Human Behavior

Shri Narayanan named inaugural Nikias Chair in Engineering – Daily Trojan Online

Professor Shri Narayanan of USCs Viterbi School of Engineering received the Niki and C. L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering. This honor is the first formal recognition in Nikias name.

Narayanan is a professor of electrical engineering, computer science, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience and pediatrics. He has served as director of the Ming Hsieh Institute of Electrical Engineering since 2010, and director of the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab since 2005.

Nikias recruited Narayanan nearly two decades ago, when Nikias was a Viterbi professor.

One of my most enduring and heartfelt achievements while at USC Viterbi was to help recruit Shri, Nikias said to USC News. Seventeen years ago, one could not overestimate his towering intellect and creativity.

Narayanans lab focuses on human-centered technologies. By using data scientific approaches to understand human cognition, aspects of human behavior are explored further. In the context of this, Narayanan wants to bring greater understanding to mental health.

We are trying to find more objective ways of diagnosing autism, as well as understanding changes in behavior in response to the treatment, he said.

Additionally, Narayanans work spreads to media studies, particularly focusing on unconscious biases and their representation in media and the effect this has on society.

Narayanans work is unique in that it brings mathematics and computer science into the equation.

These subjects traditionally have been dealt with very qualitatively, Narayanan said. We try to combine multiple perspectives from different fields like engineering, psychology and linguistics.

By bringing objective quantitative analysis to psychotherapy, Narayanan hopes to better understand the mental condition of patients in addiction therapy and counseling.

Nikias presented the award to Narayanan on Feb. 15 at Tutor Hall.

I feel very honored and excited, because [Nikias] is a leader in the field Ive worked in, Narayanan said. Hes also one of my mentors. Its very meaningful for me on both a personal and a professional level.

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Shri Narayanan named inaugural Nikias Chair in Engineering - Daily Trojan Online

Human Behavior

Business & Professional – NUjournal

Eric Warmka is the new general manager at Minnesota Valley Funeral Homes, and the Willkommen Committee of the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce stopped by to congratulate him, and to welcome new funeral director Dan Baltramonas.

Eric, originally from Wells, has worked in the funeral industry for 12 years. He moved to New Ulm almost three years ago from the St. Cloud area with his wife, Sarah, and their son Jackson. He says he loves that MVFH is a community-owned cooperative, so that they are able to focus on service and not sales.

Dan is originally from south-east Wisconsin, and earned his mortuary science degree in Arizona. He has 15 years of experience working at funeral homes in Eau Claire and Platteville, Wisconsin.

MVFH has two locations in New Ulm as well as Nicollet and Gibbon.

Holmquist receives APMA designation

NEW ULM John Holmquist, a financial advisor with Ameriprise Financial in New Ulm, recently received the Accredited Portfolio Management AdvisorSM (APMA) designation from the College of Financial Planning.

Individuals who hold the APMA designation have completed a course of study encompassing client assessment and suitability, risk/return, investment objectives, bond and equity portfolios, modern portfolio theory and investor psychology.

Holmquist is part of Wealth Management Solutions, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

As a financial advisor, Holmquist provides financial advice that is anchored in a solid understanding of client needs and expectations, and provided in one-on-one relationships with his clients. For more information, please contact John Holmquist at 507-354-7177. His office is located at 510 2nd St N New Ulm, MN 56073.

Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC.

Bloedow to speak to regional HR

professionals about cybersecurity

NEW ULM The responsibility for cybersecurity cant lie with IT alone when so many breaches occur as a result of human behavior.

On March 30, Sam Bloedow address HR professionals in Mankato, providing practical tactics that they can use to develop cybersecurity awareness and employee habits that will lessen the risk of cyber attack and its serious impacts.

