital learning experience that includes Jezs and other keynotes, debates, courses, and moreall for free!

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