High TMAO level predicts CV events in patients with ACS Healio ... a nutrient found in meat and eggs, is known to predict incident CV event risk in stable patients, but its effect on patients with ACS was unknown, Stanley L. Hazen, MD, PhD, chair of the department of cellular and molecular medicine in the Lerner ... |
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High TMAO level predicts CV events in patients with ACS - Healio
This weeks features include: Genetic and epigenetic diversity in cancer; epigenetics is the new buzzword in beauty; and the long-lasting impact of chemotherapy.
Im not suggesting that you shouldnt use chemo. In fact, I would suggest that you probably should use the chemo. Im just saying that there are some preventative things that may need to be put in place before you use the chemo if possible.
Michael Skinner, a professor in the WSU School of Biological Sciences and Center for Reproductive Biology
Genetic mutations are a root cause of cancer. But your cells dont just pick up a mutation and turncancerous. In fact, a cell can rack up numerous mutations and not pose adanger. There is no set number of mutations that must be registered, but ratherthe trigger point depends on what genes are affected and in what cell type (among other factors). From person to person, tumors can show a wide range of genetic diversity, even among people with the same affected tissue type and stage.
Overall childhood cancers seem to have a much lower level of genetic diversity, puzzling researchers. One example is Ewing sarcoma (EWS), a bone cancer found mainly in teenagers. Asingle genetic defectthe EWS-ETS fusiondefines most tumors, and overall they are similar genetically, which is perplexing because progression and prognosis can vary drastically from patient to patient. A recent study, published inNature Medicine,found that EWS tumors have a striking level of epigenetic diversity, which may explain theses observed differences.
Researchers at CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences found that EWS tumors have a striking amount of hypomethylation (a process that generally leads to the product of a gene, generally a protein, being produced in an excessive amount) on the disease-defining genetic defect. Furthermore, patients with metastatic EWS show even more alterations in methylation. This finding could help physicians identify which patients are at risk for poorer outcomes.
Maybe shes born with it, maybe itsMaybellineor maybe its epigenetics? Thecosmetics industry is beset by faddish claims that various products and tests can help make your skin younger and restore itsnatural tautness by harnessing the power of epigenetics. One company, Mibellebiochemistry group, claims that a protein calledroyalactin, derived from bees, can induce epigenetic changes in human skin cells that accelerate epidermal regeneration for smoother skin, activates the cellular cleaning process and reveals a more evenly toned skin. Another, Geneu,says they can make a customized serum by looking at your unique epigenetic and genetic profile that will enhance your skins beauty.
Thescience behind these claims is shaky at best. Epigenetic changes are made onto DNA and change the activity of certain genes. But skin cells dont have active DNA. They slowly fill up with keratin, lose their DNA and die. So a cream thattargets geneexpression in the skin is highly unlikely to affect your skins age. Unless you grow crows feet from worrying about your bank account as one of Genus tests can run you $2,200.
Chemotherapy is not perfect. Anyone who has gone through it can tell you it is a miserable process. There are a number of adverse effects that can be severely debilitating: Nausea, fatigue, pain, GI distress, hair loss, vomiting, fever, chills and rashes, and the list goes on. Most of these side effects are short-lived and if the drugs works, the results are pretty fantastic.
But for a number of chemical critics, these adverse demonstratea far-reaching conspiracy by the pharmaceutical industry to keep us sick so they can bleed us of every last dime. (I wont link to any activist sites, but the links are easy to find.)
These baseless and outrageous claims cloud chemotherapy and make it difficult for doctors and scientists to seriously discussions with patients its long-lasting impact for fear a patient will elect an alternative (and ineffective) treatment.
A recent study published inPLOS Oneby Washington State University epigeneticist Michael Skinner highlights this struggle. Skinner found that chemotherapy changed methylation patterns in the sperm of men, which could affect gene expression during any of theiroffsprings development. The study is backed up by previous research onrodents, and Skinner saidhis results are very reproducible. But hismain concern seems to be how his findings might be misrepresentedby activists:
Im not suggesting that you shouldnt use chemo. In fact, I would suggest that you probably should use the chemo. Im just saying that there are some preventative things that may need to be put in place before you use the chemo if possible.
If alterations on the genomes of sperm are found to affect a mans children, it is not proof of a conspiracy by industry to harm patients; nor is it a reason not to undergo chemotherapy. Theymerely indicate that young males with cancer may need to discuss with their physicians about taking precautionary steps to ensure that, after they receive this life-saving medicine, they can still have a healthy family. One example would befreezing their sperm before receiving their first round of treatment.
This weekly roundup of the latest studies and news in the field of epigenetics originated on our GLP sister site, the Epigenetics Literacy Project
Nicholas Staropoli is thedirector of the Epigenetics Literacy Project.He has an M.A. in biology from DePaul University and a B.S. in biomedical sciences from Marist College. Follow him on Twitter@NickfrmBoston.
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The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) appointed Raul A. Urrutia as director of the Human and Molecular Genetics Center and professor of the Department of Surgery, effective July 1.
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Wauwatosa 4:17 p.m. CT Feb. 9, 2017
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The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) appointed Raul A. Urrutia as director of the Human and Molecular Genetics Center and professor of the Department of Surgery, effective July 1.
Urrutia currently serves as professor in the departments of biochemistry and molecular biology, biophysics and medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesotaand director of epigenomics education and academic relationships in the epigenomics program, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine.
Urrutia will relocatefrom Rochester, Minnesota, with his wifeGwen Lomberk, who will serve as associate professor, chief of the division of research, and director of basic research in the MCW Department of Surgery.
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Medical College of Wisconsin names director of Human and Molecular Genetics Center - Wauwatosa Now
Oscar Wilde once said Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. If you have ever wanted to see this statement in action, look no further than the Whisper app. Whisper allows you to post messages completely anonymously into a sea of other anonymous people both nearby and worldwide. Its an intriguing concept for sure, but does it deliver a worthwhile experience? Lets dive in.
Developer: WhisperText LLCPrice: Free Download: Google Play/iOS
Whisper has you set up a profile when you first begin. Now, this is unlike any other profile setup Ive seen before because its 4 questions long.
Location is set by location services on your phone. Usernames have no restrictions, even allowing you to keep it blank, and multiple people are allowed to use the same username, so in my attempt to stay anonymous, my use of the username anonymous completely blends in with the hundreds of others who use it too. Gender is optional, age range is optional. Location I have heard can be disabled but I couldnt find a way, so I simply denied it permission to location services so my location is just set as somewhere. Jumping into settings allows you to set notifications preferences. Thats all there is to it. No pictures to set, youre not locked into giving your e-mail address, and your username or any settings can be changed on a whim.
The appstarts off with a Most Popular page, which is a great jumping off point. All posts that make it to this main page have hundreds of thousands of likes and comments. Posts here range from posts that will make you lose faith in humanity and redeem your faith again, stories of random acts of kindness to love lost, and everything in between. One swipe to the left will show you various groups based on both location and general interests where people can make posts about specific subjects. If your location is set, one swipe to the right of the main screen will let you see all posts that are nearby your location starting with the most recent. Finally, there is an All option to the right of local that, as you guessed it, shows all posts from everywhere.