In this presentation for the Southern Minnesota Area Human Resource Association (SMAHRA), Sam will help participants understand how the cybercriminal ecosystem has evolved, making small and medium-sized businesses rich targets for cybercrime. Hell guide the audience into a new understanding about cybersecurity awareness as a company priority, by discussing some of the threats that employees could encounter during their work day, including social engineering, phishing, and web-based exploits.

HR professionals can play an important role in how companies protect their business information and employees from cybercrime. Participants in this event will take away practical information on cybersecurity habits that can be implemented immediately and learn guildelines for effective cybersecurity training. Register and learn more about SMAHRA on their website http://www.smahra.org/.

New director at Woodstone

Maggie Gostonczik is the new executive director at Woodstone Senior Living, and the Willkommen Committee stopped by to welcome her.

Maggie is originally from the Judson area and has lived in Hutchinson for the past 12 years. She married her high school sweetheart, and they have three children together. Woodstone has three locations: Hutchinson, New Ulm, and Rice Lake. The New Ulm location has 10 memory care units and 20 care suites (assisted living), three with vacancies. Contact her at 507-359-3355 to set up a tour or to learn more about Woodstone of New Ulm.

New offices for New Ulm Real Estate

New Ulm Real Estate has moved, and the Willkommen Committee recently stopped their new offices at 1227 N. Broadway to see them.

The New Ulm Real Estate team consists of Mary Henle (broker and agent), Lisa Besemer, Stephanie Meyer, and Kim Hanson.

Mary has been in the business for 25 years, Lisa and Stephanie joined her 6 years ago and Kim began 1.5 years ago. The ladies agree that their old space was too small. They love the easy access and corner location of the new building, which used to be Terrys Auto Service. In the remodeling/building of their new offices, they kept the original building, which can still be seen in the exposed ceiling and interior walls. Stop by to see the new space, or visit them online at newulmrealestate.net.

New partner at Gislason & Hunter

The WIllkommen Committee of the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce recently stopped by Gislason & Hunter Law Firm in New Ulm to congratulate Kaitlin Pals on becoming a new partner.

Kaitlin is originally from northern Iowa (near Mason City) and attended law school at the University of Iowa. She was an English major in college and was thinking about becoming a professor before deciding to go to law school. She has been an attorney in New Ulm for about 5 years. She specializes in estate planning and corporate ag business. Her recent partnership makes her the only woman out of the eight partners at the New Ulm location.

Gislason & Hunter has three other locations, Mankato, Minneapolis, and Des Moines.

New Edward Jones financial advisor

The Willkommen Committee recently visited with Jill Berdan, new Edward Jones financial advisor at 108 N. State.

Steve Schreiber is retiring, and Jill is one of three agents who are helping with this transition.

This is a new career for Jill, who was previously branch president of SouthPoint Financial in Sleepy Eye. Jill wasnt looking for new employment; she was previously an Edward Jones client and was approached about the opportunity. She says she is setting an example for her sons that you can be in a career you love but continue to challenge yourself. She likes that Edward Jones places importance on personal connections and one-on-one meetings and she is looking forward to building relationships with her clients.

She is not going to be working alone. Kris Sandmann, who worked with Steve Schreiber for 16 years, will be staying on as senior branch office administrator.

MADELIA First Responders with the Madelia Fire Department are now some of the best-equipped in the nation to ...

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Business & Professional - NUjournal

Genetics

Predicting extinction via genetics – The New Indian Express

CHENNAI:The extinction of a species can be predicted by studying its genetic diversity, says Dr Uma Ramakrishnan who studies the decline in tiger population in India. Speaking on Sunday at Science at the Sabha, an annual event organised by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), she said though tigers in India had a reasonable genetic diversity, they faced a number of other problems.

We found out that a poor genetic diversity was not causing the depletion of the species but that several other problems were contributing to it, said Uma. The higher the internal genetic diversity within a species, the higher its survival chance, as having more genes would also translate to having more ecologically adapted versions of the same genes of that species.

