The gene expression signature of the human kidney interstitium is incompletely understood. The cortical interstitium (excluding tubules, glomeruli, and vessels) in reference nephrectomies (N = 9) and diabetic kidney biopsy specimens (N = 6) was laser microdissected (LMD) and sequenced. Samples underwent RNA sequencing. Gene signatures were deconvolved using single nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) data derived from overlapping specimens. Interstitial LMD transcriptomics uncovered previously unidentified markers including KISS1, validated with in situ hybridization. LMD transcriptomics and snRNAseq revealed strong correlation of gene expression within corresponding kidney regions. Relevant enriched interstitial pathways included G-protein coupled receptor. binding and collagen biosynthesis. The diabetic interstitium was enriched for extracellular matrix organization and small-molecule catabolism. Cell type markers with unchanged expression (NOTCH3, EGFR, and HEG1) and those down-regulated in diabetic nephropathy (MYH11, LUM, and CCDC3) were identified. LMD transcriptomics complements snRNAseq; together, they facilitate mapping of interstitial marker genes to aid interpretation of pathophysiology in precision medicine studies.

More:
Molecular characterization of the human kidney interstitium in health and disease - Science Advances

Abortion. In vitro and other forms of assisted reproduction. Euthanasia. End-of-life decisions. They are among the most sensitive social issues of our age, and public policies in these areas generate heated moral argument and debate. So why cant our society agree about them?

According to O. Carter Snead, Notre Dame University law and politics professor and director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, the reason is that we have lost any shared understanding of the meaning of human life.

O. Carter Snead (Courtesy image)

We have indeed forgotten who we are and what we owe to one another. We desperately need to remember, he has written.

Sneads new book, What It Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics (Harvard, $39.95), was recently named one of The Wall Street Journals Top 10 books of 2020.

In it, Snead takes a deep look at the way our society looks at the human person and human life what he terms expressive individualism. This philosophy, he argues, reduces human persons to the sum of their feelings and desires, forgetting that we are living bodies with deep personal histories, and that we belong to one another in families and communities.

In an interview with Angelus, Snead explains how this way of thinking leads to policies that diminish the most vulnerable and encourage divisions in society. He also calls for a new anthropology and better laws that would lead to greater compassion for the weak and greater respect for the sanctity and dignity of human life.

Why write this book and why now?

Ive been involved in public bioethics for almost 20 years, including time as general counsel for President George W. Bushs Council on Bioethics. Ive always been struck by how frequently the law fails to protect the weakest and most vulnerable among us in the context of public bioethics.

Public bioethics began in scandals. Think of the Tuskegee scandal in which American researchers systematically deceived and exploited poor African American sharecroppers who were suffering from syphilis in Macon County, Alabama. Or of the research involving the intentional injection of Hepatitis into intellectually disabled children, chronicled by Henry Beecher in the New England Journal of Medicine. Or of the scandals involving research on newly born, just aborted, and imminently dying children in Scandinavia by American researchers.

So I started asking why it was that the law failed in this way, and what I came to was the view that our laws are rooted in a false and impoverished vision of what it means to be human and to flourish as a human being.

Laws dealing with abortion, assisted reproduction, end-of-life decision-making, euthanasia, and assisted suicide have a flattened, false vision of the person that excludes those who are not capable of high-level cognition, who cannot articulate their inner selves, and who cannot chart their own lifes course.

Its an anthropological vision that Robert Bellah, Charles Taylor, and others have referred to as expressive individualism, in which a person is conceived of as a singular, atomized individual unit abstracted from any social context such as connections to family, community, or country.

Expressive individuals are thought to flourish by their self-discovery of interior truths. They must chart their path accordingly and everything else relationships, the body, and nature are instruments to be harnessed in pursuit of that goal.

Excluded from that vision are the elderly, the disabled, the poor, the marginalized, and children including unborn and newborn.

A doctor draws blood from one of the Tuskegee test subjects in 1932. In his book, Snead argues that laws are failing the modern society's most vulnerable the same way they failed African Americans deceived during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. (Wikimedia Commons)

In U.S. abortion jurisprudence the moral status of the developing human person is entirely determined by each individual pregnant woman. What are the dangers of building laws about the human person based on such a subjective approach?

In Roe v. Wade, Justice Harry Blackmun framed the question of abortion on the anthropology of expressive individualism, even though he didnt acknowledge it. He described the context of abortion as a clash of strangers, in which the child in the womb was considered to be an invasive burden, a parasite, something subhuman and sub-personal.

Blackmun declined to take a position on the moral status of the unborn human being. But he did say the state may not recognize that child as a person, not just under the Constitution but under the domestic laws of the state. The state may not adopt, as he said, one vision of personhood or one definition of personhood.

So the unborn childs moral status is an entirely subjective matter, to be determined by the woman carrying the child. It is a declaration that that child is sub-personal, has no rights under the Constitution, and may not have rights under state or federal law insofar as that conflicts with the interests and desires of the woman.

But a mother and her unborn child are not strangers. They are related to each other, both biologically and in a deeper relational way. If you were to understand the crisis of abortion through that lens, the conclusion is very different.

If we were to reframe abortion law as a unique crisis involving a mother and her child, we the community and the government would be summoned to their aid. By atomizing the mother and the child, Blackmun sets up an adversarial relationship of strife that can only be resolved through violence. Thats precisely what he gave us: the right to abortion.

You also explore the lack of laws that regulate artificial reproductive technologies (ART) and argue that this area of bioethics is also neglectful of the body and relationships. What would a coherent legal approach to ART look like?

People can do almost whatever they want in the quest to create a biologically related child. I argue that laws should treat these practices in light of the parent-child relationship that they involve.

The relationship between parent and child has certain implications and creates unchosen obligations on the part of the parent to care for the child, a right which that child does not need to earn.

When we begin the process of conceiving a child and initiating a pregnancy and birth through ART, were not just talking about an individual that is undertaking a project. Were talking about a person that wants to be a parent and who is a parent once they begin to participate in this process.

The best interest of that child is to be welcomed and unconditionally loved and cared for throughout his/her life. That means the law has to offer inducements, protections, deterrents, and other behavior-shaping devices to make sure that people act as they should vis-a-vis the well-being and the best interests of a child.

The way we practice IVF right now involves sex selection, multiple gestations, and all kinds of techniques that can modify the childs body. It involves gestational surrogacy and the buying and selling of eggs or batches of living embryos. Thats not an endeavor thats about being a parent and rightly taking care of children.

We have legal frameworks and policies that are designed to protect the well-being of children in American family law. And we have mechanisms to help support and shape the behavior of parents to ensure their childrens well-being.

Thats precisely the kind of norm that we should draw upon when thinking not only about ART, but about abortion, too: We should think about abortion as the proposed use of lethal force on behalf of a mother on an innocent child.

(Shutterstock)

Many states are passing laws that allow people the freedom to choose the time, place, and manner of ones death. How can we make the case for protecting life from conception until natural death?

Expressive individualism doesnt take seriously what it means to be an embodied being that were fragile corruptible bodies in time, that were mutually dependent upon one another, and that were subject to natural limits, including disease, age, and death.

Because were embodied beings, we have to have certain kinds of support systems in our lives. We need what the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre calls networks of uncalculated giving and graceful receiving made up of people who are willing to make the good of others their own without seeking anything in return for it. The most obvious example of a network of uncalculated giving and graceful receiving is the family.

We all depend on these networks for survival, from our time as newborns, when we get sick, and as were nearing the end of our life. But we also depend on them to learn to care for others without expecting anything in return.

