What is calcium? |

Calcium is a chemical element. In its elemental form, it is a soft, gray, reactive metal. Due to its reactivity, however, calcium easily reacts with other atoms to form compounds and does not appear naturally in its elemental form. Calcium is the fifth most abundant element in Earth’s crust and the fifth most abundant element dissolved in seawater. Its ubiquity has sealed calcium’s significance in human history. Calcium’s compounds were known to humans long before the element itself was isolated. The numerous inorganic compounds of calcium used across a spectrum of industries are often called "limes," and the word calcium is derived from the Latin word for lime, calx. Calcium is also biologically significant: it plays roles in the biochemistry and physiology of cells, cell signaling, and musculoskeletal tissue.

Background

Calcium’s compounds were known and useful to humans thousands of years before the discovery of elemental calcium. For example, quicklime, the common name for calcium oxide (CaO), has been found in the flooring of an archeological site near the Mediterranean Sea dating to 7000–6000 BCE. Calcium oxide has a diversity of uses. When heated to high temperatures, it will glow intensely, and this distinct illumination was used in theatrical productions prior to the advent of electrical lighting and is the origin of the term "limelight." Calcium oxide is also used in the production of cement, paper, weaponry, and biodiesel.

Calcium oxide is a product of the thermal decomposition of another critical calcium compound, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and much like calcium oxide, its uses are diverse. For example, it is used in art as a pigment and as a paint primer as well as a dietary supplement, in pharmaceuticals, food preservatives, ore purification, ceramics, adhesives, and in absorbent materials such as disposable diapers. Biologically, calcium carbonate is the main component of marine shells, eggshells, pearls, and snails. Calcium carbonate can be found in plants, and the dietary benefits of dark green vegetables such as kale and broccoli comes primarily from calcium in carbonate form. Geologically, calcium carbonate is found in marble, travertine, chalk, and limestone. Many of these materials have been historically important building materials. As such, calcium carbonate’s reactivity with acids is visible in historic limestone structures (such as the Great Pyramids of Giza) that have been noted to be damaged by exposure to acid rain. Limestone comprises 10 percent of the total sedimentary rock found on Earth, and most cave systems move through limestone bedrock. Other calcium compounds with familiar uses are calcium hypochlorite, which is used in household deodorants and in bleaching agents; calcium stearate, which is used to create cosmetics, some plastics, and wax crayons; calcium chloride, which is used for ice removal; and calcium tungstate, which is used in fluorescent lights. In addition to these uses of calcium compounds, the compound hydroxyapatite, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 can be found in bone, dental enamel, and dentin tissue.

Despite the ubiquity of calcium’s compounds in our bodies, homes, landscapes, and art, the elemental form of calcium was not discovered until 1808 by the British chemist, Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829). Davy used electrolysis through a lime mixture to isolate calcium, similar to the technique he used to isolate chemically related elements such as potassium, sodium, boron, and magnesium.

Overview

Calcium is the twentieth element on the periodic table. It has an atomic number of 20, meaning it has twenty protons. Calcium atoms can have different numbers of neutrons. Atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. Ninety-seven percent of naturally occurring calcium has an equal number of protons and neutrons, but calcium has stable isotopes with twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-six neutrons.

A neutral calcium atom would have twenty electrons, but calcium is not naturally found in a neutral state. Calcium so readily forms chemical compounds that elemental calcium was not isolated until the technology existed for using direct current to drive an otherwise nonspontaneous chemical reaction. Calcium was familiar to humans through its myriad compounds.

Calcium belongs to the group or family of elements known as the alkaline earth metals (also referred to as the group 2 elements), and like the other alkaline earth metals, is an s-block element because its outermost electrons are in the s orbital. The alkaline earth metals are the elements found in the second column from the left of the modern periodic table, and calcium’s chemical and physical properties share some similarities with its nearest neighbors on the periodic table.

In addition to their shared metallic properties, calcium has other chemical and physical properties that are common among alkaline earth metals such as relatively low melting points, boiling points, and densities. Like other alkaline earth metals, calcium is a reactive metal, with reactivity increasing as the atoms get heavier. Also, like other alkaline earth metals (with the exception of beryllium), calcium reacts strongly with water to produce hydrogen gas and calcium (or respective) hydroxide.

Understanding the atomic structure of calcium provides insight into its reactive nature and its importance in the biochemistry of life and the chemical compounds encountered in nature and used in industry

Bibliography

Campbell, Anthony K. Intracellular Calcium. Chichester: Wiley, 2014. Print.

Chen, Xiaoyu, et al. "Using Calcium Carbonate Whiskers as Papermaking Filler." BioResources 6.3 (2011): 2435–47. Print.

Croddy, Eric. Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Comprehensive Survey for the Concerned Citizen. New York: Springer, 2002. Print.

Emsley, John. Nature’s Building Blocks: An AZ Guide to the Elements. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

Halka, Monica, and Brian Nordstrom. Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metals. New York: Facts on File, 2010. Print.

Holmes, Richard. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. London: Harper, 2011. Print.

Housecroft, Catherine E., and Alan G. Sharpe. Inorganic Chemistry 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2012. Print.

Pauling, Linus. Nature of the Chemical Bond. 3rd ed. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2010. Print.

How did Venice treat Othello before he was dispatched to Cyprus?

Before Othello’s drastic fall from grace, the leaders of Venice treat Othello with respect. Characters refer to him as “noble” and “valiant.” The nobleman Lodovico describes Othello’s reputation before and after his dispatch to Cyprus:

Is this the noble Moor whom our full senateCall all in all sufficient? Is this the natureWhom passion could not shake? whose solid virtueThe shot of accident, nor dart of chance,Could neither graze nor pierce?

Pre-Cyprus,...

Before Othello’s drastic fall from grace, the leaders of Venice treat Othello with respect. Characters refer to him as “noble” and “valiant.” The nobleman Lodovico describes Othello’s reputation before and after his dispatch to Cyprus:

Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature
Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
Could neither graze nor pierce?

Pre-Cyprus, Othello is a valued general, patient, virtuous, and “all in all sufficient.” When Brabantio accuses him of stealing his daughter Desdemona, a confident Othello declares that “My services which I have done the signiory” and “My parts, my title and my perfect soul” will absolve him. The senators side with him and Desdemona against Brabantio.

In spite of Othello’s status, his fellow Venetians sometimes harbor racism against him. His ensign Iago secretly resents Othello for a variety of reasons, though he pretends to be a close friend and fellow soldier. Othello says Brabantio “loved me; oft invited me,” yet when Othello runs off with his daughter, Brabantio proclaims that Desdemona would never “Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom / Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.” Though Othello is a recognized general, he still faces the prejudices of his society.

What is the theme of The Diary of Anne Frank with three supporting details?

The theme of the story is that you can maintain high spirits even in the worst of situations. 

Anne Frank never lost her faith in humanity.  She was a victim, yes.  She was also a survivor.  Although she eventually died, Anne hid for years from the Nazis trying to live her life on her terms.  It was not easy. 

Anne lived in one of the worst time periods in history, but she still maintained her...

The theme of the story is that you can maintain high spirits even in the worst of situations. 

Anne Frank never lost her faith in humanity.  She was a victim, yes.  She was also a survivor.  Although she eventually died, Anne hid for years from the Nazis trying to live her life on her terms.  It was not easy. 

Anne lived in one of the worst time periods in history, but she still maintained her faith in humanity.  In one of the last entries before the family was captured by the Nazis, Anne writes that she still believes that people are inherently good. 

It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. (SATURDAY, JULY 15,1944) 

Despite how bad things have gotten in the world around her, and the horrible things she has seen people do, this shows that Anne has kept her faith.  This is because Anne had a generous spirit.  She was a boisterous girl who wanted to be a writer.  She shared her intimate thoughts in her diary, and many of them had to do with feeling misunderstood.  Despite all of this, Anne still wanted to see the best in others.

What are the characteristics of the mob in To Kill A Mockingbird?

The mob, composed of the Old Sarum Bunch, meets the specifics of what is termed mob mentality.

After the sheriff and business leaders of Maycomb visit Atticus, he decides to take a light and position himself that evening in front of the jailhouse door, behind which Tom Robinson is held. When "four dusty cars" stop in front of the jail, Atticus prepares to meet a mob. At first, no one gets out of the...

The mob, composed of the Old Sarum Bunch, meets the specifics of what is termed mob mentality.