We have over 2,500 tigers living in different parts of India. But what we found out is, the average number of tigers living in a national park is only 19, she said. Having small isolated groups of tigers that are geographically widespread would lead to a wide genetic diversity, but lowering of diversity within each of these patches.

Multiple problems led to the present situation in India. For a species to survive, it must live in a large area in large numbers and must stay connected with genetically variant members of the same species for breeding. The tiger habitat was spread all across Asia before colonial rule. Now, its population is confined to patches in South Asia and mostly in India, says Uma.

One thing we observed from the data is that the growth of urban areas is directly proportional to the depletion of forest land. This means that we further reduce the habitat of these mammals, causing intense fragmentation, said Uma, adding that this would worsen the problems of inbreeding.

Although I worked extensively with tigers, the same problems haunt all dying species. One important solution to prevent fragmentation while still promoting development is to ensure that wildlife corridors must not be encroached upon, she told Express on the sidelines of the main event. She added that historical data showed that the chances of extinction of big animals, such as mammoths, were more.

Other speakers included Yashwant Gupta, who spoke of star-gazing and touring the universe through an astronomical medium; S Krishnaswamy, who spoke about the basics of molecular particles; and Amritanshu Prasad who triggered the minds of young children by speaking about coding and encrypting.

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Predicting extinction via genetics - The New Indian Express

Genetics

Advances in genetics have changed epilepsy treatment – Times of India

For centuries, it was referred to as a sacred disease and the afflicted sought treatment in temples rather than the physician's shop. Little has changed in the way people look at epilepsy over the years, although treatment and diagnosis of the neurological disorder has made rapid strides. Dr Samuel F Berkovic is among those who have done extensive research on the causes of epilepsy, hoping, in the process, to break the stigma that still shrouds the often dehumanising ailment characterised by seizures. On Sunday, the director of the Epilepsy Research Centre at Austin Health, Australia, answered several questions linked to epilepsy, which affects nearly 50 million people worldwide and 10 million in India. "If you had asked me in the '70s about the cause of epilepsy, I wouldn't have had an answer backed by science," began Dr Berkovic, delivering the 37th T S Srinivasan Endowment Oration. "Today, we have multiple answers and ways to treat epilepsy," he said, adding that imaging of the brain was the first breakthrough in understanding the disease that was until then viewed as supernatural possession. According to him, the neuroimaging revolution, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was the biggest step taken towards diagnosis of epilepsy. Advances in the field of genetics, including the identification of genes that cause epilepsy and those that influence the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs, have also revolutionised treatment. "We now know that genetic epilepsy can occur without a family history. Even perfectly normal parents can have a child with epilepsy. At the same time a person with epilepsy can have a normal child," said Berkovic. Describing epilepsy as a highly misunderstood and stigmatised condition, Professor Berkovic said, "Epilepsy can be treated and people suffering from epilepsy can lead a normal, healthy life," at the programme organised by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), Bengaluru, and NEUROKRISH Neurosciences India Group, Chennai.

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Advances in genetics have changed epilepsy treatment - Times of India

Biochemistry

What is Biochemistry and Why it Matters – Nanalyze

If youre a regular reader of Nanalyze, youll know that were big fans of the work that Bryan Johnson of Kernel is doing, essentially trying to enable read/write access to the brain. In one of his interviews, he remarks thatever since we first booted up a cell with human engineered DNA, we entered a new era that according to his mentor Peter Diamandis 99.9% of people have no idea weve entered.

What theyre referring to is the fact that humans have essentially discoveredthe Engines of Creation that Eric Drexler was talking about. While everyone is running around slinging political mud at each other like a bunch of primitive monkeys, mankind is working on one of the most transformational technologies that may ever be invented. Its called synthetic biology and its why everyone should have a basic understanding of biochemistry.

