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Cell Biology

If cancer were easy, every cell would do it – Newswise

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Newswise A new Scientific Reports paper puts an evolutionary twist on a classic question. Instead of asking why we get cancer, Leonardo Oa of Osnabrck University and Michael Lachmann of the Santa Fe Institute use signaling theory to explore how our bodies have evolved to keep us from getting more cancer.

It isnt obvious why, when any cancer arises, it doesnt very quickly learn to take advantage of the bodys own signaling mechanisms for quick growth. After all, unlike an infection, cancers can easily use the bodys own chemical language. Any signal that the body uses, an infection has to evolve to make, says Lachmann. If a thief wants to unlock your house, they have to figure out how to pick the lock on the door. But cancer cells have the keys to your house. How do you protect against that? How do you protect against an intruder who knows everything you know, and has all the tools and keys you have? Their answer: You make the keys very costly to use.

Oa and Lachmanns evolutionary model reveals two factors in our cellular architecture that thwart cancer: the expense of manufacturing growth factors (keys) and the range of benefits delivered to cells nearby. Individual cancer cells are kept in check when theres a high energetic cost for creating growth factors that signal cell growth. To understand the evolutionary dynamics in the model, the authors emphasize the importance of thinking about the competition between a mutant cancerous cell and surrounding cells. When a mutant cell arises and puts out a signal for growth, that signal also provides resources to adjacent, non-mutated cells. Thus, when the benefits are distributed to a radius around the signaling cell, the mutant cells have a hard time out-competing their neighbors and cant get established. The cancer loses the ability to give the signal.

The work represents a novel application of evolutionary biology toward a big-picture understanding of cancer. Oa and Lachmann draw from the late biologist Amotz Zahavis handicap principle, which explains how evolutionary systems are stabilized against cheaters when dishonest signals are costlier to produce than the benefit they provide. The male peacocks elaborate tail is the classic example of a costly signal an unhealthy bird would not have the energetic resources to grow an elaborate tail, and thus could not fake a signal of their evolutionary fitness. By the handicap principle, a cancer cell would be analogous to the unhealthy peacock that cant afford to signal for attention.

So how do some cancer cells overcome these evolutionary constraints? The authors point out that their model only addresses the scenario of an individual cancer trying to invade a healthy population. Once cancer has overcome the odds of extinction and reached a certain critical size, other dynamics prevail.

Many mechanisms seem to have evolved to prevent cancer from immune system control, cell death, limits on cell proliferation, to tissue architecture, the authors write. Our model only studies the reduced chance for invasion.

Cancer is incredibly complex, Lachmann says, and our model is relatively simple. Still, we believe its an important step toward understanding cancer and cancer prevention in evolutionary terms.

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If cancer were easy, every cell would do it - Newswise

Genetics

Adam Rutherford: taking on racism with the help of genetics – Times Higher Education (THE)

There were several reasons why geneticist Adam Rutherford, an honorary research fellow at UCL, felt the time was right to publish a book titled How to Argue with a Racist.

One was a political climate, in Britain and beyond, where nationalism appears to be on the rise. There were signs even in the way people now responded to hisown heritage.

A couple of years ago, he told Times Higher Education, my Wikipedia page was changed to describe me as a British Indo-Guyanese scientist. While that is effectively accurate, I have never described myself as such and have no Indian or Guyanese cultural input. I think of myself as from Ipswich.

Furthermore, a huge recent rise in genetics ancestry kits has had the effect of reinforcing some ideas about biological essentialism which we were trying to erase from genetics,added the science broadcaster, whose media appearances include his position as presenter of BBC Radio 4'sInside Science.

There were also factors relating to Dr Rutherfords own discipline and institution. When he arrived at UCL at the age of 18 as a student, he writes, he was enrolled in the Galton Laboratory, which was once called the Galton Eugenics Laboratory, and was taught by the Galton professor in the Galton Lecture Theatre.

My entire field of human genetics is based primarily on the work of Francis Galton, Dr Rutherford said, and thus on a science built by racists in order to demonstrate the racial superiority of white men. It was through setting up the National Eugenics Laboratory at UCL that Galton laid the foundations for what is now the genetics department that I am still a member of, he continued.

Although Dr Rutherford felt no ambiguity about saying that Galton was a scientific genius: much of genetics, statistics and behavioural psychology is built on the work which he did in the late-19thand early 20th century, he was also unequivocally racist. A UCL inquiry, looking into the connections with eugenics of Galton, mathematician Karl Pearson and Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, should announce its findings soon.

Genetics, in Dr Rutherfords view, has now fortunately put its past behind it and is indeed a crucial tool in the battle against racism. There is now a vanishingly small number of geneticists and evolutionary biologists who [dispute] that genetics has clearly demonstrated that race is not a biologically meaningful categorisation, he said. It was a beautiful irony that the science built by Galton on racist premises had also proved to be the science which demonstrates the fallacy of his ideas.

Yet, as someone who constantly engages with the public, Dr Rutherford was well aware of a massive disconnect between what we are saying within the walls of the academy and what people think. His book is designed to provide ammunition to challenge the views not only of hard-line white supremacists, but also your slightly racist uncle and even basically well-intentioned people who say black people are better at sport or Jews are better at intellectual pursuits.

In addressing some of the common assumptions about race, Dr Rutherford started with the broad point that literally everybody is descended from everybody else.

He continued: We are really bad at understanding how family trees actually work. After a few generations, they become enormously matted webs. There are no pure ancestries, no pure lineages.

Yet it remained true, Dr Rutherford admitted, that nobody has seen a white man in the final of the 100-metre sprint in the Olympics since 1980. So what could be said to people who point to such facts and claim that they reveal, as Dr Rutherford put it, a natural ability among those descended from the enslaved to be good at explosive-energy sports?

If that argument was right, he said, where are such people in sprint cycling or swimming, which has featured one African American in the history of the Olympics? Similar arguments could be used against those who attributed the striking presence of Jews among composers and performers of classical music to innate talent, while ignoring cultural factors and other genres such as hip hop and jazz.

Even whensuch notions were seemingly used in a positive sense, Dr Rutherford went on, we must keep in mind links to a long history of offensive stereotyping.

He pointed, for example, to a study looking at several thousand comments in the media about elite athletic success. These referred to innate physical abilities for a black athlete and hard work, intelligence and industriousness for a white elite athlete. Such stereotypes are just baked into our culture.

Adam Rutherfords How to Argue with a Racist: History, Science, Race, and Realityis published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 6 February.

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Adam Rutherford: taking on racism with the help of genetics - Times Higher Education (THE)

Biochemistry

Nebraska in the national news: January 2020 – IANR News

University of NebraskaLincoln faculty members shared their expertise on Iran and fermented foods with prominent media outlets in January. The stories were among 35-plus featuring Husker faculty, staff, students, centers and programs during the month.

Rupal Mehta, assistant professor of political science, was interviewed for a Jan. 4 New York Times article on the United States drone-strike assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Irans top military leader, and what it might mean for the Middle East. Mehta said the strike could send a message to the surviving members of Suleimanis network. But when the U.S. has killed high-ranking members of terrorist organizations, she said, their replacements have tended to be more extreme not less.

