Archive for the ‘Female Genetics’ Category

Two years after Ebola ravaged parts of West Africa, the deadly virus in 2018 was making a comeback in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston sprang into action, reverse engineering the construction of a new vaccine and delivering 7,500 doses of it to the central African country for widespread use, all within 72 hours.

It was, in the words of Ben Raimer, interim president of UTMB, a proud moment for the university system, a collaborative effort that yielded life-saving results. Raimer cautioned, however, against the unrealistic expecations the Ebola success may have created for university researchers now grappling with the nuances of the far more complex novel coronavirus.

Were not a 72-hour virus maker here at UTMB, Raimer said. Weve done it one time for Ebola, but its not likely for this virus until we get a better understanding on how it functions in its various forms.

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Public health experts generally predict that a coronavirus vaccine will take much longer and wont be ready for at least 12 to 18 months from the first known infection in late December. Whilemore than 20 vaccine candidates are in development, most are in the early stages, well before clinical trials. Uncertainty over the timeline has led to an unquenchable thirst for any morsel of good news regarding progress researchers have made in understanding how the virus attacks humans.

Scott Weaver understands this reality better than most. As the director of UTMBs infectious disease research programs, Weaver is tasked with helping manage nearly two-dozen projects related to the coronavirus, from macro initiatives like vaccine and antiviral treatment to more nuanced efforts such as why the virus affects people who smoke or vape more acutely.

For now, vaccine development is moving at a slower pace than Ebola, Weaver said, though he is hopeful that a previously developed SARS vaccine will prove effective. That vaccine, developed by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and UTMB researchers, effectively protected mice against SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, the pneumonia-causing virus from the same family a coronavirus that spread in the early 2000s. The vaccine never progressed to human testing because manufacturing of it wasnt completed until 2016, long after SARS had burned out.

Weaver noted two key challenges to completing work on the SARS vaccine: the genetically-altered laboratory mice used to test this vaccine had to be recreated from scratch; and funding sources, particularly from commercial interests, are hard to come by.

UTMB has cleared one hurdle. The transgenic mice embryos used for the original vaccine were recently implanted into female and male mice, and the first offspring were born several weeks ago. Of course, even after these mice are used to test vaccine candidates, those vaccines will have to be tested on non-human primates before the FDA will consider permission for clinical trials in people.

But even if UTMB does not win the vaccine arms race, the universitys coronavirus research has already made a significant difference in understanding the viruss complexities.

We have here three virologist faculty scientists who focus their work on coronavirus, so we were well prepared to gear up very quickly to do research on this virus, Weaver said.

Indeed, at the outset of the viral outbreak, UTMB developed a reverse genetic system to manipulate the virus genome. The Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB, a high-security biocontainment lab, was one of three labs in the country to get the coronavirus isolate in February after the Centers for Disease Control worked on the first virus sample in Washington state and cultured it in Atlanta.

Pei-Yong Shi, a professor of human genetics at UTMB, led this effort, which allows scientists to essentially recreate the virus from scratch.

We can understand the mutations and history of the virus. We will be able to manipulate the virus, to understand which regions are causing the disease so we can make vaccines and therapeutics, Shi said.

The UTMB genetic system played a vital role in helping develop badly needed diagnostic tests. The universitys World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses stockpiled the viral RNA the genetic material needed to optimize tests for federal approval.

There was a time period in late February where we were literally the only laboratory in the world providing these RNA samples for diagnostic (test) development, Weaver said. A lot of the big companies that you see now are starting to scale up diagnostics - like LabCorps and Quest and many of the big hospitals including some in Houston and here in Galveston - we provided that critical RNA to them so they could get their tests up and running as quick as possible.

One of the primary projects capturing the attention of UTMB scientists is testing antiviral drugs to treat the symptoms of the coronavirus, Weaver said. The drugs currently being tested were developed for other viral infections or non-infectious diseases, such as remdesivir, which was used to combat Ebola infections.

Both President Trump and the World Health Organization have highlighted remdesivir as a promising coronavirus treatment, though clinical trials are still ongoing to determine how effective the drug can be. UTMB has a clinical trial set up in the coming weeks to test remdesivir in Galveston County coronavirus patients.

Coronavirus in Houston: All of the latest news, numbers and analysis to keep you up-to-date, only on HoustonChronicle.com

In the middle of an outbreak like this, there are going to be so many people who are hospitalized and eligible for these clinical trials that well learn very quickly whether (remdesivir) has efficacy or not, Weaver said. I think thats really the best prospect for an improvement in patient care in the near future.

Tapping into funding sources to continue vaccine research is a bigger problem. One of the major differences between Ebola in 2018 and coronavirus that contributed to how quickly UTMB was able to develop a vaccine was the sustained funding for Ebola research. Besides the SARS outbreak in the early aughts and MERS in 2012, coronaviruses typically dont attract the same interest.

Its much harder to get funding, especially commercial interest, in the coronavirus vaccine, Weaver said. Unfortunately, that means we dont have as much to start from. There were some vaccines that were developed. They never went very far down the pipeline towards clinical trials, but at least were not starting completely from scratch.

But for as much work is being done behind the scenes in the race to cure and treat the coronavirus, Weaver said the immediate outcome and toll of this pandemic will be determined by public health measures such as social distancing.

One person on average transmits the virus to 3 or 4 additional people and if one of those is a high-risk person, they may die, if one of those is a healthcare worker, they may spread it to many more people, Weaver said. I just hope that everyone takes this very seriously.

nick.powell@chron.com

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UTMB once helped defeat Ebola. Can it replicate that success with coronavirus? - Houston Chronicle

The illegal killing of this rare species of giraffe and her calf leaves a lone surviving male in the entire world. The death of the white giraffe, whos alabaster color is caused by leucism, a condition that only produces dark pigments on soft tissues, has left the community of Ijara, Kenya saddened.

Not only is this a long-term loss of research industries, but tourism will also take a hit.

This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole, Mohammand Ahmednoor, manager of the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, said. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe.Its killing is a blow to tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species, and a wake-up call for continued support to conservation efforts.

The Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy where the giraffes lived is located in a vast, non fenced-in area within two villages.

The Hirola Conservation Program was formed to support conservation efforts and continued research of the giraffes after the female white giraffe was first spotted in the conservancy in 2017. But the female giraffe was first discovered in Kenya in March 2016 in Tanzania at the Tarangire National Park. She recently gave birth to two calves in August 2019.

While the poachers have yet to be identified, the Kenya Wildlife Society is investigating the killings.

Today, the female giraffes surviving male calf is the only remaining white giraffe in the world and, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, the total population of giraffes living in Africa has decreased by 30% since their count in 1980s with an even more dramatic drop on other areas of the world.

This is a long-term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchers has now gone to the drain, Ahmednoor said. Further to this the white giraffe was a big boost to tourism in the area.

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Unique female white giraffe and calf killed at hands of illegal poachers in Kenya - NationofChange

A true story: 12 ships dock in the Italian port of Messina in 1347. The sailors on board are all either dead or very gravely ill, covered in the oozing, pus-filled black boils that gave the greatest pandemic of the Middle Ages its lasting moniker: the Black Death. This was the bubonic plague which was to wipe out a third of the population of Europe, or more than 20 million people, in less than a decade. How was social distancing practised then, almost 700 years ago, and how different is the situation today?

Lets begin by looking at a couple of historical coincidences concerning a world narrative of disease transmission and spread. In 2011, an international group of scientists published a paper in Nature that traced the genetic route of the Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that caused the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages. Their conclusion was that, then as now, the infection originated in China or nearby. The virus moved variously via the Silk Road and other land-trade routes, until sea trade brought it to the docks of Europe. Then, as now, the first major epicentre in Europe was Italy.

Then, as now, the recombinant transmission was animal to human: rats were the proximate cause then, as is the bat and/ or snake or, perhaps, the pangolin today. Travel routes were the pre-eminent vectors then, as now. Fear, apprehension and hope were the dominant emotions then, as now. What will befall us was the most common question and isolation, the most common preventive strategy.

Social symptomology

Medically, of course, there are huge differences: the infection in the case of the bubonic plague was caused by a bacterium, while it is a virus, the SARS-CoV-2, that precipitates the sometimes deadly symptoms of respiratory failure of COVID-19. For this reason, most comparisons made so far have been, appropriately enough, with the Spanish Flu of 1916-20. Yet, in terms of social symptomology, just as revealing could be the long-term impact of the Black Death, which hit Europe in times of relative peace, a century after the bloody fervour of the Crusades had peaked, just as the coronavirus has now gone global in peace time. It goes without saying that the economic impact of the plague pandemic was devastating, with starvation rampant and riots breaking out among the poor over sheer survival needs. It took almost a century then for global financial systems to recover.

To this day, the Great Plague remains stamped in world memory through the ubiquitous childrens rhyme Ringa-Ringa Roses, where the roses refer to the buboes on the bodies of victims and the innocuous ending all fall down indicates mass death. In contrast, the pandemics of the 20th and 21st centuries seem to have produced less major literature comparable, for instance, to Giovanni Boccaccios 14th century masterpiece, The Decameron, although Im willing to be corrected on this somewhat contentious claim.

Anyhow, it turns out that, almost immediately after the Black Death made its dramatic entry into Italy, Boccaccio, an established literary name, began to record the story of the isolationist measures that the elite of his time took to combat the crisis that had so suddenly overcome them. His descriptions of the distress are graphic. He writes of the multitude of corpses, of graveyards so full that vast trenches had to be dug wherein those who came after were laid by the hundred and being heaped up therein by layers, as goods are stowed aboard ship and of whole families thrown pell-mell into the streets each day. Conditions were so piteous, especially among the common people that:

...what more can be said save that so great was the cruelty of heaven (and in part, peradventure, that of men) that, between March and the following July, what with the virulence of that pestiferous sickness and the number of sick folk ill tended or forsaken in their need, through the fearfulness of those who were whole, it is believed for certain that upward of an hundred thousand human beings perished within the walls of the city of Florence, which, peradventure, before the advent of that death-dealing calamity, had not been accounted to hold so many

Another coincidence: the arc of the infection. Boccaccio specifically mentions March to July. Which is precisely where we are now with the coronavirus. Note, too, the reference to the teeming population. Here, too, Boccaccios observations are acute: fearfulness and the capacity for cruelty among the unaffected population; the high death toll in Florence where upward of a hundred thousand perished when no one even guessed the city held so many! Our cities from Milan to Mumbai have over a hundred times the medieval densities; on the other hand, the coronavirus is far less fatal than the plague but the bottomline is still lockdown.

The Decameron is the tale of 10 aristocrats, three men and, rather surprisingly, as many as seven women, young, well-bred and well-read, who barricade themselves in a villa in order to avoid the grim disease. Call it self-quarantine, if you will, and note its striking similarity to medical advice today. Social behaviour in the Middle Ages, it appears, was not that dissimilar to ours.

True, we know immeasurably more about medication, drugs, genetics and epidemiology today. Global cooperation of the sort that organisations like the WHO so swiftly call on would have been unthinkable then. After all, the Great Plague preceded Shakespeare and Galileo by more than 200 years. Modernity and its rationalist, scientific view of natural laws were barely a glimmer in the eyes of even great humanists such as Dante or Boccaccio; democratic norms unimaginable. But turn to human nature and its anxieties, and we find in The Decameron a universal text.

Tapestry of hope

What seems to have remained stubbornly unaltered down the centuries is the generic role that narratives an hundred stories or fables or parables or histories or whatever youd like to style them as Boccaccio says cheerfully play in coming to terms with the stress and trauma generated by the vengeful and devilish unknown. All that the characters in The Decameron do is hang out, tell stories and sing songs. Together, however, they cooperatively create a durable tapestry of hope.

Most modern interpretations of The Decameron, such as Pier Paolo Pasolinis famous 1971 film based on the book, have highlighted the bawdy concupiscence, the persistent lust and lechery on display in these stories. But it does not take a Freud to surmise that the obsession with the body in The Decameron at a time when the mutable human body is under terrifying siege makes psychological sense. These stories form immunity cordons, ringfencing the young people in their villa against desperation.

One of the striking features of The Decameron is that its cast is young and mostly female, with seven women (Boccaccio specifically mentions that their ages range from 18 to 28), and only three men. Why? Well, for one, it is clear throughout the text that Boccaccio thinks women are naturally more talkative and empathetic. Indeed, at the end of his book, he credits his female neighbour with complimenting his tongue as the best and sweetest in the world although some men are of the opinion that the same tongue is quite venomous.

More fundamentally, Boccaccios underlying philosophy seems to be that its not so much the sagacity of old age thats required in times of unprecedented crisis but a buoyant belief in the future such as comes naturally to the young. Today, wed say that the evolutionary will to survive and mate for the good of the species and to lead a good life, la dolce vita, is a primal instinct in our millennials, for example. In this respect, we could maintain that the coronavirus metaphorically follows the pattern set by Boccaccio: it spares the young. The young are certainly not invincible, as the Director of WHO has cautioned. But should they believe they are, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the U.S., Dr. Antony Fauci, adds a wise, ethical footnote: the youth, he says, owe a debt to the rest of the species not to act irresponsibly and selfishly. It is here that The Decamerons message resonates.

Early humanism

Boccaccio offers us a microcosm of an early humanist world in the making. Though embedded in the local and inevitably mired in the prejudices of the time, its vision is astonishingly non-polarising, cosmopolitan and inclusive. For example, the trope of the Jew as the iconic other is prominent, but Boccaccios Jews are not in the least evil or targets of hate; instead, they are rational, likeable souls. Simultaneously, the Christian clergy are roundly condemned for their hypocrisy and venality, as are the pickmen who collect and dump the dead for money; Boccaccio calls them bloodsuckers. Today, such leeches could well include the callous rich and the politicians who seek to profit from calamity.

On display in The Decameron is the entire range of human folly: deceit, duplicity, dementia, violence. In one typically melodramatic story, a father cuts out his daughters lovers heart and offers it to her in a silver dish, whereupon she pours poison into the bloody bowl and consumes the gory potion, killing herself instantly. The point is that these harrowing instances of mans inhumanity to man only throw into luminous relief the innate goodness and generosity of ordinary folk. In this sense, Boccaccio intelligently recognises that nature, in essence, is non-hierarchical, even if culture chooses to privilege some over others.

If the adage is that death is the great leveller, infectious diseases surely come a close second. The Decameron begins with the pious declaration: A kindly thing it is to have compassion for the afflicted and then proceeds to examine, with no small degree of irony, the forms and genealogy of such empathy. It ends with admirable, self-reflexive humility: I confess that the things of this world have no stability and are still on the change and so it may have befallen on my tongue.

In other words, no judgement is infallible, and even ones most cherished beliefs are subject to correction. Part of this humility may be due to the demands of literary convention, but part seems to stem from genuine conviction. Boccaccio was deeply aware of the instability of his world and, consequently, his words.

Admit it as Boccaccio bravely did or not, we are perhaps just as uncertain in the 21st century during the times of the coronavirus. That is why reading The Decameron in the present corona hotspot of New York or in the possible future hotspot of New Delhi or anyplace anywhere, could be just the social prophylactic against depression and despair that we need in these troubled times.

The writer is critical theorist, writer, poet, and Professor Emerita at IIT Delhi. She was Distinguished Professor at Hunan University, China in 2019. Her books include Narrative Gravity: Conversation, Cognition, Culture.

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The strange and startling similarities between the Great Plague and COVID-19 - The Hindu

BULL breeders across Australia have been quick to respond to latest government restrictions over gatherings of people, swinging quickly to online auctions in place of face-to-face bull sales.

There has been a sharp rise in online bidding in physical bull sales held over the past week, and an increase in the number of genetics sales scheduled for coming months which will now be online-only this year.

As COVID-19 unfolds, the online channel looks like providing an important function in livestock and seedstock sales to ensure an active marketplace and supply chain.

AuctionsPlus has this week fielded quite a few early inquiries from vendors for upcoming bull sales, operations manager Tom Rookyard told Beef Central this morning.

These had come from across Australia, as well as some from overseas, among stud breeders facing the same challenge around interacting with their buyers. Some were existing clients who in the past had held a physical sale, supported by interfaced AuctionsPlus online bidding, while others were studs new to online selling options.

Heres some recent examples of upcoming sales moving online this year due to COVID-19, and recent fixtures where online bidding has been strong:

The Limousin National Show & Sale committee issued a statement saying that based on current government recommendations and health guidelines, it was moving to an AuctionsPlus online-only format for its 2020 sale, which will remain on the same date of 1 May.

Due to government restrictions currently in place there will not be any events held in the sales host city of Wodonga. Photos and videos all the sale lots will be available online for prospective buyers. All cattle on offer will be independently vet-inspected and backed by the Limousin Assurance Program.

In another innovation, the sale committee has partnered with The Global Cattle Market group, which host the popular Champion of the World seedstock competition to bring an online judging platform for the sale this year, in lieu of the regular live judging program.

This will allow breeders and cattle enthusiasts across Australia and around the world to view and engage with the Limousin National, and help create more interest in the sale which in the past has been live-streamed to audiences, the committee said. The online judging program will commence mid-April with final champions to be announced during the week of the sale.

For more details on the event, contact Limousin Australia.

While the Australian Wagyu Associations WagyuEdge 2020 conference and tour has been called off, the Elite Wagyu Sale that normally forms a centrepiece for the conference will now proceed as an online-only event. The sale has been live for the past four years, with online bidding also offered, and has grown year-on-year to set some extraordinary seedstock industry price records in the past two years.

This years Elite Wagyu online-only sale will be conducted via AuctionsPlus on 30 April. The preliminary catalogue is now available online, offering 98 lots including registered females, bulls, embryo flushes and semen packages.

Kilburnies on-property Angus Female Dispersal on 27 March is now an AuctionsPlus Simultaneous Auction. All animals will be on sale simultaneously. Animals will be available for inspection by prior appointment from Noon on Tuesday until Friday 2pm. Click here for details.

Ascots Autumn bull sale on 1 April will go ahead, with precautions (see below) as usual on-property, North Toolburra near Warwick. Online bidding through AuctionsPlus is also available to buyers, with live video & audio, as well as bidding through buyers preferred agent.

As far as an indoor event (uninterrupted space of < 100 people) we have put in place measures so that social distancing can be achieved in our open sale shed, Ascots Jim Wedge said. We will only have two grandstands, with signs advising of 1.5m distancing. We will provide chairs on the western open side of the sale shed, spaced at 1.5m intervals, allowing buyers to spill outside and still be able to view the bulls in the ring. Well-placed spotters can pick up their bids, he said.

Seedstock sales held in Central Queensland this week have seen sharp rises in online bidding activity taking place.

More than 40 percent of bulls sold at Mondays Speckle Me Speckle Park bull sale at Gracemere sold to online bidders, using RLXs Stocklive platform.

The online purchases included the sales top-priced lot sold at $23,000 to the Birchmore family, bidding from Winton. In total, 31 bulls were sold for an average $7677 for a 100 percent clearance.

Nutrien Livestocks James Saunders said the sale reflected an outstanding result that was strengthened by access to online bidding technology.

It was an outstanding sale with support from right throughout Central Queensland and further west, and this was great to see considering some of the issues the world is dealing with at the moment, he said.

