title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: Jaehyun was born on February 14, 1997, in Seocho District, Seoul, South Korea. Although he was born Jeong Jae-hyun (), he later legally changed his name to Jeong Yun-o (). Between the ages of 5 and 10, Jaehyun lived and studied in Connecticut in the United States and went by the English name Jay Jeong. As a result, he is fluent in both English and Korean. Jaehyun became interested in music at a young age due to his parents' influence, and learned how to play the guitar and the piano, and later began singing during middle school. His grandmother, a retired professional dancer, was also his guide during dance training. He attended Shindong Middle School and Apgujeong High School. He transferred to the School of Performing Arts Seoul in his second year of high school and graduated in 2016. He used to be a student council president.


title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: Jaehyun was cast by SM Entertainment in 2012, discovered by street scouts in front of his school. He auditioned with a performance of "Mama" by Exo. On December 9, 2013, he was introduced as a member of the pre-debut trainee team SM Rookies. In 2014, he participated with fellow NCT members on the show "", where they performed songs from the 1990s. From January 21 to July 1, 2015, he and groupmate Doyoung were MCs on "Show Champion". In July 2015, he and groupmate Ten both competed in "Hope Basketball All-Star". In December 2015, Jaehyun performed "A Whole New World" on Disney Channel Korea's "The Mickey Mouse Club".


title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: In April 2016, Jaehyun officially debuted as a member of the first NCT's sub-unit, NCT U, with the singles "The 7th Sense" and "Without You". On July 10, he made his debut as a member of NCT 127 with their first EP, "NCT#127". In March 2017, Jaehyun joined the radio show "NCT Night Night" as a DJ alongside fellow member Johnny. In November 2017, Jaehyun and Dear released the song "Try Again" for the project SM Station. In December, he was featured in the music video for Wendy and Baek A-yeon's "The Little Match Girl". In January 2018, Jaehyun released the single "Timeless" alongside a new NCT U lineup as part of the SM Station project.


title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: In October 2019, Jaehyun became one of three hosts for the South Korean music program "Inkigayo" alongside Minhyuk and Naeun, hosting the show every Sunday. On September 4, 2020, it was confirmed that Jaehyun would make his acting debut in the KBS2 drama "Dear. M", which was to be released in 2021, in the role of Cha Min-ho, a second year student in the Computer Science Department at Seoyeon University. The drama was postponed indefinitely for airing after the lead actress, Park Hye-su, was accused of school bullying. After nearly two years of delay, the first six episodes of "Dear. M" was released globally on June 29, 2022 through the streaming service Viki. Its following episodes were released on July 6, 2022.


title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: On November 2, 2021, Jaehyun was confirmed to star in a KakaoTV web series, a remake of the 2001 South Korean film "Bungee Jumping of Their Own", playing the leading role of Im Hyun-bin. On December 9 of the same year, during pre-production, KakaoTV announced the cancellation of the project due to concerns with the LGBT plot from the original film's screenwriter. On August 18, Jaehyun released his first single "Forever Only" as part of "NCT Lab". "Forever Only" is described as an R&B song featuring lyrics written by Jaehyun.


title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: Following various successful collaborations with Prada, the brand selected Jaehyun as an ambassador in 2022, citing his influence and unique fashion style as a reason.


title: Jaehyun (singer)

text: All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise cited.


title: Tokenism

text: Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality within a workplace or educational context. The effort of including a token individual in work or school is usually intended to create the impression of social inclusiveness and diversity (racial, religious, sexual, etc.).


title: Tokenism

text: The social concept and the employment practice of "tokenism" became understood in the popular culture of the United States in the late 1950s. In the face of racial segregation, tokenism emerged as a solution that though earnest in effort, only acknowledged an issue without actually solving it. In the book "Why We Can't Wait" (1964), civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. discussed the subject of tokenism, and how it constitutes a minimal acceptance of black people to the mainstream of U.S. society.


title: Tokenism

text: When asked about the gains of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963, human rights activist Malcolm X answered, "Tokenism is hypocrisy. One little student in the University of Mississippi, that's hypocrisy. A handful of students in Little Rock, Arkansas, is hypocrisy. A couple of students going to school in Georgia is hypocrisy. Integration in America is hypocrisy in the rawest form. And the whole world can see it. All this little tokenism that is dangled in front of the Negro and then he's told, 'See what we're doing for you, Tom.' Why the whole world can see that this is nothing but hypocrisy. All you do is make your image worse; you don't make it better." Malcolm X highlights that tokenism is used as a tool by America to improve its image but fails in its attempts. For instance, in 1954, the United States ruled segregation in public school unconstitutional through the "Brown v. Board of Education" case. Malcolm X references Little Rock, Arkansas, where nine students sought to fight for their rights to attend school. On September 4, 1957, Arkansas National Guard troops were sent around Central High School to prevent the entry of nine African American students into an all-white school, defying federal law. President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and enforced federal troops to uphold the law. While this marked the day that ignited change within Arkansas' school system for African-American children, desegregation did not constitute equality. All nine of the students were brutally bullied by white students and this behaviour was encouraged by the school's administration. Malcolm X's example of Little Rock exemplifies how tokenism can be intended to create the impression of social inclusiveness and diversity without bringing about any significant changes to the inclusion of underrepresented groups.


title: Tokenism

text: In the field of psychology, the broader definition of tokenism is a situation in which a member of a distinctive category is treated differently from other people. The characteristics that make the person of interest a token can be perceived as either a handicap or an advantage, as supported by Václav Linkov. In a positive light, these distinct people can be seen as experts in their racial/cultural category, valued skills, or a different perspective on a project. In contrast, tokenism is most often seen as a handicap due to the ostracism of a selected sample of a minority group. Linkov also attributes drawbacks in psychology to Cultural and Numerical Tokenism, instances that have shifted where value of expertise is placed and its effect on proliferating information that is not representative of all the possible facts.


title: Tokenism

text: A Harvard Business School professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, asserted back in 1977 that a token employee is usually part of a "socially-skewed group" of employees who belong to a minority group that constitutes less than 15% of the total employee population of the workplace.


title: Tokenism

text: By definition, token employees in a workplace are known to be few; hence, their alleged high visibility among the staff subjects them to greater pressure to perform their work at higher production standards of quality and volume and to behave in the expected, stereotypical manner. Given the smallness of the group of token employees in a workplace, the individual identity of each token person is usually disrespected by the dominant group, who apply a stereotype role to them as a means of social control in the workplace. In order to avoid tokenism within the workplace, diversity and inclusion must be integrated to foster an environment where people feel connected and included. Employees must be hired on the basis of their capabilities rather than their gender, ethnicity, race, and sexuality.


title: Tokenism

text: Tokenism can also have an impact on mental health in the workplace. According to one study, racial minorities also experience heightened performance pressures related to their race and gender; however, many reported that racial problems were more common than gender problems. Being a token makes one appear more visible within the workplace, placing more scrutiny and pressure for them to represent an entire group. Anxiety, stress, exhaustion, guilt, shame and burnout can arise from overworking in efforts to become a good representative of their identity group.


title: Tokenism

text: In professor Kanter's work on tokenism and gender, she found that the problems experienced by women in typically male-dominated occupations were due solely to the skewed proportions of men and women in these occupations. For example, women are often underrepresented within the STEM field, where women also sometimes face more hostile working environments where discrimination and sexual harassment are more frequent. Women in STEM may experience greater performance pressure to work harder in a male-dominated field while also experiencing social isolation from the males within their workplace. The pressure to perform better can be influenced by the stereotype of women being less competent in mathematics and science. These non-inclusive measures contribute to the lack of women in STEM.


title: Tokenism

text: Professor Kanter found that being a token evoked three behaviour consequences of visibility, polarization, and assimilation. Firstly, tokens often felt that they were being watched all the time, leading to the feeling of more pressure to perform well. In attempts to perform well, tokens will feel the need to work harder and strive for perfection. Secondly, polarization implies that the dominant group are uncomfortable around tokens or feel threatened by them due to their differences. As a result, tokens may experience social isolation from the exclusion of the majority group. Finally, tokens will feel the need to assimilate to the stereotyped caricature of their roles. For instance, women will feel forced to perform the “suitable behaviour" of a woman in reinforcing the behaviour of stereotypes attached to which they are associated with.


title: Tokenism

text: There has been much debate surrounding the concept of tokenism behind women directors on corporate boards. Since men disproportionately occupy the majority of board seats globally, governments and corporations have attempted to address this inequitable distribution of seats through reform measures. Reform measures include legislation mandating gender representation on corporate boards of directors, which has been the focus of societal and political debates. All-male boards typically recruit women to improve specialized skills and to bring different values to decision making. In particular, women introduce useful female leadership qualities and skills like risk averseness, less radical decision-making, and more sustainable investment strategies. However, the mandate of gender diversity may also harm women. Some critics of the mandate believe that it makes women seem like "space fillers," which undermines the qualifications that women can bring to their jobs.


title: Tokenism

text: In politics, allegations of tokenism may occur when a political party puts forward candidates from under-represented groups, such as women or racial minorities, in races that the party has little or no chance of winning, while making limited or no effort to ensure that such candidates have similar opportunity to win the nomination in races where the party is safe or favoured. The "token" candidates are frequently submitted as paper candidates, while nominations in competitive or safe seats continue to favor members of the majority group.