The law goes wrong when it fails to acknowledge this, especially when it comes to end-of-life decision-making. In places like California, which has legalized assisted suicide and promotes aggressive termination of life-sustaining measures for quality of life reasons, the law assumes that the highest good of the person whos sick is to assert his/her unencumbered will.

And so proponents say, Lets give them the freedom to kill themselves, to author the last chapter of their book in a way that coheres with their life story.

But anybody whos familiar with the clinical context in which these issues arise knows thats not reality. A person whos having suicidal ideation is almost always a person whos suffering from depression or from intractable suffering. And thats not a zone where autonomy is operating at its height thats a zone where a person needs help.

If you come to their aid and treat someones depression or pain the right way, studies show that a lot of suicidal ideation goes away.

Now, are there people, probably rich, maybe white or privileged, who can make the decision to end their lives in a full and free way? Maybe there are, but you dont make law and public policy for the richest or most privileged people. You make law and public policy to protect the weakest and most vulnerable.

In California, there are just too many of those people the elderly, the disabled, members of marginalized groups, minorities, and others who already dont have enough protection from inequalities and the health care system that we have.

These laws create a path of least resistance toward assisted suicide, especially for the marginalized. This is why the disability rights community largely opposes assisted suicide, and why Bishop Charles Blake and the Pentecostal African American community in California rose up against it.

When it comes to persuasion, its important for arguments to be sound, to be grounded in evidence and good reasoning. But even more than that, I always come back to Mother Teresa: you cant really persuade someone without loving them first, and not in a cynical or strategic way.

People who disagree with us wont hear us and we wont listen to them if we dont take that approach. Hopefully that will touch their hearts in a way that they will be open to listen.

But even if not, you still have to love them, not only because its the right thing to do, but because its the only way were going to actually have a conversation in which we hear one another and think about what is being said.

Read this article:
Could the fate of society depend on how we think about bodies? - Angelus News

A year later, the Jewish peace group Never Again Action highlighted a difficult history not taught in most schools, while linking Amazons practices directly to the tech industrys record of supporting human rights abuses. In a 2019 protest of the companys actions, the group organized a march from a Holocaust memorial in Boston to the Amazon offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[W]eve seen this before, said protester Ben Lorber, I had ancestors killed in the Holocaust.

As a relatively new tech company, Amazon is at a crossroads. Will the company travel down a familiar road taken by other tech behemoths who turned a blind eye to human rights and workers rights? Or will it opt for the unfamiliar path, refusing to sell its technology and services in support of human rights abuses while also taking a strong, affirmative stance for better workplace conditions and greater diversity within its ranks? In large measure, this decision will fall to the incoming Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Lorber and many others are pleading and protesting for the road less travelled.

In the spring of 2020, bowing to pressure from its rivals IBM and Microsoft, Amazon announced it would cease selling Rekognition to law enforcement agencies, but only for one year. The end of that year is coming up. In December, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, a large institutional shareholder, along with the Vermont State Treasurers Office, jointly filed a proposal calling on the worlds largest online retailer to curtail surveillance technologies like Rekognition.

But that investor proposal went further, asking Amazon to curb hate speech, increase diversity and improve workplace conditions. It was eerily prescient. Only several weeks later, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol showed Amazon had provided a safe haven for white nationalists to spew hate, organize and even plan their attack. By the time the social media platform Parler, used by many white nationalist groups, was taken down from the Amazon Web Services cloud, the damage had already been done.

Meanwhile, workers at the company's warehouses continue to endure unjust labor practices. During a pandemic, when so many have turned to Amazon, these workers bear the brunt of increased demand without adequate protective equipment and working conditions to shield them from the virus. Many Amazon factory workers come from communities of color already ravaged by COVID-19.

Amazon has said it stands with the nationwide movement to identify and bring an end to systemic racism, yet it continues to face claims of racial discrimination, said a disappointed Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York state comptroller and trustee of the New York retirement fund.

Instead of welcoming this opportunity, Amazon appealed to the Securities and Exchange Commission to block these proposals from being voted on at its upcoming shareholder meeting. Its a strategic blunder and a tone-deaf response to attempts aimed at preventing the company from tragically following in the footsteps of another high-tech giant.

In the late 1920s, IBM, a newly minted company, and its audacious president, Thomas J. Watson Sr., threw its technological prowess behind the eugenics movement. Eugenics sought to further reproduction of blond, blue-eyed, fair-skinned individuals the so-called Nordic stock while eliminating the bloodlines of undesirables such as Blacks, Jews, Native Americans, Hispanics, the Irish, Italians, mixed-race individuals, LGBTQ+ people and the mentally and physically ill.

A major 1926 study by the Eugenics Record Organization on the island of Jamaica was at risk because eugenicists had no way of tabulating and reporting on so-called pure blood Europeans and their mixed-race offspring, whom together numbered in the millions.

But IBM did.

IBM engineers worked with the Eugenics Record Organization, headquartered in Cold Springs Harbor, New York, to design punch card formats for collecting, sorting, tabulating, printing and storing information on racial characteristics, allowing the organization to declare the Jamaica study a success in 1929 and announce plans for another, similar global project.

Four years later, Watson and IBM brought automated racial classification to Hitler and the Third Reich. Nearly every aspect of the Holocaust and the Nazi war machine was supported by punch card technology, courtesy of IBM. Each concentration camp had an IBM room, where punch cards held prisoners fates, down to the means of their extermination firing squad, gas chamber, oven or being worked to death.

With Germanys defeat, IBM turned next to South Africa, automating most aspects of apartheid. The company even designed specialized equipment to print the Book of Life passbook,carried by white and Colored South Africans,and the dreaded national identification card, which Black South Africans were forced to show on penalty of arrest. Then, after apartheid, IBMs use of technology to circumvent human rights returned to American soil. In 2005, the company used secret CCTV footage of unwitting New Yorkers collected by the New York City Police Department to improve facial recognition technology in order to discriminate based on skin color.

So when protesters in Boston said they had seen this before, they were deliberately connecting Amazons present to IBMs past, pleading that Amazon not repeat the mistakes of a previous generation. Some shareholders understood this and took up that call as well.

Workers rights within high-tech firms bear a similar dark history. In 1970, Black employees organized the National Black Workers Alliance of IBM (BWA) to demand the company hire more Black people, promote Blacks workers more equitably, provide Black employees equal pay and withdraw from apartheid issues similar to those being demanded by Amazon shareholders today.

BWA leaders were targeted with poor performance evaluations, denial of pay raises, accusations of violating company policy by disclosing pay and promotion data and, in one case, false allegations of sexual abuse. Many were fired, demoted or forced to resign.

BWA was fighting systemic racism that still exists at Amazon and other high-tech firms, where a majority of board and senior decision-making positions are held by white men. Less than 3% of high-level positions at high-tech firms are held by people of color. And this is not a pipeline problem. Qualified candidates can be found, if high-tech firms can find the will.

On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled against Amazon, allowing workers at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse to vote on unionizing. The SEC should follow suit and insist that shareholder proposals are also brought to a vote.

Jeff Bezos may be stepping down as Amazons CEO, but the problems identified by workers, protesters and shareholders remain. Martin Luther King Jr. said, the time is always right to do right. Yet companies like Amazon seem to operate as though that time never arrives; that profits are always more important than people, even in the wake of George Floyds death and calls for racial equity, synagogue attacks, four years of official lies supporting racial hatred and division and an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. King said it best. Now is the right time for Amazon to do right.