Stocklive worked extremely well and its very important we have that facility there, as the online bidders really strengthened the sale.

Almost 140 people viewed the Speckle Me sale on Stocklive with 11 active online bidders. The average for stock sold to remote bidders exceeded that of the general sale average at $9850.

Last Saturday, the Rocky All Stars Elite Brahman Female Sale held at Gracemere also interfaced with online bidding achieved a 100pc clearance and an average of $5381. Almost 250 logged in to view the sale on Stocklive with 14 lots secured online at a value of $58,500.

Robert Murray from Elders Stud Stock, Rockhampton, emphasised the importance of remote access to sales under current conditions.

The crowd was noticeably down because of the situation but we had tremendous support online, Mr Murray said.

Australias newest online livestock sales platform FarmGate Auctions has waived listing fees for livestock sellers, including private, stand-alone and stud stock sales, following the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, in a bid to support the continuation of livestock trade in the coming months.

FarmGate Auctions co-founder and Gunnedah-based livestock agent Guy Gallen said coronavirus presented a whole raft of challenges for primary producers yet highlighted the need for reliable and remotely-accessible agtech solutions to help the livestock industry thrive in times of uncertainty.

With the new social distancing protocols in place in public areas which include saleyards, auction houses, rooms and places livestock producers and buyers are unsure of where to buy or sell their stock, Mr Gallen said.

We need to open every market opportunity we have and allow buyers and sellers to meet in ways they never have before. This means doing business remotely and online, which is why were waiving fees to encourage vendors and agents to consider this new platform for trade.

Established in 2017, FarmGate Auctions says it brings livestock producers closer to their customers, by using better technology and marketing opportunities as well as removing cost and red tape throughout the transaction.

Producers have faced their share of challenges in recent times with the drought and bushfires so its imperative now with a bit of a season behind us, that we help them capitalise on demand and get business back on track. New and creative technological solutions are a big part of that, Mr Gallen said.

After launching with cattle auctions in October 2019, FarmGate Auctions will hold its first sheep sale this Friday, with almost 2000 Merino sheep from the Australian Eastern Seaboard States.

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Bull breeders respond to COVID-19 with online selling strategies - Beef Central

Nenue are a large, gray, schooling fish that are generally known as chubs. There are several common species here in Hawaii that are often seen in large schools called gray chubs, highfin, brassy and bicolor chubs. These common, shallow-water fish can grow to about 20 inches long and are often seen right up close to shore where the feed of marine plants. They zoom back and fourth with the surge from the waves, and sometimes a snorkeler will get surrounded by over 100 nenue in a single, large, fast-moving school.

During breeding season the male chubs will often develop a spotted, black-and-white pattern, but from time to time divers see a bright yellow nenue.

It is truly a beautiful fish, and I have only seen five of them in all of my diving throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In old Hawaii the rare yellow chub was called the queen nenue, and was thought to be a very special fish.

Nenue are good to eat, and have been a sustainable food source for over 1,000 years for the Hawaiian people. They are often speared in shallow water or caught by throwing nets, but if the queen nenue was caught by accident it was immediately released. It was thought that the gray chubs would follow the queen and a fishermen could develop a good relationship with the local queen and she would lead fish into his net.

The yellow color of the queen nenue is caused by a genetic defect. The gray colors of the chub are created by black pigment in the skin that lays on top of a layer of yellow pigment. Two different genes control these colors, as is very common with fish and reptile species. Sometimes the black color is missing due to a genetic defect in the fish colony. The condition when the black color pigment is missing is called amelanistic. What is unusual about this uncommon color variation is the yellow fish still has black eyes.

Amelanistic fish and reptiles tend to die in the wild, as they are so brightly colored that get picked off by predators. But in captivity it is fairly easy to captive-breed these animals and produce an entire colony of bright yellow fish or reptiles.

Since their color pattern is controlled by just two genes you can take a yellow adult male and breed it with a normal gray female. All of the offspring will be gray, but they carry the gene for being amelanistic. If you then breed the yellow adult to one of his gray offspring the next generation will have 50% yellow babies. If you raise up the yellow babies and breed them together 100% of their offspring are yellow. This is how the now-famous albino Burmese python was produced that you often see for sale in pet stores on the mainland.

The queen nenue is not an albino as sometimes thought, because a true albino will lack all color and would be pure white with pink eyes. Sometimes there are nenue that are part yellow and part gray. This is another genetic variation we call piebald, and it is governed by a set of more-complicated genetics then the amelanistic color pattern.

Amelanistic color patterns in fish and reptiles are simply the lack of the black color controlling gene or genes, so the animals color is just what underlying color pattern is left.

So why do a few of these rare yellow nenue survive in the Hawaiian population? They do not seem to have any different feeding or behavior patterns then the regular gray chub, and I know they can live for quite a long time. I have seen a queen nenue at Tunnels Reef (Makua) in Kauai now for over five years, and one along Napali Coast at Nualolo for over eight years.

You can see the yellow nenue in action in the video The Worlds Guide to Hawaii Reef Fish on the marine life educational web page at http://www.underwater2web.com, and if you see one of these cool-looking fish where you live please let me know on my Facebook under my name Terry Lilley or Instagram at terry.lilley, as I am trying to find out if they occur on all of the Hawaiian Islands and also through out the Pacific Ocean.

Please stay tuned for a new Online Marine Educational Series expected to launch soon for all of the school kids that are having to stay home due to the coronavirus outbreaks we are currently having. I have enough online marine-life videos to keep the kids busy for years, and they are fun and educational for the parents to watch, too.

Aloha from under the surf.

Terry Lilley, a marine biologist, lives in Hanalei. His websites include underwater-2web.com and gofundme.com/5urrm4zw.

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Meet the queen nenue - Thegardenisland.com

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One morning in 2005, Shelley Beverley woke up to find that she had gone deaf. She was 21, and living in Johannesburg with her older brother Neil. I was very scared, she says. It was just so sudden. She struggled through the rest of the day, hoping that her hearing would come back, but it didnt. In one sense, her hearing loss wasnt entirely a surprise: Beverleys grandmother had been deaf, Neil had lost his hearing when he was 13, and her mum, Mary, had lost hers when she was 32. We knew it ran in the family, she says, but I thought Id been lucky and not inherited it.

Beverley, 35, lives in Margate, a semi-rural district south of Hobart, with her husband James. The couple migrated to Australia from South Africa in 2010, looking for space, buying 2 hectares of lush green grass at the foot of a forested ridge near the mouth of the Derwent River. We love the wildlife here, says James, looking out the living room window. Weve seen pademelons, echidnas, quolls, blue-tongue lizards, even a Tassie devil. At dusk, hundreds of kangaroos emerge from the forest to gorge on the grass. Its very peaceful, says James. Its really helped us after everything thats happened.

Apart from their deafness, Beverleys family had largely enjoyed good health. Then, in September 2015, her mother, Mary, then 62, started experiencing fatigue and stomach pain. Doctors in Durban ordered a colonoscopy, but the procedure made her worse. Her feet became swollen and purple. Because of their hearing problems, Shelley and Mary had communicated mainly in text messages. But soon I began noticing that her wording got a bit funny, says Beverley. It didnt always make sense.

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Beverley flew to Durban in February 2016, but by that time her mother could no longer talk or walk. She was so weak that she couldnt move her hands or lift her neck. Two days after Beverley arrived in Durban, her mother caught a virus that caused fluid to build up on her lungs. The doctors tried unsuccessfully to drain it. Shortly afterwards, she died. She weighed just 36 kilograms. It was so fast, Beverley says. And we were still in the dark about what she had.

Shortly before Marys death, Neil had also fallen ill. He developed a number of mysterious symptoms, including facial twitches and seizures. He kept falling over and tripping, and experienced vomiting and headaches so severe he lost his vision for weeks at a time. His behaviour became strange showering with his clothes on, and hallucinating.

One day, Dad was driving him around and Neil started talking to all these little people he thought were around his feet, says Beverley. Doctors in Durban had trouble diagnosing him, so they sent a biopsy to London, where he was found to have a type of mitochondrial cytopathy one of a large family of chronic and progressive diseases that affect the muscles, brain and nervous system. As the family soon learnt, the condition has no cure and no effective therapies. One of the common early symptoms is hearing loss.

Neil died in June 2017, aged 34, by which time Beverley had discovered she also had the condition. It was fear, so much fear, she says. She began experiencing symptoms, including migraines and vision loss. She has since developed diabetes, hypertension, gastro-paresis (when your stomach muscles dont work), and pharyngeal dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Every time I get sick now, the flu or something, I think, When am I going to need a wheelchair or a feeding tube? When will my legs stop working?

Mito has taken everything from me, she says. If I die, at least James will still have a part of me.

Beverley has bright blue eyes and long, straight, ash-brown hair. Shes got a lazy left eye and uncommonly pale skin, which she attributes to her condition. Oh, and I had bunions out in 2010, she says, laughing wryly.

She doesnt know how long shes got left, but she is determined to make it count. She has joined mito awareness groups, and is an active member of the Mito Foundation, which supports sufferers, and funds research. She has exhaustively researched the condition and takes every opportunity to educate doctors. Youd be surprised by how little they know about it, she says.

But her overriding focus has been on a cutting-edge, and currently illegal, procedure called mitochondrial donation, a form of IVF which would allow those with the condition to have children, safe in the knowledge they would not be passing it on. Mito has taken everything from me, she says. If I die, at least James will still have a part of me. I would like him to look at our child, and say, You have your mums smile or your mums eyes.

An IVF treatment known as mitochondrial donation could potentially save up to 60 Australian children a year from being born with the condition. Credit:

Mitochondrial donation has been labelled immoral and unethical, a slippery slope to designer babies, not to mention potentially unsafe. The only country in the world to have legalised it is the UK. A report by medical experts into the technologys potential application in Australia is due to be delivered to Health Minister Greg Hunt this month.

This fight is really personal to me, Beverley says. Short of a cure, people with mito should at least have the option of having healthy children.

Mitochondria are microscopic structures in human cells that provide the body with energy. For this reason, they are often described as the cells powerhouse. They are crucially important: if your mitochondria fail or mutate, your body will be starved of energy, causing multiple organ failure and premature death.

A stylised representation of a mitochondrion, which provides the body with energy. Malfunction can lead to organ failure and death.Credit:Josh Robenstone

Mito, which is maternally inherited, usually affects the muscles and major organs such as the brain, heart, liver, inner ears, and eyes. But it can cause any symptom in any organ, at any age. Indeed, the term mito includes more than 200 disorders, the symptoms of which are maddeningly varied and seemingly unrelated, leading to delayed diagnoses or incorrect diagnoses or, indeed, no diagnosis.

Many of these people have been fobbed off by doctors or laughed off by people who think they are hypochondriacs, says Dr David Thorburn, a mitochondrial researcher at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, in Melbourne, who has diagnosed some 700 cases over the past 28 years. Most people are relieved to finally know what it is, because that is the end of that part of their journey.

Its sometimes said babies produced as a result of mitochondrial donation would have three parents the mother, the father, and the donor.

Up to two million people worldwide have some form of mito. - Others, like Beverley, who have a less severe type of the disease, will get adult onset, and can expect to become ill in their 30s, 40s or 50s.

According to Thorburn, One of the things that most dismays families with mito is the lack of control they have over passing the condition down to future generations of their family.

Remaining childless is one way to stop the condition from being passed down, as is adopting, but as Thorburn acknowledges, There is an innate desire in many individuals to have their own children. For these people, mito donation offers the very real prospect that the condition is eliminated from future generations.

Mitochondrial replacement is a highly specialised procedure, requiring a level of manual dexterity sufficient to manipulate a womans egg, which is roughly the width of a human hair. Within that egg is a nucleus, where a persons genes are located, and the cytoplasm, the jelly-like substance that surrounds it. Mitochondria are found in the cytoplasm.

Mitochondrial replacement involves taking a donor females healthy egg, removing its nucleus and replacing it with the nucleus of the woman affected by mitochondrial disease, but whose nucleus is healthy. The egg is then fertilised using her partners sperm. (Another option is to fertilise the egg first, and then swap the nucleus.) The resulting embryo is then implanted into the mother.

Researcher David Thorburn: "Mito donation offers the very real prospect that the condition is eliminated from future generations."Credit:Josh Robenstone

Since more than 99.9 per cent of our genes are found in the eggs nucleus, which remains unaffected, the procedure will have no impact on the childs height, hair colour or mannerisms. Despite that, its sometimes said that babies produced as a result of mitochondrial donation would have three parents the mother, the father, and the donor.

The technology has been tested in mice for more than 30 years, but only since 2009 has research been done on human embryos, mainly in the UK. Almost from the start, the research was subject to sensational headlines about scientists playing God, and the possibility of genetic engineering, with much of the hysteria being fuelled by anti-abortion groups. The Catholic Church described it as a further step in commodification of the human embryo and a failure to respect new individual human lives.

In 2012, the Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog group in London, wrote a paper comparing any baby produced with mitochondrial replacement to Frankensteins creation, since they would be produced by sticking together bits from many different bodies. According to the Conservative British MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, the procedure was not a cure for disease, it is the creating of a different person.

Regulators subjected the technology to four separate scientific reviews, together with rounds of ethical debate and community consultation. In 2015, the UK Parliament voted to legalise the technology for use in humans, on the proviso that it only be available to those women at high risk of passing on the disease. Since then, 13 couples in the UK have received the go-ahead to undergo the procedure.

Its unclear how many children, if any, have been born: the parents have asked that details not be published. Meanwhile, scientists like Thorburn wait eagerly for news of any developments. I know the UK researchers well and have asked several of them, and they are keeping completely quiet about it in respecting the families wishes, he says.

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If there have been babies born in the UK using the procedure, they arent the first. In April 2016, a child was born using the technique in Mexico, to a Jordanian mother who carried a fatal mitochondrial condition known as Leigh syndrome. The doctor in charge, an American fertility specialist called Dr John Zhang, later admitted that he had gone to Mexico because the procedure is illegal in America. In Mexico, he admitted, There are no rules.

Even those who want mitochondrial donation legalised in Australia concede that much remains unknown about the procedure. Its long-term risks can only be understood through lifelong health check-ups, but this is impossible until any children conceived via this procedure become adults. Implications for subsequent generations also remain unclear.

No medical procedure is 100 per cent safe, says Sean Murray, CEO of the Mito Foundation. But we think we are at the stage now where the benefits of the technology are greater than the risks.

One of the issues around safety concerns the compatibility of the donors mitochondria with the recipients nuclear genes. A 2016 study in mice suggested that mismatched mitochondria affected their metabolism and shortened their lives. Another concern is known as carryover, whereby a tiny amount of mutant mitochondria is inevitably transferred from the affected mothers egg into the donor egg during the procedure.

Instead of it being wiped out, the mutation might then reappear in the descendants of any girls born as a result. For this reason, some people have proposed that the procedure be restricted to male embryos only, but this raises all kinds of ethical issues around selective breeding and sex selection.

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Indeed, it often seems as if the term ethical minefield was coined especially with mitochondrial donation in mind.

My primary ethical concern has to do with the sanctity of human life, says Father Kevin McGovern, a Catholic priest and member of the National Health and Medical Research Councils Mitochondrial Donation Expert Working Committee.

If mitochondrial donation is permitted here, the technique most likely to be used is pronuclear transfer, which requires that both the donors egg and the affected mothers egg be fertilised. [This is to ensure that both eggs are at the same developmental stage.] But once the nucleus is removed from the donors fertilised egg, it is discarded. For people who believe that life begins at conception, this is akin to murder. You are creating two lives and destroying one for spare parts.

The Catholic Church has consistently opposed mitochondrial donation. In a Senate inquiry into the technology in 2018, Dr Bernadette Tobin, director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at the Australian Catholic University, suggested the process was intrinsically evil.

The inquiry also heard from Father Anthony Fisher, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, who raised concerns about the moral right of the child to know how he or she was conceived the problem of what he called genealogical bewilderment and the donors right to remain anonymous. He also worried that women might effectively become egg vending machines: The availability of human ova is often assumed when people talk about reproductive technology as if they were somehow there in a cupboard to be used. In fact, it means women have to be used to obtain these eggs. They are extracted by invasive procedures that do carry some risk.

A report by medical experts into mitochondrial donation and its potential application in Australia is due to be delivered to Health Minister Greg Hunt this month. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Equally troubling for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the peak national body for the churchs bishops, was the fact that mitochondrial donation involved conceiving babies not by marital intercourse [but by] a technical procedure.

Most of these concerns are redundant, argues the Mito Foundations Sean Murray. We already have a well defined regulatory framework for dealing with all this, he says. As far as the donors right to remain anonymous, we would defer to the appropriate federal or state and territory regulations that apply for sperm or egg donations. In regard to a kids right to know they had a mitochondrial donor, societally there seems to be a preference to inform kids. Its important for them to understand their genetic lineage.

Then theres the matter of consent. The parents can wrestle with the ethical issues and weigh up all the risks, but the only person who cant consent to the procedure is the unborn child. Well, says Murray, they cant consent to being born with mito, either.

The Mito Foundations Sean Murray: "In regard to a kids right to know they had a mitochondrial donor, societally there seems to be a preference to inform kids."Credit:Joshua Morris

Murray, 47, is one of the founding directors of the Mito Foundation, which was established in Sydney in 2009. Mito runs in my family, he says. My older brother, Peter, died of it in 2009 at 45, and my mum passed away in 2011, at 70. What people often dont understand is that even in families that have mito, each member can have different mutational loads basically, different amounts of bad mitochondria. Peter got a high load, but I didnt. Thats why Im still here.

A computer scientist by training, Murray now works full-time on the foundation. Much of his job involves travelling around the country, explaining mito to politicians, journalists and philanthropists, raising funds for research and, most crucially, advocating for a change to the laws.

Mitochondrial donation falls foul of two pieces of legislation: the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002, and the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2002. The laws prohibit the implantation of a human embryo that contains more than two peoples genetic material. The laws were subject to a mandatory review in 2010, but the then Labor government recommended they remain the same.

In 2013, the Mito Foundation urged the government to revisit its decision. Two years later, it began lobbying in earnest. What we tried to get across was that the science around mito donation has come a long way since 2010, says Murray. Also, the process that the UK went through to legalise it really reassured us that the procedure is safe and effective.

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In the past five years, Murray and his colleagues have consulted with more than 100 MPs and senators. Only one of them, according to Murray, said I dont like this. They have also talked to dozens of industry experts, including academics and medical and research bodies, about the benefits of mitochondrial donation. Most of them get it straight away, he says. We are talking about a technique that will prevent the chance of having a morbidly ill child.

Now, a breakthrough appears imminent. In February 2019, Health Minister Greg Hunt asked the National Health and Medical Research Council to look into the matter, review the science and conduct public consultation. The NHMRC is due to hand its report to Hunt this month. The expectation among the mito community is that he will recommend the laws be changed. Any proposals would then need to be debated in Parliament, where issues around reproductive medicine have, in the past, been hotly contested.

Murray expects some opposition from more conservative MPs, but nothing like the rancour seen in the NSW Parliament during last years debate over legalising abortion. Shadow health minister Chris Bowen has, for his part, said that Labor will support changing the laws.

