Distinctive lumber from invasive plant makes itself right at home
Sept./Oct. 2016 California Bountiful magazine
Story by Kate Campbell
Photos by Kathi Corder and Carolyn Carey
and courtesy of Sustainable Northwest and Marcus Kauffman
Juniper wood brings a rustic, durable beauty to home improvements. The versatile building material has the strength of redwood and cedar, making it suitable for a variety of projects, including decks, cabinetry, countertops, stairs and garden structures.
People have valued wood for its beauty and strength from ancient times, recognizing it as a gift of the forest. But sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. That’s the case with native — but invasive — Western juniper.
Decades of wildfire suppression, years of drought, climate change and a general lack of forest management have allowed this shrub and tree species to go rogue — spreading like weeds across fragile landscapes and degrading sensitive wildlife habitat.
Land management experts say in the past 130 years, Western juniper has expanded by as much as tenfold in parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, with the potential to occupy far more area in the future. The rugged plant already infests more than 4 million acres in California.
What’s encouraging is that people in government agencies, academia and business are coming together to find solutions to the problem, including how to manage runaway growth, restore vital ecosystems and build “juniper economies” in rural communities.
The goal is to manage juniper forests in ways that protect sagebrush habitat, according to Sean Curtis, Modoc County director of natural resources. Birds and animals such as the greater sage grouse, pygmy rabbit, sagebrush lizard, golden eagle and pronghorn antelope depend on sagebrush habitat. Some species, including the greater sage grouse, live nowhere else.
Part of the solution to improving sagebrush habitat and valuable rangeland, Curtis said, is finding ways to remove and turn tons of sturdy, richly textured juniper wood into must-have consumer products.
“Controlling the spread of invasive juniper in our area is one of the most important things we will do on the landscape for the next 20 years,” said Curtis, a Modoc County Farm Bureau director. “Everything we will do in the future will depend on how well we address this problem through sound management on both privately owned and public land.”
In the Modoc National Forest in the state’s northeast corner, actions are underway to reduce the number of overgrown acres and restore about 30,000 acres a year to the healthy conditions that existed more than a century ago. That means logging and clearing the trees and shrubs.
Junipers in a healthy Western ecosystem can live more than 1,000 years; land managers said no old-growth stands will be damaged during carefully planned landscape-restoration projects. But for wood from smaller, prolific juniper stands, researchers say they’re convinced markets for a wide variety of juniper wood products can be developed.
From left, Servando Melendrez, Tom Esgate and Doug Lindgren are some of the local loggers who work with environmental experts to target juniper removals where habitat and water resources are threatened. A juniper with an 18-inch trunk can guzzle 30 to 40 gallons of water a day.
Buzzing about juniper
Hurdles to building a vibrant juniper wood sector include high harvest costs for removal and lack of nearby sawmills to process the wood, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture market analysts.
But at a recent U.S. Bureau of Land Management conference in Portland, Neil Kelly, owner of one of the nation’s largest home remodel companies, said, “The buzz is big. Everyone is talking about juniper.”
Like redwood and cedars, juniper wood is highly durable. It resists rot and disease, has aromatic properties and offers color variations from pale white to deep reddish-brown. Architects and builders are demonstrating that it finishes well for cabinetry, flooring, stairs, decks and handrails, while others see an opportunity for juniper in highway safety structures such as signposts and guardrails.
“There’s a lot of juniper that needs to be removed and it makes sense to find beneficial uses for the wood,” Curtis said, noting that harvested juniper is also being chipped for use as biomass fuel for power generation.
“Sometimes there’s not much you can do with juniper, except remove it for the conservation benefits,” said Doug Lindgren, owner of Tubit Enterprises, a logging company in Burney. “But we’re talking with people in areas where juniper may be suitable for milling and then be turned into consumer products.”
Lindgren and logging project manager Tom Esgate, who specialize in treating landscapes to reduce wildfire hazards and restore watersheds, work on “prescriptive” landscape projects in Modoc and Lassen counties. Lindgren described the projects as highly collaborative, involving federal, state and local agencies, as well as environmental groups.
“We’re working on building healthy forests — forests that will produce benefits now and into the 21st century and beyond,” he said.
Artisans and farmers select juniper wood for a variety of woodworking projects, as it offers many advantages — it naturally comes in a range of colors and is highly durable. Clockwise from left, juniper wood appears in stair construction, vineyard trellises, fine art sculptures and furniture.
Buying the best
USDA market researchers said they’re surprised juniper hasn’t become a more popular wood for high-end consumer products. They conclude juniper sales could be doubled in niche markets, if people knew the story behind this native wood.
Eric Almquist, owner of Almquist Lumber Co. in Arcata, agrees. His lumberyard and small mill are a destination for hobby woodworkers, artisans and furniture builders throughout the state because of the selection of high-quality wood he sells.
Farmers and ranchers, however, are the company’s biggest customers for juniper lumber, he said. They use it for fencing, vineyard trellises, stakes and planting beds. The wood is naturally durable, less expensive than many similar options and needn’t be treated to prevent degrading — of particular interest to farmers who grow crops such as organic strawberries, lettuce and winegrapes.
“Juniper has unique properties, and when combined with an awareness of why landowners and forest managers are trying to clear the land of these invasive trees and find productive uses for the wood, it offers good reason to buy it,” Almquist said.
Sustainably harvesting Western juniper creates much-needed jobs in rural communities where logging and wood production have traditionally been an important part of the economy, said Nick Goulette of the Watershed Research and Training Center in Trinity County. The nonprofit organization, based in Hayfork, helps communities transition into new business activities in the wake of logging restrictions.
The search for alternative business and job opportunities led Goulette to Modoc County, after he learned about the juniper removal work advocated by Sustainable Northwest. The Oregon-based natural resources nonprofit helps producers find ways to turn juniper wood removed for environmental reasons into useful products that appeal to urban consumers.
“There’s a clear need on the land-management side to remove the trees,” Goulette said. “We’re focused on the business-opportunity side. Our vision is to use large amounts of juniper lumber for consumer and business products.”
Goulette said Sustainable Northwest is moving into the Portland home improvement and building market with a campaign to promote the use of juniper. With success in that market, the organization wants to expand public awareness in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The experts have studied the environmental implications of removing Western juniper. They’ve researched market potential, prepared workers, developed products. The only thing missing now, they say, is consumer awareness of juniper’s story and the willingness to buy it.
At a glance: Juniper trees and the greater sage grouse
Greater sage grouse are native to Western North America. However, invasive trees, raptors, wildfires and humans are threatening their future.
Farmers and ranchers in California and the West are working to clear invasive plants, including Western juniper, from habitat areas to protect the birds and other species that depend on healthy sagebrush ecosystems.
Juniper trees threaten natural habitat by crowding out brush and grass, reducing water filtration and increasing soil erosion. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management encourages selective removal of Western juniper trees to help restore this natural ecosystem.
Numerous universities and sustainable-resource organizations are working on ways to use juniper wood removed from the landscape for commercial and residential projects.
Western junipers rank as the fourth longest-lived tree species in the world. The giant bonsai-like Bennett juniper, located on a privately owned nature preserve within the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, is the largest known juniper tree in America.
Information on heritage Western junipers is at www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/western-juniper.
Originally published at www.californiabountiful.com.


One of the coolest, most inspiring parts of playing drums is being part of the international community of rhythm makers. People in literally every corner of the planet have been making beats for as long as humans have existed. And, each culture has their own special rhythmical patterns and instruments.
In this Obilab section, we take a minute to highlight one special drum and the culture it came from.
What is it?
Don’t be fooled by the seemingly simple box shape. This instrument not only sounds incredible, but has come to be an indispensable part of Latin music. In fact, it’s the most widely played musical instrument since the 18th century.
The Cajón is a six-sided box, one of the sides is made of a thinner sheet of wood; this side is the part that is traditionally drummed. On the opposite wall (the back), there is a small hole cut out for the sound to come through.
Where’s it from?
The Cajon is from Peru and is used in Afro-Peruvian music and has also spread to be an essential part of Flamenco, jazz, Cuban rumba, Mexican folk music, and many other Latin American music styles.
The origins of the cajón come from the 17th century, during the periods of slavery in Peru. Some people believe it’s a direct descendant of other box-like instruments used in Africa. Other theorize the instrument came from simple lack of materials, slaves playing what they had around them like Spanish shipping crates, old furniture, and other wooden objects.
What’s it made from?
Cajóns are usually made from plywood but can be made from any type of wood, each brand of bark having it’s own unique sounds. The shape of the cajón has recently been moderated and hacked to create new sounds, like adding metal snare strings and other deluxe editions.
How do you play it?
Using hands and fingers to slap and tap the ‘tapa’ or tapping surface you can create different levels of sounds to make beats. And, each part of the surface of the Cajón (lower, higher, left, right) has a different tone. Combined, there’s an infinite scale of music to be made with the cajon.
More recently, people have also started to use plastic and metal brushes and even a bass drum pedal to add extra depth to the instrument.


Copies a range of string indices into a user-provided buffer.
- iOS 3.2+
- macOS 10.5+
- Mac Catalyst 13.0+
- tvOS 9.0+
- watchOS 2.0+
- Core Text
The run from which to copy the string indices.
The range of string indices to copy. If the length of the range is set to
0, then the copy operation continues from the range's start index to the end of the run.
The buffer to which the string indices are copied. The buffer must be allocated to at least the value specified by the range's length.
The indices are the character indices that originally spawned the glyphs that make up the run. They can be used to map the glyphs in the run back to the characters in the backing store.