After the sheriff and business leaders of Maycomb visit Atticus, he decides to take a light and position himself that evening in front of the jailhouse door, behind which Tom Robinson is held. When "four dusty cars" stop in front of the jail, Atticus prepares to meet a mob. At first, no one gets out of the cars; then, the men step out in ones and twos. These men reek of stale whiskey and they speak "in near-whispers." Some wear hats pulled low over their eyes.

This group of men exhibit characteristics of the mob mentality in their unrecognizable individual appearances, their coming in a group for strength and anonymity, and their being "liquored up" in order to be less inhibited in their behavior. In addition, there is an emotional excitement generated that Atticus senses because his hands shake as he folds the newspaper that he has been looking at when the men arrive. 

Scout's addressing Mr. Walter Cunningham breaks the anonymity and group thought required for mob action. When she asks him, "How's your entailment gettin' along?" (Ch. 15) and reminds him that his son Walter is in her class, she causes Mr. Cunningham to become uncomfortable about antagonizing Mr. Finch, who has always treated him so fairly. At first, Mr. Cunningham's face is impassive, but soon after hearing Scout's words, he squats down to her and, holding her by the shoulders, he says, "I'll tell him you said hey, little lady." (Ch. 15)

By individualizing Mr. Cunningham, Scout has broken through the dehumanizing effect and anonymity of mob mentality; she has also diffused the emotion of the moment. Now, Mr. Cunningham is one thinking man looking at another and at his daughter. 

Compare two creation myths from two different cultures.

Most ancient creation myths come down to us in the form of narratives due to their transmission via oral tradition. Even gnomic literature within such traditions tends to narrativize cosmology, describing the structure of our world in terms of a narrative of its origins and personalizing the physical or material elements of our world to make them memorable.

The Biblical story of Creation, embodied in the book of Genesis, and the classical Greek account embodied...

Most ancient creation myths come down to us in the form of narratives due to their transmission via oral tradition. Even gnomic literature within such traditions tends to narrativize cosmology, describing the structure of our world in terms of a narrative of its origins and personalizing the physical or material elements of our world to make them memorable.

The Biblical story of Creation, embodied in the book of Genesis, and the classical Greek account embodied in Hesiod's Theogony both share in common many oral characteristics. They both present the structure of the world in narrative form, describe creation as the act of a divine creator, and describe the origin of humanity in the form of a story with a moral. They both present stories of decline, where humanity originally lived in an idyllic world but through some act that offended their gods or God were condemned to live a short, miserable life, toiling for their food.

The Biblical story is monotheistic, with a single God, rather than the warring generations of the gods we find in Hesiod. The act that precipitated humanity's downfall was disobedience in both cases, and both accounts tend to place the blame on women. 

What is the definition of "hub" as it is used in Tuck Everlasting?

As it's used in the story, and elsewhere, a "hub" is literally the center of a wheel (the solid part to which all the spokes are attached--here's a drawing) or, figuratively, a "hub" is the center of the action. Other events and activities revolve around the "hub," just like a wheel revolves around its center. For example, you could say that the cafeteria is the hub of social activity in the mornings before...

As it's used in the story, and elsewhere, a "hub" is literally the center of a wheel (the solid part to which all the spokes are attached--here's a drawing) or, figuratively, a "hub" is the center of the action. Other events and activities revolve around the "hub," just like a wheel revolves around its center. For example, you could say that the cafeteria is the hub of social activity in the mornings before school starts. Or, you could say that your college plans are the hub around which you organize your academic, social, and family activities.

Let's check out this word's use in the prologue of this novel:

"But things can come together in strange ways. The wood was at the center, the hub of the wheel. All wheels must have a hub. A Ferris wheel has one, as the sun is the hub of the wheeling calendar. Fixed points they are, and best left undisturbed, for without them, nothing holds together. But sometimes people find this out too late."

As you can see, the narrator builds on the meaning of "hub," pointing out how the hub stays in the same spot while other things are in motion all around it. The narrator is saying that, like the sun, or like the center of a Ferris wheel, the wood in this story is the very center and it remains still, and all the action of the story will revolve around that wood.

What is harm reduction? |

Background

Harm reduction focuses on behavior and practices that jeopardize a person’s health and well-being. Such behaviors and practices include risky sexual practices, over-use of drugs and alcohol to the point of becoming unconscious or overdosing, using drugs alone and in seclusion, and sharing needles during intravenous drug use that can result in spreading diseases such Hepatitis C and HIV and drug abuse. Harm reduction is based in pragmatism, or realism, rather than in the idealism reflected in abstinence-only drug policies. Harm reduction methodology does not aim to stop a person from misusing drugs and alcohol but rather to reduce the individual's level of harm and risk often associated with such behavior.

Harm reduction practices are often controversial in that opponents view them as promoting an unhealthy, immoral, and sometimes illegal behavior. Advocates of harm reduction policies believe that prohibitionist drug policies can increase the risk and danger to users beyond those risks already associated with a drug. Focusing on reducing the levels of potential harm that results from drug and alcohol use while still maintaining a compassionate and nonjudgemental stance when working with individuals suffering from substance use disorder has been shown to have a greater impact on whether or not the afflicted choose to enter treatment and rehabilitation for their disease. Advocates believe that state and federal drug policies that are based on the prohibition of drugs will not eradicate drug use: people will still break laws and use drugs regardless of the laws in place. Drug policies, they argue, should seek to reduce the harm caused by drug use. Harm reduction policies regarding illegal substances are the most contentious in terms of public support.

Types of Programs

In the United States, harm reduction policies surrounding the use of heroin are among the most controversial yet the most prevalent as well. Canada and many European nations have embraced harm reduction policies. Needle exchange programs (also referred to as syringe services programs, or SSPs), in which addicts exchange a used needle for a clean one, are among the most disputed harm reduction programs. Controversy exists even though research consistently shows needle exchange programs minimize the risk of contracting blood-borne diseases such as those caused by the human immunodeficiency and hepatitis viruses.

The US Congress banned federal funding for needle exchange programs in the late 1980s but lifted the ban in 2009. Two years later, however, Congress reimposed the ban. Despite the ban on federal money being used to fund SSPs, such programs are not illegal in the United States. In the first quarter of 2013, there were over two hundred SSPs operating throughout thirty-four states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Without the help of federal funds, however, these programs were only able to provide sterile syringes for approximately 3 percent of total number of injections that were estimated to occur that year.

Safe injection rooms, another form of harm reduction for intravenous drug users that exist in some European nations, provide medical personnel and sterile equipment and make referrals to treatment programs. Drug zones have also been implemented in some European cities to contain the spread of drug use into other areas. Additional harm reduction strategies include distributing condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, providing methadone or naloxone to opiate addicts, promoting moderate and thoughtful drinking practices over abstinence for recovering alcoholics, and conducting responsible drinking campaigns on college campuses.

US Drug Policy

Despite a slight shift in thought and perception surrounding illicit drug use, substance use disorder, and opiate addiction in particular, the US drug policy continues to be shaped around punitive actions that promote zero-tolerance for drug use and heavy prison sentences for possession and distribution of drugs. The federal government continues to wage a war on drugs that seeks to eradicate drug use. US drug policy has created significant barriers to implementing harm reduction strategies.

Bibliography

"Federal Funding for Syringe Services Programs: Saving Money, Promoting Public Safety, and Improving Public Health." AMFAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research. amfAR, Mar. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2015. PDF file.

Hulse, Carl. "Surge in Cases of HIV Tests US Policy on Needle Exchanges.: New York Times. New York Times, 16 May 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Inciardi, James, and Lana D. Harrison, eds. Harm Reduction: National and International Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000.

Marlatt, G. Alan, ed. Harm Reduction: Pragmatic Strategies for Managing High Risk Behavior. New York: Guilford, 1998.

McCann, Eugene, and Cristina Temenos. "Mobilizing Drug Consumption Rooms: Inter-place Networks and Harm Reduction Drug Policy." Health and Place 31 (2015): 216–23. Print.

Nadelmann, Ethan A. “Common Sense Drug Policy.” Foreign Affairs 77.1 (1998): 111–26. Print.

How do belief systems affect a country's culture?

Even in highly secular societies, religion and other belief systems play a huge part in shaping people's lives. In many parts of the world, there is no distinction between religion and other areas of life—religion is an overriding and unifying force for how people move throughout the world. In Amish (also called Pennsylvania Dutch) communities, every aspect of life exists in reference to religion. The clothes people wear, the food they eat, and even the hobbies they take up are all shaped by what is considered appropriate in this ethno-religious sect. 

