Saturday 19 March 2016
box came but has not left
boxes to send my computer for repair came here and to my old location. The box to my former location was supposed to be cancelled. However my hosts have not gone anywhere that the courier will pick it up from yet. so still not many posts.
Wednesday 16 March 2016
Thursday 10 March 2016
moving - possibly no posts
I am moving with my broken computer because Costco says we can't have two different addresses. It will take at least two weeks to send it to fix and get it back. I don't know if I will have access to another computer in my new location.
March 7
March 7
| 322 BC | The Greek philosopher Aristotle dies.Le grand philosophe grec Aristote (384–322) sur la respirationdoi:10.1016/j.pneumo.2015.03.011 | |
| 161 | On the death of Antoninus at Lorium, Marcus Aurelius becomes emperor. | |
| 1838 | Soprano Jenny Lind (“the Swedish Nightingale”) makes her debut in Weber’s opera Der Freischultz. | |
| 1876 | Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for the telephone. | |
| 1906 | Finland becomes the third country to give women the right to vote, decreeing universal suffrage for all citizens over 24, however, barring those persons who are supported by the state. | |
| 1927 | A Texas law that bans Negroes from voting is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. | |
| 1933 | The board game Monopoly is invented. | |
| 1933 | The film King Kong premieres in New York City. | |
|
In Brief
Real King Kong may have been brought down by fruit
Gigantopithecus, a 3-metre-tall ape that lived during the stone age, may have been driven to extinction by eating fruit that contained little nourishment
Copyright © 2014 Published by Reed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved.
| ||
| Born on March 7 | ||
| 1872 | Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter, leader of the movement known as “de Stijl.” http://www.academia.edu/1900248/Mondrians_abstraction_chrysalis_or_colony_A_psychoanalytic_and_feminist_reading | |
| 1875 | Maurice Ravel, composer (“Bolero”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNjZQwsF9PI | |
MTSU Bridging Chinese Herbal Medicine with Tennessee Horticulture
http://www.murfreesboropost.com/mtsu-bridging-chinese-herbal-medicine-with-tennessee-horticulture-cms-43859
Wonderlife herb to go for clinical trials
"Wonderlife herb to go for clinical trials " - https://www.newsday.co.zw/2016/03/03/wonderlife-herb-go-clinical-trials-2/ via @NewsDayZimbabwe
The effects of garlic extract upon endothelial function, vascular inflammation, oxidative stress and insulin resistance in adults with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk. A pilot double blind randomized placebo controlled trial
Abstract
Background and aims
Endothelial dysfunction, vascular inflammation and oxidative stress have been integrally linked to the pathogenesis of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Aged Garlic Extract (AGE), a potent antioxidant, has been shown in previous studies to attenuate these novel risk factors in a non-diabetic population.
Aims
This study tested the hypothesis that AGE may improve endothelial function, oxidative stress, vascular inflammation and insulin resistance in high risk cardiovascular subjects with type 2 diabetes.
Methods
A double blind, placebo controlled crossover pilot study was performed in 26 subjects with type 2 diabetes who received 1200 mg of AGE or placebo daily for 4 weeks with a 4 week washout period. Plasma HsCRP was measured as a marker of inflammation. Plasma TAOS, blood GSH/GSSG and plasma LHP were measured as markers of oxidative stress/anti-oxidant defense. Insulin resistance was measured using the HOMA-IR method. Endothelial function was measured using change in the reflective index (RI) post-salbutamol using digital photoplethysmography and urinary albumin/creatinine ratio was measured as a biochemical surrogate. Measurements were taken at baseline and after intervention with AGE or placebo.
Results
Of the 26 patients studied (male 17, female 9), age was 61 ± 8 years (mean ± 1 SD), HbA1c 7.2 ± 1.1%, BP 130/75 ± 15.9/9.8 mmHg, total cholesterol 4.2 ± 0.81 mmol/l, triglyceride 2.11 ± 1.51 mmol/l, and HDL cholesterol 1.04 ± 0.29 mmol/l. The majority of patients were being treated with metformin (59%), aspirin (50%) and statin (96%) therapy. 36% were treated with an ACEI. There were no changes in these therapies throughout the study.