View post:
Opinion | On human rights, Amazon is at a crossroads - Crosscut

Share this Article

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.

Human-created noise negatively affects marine animals and their ecosystems, researchers report.

This noise disrupts their behavior, physiology, reproduction, and, in extreme cases, causes mortality.

The researchers call for human-induced noise to be considered a prevalent stressor at the global scale and for policy to be developed to mitigate its effects.

The researchers set out to understand how human-made noise affects wildlife, from invertebrates to whales. They report that the soundtrack of the healthy ocean, plagued with human-created noise, no longer reflects the acoustic environment of todays ocean.

The research, published in Science, is eye-opening to the global prevalence and intensity of the impacts of ocean noise. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have made the planet, the oceans in particular, noisier through fishing, shipping, infrastructure development, and more, while also silencing the sounds from marine animals that dominated the pristine ocean.

The landscape of soundor soundscapeis such a powerful indicator of the health of an environment, says coauthor Ben Halpern, director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Like we have done in our cities on land, we have replaced the sounds of nature throughout the ocean with those of humans.

The deterioration of habitats, such as coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and kelp beds with overfishing, coastal development, climate change, and other human pressures, have further silenced the characteristic sound that guides the larvae of fish and other animals drifting at sea into finding and settling on their habitats. The call home is no longer audible for many ecosystems and regions.

The Anthropocene marine environment is polluted by human-made sound and should be restored along sonic dimensions, and along those more traditional chemical and climatic. Yet, current frameworks to improve ocean health ignore the need to mitigate noise as a pre-requisite for a healthy ocean.

We all know that no one really wants to live right next to a freeway because of the constant noise. For animals in the ocean, its like having a mega-freeway in your backyard.

Sound travels far, and quickly, underwater. And marine animals are sensitive to sound, which they use as a prominent sensorial signal guiding all aspects of their behavior and ecology.

This makes the ocean soundscape one of the most important, and perhaps under-appreciated, aspects of the marine environment, the authors write. They hope that the evidence presented in the paper will prompt management actions to reduce noise levels in the ocean, thereby allowing marine animals to re-establish their use of ocean sound.

We all know that no one really wants to live right next to a freeway because of the constant noise, Halpern says. For animals in the ocean, its like having a mega-freeway in your backyard.

The team set out to document the impact of noise on marine animals and on marine ecosystems around the world. They assessed the evidence contained across more than 10,000 papers to consolidate compelling evidence that human-made noise impacts marine life from invertebrates to whales across multiple levels, from behavior to physiology.

This unprecedented effort, involving a major tour de force, has shown the overwhelming evidence for the prevalence of impacts from human-induced noise on marine animals, to the point that the urgency of taking action can no longer be ignored, says Michelle Havlik, a PhD student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

The deep, dark ocean is conceived as a distant, remote ecosystem, even by marine scientists, says lead author Carlos M. Duarte, professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

However, as I was listening, years ago, to a hydrophone recording acquired off the US West Coast, I was surprised to hear the clear sound of rain falling on the surface as the dominant sound in the deep-sea ocean environment. I then realized how acoustically connected the ocean surface, where most human noise is generated, is to the deep sea; just 1,000 meters [3281 feet], less than 1 second apart!

The takeaway of the review is that mitigating the impacts of noise from human activities on marine life is key to achieving a healthier ocean. The study identifies a number of actions that may come at a cost but are relatively easy to implement to improve the ocean soundscape and, in so doing, enable the recovery of marine life and the goal of sustainable use of the ocean.

For example, simple technological innovations are already reducing propeller noise from ships, and policy could accelerate their use in the shipping industry and spawn new innovations.

Deploying these mitigation actions is low-hanging fruit. Unlike other forms of human pollution such as emissions of chemical pollutants and greenhouse gases, the effects of noise pollution cease upon reducing the noise, so the benefits are immediate.

The study points to the quick response of marine animals to the human lockdown under COVID-19 as evidence for the potential rapid recovery from noise pollution.

Source: UC Santa Barbara

Continue reading here:
Human noise wreaks havoc on all kinds of ocean animals - Futurity: Research News

Couples in Ireland who conceived through IVF and surrogacy fear that they may never be legally recognised as their children's parents, due to a gap in legislation.

New laws on the issue were passed in 2020, however, the new law does not encompass all couples, according to campaigners.

Also in today's Special Feature:

This new law, the Children and Families Relationship Act (2015) provided a legal framework for registering the births of children who are born through IVF, where the birth mother is an intending parent.

The act also allows the intending and birth mother to name their spouse, civil partner or cohabitant as the second parent of the child.

However, this law doesn't have any provision for surrogacy, where the woman who gives birth is not the intending parent.

Many people also go abroad to get IVF as it is significantly cheaper, but this new law doesn't recognise their parentage.

The fight is not just a symbolic one.

The parents who are not on their child's birth certificate or who can't get guardianship technically do not have the right to vaccinate their children or take them on a foreign holiday.

A campaign called Equality for Children is trying to bring attention to the issue.

The issue affects straight and lesbian couples who use IVF abroad or use surrogacy abroad and at home.

Gay couples will always be affected, as they will have to use surrogacy in order to have children.

However, because it only affects a minority, it is not seen as a big-ticket election issue, according to campaigners.

Meanwhile, families are left floundering.

Ranae Von Meding and her wife, Audrey, with their two children, Ava, 4, and Arya who is almost 2.

Ranae von Meding, head of the Equality for Children campaign, says pre-marriage equality, there was no way gay parents could become the legal parents of children.

"It had to be a mother and father," she said.

However, once marriage equality was gained in 2015, legislation was brought forward to try and rectify the issue.

"They rushed through the Children and Families Relationship Act, which had a very narrow criteria for parental rights.

"They didn't look at surrogacy at all, or conception outside of an Irish fertility clinic."

This bill enabled couples who used an Irish fertility clinic and a traceable sperm donor to be named as parents. It also allowed female same sex couples who undertake reciprocal IVF to became joint legal parents.

"It was a step forward, that bill passed in 2015 but wasn't commenced until May of this year," says Ranae. This meant families were waiting five years for legislation.

Many families fall outside this law, leaving parents in a precarious legal situation.

"If you decide to go to an IVF clinic abroad because it's cheaper, or if your child is born abroad, or if you choose to conceive at home, there is no provision for both parents to become legal parents."

Only traceable sperm donations are accepted under the legislation. In the 90s and early noughties, only anonymous sperm donation was allowed in Ireland, however the converse is now true.

There is a stay in the law, whereby anyone who meets the other criteria but used anonymous sperm donation prior to the bill being commenced can still apply to be legal parents.

However, if people received IVF abroad and/or used an anonymous sperm donation after the bill was enacted, they will not be able to apply for parentage.

Ranae is in this precarious legal situation herself, but is hopeful it will be resolved soon.

Four-year-oldAva plays with little sister Arya.

She has two children with her wife, Audrey, a four-year-old girl called Ava and a two-year-old called Arya. The children were conceived through reciprocal IVF in a clinic in Spain.

"I'm considered their only legal parent, as I gave birth.

"My wife is actually their biological parent, we used her eggs and donor sperm, and I carried the babies.

They are her biological children but since they were born she's been a legal stranger to them.

Thankfully, Audrey should be able to become a legal parent of their children, under the Children and Families Relationship Act 2015, which passed last May.

They are waiting on a court date in order for Audrey to get a declaration of parentage.

Ranae says they had to fight for five years to get this far.

If I die today, my wife would not have automatic guardianship over the children.