title: Tokenism

text: The end result of such an approach is that the party's slate of candidates maintains the appearance of diversity, but members of the majority group remain overrepresented in the party's caucus after the election — and thus little to no substantive progress toward greater inclusion of underrepresented groups has actually occurred.


title: Tokenism

text: In fiction, a token character exists only to achieve minimal compliance with the normality presumed for the society described in the story. Writers also use the token character to pay lip service to the rules and the standards that they do not abide, such as by obeying anti-racism policies, by including a token ethnic-minority character who has no true, narrative function in the plot and is usually a stereotype character.


title: Tokenism

text: In fiction, token characters represent groups which vary from the norm (usually defined as a white, heterosexual male) and are otherwise excluded from the story. The token character can be based on ethnicity (e.g. black, Hispanic, Asian), religion (e.g. Jewish, Muslim), sexual orientation (e.g., gay), gender (typically a female character in a predominantly male cast), or disability. Token characters are usually background characters, and, as such, are usually disposable, and are eliminated from the narrative early in the story, in order to enhance the drama, while conserving the main characters.


title: Tokenism

text: In much contemporary cinema and television, the inclusion of token characters is usually and implausibly seen in historical settings where such a person's race would be immediately noticed. Typically, other characters tend to treat the token characters as though they are not concerned with their race or ethnicity. Notable exceptions to this practice include stories based in history and stories that address racism directly.


title: Tokenism

text: One of the explanations of tokenism can incur from the immense spending power of $US3.9 trillion in 2018 that underrepresented consumers have invested into the market for decades. Given the immense spending power, firms have aimed to increase efforts of inclusivity to appeal to consumers. However, media representation of underrepresented groups can often be poorly depicted by perpetuating harmful stereotypes or inappropriate assumptions of differences. Since 2013, Marvel has experienced a steady decline in U.S. Marvel comic sales, with Disney's Marvel and Star Wars division reporting a 4% decrease in revenue from 2017. According to David Gabriel, the senior vice president of marketing, this sales slump can be attributed to the inclusion of diverse characters such as: African-American Captain America and Korean-American Hulk. This statement was controversial as fans critiqued that characters of colour were created by white males who could not voice the experiences of people of colour. Some readers felt that Marvel prioritized increasing its profits rather than fostering an environment that truly promoted diversity and inclusion. While many readers were supportive of diverse lead characters, they did not accept Marvel's abrupt changes in capitalizing on changes of race, gender, and sexual orientation.


title: Tokenism

text: Tokenism, in a television setting, can be any act of putting a minority into the mix to create some sort of publicly viewed diversity. A racial divide in TV has been present since the first television show that hired minorities, "Amos 'n' Andy" (1928–1960) in 1943. Regardless of whether a token character may be stereotypical or not, tokenism can initiate a whole biased perception that may conflict with how people see a specific race, culture, gender, or ethnicity. From "The Huffington Post", America Ferrera states, “Tokenism is about inserting diverse characters because you feel you have to; true diversity means writing characters that aren't just defined by the color of their skin, and casting the right actor for the role."


title: Tokenism

text: Ethnic and racial representation in television has been proven as an educational basis to inform mass audiences. However, tokenism leads to a narrow representation of minority groups, and this trend often leads to minority characters being exposed in negative or stereotypical fashions. Research done as early as the 1970s suggests an early recognition and disapproval of tokenism and its effects on perceptions of minority groups—specifically, perceptions of African Americans. Tokenism seemed to be used as a quick fix for the complete void of major/recurring minority roles in television, but its skewed representation lacked room for thoroughly independent and positive roles. Throughout that decade, major broadcast networks including NBC and ABC held a collective 10:1 ratio of white characters to black characters, a much smaller margin of which had recurring African American characters. At that, the representation of African American women was much slimmer. The use of these token characters often portrayed African American people to stand in sidekick positions to their white counterparts. Research completed on token ethnic characters into the new millennium has found that the representation of males has grown in numbers, but has not improved in negative portrayal. Statistics on token ethnic characters still suggest toxic masculinity in African American males; threateningly powerful stereotypes of African American women; hyper-sexuality of African American and Asian women; and effeminate characteristics in Asian men and men of other racial minorities.


title: Tokenism

text: Just like television, tokenism in the media has changed over time to coincide with real-life events. During the years of 1946-87 the weekly magazine, "The New Yorker" was analyzed to determine how often and in what situations Black people were being portrayed in the magazine's cartoon section. Over the 42 years of research, there was only one U.S. Black main character in a cartoon where race was not the main theme, race was actually completely irrelevant. All cartoons from the earliest times depicted Black people in the U.S. in stereotypical roles. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, cartoons were mostly racially themed, and depicted Black people in "token" roles where they are only there to create a sense of inclusion.


title: Tokenism

text: Tokenism appears in advertising as well as other subdivisions of major media. Tokenism is interpreted as reinforcing subtle representations of minorities in commercials. Studies have shown that, among other racial minorities, Asian Americans are targeted by advertising companies to fulfill casting diversity, but are the most likely ethnic minority to be placed in the backgrounds of advertisements.


title: Tokenism

text: Black characters being the first characters to die was first identified in Hollywood horror movies of the 1930s, notes writer Renee Cozier. The Oscars ceremonies have received criticism over a lack of representation of people of color, as critics have pointed towards a lack of minorities nominated for awards, particularly in 2015 and 2016, when not a single actor of color was nominated. Around this time, minorities accounted for 12.9% of lead roles in 163 films surveyed in 2014, according to the 2016 Hollywood Diversity Report.


title: Tokenism

text: Since the release of the original three "Star Wars" films and the later three prequels, there has been much discussion, on Twitter and Reddit especially, of this use of tokenism. The character of Lando Calrissian (portrayed by Billy Dee Williams) and Mace Windu (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson) have been cited as two human characters of a racial minority that appear on screen. Lando was one of the first developed Black characters in a science-fiction film at the time. Loyola Marymount University Professor of African American Studies, Adilifu Nama, has stated that this character is "a form of tokenism that placed one of the most optimistic faces on racial inclusion in a genre that had historically excluded Black representation."


title: Tokenism

text: When the first film of the newest installment of the franchise, "The Force Awakens", was released in 2015, the conversation shifted. Where in the past two trilogies the main three characters were two White men and a White woman, in the new trilogy the main trio consists of a Black man (John Boyega), a Hispanic man (Oscar Isaac), and a white woman (Daisy Ridley).


title: Tokenism

text: Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film "Black Panther" portrays the heroes of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda as godlike. They possess otherworldly sophistication by virtue of their blackness, in contrast to longstanding tendencies in mainstream film toward tokenism, stereotyping, and victimhood in depictions of people of African descent. The superhero the Black Panther, a.k.a. King T’Challa, learns to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, even those in whose oppression he has been unwittingly complicit, such as the children of the African diaspora. As a result, the film can function as catalyst for reflection on the part of viewers in terms of how they might perceive more clearly the complexity, variety, and ambiguity represented by blackness, whether others’ or their own, and how they, too, might identify with the Other.


title: Tokenism

text: The Walt Disney Company has attempted to enlarge the diversity of the "Disney Princess" franchise through the inclusion of female characters with multiple ethnicities. At this time, there are six princesses representing different ethnicities. From "Aladdin" (1992), Princess Jasmine is Arabian; from "Pocahontas" (1995), Pocahontas is Native American; from "Mulan" (1998), Mulan is Chinese; from "Princess and the Frog" (2009), Princess Tiana is African-American; from "Moana" (2016), Moana is Polynesian; from "Raya and the Last Dragon" (2021), Raya is Southeast Asian. However, these characters are the sole providers for their representation, as opposed to the other nine white princesses.


title: Tokenism

text: The Potter series, written by author J.K. Rowling, has displayed tokenism through race and sexuality. Potter's first love interest, Cho Chang, was named after two Asian surnames. NBC Asian America reporter Kimberly Yam tweeted that the one use of Asian representation in the series had a name equivalent to “ching chong”. Rowling also revealed Albus Dumbledore to be homosexual weeks after the final book was released, though his sexuality is not mentioned in the books or films. Fans displayed disappointment against this representation, as Dumbledore would be the only gay character in the series, and his supposed love interest was Gellert Grindelwald, an immoral teen fascist.


title: Tokenism

text: In G.B.F., directed by Darren Stein, the film tells the journey of two closeted gay teens, Tanner and Brent, on their quest to popularity in high school. The film explores the theme of tokenism through demonstrating the desire of a homosexual male best friend by typically heterosexual women. The three most popular girls in school: Fawcett Brooks, Caprice Winters, and 'Shley Osgood believe that the key to winning the prom queen title is through acquiring a gay best friend. In media, gay best friends are displayed as sassy, effeminate, fashionable, and flamboyant, making them act as a stock character accessory to the main character. While Tanner and Brent plan to become popular through exposing their sexuality, the girls are disappointed to find out that Tanner contradicts the stereotypical gay men they have seen in television. The film shows how harmful it can be to associate gay stereotypes with gay characters.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora, are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the gut microbiota. The gut is the main location of the human microbiome. The gut microbiota has broad impacts, including effects on colonization, resistance to pathogens, maintaining the intestinal epithelium, metabolizing dietary and pharmaceutical compounds, controlling immune function, and even behavior through the gut–brain axis.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The microbial composition of the gut microbiota varies across regions of the digestive tract. The colon contains the highest microbial density recorded in any habitat on Earth, representing between 300 and 1000 different species. Bacteria are the largest and to date, best studied component and 99% of gut bacteria come from about 30 or 40 species. Up to 60% of the dry mass of feces is bacteria. Over 99% of the bacteria in the gut are anaerobes, but in the cecum, aerobic bacteria reach high densities. It is estimated that the human gut microbiota have around a hundred times as many genes as there are in the human genome.


