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#biomedical journal articles

biomedres · 11 months

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Chondroblastoma of the Medial Malleolus: A Very Rare Case with Radiopathological Correlation

Chondroblastoma of the Medial Malleolus: A Very Rare Case with Radiopathological Correlation in Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research

https://biomedres.us/fulltexts/BJSTR.MS.ID.006057.php

Chondroblastoma is an uncommon osseous neoplasm. It accounts for less than 1% of all bone tumors. Tumors of the medial malleolus are rare, and even rarer is the chondrogenic tumors of the medial malleolus [1]. The most common anatomical site involved by this tumor is the proximal humerus, followed by the distal femur, proximal femur, proximal tibia, talus and innominate bone, in descending order. The typical radiological finding is an eccentric osteolytic lesion, frequently accompanied by a thin sclerotic rim [2,3]. The male to female ratio is greater than 2:1, with peak incidence at age of 16 years. The proximal tibia is the most common location; but there is near even distribution of cases between the proximal tibia, proximal humerus, proximal femur, and distal femur [4-6]. Malignant transformation in chondroblastoma has been described in only a few cases [7]. Patients usually present with pain and swelling, particularly if a pathological fracture is present [8]. Chondroblastoma is usually treated by simple curettage with bone grafting [4,9].

For more articles in Journals on Biomedical Sciences click here bjstr

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#Biomedical Journal Articles #Bio-psychological Medicine #Journals on Vaccination #journal of biomedical sciences research review #biomedical journal impact factor

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jamisonwritestf2trash · 7 months

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hiya :D

i love ur headcannons they always make me laugh reading them!

do u think u could do some on what subjects u think the mercs would teach if they were teachers?

What Subjects Would The TF2 Mercs Teach?

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Awe, thank you, Anon, that's so sweet 💖 I can definitely write this, it seems like a lot of fun! UH going to just assume that these guys are teaching at a college, so they get specialized fields to teach!

This is probably going to be very similar to "What Jobs Would The TF2 Mercs Have If They Weren't Mercenaries" post, so I'll probably keep this shorter so I don't end up repeating myself, uh I also added how the classes would like them as a teacher!

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Demo would teach chemistry, trying very hard not to dabble with anything too illegal in his classroom. He loves the way science almost works like magic when it comes to chemistry. Loves the bearly visible bridge between a perfect result and utter chaos. His students are both deeply terrified and greatly inspired by Demo. He's a genius when it comes to science, and it shows through the times he's deeply concentrated while teaching. May or may not have "accidentally" shown the class how to make explosives. Oops.

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Engie is a fan of biomedical engineering regardless of if it's his job or just something he'd be asked to teach to people who were curious about it. He has such a passion for the mix of two things he loves, helping people and making things. He will go on for hours, showing examples of how important biomedical engineering is, how impactful even one person in the field can be. His students would love the passion he speaks on the subject with and how willing he is to make sure everyone in his class understands the material.

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Heavy would teach Russian literature after being inspired by his teachers. The passion they showed in their teachings and how willing they were to prioritize helping students evoked feelings in him that he never known. He does everything for his students, making sure that everyone is supported. He tries his hardest to give his all to make these students feel the same passion he has for it. His students love him, and his class is one of the most popular, has made large impacts on every student that's came into his class.

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Medic teaches, shock of all shocks, medical classes! I know, I know, but what can I say? He lives for the medical field. Keeps his class ethical enough, stating multiple times that as doctors, their job is to heal and save lives. However, some of his students who share the same, uh, curious shine in their eyes are more than welcome to attend a class that dips into the unethical side of medical practices. He's a good teacher, and his students are fond of him for his unsettling aura and passion.

(Can you tell I know jack all about medicine and how it's taught lmao)

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Scout is a teacher in sports journalism, and his class both loves and loathes him as a teacher. He loves sports, so writing about them is super easy! He has a lot of fun teaching other people the best way to describe things and how to put their feelings on the page, but he's also horrendous at spelling and writing in general. His class understands his struggles but gets rather annoyed when Scout pulls up an article he wrote and can't understand any of it. He's trying his best, and he makes a half decent teacher.

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Sniper is a photography teacher, and honestly? His class isn't for everyone. In Snipers mind through every picture he takes he's expressing a deep feeling or trying to invoke an emotion in the viewer, which he succeeds in most of the time, but it's hard for other people to replicate that when you, don't. Talk. To. Them. Some people just pick up photography and understand exactly how to do what Sniper expects without guidance, others can't understand at all. Basically, not a teacher, teacher.

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Spy is teaching political science, hoping he can somehow subtly influence a few students into using the knowledge he provided to find a profession in espionage. He's definitely a teacher who would make you nervous, kind of a mean teacher, but he never let's a student fall behind. Subtly offering help or an extension to make sure his students succeed. Claiming he doesn't do it out of love for his students, just so he isn't known for having any failures in his class.

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Soldier is the worlds best american history teacher, hands down. You want to talk about passion? He loves American history and will go on the longest rants and makes all of them entertaining. His class is never dull or boring. He's another prime example of a teacher who will do anything for his students and make sure they understand everything going on. No man left behind and all that. His students love him :)

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Pyro is a teacher of fire science (I didn't even know that was a thing, but apparently it is, who knew?) Pyro, being obsessed with lighting fires, knows quite a bit about all types of fire is more than happy to share their knowledge about flames. While their students can barely understand them, they don't call Pyro out on it as their passion for the subject transcends words. Pyro's class is less of a class than a period of entertainment, but somehow everyone comes away from the class knowing everything they needed, and even somethings they didn't.

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Short and sweet little headcanons, how fun! Sorry if it's actually too short! Thank you again for the ask anon, super fun to write :)

I'm just now realizing that there's a chance that this won't make sense because I'm a little tired while writing this, so I hope it turned out well. Sorry if it didn't, Anon 😭

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 headcanons #team fortress headcanons #tf2 hcs #tf2 demoman #tf2 engineer #tf2 heavy #tf2 medic #tf2 scout #tf2 sniper #tf2 spy #tf2 soldier #tf2 pyro

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everythingaboutbiotech · 2 years

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Which search engine is best for academic research? Hint: It's not Wikipedia

PubMed

PubMed is a free resource supporting the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature with the aim of improving health–both globally and personally.

The PubMed database contains more than 34 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. It does not include full-text journal articles; however, links to the full text are often present when available from other sources, such as the publisher's website or PubMed Central (PMC).

Available to the public online since 1996, PubMed was developed and is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar provides free, AI-driven search and discovery tools, and open resources for the global research community. With Semantic Scholar, researchers can understand a paper at a glance. Our system extracts meaning and identifies connections from within papers, then surfaces these insights to help Scholars discover and understand research.

Connected Papers

Connected Papers is a unique, visual tool to help researchers and applied scientists find and explore papers relevant to their field of work.

Research Rabbit

Research Rabbit is starting with our Discovery app which unlocks a completely novel way to search for papers and authors, monitor new literature, visualize research landscapes, and collaborate with colleagues.

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sporesgalaxy · 1 year

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Tumblr keeps crashing each time I send this so I gotta be quick: do have any tips on how to study biology (college is not an option atm)

Oh boy! I will do my best!

I've listed the basic irl resources for biological information first, followed by some online resources.

I've got a strong Animalia bias, so apologies that I don't have any botany-specific sites for you. 😔

I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting. I'll add on to this if I think of anything!

If there's anything specific you need help finding a reliable biological resource for, let me know and I will try my best to help find you something!

•••

Finding primary sources (stuff written by the scientists who did the research [i.e. a journal article]) is always very good, but reliable secondary resources (someone else summarizing other people's research [i.e. Wikipedia page, book]) can be very valuable as well.

•••

Meatspace Resources

I would highly recommend checking to see if there is a Nature Park in your area! Nature parks often have volunteer programs and/or free educational opportunities. In my experience, naturalists are always very excited to meet new people interested in learning about local ecology!

There's also Zoos and Aquariums of course, although I know they cost money and are typically geared more towards kids. I'm lucky to live near some nice ones. Maybe check if there are any special programs happening at Zoos/Aquariums in your area (by checking their website[s]), where you might learn more than you would on a normal day trip.

Plus natural history museums, which usually have rotating exhibits so that you can keep learning new things when you come back! They also have more of an all-ages vibe than Zoos in my experience. Once again dependant on if there's one near you, and not free.

Last but not least: the local library, although obviously not every published book is a flawless resource. Still, might be interesting to poke around! There's usually some sort of digital search catalogue to make finding things easier. Libraries are fun :)

•••

Online Resources

Jstor is GREAT. Not all jstor articles are open access/free, but some are! And you can set a search filter to show you only things you can access.

One good way to find out what experts have written for other experts about biology: search a species name or biological concept or type of experimental study, etc. etc., in jstor's journal articles. I've linked a search for journal articles "I can access" containing the word "biology" as an example.

The website layout can feel a little obtuse at first but I think if you fiddle around with it a bit, it's not too bad to figure out? Feel free to kick my ass if I'm wrong djgjkeg

Wikipedia is actually a very good place to introduce yourself to a lot of biological concepts. I would recommend checking out some of the sources yourself if you can-- usually at least some of them are free, and that can introduce you to new free resources for learning more (today I discovered bugguide.net!). Often they will link you to jstor.

But biology-focused wiki pages have a pretty good track record for Correct Information in my experience. The only issue I've run into is there being too little information sometimes.

Pubmed is a really good resource to read biomedical scientific papers for free if that interests you at all! Reading scientific papers is a really important skill and I think you can pick up a lot just by diving in and googling words you don't know.

A well-designed experiment is replicable (that is, you can understand from the paper how they set things up to the point that you could do it yourself, given the resources). It's also important to pay attention to sample size. The more times you replicate any process in an experiment, the more likely you will be able to identify what the most common result really is, and why.

Fishbase is a website I was introduced to in my icthyology class to find info about different fish species :) It kind of just dumps all the info on you in a big text wall, but many pages include great details about life cycle and diet that might go unmentioned on wiki pages.

I've never used bugguide.net before today, but so far it seems solid and like it has a lot of good info. I assume it is similar to fishbase but for bugs

EDIT: FREE ONLINE TEXTBOOKS I FORGOT ABOUT!!!

I used both of these for university classes at some point. I didn't use them much, so there may be issues I don't know about.

In my experience though they were solid resources, if a little confusingly worded at times. Bouncing between the textbooks and wikipedia tended to help me.

#syd writes an essay #<- not really but eh. to bookmark it.#asks #biology

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morrak · 3 months

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Untitled Wednesday Library Series, Part 140

Yes, another academic journal article. I have a brand to maintain, so maintain it I shall.

Xenobiotica is a very fun publication, but it usually sits on the far side of a Taylor & Francis paywall. It’s a real shame there’s no way around such a thing. Shucks, darn, and thrice drat.

Krumdieck C. L. (2013). Development of a live tissue microtome: reflections of an amateur machinist. Xenobiotica, 43(1), 2–7. https://doi.org/10.3109/00498254.2012.724727

The How

When I run searching or citation management workshops, one of my first scripted searches is always "machinist". There are good reasons for this — it's an uncommon word in biomedical databases with minimal controlled vocabulary mapping, so results are stable; it's easy to remember which articles are good for showing off important workflows; I've got a perfect record of typing it quickly in front of an audience — but mostly I just like the things it retrieves. I've probably looked at listings for this one a hundred times, but hadn't bothered to read it until a few weeks ago.