Mitochondrial sufferer Shelley Beverley at home in Tasmania. This fight is really personal to me. Credit:Peter Mathew

Whether this will help people like Shelley Beverley is unclear. If Hunt gives it the green light, it will take two years at least for mitochondrial donation to become available to prospective parents, given the time involved in drafting and passing legislation, establishing a regulatory regime and getting doctors up to speed with the technology.

This will probably be too late for Beverley. I really only have about a year left to give it a go, she tells me. After that, my symptoms may progress and biologically things get worse after 35. She says she would consider going to the UK for the treatment, but that at present they are not accepting international patients.

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In the meantime, she watches TV, and reads a little, but not too much. (It puts me to sleep.) She gardens: she has a bed of huge white and pink roses out the back of her house, as a memorial to her mother and brother. And she eats. James cooks for me. He lets me choose the best meat and potatoes! Ive put on weight since I met him. She describes James as something close to an angel. He will listen to every problem I have or feeling I experience. He will always put me first.

Beverley started going out with James when she was 21, right around the time she first went deaf. I was so scared that he wouldnt like me as much. I remember calling him and saying I was scared he would leave me. But James is still here. Im very lucky to have him, she says. If I go, I want him to have a part of me.

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.

Tim Elliott is a senior writer with Good Weekend.

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How far should genetic engineering go to allow this couple to have a healthy baby? - Sydney Morning Herald

An older male influence in your family might have something to do with your sexuality, a study suggests.

According to a study published in journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, research has revealed that having an older brother increases mens chances of being homosexual.

The studys researchers analyzed 10 separate sexual orientation studies that involved 5,400 men with info regarding their birth order.

The study revealed that men with older brothers have a 38% higher likelihood of being gay compared to men who dont have an older brother.

(Older) brothers increase the probability of homosexuality in later-born males, the study noted.

The information presented also showed that the more older brothers a man had, the higher chance that he would be homosexual. The study stated having three older brothers doubled a mans chances of being gay.

The study also found that mothers of homosexual males bear more children compared to mothers of heterosexual males.

David Spiegelhalter, a statistician and professor at the University of Cambridge, told the Daily Mail that the fascinating study estimates that having an older brother increases the odds of being gay by 38%, supporting the idea that a mothers immune response to having a male child influences subsequent boys.

People have endlessly argued about the possible roles of genetics and upbringing, but this clear result fits in neither category, he said.

The researchers failed to find a connection between sexuality and birth order for women, noting theres no pattern of siblings, their gender or age that would help determine whether a female would be a lesbian.

Much prior research has shown that females do not influence the sexual orientation of their younger siblings, and females sexual orientation is not affected by their numbers of older siblings, study author Dr. Ray Blanchard stated in an interview with the Daily Mail.

The studys authors state they arent sure why their findings are the case, stating they believe it may be attributed to a theory known as maternal immune hypothesis which believes women who give birth to male babies develop antibodies that impact brain development of future male children they have.

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Boys with older brother more likely to be gay: Study - Calgary Sun

NAIROBI, Kenya A white female giraffe and her 7-month-old calf, whose rare pigmentation mesmerized wildlife enthusiasts around the world, have been killed by poachers in Kenya, officials said, illustrating the challenges of conservation and the persistent and devastating impact of poaching.

The deaths of the giraffes left just one of the unusually colored animals in the countrys wild, a bull, out of a family of three, conservancy officials said.

Mohammed Ahmednoor, the manager of the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy in northeastern Kenya, where the giraffes lived, said that rangers had confirmed their deaths and that there were photographs of the skeletal remains.

This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole, Mr. Ahmednoor said. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe.

Its killing is a blow to the tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species, and a wake-up call for continued support to conservation efforts, he added.

Conservationists estimated from the state of the carcasses that the animals had been killed four months ago. The Kenya Wildlife Service said it was investigating the killings.

With their unique white hides, the female giraffe and her calf drew global attention when they were sighted grazing in 2017 by a villager in Kenya who was herding his animals near the Ishaqbini sanctuary, which is also home to the critically endangered hirola antelope.

The adult was accompanied by a pale baby giraffe, and it was not immediately clear what had happened to that calf or whether its skin pigmentation had changed as it aged. Last year, a second calf was born, bringing the total number of white giraffes in the area to three.

The giraffes did not have albinism, but displayed the symptoms of a different genetic condition, known as leucism, in which animals often experience a partial loss of pigmentation.

Animals with albinism produce no melanin throughout their entire bodies. Animals with leucism may have darker pigment in their soft tissue, and their eyes retain a normal color. The eyes of animals with albinism are usually red. Ishaqbini said the female white giraffe had dark pigment in her soft tissue, noting that, Her eyes were dark in color.

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates that the number of reticulated giraffes in the world, which includes the species found in Ishaqbini and across north and northeastern Kenya, has declined by more than 50 percent in the past three decades, to 15,780 in 2018.

There are about 111,000 giraffes in Africa, according to the foundation. In some populations, 50 percent of calves dont survive their first year, the foundation said.

The killing of the white giraffes highlighted the threats facing the animals, including poaching for their meat and hide, along with the loss of their habitat because of infrastructure development and land clearing for agriculture and firewood.

While conservation efforts in Kenya have improved, the country has for decades struggled to contain the threat to its wildlife population, a source of much-needed tourism revenue. This is especially true of its elephant and rhino populations, whose ivory and horns are valued as status symbols and used as ingredients in traditional medicine.

Mr. Ahmednoor, the manager of Ishaqbini, lamented the likely impact of the white giraffes killing, saying that the animals were a big boost to tourism in the area.

Also, he added, This is a long-term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchers has now gone down the drain.

Beyond Kenya, a white giraffe was also spotted in 2016 in Tanzania, at the Tarangire National Park.

Abdi Latif Dahir reported from Nairobi, and Neil Vigdor from New York.

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2 Rare White Giraffes Slaughtered by Poachers in Kenya - The New York Times

Last Thursday, TV productions had only just begun to shut down as a result of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. And while Hulu canceled the series' red carpet premiere scheduled for that evening, the cast of Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere, an adaptation of Celeste Ng's best-selling novel, still headed to the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills that morning for what would turn out to be the last Hollywood junket for the foreseeable future.

"It feels a little odd to be here talking about a television show," star Reese Witherspoon told The Hollywood Reporter the morning of March 12, well before any emergency regulations were put in place by the state and national governments. "If we have an opportunity to distract or entertain, I feel very lucky to be part of a community that's helping [do that]."

Added her co-star and fellow executive producer Kerry Washington, "Figuring out how to have moments of respite and calm and joy even in these times is really important because our stress level impacts our immunity. If we're doing everything we can to stay well, then we have to get all the facts we need to get in order to make smart decisions about taking care of ourselves and our families. But we also need to figure out how to cultivate some calm."

The duo's new series, an exploration of motherhood told via the stories of very different women whose lives intersect in a unique way in 1990s suburban Ohio, debuts its first three episodes on Wednesday, with subsequent episodes premiering weekly. At the time of the interview, seven of the season's eight episodes had been sent to critics for review and Witherspoon and Washington told THR that's because the finale was still being tweaked.

"We're still working on it," said Witherspoon, with Washington adding, "We are tweaking one little thing. For people who love the book, I will say there are some surprises. Celeste said something really beautiful and generous to us in the process of making the show. She said, 'The best covers of songs are the ones that really make it their own.' She saw us as doing that. It's a beautiful cover, but she gave us room to be our own thing while we were honoring what she originally wrote."

Below, the pair discuss Washington's return to TV after Scandal, working with their onscreen children and the series' now-hyper-relevant take on xenophobia.

Both of you have been producing for a while, but what was it like working together as producers and stars?

Kerry Washington: It was really, really fun. But I think one of the reasons why we had such a good time is because we put in the same amount of work. We worked really hard. We have teams around us that work really hard. With all of that collaborative, creative energy, we were able to build something that we're really proud of and have good time doing it.

Reese Witherspoon: Yeah, the show is really special because of, I think, what our teams brought to it. The thought and care about really creating realistic mothers and showing the nuance of motherhood that I don't think is on film very much.

Reese, this is another look at the types of issues you tackled on Big Little Lies in terms of both motherhood and class.

Witherspoon: Yeah, but we're dealing with hundreds of years of storytelling about mothers. We're just barely scratching the surface of stories that tell the spectrum of female behavior. There are so many different kinds of mothering ideologies. I think just exploring four different ones in this, actually five with my character's mother, it just informs you so much about parenting.

It's almost as if women aren't a monolith and there are a lot of different experiences.

Witherspoon: Can you imagine? It's just so interesting.

What was it like to work with the actors who play your children?

Washington: We were teenagers in the '90s. We were there. It was this weird like, "You're playing me. I had that outfit when I was 16."

Witherspoon: They're wonderful. I thought a lot, too, about my experience with being a teenager on sets and tried to be really helpful, helping them by giving them a lot of information that we had done about our characters. Josh [Jackson, her onscreen husband] and I sat down and had a family dinner with them before we started to talk about, "What does this family talk about? What are our political views? What are religious views?" [So they could] have that information to mind when they needed it.

Kerry, why choose this as your first onscreen project after Scandal, particularly since that seems to be how a wider audience came to know your work?

Washington: I was really lucky. I was really blessed before Scandal to have a fantastic career as a character actor where I really was able to disappear into different cinematic roles, where people didn't even really connect that the girl from Save the Last Dance was the same girl from Last King of Scotlandwas the same girl from Ray. I was able to work at a really high level without it impacting my anonymity or my personal life. I think for me, the fact that the characters are so different is just a symptom of how I like to gravitate toward diversity even in the kinds of women that I play and the kinds of characters that I bring to life. I like to change it up because you can't do as much when you're on a television show.

What was the biggest theme from the book that you wanted to bring to the screen?

Witherspoon: There's such an exploration of class in this [story]. What do we value as society? Where do we place importance for parenting? Is it about genetics? Is it about biology? Is it about affluence? Is it about education? Exploring that through the idea of what we talk about 25 years ago versus now almost gave us this great Mad Men perspective: You got to look at the way [society handled] every issue in the 1960s into the '70s with the sigh of like, "Oh, we know better now." But maybe that's not true, and I think it'll start a lot of conversation.

Washington: Yeah. I think some of it is, "Oh, we know better now." Some of it is, "Oh, we're still making those mistakes or we're still thinking some of those thoughts or we haven't come as far as maybe we thought we have or had."

Witherspoon: You know what else I was thinking? The show reminds me a little bit of Parasite in that you meet one world, and then you think, OK, well, there's a different class. It's mothering and then there's a whole other [look at] class and immigrant culture. What do we value? Do we value the immigrant experience as that pertains to motherhood?

Washington: Yeah, there's that kind of upstairs/downstairs Downton Abbey [clash].

The show is also hyper-relevant in terms of how it looks at xenophobia, even in a way that's more topical than it would have been a month ago.

Washington: We've been talking about that in my house because we overheard somebody talking about how they were nervous to order Chinese food and somebody was like, "Are you nervous to order Italian food?" It's really an interesting conversation to overhear. I think people are exploring their own feelings around who has [COVID-19], who doesn't, how do we get it, our assumptions about who represents what levels of safety.

Little Fires Everywhere is now streaming on Hulu. Hear more from Little Fires Everywhere showrunner Liz Tiglaar during Friday's new episode of TV's Top 5.

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Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington on Promoting 'Little Fires Everywhere' in a Pandemic - Hollywood Reporter

Two rare white giraffes, a mother and her male calf, were killed by poachers in Kenya'sIshaqbini Hirola Conservancy, the park's director said Tuesday.

Mohammed Ahmednoor saidin a statement released on Twitter that the carcasses of the two animals had been discovered in a skeletal state, meaning that the crimes were committed some time ago.

SAD NEWS: @IshaqbiniHirola Community Conservancy, Garissa County loses two famous white giraffes to poachers.

For more info, heres the press release. @KWS @USAIDKenya @EUinKenya @denmarkinkenya @Nature_Africa @KWCAKenya @africa_ci @SwedeninKE pic.twitter.com/Nwp1F0VexF

The giraffe and its calf, which both are affected by a condition known as a leucism, were first discovered by the park in 2017.

This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe. Its killing is a blow to tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species and a wakeup call for continued support to conservation efforts, Ahmedoor said.

This is a long term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchers, has now gone to the drain. Further to this, the white giraffe was a big boost to tourism in the area, he added.

Only one known giraffe with the condition now remains, according to Ahmedoor.

Africa's nature conservation areas are often targeted by poachers due to the high international value of some parts harvested from the carcasses of rare and endangered animals.

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Poachers kill Kenya's only white female giraffe and her calf: report | TheHill - The Hill

Women around the world

There are many remarkable Southeast Asian women who work in important areas in research institutions, governments, universities and pharmaceutical companies. This project aims to celebrate these amazing women and to inspire young women to take up careers in research and research-related fields.

Professor Mallika Imwong

Mallika Imwong is Head of Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Units Molecular Malaria Laboratory, and a Professor in the Department of Molecular Tropical Medicine and Genetics, Mahidol University. Mallika is the recipient of both a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship and a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship. Her research has focussed on how drug resistance emerges and spreads in malaria parasites in Asia and Africa, on the true epidemiology of malaria in low transmission settings, and on the biology of relapse of vivax malaria.

Research is very important to me, she says. Its a way of mediation. To set up a good research question is extremely important in my field. My approach is to first form my own opinion about the subject, then I study what other peoples insights are and finally combining the two.

Perceptions of the field shes working in have come a long way in her home country, Thailand. Malika says, Thirty years ago when I was younger, many people didnt understand what we were doing on a daily basis. If you told your family thats what you wanted to do, theyd ask: how can you have that for a career? People know more now as theres more awareness about science and health.

Mallika organizes the Thai Science Camp every year which attracts around 150 high school students. They spend a few days learning what scientists. People may know how to become a medical doctor or to be a teacher but few know how to become a scientist. Not many people know how much joy it gives to immerse yourself in the subject youre studying.

Where Mallika sees herself in a decade from now? Needless to say, I would like to leave a mark in research. Malaria kills 400,000 people per year, and Im hoping that I can contribute to its elimination in any way possible, especially in Thailand as its my country.

Professor Mallika Imwong

Mallika organizes the Thai Science Camp every year which attracts around 150 high school students.

Dr. Vilada Chansamouth

Vilada Chansamouth is a Lao government doctor working in the Microbiology Laboratory, Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane and a researcher at the Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital-Wellcome Trust Research Unit.

In 2019, Vilada received the prestigious Wellcome International Training Fellowship and started her DPhil in Clinical Medicine with the University of Oxford. Her research involves evaluating the impact of a Lao-language mobile phone application on adherence to antibiotic prescribing guidelines.

Vilada says that being a researcher is a tough job, especially in countries like Laos where women mostly are in charge of household work and taking care of children. However, this has improved a lot now, especially in the capital where some families share responsibilities. She says, I think that to improve this, it is vital that the family knows the passion of the female researcher and how much she can do to help others. In some countries, female researchers just remain single and being incredibly happy and theres nothing wrong about this.

But according to Dr. Vilada, there are certain misconceptions about her profession. Some people think this is not a real job, its something that anybody can do if they have time and this work is for people who are more available or for those who can speak English and good in mathematics. This is partly correct because everybody can do it but we need to put much more effort to produce quality of research.

Finally, when asked what advice can she give women thinking about a career in research, Vilada says, Just go for it! If you have a current job now, you dont have to quit your job to be a researcher, you can do research within your current job, starting from exploring around, talking to people and keeping an open eye on what people doing in the field you are interested in.

Vilada Chansamouth

Mallika organizes the Thai Science Camp every year which attracts around 150 high school students.

Sanann Nou, University Research Company, Cambodia

Currently, Sanann is working as part of a malaria elimination project for the University Research Co. Llc. She was previously the head of Public Engagement at the Pailin site of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit working on a malaria elimination study. Before joining MORU, she worked with FHI360.

I have organized many community engagement events around malaria and other health issues in my career. At MORU from 2016 to 2019, I led a project called Village Drama Against Malaria which won the 2019 University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor Choice Award for Public Engagement. What I loved most about the VDAM project how children conveyed the messages and educate their own parents, relatives, and neighbors about malaria treatment and prevention.

When asked about what are the biggest difficulties in her field of work as a woman, she notably disregards the woman aspect and highlights whats generally difficult to basically anyone working in rural areas or neglected diseases. As you know, malaria occurs in forests and remote villages. To conduct research, you must be on location. But its hard to reach these areas; the road conditions are extremely bad, there are dangerous river crossings and most places dont have internet access.

Sanann Nou

Currently Sanann is working as part of a malaria elimination project for the University Research Co. Llc.

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International Women's Day 2020: Celebrating Southeast Asian women in research - On Health - BMC Blogs Network

The Body Worlds exhibit currently on display at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry gives visitors an up-close into how the human body functions. In conjunction, OMSI is featuring portraits by a Portland photographer that explore the correlation between beauty and aging.

Beyond the 60th Sense was inspired by the 2017 Womens March and the #MeToo movement that followed. Pedro Oliveira decided that he wanted to tell the stories of fierce women over age 50 by taking portraits of them and letting their own words tell how they faced issues of body empowerment, ageism, and sexuality.

Some of the stories inspire, like that of 105-year-old Isabel (above), who cant really explain the secret behind her longevity: I smoked up to my 80s and always ate pork, and everything I felt like. It has more to do with genetics and happiness than anything else.

Oliveira, who is originally from Brazil, started taking commercial photos five years ago after leaving a career in computer science. He has a degree in communications from Portland State University. He says he hopes his photos get people to think differently about female beauty, getting away from the idea that beauty belongs only to the young.

Beyond the 60th Sense continues through Sept. 13 at OMSI, 1945 S.E. Water Ave.

-- Grant Butler

gbutler@oregonian.com

503-221-8566; @grantbutler

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RESEARCH UPDATE

The strongest risk factor for schizophrenia is the presence of an affected first-degree relative.1 One approach to investigate the effects of genetics on schizophrenia pathophysiology is the study of endophenotyes. Endophenotypes are measurable, heritable traits that are intermediate between genotypes and phenotypes, and they are more likely to be expressed in unaffected relatives of patients than in the general population.

The retina is embryologically related to and considered a window to the brain. There is evidence for retinal abnormalities in schizophrenia.2 Recently, the use of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), a non-invasive imaging technique, has contributed to increased understanding of retinal abnormalities in schizophrenia.

OCT uses infrared light to create an optic ultrasound, providing information on the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell layer (GCL), and inner plexiform layer (IPL) of the retina. Given the potential confounding of retinal imaging findings by metabolic dysfunction and antipsychotic medications in schizophrenia, the use of OCT in first-degree relatives represents an important new area of investigation.

Kurtulmus and colleagues3 performed a study of retinal layer thicknesses between patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia, their unaffected first-degree relatives, and healthy controls. The authors recruited 38 chronic, stable patients with schizophrenia; 38 unaffected first-degree relatives (parents [n=13], siblings [n=14], adult children [n=11]); and 38 controls without a family history of psychotic or bipolar disorder.