When you werechoosing your major in college, you either had your mind set on a particular field already or you needed to peruse all thesubject areas to see what sounded like a good fit. Each subject area will have a certain stereotype associated with it.Some fields sound boring like electrical engineering or accounting. Some fields sound inherently difficult, like physics or mathematics. Other fieldsyou may not have an idea of what they do because they never sounded compelling enough to research. Thats the case for us withbiochemistry and thats why we thought as investors we should edify ourselves on what turned out to be a very relevant and interesting area of the sciences.

If we lookup the basic definition of biochemistry, this is what we get:

the branch of science concerned with the chemical and physico-chemical processes and substances which occur within living organisms.

So its a bit different from chemistry since itsall about the study of chemical processes in living organisms. Heres why it came about according to the American Chemical Society:

Biochemistry emerged as a separate discipline when scientists combined biology with organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry and began to study how living things obtain energy from food, the chemical basis of heredity, what fundamental changes occur in disease, and related issues.

The most basic premise is that you are using living things to take INPUT X and turn it into OUTPUT Y in the most efficient manner possible. If you think about humans as a complex organism, we are able to utilize the equivalent of several pounds of vegetative material to power one of the most complex and amazing machines on the planet. The problem with us though, is that the output from that process has no real use except maybe as fertilizer.

In the U.S. alone, there are approximately 13,500 chemical manufacturing facilities in the United States owned by more than 9,000 companies. These are giant operations which consume a great deal of energy, require a large workforce to maintain, and generate a great deal of pollution. Imagine how much energy and effort goes into building compex mechanical contraptions like this:

Your bog standard chemicals plant

Think about how inefficient these plants have been over the decades theyve sat there consuming resources and feeding the mass consumerism that we enjoy in todays modern society.Now think about this. What if instead of using these inneficient plants, we engineered biological organisms to produce chemicals by modifying the DNA of the organisms so they did what we needed.The simplest way to think about it is to visualize those punch-cards we used our dads used back in the day. If thats beyond your time, heres what an IBM punch card used to look like:

In the olden days of mainframe computing, we used apunch card like the ones seen above toprovide the computer with a set of instructions. With DNA, its pretty much the same idea except its like havingprecisely this many punch cards:

The above pile of phone books shows roughly the amount of data that a strand of DNA contains, approximately 700gigabytes of data. DNA is one giant punch card that just recently weve been given the hole punch for. That hole punch is called gene editing and its been all over the news lately due to a nasty lawsuit that will determine who has the commercial rights to one of the most exciting discoveries known to man. This biological hole punch called CRISPR will soon let us change every single characteristic we like for any organism and then boot it up so we have our own little biological nanobots doing things for us.Since organisms are the most efficient biological factories (or engines of creation) known to man, it makes sense that we should be modifying them to produce as many industrial chemicals as possible.

The use of synthetic biology for creating things like biofuels (primarily)was off to a rough start as evidenced by the cratering stocks involved in this space like Amyris (NASDAQ:AMRS) and Gevo (NASDAQ:GEVO). Fast forward to today and the potential is even greater but a different model is now being applied. Now you have nanobot factories like Ginkgo Bioworks and Zymergen that areusing artificial intelligence, robotics, and gene editing in order to create little tiny biological chemical manufacturing plants.

Lets say youre a chemical plant that uses a particular enzyme in your production process. Ginkgo or Zymergen can take that enzyme and modify it over millions and millions of iterations. The speed at which they can modify that enzyme has just hit hockey stick growth as seen below:

The end result is an optimized enzyme that meets your requirements and saves you millions of dollars. Startups like this that are using synthetic biology to completely overhaul the industrial chemical manufacturing process are as secretive as you would expect. While we may not have detailed information about what theyre working on, we can take a look at some examples of startups that are using biochemistry and synthetic bioogyin order to create some pretty complex and useful outputs from some basic interesting inputs:

These startups are backed by some big dollars and some big names, however the future business model is a bit hazy here. Will we have the chemical companies going directly to the creators of the synthetic organisms like Ginkgo or will we have startups like the ones mentioned above doing all the production and selling to the chemical companies, only to get acquired once the technology is proven? The one thing that we can be sure of here is that the large chemical producers will profit fromthe use of biochemistry, synthetic biology, and gene editing, consequently we can expect shareholders in these companies to reap the benefits.