Treatment with AGE had no significant effect upon the above metabolic parameters including insulin resistance. Treatment with AGE also had no significant effect on markers of endothelial function (plethysmography), oxidative stress (TAOS, GSH/GSSG, LHP) or inflammation (HsCRP).
Conclusion
In this group of type 2 diabetic patients at high cardiovascular risk, 4 weeks treatment with AGE did not significantly improve endothelial function, vascular inflammation, oxidative stress or insulin resistance.
Keywords
- Diabetes;
- Aged Garlic Extract;
- Endothelial function;
- Oxidative stress;
- Vascular inflammation
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
CFP: Histories of Magic and Sex (Notches)
How have perceptions of magic shaped sexuality, love, and reproduction in the past?
“Bewitched,” “enchanted,” “spellbound,” “possessed” — the language of seduction and love is replete with allusions to magic. In the early modern period, magic and sexuality were deeply intertwined and there was a widespread consensus that humans were vulnerable to mysterious powers, especially when it came to their sex lives. For instance, accusations of love magic appear regularly in the records of the Mexican, Spanish, and Roman Inquisitions. Additionally, Renaissance scholars argued that imagination affected unborn children, forming an infant according to what its mother looked upon at the moment of conception. Amid deadly witch-hunts, anxieties about magic’s effects on fertility emerged in courts and churches. Magic haunted sexuality in innumerable ways.
NOTCHES: (re)marks on the history of sexuality is seeking short essays (1000 – 1500 words) exploring the history of magic and sexuality, for a special series to be edited by Mackenzie Cooley. Contributions may relate to any geographical area and must have a strong historical focus. Essays exploring the premodern and early modern periods and regions outside of Europe and the US are encouraged.
Possible questions for exploration include (but are not limited to):
- What was the relationship between magic and sexuality in the early modern period?
- Who deployed magical explanations of sexuality and who resisted these explanations?
- In what ways was magic linked to courtship, marriage, fertility, reproduction, and pleasure?
- How did magical explanations frame understandings of sexual norms and sexual variance?
Please review our style, image and citation guidelines here:www.notchesblog.com/write-for-notches.
- Submissions should be written for a non-specialist and international audience. Therefore, avoid jargon and use hyperlinks wherever possible to clarify terms or concepts that may be unfamiliar to a general readership.
- Include at least one relevant image for which you have obtained permission and caption your image with clear attribution information. We also welcome your use of a range of sources such as movies or sound files.
- Include a short author bio including hyperlinks with your submission.
Proposals and queries are very welcome. Send submissions to Mackenzie Cooley (macooley@stanford.edu) by May 15, 2016. All submissions to NOTCHES will go through an internal peer review process prior to publication.
Wednesday 9 March 2016
Four Artemisinin-Based Treatments in African Pregnant Women with Malaria
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1508606
Comments open through March 16, 2016- Abstract
- Article
- References
- Citing Articles (2)
- Comments
- Metrics
BACKGROUND
Information regarding the safety and efficacy of artemisinin combination treatments for malaria in pregnant women is limited, particularly among women who live in sub-Saharan Africa.METHODS
We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial of treatments for malaria in pregnant women in four African countries. A total of 3428 pregnant women in the second or third trimester who had falciparum malaria (at any parasite density and regardless of symptoms) were treated with artemether–lumefantrine, amodiaquine–artesunate, mefloquine–artesunate, or dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine. The primary end points were the polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR)–adjusted cure rates (i.e., cure of the original infection; new infections during follow-up were not considered to be treatment failures) at day 63 and safety outcomes.RESULTS
The PCR-adjusted cure rates in the per-protocol analysis were 94.8% in the artemether–lumefantrine group, 98.5% in the amodiaquine–artesunate group, 99.2% in the dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine group, and 96.8% in the mefloquine–artesunate group; the PCR-adjusted cure rates in the intention-to-treat analysis were 94.2%, 96.9%, 98.0%, and 95.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference among the amodiaquine–artesunate group, dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine group, and the mefloquine–artesunate group. The cure rate in the artemether–lumefantrine group was significantly lower than that in the other three groups, although the absolute difference was within the 5-percentage-point margin for equivalence. The unadjusted cure rates, used as a measure of the post-treatment prophylactic effect, were significantly lower in the artemether–lumefantrine group (52.5%) than in groups that received amodiaquine–artesunate (82.3%), dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine (86.9%), or mefloquine–artesunate (73.8%). No significant difference in the rate of serious adverse events and in birth outcomes was found among the treatment groups. Drug-related adverse events such as asthenia, poor appetite, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting occurred significantly more frequently in the mefloquine–artesunate group (50.6%) and the amodiaquine–artesunate group (48.5%) than in the dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine group (20.6%) and the artemether–lumefantrine group (11.5%) (P<0.001 for comparison among the four groups).CONCLUSIONS
Artemether–lumefantrine was associated with the fewest adverse effects and with acceptable cure rates but provided the shortest post-treatment prophylaxis, whereas dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine had the best efficacy and an acceptable safety profile. (Funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00852423.)
