The 2021 awardees are as follows:

The LSO Awards are an important part of the organizations mandate to advocate for Ontarios life sciences sector, by celebrating the individuals and companies behind its success.

2020 has been a difficult year for everyone; but COVID-19 has also highlighted the amazing contributions of the life sciences sector to solving some of societies largest challenges, said LSO President and CEO Dr. Jason Field. LSOs awards recognize these contributions annually and this years award recipients represent the many diverse ways our sector impacts the everyday lives of Canadians and the world in which we live through science, innovation and leadership.

To explore sponsorship opportunities, contact: admin@lifesciencesontario.ca

Biographies

Michael Julius, Former Vice President, Research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. Michael Julius is past Vice President, Research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (2000-2020). He created an international hub for life sciences dedicated to both discovery and commercialization. This initiative achieved a functional integration of researchers, clinicians, business and patients towards moving discoveries through the marketplace and into the clinic. He shepherded growth to a $125M annual research enterprise which spun off 15 companies over his tenure. Michael is currently partnering in the launch of a life sciences capital management fund.

Ahead of taking on his leadership position at Sunnybrook, Michael Chaired the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto (1994-2000). He has Chaired both the Canadian Institutes for Health Research review panel for Immunology and Transplantation and Research Canada, an advocacy corporation dedicated to ensuring that the federal government supports and funds the priority of health research in Canada. He serves as a member of Scientific Advisory Boards for a number of companies and has Chaired two of Sunnybrooks spin-off companies.

Michael completed his undergraduate degree in genetics at McGill University and his doctoral work in genetics and immunology at Stanford University. Michael was recruited to the Basel Institute for Immunology supported by Hoffman La Roche, where he remained for the 13 years.

Having published over 200 research papers and reviews in his area of expertise, many of which have achieved citation records, Michael has in-depth knowledge of multiple therapeutic areas, including neuroscience, cancer, cardiovascular and immune system; and expertise across multiple platforms, including high content cellular analyses, AI, health informatics, and imaging-guided interventions and therapeutics.

Eugenia Duodu, CEO, Visions of Science Network for Learning Community Service Award

Eugenia Duodu is the CEO of Visions of Science Network for Learning (www.vosnl.org), a charitable organization that empowers youth from low-income communities through meaningful engagement in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). She is an educator, speaker, community organizer and advocate who is passionate about creating equitable opportunities for youth to achieve their full potential. Eugenia Duodu holds both an honours bachelor degree in Chemistry and Biology and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Toronto.

Anne Woods, Managing Director of Life Sciences and Healthcare, Silicon Valley Bank Volunteer Award

Anne Woods is the managing director of the Life Science and Healthcare practice for Silicon Valley Bank in Toronto where she is responsible for leading the banks efforts in this sector across Canada.

Anne has close to 25 years experience in capital markets and life sciences. She began her career as a financial analyst and in 2005, went back to her roots in life sciences. Prior to joining SVB, Anne spent several years as a director with The Pangaea Group bringing insights and strategic direction to life science and healthcare clients.

In 2018, Anne joined the board of Life Sciences Ontario. She holds a BSc from McGill University, a MA from the University of Guelph and is a CFA Charterholder.

VIVE Crop Protection Inc.Life Sciences Company of the Year

Vive Crop Protection creates Precision Chemistry to expand the horizons of Precision Agriculture. Vive products are built on the patented Allosperse Delivery System, which greatly improves the targeting and performance of chemical and biological active ingredients, helping growers achieve real results. Vive Crop Protection commercially launched in 2016 and currently has five unique products available in the US market, with two more awaiting US EPA registration and one awaiting Canadian PMRA registration.

Vive anticipates launching the first-ever combination chemical/biological fungicide product in spring 2021 to US sugarbeet and corn growers. Its head office is in Mississauga and employs nearly 30 chemists, biologists and other professionals.

John Kelly, Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs LSO Leadership Award

Dr. John Kelly currently serves as Deputy Minister for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He was recently Chief Innovation Officer for Bioenterprise Corporation. Dr. Kelly has an extensive background working with entrepreneurs and innovation in human health and life sciences, agriculture, food and bio-economy sectors in domestic and international markets, with focus on innovation development and implementation, actively advancing products and technologies. An extensive publisher, he has authored hundreds of research and extension publications throughout his career, attracted several million dollars in investment and been a serial entrepreneur and investor. He has a wealth of experience in the private and public sector and has held various executive positions with start-ups, venture capital, multinational companies and not-for-profits, including KeliRo Company Inc., Bioenterprise Capital, DNAstack, KiKi Maple Water, Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, MaRS Landing, Land OLakes, Rhone-Poulenc Canada Inc. and Aventis CropSciences Inc. He has also served on numerous Board of Director appointments including with Life Sciences Ontario, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Genomics, Ontario Hazelnut Association, Ontario Lavender Association and others. Dr. Kelly holds a B.Sc. (Agr). and Ph.D. from the University of Guelph and a Master of Science from the University of Alberta. He has also held Adjunct Professorships in the Department of Animal Biosciences and the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph.