title: Gut microbiota

text: In humans, the gut microbiota has the largest numbers and species of bacteria compared to other areas of the body. In humans, the gut flora is established at one to two years after birth, by which time the intestinal epithelium and the intestinal mucosal barrier that it secretes have co-developed in a way that is tolerant to, and even supportive of, the gut flora and that also provides a barrier to pathogenic organisms.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The relationship between some gut microbiota and humans is not merely commensal (a non-harmful coexistence), but rather a mutualistic relationship. Some human gut microorganisms benefit the host by fermenting dietary fiber into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetic acid and butyric acid, which are then absorbed by the host. Intestinal bacteria also play a role in synthesizing vitamin B and vitamin K as well as metabolizing bile acids, sterols, and xenobiotics. The systemic importance of the SCFAs and other compounds they produce are like hormones and the gut flora itself appears to function like an endocrine organ, and dysregulation of the gut flora has been correlated with a host of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The composition of human gut microbiota changes over time, when the diet changes, and as overall health changes. A systematic review from 2016 examined the preclinical and small human trials that have been conducted with certain commercially available strains of probiotic bacteria and identified those that had the most potential to be useful for certain central nervous system disorders.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The microbial composition of the gut microbiota varies across the digestive tract. In the stomach and small intestine, relatively few species of bacteria are generally present. The colon, in contrast, contains the highest microbial density recorded in any habitat on Earth with up to 10 cells per gram of intestinal content. These bacteria represent between 300 and 1000 different species. However, 99% of the bacteria come from about 30 or 40 species. As a consequence of their abundance in the intestine, bacteria also make up to 60% of the dry mass of feces. Fungi, protists, archaea, and viruses are also present in the gut flora, but less is known about their activities.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Over 99% of the bacteria in the gut are anaerobes, but in the cecum, aerobic bacteria reach high densities. It is estimated that these gut flora have around a hundred times as many genes in total as there are in the human genome.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Many species in the gut have not been studied outside of their hosts because they cannot be cultured. While there are a small number of core microbial species shared by most individuals, populations of microbes can vary widely. Within an individual, their microbial populations stay fairly constant over time, with some alterations occurring due to changes in lifestyle, diet and age. The Human Microbiome Project has set out to better describe the microbiota of the human gut and other body locations.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The four dominant bacterial phyla in the human gut are Bacillota (Firmicutes), Bacteroidota, Actinomycetota, and Pseudomonadota. Most bacteria belong to the genera "Bacteroides", "Clostridium", "Faecalibacterium", "Eubacterium", "Ruminococcus", "Peptococcus", "Peptostreptococcus", and "Bifidobacterium". Other genera, such as "Escherichia" and "Lactobacillus", are present to a lesser extent. Species from the genus "Bacteroides" alone constitute about 30% of all bacteria in the gut, suggesting that this genus is especially important in the functioning of the host.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Fungal genera that have been detected in the gut include "Candida", "Saccharomyces", "Aspergillus", "Penicillium", "Rhodotorula", "Trametes", "Pleospora", "Sclerotinia", "Bullera", and "Galactomyces", among others. "Rhodotorula" is most frequently found in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease while "Candida" is most frequently found in individuals with hepatitis B cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis B.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Archaea constitute another large class of gut flora which are important in the metabolism of the bacterial products of fermentation.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Industralization is associated with changes in the microbiota and the reduction of diversity could drive certain species to extinction; in 2018, researchers proposed a biobank repository of human microbiota.


title: Gut microbiota

text: An enterotype is a classification of living organisms based on its bacteriological ecosystem in the human gut microbiome not dictated by age, gender, body weight, or national divisions. There are indications that long-term diet influences enterotype. Three human enterotypes have been proposed, but their value has been questioned.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Due to the high acidity of the stomach, most microorganisms cannot survive there. The main bacterial inhabitants of the stomach include: "Streptococcus", "Staphylococcus", "Lactobacillus", "Peptostreptococcus". "Helicobacter pylori" is a gram-negative spiral bacterium that establishes on gastric mucosa causing chronic gastritis, and peptic ulcer disease, and is a carcinogen for gastric cancer.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The small intestine contains a trace amount of microorganisms due to the proximity and influence of the stomach. Gram-positive cocci and rod-shaped bacteria are the predominant microorganisms found in the small intestine. However, in the distal portion of the small intestine alkaline conditions support gram-negative bacteria of the "Enterobacteriaceae". The bacterial flora of the small intestine aid in a wide range of intestinal functions. The bacterial flora provide regulatory signals that enable the development and utility of the gut. Overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine can lead to intestinal failure. In addition the large intestine contains the largest bacterial ecosystem in the human body. About 99% of the large intestine and feces flora are made up of obligate anaerobes such as "Bacteroides" and "Bifidobacterium." Factors that disrupt the microorganism population of the large intestine include antibiotics, stress, and parasites.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Bacteria make up most of the flora in the colon and 60% of the dry mass of feces. This fact makes feces an ideal source of gut flora for any tests and experiments by extracting the nucleic acid from fecal specimens, and bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences are generated with bacterial primers. This form of testing is also often preferable to more invasive techniques, such as biopsies.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Five phyla dominate the intestinal microbiota: Bacteroidota, Bacillota (Firmicutes), Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota, and Verrucomicrobiota—with Bacteroidota and Bacillota constituting 90% of the composition. Somewhere between 300 and 1000 different species live in the gut, with most estimates at about 500. However, it is probable that 99% of the bacteria come from about 30 or 40 species, with "Faecalibacterium prausnitzii" (phylum firmicutes) being the most common species in healthy adults.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Research suggests that the relationship between gut flora and humans is not merely commensal (a non-harmful coexistence), but rather is a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship. Though people can survive with no gut flora, the microorganisms perform a host of useful functions, such as fermenting unused energy substrates, training the immune system via end products of metabolism like propionate and acetate, preventing growth of harmful species, regulating the development of the gut, producing vitamins for the host (such as biotin and vitamin K), and producing hormones to direct the host to store fats. Extensive modification and imbalances of the gut microbiota and its microbiome or gene collection are associated with obesity. However, in certain conditions, some species are thought to be capable of causing disease by causing infection or increasing cancer risk for the host.


title: Gut microbiota

text: It has been demonstrated that there are common patterns of microbiome composition evolution during life. In general, the diversity of microbiota composition of fecal samples is significantly higher in adults than in children, although interpersonal differences are higher in children than in adults. Much of the maturation of microbiota into an adult-like configuration happens during the three first years of life.


title: Gut microbiota

text: As the microbiome composition changes, so does the composition of bacterial proteins produced in the gut. In adult microbiomes, a high prevalence of enzymes involved in fermentation, methanogenesis and the metabolism of arginine, glutamate, aspartate and lysine have been found. In contrast, in infant microbiomes the dominant enzymes are involved in cysteine metabolism and fermentation pathways.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Gut microbiome composition depends on the geographic origin of populations. Variations in a trade-off of "Prevotella", the representation of the urease gene, and the representation of genes encoding glutamate synthase/degradation or other enzymes involved in amino acids degradation or vitamin biosynthesis show significant differences between populations from the US, Malawi, or Amerindian origin.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The US population has a high representation of enzymes encoding the degradation of glutamine and enzymes involved in vitamin and lipoic acid biosynthesis; whereas Malawi and Amerindian populations have a high representation of enzymes encoding glutamate synthase and they also have an overrepresentation of α-amylase in their microbiomes. As the US population has a diet richer in fats than Amerindian or Malawian populations which have a corn-rich diet, the diet is probably the main determinant of the gut bacterial composition.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Further studies have indicated a large difference in the composition of microbiota between European and rural African children. The fecal bacteria of children from Florence were compared to that of children from the small rural village of Boulpon in Burkina Faso. The diet of a typical child living in this village is largely lacking in fats and animal proteins and rich in polysaccharides and plant proteins. The fecal bacteria of European children were dominated by "Firmicutes" and showed a marked reduction in biodiversity, while the fecal bacteria of the Boulpon children was dominated by "Bacteroidetes". The increased biodiversity and different composition of the gut microbiome in African populations may aid in the digestion of normally indigestible plant polysaccharides and also may result in a reduced incidence of non-infectious colonic diseases.


title: Gut microbiota

text: On a smaller scale, it has been shown that sharing numerous common environmental exposures in a family is a strong determinant of individual microbiome composition. This effect has no genetic influence and it is consistently observed in culturally different populations.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Malnourished children have less mature and less diverse gut microbiota than healthy children, and changes in the microbiome associated with nutrient scarcity can in turn be a pathophysiological cause of malnutrition. Malnourished children also typically have more potentially pathogenic gut flora, and more yeast in their mouths and throats. Altering diet may lead to changes in gut microbiota composition and diversity.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Researchers with the American Gut Project and Human Microbiome Project found that twelve microbe families varied in abundance based on the race or ethnicity of the individual. The strength of these associations is limited by the small sample size: the American Gut Project collected data from 1,375 individuals, 90% of whom were white. The Healthy Life in an Urban Setting (HELIUS) study in Amsterdam found that those of Dutch ancestry had the highest level of gut microbiota diversity, while those of South Asian and Surinamese descent had the lowest diversity. The study results suggested that individuals of the same race or ethnicity have more similar microbiomes than individuals of different racial backgrounds.