Ranae adds that there are many other parents who don't fall under this new legislation.

There are a few measures these parents can put in place.

"You can apply for emergency guardianship, if your partner is incapacitated or in a coma. The legal parent can also put it in their will that their wish is for the children to stay with their partner, this is called testamentary guardianship."

However, a guardian does not have the same rights as a parent. Ranae says once the child turns 18, the legal relationship is severed, meaning children will not have a say in a parent's end of life care.

Inheritance can also be an issue, as can citizenship, which is as often granted based on the parent's place of birth.

It is also not possible for parents to use adoption as a solution. While gay parents can adopt a child under normal circumstances, they cannot apply to 'adopt' their own children conceived through IVF and a donor egg or sperm, as there is no provision for this under Irish law.

"The Adoption Authority has refused to process these types of adoptions. They don't have the framework.

"In other adoptions, there is a birth family who give up the child for adoption, and an adopted family.

"In our case, we aren't giving up our children for adoption, because we are the birth family. Legislation is needed."

She says children are being discriminated against simply because they have LGBTQ parents, as they have to use some form of IVF.

Ranae also adds that children of straight couples who use IVF abroad or surrogacy are also affected.

'It's about allowing children to have a legal relationship with both their parents'

Gearoid Kenny and his husband Seamus Moore are in a similarly precarious legal situation. They live in north Dublin with their twins, Mary and Sen, who were conceived through surrogacy at an IVF clinic in London.

Gearoid Kenny and Seamus Moore.

The couple had to go to England, as Irish fertility clinics were unwilling to use egg donations as they felt the legislation was not yet in place, and they could be legally exposed.

"Our children were created through an egg donation. A friend of mine from London carried our babies, but has no biological connection to them, and doesn't want to have any parental responsibility."

Seamus is the biological father of both Sen and Mary, and he is their legal guardian due to UK law. Had the twins been born in Ireland, Seamus would only have become their guardian if the surrogate allowed him to, by signing a legal document.

"But guardianship is not the same as parentage," Gearoid says.

Meanwhile, Gearoid has no legal relationship with his children and their surrogate will be held legally responsible for the children if anything happens to Seamus.

Gearoid adds that while there is a narrow group of LGBT people who can be named as parents, this does not include his family, and straight couples who avail of IVF abroad and surrogacy are in the same predicament.

The lack of parental rights does have ramifications, he says.

Technically, you don't have the right to bring the child to the hospital, or bring them to a medical appointment or consent to medical procedures.

When Gearoid's children needed to be vaccinated, only their biological dad could sign the forms and attend the vaccination.

"When the children were born, we were very honest with our doctor and said 'we didn't give birth to them'," Gearoid says.

"We told him very clearly who is the dad. He was very supportive, but there were times when the biological dad had to present for vaccinations.

"Another time, Mary was getting a scan as they were worried she had heart murmur. Thankfully it turned out to be nothing, but we were told the biological father had to be present in the event any procedures had to take place.

"If you travel abroad, it is only the biological parent who can bring the children out of the country legally. If the other parent wants to do that they have to get a signed letter from the biological parent saying they can do this."

Only the biological parent can register the child for school.

Now that the twins are two, Gearoid can apply to become their guardian. The couple are in the process of submitting this application, but he still won't be their legal parent.

"The next thing the Government plans to do is introduce a piece of legislation called the Assisted Human Reproductive Act," Gearoid says. He met with Simon Harris when he was minister for health in relation to advancing this bill.

"He said under the draft legislation, what they will do potentially is allow surrogacy arrangements to be formalised in the future, but not retrospectively."

This means he won't be covered under the new legislation.

Not an election issue

Gearoid doesn't think it will become an election issue, as it only affects a small minority of people, so there's not much political will to solve it.

He adds that there is not much trust placed on LGBTQ couples, even for the same sex female couples who can apply for parental rights.

"They must go to court, gather vast amounts of paperwork, documents, get proof from the IVF clinic that they used... there is a certain inherent distrust, maybe even homophobia, at the bureaucratic level."

Seamus, as the biological father of both children, can get a declaration of parentage, as currently he is only their guardian. However, to do this would be quite onerous.

"That costs 15,000, as you have to get a barrister to do it. Also, despite having letters from the IVF clinic saying he was the sperm donor, he would still have to go through another parental test to ensure what he is saying is true, and all of his brothers would be required to submit a sperm sample, to rule out the possibility that they might be the father."

However, despite these legal challenges, Gearoid says having children was one of the best things that ever happened to him. He is a stay at home dad and looks after the kids full-time.

He says other countries can put forward legislation to solve this problem, so Ireland should be able to do the same.

"Really it's about allowing children to have a legal relationship with both their parents. I don't ever see a situation where I am recognised as the legal father to both my children."

Legal lacuna: Law was never designed for surrogacy

Dr Andrea Mulligan, assistant professor at Trinity's law school, says there is no law in Ireland governing surrogacy.

"There was one case on surrogacy, and a written judgment from the supreme court in 2014. There was a really famous statement from Judge Adrian Hardiman.

He said that the of Irish law and surrogacy was as if the Road Traffic Act didn't reflect the invention of the motorcar.

Dr Mulligan says the only way solicitors can use the law to establish parental rights is when the surrogacy can be fitted into the pre-existing law.

"It's never a law designed for surrogacy."

Currently, genetic fathers whose children are conceived through surrogacy can apply for parentage and then guardianship.

However, Dr Mulligan says the same is not true for genetic mothers who don't carry the child.

Intended mothers, even if there's a genetic connection, have no way of becoming a legal parent.

She says the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, which was enacted in 2020, covers parentage in donor assisted reproduction in Ireland, which has helped some couples including same sex female couples who undertake reciprocal IVF, but not those who use surrogacy.

Dr Andrea Mulligan says there is currently no law governing surrogacy in Ireland.

Dr Mulligan adds that there was a general scheme of a surrogacy bill published in 2017 (the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill),but it has not been progressed yet.

She says there needs to be more regulation of surrogacy in general. Currently in Ireland, IVF and surrogacy is commercialised and privatised.

Due to how expensive it is, many couples choose to go abroad. However, Dr Mulligan says it would be very difficult for the Irish State to regulate things that happen outside of the country, which is why laws that govern assisted reproduction in Ireland may not address IVF or surrogacy abroad.

"Donors have to be identifiable in Ireland, to vindicate the child's right to identity," she said.

Dr Mulligan says that in other countries, there can be ethical concerns. "There can be exploitation of surrogates, or a situation where the child can never contact the donor, or know anything about their background."

She believes IVF should be available to couples on the public health system, to stop them having to travel abroad in search of more affordable services.

Dr Mulligan also adds that legislation is vital, in order to ensure IVF and surrogacy is properly regulated in Ireland.

"The new law regulating surrogacy proposes the establishment of a new, independent regulatory authority to regulate the industry," she said.

She adds that because the industry in Ireland is largely private, there is a lack of information on how many couples are availing of their services, as well as how many people are going abroad.

Department's response

In response to this issue, the Department of Health, which governs this area, said in a statement: "The Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 was enacted to modernise family law."

Continued here:
Couples who conceived through IVF and surrogacy fight to be legally recognised as parents - Irish Examiner

8 February 2021

The rollout of COVID vaccination programmes has brought with it a renewed hope of a return to normality but has also raised questions about the impact of vaccinationon fertility treatment and pregnancy.

To help explain and clarify the advice to fertility patients and clinicians, and to fight misinformation spreading online, the Progress Educational Trust (PET) the charity that publishes BioNew held an online event.