That might sound pretty extreme, but let's take a moment to consider some of the major world religions. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, there are rules about what kind of foods people should eat and when, how to care for one's body, what kinds of clothing are appropriate, when work is to be done, and what kind of gender, age, and familial roles are to be fulfilled. In secular societies like the United Kingdom, people may adhere loosely or very strictly to their religious duties while still maintaining their religious identity. For example, not all Christians fast during Lent, and some Jewish people do not keep kosher. 

That being said, some aspects of religious belief systems are more influential in a society than others. Most cultures of the world today observe the Gregorian calendar (which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII) and observe the weekend. The cultural practice of not working on the weekend is drawn from Jewish and Christian religious traditions, which forbid working on the Sabbath. For the Jewish community, the Sabbath is held on Saturday; for Christians, on Sunday. Regardless of whether someone is or is not Christian or Jewish, most people today abstain from work on the week-end or consider it a time for leisure.

I'd like to make a distinction between religion and other belief systems. Religious beliefs aren't the only worldviews which shape culture—scientific belief systems and ethical belief systems are also significant. Scientific belief systems outline how to go about answering questions we have about the world and what answers have already been uncovered. For example, I believe rain is the result of condensation of water vapor and occurs as part of the water cycle. I believe this because scientific study provides evidence for it. Alternate answers have been proposed, such as that rain is a gift from a deity, but I feel the rigorous investigation and testing of science is more plausible. Most people in my culture agree that rain is the result of natural temperature and weather patterns, so we do not adjust our behaviors in any way to try and please the deity in charge of rain.

Ethical belief systems help us to understand and investigate which behaviors are ethical, moral, or good, and which are not. In some cultures, the ethical belief system dictates it is immoral to eat meat. This may be tied to a religious belief (as in Hinduism and Buddhism) or may exist regardless of a religious narrative. Ethical belief systems also guide us in our personal behaviors and relationships. Having a culturally taught system of ethics helps prevent injurious action and may prescribe appropriate penance. For example, in my culture, it is considered unethical to steal. In exceptional circumstances, it may be excusable. For example, is it more ethical for an impoverished mother to let her child starve or to steal food so they can eat? In my culture, it would be excusable for the mother to steal to feed her child, but my government has set up programs designed to prevent this dilemma from occurring in the first place. The overriding ethic here is that all people should have enough food to eat. This may be phrased in terms of religion or scientific value, but it is also a standalone matter of ethical value.

What is alternative medicine? |

Diagnostic and Treatment Techniques

Numerous alternative medicine treatments exist, and they vary widely in the nature of their claims, their acceptability to conventional doctors, and the manner in which they can and cannot be tested. The treatments can be divided into three main types.

The first type consists of those treatments that deal with the mind/body connection or that have recognized benefits and accepted applications and so are often used together with conventional medicine. These approaches include acupuncture and acupressure, biofeedback, chiropractic, hydrotherapy, light therapy, meditation, oxygen therapy, qi gong, sound therapy, Tai Chi Chuan, and yoga. The second type comprises treatments that can be tested by conventional methods and have some accepted applications. These treatments include aromatherapy, cell therapy, colon therapy, detoxification, energy medicine, enzyme therapy, homeopathy, kinesiology, magnetic field therapy, and neural therapy. Treatments of the third type are very difficult to study because they seem to be at odds with Western medicine and cannot readily be tested through standard methods. An example of this type of treatment is herbal medicine.

Acupressure and acupuncture. These treatments are both based on the belief that the body has a vital energy that must be balanced in order to maintain good health. Acupressure uses pressure from the fingertips or knuckles to stimulate specific points on the body, while acupuncture uses needles inserted into the skin to restore the balance of energy. Both acupressure and acupuncture have been shown to stimulate the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. Acupressure is useful for relieving chronic pain and fatigue and increasing blood circulation. Acupuncture has been used successfully for relieving chronic pain and treating drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Although hepatitis, transmission of infectious disease, and internal injuries have been reported in connection with acupuncture, such problems are uncommon.

Biofeedback
. This technique involves learning to control automatic physiological responses such as blood pressure, heart rate, circulation, digestion, and perspiration in order to reduce anxiety, pain, and tension. The patient concentrates on consciously controlling the body’s automatic responses while a machine monitors the results and displays them for the patient. Biofeedback can be useful in treating asthma, chronic pain, epilepsy, drug addiction, circulatory problems, and stress.

Chiropractic
. Chiropractic treatment uses traditional medicine techniques such as x-rays, physical examinations, and various tests in order to diagnose a disorder. Muscle spasms or ligament strains are treated by manipulation or adjustment to the spine and joints, thus reducing pressure on the spinal nerves and providing relief from pain. Some research suggests chiropractic should be considered in treating certain types of lower back pain, as it is often superior to conventional interventions. Practitioners should be state licensed, and caution should be taken with practitioners who often repeat full-spine x-rays or who ask patients to sign contracts at any time during treatment. Chiropractic is practiced either “straight,” involving only spinal manipulation, or “mixed,” involving other biomedical technologies such as electrical stimulation. Chiropractic treatment can be harmful if it is practiced in patients with fractures or undetected tumors or if it is practiced incorrectly.

Hydrotherapy. The use of water for healing or therapeutic purposes is termed hydrotherapy. It is used to treat chronic pain; to relieve stress; to improve circulation, mobility, strength, and flexibility; to reduce swelling; and to treat injuries to the skin. Because the buoyancy of water offsets gravity, more intense exercise can be done when standing in water, while a lower heart rate is maintained and pain is decreased. The risks associated with hydrotherapy are minimal, such as overdoing exercise, or rare, such as slipping or drowning.

Light therapy
. Phototherapy, or light therapy, is used to treat health disorders that are related to problems with the body’s inner clock, or circadian rhythms. These rhythms govern the timing of sleep, hormone production, body temperature, and other biological functions. People need the full wavelength spectrum of light found in sunlight in order to maintain health. If the full wavelength is not received, the body may not be able to absorb some nutrients fully, resulting in fatigue, tooth decay, depression, hostility, hair loss, skin conditions, sleep disorders, or suppressed immune functions. Treatment involves spending more time outdoors, exercising, and using light boxes that mimic natural sunlight. Phototherapy is commonly used to treat seasonal affective disorder, a recognized subtype of depressive illness.

Meditation
. Meditation is used to relax the mind and body, to reduce stress, and to develop a more positive attitude. By focusing on a single thought or repeating a word or phrase, a person can release conscious thoughts and feelings and enter deep relaxation. Meditation can affect the pulse rate and muscle tension and so is effective in treating high blood pressure, migraines, insomnia, and some digestive disorders.

Oxygen therapy
. Hyperbaric oxygenation therapy, or oxygen therapy, is used to treat disorders in which the oxygen supply to the body is deficient. This therapy can help with heart disease, circulatory problems, multiple sclerosis, gangrene, and strokes. Oxygen therapy is also used for traumas such as crash injuries, wounds, burns, bedsores, and carbon-monoxide poisoning. Treatment consists of exposing the patient to 100 percent pure oxygen under greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. The body tissues receive more than the usual supply of oxygen and so can compensate for conditions of reduced circulation. The increased oxygen helps keep tissues alive and promotes healing.

Qi gong. Qi gong (pronounced “chee-kung”) translates from the Chinese as “breathing exercise.” The Chinese believe that exercise balances and amplifies the vital energy force—Ch’i or qi—within the body. Qi gong is used to increase circulation; to reduce stress; to promote health, fitness, and longevity; and to cure illness. The most common exercises involve relaxation, strengthening, and inward training. Because the exercise involves movement done with gentle circular and stretching movements, people with decreased flexibility or disabilities can participate.

Sound therapy. The use of certain sounds can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, relieve pain, improve movement and balance, promote endurance and strength, and overcome learning disabilities. The body has its own rhythm, and illness can arise when the rhythm is disturbed. Tests have shown that particular sounds can slow breathing and a racing heart, create a feeling of well-being, alter skin temperature, influence brain-wave frequencies, and reduce blood pressure and muscle tension.