This morning when youre tempted to talk about how much political mudslinging there was at the Oscars or who wore the cutest dress, do the world a favor and tell someone how exciting biochemistry is instead.

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What is Biochemistry and Why it Matters - Nanalyze

Anatomy

Anatomy of an Oscars fiasco: how La La Land was mistakenly announced as best picture – The Guardian

It will go down in history as the most awkward, embarrassing Oscar moment of all time: an extraordinary failure in the Oscars voting procedure. The traditional high point of the marathon Oscars telecast collapsed in ignominy as organisers were forced to acknowledge that the wrong film La La Land had been named best picture winner, instead of the actual victor, Moonlight. We piece together the sequence of events that led to the chaotic scenes.

1. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty emerge from the back of the stage to announce the best picture win.

2. A close-up photograph shows he is clearly carrying a winners envelope for best actress the award for which (to La La Lands Emma Stone) has just taken place.

3. Beatty begins to read out the winners card, and is obviously puzzled by what he is reading, looking in the envelope to see if there is anything else in there.

4. Beatty, uncertain, hands the card to Dunaway, who doesnt appear to know anything is wrong, and reads out the only film title she can see: La La Land.

5. As the La La Land producer Mark Platt (front) gives his thank you speech, a member of the shows staff (in headset) takes back the envelopes that have been given to the La La Land producers Jordan Horowitz (holding Oscar) and Fred Berger.

6. By now, the La La Land team know they havnt won. Producer Fred Berger says: We lost. Behind him, the PricewaterhouseCoopers overseers Brian Cullinan (holding envelope) and Martha Ruiz (in red dress) are on stage, examining the envelopes. The accountancy firm have apologised and promised an investigation.

7. Horowitz holds up his hand to stop the celebrations as the La La Land crew realise they havent won. This is not a joke, he tells the audience.

8. By now Beatty has been given the right card, and Horowitz takes it out of his hand and holds it up. Moonlight is clearly the winner.

9. As the Moonlight team come forward, Beatty steps out front to explain to Kimmel and the La La Land team what happened. The card he had been given, he says, read Emma Stone. I wasnt trying to be funny.

10. Horowitz hands his Oscar to Barry Jenkins, Moonlights director.

11. Jenkins closes the show by summing up the extraordinary turn of events. Even in my dreams this could not be true. But to hell with it, Im done with dreams because this is true.

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Anatomy of an Oscars fiasco: how La La Land was mistakenly announced as best picture - The Guardian

Anatomy

The Anatomy of Awareness: Emotional Trauma and Health – The Good Men Project (blog)

On the latest Real Men Feel, Andy Grant and Appio Hunter are joined by their friend, Emotional Strength Trainer Amanda Foy, to explore emotions, awareness, and how emotional trauma affects our cells and health.

Video:

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Audio alone:

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The Anatomy of Awareness with Amanda Foy, Episode 48, February 21, 2017

Amanda says that guilt and shame are the only useless emotions. They have no purpose but to make you feel horrible. Guilt is acceptance without positive action. Shame is a lack of acceptance or acknowledgment of having a human experience. While trauma is defined by each person. What one person finds traumatic another person may not. It can depend on what we were taught and how we are expected to be.

When you get sick, it is your bodys way of taking you out of a situation you dont know how to handle. Illness comes when you are too stubborn to do the work you need to do, so it is a good thing. ~ Amanda Foy

Do you want to talk about how to have richer, more mindful, and enduring relationships?