title: Gut microbiota

text: As of 2020, at least two studies have demonstrated a link between an individual's socioeconomic status (SES) and their gut microbiota. A study in Chicago found that individuals in higher SES neighborhoods had greater microbiota diversity. People from higher SES neighborhoods also had more abundant "Bacteroides" bacteria. Similarly, a study of twins in the United Kingdom found that higher SES was also linked with a greater gut diversity.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The establishment of a gut flora is crucial to the health of an adult, as well as the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. In humans, a gut flora similar to an adult's is formed within one to two years of birth as microbiota are acquired through parent-to-child transmission and transfer from food, water, and other environmental sources.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The traditional view of the gastrointestinal tract of a normal fetus is that it is sterile, although this view has been challenged in the past few years. Multiple lines of evidence have begun to emerge that suggest there may be bacteria in the intrauterine environment. In humans, research has shown that microbial colonization may occur in the fetus with one study showing "Lactobacillus" and "Bifidobacterium" species were present in placental biopsies. Several rodent studies have demonstrated the presence of bacteria in the amniotic fluid and placenta, as well as in the meconium of babies born by sterile cesarean section. In another study, researchers administered a culture of bacteria orally to a pregnant dam, and detected the bacteria in the offspring, likely resulting from transmission between the digestive tract and amniotic fluid via the blood stream. However, researchers caution that the source of these intrauterine bacteria, whether they are alive, and their role, is not yet understood.


title: Gut microbiota

text: During birth and rapidly thereafter, bacteria from the mother and the surrounding environment colonize the infant's gut. The exact sources of bacteria is not fully understood, but may include the birth canal, other people (parents, siblings, hospital workers), breastmilk, food, and the general environment with which the infant interacts. Research has shown that the microbiome of babies born vaginally differ significantly from those of babies delivered by caesarean section and that vaginally born babies got most of their gut bacteria from their mother, while the microbiota of caesarean babies had more bacteria associated with hospital environments.


title: Gut microbiota

text: During the first year of life, the composition of the gut flora is generally simple and changes a great deal with time and is not the same across individuals. The initial bacterial population are generally facultative anaerobic organisms; investigators believe that these initial colonizers decrease the oxygen concentration in the gut, which in turn allows obligately anaerobic bacteria like "Bacteroidota", "Actinomycetota", and "Bacillota" to become established and thrive. Breast-fed babies become dominated by bifidobacteria, possibly due to the contents of bifidobacterial growth factors in breast milk, and by the fact that breast milk carries prebiotic components, allowing for healthy bacterial growth. In contrast, the microbiota of formula-fed infants is more diverse, with high numbers of "Enterobacteriaceae", enterococci, bifidobacteria, "Bacteroides", and clostridia.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Caesarean section, antibiotics, and formula feeding may alter the gut microbiome composition. Children treated with antibiotics have less stable, and less diverse floral communities. Caesarean sections have been shown to be disruptive to mother-offspring transmission of bacteria, which impacts the overall health of the offspring by raising risks of disease such as celiacs, asthma, and type 1 diabetes. This further evidences the importance of a healthy gut microbiome. Various methods of microbiome restoration are being explored, typically involving exposing the infant to maternal vaginal contents, and oral probiotics.


title: Gut microbiota

text: When the study of gut flora began in 1995, it was thought to have three key roles: direct defense against pathogens, fortification of host defense by its role in developing and maintaining the intestinal epithelium and inducing antibody production there, and metabolizing otherwise indigestible compounds in food; subsequent work discovered its role in training the developing immune system, and yet further work focused on its role in the gut-brain axis.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The gut flora community plays a direct role in defending against pathogens by fully colonising the space, making use of all available nutrients, and by secreting compounds that kill or inhibit unwelcome organisms that would compete for nutrients with it, these compounds are known as cytokines. Different strains of gut bacteria cause the production of different cytokines. Cytokines are chemical compounds produced by our immune system for initiating the inflammatory response against infections. Disruption of the gut flora allows competing organisms like "Clostridium difficile" to become established that otherwise are kept in abeyance.


title: Gut microbiota

text: In humans, a gut flora similar to an adult's is formed within one to two years of birth. As the gut flora gets established, the lining of the intestines – the intestinal epithelium and the intestinal mucosal barrier that it secretes – develop as well, in a way that is tolerant to, and even supportive of, commensalistic microorganisms to a certain extent and also provides a barrier to pathogenic ones. Specifically, goblet cells that produce the mucosa proliferate, and the mucosa layer thickens, providing an outside mucosal layer in which "friendly" microorganisms can anchor and feed, and an inner layer that even these organisms cannot penetrate. Additionally, the development of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), which forms part of the intestinal epithelium and which detects and reacts to pathogens, appears and develops during the time that the gut flora develops and established. The GALT that develops is tolerant to gut flora species, but not to other microorganisms. GALT also normally becomes tolerant to food to which the infant is exposed, as well as digestive products of food, and gut flora's metabolites (molecules formed from metabolism) produced from food.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The human immune system creates cytokines that can drive the immune system to produce inflammation in order to protect itself, and that can tamp down the immune response to maintain homeostasis and allow healing after insult or injury. Different bacterial species that appear in gut flora have been shown to be able to drive the immune system to create cytokines selectively; for example "Bacteroides fragilis" and some "Clostridia" species appear to drive an anti-inflammatory response, while some segmented filamentous bacteria drive the production of inflammatory cytokines. Gut flora can also regulate the production of antibodies by the immune system. One function of this regulation is to cause B cells to class switch to IgA. In most cases B cells need activation from T helper cells to induce class switching; however, in another pathway, gut flora cause NF-kB signaling by intestinal epithelial cells which results in further signaling molecules being secreted. These signaling molecules interact with B cells to induce class switching to IgA. IgA is an important type of antibody that is used in mucosal environments like the gut. It has been shown that IgA can help diversify the gut community and helps in getting rid of bacteria that cause inflammatory responses. Ultimately, IgA maintains a healthy environment between the host and gut bacteria. These cytokines and antibodies can have effects outside the gut, in the lungs and other tissues.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The immune system can also be altered due to the gut bacteria's ability to produce metabolites that can affect cells in the immune system. For example short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) can be produced by some gut bacteria through fermentation. SCFAs stimulate a rapid increase in the production of innate immune cells like neutrophils, basophils and eosinophils. These cells are part of the innate immune system that try to limit the spread of infection.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Without gut flora, the human body would be unable to utilize some of the undigested carbohydrates it consumes, because some types of gut flora have enzymes that human cells lack for breaking down certain polysaccharides. Rodents raised in a sterile environment and lacking in gut flora need to eat 30% more calories just to remain the same weight as their normal counterparts. Carbohydrates that humans cannot digest without bacterial help include certain starches, fiber, oligosaccharides, and sugars that the body failed to digest and absorb like lactose in the case of lactose intolerance and sugar alcohols, mucus produced by the gut, and proteins.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Bacteria turn carbohydrates they ferment into short-chain fatty acids by a form of fermentation called saccharolytic fermentation. Products include acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid. These materials can be used by host cells, providing a major source of energy and nutrients. Gases (which are involved in signaling and may cause flatulence) and organic acids, such as lactic acid, are also produced by fermentation. Acetic acid is used by muscle, propionic acid facilitates liver production of ATP, and butyric acid provides energy to gut cells.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Gut flora also synthesize vitamins like biotin and folate, and facilitate absorption of dietary minerals, including magnesium, calcium, and iron. "Methanobrevibacter smithii" is unique because it is not a species of bacteria, but rather a member of domain "Archaea", and is the most abundant methane-producing archaeal species in the human gastrointestinal microbiota.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Gut microbiota also serve as a source of Vitamins K and B12 that are not produced by the body or produced in little amount.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The human metagenome (i.e., the genetic composition of an individual and all microorganisms that reside on or within the individual's body) varies considerably between individuals. Since the total number of microbial and viral cells in the human body (over 100 trillion) greatly outnumbers "Homo sapiens" cells (tens of trillions), there is considerable potential for interactions between drugs and an individual's microbiome, including: drugs altering the composition of the human microbiome, drug metabolism by microbial enzymes modifying the drug's pharmacokinetic profile, and microbial drug metabolism affecting a drug's clinical efficacy and toxicity profile.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Apart from carbohydrates, gut microbiota can also metabolize other xenobiotics such as drugs, phytochemicals, and food toxicants. More than 30 drugs have been shown to be metabolized by gut microbiota. The microbial metabolism of drugs can sometimes inactivate the drug.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The gut microbiota is an enriched community that contains diverse genes with huge biochemical capabilities to modify drugs, especially those taken by mouth. Gut microbiota can affect drug metabolism via direct and indirect mechanisms. The direct mechanism is mediated by the microbial enzymes that can modify the chemical structure of the administered drugs. Conversely, the indirect pathway is mediated by the microbial metabolites which affect the expression of host metabolizing enzymes such as cytochrome P450. The effects of the gut microbiota on the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of the drug have been investigated a few decades ago. These effects can be varied; it could activate the inactive drugs such as lovastatin, inactivate the active drug such as digoxin or induce drug toxicity as in irinotecan. Since then, the impacts of the gut microbiota on the pharmacokinetics of many drugs were heavily studied.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The human gut microbiota plays a crucial role in modulating the effect of the administered drugs on the human. Directly, gut microbiota can synthesize and release a series of enzymes with the capability to metabolize drugs such as microbial biotransformation of L-dopa by decarboxylase and dehydroxylase enzymes. On the contrary, gut microbiota may also alter the metabolism of the drugs by modulating the host drug metabolism. This mechanism can be mediated by microbial metabolites or by modifying hot metabolites which in turn change the expression of host metabolizing enzymes.