Exclusion criteria were history of systemic disease that may involve the eyes (including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease); pre-existing retinal or other ocular pathology; history of ocular surgery/trauma; any neurological condition affecting the visual pathway; severe refractive error; and alcohol or other substance use in the past year. In patients with schizophrenia, comorbid psychiatric diagnoses were excluded, and relatives and controls did not have a history of any psychiatric diagnoses.

OCT was performed without pupil dilation using a Spectralis OCT device, with all scans performed by the same operator. There were no significant differences in measurements between the right and left eyes, and so only the data from the right eye was analyzed. Between-group differences on OCT measurers were examined using analysis of variance, and significant findings were confirmed using linear regression models controlling for potential confounding factors.

Mean age in the study sample was 41; 55% were female; and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 27. In patients with schizophrenia, mean illness duration was 18 years and the mean total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) score was 66. Of 38 patients, 26 were prescribed atypical antipsychotics, with a mean daily dose of 781 chlorpromazine units.

There was no significant difference between study groups in overall RNFL, GCL, and macular thickness. However, both patients and unaffected relatives had significantly lower IPL thickness compared with controls (the magnitude of this difference was about 5%). Increased BMI was associated with IPL thinning; however, the between-group differences remained significant after controlling for BMI and other potential confounding factors (eg, age, sex, smoking, medical comorbidity).

The IPL consists of the ganglion cell dendrites and synaptic connections in the retina, also termed the inner synaptic layer. This finding may reflect abnormal synaptic/dendritic organization in schizophrenia.

The authors note that limitations of the study include the relative small sample size, and differences in shared genetics across the various types of relatives included.

The bottom line

The authors performed what is believed to be the first study of OCT in unaffected relatives of patients with schizophrenia. Findings raise the possibility of IPL thinking as a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia.

Disclosures:

Dr Miller is Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior, Augusta University, Augusta, GA. He is the Schizophrenia Section Chief for Psychiatric Times. The author reports that he receives research support from Augusta University, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Stanley Medical Research Institute.

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Are the Eyes a Window Into the Mind of Schizophrenia? - Psychiatric Times

The only white female giraffe and her calf reported to have been killed through poaching might have died four months ago, the Kenya Wildlife Service has said.

In a statement from KWS corporate communications officer Ngugi Gecaga, the agency said it is investigating the incident that led to the death of the two giraffes at Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in Garissa County.

Our teams on the ground have seen bones believed to be those of the two giraffes. The bones are estimated to be four months old."

He went on, "The management of the conservancy informed us of the missing giraffe and calf after failing to see them for a period of time."

The statement added that KWS personnel are working with community rangers and the conservancy management to establish the facts around the incident.

This comes after the Ishaqbini Hirola conservancy confirmed the deaths of the two giraffes in a statement on March 10.

The community conservancy said the giraffes were killed by poachers.

Mohammed Ahmednoor, Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy manager, said This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe."

"Its killing is a blow to tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species, and a wakeup call for continued support for conservation efforts."

The white giraffe made headlines in 2017 after its discovery, with its unique white hide.

The giraffe had a rare condition known as leucism and did not suffer albinism.

Unlike albinism, animals with leucism produce dark pigment in their soft tissue, making their eyes dark in colour.

This is a long term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchershas now gone down the drain. Further to this the white giraffe was a big boost to tourism, Ahmednoor added in a statement.

The announcement also comes in the wake of conflicting reports on social media platforms that the white giraffe and her calf were killed by a terror group for game meat. Other reports indicated that conflicting communities might have killed the animals.

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It is normal for women to shed some hair each day, but when bald patches or thinning occurs, it may be due to female pattern baldness.

Shedding about 50 to 100 hairs a day is considered normal, but new growth will typically replace these hairs. If someone has female pattern baldness, however, the lost hair is not renewed.

In this article, we look at the causes and risk factors for female pattern baldness, as well as treatment and prevention.

Female pattern baldness is a type of hair loss that affects women. The medical name for the condition is androgenetic alopecia.

Although both men and women may experience hair loss, it is not as widespread in women as in men and appears differently.

Men who have hair loss tend to develop a receding hairline and bald spots. Women with female pattern baldness usually experience general hair thinning, which affects the volume of their hair.

In women, the first signs of female pattern baldness may be a widening part or a feeling that the hair does not feel as thick as usual. Although the scalp may be visible, the hairline usually does not recede.

Hair loss is less frequent in women than in men, but it still occurs often. Female pattern baldness increases with age, and fewer than 50 percent of women have a full head of hair for their entire life.

Genetics appears to be a significant factor in developing female pattern baldness, which means it runs in families. Women can inherit the gene for pattern baldness from either parent.

Female pattern baldness tends to be more common as a woman ages and reaches midlife, although it can begin earlier.

It often develops after menopause, so hormonal changes may also be a contributing factor.

Female pattern baldness is largely thought to occur due to genetics. However, it may also develop due to an underlying condition that affects the production of the hormone androgen.

Androgen is a hormone that plays a role in pattern baldness. Tumors of the pituitary gland or ovary, which secrete androgen, may also lead to hair loss.

Other causes of hair loss in women include:

The type of treatment recommended will depend on the extent of the hair loss, in addition to other factors.

Treatment for female pattern baldness can help prevent future hair loss and may result in regrowth of some hair. In most cases, long-term treatment is needed to prevent hair loss from recurring.

Treatment options include:

Minoxidil is a topical medication that is used to treat hair loss in both men and women. The treatment is applied to the scalp every day and may stimulate hair growth, as well as prevent further hair thinning.

Minoxidil can take 6 months to a year to produce visible results and does not work for everyone. Side effects can include dryness, redness, and itching. Hair loss may return after a person stops using the product.

One well-known brand of Minoxidil is Rogaine, which is available to buy in many pharmacies and online.

One of the most common oral medications used to treat female pattern baldness is spironolactone, which is a diuretic. Diuretics remove excess water from the body.

The medication may also block the production of androgen, which may prevent hair loss and help hair regrow. Spironolactone can cause side effects, such as dry mouth, nausea, and dizziness.

Women who are pregnant should not take spironolactone due to a possibility that it might cause congenital disabilities.

Some women may choose to have a hair transplant. Various techniques may be used to perform hair transplantation.

Usually, hair loss affects only some areas of the scalp. During a hair transplant, a doctor removes hair from an area with healthy hair growth and transplants it to another spot where the hair is missing.

The area from which the doctor transplants the hair usually remains unaffected by hair loss. The doctor performs the procedure while a person is awake, and it takes several hours. A person will be given a local anesthetic to prevent pain.

Some people may wish to try at-home laser treatment for hair loss. These devices work by emitting low levels of laser light to stimulate hair regrowth.

According to some research, low-level laser light therapy can stimulate hair growth in women and men. However, additional studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of this type of treatment, as it is possible that laser treatment companies may have partially funded this research.

As female pattern baldness may be genetic, it is not always preventable. However, there are steps a woman can take to keep hair as healthy as possible to prevent breakage and damage.

Consider the following hair care tips:

Female pattern baldness can be distressing and affect a persons self-confidence and self-image. Women who experience excessive hair loss should talk with their doctor or dermatologist, who can help determine the cause and best treatment option.

Early diagnosis can help a person develop a treatment plan that prevents further hair loss. Treatments are available that may help restore hair growth. The effectiveness may vary depending on the treatment selected and the amount of hair loss.

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Female pattern baldness: Causes, treatment, and prevention

Ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia

Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision,[a] is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and within communities from countries in which FGM is common. UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women living today in 30 countries27 African countries, Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan and Yemenhave undergone the procedures.[3]

Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national figures are available, most girls are cut before the age of five.[6] Procedures differ according to the country or ethnic group. They include removal of the clitoral hood and clitoral glans; removal of the inner labia; and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, known as infibulation, a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth.

The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women's sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty and beauty. It is usually initiated and carried out by women, who see it as a source of honour and fear that failing to have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to social exclusion.[8] Adverse health effects depend on the type of procedure; they can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. There are no known health benefits.[9]

There have been international efforts since the 1970s to persuade practitioners to abandon FGM, and it has been outlawed or restricted in most of the countries in which it occurs, although the laws are poorly enforced. Since 2010, the United Nations has called upon healthcare providers to stop performing all forms of the procedure, including reinfibulation after childbirth and symbolic "nicking" of the clitoral hood.[10] The opposition to the practice is not without its critics, particularly among anthropologists, who have raised difficult questions about cultural relativism and the universality of human rights.[11]

Until the 1980s, FGM was widely known in English as female circumcision, implying an equivalence in severity with male circumcision. From 1929, the Kenya Missionary Council referred to it as the sexual mutilation of women, following the lead of Marion Scott Stevenson, a Church of Scotland missionary. References to the practice as mutilation increased throughout the 1970s.[13] In 1975 Rose Oldfield Hayes, an American anthropologist, used the term female genital mutilation in the title of a paper in American Ethnologist, and four years later Fran Hosken, an Austrian-American feminist writer, called it mutilation in her influential The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females. The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children began referring to it as female genital mutilation in 1990, and the World Health Organization (WHO) followed suit in 1991.[16] Other English terms include female genital cutting (FGC) and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), preferred by those who work with practitioners.[13]

In countries where FGM is common, the practice's many variants are reflected in dozens of terms, often alluding to purification.[17] In the Bambara language, spoken mostly in Mali, it is known as bolokoli ("washing your hands") and in the Igbo language in eastern Nigeria as isa aru or iwu aru ("having your bath").[b] Other terms include khifad, tahoor, quodiin, irua, bondo, kuruna, negekorsigin, and kene-kene. A common Arabic term for purification has the root t-h-r, used for male and female circumcision (tahur and tahara). It is also known in Arabic as khaf or khifa. Communities may refer to FGM as "pharaonic" for infibulation and "sunna" circumcision for everything else. Sunna means "path or way" in Arabic and refers to the tradition of Muhammad, although none of the procedures are required within Islam. The term infibulation derives from fibula, Latin for clasp; the Ancient Romans reportedly fastened clasps through the foreskins or labia of slaves to prevent sexual intercourse. The surgical infibulation of women came to be known as pharaonic circumcision in Sudan, and as Sudanese circumcision in Egypt. In Somalia, it is known simply as qodob ("to sew up").

The procedures are generally performed by a traditional circumciser (cutter or exciseuse) in the girls' homes, with or without anaesthesia. The cutter is usually an older woman, but in communities where the male barber has assumed the role of health worker he will also perform FGM.[26][c] When traditional cutters are involved, non-sterile devices are likely to be used, including knives, razors, scissors, glass, sharpened rocks and fingernails. According to a nurse in Uganda, quoted in 2007 in The Lancet, a cutter would use one knife on up to 30 girls at a time. Health professionals are often involved in Egypt, Kenya, Indonesia and Sudan; in Egypt 77 percent of FGM procedures, and in Indonesia over 50 percent, were performed by medical professionals as of 2008 and 2016.[30][3] Women in Egypt reported in 1995 that a local anaesthetic had been used on their daughters in 60 percent of cases, a general anaesthetic in 13 percent, and neither in 25 percent (two percent were missing/don't know).[31]

The WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA issued a joint statement in 1997 defining FGM as "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons".[13] The procedures vary according to ethnicity and individual practitioners; during a 1998 survey in Niger, women responded with over 50 terms when asked what was done to them.[17] Translation problems are compounded by the women's confusion over which type of FGM they experienced, or even whether they experienced it. Studies have suggested that survey responses are unreliable. A 2003 study in Ghana found that in 1995 four percent said they had not undergone FGM, but in 2000 said they had, while 11 percent switched in the other direction. In Tanzania in 2005, 66 percent reported FGM, but a medical exam found that 73 percent had undergone it. In Sudan in 2006, a significant percentage of infibulated women and girls reported a less severe type.

Standard questionnaires from United Nations bodies ask women whether they or their daughters have undergone the following: (1) cut, no flesh removed (symbolic nicking); (2) cut, some flesh removed; (3) sewn closed; or (4) type not determined/unsure/doesn't know.[d] The most common procedures fall within the "cut, some flesh removed" category and involve complete or partial removal of the clitoral glans.[36] The World Health Organization (a UN agency) created a more detailed typology in 1997: Types III vary in how much tissue is removed; Type III is equivalent to the UNICEF category "sewn closed"; and Type IV describes miscellaneous procedures, including symbolic nicking.[37]

Type I is "partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce". Type Ia[e] involves removal of the clitoral hood only. This is rarely performed alone.[f] The more common procedure is Type Ib (clitoridectomy), the complete or partial removal of the clitoral glans (the visible tip of the clitoris) and clitoral hood.[1][40] The circumciser pulls the clitoral glans with her thumb and index finger and cuts it off.[g]

Type II (excision) is the complete or partial removal of the inner labia, with or without removal of the clitoral glans and outer labia. Type IIa is removal of the inner labia; Type IIb, removal of the clitoral glans and inner labia; and Type IIc, removal of the clitoral glans, inner and outer labia. Excision in French can refer to any form of FGM.[1]

Type III (infibulation or pharaonic circumcision), the "sewn closed" category, is the removal of the external genitalia and fusion of the wound. The inner and/or outer labia are cut away, with or without removal of the clitoral glans.[h] Type III is found largely in northeast Africa, particularly Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan (although not in South Sudan). According to one 2008 estimate, over eight million women in Africa are living with Type III FGM.[i] According to UNFPA in 2010, 20 percent of women with FGM have been infibulated.[43] In Somalia, according to Edna Adan Ismail, the child squats on a stool or mat while adults pull her legs open; a local anaesthetic is applied if available:

The element of speed and surprise is vital and the circumciser immediately grabs the clitoris by pinching it between her nails aiming to amputate it with a slash. The organ is then shown to the senior female relatives of the child who will decide whether the amount that has been removed is satisfactory or whether more is to be cut off.

After the clitoris has been satisfactorily amputated... the circumciser can proceed with the total removal of the labia minora and the paring of the inner walls of the labia majora. Since the entire skin on the inner walls of the labia majora has to be removed all the way down to the perineum, this becomes a messy business. By now, the child is screaming, struggling, and bleeding profusely, which makes it difficult for the circumciser to hold with bare fingers and nails the slippery skin and parts that are to be cut or sutured together....

Having ensured that sufficient tissue has been removed to allow the desired fusion of the skin, the circumciser pulls together the opposite sides of the labia majora, ensuring that the raw edges where the skin has been removed are well approximated. The wound is now ready to be stitched or for thorns to be applied. If a needle and thread are being used, close tight sutures will be placed to ensure that a flap of skin covers the vulva and extends from the mons veneris to the perineum, and which, after the wound heals, will form a bridge of scar tissue that will totally occlude the vaginal introitus.[44]

The amputated parts might be placed in a pouch for the girl to wear. A single hole of 23mm is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid.[j] The vulva is closed with surgical thread, or agave or acacia thorns, and might be covered with a poultice of raw egg, herbs and sugar. To help the tissue bond, the girl's legs are tied together, often from hip to ankle; the bindings are usually loosened after a week and removed after two to six weeks. If the remaining hole is too large in the view of the girl's family, the procedure is repeated.

The vagina is opened for sexual intercourse, for the first time either by a midwife with a knife or by the woman's husband with his penis. In some areas, including Somaliland, female relatives of the bride and groom might watch the opening of the vagina to check that the girl is a virgin. The woman is opened further for childbirth (defibulation or deinfibulation), and closed again afterwards (reinfibulation). Reinfibulation can involve cutting the vagina again to restore the pinhole size of the first infibulation. This might be performed before marriage, and after childbirth, divorce and widowhood.[k] Hanny Lightfoot-Klein interviewed hundreds of women and men in Sudan in the 1980s about sexual intercourse with Type III:

The penetration of the bride's infibulation takes anywhere from 3 or 4 days to several months. Some men are unable to penetrate their wives at all (in my study over 15%), and the task is often accomplished by a midwife under conditions of great secrecy, since this reflects negatively on the man's potency. Some who are unable to penetrate their wives manage to get them pregnant in spite of the infibulation, and the woman's vaginal passage is then cut open to allow birth to take place.... Those men who do manage to penetrate their wives do so often, or perhaps always, with the help of the "little knife". This creates a tear which they gradually rip more and more until the opening is sufficient to admit the penis.[49]

Type IV is "[a]ll other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes", including pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.[1] It includes nicking of the clitoris (symbolic circumcision), burning or scarring the genitals, and introducing substances into the vagina to tighten it.[50][51] Labia stretching is also categorized as Type IV.[52] Common in southern and eastern Africa, the practice is supposed to enhance sexual pleasure for the man and add to the sense of a woman as a closed space. From the age of eight, girls are encouraged to stretch their inner labia using sticks and massage. Girls in Uganda are told they may have difficulty giving birth without stretched labia.[l][54]

A definition of FGM from the WHO in 1995 included gishiri cutting and angurya cutting, found in Nigeria and Niger. These were removed from the WHO's 2008 definition because of insufficient information about prevalence and consequences.[52] Angurya cutting is excision of the hymen, usually performed seven days after birth. Gishiri cutting involves cutting the vagina's front or back wall with a blade or penknife, performed in response to infertility, obstructed labour and other conditions. In a study by Nigerian physician Mairo Usman Mandara, over 30 percent of women with gishiri cuts were found to have vesicovaginal fistulae (holes that allow urine to seep into the vagina).[55]

FGM harms women's physical and emotional health throughout their lives.[56] It has no known health benefits.[9] The short-term and late complications depend on the type of FGM, whether the practitioner has had medical training, and whether they used antibiotics and sterilized or single-use surgical instruments. In the case of Type III, other factors include how small a hole was left for the passage of urine and menstrual blood, whether surgical thread was used instead of agave or acacia thorns, and whether the procedure was performed more than once (for example, to close an opening regarded as too wide or re-open one too small).

Common short-term complications include swelling, excessive bleeding, pain, urine retention, and healing problems/wound infection. A 2014 systematic review of 56 studies suggested that over one in ten girls and women undergoing any form of FGM, including symbolic nicking of the clitoris (Type IV), experience immediate complications, although the risks increased with Type III. The review also suggested that there was under-reporting.[m] Other short-term complications include fatal bleeding, anaemia, urinary infection, septicaemia, tetanus, gangrene, necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease), and endometritis.[59] It is not known how many girls and women die as a result of the practice, because complications may not be recognized or reported. The practitioners' use of shared instruments is thought to aid the transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, although no epidemiological studies have shown this.

Late complications vary depending on the type of FGM. They include the formation of scars and keloids that lead to strictures and obstruction, epidermoid cysts that may become infected, and neuroma formation (growth of nerve tissue) involving nerves that supplied the clitoris. An infibulated girl may be left with an opening as small as 23mm, which can cause prolonged, drop-by-drop urination, pain while urinating, and a feeling of needing to urinate all the time. Urine may collect underneath the scar, leaving the area under the skin constantly wet, which can lead to infection and the formation of small stones. The opening is larger in women who are sexually active or have given birth by vaginal delivery, but the urethra opening may still be obstructed by scar tissue. Vesicovaginal or rectovaginal fistulae can develop (holes that allow urine or faeces to seep into the vagina). This and other damage to the urethra and bladder can lead to infections and incontinence, pain during sexual intercourse and infertility. Painful periods are common because of the obstruction to the menstrual flow, and blood can stagnate in the vagina and uterus. Complete obstruction of the vagina can result in hematocolpos and hematometra (where the vagina and uterus fill with menstrual blood). The swelling of the abdomen and lack of menstruation can resemble pregnancy; Asma El Dareer, a Sudanese physician, reported in 1979 that a girl in Sudan with this condition was killed by her family.