Tai Chi Chuan
. Originally designed as a form of self-defense, Tai Chi Chuan is now practiced as physical exercises based on rhythmic movement, equilibrium of body weight, and effortless breathing. The exercises involve slow and continuous movement without strain. Tai Chi Chuan is beneficial because it demands no physical strength initially. The exercises increase circulation, stimulate the nervous system and glandular activity, and increase joint movement and concentration.

Yoga
. The ancient art of yoga seeks to achieve the balance of mind, body, and spirit. Practitioners believe that good health is created through proper breathing, relaxation, meditation, proper diet and nutrition, and exercise. The deep breathing and stretching exercises bring relaxation, release of tension and stress, improved concentration, and oxygenation of the blood. The exercises can also provide muscle toning and aerobic respiration, which are beneficial to the heart.

Aromatherapy
. Used extensively in Europe and Japan, aromatherapy involves the use of the essential oils or essence from the flowers, stems, leaves, or roots of plants or trees. These essences can be absorbed through the skin, eaten, or inhaled in vapor form. There is evidence that inhaling some scents may help prevent secondary respiratory infections and reduce stress. Practitioners believe that aromatherapy can benefit people suffering from muscle aches, arthritis, digestive and circulatory problems, and emotional or stress-related problems. Absorption through the skin and inhalation are considered safe, but eating any essence could result in poisoning.

Cell therapy. Although not approved in the United States, cell therapy is widely used worldwide. It involves the injection of cells from the organs, fetuses, or embryos of animals and humans. These cells are used for revitalization purposes; that is, they promote the body’s own healing process for damaged or weak organs. Cell therapy seems to stimulate the immune system and is used to treat cancer, immunological problems, diseased or underdeveloped organs, arthritis, and circulatory problems.

Colon therapy. This technique involves the cleaning and detoxification of the colon by flushing with water, using enemas, or ingesting herbs or other substances. A healthy colon will absorb water and nutrients and eliminate wastes and toxins. Most modern diets, however, are low in fiber, a substance that helps clean out the colon. Further, most people are relatively sedentary and eat acidic foods. For adults, most digested food takes fifty to seventy hours after digestion to move through the bowels. (In contrast, evidence indicates that in the early twentieth century, fecal material was released within twelve to twenty hours after ingestion.) A baby’s food is defecated within four to ten hours after ingestion. If not completely eliminated, layers of wastes can build up in the colon and toxins can leak into the bloodstream, causing many health problems; the theory is that the more time fecal material spends in the body, the more time there is for impacted feces, bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and toxemia to develop. Although not a specific cure for any disease, colon therapy removes the source of toxins and allows the body’s natural healing processes to function properly. Practitioners claim that symptoms related to colon dysfunction, such as backaches, headaches, bad breath, gas, indigestion and constipation, sinus or lung congestion, skin problems, and fatigue can be relieved when the toxins are removed from the colon.

A person trained in colonic therapy guides a speculum into the rectum and cleanses the area by gently guiding water, herbs, vitamins, or oxygen through the entire five feet of the colon. Enemas cleanse only the lower or sigmoid colon, which is only eight to twelve inches of the bowel.

Detoxification. This therapy focuses on ridding the body of the chemicals and pollutants present in water, food, air, and soil. The body naturally eliminates or neutralizes toxins through the liver, kidneys, urine, and feces, and through the processes of exhalation and perspiration. Detoxification therapy accelerates the body’s own natural cleansing process through diet, fasting, colon therapy, and heat therapy. Symptoms of an overtaxed body system include respiratory problems, headaches, joint pain, allergy symptoms, mood changes, insomnia, arthritis, constipation, psoriasis, acne, and ulcers.

Energy medicine. Bioenergetic medicine, or energy medicine, uses an energy field to detect and treat health problems. A screening process to measure electromagnetic frequencies emitted by the body can detect imbalances that may cause illness or warn of possible chemical imbalances. One of several machines is then used to correct energy-level imbalances. Energy medicine claims to relieve conditions such as skin diseases, headaches, migraines, muscle pain, circulation problems, and chronic fatigue.

Enzyme therapy. This treatment uses plant and pancreatic enzymes to improve digestion and the absorption of nutrients. Since enzymes provide the stimuli for all chemical reactions in the body, improper eating habits may cause a lack of certain enzymes, resulting in general health problems.

Homeopathy. Based on the belief that “like cures like,” homeopathy is thought to provide relief from most illnesses. During therapy, the patient receives small doses of prepared plants and minerals in order to stimulate the body’s own healing processes and defense mechanisms. These substances mimic the symptoms of the illness. While studies on this approach remain inconclusive, homeopathic medicine has wide appeal, possibly because most (but not all) homeopathic practitioners are traditionally trained medical physicians.

Kinesiology. This therapy employs muscle testing and standard diagnosis to evaluate and treat the chemical, structural, and mental aspects of the patient. The principle behind kinesiology is that certain foods can cause biochemical reactions that weaken the muscles. Diet and exercise, as well as muscle and joint manipulation, are part of the treatment. There are risks of injury caused by an unqualified practitioner.

Magnetic field therapy. Also called biomagnetic therapy, magnetic field therapy uses specially designed magnets or magnetic fields applied to the body. Electrically charged particles are naturally present in the bloodstream, and when magnets are placed on the body, the charged particles are attracted to the magnets. As a result, currents and patterns are created that dilate the blood vessels, allowing more blood to reach the affected area. Magnetic field therapy is used to speed healing after surgery, to improve circulation, and to strengthen and mend bones. It is also used to improve the quality of healing in sprains, strains, cuts, and burns, as well as to reduce or reverse chronic conditions such as degenerative joint disease, some forms of arthritis, and diabetic ulcers.

Neural therapy. This therapy is used to treat chronic illness or trauma (injury) caused by changes in the natural electrical conductivity of the nerves and cells. Every cell has its own frequency range of electricity, and tissue remains healthy as long as the energy flow through the body is normal. Neural therapy uses anesthetics injected into the body to deliver energy to cells blocked by disease or injury. Conditions that respond to neural therapy are allergies; arthritis; asthma; kidney, liver, and heart disease; depression; head and back pain; and muscle injuries.

Herbal medicine
. This field uses plants and flowers to treat most known symptoms of physical and emotional illnesses. An estimated 80 percent of the world’s population relies on herbal remedies as a primary source of health care, according to a 2014 Frontiers in Pharmacology article, and much of Western conventional medicine is derived from plants. Herbal medicine mixtures can be complicated, however, and some, like any medications, can be toxic if taken incorrectly.

Bauer, Brent A., Philip T. Hagen, and Martha Millman. Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine and Book of Home Remedies. New York: Time Home Entertainment, 2013.

Center for Applied Physiology. http://www.menninger.edu.

Ditchek, Stuart, Andrew Weil, and Russell H. Greenfield. Healthy Child, Whole Child: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine to Keep Your Kids Healthy. Rev. ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

Ekor, Martins. "The Growing Use of Herbal Medicines: Issues Relating to Adverse Reactions and Challenges in Monitoring Safety." Frontiers in Pharmacology 4, no. 177 (January, 2014): 1–10.

Freeman, Lyn. Mosby’s Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Research-Based Approach. 3d ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby, 2009.

Micozzi, Marc S. Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 4th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Saunders/Elsevier, 2011.

Minocha, Anil. A Guide to Alternative Medicine and the Digestive System. Thorofare, N.J.: Slack, 2013.

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. "Use of Complementary Health Approaches in the U.S., National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)." National Institutes of Health, February 10, 2015.

Pelletier, Kenneth. The Best Alternative Medicine. New York: Fireside, 2002.

Synovitz, Linda Baily, and Karl L. Larson. Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Health Professionals: A Holistic Approach to Consumer Health. Burlington, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett, 2013.

Trivieri, Larry, Jr., and John W. Anderson, eds. Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide. 2d ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, 2002.

Wang, Jianguo, and Hong Zhu. Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, and Therapies. New York: Nova Science, 2012.

Weil, Andrew. Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being. New York: Anchor Books, 2007.

Wu, Emily S. Traditional Chinese Medicine in the United States: In Search of Spiritual Meaning and Ultimate Health. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2013.

What is progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy?

Definition

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare subacute disease characterized by a widespread loss of myelin,
the fatty material that covers nerve fibers in the white matter of the nervous
system. Seen almost exclusively in persons with defective cellular immunity, PML
causes multifocal neurologic deficits and has in most cases a fatal course.