Gardening for Beginners
Growing vegetables at home doesn’t have to be complicated. Gardening for beginners can be simple and fun.
Home gardening is a great hobby that will give you plenty of fresh air and sunshine. Gardening is also great exercise. The best part of growing your own food is knowing where that food comes from.
Tips for gardening at home-gardening for beginners
There are a few things you need to get started in the garden.
The first important thing is where are you going to grow. In the ground or in raised beds or containers? Is there enough sun in your yard? Vegetables need at least 6-8 hours of direct sun a day to produce well.
After your location is chosen and you decide if you want to plant in the ground or above ground, you need to focus on soil. The soil in the ground can be amended by adding compost and other materials and mixing it in your existing soil.
Raised beds and containers can be filled with a mixture of 1/3 peat, 1/3 pine bark mulch and 1/3 compost. Mix it together well and fill your containers.
Information on how to build raised beds, build a trellis for your plants, and basic gardening information you need is available here in these beginning gardening videos. Click here for more information. You can even download a tour of what types of beds we have in our preschool gardens for free.
Every year you garden, your soil will get better as you work to amend it and take care of it.
Vegetable gardening for beginners
Once your garden soil is taken care of, beginning gardeners need to make sure water is convenient to get to and use. If your water source is a hassle, you will eventually not be watering as well as you should be. Gardening for beginners is exciting at first, but then when it gets so hot and the garden is so dry, sometimes we fall off the wagon.
Run a hose from your water source to your garden and set up a convenient way to water. You can install drip irrigation that can be turned off with a twist of the nozzle or even put on a timer. You can also install sprinklers the same way. I suggest you don’t plan to water totally by hand because you may end up giving up maintaining the garden if there is not a simple system in place.
Giving up watering in the heat of summer is the biggest reason for failure I see in gardening for beginners.
Home gardening for beginners
Once you have a location, soil and water set up, the rest is simpler. You need to decide what you’d like to eat from the garden. I think it’s so funny to see people growing things they don’t like. If you are gardening, you should be doing it so you can eat well.
Spring crops include things like:
Click here to see how you can find your planting times for your area.
Summer crops include things like:
Any post on this blog may contain affiliate links which pay me a very small commission for items you purchase using the links but costs you nothing extra. I can help defray a small percentage of the cost of producing the blog to share information with you.
Planting a vegetable garden for beginners
Decide what you want to grow and how big your garden will be. You may not be able to grow all of the things you want. Don’t get too excited and start too big. Start small and work your way to growing more. It will help you to learn the basics in a small space like and 4 x 8 plot and build on your experience and knowledge before you expand.
Growing vegetables for beginners
Prepare your beds and add your plants is the next step. Plants that grow well from seeds placed directly in the ground include:
Plants that grow other ways are:
Potatoes-grow from seed potatoes that you cut, cure and plant.
Asparagus-grow from crowns you buy.
Onions-grow from sets, or small dried onion plants. Click here to see more about growing onions.
Sweet potatoes-grow from slips you buy.
Plants that grow best when you buy small seedlings or plants already started include:
You will probably find a lot more success if you start with plants from the store than trying to start these seeds on your own.
How to grow a small garden
Gardening for beginners doesn’t have to be complicated. Check out the videos for a great tutorial on how to get started. Click here to see what is available.
Once you have your garden set up, filled with soil, ready to water and planted with seeds and plants, you just have to keep the weeds at bay, pests under control and water it well.
Should you use compost or fertilizer? Check to see to see which is best.
I’m so excited you are thinking of planning a new gardening adventure for yourself. I love it so much and I hope you do too! Happy gardening.
Don’t forget to pin for later!


Overtime contributes to factory recovery
March 24, 2000
Historically, both employment and factory overtime have increased as the economy emerged from recessions. In the most recent recovery, employers appeared to rely about as heavily on overtime as on hiring or recalling employees.
From March 1991 to January 1998, the number of production workers in manufacturing increased by 601,000. Over the same period, the full-time equivalent of the aggregate overtime hours growth in manufacturing was 571,000 jobs.
The largest number of such hypothetical full-time equivalent jobs was found in transportation equipment manufacturing; industrial machinery, and fabricated metals establishments also accounted for many. Other durable goods industries with relatively large full-time equivalents included electronics and primary metals.
These data are a product of the Current Employment Statistics program. To find out more, see "Analyzing the recent upward surge in overtime hours," by Ron L. Hetrick, Monthly Labor Review, February 2000. Full-time equivalents are computed by taking the total number of overtime hours and dividing it by 40, the number of hours in a standard workweek.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Overtime contributes to factory recovery on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/mar/wk3/art05.htm (visited June 27, 2016).
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics
Employment and Wages in Healthcare Occupations
Healthcare occupations are a significant percentage of U.S. employment. Some of the largest and highest paying occupations are in healthcare. This Spotlight examines employment and wages for healthcare occupations.
Fifty years of looking at changes in peoples lives
Longitudinal surveys help us understand long-term changes, such as how events that happened when a person was in high school affect labor market success as an adult.
- A look at pay at the top, the bottom, and in between
The Spotlight examines how earnings and wages have changed over time and how they differ within a geographic area, industry, or occupation.


Where did the beach go? Have you ever noticed what happens to the coast line when a big storm rolls through? Why does the beach look different? What you are noticing is the effect of coastal erosion, and now you can set up a beach erosion activity and demonstration to show your kids what’s happening. This fun and easy ocean science activity is sure to be a hit with your kids, with hands-on learning!
COASTAL EROSION DEMONSTRATION AND ACTIVITY FOR KIDS
LEARN ABOUT EROSION
Break out the sensory play as you get ready to add this beach erosion demonstration and activity to your OCEAN theme lesson plans. If you want to learn about what’s going on between the sand and the waves, let’s dig in (into sand – literally!). While you’re at it, make sure to check out more fun Ocean Activities.
Our science activities and experiments are designed with you, the parent or teacher, in mind! Easy to set up, quick to do, most activities will take only 15 to 30 minutes to complete and are heaps of fun! Plus, our supplies lists usually contain only free or cheap materials you can source from home!
COASTAL EROSION FOR KIDS
Let’s explore beach erosion by building a model! This is a great hands-on ocean STEM activity that is sure to get kids thinking!
This beach erosion activity asks a few questions!
- What is coastal erosion?
- What causes beach erosion?
- How can we stop erosion?
Let’s explore the answers together!
PRINT THE PROJECT: Click here or on the image below.
YOU WILL NEED:
White paint pan
Blue food coloring
- Large pan or tray.
HOW TO SET UP A BEACH EROSION MODEL:
STEP 1: Add about 5 cups of sand to one side of your pan. You will want to build it up on a slope so that when water is added some of the sand is higher.
STEP 2: Place some rocks or shells in the sand for a beach theme!
STEP 3: Fill a small bottle with water, add a drop of blue food coloring, shake and pour into the deep part of your pan.
STEP 4: Add 4 more cups of water.
STEP 5: Use the empty bottle to press up and down in the water to make waves.
STEP 6: Pay attention to how the water affects the sand. What happens if the waves move faster or slower?
Be prepared! Kids are going to loving play with this, and it could get a bit messy.
Further Extension: Have kids come up with ideas for something they can make that will help prevent beach erosion during a storm!
WHAT IS BEACH EROSION?
Beach erosion is the loss of beach sand, usually from a combination of wind and water movement such as waves and currents. Sand is moved off the beach or shore by these things and is transferred to deeper water. This process makes beaches appear shorter and lower. You can see severe beach erosion after a strong storm like a hurricane.
HOW CAN WE STOP COASTAL EROSION?
Coastal erosion is the loss of coastal land due to the removal of sand or rock from the shoreline. Sadly, building along the coast can damage sand dunes. Dunes are mounds of sand that separate the beach you walk on and higher ground. The roots of dune grasses help keep the sand in place. Try not to walk on the dune grasses, so they are not destroyed!
People sometimes build walls called jetties that stick out into the ocean and change the movement of the sand.
Seawalls can also help with erosion. This is a structure separating land and water areas. It generally helps prevent erosion from large waves. Seawalls are more significant structures where flooding is more common. Please don’t remove rocks from the seawall!
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR OCEANS
- Oil Spill Cleanup Experiment
- Layers of the Ocean
- How Do Whales Stay Warm?
- Ocean Waves In A Bottle
- Ocean Acidification: Seashells In Vinegar Experiment
- Fun Facts About Narwhals
- Ocean Currents Activity
SIMPLE BEACH EROSION ACTIVITY FOR OCEAN SCIENCE
Discover more fun and easy science & STEM activities right here. Click on the link or on the image below.
Looking for easy to print activities, and inexpensive problem-based challenges?
We have you covered…
Click below to get your quick and easy STEM challenges.