'The COVID-19 Vaccine: A Shot in the Arm for Fertility Treatment?' was chaired by PET's director Sarah Norcross, and featured speakers outlining the approaches taken by UK, EU and US bodies.

Professor Jason Kasraie, chair of the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS), gave the first presentation an overview of the UK guidance issued by ARCS and the British Fertility Society (BFS). He emphasised that there is no known risk in giving non-live vaccines to pregnant women or those looking to conceive.

ARCS and BFS say there is no need to avoid pregnancy after vaccination, and women who would benefit from the vaccine should receive it without compromising their planned fertility treatment. However, as with any medical treatment, patients should be involved in the decisionmaking process. Pointing out the prevalence of fearmongering misinformation online, Professor Kasraie stressed the importance of being careful about how risk is communicated, when there is currently no cause for fear.

The next speaker, Dr Anna Veiga, coordinator of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE)'s COVID-19 Working Group, explained that ESHRE's relatively cautious position relates to an absence of concrete evidence.

ESHRE has decided not to offer a universal recommendation on whether or not men and women attempting assisted conception should get vaccinated before starting treatment, and instead emphasises the importance of weighing up the factors that are relevant to each individual patient. ESHRE recommends postponing the start of fertility treatment for at least a few days after the vaccine, to allow the immune response to settle.

Regarding vaccination and pregnancy, ESHRE suggests that pregnant women should not be vaccinated unless they are at particularly high risk. ESHRE also suggeststhat if a woman becomes pregnant after receiving the first vaccine dose then, then unless the woman is at particularly high risk the second dose should be delayed until the pregnancy is over. There is no advice to avoid pregnancy after vaccination.

Despite this cautious approach towards the vaccine, Dr Veiga noted that pregnant women have been shown to be at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 compared to non-pregnant women. Women may therefore still decide to go ahead with vaccination, since the benefits of protection from COVID-19 might outweigh any theoretical risks from, vaccination.

Dr Sigal Klipstein, member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)'s COVID-19 Task Force, explained that the ASRM's more permissive advice is based on assessing the known and very real risks of COVID-19 alongside the largely theoretical risks of the vaccine. As such, the ASRM recommends vaccination to everyone who can access the vaccine whether before or during pregnancy on the grounds that the benefits outweigh the risks.

To emphasise this point, Dr Klipstein gave the example of Israel's decision to make pregnant women a priority group for vaccination, due to their increased risk of developing severe COVID-19. Dr Klipstein further emphasised the important role of fertility specialists in promoting vaccination to their patients, their communities and the public, so as to counter worrying trends of vaccine hesitancy.

During the event, attendees were polled on whether they thought a consensus was needed between all relevant professional bodies on the COVID vaccine and fertility treatment. A clear majority (77 percent) voted yes, prompting Norcross to ask the panel if there was any hope of a consensus being worked out. All three speakers agreed that a uniform message would help avoid confusion and vaccine hesitancy, but that it would be difficult to achieve a consensus, due to each national body's need to follow the formal position of their country's health authorities. The speakers did, however, note that there was significant agreement on key points.

While most of the discussion focused on vaccination of women and the impact on pregnancy, there was an audience question about the impact vaccination might have on sperm quality. The panel agreed that there is no suggestion of risk to the quality of sperm, but that it might be beneficial for men to leave some time between vaccination and fertility treatment, simply to avoid any temporary side effects of the vaccine (such as a fever) having an effect on sperm production. However, it remains prudent for men to get vaccinated before a planned conception, not least so that they avoid the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to the pregnant woman.

Several audience questions addressed the lack of evidence available on the impact of the vaccine. The panel agreed that while there is currently little evidence on the impact of the vaccines on IVF treatment, gamete donation or the health of newborns, there is new information coming in constantly and at unprecedented speeds. Studies of long-term effects will by their nature take time, but there is reassurance to be drawn from studies undertaken on other non-live vaccines.

Dr Klipstein warned against the temptation of an overabundance of caution in the absence of data, as this could end up forcing women into an impossible scenario of weighing up the risk posed by COVID-19 to their own health with any theoretical risks to their baby from the vaccine. Professor Kasraie observed that IVF patients are known to be especially anxious during the pregnancy, so placing them in a position where they have to shield throughout the nine months of pregnancy for fear of catching COVID-19 could exacerbate their isolation and anxiety.

Overall, the event showed that despite some differences in the advice given by UK, EU and US bodies, there is significant agreement on the important role of vaccination in protecting the health of fertility patients and professionals alike. Evidence of the harm that can be caused by COVID-19 during pregnancy is clear, known and real. Evidence of harm that can be caused by COVID vaccines is at best theoretical and unsupported by evidence. Certain precautions may be taken in the absence of data, but it is important to ensure that such precautions are not taken to be an indication that there is a known risk.

PET is grateful to the Edwards and Steptoe Research Trust Fund, the British Fertility Society, the Bristol Fertility Clinic and CooperSurgical for supporting this event.

Originally posted here:
The COVID Vaccine: A Shot in the Arm for Fertility Treatment? - BioNews

In this study, 16 women with POI, aged from 27 to 46years old, and a POI duration of 125years were interviewed. The age range of women at the time of POI and definitive diagnosis was 13 to 40years. Among the participants, three women had remarried, two of whom had divorced after diagnosis POI due to infertility. The level of education of women was from primary to doctorate. The cause of the POI was mainly unknown, but in 2 participants, POI occurred after cancer treatment and a participant afflicted to POI following an autoimmune disease. The Other demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1.

After content analysis of the interviews with a focus on the perception and experience of women with POI of reproductive-sexual health, four categories emerged (endangerment of women's health, psychological agitation, disruption of social life disturbance in sexual life), explained as follows.

The results showed that all participants were concerned about the effects of decreased ovarian function and changes in hormone levels on their future health.

This main category consists of four subcategories (irregular menstruation, emergence of menopausal symptoms, infertility, signs of early aging) as follows:

Menstrual cycle changes (irregular menstrual cycle, primary amenorrhea or sudden cessation of menstrual bleeding) are one of the first suspicious signs of POI in women that resulted mostly to consult a physician.

One of the participants, who had POI for 8years, said:

The first time my period became irregular, I went to the doctor and she told me that I should take hormone therapy. Before that, I had regular periods, but after 2-3years, I did not have regular periods, and the doctor said there was a possibility of premature ovarian insufficiency (p. 9, 43 y).

Another participant who had regular periods for 27years, stated:

Suddenly, I did not have another period. I went to the doctor. I had an ultrasound and found that I no longer had an ovum (p. 3, 46 y).

A number of participants did not experience menstruation at puberty and had primary amenorrhea, or spotted only once.

One participant that had a spontaneous POI, said:

I did not menstruate at all from the beginning, like my sister (p. 1, 30 y).

Following changes in hormone levels, participants experienced some degree of menopausal complications.

One of the participants who had POI following treatment of cancer, said:

Dry uterus bothers me a lot, especially during sex (p. 10, 46 y).

Another participant who had POI for 10years, stated:

It was very hard at first. In particular, flushing much annoyed me (p. 11, 44 y).

The other participant had POI with an autoimmune disease origin and had one live child with successful spontaneous pregnancy, said:

Premature ovarian insufficiency reduced libido (p. 8, 35 y).

This issue was the main concern of most participants and one of the main complaints of participants with POI was infertility.