title: Gut microbiota

text: A large number of studies have demonstrated the metabolism of over 50 drugs by the gut microbiota. For example, lovastatin (a cholesterol-lowering agent) which is a lactone prodrug is partially activated by the human gut microbiota forming active acid hydroxylated metabolites. Conversely, digoxin (a drug used to treat Congestive Heart Failure) is inactivated by a member of the gut microbiota (i.e. "Eggerthella" "lanta"). "Eggerthella" "lanta" has a cytochrome-encoding operon up-regulated by digoxin and associated with digoxin-inactivation. Gut microbiota can also modulate the efficacy and toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents such as irinotecan. This effect is derived from the microbiome-encoded β-glucuronidase enzymes which recover the active form of the irinotecan causing gastrointestinal toxicity.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The approximate number of bacteria composing the gut microbiota is about 10-10 which possess genetic potentials to perform vast chemical reactions than humans. This community has a huge biochemical capability to produce distinct secondary metabolites that are sometimes produced from the metabolic conversion of dietary foods such as fibers, endogenous biological compounds such as Indole or Bile acids. Microbial metabolites especially short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and secondary bile acids (BAs) play important roles for the human in health and disease states.


title: Gut microbiota

text: One of the most important bacterial metabolites produced by the gut microbiota is secondary bile acids (BAs). These metabolites are produced by the bacterial biotransformation of the primary bile acids such as cholic acid (CA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) into secondary bile acids (BAs) lithocholic acid (LCA) and deoxy cholic acid (DCA) respectively. Primary bile acids which are synthesized by hepatocytes and stored in the gall bladder possess hydrophobic characters. These metabolites are subsequently metabolized by the gut microbiota into secondary metabolites with increased hydrophobicity. Bile salt hydrolases (BSH) which are conserved across gut microbiota phyla such as "Bacteroides", "Firmicutes", and "Actinobacteria" responsible for the first step of secondary bile acids metabolism. Secondary bile acids (BAs) such as DCA and LCA have been demonstrated to inhibit both "Clostridium difficile" germination and outgrowth.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The gut-brain axis is the biochemical signaling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system. That term has been expanded to include the role of the gut flora in the interplay; the term "microbiome-gut-brain axis" is sometimes used to describe paradigms explicitly including the gut flora. Broadly defined, the gut-brain axis includes the central nervous system, neuroendocrine and neuroimmune systems including the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis), sympathetic and parasympathetic arms of the autonomic nervous system including the enteric nervous system, the vagus nerve, and the gut microbiota.


title: Gut microbiota

text: A systematic review from 2016 examined the preclinical and small human trials that have been conducted with certain commercially available strains of probiotic bacteria and found that among those tested, "Bifidobacterium" and "Lactobacillus" genera ("B. longum", "B. breve", "B. infantis", "L. helveticus", "L. rhamnosus", "L. plantarum", and "L. casei"), had the most potential to be useful for certain central nervous system disorders.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Altering the numbers of gut bacteria, for example by taking broad-spectrum antibiotics, may affect the host's health and ability to digest food. Antibiotics can cause antibiotic-associated diarrhea by irritating the bowel directly, changing the levels of microbiota, or allowing pathogenic bacteria to grow. Another harmful effect of antibiotics is the increase in numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found after their use, which, when they invade the host, cause illnesses that are difficult to treat with antibiotics.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Changing the numbers and species of gut microbiota can reduce the body's ability to ferment carbohydrates and metabolize bile acids and may cause diarrhea. Carbohydrates that are not broken down may absorb too much water and cause runny stools, or lack of SCFAs produced by gut microbiota could cause diarrhea.


title: Gut microbiota

text: A reduction in levels of native bacterial species also disrupts their ability to inhibit the growth of harmful species such as "C. difficile" and "Salmonella kedougou", and these species can get out of hand, though their overgrowth may be incidental and not be the true cause of diarrhea. Emerging treatment protocols for C. difficile infections involve fecal microbiota transplantation of donor feces (see Fecal transplant). Initial reports of treatment describe success rates of 90%, with few side effects. Efficacy is speculated to result from restoring bacterial balances of bacteroides and firmicutes classes of bacteria.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The composition of the gut microbiome also changes in severe illnesses, due not only to antibiotic use but also to such factors as ischemia of the gut, failure to eat, and immune compromise. Negative effects from this have led to interest in selective digestive tract decontamination, a treatment to kill only pathogenic bacteria and allow the re-establishment of healthy ones.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Antibiotics alter the population of the microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract, and this may change the intra-community metabolic interactions, modify caloric intake by using carbohydrates, and globally affects host metabolic, hormonal and immune homeostasis.


title: Gut microbiota

text: There is reasonable evidence that taking probiotics containing "Lactobacillus" species may help prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea and that taking probiotics with "Saccharomyces" (e.g., "Saccharomyces boulardii ") may help to prevent "Clostridium difficile" infection following systemic antibiotic treatment.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The gut microbiota of a woman changes as pregnancy advances, with the changes similar to those seen in metabolic syndromes such as diabetes. The change in gut microbiota causes no ill effects. The newborn's gut microbiota resemble the mother's first-trimester samples. The diversity of the microbiome decreases from the first to third trimester, as the numbers of certain species go up.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Probiotics are microorganisms that are believed to provide health benefits when consumed. With regard to gut microbiota, prebiotics are typically non-digestible, fiber compounds that pass undigested through the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract and stimulate the growth or activity of advantageous gut flora by acting as substrate for them.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Synbiotics refers to food ingredients or dietary supplements combining probiotics and prebiotics in a form of synergism.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The term "pharmabiotics" is used in various ways, to mean: pharmaceutical formulations (standardized manufacturing that can obtain regulatory approval as a drug) of probiotics, prebiotics, or synbiotics; probiotics that have been genetically engineered or otherwise optimized for best performance (shelf life, survival in the digestive tract, etc.); and the natural products of gut flora metabolism (vitamins, etc.).


title: Gut microbiota

text: There is some evidence that treatment with some probiotic strains of bacteria may be effective in irritable bowel syndrome and chronic idiopathic constipation. Those organisms most likely to result in a decrease of symptoms have included:


title: Gut microbiota

text: The most clinically researched multi-strain probiotic formulation for the treatment of microbiota imbalances including irritible bowel syndrome, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, inflammatory bowel diseases including ulcerative colitis and pouchitis, and for babies that are bottle-fed is the De Simone Formulation named after the gastroenterologist medical doctor that invented it in the 1990s, Professor Claudio De Simone. The De Simone Formulation was researched and sold under the brand name VSL#3 until 2016 when the makers of VSL#3 changed their formulation. Since, the original De Simone Formulation has been researched and sold under various regional brand names including Visbiome in the United States and Vivomixx in Europe.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Feces of about 10-15% of people consistently floats in toilet water ('floaters'), while the rest produce feces that sinks ('sinkers') and production of gas causes feces to float. While conventional mice often produce 'floaters', gnotobiotic germfree mice no gut microbiota (bred in germfree isolator) produce 'sinkers', and gut microbiota colonization in germfree mice leads to food transformation to microbial biomass and enrichment of multiple gasogenic bacterial species that turns the 'sinkers' into 'floaters'.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Tests for whether non-antibiotic drugs may impact human gut-associated bacteria were performed by "in vitro" analysis on more than 1000 marketed drugs against 40 gut bacterial strains, demonstrating that 24% of the drugs inhibited the growth of at least one of the bacterial strains.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Gut microbiota and exercise have recently been shown to be interconnected. Both moderate and intense exercise are typically part of the training regimen of endurance athletes, but they exert different effects on health. The interconnection between gut microbiota and endurance sports depends upon exercise intensity and training status.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Bacteria in the digestive tract can contribute to and be affected by disease in various ways. The presence or overabundance of some kinds of bacteria may contribute to inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease. Additionally, metabolites from certain members of the gut flora may influence host signalling pathways, contributing to disorders such as obesity and colon cancer. Alternatively, in the event of a breakdown of the gut epithelium, the intrusion of gut flora components into other host compartments can lead to sepsis.