THE WITNESS EXPERT DR. MLADEN ANCIC ON THE ROLE OF THE PROSECUTION IN THE ICTY, THE HAGUE
Modern history (some of it as recent as yesterday's front page news), is, because of its implications for the present, surely the most sensitive amongst all historical topics. Something which seems certain today can be shown to have been completely wrong and a case of failed judgement after new facts, unknown documents or somebody's memoirs, come to light.
Politician's words or statements are certainly not scientific material - they are usually just rhetorical "acrobatics" which refer to the ephemera of the daily politics, and as such they are generally not to be taken too seriously. However, such statements say a lot about the one who pronounces them and, moreover- they may serve as indicators of the general condition of a society. They are also able, under certain circumstances and on certain occasions, to generate some general condition.
Bosnian language is «essentially» the language of all the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was called Serbo-Croatian before the collapse of Yugoslavia and only extremists's nationalist passions created artificial rift which has no linguistic foundation whatsoever (but is a socio-political reality one must accept). Moreover, Bosnian language is not only a «successor language» (along with Croatian and Serbian) to the old Serbo-Croatian, but also the true heir of the entire corpus of literary and linguistic works written on the Bosnia & Herzegovina soil which (although tangentially in most cases) mention the name «Bosnian language».
During the meeting in the Karadjordjevo estate (Serbian province Vojvodina), March 30th 1991., Croatian president Tudjman and Serbian president Milosevic struck a deal whereby they agreed about the respective influence spheres and the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, completely ignoring even mere existence of Bosnian Muslims. Thus, the "alliance made in Hell" came into being, Serbs and Croats united trying to annihilate Bosnia's statehood and laying the ground for joint military aggression and ethnic cleansing to come.
Tudjman himself gave away (in a bibulous mood) his expansionist/annexationist master-plan with regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Guildhall banquet, 6th May 1995, when British liberal-social democratic politician Paddy Ashdown succeeded in talking him into an astonishing act of self-disclosure: he (Tudjman) has drawn possible future boundaries on a napkin Ashdown cautiously preserved (presumed similarity with Monica Lewinsky's sperm-soaked blouse is purely coincidental), in order to expose Tudjman's partitionist appetites.
Tudjman's permanent political orientation has remained an almost Anschluss-like drive for annexation of the Croatian majority areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was his central geopolitical strategy and obsessive expansionist ambition.
Tudjman himself has openly disclosed (or "blurted out") his sinister expansionist obsession in numerous historical books and essays, interviews and academic ruminations: he publicly questions and, more, expressly announces his disbelief with regard to feasibility and long-term stability of multicivilization states (not multiethnic- see the discourse below).


Paperfolding Dragon Curve
Fold a piece of paper in half repeatedly and then unfold the folds uniformly using the same angle. For each choice of angle, you get a different fractal curve; they are called dragon curves. The folding is a predictable substitution system, which causes successive elements to alternate which way they kink out. Each new edge is given by a fixed linear transformation defined by rotating by the angle in alternating directions.


What is a power surge? Perhaps you’ve heard this term and wondered exactly what it is and why it’s so important to prepare for them. A power surge occurs when something boosts the electrical charge in the power lines. When this happens, there’s an increase in the electrical potential energy, which can increase the current flowing to your wall outlet.
Power surges can be caused by any number of things including lightning, though lightning is not a very common cause. High-powered electrical devices like elevators, air conditioners, and refrigerators are a common cause of power surges. Turning these devices on and off creates sudden, brief demands for power. This can upset the steady voltage flow in the electrical system, causing a power surge. Faulty wiring, downed power lines, or other problems with the utility company’s equipment can also cause surges.
How can power surges be harmful? Many modern electronic devices like DVD players, computers, and microwaves contain components that are sensitive to current increases. Computers and any other home appliances that contain microprocessors are particularly sensitive to power surges. These devices depend on a steady flow of power at the correct voltage. Power surges can shorten the life of computers, and potentially wipe out saved data or destroy the whole system.
In order to protect your appliances from these unavoidable power surges, it is a good idea to use surge protectors. Surge protectors help maintain the constant flow of power that appliances like computers and entertainment systems rely on. Surge protectors can help minimize or eliminate the damage from small fluctuations in voltage flow, which can extend the life of your appliances. It can be a hassle to use small surge protector power strips for all of your appliances, especially if you own many electronics. To be sure that your whole home is protected from power surges, whole home surge protection should be used.