FGM may place women at higher risk of problems during pregnancy and childbirth, which are more common with the more extensive FGM procedures. Infibulated women may try to make childbirth easier by eating less during pregnancy to reduce the baby's size.[65]:99 In women with vesicovaginal or rectovaginal fistulae, it is difficult to obtain clear urine samples as part of prenatal care, making the diagnosis of conditions such as pre-eclampsia harder. Cervical evaluation during labour may be impeded and labour prolonged or obstructed. Third-degree laceration (tears), anal-sphincter damage and emergency caesarean section are more common in infibulated women.[65]

Neonatal mortality is increased. The WHO estimated in 2006 that an additional 1020 babies die per 1,000 deliveries as a result of FGM. The estimate was based on a study conducted on 28,393 women attending delivery wards at 28 obstetric centres in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. In those settings all types of FGM were found to pose an increased risk of death to the baby: 15 percent higher for Type I, 32 percent for Type II, and 55 percent for Type III. The reasons for this were unclear, but may be connected to genital and urinary tract infections and the presence of scar tissue. According to the study, FGM was associated with an increased risk to the mother of damage to the perineum and excessive blood loss, as well as a need to resuscitate the baby, and stillbirth, perhaps because of a long second stage of labour.[66][67]

According to a 2015 systematic review there is little high-quality information available on the psychological effects of FGM. Several small studies have concluded that women with FGM suffer from anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Feelings of shame and betrayal can develop when women leave the culture that practises FGM and learn that their condition is not the norm, but within the practising culture they may view their FGM with pride, because for them it signifies beauty, respect for tradition, chastity and hygiene. Studies on sexual function have also been small. A 2013 meta-analysis of 15 studies involving 12,671 women from seven countries concluded that women with FGM were twice as likely to report no sexual desire and 52 percent more likely to report dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse). One third reported reduced sexual feelings.[68]

Aid agencies define the prevalence of FGM as the percentage of the 1549 age group that has experienced it. These figures are based on nationally representative household surveys known as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), developed by Macro International and funded mainly by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) conducted with financial and technical help from UNICEF. These surveys have been carried out in Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere roughly every five years, since 1984 and 1995 respectively.[70] The first to ask about FGM was the 19891990 DHS in northern Sudan. The first publication to estimate FGM prevalence based on DHS data (in seven countries) was written by Dara Carr of Macro International in 1997.

Questions the women are asked during the surveys include: "Was the genital area just nicked/cut without removing any flesh? Was any flesh (or something) removed from the genital area? Was your genital area sewn?"[72] Most women report "cut, some flesh removed" (Types I and II).[73]

Type I is the most common form in Egypt, and in the southern parts of Nigeria. Type III (infibulation) is concentrated in northeastern Africa, particularly Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan. In surveys in 20022006, 30 percent of cut girls in Djibouti, 38 percent in Eritrea, and 63 percent in Somalia had experienced Type III.[76] There is also a high prevalence of infibulation among girls in Niger and Senegal,[77] and in 2013 it was estimated that in Nigeria three percent of the 014 age group had been infibulated.[78] The type of procedure is often linked to ethnicity. In Eritrea, for example, a survey in 2002 found that all Hedareb girls had been infibulated, compared with two percent of the Tigrinya, most of whom fell into the "cut, no flesh removed" category.[17]

FGM is mostly found in what Gerry Mackie called an "intriguingly contiguous" zone in Africaeast to west from Somalia to Senegal, and north to south from Egypt to Tanzania.[79] Nationally representative figures are available for 27 countries in Africa, as well as Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan and Yemen. Over 200 million women and girls are thought to be living with FGM in those 30 countries.[3][80]

The highest concentrations among the 1549 age group are in Somalia (98 percent), Guinea (97 percent), Djibouti (93 percent), Egypt (91 percent) and Sierra Leone (90 percent).[81] As of 2013, 27.2 million women had undergone FGM in Egypt, 23.8 million in Ethiopia, and 19.9 million in Nigeria.[82] There is a high concentration in Indonesia, where according to UNICEF Type I (clitoridectomy) and Type IV (symbolic nicking) are practised; the Indonesian Ministry of Health and Indonesian Ulema Council both say the clitoris should not be cut. The prevalence rate for the 011 group in Indonesia is 49 percent (13.4 million).[80]:2 Smaller studies or anecdotal reports suggest that FGM is also practised in Colombia, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and parts of Malaysia;[83] in the United Arab Emirates;[3] and in India[n] by the Dawoodi Bohra.[84][o] It is found within immigrant communities around the world.[87]

Prevalence figures for the 1519 age group and younger show a downward trend.[p] For example, Burkina Faso fell from 89 percent (1980) to 58 percent (2010); Egypt from 97 percent (1985) to 70 percent (2015); and Kenya from 41 percent (1984) to 11 percent (2014).[89] Beginning in 2010, household surveys asked women about the FGM status of all their living daughters.[90] The highest concentrations among girls aged 014 were in Gambia (56 percent), Mauritania (54 percent), Indonesia (49 percent for 011) and Guinea (46 percent).[3] The figures suggest that a girl was one third less likely in 2014 to undergo FGM than she was 30 years ago.[91] According to a 2018 study published in BMJ Global Health, the prevalence within the 014 year old group fell in East Africa from 71.4 percent in 1995 to 8 percent in 2016; in North Africa from 57.7 percent in 1990 to 14.1 percent in 2015; and in West Africa from 73.6 percent in 1996 to 25.4 percent in 2017.[92] If the current rate of decline continues, the number of girls cut will nevertheless continue to rise because of population growth, according to UNICEF in 2014; they estimate that the figure will increase from 3.6 million a year in 2013 to 4.1 million in 2050.[q]

Surveys have found FGM to be more common in rural areas, less common in most countries among girls from the wealthiest homes, and (except in Sudan and Somalia) less common in girls whose mothers had access to primary or secondary/higher education. In Somalia and Sudan the situation was reversed: in Somalia the mothers' access to secondary/higher education was accompanied by a rise in prevalence of FGM in their daughters, and in Sudan access to any education was accompanied by a rise.[94]

FGM is not invariably a rite of passage between childhood and adulthood, but is often performed on much younger children. Girls are most commonly cut shortly after birth to age 15. In half the countries for which national figures were available in 20002010, most girls had been cut by age five.[4] Over 80 percent (of those cut) are cut before the age of five in Nigeria, Mali, Eritrea, Ghana and Mauritania.[96] The 1997 Demographic and Health Survey in Yemen found that 76 percent of girls had been cut within two weeks of birth.[97] The percentage is reversed in Somalia, Egypt, Chad and the Central African Republic, where over 80 percent (of those cut) are cut between five and 14.[96] Just as the type of FGM is often linked to ethnicity, so is the mean age. In Kenya, for example, the Kisi cut around age 10 and the Kamba at 16.[98]

A country's national prevalence often reflects a high sub-national prevalence among certain ethnicities, rather than a widespread practice.[99] In Iraq, for example, FGM is found mostly among the Kurds in Erbil (58 percent prevalence within age group 1549, as of 2011), Sulaymaniyah (54 percent) and Kirkuk (20 percent), giving the country a national prevalence of eight percent.[100] The practice is sometimes an ethnic marker, but it may differ along national lines. For example, in the northeastern regions of Ethiopia and Kenya, which share a border with Somalia, the Somali people practise FGM at around the same rate as they do in Somalia. But in Guinea all Fulani women responding to a survey in 2012 said they had experienced FGM,[102] against 12 percent of the Fulani in Chad, while in Nigeria the Fulani are the only large ethnic group in the country not to practise it.[103]

1996 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography

Stephanie Welsh, Newhouse News Service[104]

Dahabo Musa, a Somali woman, described infibulation in a 1988 poem as the "three feminine sorrows": the procedure itself, the wedding night when the woman is cut open, then childbirth when she is cut again. Despite the evident suffering, it is women who organize all forms of FGM.[r] Anthropologist Rose Oldfield Hayes wrote in 1975 that educated Sudanese men who did not want their daughters to be infibulated (preferring clitoridectomy) would find the girls had been sewn up after the grandmothers arranged a visit to relatives. Gerry Mackie has compared the practice to footbinding. Like FGM, footbinding was carried out on young girls, nearly universal where practised, tied to ideas about honour, chastity and appropriate marriage, and "supported and transmitted" by women.[s]

FGM practitioners see the procedures as marking not only ethnic boundaries but also gender difference. According to this view, male circumcision defeminizes men while FGM demasculinizes women.[114] Fuambai Ahmadu, an anthropologist and member of the Kono people of Sierra Leone, who in 1992 underwent clitoridectomy as an adult during a Sande society initiation, argued in 2000 that it is a male-centred assumption that the clitoris is important to female sexuality. African female symbolism revolves instead around the concept of the womb.[113] Infibulation draws on that idea of enclosure and fertility. "[G]enital cutting completes the social definition of a child's sex by eliminating external traces of androgyny," Janice Boddy wrote in 2007. "The female body is then covered, closed, and its productive blood bound within; the male body is unveiled, opened and exposed."[115]

In communities where infibulation is common, there is a preference for women's genitals to be smooth, dry and without odour, and both women and men may find the natural vulva repulsive. Some men seem to enjoy the effort of penetrating an infibulation.[117] The local preference for dry sex causes women to introduce substances into the vagina to reduce lubrication, including leaves, tree bark, toothpaste and Vicks menthol rub. The WHO includes this practice within Type IV FGM, because the added friction during intercourse can cause lacerations and increase the risk of infection.[119] Because of the smooth appearance of an infibulated vulva, there is also a belief that infibulation increases hygiene.

Common reasons for FGM cited by women in surveys are social acceptance, religion, hygiene, preservation of virginity, marriageability and enhancement of male sexual pleasure.[121] In a study in northern Sudan, published in 1983, only 17.4 percent of women opposed FGM (558 out of 3,210), and most preferred excision and infibulation over clitoridectomy. Attitudes are changing slowly. In Sudan in 2010, 42 percent of women who had heard of FGM said the practice should continue.[123] In several surveys since 2006, over 50 percent of women in Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gambia, and Egypt supported FGM's continuance, while elsewhere in Africa, Iraq, and Yemen most said it should end, although in several countries only by a narrow margin.[124]

Against the argument that women willingly choose FGM for their daughters, UNICEF calls the practice a "self-enforcing social convention" to which families feel they must conform to avoid uncut daughters facing social exclusion.[126] Ellen Gruenbaum reported that, in Sudan in the 1970s, cut girls from an Arab ethnic group would mock uncut Zabarma girls with Ya, Ghalfa! ("Hey, unclean!"). The Zabarma girls would respond Ya, mutmura! (A mutmara was a storage pit for grain that was continually opened and closed, like an infibulated woman.) But despite throwing the insult back, the Zabarma girls would ask their mothers, "What's the matter? Don't we have razor blades like the Arabs?"

Because of poor access to information, and because circumcisers downplay the causal connection, women may not associate the health consequences with the procedure. Lala Bald, president of a women's association in Medina Cherif, a village in Senegal, told Mackie in 1998 that when girls fell ill or died, it was attributed to evil spirits. When informed of the causal relationship between FGM and ill health, Mackie wrote, the women broke down and wept. He argued that surveys taken before and after this sharing of information would show very different levels of support for FGM. The American non-profit group Tostan, founded by Molly Melching in 1991, introduced community-empowerment programs in several countries that focus on local democracy, literacy, and education about healthcare, giving women the tools to make their own decisions.[129] In 1997, using the Tostan program, Malicounda Bambara in Senegal became the first village to abandon FGM. By August 2019, 8,800 communities in eight countries had pledged to abandon FGM and child marriage.[t]

Surveys have shown a widespread belief, particularly in Mali, Mauritania, Guinea and Egypt, that FGM is a religious requirement.[132] Gruenbaum has argued that practitioners may not distinguish between religion, tradition, and chastity, making it difficult to interpret the data.[133] FGM's origins in northeastern Africa are pre-Islamic, but the practice became associated with Islam because of that religion's focus on female chastity and seclusion.[u] According to a 2013 UNICEF report, in 18 African countries at least 10 percent of Muslim females had experienced FGM, and in 13 of those countries, the figure rose to 5099 percent.[135] There is no mention of the practice in the Quran. It is praised in a few daf (weak) hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required,[137][v] although it is regarded as obligatory by the Shafi'i version of Sunni Islam. In 2007 the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research in Cairo ruled that FGM had "no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions".[139][w]

There is no mention of FGM in the Bible.[x] Christian missionaries in Africa were among the first to object to FGM, but Christian communities in Africa do practise it. In 2013 UNICEF identified 19 African countries in which at least 10 percent of Christian women and girls aged 15 to 49 had undergone FGM;[y] in Niger, 55 percent of Christian women and girls had experienced it, compared with two percent of their Muslim counterparts.[144] The only Jewish group known to have practised it are the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. Judaism requires male circumcision but does not allow FGM.[145] FGM is also practised by animist groups, particularly in Guinea and Mali.[146]

Spell 1117

But if a man wants to know how to live, he should recite it [a magical spell] every day, after his flesh has been rubbed with the b3d [unknown substance] of an uncircumcised girl ['m't] and the flakes of skin [nft] of an uncircumcised bald man.

From an Egyptian sarcophagus, c.19911786BCE

The practice's origins are unknown. Gerry Mackie has suggested that, because FGM's east-west, north-south distribution in Africa meets in Sudan, infibulation may have begun there with the Meroite civilization (c.800 BCE c.350 CE), before the rise of Islam, to increase confidence in paternity. According to historian Mary Knight, Spell 1117 (c.19911786 BCE) of the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts may refer in hieroglyphs to an uncircumcised girl ('m't):

The spell was found on the sarcophagus of Sit-hedjhotep, now in the Egyptian Museum, and dates to Egypt's Middle Kingdom.[z] (Paul F. O'Rourke argues that 'm't probably refers instead to a menstruating woman.) The proposed circumcision of an Egyptian girl, Tathemis, is also mentioned on a Greek papyrus, from 163BCE, in the British Museum: "Sometime after this, Nephoris [Tathemis's mother] defrauded me, being anxious that it was time for Tathemis to be circumcised, as is the custom among the Egyptians."[aa]

The examination of mummies has shown no evidence of FGM. Citing the Australian pathologist Grafton Elliot Smith, who examined hundreds of mummies in the early 20th century, Knight writes that the genital area may resemble Type III because during mummification the skin of the outer labia was pulled toward the anus to cover the pudendal cleft, possibly to prevent sexual violation. It was similarly not possible to determine whether Types I or II had been performed, because soft tissues had deteriorated or been removed by the embalmers.

The Greek geographer Strabo (c. 64 BCE c. 23 CE) wrote about FGM after visiting Egypt around 25 BCE: "This is one of the customs most zealously pursued by them [the Egyptians]: to raise every child that is born and to circumcise [peritemnein] the males and excise [ektemnein] the females..."[152][ab][ac] Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE 50 CE) also made reference to it: "the Egyptians by the custom of their country circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth (year) of their age, when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow." It is mentioned briefly in a work attributed to the Greek physician Galen (129 c.200 CE): "When [the clitoris] sticks out to a great extent in their young women, Egyptians consider it appropriate to cut it out."[ad] Another Greek physician, Atius of Amida (mid-5th to mid-6th century CE), offered more detail in book 16 of his Sixteen Books on Medicine, citing the physician Philomenes. The procedure was performed in case the clitoris, or nymph, grew too large or triggered sexual desire when rubbing against clothing. "On this account, it seemed proper to the Egyptians to remove it before it became greatly enlarged," Atius wrote, "especially at that time when the girls were about to be married":

The surgery is performed in this way: Have the girl sit on a chair while a muscled young man standing behind her places his arms below the girl's thighs. Have him separate and steady her legs and whole body. Standing in front and taking hold of the clitoris with a broad-mouthed forceps in his left hand, the surgeon stretches it outward, while with the right hand, he cuts it off at the point next to the pincers of the forceps. It is proper to let a length remain from that cut off, about the size of the membrane that's between the nostrils, so as to take away the excess material only; as I have said, the part to be removed is at that point just above the pincers of the forceps. Because the clitoris is a skinlike structure and stretches out excessively, do not cut off too much, as a urinary fistula may result from cutting such large growths too deeply.

The genital area was then cleaned with a sponge, frankincense powder and wine or cold water, and wrapped in linen bandages dipped in vinegar, until the seventh day when calamine, rose petals, date pits, or a "genital powder made from baked clay" might be applied.

Whatever the practice's origins, infibulation became linked to slavery. Mackie cites the Portuguese missionary Joo dos Santos, who in 1609 wrote of a group near Mogadishu who had a "custome to sew up their Females, especially their slaves being young to make them unable for conception, which makes these slaves sell dearer, both for their chastitie, and for better confidence which their Masters put in them". Thus, Mackie argues, a "practice associated with shameful female slavery came to stand for honor".

Gynaecologists in 19th-century Europe and the United States removed the clitoris to treat insanity and masturbation. A British doctor, Robert Thomas, suggested clitoridectomy as a cure for nymphomania in 1813.[162] In 1825 The Lancet described a clitoridectomy performed in 1822 in Berlin by Karl Ferdinand von Graefe on a 15-year-old girl who was masturbating excessively.[163]

Isaac Baker Brown, an English gynaecologist, president of the Medical Society of London and co-founder in 1845 of St. Mary's Hospital, believed that masturbation, or "unnatural irritation" of the clitoris, caused hysteria, spinal irritation, fits, idiocy, mania and death. He therefore "set to work to remove the clitoris whenever he had the opportunity of doing so", according to his obituary.[160] Brown performed several clitoridectomies between 1859 and 1866.[160] In the United States, J. Marion Sims followed Brown's work and in 1862 slit the neck of a woman's uterus and amputated her clitoris, "for the relief of the nervous or hysterical condition as recommended by Baker Brown". When Brown published his views in On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females (1866), doctors in London accused him of quackery and expelled him from the Obstetrical Society.[166]

Later in the 19th century, A. J. Bloch, a surgeon in New Orleans, removed the clitoris of a two-year-old girl who was reportedly masturbating. According to a 1985 paper in the Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, clitoridectomy was performed in the United States into the 1960s to treat hysteria, erotomania and lesbianism.[168] From the mid-1950s, James C. Burt, a gynaecologist in Dayton, Ohio, performed non-standard repairs of episiotomies after childbirth, adding more stitches to make the vaginal opening smaller. From 1966 until 1989, he performed "love surgery" by cutting women's pubococcygeus muscle, repositioning the vagina and urethra, and removing the clitoral hood, thereby making their genital area more appropriate, in his view, for intercourse in the missionary position. "Women are structurally inadequate for intercourse," he wrote; he said he would turn them into "horny little mice".[170] In the 1960s and 1970s he performed these procedures without consent while repairing episiotomies and performing hysterectomies and other surgery; he said he had performed a variation of them on 4,000 women by 1975. Following complaints, he was required in 1989 to stop practicing medicine in the United States.[171]

Muthirigu

Little knives in their sheathsThat they may fight with the church,The time has come.Elders (of the church)When Kenyatta comesYou will be given women's clothesAnd you will have to cook him his food.