Photo credit: Pixabay

The Real Men Feel Show is a weekly podcasthosted by RMF founder, Andy Grant and his friend and fellow coach, Appio Hunter. Each episodeis recorded live with Zoom, a video meeting service that allows up to fifty people to be part of a live video conversation. Viewers can watch, make comments and ask questions in a chat room, or even request to join the live program on video and audio, and really be part of the show. Real Men Feel Show is live each (most) Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern at RealMenFeel.org/show Some weeks feature Andy and Appio discussing what is going on with them, while other shows feature invited guests. Live participants are always welcome and can share comments in a chat room or even ask to be seen and heard as part of the show.

See a directory of past shows here.

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The Anatomy of Awareness: Emotional Trauma and Health - The Good Men Project (blog)

Anatomy

Anatomy of a statistic: Do 80 percent of Americans oppose sanctuary cities? – PolitiFact

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers escort an arrestee in an apartment building in the Bronx on March 3, 2015, during a series of early-morning raids. (AP/Richard Drew)

On Feb. 22, websites favorable to President Donald Trump touted a poll result that showed wide support for one of the presidents highest-profile immigration policies -- cracking down on "sanctuary cities."

"SHOCK POLL: 80% OF AMERICANS OPPOSE SANCTUARY CITIES," said a headline in the conspiracy-minded site InfoWars. The poll also got prominent play on the conservative websites NewsMax, BizPacReview. Breitbart, Town Hall and American Thinker, as well as on the Russian websites RT and Sputnik.

One of our readers asked us to investigate. We decided not to put the 80 percent finding to the Truth-O-Meter, because we dont doubt the reliability of the poll itself. But questions phrased differently can show dramatically different results.

All told, the finding is a case study in how poll results can be seized by advocates for one side of an issue -- and how some of the nuances in the questions and the answers can be lost in the hubbub.

About the Harvard-Harris poll

The poll result in question came from a new and relatively little-known poll -- the Harvard-Harris survey -- that initially didnt put its full data documentation online. The shortage of information about the poll caused one contributor to the liberal website Daily Kos to wonder whether someone had "catfished" the media with fake data.

We can confirm that the polling partnership is real -- and legitimate. It is headed by longtime Democratic pollster Mark Penn and Stephen Ansolabehere, a professor of government at Harvard University and the director of its Center for American Political Studies. The poll grew out of courses the two have taught together at Harvard. Penn and Ansolabehere are collaborating on the project with the Harris Poll, a venerable public-opinion pollster.

The poll, conducted online between Feb. 11 and 13, was initially released exclusively to the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill, and the pollsters posted a detailed presentation of the results here,

A closer look at the questions

The question in the poll that attracted the most attention -- certainly from the political right -- was this one: "Should cities that arrest illegal immigrants for crimes be required to turn them over to immigration authorities?" On this question, 80 percent of respondents said yes.

But as we looked into the question, we noticed a couple things.

One was that, despite the blaring headlines about sanctuary cities, the question being asked didnt actually use the words "sanctuary cities." The other concerned words that the question did use -- "arrest" and "crimes."

To understand why such wording choices matter -- and why they could potentially change the results of the poll -- we first need to review what the term "sanctuary city" actually means.

What is a sanctuary city?

There isnt a federal law defining "sanctuary city." Different jurisdictions that use the term -- and even some that shy away from it -- may have some policies in place that other cities dont, and vice versa. But generally speaking, it means they have policies limiting how much local law enforcement assists federal immigration authorities seeking to apprehend and deport people in the United States illegally.

For instance, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego do not hold immigrants for immigration officials unless they have violent felonies on their records or current charges, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Supporters of sanctuary cities argue that not questioning people about their immigration status builds trust between police and the community, encouraging residents to report crime and help in prosecutions. If an undocumented immigrant gets arrested for a non-immigration offense, they can still be charged, tried and convicted for that crime, Lena Graber, a special projects attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told PolitiFact.