Species can be defined as populations that are diagnosably distinct, reproductively isolated, cohesive, or exclusive groups of organisms. Boundaries between species in sympatry are maintained by intrinsic barriers to gene exchange; these boundaries may not be uniform in space, in time, or across the genome. Here, we explore the nature of the species boundary, defined as the phenotypes/genes/genome regions that remain differentiated in the face of potential hybridization and introgression. We emphasize that species boundaries are semipermeable, with permeability (gene exchange) being a function of genome region. The early evidence for semipermeable species boundaries came from data on differential introgression in hybrid zones. This "genic view" of species was common in the hybrid zone literature even when few molecular markers were available to characterize genome-wide patterns of variation. Now, molecular tools allow detailed characterization of differentiation between diverging lineages and patterns of variation across natural hybrid zones, but the questions being asked by evolutionary biologists have remained much the same. Recent data (from DNA sequences and genotypes) reinforce earlier conclusions about the semipermeable nature of most species boundaries. However, debate persists over the nature and extent of genome divergence that accompanies speciation.
Insects and their arthropod relatives including mites, spiders, and crustaceans play major roles in the world's terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems. Arthropods compete with humans for food and transmit devastating diseases. They also comprise the most diverse and successful branch of metazoan evolution, with millions of extant species. Here, we describe an international effort to guide arthropod genomic efforts, from species prioritization to methodology and informatics. The 5000 arthropod genomes initiative (i5K) community met formally in 2012 to discuss a roadmap for sequencing and analyzing 5000 high-priority arthropods and is continuing this effort via pilot projects, the development of standard operating procedures, and training of students and career scientists, With university, governmental, and industry support, the i5K Consortium aspires to deliver sequences and analytical tools for each of the arthropod branches and each of the species having beneficial and negative effects on humankind.
Testing for Hardy-Weinberg proportions (HWP) is routine in almost all genetic studies of natural populations, but many researchers do not demonstrate a full understanding of the purposes of these tests or how to interpret the results. Common problems include a lack of understanding of statistical power and the difference between statistical significance and biological significance, how to interpret results of multiple tests, and how to distinguish between various factors that can cause statistically significant departures. In this perspective, which focuses on analysis of genetic data for nonmodel species, I 1) review factors that can cause departures from HWP at individual loci and linkage disequilibrium (LD) at pairs of loci; 2) discuss commonly used tests for HWP and LD, with an emphasis on multiple-testing issues; 3) show how to distinguish among possible causes of departures from HWP; and 4) outline some simple steps to follow when significant test results are found. Finally, I 5) identify some issues that merit particular attention as we move into an era in which analysis of genomics-scale datasets for nonmodel species is commonplace.
Feed and energy intake of ruminant animals can change dramatically in response to changes in diet composition or metabolic state, and such changes are poorly predicted by traditional models of feed intake regulation. Recent work suggests that temporal patterns of fuel absorption, mobilization, and metabolism affect feed intake in ruminants by altering meal size and frequency. Research with nonruminants suggests that meals can be terminated by signals carried from the liver to the brain via afferents in the vagus nerve and that these signals are affected by hepatic oxidation of fuels and generation of ATP. We find these results consistent with the effects of diet on feed intake of ruminants. Of fuels metabolized by the ruminant liver, propionate is likely a primary satiety signal because its flux to the liver increases greatly during meals. Propionate is utilized for gluconeogenesis or oxidized in the liver and stimulates oxidation of acetyl CoA. Although propionate is extensively metabolized by the ruminant liver, there is little net metabolism of acetate or glucose, which may explain why these fuels do not consistently induce hypophagia in ruminants. Lactate is metabolized in the liver but has less effect on satiety, probably because of greater latency for reaching the liver within meals and because of less hepatic extraction compared with propionate. Hypophagic effects of fatty acid oxidation in the liver are likely from delaying hunger rather than promoting satiety because beta-oxidation is inhibited during meals by propionate. A shortage of glucose precursors and increased fatty acid oxidation in the liver for early lactation cows lead to a lack of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates, resulting in a buildup of the intracellular acetyl-CoA pool and export of ketone bodies. In this situation, hypophagic effects of propionate are likely enhanced because propionate entry into the liver provides TCA cycle intermediates that allow oxidation of acetyl-CoA. Oxidizing the pool of acetyl-CoA rather than exporting it increases ATP production and likely causes satiety despite the use of propionate for glucose synthesis. A better understanding of metabolic regulation of feed intake will allow diets to be formulated to increase the health and productivity of ruminants.
Globally, food-producing animals consume 70 to 90% of genetically engineered (GE) crop biomass. This review briefly summarizes the scientific literature on performance and health of animals consuming feed containing GE ingredients and composition of products derived from them. It also discusses the field experience of feeding GE feed sources to commercial livestock populations and summarizes the suppliers of GE and non-GE animal feed in global trade. Numerous experimental studies have consistently revealed that the performance and health of GE-fed animals are comparable with those fed isogenic non-GE crop lines. United States animal agriculture produces over 9 billion food-producing animals annually, and more than 95% of these animals consume feed containing GE ingredients. Data on livestock productivity and health were collated from publicly available sources from 1983, before the introduction of GE crops in 1996, and subsequently through 2011, a period with high levels of predominately GE animal feed. These field data sets, representing over 100 billion animals following the introduction of GE crops, did not reveal unfavorable or perturbed trends in livestock health and productivity. No study has revealed any differences in the nutritional profile of animal products derived from GE-fed animals. Because DNA and protein are normal components of the diet that are digested, there are no detectable or reliably quantifiable traces of GE components in milk, meat, and eggs following consumption of GE feed. Globally, countries that are cultivating GE corn and soy are the major livestock feed exporters. Asynchronous regulatory approvals (i.e., cultivation approvals of GE varieties in exporting countries occurring before food and feed approvals in importing countries) have resulted in trade disruptions. This is likely to be increasingly problematic in the future as there are a large number of "second generation" GE crops with altered output traits for improved livestock feed in the developmental and regulatory pipelines. Additionally, advanced techniques to affect targeted genome modifications are emerging, and it is not clear whether these will be encompassed by the current GE process-based trigger for regulatory oversight. There is a pressing need for international harmonization of both regulatory frameworks for GE crops and governance of advanced breeding techniques to prevent widespread disruptions in international trade of livestock feedstuffs in the future.
Acute heat stress (HS) and heat stroke can be detrimental to the health, well-being, and performance of mammals such as swine. Therefore, our objective was to chronologically characterize how a growing pig perceives and initially copes with a severe heat load. Crossbred gilts (n = 32; 63.8 +/- 2.9 kg) were subjected to HS conditions (37 degrees C and 40% humidity) with ad libitum intake for 0, 2, 4, or 6 h (n = 8/time point). Rectal temperature (T-r), respiration rates (RR), and feed intake were determined every 2 h. Pigs were euthanized at each time point and fresh ileum and colon samples were mounted into modified Ussing chambers to assess ex vivo intestinal integrity and function. Transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) and fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran (FD4) permeability were assessed. As expected, Tr increased linearly over time (P < 0.001) with the highest temperature observed at 6 h of HS. Compared to the 0-h thermal-neutral (TN) pigs, RR increased (230%; P < 0.001) in the first 2 h and remained elevated over the 6 h of HS (P < 0.05). Feed intake was dramatically reduced due to HS and this corresponded with significant changes in plasma glucose, ghrelin, and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (P < 0.050). At as early as 2 h of HS, ileum TER linearly decreased (P < 0.01), while FD4 linearly increased with time (P < 0.05). Colon TER and FD4 changed due to HS in quadratic responses over time (P = 0.050) similar to the ileum but were less pronounced. In response to HS, ileum and colon heat shock protein (HSP) 70 mRNA and protein abundance increased linearly over time (P < 0.050). Altogether, these data indicated that a short duration of HS (2-6 h) compromised feed intake and intestinal integrity in growing pigs.
This review integrates established and new information on the biological role of ovarian progesterone (P4) and interferon tau as well as conceptus-and endometrial-derived factors, PG and cortisol, in endometrial function and conceptus elongation during the periimplantation period of pregnancy in ruminants. Interferon tau is the maternal recognition of pregnancy signal that inhibits production of luteolytic pulses of PGF(2 alpha) by the endometrium to maintain corpora lutea and their production of P4, the unequivocal hormone of pregnancy. Conceptus-endometrial interactions in ruminants are complex and involve carefully orchestrated temporal and spatial alterations in endometrial gene expression during pregnancy. Available results from studies in sheep support the idea that the individual, interactive, and coordinated actions of P4, interferon tau, PG, and cortisol regulate expression of elongation- and implantation-related genes in the endometrial epithelia and that P4 and PG are essential regulators of conceptus elongation. The outcome of these gene expression changes is alterations in endometrial secretions that govern conceptus elongation via effects on trophectoderm proliferation, migration, attachment, and adhesion. An increased knowledge of conceptus-endometrial interactions during early pregnancy in ruminants is necessary to understand and elucidate the causes of recurrent pregnancy loss and to provide a basis for new strategies to improve pregnancy outcome and reproductive efficiency.
Approximately 600-bp sequences of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been designated as "DNA barcodes" and have become one of the most contentious and animated issues in the application of genetic information to global biodiversity assessment and species identification. Advocates of DNA barcodes have received extensive attention and promotion in many popular and refereed scientific publications. However, we suggest that the utility of barcodes is suspect and vulnerable to technical challenges that are particularly pertinent to mtDNA. We review the natural history of mtDNA and discuss problems for barcoding which are particularly associated with mtDNA and inheritance, including reduced effective population size, maternal inheritance, recombination, inconsistent mutation rate, heteroplasmy, and compounding evolutionary processes. The aforementioned could significantly limit the application and utility of mtDNA barcoding efforts. Furthermore, global use of barcodes will require application and acceptance of a barcode-based species concept that has not been evaluated in the context of the extensive literature concerning species designation. Implementation of mtDNA barcodes in spite of technical and practical shortcomings we discuss may degrade the longstanding synthesis of genetic and organism-based research and will not advance studies ranging from genomic evolution to biodiversity assessment.
The present study was undertaken to investigate the impact of heat (thermal) stress and dietary antioxidant supplementation on the oxidative and physiological status of sheep. Twenty-four Merino x Poll Dorset crossbred ewes were housed in 1 of 2 climatic chambers (thermoneutral or heat stress) and offered either a control (10 IU vitamin E/kg DM and 0.24 mg Se/kg DM) or high antioxidant (100 IU vitamin E/kg DM and 1.20 mg Se/kg DM) diet. The sheep were exposed to 2 thermal (temperature) treatments (thermoneutral [TN]: 18-21 C and 26-30% relative humidity; and heat stress [HS]: 28-40 C and 40-50% relative humidity) for 2 wk in a single reversal design. After 1 wk of dietary treatment, animals in 1 chamber were subjected to HS for 1 wk, with the temperature being increased to 40 degrees C between 0900 and 1700 h and then maintained at 28 degrees C overnight. Those sheep in the TN group were maintained at 18 to 21 C. Physiological parameters were recorded 4 times a day (0900, 1300, 1700, and 2100 h) and blood samples were collected on d 1 and 7 of heat treatment. Plasma samples and red blood cell lysates were assayed for oxidative stress biomarkers. The thermal treatments were then reversed and the above measures repeated. All measured physiological parameters were elevated (P < 0.001) by thermal treatment. Respiration rate was lower during HS in sheep supplemented with antioxidants as indicated by a diet x temperature x time interaction (P = 0.010). There was 13% decline (P = 0.014) in feed intake of the unsupplemented animals during HS whereas the same was maintained in sheep supplemented with high doses of antioxidants. Plasma reactive oxygen metabolites concentrations were reduced (114 vs. 85 units/dL; P < 0.005) while biological antioxidant potential tended to be increased (3,688 vs. 3,985 mol/L; P = 0.070) in heat stressed sheep supplemented with antioxidants. The oxidative stress index was 30% lower (P < 0.001) in supplemented sheep (2.16 similar to 0.06 arbitrary units) during HS than in unsupplemented sheep (3.12 similar to 0.08 arbitrary units). Plasma advanced oxidation protein products tended (P = 0.070) to decrease in antioxidant supplemented heat stressed sheep as compared to their unsupplemented counterparts. It was concluded that heat stress negatively affects the oxidative status of sheep along with the physiological responses and some of these affects can be ameliorated through dietary antioxidants supplementation at supranutritional concentrations.


The importance of food safety
Every year in Australia, thousands of people get sick and many die due to poor food handling practices. Many of these incidents are easily avoidable.
At the Australian Institute of Food Safety, we want to make a difference.
The mission of each and every team member at AIFS is:
To reduce food-borne illness in Australia through education, promotion and advocacy for better food safety.
The frightening facts about food safety in Australia
Food-borne illness is significant in Australia and the consequences for both consumers and food business owners can be dire. Lost productivity, impacts on lifestyle and medical expenses create a large burden for the whole country.
Then there's the damage to food businesses that are fined, prosecuted or shut down for causing food-borne illness outbreaks.
According to the Department of Health in Australia, there are around 4.1 million cases of food-borne illness every year. On average, this leads to:
- 6.5 million days of lost work
- $1.25 billion annual cost to the Australian economy
- 1 million doctors visits
- 31,920 hospitalisations
- 86 deaths
Around one third of these food-borne illness cases are thought to be caused by food handling mistakes.
How can we solve this problem?
The costs of food-borne illness showcase the great need to strengthen our food safety.
There are 3 major causes of food-borne illness outbreaks in Australia:
- Issues with time and temperature control of food
- Improper cleaning and sanitising of equipment and surfaces
- Poor personal hygiene of food workers
Understanding and preventing these causes is simple.
In fact, it takes just a few hours to train an employee in these areas and teach them how to work with food safely.
At AIFS, we firmly believe that food safety education is the key to achieving our mission.
How are we achieving our mission?
To improve food safety in Australia, we want to make it as easy as possible for businesses to do the right thing. We want to protect both business owners and consumers from the consequences of food-borne illness.
The AIFS team are achieving these goals through:
Advocating for improved regulation
Food safety legislation varies widely between states and territories. We are advocates for bringing food safety up to the highest level across all of Australia.
Delivering quality education
Working with some of Australia's top food safety experts and instructional designers our training is more than compliant - it's highly effective and impactful.
Announcing public health information
The AIFS Foundation is responsible for releasing public health information to help food businesses and consumers minimise food safety hazards.
Providing ongoing support
The complimentary AIFS Membership program ensures students are up-to-date with all the latest food safety information, and food safety is always 'front of mind'.
Focusing on community needs
For every person that undertakes nationally recognised food safety training with AIFS, we donate up to two meals to people in need.
Boosting consumer awareness
Food safety is of greater importance to consumers than ever. AIFS food business signage is designed to give people peace of mind about where they're eating.