Causes

The disorder results from the reactivation, in immunocompromised persons, of
the JC virus (JCV). This ubiquitous human polyomavirus is typically acquired
during childhood and remains latent in the kidneys and possibly other sites. It is
unclear whether PML develops when a virus residing in the brain is reactivated or
when the activated virus seeds the nervous system through white blood
cells or in free form.

In the brain, glial cells support viral replication. The reactivated virus has
an affinity for oligodendrocytes, the cells that produce myelin, and presumably
destroys them.

Risk Factors

Most persons with PML have impaired cell-mediated immunity because of
acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the most common risk
factor, or other conditions (such as leukemia, lymphoma, sarcoidosis, and
Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome). In AIDS, the risk increases with increasing
human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) loads.

Rarely, PML occurs as a complication of chemotherapy,
monoclonal antibody therapy (natalizumab, rituximab) for disorders such as
multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease, or antirejection medication (tacrolimus,
mycophenolate mofetil) in transplant recipients.

Symptoms

Because of the high variability in lesion localization and extent, clinical
manifestations are diverse and insidious. Clumsiness may appear early. Cognitive
impairment, aphasia, hemiparesis, weakness, and visual disturbances
occur frequently. Cerebellar and brain stem deficits may be present. The disease
progresses gradually and relentlessly. For 80 percent of affected persons, the
disease culminates in death within nine months of onset. Spontaneous recovery,
however, has been reported.

Screening and Diagnosis

The disorder is suspected in persons with unexplained progressive brain
dysfunction, especially in those with impaired cell-mediated immunity. Provisional
diagnosis is made by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which
shows single or multiple white-matter lesions. Cerebrospinal
fluid is analyzed for JCV antigen using polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) amplification. A positive result, corroborated
with compatible neuroimaging findings, is nearly pathognomonic. Pathologic
examination of brain biopsy provides a definitive diagnosis. The biopsy will show
multiple areas of myelin loss (demyelination), mostly in the subcortical white
matter but also in the cerebellum, brain stem, and spinal cord.

Treatment and Therapy

No established treatment exists for PML. Providing supportive care and, if possible, improving immune function are essential.

Antivirals have failed to provide significant benefit. In persons with AIDS, however, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has improved outcomes and survival rates. Immune modulating (or immunomodulatory) agents such as interferon-alpha have been used experimentally, with promising results. Withdrawal of immunosuppressants or removal of monoclonal antibody by plasma exchange may also result in clinical improvement.

Prevention and Outcomes

Timely initiation of HAART therapy and judicious use of immunomodulatory medication constitute important prophylactic measures. Several studies have reported that certain antipsychotic drugs block JCV entry into the cell and may prevent PML development.

Bibliography

Antinori, A., A. Cingolani, and P. Lorenzini. “Clinical Epidemiology and Survival of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy in the Era of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy.” Journal of Neurovirology 9 (2003): 47-53.

Bradley, Walter G., et al., eds. Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Butterworth Heinemann/Elsevier, 2007.

Jubelt, Burk. “Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy.” In Merritt’s Neurology, edited by Lewis P. Rowland. 11th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005.

Marzocchetti, A., et al. “Determinants of Survival in Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy.” Neurology 73 (2009): 1551-1558.

Explain the character of Macbeth and how/why he changes.

Macbeth's most important character trait is his ambition. Ambition, in and of itself, stands as value neutral. It can either lead to positive results by motivating a person to work harder to attain higher achievements or can lead to negative outcomes by motivating one to put personal gain ahead of ethical or moral considerations. As the play opens, we realize Macbeth is ambitious because of his excitement about the witches' prophecy that he will be...

Macbeth's most important character trait is his ambition. Ambition, in and of itself, stands as value neutral. It can either lead to positive results by motivating a person to work harder to attain higher achievements or can lead to negative outcomes by motivating one to put personal gain ahead of ethical or moral considerations. As the play opens, we realize Macbeth is ambitious because of his excitement about the witches' prophecy that he will be king. He is also pleased to be named Thane of Cawdor by King Duncan. In fact, one of his reasons for not wanting to kill Duncan is to bask in the glow of that achievement. Despite his high level of ambition, Macbeth draws back from murdering the king, feeling on second thought that it would be a great wrong to do so, especially since Duncan is his guest. This shows that Macbeth still takes moral considerations into account. He has to be goaded into the act of murder by his wife.

However, once Macbeth crosses the line and kills the king, an act considered to be of even greater evil than it would be now, for Macbeth murdered God's anointed ruler and a just and "meek" (merciful) one at that, he loses his moral compass. It's as if once he murders, he no longer knows how to practice restraint. He becomes ever more blood-soaked as he eliminates rivals, and he transforms into a tyrant whose countrymen begin fleeing. His land is threatened with anarchy and chaos, causing the English king to raise an army to intervene. Evil leads to more evil.

On one level, Macbeth could be read as a treatise on good kingship. In Shakespeare's telling, the good king is chiefly pure, virtuous and self-controlled enough to put others' interests ahead of his own--attributes that Duncan had and the English king possesses in great measure. Macbeth, however, by putting his own ambitions ahead of the good of the realm, has sacrificed any hope of becoming a viable monarch. 

What are eugenics? |

The Founding of the Eugenics Movement

With the publication of Charles Darwin’s
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), the concept of evolution began to revolutionize the way people thought about the human condition. Herbert Spencer and other proponents of what came to be known as social Darwinism
adhered to the belief that social class structure arose through natural selection, seeing class stratification in industrial societies, including the existence of a permanently poor underclass, as a reflection of the underlying, innate differences between classes.

During this era there was also a rush to legitimize all sciences by using careful measurement and quantification. There was a blind belief that attaching numbers to a study would ensure its objectivity.

Francis Galton, an aristocratic inventor, statistician, and cousin of Darwin, became one of the primary promoters of such quantification. Obsessed with mathematical analysis, Galton measured everything from physiology and reaction times to boredom, the efficacy of prayer, and the beauty of women. He was particularly interested in the differences between human races. Galton eventually founded the field of biometry by applying statistics to biological problems.

A hereditarian, Galton assumed that talent in humans was subject to the laws of heredity. Although Galton did not coin the term “eugenics” until 1883, he published the first discussion of his ideas in 1865, in which he recognized the apparent evolutionary paradox that those of talent often have few, if any, children and that civilization itself diminishes the effects of natural selection on human populations. Fearing that medicine and social aid would lead to the propagation of weak individuals, Galton advocated increased breeding by “better elements” in the population (positive eugenics), while at the same time discouraging breeding of the “poorer elements” (negative eugenics).

Like most in his time, Galton believed in “blending inheritance,” whereby hereditary material would mix together like different colors of paint. Trying to reconcile how superior traits would avoid being swamped by such blending, he came up with the statistical concept of the correlation coefficient, and in the process connected Darwinian evolution to the “probability revolution.” His work focused on the bell-shaped curve or “normal distribution” demonstrated by many traits and the possibility of shifting the mean by selection pressure at either extreme. His statistical framework deepened the theory of natural selection. Unfortunately, the mathematical predictability he studied has often been misinterpreted as inevitability. In 1907, Galton founded the Eugenics Education Society of London. He also carefully cataloged eminent families in his Hereditary Genius
(1869), wherein the Victorian world was assumed to be the
ultimate level that society could attain and the cultural transmission of status, knowledge, and social connections were discounted.

Early Eugenics in Britain

Statistician and social theorist Karl Pearson
was Galton’s disciple and first Galton Professor of Eugenics at the Galton Laboratory at the University of London. His Grammar of Science
(1892) outlined his belief that eugenic management of society could prevent genetic deterioration and ensure the existence of intelligent rulers, in part by transferring resources from inferior races back into the society. According to philosopher David J. Depew and biochemist Bruce H. Weber, even attorney Thomas Henry Huxley, champion of Darwinism, balked at this “pruning” of the human garden by the administrators of eugenics. For the most part, though, British eugenicists focused on improving the superior rather than eliminating the inferior.

Another of Galton’s followers, comparative anatomist Walter Frank Weldon, like Galton before him, set out to measure all manner of things, showing that the distribution of many human traits formed a bell-shaped curve. In a study on crabs, he showed that natural selection can cause the mean of such a curve to shift, adding fuel to the eugenicists’ conviction that they could better the human race through artificial selection.

