tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81103587950326903582024-03-12T17:03:12.243-05:00TimAllenMDJDTimothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.comBlogger13421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-162073381300016572020-10-03T11:29:00.001-05:002020-10-03T11:29:06.945-05:00Identifying pathophysiological bases of disease in COVID-19<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0071bc; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">Transl Med Commun </span><span class="period" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0071bc; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">. </span><span class="cit" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #5b616b; display: inline-block; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">2020;5(1):15.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;"> </span><span class="citation-doi" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5b616b; display: inline-block; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">doi: 10.1186/s41231-020-00067-w.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;"> </span><span class="secondary-date" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #5b616b; display: inline-block; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Epub 2020 Sep 22.</span></p><header class="heading" id="heading" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 3.6rem;"><div class="full-view" id="full-view-heading" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><h1 class="heading-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 2.6rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1.6rem; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/">Identifying pathophysiological bases of disease in COVID-19</a></h1><div class="inline-authors" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #5b616b; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.2rem;"><div class="authors" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="authors-list" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="authors-list-item " style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline;"><a class="full-name" data-ga-action="author_link" data-ga-category="search" data-ga-label="Carla J Goldin" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=Goldin+CJ&cauthor_id=32984543" ref="linksrc=author_name_link" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0071bc; display: inline; text-decoration-line: none;">Carla J Goldin</a><span class="affiliation-links" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-1" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">1</a><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-2" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 0px; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">2</a></span><span class="comma" style="box-sizing: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="authors-list-item " style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline;"><a class="full-name" data-ga-action="author_link" data-ga-category="search" data-ga-label="Ramiro Vázquez" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=V%C3%A1zquez+R&cauthor_id=32984543" ref="linksrc=author_name_link" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0071bc; display: inline; text-decoration-line: none;">Ramiro Vázquez</a><span class="affiliation-links" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-3" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">3</a><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-4" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 0px; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">4</a></span><span class="comma" style="box-sizing: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="authors-list-item " style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline;"><a class="full-name" data-ga-action="author_link" data-ga-category="search" data-ga-label="Fernando P Polack" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=Polack+FP&cauthor_id=32984543" ref="linksrc=author_name_link" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0071bc; display: inline; text-decoration-line: none;">Fernando P Polack</a><span class="affiliation-links" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-1" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 0px; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">1</a></span><span class="comma" style="box-sizing: inherit;">, </span></span><span class="authors-list-item " style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline;"><a class="full-name" data-ga-action="author_link" data-ga-category="search" data-ga-label="Damian Alvarez-Paggi" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=Alvarez-Paggi+D&cauthor_id=32984543" ref="linksrc=author_name_link" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0071bc; display: inline; text-decoration-line: none;">Damian Alvarez-Paggi</a><span class="affiliation-links" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-1" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">1</a><span class="author-sup-separator" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><a class="affiliation-link" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32984543/#affiliation-2" ref="linksrc=author_aff" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #323a45; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 0px; padding: 0.1rem 0.3rem; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">2</a></span></span></div></div></div><div class="short-article-details" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.3rem;"><br /></div></div></header><div class="abstract" id="abstract" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 3.6rem 0px 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><h2 class="title" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 1.2rem; margin-top: 3.6rem;">Abstract</h2><div class="abstract-content selected" id="enc-abstract" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: left;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1.2rem 0px;">COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can affect lung physiology encompassing a wide spectrum of severities, ranging from asymptomatic and mild symptoms to severe and fatal cases; the latter including massive neutrophil infiltration, stroke and multiple organ failure. Despite many recents findings, a clear mechanistic description underlying symptomatology is lacking. In this article, we thoroughly review the available data involving risk factors, age, gender, comorbidities, symptoms of disease, cellular and molecular mechanisms and the details behind host/pathogen interaction that hints at the existence of different pathophysiological mechanisms of disease. There is clear evidence that, by targeting the angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) -its natural receptor-, SARS-CoV-2 would mainly affect the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), whose imbalance triggers diverse symptomatology-associated pathological processes. Downstream actors of the RAAS cascade are identified, and their interaction with risk factors and comorbidities are presented, rationalizing why a specific subgroup of individuals that present already lower ACE2 levels is particularly more susceptible to severe forms of disease. Finally, the notion of endotype discovery in the context of COVID-19 is introduced. We hypothesize that COVID-19, and its associated spectrum of severities, is an umbrella term covering different pathophysiological mechanisms (endotypes). This approach should dramatically accelerate our understanding and treatment of disease(s), enabling further discovery of pathophysiological mechanisms and leading to the identification of specific groups of patients that may benefit from personalized treatments.</p></div></div>Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-50686238981064314152020-05-22T10:28:00.000-05:002020-05-22T10:28:14.484-05:00"Educational policymakers who praise online education for its efficiency mistake the point of education. Education is not meant to be efficient. It is meant to develop the minds and characters of young Americans—a process that takes time."<h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: ROBOTO, sans-serif; font-size: 2.5em; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px;">