From the Muthirigu (1929), Kikuyu dance-songs against church opposition to FGM[172]

Protestant missionaries in British East Africa (present-day Kenya) began campaigning against FGM in the early 20th century, when Dr. John Arthur joined the Church of Scotland Mission (CSM) in Kikuyu. An important ethnic marker, the practice was known by the Kikuyu, the country's main ethnic group, as irua for both girls and boys. It involved excision (Type II) for girls and removal of the foreskin for boys. Unexcised Kikuyu women (irugu) were outcasts.[173]

Jomo Kenyatta, general secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association and later Kenya's first prime minister, wrote in 1938 that, for the Kikuyu, the institution of FGM was the "conditio sine qua non of the whole teaching of tribal law, religion and morality". No proper Kikuyu man or woman would marry or have sexual relations with someone who was not circumcised, he wrote. A woman's responsibilities toward the tribe began with her initiation. Her age and place within tribal history was traced to that day, and the group of girls with whom she was cut was named according to current events, an oral tradition that allowed the Kikuyu to track people and events going back hundreds of years.

Beginning with the CSM in 1925, several missionary churches declared that FGM was prohibited for African Christians; the CSM announced that Africans practising it would be excommunicated, which resulted in hundreds leaving or being expelled. In 1929 the Kenya Missionary Council began referring to FGM as the "sexual mutilation of women", and a person's stance toward the practice became a test of loyalty, either to the Christian churches or to the Kikuyu Central Association.[176] The stand-off turned FGM into a focal point of the Kenyan independence movement; the 19291931 period is known in the country's historiography as the female circumcision controversy.[177] When Hulda Stumpf, an American missionary who opposed FGM in the girls' school she helped to run, was murdered in 1930, Edward Grigg, the governor of Kenya, told the British Colonial Office that the killer had tried to circumcise her.[178]

There was some opposition from Kenyan women themselves. At the mission in Tumutumu, Karatina, where Marion Scott Stevenson worked, a group calling themselves Ngo ya Tuiritu ("Shield of Young Girls"), the membership of which included Raheli Warigia (mother of Gakaara wa Wanja), wrote to the Local Native Council of South Nyeri on 25 December 1931: "[W]e of the Ngo ya Tuiritu heard that there are men who talk of female circumcision, and we get astonished because they (men) do not give birth and feel the pain and even some die and even others become infertile, and the main cause is circumcision. Because of that the issue of circumcision should not be forced. People are caught like sheep; one should be allowed to cut her own way of either agreeing to be circumcised or not without being dictated on one's own body."[179]

Elsewhere, support for the practice from women was strong. In 1956 in Meru, eastern Kenya, when the council of male elders (the Njuri Nchecke) announced a ban on FGM in 1956, thousands of girls cut each other's genitals with razor blades over the next three years as a symbol of defiance. The movement came to be known as Ngaitana ("I will circumcise myself"), because to avoid naming their friends the girls said they had cut themselves. Historian Lynn Thomas described the episode as significant in the history of FGM because it made clear that its victims were also its perpetrators.[180] FGM was eventually outlawed in Kenya in 2001, although the practice continued, reportedly driven by older women.[181]

1920s1980s timeline

One of the earliest campaigns against FGM began in Egypt in the 1920s, when the Egyptian Doctors' Society called for a ban.[ae] There was a parallel campaign in Sudan, run by religious leaders and British women. Infibulation was banned there in 1946, but the law was unpopular and barely enforced.[af] The Egyptian government banned infibulation in state-run hospitals in 1959, but allowed partial clitoridectomy if parents requested it. (Egypt banned FGM entirely in 2007.)

In 1959, the UN asked the WHO to investigate FGM, but the latter responded that it was not a medical matter. Feminists took up the issue throughout the 1970s. The Egyptian physician and feminist Nawal El Saadawi criticized FGM in her book Women and Sex (1972); the book was banned in Egypt and El Saadawi lost her job as director general of public health.[189] She followed up with a chapter, "The Circumcision of Girls", in her book The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1980), which described her own clitoridectomy when she was six years old:

I did not know what they had cut off from my body, and I did not try to find out. I just wept, and called out to my mother for help. But the worst shock of all was when I looked around and found her standing by my side. Yes, it was her, I could not be mistaken, in flesh and blood, right in the midst of these strangers, talking to them and smiling at them, as though they had not participated in slaughtering her daughter just a few moments ago.

In 1975, Rose Oldfield Hayes, an American social scientist, became the first female academic to publish a detailed account of FGM, aided by her ability to discuss it directly with women in Sudan. Her article in American Ethnologist called it "female genital mutilation", rather than female circumcision, and brought it to wider academic attention. Edna Adan Ismail, who worked at the time for the Somalia Ministry of Health, discussed the health consequences of FGM in 1977 with the Somali Women's Democratic Organization.[193] Two years later Fran Hosken, an Austria-American feminist, published The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females (1979), the first to offer global figures. She estimated that 110,529,000 women in 20 African countries had experienced FGM. The figures were speculative but consistent with later surveys. Describing FGM as a "training ground for male violence", Hosken accused female practitioners of "participating in the destruction of their own kind". The language caused a rift between Western and African feminists; African women boycotted a session featuring Hosken during the UN's Mid-Decade Conference on Women in Copenhagen in July 1980.[197]

In 1979, the WHO held a seminar, "Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children", in Khartoum, Sudan, and in 1981, also in Khartoum, 150 academics and activists signed a pledge to fight FGM after a workshop held by the Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women's Studies (BBSAWS), "Female Circumcision Mutilates and Endangers Women Combat it!" Another BBSAWS workshop in 1984 invited the international community to write a joint statement for the United Nations.[198] It recommended that the "goal of all African women" should be the eradication of FGM and that, to sever the link between FGM and religion, clitoridectomy should no longer be referred to as sunna.[199]

The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, founded in 1984 in Dakar, Senegal, called for an end to the practice, as did the UN's World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. The conference listed FGM as a form of violence against women, marking it as a human-rights violation, rather than a medical issue.[200] Throughout the 1990s and 2000s governments in Africa and the Middle East passed legislation banning or restricting FGM. In 2003 the African Union ratified the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women, which supported the elimination of FGM.[201] By 2015 laws restricting FGM had been passed in at least 23 of the 27 African countries in which it is concentrated, although several fell short of a ban.[ag]

In December 1993, the United Nations General Assembly included FGM in resolution 48/104, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and from 2003 sponsored International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, held every 6 February.[205][206] UNICEF began in 2003 to promote an evidence-based social norms approach, using ideas from game theory about how communities reach decisions about FGM, and building on the work of Gerry Mackie on the demise of footbinding in China.[207] In 2005 the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence published its first report on FGM.[27] UNFPA and UNICEF launched a joint program in Africa in 2007 to reduce FGM by 40 percent within the 015 age group and eliminate it from at least one country by 2012, goals that were not met and which they later described as unrealistic.[208][ah] In 2008 several UN bodies recognized FGM as a human-rights violation,[210] and in 2010 the UN called upon healthcare providers to stop carrying out the procedures, including reinfibulation after childbirth and symbolic nicking.[10] In 2012 the General Assembly passed resolution 67/146, "Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilations".[211]

According to UNICEF, 97% of women in Guinea and 75% in Gambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Sierra Leone undergo FGM. It is practiced in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as among migrants from those countries.[212]

Immigration spread the practice to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America, all of which outlawed it entirely or restricted it to consenting adults.[213] Sweden outlawed FGM in 1982 with the Act Prohibiting the Genital Mutilation of Women, the first Western country to do so.[214] Several former colonial powers, including Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands, introduced new laws or made clear that it was covered by existing legislation. As of 2013[update] legislation banning FGM had been passed in 33 countries outside Africa and the Middle East.[202]

In the United States an estimated 513,000 women and girls had experienced FGM or were at risk as of 2012.[216][217][ai] A Nigerian woman successfully contested deportation in March 1994, asking for "cultural asylum" on the grounds that her young daughters (who were American citizens) might be cut if she brought them to Nigeria,[219][220][221] and in 1996 Fauziya Kasinga from Togo became the first to be officially granted asylum to escape FGM.[222] In 1996 the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act made it illegal to perform FGM on minors for non-medical reasons, and in 2013 the Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act prohibited transporting a minor out of the country for the purpose of FGM.[216]:2 The first FGM conviction in the US was in 2006, when Khalid Adem, who had emigrated from Ethiopia, was sentenced to ten years for aggravated battery and cruelty to children after severing his two-year-old daughter's clitoris with a pair of scissors.[223] A federal judge ruled in 2018 that the 1996 Act was unconstitutional, arguing that FGM is a "local criminal activity" that should be regulated by states, not by Congress; he made his ruling during a case against members of the Dawoodi Bohra community in Michigan accused of carrying out FGM.[224] Twenty-four states had legislation banning FGM as of 2016.[216]:2 The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes all forms of the practice, including pricking the clitoral skin.[aj]

Canada recognized FGM as a form of persecution in July 1994, when it granted refugee status to Khadra Hassan Farah, who had fled Somalia to avoid her daughter being cut.[226] In 1997 section 268 of its Criminal Code was amended to ban FGM, except where "the person is at least eighteen years of age and there is no resulting bodily harm".[227][202] As of July2017[update] there had been no prosecutions. Canadian officials have expressed concern that a few thousand Canadian girls are at risk of "vacation cutting", whereby girls are taken overseas to undergo the procedure, but as of 2017 there were no firm figures.[228]

According to the European Parliament, 500,000 women in Europe had undergone FGM as of March2009[update]. In France up to 30,000 women were thought to have experienced it as of 1995. According to Colette Gallard, a family-planning counsellor, when FGM was first encountered in France, the reaction was that Westerners ought not to intervene. It took the deaths of two girls in 1982, one of them three months old, for that attitude to change.[231] In 1991 a French court ruled that the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees offered protection to FGM victims; the decision followed an asylum application from Aminata Diop, who fled an FGM procedure in Mali.[232] The practice is outlawed by several provisions of France's penal code that address bodily harm causing permanent mutilation or torture.[233][231] The first civil suit was in 1982, and the first criminal prosecution in 1993.[226] In 1999 a woman was given an eight-year sentence for having performed FGM on 48 girls.[234] By 2014 over 100 parents and two practitioners had been prosecuted in over 40 criminal cases.[231]

Around 137,000 women and girls living in England and Wales were born in countries where FGM is practised, as of 2011.[235] Performing FGM on children or adults was outlawed under the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985.[236] This was replaced by the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005, which added a prohibition on arranging FGM outside the country for British citizens or permanent residents.[237][ak] The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) asked the government in July 2013 to "ensure the full implementation of its legislation on FGM".[239] The first charges were brought in 2014 against a physician and another man; the physician had stitched an infibulated woman after opening her for childbirth. Both men were acquitted in 2015.[240]

Anthropologists have accused FGM eradicationists of cultural colonialism, and have been criticized in turn for their moral relativism and failure to defend the idea of universal human rights. According to critics of the eradicationist position, the biological reductionism of the opposition to FGM, and the failure to appreciate FGM's cultural context, serves to "other" practitioners and undermine their agencyin particular when parents are referred to as "mutilators".

Africans who object to the tone of FGM opposition risk appearing to defend the practice. The feminist theorist Obioma Nnaemeka, herself strongly opposed to FGM, argued in 2005 that renaming the practice female genital mutilation had introduced "a subtext of barbaric African and Muslim cultures and the West's relevance (even indispensability) in purging [it]". According to Ugandan law professor Sylvia Tamale, the early Western opposition to FGM stemmed from a Judeo-Christian judgment that African sexual and family practices, including not only FGM but also dry sex, polygyny, bride price and levirate marriage, required correction. African feminists "take strong exception to the imperialist, racist and dehumanising infantilization of African women", she wrote in 2011. Commentators highlight the voyeurism in the treatment of women's bodies as exhibits. Examples include images of women's vulvas after FGM or girls undergoing the procedure. The 1996 Pulitzer-prize-winning photographs of a 16-year-old Kenyan girl experiencing FGM were published by 12 American newspapers, without her consent either to be photographed or to have the images published.[247]

The debate has highlighted a tension between anthropology and feminism, with the former's focus on tolerance and the latter's on equal rights for women. According to the anthropologist Christine Walley, a common position in anti-FGM literature has been to present African women as victims of false consciousness participating in their own oppression, a position promoted by feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, including Fran Hosken, Mary Daly and Hanny Lightfoot-Klein. It prompted the French Association of Anthropologists to issue a statement in 1981, at the height of the early debates, that "a certain feminism resuscitates (today) the moralistic arrogance of yesterday's colonialism".

Nnaemeka argues that the crucial question, broader than FGM, is why the female body is subjected to so much "abuse and indignity", including in the West. Several authors have drawn a parallel between FGM and cosmetic procedures.[250] Ronn Conroy of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland wrote in 2006 that cosmetic genital procedures were "driving the advance" of FGM by encouraging women to see natural variations as defects. Anthropologist Fadwa El Guindi compared FGM to breast enhancement, in which the maternal function of the breast becomes secondary to men's sexual pleasure. Benote Groult, the French feminist, made a similar point in 1975, citing FGM and cosmetic surgery as sexist and patriarchal. Against this, the medical anthropologist Carla Obermeyer argued in 1999 that FGM may be conducive to a subject's social well-being in the same way that rhinoplasty and male circumcision are.[254] Despite the 2007 ban in Egypt, Egyptian women wanting FGM for their daughters seek amalyet tajmeel (cosmetic surgery) to remove what they see as excess genital tissue.[255]

Cosmetic procedures such as labiaplasty and clitoral hood reduction do fall within the WHO's definition of FGM, which aims to avoid loopholes, but the WHO notes that these elective practices are generally not regarded as FGM.[al] Some legislation banning FGM, such as in Canada and the US, covers minors only, but several countries, including Sweden and the UK, have banned it regardless of consent. Sweden, for example, has banned operations "on the outer female sexual organs with a view to mutilating them or bringing about some other permanent change in them, regardless of whether or not consent has been given for the operation".[214] Gynaecologist Birgitta Essn and anthropologist Sara Johnsdotter argue that the law seems to distinguish between Western and African genitals, and deems only African women (such as those seeking reinfibulation after childbirth) unfit to make their own decisions.[257]

The philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues that a key concern with FGM is that it is mostly conducted on children using physical force. The distinction between social pressure and physical force is morally and legally salient, comparable to the distinction between seduction and rape. She argues further that the literacy of women in practising countries is generally poorer than in developed nations, which reduces their ability to make informed choices.[259]

Several commentators maintain that children's rights are violated not only by FGM but also by the genital alteration of intersex children, who are born with anomalies that physicians choose to correct.[260] Arguments have been made that non-therapeutic male circumcision, practised by Muslims, Jews and some Christian groups, also violates children's rights. Globally about 30 percent of males over 15 are circumcised; of these, about two-thirds are Muslim.[261] An American Academy of Pediatrics circumcision task force issued a policy statement in 2012 that the health benefits of male circumcision outweigh the risks; they recommended that it be carried out, if it is performed, by "trained and competent practitioners... using sterile techniques and effective pain management".[262] The statement met with protests from a group of 38 doctors in Europe, who accused the task force of "cultural bias".[263] At least half the male population of the United States is circumcised,[262] while most men in Europe are not.[263]

WHO (2008): "[There is a] common tendency to describe Type I as removal of the prepuce, whereas this has not been documented as a traditional form of female genital mutilation. However, in some countries, medicalized female genital mutilation can include removal of the prepuce only (Type Ia) (Thabet and Thabet, 2003), but this form appears to be relatively rare (Satti et al., 2006). Almost all known forms of female genital mutilation that remove tissue from the clitoris also cut all or part of the clitoral glans itself."[39]

Pam Belluck (The New York Times, 10 June 2017): "The focus on the Dawoodi Bohra, a sect of about 1.2 million based in western India, with clusters in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere, is spurring Bohra women to describe their experiences publicly. Some are doing so for the first time, defying the sect's historic secrecy about cutting and taking a risk that they or relatives will be ostracized."[86]

Bettina Shell-Duncan (2015): "[W]hen you talk to people on the ground, you also hear people talking about the idea that it's women's business. As in, it's for women to decide this. If we look at the data across Africa, the support for the practice is stronger among women than among men."

Book XVI, chapter 4, 16.4.9: "And then to the Harbour of Antiphilus, and, above this, to the Creophagi [meat-eaters], of whom the males have their sexual glands mutilated [kolobos] and the women are excised [ektemnein] in the Jewish fashion."

Donaldson James, Susan (13 December 2012). "Ohio Woman Still Scarred By 'Love' Doctor's Sex Surgery". ABC News.

Canada: Section 268, Criminal Code, Justice Laws website, Government of Canada.

"In re Fauziya KASINGA, file A73 476 695", U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, decided 13 June 1996.

Pam Belluck, "Group Backs Ritual 'Nick' as Female Circumcision Option", The New York Times, 6 May 2010.

For an early article on FGM in the UK, see Black & Debelle 1995

Gregorio, I. W. (26 April 2017). "Should Surgeons Perform Irreversible Genital Surgery on Children?". Newsweek.

Freedman, Andrew L. (May 2016). "The Circumcision Debate: Beyond Benefits and Risks". Pediatrics. 137 (5): e20160594. doi:10.1542/peds.2016-0594. PMID27244839.

American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Circumcision (April 2013). "Cultural Bias and Circumcision: The AAP Task Force on Circumcision Responds". Pediatrics. 131 (4): 8014. doi:10.1542/peds.2013-0081. PMID23509171.

Here is the original post:
Female genital mutilation - Wikipedia

Scientific fields have not only overlooked female researchers, but have also overlooked research into female biology, both of humans and animals

On International Womens Day, people across the world are taking part in Wikipedia edit-a-thons to address gender bias in the online encyclopedias biographies.

Currently, only about 17 per cent of Wikipedias biography pages are about women. Many of the edit-a-thons will specifically focus on women in STEM.

Scientific fields have not only overlooked female researchers, but have also overlooked research into female biology, both of humans and animals. For centuries, our understanding of the natural world has been shaped by a predominately male perspective. But this is changing, thanks to pioneering biologists.

Male and female behaviours

Evolutionary biologist Sara Lipshutz, for example, studies mechanisms underlying sex-role reversal in the jacana, a tropical wading bird. Jacana females aggressively compete for mates while the males provide parental care.

Molecular biologist Mariana Wolfner studies how female insects genetics influence which males sperm (of the many she mates with) are chosen to fertilise the ovum. Zoologist Kay Holekamp studies how reproduction is affected by both competition and co-operation in female hyenas.

Active male, passive female?

The inclusion of women in clinical trials and female animals in pre-clinical trials has received a lot of attention in recent years, but our understanding of the natural world has also been influenced by a male-dominated culture. And this problem dates back to antiquity.

Lets go back to Aristotle, says Virginia Hayssen, a mammologist at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Aristotle believed that during conception, the father contributed form in other words, the immutable essence of a thing and the mother provided the receptacle in which this form developed.