Writing posts is not only easy, but its kind of fun too. Hitting the big + button near the bottom of the screen brings up a text box that lets you write your post. Once you write something, Whisper then reads your post and searches for a background picture or short looping video that matches your post. In my experience, the words that it picks to search for pictures with isnt always the subject of the post, so sometimes the pictures it tries to have you pick from are a little random, but there is a place for you to enter your own search terms and select from a large library, or you can upload your own images. All your posts are saved on the app so you can look at all youve posted but its all locked under a pin that you set so everything is secure from private eyes, even if they have your phone.
Theres a chat built right into the app so you are able to either reply directly to posts or if things are going to become more personal (or intimate) you are able to start one on one chats with people. Its in these chats that your gender and age are revealed if set, so thats something to keep in mind if youre worried about people knowing this information. There are an equal number of users that reveal info and that keep it all private so its easy.
There are loads of posts by guys who only want to chat with women (which is fine), some who want to only dirty chat with women (which is a little creepy), and some who want to cheat on their spouses and/or pay for pictures and sexual acts (eww). Obviously, these kinds of things all depend on which direction your moral compass points, but for me personal, I was not at all a fan of these posts. Fortunately, there are about a hundred posts for every one or two of these, but with dedicated groups for these posts, they definitely do exist.
With the ability to be anonymous, you get people posting some of their darkest secrets and insecurities. Occationally youll run across a post discussing issues such as suicide. Obviously this is a very serious issue, and the team at Whisper handles this like a champ. If a post could be considered of a deeply depressed or suicidal in tone, the app will direct people to a collection of people to listen or professional help. Ive run across several posts where people have thanked Whisper for reaching out and have credited the app with saving their lives because they were very serious about their intentions and being able to get the help they need changed their lives. Its a brilliant feature and has literally changed lives.
Ive been a user of Whisper for about 6 months now, and Ive got to admit that its quite the guilty pleasure for me. Youll find posts that are happy, sad, angry, excited, and everything in between. Set your options just right and post literally anything on your mind. It can be a lot of fun anda liberating experience where you can be free to speak your mind about anything to anyone on there. I highly recommend this app as one to at least play with for a week, and you might find that it becomes a daily addiction.
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Whisper Share Secrets, Speak Your Mind, Stay Anonymous ( Review) - AndroidGuys
Its an urban myth that Valve hates 3s. The beloved studio has taken us up to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal 2, Left4Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and DOTA2, but it can can never quite bring itself to complete a trilogy. This week, though, the company announced that its breaking that curse in a way; its currently working on three VR games.
Thats enough to get anyone thats been playing games over the last five to 20 years very excited. Over that period, this developer has released some of the most celebrated and popular games of all time, including pretty much all of the above. More recently, its turned its attention to VR and built the SteamVR system seen in the HTC Vive, as well as The Lab and Destinations. Weve long wondered when Valve would combine its brilliant new hardware with its famed game making skills for a more robust experience, and now we know its really happening. One of these three could be Valves killer app.
But what is Valve actually making?
Thats the real question here, and one that well go mad thinking over in the coming weeks and months. Were expecting at least one of these games to be revealed this year but, until it is, were all going to be guessing as to what the studio is working on. Lets get our thoughts in order.
This is probably the safest bet for at least one or two of these games. VR gives developers a whole new set of tools to play with and, while we desperately want to see some Valve franchises in VR, it makes more sense to build a universe from the ground up, or at least a new property in the existing Half-Life/Portal-verse. You shouldnt turn your nose up at that thought; all of Valves celebrated series had to start somewhere. Think about how incredible the first Portal was, and then imagine if they could pull that off again in VR.
At first we thought these were the least likely sequel options out of Valves stable of IP, but then we recalled the early days of the Oculus Rift, when development kit owners tried TF2running on the headset. I also remembered that Valve recently invited the developer of one of VRs most popular online FPSs, Onward, to work at their studio over January, seemingly legitimizing their belief in the genre. Could TF3 really be in the works?
DOTA2 already has some basic VR integration, but it doesnt allow you to actually play the game. While wed love for DOTA3 to fully support headsets, theres no reason for Valve to make the sequel while this MOBA remains so popular, and certainly not restrict its popularity. But it could still put the series colorful cast of characters to work in VR with a spin-off adventure. Theres a lot of potential there we hope theyll explore.
Its been a long time since we had a new entry in the Left4Dead series, unless you count the arcade installment that hit Japan a few years back. VR is the perfect venue for its return although, frankly, weve seen a lot of shooters that try to distill the series intense combat into a stationary experience. If Valve is making L4D3 in VR, wed want it to be the full experience with full locomotion. How could they possibly pull that off? Thats up to Valve to solve.
Valve assures us that these new games will be full experiences, but that doesnt mean one couldnt build on the world(s) it established in its free minigame compilation. The Lab still features some of the most compelling mechanics in VR and, if the company were to build some of these into fullgames, they could definitely create something compelling.
Personally, Id bet that this is one of the three games; a trailer for the HTC Vive last year seemed to drop a pretty big hint that a Portal VR game was in the works. Weve had a glimpse into what the mind-bending world of Portal can look like in mixed reality, but the potential for an amazing VR experience is almost too good to pass up. Imagine more intricate puzzles that have you sticking arms and heads through multiple portals to solve challenges. Theres a lot of great opportunity here. There is a solid but short VR mod for Portal 2to tide you over in the meantime.
There, we said it. Dont shoot the messenger.
Tagged with: Half Life, portal, Team Fortress, The Lab, valve
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The Big Question: What Are Valve's Three VR Games? - UploadVR
The smartwatch, an everything-plus-the-bathroom-sink approach to packing technology into something you wear on your wrist, is dying.
Fortunately, something much better is coming in its place: the smart watch.
Typically, one would refer to this as a natural evolution, but tech writing diehards seem so set on killing off the smartwatch, I figured its best to let them have their way.
So yes, technophiles, the smartwatch is dead, poke its over-sized, short-battery-life corpse with your toe and then move along to write about the death of virtual reality or how 3D TVs are the next big thing I just have to buy.
For the rest of us, something interesting is happening in the world of wearables: The ability to make things you want to wear smarter is getting easier and the people creating this intelligent jewelry are becoming more adept.
What that means is that the general purpose, relatively unfocused smartwatch is evolving to become a watch that is smart.
If youre into the outdoors, you might pick up the latest watch from Casio or Garmin, both packed with features designed specifically with the avid hiker or camper in mind. If youre a runner, maybe the watch from New Balance is for you. Just need a few notifications sent to your wrist? Check out the stylish watches from Timex and Fossil.
And as of this week, if youre really into retro gaming, you should check out the Gameband, a watch that essentially serves as a micro console on your wrist. When it launches it will include 10 games like Asteroids, Tempest 2000, Battlezone and Missile Command all playable on the device, and the ability to upload more.
Soon, I suspect, there wont be a major watch creator in the world that doesnt have some smart features built into some of its watches. And thats a very good thing.
Dont get me wrong. If you, like me, also adore the feature rich, over-sized look and abilities of a general smartwatch, Im sure those will stick around too. But I suspect well see less and less of them as companies like Samsung, LG and Apple start to define the uses most important to their users.
Just this month, Google introduced the latest version of Android Wear, an update to the software that runs Android-powered watches. That update brings with it a massive shift in the direction of the watch which essentially frees it from the phone.
We also learned this month that the Apple Watch, according to one research company, accounts for about half of all smartwatch sales. That same company, Canalys, estimates that Apple shipped 11.9 million smartwatches last year.