<a href="https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2020/05/22/the_limitations_of_the_virtual_classroom_110423.html">The Limitations of the Virtual Classroom</a></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">"Educational policymakers who praise online education for its efficiency mistake the point of education. Education is not meant to be efficient. It is meant to develop the minds and characters of young Americans—a process that takes time."</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-79999215653094687562020-05-22T10:22:00.000-05:002020-05-22T10:22:08.929-05:00Ethics in the age of COVID-19<h1 class="c-article-title" data-article-title="" data-test="article-title" itemprop="name headline" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, serif; font-size: 3rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11739-020-02368-2#citeas">Ethics in the age of COVID-19</a></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px;">The current COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to inflict unprecedented strain on healthcare systems worldwide. Hospitals are demonstrating great flexibility, with many outpatient consultations and elective operations widely cancelled. These decisions are not made lightly but as similar decisions are continued to be made, it is important to reflect on key ethical principles from the outset. The framework for ethical medical practice is governed by four key doctrines: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. These are essential components of clinical practice, especially when dealing with individual patients, but they may not provide enough guidance in unprecedented public health crises, such as the one we are currently dealing with.</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-16028303631924241922020-05-21T12:55:00.002-05:002020-05-21T12:55:27.389-05:00Coronavirus Has Exposed the Burden of Mental Illness<h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: ROBOTO, sans-serif; font-size: 2.5em; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px;">
<a href="https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2020/05/21/coronavirus_has_exposed_the_burden_of_mental_illness_111046.html">Coronavirus Has Exposed the Burden of Mental Illness</a></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">"The reality of mental illness is that disasters and crisis seem to increase its severity, because much of what bubbles to the surface is underreported and untreated mental illness. We live in a country where </span><a href="https://nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/NAMI-You-Are-Not-Alone-FINAL.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6600; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;">one in five adults</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"> experience mental illness and one in 25 experience </span><a href="https://nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/NAMI-You-Are-Not-Alone-FINAL.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6600; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;">serious mental illness</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">; however, the average delay between symptom onset and treatment initiation is </span><a href="https://nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/NAMI-Mental-Health-Care-Matters-FINAL.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6600; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;">11 years</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">. Those statistics do not begin to summarize the true extent of suffering that these individuals endure, but they do mean you most likely know someone who is struggling with mental illness. However, in 2018, only 40 percent of adults who experienced mental illness </span><a href="https://nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/NAMI-Mental-Health-Care-Matters-FINAL.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6600; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;">received treatment</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">." </span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-43686679282831329202020-05-21T12:51:00.000-05:002020-05-21T12:51:07.035-05:00"Deep reading has in large part informed our development as humans, in ways both physiological and cultural. And it is what ultimately allowed Americans to become 'We the People,'..."<br />
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<a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-erosion-of-deep-literacy">The Erosion of Deep Literacy</a></h1>
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<span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: SabonNextLTPro, serif; font-size: 21px;">"Deep reading has in large part informed our development as humans, in ways both physiological and cultural. And it is what ultimately allowed Americans to become 'We the People,' capable of self-government. If we are losing the capacity for deep reading, we must also be prepared to lose other, perhaps even more precious parts of what deep reading has helped to build."</span></div>
Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-9536577452761085512020-05-18T09:22:00.000-05:002020-05-18T09:22:55.581-05:00Clinical trials and the COVID-19 pandemic<div class="cit" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8465em; line-height: 1.45em;">
<span role="menubar"><a abstractlink="yes" alsec="jour" alterm="Hell J Nucl Med." aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32361715#" role="menuitem" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;" title="Hellenic journal of nuclear medicine.">Hell J Nucl Med.</a></span> 2020 Jan-Apr;23(1):4-5. doi: 10.1967/s002449912014.</div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32361715">Clinical trials and the COVID-19 pandemic.</a></h1>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Retsas%20S%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32361715" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Retsas S</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>.</div>
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<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Former Consultant Medical Oncologist, Formerly, Lead Clinician of the Melanoma Unit, Imperial College at Charing Cross Hospital, London, U.K. sretsas@msn.com.</dd></dl>
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"...but why think? Why not try the experiment?..." John Hunter (1728-1793), in a letter to Edward Jenner. August 2<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span>, 1775. When Galen of Pergamum (2<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> c. A.D.), physician, philosopher and experimentalist, sought to ascertain the therapeutic properties of Theriac, an antidote of repute against poisons, he resorted to an experiment. Theriac or Theriaca was a compound drug, containing in some versions used in antiquity numerous components; Galen's own composition included over 70 ingredients! One of its uses was as an antidote against snakebites, a frequent peril for the Roman armies marching on in sandals. Galen spent most of his life in Rome and was elevated to Imperial Physician at the court of Marcus Aurelius, who apparently took daily doses of Theriac, which among other components included opium. Describing the experiment to his friend Pison, Galen wrote, "as I could not possibly conduct a trial on humans, I experimented on roosters" For his experiment, Galen, studied two groups of roosters, but he doesn't tell us how many animals