Population geneticist Ronald A. Fisher was Pearson’s successor as the Galton Professor of Eugenics. Fisher cofounded the Cambridge Eugenics Society and became close to Charles Darwin’s sons, Leonard and Horace Darwin. In a speech made to the Eugenics Education Society, Fisher called eugenicists the “agents of a new phase of evolution” and the “new natural nobility,” with the view that humans were becoming responsible for their own evolution. The second half of his book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection
(1930) deals expressly with eugenics and the power of “good-making traits” to shape society. Like Galton, he believed that those in the higher social strata should be provided with financial subsidies to counteract the “resultant sterility” caused when upper class individuals opt to have fewer children for their own social advantage.

British embryologist William Bateson, who coined the terms “genes” and “genetics,” championed the Mendelian genetics that finally unseated the popularity of Galton’s ideas in England. In a debate that lasted thirty years, those that believed in Austrian monk Gregor Mendel’s particulate inheritance argued against the selection touted by the biometricians, and vice versa. Bateson, who had a deep distrust of eugenics, successfully replicated Mendel’s experiments. Not recognizing that the two arguments were not mutually exclusive, Pearson and Weldon rejected genetics, thus setting up the standoff between the two camps.

Fisher, on the other hand, tried to model the trajectory of genes in a population as if they were gas molecules governed by the laws of thermodynamics, with the aim of converting natural selection into a universal law. He used such “genetic atomism” to propose that continuous variation, natural selection, and Mendelian genetics could all coexist. Fisher also mathematically derived Galton’s bell-shaped curves based on Mendelian principles. Unfortunately, by emulating physics, Fisher underestimated the degree to which environment dictates which traits are adaptive.

Early Eugenics in the United States

While Mendelians and statisticians were debating in Britain, in the United States, Harvard embryologist Charles Davenport and others embarked on a mission of meshing early genetics with the eugenics movement. In his effort, Davenport created the Laboratory for Experimental Evolution at Cold Springs Harbor, New York. The laboratory was closely linked to his Eugenics Record Office (ERO), which he established in 1910. Davenport raised much of the money for these facilities by appealing to wealthy American families who feared unrestricted immigration and race degeneration. Though their wealth depended on the availability of cheap labor guaranteed by immigration, these American aristocrats feared the cultural impact of a flood of “inferior immigrants.”

Unlike the British, US eugenicists thought of selection as a purifying force and thus focused on how to stop the defective from reproducing. Davenport wrongly felt that Mendelian genetics supported eugenics by reinforcing the effects of inheritance over the environment. He launched a hunt to identify human defects and link specific genes (as yet poorly understood entities) to specific traits. His primary tool was the family pedigree chart. Unfortunately, these charts were usually based on highly subjective data, such as questionnaires given to schoolchildren to determine the comparative social traits of various races.

The Eugenics Research Association was founded in 1913 to report the latest findings. In 1918, the Galton Society began meeting regularly at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and in 1923 the American Eugenics Society was formed. These efforts paid off. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, eugenics was a topic in high school biology texts and college courses across the United States.

Among eugenics supporters was psychologist Lewis M. Terman, developer of the Stanford-Binet intelligence quotient (IQ) test, and Harvard psychologist Robert M. Yerkes, developer of the Army IQ test, who both believed that IQ test performance (and hence intelligence) was hereditary. The administration of such tests to immigrants by eugenicist Henry Goddard represented a supposedly “objective and quantitative tool” for screening immigrants for entry into the United States. Biologist Garland Allen reports that Goddard, in fact, determined that more than 80 percent of the Jewish, Hungarian, Polish, Italian, and Russian immigrants were mentally defective.

Fear that immigrants would take jobs away from hardworking Americans, supported by testimony from ERO’s superintendent, Harry Laughlin, and the findings of Goddard’s IQ tests, resulted in the Johnson Act of 1924, which severely restricted immigration. In the end, legal sterilization and immigration restrictions became more widespread in the United States than in any country other than Nazi Germany. By 1940, more than thirty states in the United States had enacted compulsory sterilization laws. Most were not repealed until after the 1960s.

Eugenics and the Progressive Era

During the Progressive Era, the eugenics movement became a common ground for such diverse groups as biologists, sociologists, psychologists, militarists, pacifists, socialists, communists, liberals, and conservatives. The progressive ideology, exemplified by Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party, sought the scientific management of all parts of society. Eugenics attracted the same crowd as preventive medicine, since both were seen as methods of harnessing science to reduce suffering and misfortune. For example, cereal entrepreneur John Harvey Kellogg founded the Race Betterment Foundation, mixing eugenics with hygiene, diet, and exercise. During this period, intellectuals of all stripes were attracted by the promise of “the improvement of the human race by better breeding.” The genetics research of this time focused on improving agriculture, and eugenics was seen as the logical counterpart to plant and animal husbandry.

Davenport did not hesitate to play on their sympathies by making wild claims about the inheritance of “nomadism,” “shiftlessness,” “love of the sea,” and other “traits” as if they were single Mendelian characteristics. Alcoholism, pauperism, prostitution, rebelliousness, criminality, feeblemindedness, chess expertise, and industrial sabotage were all claimed to be determined by one or two pairs of Mendelian genes. In particular, the progressives were lured by the idea of sterilizing the “weak minded,” especially after the publication of articles about families in Appalachia and New Jersey that supposedly documented genetic lines cursed by a preponderance of habitual criminal behavior and mental weakness.

Having the allure of a “social vaccination,” the enthusiasm to sterilize the “defective” spread rapidly among intellectuals, without regard to political or ideological lines. Sweden’s Social Democrats forcibly sterilized some sixty thousand Swedes under a program that lasted from 1935 to 1976 organized by the state-financed Institute for Racial Biology. Grounds for sterilization included not only “feeblemindedness” but also “gypsy features,” criminality, and “poor racial quality.” The low class or mentally slow were institutionalized in the Institutes for Misled and Morally Neglected Children and released only if they would agree to be sterilized. Involuntary sterilization policies were also adopted in countries ranging from Switzerland and Austria to Belgium and Canada, not to be repealed until the 1970s.

Hermann Müller, a eugenicist who immigrated to the Soviet Union (and later returned to the United States), attacked Davenport’s style of eugenics at the International Eugenics Congress in 1932. Müller, a geneticist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the mutagenic power of x-rays, instead favored the style of eugenics envisioned by English novelist Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World (1932), with state nurseries, artificial insemination, and the use of other scientific techniques to produce a genetically engineered socialist society.

According to journalist Jonathan Freedland, the British left, including a large number of socialist intellectuals such as playwright George Bernard Shaw and philosopher Bertrand Russell, was convinced that it knew what was best for society. Concerned with the preservation of their higher intellectual capacities, they joined the fashionable and elitist Eugenics Society in the 1930s, where they advocated the control of reproduction, particularly favoring the idea of impregnating working-class women with sperm of men with high IQs.

The American Movement Spreads to Nazi Germany

The eugenics movement eventually led to grave consequences in Nazi Germany. Negative eugenics reached its peak there, with forced sterilization, euthanasia or “mercy killing,” experimentation, and ultimately genocide being used in the name of “racial hygiene.” Eugenicists in the United States and Germany formed close and direct alliances, especially after the Nazis came to power in 1933. The ERO’s Laughlin gave permission for his article “Eugenical Sterilization” to be reprinted in German in 1928. It soon became the basis of Nazi sterilization policy. Davenport even arranged for a group of German eugenicists to participate in the three hundredth anniversary of Harvard’s founding in 1936.

Inspired by the U.S. eugenics movement and spurred by economic hardship that followed World War I, the Nazi Physician’s League took a stand that those suffering from incurable disease caused useless waste of medications and, along with the crippled, the feebleminded, the elderly, and the chronic poor, posed an economic drain on society. Hereditary defects were considered to be the cause of such maladies, and these people were dubbed “lives not worth living.” In 1933, the German Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring made involuntary sterilization of such people, including the blind, deaf, epileptic, and poor, legal. The Nazis set up “eugenics courts” to decide cases of involuntary sterilization. Frederick Osborn, secretary of the American Eugenics Society, wrote a 1937 report summarizing the German sterilization programs, indicative of the fascination American eugenicists had for the Nazi agenda and the Nazi’s ability to move this experiment to a scale never possible in the United States.