While the smartwatch isnt ubiquitous yet, a 23.8 million person market isnt exactly small either.
A key to Apples success with its watch last year, according to Canalys, was a sharper focus on the fitness market. That same report shows that companies like FitBit and Chinas Xiaomi are seeing a surge in popularity for their fitness-focused smartbands.
Its not that fitness is the silver bullet for smartwatches, its that these device makers are trimming away the things they see their users not needing and sharpening the ones they most use.
Focus, not GPS, massive battery life or cell service, is the most important feature in the next wave of smart watches.
Good Game is an internationally syndicated weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Brian Crecente is a founding editor and executive editor of Polygon.
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MobiHealthNews, Healthcare IT News, and HIMSS are accepting speaker proposals for the inaugural Precision Medicine Summit, June 12-13 in Boston.
The deadline for submitting a proposal is 5 pm, Friday, Feb. 17, 2017.
Click here to submit a proposal and for more information.
This event will give attendees a valuable state of the industry for precision medicine. Over two days, speakers will discuss the current state of precision medicine, the ultimate goal, and what the healthcare industry must to do reach that goal.
Audience and speakers will include a mix of clinicians, health IT professionals and researchers at academic medical systems, hospitals, physician practices, government andacademic institutions.
Session proposals should focus on how healthcare organizations are using precision medicine to deliver targeted, personalized care. Specific topics could include: the vendor and reimbursement landscapes, ethical issues, building data bases, managing unstructured texts, privacy and security, data use and migration, among others.
Case studies are a priority for this event.
Originally posted here:
Call for Presentations: HIMSS Precision Medicine Summit - MobiHealthNews
Updated: Feb 10, 2017 - 12:17 PM
Thousands of dog owners worldwide blame a popular flea killer for harming their pets.
Jim Strickland, a consumer investigator at our sister station in Atlanta, has obtained records showing dog owners believe the drug is connected to hundreds of pet deaths.
The medication is called Bravecto. It's a dog chew so powerful that one dose can kill fleas and ticks for three months. Pharmaceutical giant Merck says it's safe and effective, but the number of dog owners who think otherwise is growing.
"I believe that Bravecto killed my dog," Donna White of Buckhead, Georgia told Strickland.
When Strickland asked why, she said, "That's the only thing I changed his entire life."
In an email to Strickland, a Merck spokesperson said they've dispensed 34 million doses and that reports of serious adverse events are very rare, less than .01 percent.
We spoke with the FDA about how theyre handling the complaints and whether or not theyll take any action. Watch the story on KIRO7 News at 5 p.m. on Friday or online athttp://kiro.tv/LiveNews
2017 Cox Media Group.
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Dog owners blame popular flea medicine for pets' deaths - KIRO Seattle
Strokes and heart attacks often strike without warning. But, a unique application of a medical camera could one day help physicians know who is at risk for a cardiovascular event by providing a better view of potential problem areas.
A new paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering reports proof-of-concept results for this new imaging platform for atherosclerosis.
The camera actually goes inside the vessels, says first author Luis Savastano, M.D., a Michigan Medicine resident neurosurgeon. We can see with very high resolution the surface of the vessels and any lesions, such as a ruptured plaque, that could cause a stroke. This technology could possibly find the smoking gun lesion in patients with strokes of unknown cause, and may even be able to show which silent, but at-risk, plaques may cause a cardiovascular event in the future.
The scanning fiber endoscope, or SFE, used in the study was invented and developed by co-author and University of Washington mechanical engineering research professor Eric Seibel, Ph.D. He originally designed it for early cancer detection by clearly imaging cancer cells that are currently invisible with clinical endoscopes.
The Michigan Medicine team used the instrument for a new application: acquiring high-quality images of possible stroke-causing regions of the carotid artery that may not be detected with conventional radiological techniques. The team worked with senior author Thomas Wang, M.D., Ph.D., who is at the forefront of novel imaging platforms. Wang is professor of internal medicine, biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, and is the H Marvin Pollard Collegiate Professor of Endoscopy Research.
The team generated images of human arteries using the SFE, which illuminates tissues with multiple laser beams, and digitally reconstructs high-definition images to determine the severity of atherosclerosis and other qualities of the vessel wall.
In addition to discovering the cause of the stroke, the endoscope can also assist neurosurgeons with therapeutic interventions by guiding stent placement, releasing drugs and biomaterials and helping with surgeries, Seibel says.
In addition, the SFE uses fluorescence indicators to show key biological features associated with increased risk of stroke and heart attacks in the future.
The ability to identify and monitor the biological markers that render a plaque unstable and at risk for rupture could enable the detection of individuals within high-risk populations who are most likely to suffer from cardiovascular events, and therefore benefit the most from preventive treatment during the asymptomatic stage, says B. Gregory Thompson, M.D., professor of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan Medical School and a senior author on the new paper.
In addition, plaque-specific data could help physicians modulate treatment intensity of atherosclerosis, which is currently based on systemic surrogates such us cholesterol and blood sugar levels and occurrence of cardiovascular events such as stroke or myocardial infarction.
All research is in the pre-clinical phase.
Scanning fiber angioscopic images with red reflectance for structural images (left) and blue fluorescence for label-free biochemical contrast (right). Images demonstrate multiple atherosclerotic lesions with very low fluorescence in the blue spectrum in comparison to the surrounding healthy artery.
Additional authors: Quan Zhou, Arlene Smith, Karla Vega, Carlos Murga-Zamalloa,David Gordon, Jon McHugh, Lili Zhao, Michael M. Wang, Aditya Pandey, Jie Xu, Jifeng Zhang, Y. Eugene Chen and Thomas D. Wang.
Funding: Cerebrovascular Research Award, Joint Section on CerebrovascularSurgery of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and National Institutes of Health (U54 CA163059, R01 706 EB016457, R01 HL129778, R01 HL117491 and R01CA200007).
Disclosure: Seibel participates in royalty sharing with his employer, the University of Washington, which has ownership of patents that may gain or lose financially through this publication.
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Posted 10 February 2017 By Michael Mezher
The head of Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), Tatsuya Kondo, on Thursday released a paper discussing his vision for a patient-centric, regulatory science-driven and evidence-based system for medicine in Japan.
"'Rational Medicine' is the idea that a patient-centric system should be createda system under which optimal medical care from the patient's point of view, which is based on the latest scientific knowledge, is providedfrom the perinatal to the final stages of life," says Kondo, who has served as PMDA's Chief Executive since 2008.
To move toward that ideal, Kondo says PMDA will focus its efforts in four key areas:
After its founding in 2004, PMDA struggled to keep up with other major regulators, and was consistently behind the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the time it took to review new drugs.
However, in recent years, PMDA has made significant strides toward reducing review times, and in 2014, following the introduction of its "Sakigake" designation system for accelerating access to innovative drugs, PMDA surpassed both FDA and EMA in median review times for new drugs.
"[PMDA] will strive to further shorten review times in 2017 through active use of the Sakigake designation system," Kondo says.
As part of its regulatory science efforts, Kondo says PMDA's Science Board will focus on three areas in 2017: better methods for assessing clinical studies for rare drugs, identifying areas of research that "bottleneck" drug development and looking into the use of artificial intelligence technologies in medicine.
Kondo also says PMDA is working to launch a dedicated Regulatory Science Center in 2018.