Opponents counter that sanctuary cities attract illegal immigration and undermine enforcement of the law. Any crime by someone in the country illegally is a crime that could have been avoided by having removed that person, Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to reduce immigration levels, told PolitiFact in November.

The question wording

The specific wording used to ask any poll question is always important. Its not even necessarily a comparison of "good wording" vs."bad wording" -- if a question is asked a certain way, it could nudge respondents to answer in one direction.

In this case, respondents were asked about "crimes." To many, that could bring to mind "violent crimes," especially when paired with the term "arrest."

But the experts we spoke to said the jurisdictions described as sanctuary cities dont simply let murderers, rapists, armed robbers and other people they arrest for violent crimes go free. Not only would federal immigration officials be notified, but the violent crimes they were charged with would be prosecuted.

Instead, where the rubber hits the road with sanctuary cities is with lesser, non-violent offenses, even down to a broken tail light -- or simply any interaction with police, such as an undocumented immigrant becoming a happenstance witness to a crime. These are the cases in which police in sanctuary cities would typically be trained to refrain from asking for immigration status or informing federal immigration officials.

And this nuance is not captured by the question that garnered 80 percent support in the Harvard-Harris poll -- as well as the lions share of headlines.

"Question wording always affects responses," said Steven S. Smith, a political scientist and pollster at Washington University in St. Louis. "Arrest for crimes certainly primes the respondent to think that the person is dangerous and therefore should be a high priority in immigration law enforcement."

Karlyn Bowman, a polling analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that there is little history of past polling on the issue of sanctuary cities. But she did uncover one poll released a few days after the Harvard-Harris poll that seems to back up the idea that different wording can substantially change the result.

The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University and released on Feb. 23, asked, "Thinking about people who have immigrated to the U.S. illegally, who do you think should be deported: Should no illegal immigrants be deported, only illegal immigrants that have committed serious crimes, only illegal immigrants that have committed any crime, or should all illegal immigrants be deported?"

The results: Only 3 percent said no illegal immigrants should be deported, and 19 percent said all illegal immigrants should be deported. But 53 percent of respondents said deportations should only be done for "serious crimes," compared to 22 percent for "any crime."

Thats not just a plurality -- its a majority. And that tells a different story than the Internet headlines.

The pollsters speak

Both Ansolabehere and Penn responded to our inquiries.

Penn called our question about wording differences "an important one" and agreed that finding the right wording in a case like this one is tricky,

"We think the question is fair and clear as worded to obtain the sentiment on the issue," he said. "Had we said serious crimes, that would have tilted it one way and minor crimes would have tilted it the other way. In either case, it would be a different question about the gradations of policy, and a deep dive would surely find some nuances as with all policy."

He added that the task was made more difficult given his teams failure to find any questions on sanctuary cities that had been road-tested in previous polls.

Ansolabehere added, "If you can think of alternative wordings that capture the policy better, please send them to me."

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Anatomy of a statistic: Do 80 percent of Americans oppose sanctuary cities? - PolitiFact

Immunology

Cue Biopharma Strengthens Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board … – Yahoo Finance

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Cue Biopharma, Inc. (Cue), an immunotherapy company developing biologics engineered to selectively modulate disease-relevant T cell subsets to treat cancer and autoimmune disease, announced the appointment of three new key opinion leaders to its scientific/clinical advisory board (SAB). The new members include Kenneth Pienta, M.D.; Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D.; and Karolina Palucka, M.D., Ph.D. These new members join Cues industry-leading SAB, which consists of three experts in immunology, immuno-oncology and protein design.

We are very pleased with the additional knowledge and expertise that these three leading researchers and clinicians bring to our SAB in the fields of immunology and immuno-oncology, as Cue continues to advance its programs towards the clinic, said Daniel Passeri, M.Sc., J.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Cue Biopharma.

These new scientific/clinical advisory board members bring invaluable experience that complements our existing members, and we have already begun integrating them into our advisory function, said Steven Almo, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, scientific founder of Cue and Chairman of the Cue Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board.