The Demise of Eugenics

With the Great Depression in 1929, the US eugenics movement lost much of its momentum. Geneticist and evolutionary biologist Sewall Wright, although himself a member of the American Eugenics Society, found fault with the genetics and the ideology of the movement: “Positive eugenics seems to require . . . the setting up of an ideal of society to aim at, and this is just what people do not agree on.” He also wrote several articles in the 1930s challenging the assumptions of Fisher’s genetic atomism model. In a speech to the Eugenics Society in New York in 1932, Müller pointed out the economic disincentive for middle and upper classes to reproduce, epitomized by the failure of many eugenicists to have children. Galton himself died childless. This inverse relationship between fertility and social status, coupled with the apparent predatory nature of the upper class, seemed to doom eugenics to failure.

Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould claimed that the demise of the eugenics movement in the United States was more a matter of Adolf Hitler’s use of eugenic arguments for sterilization and racial purification than it was of advances in genetic knowledge. Once the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities became known, eugenicists distanced themselves from the movement. Depew and Weber have written that Catholic conservatives opposed to human intervention in reproduction and progressives, who began to abandon eugenics in favor of behaviorism (nurture rather than nature), were political forces that began to close down the eugenics movement, while Allen points out that the movement had outlived its political usefulness. Russian geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky
had by this time recognized the prime importance of context in genetics and consequently rejected the premise of eugenics, helping to push it into the realm of phony genetics.

Implications

The term “euphenics” is used to describe human genetic research that is aimed at improving the human condition, replacing the tainted term eugenics. Euphenics deals primarily with medical or genetic intervention that is designed to reduce the impact of defective genotypes on individuals (such as gene therapy for those with cystic fibrosis). However, in this age of increasing information about human genetics, it is necessary to keep in mind the important role played by environment and the malleability of human traits.

Allen argues that the eugenics movement may reappear (although probably under a different name) if economic problems again make it attractive to eliminate “unproductive” people. His hope is that a better understanding of genetics, combined with the lessons of Nazi Germany, will deter humans from ever again going down that path that journalist Jonathan Freedland calls “the foulest idea of the 20th century.”

Key terms



biometry

:

the measurement of biological and psychological variables




negative eugenics

:

improving human stocks through the restriction of reproduction




positive eugenics

:

improving human stocks by encouraging the “naturally superior” to breed extensively with other superior humans





Bibliography

Allen, Garland E. “Science Misapplied: The Eugenics Age Revisited.” Technology Review 99.6 (1996): 22. Print.

Delzell, Darcie A. P., and Cathy D. Poliak. "Karl Pearson and Eugenics: Personal Opinions and Scientific Rigor." Science and Engineering Ethics 19.3 (2013): 1057–70. Philosopher's Index. Web. 24 July 2014.

Depew, David, and Bruce Weber. Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection. Boston: MIT, 1995. Print.

Duster, Troy. Backdoor to Eugenics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.

Gillham, Nicholas Wright. A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.

Hart, Bradley. "Watching the 'Eugenic Experiment' Unfold: The Mixed Views of British Eugenicists toward Nazi Germany in the Early 1930s." Journal of the History of Biology 45.1 (2012): 33–63. General Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 24 July 2014.

Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995. Print.

Kühl, Stefan. The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.

Lombardo, Paul A. A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2011. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 24 July 2014.

Lynn, Richard. Eugenics: A Reassessment. Westport: Praeger, 2001. Print.

Mazumdar, Pauline Margaret. Eugenics, Human Genetics, and Human Failings. London: Routledge, 1991. Print.

Pernick, Martin S. “Eugenics and Public Health in American History.” American Journal of Public Health 87.11 (1997): 1767–72. Print.

Stahnisch, Frank W. "The Early Eugenics Movement and Emerging Professional Psychiatry: Conceptual Transfers and Personal Relationships between Germany and North America,1880s to 1930s." Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 31.1 (2014): 17–40. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 24 July 2014.

Stern, Alexandra Minna. Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. Berkeley: U of California P, 2005. Print.

Witkowski, Jan A., and John R. Inglis, eds. Davenport’s Dream: Twenty-First Century Reflections on Heredity and Eugenics. Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2008. Print.

What is the uterus? |

Structure and Functions

The uterus provides a space for a fetus to grow. Situated in the pelvis, in front of the rectum and behind the bladder, the uterus is a bulb-shaped pouch about 3 inches (8 centimeters) in length that has heavily muscled walls and is held firmly in place by several ligaments. The uterus has two main parts: the body (corpus) includes the area above the opening to the two Fallopian tubes, while the fundus is the larger area below the Fallopian tubes to the cervix, all positioned at about a ninety-degree angle to the vagina; the cervix is a funnel that connects the body to the vagina. During a woman’s reproductive years, the body is about double the size of the cervix, but that proportion reverses after menopause. The thick muscle (myometrium) of the uterus is lined with mucous membrane, the endometrium.

During ovulation,
sperm can enter the body through the cervix on its way to fertilize an egg in a Fallopian tube. During menstruation, blood and excess endometrium exit the uterus through the cervix. During gestation, the uterus expands to accommodate the growth of the fetus, and during labor the walls contract to impel the fetus through the cervix and vagina.

Disorders and Diseases

Among common disorders specific to the uterus are various noncancerous growths. Fibroids
are masses of muscle and fibrous tissue, of unknown cause, in the uterine wall that occur in about 20 percent of women more than thirty-five years old. If small, they are seldom noticed, but large fibroids can affect urination and menstruation and cause pain. Adenomyosis involves enlargement of the uterus after glandular tissue obtrudes into the myometrium; it can result in heavy, painful periods, sensations of pressure, and bleeding between periods. Endometriosis occurs when bits of the endometrium grow outside the uterus, which may produce pain in the lower abdomen or pelvis. The uterus is also subject to abnormal bleeding and vaginitis, inflammation caused by chemical irritants, bacteria, or yeast (candidiasis). Sometimes, because of pregnancy or birth, the uterus sags and protrudes into the vagina, a condition known as prolapsed uterus.

Two cancers in the uterus are among the most common to afflict women. Endometrial cancer
grows in the membrane lining the body. It usually develops between the ages of fifty and sixty and has a high cure rate if detected early. Cervical cancer
usually develops between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five, following infection by the human papillomavirus, and is also curable if detected early. Untreated, both penetrate the uterine wall and spread to nearby organs.

Bibliography

Beers, Mark H., ed. The Merck Manual of Medical Information. 2d ed. Whitehouse Station, N.J.: Merck Research Laboratories, 2003.

Fortner, Kimberley B., ed. The Johns Hopkins Manual of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007.

Parker, Steve. The Human Body Book. New York: DK Adult, 2001.

Thibodeau, Gary A., and Kevin T. Patton. Structure and Function of the Body. 14th ed. St. Louis: Mosby/Elsevier, 2012.

"Uterine Diseases." MedlinePlus, May 28, 2013.

What is the polio vaccine?

Definition

There are two types of polio vaccine: inactivated and oral, first available in 1955 and 1962, respectively. The vaccines provide immunity to poliomyelitis, or polio, a viral disease that damages nerve cells. The virus enters through the mouth and replicates in the intestines. It then enters the bloodstream and crosses into the central nervous system, where it attacks the nerve cells.

The first signs of polio are fatigue, headache, nausea, neck stiffness, and fever. Eventually, the nerves no longer send out electrical impulses to move muscles, and the body can become paralyzed; paralysis, however, is uncommon. The arms and legs are affected first, and in serious cases, the chest muscles are affected, resulting in respiratory failure.

Types

The inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), developed by Jonas Salk in the early 1950s, was the first polio vaccine available (1955). Salk based his vaccine, which is injected, on a then-new premise: that only the outer shell of the virus was needed to confer immunity. At the time, all vaccines were manufactured from live but weakened viruses.

In the late 1950s, Albert Sabin produced an oral form of the polio vaccine. Sabin’s oral polio vaccine (OPV), first administered in 1962, used a weakened form of the live poliovirus to stimulate antibody production. Decades earlier, Sabin proved that polio resides in the intestines rather than the nervous system, laying the theoretical groundwork for an orally administered vaccine. Once introduced, OPV quickly became the dominant polio vaccine because it was so easy to administer and it quickly conferred immunity.

The unique advantage of OPV is the use of live poliovirus. The virus, although weakened, is shed in feces from recently vaccinated persons. An unvaccinated person who comes in contact with the shed virus from a recently vaccinated person, for example, a parent who recently changed a baby’s diaper, may contract the weakened poliovirus and thus become passively vaccinated. This ability of OPV to confer immunity to persons not directly vaccinated helped spread immunity and helped eliminate outbreaks of polio.