Research shows that positive thinking — specifically a thought pattern called “self-talk” — is linked to higher confidence, lower stress, better coping skills, and even a reduced risk of heart disease.
Most of us are conditioned to think negatively about ourselves under the guise of “motivation,” but negative self-talk actually has the opposite effect. It increases stress levels, compromises our ability to cope with change, and puts us at risk for certain illnesses. When you catch yourself thinking negatively about your progress, make a conscious effort to replace negative phrases with positive ones:
Stop saying: "I can't do this as well as other people." Say instead: "I am doing the best I can, and that is what matters."
All people have different skills and capabilities, and it is natural that we will not excel at everything. Chances are, you are talented in ways that others are not. Your best efforts are exactly that: your best. Let that be enough.
Stop saying: "Once I've achieved this, I will be happy." Say instead: "I choose to be happy now. My happiness is not dependent on my situation or my accomplishments."
Years from now, when you’ve accomplished whatever it is that you postponed happiness for, you may find happiness hard to come by. Being happy is a lifelong process, not something you can develop out of the blue. Choose now to embrace your life as it is.
Stop saying: "My health can wait until everything else is in order." Say instead: "My health comes first. No matter how small, I will take steps to be healthier."
The longer you wait to prioritize your health, the more difficult it will be to become healthy. Steps as small as making breakfast in the morning or taking an evening walk before bedtime will make a big difference in the long run.
Stop saying: "Taking time for myself is selfish." Say instead: "Taking time for myself allows me to help others."
When you try to help others without first caring for your own well-being, you are like an engine running with no fuel: nothing is accomplished and you hurt yourself in the process. Take whatever time you need to “fuel up” before reaching out to other people, and both you and
others will benefit. Positive self-talk is most beneficial when combined with a healthy diet and exercise routine. In the event of mental illness such as clinical depression, positive self-talk may not be sufficient or even possible. In these cases, individuals may find that a mental health professional is best qualified to guide them. How do you replace negativity with positive thinking? What motivates you? Tell us in the comments below!


How Spline with Barriers works
The Spline with Barriers tool applies a minimum curvature method, as implemented through a one-directional multigrid technique that moves from an initial coarse grid, initialized in this case to the average of the input data, through a series of finer grids until an approximation of a minimum curvature surface is produced at the desired row and column spacing.
At each grid refinement level, the current grid-based surface model is treated as an elastic membrane, and a convergent linear iterative deformation operator is applied repeatedly at each node to achieve an approximation to a minimum curvature surface that honors both the input point data and discontinuities encoded in the barriers. The deformation that is applied to each cell is calculated on the basis of a molecular summation (Terzopoulos, 1988) that compares the weighted summation of 12 neighboring cells with the current value of a central target cell to calculate a new value for the target cell.
References and further reading
Briggs, I. C., 1974. Machine contouring using minimum curvature, Geophysics, Vol. 39, pages 39–48.
Terzopoulos, D., 1988. The computation of visible-surface representations, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 10, No. 4, (July), pages 417–438.
Smith, W. H. F., and P. Wessel, 1990. Gridding with continuous curvature splines in tension, Geophysics, Vol. 55, No. 3 (March 1990), pages 293–305.
Zoraster, S., A surface modeling algorithm designed for speed and ease of use with all petroleum industry data, Computers & Geosciences, 2003, Vol. 29, No. 9, pages 175–182.


19 Sep Opinion: Study Shows Social Media Connected to Substance Abuse
A 2011 study from the Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse showed a correlation between teenagers who abuse drugs and alcohol, and those that use social media channels regularly (CASA,2011). According to the research the problem doesn’t reside with being a social media user, but more concerned with what the other teenagers are actually seeing on those social networks. This includes intoxication and other behaviors displaying illegal activity.
Many of us have seen and bare witness to similar instances, but have done nothing about it. What does this say about the culture revolving around drugs and alcohol from a peer’s and parent’s perspective? If you’re a parent what can you do about it?
Over the course of the teen years, there is a fine line between total lockdown and control over a teenagers life and the opposite which is complete freedom. In this next section lets reflect on a couple real world suggestions to helping your teen have healthy social media habits in the name of Recovery Month.
Teach Your Teen How to Respond to Illegal Social Media Activity
Facebook has a way to report images which are upsetting in any way called Social Reporting.
Show your teenager an example of something and why it upset you, then report it. With time your teen may be able to choose a healthier response and maybe even seek to help out the individual, instead of endorsing it.
Make Opportunities to Share Hobbies
Some of the best hobbies are timeless ones, which one would enjoy no matter the age. Take guitar lessons together or pick up mountain biking.
If your teen is less interested in outdoor hobbies, try building a gaming PC together. Name the budget, do some google searching, and in the end take away a valuable skill worth bragging to friends about.
Whenever you and your teen are enjoying the hobby together, document the whole thing on a blog, Pinterest, or Facebook Page. They’ll learn healthy social media habits that way and hopefully curb their negative use.
Teenagers deserve more credit for controlling themselves than they actually get. With some thought we can help teens stay safe from drugs and alcohol.
What do you think? Let us know what you do to keep your teen safe from the temptations of drugs and alcohol evident on social media.


As far as microphone placement is concerned, one should bear in mind that the main difference between woodwind and brass instruments lies in the fact that a woodwind instrument’s pitch is first and foremost determined by opening and closing its tone holes. Those movements indeed modify the length of the vibrating air column, causing the pitch to change. This also means that a woodwind’s tone is only partially produced by the bell: the tone holes and body also have an important impact.
As for brass instruments, the typical sound of a woodwind instrument is determined by its overtone structure. And again, the formants mentioned in my previous workshop are responsible for an instrument’s recognizable sound.
The main differences between woodwind and brass instruments can be ascribed to their overtone structure. This means that a microphone for capturing a woodwind instrument should be located in an altogether different position from a brass instrument.
Characteristics of Woodwind Instruments
A clarinet’s sound is rather complex and depends essentially on the register. To be more specific: there are three registers with different overtone structures. The lowest register features a lot of harmonics, while the highest is shaped by the fundamental and a formant in the 3kHz~4kHz range.
One thing to bear in mind is the clarinet’s wide dynamic range and the resulting overtone structure. Playing pianissimo in the single ledger-line octave produces a spectrum up to 1.5kHz, while fortissimo notes in this range go up to 12kHz.
Like other woodwinds, the clarinet projects frequencies up to 1kHz mainly via the open tone holes. As the frequency rises, the projection shifts increasingly towards the bell. The following illustration shows the clarinet’s frequency-dependent projection behavior:
Schematic projection behavior of a clarinet: the bell’s high-frequency output towards the floor, close to the music stand, etc., are something to bear in mind as well. (Attentive readers will probably have noticed my virtual assistant Franziska. she doesn’t play the clarinet, by the way… ;-)
Unlike the clarinet, a saxophone has a conical body. A typical saxophone sound is characterized by the powerful first-order overtones. The body shape is responsible for the overtone structure, which is quite unlike the clarinet’s—even though both instruments use a single reed.
The upward bell causes the low and high sound components to mingle, which is especially prominent when close-miking.
A flute’s fundamental covers a wider frequency range than the one of other woodwinds. Formants are hardly noticeable, and the highest sound components are located at 3kHz~6kHz.
Microphone Selection and Placement:
Woodwinds produce a lower sound-pressure level than brass instruments. This is why more sensitive condenser microphones can be used without hesitation. Care should be taken, however, to choose a microphone whose frequency response neither emphasizes nor attenuates the instrument’s frequency range and formants.
The microphone’s directivity essentially depends on the intended effect:
If you wish to isolate the signal in question, choose a hypercardioid microphone pattern. This may be counterproductive, however, because a woodwind instrument is not a spot signal source: the entire instrument acts as a tone generator. If you nevertheless prefer a hypercardioid microphone, remember to place it at 50~60cm from the instrument. A cardioid microphone with a wider pattern, on the other hand, may benefit from being closer to the instrument. This would have the additional benefit of the cardioid microphone’s superior background attenuation compared to that of a hypercardioid.
For woodwind instruments, microphone placement for close-miking scenarios poses a real challenge. The illustration shows that a clarinet or a soprano saxophone has several areas with rather different frequency response patterns. Ideally, two microphones should be used. Ask your trusted dealer for suitable combinations. When using a single microphone, a workable compromise can be achieved by pointing the microphone not too closely towards the lower body region, just above the bell. Focusing on the bell would result in a sharp, narrow sound that doesn’t reflect the instrument’s natural tone because of the excessive amount of high frequencies.
If that is what you are looking for, consider using a short microphone stand (see example 1), or clipping a microphone to the bell. As an alternative, you could use a special instrument mount. A clip-on microphone could also be attached to the music stand and to the instrument itself for solos (see example 2).
Tenor and Alto Saxophone:
Tenor and alto saxophones are not prone to frequency separations in a close-miking scenario, because all frequencies are combined inside the upward-pointing bell. I would nevertheless advise against pointing the microphone directly at the bell. After all, even in the case of a saxophone, the bell tends to emphasize the high-frequency range, which leads to a harsh sound. Doing so only makes sense when the instrument has a mellow sound and would benefit from some added presence. Another consideration is that the high notes in the two octaves above the G are mainly projected by the upper body section, while the low notes essentially emanate from the bell. Pointing the microphone at the bell might cause the low notes to sound somewhat boomy and uncontrolled, while the higher notes are much softer.
The following illustration shows a tried-and-tested microphone placement technique (Example 3) used for the Average White Band’s Molly Duncan on tenor sax.
A balanced and smooth tone can be achieved above the tone holes. If you also want to pick up the breathing noises, place the microphone closer to the headjoint. For a balanced sound, install the microphone on a stand raised 0,5m~1m above the instrument. For minimum background spill, consider using a hypercardioid microphone. With its superior resolution, a condenser mike is likely to produce the best result. A headset microphone might also work. It has the advantage that the musician can freely move their head. Expert placement of the microphone will allow you to mix the breathing noise into the overall sound. The main advantage of a headset microphone—as opposed to a clip-on model mounted on the flute—is that the player is free to switch instruments (from flute to piccolo, and back) without hassle.