title: Gut microbiota

text: "Helicobacter pylori" infection can initiate formation of stomach ulcers when the bacteria penetrate the stomach epithelial lining, then causing an inflammatory phagocytotic response. In turn, the inflammation damages parietal cells which release excessive hydrochloric acid into the stomach and produce less of the protective mucus. Injury to the stomach lining, leading to ulcers, develops when gastric acid overwhelms the defensive properties of cells and inhibits endogenous prostaglandin synthesis, reduces mucus and bicarbonate secretion, reduces mucosal blood flow, and lowers resistance to injury. Reduced protective properties of the stomach lining increase vulnerability to further injury and ulcer formation by stomach acid, pepsin, and bile salts.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Normally-commensal bacteria can harm the host if they extrude from the intestinal tract. Translocation, which occurs when bacteria leave the gut through its mucosal lining, can occur in a number of different diseases. If the gut is perforated, bacteria invade the interstitium, causing a potentially fatal infection.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The two main types of inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic inflammatory disorders of the gut; the causes of these diseases are unknown and issues with the gut flora and its relationship with the host have been implicated in these conditions. Additionally, it appears that interactions of gut flora with the gut-brain axis have a role in IBD, with physiological stress mediated through the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis driving changes to intestinal epithelium and the gut flora in turn releasing factors and metabolites that trigger signaling in the enteric nervous system and the vagus nerve.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The diversity of gut flora appears to be significantly diminished in people with inflammatory bowel diseases compared to healthy people; additionally, in people with ulcerative colitis, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria appear to dominate; in people with Crohn's, "Enterococcus faecium" and several Proteobacteria appear to be over-represented.


title: Gut microbiota

text: There is reasonable evidence that correcting gut flora imbalances by taking probiotics with "Lactobacilli" and "Bifidobacteria" can reduce visceral pain and gut inflammation in IBD.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Irritable bowel syndrome is a result of stress and chronic activation of the HPA axis; its symptoms include abdominal pain, changes in bowel movements, and an increase in proinflammatory cytokines. Overall, studies have found that the luminal and mucosal microbiota are changed in irritable bowel syndrome individuals, and these changes can relate to the type of irritation such as diarrhea or constipation. Also, there is a decrease in the diversity of the microbiome with low levels of fecal Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria, high levels of facultative anaerobic bacteria such as "Escherichia coli", and increased ratios of Firmicutes: Bacteroidetes.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Allergy, asthma, and diabetes mellitus are autoimmune and inflammatory disorders of unknown cause, but have been linked to imbalances in the gut flora and its relationship with the host. As of 2016 it was not clear if changes to the gut flora cause these auto-immune and inflammatory disorders or are a product of or adaptation to them.


title: Gut microbiota

text: With asthma, two hypotheses have been posed to explain its rising prevalence in the developed world. The hygiene hypothesis posits that children in the developed world are not exposed to enough microbes and thus may contain lower prevalence of specific bacterial taxa that play protective roles. The second hypothesis focuses on the Western pattern diet, which lacks whole grains and fiber and has an overabundance of simple sugars. Both hypotheses converge on the role of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in immunomodulation. These bacterial fermentation metabolites are involved in immune signalling that prevents the triggering of asthma and lower SCFA levels are associated with the disease. Lacking protective genera such as "Lachnospira", "Veillonella", "Rothia" and "Faecalibacterium" has been linked to reduced SCFA levels. Further, SCFAs are the product of bacterial fermentation of fiber, which is low in the Western pattern diet. SCFAs offer a link between gut flora and immune disorders, and as of 2016, this was an active area of research. Similar hypotheses have also been posited for the rise of food and other allergies.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The connection between the gut microbiota and diabetes mellitus type 1 has also been linked to SCFAs, such as butyrate and acetate. Diets yielding butyrate and acetate from bacterial fermentation show increased T expression. T cells downregulate effector T cells, which in turn reduces the inflammatory response in the gut. Butyrate is an energy source for colon cells. butyrate-yielding diets thus decrease gut permeability by providing sufficient energy for the formation of tight junctions. Additionally, butyrate has also been shown to decrease insulin resistance, suggesting gut communities low in butyrate-producing microbes may increase chances of acquiring diabetes mellitus type 2. Butyrate-yielding diets may also have potential colorectal cancer suppression effects.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The gut flora has also been implicated in obesity and metabolic syndrome due to the key role it plays in the digestive process; the Western pattern diet appears to drive and maintain changes in the gut flora that in turn change how much energy is derived from food and how that energy is used. One aspect of a healthy diet that is often lacking in the Western-pattern diet is fiber and other complex carbohydrates that a healthy gut flora require flourishing; changes to gut flora in response to a Western-pattern diet appear to increase the amount of energy generated by the gut flora which may contribute to obesity and metabolic syndrome. There is also evidence that microbiota influence eating behaviours based on the preferences of the microbiota, which can lead to the host consuming more food eventually resulting in obesity. It has generally been observed that with higher gut microbiome diversity, the microbiota will spend energy and resources on competing with other microbiota and less on manipulating the host. The opposite is seen with lower gut microbiome diversity, and these microbiotas may work together to create host food cravings.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Additionally, the liver plays a dominant role in blood glucose homeostasis by maintaining a balance between the uptake and storage of glucose through the metabolic pathways of glycogenesis and gluconeogenesis. Intestinal lipids regulate glucose homeostasis involving a gut-brain-liver axis. The direct administration of lipids into the upper intestine increases the long chain fatty acyl-coenzyme A (LCFA-CoA) levels in the upper intestines and suppresses glucose production even under subdiaphragmatic vagotomy or gut vagal deafferentation. This interrupts the neural connection between the brain and the gut and blocks the upper intestinal lipids' ability to inhibit glucose production. The gut-brain-liver axis and gut microbiota composition can regulate the glucose homeostasis in the liver and provide potential therapeutic methods to treat obesity and diabetes.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Just as gut flora can function in a feedback loop that can drive the development of obesity, there is evidence that restricting intake of calories (i.e., dieting) can drive changes to the composition of the gut flora.


title: Gut microbiota

text: As the liver is fed directly by the portal vein, whatever crosses the intestinal epithelium and the intestinal mucosal barrier enters the liver, as do cytokines generated there. Dysbiosis in the gut flora has been linked with the development of cirrhosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Some genera of bacteria, such as "Bacteroides" and "Clostridium", have been associated with an increase in tumor growth rate, while other genera, such as "Lactobacillus" and "Bifidobacteria", are known to prevent tumor formation. As of December 2017 there was preliminary and indirect evidence that gut microbiota might mediate response to PD-1 inhibitors; the mechanism was unknown.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Obese people are at a higher risk for several types of cancer including hepatocellular carcinoma. This increased risk may be related to the increased production of carcinogenic bile acids by gut microorganisms in such individuals. Obesity caused by diet or genetic factors is associated with alterations of gut microbiota that increase the level of the bile acid deoxycholic acid, a metabolite that causes DNA damage.


title: Gut microbiota

text: Interest in the relationship between gut flora and neuropsychiatric issues was sparked by a 2014 study showing that germ-free mice showed an exaggerated HPA axis response to stress compared to non-GF laboratory mice. As of January 2016, most of the work that has been done on the role of gut flora in the gut-brain axis had been conducted in animals, or characterizing the various neuroactive compounds that gut flora can produce, and studies with humans measuring differences between people with various psychiatric and neurological differences, or changes to gut flora in response to stress, or measuring effects of various probiotics (dubbed "psychobiotics in this context), had generally been small and could not be generalized; whether changes to gut flora are a result of disease, a cause of disease, or both in any number of possible feedback loops in the gut-brain axis, remained unclear.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The gut-brain axis is a dynamic relationship that can also impact mental health. The gut microbiome is responsible for the production of some neurotransmitters, metabolism of tryptophan (an amino acid), and short-chain fatty acids. There are several reasons that the gut microbiome can become imbalanced including, diet, geography, stress (HPA axis),and pharmaceuticals. An imbalance can cause dysbiosis and inflammation, which can lead to depression and anxiety.


title: Gut microbiota

text: A systematic review from 2016 examined the preclinical and small human trials that have been conducted with certain commercially available strains of probiotic bacteria and found that among those tested, the genera "Bifidobacterium" and "Lactobacillus" ("B. longum", "B. breve", "B. infantis", "L. helveticus", "L. rhamnosus", "L. plantarum", and "L. casei") had the most potential to be useful for certain central nervous system disorders.


title: Gut microbiota

text: The composition of the human gut microbiome is similar to that of the other great apes. However, humans’ gut biota has decreased in diversity and changed in composition since our evolutionary split from "Pan". Humans display increases in Bacteroidetes, a bacterial phylum associated with diets high in animal protein and fat, and decreases in Methanobrevibacter and Fibrobacter, groups that ferment complex plant polysaccharides. These changes are the result of the combined dietary, genetic, and cultural changes humans have undergone since evolutionary divergence from "Pan".


title: Gut microbiota

text: In addition to humans and vertebrates, some insects also possess complex and diverse gut microbiota that play key nutritional roles. Microbial communities associated with termites can constitute a majority of the weight of the individuals and perform important roles in the digestion of lignocellulose and nitrogen fixation. These communities are host-specific, and closely related insect species share comparable similarities in gut microbiota composition. In cockroaches, gut microbiota have been shown to assemble in a deterministic fashion, irrespective of the inoculum; the reason for this host-specific assembly remains unclear. Bacterial communities associated with insects like termites and cockroaches are determined by a combination of forces, primarily diet, but there is some indication that host phylogeny may also be playing a role in the selection of lineages.