he included in each category. Both groups were exposed to poisonous snakebites. All roosters who were fed with theriac prior to exposure to viper bites survived, whereas in the second group that had not received prophylactic Theriac, all roosters died. Not only is Galen's methodology remarkable, preceding the modern randomised trial by eighteen centuries, but more importantly, it is notable for his ethical stance at a time when sensitivities about human rights, prevalent in our times, were largely absent in societies of widespread slavery. For example, Mithridates VI (132-63 BC), the King of Pontus who is credited with the first use of Theriac, tested its efficacy on criminals and slaves. For his experiment Galen used the random allocation of treatment, today's prospective randomised clinical trial, implemented in the evaluation of novel therapies, widely used internationally, particularly in cancer research! This experimental method used for ascertaining the efficacy of new drugs became established after the second half of the 20<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> century and is now firmly entrenched as a research tool. On the other hand, the retrieval of information from observational studies or non-randomised series is considered scientifically inferior and is often dismissed or ignored as irrelevant or anecdotal. Such is the compulsion for the randomised study that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, respected physicians and scientists appeared in the media hesitant to recommend the use of protective facial masks, as there was no evidence of benefit for their use from prospective randomised studies in the general population! Logic had no place in the argument! COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 new corona virus, brought to the fore the randomised trial, as well as, the ethical dilemmas that surround the allocation of treatment at random, in the face of a devastating pandemic. Anthony Fauci, distinguished infectious diseases expert and an adviser to the President of the USA, at a recent briefing from the Situation Room of the White House, endorsed categorically and unreservedly the randomised trial for the evaluation of drugs potentially effective against SARS-CoV-2, in patients afflicted with COVID-19. A few days later on April 8<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span>, 2020, Professor Sotiris Tsiodras, scientific advisor to the Greek Government for COVID-19 and an expert on infectious diseases, when asked by a journalist about chloroquine, he responded, "Antony Fauci is correct. Nevertheless, we give the drug to everyone, that is, not half of the patients will receive it, and the other half will not". If we accept that the randomised trial represents the unique, impregnable method of evaluating new treatments-several clinicians dispute this dogma. -the question arises how will treatments be allocated to patients? According to the Declaration of Helsinki participation of a subject in a clinical trial requires their explicit written consent. Will, a potentially hypoxic patient rapidly deteriorating, be able to understand what is being asked of them, and will that patient be in a position to provide consent? And if that patient refuses to be randomised, what are the options? Is it his/her right to request the active treatment that a fellow patient is receiving in the next bed? Although the Declaration of Helsinki allows the option of no treatment or even placebo, where no known treatment is available for a certain condition, such as COVID-19, it also emphasizes that "while the primary purpose of medical research is to generate new knowledge, this goal can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individual research subjects". Consider now the physicians and nurses on the first line of the battle against the pandemic; to the enormous pressures and risks that they experience daily, they may have to endure the added psychological burden of the randomised trial, knowing that half of their patients are receiving the promising drug, whilst the other half are denied the chance of potential benefit. When during the Medical Research Council's randomized trial of streptomycin, one senior physician contracted tuberculosis, the Medical Research Council obtained supplies for him outside the trial. In this brief instance of medical history, the equipoise, the scientific imperative, all arguments and other justifications for providing treatment at random, were thrown out of the window in favour of the human factor! Why is randomization necessary? Because-it is presumed-the process of randomising subjects, protects the study from the selective inclusion of patients with favourable characteristics, thus inadvertently allowing or facilitating a falsely favourable result for the drug or treatment under investigation. However, the process of randomising patients does not necessarily result in the randomisation of the characteristics of their disease. Exactly because of this, at the end of a randomised study, even if the prognostic variables are evenly represented and balanced in the strata, further confirmation of the result is sought with a statistical multifactorial analysis. Such multifactorial analyses can also be applied to a non-randomised group of patients engaged in the trial of a new drug. Since the middle of the 20<span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> century a generation of physicians have been trained to dismiss, or are incapable of evaluating the validity of a treatment beyond the established etiquette of the randomised study. This, some have argued, constitutes intellectual indolence, it is not scientific robustness. Pandits foresee that the world will be different after the end of this pandemic. Perhaps human ingenuity will seek new investigative methods that will render the randomised clinical trial obsolete, both, on methodological and ethical grounds. Until then and even if we have to accept the scientific supremacy of the randomised study in the evaluation of novel therapies, the ethical considerations in the unprecedented circumstances of a relentless pandemic demand a more humane approach, befitting the beneficent precepts of the Hippocratic tradition.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-81978408950617191782020-05-18T09:18:00.003-05:002020-05-18T09:18:33.060-05:00Policies to reduce food insecurity: An ethical imperative<div class="cit" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8465em; line-height: 1.45em;">
<span role="menubar"><a abstractlink="yes" alsec="jour" alterm="Physiol Behav." aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32417646#" role="menuitem" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;" title="Physiology & behavior.">Physiol Behav.</a></span> 2020 May 14;222:112943. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112943. [Epub ahead of print]</div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32417646">Policies to reduce food insecurity: An <span class="highlight">ethical</span> imperative.</a></h1>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Miller%20DP%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32417646" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Miller DP</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Thomas%20MMC%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32417646" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Thomas MMC</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span>.</div>
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<a aria-expanded="true" class="jig-ncbitoggler ui-widget ui-ncbitoggler-open" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32417646#" id="ui-ncbitoggler-1" role="button" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 13.9997px; outline: none; padding-left: 16px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none !important;" title="Open/close author information list"><span class="ui-ncbitoggler-master-text">Author information</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s" style="background: url("//static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4190724/img/3974597") 0px 0px no-repeat scroll transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border: none; display: inline; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -99999px; top: 3px; width: 16px;"></span></a></h3>