A participant who had underwent chemotherapy for cancer treatment in 2008 and had lost her fertility for 11years, said:

I did not know before, but when I inclined to have a baby, I later realized that POI result to infertility (p.2, 4 y).

Another woman who had divorced due to have a 17-year-old history of infertility and remarried, stated:

When I did ultrasound check for infertility, the report showed that my ovaries are very small like as ovaries in menopause women (p.12, 43 y).

Due to decreased levels of estrogen in afflicted women, some of them reported conditions like loss of beauty, wrinkling of the skin and decreased feeling of youth.

One participant, who had been suffering from premature ovarian failure since the age of 22 and for 10years, said:

My first concern was this: I was no longer beautiful (p.16, 34 y).

The other participant that is pregnant currently with donated egg, said:

Eventually you f1eel the changes in your body. For example, you notice wrinkles on your skin (p.9, 43 y).

One participant that had POI for 13years, stated:

Although I am 37years old, I do not feel young I feel aging and I am old (p.13, 38 y).

POI occur in women is less than 40years old, while the normal age of menopause in women is 4555years. Hence the acceptance of POI for participants was accompanied with psychological reactions.

This main category consists of three subcategories [anxiety reaction, mood reaction, agitation in the selection of childbearing] as following:

Participants experienced an onslaught of negative emotions after being diagnosed with POI by a physician, including feelings of despair, depression, a sense of aging, and shock from menopause.

A participant who had POI since the beginning of her marriage and for 5years said:

When it told me to get menopause, I tried for traditional medicine but, due to that was not successful, I was disappointed (p.7, 37 y).

Another participant expressed:

At that time, when I realized my problem, I became depressed and thought that I was the only one. It had a great effect on my mood (p.1, 30 y).

A participant told in despair:

Because I dont have children, I be early menopause, that is, I got oldThese are other signs of aging (p.4, 46 y).

Another participant, who had POI since the age of 22 and had been struggling with it for 12years, said:

I really didnt expect such a thing at all. I was planning to have a planned pregnancy. But the exact opposite happened. The shock was so great it was the biggest shock of my life I have ever experienced (p.16, 34 y).

Popular reactions in afflicted women with POI were included: feeling of uncertainty of future conditions, fear of disease outcome, feeling eternal problems [eternal infertility] negative effect on mood and weakness of the nerves.

One of the participants expressed with surprise and confusion:

I have no idea about the future. I'm very confused. I dont know what will happen to me (p.4, 42 y).

Also part of the conversation with a participant was as follows:

I think more about the fact that this [pregnancy] may never have happened to me (p.14, 27 y).

Another participant said:

Premature ovarian insufficiency makes me angry quickly. I'll get mad soon (p.10, 46 y).

A participant told:

I am worried that I will not have any problems after the age of 40. I am afraid of the consequences of this disease (p.2, 34 y).

Considering that the options available to solve the problem of infertility in women with POI are currently limited and unfortunately there is no definitive treatment for female infertility in these women and the issue of cell therapy is being researched on animal models and do not use so far on humans, the only options offered to couples are the use of donated egg and adoption. Nevertheless, some participants opposed to accept them. If a participant commented on the issue of donated egg as follow:

I think to myself about the baby Because the egg is not mine, I am afraid I will not feel like a mother when she was born. Also she continue:

I must convince myself about this pregnancy and deal with it (p.15, 43 y).

Spiritual aspects of donated egg were important for some participants.

A participant was concerned about this, saying,

I do not care if I conceive with the donated egg, but its religious issue is important to me. It bothers me a little (p.1, 30y).

Moreover, it was important for a number of participants to know that the donor be a familiar person.

A participant stated:

I'm happy to have an ovum from my sister rather than a stranger (p.2, 34 y).

Most participants expressed POI has disrupted the social aspects of their lives. Social isolation, having privacy, unconscious jealousy and seeking support are four subcategories that related to this main category and be explain as follows:

Patients stated that they were reluctant to be in public because of impatience, a tendency to be alone, and to become nervous about social relationships.

A participant said:

I'm not bored totally. I like to be at home, to be alone (p.13, 38y).

Most afflicted women tended to maintain their privacy for fear of being judged by others, the importance of hiding the problem of infertility and believing in the privacy of the subject.

Some of the statements of the participants are as follows:

It is important for us that the donated egg is kept secret. Because if I get a donated egg, I will not be my own child and I will not judge (p.6, 34 y).

This is a personal matter and has nothing to do with anyone (p.13, 38 y).

Some participants expressed a reluctance to associate with families that have children and they are jealous of pregnancies in others or seeing children.

If a participant that had POI for 26years, said:

I was upset when I saw that others had children and became pregnant. Because I have a problem getting pregnant myself (p.12, 43 y).

This issue was the most important item that as a motivation factor helped afflicted women not only to accept complicated condition but also to pursue infertility treatment seriously. According to participants, the support of husbands, family and friends helped to increase hope and reduce psychological threat to women. In the meantime, the supportive role of the husbands was very prominent for women, as one of the participants that had POI for 18years, said:

I am most supported by my husband. If he did not help me, I wouldn't be able to control the situation and control myself. He encourages me to continue my treatment and does not let me Disappointed. (p.5, 30 y).

Another participant stated:

My sister, like me, had an early menopause. He tells me you are young now. Get treated sooner. You get the result. She is very hopeful and encourages me (p.7, 37 y).

In most patients, POI had a negative effect on the couple's sexual relationship.

Due to changes in hormone levels, women experienced sexual function disorders such as dyspareunia, reduced libido, and anorgasmia. These factors caused women to worry about the stability of their married life and the instability in marriage that they formed two subcategories from three.

In contrast, a number of other patients reported that POI had no effect on their sexuality.

The third subcategory was the ambivalence sensations that all of them explained as follows:

The disease had a negative effect on sexual intercourse and sexual pleasure of affected women and on the other hand, sexual intercourse was important for the husband. As a result, a number of participants were concerned about the stability of married life.

A participant stated:

Before my problem, I had sexual desire, but now I do not have it at all, and this causes us to have sex more often with fights, and it has disrupted our relationship (p.10, 46 y).

Beside to decreased sexual satisfaction in couple, infertility also, leaded to some women felt insecure and worried about divorce. A few others threated to divorce from the spouse's family, and some be feared from their husband remarriage.

A participant said:

From the beginning of my marriage, I was stressed until now because I did not have children. My concern is to have children and that our marriage will fall apart (p.1, 30 y).

Another participant stated:

Now my mother-in-law can easily divorce me. She says either bring a child or we will divorce you (p.4, 42 y).

The cessation of menstrual bleeding on the one hand created negative feelings for the participants and caused a kind of psychological pressure on them, but on the other hand had different effects on the participants spouses such as sexual satisfaction and helping to improve sexuality. Moreover, in the context of Iran religiously, having sex during a woman's period is against the Sharia, some patients even said that their partners were delighted with stopping in their menstruation to have sex freely. Therefore, these conditions caused women had been had a dual feeling about the negative impact of POI on their sexuality.

One of the participants said:

My husband says how good I am. I am comfortable without a condom. No man is happier than me (p.5, 31y).

Another participant, who has been suffering from POI since the age of 22 and for 12years, said:

We are trying to cope with and we are trying to control and improve the condition ourselves. For example, we use lubricant for dyspareunia (p.16, 34 y).

Or another participant said:

My husband thought POI meant we could no longer have sex. But when he saw that we had no problem with sex, he said it didn't matter. The important thing is that we can have sex without any limitation (p.11, 44 y).