The patient, a brown cat named Erik, lies motionless on his back as a nurse wheels him into the operating room. A caboose of medical equipment follows: heart monitor, anaesthetic machine, ventilator, and a network of wires and tubing.
"Alright, we're cutting," shouts one of the surgical nurses.
Hush overcomes the bustling operating room as a team of three surgeons, four nurses, and two anaesthesiologists snap to action. With a scalpel's quick slice, Erik's viscera splay out, protruding from his freshly shaved belly like a grisly fruit basket. In plain view are off-white intestines, a crimson spleen, and a bright magenta liver—not the dark purple you see in a butcher shop. There's little blood. The organs rise and fall with Erik's unhurried breaths. Two surgeons on opposite sides of the operating table huddle over the cat, their heads almost butting.
Waiting nearby, a sick cat named Teca—short for Tecumseh—will soon receive one of Erik's healthy kidneys.
In an increasingly common trend, cats like Teca are benefiting from top-notch health care as veterinarians borrow tools, techniques, and drugs from human medicine. But with the convergence of human and animal care comes escalating costs and tough decisions for owners. Teca's kidney transplant cost his owners more than $10,000. Others pay thousands more.
Since the mid-1980s, Clare Gregory, a veterinary surgeon and researcher at the University of California, Davis, has pioneered kidney transplants in pets. He's performed the operation in several hundred cats and 26 dogs. The transplants have been somewhat successful in cats—more than 90 percent survive the surgery and three-quarters live beyond a year. But with dogs, it's grimmer: A recent study showed just one in five lived more than a year after transplant. Slim chances, considering 95 percent of human kidney recipients live at least one year.
There's no single reason for the high rate of failure in these operations, but the drugs the animals take for the rest of their lives are the main cause, says Gregory. The medications stop the recipient's immune system from attacking the new organ. But they have nasty side effects like anemia and diabetes, and they make animals more vulnerable to cancer and infection.
Gregory is working to improve those odds. As director of the Comparative Transplantation Laboratory at UC Davis, he has spent more than 25 years developing and testing transplant rejection drugs for pets—and humans. Because the cost of producing new drugs is so high and the market for pets so small, human applications come first, he says. Only after pharmaceutical companies produce drugs commercially can Gregory adapt them to the pets he treats.
From humans to pets
"There are no diseases that occur in humans that we don't see in one or more animal species," says Niels Pedersen, a veterinarian at UC Davis who melds human and veterinary practices to offer better care to pets. He directs the Center for Companion Animal Health, a new $15 million clinic built with private donations. The center offers pets cutting-edge treatments that would never exist without human medicine. "There really is only one medicine," he says.
Comparative medicine—looking at the shared traits of human and animal disease—is not new. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates scorned veterinary medicine but studied animal pathology to gain insight into human diseases. The cattle plagues of 18th-century Europe spurred the first veterinary schools. By the late 19th century, France, Germany, and England boasted research institutes devoted to bridging the divide between animals and people.
From the start, surgeons studied organ transplantation in animals, too. Alexis Carrel performed the first kidney transplant in dogs in 1902 and later won a Nobel Prize for the surgical techniques he pioneered. But physicians quickly learned that successful transplants demanded more than surgical dexterity. Unless the kidney came from an identical sibling, the immune system attacked the perceived invader like an infection.
In the late 1970s, scientists discovered cyclosporine, a natural chemical made by a lowly soil fungus. It became the first blockbuster transplant drug. By stopping immune cells from dividing and attacking a transplanted organ, cyclosporine made long-term human and animal transplants feasible. Researchers performed some of the first tests on dogs. Soon Gregory started transplanting kidneys into beagles, a common lab breed. "It was nothing new," he says. "We just borrowed what had gone before."
By the mid 1980s, as kidney transplants grew more common in humans, Gregory became the first veterinarian to perform the surgery in pets. "We didn't start kidney transplantation in the clinic because we wanted to," he says. "We had so many clients asking for it." Twenty years later, more than a half-dozen veterinary hospitals around the country offer kidney transplants for pets. Cats are the most common recipients because their immune systems are simpler than those of dogs, and veterinarians must only match them according to one of two blood types. He performs about a dozen of the costly procedures each year.
Today's surgery is typical. Four months ago, Teca, a four-year-old Himalayan with penetrating white eyes, seemed perfectly healthy to his owners, Craig and Maera Busch. But during a routine check-up, they learned their cat was in late-stage kidney failure. Conventional therapies—medication, fluids delivered under the skin, and diet changes—failed, so the Buschs turned to Gregory. A week before the surgery, they flew to Davis from their home in Barrie, Ontario, an hour north of Toronto.
Surgery under the microscope
"Start the clock," Gregory orders. Erik's kidney sits in an ashtray-sized stainless steel basin resting on bloodstained surgical sponges, bathed in an ice-cold solution. Cut off from its blood supply and starved for oxygen, the kidney is slowly self-destructing. The surgical team has an hour to reconnect the organ to Teca, restoring blood flow.
The artery, about the thickness of twine, is first. But even Gregory's experienced hands need help making the incisions and sewing the kidney in. A huge surgical microscope on a swing arm hovers over Teca's open abdomen.
A video camera positioned on top of the microscope beams the surgeons' view onto a television in the operating room. "It looks pretty," says a nurse, pointing to the monitor displaying Teca's open abdomen magnified 10 times. A puddle of saline the surgeons squirted into the cavity shimmers like a reflecting pool.
With his unblinking eyes never straying from the scope, Gregory makes a tiny cut into Teca's renal artery, which is clamped on both ends. Some blood trickles out for a second, then stops. The suturing begins. Working with tweezers and a needle threaded with silk suture so thin it's only visible under a microscope, Gregory and his colleague Margo Mehl tether the artery from the healthy kidney to Teca's artery with two knots on either end and sew the incision shut. The room is silent, except for Gregory's calm instructions.
A $30,000 cat named Princess
That cat kidney transplants exist is a testament to the demands of pet owners like the Buschs. "It didn't used to [involve] this much," says Maera Busch, waiting anxiously for Teca to get out of surgery. "When you had a problem, you pretty much put them to sleep."
No one knows how many cats and dogs suffer kidney failure each year; the ones who receive transplants are a tiny proportion. "There's a section of the population—not huge—that want the same thing for their pets as they want for themselves," says Gregory. But that decision isn't cheap. A feline kidney transplant can cost more than $10,000, and owners end up spending more on post-operative care, immunosuppressive drugs, and blood work. But veterinarians like Gregory say they are up-front about the costs. He has even urged people to reconsider the procedure if he thinks it's going to be a huge financial burden. "I don't want them to get a second mortgage on their house," he says.
But Deborah Casey, a 52-year-old middle school teacher from Albany, California, did exactly that. Several years ago, her cat Princess, one of four feral kittens she found living under a shed, developed kidney problems and failed to respond to conventional treatments. "I was so panicked I was going to lose her that I would have agreed to anything," she says. Casey estimates she's spent more than $30,000 caring for Princess, who got her transplant at UC Davis. Gregory is now one of the veterinarians overseeing Princess, who is doing well.
Like many owners of transplant recipients, Casey has no kids to support. She says her cats are like children, and she has no qualms spending money to care for them. Responses from friends and coworkers have been mixed; she only tells devoted pet owners about the transplant and the money she's spent.
"The knee-jerk reaction from some of the public is that these people are crazy," says Jonathan McAnulty, a veterinary surgeon who started the kidney transplant program at the University of Wisconsin. But he says they're devoted pet owners with disposable income. "I've been surprised at how uncharitable some people can be in condemning someone that would go this route," he says. "But they would never condemn someone who would buy a new car every three years."
When desperate pet owners approach Gregory for kidney transplants, he reminds them of the risks. "Don't get into transplantation if you don't think there's a possibility that your animal is going to die," he says. Nor is a new kidney a miracle tonic; rejection can happen at any time. "It's just a treatment, it's not a cure," he says.
For many pets and their owners, last-ditch surgeries like transplants are not the right choice, says Gregory. Medical technology can only do so much, and it often exposes the limitations of what veterinarians can do to save an animal's life. "The statement, 'Well it's going to die anyway' doesn't carry a lot of weight with me," he says. "There are ways to die, and I'd rather see an animal in comfort at home with good medical care than to have it die on my operating table." Gregory calls such doomed-to-fail procedures "cowboy surgeries."
In the operating room, the pace quickens. Gregory stitches the vein of the new kidney to a small incision in Teca's renal vein, completing the circuit of blood flow: oxygen in, carbon dioxide and waste out.
"Release the clamps," he orders.
Blood gushes into the newly connected organ, providing much-needed oxygen. "Mark the timer and put it in the record," says Gregory. A nurse notes the kidney was without blood for 54 minutes and 20 seconds. In past operations, the kidney has been disconnected for as long as two hours with good results, but the shorter the better, Gregory says.
The kidney is in, and the two other surgeons will close up the cat. Even in the operating room, there's time for a pun: "Your own little slice of heaven," Gregory announces to the team before scrubbing out.
A drug pipeline for pets
Though the operation went off without a hitch, the success of Teca's transplant is not assured. Twice a day for the rest of his life, the cat must take cyclosporine to stop his body from attacking Erik's donated kidney, but his compromised immune system will leave him vulnerable to disease. It's a balancing act between organ rejection and immune suppression, says Gregory. Over the next month, he will tweak Teca's medication to find the right dosage.
Current transplant drugs are indiscriminant. They act like a bomb, when a sniper would suffice. Cyclosporine haphazardly stops immune cells from dividing, the key to fighting a pathogen or keeping cancer at bay. It also has "10,000 side effects," says Mehl, Gregory's fellow surgeon. For this reason, Gregory is testing new antirejection drugs, not yet on the market.
Creating a new drug is a tortuous process that takes years and costs hundreds of millions of dollars. Along the way, pharmaceutical companies navigate several tiers of testing in animals and humans. Gregory partners with drug companies to do the preclinical testing required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He tests transplant drugs on cats, dogs, rats, and primates at UC Davis to determine whether they're safe and effective. Only once a drug makes it through human trials and comes onto the market can veterinarians use it on pets. "We pretty much rely on the backbone structure of drug development for humans to allow us to have new drugs for animals," he says.
One example is leflunomide, a drug made by the Paris-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis. The FDA approved it in 1999. Physicians use leflunomide to treat rheumatoid arthritis and occasionally to prevent transplant rejection. Gregory now includes it in a cocktail of drugs given to dog transplant recipients. As part of the development process in humans, he tested leflunomide on dogs in his lab, speeding its application to pets.
Unlike cyclosporine, the next generation of transplant rejection drugs being developed for humans work more specifically—like a sniper. Instead of tamping down the whole immune system, they go after specific molecular pathways. This focus leaves the body still able to fight infection and cancer, and causes fewer of the toxic side effects associated with cyclosporine. Many such medications are still in the early phases of testing in humans, but Gregory and other veterinarians are eager to add them to their repertoire. He's currently partnering with several pharmaceutical companies to help test the drugs, which he says could be available to pets within the next few years.
Ideally, transplant drugs and other pet medicines would be custom designed for animals, but that's unlikely given the minuscule number of animals that get organ transplants. In 2004, doctors performed more than 16,000 kidney transplants in humans—far more than any other solid organ—compared to the dozen or so kidney transplants that Gregory does each year.
One major difference between giving drugs to humans and to pets is the regulatory oversight. The FDA strictly controls human medications, while little analogue exists for animals. "In dog and cat medicine we're governed primarily by our own ethical codes on using drugs we think are safe," says Gregory.
The animal health-care boom
In 2006, Americans spent an estimated $36 billion on their pets. A good chunk of that—$9.4 billion—went to veterinary care. Fifteen years ago, people spent half as much on their pets. These figures reflect the convergence of human and veterinary medicine and the resulting increases in the cost of veterinary care, says Niels Pedersen, director of the new clinic at UC Davis that offers such top-tier care to pets. While Pedersen is an advocate of high-tech pet care, he says it represents a concerning trend.
Since World War II pets have gained status in the American home, as people migrated from rural areas and farms to sprawling suburbs. In many households, pets have become near equals to humans—even "child substitutes," says Pedersen. But he frets that the increasing cost of pet care, combined with the newfound social status of pets, could further complicate ownership and even obliterate the idea of "owning" an animal. "There's now a belief that if you can't afford veterinary care for your pet, you shouldn't have a pet," he says.
And as pets scamper up the social ladder, they gain new legal rights. Currently, animal malpractice suits, though on the rise, are awarded for the actual value of an animal—maybe a few thousand dollars. Pedersen expects this to change. "Nobody yet has won pain and suffering for $5 million," he says. "One of these days there will be some big settlement, and then veterinarians are going to realize that they've come the full way—they're now equivalent to M.D.s."
Teca is now out of surgery and recovering well. He'll spend a week in the hospital as Gregory watches for rejection and stabilizes his cyclosporine dosage. Two days after the transplant, Erik has fully recovered and is back with his new family, one $10,000 kidney lighter.
Is this veterinary medicine in the 21st century? Life-saving technologies such as kidney transplantation have opened the door to maladies of the human health care system: rising costs, malpractice, and ethical issues. While veterinarians like Gregory adapt human medical techniques and drugs to their animal clients, offering treatments that would never exist otherwise, the pet health-care system itself is adapting. Just be prepared to pay.
ABOUT THE WRITER
B.A., biology, Colorado College
M.S., microbiology, University of Washington
Internship: Nature, Washington D.C.
If bacteria could express joy (or any sentiment), they would be elated by my departure from research. As I studied microbiology during the past five years, countless microbes met their untimely deaths at my hands. In college it was Xanthomonas, itself a killer of tomato plants. Salmonella was my victim in graduate school, though I plead self-defense. Guilt aside, there were other hints that research was not my ideal career. Unlike my classmates, I spent nearly as long working on my prose as on background reading. Volunteer work for a public radio science program confirmed my suspicion that science writing might appeal to me. As I begin my new career, I see my foray into microbiology as an experience that will inform my writing. Still, I'm fortunate bacteria also are unable to hold a grudge.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
B.A., marine biology, Boston University
D.V.M. ,veterinary medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison
It's been a bit of a winding road so far, but no complaints, as everything has started to fit together nicely. I grew up in Colorado, and went to Boston University to study marine biology, traveling to Woods Hole, Ecuador and Dominica during college. I worked at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago with marine mammals after college, and became interested in the work of the veterinarians. Off I went to school again with the intent of being an aquarium vet. It was three intense years in classes, and a great final fourth year with actual patients. During that time, I started drawing again and colleagues started asking me what I was doing being a vet. So after some soul- and Web-searching, I found the UCSC Science Illustration program. I will be returning to the Shedd Aquarium, this time as a freelance exhibit artist, and also hoping to return to the vet school to provide veterinary students and clinicians with better visual materials.