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<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">1</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Boston University School of Social Work, 264 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, U.S.. Electronic address: dpmiller@bu.edu.</dd>
<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">2</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Boston University School of Social Work, 264 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, U.S.. Electronic address: mthomas7@bu.edu.</dd></dl>
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Abstract</h3>
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A quarter of U.S. households receive food assistance, yet more than 11% still experience food insecurity annually. We argue that an expansion-oriented approach to food and nutrition assistance policy is an <span class="highlight">ethical</span> imperative. Drawing on values from the Capability Approach and Social Empathy Model and supported by empirical evidence, we propose an <span class="highlight">ethical</span> framework characterized by four principles that can be used to assess and inform the development of just food policies. We argue that policies should (1) embrace compassion, (2) create opportunity, (3) consider essential needs, and (4) promote knowledge and empathy. In an applied case, we evaluate current SNAP policy in terms of those principles and offer recommendations to promote justice in the design and implementation of SNAP and other food policies.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-49470750208545627382020-05-15T12:39:00.000-05:002020-05-15T12:39:09.096-05:00"You took an Oath!": Engaging Medical Students About the Importance of Oaths and Codes Through Film and Television<div class="cit" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8465em; line-height: 1.45em;">
<span role="menubar"><a abstractlink="yes" alsec="jour" alterm="HEC Forum." aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32405980#" role="menuitem" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;" title="HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues.">HEC Forum.</a></span> 2020 May 13. doi: 10.1007/s10730-020-09411-x. [Epub ahead of print]</div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32405980">"You took an Oath!": Engaging Medical Students About the Importance of Oaths and Codes Through Film and Television.</a></h1>
<div class="auths" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.923em;">
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Parsi%20K%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32405980" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Parsi K</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Elster%20N%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32405980" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Elster N</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span>.</div>
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<a aria-expanded="true" class="jig-ncbitoggler ui-widget ui-ncbitoggler-open" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32405980#" id="ui-ncbitoggler-2" role="button" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif !important; outline: none; padding-left: 16px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none !important;" title="Open/close author information list"><span class="ui-ncbitoggler-master-text">Author information</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s" style="background: url("//static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4190724/img/3974597") 0px 0px no-repeat scroll transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border: none; display: inline; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -99999px; top: 3px; width: 16px;"></span></a></h3>
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<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">1</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, 2160 S. First Avenue, Maywood, IL, 60153, USA. kparsi@luc.edu.</dd>
<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">2</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, 2160 S. First Avenue, Maywood, IL, 60153, USA.</dd></dl>
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Abstract</h3>
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In this paper, we will consider the role of oaths and codes of ethics in undergraduate medical education. Studies of ethics syllabi suggest that ethics educators typically use well-known bioethics texts such as Beauchamp and Childress (Principles of biomedical ethics, 8th ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019). Yet, many issues that medical students will face (as students and as physicians) are addressed by codes of ethics and oaths. We will first provide a historical survey of oaths and codes and then address how these sources of <span class="highlight">ethical</span> guidance can be effectively used in ethics education of medical students. Oaths and codes can be engagingly taught using a range of techniques including visual narrative. Excerpts from television and film can be used to highlight challenging <span class="highlight">ethical</span> dilemmas in a variety of settings, taking the learning from the theoretical to the more applied while offering context.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-44107199500865396932020-05-15T10:42:00.000-05:002020-05-15T10:42:41.228-05:00Moral in whose eyes? Cross-cultural differences in moral decision making and behaviour<div class="cit" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8465em; line-height: 1.45em;">
<span role="menubar"><a abstractlink="yes" alsec="jour" alterm="Int J Psychol." aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32378182#" role="menuitem" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;" title="International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie.">Int J Psychol.</a></span> 2020 May 6. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12681. [Epub ahead of print]</div>
<h1 style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0.5em 0px;">
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32378182">Moral in whose eyes? Cross-cultural differences in moral decision making and behaviour.</a></h1>
<div class="auths" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.923em;">
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Seo%20M%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32378182" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Seo M</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Na%20J%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32378182" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Na J</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Kim%20YH%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32378182" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Kim YH</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">3</span>.</div>
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<a aria-expanded="true" class="jig-ncbitoggler ui-widget ui-ncbitoggler-open" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32378182#" id="ui-ncbitoggler-2" role="button" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif !important; outline: none; padding-left: 16px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none !important;" title="Open/close author information list"><span class="ui-ncbitoggler-master-text">Author information</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s" style="background: url("//static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4190724/img/3974597") 0px 0px no-repeat scroll transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border: none; display: inline; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -99999px; top: 3px; width: 16px;"></span></a></h3>