Side Effects

Although the live virus contained in OPV is weakened, it is still a live virus
that can cause infection. In rare cases, OPV causes vaccine-associated paralytic
poliomyelitis, or VAPP. People vaccinated with OPV shed the weakened poliovirus up
to six weeks after each dose. Caregivers or others with a weakened immune system,
such as those who have had organ transplants or who have human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) infection, may develop VAPP if they come in close
contact with newly vaccinated children.

The most common adverse events associated with IPV is soreness at the injection site. Allergic reactions, including respiratory difficulties, increased heart rate, hives, dizziness, or swelling of the throat, are rare.

Impact

Polio has no cure and can be prevented only through vaccination. Together, IPV and OPV eradicated polio from most of the world. Polio has become so rare in the United States that the small risk of VAPP associated with OPV is now greater than the benefit of passive immunization. IPV is now the recommended vaccine for all children. Recommendations require three injections for infants at two, four, and six months of age, between six and eighteen months of age, and booster shots between four and six years of age.

Bibliography

Bruno, Richard L. The Polio Paradox: Understanding and Treating “Post-Polio Syndrome” and Chronic Fatigue. New York: Warner, 2002. Print.

Naden, Corinne J., and Rose Blue. Jonas Salk: Polio Pioneer. Brookfield: Millbrook, 2001. Print.

Offit, Paul A. The Cutter Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005. Print.

Strauss, James, and Ellen Strauss. Viruses and Human Disease. 2nd ed. Boston: Academic Press/Elsevier, 2008. Print.

Wagner, Edward K., and Martinez J. Hewlett. Basic Virology. 3rd ed. Malden: Blackwell Science, 2008. Print.

What is polypharmacy? |

Causes and Symptoms

Polypharmacy has many causes and symptoms. Common causes include the need to treat multiple conditions, misunderstanding of or misinformation about drug actions, and miscommunication between patients and providers. Symptoms may be due to drug interactions, inadvertent overdoses, or multiple toxicities, and they may imitate those of other diseases or may be so slight as to be everyday occurrences. Although polypharmacy could reflect the inappropriate prescription and use of drugs, it is not in itself an accurate measure of the appropriateness of a given drug therapy.

Older adults are most affected by polypharmacy, not only by alterations in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics but also by accompanying illnesses requiring drug administration. Taking many drugs can result in increased adverse reactions, often because of slower drug excretion from the kidneys and slower absorption in the intestines of older adults, both of which cause drugs to remain in the body for longer periods of time.

Another factor that could contribute to polypharmacy is a substance-use disorder, such as those characterized by abuse and dependence. Abuse and dependence can occur with alcohol and prescription drugs as well as street and over-the-counter drugs. Individuals attempt to self-medicate with these agents if they believe that their regular medicines are not effective.

Other causes of polypharmacy include incompetence in self-administering medication, inconsistent use of caregivers who know the patient, and overprescription or underprescription of medications for older adults. Individuals may also wrongly use outdated or borrowed drugs to treat illnesses or diseases. Finally, there may be chronic illnesses that are misunderstood by the individual’s family and undertreated by health-care providers.

Polypharmacy is sometimes overlooked because the symptoms that it causes can be confused with those of normal aging or another disease. As a result, still more drugs may be prescribed or purchased over the counter and used to treat these new symptoms. Symptoms or signs that are caused by interactions between drugs or side effects of drugs are varied. They may include symptoms as mild as tiredness or sleepiness, decreased alertness, constipation, diarrhea, loss of appetite, weakness, mild anxiety, loss of interest in usual activities, or skin rashes. More pronounced symptoms may include incontinence, confusion (all the time or only sometimes), falls, clinical depression, tremor, hallucinations, severe anxiety or excitability, dizziness, and increased or decreased sexual behavior. Sometimes, side effects occur shortly after starting a new drug, but in other cases they take time to appear.

Treatment and Therapy

Although there is no defined treatment for polypharmacy, certain precautions can be taken. Individuals need to have good relationships with their health-care providers so that they feel comfortable disclosing pertinent information to them. Patients need to inform their providers of all drugs that they are using, including prescriptions, alcohol, nicotine, street drugs, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and alternatives such as herbal supplements. They also need to disclose if they are following any especially odd or restrictive diet that may affect their metabolism. Patients should ensure that every medical professional involved in their care has a complete list of their medications. It is helpful to have a primary care provider coordinating medications when there are multiple providers involved. Regular medication reviews should be conducted, especially if an individual is being treated by more than one provider. Finally, patients need to self-monitor their drug intake and be informed and aware of drug side effects. It is also helpful for family members to be educated about the effects and important side effects of patients' medications.

Medical personnel need to be concise and clear when prescribing drugs. The dosage schedule should be simple, and the number of doses taken should be as low as possible. Health-care providers need to educate patients and their families about side effects, adverse reactions, and the proper way to take medications. When possible, nonpharmacological treatment methods need to be considered in order to minimize the number of substances that the person is using at any one time. For example, rather than prescribing a drug to relieve a patient’s stress, a physician may suggest that he or she learn and practice relaxation exercises.

In addition, patients should ask their pharmacists for advice before taking any new drugs, vitamins, or alternative remedies, whether prescribed or over the counter. They should limit themselves to the use of only one pharmacy, as computers are able to monitor and identify potential effects of multiple prescription drug use. Finally, every attempt should be made to ascertain whether the patient is competent to self-administer medication and avoid missed doses, combining doses, or noncompliance with instructions. If patients are not responsible for their own care, then medical professionals should give consistent drug information to their caregivers.

Perspective and Prospects

Polypharmacy with adverse drug reactions can occur in healthy younger adults, but it is more likely to happen as a result of a combination of age-related changes, disease-related conditions, and drug interactions. Thus, the risk of adverse effects is two to three times higher in older adults. Although research has not been able to distinguish among the unique influences of age-related, disease-related, and drug-related factors, studies have identified certain risk factors for adverse drug effects, such as pathologic processes, the number and duration of drugs consumed, and a history of adverse reactions.

Potential consequences of polypharmacy include more visits to health-care providers, increased accidents, decreased feelings of wellness, admission to or a prolonged stay in a hospital, and death. Polypharmacy is a common and dangerous health-care problem for all adults, and drugs must always be suspected as the cause of a new symptom, especially if the symptom shortly follows the administration of a new drug.

With patients now able to buy medications through websites and other channels that do not monitor quality or quantity of drugs carefully, problems related to polypharmacy may increase. This situation is compounded by the greater access that some teenagers have to prescription drugs in the home for use in experimentation. Adding the ubiquitousness of new beverages marketed as healthy drinks that contain high doses of caffeine and other substances identified as health supplements creates a recipe for further problems. A lack of awareness of the dangers of mixing such substances can be problematic for persons of almost any age, but especially children and elders. As such, it will be important for public health campaigns to address these problems in order to stave off additional risks posed by increased drug availability to such vulnerable populations.

While polypharmacy is most often nondeliberate and prone to adverse effects, it may have therapeutic applications as well. One developing area of interest is the use of polypharmacy in psychiatry to treat certain disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, that respond poorly or inconsistently to single medications. Research is ongoing as to the safety and efficacy of such an approach.

Bibliography

Beers, Mark H., and Robert Berkow, eds. The Merck Manual of Geriatrics. 3rd ed. Whitehouse Station: Merck, 2000. Print.

Freudenreich, Oliver, Nicholas Kontos, and John Querques. "Psychiatric Polypharmacy: A Clinical Approach Based on Etiology and Differential Diagnosis." Harvard Review of Psychiatry 20.2 (2012): 79–85. Print.

Holmes, Holly M. Polypharmacy. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2012. Print.

Kane, Robert L., et al. Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics. 7th ed. New York: McGraw, 2013. Print.

Neel, Armon B., Jr., and Bill Hogan. Are Your Prescriptions Killing You? How to Prevent Dangerous Interactions, Avoid Deadly Side Effects, and Be Healthier with Fewer Drugs. New York: Atria, 2012. Print.

Reuben, David, et al., eds. Geriatrics at Your Fingertips. 16th ed. New York: Amer. Geriatrics Soc., 2014. Print.

Ritsner, Michael S., ed. Polypharmacy in Psychiatry Practice. 2 vols. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. Print.