"This center will actively promote 'Rational Medicine' in collaboration with medical practitioners and academia, working on the basis of regulatory science. Its goal will include the formulation of guidelines to encourage the optimal use of novel medical products with innovative mechanisms of action," Kondo says.
Also in 2018, Kondo says PMDA hopes to make its database for real-world safety data fully operational. According to Kondo, once fully operational the Medical Information Database Network (MID-NET) will be made available to drugmakers and other third parties for use in postmarket surveillance activities.
PMDA
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PMDA Head Talks Priorities for 'Rational Medicine' - Regulatory Focus
Dr. Neil Haycocks twists and turns the 3-D image to review the head and neck CT scan from a variety of angles.
Even without being a doctor, its easy to tell from the clear, virtual image that the man has suffered a serious injury.
I dont know exactly what happened to this person, but my guess is that they were struck with some sort of blunt object, Haycocks said as he pointed out a fractured mandible and a depressed bone.
As he sliced through the patients skull to further examine his injuries, Haycocks demonstrated a crucial benefit to the virtual anatomy tables at UNLVs new School of Medicine the ability to examine a patient without destroying vital organs.
With a touch of a button, the skull was whole again.
The touchscreen tables, which replace cadavers that would be found in a traditional anatomy lab, are just one example of the innovative curriculum the first class of 60 students will encounter when they set foot in the school on July 17.
THE BACKBONE
UNLV wont be the first school to use anatomy tables.
But its the schools commitment to teaching the subject that sets it apart, according to Dr. Ellen Cosgrove, vice dean for academic affairs and education.
Weve decided to make the virtual anatomy the backbone and the framework of our anatomy instruction, she said.
Haycocks, who learned human anatomy in a traditional lab, said cadaver dissection is limited in its educational benefits.
You spend hours cutting through tissues, trying to find this or that, Haycocks said. Sometimes its well preserved, and sometimes it isnt. Sometimes you accidentally destroy whatever it is youre looking for, and sometimes youre just lost you never find out whats going on. Its a very lengthy and time consuming process.
Haycocks previously taught at a college where he oversaw a cadaver lab. He said that he loved working with the students and seeing their reactions as they cut open a human body.
Thats enjoyable for me at least, but its really inefficient, he said.
The technology can display images of the body from a variety of perspectives and angles, including 2-D cross-section and 3-D rotation.
With a slight tap, Haycocks lit up the screen with millions of tiny blue channels, illustrating a patients veins.
And in terms of instruction, virtual anatomy is beneficial because everyone gets the same information. Its also less time consuming and costs much less than a traditional cadaver lab, which runs upward of $10 million.
If you talk to most people who teach anatomy nowadays, they would agree, perhaps grudgingly, that in well under 100 years, nobody is going to cadaver dissection anymore, Haycocks said.
COMBATING INERTIA
Haycocks sees several benefits from a curriculum standpoint, but he also points out a few flaws to the system.
For me, the main disadvantage is that you dont have that first patient experience with a real human body, he said.
Given that a first patient often resonates with students, others in the medical community might also question the virtual anatomy approach.
A lot of education in general, and medical education in particular, theres a lot of inertia, Haycocks said. Things have been done a certain way for the last 150 years, and by God, the faculty had to do it a certain way so theyre going to make the students do it a certain way.
Haycocks said a fourth-year elective is in the works that would give students the opportunity to learn at a month-long boot camp to become an autopsy technician.
If you want to practice cutting human tissue without any of the rules of surgery, its hard to beat someone who died the day before, Haycocks said.
Cosgrove said it might take a student in a traditional lab an hour of dissection to view a particular nerve and what path it takes.
At UNLV, students will be able to go through several virtual anatomy stations that have specific learning objectives with problems for them to solve.
At the end of the two hours, you emerge from that experience with a wealth of information, she said.
Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.
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UNLV medical school brings a virtual touch to anatomy studies - Las Vegas Review-Journal
Editors note: This article was originally published January 22, 2014
The appointment of the first dean of a medical school is always a big deal. And so it was Tuesday when the University of Texas named Clay Johnston the founding dean of the Dell Medical School. This story details the appointment.
For those involved in the years-long effort to establish the medical school, the news conference in the Main Buildings ornate Room 212 was an occasion for hugs, smiles and reflection. UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa was a case in point.
Cigarroas father, Joaquin Cigarroa Jr., graduated from UT and went on to Harvard Medical School. The chancellor said the realization that the Austin campus would finally have a medical school brought tears of joy to his father, who, by the way, still practices medicine in Laredo at the age of 89.
Cigarroa noted that discussions regarding a medical school began in 2003, involving James Huffines, then chairman of the regents, and Kenneth Shine, then executive vice chancellor for health affairs. But it was state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who carried the plan across the goal line among other things, helping to persuade Travis County voters during bumpy economic times to approve a property tax increase to help fund the medical school.
Senator Kirk Watson has been that quarterback, Cigarroa said, and he can certainly throw a pass.
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UT chancellor reflects on long effort to establish a medical school - Austin American-Statesman
The Wayne State University School of Medicines American Medical Association chapter hosted a discussion panel including five local medical leaders and their thoughts about the current state of health care and its future.
The five speakers included, Dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Jack Sobel, Plum Health Direct Primary Care founder, Dr. Paul Thomas, Senator of Michigans seventh district, Patrick Colbeck, Health Officer for the City of Detroit and Executive Director of the Detroit Health Department, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Michigan Urgent Care founder in 1998, Dr. Mohammed Aiswala.
Each panelist discussed their concerns with our countries healthcare system where the typical issue of cost arose. The panelists agreed that, generally, every citizen is concerned with the high price of healthcare which sometimes leaves part of our population living without a healthcare plan, simply because they can not afford it.
Senator Colbeck proposed that a free market system would reconstruct healthcare and contribute to its availability becoming cheaper because companies could then personally determine how much money to charge for specific healthcare plans without government and insurance company middle-men. He explained that there would be an increased interaction between those providing healthcare and those needing healthcare, which would help clarify the price.
On the opposing side Dr. El-Sayed said that a free market healthcare system is not the route we should take. He said that all markets fail because there is a lack of control and the actual issue with healthcare is deeper. He described that no amount of healthcare given to a patient can change the environment they live in.
He specifically pointed to residents in Detroit, saying that you can tell a patient to eat healthier, exercise better and pay more attention to their health, but that will not change the fact that they live in an environment so close to emissions of industrial pollution.
El-Sayed said he believes the solution is to promote and create healthy lifestyles and environments as acts of healthcare throughout life, not just when its called upon.
Addressing the price issue, Dr. Thomas explained his efforts to combat expensive healthcare with his direct primary care services and said that a major issue is there is no transparency within prices in medicine.
We cant compare quality and we cant compare prices, he said.
He described how there is no fixed rate for medicine and medical treatment. Within his practice he tries to keep healthcare affordable by only using whole sale medications and at-cost labs with no additional fees as a small solution to the greater problem.
Bringing a whole new perspective to the table, Dr. Sobel said that a major issue with healthcare today is the lack of primary care physicians. He described that although many medical students have intentions to be primary care physicians, the student debt they endure can not fairly be paid with that salary. As a reaction, students become specialists instead, so they can afford to pay their school debt.
Sobel explained that a specialist can make $500,000 or more annually, where primary care physicians make only $100-$200,000 and their help is both cheaper and more immediate, but it is now scarce.