deadline for abstract submission for the 9th CMAPSEEC, 26 - 29 May 2016, Plovdiv has been extended to March 18th
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to inform you that the deadline for abstract submission for the 9th CMAPSEEC, 26 - 29 May 2016, Plovdiv has been extended to March 18th, 2016 upon the request many participants. If you plan to make oral presentation or poster presentation, and have not yet submitted your abstract, please do remember to submit it by e-mail to bankova@orgchm.bas.bg by March 18th, 2016.
Please do format your abstract according to the style of the sample abstract. For details please visithttp://cmapseec2016.cim.bg/
Best regards,
Vassya Bankova, PhD, DSc
Chair of the Organizing Committee,
9th CMAPSEEC 2016, Plovdiv
Chair of the Organizing Committee,
9th CMAPSEEC 2016, Plovdiv
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is my great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 9th Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast Europeann Countries – 9th CMAPSEEC, the biannual event organized by the Association for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries AMAPSEEC. The conference will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on 26 – 29 May 2016. As usual, although the title specifies the region of Southeast Europe, the Conference will be an international platform open to scientists from all over the world.
The scientific program focuses on the latest developments as well as the future outlook of all related aspects of MAPs, such as agriculture, botany, ethnobotany, herbal medicines, plant biotechnology, phytopharmacology, pharmacognosy, plant biology, phytochemistry, metabolomics. Selected papers will be published in Natural Product Communications after scientific evaluation. A rich social program throughout the conference will be also provided for informal interactions, including a fascinating tour to the Valley of Roses in the season of rose flowers harvesting.
The host city of the Conference Plovdiv is one of the oldest living cities in the world, a place of ancient history and modern research and innovation activities. Plovdiv was elected to be European Capital of Culture 2019.
Looking forward to seeing you in Plovdiv in 2016.
Vassya Bankova, PhD, DSc
Chair of the Organizing Committee
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is my great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 9th Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast Europeann Countries – 9th CMAPSEEC, the biannual event organized by the Association for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries AMAPSEEC. The conference will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on 26 – 29 May 2016. As usual, although the title specifies the region of Southeast Europe, the Conference will be an international platform open to scientists from all over the world.
The scientific program focuses on the latest developments as well as the future outlook of all related aspects of MAPs, such as agriculture, botany, ethnobotany, herbal medicines, plant biotechnology, phytopharmacology, pharmacognosy, plant biology, phytochemistry, metabolomics. Selected papers will be published in Natural Product Communications after scientific evaluation. A rich social program throughout the conference will be also provided for informal interactions, including a fascinating tour to the Valley of Roses in the season of rose flowers harvesting.
The host city of the Conference Plovdiv is one of the oldest living cities in the world, a place of ancient history and modern research and innovation activities. Plovdiv was elected to be European Capital of Culture 2019.
Looking forward to seeing you in Plovdiv in 2016.
Vassya Bankova, PhD, DSc
Chair of the Organizing Committee
The National Film Board chose International Women's Day to announce a gender-parity initiative that will see half of its productions and half of all money spent going to women directors.
NFB sets gender-parity initiative on International Women's Day
At least 50% of all productions and 50% spending will be allocated to films directed by women
CBC News, Mar 08, 2016; see full text at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/
The National Film Board chose International Women's Day to announce a gender-parity initiative that will see half of its productions and half of all money spent going to women directors.