Cues scientific and clinical advisory board now contains six leading oncology, immuno-oncology, immunology and protein design experts:

About Cue Biopharma

Immune Responses, On Cue. Cue Biopharma(Cue) is an immunotherapy company developing biologics engineered to selectively communicate with disease-relevant T cell subsets to treat cancer and autoimmune disease. Cue biologics have the potential to be highly effective as monotherapies as well as synergistic with existing checkpoint inhibitors, while reducing collateral toxicities often seen with less selective immunotherapies. Through this platform approach, Cue has developed a promising pipeline with its lead candidate currently approaching the clinic. Headquartered in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA, Cue is led by a strong, experienced management team and scientific/clinical advisory board with deep expertise in the design and clinical development of protein biologics, immunology and immuno-oncology.

For more information, visitwww.cuebio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170222005333/en/

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Cue Biopharma Strengthens Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board ... - Yahoo Finance

Human Behavior

The political pendulum has swung to the right – Observer-Reporter

With the election of President Trump in November, the political pendulum has swung to the right after eight years of the Democratic Party pushing it as far to the left as it could.

As far as the pendulum was pushed left, liberals had to hold back with all their might to prevent the force of the pendulum from finding equilibrium. But they eventually could not withstand the weight of the pendulum seeking the center.

The arm had swung so far left in the past eight years that when released its kinetic energy swung the pendulum far right of center. Its equal and opposite force did not allow the normal centering of the swing. Hence, Donald Trump is president. The people rejected both the Republican candidates preferred by the partys establishment as well as Hillary Clinton, and a new popular candidate emerged for the people.

As you look over these historic swings, you begin to see that the preferred place of rest by most Americans is indeed somewhere in the center of the political spectrum. The push and pull of the far right and left points of view make the pendulum wobble off center, but never for very long in either direction. When either side pushes too hard, in time the force swings the political pendulum back with equal force.

Think of it as a normal distribution of political opinion. Most Americans share values and political points of view that gather in the middle of that distribution. Americans can find middle ground on most issues. The further you deviate from the center, to the extreme left or right, the fewer Americans you will find who hold those points of view.

Why then does it seem that the extremes get so much attention?

These groups are very vocal. They make the most noise and, unfortunately, make provocative news. We, for the most part, are not entertained by the normal, mundane life we all live in the center, so we flirt with the fringes of society. We are curious, we are voyeurs, and we have the news media to fill our insatiable need for this information. As we watch the off-center news over and over again, what was abnormal to the center now seems normal.

This has its greatest impact on the youth of our nation. They grow tired of the restrictions of a life controlled by their parents and seek new and worldly adventures. They are easily influenced in their formative years and will follow sometimes bizarre behavior. Often this behavior, if they survive the process, is replaced with real-life experiences that burst the utopian bubbles of youth. The one thing that will not change is human behavior. We will continue to see the worst and the best of humanity among our neighbors. There have been few periods where man was at peace with himself or others for any length of time. Greed, envy, lust and fear seems to propel humanity against itself. We look back on that history and wonder how a nation could become involved in such acts of violence against other nations and we deem them somehow inferior in the evolution of human understanding.

Yet, our television screens are filled with the same destruction, the same hate, the same fear of our fellow man. I was ashamed of the protests and riots in Washington, D.C., following President Trumps inauguration. We are becoming less tolerant as a nation, which was demonstrated when we could not put our differences aside for one day and celebrate the peaceful transfer of power.

We have evolved little as better human beings, having more understanding towards our neighbor, or being more tolerant of those who are different. I can only find redemption of the human spirit in the blood of my creator, Jesus Christ. I seek to be a follower of His teachings and pray for the redemption of all mankind. I pray for peace and understanding, tolerance and respect for all.

Flickinger is president of Tom Flickinger & Associates Inc., a management consulting firm.

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The political pendulum has swung to the right - Observer-Reporter