ABOUT LIFE SCIENCES ONTARIO (LSO)

Life Sciences Ontario (LSO) is a member-funded, not-for-profit organization with a legacy of more than 30 years advancing the success of Ontarios life sciences sector. LSO collaborates with government, academia, industry, and other life sciences organizations in Ontario and across Canada to promote and encourage commercial success throughout the sector. The organization provides a wide range of networking and educational events and operates a mentorship program that is helping to develop highly skilled talent and build new business opportunities for the life sciences sector. In addition, LSO launched the Life Sciences Ontario Scholarship Program, the program awards students financial benefits and an opportunity to connect with a professional from the life sciences sector. LSO is an effective conduit for delivering policy options to governments, and its dedicated to promoting Ontarios life sciences sector internationally. For more information, please visit https://lifesciencesontario.ca.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201123006109/en/

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Life Science Ontario Announces Recipients of the 2021 LSO Awards - BioSpace

Immunology

Using a Cancer Therapy Platform as a Potential COVID-19 Vaccine – Contagionlive.com

November 26, 2020 medical

OncoSec recently received an FDA IND clearance to begin a phase 1 trial.

Biotech company OncoSec has secured an IND clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin a phase 1 trial to study their CORVax12 vaccine. This is the first DNA vaccine candidate for COVID-19 to deliver the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 and the immune-activating cytokine interleukin 12 (IL-12).

The vaccine combines OncoSecs immuno-stimulant IL-12 expression platform, TAVO (tavokinogene telseplasmid), with NIHs DNA-encodable stabilized trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein to treat COVID-19.

The CORVax vaccine is designed to drive a coordinated long-term anti-viral response, capable of activating both cellular and humoral immune responses. The companys TAVO IL-12 expression platform stimulates immunity in immunocompromised cancer settings and could be particularly relevant for patients at highest risk from COVID-19.

The Providence Cancer Center in Oregon is collaborating with OncoSec, and the former will be a trial site. BernardFox, PhD, chief, Laboratory of Molecular and Tumor Immunology, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute at Providence Portland Medical Center is the principal investigator for the trial.

I think one of the advantages we bring to the trial from a cancer perspective is we are used to doing sophisticated immunological monitoring, and we have standards in place that have been broadly accepted, Fox stated.

Fox spoke to Contagion recently about the vaccines platform, how adding IL-12 can potentially help augment responses in older patients, the trials parameters and insights on long-term immunity.

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Using a Cancer Therapy Platform as a Potential COVID-19 Vaccine - Contagionlive.com

Immunology

AnPac Bio Sets Record Test Volume in Q3, and Forecasts ~ 100% Revenue Growth in 2020 – BioSpace

November 26, 2020 medical

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anpac Bio-Medical Science Co., Ltd. (AnPac Bio, the Company or we) (NASDAQ: ANPC), a biotechnology company with operations in China and the United States focused on early cancer screening and detection, announced today that it experienced strong demand for its cancer screening tests and set a record in paid test volume in the third quarter. With a strong fourth quarter already underway, the Company forecasts a revenue growth of approximately 100% in 2020 over 2019, with a revenue range of US$3 million (~ RMB20 million) to US$3.3 million (~ RMB22 million). For 2019, the Company had a revenue of US$1.6 million (~ RMB10.9 million) (using a current US$ to RMB exchange ratio of ~ 6.6). We expect the strong momentum of YoY revenue growth due to market demand and customers accepting AnPac Bios novel cancer screening technology with multiple advantages (named cancer differentiation analysis (CDA) technology)) to continue into 2021. The Company plans to release its full year 2020 audited financial report in early March 2021.

With COVID-19 mainly contained in China and most businesses returning to normal operations since May, the demand for the Companys cancer screening tests has remained strong. Further, its average selling price (ASP) in 2020 is expected to increase compared to 2019, contributing to a higher revenue growth forecast. In 2020, the Company has launched a number of new products including an immunology test in China and the COVID-19 antibody test in the US.