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<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.</dd>
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<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Psychology, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.</dd>
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<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.</dd></dl>
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Abstract</h3>
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All people want to feel that they are morally adequate. People tend to evaluate their moral adequacy by judging their behaviour through their own eyes (first-person perspective) or the eyes of others (third-person perspective). People in all cultures use both perspectives, but there may be cultural variations in which perspective takes precedence. By conducting two studies, we explore the way people in face cultures are more likely to secure their moral self-regard through the eyes of others (vs. their own eyes), whereas the opposite is true in case of people from dignity cultures. Study 1 found that people from face culture (Korean participants) cheated to a lesser extent when others were invoked (vs. not invoked), but people from dignity culture (American participants) were not affected by this priming. Study 2 found that moral intentions were more strongly influenced by what participants perceived others to do in moral situations in face (vs. dignity) cultures. In contrast, moral intentions were found to be more strongly influenced by what they believed they should do in moral situations in dignity (vs. face) cultures.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-1080000405930242902020-05-15T10:34:00.002-05:002020-05-15T10:34:37.031-05:00"For the human lineage, footprint sites have been especially important in furthering scientists’ understanding of our own evolutionary journey."<br />
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<a href="https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2020/05/15/prehistoric_footprints_provide_rare_snapshot_of_ancient_human_group_behavior_111398.html">Prehistoric Footprints Provide Rare Snapshot of Ancient Human Group Behavior</a></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">"For the human lineage, footprint sites have been especially important in furthering scientists’ understanding of our own evolutionary journey. The iconic 3.66-million-year-old paleontological </span><a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/footprints/laetoli-footprint-trails" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6600; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;">site of Laetoli</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"> in Tanzania, for instance, provided some of the earliest definitive evidence of upright walking in our ancient ancestors."</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-26627471336917221692020-05-15T09:21:00.001-05:002020-05-15T09:21:40.883-05:00How Much Are We Spending To Prevent One COVID-19 Death — Millions, Billions, Trillions? Nobody Knows<h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #111111; font-family: Lato; font-size: 40px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 15px;">
<a href="https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/15/how-much-are-we-spending-to-prevent-one-covid-19-death-millions-billions-trillions-nobody-knows/">How Much Are We Spending To Prevent One COVID-19 Death — Millions, Billions, Trillions? Nobody Knows</a></h1>
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“The only U.S.-based academic study empirically linking lockdowns to lower deaths is a <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w26992" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(53, 124, 163, 0.8); border-left-color: rgba(53, 124, 163, 0.8); border-right-color: rgba(53, 124, 163, 0.8); border-top-color: rgba(53, 124, 163, 0.8); box-sizing: inherit; color: #357ca3; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;">recent economics paper</a> identifying California’s lockdown as the reason for its lower death rate. The problem with this paper is that the authors find that the lockdown began to reduce California’s deaths just five days after being implemented. The effect is too early to derive from the supposed cause.”</div>
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The massively intrusive and costly government lockdowns are looking more and more like the most expensive and least effective regulations ever imposed in this nation’s history. </div>
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Will anyone be held responsible for the calamity, or will we just go on pretending it was worth it?</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-57752734939164617392020-05-15T09:18:00.001-05:002020-05-15T09:18:23.414-05:00"Yet, sometimes, a reviewer, carried away by their own enthusiasm for the subject, will end up producing a piece that says more about them than it does about the book."<div class="sf-article-content__title-container" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 16px;">
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<a href="https://thecritic.co.uk/a-radical-proposal-book-reviews-should-review-books/">A Radical Proposal: Book reviews should review books</a></h1>
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Give us more judgement, more opinions[,] and more criticism</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal;">"Yet, sometimes, a reviewer, carried away by their own enthusiasm for the subject, will end up producing a piece that says more about them than it does about the book. Then, I think, it becomes the responsibility of a conscientious literary editor to return to their writer and, however distinguished and successful they are, to suggest, gently, that it would be a useful public service to the reader to indicate whether the book in front of them for review is worth purchasing."</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-79566349844973644832020-04-21T14:26:00.001-05:002020-04-21T14:27:00.302-05:00Can we craft a theory in which space and time aren’t assumed to exist?<h1 itemprop="headline" style="background-color: #f0f1f2; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: bitter; font-size: 40px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.15em; margin: 0px;">
<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/a-look-at-the-quest-to-unite-relativity-and-quantum-mechanics/">Can we craft a theory in which space and time <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">aren’t</em> assumed to exist?</a></h1>
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In some versions of quantum gravity, time itself condenses into existence.</h2>
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According to Oriti, the field of quantum gravity now needs more radical ideas to push itself forward. That's because something new is needed to bring the ideas around LQG, which has been developed at the microscopic scale, up to the scale of the Universe as a whole. Over the past decade or so, he has led research in the direction of Group Field Theory (GFT) condensate cosmology, which proposes that the Universe as we know it came about through a kind of hydrodynamic condensation process.</div>
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“One can think of this process in GFT condensate cosmology as being analogous to steam,” he says. “Steam is a phase in which the entities which constitute all of space—or atoms of space as we call them—can find themselves condensing into water, which is our analogy for space-time.”</div>