title: Gut microbiota

text: For more than 51 years it has been known that the administration of low doses of antibacterial agents promotes the growth of farm animals to increase weight gain.


title: Gut microbiota

text: In a study carried out on mice the ratio of "Firmicutes" and "Lachnospiraceae" was significantly elevated in animals treated with subtherapeutic doses of different antibiotics. By analyzing the caloric content of faeces and the concentration of small chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the GI tract, it was concluded that the changes in the composition of microbiota lead to an increased capacity to extract calories from otherwise indigestible constituents, and to an increased production of SCFAs. These findings provide evidence that antibiotics perturb not only the composition of the GI microbiome but also its metabolic capabilities, specifically with respect to SCFAs.


title: Orphanage

text: An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusive. There may be substance abuse or mental illness in the biological home, or the parent may simply be unwilling to care for the child. The legal responsibility for the support of abandoned children differs from country to country, and within countries. Government-run orphanages have been phased out in most developed countries during the latter half of the 20th century but continue to operate in many other regions internationally. It is now generally accepted that orphanages are detrimental to the emotional wellbeing of children, and government support goes instead towards supporting the family unit.


title: Orphanage

text: A few large international charities continue to fund orphanages, but most are still commonly founded by smaller charities and religious groups. Especially in developing countries, orphanages may prey on vulnerable families at risk of breakdown and actively recruit children to ensure continued funding. Orphanages in developing countries are rarely run by the state. However, not all orphanages that are state-run are less corrupted; the Romanian orphanages, like those in Bucharest, were founded due to the soaring population numbers catalyzed by dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who banned abortion and birth control and incentivized procreation in order to increase the Romanian workforce.


title: Orphanage

text: Today's residential institutions for children, also described as congregate care, include group homes, residential child care communities, children's homes, refuges, rehabilitation centers, night shelters, and youth treatment centers.


title: Orphanage

text: Research from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is often cited as demonstrating that residential institutions negatively impact the wellbeing of children. The BEIP selected orphanages in Bucharest, Romania that raised abandoned children in socially and emotionally deprived environments in order to study the changes in development of infants and children after they had been placed with specially trained foster families in the local community. This powerful study demonstrated how the loving attention typically provided to children by their parents or caregivers is pivotal for optimal human development, specifically of the brain; adequate nutrition is not enough. Further research of children who were adopted from institutions in Eastern European countries to the US demonstrated that for every 3.5 months that an infant spent in the institution, they lagged behind their peers in growth by 1 month. Further, a meta-analysis of research on the IQs of children in orphanages found lower IQs among the children in many institutions, but this result was not found in the low-income country setting.


title: Orphanage

text: Worldwide, residential institutions like orphanages can often be detrimental to the psychological development of affected children. In countries where orphanages are no longer in use, the long-term care of unwarded children by the state has been transitioned to a domestic environment, with an emphasis on replicating a family home. Many of these countries, such as the United States, utilize a system of monetary stipends paid to foster parents to incentivize and subsidize the care of state wards in private homes. A distinction must be made between foster care and adoption, as adoption would remove the child from the care of the state and transfer the legal responsibility for that child's care to the adoptive parent completely and irrevocably, whereas, in the case of foster care, the child would remain a ward of the state with the foster parent acting only as a caregiver.


title: Orphanage

text: Most children who live in orphanages are not orphans; four out of five children in orphanages have at least one living parent and most having some extended family. Developing countries and their governments rely on kinship care to aid in the orphan crisis because it is cheaper to financially help extended families in taking in an orphaned child than it is to institutionalize them. Additionally, developing nations are lacking in child welfare and their well-being because of a lack of resources. Research that is being collected in the developing world shows that these countries focus purely on survival indicators instead of a combination of their survival and other positive indicators like a developed nation would do. This speaks to the way that many developed countries treat an orphan crisis, as the only focus is to obtain a way to ensure their survival. In the developed nations orphans can expect to find not only a home but also these countries will try and ensure a secure future as well. Furthermore, orphans in developing nations are seen as a problem that needs to be solved, this also makes them vulnerable to exploitation or neglect. In Pakistan, alternative care for orphans often falls on to extended families and Pakistan society as the government feels puts the burden of caring for orphans on them. Although it is very common for Pakistan citizens to take in orphans because of their culture and religion, only orphans whose parents have died are taken in. This neglects a population of children who need alternative care, either due to abuse, or parents who are unable to care for their child because of poverty, mental, or physical issues.


title: Orphanage

text: The Romans formed their first orphanages around 400 AD. Jewish law prescribed care for the widow and the orphan, and Athenian law supported all orphans of those killed in military service until the age of eighteen. Plato ("Laws", 927) says: "Orphans should be placed under the care of public guardians. Men should have a fear of the loneliness of orphans and of the souls of their departed parents. A man should love the unfortunate orphan of whom he is guardian as if he were his own child. He should be as careful and as diligent in the management of the orphan's property as of his own or even more careful still." The care of orphans was referred to bishops and, during the Middle Ages, to monasteries. As soon as they were old enough, children were often given as apprentices to households to ensure their support and to learn an occupation.


title: Orphanage

text: In medieval Europe, care for orphans tended to reside with the Church. The Elizabethan Poor Laws were enacted at the time of the Reformation and placed public responsibility on individual parishes to care for the indigent poor.


title: Orphanage

text: The growth of sentimental philanthropy in the 18th century led to the establishment of the first charitable institutions that would cater to orphans.


title: Orphanage

text: The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1741 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram in London, England, as a children's home for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The first children were admitted into a temporary house located in Hatton Garden. At first, no questions were asked about child or parent, but a distinguishing token was put on each child by the parent.


title: Orphanage

text: On reception, children were sent to wet nurses in the countryside, where they stayed until they were about four or five years old. At sixteen, girls were generally apprenticed as servants for four years; at fourteen, boys were apprenticed into a variety of occupations, typically for seven years. There was a small benevolent fund for adults.


title: Orphanage

text: In 1756, the House of Commons resolved that all children offered should be received, that local receiving places should be appointed all over the country, and that the funds should be publicly guaranteed. A basket was accordingly hung outside the hospital; the maximum age for admission was raised from two months to twelve, and a flood of children poured in from country workhouses. Parliament soon came to the conclusion that the indiscriminate admission should be discontinued. The hospital adopted a system of receiving children only with considerable sums. This practice was finally stopped in 1801, and it henceforth became a fundamental rule that no money was to be received.


title: Orphanage

text: By the early nineteenth century, the problem of abandoned children in urban areas, especially London, began to reach alarming proportions. The workhouse system, instituted in 1834, although often brutal, was an attempt at the time to house orphans as well as other vulnerable people in society who could not support themselves in exchange for work. Conditions, especially for the women and children, were so bad as to cause an outcry among the social reform–minded middle-class; some of Charles Dickens' most famous novels, including "Oliver Twist", highlighted the plight of the vulnerable and the often abusive conditions that were prevalent in the London orphanages.


title: Orphanage

text: Clamour for change led to the birth of the orphanage movement. In England, the movement really took off in the mid-19th century although orphanages such as the Orphan Working Home in 1758 and the Bristol Asylum for Poor Orphan Girls in 1795, had been set up earlier. Private orphanages were founded by private benefactors; these often received royal patronage and government oversight.


title: Orphanage

text: Ragged schools, founded by John Pounds and the Lord Shaftesbury were also set up to provide pauper children with basic education.


title: Orphanage

text: Orphanages were also set up in the United States from the early 19th century; for example, in 1806, the first private orphanage in New York (the Orphan Asylum Society, now Graham Windham) was co-founded by Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Under the influence of Charles Loring Brace, foster care became a popular alternative from the mid-19th century. Later, the Social Security Act of 1935 improved conditions by authorizing Aid to Families with Dependent Children as a form of social security.


title: Orphanage

text: A very influential philanthropist of the era was Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of the charity Barnardos. Becoming aware of the great numbers of homeless and destitute children adrift in the cities of England and encouraged by the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury and the 1st Earl Cairns, he opened the first of the "Dr. Barnardo’s Homes" in 1870. By his death in 1905, he had established 112 district homes, which searched for and received waifs and strays, to feed, clothe and educate them. The system under which the institution was carried on is broad as follows: the infants and younger girls and boys were chiefly "boarded out" in rural districts; girls above fourteen years of age were sent to the industrial training homes, to be taught useful domestic occupations; boys above seventeen years of age were first tested in labor homes and then placed in employment at home, sent to sea, or emigrated; boys of between thirteen and seventeen years of age were trained for the various trades for which they might be mentally or physically fitted.


title: Orphanage

text: Evidence from a variety of studies supports the vital importance of attachment security and later development of children. Deinstitutionalization of orphanages and children's homes program in the United States began in the 1950s, after a series of scandals involving the coercion of birth parents and abuse of orphans (notably at Georgia Tann's Tennessee Children's Home Society). In Romania, a decree was established that aggressively promoted population growth, banning contraception and abortions for women with fewer than four children, despite the wretched poverty of most families. After Ceausescu was overthrown, he left a society unable and unwilling to take care of its children. Researchers conducted a study to see what the implications of this early childhood neglect were on development. Typically reared Romanian children showed high rates of secure attachment. Whereas the institutionally raised children showed huge rates of disorganized attachment. Many countries accepted the need to de-institutionalize the care of vulnerable children—that is, close down orphanages in favor of foster care and accelerated adoption.