The healthcare system is not meeting our needs, Sobel said, and he explained that the solution is not an impossible one. He said universal healthcare could be made possible, but we will have to pay higher taxes, which is a low price for the betterment of society.
Among these different points, each panelist agreed that a clear solution is hard to see amongst all of these insurance companies, deductibles and co-pays, but the first step is to spread information and awareness about the aspects of our public healthcare, so we can build a stronger plan for the future.
View original post here:
WSU Med School hosts state of healthcare panel - The South End
Two prospective UMass Medical School hires have been caught in the immigration ban.
Two post-doctorate hires at the UMass Medical School who were expected to start work within the next month are among those caught in the limbo of the federal immigration ban.
The prospective research lab workers, both now in Iran, have applied for visas but are caught in a process that has been put on hold for 90 days, said Jennifer Berryman, the school's vice chancellor for communications.
President Trump's immigration ban seeks to bar entry to the United States by those from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa. UMass Medical School has 15 employees from each of the seven countries listed in the ban: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Berryman said there isn't much the school can do while legal challenges to the ban play out. The school has an immigration services office to help coordinate any necessary paperwork for employees, she said.
The medical school isn't the first in Worcester to have someone affected by the ban.
A Worcester Polytechnic Institute student from Iran, Benham Partopour, was briefly unable to get into Massachusetts until finally getting a flight into Boston, MassLive reported earlier this month. WPI has 35 students from the immigration ban's seven affected countries.
Read the original here:
Two UMass Medical School hires caught in immigration limbo - Worcester Business Journal
Let's celebrate a small victory for economic freedom, which, as the great Milton Friedman was wont to point out, is essential to political freedom. It is now legal in Arizona to get paid to give a horse a massage without having, first, acquired a license to practice veterinary medicine.
Last spring, The Weekly Standard reported on efforts, both legislative and litigious, to cut back the kudzu-growth of occupational licensing in the Grand Canyon State (see "Licensing Arizona" by Eric Felten, April 18, 2016). For all its wild west heritage and one-time Goldwater conservatism, Arizona long ago fell into the habit of requiring ridiculous (and often expensive) state-sanctioned licenses to work, barriers used by various trades to keep out the competition. Gov. Doug Ducey, working with free-market-oriented state legislators, pushed for a law removing a handful of these barriers. They failed to remove license requirements for landscape architects, but had better luck freeing the economic prospects of citrus-packers, driving-school instructors, and yoga teachers.
Occupational licenses afflict states across the country, blunting the employment prospects of people who would like to work. There are at least a thousand occupations that one or another state regulates. And as equine masseuse Celeste Kelly found out the hard way, her occupation is one. The Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board sent her cease-and-desist letters demanding that she go to veterinary medical school and obtain a license as an animal doctor or be fined $1,000 for every horse she massaged.
Lawyers for the Institute for Justice have been litigating Kelly's case since 2014 and now have finally won a consent judgment. The veterinary board agreed to stop enforcing the state's ridiculous rules against animal massage "practitioners."
Now if somebody can just do something about the licenses Louisiana requires of retail florists.
The rest is here:
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S. government-funded news organization, has cut funding forThe Interpreter magazine, an online publication that has critically covered Russia.
Michael Weiss, a Daily Beast senior editor who also serves as editor-in-chief of The Interpreter, told The Huffington Post that RFE/RLs management made the decision to stop funding the magazine last fall,before Donald Trumpselection victory.
While RFE/RL stopped paying Weiss three-person team for The Interpreter at the end of December, following the conclusion of a one-year contract, the news organization agreed to continue paying them for work onPolygraph.info, a new fact-checking and propaganda debunking site launched with Voice of America.
Weiss was recently informed that his team would not get another contract for 2017 for work on Polygraph, but agreed to a short-term deal through the end of February. After that, the Interpreter staff can potentially freelance for the new site.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Though the decision to cut funding predated the 2016 election, the timing of it only adds to concerns over how U.S. government-supported outlets such as RFE/RL and VOA will cover Russia during a Trump administration.
Congresspassed legislationin December giving the president the authority to select a chief executive to lead the stable of U.S. government-funded networks, which have a budget of about$750 million and typically cover regions where there isnt a strong independent press. That month, Politicoreportedon fears within government-funded media that Trump could use the outlets for his own propaganda purposes and that the president and his allies could change the agencys posture toward Russia.
Such concerns stem from Trumps and his teams embrace of Russia.Trump has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. He recentlyechoedPutins claims that the Russian president hasnt backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine, despite evidence to the contrary. Several of Trumps former aides have been investigated over their ties to Russia, and national security adviser Michael Flynn reportedlydiscussed sanctions with Russia before Trump took office and amid the fallout from Russian hackers targeting Democratic officials during the election.
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were founded in the mid-20th century to counter Soviet propaganda by broadcasting into Americas Cold War rival and its satellites, with the two organizations later merging in the 1970s. In recent years, Putin hascracked down on the Prague-based outlets ability to broadcast in Russia, and previous RFE/RL managements havesignificantly cutits staff working in Moscow.
In January 2016, RFE/RL announced it would be funding The Interpreter,which had been launched three years earlier by the Institute of Modern Russia, a think tank funded in part by the family of exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The news didnt go over well with some in Russia, evident by an op-edin the Kremlin-backed RT: American state media partners with neocon smear blog: RFE/RL falls from the moral high ground.
An RFE/RL spokesman told HuffPost that the original content-sharing arrangement with The Interpreter was for one year, and expired at the end of December 2016.
In the meantime, RFE/RL is having to address financial pressures resulting from the current federal funding situation, the spokesman said, noting theres the potential for further rescissions to our budget in this fiscal year. The spokesman pointed out that the organization just launchedRussian-language digital TV channel Current Time and hasundertaken other efforts to be responsible to changing needs in the region we serve.
The budget for The Interpreter was about $120,000 a year, according to Weiss. The site has three staffers managing editor James Miller as well as Catherine Fitzpatrick and Pierre Vaux, who each serve in a translator and analyst position and also publishes outside contributions. Weiss said new leadership of RFE/RL expressed some concern last fall about funding a publication for which they didnt have editorial control, but also continued supporting the project for several more months and hadnt objected to its coverage.
The Interpreter has continued publishing without financial support, though Weiss hopes to remedy that.
Well, the nice thing about running a shoestring operation is that its usually not very hard to keep it going while youre in search of new string, Weiss told HuffPost. My guys have never really done this for the money if they had, boy did they get into the wrong line of work. It was always because they gave a shit. And the success of The Interpreter far exceeded our expectations.
Since 2013, The Interpreter had been translating articles from Russian news sources, along with publishing original reporting and analysis. The site critically covered Russias annexation of Crimea, its backing of separatists in Ukraine and the countrys shifting diplomatic relationship under Trump.
We literally wrote the book on Kremlin disinformation and propaganda, which is why whenever I hear the term weaponization applied to media, refugees, emails or tweets, I laugh, Weiss said. Were the only resource that has catalogued every event of significance in Ukraine, every day, since protesters got shot in Kiev. At the very least, its been gratifying to see that what we were saying and writing three years ago about the threat posed by Putin has now become the conventional wisdom.
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See original here:
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Stops Funding Magazine Critical Of Russia - Huffington Post
Heres news that ought to shake small-o orthodox Christians out of their complacency regarding the future of the church in America:
The majority of Americans who identify as religious say they favor allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry and oppose policies that would give business owners the right to refuse services to same-sex wedding ceremonies, according to data compiled by the Public Religion Research Institute.