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According to this version of LQG, once this transition takes place—at the beginning of the Universe for example—then the familiar constructs of space and time are born. Awkwardly, even speaking of a 'transition' or 'beginning' implicitly assumes the notion of time, or a process happening over time. In the context of these ideas, we must learn to forget that.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-47050691592195561992020-04-21T14:19:00.001-05:002020-04-21T14:19:32.524-05:00Coronavirus is causing a mental health crisis. Here’s how to fight it.<h1 class="c-page-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4c4e4d; font-family: Balto, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 2.5em; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; max-width: 730px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/16/21219693/coronavirus-anxiety-depression-mental-health-ptsd-covid">Coronavirus is causing a mental health crisis. Here’s how to fight it.</a></h1>
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Covid-19 patients and those caring for them could be especially at risk for anxiety, depression, and other conditions.</div>
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"Even under more normal circumstances, prolonged loneliness <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation" style="background-color: transparent !important; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4f7177; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">can contribute to depression and anxiety</a>, as well as to physical health problems. One <a href="https://heart.bmj.com/content/102/13/1009" style="background-color: transparent !important; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4f7177; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">2016 study</a>, for example, found that being lonely was associated with an increased risk of stroke and heart disease. Today, the ordinary risks of loneliness could be magnified by the stress of living during a pandemic. For people who are social distancing right now, “there is a high risk that they’re going to become more anxious, much more depressed, and it’s going to have longer-term effects,” Rima Styra, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, told Vox.</div>
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Overall, a lot of people around the world are experiencing a dip in mental well-being. Factors from “looming severe shortages of resources” to the “imposition of unfamiliar public health measures that infringe on personal freedoms” are likely to increase emotional distress during this time, psychiatry professors Betty Pfefferbaum and Carol S. North wrote in <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2008017" style="background-color: transparent !important; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4f7177; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit !important; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: inherit;">a paper published this week</a> in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;">New England Journal of Medicine</em>."</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-65872401089341730162020-04-21T14:10:00.000-05:002020-04-21T14:10:03.025-05:00"The metaphors of neuroscience – computers, coding, wiring diagrams and so on – are inevitably partial. That is the nature of metaphors..."<h1 class="content__headline content__headline--immersive content__headline--immersive--with-main-media content__headline--immersive-article
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/27/why-your-brain-is-not-a-computer-neuroscience-neural-networks-consciousness">Why your brain is not a computer</a></span></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">"The metaphors of neuroscience – computers, coding, wiring diagrams and so on – are inevitably partial. That is the nature of metaphors, which have been intensely studied by philosophers of science and by scientists, as they seem to be so central to the way scientists think. But metaphors are also rich and allow insight and discovery. There will come a point when the understanding they allow will be outweighed by the limits they impose, but in the case of computational and representational metaphors of the brain, there is no agreement that such a moment has arrived. From a historical point of view, the very fact that this debate is taking place suggests that we may indeed be approaching the end of the computational metaphor. What is not clear, however, is what would replace it."</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-37511129344478027842020-03-08T10:25:00.002-05:002020-03-08T10:25:29.497-05:00"Technology alters the human condition; it also gives it expression."<h2 style="background-color: white; font-family: BellMT, Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 30px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
<a href="https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-ancients-tech-anxiety">The Ancients’ Tech Anxiety </a></h2>
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On the shallowness of reading mythology as sci-fi</h4>
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<a class=" article_link" href="https://www.thenewatlantis.com/authors/charles-rubin" style="border-bottom: inherit; color: #012d6b; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit;">Charles T. Rubin</a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal;">"With respect to inventiveness of robot-like beings, the Greeks displaced some of this wonder to the divine realm. But the inventive Hephaestus, at least, is surely the most human of the all-too-human gods: lame, short, ugly. Mayor endorses the idea that, as scholar Jessica Riskin </span><a class=" article_link" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226720802/?tag=thenewatl-20" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 255); color: #012d6b; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">put it</a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal;">, “mythology blurs the distinction between technology and divine power.” The ancient stories, then, suggest that technology involves a godlike creativity, yet is often used for the satisfaction of our more bestial desires. Daedalus’ wings are a means to and an expression of human freedom, but they empower also the ingrained rashness of youth. Technology alters the human condition; it also gives it expression."</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-76031587856375376902020-03-08T10:12:00.001-05:002020-03-08T10:12:22.701-05:00How #coronavirus is upending corporate America<h1 class="post-headline " style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: LabGrotesque, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.6875rem; line-height: 1.21; margin: 20px 0px 6px; padding-bottom: 17px;">
<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-coronavirus-is-upending-corporate-america-2020-3">How coronavirus is upending corporate America</a></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: TiemposTextWeb, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 20px;">"The $10 billion biotech Moderna developed a potential coronavirus vaccine in record time, Andrew Dunn reports. Andrew sat down with Stephane Bancel, the company's CEO, to talk about the company's hopes of pioneering a new way of developing vaccines."</span></div>
Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-75957233367901901772020-03-07T13:51:00.002-06:002020-03-07T13:51:23.681-06:00Increased expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is associated with depression and depressive phenotype in C57Bl/6J mice<div class="cit" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8465em; line-height: 1.45em;">