title: Orphanage

text: Foster care operates by taking in children from their homes due to the lack of care or abuse of their parents, where orphanages take in children with no parents or children whose parents have dropped them off for a better life, typically due to income. Major charities are increasingly focusing their efforts on the re-integration of orphans in order to keep them with their parents or extended family and communities. Orphanages are no longer common in the European Community, and Romania, in particular, has struggled greatly to reduce the visibility of its children's institutions to meet conditions of its entry into the European Union.


title: Orphanage

text: Some have stated it is important to understand the reasons for child abandonment, "then" set up targeted alternative services to support vulnerable families at risk of separation such as mother and baby units and day care centres.


title: Orphanage

text: Orphanages, especially larger ones, have had some well publicised examples of poor care. In large institutions children, but particularly babies, may not receive enough eye contact, physical contact, and stimulation to promote proper physical, social or cognitive development. In the worst cases, orphanages can be dangerous and unregulated places where children are subject to abuse and neglect.


title: Orphanage

text: One significant study, which disputes this, was carried out by Duke University. Their researchers concluded that institutional care in America in the 20th century produced the same health, emotional, intellectual, mental, and physical outcomes as care by relatives, and better than care in the homes of strangers. One explanation for this is the prevalence of "permanent temporary foster care". This is the name for a long string of short stays with different foster care families. Permanent temporary foster care is highly disruptive to the child and prevents the child from developing a sense of security or belonging. Placement in the home of a relative maintains and usually improves the child's connection to family members.


title: Orphanage

text: Another alternative is group homes which are used for short-term placements. They may be residential treatment centers, and they frequently specialize in a particular population with psychiatric or behavioral problems, e.g., a group home for children and teens with autism, eating disorders, or substance abuse problems or child soldiers undergoing decommissioning.


title: Orphanage

text: Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty. It is speculated that flush with money, orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died. Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children's development by separating them from their families and that it would be more effective and cheaper to aid close relatives who want to take in the orphans.


title: Orphanage

text: Children living in orphanages for prolonged periods get behind in development goals, and have worse mental health. Orphanage children are not included in statistics making it easy to traffic them or abuse them in other ways. There are campaigns to include orphanage children and street children in progress statistics.


title: Orphanage

text: Visitors to developing countries can be taken in by orphanage scams, which can include orphanages set up as a front to get foreigners to pay school fees of orphanage directors' extended families. Alternatively the children whose upkeep is being funded by foreigners may be sent to work, not to school, the exact opposite of what the donor is expecting. The worst even sell children. In Cambodia, from 2005 to 2017, the number of orphanages increased by 75%, with many of these orphanages renting children from poor families for $25/month. Families are promised that their children can get free education and food here, but what really happens is that they are used as props to garner donations. Some are also bought from their parents for very little and passed on to westerners who pay a large fee to adopt them. This also happens in China. In Nepal, orphanages can be used as a way to remove a child from their parents before placing them for adoption overseas, which is equally lucrative to the owners who receive a number of official and unofficial payments and "donations". In other countries, such as Indonesia, orphanages are run as businesses, which will attract donations and make the owners rich; often the conditions orphans are kept in will deliberately be poor to attract more donations.


title: Orphanage

text: The orphanages and institutions remaining in Europe tend to be in Eastern Europe and are generally state-funded.


title: Orphanage

text: There are estimated to be about 31,000 orphans (0-14 years old) in Albanian orphanages. (2012 statistics) In most cases they were abandoned by their parents. At 14 they are required, by law, to leave their orphanage and live on their own.


title: Orphanage

text: There are approximately 10 small orphanages in Albania; each one having only 12-40 children residing there. The larger ones would be state-run.


title: Orphanage

text: In 2010, Bulgaria adopted a national strategic plan for the period 2010–2025 to improve the living standards of the country's children. Bulgaria is working hard to get all institutions closed within the next few years and find alternative ways to take care of the children.


title: Orphanage

text: "Support is sporadically given to poor families and work during daytime; correspondingly, different kinds of day centers have started up, though the quality of care in these centers is poorly measured and difficult to monitor. A smaller number of children have also been able to be relocated into foster families".


title: Orphanage

text: There are 7000 children living in Bulgarian orphanages wrongly classified as orphaned. Only 10 percent of these are orphans, with the rest of the children placed in orphanages for temporary periods when the family is in crisis.


title: Orphanage

text: A comprehensive national strategy for strengthening the rights of children was adopted by Parliament in 2007 and will run until 2032.


title: Orphanage

text: Child flow to orphanages has been stopped and children are now protected by social services. Violation of children's rights leads to litigation.


title: Orphanage

text: In Lithuania there are 105 institutions. 41 percent of the institutions each have more than 60 children.


title: Orphanage

text: Children's rights enjoy relatively strong protection in Poland. Orphaned children are now protected by social services.


title: Orphanage

text: Social Workers' opportunities have increased by establishing more foster homes and aggressive family members can now be forced away from home, instead of replacing the child/children.


title: Orphanage

text: More than 8800 children are being raised in state institutions, but only three percent of them are orphans.


title: Orphanage

text: The Romanian child welfare system is in the process of being revised and has reduced the flow of infants into orphanages.


title: Orphanage

text: According to Baroness Emma Nicholson, in some counties Romania now has "a completely new, world class, state of the art, child health development policy." Dickensian orphanages remain in Romania, but Romania seeks to replace institutions by family care services, as children in need will be protected by social services. As of 2018, there were 17,718 children in old-style residential centers, a significant decrease from about 100,000 in 1990.


title: Orphanage

text: There are many state orphanages "where several thousand children are kept and which are still part of an outdated child care system". The conditions for them are bad because the government does not pay enough attention in improving the living standards for disabled children in Serbia's orphanages and medical institutions.


title: Orphanage

text: The committee made recommendations, such as proposals for the adoption of a new "national 14" action plan for children for at least the next five years, and the creation of an independent institution for the protection of child rights.


title: Orphanage

text: One of the first orphanages in Sweden was the "Stora Barnhuset" (1633-1922) in Stockholm, which remained the biggest orphanage in Sweden for centuries. In 1785, however, a reform by Gustav III of Sweden stipulated that orphans should first and foremost always be placed in foster homes when that was possible.


title: Orphanage

text: In Sweden, there are 5,000 children in the care of the state. None of them are currently living in an orphanage, because there is a social service law which requires that the children reside in a family home.


title: Orphanage

text: During the Victorian era, child abandonment was rampant, and orphanages were set up to reduce infant mortality. Such places were often so full of children that nurses often administered Godfrey's Cordial, a special concoction of opium and treacle, to soothe baby colic.


title: Orphanage

text: Orphaned children were placed in either prisons or the poorhouse/workhouse, as there were so few places in orphanages, or else they were left to fend for themselves on the street. Such openings in orphanages as were available could only be obtained by collecting votes for admission, placing them out of reach of poor families.


title: Orphanage

text: The majority of African orphanages (especially in Sub-Saharan Africa) appear to be funded by donors, often from Western nations, rather than by domestic governments.


title: Orphanage

text: "For example, in the Jerusalem Association Children's Home (JACH), only 160 children remain of the 785 who were in JACH's three orphanages." / "Attitudes regarding the institutional care of children have shifted dramatically in recent years in Ethiopia. There appears to be a general recognition by MOLSA and the NGOs with which Pact is working that such care is, at best, a last resort and that serious problems arise with the social reintegration of children who grow up in institutions, and deinstitutionalization through family reunification and independent living are being emphasized."


title: Orphanage

text: A 2007 survey sponsored by OAfrica (previously OrphanAid Africa) and carried out by the Department of Social Welfare came up with the figure of 4,800 children in institutional care in 148 orphanages. The government is currently attempting to phase out the use of orphanages in favor of foster care placements and adoption. At least eighty-eight homes have been closed since the passage of the National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. The website www.ovcghana.org details these reforms.


title: Orphanage

text: A 1999 survey of 36,000 orphans found the following number in institutional care: 64 in registered institutions and 164 in unregistered institutions.


title: Orphanage

text: There are about 101 orphanages in Malawi. There is a UNICEF/Government driven program on de-institutionalization, but few orphanages are yet involved in the program.


title: Orphanage

text: Amitofo Care Centre ("ACC"), founded and directed by Venerable Hui Li from Taiwan since 2004 is a charitable, non-governmental and nonprofit making orphanage organization, which comprises an administration center, children's dormitories, youth dormitories, preparatory school, Yuan Tong Primary and Secondary schools, library, activity center, medical center, religious center, Community Bases Organization (CBO), etc. ACC is founded and directed by Venerable Hui Li with an aspiration and mission to directly rear and care for need and vulnerable children of Africa within the humanitarian and educational umbrella. The main principles of ACC are based on local African culture, Chinese culture, Western culture, and Buddhist philosophy which are delivered to the needy and vulnerable children. This is considered a unique and remarkable characteristic of ACC although it must be stressed that none of the orphans have taken refuge in Buddhism, as we respect their religious freedom and will allow them to choose their own as they enter adulthood.


title: Orphanage

text: Out of 400,000 orphans, 5,000 are living in orphanages. The Government of Rwanda are working with Hope and Homes for Children to close the first institution and develop a model for community-based childcare which can be used across the country and ultimately Africa