Although we understand the process better now, we havent really gotten past that idea that the male is active and the female is passive, says Hayssen.

Traditionally, she says, conception is presented as the sperms race to the ovum. But the female reproductive tract is actually hugely influential in transporting the sperm to the ovum and in determining which sperm is the winner.

Many biologists are coming to realise that weve missed a lot by having such a narrow focus. We cant tell the whole story with our science if were imposing our biases on an animal system, says Lipshutz.

Without fully understanding the male and female sides of reproduction, we wont be able to understand how species evolve, since reproduction is a central component of evolution. Lipshutz also notes that understanding more about how females communicate, compete and choose mates could have important implications for conservation.

So, is the field as a whole finally undergoing a cultural shift to value female-focused research as much as male-focused research? Some say no.

I would say that the male perspective is as dominant as it ever was, says Hayssen, who was a co-organiser of a symposium on reproduction from a female perspective at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting, held in January 2020.

But others have a slightly more optimistic outlook. While acknowledging that there is still a long way to go, scientists including Lipshutz and Teri Orr, an evolutionary ecologist at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and co-organiser of the symposium, say they feel that progress is being made.

Some of these advancements have been at least partially driven by improvements in technology.

Orr says one example of this is red-winged blackbird reproduction. For a long time, biologists thought that a male maintained a territory with many females who mated exclusively with this male. It was only once DNA testing became available that scientists were able to run paternity tests on the baby birds and determine that many had not been fathered by the male who was in charge of the territory, showing that females were behaving in unexpected ways.

Read more: How genetic testing is helping scientists save animals from disease and illegal hunting

Inclusion and representation

But Lipshutz and Orr say that many of these changes have been driven by the culture of the field as well. After all, new technologies wouldnt have made any difference if scientists had used them to answer the same old questions about the biology of males.

I think it has to do with representation, says Lipshutz. There are many models of how women are still not getting equal representation in academia, but I do think its much better than it was 20 years ago. And so I think it makes sense that our perspectives are often shaped by that diversity.

Orr says that she sees a big generational difference as well. She says younger generations of academics realize that these are important issues that need to be addressed.

Nevertheless, theres still much that needs to be done, both inside and outside academia. For one thing, theres still an immense amount of research that must to be carried out before our understanding of female biology catches up with our understanding of male biology.

Orr, Lipshutz and Hayssen also stress the importance of education and mentorship in helping to address these issues. Regarding the importance of female biology, Orr says: The question is how do we bring that back into the classroom? Because thats where stereotypes are challenged, thats where people really learn the material. In an attempt to improve education about females, Orr and Hayssen have written a textbook, Reproduction in Mammals: The Female Perspective.

Hayssen notes that the media has an important role to play as well. What happens next, she says, depends on whether all this still gets shoved under the rug or whether [journalists] carry the torch forward and get other people interested in it.

But many biologists are hopeful about what the future will bring.

Younger folks in the field are really passionate, says Orr. I do think some big changes are definitely around the corner and Im very excited to see what happens.

Hannah Thomasy, Global Journalism Fellow, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

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

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International Women's Day: Female biologists bring much-needed perspective to science - Down To Earth Magazine

For many dog owners, thunderstorms are a source of angst, a walk to the dog park can be a fraught experience, and New Years celebrations are particularly stressful. According to a new study of thousands of pet dogs, anxiety and fear-related behavior problems are widespread. Certain breeds are particularly sensitive to loud noises or being left alone. Other breeds may engage in compulsive behaviors such as biting themselves or urinating, suggesting a genetic component to the activity.

James Serpell, an ethologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study, says that the problem stems from owners failing to properly socialize their dogs. Many canines rescued from shelters may have been inadequately trained when they were young, and the problem is compounded when new owners are overly cautious with them. Its a sort of helicopter-parenting concept applied to dogs, he says. Animals are not getting enough exposure to normal social interactions, play behavior and roughhousing with other dogs. Thats asking for trouble.

In the study, Hannes Lohi, a geneticist at the University of Helsinki, and his colleagues surveyed Finnish owners of 13,715 pet dogsor nearly 2 percent of the total population of the animals in Finland. The dog owners responded to questions about the dogs age, socialization,and behavior around humans and unfamiliar dogs and in new environments. The researchers published their results on Thursday in Scientific Reports. About 72 percent of the dogs exhibited problematic behaviors such as aggression or fearfulness. Meanwhile 32 percent of them were afraid of noises, which was the most common form of anxiety, and about one quarter were fearful of fireworks in particular. Sensitivity to loud noises increased with age. Younger dogs tended to damage property or urinate when left alone more often than older animals did. And male dogs were more hyperactive and aggressive than female ones.

Lohi also found that dog breeds had very different behavioral profiles.Romagnolos were most likely to be afraid of thunder, and Labrador retrievers were least likely to be. More miniature schnauzers, and fewer Labradors, were aggressive toward strangers than other dogs. Mixed breeds had the highest levels of inattentiveness, a trait shown in dogs considered hard to train. The breed specificity of these traits suggests that genetics plays a role in their development, Lohi says.

In a study he co-authored in January 2019 in Translational Psychiatry, Lohi and his colleagues found a gene in German shepherds linked to age-dependent hearing defects and anxiety. But it is not really known whether this is a [physical] or psychiatric issue, he says.

The new study also examined comorbidities, or different conditions present in the same animal. Fear and noise sensitivity were common comorbidities, although this may have been because the sample included so many dogs that exhibited each trait. And separation-related anxiety behavior was more common among dogs that were sensitive to noise. Serpell is skeptical about calling these observations comorbidities, however. The term tends to imply that a pathology is involved, but these are normal dog behaviors, he explains. Instead, Serpell says, I would expect there to be an association between fear and aggression. A lot of aggression in dogs is triggered by fear.

Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist at Tufts University and chief scientist at the Center for Canine Behavior Studies, who was not involved in Lohis analysis, published a similar paper on behavioral problems in the July-August 2019 issue of theJournal of Veterinary Behavior. There are some inherent pitfalls to the questionnaire-based approach, which apply to our study as well, Dodman says. Surveying owners about their dogs behavior assumes they are vigilant witnesses, he says. And seeing a certain behavior in a canine, such as the animal scratching itself, does not explain why it exhibits that behavior. The observation does not allow an inference to be made, for instance, that the dog has developed a compulsive disorder.

Human selection for traits such as herding or guarding may have predisposed some breeds to engage in compulsive behaviors, Lohi says. In the new study, border collies, which were bred to herd livestock, were more prone to chasing lights and shadows, whereas Staffordshire bull terriers were the most likely to chase their own tails, an impulsive behavior that suggests a genetic defect has been enriched in that breed, he adds.

Breeding programs can gradually eliminate such traits by avoiding dogs with behavioral problems that have a genetic component, Lohi says. But selective breeding for any trait has risks, says Anindita Bhadra, a behavioral biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, who also was not part of the new study. Attempting to breed anxiety-free dogs could bring about other problems, she says. We know that most complex traits are multigenic, and artificial selection often leads to inadvertent changes while selecting for a set of traits, Bhadra adds.

Lohi says the next step in understanding these behavioral issues is to tease apart what environmental, lifestyle and genetic risk factors predispose dogs to them. The overarching goal of the research is ultimately to understand how useful dogs can be to model human anxiety and how much they share similar risk or protective factors, he says. Eventually, this could help to advance the health and welfare across species.

Read more:
Three Fourths of Dogs Are Angst-Ridden--and Owners May Be Partly to Blame - Scientific American

Though the Louisiana legislative session doesnt begin until Monday, a bill that would mandate transgender student athletes participate in team sports corresponding to their sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity, is already garnering attention.

The bill by Rep. Beryl Amedee, a Houma Republican, would apply to sports teams at Louisiana public schools and private schools that receive public funds such as through voucher programs from the elementary school level through the collegiate level. A similar bill has also been pre-filed by Sen. Beth Mizell, a Franklinton Republican.

Amedee said the bill would not ban transgender athletes from sports but rather level the playing field for athletes assigned female at birth because transgender females are generally, stereotypically speaking, at an advantage over biological females. She said that on average men have greater average lung volume, larger bones and muscles than women.

An athlete who truly wants to compete because of the love of the sport is going to want to compete where the competition is fair, she said, and the competition is fair when it's based appropriately on your makeup. If you are biologically male, but you compete against the females, how can you ever be assured that your win is truly a win?

Opponents of the law say there are many different body types within sexes and argue that a law shouldnt be made based on generalizations.

Certainly, that does not apply across the board, and that I think is what makes this such an unfair and ridiculous piece of legislation, said Brandon Robb, a lawyer at a New Orleans law firm that works with many LGBT clients. You could take individuals, even people who were female from birth and still are biologically female Some women are going to be taller, stronger than other women.

It would exclude people based on a broad generalization, he continued. Gender discrimination based on that sort of broad generalization, I think is going to be really suspect to a court of law that might be reviewing it (in the future).

White evangelical Protestants stand noticeably apart from other religious people in a new poll.

While Amedee said she has not heard of specific situations in Louisiana where transgender female athletes were systematically outperforming those assigned female at birth, she said it was important to get ahead of the issue.

I think if we don't take care of this, if this becomes an issue in Louisiana where we have a lot of athletic competitions where we have biological females competing against transgender females and the competition becomes unfair, as it has in other places in this country, then what we're going to see is the demise of women's sports, she said. We'll see women just not bothering, and to me, that's a step backwards.

More than a dozen other states, including Ohio, Idaho and Missouri, have filed similar bills in recent months regarding transgender students participation in sports, legislation often dubbed the Save Womens Sports Act by supporters.

Many legislators who have brought these bills forward refer to a Connecticut case, in which three high school girls are suing over the participation of two transgender athletes in track and field events, saying they have an unfair competitive advantage. The plaintiffs in that case are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit.

But Dylan Waguespack of Louisiana Trans Advocates said the recent crop of bills appearing in state legislatures are evidence that the bills are being pushed by national organizations opposed to LGBT rights.

This legislation is not homegrown, he said. These bills are identical to bills filed in Arizona, and they're very, very similar to bills filed in 15 other states. It kind of actually exposes these bills for what they are, which is imported discriminatory legislation from some fringe national extremist groups.

Early childhood education, affordable housing, infrastructure, the minimum wage, justice reform and equal pay are issues to watch.

Currently, Louisiana policies for transgender peoples participation in sports varies by age. According to Waguespack, schools are left to decide policies for elementary school children. At the high school level, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) guidelines state that a student-athlete shall compete in the gender of their birth certificate unless they have undergone sex reassignment.

The high school student must then go before a committee who is instructed to allow them to compete on a team matching their gender identity if they have had sex reassignment surgery before puberty. If they have had sex reassignment surgery after puberty, the committee would have to verify whether the person had completed surgical anatomical changes, updated all official government documents and undergone hormone therapy.

Even then, LHSAA states, athletic eligibility in the reassigned gender can begin no sooner than two years after all surgical and anatomical changes have been completed.

Waguespack said these standards are so hard to meet that they amount to a de facto ban on transgender high school students playing on school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.

I think even folks who aren't living with these issues day to day like I am would know those are not things that are happening to high school students, he said. We wouldn't even recommend that high school students have permanent surgical care. That's something that you do as an adult.

There are no health care providers that would ever provide that kind of care for a minor," he added.

And while, the LHSAA policies are listed as guidelines on their website, Waguespack said the organization does enforce them. A Louisiana high school that allows a transgender person to compete according to their gender identity could potentially have their record disputed and get disqualified for fielding an ineligible player.

LHSAA has made the determination in recent history, like within this past year, that a student who's transgender who meets like all of the things we would expect a high school student to meet is not eligible, he said.

At the college level, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) allows transgender women to compete on womens teams if they have completed a year of testosterone suppression treatment, regardless of what their testosterone levels are and if they. Transgender men can compete without medically transitioning.

Gilead Sciences is awarding $163,000 to three New Orleans organizations fighting HIV in 2020.

GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) lists Louisiana as one of 17 states whose state athletic association has a policy that discriminates against transgender athletes.

Transathlete.com, which monitors policies for across the country, also classified Louisianas K-12 policies as discriminatory but did list Louisiana State University as one of 15 colleges with trans-inclusive intramural athletic policies.

The bills by Amedee and Mizell would restrict transgender athletes participation even further by implementing a policy that mandates student athletes at all levels play on teams that correspond with their sex assigned at birth with no exceptions.

The bill states that if a dispute arises as to the biological sex of a student who participates or desires to participate on a female, girls', or women's school athletic team, a physicians signed statement would determine the students sex assigned at birth.

That determination would be based on the student's internal and external reproductive anatomy, the student's normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone and an analysis of the student's genetic makeup.

It is unclear how such an examination would work in practice. Amedee said physicians who deal with genetics would need to determine a students genetic makeup as outlined in the bill. But she was unsure if a regular primary care physician would be able to provide this service.

We'd have to ask a doctor these things, she said.

Waguespack said not only did he think the examinations and tests outlined in the law would be a massive overreach into the privacy of young people, but that he also was concerned about who would be able to question someones gender and therefore require them to get a physicians statement.

It also sets up this really scary Orwellian system for disputing someone's gender, Waguespack said. It doesn't specify who can dispute someone's gender. It leaves it pretty open to suggest that anyone could.

Eighteen Louisiana equality organizations, including the ACLU of Louisiana, Women With a Vision and Lift Louisiana, recently signed a letter against both bills, calling them a misguided effort to offer the state as a means of enforcing gender norms.

Robb said he is working with the Louisiana LGBT rights organization Forum for Equality to ensure the bill does not pass. Should the bill become law, though, he sees a court challenge as probably inevitable."

These are the sort of laws that in other states where they've passed these things or other forms of discrimination, they've been challenged in court and often successfully."

Originally posted here:
This Louisiana bill would keep trans students from playing on teams matching their gender identity - NOLA.com

Co-founders Ravina Anand (left) and Michelle Kwok (right), Mar. 5, 2020.

Men dont know how hard it is to be the only woman at a board meeting. After all, according to FLIKs website, less than one in five businesses globally are led by women.

Thats why current third-year medical science student at Western University, Michelle Kwok, co-founded the Female Laboratory of Innovative Knowledge, a network that connects female students with women in leadership.

The portal launched in January and is still in its beta phase. But as a cost-free service, FLIK has brought together over 100 apprenticeships in a wide range of industries like consulting, technology, marketing, fashion and product design. And, its closing in on 1,000 users.

They currently have students completing apprenticeships at companies like The Gist, Greenpeace and The Fashion Innovation Centre.

High profile women in leadership, like Kim Kaupe co-founder and CEO of The Superfan Company, who regularly works with Justin Bieber, A$AP Rocky and John Mayer are also on the platform.

Our main goal is to create meaningful relationships between the female founders of today and the female founders of tomorrow and together increase female ventures on a global scale, Kwok says.

For students looking for opportunities in their careers, this platform offers them a connection to founders who are seeking new, young hires with fresh and innovative eyes.

Its a win-win proposition, she says.

Starting off as a media company that wanted to showcase female founders career stories, Kwok and her co-founder, Ravina Anand, realized they could do even more. So, they began connecting female founders with people in their student networks.

Fourth-year genetics student Sarah Whittaker is doing a three-month apprenticeship with Louise Macnab, the co-founder and business manager at Moxie a digestive health start-up based in New York.

The beauty of FLIKs apprenticeship model is that its more of a partnership than a job, says Whittaker.

Alongside their mentor, students can create their own projects based on something that would be meaningful for them.

Applicants fill out a profile online, indicating the skills they want to learn and their desired industry, which helps students connect to the best-suited mentor. Mentors can also be requested on a case-by-case basis.

First-year BMOS student Maggie Chen joined FLIK because she wanted to connect with a female CEO or founder on a personal level instead, she found two.

Through FLIK, Chen said shes seen the impact a female-led organization can have on a community.

As a young woman trying to navigate your way into the entrepreneurial or innovative world, you face so many barriers and challenges, says Kwok.

Chen has seen the struggles of being a woman in business. She thinks a lot of young, female students are insecure about their capabilities when they compare themselves to their male counterparts.

FLIK has shown Chen how a small group of women can do so much change by bringing together a community of female leaders across Canada.

Kwok says having female mentors herself helped her with her self-confidence in building her platform.

Business doesnt just have to be for men, she says. If we dont try or leap off the bridge like all these other guys then were never going to equal the playing field.

The young founder believes women need to support each other now because its a critical time when women are going to completely shift gears, become entrepreneurs and change the economy.

Its going to be easier if we have people who look like us alongside us and supporting us, she says.

See the original post here:
Student startup connecting the female founders of today and tomorrow - The Gazette Western University's Newspaper

The best hospitals in the world must deal with a plethora of challenges facing the health care field today, including tight regulations, rapid advancements in medical science, new health risks and ever-rising costs. And they must do so while also delivering on what must be a medical facility's No. 1 priority: providing top-notch patient care.

What is critical for health care consumers to figure out: Where can you find these industry leaders todaythe ones that meet the economic, political and medical challenges they face with speed and skill, while also providing the very best health care to the people they treat?

To help answer that question, Newsweek partnered with Statista Inc., a global market research and consumer data company, to develop a groundbreaking ranking of the world's best hospitals. The result is our second annual ranking of the best hospitals in the world, the top 10 of which you'll find here.

You find the full ranking, which includes separate lists of top hospitals from 21 countries including the U.S., as well as exceptional specialty hospitals in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics and pediatrics, here.