<span role="menubar"><a abstractlink="yes" alsec="jour" alterm="Exp Brain Res." aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31734788#" role="menuitem" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;" title="Experimental brain research.">Exp Brain Res.</a></span> 2019 Dec;237(12):3419-3430. doi: 10.1007/s00221-019-05682-0. Epub 2019 Nov 16.</div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31734788">Increased expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is associated with depression and depressive phenotype in C57Bl/6J mice.</a></h1>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Girard%20RA%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Girard RA</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Chauhan%20PS%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Chauhan PS</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Tucker%20TA%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Tucker TA</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Allen%20T%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;"><span class="highlight">Allen T</span></a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Kaur%20J%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Kaur J</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Jeffers%20A%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Jeffers A</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Koenig%20K%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Koenig K</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Florova%20G%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Florova G</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Komissarov%20AA%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Komissarov AA</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Gaidenko%20TA%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Gaidenko TA</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Chamiso%20MB%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Chamiso MB</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Fowler%20J%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Fowler J</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Morris%20DE%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Morris DE</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Sarva%20K%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Sarva K</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Singh%20KP%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Singh KP</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">3</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Idell%20S%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Idell S</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Idell%20RD%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=31734788" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Idell RD</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">4</span>.</div>
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<a aria-expanded="true" class="jig-ncbitoggler ui-widget ui-ncbitoggler-open" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31734788#" id="ui-ncbitoggler-2" role="button" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 13.9997px; outline: none; padding-left: 16px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none !important;" title="Open/close author information list"><span class="ui-ncbitoggler-master-text">Author information</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s" style="background: url("//static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4188898/img/3974597") 0px 0px no-repeat scroll transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border: none; display: inline; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -99999px; top: 3px; width: 16px;"></span></a></h3>
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<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, Tyler, TX, 75708, USA.</dd>
<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">2</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Pathology, The University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.</dd>
<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">3</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Rural and Community Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, Tyler, TX, 75708, USA.</dd>
<dt style="float: left; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;">4</dt>
<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">Department of Behavioral Health, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, 11937 US Highway 271, Tyler, TX, 75708, USA. Richard.Idell@uthct.edu.</dd></dl>
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Abstract</h3>
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Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), which is elevated in numerous disease states, has been implicated as a stress-related protein involved in the pathogenesis of depression. We measured PAI-1 in the plasma of healthy and depressed individuals and assessed plasminogen activator (PA) expression and regulation by PAI-1 in cultured normal human astrocytes (NHA). Elevated plasma PAI-1 levels were found in depressed patients. Brain tissues from depressed individuals also showed stronger expression of hippocampal PAI-1 by confocal imaging in comparison to healthy individuals. Using a lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory model of depression in mice, we measured PAI-1 in murine plasma and brain, by ELISA and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Similar elevations were seen in plasma but not in brain homogenates of mice exposed to LPS. We further correlated the findings with depressive behavior. Ex vivo experiments with NHA treated with proinflammatory cytokines implicated in the pathogenesis of depression showed increased PAI-1 expression. Furthermore, these studies suggest that urokinase-type plasminogen activator may serve as an astrocyte PA reservoir, able to promote cleavage of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) during stress or inflammation. In summary, our findings confirm that derangements of PAI-1 variably occur in the brain in association with the depressive phenotype. These derangements may impede the availability of active, mature (m)BDNF and thereby promote a depressive phenotype.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-80970070480446382632020-03-07T13:16:00.001-06:002020-03-07T13:16:09.062-06:00'Your Bills Don’t Get Sick': Workers Say #Coronavirus Prevention Isn’t Easy<h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494a4a; font-family: "Avenir W01", sans-serif; font-size: 3rem; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.2em;">
<a href="http://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/03/07/your-bills-dont-get-sick-workers-say-coronavirus-prevention-isnt-easy/">'Your Bills Don’t Get Sick': Workers Say Coronavirus Prevention Isn’t Easy</a></h1>
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"<a href="https://help.uber.com/driving-and-delivering/article/coronavirus-health-and-safety-guidance?nodeId=17f69f1b-0727-44a5-a5d6-ec0047036b34" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; color: #9e2a2b; font-family: "Avenir W01", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.1s ease-in-out 0s, color 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Uber</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #494a4a; font-family: "Avenir W01", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, Lyft, Doordash and other delivery companies have advised drivers or delivery workers to stay safe — and to stay home if they aren’t feeling well. But advocates argue that creates a difficult choice for many workers."</span></div>
Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-14053897180735929272020-03-07T11:55:00.001-06:002020-03-07T11:55:57.182-06:00Coronavirus cases keep rising in Los Angeles, across California: Here is what you need to know<h1 class="ArticlePage-headline" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--primaryHeadlineFont),Times New Roman,Times,serif; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 1.08; margin: 0px 0px 40px;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-07/coronavirus-cases-keep-rising-la-california-what-you-need-to-know">Coronavirus cases keep rising in Los Angeles, across California: Here is what you need to know</a></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">California is emerging as an epicenter for the coronavirus in the United States, with the spread continuing and a </span><a class="Link" href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-07/spread-of-coronavirus-on-grand-princess-ship-raises-public-health-alarms" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; touch-action: manipulation;" target="_blank">cruise ship off the coast</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> with people who contracted the virus.</span></div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-39848871570764629572020-03-07T11:13:00.003-06:002020-03-07T11:13:55.753-06:00The morality of evolution and a return to subjectivity<div class="cit" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8465em; line-height: 1.45em;">
<span role="menubar"><a abstractlink="yes" alsec="jour" alterm="Am J Psychoanal." aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32066849#" role="menuitem" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;" title="American journal of psychoanalysis.">Am J Psychoanal.</a></span> 2020 Feb 17. doi: 10.1057/s11231-020-09231-5. [Epub ahead of print]</div>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32066849">The <span class="highlight">morality</span> of evolution and a return to subjectivity.</a></h1>
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Rend%C3%B3n%20M%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=32066849" style="border-bottom: 0px; color: #660066;">Rendón M</a><span style="font-size: 0.8461em; line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>.</div>
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<dd style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;">, 975A Heritage Village, Southbury, CT, 06488, USA. mariorendon7@gmail.com.</dd></dl>
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Abstract</h3>
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Today societies display, almost uniformly, an aggressive demeanor that can hardly be covered by diplomacy; they are always prepared for war. The prophecy is repeatedly fulfilled and today we are engaged in protracted wars while fearing universal destruction. This basic attitude irremediably corrupts our consciousness and blemishes our self. The biological underpinnings of how we got to this point, psychologically, and the historical sublimations involved are explored here. The result, today, is that we live using a minimum of our human capacity at the huge cost in crucial energetic waste, while nature has started to protest. The self-feeding destructive mechanism is inordinate objectification, at the expense of our unique subjective power. Evolutionarily designed for balanced self-regulation-the sublimation of a dual instinctual disposition backed up by a dimorphic body and brain-nature warns us we have detoured from the moral blueprint and, were we to continue it will be at our own risk. We need to review our moral theories and return to our critical pre-patriarchal subjectivity, which was resourceful, dually-fed, balanced, and discriminating. That subjectivity is now largely replaced by pre-emptive, ideological cognitive modules and stereotypes that block intelligent dialogue and appear to be already modeled on a false Utopia of artificial intelligences.</div>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-86883175503228815992020-03-07T10:40:00.003-06:002020-03-07T10:40:51.132-06:00Nelson Riddle / Route 66<h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; color: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-color, var(--yt-spec-text-primary)); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-font-size, 1.8rem); line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 0px; max-height: 4.8rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-shadow: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-text-shadow, none); transform: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-transform, none);">
<yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZ1k4d02KA">Nelson Riddle / Route 66</a></yt-formatted-string></h1>
Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-37210747536098755862020-03-07T10:12:00.000-06:002020-03-07T10:12:01.794-06:00"...virtually all of the increase in current smoking prevalence in Minnesota is associated with the e-cig tax and the associated decrease in successful quits."<h1 style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-family: "Cormorant Garamond", serif; font-size: 3em; margin-bottom: 15px;">
<a href="https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/public_affairs/2019/12/20/e-cigarettes_and_adult_smoking_evidence_from_minnesota_211602.html">The Impact of E-Cig Taxes on Smoking Rates: Evidence From Minnesota</a></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">"Specifically, the 95 percent e-cig tax in Minnesota, the first such tax increase in the nation, led to a </span><em style="font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">decrease</em><span style="font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;"> in cigarette smoking cessation by about 1.14 percentage points -- approximately a 5 percent increase in relative smoking participation. In fact, virtually all of the increase in current smoking prevalence in Minnesota is associated with the e-cig tax and the associated decrease in successful quits."</span></div>
Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-7468042006945979112020-03-06T10:47:00.000-06:002020-03-06T10:47:39.160-06:00The Hysteria Of Coronavirus And How To Avoid It<h1 class="fs-headline speakable-headline font-base" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 36px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: 44px; margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin: 16px 0px 0px;">
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2020/03/06/the-hysteria-of-coronavirus-and-how-to-avoid-it/#122c7fa36683">The Hysteria Of Coronavirus And How To Avoid It</a></h1>
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Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8110358795032690358.post-15384340573824632282020-03-06T10:10:00.000-06:002020-03-06T10:10:05.904-06:00The Inconvenient Truth about Your “Authentic” Self<h1 class="article-header__title t_article-title" itemprop="headline" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Brunel-Deck-Semibold, Georgia, serif; font-size: 60px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.08333; margin: 35px auto 0px; max-width: 980px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 35px 0px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-inconvenient-truth-about-your-authentic-self/">The Inconvenient Truth about Your “Authentic” Self</a></h1>
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To actually feel authentic, you might have to betray your true nature</div>
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"But authenticity is a slippery thing. Although most people would define authenticity as acting in accordance with your idiosyncratic set of values and qualities, research has shown that people <em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">feel</em> most authentic when they conform to a particular set of socially approved qualities, such as being extroverted, emotionally stable, conscientious, intellectual and agreeable.</div>
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This is the paradox of authenticity: In order to reap the many of the benefits of feeling authentic, you may have to betray your true nature."</div>
<br /><br /><br />Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.,J.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10441631326810582635noreply@blogger.com0