Claude Joli-Coeur made the announcement at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival on Tuesday. Joli-Coeur, the head of the National Film Board, says it will take three years to implement the board's move to ensure gender parity in its productions. Progress can be monitored at at the NFB website ( . . . ) "In our current fiscal year, films directed by women represent half of our total spending on production. In 2016‒2017, the numbers are projected to be well above that."
However, he added, "numbers can fluctuate. There have been good years and lean years for women's filmmaking at the NFB. No more. Today, I'm making a firm, ongoing commitment to full gender parity, which I hope will help to lead the way for the industry as a whole." According to the news release, it will take three years to fully implement the move, which was sparked in part by a recent report authored by Women in View, a Canadian non-profit that works for gender parity in media both on screen and behind-the-scenes.
In a sample of 91 feature-length films produced in 2013–2014, the report found women represented only 17 per cent of directors, 22 per cent of writers, and 12 per cent of cinematographers. The film board is not far from its goal, the release says ( . . . )
At least 50% of all productions and 50% spending will be allocated to films directed by women
CBC News, Mar 08, 2016; see full text at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/
The National Film Board chose International Women's Day to announce a gender-parity initiative that will see half of its productions and half of all money spent going to women directors.
Claude Joli-Coeur made the announcement at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival on Tuesday. Joli-Coeur, the head of the National Film Board, says it will take three years to implement the board's move to ensure gender parity in its productions. Progress can be monitored at at the NFB website ( . . . ) "In our current fiscal year, films directed by women represent half of our total spending on production. In 2016‒2017, the numbers are projected to be well above that."
However, he added, "numbers can fluctuate. There have been good years and lean years for women's filmmaking at the NFB. No more. Today, I'm making a firm, ongoing commitment to full gender parity, which I hope will help to lead the way for the industry as a whole." According to the news release, it will take three years to fully implement the move, which was sparked in part by a recent report authored by Women in View, a Canadian non-profit that works for gender parity in media both on screen and behind-the-scenes.
In a sample of 91 feature-length films produced in 2013–2014, the report found women represented only 17 per cent of directors, 22 per cent of writers, and 12 per cent of cinematographers. The film board is not far from its goal, the release says ( . . . )
celebrations of women's history and current achievements, here are links
celebrations of women's history and current achievements, here are links to a groundbreaking achievement by a Black Canadian scholar and on some critical issues confronting women on Canadian campuses today.
1. The February 2016 CAUT Bulletin is on the long-overdue issue of "Confronting everyday racism on Canadian campuses". It interviews Audrey Kobayashi (Queen's) and Marie Battiste (Saskatchewan) among other Indigenous and racialized scholars.
Confronting everyday racism on Canadian campuses
https://www.cautbulletin.ca/
2. The February 2016 issue also includes excerpts from Dr. Malinda Smith's acceptance speech at the Canadian Association of University Teachers’s AGM in Nov last year. Dr, Smith (PoliSci, U of Alberta) received CAUT's prestigious 2015 Equity Award in recognition for her struggle for equity and justice over more than 20 years to improve the status of women, racialized minorities, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ2S community.
"Malinda Smith has had her fill of well-meaning policies and symbolic gestures. If universities really believe in equity, they should stop talking about…" <read more>
Words are not enough: To achieve equity requires real action, says Malinda Smith
https://www.cautbulletin.ca/
3. Prof. Minelle Mahtani interviews three powerhouse professors on her radio show, Sense of Place (Vancouver's @RoundhouseRadio) on "Race in the Ivory Tower": Dr. Annette Henry (organizer of the Race Literacies: Black Canadian Speaker Series at UBC), Dr. Malinda Smith (University of Alberta) and Sr. Sunera Thobani (Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC). NB. This is a must-listen! It reveals startling new statistics on equity in the academy.
To listen: http://cirh.streamon.fm/
1. The February 2016 CAUT Bulletin is on the long-overdue issue of "Confronting everyday racism on Canadian campuses". It interviews Audrey Kobayashi (Queen's) and Marie Battiste (Saskatchewan) among other Indigenous and racialized scholars.