The largestand originalMayo Clinic has been in Rochester, Minnesota, since 1889. Every year, approximately 1.3 million people from 138 countries come to the Mayo Clinic's 19 hospitals in five states for their specialized team approach. With over 4,800 staff physicians and scientists and over 4,000 full-time research personnel, it is committed to finding answers to the toughest medical cases. Always on the cutting edge, the clinic recently announced several new cancer initiatives. In a counterintuitive move, researchers in Rochester found that by encouraging cancers to mutate, the cancers can be targeted by immunotherapy, and clinical trials for pediatric patients with brain tumors will put this into practice shortly. It also recently announced an agreement to build the first carbon ion therapy treatment center in North America to treat challenging cancers at its Jacksonville, Florida, campus. Patients who seek out the Mayo Clinic appreciate the convenience of its rapid, same-day test results and free concierge services to assist with logistics and travel advice. MayoClinic.org

Cleveland Clinic has always made patient care its centerpiece, and it takes to heart its motto: "Care for the patient as if they are your own family." Historically, Cleveland has also been known for medical breakthroughs and organ transplants, including the first face transplant in the United States. In 2019, it broke its own organ transplant records897, up 3 percent from the year beforeincluding the world's first single-port robotic kidney transplant, which allows for a single small incision and limits the need for postoperative opioids for pain relief. Cleveland's health system encompasses 18 full-service locations systemwide. In 2018, there were 7.9 million outpatient visits, from 185 countries, across all of its campuses. My.ClevelandClinic.org

Over 200 years old and the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital is known for its cutting-edge research. Mass General doctors put the insights they gather from that research to good use when diagnosing and treating the nearly 1.6 million patients who walk through its doors annually. With an annual budget of more than $850 million for research and more than 1,200 clinical trials taking place at any time, it is no wonder that Mass General publishes more research articles in prestigious medical journals and receives more federal funding than any other independent hospital in the country. Its researchers' findings range from linking sleep timing and teen obesity to tagging cells using laser particles so as to better understand the growth ofand treattumors. MassGeneral.org

Since 1819, Toronto General Hospital has been a leader in cardiac care, organ transplants and the treatment of complex patient needs. TGH has focused on novel therapies to treat endocrine and autoimmune disorders ever since insulin was developed, and its first clinical use in the treatment of diabetes at the hospital was in 1922. This past year, TGH doctors performed the first robot-assisted brain surgery on a live patient, which they hope will bridge even more frontiers and eventually allow patients in remote communities to get this kind of life-saving care. Its five-year strategic plan focuses on patient well-being and provides regular, transparent performance reviews of health outcomes and patient experience. Uhn.ca

Given that Charit was founded in 1710 when bubonic plague threatened Berlin, it is fitting that, in what is now one of the largest university hospitals in Europe, Charit researchers are taking the lead on identifying and treating infectious diseases such as Zika, SARS and MERS. Charit researchers developed the first diagnostic test to identify the COVID-19 coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China. More than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine can be claimed by Charit as one of its own, and the hospital is internationally renowned for its excellence in teaching and training. In a new partnership announced in July 2019, Charit is integrating the Berlin Institute of Health under its umbrella; according to a statement from the BIH, it "is to becomealongside patient care and the medical facultythe third pillar of Charit." Charite.de

The Johns Hopkins Hospital, founded in 1889 in Baltimore, is not only a leading teaching and research hospital, but it is also central to the history and development of American medical education. William Osler, one of the hospital's founding physicians, invented the idea of medical residency, taking students out of the lecture halls and onto the wards to examine patients. Today Johns Hopkins has 1,162 beds and more than 2,400 full-time attending physicians. Among other firsts, Johns Hopkins was the first hospital in the U.S. to perform male-to-female sex-reassignment surgery. HopkinsMedicine.org

The lineage of this hospital, the first in Zurich, dates back to 1204. It is one of five university hospitals in Switzerland. Currently, it has 43 departments and institutes, ranging from a center on aging and mobility to a department of surgery and transplantation. The hospital has 980 beds, and 1,500 physicians and scientists. It treats over 42,000 inpatients and has over 500,000 outpatient visits every year. In 1977, a physician here successfully restored normal blood flow to constricted coronary arteries using a balloon catheter. Today, the procedure is widely used all over the world. En.Usz.ch

The oldest and largest hospital in this city-state, Singapore General Hospital, a teaching hospital, was founded 1821. Now, it employs more than 10,000 people and sees more than 1 million patients every year. It is home to Southeast Asia's only full multidisciplinary center for cancer and is an acute tertiary referral hospital with over 40 clinical disciplines. In 2010, it was the first hospital in Asia to receive the Magnet designation for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Sgh.com.sg

The Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, serves as Israel's national research and university-affiliated training hospital. It was founded in 1948 as the country's first military hospital. Today, it collaborates with biotech and pharmaceutical companies around the world to develop new drugs and treatments. Serving more than 1.6 million patients a year, its facilities include an acute care hospital, a rehabilitation hospital, a women's hospital, a children's hospital, an eating disorders clinic, a post-traumatic stress disorder clinic forsoldiers and an outpatient clinic. Its research specialties include cardiology, cancer, brain diseases, obstetrics and gynecology, genetics and medical education. https://eng.sheba.co.il/

This hospital, with about 15,000 employees and 1,340 beds, is affiliated with the Karolinska Institute, which was founded in 1810 by King Karl XIII as a school for military surgeons, given the alarm about death rates in army field hospitals. Today it is one of the largest and most prestigious medical schools in the world. The facility incorporates two children's hospitals and is known for its specialties in reproductive medicine, fetal medicine, surgery, urology and neurosurgery. It is a member of 18 referral networks across Europe concentrating on rare diseases. Karolinska.se

Visit http://www.newsweek.com/best-hospitals-2020 for the remaining Top Best Hospitals in the World.

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Dog breeders need to take action to improve canine mental health, scientists have said, after research found almost three-quarters of pet dogs have highly problematic anxiety-related behaviour.

While physical problems such as breathing difficulties and other health concerns relating to squashed-nosed breeds have become a hot topic, the study suggests breeders also need to focus on dogs behaviour.

Behavioural problems are the leading cause for the relinquishment or euthanasia of the dogs, said Prof Hannes Lohi, a co-author of the study from the University of Helsinki.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is based on a survey of owners of more than 13,700 pet dogs in Finland, spanning 264 breeds and ranging from young pups to elderly hounds.

It examined the frequency of seven anxiety-related traits, including noise sensitivity, fear, aggression, separation problems and compulsive behaviour, as well as sub-traits within these categories, such as tail-chasing. For each, dogs were classified as having low, medium or high levels of problems.

It found that 72.5% of dogs had highly problematic behaviour in at least one of the seven categories, and many had multiple problems. Almost a third of dogs showed high sensitivity to noise, with fireworks a particular problem, while 29% of dogs were said to be highly fearful and 14% showed highly problematic aggression.

We observed some differences such as male dogs being more often aggressive and impulsive, while female dogs were more fearful, said Lohi.

There were also differences by age: for example, high noise sensitivity was more common among older dogs, while destructive behaviour when alone classed as a type of separation issue was more common in young dogs.

The team also looked at particular breeds, finding that while dogs of any breed could have any of the anxiety problems, particular traits were more common in certain types of dog.

As a result, selective breeding focusing on behaviour may reduce the prevalence of canine anxieties, the authors said.

Miniature schnauzers, for example, had high levels of aggression both towards strangers and family members, and a fear of strangers, while nearly 10% of Staffordshire bull terriers chased their tail.

Perhaps surprisingly, the team found that mixed breeds were more likely to show many of the various traits than purebred dogs although the researchers say that may be because many of the former were probably rescue animals that potentially had had a difficult start in life and a lack of socialisation.

The study has limitations: it is not clear if the trends would hold in other countries, and the team only looked at the frequency of behaviours and not their severity. It may also be that owners of dogs with behaviour problems may have been more likely to complete the questionnaire, although the researchers say their study was advertised to all owners and the findings chime with other research.

Dr Rowena Packer, an expert in animal behaviour and welfare from the Royal Veterinary College, said a dogs genetics and their environment each contributed to the way they act.

The way that both breeders and owners interact with dogs is hugely important in raising mentally healthy dogs, she said. This includes appropriate socialisation to people and other animals and habituation to day-to-day experiences as puppies, and positive, force-free training throughout life.

Packer noted that when it comes to heritable traits, too often the emphasis is on looks over behaviour. She said that because genetics and early environment set up dogs for the rest of their lives, breeders must do more to produce behaviourally healthy dogs.

Some of the behavioural problems highlighted in this study can lead to a lifetime of misery for affected dogs and an emotional and financial burden on their owners, she said. Tackling these problems through selection of behaviourally sound breeding stock, along with educating owners on appropriate interactions, environment and training for dogs, should be a high priority for all dog lovers.

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From humans to black-tailed prairie dogs, female mammals often outlive males but for birds, the reverse is true.

Now researchers say they have cracked the mystery, revealing that having two copies of the same sex chromosome is associated with having a longer lifespan, suggesting the second copy offers a protective effect.

These findings are a crucial step in uncovering the underlying mechanisms affecting longevity, which could point to pathways for extending life, the authors write. We can only hope that more answers are found in our lifetime.

The idea that a second copy of the same sex chromosome is protective has been around for a while, supported by the observation that in mammals where females have two of the same sex chromosomes males tend to have shorter lifespans. In birds, males live longer on average and have two Z chromosomes, while females have one Z and one W chromosome.

Scientists say they have found the trend is widespread. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the team report that they gathered data on sex chromosomes and lifespan across 229 animal species, from insects to fish and mammals. Hermaphroditic species and those whose sex is influenced by environmental conditions such as green turtles were not included.

The results reveal that individuals with two of the same sex chromosomes live 17.6% longer, on average, than those with either two different sex chromosomes or just one sex chromosome.

The team say the findings back a theory known as the unguarded X hypothesis. In human cells, sex chromosome combinations are generally either XY (male) or XX (female). In females only one X chromosome is activated at random in each cell.

As a result, a harmful mutation in one of the females X chromosomes will not affect all cells, and hence its impact can be masked. By contrast, as males only have one X chromosome, any harmful mutations it contains are far more likely to be exposed.

The team found that in species where males have two of the same sex chromosomes, these males live on average 7.1% longer than females. However, in species where the sex chromosome pattern is the other way around, such as humans, females live 20.9% longer on average than males.

The researchers say the extent of the longevity gap may reflect other factors at play, including that males tend to take more risks when it comes to securing a sexual partner, including fighting. These pressures to travel far to find a mate, establish a territory and compete with other members of your sex are not seen often in females, said Zoe Xirocostas, a co-author of the research from the University of New South Wales.

But there are also other possibilities as to why the longevity gaps differ in size, including that oestrogen appears to protect the ends of chromosomes from being damaged a process linked to ageing.

Our study suggests that the unguarded X is an underlying genetic factor that can influence lifespan, but many external factors can influence longevity in different ways such as predation, risky behaviours, establishing territories and access to quality nutrition, said Xirocostas.

Prof Steven Austad, an expert on ageing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the study, said the theory that having two of the same sex chromosomes is beneficial for longevity was appealing.

I would think that it plays some role in understanding sex differences in longevity but it certainly isnt the only factor, he said, noting that both risk-taking behaviour and parental roles also appeared to be important. For instance, owl monkey males live longer than females and the males play a big role in infant care in that species, he said, noting such males have two different sex chromosomes.

Austad said the upshot was that longevity is not only about sex chromosomes. There is a general trend, but with numerous exceptions, he said.

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Mystery of lifespan gap between sexes may be solved, say researchers - The Guardian

Have you noticed there's more hair on your brush after brushing it, that your parting looks wider, or that your ponytail feels feels less substantial than it used to? Once you notice hair thinning, its hard not to think about it every time you look in a mirror.

Some hair loss is normal we shed approximately 100 hairs a day but what to do when it's a significant amount? Hair thinning and loss in women can have many causes, and are often a combination of factors. It's especially common as we hit mid-life. Here we explore some of the most common causes and share expert tips on what to do when you start to lose your hair.

Dozens of medical issues from autoimmune conditions and hormonal imbalances to scalp infections and genetics can cause hair loss and thinning . A doctor or trichologist can carry out a full medical history, blood tests and a scalp biopsy to help you work out whats causing it.

Androgenetic alopecia or female pattern hair loss is by far the most common a quarter of women have it and youll notice it as thinning especially at the crown and the temples. It happens when a sensitivity to male hormones (androgens) causes follicles to shrink over time. "The hair becomes thinner until eventually the follicle closes over altogether," explained Dr Martin Wade a dermatologist at The London Skin and Hair Clinic.

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If it starts in your teens, its considered to be genetic. If it starts in midlife, from 35 to 55, it can be a combination of factors including hormonal changes and lifestyle, which a doctor can help you to unpick.

Post-menopausally, its also called senescent alopecia, which basically means were getting older and everything slows down.

But all is not lost... "In genetic cases, some of the smaller follicles can recover with anti-androgenetic drugs such as finasteride or spironolactone," says Dr Wade. For mid-lifers, topical minoxidil such as Regaine For Women, can help the hair grow thicker and faster.

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When the hair falls out in patches, its often down to alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that affects 2% of women. "Its still largely a mystery as to why it strikes, although stress is a known trigger," said Dr Wade. "We can treat it with steroids and in most cases, the hair grows back."

We might think our hair is essential, but in evolutionary terms its the first thing that the body deprioritises when were in crisis. Crash diets, illness, divorce or the loss of a loved one can lead to diffuse (ie all-over) hair shedding called telogen effluvium. Dr Wade explained: "Stress shocks the hair prematurely out of the growth phase and into the resting phase." You might notice less hair overall or wonder why your hair just wont grow as long as it did. "If the stress is acute, typically the shedding lasts for three months and then turns itself off," Dr Wade said.

If stress is ongoing, then its another story. "There is absolute association between chronic telogen effluvium and stress," confirmed Dr Justine Hextall of the Tarrant Street Clinic in Arundel. "Addressing the causes of your stress is imperative. Often when were stressed we also dont eat well, so looking at diet and supplements as well as whether you might be pulling at your hair due to stress can all help."

Even the type of exercise you do can add to your stress load. Consider choosing yoga over HIIT.

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In the meantime, there are a range of cover-up solutions. Try hair fibres such as Nanogen Hair Thickening Fibres or Toppik Hair Building Fibres, or hair makeup such as the Bumble and Bumble Color Stick.

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As we move towards menopause and oestrogen levels drop, theres less of a buffer against the effect of male hormones on our follicles. As we know from female pattern baldness, a sensitivity to androgens causes the follicles to miniaturise and die over time.

There are products to tackle this topically: Plantur 39 Shampoo and Tonic have a phyto-caffeine complex to fight the effects of testosterone on the hair root, while Tricho 7 Step 2 scalp drops by Philip Kingsley contains zinc sulphate, azelaic acid and vitamin B6 to reduce the conversion of testosterone.

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Its important to support the adrenal glands too, says nutritional therapist Eve Kalinik, not only because they are overworked at this often stressful life stage, but because they step in to produce sex hormones as the ovaries retire. "This causes a knock-on effect on hormonal balance, which can manifest as hair loss or thinning," she explained.

Supporting the adrenal glands with anti-inflammatory healthy fats, B vitamins and anti-oxidant vitamins (A,C,E) is vital to make us more stress resilient.

There are some nutrition basics when it comes to hair health says Eve. "Hair is mostly protein, so make sure you get a serving with every meal, using your palm as a measure of the amount you need, which depends on your own body size," she explained. Omega 3 fats, found in oily fish, organic eggs, flax, chia and walnuts, nourish the follicles.

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Vegans should soak pulses, legumes and grains before cooking to gain the maximum protein and iron from them.

Iron too (in red meat, full fat dairy, eggs and lentils) is vital to nourish healthy hair. Runners may need extra iron due to "foot strike haemolysis" where red blood cells are damaged by the impact of running. You may also be low on iron if you have heavy periods.

What you eat is only the first piece of the nutrition/hair puzzle. "You are also what you absorb," Eve explained. "A poorly functioning digestive system can be a sign that were not getting hair nutrition from our food. Light coloured floating stools can suggest that your gut is not absorbing fats, for example." Eve often recommends a stool test for a fuller gut health picture and liquid probiotics such as Symprove to support the gut.

If you have hair thinning or shedding and youre also tired with dry skin and gaining weight, Eve recommends a blood test to check your thyroid.

Switching up your haircare routine can make a big difference to hair health. Most experts agree that heated styling tools are a no-no for fragile hair, so cut down your use or cut them out altogether. Avoid products with silicones, too (look for anything ending in "cone" on the label) recommended hairdresser Paul Windle. "Silicones are sealants," he explained, "They are what gives you that fake 'plastic' shine. You think your hair is healthy, however, the silicone merely masks the problem." They can also weigh down fine hair.

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Keeping the scalp clear of build-up can help those ever more delicate menopausal hairs push through. Try Briogeo Scalp Revival, which is silicone-free with detoxing charcoal to clear the scalp from dead skin, pollution and product build-up, or Kerastase Soothing Scrub Apaisant , which is designed for sensitive scalps with an uplifting citrussy scent. Beware of scalp oils however, Dr Wade cautioned that they can have a toxic effect on the follicle.

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captionSometimes cats engage in puzzling behavior thats hard to understand.sourceShutterstock

Whether you own a cat or not, there are probably a few things youve always wondered about them.

And so, Insider spoke with veterinarians to get answers to a few common cat questions that you might have.

Contrary to popular belief, cats cannot sniff out people who are allergic to them, Rover veterinarian Gary Richter told Insider.

He explained that if cats are paying extra attention to someone with allergies, its likely because they are responding to that persons body language.

People with allergies tend to ignore or avoid the cat in the room, which reduces the felines fear of an unfamiliar person. Cats are most likely to be drawn to someone who gives them their space and allows them to approach the human first, said Richter.

Some felines seem to lose control when they are around catnip. Fortunately, as Richter told Insider, the plant isnt harmful to or addictive for cats.

Some cats are drawn to catnip because it takes over their olfactory senses. There is no harm in letting your cat enjoy the scent should they be attracted to it catnip can be used for training or playtime, said Richter.

But keep in mind your cat might begin to feel nauseous or become irritated if you give them too much of it.

Veterinarian Megan Teiber said that its possible to train a cat to use a toilet but the drawbacks may outweigh the benefits of being able to flush your cats waste away.

A change in urine production is often the first sign of a serious medical condition, and if the cat is using the toilet as opposed to the litter box, this is more likely to be missed, said Teiber.

Its also worth noting that if a family member accidentally leaves the toilet lid down, closes the bathroom door, or is occupying the bathroom, the cat may have accidents around the house.

Some folklore holds that cats can tell if someone is pregnant and are drawn to people who are expecting but no, cats are not furry pregnancy tests.

Richter explained that cats just have an incredible sense of smell and are great at reading body language.

During pregnancy, women experience profound changes in their hormone levels which can affect their personal scent, so cats can understand that something is changing based on the new smell, said Richter.

Plus, a persons body temperature often rises in the first trimester of pregnancy. So if you notice a cat snuggling up to someone who is pregnant, they might just be enjoying the extra body heat.

Although male cats have a reputation for being more companionable than female cats, Teiber said there arent significant personality differences between the two.

A lot of people seem to think that male cats are generally more affectionate than female cats. I think there is simply a lot of individual variation and that there is no clear difference between male and female cats, said Teiber.

Some cats do fine when eating only dry food. However, wet cat foods are generally higher in protein and are always higher in moisture than dry foods, which more closely matches feline nutritional needs, said Jennifer Coates, veterinarian and advisor at Pet Life Today.

And as Jaimee Alsing, an animal nutritionist with PurringPal, previously told Insider, cats can actually avoid chronic dehydration by having wet food in their diet.

Chronic dehydration too often leads to tooth decay, bladder stones, and urinary tract infections. Many health issues can be prevented simply by adding a daily meal of wet food to your cats diet, said Alsing.

But Coates said if you still insist on feeding your cat only dry food, give it to them in several small, measured meals throughout the day rather than leaving a bowl of it out at all times.

Teiber said that sometimes female cats appear more affectionate to their owners after a spay, but spaying doesnt actually alter a cats personality.

Prior to being spayed, female cats frequently cycle in and out of heat, so their energy is often focused on mating. Once they are spayed, they may be able to relax and focus more attention on their human companions, said Teiber.

According to VCA Animal Hospitals, after they are neutered, male cats may behave less aggressively and spray less, though overall cat personality is still mainly a product of genetics and upbringing.

Carrying around extra fat can put felines in danger of developing chronic health conditions. Fortunately, it can be easy to tell if your cat is overweight.

When looking down on them from above, overweight cats lack a discernible waist. From the side, an overweight cats belly is closer to the ground than [it is to] the chest, said Coates.

Another sign that your cat is too plump is if you cannot feel their last few ribs by lightly running your hands over their sides, Coates added.

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