5.OA.A.1: Use parentheses and brackets in numerical expressions, and evaluate expressions with these symbols (Order of Operations).
5.OA.B.3: Generate two numerical patterns using two given rules (e.g., generate terms in the resulting sequences). Identify and explain the apparent relationships between corresponding terms. Form ordered pairs consisting of corresponding terms from the two patterns, and graph the ordered pairs on a coordinate plane (e.g., given the rule 'add 3' and the starting number 0, and given the rule 'add 6' and the starting number 0, generate terms in the resulting sequences, and observe that the terms in one sequence are twice the corresponding terms in the other sequence).
5.OA.B.4: Understand primes have only two factors and decompose numbers into prime factors.
5.NBT.A.1: Apply concepts of place value, multiplication, and division to understand that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.
5.NBT.A.3: Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.
5.NBT.A.3a: Read and write decimals to thousandths using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form.
5.NBT.A.3b: Compare two decimals to thousandths based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.
5.NBT.B.5: Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using a standard algorithm.
5.NBT.B.6: Apply and extend understanding of division to find whole-number quotients of whole numbers with up to four-digit dividends and two-digit divisors.
5.NBT.B.7: Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, connecting objects or drawings to strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between operations. Relate the strategy to a written form.
5.NF.A.1: Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions in such a way as to produce an equivalent sum or difference of fractions with like denominators (e.g., 2/3 + 5/4 = 8/12 + 15/12 = 23/12).
5.NF.A.2: Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators by using a variety of representations, equations, and visual models to represent the problem. Use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers (e.g. recognize an incorrect result 2/5 + 1/2 = 3/7, by observing that 3/7 < 1/2).
5.NF.B.3: Interpret a fraction as the number that results from dividing the whole number numerator by the whole number denominator (a/b = a ÷ b). Solve word problems involving division of whole numbers leading to answers in the form of fractions or mixed numbers.
5.NF.B.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number and a fraction by a fraction.
5.NF.B.4a: Interpret the product (??/??) x ?? as a parts of a partition of ?? into ?? equal parts.
5.NF.B.4c: Find the area of a rectangle with fractional side lengths by tiling it with unit squares of the appropriate unit fraction side lengths, and show that the area is the same as would be found by multiplying the side lengths. Multiply fractional side lengths to find areas of rectangles, and represent fraction products as rectangular areas.
5.NF.B.6: Solve problems in real-world contexts involving multiplication of fractions, including mixed numbers, by using a variety of representations including equations and models.
5.MD.A.1: Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system, and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real-world problems.
5.MD.C.3: Recognize volume as an attribute of solid figures and understand concepts of volume measurement.
5.MD.C.3a: A cube with side length 1 unit, called a “unit cube,” is said to have “one cubic unit” of volume, and can be used to measure volume.
5.MD.C.3b: A solid figure which can be packed without gaps or overlaps using n unit cubes is said to have a volume of n cubic units.
5.MD.C.4: Measure volumes by counting unit cubes, using cubic cm, cubic in, cubic ft, and improvised units.
5.MD.C.5: Relate volume to the operations of multiplication and addition and solve mathematical problems and problems in real-world contexts involving volume.
5.MD.C.5a: Find the volume of a right rectangular prism with whole-number side lengths by packing it with unit cubes, and show that the volume is the same as would be found by multiplying the edge lengths, equivalently by multiplying the height by the area of the base. Represent threefold whole-number products as volumes (e.g., to represent the associative property of multiplication).
5.MD.C.5b: Understand and use the formulas V = l x w x h and V = Bh, where in this case B is the area of the base (B = l x w), for rectangular prisms to find volumes of right rectangular prisms with whole-number edge lengths to solve mathematical problems and problems in real-world contexts.
5.G.A.1: Understand and describe a coordinate system as perpendicular number lines, called axes, that intersect at the origin (0, 0). Identify a given point in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane using an ordered pair of numbers, called coordinates. Understand that the first number (x) indicates the distance traveled on the horizontal axis, and the second number (y) indicates the distance traveled on the vertical axis.
5.G.A.2: Represent real-world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.
5.G.B.3: Understand that attributes belonging to a category of two-dimensional figures also belong to all subcategories of that category.
5.G.B.4: Classify two-dimensional figures in a hierarchy based on properties.
6.1.1: Mathematically proficient students explain to themselves the meaning of a problem, look for entry points to begin work on the problem, and plan and choose a solution pathway. While engaging in productive struggle to solve a problem, they continually ask themselves, “Does this make sense?' to monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Once they have a solution, they look back at the problem to determine if the solution is reasonable and accurate. Mathematically proficient students check their solutions to problems using different methods, approaches, or representations. They also compare and understand different representations of problems and different solution pathways, both their own and those of others.
6.3.1: Mathematically proficient students construct mathematical arguments (explain the reasoning underlying a strategy, solution, or conjecture) using concrete, pictorial, or symbolic referents. Arguments may also rely on definitions, assumptions, previously established results, properties, or structures. Mathematically proficient students make conjectures and build a logical progression of statements to explore the truth of their conjectures. They are able to analyze situations by breaking them into cases, and can recognize and use counterexamples. Mathematically proficient students present their arguments in the form of representations, actions on those representations, and explanations in words (oral or written). Students critique others by affirming or questioning the reasoning of others. They can listen to or read the reasoning of others, decide whether it makes sense, ask questions to clarify or improve the reasoning, and validate or build on it. Mathematically proficient students can communicate their arguments, compare them to others, and reconsider their own arguments in response to the critiques of others.
6.5.1: Mathematically proficient students consider available tools when solving a mathematical problem. They choose tools that are relevant and useful to the problem at hand. Proficient students are sufficiently familiar with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful; recognizing both the insight to be gained and their limitations. Students deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts when using tools to visualize, explore, compare, communicate, make and test predictions, and understand the thinking of others.
6.6.1: Mathematically proficient students clearly communicate to others using appropriate mathematical terminology, and craft explanations that convey their reasoning. When making mathematical arguments about a solution, strategy, or conjecture, they describe mathematical relationships and connect their words clearly to their representations. Mathematically proficient students understand meanings of symbols used in mathematics, calculate accurately and efficiently, label quantities appropriately, and record their work clearly and concisely.
6.7.1: Mathematically proficient students use structure and patterns to assist in making connections among mathematical ideas or concepts when making sense of mathematics. Students recognize and apply general mathematical rules to complex situations. They are able to compose and decompose mathematical ideas and notations into familiar relationships. Mathematically proficient students manage their own progress, stepping back for an overview and shifting perspective when needed.
6.8.1: Mathematically proficient students look for and describe regularities as they solve multiple related problems. They formulate conjectures about what they notice and communicate observations with precision. While solving problems, students maintain oversight of the process and continually evaluate the reasonableness of their results. This informs and strengthens their understanding of the structure of mathematics which leads to fluency.
Correlation last revised: 9/15/2020