Dr. Chris Yu commented, Our strong paid test volume in the third quarter demonstrated our novel, biophysics based CDA technology and its advantages in cost effectiveness, the ability to detect early a wide range of cancer types (over 20 cancer types), and relatively high sensitivity and specificity are increasingly being accepted and recognized by the market and customers. With our successful IPO on the NASDAQ earlier this year, we are now focusing on three areas: new product development, product commercialization including in the US, and revenue growth through sales, with an emphasis on execution and speed. Having successfully executed our phase one goal to become a volume leader in cancer screening among new generation cancer screening technologies, we are now turning our attention to enhance our ASP and gross margin. We have recorded an increase in ASP and launched two new products, which paved the way for further business growth. We are optimistic about our Company including commercialization in the US and growth in 2021.

About AnPac Bio

AnPac Bio is a biotechnology company focused on early cancer screening and detection, with 128 issued patents as of June 30, 2020. With two certified clinical laboratories in China and one CLIA and CAP accredited clinical laboratory and one CLIA registered clinical laboratory in the United States, AnPac Bio performs a suite of cancer screening and detection tests, including CDA (Cancer Differentiation Analysis), bio-chemical, immunological, and genomics tests. According to Frost & Sullivan, AnPac Bio ranked third worldwide and first in China among companies offering next-generation early cancer screening and detection technologies in terms of the number of clinical samples for cancer screening and detection, based on approximately 41,700 clinical samples as at May 2020. AnPac Bios CDA technology platform has been shown in retrospective validation studies to be able to detect the risk of over 20 different cancer types with high sensitivity and specificity.

For more information, please visit: https://www.Anpacbio.com.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Company:Phil Case, Marketing and Investor RelationsPhone: +1-267-810-6776 (US)Email:phil_case@AnPacbio.com

Investor Relations:Ascent Investor Relations LLCTina Xiao, PresidentPhone: +1-917-609-0333 (US)Email:tina.xiao@ascent-ir.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are relating to the Company's future financial and operating performance. The Company has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminologies including "believes," "estimates," "anticipates," "expects," "plans," "projects," "intends," "potential," target, aim, predict, outlook, seek, goal objective, assume, contemplate, continue, positioned, forecast, likely, "may," "could," "might," "will," "should," "approximately" or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, assumptions and uncertainties involving judgments about, among other things, future economic, competitive and market conditions and future business decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond the Company's control. These statements also involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the implementation of our business model and growth strategies; trends and competition in the cancer screening and detection market; our expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of our cancer screening and detection tests and our ability to expand our customer base; our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protections for our CDA technology and our continued research and development to keep pace with technology developments; our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals from the NMPA, the FDA and the relevant U.S. states and have our laboratories certified or accredited by authorities including the CLIA; our future business development, financial condition and results of operations and our ability to obtain financing cost-effectively; potential changes of government regulations; general economic and business conditions in China and elsewhere; our ability to hire and maintain key personnel; our relationship with our major business partners and customers; and the duration of the coronavirus outbreaks and their potential adverse impact on the economic conditions and financial markets and our business and financial performance, such as resulting from reduced commercial activities due to quarantines and travel restrictions instituted by China, the U.S. and many other countries around the world to contain the spread of the virus. Additionally, all forward-looking statements are subject to the Risk Factors detailed from time to time in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Because of these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. In addition, these statements speak only as of the date of this press release and, except as may be required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

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AnPac Bio Sets Record Test Volume in Q3, and Forecasts ~ 100% Revenue Growth in 2020 - BioSpace

Human Behavior

Human behavior is behind second COVID wave in Massachusetts, study suggests; predicts the state could exceed – MassLive.com

November 25, 2020 medical

As the COVID pandemic continues, more people are comfortable going to the gym, restaurants and visiting friends. But thats all contributing to the second wave in Massachusetts, a new study suggests.

The study published by a group of researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities said the current trajectory of COVID-19 in Massachusetts is deeply worrisome.

After dropping to a low of 200 cases per day in early July, the pandemic has resurged with a vengeance. Rates of new daily cases roughly doubled between July 1 and October 1, then again from October 1 to November 1, then again in just 10 days from November 1 to 11, reaching well over 2000 cases a day, the study says. If the current growth rate persists, the case counts would exceed 10,000 per day by December.

On Tuesday, state health officials confirmed another 2,225 coronavirus cases.