The Text

It is what it sounds like, more or less. Sometimes you (or maybe not you, but some people) really need to slice unmounted tissue samples, which stops being the job of a butcher somewhere in the 4,000–5,000 micron range. Live tissue respirometry, the main use case addressed by this paper, calls for 100–500 and high parallelism besides.

If I wanted to be picky — I do — I’d say the abstract is internally sound but weak in context. This is about 50% prototyping narrative by dry weight, though you’d never know it from the wrapper. I like development stories as much as the next person who spent several formative years partying with analytical biochemists; I don’t mind the surprise, but that doesn’t mean there should be one.

The Object

Unremarkable; unpretty; par for the course. Two columns, two photos, two (three if you're feeling generous) diagrams, tiny little bibliography. A little crispy, but readable in a pinch. I'm willing to give it a B for a relatively small journal in light of the vintage.

The Why, Though?

A microtome is a type of horse. To me. Is creating one this specialized and reliant on specialized laboratory conditions ethical? Probably not, but you cannot stop me from appreciating its frail and sickly charm.

I don't know if this prototype resulted in anything commercial; I haven't checked. Don't care, really. The paper has its charm, a little, but its quality and content are (for me) other than the point. It's ready to hand, inoffensive, and as stable as anything I work with can be.

#images #untitled wednesday library series

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coochiequeens · 1 year

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Of the 136 “women” included in the study, 62 were trans-identified males. The remaining 74 respondents were described as “assigned female at birth,” including 69 “cis women” and five “non-binary individuals.”

A recent study purporting to examine the transmission and clinical features of monkeypox in women conducted its research on a sample where nearly half of the participants were male.

The study, published in prominent American medical journal The Lancet in November, was titled “human monkeypox virus infection in women and non-binary individuals during the 2022 outbreaks: a global case series,” and sought to contribute to the data on confirmed monkeypox cases in women. It surveyed 136 people from May 11 until October 4, and pulled the respondents from multiple countries.

While introducing the paper, the authors “hypothesized that the transmission routes and clinical presentation of monkeypox virus in the current outbreaks might not be the same for women as for GBMSM [gay, bisexual, men who have sex with men], and that presentations might also differ between cis and trans women.”

The majority of the trans-identified males involved in the study were also living with HIV, had multiple male partners, and were involved in the sex trade.

“37 (27%) of all individuals were living with HIV, with a higher proportion among trans women (31 [50%] of 62) than among cis women and non-binary individuals (six [8%] of 74),” the study states, going on to show to show that 73% of the trans-identified males had multiple male sexual partners within one month of the study being conducted, compared to 12% of “cis women and non-binary individuals.”

The study also noted similarities in the way the disease is transmitted and presents in “trans women” and men, but observes that these similarities did not extend to those “assigned female at birth.”

When outlining the implications of the study, the authors group all results together, and state that “special attention must be paid to avoid delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis in women.” This is despite having found that it was significantly more likely for “cis women” to be misdiagnosed than “trans women.”

According to the Center for Infectious Disease Policy and Research, 99% of monkeypox cases identified in the United States have been in males, with 94% reporting recent homosexual intimate contact.

Screenshots of The Lancet article began to make the rounds on Twitter this week, inviting ample mockery from women’s rights advocates and those critical of gender ideology.

“Apparently there has been an unexplained increase in the incidence of testicular cancer among women too,” Twitter user Ian McLean wrote in response to a screenshot of the article posted by Anne Brøndum.

“This is an utterly ridiculous study. Biomedical scientists have swallowed the Kool-Aid. Now research is going to be harder to interpret because of this obfuscation,” another user wrote.

This is not the first time The Lancet has come under scrutiny from those concerned with female erasure.

In September of 2021, the editor-in-chief of the publication was forced to issue a video apology following widespread backlash after releasing an article in which women were described as “bodies with vaginas.”

The article, which was a review of an exhibit about the history of menstruation at the Vagina Museum in London, was featured on The Lancet‘s front page with a prominent quote reading: “Historically, the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected.”

Researchers have found that “gender inclusive” language, especially when used in specific medical contexts, can result in negative outcomes for women.

A collaborative research effort led by Australian academic Karlene Gribble concluded that so-called “inclusive language” had “consequences that have serious implications for women and children.” Gribble’s study focused around the neutralization of language in reproductive healthcare, and argued that it risked dehumanizing women.

“Desexing the language of female reproduction has been done with a view to being sensitive to individual needs and as beneficial, kind, and inclusive,” Gribble and her colleagues wrote. “Yet, this kindness has delivered unintended consequences that have serious implications for women and children.”

Gribble and her team of 10 global women’s healthcare experts went on to assert that neutralizing the language around motherhood, including “disembodying and undermining breastfeeding,” would result in “reducing protection of the mother-infant [bond].”

A co-author of the paper, midwifery professor Jenny Gamble, said that sex-based language “is important due to sex-based oppression,” and that neutralizing and confusing terms to refer to females “risks adverse health consequences and deeper and more insidious discrimination against women.”

By Jennifer Seiland Jennifer is a founding member of the Reduxx team, writing with a focus on crimes against women and sex-based rights advocacy. She is located in the American south where she is a passionate animal welfare advocate and avid coffee drinker.

#The Lancet #Biology is real #Gender identity is feelings #Just say women #Medical studies don’t include enough women to begin with

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bpod-bpod · 11 days

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Contractions and Wrinkles

Understanding the factors influencing myoblasts (cells from which skeletal muscle develops). In lab-grown cells, a soft substrate led to more myoblasts with a wrinkled nucleus with a reduced level of a proliferation marker, and lower contractility – a relationship with potential for therapeutic manipulation

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Jo Nguyen and colleagues

Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Journal of Cell Science, March 2024

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

#science #biomedicine #immunofluorescence #biology #muscle #muscle cells #cell culture

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 5 months

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By: Anna Krylov and Jay Tanzman

Published: Oct 2, 2023

Note: A version of this article will appear as an invited chapter in the forthcoming volume The Free Inquiry Papers edited by Robert Maranto, Lee Jussim, and Sally Satel.

1. An age of unreason

The liberal enlightenment, humanism, and democracy are under siege. A once-obscure postmodernist worldview, Critical Social Justice (CSJ) [1-3], has escaped the academy and is quickly reshaping our institutions and society at large. Long-standing merit-based practices in science are rapidly being subordinated to practices based on the tenets of CSJ theory [4]. Increasingly, scientists must compete for funding, no longer only on the basis of scientific merit, but also on the basis of how their proposed research will promote the goals of CSJ. As an example, an NIH neurology program requires grant applications to include a “plan for enhancing diverse perspectives” with the goal to “bring about the culture change necessary to address the inequities and systemic biases in biomedical research….” [5] Similarly, funding for fundamental research in chemistry and physics now depends on researchers demonstrating their commitment to “promote equity and inclusion as an intrinsic element to advancing scientific excellence” [6].

In the academy, faculty hiring and administrative appointments are increasingly made on the basis of the candidate’s identity [7-9]. Merit-based admission to schools and universities is being weakened, with standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT being abandoned on “social justice” grounds [10,11]. K–12 is affected as well. Some school districts have stopped giving D and F grades in order to improve “equity” [12]. In math classes, activist teachers claim that getting the right answer and showing your work are white supremacist concepts and are advocating, instead, a supposedly anti-racist CSJ pedagogy [13,14]. Accelerated mathematics programs for gifted students, necessary to prepare them for advanced training and careers in STEM [15], are being dismantled in the name of “social justice” [16-18]. Many school districts have eliminated honors classes altogether in the name of “equity” [19]. The resultant weakening of the workforce has already contributed to the fall of the US from its position as the world leader in science [20].

In the university, faculty and staff are instructed to use Newspeak—neopronouns and other neologisms—in their written and verbal communications for the purpose of “inclusivity” [21,22]. To be avoided are such apparently un-inclusive terms as “strawman,” “brown-bag lunch,” and “picnic” [22–25]. Professional societies and corporations are following suit, proscribing terms such as “field,” “dark times,” “black market,” “double-blind study,” “nursing mother,” “hip-hip hooray,” “smart phone,” “homeless,” and “the French” [26–30].

In biology, an education paper recommends that teachers emphasize the sexual diversity across species in nature, which includes “organisms such as ciliates, algae, and fungi [that] have equal-size gametes (isogamy) and do not therefore have gametic sexes [that is, binary sexes, as mammals do].” This is supposed to promote inclusivity of LGBTQIA2+ students in the classroom [25]. Chemistry education also needs to be reformed, according to the journal Chemical Education, which published a virtual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) collection of 67 papers exploring such topics as decolonization of the chemistry curriculum, chemistry and racism, and gender and sexual orientation identities in the chemistry classroom [31]. A recent paper in the same journal describes “a special topic class in chemistry on feminism and science as a tool to disrupt the dysconcious racism in STEM,” which explores “the development and interrelationship between quantum mechanics, Marxist materialism, Afro-futurism/pessimism, and postcolonial nationalism.” “To problematize time as a linear social construct,” the paper says, “the Copenhagen interpretation of the collapse of wave-particle duality was utilized” [32]. No, Deepak Chopra was not a co-author of the paper.

In STEM, prospective faculty are asked to pledge their commitment to the ideology of CSJ and to document their activism in advancing DEI [8,9,33,34]. Medical schools are abolishing long-accepted assessments of competency in order to improve racial parity in residency programs [35]. A pamphlet published by the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health claims that public health anti-obesity campaigns are an example of “fatphobia,” that public health’s “focus on body size is rooted in racism,” that “higher weight is not causal to worse health outcomes," and that “focusing on weight ignores systematic injustices” [36,37]. Under the doctrine of gender-affirming care, adolescents are offered life-changing transgender treatments, often after only perfunctory psychological assessment, despite the poor understanding that medicine currently has on the risks and benefits of these treatments [38–40].

[ Unreason and intolerance. Upper left: Yale students protest “offensive” Halloween costumes (2015). Lower left: Activists burn books by J.K. Rowling (2023). Right: Students at UC Davis disrupt a film viewing by throwing a bag of manure into the room. ]

Free speech itself, the cornerstone of liberal democracy, is under attack. As viewed by CSJ activists, free speech is dangerous, harmful, and equivalent to violence [41]. Adherents of DEI ideology believe that DEI should trump academic freedom [42]. Institutions essential for providing a platform for the marketplace of ideas, information exchange, and debate have largely abandoned their mission in the name of social justice activism. Articles in the press are infused with CSJ ideology [4]. Scientific publishers from Scientific American to the flagship journals Science and Nature have become mouthpieces for CSJ [43–56]. Universities, whose primary mission is education and truth seeking, have become complicit in censorship, scholarship suppression, indoctrination, and intimidation [57–59]. Universities and professional organizations have compromised their mission as seekers and communicators of objective truths by abandoning traditional institutional neutrality in favor of political activism, taking official positions on elections, police reform, abortion, wars, and other social issues [60,61], leaving dissenters out in the cold. Where debate, constructive disagreement, and discussion were once cultivated, conformity and dogmatism, enforced both top-down (by CSJ-infused DEI trainings [62,63]) and bottom-up (by ideologically driven activists [58]), now reign.

On campus, another essential provision of democracy, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, no longer guides procedures for resolving conflict. Suspensions and terminations of professors without a hearing in response to offense taken by students, faculty members, or administrators has become commonplace (see, for example, Ref. 64–67). A predictable consequence is that there is now an unprecedented level of self-censorship by students and faculty [57,68,69]. Proposed changes to Title IX regulations will further erode the free speech of students and the protection of due process [70].

CSJ adherents accuse dissenters of being indifferent to existing inequalities and historic injustices, of being bigots, of having nefarious motives, and of perpetuating existing power structures. We reject these accusations. We oppose the practices of CSJ because they harm everyone, including those groups they purport to elevate [71-73]. It is precisely because we care about the existing problems in the world and about real social justice that we oppose CSJ.

What we are witnessing today—curriculum “decolonization,” the elimination of honors classes in schools, the ubiquitous war on merit [4], the imposition of political litmus tests for academic positions, Newspeak, the renaming of everything in sight, and on and on—are not isolated excesses perpetrated by a handful of overly zealous but otherwise well-meaning individuals; they are symptoms of a wholesale takeover of our institutions by an illiberal movement that currently has the upper hand. The current situation is not a pendulum that has swung too far and will self-correct [74]; it is a train hurtling full speed toward a cliff. Those of us unwillingly to go over the edge can either jump off—leave academia (or maybe start up alternative institutions)—or fight to get the brakes applied before it is too late. The remainder of this chapter is about the latter course of action.

2. Why we should fight

To put it simply, we should fight because it is the right thing to do. It is not only our duty to the next generation, but an opportunity to pay our debt to the previous generations of dissenters who fought against forces of illiberalism to create the free and prosperous world that we enjoy today [75,76]. By fighting, we, too, can fend off the forces of unreason and restore the values of humanism, liberalism, and The Enlightenment. Inaction and submission will only enable the further spread of illiberalism. The history of past illiberal regimes, such as the USSR and Nazi Germany, provide ample lessons and motivation to stand and fight today. The train is gaining momentum; the longer we wait, the harder it will be to stop it. We must act now, while we still can.

Although there are uncanny parallels with totalitarian regimes of the past [23,77–80], we are still living in a free, democratic society. Despite the advances of illiberal ideology, manifested by the rise of censorship, the spread of cancel culture [23,57,58,81–83], and the proliferation of institutionalized structures (such as DEI bureaucracies) to enforce CSJ ideology, the dissenters of today do not face incarceration in prisons, labor camps, and mental hospitals. Nonetheless, we can learn from history.

In his book To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter [84], Vladimir Bukovsky [85] describes his experiences as a dissident who refused to comply with the Soviets and challenged the regime. Bukovsky describes the apathy and complacency of the majority of the population at that time. People understood the corrupt and inhumane nature of the regime, but they chose to keep their heads down because—as the Russian proverb goes—“No man can splay the stone” (in Russian: плетью обуха не перешибёшь).

Because of this complacency, the economically bankrupt, oppressive, and inhumane Soviet regime lasted as long as it did (70+ years). But it was the actions of dissidents that ultimately catalyzed its downfall. Consider, for example, the impact of the books of Solzhenitsyn, who told the world the truth about the atrocities of the Soviet regime [86]. In addition to meticulously documenting the scale of the atrocities, Solzhenitsyn explained that they came to be, not due to deviations from the party line or shortcomings of its individual leaders, but as the direct result of Marxist-Leninist ideology.

In Bukovsky’s time (the late 1950s to mid-1970s), open dissent was rare. Growing up in the Soviet Union, I [Anna]—as most of my peers—did not even know dissidents existed. It wasn’t until Perestroyka in the late 80s, when I read Solzhenitsyn’s books and learned about Sakharov [87] that I found out. Yet, it is through the actions of the dissidents that the West came to understand the Soviet regime as an “evil empire,” and this understanding propelled the political forces in the West that ultimately decided the outcome of the Cold War. The impact of the dissident movement on the Soviet regime has been illuminated through a series of memoranda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, stolen and published by Bukovsky in his book Judgment in Moscow [88]. The acts of individuals splayed the stone after all.

I [Anna] was born (in the then-Soviet state of Ukraine) into the luckiest generation in the history of the USSR—the generation that witnessed the fall of the Wall when they were still young. We could escape to the free world, live as free people, and build successful and fulfilling careers in the West. Had the regime lasted another 20 years, my generation would have been yet another of the long list of those whose lives were ruined by the Soviet regime. I feel a personal debt to the dissidents of the day.

Now, it is our turn to be the dissidents and to fight the good fight.

Fighting for what is right is not just the right thing to do; it is empowering. Standing up and speaking your mind is liberating, even exhilarating; while hunkering down in fear, hoping the storm will pass, is a bleak experience. Being honest feels good, while being complicit in lies is dispiriting. Fighting the good fight puts you in control, whereas passive submission leaves you helpless. Whether we ultimately win or lose this fight, those who choose to remain silent will look back and ask themselves why they did not act when they could. As Martin Niemöller wrote after World War II,

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Eventually, this illiberal movement, like those of the past, will come not only for the dissidents, but for the silent bystanders as well (and, eventually, for its own vocal supporters).

There are myriad excuses, as old as the history of totalitarianism and oppression itself, invoked to justify inaction, complacency, and collaboration. Bukovsky [84] enumerates a few of the more familiar: “What can I do alone?”; “I’ll be more effective after I get the promotion”; “It’s not my job; I’m a scientist.” “If I don’t collaborate, someone else will anyway (and I’ll probably do less harm).” These reasons may seem logical, even compelling; however, they are self-deceptions. Not pushing back against bad ideas allows them to spread. Not fighting back against illiberalism allows it to grow. Not standing up for truth permits the lies to flourish. Not confronting the CSJ ideologists permits them to advance. And when they advance, we lose. It is a zero-sum game.

The choice to fight in the face of potential consequences is personal [89] and not an easy one to make. But as you contemplate whether to act or to lay low, consider the importance of truth and integrity in your life. To paraphrase Bari Weiss: Worship truth more than Yale. As she says:

[D]o not lose sight of what is essential. Professional prestige is not essential. Being popular is not essential. Getting your child into an elite preschool is not essential. Doing the right thing is essential. Telling the truth is essential. Protecting your kids is essential. [90]

Sure, no one wants to become a martyr for free speech or experience bullying, ostracism, and professional damage [81,91–93]. Cancel culture is real, but the risks are not what dissenters to totalitarian regimes faced historically or face today—cancel culture does not put you in jail. One still can write a dissenting op-ed without the fear of being stripped of their citizenship and expelled from the country, as Solzhenitsyn was for his writings [83]. We still can criticize DEI policies without fear of being put under house arrest, as Sakharov was for his vocal opposition to nuclear weapons and his unwavering defense of human rights [87]. But if we delay, some of the totalitarian nightmares of the past may become a reality. There are already worrying signs of this totalitarian-style repression in America: parents opposing CSJ in schools have been accused of terrorism and investigated by the FBI [94]; a journalist who wrote about collusion between the government and social media was paid a surprise home visit by the Internal Revenue Service [95]; a student who questioned the concept of microaggressions [96] at a mandatory training was expelled and forced to “seek to psychological services” [97]. These incidents in America today are chillingly similar to practices in Russia in the Soviet era, when the KGB routinely investigated dissidents, and dissent from Soviet ideology was considered a psychiatric disorder [84,88]. In the absence of resistance, this illiberal movement, like illiberal movements of the past, will gain ever more power, and we will face ever worse repression and erosion of individual freedom.

Inaction does not guarantee survival, but fighting a successful fight does. The only way to defend yourself against repression by an illiberal ideology is to stop the spread of the ideology.

The dangers of inaction are real, but how much risk one should take must be a personal decision [89]. Above all, it rarely does any good to get fired. Getting fired is playing into their hands. It’s one less enemy in the organization to fight against its ideological capture. Should all the dissidents get fired, the ideology wins. Full stop.

But it’s not hopeless. As we elaborate below, there are ways to maximize the impact of your actions and minimize the chances of negative consequences of resistance.

3. How to fight

Although there is no sure-fire roadmap to solve the current crisis, there are some do’s and don’ts. A recently published handbook, Counter Wokecraft (which we highly recommend), written by an anonymous STEM professor, provides concrete recommendations for staging the resistance [98]. It convincingly explains how small but deliberate actions add up to big change and elaborates on the perils of delaying action. In what follows, we offer our view on how to fight, and we share examples of successful acts of resistance that give us reason for hope. Small contributions add up, so do something rather than nothing. As Gad Saad writes in The Parasitic Mind:

The battle of ideas knows no boundaries, so there is plenty to do. If you are a student and hear your professors spouting postmodern nonsense or spewing anti-science drivel, challenge them politely and constructively. If you are a graduate and your alma mater is violating its commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of thought, withdraw your donations—and let the school know why. If your Facebook friends are posting comments with which you disagree, engage them and offer an alternative viewpoint.... If you are sitting at your local pub having a conversation about a sensitive topic, do not refrain from speaking your mind. If your politicians are succumbing to suicidal political correctness, vote them out of office. [99]

1. Educate yourself; knowledge is power.

To effectively counter the ideology of CSJ, it is crucial to understand its nature and the tactics it employs. As two-time Nobel Laureate Marie Sklodowska-Curie said:

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so we may fear less.

Although Curie was referring to phenomena of the natural world, the observation applies equally to the world of ideas. By understanding the origins and tenets of CSJ, we can fear less—and fight more effectively.

For me [Anna] and my former compatriots, who were forcibly schooled in Marxist-Leninism and experienced its implementation as Socialism firsthand, it is easy to recognize the current illiberal movement’s philosophical roots [78,79]. We recognize the familiar rhetoric and the Orwellian co-option of the language: the media outlet of the Communist Party, which disseminated its lies, was called Pravda (Правда), which is Russian for “truth”; victims of Red terror were called “enemies of the people” (враги народа); Soviet troops invading other countries were called “liberators” (освободители); and nuclear weapons were developed with the slogan “nucleus for the cause of peace” (атом—делу мира). We are used to looking behind the facade of nice-sounding words and seeing their real meaning to those in power [100]. It is not hard to see that today’s “Diversity,” “Equity,” and “Inclusion” have about as much in common with the noble concepts of diversity, equality, and inclusion as Orwell's Ministry of Love had to do with love or his Ministry of Plenty had to do with plenty. (A more-fitting operational definition of DEI would be Discrimination, Entitlement, and Intimidation.) This linguistic tactic is used because it works. It has fooled many STEM academics and ordinary citizens and has enabled the illiberal ideology to get its foot in the door [3].

As Counter Wokecraft explains, the tactics CSJ employs to gain power in our institutions include the use of liberal-sounding “crossover words” to shroud the illiberal aims of the movement [98]. The concise essay “DEI: a Trojan Horse for Critical Social Justice in Science” by the same author offers insights into the philosophy that undergirds the CSJ movement and clearly elucidates its aims [3]. For a deeper dive into CSJ, we recommend the book by Pluckrose and Lindsay [1].

2. Use all existing means of resistance, but first and foremost, the official ones.

Mechanisms of resistance are available through existing institutions, even if the institutions themselves are failing to protect their mission [101]. These mechanisms can be exploited to change the institution from within.

Bukovsky describes how their dissident group worked within the legal boundaries of the Soviet regime [84]. He contrasts this approach with anarchism and revolutionary destructivism, which, he argues, lead to outcomes that are worse than the original evils. Bukovsky and his dissident comrades structured their activism and resistance within the framework of the Soviet constitution—which many legitimately considered to be a joke. When allowed to speak in court, Bukovsky framed his defense to emphasize the constitutional rights of Soviet citizens, for example, to peacefully demonstrate. Bukovsky attributes their success to this strategy. As an example of an important victory, he describes how he and his fellow political prisoners managed to resist and ultimately eliminate mandatory “corrective labor” for political prisoners. Following legal protocols, they rolled out a concerted effort of filing official complaints. Although isolated complaints never had any effect (they would be registered, duly processed, and dismissed), by flooding the bureaucratic system with a massive number of such complaints (which each had to be properly registered and responded to), they pushed the system beyond its limits. The sheer number of complaints compelled administrative scrutiny of the prison and its officers. And the prisoners won the fight.

Today, we can work within the system of our universities and professional organizations, even if they have already been ideologically corrupted. We can participate in surveys; communicate our concerns to leadership; nominate candidates committed to liberal principles to committees and leadership; vote against CSJ ideologues; speak up against practices that violate the stated mission of the institution [43,102,103]; publish well-reasoned opinion pieces [4,14,15,23,82,83,102]; and insist that our institutions adhere to their stated institutional (and legal) commitments to free speech and non-discrimination, such as being equal opportunity employers. Counter Wokecraft [98] provides concrete suggestions on how to effectively oppose the advances of the CSJ agenda by simply insisting that standard protocols of decision-making be followed—that is, through formal meetings with organized discussions that adhere to a set agenda, vote by secret ballot, and so on. In short, the existing governance structures and institutional policies can still be utilized to defend and even restore the institutional mission, even when the institution’s workings have been undermined by CSJ activists.

The following success stories illustrate the effectiveness of working within the system.

At the University of Massachusetts, a faculty group fought—and won—against a proposed rewriting of the university mission statement, which would have redefined the purpose of the university as engaging in political and ideological activism, rather than pursuing the truth [104].

Faculty at the University of Chicago succeeded in having departmental statements that violated institutional neutrality (by voicing collective support for specific social and political issues in violation of the University’s Kalven Report [105]) rescinded [106].

Also at the University of Chicago, in response to faculty complaints to the institution’s Title IX coordinator and general counsel, at least seven programs that gave preferences to specific races or sexes in violation of Federal regulations were discontinued [106].

The faculty of the University of Washington voted down a proposal to require DEI statements for all tenure and promotion candidates [107]. As reported to us, an email campaign initiated by a single faculty member was decisive in defeating the proposal.

At the University of North Carolina (UNC), the Board of Trustees adopted [108] the Chicago Free Speech Principles [109] and Kalven Report [105]. The former articulates the university’s commitment to free speech and is considered to be a model policy on this issue; the latter ensures institutional neutrality, prohibiting units of the university from taking stands on moral, political, or ideological issues, unless they directly affect the mission of the institution.

Also at UNC, responding to a faculty petition, the Board of Governors moved to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements from its hiring and promotion process. The mandate states that the university “shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement” [110].

In California, mathematicians organized a petition that has, so far, blocked the implementation of radical, CSJ-based revisions to the K–12 math curriculum [18]. At the time of publication, the fight is not over; but they’ve won so far.

A new nonprofit, Do No Harm, has been formed to fight against the encroachment of identity politics in medicine [111]. Among their successes, filings with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against two medical schools has resulted in the elimination of race as a requirement for certain scholarships. Scholarships “meant for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, [a] worthy goal, can and should be met without racial discrimination,” writes the organization’s founder [112].

Adverse publicity and mockery, too, can cause Universities, which are sensitive to their public image, to roll back woke policies, as the following examples illustrate.

The administration of MIT reversed its own decision and reinstated the use of standardized tests for admission [113], the elimination of which had been mocked by dissidents [114].

The Stanford University “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative” website, which listed 161 verboten expressions, including “beating a dead horse,” “white paper,” “insane,” and even “American,” was taken down after sustained mockery in the press and on social media. The university’s president ultimately disowned the initiative and reaffirmed the university’s commitment to free speech [29].

At the University of Southern California, the interim provost made a clear statement that “the university does not maintain a list of banned or discouraged words” in response to the mockery [115] of an earlier memorandum the university's School of Social Work announcing the cancellation of the word “field” as racist [26,29].

At Texas Tech, the administration announced that it was dropping mandatory DEI statements from the hiring process [116], after details of how these statements influenced hiring decisions had been publicized [9].

These examples illustrate the maxim that sunlight is the best disinfectant [117]. We can use social media and the press to shine a light on the excesses of CSJ to bring about change.

Pressure from state governments can also force universities to change course away from DEI ideology. Facing threats from the state assembly to cut funding, the University of Wisconsin system has announced it will eliminate mandatory DEI statements for job applicants. As we are writing this chapter, the state assembly is also threatening to eliminate funding for administrative positions at UW dedicated to DEI [118].

Arizona has also dealt a blow to DEI ideology. The state’s Board of Regents has mandated that public universities drop the use of DEI statements in hiring. The move was in response to a finding by the Goldwater Institute that DEI statements, which were required in over three-fourths of job postings, were being used “to circumvent the state’s constitutional prohibition against political litmus tests in public educational institutions” [119].

Organizations such as the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) have successfully used institutions’ own governing policies and bylaws as well as the law to defend scores of scholars who have been attacked for their extramural speech and threatened with administrative discipline or firing [120,121].

A move is afoot to strengthen universities’ commitment to academic freedom by encouraging them to officially adopt the Chicago Trifecta (the Kalven report, the Chicago Principles, and the Shils report). The “Restoring Academic Freedom” letter [122], which calls on universities to do so, has garnered 1700 signatures so far.

3. Don't play their game: You can’t win.

We are trained to seek compromises and solutions that bring different groups on board; we seek consensus. That is a fine approach under normal circumstances, when all agents are acting in good faith. But we must recognize that we are up against agents who are driven—knowingly or unknowingly—by an ideology whose goal is to take over the institution. Every compromise with them brings them closer to their goal [1,3,74,98,123]. Therefore, we must stand our ground.

A major advance in the spread of illiberalism has been the establishment of DEI bureaucracies in our intuitions to enforce CSJ ideology through policy [3,8,98,124-127]. It is important to understand the power of this system and to distinguish the system from the people. A DEI apparatchik can be a nice, well-meaning individual, who has been fooled by the movement’s deliberately deceptive language [1,98]; a cynical opportunist who seeks power and career advancement; or a True Believer. A DEI administrator may be completely unaware of the philosophical origins of CSJ, whose goals the DEI machine has been installed to implement. But just as a Soviet apparatchik need not have read Das Kapital to have been an agent enforcing conformity to Marxist doctrine, a DEI apparatchik need not have read the works of the critical theorists Gramsci, Derrida, Foucault, Bell, Crenshaw, and Delgado to be implementing CSJ-inspired ideology. But even participants who are naive of the movement’s history, philosophy, or ultimate goals are furthering its aims; they are still cogs in the machine. Do not be fooled by DEI administrators who may naively or deceptively deny that they are advancing CSJ ideology. They are, whether or not they know it or acknowledge it.

The power of the system—the DEI bureaucracy—and its ideological foundation make the motivations of the individual participants irrelevant. The story of Tabia Lee illustrates this point [128]. Lee—a black woman who directed a DEI program at a community college in California—questioned anti-racist and gender orthodoxy, declined to join a “socialist network,” objected to land acknowledgments and Newspeak terms such as “Latinx,” “Filipinx,” and neopronouns, and supported a campus event focused on Jewish inclusion and antisemitism. Lee describes her non-orthodox worldview as follows:

I don’t have ideological or viewpoint fidelity to anyone. I’m looking for what’s going to help people and what will help our students and how we can be better teachers and our best teaching selves. [128]

This attitude was found to be incompatible with the ideology of DEI. When Lee refused to change her worldview to comply with the orthodoxy, she was terminated from her position [128].

The establishment of the DEI bureaucracy in our institutions represented a tectonic shift from CSJ as a grass-roots movement to CSJ as an official power structure within the university equipped with a massive budget to promote its ideology [124,126,129-132].

A 2021 report by the Heritage Foundation [130], which documented the size of this new bureaucracy, identified 3,000 administrators with DEI responsibilities among the 65 universities they surveyed [124,131]. This number is in addition to the already extensive staff of Federally mandated Title VI, Title IX, and disability offices, who also perform DEI-related tasks. The new diversicrats already outnumber the mandated staffers. For example, the average university examined had 4.2 DEI personnel for every one ADA compliance administrator [124]. Given the sheer number of DEI officials and their generous salaries (one-third of chief diversity officers are paid more than $200,000 annually [132]), it is not surprising that DEI budgets are enormous; for example, in 2021, UC–Berkeley dedicated 41 million dollars to DEI [129].

The DEI bureaucracy is given official status within the university and is empowered to interfere in faculty hiring, to disseminate CSJ ideology by means of mandatory trainings, to infuse the ideology into teaching [10,13,16,25,31], and to curtail academic freedom [42,127]. Khalid and Snyder provide insight into the logic and financial incentives behind the DEI machine:

This attitude was found to be incompatible with the ideology of DEI. When Lee refused to change her worldview to comply with the orthodoxy, she was terminated from her position [128].

DEI Inc. is a logic, a lingo, and a set of administrative policies and practices. The logic is as follows: Education is a product, students are consumers, and campus diversity is a customer-service issue that needs to be administered from the top down. (“Chief Diversity Officers,” according to an article in Diversity Officer Magazine, “are best defined as ‘change-management specialists.’”) DEI Inc. purveys a safety-and-security model of learning that is highly attuned to harm and that conflates respect for minority students with unwavering affirmation and validation.

Lived experience, the intent–impact gap, microaggressions, trigger warnings, inclusive excellence. You know the language of DEI Inc. when you hear it. It’s a combination of management-consultant buzzwords, social justice slogans, and “therapy speak.” The standard package of DEI Inc. administrative “initiatives” should be familiar too, from antiracism trainings to bias-response teams and mandatory diversity statements for hiring and promotion. [127]

The DEI bureaucracy is a categorical enemy. Don't deceive yourself that you can work with it to accomplish good for your institution [128]. This bureaucracy is founded on ideas that are in direct opposition to the liberal enlightenment and humanism [1,3,4,42,79,99,125–128,133,134]. Their goals are not your goals; consequently, you cannot ally or compromise with them. We must, instead, focus our efforts on stripping the DEI bureaucracy of its power, ideally, ridding the institution of it completely. This will not be an easy fight, but neither is it an impossible dream. State legislatures are already taking action against DEI. At the time of this writing, 35 states have introduced bills that would restrict or ban DEI offices and staff, mandatory DEI training, diversity statements, and/or identity-based preferences for hiring and admissions [135]. Recognizing that such bills could go too far and compromise academic freedom, the Manhattan Institute has drafted model legislation that would abolish DEI bureaucracies on campuses while preserving academic freedom [136]. To date, at least one state, Texas, has enacted legislation based on the Manhattan Institute’s model [137].

Another reason not to attempt to work with the DEI bureaucracy is that CSJ ideology leaves no space for rational dialog. As explained by McWhorter [71], Pincourt [3,98], Pluckrose [1], Saad [99], and others, CSJ is not a rational or empirical worldview, but an ideology whose adherents have accepted a set of unfalsifiable tenets that may not be questioned. Thus, CSJ ideologues are not open to reasoned arguments that contradict their worldview; it is, thus, futile to argue with them. We need, instead, to reason with those of our colleagues who have not yet drunk of the Kool Aid.

Finally, since the goal of CSJ is to take over the institution, small compromises with them ultimately lead to large losses for us. Give CSJ an inch, and it will take a mile. Consider, for starters, the following example, in which the dean of the Duke Divinity School made the mistake of conceding to student activists, which led to ever-increasing demands and personal attacks on the dean herself [138]. “The chickens have come home to roost at Duke’s divinity school,” writes John Staddon. Dean Heath, the dean of the school, fully allied herself with the CSJ agenda, rolled out a variety of DEI initiatives, issued a self-flagellating editorial admitting the “structural sins” of the school, and forced non-conforming faculty to resign. Yet, despite these concessions, the demands of “marginalized groups” only grew stronger, culminating in uncivil acts, such as the disruption of the dean’s state-of-the-school address by “four dissident female students bearing bull-horns and chanting, ‘I am somebody and I won’t be stopped by nobody,’ followed by a rap, a little theatrical performance [of a rude nature].”

Staddon writes:

There is poetic justice in this incident. Despite the dean’s earnest attempts “to provide a welcoming and safe place for students,” even after she designed “a space for the work of Sacred Worth, the LGBTQIA+ student group in the Divinity School”—even after disciplining, and losing—Professor Griffiths [a non-conforming faculty], in spite all this, she has apparently not done enough! The LGBT folk want more, much more, in the form of 15 demands. “We make up an integral part of this community, and yet our needs remain deliberately unheard.”

The demands include:

“To appoint a black trans woman or gender non-conforming theologian” as well as “a tenure-track trans woman theologian” and a “tenure-track queer theologian of color, preferably a black or indigenous person.”

A dissident MIT website, the Babbling Beaver [139], illustrates the same point by a mock resignation statement by MIT’s former President Reif:

You would think giving them a Women’s and Gender Studies Program, hiring six dozen DEI deans and staffers, most of whom couldn’t pass 18.01 [MIT’s introductory math course] if their lives depended on it, and cancelling invited lecturers to appease shouting Twitter mobs would be enough,” lamented the weary lame duck. “But noooo ... The only thing I accomplished by giving in to the incessant demands was encouraging additional demands, each more strident than the last.” [140]

The statement is satire, but the concessions made by the president and the ever-increasing demands were real.

Stories of how CSJ, once it is let in the door, rapidly infiltrates the organization and eventually takes it over are too many to enumerate. We present but one example, where the process has been meticulously documented. The report, spon.sored by the organization Alumni and Donors Unite, explains how CSJ took over University of San Diego “first gradually then suddenly.”

Gradually, over the course of a decade, CSJ-DEI became sown into the university’s fabric through changes in hiring committees and curriculum. Then suddenly in 2020–2021 the administration, outside all normal channels of decision-making, initiated a hostile takeover of USD and adopted a radical woke agenda into nearly all facets of the university’s life. [141]

The devaluation of merit and intellectual honesty in the guise of social justice that we now witness will inevitably lead to the decline of our institutions, if not to their destruction [4]. A case in point is The Evergreen State University, which, in 2017, experienced a notorious CSJ uprising on campus [142]. Since then, the university has suffered a 25% drop in enrollment and has lost 45 faculty through lay-offs and attrition [143].

Learn how to recognize and take on categorical enemies [98]. Remember—it is a zero sum game.

4. Focus on truth, not partisanship. Do not fear verbal attacks.

When you take on CSJ, there is something you will need to come to terms with: you are going to be called names, and your views and beliefs are going to be distorted and misrepresented. These are standard tactics of the CSJ movement. Since the adherents of CSJ have adopted an ideological, rather than a rational, worldview, they cannot rationally defend it; so they use the only tools they have: personal attacks and strawman arguments. They will call you transphobe, racist, misogynist, alt-right, Nazi, etc., no matter what you say or do. They will use deliberate misrepresentation of your expressions to subvert and discredit them [98]. They will use the “Motte and Bailey” trick [144] to derail conversations. Learn about these tactics so that you can anticipate, recognize, and counter them [98]. As Gad Saad explains:

The name calling and accusations are locked and loaded threats, ready to be deployed against you should you dare to question the relevant progressive tenets. Most people are too afraid to be accused of being racist or misogynist, and so they cover in silence.… Don't fall prey to this silencing strategy. Be assured in your principles and stand ready to defend them with the ferocity of a honey badger. [99]

Because you will be attacked no matter what you believe, what you say, or how carefully you say it, there is no point in affirming in your interactions with CSJ ideologues that you are committed to traditional humanistic, liberal values. They don’t care. In her essay “I'm a Progressive, Please Don't Hurt Me,” Sarah Haider calls this practice of hedging “throat-clearing” and explains why it is not effective [145]. She also points out the hidden bigotry of it, that is, the implicit assumption that those on the other side of the aisle are inherently evil. Haider writes:

Before touching on any perspective that I knew to not be kosher among other Leftists, I tended to precede with some version of throat-clearing: “I’m on the left” or “I’ve voted Democrat my whole life.” I told myself that this was a distinction worth insisting on because 1) it was the truth and 2) because it helped frame the discussion properly—making clear that the argument is coming from someone who values what they value. But there was another reason too. My political identity reminders were a plea to be considered fully and charitably, to not be villainized and presumed to be motivated by “hate.” The precursor belief to this, of course, is that actual conservatives should not be taken charitably, are rightfully villainized, and really are motivated by “hate.” But I’m done sputtering indignantly about being mischaracterized as “conservative,” or going out of my way to remind the audience that I really am a good little liberal.

She goes on to explain that throat-clearing is counterproductive because: (1) it doesn’t work, you won't be spared; (2) it is a tax on energy and attention; (3) it is bad for you; and (4) it is bad for the causes you care about.

So we should stop worrying about our group loyalties and focus on our cause. Truth wears no clothes, so do not try to dress it up in partisan attire. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and move on.

It may be tempting to stay out of the fight in order to preserve friendships. It is true that some people you thought of as friends may turn against you—privately or even publicly. It has happened to us, and it hurts. But it also lets you know who your real friends are—those who stick up for you whether they agree with your views or not. And you will find new friends and allies who share your values. These relationships, forged fighting the good fight, will be enduring and empowering.

5. Do not apologize.

We cannot stress this enough. Your apology will be taken as a sign of weakness and will not absolve you—in fact, it will make matters worse. Apologies to the illiberal mob are like drops of blood in the water to a pack of sharks. Additionally, your apology can be interpreted as an admission of guilt, which can come back to haunt you in the event you need to defend yourself legally or in an administrative proceeding. The Academic Freedom Alliance advises: “If you confess to an offense you didn’t commit, or if you concede to a claim or accusation that is factually inaccurate or not truly an offense, the admission can and will be used against you.” [146] Recognize that the CSJ activists on Twitter do not care about your apology; they care about publicly flaying you in order to sow fear among other potential dissenters [147]. Someone claims to have been offended by your speech? Someone claims it caused them pain? Fine, that's their problem [148]. You know what your views are. And your friends do too. Stay on message.

6. Build a community and a network.

Communities and networks provide moral support and there is safety in numbers. Some groups already exist. The Heterodox Academy (HxA), for example, provides a platform to organize communities (e.g., HxSTEM is a community of STEM faculty) and to connect with colleagues who are open to reasoned debate, as per the HxA statement, which each member is asked to endorse: “I support open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in research and education.” The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) also provides resources and support to those who push back on anti-humanistic policies, especially in schools, universities, and in the medical profession.

Organizations like FIRE and the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) provide educational resources, opportunities to network, and—most importantly—protection, including legal representation. Join and support them. Build groups and act as a group—e.g., write an op-ed piece with a group of co-authors. Ten people are harder to cancel than one. Counter Wokecraft describes how to identify the allies among your colleagues and how to build effective resistance at your workplace [98].

Stand up for others. Next time they will do it for you. When you see a colleague being ostracized for what she said, think first, “Which parts of her message do I agree with?” not “Which parts do I disagree with?” If you agree with the main message, say so, and be charitable about imperfect expression. Way too often do we hear colleagues justifying their silence with excuses like “I agree with her in general, but she should have been more careful about how she said this or that.”

Some communities, including mathematicians and psychologists, in response to CSJ takeovers of their professional societies, have simply started new ones [149,150]. Perhaps we need more of these to send a strong message to the old societies that they need to change course. We see evidence of the effectiveness of this strategy; for example, the American Mathematical Society [151] cancelled its CSJ-dominated blog shortly after the establishment of the new Association for Mathematical Research [149], whose apolitical mission is simply to “support mathematical research and scholarship.”

In 2022, in response to increasing ideological influence and censorship in their profession, behavioral scientists founded the Society for Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences, dedicated to “open inquiry, civil debate, and rigorous standards” in the field [152]. It publishes the Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences, which commits to “free inquiry,” “rigorous standards,” and “intellectual exchange” [152]. Notably, its terms and conditions state that the journal will base retraction decisions strictly on the basis of the widely accepted COPE guidelines [153]; otherwise, the terms and conditions state, “We will never retract a paper in response to social media mobs, open or private letters calling for retraction, denunciation petitions, or the like....” [154]

There is even a new university—The University of Austin (UATX)—established in response to the current crisis in higher education [155]. The message on the UATX webpage—“We are building a university dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”—makes clear what void in the American academy UATX aspires to fill [156]. That the university received over $100 million in donations and over 3500 inquiries by professors from other institutions within six months of the project’s announcement, makes clear the demand [157].

The success of such new initiatives will inspire more educators and scientists to stand up and defend the key principles of science and education. And it will send a strong message to our leadership. Even if we cannot appeal to their sense of duty, the financial considerations (Go Woke, Go Broke [158]) and the effect of negative publicity of the excesses of CSJ (such as DEI loyalty oaths, “decolonizing” the curriculum, renaming everything, and Newspeak [9,23,24,139]) may provide incentives to straighten out their act.

4. Conclusion

Will we succeed? Will we stop the train before it goes over the cliff? We do not know what will happen if we fight. But we know what will happen if we don’t. The task ahead might look impossible. But remember the USSR. It looked like an unbreakable power, yet in the end it collapsed like a house of cards. The Berlin Wall looked indestructible, yet it came down overnight. Recalling his 20 years’ experience in the gay marriage debate, Jonathan Rauch told us: “I can tell you that the wall of received opinion is sturdy and impenetrable...until it isn't. And that it's the quiet people in the room who are the swing vote.... and please illegitimi non carborundum [159].”

We are not helpless. We have agency and we should not be afraid to exercise it. We should fight not just because it is the right thing to do, but because fighting brings results. If we behave as if we were living in a totalitarian society, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Afterword

A Russian proverb says, “Fear has big eyes” (у страха глаза велики), meaning that people tend to exaggerate danger. Accordingly, it may feel like resisting the mob will inevitably lead to career damage. But this is not the case; the flip side of risk is reward. In recognition of her activism, including her publication of “The Peril of Politicizing Science” [23], which “launched a national conversation among scientists and the general public,” Anna Krylov, co-author of this chapter, was awarded the inaugural Communicator of the Year Award, Sciences and Mathematics, by the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences [160]. In “Victory Lap” [161], Lee Jussim, co-editor of the book in which this article will appear, documents how as a result of his public resistance to a mob attack on a colleague falsely accused of racism, his career enjoyed a variety of benefits including additional conferences invitations, massive positive public support for his activism, national attention to his scholarship, and an appointment to a departmental chair (with commensurate increase in salary), which he was offered because he had demonstrated that he could take the heat.

Stop saying "nO oNe iS sAyInG aNy oF tHiS!!" They are. You know they are. Dotted throughout the article are references to sources for quotes and claims. For the list of references, see: References.

Liberalism really is under attack. It's always been under attack from the religous right, but its influence has diminished over time, with society becoming increasingly secular and irreligious, or at least indifferent to religious influence. And principles like the US's First Amendment keep it, at least in theory, from breaching the threshold.

But where the religious attack is on the downswing, the attack from the illiberal left is on the upswing, and both more rapid and more successful, having infiltrated everything from government to science and even knitting clubs. And it hides behind nice-sounding words like "equity" and "diversity," people don't recognize it for what it is, and welcome it inside in a way they don't welcome religious intrusion.

This isn't about left vs right. It's about do we want a liberal society, or do we want a rampantly illiberal, or indeed anti-liberal society?

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crossdreamers · 1 year

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Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: New Scientific Review Dismisses Trans Women’s Performance Advantage

A new report commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) says there's no reliable evidence pointing to a performance advantage in elite trans women who have suppressed their testosterone.

Via Running

Here’s the Executive Summary of the report:

Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: A Scientific Review is an in-depth review of scientific literature on transgender athlete participation in competitive sport.

The inclusion criteria for this report were research articles published in the English language between 2011 and 2021 inclusive. Only peer-reviewed articles or syntheses of academic literature (e.g., meta-analyses) in reputable academic journals were included.

Grey literature, or non-academic literature, was included if it provided a summary of empirical data or if it described rules currently in place worldwide to include/exclude trans athletes.

(...)

On the biology of trans women

The biomedical perspective views the physiology of trans women’s bodies as the source of perceived unfairness, with medicalized interventions (such as estrogen supplementation and testosterone suppression) as the resolution.

More specifically, this perspective holds that sexual dimorphism between those assigned male at birth (AMAB) and those assigned female at birth (AFAB) is the reason for athletic differences. Testosterone measures and boundaries are typically chosen as defining characteristics of manhood and womanhood in the context of sport and are used as the predominant marker to predict and level sex-related athletic advantage and the means for inclusion criteria.

The research findings in the biomedical area are inconclusive. Studies which make conclusions on pre- and post-hormone replacement therapy (HRT) advantage held by trans women athletes have used either cis men or sedentary trans women as proxies for elite trans women athletes. These group references are not only inappropriate for the context but produce conclusions that cannot be applied to elite trans women athletes.

Further, there is little scientific understanding about the attributes or properties of HRT, namely testosterone suppression and estrogen supplementation, on the physiology and athletic ability of trans women athletes. This ignores the potential for estrogen supplementation to reduce Lean Body Mass (LBM), and for testosterone suppression to produce holistic health disadvantages.

The sociocultural perspective

The second perspective is a sociocultural one. Researchers in the sociocultural field of study argue that social factors contribute to performance advantages to a far greater extent than does testosterone and that assessing testosterone levels is another way to perpetuate the long history of policing women’s bodies in sport.

Researchers highlight the many social factors that contribute to differences in athletic performance, including, for example: discriminations, disparate resource allocations, inequities, and violence against women in sport in the forms of sexism and sexual violence in sport contexts, arbitrary differences in rules and equipment between men’s and women’s sport, as well as histories of barring women from certain sports.

This body of work also highlights the foundational histories of anti-Blackness, anti-Global Southness, and misogyny which maintain inequities in sport.

Arguments are made that the use of testosterone to exclude trans women athletes represents another phase in the long history of policing women’s bodies in sport. Once women were allowed into competitive sport in the early 20th century, those whose athletic ability was on par with their male counterparts, or whose physique was too manly, were disqualified from competition as deviants of the gender order.

Through the history of women’s sport, female athletes have been exposed to intrusive gender verification processes including medical inspection of external genitalia and chromosome testing that produced many false positives and had catastrophic impacts on athletes’ careers.

The current climate is one that focuses on testosterone levels of those athletes whose gender is deemed to be ‘suspicious.’ In the context of sport policy development, biomedical and physiological data have todate been privileged over other aspects such as social factors. Many policies cite biomedical studies to explain their conditions of inclusion, or their exclusion.

(...)

Conclusion

There is no firm basis available in evidence to indicate that trans women have a consistent and measurable overall performance benefit after 12 months of testosterone suppression.

(...)

For pre-suppression trans women it is currently unknown when during the first 12 months of suppression that any advantage may persist. The duration of any such advantage is likely highly dependent on the individual's pre-suppression LBM which, in turn varies, greatly and is highly impacted by societal factors and individual circumstance.

Full report here.

The review was carried out by E-Alliance, a research hub for gender equity in sport led by Dr. Gretchen Kerr of the University of Toronto and Dr. Ann Pegoraro of the University of Guelph (pictured below).

Photo of transgender athlete: Phtographia Inc.

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtqa #queer #transgender athletes

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biomedres · 11 months

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Possible Meningioma Comorbidity in Male Sickle Cell Cyproterone Acetate Recipients; Short Article

Possible Meningioma Comorbidity in Male Sickle Cell Cyproterone Acetate Recipients; Short Article in Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research

https://biomedres.us/fulltexts/BJSTR.MS.ID.006056.php

Champeaux Depond [1] conducted a clinical research conducted on women in the French Système National des Données de Santé (SNDS) considered cases of meningioma surgeries performed between 2007 and 2017. Out of the patients sampled in this research, 1,1011 female patients representing 3.8% who were frequent users of cyproterone acetate. The median age at the prescription of cyproterone acetate was 42 years. The median period between the start time for the cyproterone acetate prescription and diagnosis with meningioma was 5.5 years. For patients that used cyproterone acetate treatment, the median age for meningioma surgery was significantly lower, just 47 years in comparison to the population that was not on cyproterone acetate, whose median age for meningioma surgery was 61 years. For the patients in the first group, the median dose of cyproterone acetate was 40g. From this study, there was clearly a strong case correlating administration of cyproterone acetate and the duration of meningioma development or diagnosis. “Middle skull base was the most common (39%) location with an anterior skull base insertion being also far more common compared to the usual population with 21.9% of the tumor” [1]. The research reported that the skull base predominance of meningioma associated with cyproterone acetate is highly notable according to this research. The research concluded that increased cyproterone acetate dose heightened the chances of patients developing multiple meningioma locations and surgeries.

For more articles in Journals on Biomedical Sciences click here bjstr

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biomedgrid · 2 years

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Biomed Grid | The Role of NAD+ in Anti-Aging Therapies

Introduction

The aging process is influenced by a variety of factors and considered to be an irreversible process. Aging of an organism is accompanied by metabolic disorders and the impairment of physiological function, as well as the development of age-related diseases [1, 2, [3, 4]. There is abundant evidence that NAD+ plays an important role in aging, as it is involved in various biological functions and is a key regulator of stress resistance [5, 6]. Levels of NAD+ steadily decline with age, resulting in altered metabolism and increased disease susceptibility [7, 8, 9]. NAD+ plays a key role in various energy metabolism pathways [6, 10]. Additionally, NAD+ is a cofactor for many enzymes, such as poly (ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs), CD38, and sirtuins [11]. Sirtuins are NAD+-dependent histone deacetylase for a wide range of transcriptional regulators [10, 12]. Overexpression of SIRT1 in the brains of mice has been shown to delay aging [13]. PARP is a major NAD+-degrading enzyme, which plays diverse roles in many molecular and cellular processes [14]. Inhibition of PARP-1 increases mitochondrial metabolism via modulation of SIRT1 activity [15]. Another NAD+-degrading enzyme, CD38, had been associated with the decline in NAD+ levels during aging [16].

Mammalian cells cannot import NAD+ in vivo, so they must synthesize it either from tryptophan or the various forms of niacin taken up in the diet including nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide riboside (NR) [17, 18, 19, 20]. Recently, it was found in mice that supplementing with NAD+ precursors (including NMN, NR, and nicotinamide) or inhibiting the activity of NAD+-consuming enzymes can increase the level of NAD+ in tissues and improve energy metabolism, thereby delaying aging and extending healthy life [15, 21, [22, 23, 24].

Currently, the anti-aging activity of NAD+ precursors is primarily evaluated through measurement of aging markers in mouse behavior, accumulation of DNA damage, and mitochondrial activity. RNA sequencing has also been used to identify genes and pathways involved in the anti-aging mechanisms of NAD+ [20, 22, [25, 4]. Furthermore, recent research has shown that biological age can be measured by analyzing the 353 DNA methylation sites of the Horvath clock [30, 31].

NAD

Biosynthesis-Salvage Pathway

In vivo, NAD+ is an essential cofactor of dehydrogenase [32, 33].Nicotinamide coenzyme is an electron carrier which plays an important role in various oxidation-reduction reactions. Therefore NAD+ is a cofactor of many key enzymes in glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation [34]. Age-associated decline in NAD+ availability has an important effect on the aging process of many species [8, 35, 36]. There are three pathways for the synthesis of NAD+ in cells, involving many different precursors [37, 38, 39]. Here we focus on the salvage pathway, which is important from a translational research perspective because it is the main source of NAD+ [40, 41].

There are three pathways for the synthesis of NAD+ in cells:

a. de novo from tryptophan;

b. from nicotinic acid via the Preiss-Handler pathway; and

c. from nicotinamide (NAM) via the salvage pathway [37].

NAM itself is a by-product of NAD+-degrading enzymes such as sirtuins and PARP. As shown in (Figure 1) , the first step of the salvage pathway is catalyzed by nicotinamide phosphoribosyl-transferase (NAMPT), which converts nicotinamide and 5-phosphoribosyl- 1-pyrophosphate into NMN [42]. Subsequently, nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NMNAT) produces NAD+ from NMN and ATP [43, 44]. NR can be converted by nicotinamideriboside kinase (NRK) into NMN which participating in the Salvage pathway [45]. NAMPT is the rate-limiting enzyme of the salvage pathway [42]. It has been hypothesized that reduced NAD+ synthesis is one of the causes of lower NAD+ levels with aging, and this may be due to decreased activity of NAMPT [42, 46]. Indeed, NAMPT levels are known to decline with age in many types of tissues [47, 48, 49], whereas exercise increases skeletal muscle NAMPT expression [50].

Figure 1: The Salvage pathway NAM and NR are the main precursor for the salvage pathway.

In mammals, NAMPT has two different forms: intra- and extracellular [51]. The intracellular form is the one that participates in the salvage pathway of NAD+ synthesis [42], while the extracellular form likely functions as a circulating cytokine [52]. Studies have shown that secretion of NAMPT is regulated by SIRT1 in vivo [53, 4], and SIRT1 activity in turn depends on NAMPT which regulates level of NAD+ [54]. Increasing level of NAMPT may delay aging of individuals via SIRT1-dependent pathways [56]. NAMPT has been shown to regulate osteoblast differentiation in primary culture of mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells via NAD+-SIRT1 pathway. NAMPT deficiency may increase the risk of bone aging or fractures [48, 57, [58, 59].

Levels of NAMPT significantly decrease with age in mice and humans [60, 61]. Adipose tissue-specific overexpression of NAMPT in aged mice resulted in increased levels of circulating eNAMPT, increased levels of NAD+ in multiple tissues, and extended lifespan [60].

In mammals NMNAT is the central enzyme of the NAD biosynthetic pathway [43,62]. There are three isoforms, NMNAT1, NMNAT2, and NMNAT3, encoded by different genes and localized to nucleus, Golgi apparatus, and mitochondria, respectively [43]. NMNAT1 directly control SIRT1 deacetylase activity at a set of target gene promoters [63]. Homozygous knockout of Nmnat1 in mice results in embryonic death [64]. Low levels of NMNAT2, highly expressed in the brain and nervous system, could impair axon regeneration as well as axon survival in aging and disease [65,66]. NMNAT3 has been identified as the rate-limiting enzyme for mitochondrial NAD+ biosynthesis [67]. In addition, down-regulation of NMNAT3 gene expression in cells significantly impairs the capacity for mitochondrial respiration, suggesting that NMNAT3 plays a key role in mitochondrial NAD+ homeostasis [68].

Anti-aging effects of NAD

Through its role as a substrate for sirtuins, CD38, and PARP, NAD+ regulates a variety of cellular process including energy metabolism, DNA damage repair, gene expression, and oxidative stress response [11, 34, 69, 70].

a. The Sirtuins Pathway

Sirtuins are evolutionarily conserved NAD+-dependent deacetylases. Increasing sirtuin expression has been shown to affect lifes< pan across various species [13, 36, [71, 72]. Sirtuins have received significant attention since the discovery that the increased sirtuin silent information regulator 2 (Sir2) can extend yeast lifespan [72]. The closest mammalian homologue of this regulator is SIRT1[69], mainly localized in the nucleus but also present in cytosol [73]. Its nuclear export signal allows shuttling to the cytosol under specific circumstance [12]. It has been shown in vivo that NAD+-SIRT1 signaling promotes mitochondrial activity [25]. Previous research has suggested that increasing SIRT1 in the brain, especially in the dorsomedial and lateral hypothalamic nuclei, can delay aging and extend lifespan in mice [13]. More recently, heart-specific overexpression of Sirt1 was found to delay aging and protect against oxidative stress in the heart [74]. NR-SIRT1 signaling can inhibit cardiac stem cell senescence by improving mitochondrial function and muscle stem cell function, thereby enhancing life span in mice [25]. More research is needed to determine whether increased level of NAD+ in vivo can improve SIRT1 activity, thereby delaying aging [75].

b. The PARPs Pathway

PARPs are expressed by most eukaryotic cells and are involved in DNA damage detection and repair, cell death pathways and so on [14]. Aging is associated with an accumulation of DNA damage [76]. Depletion of NAD+ is involved in cell death through PARP-1 [70]. Although this enzyme plays an important role in cells, over-activation of PARP-1 can lead to depletion of NAD+, reduction of ATP, reducing the activity of SIRT1, loss of mitochondrial function, and even cell death [70, 77, 78]. Increased level of NAD+, when SIRT1 is intact, can reduce the cell death caused by activation of PARP-1 in cardiac myocyte [79].

c. CD38 and NAD

CD38 is a multi-functional protein. Studies have shown that CD38 is the NADase in mammalian tissues [80, 81, 4]. It is thought to contribute to the age-related decline in NAD+ levels [23, 80, 82]. CD38 also acts as an antigen for B-lymphocyte activation and as an ecto-enzyme in endothelial and inflammatory cells [82, 83, 4]. Senescent cells are known to express small molecules including secreted cytokines, growth factors, and extracellular matrix modifiers to promote chronic sterile inflammation and fibrosis. This reaction process, known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype [84, 85, 86], involves secretion of factors by senescent cells which induce the expression of CD38 in non-senescent cells [82, 87,]. This increased CD38 activity can disrupt the fine balance between NAD+ and its reduced form, NADH, within a cell [82]. Recently, the small molecule CD38 inhibitor 78c was shown to reverse the age-related loss of NAD+ [28, 83,]. By increasing tissue levels of NAD+, 78c may be able to ameliorate metabolic disorder and other disruptions involved in the aging process. In addition, animals treated with 78c show activation of longevity genes, which inhibit DNA damage [28].

NAD+ and NADH are in dynamic equilibrium within the cell [75]. Intracellular NAD+ can be increased in vivo through oral administration of NAD+ precursor or by inhibiting the degradation of NAD+ [15, 23, 88]. Regulation of the NAD+/ NADH ratio in this way can improve mitochondrial function and has been shown to treat senile deafness in elderly mice [89].

NAD

Repletion and Aging

One of the major causes of aging is progressive tissue degeneration and atrophy due to reduced somatic or stem cell function [22,90,91]. Adult stem cells are not only essential in continuously proliferating tissues (such as hematopoietic, intestinal, and skin systems) but also in normally quiescent tissues (such as skeletal muscle and the brain) that require regeneration after damage or exposure to disease [92]. NR supplementation improved metabolic function in muscle and neural stem cells, in both young and old mice, thereby increasing lifespan [25]. NR treatment has also been shown to rejuvenate stem cells from aged mice and restore the impaired ability to repair gut damage [22]. Previous studies have shown that DNA damage of nerve cells, nerve stem cells, and muscle stem cells in mice can be reduced by NR supplementation [25, 93]. NR has also been shown to ameliorate mitochondrial dysfunction and enhance oxidative metabolism in obese mice [94, 95] and prolong the lifespan of mice through neuronal DNA repair and mitochondrial quality improvement [96, 97].

Supplementation with NMN can restore age-related capillary rarefaction and increase blood flow in elderly mice, and it maybe a novel therapy to restore SIRT1 activity and reverse age-related arterial dysfunction by reducing oxidative stress [98, 99]. Mitochondrial disorders due to impaired oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) are a cause of aging [100]. Long-term treatment with NMN in elderly C57BL/6J mice can improve metabolic dysfunction and ameliorate age-associated physiological decline [20]. NMN can also restore mitochondrial function, prevent neural death, and delay cognitive decline in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease [101, 102]. Supplementation with NAM was shown to improve blood sugar levels and metabolic capacity in HFD-fed mice. However, it had no effect on lifespan [103].

There are data showing that supplementation with NAD+ precursors enhanced the mitochondrial function of cells or stem cells in a SIRT1-dependent manner [25, 94]. Furthermore, supplementing NAD+ precursors in elderly mice improved mitochondrial function in hematopoietic stem cells and muscle stem cells, as well as extended lifespan [25, 104]. NMN specifically was found to enhance the biological activity of mesenchymal stromal cells through the upregulation of SIRT1, thereby stimulating osteogenesis of the cells and protecting bone from aging to delay the aging of mice [105]. In elderly mice, NMN treatment improved capillary density through the NAD+-H2S signaling network to increase blood flow, endurance, and physiological status [27, 29, 106].

Inhibition of some NAD+-degrading enzymes could also lead to increased levels of NAD+ [15, 23]. CD38, PARPs, and SARM1 all degrade NAD+ inside the cell [23, 77, [80, 107]. The activity of CD38 increases with aging, contributing to the age-related decline in NAD+ [16]. Several small-molecule inhibitors of CD38 have been described [83, 108, [109, 110]. Thiazoloquin(az)olin(on)e is one such inhibitor which could potentially be used as a therapeutic agent to increase intracellular NAD+ level [28]. Inhibition of PARP1 has recently been reported to correct mitochondrial impairment [111, 112] and has strong metabolic implications through its modulation of SIRT1 activity [15].

Measure Biological Age

Thus far, the anti-aging activity of NAD+ is mainly examined using RNA sequencing and gene set enrichment analysis to identify pathways of candidate biomarkers [20, 22, 25]. However, there is not yet a gold standard for aging biomarkers. The DNA clock may offer a better objective biomarker for the study of aging [30, 31]. DNA methylation plays a critical role in the regulation of gene transcription [113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118]. Senescence can be predicted and evaluated by detecting cytosine-5 methylation within CpG dinucleotides [30, 31]. These age-related CpG characteristics are independent of gender or tissue type. Recent research has shown that biological age can be approximated by measuring levels of DNA methylation, a process known as the Horvath (or DNA) clock [30, 31, [119, 120]. Age-related DNA methylation was first described for humans after cross comparison of thousands of CpG sites in Illumina Bead Chip microarray data [121, 122]. Many of these age-associated CpG sites were then used as epigenetic age-predictors [30, 31, [120, 123]. Three hundred and fifty-three unique CpG sites were found to be predictive of biological age, independent of chromatin status or tissue source [30, 31].

Petkovich et al. developed a robust predictor of mouse biological age based on 90 CpG sites derived from partial blood DNA methylation profiles [124]. Stubbs et al. further developed a multi-tissue predictor to estimate age based on DNA methylation at 329 unique CpG sites from various different mouse tissues [125]. One group claims to have found three methylation sites, Prima1, Hsf4, and Kcns1, which are enough to predict biological age in mice [126]. However, this study has yet to be replicated. The most accurate clock results from applying elastic net regression to all CpGs for multi-tissue in mice [127].

Together these studies suggest that the DNA clock provides an objective biomarker for the study of aging [30, 31]. Recently, metformin has shown that reversed subject’s biological age, based on assessment of Horvath clock [128, 129]. Its use will allow us to examine the anti-aging effectiveness of NAD+ and its precursors more objectively and accurately.

Clinical Research

NAD+ precursors can be delivered orally to humans or animals to alter the dynamic balance of NAD+/NADH in vivo [24, 130]. Preliminary clinical studies in humans showed that NR supplementation could improve muscle NAD+ metabolism in the elderly [131, 132]. Healthy volunteers, who underwent an 8-day course of NR, with doses increasing from 250 mg to 1000 mg, showed increased levels of circulating NAD+ and experienced no adverse side effects [133]. Similarly, NR supplementation increased NADH and NADPH levels and improved exercise performance in elderly subjects [134]. Therefore, NMN is considered safe in clinical trials [135]. However, high dose supplementation with NAD+ precursors may increase rates of glycolysis and mitochondrial respiratory metabolism, thereby promoting the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines in cells [136]. Thus, use of supplements should be carefully observed to ensure that they strike a proper balance between anti- aging effects and potential detrimental effects.

Conclusion

NAD+ is a cofactor for many important enzymes. Reduced levels of NAD+ have been associated with aging. Evidence suggests that supplementation with NAD+ precursors, or inhibition of NAD+ degradation, could improve metabolic function. While supplementation with NAD+ precursors has been found to delay aging in mice, anti-aging effects of NAD+ have yet to be demonstrated in human subjects. Use of a more accurate biomarker for aging, such as the DNA methylation clock, will significantly advance the field. Recently, several human clinical trials have been initiated.

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mariacallous · 5 months

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The femicide of 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin, apparently by her former boyfriend Filippo Turetta, has sparked furious reactions from feminists groups, activists and rights organisations towards the media, accused of reiterating patriarchal stereotypes in reporting the case.

Turetta was arrested in Germany by German police on Sunday after going missing from home for more than one week. On Sunday night he consented to be extradited to Italy.

Cecchettin and Turetta disappeared on the night of November 11-12. Turetta came under investigation for attempted murder last Friday, when a video showing his aggression toward Cecchettin surfaced. A European arrest warrant was issued the next day.

Fears that the disappearance of Cecchettin might be another case of femicide were confirmed on Saturday, when her body was found with many knife wounds in a valley between Lake Barcis and Piancavallo in Pordenone province, a one-hour drive from the Slovenian border.

Both were 22-year-old students of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Padua. They had been in a relationship for two years that ended during the summer.

On the fatal night, Turetta came prepared with a knife and several plastic bags, media reported. After concealing her body, he left by car. His car number plate was caught on video by a surveillance camera in Austria a few days before his arrest.

Media coverage of the case was criticised even before the body was found. “While investigations into the disappearance of Giulia Cecchettin and Filippo Turetta […] are ongoing, local media begin their morbid quest for intimate details, aiming to sensationalise the story,” wrote the transfeminist movement Non Una Di Meno, NUDM – Not One Woman Less, in a post on social media on November 15. NUDM organised a protest in Rome on Saturday night. Protests were held in several cities around Italy, organised by local feminists groups and activists.

Since the disappearance of the two, media published several articles in which the parents and friends of Turetta described him as a “nice guy”, incapable of such violence. Media also explored intimate details of the relationship between the two, published their Instagram accounts handles and published old pictures of the couple happily in love under the title “Missing youngsters: found the body of a woman, presumed to be Giulia Cecchin.”

“We label this poor journalism ‘media violence,’ which is one of the many ways patriarchy manifests itself,“ NUDM commented.

According to the Ministry of Interior, Cecchettin was the 83rd victim of femicide in 2023. According to NUDM’s data, she’s the 91st woman killed in Italy this year because of her gender by a person close to her.

Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, called on Prime Minister Meloni on Saturday to overcome political differences and work together to adopt a comprehensive “Education in emotional development” plan for schools.

“Tomorrow I will send an invitation to all Italian schools to observe a minute of silence on Tuesday in honour of Giulia and all abused women and victims of violence,” said Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara.

He also announced the presentation on Wednesday of the “Educating for Relationships'” plan, consisting of lesson to be held by psychologists during civic education hours in schools, on which the government has been working since September.

In May 2023, MEPs from the governing Lega [League] and Fratelli d’Italia [Brothers of Italy] parties chose to abstain and not support the two resolutions in the European Parliament to join the so-called Istanbul convention, the first legally binding international treaty on preventing and combating gender-based and domestic violence. However, both texts passed with an overwhelming majority of 472 and 464 votes, with only about a hundred against or abstaining.

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infinity0nhigh · 5 months

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The Nature of Borderline Personality Disorder’s Concerningly High Comorbidity Rate with Substance Use Disorder

Background

The research that will be conducted is in regards to borderline personality disorder and its comorbid relationship with substance use disorder. An alarming number of individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder also experience substance use frequent enough to present significant issue in their day-to-day functioning, which often results in a comorbid diagnosis of substance use disorder. Approximately 78% of adults with borderline personality disorder (henceforth noted as “BPD” in this proposal) develop a substance use disorder or addiction at some time in their lives, according to research conducted by the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). We will take a closer look at what causes the relationship between BPD and using substances, the insurmountable grief of BPD that so commonly pervades these individuals’ lives, other contributing symptoms, and what role childhood and upbringing have in determining whether or not someone with BPD will develop substance use disorder.

Research Question

Why are individuals with BPD so prone to self-medicating with substance, and how can this be avoided or treated? What can others do to support a loved one with BPD and comorbid substance use disorder?

Subtopics To Be Investigated

The subtopics that will be discussed in this paper are as follows: emotional dysregulation, distress intolerance, impulsivity, suicidality, upbringing (particularly childhood trauma), physical health complications such as chronic pain, and the stress-induced quasi-psychotic symptoms that sometimes occur in BPD.

Summary of Preliminary Findings

The sources for this paper are as follows: National Library of Medicine: National Center for Biotechnology Information, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, The Clinical Journal of Pain, Wikipedia, Science Direct: Journal of Affective Disorders, and ResearchGate. The National Library of Medicine is the world’s largest biomedical library and institution of research on medical and health-related topics. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal originally published by the Canadian Psychiatric Association. In January of 2015, it changed publishers to SAGE Journals. Covering all aspects of psychiatry, this journal aims to educate and inform. The Clinical Journal of Pain is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, covering research on all aspects of pain management. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that relies heavily on userbase submissions, cataloguing thousands upon thousands of topics. It remains heavily accurate (despite much criticism) due to the moderation system put in place to prevent article vandalism. Science Direct is a website that provides access to a large bibliographic database of scientific and medical publications of the Dutch publisher Elsevier. And finally, ResearchGate is a European social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. I am certain that the information found in these sources will provide the basis for a detailed discussion of borderline personality disorder and the high propensity for development of comorbid substance use disorder. All sources are in the form of webpages.

Rationale for Research

The reader can hopefully gain some valuable insight into borderline personality disorder, what causes the high comorbidity rate with substance use disorder, what can be done to prevent it or treat it, and how to support a loved one who struggles with both disorders (or each disorder separately). It is my intention that the reader walk away with a new sense of understanding on this topic.

Works Cited

Kienast, Thorsten, et al. “Borderline Personality Disorder and Comorbid Addiction: Epidemiology and Treatment.” Deutsches Arzteblatt International, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Apr. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4010862/.

Links, Paul, et al. “Borderline Personality Disorder and Substance Abuse: Consequences of Comorbidity.” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, SAGE Journals, Feb. 1995, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/070674379504000105.

McWilliams, Lachlan & Higgins, Kristen. “Associations Between Pain Conditions and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: Findings from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.” The Clinical Journal of Pain, Lippincott Journals, June 2013, https://journals.lww.com/clinicalpain/abstract/2013/06000/associations_between_pain_conditions_and.9.aspx.

“Management of Borderline Personality Disorder.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Oct. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_of_borderline_personality_disorder.

Mattingley, Sophie, et al. “Distress Tolerance across Substance Use, Eating, and Borderline Personality Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Affective Disorders, Elsevier, 2 Jan. 2022, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032721014439.

Lubman, Dan, et al. “Managing Borderline Personality Disorder and Substance Use: An Integrated Approach” ResearchGate, PubMed, Australian Family Physician, June 2011, www.researchgate.net/publication/51203543_Managing_borderline_personality_disorder_and_substance_use_An_integrated_approach.

...Just sharing this with y'all for no reason, as it's already been graded lol. It's a topic I'm passionate about obviously. And don't roll your eyes at the inclusion of Wikipedia, because my professor said he's okay with it and even encouraged us to use it for this research paper. He even made us participate in a group discussion post on why Wikipedia is reliable. My academic writing needs improvement, but hey, at least this is a start.

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the-feminist-philosopher · 1 year

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Transphobes: "We're good people. We don't have an agenda."

Also transphobed: *creates more work for volunteers who are doing a public service to serve an agenda*

Wikipedia does block IPs of those who are intentionally editing articles with offensive, libelous, incorrect, opinionated, and malicious content.

But, besides providing a resource for how to report malicious changes to articles, I want to take a moment to remind people that Wikipedia is not a source. ANYONE can edit a wiki article, and some of the people doing so have an agenda and are editing with the specific goal of lying to people.

If you're looking for reliable data and research, I recommend the following resources:

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srmuniversitysonepat · 7 months

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Exploring the Top-Ranked Programs at SRM University, Sonepat: The Top Private University in Haryana

SRM University, Sonepat, stands proudly as a beacon of excellence in higher education in the heart of Haryana. As a top private university in Haryana, SRM University Sonepat has garnered a reputation for excellence, offering a diverse range of programs designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in today's competitive world. In this article, we will delve into some of the top-ranked programs offered by SRM University, Sonepat, which highlight the institution's commitment to academic quality and innovation.

Engineering Excellence:

SRM University, Sonepat, is popularly known for its wide range of engineering programs that have consistently earned recognition for its quality. The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in various engineering disciplines, including Computer Science, Electronics & Communication, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, the university provides students with a strong foundation in theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The state-of-the-art laboratories and industry collaborations ensure that students receive hands-on experience and exposure to cutting-edge technologies.

Management for Tomorrow's Leaders:

The School of Management at SRM University, Sonepat, offers an array of management programs that are designed to nurture future business leaders. With a focus on contemporary business practices, these programs cover areas such as Marketing, Finance, Human Resource Management, and Entrepreneurship. The faculty members, many of whom are industry veterans, provide valuable insights and mentorship, preparing students to tackle real-world challenges.

Innovation in Computer Science:

The field of Computer Science is evolving rapidly, and SRM University, Sonepat, has kept pace with the industry's demands. Their computer science programs are renowned for their relevance and innovation. With cutting-edge courses in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Cybersecurity, students are equipped with the skills needed to thrive in the tech-driven world.

Biotechnology:

The Biotechnology Department at SRM University Delhi-NCR, Sonepat, was founded in 2018 and offers a Postgraduate M.Sc. program. Their mission is to provide students with strong technical skills and real-world understanding. They have well-equipped labs and experienced faculty members who teach both fundamentals and advanced concepts. In addition to traditional classroom teaching, students gain practical experience through lab work and develop critical thinking skills. They also offer project training in top organizations like DRDO and CSIR, organize workshops, invite experts for talks, and encourage students to participate in national and international events.

Humanities and Social Sciences:

The Humanities and Social Sciences Department at SRM University, Delhi-NCR includes four departments: English, Economics, Political Science, and Psychology. Thier vision is to nurture a love for knowledge and an understanding of the world through interdisciplinary learning. They aim to create a welcoming and inclusive academic environment for high-quality education.

Whether the students are studying at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, are prepared for various professional careers, including education, research, business, law, government, publishing, journalism, advertising, corporate sector, NGOs, and higher education.

Conclusion:

SRM University, Sonepat, firmly establishes itself as a top private university in Haryana through its commitment to academic excellence and innovation. The institution's diverse range of programs ensures that students have a wide array of options to choose from, depending on their interests and career aspirations. With a faculty that is dedicated to nurturing talent and state-of-the-art facilities that support learning, SRM University, Sonepat, continues to be a preferred destination for students seeking quality education in Haryana.

#college #college life #university #trending #today on tumblr #student life

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asoullessentity · 1 year

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ZANE'S GROUP !

ZANE ; A Engineering Major. He studies math, science, and some business principles.

PIXAL ; A Biological and Biomedical Science Major. She studies biochemical and physiological functions.

BENTHOMAAR ; A Health Care Administration Major. He pursue a variety of Administration positions including administrator for hospitals, medical clinics, or physicians offices.

LLOYD ; A Journalism Major, who learns to report, write, and edit articles for publications or broadcast.

COLE ; A Culinary Artist. He focuses on preparation, cooking, and presentation of food.

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