Follow this link:
Perceptions and experiences of women with premature ovarian insufficiency about sexual health and reproductive health - BMC Blogs Network

The CNNM/CorC family proteins are Mg2+ transporters that are widely distributed in all domains of life. In bacteria, CorC has been implicated in the survival of pathogenic microorganisms. In humans, CNNM proteins are involved in various biological events, such as body absorption/reabsorption of Mg2+ and genetic disorders. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the Mg2+-bound CorC TM domain dimer. Each protomer has a single Mg2+ binding site with a fully dehydrated Mg2+ ion. The residues at the Mg2+ binding site are strictly conserved in both human CNNM2 and CNNM4, and many of these residues are associated with genetic diseases. Furthermore, we determined the structures of the CorC cytoplasmic region containing its regulatory ATP-binding domain. A combination of structural and functional analyses not only revealed the potential interface between the TM and cytoplasmic domains but also showed that ATP binding is important for the Mg2+ export activity of CorC.

View post:
Structural basis for the Mg2+ recognition and regulation of the CorC Mg2+ transporter - Science Advances

It's Valentine's Day, when couples all over the world planspecial dinners and dessertsto "get in the mood," as it were. Indeed, in the Western World, our sole holiday celebrating love and romance has its own concomitant food culture: chocolates, strawberries, oysters, caviar and red wine are all intrinsicto Valentine's Day menus because of their reputation for being aphrodisiacs meaning food that can, supposedly, make one feel more amorous.

The idea that some food or drink are aphrodisiacs dates back millennia: The ancient Greeks believed in the sensual power of pomegranates, truffles and garlic; the ancient Roman poet Ovidrecommended everything from eggs to "honey from MountHymettus" (a range in the Athens area) to get into the mood; and the medieval philosopher St. Thomas Aquinasargued that meat and red wine could produce the "vital spirit."And Americans seem to believe that certain foods enhance the mood:after all, Americans on average buy roughly 58 million pounds of chocolate in the week leading up to Valentine's Day.And though the idea of aphrodisiac food is widespread, is there any science to it? Do certain foods really make us feel more horny, or romantic?

As it turns out, they do. Nutrition experts say that aphrodisiacs do have some science to them, although that doesn't mean that there are foods which automatically heighten sexual desire.

"Food can act as an aphrodisiac in several ways,"Dr. Lauri Wright, spokesperson for the US Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and associate professor at the University of North Florida, told Salon by email. "Some foods relax blood vessels and improve blood flow to the genitals, similar to Viagra. Foods that increase blood flow include red wine, dark chocolate, strawberries, beef, walnuts and avocado. Individuals that don't have compromised circulation won't see any changes from consuming these foods."

She added that, in the case of foods like chocolate, caviar and oysters, which pop culture has accepted asaphrodisiacs,"there is no scientific evidence to support" the belief that they are,and "in fact, no evidence has shown that there is any food that heightens sexual desire." She said that "one 'food'that has been shown to increase sexual arousal is alcohol, by decreasing inhibitions. The downside however is alcohol can decrease sexual performance."

Likewise, there is a psychological component to certain foods acting as aphrodisiacs that is complimented by the way our bodies naturally respond to them.

"Typically things that become associated with sex or as aphrodisiacs are either foods that are very sensual so that the sight, touch, smell and taste are enticing. I would probably put strawberries kind of in that category,"Dr. Nan Wise, a sex therapist and behavioral neuroscientist, told Salon. "They stimulate the senses which can stimulate desire, but I would not call them scientifically anything that is actually an aphrodisiac." Wise also noted that foods can mentally have an aphrodisiac effect, regardless of their actual chemical properties, because they look like things that reminds us of sex in other words, acting as subtle psychological hints.

"Things like oysters look a little bit like a vulva, so anything that looks like a genital has been associated historically with sex," Wise explained. "Things that look like penises or in some waylike female genitalia that have been associated with sex by looking like that. People make the connection with that, but that's not aphrodisiacs." She said that in history sometimes have people taken this more literally, such as when cultures have eaten animal testicles because they are related to reproduction.

"The idea of something being reproduction-related is sensual or exotic," Wise told Salon, adding that "caviar fits both of those categories."

There are some studies which claim to have discovered aphrodisiac qualities in certain herbs.A 2013 study in Pharmacognosy Reviews found that ambrein, a major ingredient in the Arab aphrodisiacAmbra grisea, "contains a tricyclic triterpene alcohol which increases the concentration of several anterior pituitary hormones and serum testosterone." The same study found that Panax ginseng, which is used as an aphrodisiac in traditional Chinese medicine, "works as an antioxidant by enhancing nitric oxide synthesis" in erectile tissue in the genitals.

A 2018 studyin theJournal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research also identified Panax ginseng as a useful herb in helping sexual dysfunction, noting that the same is true of "Cannabis sativa L." and a number of other herbs.

Martha Hopkins, co-author of "Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook,"told Salon that there is another psychological way in which food can heighten arousal: The mere fact that you put the thought into preparing someone a meal that you believe they will enjoy and find to be romantic.

When cooking an "aphrodisiac" meal, it is "truly the thought that counts," Hopkins told Salon. She said that most partners feel flattered and turned on byseeing their partners do an elaborate task for them, like cooking, regardless of outcome of the food or ingredients.

Still, the scientific jury is out on whether so-called aphrodisiacs have more than a minimal effect. A 2011 scientific reviewthat analyzed multiple studies into aphrodisiacs concluded that "although most studies showed positive effects of aphrodisiacs on sexual enhancement, more studies are needed to understand their mechanism of action. . . . The need for clinical trials using larger populations is also evident to prove the effectiveness of aphrodisiacs for human use."

Clinical trials aside, the human mind is complex, and humans can be turned on by all sorts of things unrelated to physiological stimuli. If a food seems to put you and your partner in the mood and doesn't hurt anyone, have fun with it.

"I think it really speaks to human beings having a desire to have a desire for sex and mixing up a whole lot of stories... [we] invest in certain substances with the power to turn this on giving the substances the power of the belief," Wise told Salon.

Excerpt from:
The science behind aphrodisiacs - Salon

One year after its emergence, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become so widespread that there is little hope of elimination. There are, however, several other human coronaviruses that are endemic and cause multiple reinfections that engender sufficient immunity to protect against severe adult disease. By making assumptions about acquired immunity from its already endemic relatives, Lavine et al. developed a model with which to analyze the trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 into endemicity. The model accounts for SARS-CoV-2's age-structured disease profile and assesses the impact of vaccination. The transition from epidemic to endemic dynamics is associated with a shift in the age distribution of primary infections to younger age groups, which in turn depends on how fast the virus spreads. Longer-lasting sterilizing immunity will slow the transition to endemicity. Depending on the type of immune response it engenders, a vaccine could accelerate establishment of a state of mild disease endemicity.

Science, this issue p. 741

See more here:
Immunological characteristics govern the transition of COVID-19 to endemicity - Science

The New York Times

When reports emerged that a new, potentially more contagious version of the coronavirus was circulating in Britain, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York implored major airlines to require anyone entering the state from another country to first submit a negative coronavirus test. Scientists still had much to learn about the variant, but Cuomo was following a principle that has become scripture among public health experts: To defeat the coronavirus, you must act quickly. You cannot wait for certainty to arrive.

Today, we know much more about not only B.1.1.7, the so-called U.K. variant, but also several other variants that have since emerged. For instance, we know that B.1.1.7 is more contagious than its known siblings and that it is already in New York and other states. Experts warn that if not addressed carefully, B.1.1.7 could become the dominant version of the virus in the United States in a matter of months.