Last Friday, the Washington, D.C.-based polling firm released a new analysis drawn from interviews with 40,509 Americans throughout 2016 for PRRIs American Values Atlas.
The data, which has an error margin of less than 1 percentage point, finds that the majority of only three religious demographics white evangelical Protestants, Mormons and Jehovahs Witnesses said they oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally.
While 58 percent of Americans said they support same-sex marriage, 61 percent of white evangelical Protestants, 55 percent of Mormons and 53 percent of Jehovahs Witnesses signaled that they oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, which happened in 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage, making it legal nationwide.
By comparison, only 28 percent of white Mainline Protestants and white Catholics, 25 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 30 percent of Orthodox Christians said they oppose allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry.
In the story, the conservative Methodist Mark Tooleysays that the PRRI poll misstates what is actually at issue regarding small business owners. Nobody has sought the right to avoid selling to or otherwise serving gay customers. The disputes have all been specifically about participating in same-sex weddings. Its an important distinction, but I think had the question been phrased more precisely, the outcome would not have been any different.
Anyway, read the whole thing.A few things about the data stand out to me:
First, religion has been no bulwark against being assimilated into the worlds views on fundamental principles of Christian cosmology (i.e., how reality is constituted), Christian anthropology (i.e., portrait of what man is) and morality. As I explained earlier, the gay marriage issue is what revealed the weakness of Christianity in our culture: the gay-rights cause has succeeded precisely because the Christian cosmology has dissipated in the mind of the West. Excerpt:
[I]ssex the linchpin of Christian cultural order? Is it really the case that to cast off Christian teaching on sex and sexuality is to remove the factor that givesor gaveChristianity its power as a social force?
Though he might not have put it quite that way, the eminent sociologist Philip Rieff would probably have said yes. Rieffs landmark 1966 book The Triumph Of the Therapeutic analyzes what he calls the deconversion of the West from Christianity. Nearly everyone recognizes that this process has been underway since the Enlightenment, but Rieff showed that it had reached a more advanced stage than most peopleleast of all Christiansrecognized.
Rieff, who died in 2006, was an unbeliever, but he understood that religion is the key to understanding any culture. For Rieff, the essence of any and every culture can be identified by what it forbids. Each imposes a series of moral demands on its members, for the sake of serving communal purposes, and helps them cope with these demands. A culture requires a cultusa sense of sacred order, a cosmology that roots these moral demands within a metaphysical framework.
You dont behave this way and not that way because its good for you; you do so because this moral vision is encoded in the nature of reality. This is the basis of natural-law theory, which has been at the heart of contemporary secular arguments against same-sex marriage (and which have persuaded no one).
Rieff, writing in the 1960s, identified the sexual revolutionthough he did not use that termas a leading indicator of Christianitys death as a culturally determinative force. In classical Christian culture, he wrote, the rejection of sexual individualism was very near the center of the symbolic that has not held. He meant that renouncing the sexual autonomy and sensuality of pagan culture was at the core of Christian culturea culture that, crucially, did not merely renounce but redirected the erotic instinct. That the West was rapidly re-paganizing around sensuality and sexual liberation was a powerful sign of Christianitys demise.
Second,the churches that have a deeper cosmology the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox are doing farworse in forming the understanding of their people in America than are Evangelicals. Look at the appalling numbers for white Catholics. Allthose culturally conservative Hispanic Catholics on whose backs some conservative Catholics think a more faithful American Catholicism will be built? The overwhelming majority favor same-sex marriage. Same with Orthodox Christians.
Somebody will eventually say in the comments thread that if the survey had focused on people who actually go to church, the numbers would look more favorable for Christian traditionalists. Probably so, but I dont think they would be that much more favorable, and even if they were, doesnt this just go to show that Christianity is dissipating as we move farther into post-Christianity?
Third, the data show that only a slight plurality (44 percent) of American Muslims oppose same-sex marriage. Is that not remarkable? Such is the power of American popular culture.
Fourth, these results show why the GOP Congress and President Trump are not likely to do anything substantive to protect the religious liberty of believers who dissent from LGBT orthodoxy. Though its the right thing to do, doing it would not be popular. In fact, it would tar Congressmen and senators with the scarlet letter of bigotry (bigotry), and for no political gain. Trump, who favors gay marriage, doesnt really care aboutreligious liberty, and despite campaign promises to the contrary, certainly wont endanger the things he does care about for the sake of taking a politically unpopular stand.
Hes promising to throw EvangelicalChristians a bone by pushing for a repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which prevents churches from openly endorsing political candidates, or risk losing their non-profit status. As Tom Gjelten explains, it has been rarely enforced, but if it were to be repealed, it would have a massive impact on church fundraising for political candidates and in turn, for the politicizing of religion.
I think its a terrible idea, and will corrupt the churches if it goes through. Besides, this is not remotely the kind of legislation that churches need right now. We need real religious liberty legislation, like the First Amendment Defense Act.In fact, last fall, Trump said on his campaigns website that if Congress passes FADA, he would sign it.I doubt he will do that, but the GOP-led Congress should test him on it.
Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have promised to re-introduce FADA in the Senate. Rep. Ral Labrador says he will do the same thing in the House. Watch what happens over the next month or so on this front. If a Republican-led Congress will not pass FADA and send it to the presidents desk, thats game, set, match, at least on the legislative front (well see what courts do later). Look at the poll numbers on this issue, though, and its hard to see any political upside to them doing so. Religious liberty advocates would have to depend on GOP politicians having the courage to stand on principle, even when it might cost them.
Fifth and finally, these data show where the culture is going on the issue. We small-o orthodox Christians have lost on sexuality, which led to our loss on homosexuality, which led to our loss on same-sex marriage, which is leading to our loss on gender and the natural family and which, if Mary Eberstadt is right, will lead to the loss of religious faith. From my forthcoming book The Benedict Option:
The fate of religion in America is inextricably tied to the fate of the family, and the fate of the family is tied to the fate of the community. In her 2015 book How The West Really Lost God, cultural critic Mary Eberstadt argues that religion is like a language: you can learn it only in community, starting with the community of the family. When both the family and the community become fragmented and fail, the transmission of religion to the next generation becomes far more difficult. All it takes is the failure of a single generation to hand down a tradition for that tradition to disappear from the life of a family and, in turn, of a community. Eberstadt is one of a long line of religious thinkers to recognize that when concrete embodiments of the relationship to God crumble, it becomes very hard to hold on to Him in the abstract.
Eberstadt makes a powerful case thatwe acquire religion not like information in a classroom, but more like apprentices to a craftsman. That is, we learn it by doing it, in community, most especially the community of the family. You lose the family, she contends, and you eventually lose God in all but the most nominal sense. Perhaps this is why the Bible presents to us as normative and binding what we have come to call traditional marriage.
These things do not occur in isolation. Things are connected.You might think you can pick and choose what to believe, based on your personal preferences. And yes, maybe some of these things dont really matter in the long run. Maybe. But something as fundamental to Biblical religion as sexuality and the family indeed, something as fundamental to the human experience as those things cannot easily be changed without tectonic results.
The die is cast for American culture. Christians who are traditionalists on matters related to sexuality and the family are going to be tarred as bigots and pushed to the far margins of society. We are going to have to decide which matters more:social acceptance and material prosperity, or fidelityto the truth. Ultimately, it means having to decide between shoring up theAmerican imperium, or creating new forms of community within which orthodox Christianity can survive.
Originally posted here:
For Church, Gay Rights Trump Religious Liberty - The American Conservative
BEDFORD With the Liberty girls basketball team up by two points with 15 seconds remaining, a personal foul was called that sent Jefferson Forests Lindsey Arthur to the line.
After the personal foul call, Liberty was assessed a technical foul for disputing the foul call.
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Its about a different refugee crisis than the one we face now, but its every bit as relevant.
In recent days, the Statue of Liberty has been reproduced across multiple social and print media as a national symbol in opposition to the Trump administrations aggressive ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations. The lines, Give me your tired, your poor /Your huddled masses are repeated as an established principle of U.S. identity: that we are a nation of hospitality.
At this current political juncture, its informative to return to the context from which the oft-repeated lines spoken by the Statue of Liberty are abstracted: Emma Lazaruss The New Colossus (1883). By returning to the late nineteenth century, we can recognize the poem as a form of political art at a time when nationalist xenophobia reigned against a different immigrant group.
The Statue of Liberty, we all learn in elementary school, was a gift from the French people to the United States in honor of the two nations shared values of liberty and democracy. At its unveiling on October 28, 1886, Liberty Enlightening the World was the tallest structure in New York City, standing at 305 feet. Her torch surpassed the height of the Western Union Telegraph Building (230 feet), the Brooklyn Bridge towers (282 feet), the Tribune Building (282 feet), and even the Trinity Church steeple (286 feet). The statues enormity was central to its design, as conceived by the French sculptor Frdric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904).
Although the statue was a gift, what was not gifted was the pedestal upon which the Statue would be erected. In 1885, a year before the statues unveiling, Bartholdi wrote The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World to help raise funds for the pedestal. The sculptor compared his statue to other great monuments from antiquity, including the Egyptian pyramids and the most celebrated colossal statue of antiquity . . . the Colossus of Rhodes. Bartholdi intended his statue to be compared to previous wonders of the world. In fact, when the Statue of Liberty was completed in 1885, Bartholdi boasted that the famous Colossus of Rhodes . . . was but a miniature in comparison.
Bartholdi was a brazen architect seeking to make a grand impression on human history. In contrast, Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) was an emerging political poet whose objective was not self-inflation, but rather, about addressing the need of a then contemporary refugee crisis. In order to help raise funds for the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund, Lazarus penned the sonnet The New Colossus for auction. Although the poem did help raise money, it was largely forgotten almost immediately afterwards. However, seventeen years after the statues unveiling, Lazaruss poem was rescued from obscurity by her close friend, Georgina Schuyler, who launched a campaign to have the poem memorialized on a bronze plaque inside the statues base.
In the 1886 unveiling ceremony for The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, President Grover Cleveland officiated and proclaimed to the massive crowd gathered to witness the spectacle: We will not forget that Liberty has made here her home . . . . Reflecting thence and joined with answering rays, a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and mans oppression until Liberty enlightens the world. Seventeen years later, however, when Lazaruss poem was added to the interior wall of the pedestal, there was neither commemoration nor speech to mark the event. In fact, not one New York newspaper even reported about the poems addition to this national symbol.
Although today the poem is calcified in our political imagination, Lazaruss sonnet should be recognized as a progressive poem that radically refigures Bartholdis vision. In contrast to Bartholdis boastful declaration that his colossal statue was the greatest of all time, Lazarus begins her poem with a negation: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,/With conquering limbs astride from land to land (my emphasis). Whereas Bartholdi positioned his statue as quantitatively greater than its ancient predecessors, Lazaruss poem removes the statue from this competitive context and instead, refigures the statue into something qualitatively different. In Lazaruss refiguration, the statue becomes a monument to a new ideal: hospitality.
Rather than Bartholdis vision that his statue represents liberty, Lazaruss poem reworks the statues meaning. Not only does Lazarus refuse to use the word liberty in her poem, but what is more, Lazarus even refuses to use the name bestowed by Bartholdi, The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. Instead, Lazarus gives the statue a new name and a new meaning: Mother of Exiles. In Lazaruss reworking, the statue embodies the principle of hospitality that welcomes all dispossessed, displaced people from all over the world: From her beacon-hand/Glows world-wide welcome. This is the power of poetrythe ability to refigure, to re-trope, to change the way we see and feel.Over the course of the twentieth century, this poem, especially the last four lines, have become close to a national sacred text: We are a nation defined by our commitment to hospitality.
In her poem, Lazarus brilliantly makes the statue into an active presence, rather than an inert symbol. The Mother of Exiles actively intervenes on behalf of the oppressed. She breaks out of its architectural fixity and demands: Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses . . . The wretched refuse of your teeming shores . . . . The statue specifically addresses Europe, informing the continent that she willingly accepts all people who Europe deems to be garbage (wretched refuse). In contrast to Europes reified social hierarchy, the Mother of Exiles welcomes and embraces all refugees into the ever-expanding project of U.S. democracy, which is simultaneously a project of diversity.
Although Lazarus uses an abstract, non-descript language to describe refugees, the poems material context was a specific refugee crisis. On March 13, 1881, Czar Alexander II was assassinated by the Nihilists. When Czar Alexander III assumed the throne, he immediately blamed the Jews for the assassination of his father and six weeks later, horrific pogroms throughout Russia and Eastern Europe erupted, causing thousands of Jews to flee to Western Europe and America. The Times of London reported: these persecutions . . . these oppressions, these cruelties, these outrages have taken every form of atrocity in the experience of mankind, or which the resources of the human tongue can describe. Men have been cruelly murdered, woman brutally outraged, children dashed to pieces or burnt alive in their homes.
Omer-Sherman writes that when the first human cargo of Jewish migration from Russia arrived in New York in August of 1881, Lazarus was there to witness the grotesquely visible, nonassimilated products of the Galut. Lazarus responded with hospitality, care, and assistance. But many Americans assumed a different attitude: one of active hostility. Native Americans vehemently protested against these new immigrants because they were an ostensible threat to the nations security and sanitation.
Throughout New York, anti-Semitic outbursts reigned against the wave of Jewish immigrants. Zeniade Ragozin, for example, writing in the widely popular magazine Century, claimed that Jews are to blame for the pogroms against them. Ragozin repeats well-established, anti-Semitic tropes, calling Jewish people loathsome parasites who live together in unutterable filth and squalor. Ragozin calls Jews a threat to national health and security, labeling them a dangerous element able to spread all kinds of horrible and dangerous contagions.
In response to this burgeoning anti-Semitism and protests against Jewish refugees, Lazarus left her genteel world and began aiding the Jewish immigrants both through her writings and her actions. According to Josephine Lazarus, Emmas sister, the strong public protests against the Jews were a trumpet call that awoke the slumbering poet into political action.
In an 1882 letter written to her close friend, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (Nathaniel Hawthornes daughter), Emma Lazarus wrote: The Jewish Question which I plunged into so wrecklessly & impulsively last Spring has gradually absorbed more & more of my mind & heartIt opens up such enormous vistas in the Past and Future, & is so palpitatingly alive at the momentbeing treated with more or less ability & eloquence in almost every newspaper & periodical you pick upthat it has driven out of my thought all other subjects.
This letter, penned a year before The New Colossus, reads like an act of conversion. And this is how Josephine Lazarus preserved her sisters memory in an anonymous eulogy for Century magazine (1888), a year after Emmas death. Josephine said that her sister found her identity in 1882 when she witnessed the desperate plight of Jewish refugees. This encounter transformed Emma into an ardent activist who engaged poet.
Lazarus gave us a national ideal. Yet this ideal is frequently undermined and threatened by U.S. history. In fact, in 1882, while the Statue of Liberty was being built, the first federal immigration law was enacted which prohibited a specific ethnic group from entering and becoming citizens: The Chinese Exclusion Act.
Our ideals are marred by our history, but without our guiding ideals, what are we? And without ideals, what visions will guide us into the future?
Ryan Poll is a professor of English at Northeastern Illinois University and the author of Main Street and Empire: The Fictional Small Town in the Age of Globalization (Rutgers, 2012).
Sources
Bartholdi, Federic Auguste. The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. New
York Bound, 1984 (1885).
Bell, James B. and Richard I. Abrams. In Search of Liberty: The Story of the
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1984.
Kotler, Neil G. The Statue of Liberty as Idea, Symbol, and Historical Presence.
Making a Universal Symbol: The Statue of Liberty Revisited. Ed. Wilton
S. Dillon and Neil G. Kotler. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994: 1-16.
Omer-Sherman, Ranen. Diaspora and Zionism in Jewish American Literature.
Hanover: Brandeis University Press, 2002.
Pauli, Hertha and E.b. Ashton. I Lift My Lamp: The Way of a Symbol. Port
Washington, NY: IRA J. Friedman, Inc, 1969 (1948).
Trachtenberg, Marvin. The Statue of Liberty. New York: Viking Press, 1975.
Young, Bette Roth. Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters. Philadelphia:
The Jewish Publication Society, 1995.
Young, Bette Roth. Emma Lazarus and Her Jewish Problem. American Jewish History 84 (December 1996): 292-313.
Original post:
Matthew Bain , mbain@press-citizen.com 6:21 p.m. CT Feb. 10, 2017
West Liberty's Will Esmoil, right, and his older brother, Bryce, watch teammates wrestle in West Liberty on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)Buy Photo
Iowa wrestler Thomas Gilman said he wasrelaxed last Sunday when Minnesotas Ethan Lizak took an early 8-0 lead on him during the Hawkeyes dual in Minneapolis.
Bryce and Will Esmoil and their parents, Mark and Chari, were definitely not relaxed. They watchIowa duals together, and theysat anxiously in their West Liberty living room as Gilman appeared fallible on theTV screen.
Then, in an instant, Gilman seized control and pinned Lizak in the third period.
"Everybody was jumping up and down,"said Will, a freshman at West Liberty.
When it comes to wrestling, the Esmoils are quintessential Iowans. The sport runs in their blood. Mark Esmoil wrestled for Muscatine in the late 1980s. His brother, Matt, wrestled at West Liberty in the early 1990s. Chari Esmoils cousins, Chad and Todd Morrison, also wrestled in the '90s for West Liberty, and Chad was a state champ.
Now, the newest generation ofEsmoil boys is continuing the tradition. Bryce (37-2), a junior, is the No. 1 195-pounderin Class 2A, and Will (35-5) ranks third at 106. No. 5 West Liberty didn't qualify for the state dual team tournament, but, along with top-ranked 152-pounder Joe Kelly, the Esmoil brothers have legitimate shots for individualtitles if they can advance through the district tournamentthis weekend.
West Liberty's Bryce Esmoil tries to pin Monticello's Lake Stahlberg as they wrestle in West Liberty on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)
Watch the Esmoilsonce, and you'll notice theres some combativemotivation at playthe epitome ofsibling rivalry.
"Usually, when I do decent or good, he does good too,"Bryce said. "We try to better each other by wrestling, and proving each other wrong. Like, if he calls me a wimp or something, Ive got to go out there and prove myself. And if I do it to him, he goes out there and proves himself."
Added Jeff Wiele, West Libertys head coach: "The better either one of them wrestles, the other one comes out to outdo. I think it drives both of them to do better."
That competitive spirit has characterized Will and Bryce's relationship their whole lives,Chari Esmoil said.
The living room doubled as a wrestling mat and boxing ringsince both boys could walk except after 7 p.m., when roughhousingis strictly forbidden at home. The fights were neverexactlyfair. Bryce got the bulky Morrison genes and weighed about 100 pounds in kindergarten; Will inherited the Esmoilbody and topped out at50 pounds at the same age.
"We grew up wrestling together.We grew up fighting, throwing stuff in the house at each other,"Bryce said. "Just brothers. Just naughty kids. Moms always yelling at us."
But still, Will never backed down to a brother whodoubled him in size. He gave Bryce a black eye during a boxing match when he was 8 and Bryce was 11, and he recently beat Bryce at a West Liberty practice over winter break. There's a caveat: Bryce had to wrestle on his knees.
"I let him beat me,"Bryce said with a wry smile.
West Liberty's Will Esmoil wrestles Cascade's Nolan Noonan in West Liberty on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)
Today, the brothers spend lots of time with each other whether its at school, playing video games, hunting together ortradingnotes while watching Iowa wrestling at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Theyve grownnoticeably closer now that theyre on the same team, Chari Esmoil said. For proof, just watch Bryce during Wills matches. He'll be the guy in the blue Cubs shirt,hunched over off the edge of the mat, yelling and contorting his body as if hes wrestling out there with his little brother.
"Yeah, whos more nervous? I think Bryce is more nervous,"Chari Esmoil chuckled. "He always gets into the matches, and I think hes more nervous when his brothers wrestling than when hes out there wrestling. And I think Will would say the same thing.
"Theyre good kids. They love wrestling, and we love watching them. So the highs and the lows, well take them all.And hopefully they're growing from it."
West Liberty's Bryce Esmoil watches his brother, Will, wrestle Cascade's Nolan Noonan in West Liberty on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)
Wiele knows what its like to wrestle alongsideone'sbrother. He and his younger brother, Mick, grew up in West Liberty and wrestled together for the Comets in the late '90s and early 2000s.
Watching Bryce and Will reminds him of those high school days.
"Id say definitely our competitiveness (is similar),"Wiele said. "We always wanted to do good. And I think the way Bryce is with Will, I always wanted Mick to win and I think vice versa. He wanted me to win, and we were each others biggest fans."
But theres a key difference: Wiele and his brother never won a state title. Both Esmoils could.
Bryce placed third at 195 last year. Hes the favoritethis yearand probably will be in 2018, too. And Wills already got everything mapped out;he wants to make top three this year and then win three state titles over the next three seasons.
Collegeshave started expressinginterest in Bryce. Iowa and Iowa Statereached out this fall, and he visited South Dakota State around the same time. Will hasnt thought much about college athletics yet. Hes more worried about getting good grades and perhaps opening a chiropractor clinic with Bryce once they both graduate college.
Itsfair to say those two would probably compete to see who landed more patients.
Matthew Bain covers preps, recruiting and the Hawkeyes for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Des Moines Register and HawkCentral. Contact him atmbain@gannett.comand follow him on Twitter@MatthewBain_.
Originally posted here:
Sibling rivalry: West Liberty's Esmoil brothers push each other to success - Iowa City Press Citizen