Confronting everyday racism on Canadian campuses
https://www.cautbulletin.ca/
2. The February 2016 issue also includes excerpts from Dr. Malinda Smith's acceptance speech at the Canadian Association of University Teachers’s AGM in Nov last year. Dr, Smith (PoliSci, U of Alberta) received CAUT's prestigious 2015 Equity Award in recognition for her struggle for equity and justice over more than 20 years to improve the status of women, racialized minorities, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ2S community.
"Malinda Smith has had her fill of well-meaning policies and symbolic gestures. If universities really believe in equity, they should stop talking about…" <read more>
Words are not enough: To achieve equity requires real action, says Malinda Smith
https://www.cautbulletin.ca/
3. Prof. Minelle Mahtani interviews three powerhouse professors on her radio show, Sense of Place (Vancouver's @RoundhouseRadio) on "Race in the Ivory Tower": Dr. Annette Henry (organizer of the Race Literacies: Black Canadian Speaker Series at UBC), Dr. Malinda Smith (University of Alberta) and Sr. Sunera Thobani (Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, UBC). NB. This is a must-listen! It reveals startling new statistics on equity in the academy.
To listen: http://cirh.streamon.fm/
People Powered Medicine: A one-day public symposium
Dental health publicity, Bermondsey. Credit: Mirrorpix/ Southwark Local History Library and Archive/ Wellcome Images
Registration has now opened for our one-day public symposium investigating public participation in medicine and healthcare from the nineteenth century to the present.
The symposium, held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS), will bring together historical and contemporary perspectives to look at the relationship between the medical profession and the public. It will explore challenges to professional boundaries throughout the period, how the doctor-patient relationship has changed and in what ways the public can contribute to matters of medicine, health and disease. See below for a full programme.
This public event will be followed by a drinks reception at the College’s Hunterian Museum.
It will be of interest to medical and healthcare practitioners, the public, historians and medical humanities scholars. The event is open to all.
This event has been generously supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Tickets £20/15 (Concessions: students, RCS fellows, members, affiliates, those in receipt of jobseekers or disability benefits, Free place for companion accompanying a disabled delegate.)
Ticket includes all refreshments, delegates’ lunch and a post-symposium reception and private view of the museum and the exhibition ‘Vaccination: Medicine and the masses’.
When: 09:00 to 17:30, Saturday, 7 May 2016
Where: Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE
Register here using Eventbrite.
Programme
9:30-9:45 Introductions by Sally Shuttleworth (University of Oxford, Conscicom) and David Ward (RCS)
9:45-10:45 Keynote 1: Ruth Richardson (King’s College London): The Carer as a Critical Friend.
10:45-11:45 Panel 1 – Patient Preference in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Medicine
Kristin Hussey (Queen Mary University of London): “Don’t you think the Moorfields doctors knew better than this Indian?” Victorian eye surgery, patient choice and the 1893 trial of the Indian oculists.
Claire Brock (University of Leicester): Patient Resistance in the Early Twentieth Century.
11:45-12:15 Coffee break
12:15-13:15 Panel 2 – Patient Communities, Patient Consumers: Exercising People Power in Post-War Britain
Roberta Bivins (University of Warwick): Building Communities, Changing Practice.
Alex Mold (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine):Patient-Consumers? Patient Organisations and Health Consumerism in Post-war Britain.
13:15-14:45 Lunch with an opportunity to visit Vaccination:Medicine and the Masses, an exhibition on the history of vaccination curated by Constructing Scientific Communities.
14:45-15:45 Panel 3 – Bodies, Patients and Publishing: Medicine and the Public Today
Tom Gillingwater (University of Edinburgh): Bringing anatomy out of the shadows.
Rosamund Snow (University of Oxford/British Medical Journal): From body-parts to curriculum-setters: the changing role of the patient.
15:45-16:15 Coffee break
16:15-17:15 Keynote 2: Christopher McKevitt (King’s College London) Symbolic acts, strategic gains: patient and public involvement in the English NHS.
17:15-17:45 Reflections with Nicholas Markham (Royal College of Surgeons), Sally Shuttleworth, Christopher McKevitt, Ruth Richardson.
17:45 Drinks reception (included in ticket cost)
Full abstracts available to read here: People-Powered Medicine_Abstracts
https://conscicom.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/people-powered-medicine_abstracts.pdf
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