In light of this knowledge, Cuomos plan to reopen New York City restaurants for indoor dining Sunday, at 25% capacity and to soon relax other strictures, like those for weddings is baffling.

This is a precarious moment in the fight against the coronavirus in the United States. Case counts are declining. The death rate is slowing down. The country finally has a president who takes the crisis seriously. The vaccination rollout has been a bumbling mess, but the situation is improving, and it will get better still: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been activated to help administer shots, the Food and Drug Administration could authorize a third vaccine for emergency use by the end of this month, and President Joe Biden is partnering with clinics in underserved communities to correct for early vaccination inequities.

In the meantime, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pleading with the American public to strengthen its resolve on measures to reduce viral spread, like physical distancing, mask wearing and avoidance of settings where the virus is likely to spread most easily think a restaurants dining room or a large, indoor wedding. The CDC is also asking state leaders not to let up on closings and restrictions just yet.

Too many leaders not just Cuomo are ignoring that call. Massachusetts and New Jersey are allowing businesses, including restaurants, to expand capacity for indoor services, and Iowa just lifted its mask mandate. The impulse behind these moves is understandable. Restaurants and the people who earn their living through them are in dire straits because they have not received sufficient government assistance. State and local economies are hanging by a thread, and everyone is exhausted by restrictions and desperate to return to some semblance of normal life.

But the number of people who get sick or die from COVID-19 in the coming year will depend on the outcome of a desperate race thats underway, between human vaccination and viral mutation. State leaders should consider the dynamics of that race before they change course. Mutation is a function of viral reproduction, which is a function of viral spread. That is, the more the virus is allowed to pass from one person to the next, the more it is able to mutate. And the more it mutates, the greater the chances that it will evolve into something that is even more transmissible, or even less susceptible to existing vaccines, or even deadlier than the virus already is.

By relaxing restrictions now, state and local leaders are undermining their own vaccination efforts. To get a sense of what this looks like to scientists and public health experts, imagine a military general leading the fight against a foreign enemy and then selling that enemy deadly weapons on the side.

Its not just their own efforts they are undermining. They are also thwarting their citizens who have been making collective sacrifices all along. Average people have spent the better part of the past year waiting for leaders to take charge. America finally has those leaders in place at the national level, but the nation needs better and more consistent leadership on this issue at the state level.

The decisions those leaders make in the coming weeks will determine whether America will finally crush this pandemic, or whether the pandemic will be allowed to crush America all over again.

The New York Times Editorial Board

See the original post here:
Editorial: The wrong time to ease restrictions - The Register-Guard

A gathering body of evidence has indicated that the Earths magnetic field is one of the likeliest solutions toadult birds develop a navigational map thats helps them migrate

Every year, billions of songbirds migrate thousands of miles between Europe and Africa and then repeat that same journey again, year after year, to nest in exactly the same place that they chose on their first great journey.

The remarkable navigational precision displayed by these tiny birds as they travel alone over stormy seas, across vast deserts, and through extremes in weather and temperature has been one of the enduring mysteries of behavioural biology.

We know that birds buffeted by winds so much that theyre significantly displaced from their migratory route are able to realign their course if theyve already performed one migration.

This has suggested that birds navigational abilities, some of which is built around a sense of compass direction, includes a mechanism for finding their way back home from parts of the world theyve never before visited.

Now, our new study of Eurasian reed warblers has found that this remarkable ability involves a magnetic map that works like our human system of coordinates.

Surprisingly, our study found that these birds understand the magnetic field of places thousands of miles into territory theyve never before visited suggesting some birds could possess a global GPS system that can tell them how to get home from anywhere on Earth.

Mind maps

Its long been known that adult birds develop some sort of navigational map to help them migrate. How they do this has remained controversial. Several cues have been proposed as guides for migratory birds including odours, infra-sound, and even variations in gravity.

However, a gathering body of evidence has indicated that the Earths magnetic field is one of the likeliest solutions to this mystery. It has been suggested that different parameters of the Earths magnetic field could form a grid, which birds follow, of north-south and east-west lines.

Thats because magnetic intensity (the strength of the magnetic field) and magnetic inclination (the angle formed between the magnetic field lines and the surface of the Earth, also called the dip angle) both run approximately north to south.

Magnetic declination the difference between the direction to the magnetic north pole and the geographical north pole provides the east-west axis.

Despite largely agreeing that certain birds navigate via the Earths magnetic field, scientists havent worked out precisely what sensory apparatus they use to detect it or whether multiple systems are used to detect different parameters of the field. Other animals, like turtles, can also sense the magnetic field, but the same uncertainties apply.

Read more: Migrating birds use a magnetic map to travel long distances

Regardless, if birds have learned that magnetic intensity increases as they go north, they should be able to detect their position on the north-south axis wherever they happen to be. Similarly, if they experience a declination value that is greater than anything theyve previously experienced, they should know theyre further east. On this basis, the theory is that they can calculate their position on the grid and correct their orientation.

This would mean that birds essentially navigate using a system similar to our Cartesian coordinates the basis of modern GPS navigation. If this coordinates theory is accurate, it would mean that birds should be able to use their knowledge of magnetic field parameters to estimate their location anywhere on Earth through the extrapolation or extension of their navigational rules.

To date, however, there has been no clear evidence that birds can use the magnetic field in this way. But our new study on the migratory Eurasian reed warbler or the Acrocephalus scirpaceus is the first to show clear evidence that they can in fact do this.

Untrue north

To prove the coordinates theory, we used a technique called virtual displacement. We tested birds orientation behaviour by placing them in a small cage called an Emlen funnel. When a bird tries to fly from the cage, it leaves scratches in the direction its trying to fly towards.

Remarkably, we found that this corresponded to the direction that it would be trying to migrate in the wild, which we know from previous experiments. To test whether birds plot their course from takeoff using magnetic fields, we put the Emlen funnels inside a Helmholtz coil a device that allows us to change the nature of the magnetic field in the immediate vicinity of the bird.

In doing so, we created a virtual displacement. The bird does not move: It is tested at the site where it is captured, with all other variables remaining the same apart from the magnetic field, which we changed to match a location far to the north east of their normal range. We chose the location so that it would be far beyond any magnetic field the warblers would have previously experienced.

Only if the birds were able to map their location based on the magnetic field around them would they recognise their displacement and indeed they did, shifting their takeoff to fly in the wrong direction in the real world, but the right direction in the magnetic world wed created around their Emlen funnels.

Winging it

While this cue may be relevant for reed warblers and other migratory songbirds, it is by no means the only navigation system used by birds. Other birds, including seabirds and homing pigeons, have been shown to require olfactory cues (scents and smells) to navigate. At this stage, we dont understand the reason behind these different preferences.

And, while we are closer to understanding the mystery of how birds navigate using magnetic cues, it still remains something of a mystery as to how they sense the magnetic field. Its been suggested that birds sense magnetic values through a light-sensitive molecule called cryptochrome, or through sensory cells containing magnetic iron oxide particles, but definitive evidence for either of these has not yet been provided.

However, behavioural evidence continues to underscore how the Earths magnetic field is crucial in helping some birds make their epic journeys to breed each year, providing a global positioning system that might just provide birds with a complete navigational map of the world.

Richard Holland, Professor in Animal Behaviour, School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University and Dmitry Kishkinev, Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Behavioural Neuroscience, Keele University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.

Continued here:
Birds use massive magnetic maps to migrate and some could cover the whole world - Down To Earth Magazine