These numbers would overwhelm current hospital capacity, the study says.

But with changes, this can be reversed, the study states.

The good news, and the bad news, is that human behavior is likely driving the resurgence, the study said. This means that infections need not continue to explode in Massachusetts, but also that real changes in behavior (and policy) may be required to bring it back under control.

The study found that in April and May, less than 5% reported going to a restaurant in the past 24 hours. By October, that number increased to 15%. During that same time, less than 1% of people said they were going to the gym. In October, that number was 7%. And the number of people visiting friends or other non-household members in enclosed spaces doubled.

These patterns are not just the result of individual choices, but of policy decisions, since many of these establishments were closed in the spring, the study states.

Gov. Charlie Baker has issued a stay-at-home advisory, setting a curfew and requires businesses to close by 9:30 p.m.

Were doing much better than many other states and many other countries, but hereto weve let down our guard, he said.

But the study states this could actually be adding to the problem.

It is possible that some measures, such as limiting the hours restaurants are open, might actually make matters worse, because it may result in more people being in a restaurant at any given hour, the study states.

Mask wearing, however, has increased.

The commonwealth is reporting among the highest levels of adherence anywhere in the country, at about 80% very closely following mask-wearing guidelines.

Many have also been taking advantage of being outside, something that cant happen as frequently during the winter months.

More aggressive action now might avoid more draconian measures later, when our hospitals are beyond capacity, the study said.

Study: Lax behaviors of Mass. residents has contributed to second COVID-19 wave – Boston.com

November 25, 2020 medical

As Massachusetts enters the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, theres one factor that could either help or hurt the spread of cases within the next few weeks: human behavior.

The key is how humans behave during this time, according to a study published by a group of researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities. Human behavior is cited as both the good and bad news. While behavior has aided the second wave of the virus, changes in behavior, and potentially policy handed down by lawmakers, could stop the spread, the researchers said.

Our data confirm a substantial relaxation of many of the behaviors that helped slow the spread of the disease in the spring, the study says, while also noting that researchers dont believe current restrictions will greatly stop the spread.

In taking a look at just mask wear, recent survey data collected for the state shows that Massachusetts residents have mostly adopted proper mask wearing about 80 percent of people are very closely following mask-wearing guidelines, which is among the highest numbers in the country.

However, about 1 in 5 people polled for the study indicate that they are not very closely following guidelines for mask wear.

But wearing a mask isnt enough to stop the second wave, according to David Lazer, a Northeastern professor and one of the studys authors.

The good news here is that mask wearing has increased, and is higher in Massachusetts than other states, Lazer said in an email to Boston.com. The bad news is that thats not enough. Other behaviors have relaxed quite a bit, and the result (at least partially) is the current surge of case counts. This becomes a particular concern around the holidays, which may increase inter-household physical proximity.

Over the last few weeks, Massachusetts has seen COVID-19 cases skyrocket. There were 1,785 new cases reported on Monday and 18 new deaths. Looking back to July, the state had hit a low case count of about 200 per day, the study says. That number has doubled multiple times over, from between July 1 and Oct. 1, and Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, and then exceeding 2,000 cases per day in the first 11 days of November.

If the current growth rate persists, the case counts would exceed 10,000 per day by December, the study says. Such numbers will eventually result in many hospitalizations and deaths, and a general caseload that would dramatically and adversely affect healthcare across the board, as Massachusetts hospitals would be under enormous pressure.

One of the problems is that people have become less vigilant since the spring in adhering to behaviors to help curb virus spread. The study indicates that in terms of visiting restaurants: Fewer than 5 percent of survey respondents went to one within the 24 hours prior to being polled back in April and May. In October, that number jumped to 15 percent.

People are also socializing more with people outside their households, up from 22 percent in April to 45 percent in October, the study said.

Part of this uptick is not just people themselves, but also the governments decision to keep things like restaurants and gyms open this time when they were closed during the initial surge, according to researchers.

The study also suggests that limiting hours at places like restaurants Gov. Charlie Baker imposed a curfew of 9:30 p.m. on restaurants for table service, as well as shuttering businesses like theaters, casinos, and gyms by this time could have negative effects, with the idea that more people could be in these spaces during the hours theyre open.

The researchers determined instead that stricter policies or closures could be needed to make the coming months less painful.

The effectiveness of behavior changes in crushing the curve in the spring, and the apparent importance of restaurants, gyms, and other settings that people congregate, highlights the potential for aggressive policy interventions to change our behaviors to reduce the spread, the study said. It is unlikely that the current measures of the Massachusetts government will substantially bend the growth curve of the disease.

Massachusetts is, of course, not alone in its second surge. Cases have drastically increased throughout the country and in Europe, where, in some countries, lockdowns went into effect late last month.

Massachusetts is on a similar trajectory, just lagging a few weeks, the study said.

But regardless of whether those lockdowns are enacted here, people can change their behavior of their own free will if theyre serious about curbing the effects of virus spread, the researchers noted.

The approaching holidays make this precisely the right time to get serious about behavior change, the study reads. The risk, but also the opportunity, is undeniable.

Originally posted here:
Study: Lax behaviors of Mass. residents has contributed to second COVID-19 wave - Boston.com

Human Behavior

Mountainside: What does it mean to be a loser? – Jackson Hole News&Guide

November 25, 2020 medical

We are all losers. None of us makes it through this journey called life without failing at least a few times, whether that failure comes in athletics, politics, school or relationships. Theres plenty of literature supporting the idea that losing is important to character development, so why is the term pejorative? Why does our president dismiss his rivals as losers, as if that is the worst thing anyone can be? Why instead arent we embracing the term and wearing it with pride?

Google Ngrams, which is an online search engine that allows you to chart how often a word or phrase appears in printed texts within Googles text corpora, shows that the word loser began trending upward in the 1960s with a steep spike in usage since 2000. At the same time Americans have become increasingly infatuated with winners, while losers are cultural pariahs.

Molly Absolon

But the problem with our fixation on winning is that for every winner there is a loser, and those losers may be the winner the next time. Loss does not indicate an inherent character flaw. It just shows that at a given moment, under a particular set of circumstances, someone came up short. There are plenty of famous examples of this: Michael Jordon, JK Rowling, Steve Jobs, and the list goes on. Athletes repeatedly fail before succeeding. The tech world talks about failing up, where someones accumulation of bad ideas eventually results in a good one. Losing is important. It teaches us a lot, yet we disparage the idea, looking down on losers until they become winners.

Some psychologists argue competition is a genetic component of human behavior. If you buy into this viewpoint, you believe that from the time we are born we are fighting for attention and survival at the expense of others. This is the notion of Social Darwinism, a theory that has been distorted from Charles Darwins original concept of natural selection to equate survival with winning and losing, where the winner takes all. Such an interpretation of evolution minimizes the importance of cooperation and dependence in the success of a species, and is believed by many to be incomplete and a distortion of Darwins theory. Yet the idea and the phrase, survival of the fittest remains firmly entrenched in our lexicon and is often used to excuse or explain human behavior.

But you can find equally loud voices arguing the opposite. These people believe competition is a learned behavior, and its importance varies according to societal norms. For example, anthropologist Margaret Meads research into the Zuni people of Arizona found that they valued cooperation far more than competition. As an example, she cited an annual footrace in which everyone in the community participated, and the winner was not recorded, beyond making note that if one person won too many years in a row, he or she was banned from the race in the future. Winning, it seems, was not the point.

Based on findings such as these, Mead concluded that competitiveness is a culturally created aspect of human behavior, and its prevalence in a particular society depends on how much that society values it. It should come as no surprise, therefore, to learn that Americans are known throughout the world for our obsession with winning. We idealize the rugged individual who is willing to fight for principles. We worship successful athletes as heroes, and disparage the unsuccessful as, well, losers, ignoring the fact that in denouncing losers we are not only condemning ourselves and everyone who has ever failed at an endeavor, we are also moving toward a world where people are reluctant to take chances because they are afraid of the ignomy of defeat.

When my daughter was a child she played soccer alongside practically every other 6-year-old in town. She wasnt particularly good, nor did she enjoy the sport. We made her stick it out because we thought it would teach her something about commitment and perseverance. At the end of the season all the kids got participation trophies. I was surprised by this. I dont recall participation trophies from my youth. My most unearned reward as a kid was a blue-ribbon for the 6-and-under 25-yard backstroke, in which I won only because no one else was in the race. In the decades between my childhood and my daughters, people seem to have become worried about kids feeling badly about themselves if they lost or werent good at an activity, and so participation trophies became the norm. That trend became so prevalent in the United States and Canada that trophy and award sales totaled an estimated $3 billion in 2013.

We are now experiencing the backlash of that movement. Today most people agree that nonstop recognition and rewarding someone with a trophy for something as insignificant as showing up for practice does not inspire kids to succeed. It doesnt even inspire them to try hard. Why bother, they might say, if Im going to get a trophy regardless of my effort? Some people go so far as to say the generation of kids who received participation trophies is a generation of underachievers. Kids who never learned how to fail and, in the process, also never learned how to win. I think this is probably overstating the effect of those trophies. Even at 6, my daughter knew hers wasnt worth much, and it was quickly relegated to the trash can. But I do think Americans are uncomfortable losing, despite the fact that having winners (which we love) inevitably means someone had to lose.

I thought about this idea when I was a wannabe mountaineer in the 1990s. I went with some friends to climb Mount Logan, the highest peak in Canada. We waited a week at an airstrip in Kluane National Park for the weather to clear so we could fly in, moved up the mountain for a few days, and then, at around 15,000 feet, were hit by a storm. For the next week we sat in our tents playing cribbage, reading, staring at the ripstop nylon squares in the tent over our heads, shoveling snow, listening to the wind roaring outside, sleeping and eating. When the weather finally broke we turned around and went home. I felt like a total failure. Our inability to summit seemed to define our trip and our skill, and we came up short.

I remember thinking people should actually applaud mountaineers who turn around. I remember wishing we were better at recognizing individuals who fail to summit, medal or win a title, because they put in as much effort and work as those who succeed. I truly believed, and still believe, that we need to be better at this, and yet, inevitably, when I have friends who return from a mountaineering trip the first question out of my mouth is, Did you summit? Ditto when someone runs a race or plays a game. Like most Americans, my interest always homes in on someones success or failure.

Id love to change our cultural norms so that cooperation and interdependence is valued as highly as winning. Id love to see Americans embrace the idea that losing is a temporary setback that teaches us skills we need to succeed on the next go round. I think, philosophically, most of us agree with this idea. The problem is that culturally we still consider losers losers.

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Mountainside: What does it mean to be a loser? - Jackson Hole News&Guide

Human Behavior

Why Weddings Are the Perfect Superspreader Event – Healthline

November 25, 2020 medical

Once one of lifes joyous occasions, weddings have taken on a new meaning as dangerous, sometimes illicit affairs during the pandemic.

Case in point: A wedding reception with 55 people in a rural Maine town in early August. A lack of physical distancing and mask wearing at the event led to a total of 177 COVID-19 cases, including seven deaths, within just 5 weeks.

At an Ohio wedding, dozens of people contracted coronavirus infections, including the bride and groom after the big event.

Despite multiple examples of weddings linked to outbreaks of new infections, a survey of 10,000 couples with weddings scheduled through January 2021 found that 41 percent still plan to move forward with their original wedding dates.

Could these weddings become superspreader events as well?

Absolutely, infectious disease experts say. Heres why.

Many couples whove had weddings in recent months have tried to make the event safer by providing hand sanitizer, requiring vendors to mask up, and encouraging guests to spread out.

But those efforts might not be enough to prevent a reception from turning into a superspreader event.

By their very nature, weddings are supposed to be a time of celebrating love and bonding with friends and family, who may have endured crowds while traveling in from other states.

That, in turn, increases the risk of COVID-19 for everyone at the event.

Our social instincts also increase the dangers at weddings, says Debra Goff, PharmD, FCCP, an infectious disease expert and founding member of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Its such a happy event, and when the bride and groom come up to you, you say, Im just going to give them one hug. Telling people not to come near you, stay 6 feet away, goes against our normal human behavior, and thats what makes weddings so dangerous, she explained.

The dangers of a wedding increase once everyone sits down to eat and removes their masks.

Even if each table only includes people from a single household, a large group of guests gathered in one space without their masks on creates an environment where infections could spread easily, Goff said.

Whats more, drinking impairs peoples judgement, making them more likely to take risks they would otherwise avoid. Dancing draws people physically closer too.

Thats just the perfect recipe for spreading COVID, Goff said.

If just one person at the wedding has an infection, they may transmit it to dozens of other guests who then take it back home, potentially transmitting it to others and thus creating a superspreader event.

Couples may have been able to reduce the risk of COVID-19 by moving their receptions outside last summer.

But now its getting increasingly challenging to have a safe wedding as the weather gets colder, said Dr. Shobha Swaminathan, associate professor at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and medical director of the infectious diseases practice at University Hospital in Newark.

Gathering with others outdoors tends to be safer because the constantly moving fresh air disperses aerosol droplets that contain the virus, making it less likely that someone else inhales them.

Its a lot more challenging to provide adequate ventilation indoors.

You end up pushing around the COVID-infected air, and thats how everyone downstream of a person with the disease at the event gets infected, Goff said.

Venues can install HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters to help remove around 99 percent of viruses from the air and make weddings a lot safer.

With that being said, not every venue has these filters. And even those that do cant eliminate the risk of COVID-19 entirely.

While infectious disease experts warn against attending weddings during the pandemic, they know that turning down an invitation from a loved one can feel like an impossible thing to do.

If I had a brother getting married, I would want to be a part of that. We are human beings, and we want to be part of these events, Swaminathan said.

Before RSVPing yes to a wedding, experts recommend asking the hosts about the safety measures theyll have in place, the number of expected attendees and where theyre coming from, the ventilation system at the venue, requirements that guests wear masks, whether alcohol will be served, and how far apart tables will be spaced.

The more you can understand about the event, the better you can assess how risky it will be for you to attend.

Also take into account any underlying health conditions you have that may put you at higher risk for severe COVID-19 should you contract the virus.

As for couples on the fence about whether to move forward with wedding plans in the coming months, consider postponing until 2022, when its likely that many people will be vaccinated, Goff said.

The risk of having events in closed environments is incredibly high right now, she said.

You need to be socially responsible to your fellow citizens, including your family members. Do you really want to be the one that causes your best friend or parents to die from COVID? Thats an individual choice we need to make, Goff said.

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Why Weddings Are the Perfect Superspreader Event - Healthline

Human Behavior

Ely Center Speaks The Language – New Haven Independent

November 25, 2020 medical

Cynthia Y. Coopers A Show of Strength might conjure a host of associations ocean waves, birds wings, the ceiling of a church. Its all of these things, and at its core, none of them. Its just a pattern of line and color, repeating ideas. We fill the pattern with meaning, as humans do. Sometimes that tendency to find patterns, and meaning in patterns, leads us astray. But, when handled with grace, it also leads constellations in the sky and holidays around solstices and equinoxes. It can be the foundation of building a community.

Coopers piece is part of A Pattern Language, an exhibition running at Perspectives: The Gallery at Whitney Center in Hamden through Jan. 4 and online at the Ely Center of Contemporary Arts website. Curated by Debbie Hesse and Shaunda Holloway who also has an exhibit at Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street, running through this weekend the exhibition features work by Nan Adams, Cynthia Y. Cooper, Will Holub, Aileen Ishamael, Ellen Pankey, Jessica Smolinski, and Ellen Weider.

This exhibition takes its title from the 1977 book by architect Christopher Alexander, the curators write in an accompanying statement. A pattern language, they explain, is an organized and coherent set of patterns, each describing a problem and the foundation for a solution. Intersecting patterns can express deeper wisdom and energy a sense of wholeness, elegance, spirit.

Each of the artists explore how patterns can form a personal alphabet, communicating ideas about human behavior and highlighting ways that communities and environments interact. Drawing inspiration from personal, historical, and cultural iconography such as quilts and folk art traditions, travelogues, structural diagrams these artworks presented together generate a visual vibration and sense of unity.

Of the paintings, Aileen Ishamaels Las Reinas most explicitly uses a sense of repeating motifs to connect with a larger whole, building an image of female strength from a series of naturally occurring shapes.

A Pattern Language runs at Perspectives: The Gallery at Whitney Center, 200 Leeder Hill Dr., Hamden, south entrance. Hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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Ely Center Speaks The Language - New Haven Independent

Human Behavior

Can We Trust Predictive Research? – Twin Cities Business Magazine

November 25, 2020 medical

Quantitative research has always been a fascination of mine, but also a point of disgust. The idea that we can use personal opinion research to predict human behavior is a farce. We attempt to remove our guilt (as researchers) for getting it wrong by claiming it is within the margin of error. We cant live in the margin of error and therefore cant trust predictive research. Bias is built into the questions, interviewers, interviewees, and analysis of any quantitative research effort and certainly in polls and pollsters.

So, lets explore this.

Doctors use experience, years of study, clear understanding of the averages, objectivity and professionalism to make predictions about our life and death odds. Would you have any pollster in this country give you medical advice on the likelihood of your survival in an upcoming medical procedure?

Sure, doctors are wrong, and they pay a huge price if their practices are determined to be incompetent. But pollsters got this election so wrong, again, that the industry may never be trusted again. It is one thing for a brand to lose trust, but an entire industry is one sad outcome.

The key word above is objectivity. Doctors dont want to give us good news on a prognosis in order to keep our hopes up for a win. Doctors dont want to spin the numbers in favor of one outcome or another, they want us to know the truth or as close as they can approximate it. We need more pollsters to see their jobs as objective professionals and less as political hacks.

Heres whats fundamentally flawed with quantitative polling research, in case youre wondering.

Time: Asking a question on a Monday about a behavior that happens on a Tuesday might as well be decades away. The last piece of information before walking into a polling place can have a dramatic impact, hence we keep political signs away from voting locations.

Rational over emotional: A researchers phone call or email survey is about as emotional as a pet rock. These behaviors (voting) are not rational or contained with the check of a box, they are highly emotional. Whos willing to disclose deep emotions to a stranger after a 10 minute phone conversation?

Context: The closest to context pollsters can get is exit polling and even those numbers have been proven off. If that tells you anything about how hard it is to replicate context, imagine taking a phone survey 6 months before an election and predicting a specific behavior in a small booth with a Sharpie pen.

But, by the time youre reading this it is likely youve read plenty of the flaws with polls and perhaps made the leap to questioning quantitative research in general. So, what is the answer to trusting your quantitative research findings again?

Objectivity:Like your doctor, a good research team needs to have an objective seat when analyzing the research. If your doctor is in house then youll need to find objectivity in some other way. When it comes to the success or failure of your brand, objectivity can be found; when it comes to politics, it isnt as easy.

Emotional over rational: it is best to make rational decisions with emotional data, not the reverse. Emotionalize the data to fully understand it instead of trying harder to put emotional data into rational constraints (aka small boxes and bar charts). This means visualizing data in ways that allows the team to see the underlying emotion.

Moments: It is 90 seconds in time, almost the time it takes to choose between two ripe melons or two old white guys. We can find so much in the moments when decisions happen and weave this with quantitative data. The best research is a blend of both qualitative and quantitative; knowing the weaknesses of each.

Though, the search for truth is a challenge if you dont believe in it. Human behavior is a fickle thing, we are not robots and generally dont fit into the algorithms of a standard data set. We need to have some empathy for the oddities and crevices of human culture.

If youre looking to understand human behaviors, observe it, embrace empathy and real people in their circumstances. If youre stuck in the circular reference world of relativism, this will be a challenge. Get yourself out of your own patterns, and consume the content made for others, and listen deeply to what it says. And, in true empathetic form, reserve judgment, just learn.

Enjoy the discovery.

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Can We Trust Predictive Research? - Twin Cities Business Magazine

Human Behavior

Study: Second wave partially caused by lax behavior of Mass. residents – Up News Info

November 25, 2020 medical

As Massachusetts enters the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, theres one factor that could either help or hurt the spread of cases within the next few weeks: human behavior.

The key is how humans behave during this , according to a study published by a group of researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities. Human behavior is cited as both the good and bad news. While behavior has aided the second wave of the virus, changes in behavior, and potentially policy handed down by lawmakers, could stop the spread, the researchers said.

However, about 1 in 5 people polled for the study indicate that they are not very closely following guidelines for mask wear.

But wearing a mask isnt enough to stop the second wave, according to David Lazer, a Northeastern professor and one of the studys authors.

One of the problems is that people have become less vigilant since the spring in adhering to behaviors to help curb virus spread. The study indicates that in terms of visiting restaurants: Fewer than 5 percent of survey respondents went to one within the hours prior to being polled back in April and May. In October, that number jumped to 15 percent.

People are also socializing more with people outside their households, up from 22 percent in April to 45 percent in October, the study said.

Part of this uptick is not just people themselves, but also the governments decision to keep things like restaurants and gyms open this when they were closed during the initial surge, according to researchers.

The study also suggests that limiting hours at places like restaurants Gov. Charlie Baker imposed a curfew of 9:30 p.m. on restaurants for table service, as well as shuttering businesses like theaters, casinos, and gyms by this could have negative effects, with the idea that more people could be in these spaces during the hours theyre open.

The researchers determined instead that stricter policies or closures could be needed to make the coming months less painful.

Massachusetts is on a similar trajectory, just lagging a few weeks, the study said.

But regardless of whether those lockdowns are enacted here, people can change their behavior of their own free will if theyre serious about curbing the effects of virus spread, the researchers noted.

The approaching holidays make this precisely the right to get serious about behavior change, the study reads. The risk, but also the opportunity, is undeniable.

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Study: Second wave partially caused by lax behavior of Mass. residents - Up News Info