Mehta also participated in a live interview on the topic Jan. 6 on BBC Radios Up All Night. (The interview begins at 2:35:05.) She said she thought it was too early to tell whether the assassination would impact Irans nuclear ambitions or whether the killing strengthened or weakened Tehran.

From what weve been able to gather, both from intelligence sources and from the ripple effects including U.S. troops being asked to leave Iraq, the suspension of U.S. coalition against ISIS forces and a relatively robust response from the Iranian population in support of the Iranian government this has potentially strengthened Iran , she said.

Robert Hutkins, Khem Shahani Professor of Food Science, was interviewed for a Jan. 8 Washington Post article on fermented foods being trendy but not necessarily probiotics. He said that most microbes including fungi and bacteria in fermented foods have not been characterized or defined, let alone tested in clinical trials to see if they offer probiotic health benefits.

However, fermented foods offer plenty of other benefits. Fermentation helps preserve food by suppressing microbes that might make people sick. Cheese and yogurt are among the best sources of calcium in the human diet, Hutkins said, and fermented vegetables such as kimchi and sauerkraut contain B vitamins and vitamin C.

Even when there are no live microbes left in a finished food, Hutkins said, dead microbes can still boost the foods nutritional value such is the case with sourdough bread. Fermentation also enhances the digestibility of some foods.

For example, lactose-intolerant individuals can consume yogurt, even though it contains lactose, because the yogurt microbes provide the lactase enzyme needed to digest that lactose, Hutkins said. Lactose-intolerant individuals can usually also consume aged cheese, because the lactose is removed during fermentation.

More coverage:

Matt Spangler, animal science, wrote a recent column offering advice for bull sale season. The High Plains Journal and Western Livestock Journal ran the column.

Chigozie Obiomas second novel, An Orchestra of Minorities, was named a top-20 book to read in 2020 by E! News on Jan. 3. Obioma is an assistant professor of English at Nebraska.

A 2017 study by Bruce Johnson, emeritus professor of agricultural economics at Nebraska, and Anil Giri, assistant professor of agribusiness management at the University of Central Missouri, was cited in a Jan. 6 Rapid City Journal article on retail sales in South Dakota. The study showed that a towns population is the biggest factor affecting retail draw.

New research by Melanie Trenhaile-Granneman, animal science graduate student, suggests that sows undergo changes in structure over time. Farm Journals Pork magazine highlighted the research in a Jan. 7 article.

Justin Gus Hurwitz, law, testified Jan. 8 during a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on dark patterns or deceptive internet practices. He suggested that the Federal Trade Commission could have untapped abilities to address misinformation that harms consumers. "If we already have an agency that has power, let's see what it's capable of," he said. CNET published a Jan. 8 article on the hearing.

Amy Schmidt, biological systems engineering, has developed a program called the iAMResponsible Project, aimed at educating consumers, agricultural producers and others on the risks associated with antimicrobial resistance and strategies to mitigate those risks. Scientia published a Jan. 8 article on the program.

Dana Fritz, art, was interviewed about her photo series Views Removed for a Jan. 8 Lenscratch article.

A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Agricultures Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have identified two major genes associated with bovine congestive heart failure in beef feedlot cattle. The study is the first to confirm genetic risk factors associated with BCHF. A Business Wire story on the research appeared in more than 120 media outlets. Brian Vander Ley, assistant professor and veterinary epidemiologist at Nebraska, and co-principal investigator on the project, was interviewed for the story.

Xiao Cheng Zeng, chemistry, and colleagues at Peking University have discovered surprising quirks in Nebraska Ices normally hexagonal configuration. Physics World published a Jan. 14 article on the research.

Dave Annis, dining director at the university, was interviewed for a Jan. 15 Food Management article on food-service operators struggling to find labor to fill open positions. He said he now has 40% more students working for him than he did 10 years ago because they each work fewer hours.

Stephen Baenziger, agronomy and horticulture, has been awarded a research grant from the Brewers Association a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers. Baenzigers project is titled Building a Winter Malting Barley Market for the Great Plains. A GlobeNewswire story on the associations 2020 grant recipients appeared in about a dozen media outlets.

Peter Sutter, electrical and computer engineering; Eli Sutter, mechanical and materials engineering; and colleagues have developed a nano-engineering technique that could aid in the exploration and scalability of next-gen electronics. Technology.org ran a Jan. 16 article on the research.

John Wunder, emeritus professor of history, was interviewed for a Jan. 17 NBCNews.com article on a new monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico, commemorating a 19th century landmark civil rights case that allowed Chinese individuals to testify in an American court for the first time. Wunder is the author of the book Gold Mountain Turned to Dust: Essays on the Legal History of the Chinese in the Nineteenth-Century American West, which details the case.

Peter Wagner, Earth and atmospheric sciences and biological sciences, was quoted in a Jan. 18 Nature article on a new supercomputer analysis of Earths fossil record. The analysis shows a clearer history of life during the early Palaeozoic era, allowing researchers to pinpoint the rise and fall of species during diversifications and mass extinctions to within about 26,000 years. Wagner was not involved in the work, but wrote an essay accompanying the study.

Frans von der Dunk, space law, was interviewed for a Jan. 18 Civilized article on whether people can legally smoke cannabis on the moon. He said the legality would depend on the origin of the spacecraft. "Space isnt part of any country, but there is a concept that allows states to exercise control over registered spaceships, which almost qualify as a floating territory of the flag state, he said.

Von der Dunk was also the featured guest on the Jan. 29 episode of the Spacewalks, Money Talks podcast. He discussed his work and the current state of space law.

The universitys Outdoor Adventure Center is now offering hunting equipment rentals to the public. USA Today highlighted the program in its 50-states feature Jan. 20.

Nebraska Extensions On-Farm Research Network has earned a $1.2 million On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials grant from the U.S. Department of Agricultures Natural Resource Conservation Service to help corn and wheat growers across Nebraska use new technologies to more precisely apply nitrogen fertilizer to their crops. Stories on the grant appeared in the Fence Post, Growing America, High Plains Journal and Rural Radio Network.

Aaron Berger, Nebraska Extension educator, was interviewed for a Jan. 21 Beef magazine article on the cattle birthing process. He said it is a complex process. Weather conditions, the environment the cattle are in and the disposition of the cow can all contribute or take away from the success of the event," he said.

A new study co-authored by Kalu Osiri, international business, suggests that using Facebook at work can have a negative effect on project success, whereas LinkedIn has a positive effect. Tech Xplore published a Jan. 21 article on the research.

Bill Moos, Nebraska athletic director, and Josephine Potuto, Larson Professor of Constitutional Law and faculty athletic representative at Nebraska, discussed the dynamics between an AD and FAR for the Jan. 21 AthleticDirectorU podcast.

Matt Joeckel, Nebraska state geologist, director of the Conservation and Survey Division and senior associate director of the School of Natural Resources, was interviewed for a Jan. 22 Outdoor Enthusiast Lifestyle blog entry on the Dakota Formation. Joeckel said the formation has yielded some of the earliest fossil flowers and fructifications from angiosperms.

A recent study by Husker political scientists was cited in a Jan. 23 USA Today opinion piece about engaging in tough conversations. According to the study, nearly 40% of Americans said politics had caused them stress, while one in five reported that a friendship had been damaged as a result of a political argument. The study was authored by Kevin Smith and John Hibbing, both political science, and Matthew Hibbing, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Merced.

The study was also cited in a Jan. 23 Mens Health article titled How to stay sane in a crazy election year. According to the study, about one in five people reported doing or saying something they regretted as a result of feelings related to politics; another 20% said politics had negatively affected their relationships with friends and family.

Researchers from the University of NebraskaLincoln, Stanford University, Puerto Rico and Germany recently used record-intense X-rays to capture dynamics of isocyanide hydratase that were previously only hypothesized, a feat that could point the way to doing the same with other enzymes. Husker researchers involved with the study included Mark Wilson, Javier Seravalli and Peter Madzelan, all biochemistry; Medhanjali Dasgupta, biochemistry graduate student; David Berkowitz and Virendra Tiwari, both chemistry; and doctoral alumnus Gregory Applegate, chemistry. Technology.org ran a Jan. 23 article on the research. Technology.org ran a Jan. 23 article on the research.

Steven Barlow, special education and communication disorders; Greg Bashford, biological systems engineering; and graduate students have created a device that opens new circulatory pathways in the critical few minutes after a stroke has occurred. BTN.com published a Jan. 24 article on the new technology.

Michael Sealy, mechanical and materials engineering, is using 3D printers to develop dissolvable surgical implants. The research was mentioned in a Jan. 24 3DPrint.com article.

Preliminary research from the University of NebraskaLincoln suggests a connection between the spread of trees in the Great Plains and an increase in the size and frequency of large wildfires. The research was highlighted in a Jan. 27 Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World article. Victoria Donovan, a postdoctoral research associate in agronomy and horticulture, was interviewed for the story.

Elham Tavakoli and Shayan Kaviani, graduate students in chemical and biomolecular engineering, and colleagues have developed a new approach for synthesizing organic Legos that can be easily connected to make new materials. Stories on the research appeared on Phys.org, Science Codex and a few other websites.

The U.S. Drought Monitor produced jointly by the university's National Drought Mitigation Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture was cited in a Jan. 30 Associated Press story on Californias winter snowpack being below average after a dry January. The Jan. 30 monitor showed more than 34% of California as abnormally dry, up from less than 4% a week earlier. The AP story was picked up by Bakersfield.com, the SF Gate and several other media outlets.

Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews. If you have additions to this list, contact Sean Hagewood at shagewood2@unl.edu or 402-472-8514. If you have suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.

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Nebraska in the national news: January 2020 - IANR News

Human Behavior

The Human Screenome project wants you to share the use of your smartphone – Mash Viral

Vadymvdrobot / 123RF

You almost certainly saw her on YouTube. Noah takes a picture of himself every day for 20 years (5 million views) Portrait of Lotte, 0 to 20 years (10.9 million views) Married at 12 I took a picture every day (To an astonishing 110 million views.) Even Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin from Family Guy parodyed the format. In times of selfies and ubiquitous smartphone cameras, this increasingly popular genre of time-lapse videos depicting the aging process allows people to document their experiences in a typically modern way that was almost impossible a few decades ago would.

But what if the bigger story wasnt the changing facial features of a YouTube star, but the fact that millions of us would spend minutes of our day watching it? Maybe afterwards we tweeted a link to the video we just saw. Or sent it to a friend on WhatsApp. Or we started the camera app on our own smartphone and started creating our own version. Or we just forgot what we just saw and played a quick game on Mario Kart Tour.

In a world where we live digitally, the way we consume media on our screens (and especially on our smartphones) could turn out to be the most profound way to document life in 2020. At least this is the idea of an ambitious new initiative called the Human Screenome Project. The new mass data collection, created by researchers at Stanford and Penn State University, prompts users to share information about everything they do on their smartphones.

Special software developed by the project creators takes screenshots of these mobile devices every five seconds they are active, encrypts them, sends them to a research server, and then uses artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze exactly what is important , The researchers want to create a multi-dimensional map of the changing digital life of people in the 21st century. They give a brief overview of the changes over the course of days, weeks, months and possibly even years and decades.

The digital media environment has made so much progress in recent years, Nilam Ram, professor of human development and psychology at Penn State University, told Digital Trends. We dont have a good idea of how people use their devices and who theyre exposed to. Usually, screen time research studies are based on self-reports of how long people have been using social media for the past week. Its a really complicated question that people have to answer. The evidence suggests that people underestimate or underestimate their own engagement by a few hours.

According to Ram, the project stems from a seven-year chance meeting between him and Byron Reeves, a professor of communication in Stanford. Reeves was interested in the media and its effects on people. Ram was interested in time series data for the behavior. A type of behavior analysis that works with regular data points that are collected in chronological order. This can be used to study and predict things about individual behavior.

First, the two set out to research multitasking. They developed software that enabled them to determine how quickly students switched between tasks while working. They found that they would change windows about every 20 seconds. It was faster than anyone thought at the time that someone was going from task to task, said Ram. From there, we developed software that made this possible on a smartphone.

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeJAkkXYIV8 (/ embed)

They thought that this would be a natural extension of their multitasking work. However, when a small group of students first came into data flow, they found that they had drilled a much deeper well than they thought. When we started looking at time-lapse footage of what people were actually doing on their phones, we found that there are so many different types of human behavior that are expressed here, said Ram. That could be a commitment to politics, mental health, social media, interpersonal relationships and climate change. We can see things like the gender distribution of faces that people look at on their cell phones, the racist distribution of these faces there is so much wealth in it.

If this sounds like it is too much for a couple of researchers to look at, you are absolutely right. The hope is that the Human Screenome project the name of which alludes to the previous Human Genome project will create an extensive shared database of information that is also available to other researchers. This will be a partially ongoing user survey (though without users having to actively answer questions) and a partially historical artifact, such as a digital mass observation project. The potential value of such an archive could be immense. Some researchers could use it to track the rise and fall of memes as they appear, flourish, and disappear in the cybernetic ether. Design students could use it to investigate how changing user interfaces of apps affect transitions in this particular area. Others may use it with referenced information to investigate the potential health effects of social media. Or how the screen time affects the concentration.

The idea of the human genome project was that if we could map the human genome, the way we deal with and treat diseases would change, said Ram. I think it did. In a way, were trying to make the same theoretical leap by saying that the human screenome changes the way we think about digital media and how it affects people if we can map it.

But is such a project feasible? The same thing that makes it so exciting from a research perspective also poses challenges. In short, as Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs predicted back in 2007, the smartphone has become a consolidation of all the devices that we once carried around. Its our laptop, our personal organizer, our portable music player, our GPS system and much more.

Because a smartphone requires physical user interaction and millions of apps available, it is a much more dynamic media environment than its predecessors: living room television with a choice of channels. Smartphones are the epitome of what media theorist Marshall The medium is the message, which McLuhan would have described as expanding ourselves. However, this makes them as personal as few other devices do. Allowing researchers to see everything you do on your smartphone is just a step too far for some users.

Still, Ram is confident that this wont apply to everyone. In general, when we talk to attendees, we find that they know that their data is regularly collected by big data companies, he said. It is used in a way that they have no control over. They seem to be aware of this and are enthusiastic about the possibility that this data can be used instead for research purposes to understand human behavior.

The Stanford Screenomics Lab has currently collected over 30 million data points from more than 600 participants. Although it has not yet opened its platform to those who want to get involved, Ram hopes that the number of users will eventually be able to scale that number to far more epic proportions with multi-year user contributions.

And what if smartphones are finally giving way to another dominant technology? (This is something that could) go on forever, said Ram. (This means that it has to look different) when screens change from separate devices to devices that are somehow embedded, whether its a chip or a Google Glass-style advancement. We want to share our data collection paradigm with evolving the advent of these technologies.

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The Human Screenome project wants you to share the use of your smartphone - Mash Viral

Human Behavior

Jamia students foiled plans of gunman Gopal and his masters – National Herald

It is frustrating when peaceful protesters remain peaceful even in the face of a bullet. Such Gandhian restraint upsets many plans and possibilities.

The moment Rambhakt Gopal fired a pistol at them on Thursday afternoon the student marchers of Jamia Millia Islamia ought to have panicked and erupted in retaliatory anger. The hot-headed amongst them ought to have picked up roadside rubble and hurled rocks and stones at the police. The rest should have immediately run helter-skelter.

It would have provided the media with visual evidence of violence. The men in uniform, in turn, would have got the opportunity they were waiting for to retaliate - a lathi charge to start with, followed by tear-gas shells, water cannons and even a Dyer-like fusillade if need be.

The faint-hearted among the protesters should have shrieked and screamed in fear. There should have been a stampede, with everyone pushing, shoving and trampling on each other in a desperate bid to get away from the scene as fast as possible. It would have added to the chaos and confusion.

Instead, what did they do?

They kept their cool and remained peaceful. Some even started holding hands to give solace and strength to each other and formed a human chain. Others rushed to the aid of the young student with a bullet injury on his hand, helped him get over the yellow barricades and escorted him to the nearest hospital.

This is not the way it should have panned out. When someone fires a gun at you, the reflex reaction is to either run away or fight back. Not to do either of these two things is contrary to all theories of human behavior under sudden stress or unforeseen provocation.

When a gun is fired at you, when one of you actually stops a bullet, the reaction is supposed to be predictable and reflexive fear or rage. Thats what the Pavlov Theory is all about - a sudden stimulus invariably triggers a conditioned response.

It is irritating when young people disregard such proven principles of human behavior. It is all the more annoying in the present instance because the atmosphere was so right, the air is so thick with hatred, the setting was so carefully choreographed, the time would have been so perfect.

After all, what better day could there have been for violence to erupt on the streets of Delhi than on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhis assassination?

The police would have been deemed to be entirely justified in cracking down immediately. The entire blame could have shifted squarely to the desh-drohis and tukde-tukde gang.

Dozens of TV camera crews were present right there on the spot to click videos of the mayhem happening right in front of them. The visuals would have gone viral.

The video evidence would have been there for the world to see especially in Brussels where Members of the European Parliament would hopefully refrain from trying to pass strongly-worded resolutions denouncing the Indian government for divisive laws and brutal suppression of human rights.

Should the police stand idly by when thousands of protesters indulge in violence (as the videos would have shown)? Should the men in uniform be sitting ducks when lethal rocks are hurled at them?

Alas, none of this happened. The Jamia students did not throw stones. They did not lose their heads. There was no stampede. It is all so anti-climatic and disappointing.

Television screens are only showing Rambhakt Gopal firing at the students, again and again and again.

They are also needlessly showing police officers standing in the background, doing nothing to accost the black-jacketed fanatic throughout the time he was moving freely, leveling a pistol at the students in classic gun-fighter stance and shouting Yeh Lo Azadi, Jai Shri Ram slogans.

They are irresponsibly showing clips of one or two senior officers standing with arms crossed across their chests in classic do-nothing posture. They are unfairly commenting on the gentle, arm-over-shoulders manner in which the gunman was belatedly taken into custody - after he had pulled the trigger and hit one of the students.

Apart from being terribly unpatriotic television showing the police in bad light and depicting the students as models of Gandhian non-violence it also puts paid to many other possibilities.

What an opportunity lost!

A convincing crackdown and few broken Jamia bones would surely have had a chilling effect on other anti-CAA-NRC protests that have become such a headache for the government.

In particular it would have punctured the confidence of the amazing ladies of Shaheen Bagh who began their sit-in 46 days ago on December 15 and have become the stuff of legends.

Alas, Gunman Gopals Facebook boast of Shaheen Bagh Game Over! remains unfulfilled.

Another possibility that remains unrequited is that if the Jamia peace march had erupted in violence, it could have paved the way for cancelling the ongoing Assembly polls on grounds of collapse of law and order. So important to prevent yet another embarrassing election defeat in yet another state.

But, alas, the day of the Mahatmas death anniversary passed off infuriatingly peacefully.

Now, in all probability, voting will take place on February 8 as scheduled unless some other Rambhakt suddenly surfaces in the next few days and is able to fan the fire of violence more efficiently and with greater success than Gunman Gopal.

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Jamia students foiled plans of gunman Gopal and his masters - National Herald

Neuroscience

Psychology: A pathway leading to diverse career prospects – Study International News

Psychology is a multi-faceted subject that leads to an array of diverse career roles.

For instance, a psychology graduate could become a clinical psychologist that focuses on the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness or a market researcher that collects and analyses data to present to clients.

With potential opportunities like those and more, psychologys dynamic nature is what links learners to promising career prospects.

With their research-oriented outlook, critical thinking abilities and strong problem-solving skills, its no surprise that psychology degree holders are highly sought after.

This may be the reason why the overall employment of psychologists in the US is projected to grow 14 percent from 2018 to 2028, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statisti(BLS).

Employment of clinical, counselling and school psychologists is projected to grow because of greater demand for psychological services in schools, hospitals, mental health centres, and social service agencies, BLSs Occupational Outlook Handbook said.

Demand for clinical and counselling psychologists will increase as people continue to turn to psychologists for help with their problems. Psychologists also will be needed to provide services to an ageing population, helping people deal with the mental and physical changes that happen as they grow older.

And in the UK, a recent survey revealed that the country is facing a shortage of mental health professionals. The British Medical Associations analysis of workforce figures and survey of more than 1,000 doctors, psychologists and mental-health nurses, was carried out together with the Royal College of Nursing and the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK.

Almost seven out of 10 respondents work in teams with vital members of staff missing most or all of the time. Nearly half (47 per cent) of doctors work shifts in which they are down at least one medical colleague, the survey found.

Source: University of Plymouth

In response to the study, Royal College of Nursing Professional Lead for Mental Health Catherine Gamble said: The clear majority of nursing staff felt the absence of one of their own on their last shifts. This hammers home the reality of the chronic workforce shortages that have plagued our profession.

Unless there is urgent investment in growing the nursing workforce the pressures will continue to grow to the point where it will no longer be possible to attract nurses to work in the NHS, and parity of esteem for physical and mental health remains a goal yet to be realised.

With such high demand in this field, psychology graduates today are set for a wealth of opportunities ahead.

Here are four UK universities to kickstart a bright future in this field

SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

The School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth is dedicated to developing the next generation of psychologists, from education and health to business and the media. Students benefit from research-informed teaching and active, real-world learning from a university in the top 20 for research in psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry. With accreditation by the British Psychological Society, undergraduates are equipped to address todays most challenging psychological issues, with further specialization offered from a range of exciting postgraduate courses such as clinical psychology and human neuroscience.

A hands-on approach to learning ensures that practical activities are embedded throughout the courses, with access to the on-site Psychology Experiential Learning lab (PsychE). An optional placement year also allows undergraduates to acquire professional training in the institution of their choice: healthcare, education, business, judicial system, etc. This allows students to put their new knowledge into practice, build practical skills relevant to their future careers and benefit from world-class research labs such as Babylab and the Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC).

All these make for graduate success at the School nearly nine in ten graduates are employed or in further studies six months after graduation.

With a safe campus located in an idyllic waterfront city, international students can explore the British seaside and its maritime heritage.

SCHOOL OF SPORT, EXERCISE AND HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF LOUGHBOROUGH

The BSc (Hons) Psychology degree at the University of Loughborough offers learners the knowledge, skills and competencies that are prized by employers, such as critical thinking and research abilities.

Their undergraduate psychology course is taught by internationally-respected academics and accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

This course covers a full range of modules which aim to build students core knowledge and skills, allowing them to tailor their degree to their interests and aspirations.

Student are encouraged to undertake an optional year-long work placement or study abroad opportunity. A year in placement or a year abroad will allow them to gain an additional award alongside their final qualification.

University of Loughborough students go on to pursue a variety of career paths in different sectors, such as management, human resources, education, social work, financial services and research.

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

Challenging existing conventions, the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex focuses on three distinct areas of concentration: thinking about the world, interacting with the world, and experiencing the world.

As the Head of Psychology Department Professor Paul Hibbard said: Psychologys ideas and concepts are part of our everyday culture, yet many underestimate how influential as a science our discipline can be. Our aim is to highlight how our research findings concern every one of us and how psychology affects us as groups as well as individuals.

Therefore, to dig deeper into psychology, the department has created a stimulating and vibrant research environment and promotes undergraduate and postgraduate courses that have been accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

So if you want to use state-of-the-art facilities and learn alongside world-renown experts in the field, you too can pursue your intellectual passion in Essex.

SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

With notable psychology professors, such as Dr Aja Murray who was recently awarded the British Academy/Wolfson Fellowship, studying here is to study under the guidance of experts.

At the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, undergraduate psychology students are introduced to a flexible programme structure that provides core courses alongside optional courses in areas such as cognitive neuroscience, language, vision and intelligence. There is also an option to enrol in a four-year degree programme.

Without the need to commit to a long-term degree, the four-year style grants students more time to grow intellectually and academically. The extra years lets students develop their confidence and sharpen their essay writing skills.

Plus, with more than 200 study abroad arrangements with universities in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America, psychology students here can explore different modules and gain experience overseas.

*Some of the institutions featured in this article may be commercial partners of Study International

Modern psychology programmes motivate career success

Explore the many facets of psychology at the University of Central Lancashire

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Embryology

Faith and Reason in the Buckeye State – National Catholic Register

Francisco de Zurbarn (1598-1664), St. Thomas Aquinas

The natural sciences show how the world works, but sacred science shows how to reach Heaven.

Recently, the Ohio legislature debated the relationship between faith and reason with HB 164. It is called the Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019. It passed the House in a 61-31 vote and is now on its way to the state Senate. Critics have argued that HB 164 allows students to be scientifically wrong, as long as they are religiously right. Proponents of the bill have stated that it is about protecting students religious freedom: such as being able to pray on school grounds and citing Scripture in written assignments.

Ohio introduced another bill, HB 182, in November 2019, which would keep insurance companies from covering abortions. However, it also requires doctors to re-implant ectopic pregnancies, though no such procedure exists. Republican State Rep. John Becker admitted in a May 2019 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer that when he drafted the bill, he did not consult with doctors.

Both these bills portray faith and reason as naturally at odds with each other. Fideism is faith alone, even if it is irrational. On the other hand, rationalism worships the Goddess of Reason while dismissing faith as mythical superstition. They represent two extremes in analysis.

The remedy is the Angelic Doctor, whose feast day is Jan. 28.

At the University of Naples, St. Thomas Aquinas enthusiastically studied theology and philosophy. His mentor, St. Albert the Great, taught him science. The current furor in Ohio calls to mind Aquinas wise words in the Summa Theologiae, Since Holy Scripture can be explained in a multiplicity of senses, one should adhere to a particular explanation, only in such measure as to be ready to abandon it, if it be proved with certainty to be false; lest Holy Scripture be exposed to the ridicule of unbelievers and obstacles be placed to their believing.

The Angelic Doctor, who taught at the University of Paris, followed in the footsteps of St. Paul, who appealed to the philosophers reason when he preached in Athens (Acts 17:16-33). As a voracious reader, Aquinas drew on the wisdom of Athens in the writings of Aristotle, along with the Jewish and Muslim philosophers Maimonides and Avicenna. In his lifetime, he mirrored the narrator of the Book of Wisdom, who says (Wisdom 8:2-3), I loved her (divine wisdom) and sought her from my youth, and I desired to take her for my bride, and I became enamored of her beauty. She glorifies her noble birth by living with God, and the Lord of all loves her.

The opening question of Summa Theologiae is whether any science is necessary for humanity other than philosophical science derived from reason. St. Thomas Aquinas answers, It was necessary for mans salvation that there should be a knowledge revealed by God besides philosophical science built up by human reason. Firstly, indeed, because man is directed to God, as to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason.

He continues, Even as regards those truths about God which human reason could have discovered, it was necessary that man should be taught by a divine revelation.

For Aquinas, reason and the intellect are good, but not everything. The natural sciences show how the world works, but sacred science shows how to reach Heaven. He does not dismiss human reason. Reason complements divine revelation.

While some of Aquinas scientific views are questionable (such as the Earth remaining stationary), he was open-minded and willing to learn. St. Albert the Great instilled in him a healthy curiosity. Aquinas believed in the importance of dogma but was not dogmatic.

The Ohio bills currently subject to debate risk putting faith at odds with science and reason. When Rep. Becker wrote a May 2019 op-ed for the Cincinnati Enquirer, saying, Even if the medical journals are wrong and HB 182 allows insurance coverage for a procedure that does not yet exist, why is that a problem? ... This bill is forward-looking regarding medical advancements. Unsurprisingly, the media used Rep. Beckers op-ed to further the portrayal of pro-life legislators as ignorant, cruel men who are clueless about the female reproductive system. It contrasts with Aquinas mentor, St. Albert the Great, whose studies in embryology advanced beyond Aristotle. Faith means engagement with reason, rather than detachment from it. Aquinas opens his Summa Contra Gentiles, saying, Now all of human pursuits, that of wisdom is the most sublime, the most profitable, the most delightful.

Both theSumma Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles argue that God is truth, according to faith and reason. Aquinas, with his five proofs, shows that Aristotles Prime Mover and the biblical God are one. Faith enriches reason with divine revelation, while reason keeps faith from being blind and mythical.

The current debates in the Ohio legislature demonstrate the necessity for reasonable faith and faithful reason. Aquinas, like St. Paul, defended natural law that is written on their hearts (Romans 2:15).

In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas declares, The natural law is a participation of the eternal law and therefore endures without change, owing to the unchangeableness and perfection of the Divine Reason, the Author of nature. For Aquinas, God was not only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but Natures Author.

The Angelic Doctors philosophical journey inspired him to say, For perfect happiness the intellect needs to reach the very Essence of the First Cause. And thus it will have its perfection through union with God as with that object, in which alone mans happiness consists.

As Our Lord told the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:23-24), The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

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Human Behavior

Former Grammy CEO alleges bias within organization – RU Daily Targum

Photo by Twitter | The Daily Targum

The always illustrious Grammy Awards aired last night on ABC following days of public criticism after its CEO was abruptly suspended without warning.

Chief Executive Officer of The Recording Academy Deborah Dugan has accused the award shows Recording Academy of gender and race discrimination, as well as sexual misconduct, both before and after her suspension. This case is the latest addition to the #MeToo movement.

Nearing the end of her five-month employment, Dugan claims that she sent an email to human resources on Dec. 22 expressing concerns of board members behaviors and voting irregularities, according to NBC News. Dugan went on to also state that she was sexually harassed by the Academys lawyer, Joel Katz.

Almost a month later, Dugan was placed on administrative leave just 10 days before the music awards allegedly due to claims that she created a toxic work environment with an abusive and bullying management style, according to the article.

A previous co-worker at the nonprofit AIDS advocacy group, Charles Gibbs, publicly expressed his shock about these claims and went on to tell the media that Dugan is one of the most compassionate and selfless people that he had ever met, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Since Dugans absence, she has denied the inauspicious allegations against her and has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Reportedly, the complaint explains the malpractice and intolerance she uncovered at the Academy, according to The Atlantic.

Dugan cited several statistical facts within the complaint. More specifically, she reminded the public that within the past five years, 9.3 percent of nominations in the telecasts top five categories have been women.

This is not the first time the Grammy has faced criticism in the public eye.

In 2018, pop singer Alessia Cara was the only woman who had won a solo award. During a press conference, the Academys previous CEO, Neil Portnow, was asked about the circumstances of the fact.

Portnow responded saying women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers and want to be part of the industry on the executive level simply needed to step up, according to The New Yorker.

During his 16-year high-ranking residency, Portnow has allegedly been accused of rape by an anonymous Carnegie Hall performer. Dugan has asserted that the Recording Academys board of trustees knew of the claim.

Though these allegations support Dugans argument about sexism in the workplace, the Grammy has denied these assertions after an internal investigation took place, according to The Atlantic.

In the wake of the misogyny surrounding the esteemed award show, the #MeToo movement becomes more prominent than ever as opening statements of the ever so infamous Harvey Weinstein trial goes underway.

Over the past three years, countless women have come forward indicating blatant corruption and sexual misconduct in the workforce, sending the media into a frenzy. Distinguished conglomerates like NBC, Fox, Hollywood and now the Recording Academy have been blamed for protecting the predatory behavior.

The #MeToo movement took off when actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan broke their silence and accused Weinstein of sexual assault, prompting victimized women everywhere to come forward with their own stories about the lewd abuse of men in power, according to BBC. The term "Me Too" was first coined in 2006 by social activist Tarana Burke.

Amid the accusations, Today show co-anchor Matt Lauer was immediately fired after being suspected of several counts of sexual harassment by fellow employees dating back to 2014, according to Variety.

Now, at the height of the empowering cultural phenomenon, Hollywood has gone on to make money by exploiting assault stories inspired by events in recent releases such as Bombshell, The Morning Show and Unbelievable.

While no acts of sexual misconduct by employers at the Recording Academy have been confirmed, the fight for gender equality in a patriarchal work environment and society continues to grow more aggressive every day.

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Anatomy

From The Wire to everything else, the Anatomy of an Islamist: Into the mind of Sharjeel Imam, mastermind of Shaheen Bagh – OpIndia

The EndGame of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act has become evident after the mastermind of the Shaheen Bagh protests revealed his intentions of cutting off the North East from the rest of India. Sharjeel Imam, the mastermind, also happens to be a columnist at The Wire. If one had read his eulogy of Jinnah that was published on The Wire, then he or she wouldnt have been surprised with the path he has chosen for himself.

Sharjeel Imam can be heard saying in the viral video, If five lakh Muslims are organized then we can cut off the North-east from the rest of India. If we cannot do so permanently, then at least we can do it for months. Our responsibility is to cut Assam from India, only then will the Government will hear our voice. If we have to help Assam then we will have to cut Assam from the rest of India.

More disturbingly, he speaks of isolating Northeast India by blocking the Chickens Neck. The Chickens Neck is a narrow stretch of land of about 22 kilometres located in West Bengal, that connects the northeastern states to the rest of India, with Nepal and Bangladesh lying on either side of the corridor. Thus, Sharjeel has made his intentions very clear, he wants a Civil War in the country and ultimately, another partition.

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Before we speak of his article published on The Wire, we need to focus on some of the extremely problematic posts he has made on Facebook. It would give our readers some clue into how Sharjeel Imam thinks. First, theres the usual apologia for Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru that we have come to expect from Radical Muslims. According to them, executing two dreaded Islamic terrorists is valid grounds for Muslims to lose their faith in the country.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook profile

Then, there is the justification for the Pulwama Terror Attack. Again, while it is true that sensible people would find this rhetoric extremely troubling, the justification for terrorism is a regular feature of the mainstream media. And Sharjeel Imam, here, is no different. He also accuses the USA, Israel and India of Islamophobia because the three countries are not willing to entertain justifications for terrorism.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook profile

With regards to the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Sharjeels rhetoric is akin to the rhetoric peddled by the likes of Shehla Rashid and others who have continuously prevented secular parties from claiming that these are secular protests. Like others, Sharjeel, too, exhorts Muslims to stop liberals from hijacking what are essentially Muslim protests.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook Profile

Now, we shall elaborate on the really problematic aspects of his ideology. It is pertinent to mention here that Sharjeel Imam is a student of Modern Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The most concerning aspect of his ideology is the fact that he places Jinnah in the context of India in the 21st century. He says about Jinnah, The more I read Jinnah Papers, the more I realize that almost all of Jinnahs political career was spent as the leader of a minority community, organising the community against odds, and against what he considered as the Hindu revivalist forces of his time, which intended to monopolize power after British left.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook Profile

Sharjeel continues, Seventy years later, the Muslims and other minorities of India know too well what he meant. In other words, Jinnah who was an Indian Muslim for the first 71 of the 72 years of his life, is infinitely more relevant for the besieged Indian Muslim minority than for Pakistani Muslims. In very specific ways, as an Indian Muslim politician fighting for minority rights, his methods, his arguments, his successes and his failures are lessons for us.

Sharjeel Imam goes on to assert that Indian Muslims should study Jinnah in order to understand the myth of Secular Congress. This is extremely problematic rhetoric. Sharjeel hasnt limited himself to praising Jinnah in the manner in which Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Congress party praises Jinnah. From his portrayal of Jinnah, it is clear that he wants Indian Muslims to emulate Jinnah and seize power in the country.

Read: An enemy community was foisted upon the Muslims after Independence: Shaheen Bagh mastermind Sharjeel Imam reveals real-agenda behind CAA protests

Where his thoughts about Jinnah become really clear is his article published on The Wire. From his eulogy of Jinnah on The Wire, it is evident that Sharjeel does not find any fault with Jinnahs conduct that led to the partition of the country. He does not even believe that partition was necessarily a bad thing. He says, In order to demystify Jinnah and to resolve such contradictions, a fuller discussion of Partition should have been a part of our educational setup. However, it has been made impossible to know such a historic figure by attributing violence of Partition to him. This as an attempt by Congress to hide its failures to accommodate the genuine Muslim demands and aspirations for political proportional representation.

Sharjeel did not stop there of course. He says that the questions raised by Jinnah are just the starting point of a larger debate which will inevitably take place again and again, as the situation of Indian Muslims is made to worsen. He believes that Jinnah led a righteous struggle to protect Indian Muslims from Hindu rule. Also, Sharjeel goes to great lengths to prove that Jinnah was a leader of Indian Muslims. He says, Indian Muslims, despite having been indoctrinated for generations now, retain some memory of Partition and Jinnah. For many of them, Jinnah is the author of Partition and yet one of the greatest leaders of Muslim India in the last century, who made the Muslim League into a national party by mobilising millions of Muslims across British India.

He states further, Jinnahs communalism is positive communalism as discussed above, and need not be understood through the contemporary meaning of the word. He did not believe that India was a nation, as is shown by the frequent use of the term continent as well as subcontinent. He was merely representing one community in this grand ocean of communities, and in this process, he was trying to secure rights for all numerically inferior communities.

Read: Its official: Endgame of Shaheen Bagh protest is second partition of India. Listen to what mastermind and The Wire columnist says

Sharjeel adds, Jinnah argued that it does not matter if we are 15% or 25%, unless we receive safeguards, they have all the resources to monopolise power. In other words, the Muslim majority provinces chose to secede rather than stay in a Hindu-dominated centralised India, as they saw no other option. Hence Partition is not their responsibility, it is their compulsion by the conditions created by Congress.

Lastly, according to Sharjeel, Jinnah raised questions which are still relevant. As the largest religious minority in the world, Indian Muslims, are one of the major victims of majoritarian democracy. It is the political struggle of these hundreds of millions of besieged Muslims which will define the meaning of plural democracy for the coming centuries. He ends the article with the words, The AMU portrait of Jinnah must not go. If anything, we need thousands more.

Thus, it is fairly obvious by now that Sharjeel Imam wishes to replicate what Jinnah achieved in 1947. It is also clear that he considers Jinnah as an Indian Muslim who became disillusioned with politics in the country and thus embarked upon a righteous quest to partition India along religious lines. Whats really troubling here is the fact that a widely read Indian media outlet provided a platform to such an individual to spread his propaganda.

Questions must be asked about the mainstream media and intellectual elite who have provided cover to such individuals to run their propaganda. It also shows that the liberal class can be fooled by a Jihadi if he is good enough with words. The manner in which Sharjeel has eulogized Jinnah and portrayed his Jihad against India as a righteous struggle to protect the interests of Muslims should have been the first sign that he is an extremely dangerous individual. However, since he was able to cloak his bigotry in fanciful words, Sharjeel was given great respect by the liberal fraternity. It only serves to demonstrate how gullible the liberal establishment is.

Furthermore, the liberal establishment should at least now stop to reconsider the danger that their rhetoric poses to peace in the country. The love for Jinnah, the justifications for Islamic Terrorism in Kashmir, the whitewashing of Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru, liberals should at least now realize that they are only furthering the interests of Radical Islam by peddling such extremely dubious rhetoric. The liberal establishment should also realize what their whitewashing of history and peddling narratives of Islamophobia without any shred of evidence has led to. It has led to a situation where dangerous individuals like Sharjeel Islam are using the cover their rhetoric provides in order to further the cause of Radical Islam.

Read: Jinnah wali Azadi slogans raised at Shaheen Bagh: The true face of anti-CAA protests and what these slogans mean

It is also pertinent to mention here that Sharjeel Imams rhetoric eulogizing Jinnah is textbook Pakistani propaganda. He is regurgitating the propaganda points that the Pakistani establishment makes. Sharjeel doesnt once refer to the genocides that were committed by the Muslims in their pursuit of Pakistan, he doesnt once mention the call for Direct Action Day that led to the slaughter of innumerable Hindus. He conveniently ignores the genocide of Bengali Hindus that Pakistan committed in 1971. All of this was Jinnahs tree yielding fruits. And yet, Sharjeel doesnt once refer to them and continues to whitewash his legacy while demonizing the Congress party.

There is a certain kind of truth that only radicals like Sharjeel Imam are capable of saying. It is the king of truth that liberals try to whitewash for the cause of secularism. Where Sharjeel Imam really distinguished himself, prior to his recent call for civil war, is when he declared in a Facebook post that Muslims did not choose India due to ideals of secularism. He said, and it is true, that Muslims remained in India due to their property and other reasons.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook Profile

The above Facebook post from September 2019 is the biggest slap on the face of the likes of Asaduddin Owaisi who like to boast about how they chose secular India over Islamic Pakistan. Imagine if a BJP politician had said such a thing. The entire liberal establishment would have nailed him to a cross. And here we have Sharjeel Imam who is provided a platform by The Wire and the liberal establishment which have helped the mastermind of the Shaheen Bagh protests at every turn by painting these protests as secular and about saving the constitution.

Sharjeel Imam has also flaunted the fact that Indian Muslims cheer for the Pakistan cricket team. He sees nothing wrong with it and, in fact, exhorts Muslims to not be on the defensive about it. Most conspicuously, however, he says that growing up, he had great knowledge about Saeed Answar but did not have much idea about Saurav Ganguly. He asks his audience to figure out the reason behind it.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook Profile

The evidence of his bigotry is abundant in his Facebook posts. In another Facebook post, Sharjeel denigrates Idol-Worship and calls it Shirk. He also insults polytheism, the form of religiosity most Hindus subscribe to, by using it as an insult. He equates atheism, secularism, humanism, even nationalism, to Shirk.

Source: Sharjeel Imams Facebook Profile

Thus, what is clear from Sharjeel Imams Facebook posts and his eulogy of Jinnah is that he doesnt see any difference between Pakistani and Indian Muslims. He equates Nationalism to Shirk because the Ummah transcends national boundaries. He asks Indian Muslims to not be ashamed of celebrating Pakistans cricket team because he believes it is natural for Indian Muslims to identify themselves more with Pakistan than with India. In fact, he encourages Indian Muslims to feel that way. At the most fundamental level, Sharjeel Imam sees Jinnah as an Indian Muslim who revolted against Hindus in order to create the Islamic State of Pakistan. He sees Jinnahs Jihad as a righteous struggle for the protection of Muslim interests and he believes the oppressed Muslims of India should tread a similar path.

Read: Shaheen Bagh protests: Deep dive into how JNU student and The Wire columnist Sharjeel Imam went from let us burn Constitution to saving it

Let this not be forgotten. The liberal establishment helped a Radical Islamist like Sharjeel Imam achieve his objective perfectly. While the Liberal Establishment accuses ordinary BJP voters of being fascists, they are the ones who collaborated with someone who whitewashed a Jihadist who was responsible for the death of millions and millions of Hindus.

Sharjeel Imam has been at the forefront of the anti-CAA protests from the very beginning. In a video that had gone viral on social media by the 17th of December, he could be seen inciting Muslims to do Chakkajam in Delhi and wherever they have sufficient numbers. He called for Muslims to bring entire cities to a halt. There are over 30% urban Muslims in UP. Do you have no shame at all? Why cannot you do Chakkajam in UP? The area in Bihar where I am from, the rural Muslim population is 6% while the urban Muslim population is 24%. Indian Muslims mostly live in cities. So it is upon you. You can bring your cities to a halt. If anyone asks you not to, disown them he was heard saying in the viral video.

There is another aspect that needs to be investigated here. A thorough investigation needs to be conducted into the extent of the collusion, if there was any, between Sharjeel Imam and the students of Jamia who gave a call for Jihad. As we have reported earlier, days before violence erupted in the national capital, the students Barkha Dutt labelled Shero gave a call for violent Jihad. While Sharjeel Imam eulogized the man responsible for the partition of the country, the Jamia Jihadans eulogized the men responsible for the Moplah massacre which resulted in the slaughter of hundreds and thousands of Hindus. Like Sharjeel, one of them did express great grief at the execution of Yakub Memon.

The role of the media also needs to be investigated amidst the current unrest. Slogans such as Hinduon se Azadi and yet, they were whitewashed the media. Slogans of Jinnah Wali Azadi were raised at the Shaheen Bagh protests and still, these protests were painted as secular. It needs to be investigated whether the Liberal Media is doing so due to their ideological affinity towards Radical Islam or whether there are more sinister reasons behind it.

The role of politicians needs to be investigated as well. AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan was spotted with Sharjeel Imam, it also needs to be mentioned that Amanatullah himself is accused of inciting riots. Hehad created ruckus outside Delhi police demanding the release of a 22-year-old Muslim youth named Furkan who is accused of instigating riots in Jamia Millia University in December. There is every indication of a grand conspiracy here. And as had said earlier, this is truly the Khilafat 2.0.

Black Coffee Enthusiast. Post Graduate in Psychology. Bengali.

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From The Wire to everything else, the Anatomy of an Islamist: Into the mind of Sharjeel Imam, mastermind of Shaheen Bagh - OpIndia

Immunology

Hope for patients with a rare genetic condition linked to severe infections – Newswise

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Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, January 2020

Newswise A team of researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and Universit de Montral has shed light on the mechanisms that underlie a rare genetic condition by creating the first cellular model of the disease. The study's findings were published today in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare hereditary condition that affects one in every 217,000 people worldwide and typically strikes patients at an early age.

It is a primary innate immune defect that typically leads to severe, recurrent infections caused by bacteria and fungi, as well as potentially disabling lung inflammation or inflammatory colitis similar to Crohns disease, said senior author Dr.FabienTouzot, a clinical assistant professor in pediatric medicine at UdeM and researcher in pediatric immunology and hematology at CHU Sainte-Justine.

Currently, patients are forced to take antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs for the rest of their lives.

Gene editing shows the way forward

To better understand the mechanisms that trigger inflammation in patients with CGD, Touzot and his research team created the very first cellular model of the disease in their labs at CHU Sainte-Justine. They then used a technique known as gene editing to recreate and introduce into their model a genetic mutation that causes the disease. This allowed them to model the inflammatory response observed in patients and to study its mechanisms.

CGD is a hereditary illness caused by mutations in the NADPH oxidase enzyme. These mutations prevent white blood cells from working properly and, as a result, the patients body can no longer defend itself against certain kinds of bacteria and fungi, said researcher Aissa Benyoucef, the studys first author.

More than 90% of affected patients have inflammation that appears to be unrelated to infectious agents," he added. "Treating this inflammation is difficult, since it can put patients at increased risk of infection, which can sometimes be fatal. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the disease could help us develop new and more effective treatment strategies.

The research team showed that restoring NADPH oxydase function in defective cells would put the immune process back on track, thereby proving that this genetic mutation plays a direct role in causing inflammation.

CHU Sainte-Justine is one of Quebecs leading centres of expertise in rare genetic diseases," said Touzot. "Were proud to serve patients by expanding the knowledge base in this area and by contributing to the development of precision medicine."

The new cellular model will be useful for the development of targeted treatments that are less toxic and more effective in treating inflammation, significantly improving patient quality of life, according to the researchers.

About this study

CRISPR gene-engineered CYBBko THP-1 cell lines highlight the crucial role of NADPH-induced reactive oxygen species for regulating inflammasome activation was published in the January 2020 edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The first author is Aissa Benyoucef, PhD, a lab employee under the supervision of Dr. Fabien Touzot. The senior author is Dr. Touzot, MD, PhD, a clinical assistant professor at Universit de Montreals Department of Pediatrics and clinician-researcher in pediatric immunology and hematology at CHU Sainte-Justine. The study was paid by a CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre start-up fund and by Fondation Charles-Bruneau.

About the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre

The CHU Saint-Justine Research Centre is a flagship institution in mother-child research affiliated with Universit de Montral. Focused on the discovery of innovative means of prevention, less intrusive and faster treatments and promising avenues of personalized medicine, it brings together more than 210 researchers, including more than 90 clinical researchers, as well as 450 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The centre is an integral part of the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine, the largest mother-child centre in Canada. Details at https://research.chusj.org/en/Home

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Hope for patients with a rare genetic condition linked to severe infections - Newswise