Q: It seems like COVID-19 can have some short and long-term effects on the brain. What is the likelihood that psychiatric issues will arise in COVID-19 survivors?”
THE QUICK ANSWER: We do not yet know if SARS COV-2 can get to the brain (cross the blood brain barrier), but we have some evidence that more people are experiencing neurological and psychiatric issues (anything affecting the brain and behavior) after having COVID-19 and EARLY evidence of brain changes after having COVID-19.
🙋 Does SARS CoV-2 cause symptoms in the brain?
Scientists began to examine the potential mechanism of SARS CoV-2 entering into the brain because more people are reporting anxiety, depression, insomnia, psychosis, and even suicidal thoughts after COVID-19 disease. Among people who have survived COVID-19, many have reported extended difficulty with cognition, fatigue, smell, balance, and nausea, all of which may have to do with the brain. We also know that more people are having strokes and stroke-like events due to clots formed in small blood vessels leading to the brain. These clots can then cut off blood supply and oxygen to key areas of the brain involved in regulating our mood, wakefulness, sleep, balance, and senses. But, the exact mechanism of how psychiatric symptoms emerge is unknown. SARS CoV-2 could get in to the brain through damage to the blood brain barrier or through monocytes (part of your innate immune system, which may take in the virus, but then be unable to get rid of it-thus transporting it to the brain).
🧠 The brain may be affected directly by the virus, but we do not have much evidence for this. One study looked at people’s brains after they died of COVID-19 (most or all had severe illness)-changes were noted. There are many variables that could influence these changes, including lack of oxygenation, other illnesses, critical illness, and COVID-19 related sequelae (such as micro clots). So this study may not provide direct evidence as the people who died may have had more severe disease and/or other health issues which could have confused the picture (https://tinyurl.com/yh8c9vmc). This recent preprint (not yet peer reviewed), which followed people before and after COVID-19, suggests that COVID-19 results in decreases in gray matter (where most of the neurons are)-specifically in areas of the brain related to smell and taste. This makes sense since this is where the virus can enter the body itself (through the nose and mouth). But, it does not necessarily explain the onset of psychiatric symptoms after infection.
Even if we don’t know the mechanism by which this occurs, it is clear that the virus affects many systems in the body and can have long lasting impacts. Other viruses also have evidence for causing neurological and psychiatric symptoms by lingering in the body and affecting neurons and the immune system; an example of such a virus is the poliovirus-which can cause neurological symptoms in some, but not all.
🕵 Some evidence: There appears to be an increased risk for mental health symptoms among those who have had COVID-19.
Data is still emerging, but a recent study in the Lancet that matched groups (compared two groups with similar characteristics who either had COVID-19, respiratory infection or influenza) and followed them for 90 days suggests that COVID-19 increases the risk of new onset psychiatric symptoms (nearly double) with the most common diagnoses being anxiety, insomnia, and depression. Psychosis was reported, but there was no evidence that this was related to COVID-19 infection. Dementia was also common after COVID-19 infection, although further research is needed to understand why. Of note, there may be unmeasured factors (social and economic) which may explain some of these differences. It is also important to note that the data were already collected and then analyzed and came from hospitals, primary care settings, and specialty care organizations. Follow up data at six months showed similar results, suggesting that people who have had COVID-19 may have an increased risk of psychiatric symptoms. Interestingly, how sick you are (severity of disease) does not seem to play a direct role in the onset of psychiatric symptoms. BUT, having a previous psychiatric diagnosis is likely associated with an increased risk of having psychiatric symptoms after COVID-19 disease.
😶🌫 Of course, some people don’t experience any of the studied symptoms, but do experience brain fog. Up to 30% of people who have recovered from COVID-19 suffer from memory loss, difficulty with concentration, and cognitive fatigue-some defining features of what people call brain fog. These symptoms are NOT only present in people who have had severe illness or stroke like we would expect, but in others who have had milder illness as well. The mechanism behind this is not yet well understood but is thought to have to do with inflammation and the body attacking many cells, including some of those in the brain that are responsible for control of memory, attention, and other activities.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
✅ So to answer the question, some people will have neurological and psychiatric symptoms after COVID-19. Specifically people who have had psychiatric symptoms prior to COVID-19 are more likely to have symptoms after having COVID-19. It is likely that this does not have anything to do with how severe their disease is. And some symptoms, like “brain fog,” can linger for up to six months or more. Some people will also have anxiety, depression, or PTSD like symptoms after having COVID-19. In fact, it is well known that many people experience psychiatric symptoms after critical illness. Having COVID-19 does not mean you WILL have psychiatric symptoms-but it is common (about 1 in 3 will have symptoms after having COVID-19) and the risk appears to be higher compared to other psychiatric symptoms after other infections like influenza.
While this sounds disheartening, the important thing is to raise awareness around the possibility that someone can experience psychiatric symptoms so that people can seek help if these symptoms arise. Talk to your primary care provider if they do. The treatments are often similar to those available for traumatic brain injury and focus on periods of rest/work and building up stamina to regain function. They often involve occupational therapy as well as supportive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and medications specific to the symptoms.
We are hopeful that greater awareness around this will help more people get the care they need. Thank you for your question!
Those Nerdy Girls
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (Español: 1-888-628-9454; Hearing Support: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.


Bioactive glasses caused a revolution in healthcare and paved the way for modern biomaterial-driven regenerative medicine. The first 45S5 glass composition, invented by Larry Hench fifty years ago, was able to bond to living bone and to stimulate osteogenesis through the release of biologically-active ions. 45S5-based glass products have been successfully implanted in millions of patients worldwide, mainly to repair bone and dental defects and, over the years, many other bioactive glass compositions have been proposed for innovative biomedical applications, such as soft tissue repair and drug delivery. The full potential of bioactive glasses seems still yet to be fulfilled, and many of today’s achievements were unthinkable when research began. As a result, the research involving bioactive glasses is highly stimulating and requires a cross-disciplinary collaboration among glass chemists, bioengineers, and clinicians. The present article provides a picture of the current clinical applications of bioactive glasses, and depicts six relevant challenges deserving to be tackled in the near future. We hope that this work can be useful to both early-stage researchers, who are moving with their first steps in the world of bioactive glasses, and experienced scientists, to stimulate discussion about future research and discover new applications for glass in medicine.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited