Home Blog Page 152

Israeli bid to sabotage US-Iran detente?

0
Saviz
The Iranian vessel, Saviz, was targeted by limpet mines in the Red Sea, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported on Tuesday, citing information obtained by its reporter. “The vessel Iran Saviz has been stationed in the Red Sea for the past few years to support Iranian commandos sent on the commercial vessel (anti-piracy) escort missions,” Tasnim reported. ABNA photo.

Warnings of attempt to sabotage diplomacy as Israel reportedly attacks Iranian ship

by Jake Johnson — Common Dreams

Israel reportedly informed US officials that it was behind a Tuesday mine attack on an Iranian vessel stationed in the Red Sea, a dangerous escalation that came on the same day American and Iranian negotiators took part in European-led talks in Vienna on the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The timing of the attack, which Iranian media outlets reported Tuesday without assigning blame, raised suspicions that it was carried out with the express purpose of undermining steps toward a diplomatic solution on the nuclear accord. In 2018, US President Donald Trump violated the agreement, which Israel’s right-wing government has opposed from the beginning.

“Israel appears to be stepping up attacks on Iran to undermine diplomacy,” argued Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj.media. “Same Catch 22 for Tehran as before: respond, and get blamed. Don’t respond, and invite further attacks. One exit: Statements of condemnation from Iran’s counterparts in Vienna.”

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted in response to the mine attack that “some US lawmakers advocate for Israel to be in the room for any talks with Iran, presumably so they can blow negotiations up from the inside as well as the outside.”

The New York Times reported that while Israeli officials had yet to publicly comment on the attack as of Tuesday night, “an American official said the Israelis had notified the United States that its forces had struck the [Iranian] vessel at about 7:30 am local time.”

“There was no official Iranian confirmation of the attack as of Tuesday night,” the Times noted, “but several Telegram social media channels operated by members of the Revolutionary Guards blamed Israel for the explosion.”

Spoke w/@DeutscheWelle about Vienna talks & explained how resolving nuclear issue w/#Iran has bipartisan support among Americans. The internat’l community saved the deal despite efforts by Trump admin to dismantle it. But watch as opponents of diplomacy still try to sabotage it pic.twitter.com/v0CdSD67yJ

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) April 6, 2021

Saeed Khatizadeh, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, told reporters Wednesday morning that “no fatalities were caused by the incident, and technical evaluations on how the incident occurred and its origins are underway.”

The reported Israeli attack took place as Biden administration officials joined representatives from Europe, Iran, and other parties to the nuclear accord to discuss a potential US return to the 2015 agreement, which Biden says he supports.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and lead negotiator in the talks, said Tuesday that the talks are on “the right track” but “it’s too soon to say it has been successful.”

Anti-war groups in the United States are hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough following years of saber-rattling by Trump, whose aggressive rhetoric and actions repeatedly dragged the United States and Iran to the brink of all-out military conflict.

“The American people, and the Iranian-American community in particular, want the Biden administration to resolve our ongoing disputes with Iran through diplomacy,” Abdi said in a statement earlier this week. “Under Trump, the specter of war loomed large and was only narrowly avoided. It is encouraging to see renewed momentum toward a return to the deal under Biden.”

“The US can’t afford to let this window pass without restoring the strong nonproliferation agreement that already navigated the difficult politics of Washington and Tehran,” he added. “It is time to reseal the deal.”

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC

ITF, Solidaridad con los canaleros

0
ITF
 

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

 

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.  

~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information. Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
 

FB CCL

 

FB_2

 
Dinero

Bernal, Constitutional hijackers

0
Burt and Claudia
In Italian, “Il Gattopardo” means “The Leopard.” But the story an the term have taken on a political meaning in Spanish.

The hijacked constitution

by Miguel Antonio Bernal


The flowering of constituent assemblies has been accomplished with the desire to create, where it never existed, or to consolidate and recover, democratic institutionality …

Simeón Emilio Gonzalez H.

 

Pseudo-constitutionalism, which is nothing more than to make something seem constitutional when it is not, is in full swing in our midst. The fugitives from the movement for a constituent assembly, as well as their determined foes, have joined forces – from their different trenches – with the firm intention of promoting Creole Gatopardism.*

They forget and attempt to make us forget that “The construction of democracy can only be done by convening the whole of society, that is, only by convening a full and participatory founding constituent assembly” (Simeón Emilio González H, 1999).

Deprived by inexcusable ignorance of theoretical, doctrinal and historical knowledge of the meaning, scope and collective advantages of a constituent process for society, they have chosen to take refuge — from their vantage point – in the confused and abusive use of a vocabulary with concepts, terms and words that, to date, have been useful for their political and electoral tasks. They also delve into classic opportunism, befitting chameleons and opossums.

Thus they haven’t hesitated in their desire to hijack the valuable history – of more than 200 years — of constituent power to try to make a sick and distrustful society believe that the escapist contraption of ‘the parallel assembly’ will allow them to achieve a lifestyle, to find a way to continue in the community as they have.

They try to hijack the constituent assembly so that they can continue to make mediocrity reign and make people feel at ease in a pigsty, in a pond devoid of values, principles and truths. From their well of immorality they seek to avoid the necessity of taking citizens’ reaction into account. Hijacking the constituent assembly, they seek to deprive citizens of the democratic, participatory, peaceful, popular instrument most appropriate for democratic and democratizing debate – the means by which to regain control of society, which is already kidnapped.

It is up to us to rescue the hijacked process from the labyrinth and tangle created by the discredited politicians who rule the roost and who are not interested in mitigating the damage caused by their actions. Nor those of their political parties, which have only served to reserve for themselves perks and privileges at the cost of other people’s sacrifices.

 

* This term derives from the Spanish rendition of Il Gattopardo, an Italian 1958 novel and 1963 movie about a decadent 1860s Sicilian prince in a conflict with Garibaldi’s redshirt rebels. The prince uses every trick in the book to make it look like he’s delivering change but all the while ensuring that nothing changes. His victories are hollow and fleeting.

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC

Pandemic, stress, body chemistry and your weight

0
WHO
The COVID-19 pandemic is a stressful event. There are, however, known ways to reduce stress. WHO graphic.

Unwanted weight gain or weight loss during the pandemic? Blame your stress hormones

by Lina Begdache, Binghamton University, State University of New York

CC BY-ND

If you have experienced unwanted weight gain or weight loss during the pandemic, you are not alone. According to a poll by the American Psychological Association, 61% of U.S. adults reported undesired weight change since the pandemic began.

The results, released in March 2021, showed that during the pandemic, 42% of respondents gained unwanted weight – 29 pounds on average – and nearly 10% of those people gained more than 50 pounds. On the flip side, nearly 18% of Americans said they experienced unwanted weight loss – on average, a loss of 26 pounds.

Another study, published on March 22, 2021, assessed weight change in 269 people from February to June 2020. The researchers found, on average, that people gained a steady 1.5 pounds per month.

I am a nutritional neuroscientist, and my research investigates the relationship between diet, lifestyle, stress and mental distress such as anxiety and depression.

The common denominator to changes in body weight, especially during a pandemic, is stress. Another poll done by the American Psychological Association in January 2021 found that about 84% of U.S. adults experienced at least one emotion associated with prolonged stress in the prior two weeks.

The findings about unwanted weight changes make sense in a stressful world, especially in the context of the body’s stress response, better known as the fight-or-flight response.

A 3D model of cortisol
Neurotransmitters – like cortisol, seen here – mediate the fight-or-flight response and
can have a huge impact on eating and behavior. Ben Mills/Wikimedia Commons

Fight, flight and food

The fight-or-flight response is an innate reaction that evolved as a survival mechanism. It empowers humans to react swiftly to acute stress – like a predator – or adapt to chronic stress – like a food shortage. When faced with stress, the body wants to keep the brain alert. It decreases levels of some hormones and brain chemicals in order to turn down behaviors that won’t help in an urgent situation, and it increases other hormones that will.

When under stress, the body lowers levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and melatonin. Serotonin regulates emotions, appetite and digestion. So, low levels of serotonin increase anxiety and can change a person’s eating habits. Dopamine – another feel-good neurotransmitter – regulates goal-oriented motivation. Dwindling levels of dopamine can translate into lower motivation to exercise, maintain a healthy lifestyle or perform daily tasks. When people are under stress, they also produce less of the sleep hormone melatonin, leading to trouble sleeping.

Epinephrine and norepinephrine mediate the physiological changes associated with stress and are elevated in stressful situations. These biochemical changes can cause mood swings, impact a persons’s eating habits, reduce goal-oriented motivation and disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm.

Overall, stress can throw your eating habits and motivation to exercise or eat healthy way out of balance, and this last year has certainly been a stressful one for everyone.

A spoon with chocolate spread
Sugars give an immediate but short-lasting mood boost. MarianVejcik/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Easy calories, low motivation

In both of the studies, people self-reported their weight, and the researchers didn’t collect any information about physical activity. But, one can cautiously assume that most of the weight changes were due to people gaining or losing body fat.

So why did people gain or lose weight this last year? And what explains the dramatic differences?

Many people find comfort in high-calorie food. That is because chocolate and other sweets can make you happy by boosting serotonin levels in the short term.
However, the blood clears the extra sugar very quickly, so the mental boost is extremely short-lived, leading people to eat more. Eating for comfort can be a natural response to stress, but when combined with the lower motivation to exercise and consumption of low-nutrient, calorie-dense food, stress can result in unwanted weight gain.

What about weight loss? In a nutshell, the brain is connected to the gut through a two-way communication system called the vagus nerve. When you are stressed, your body inhibits the signals that travel through the vagus nerve and slows down the digestive process. When this happens, people experience fullness.

The pandemic left many people confined to their homes, bored and with plenty of food and little to distract them. When adding the stress factor to this scenario, you have a perfect situation for unwanted weight changes. Stress will always be a part of life, but there are things you can do – like practicing positive self-talk – that can help ward off the stress response and some of its unwanted consequences.

Lina Begdache, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Binghamton University, State University of New York

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

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC

Editorials: “Crystal generation?” and Is Biden’s package too big, or too small?

0
teach
Graphic from a growing alliance of teachers and other school employees who are set to resist classrooms full of unvaccinated people, responding to the archbishop’s epithet.

The archbishop mocks the youth

What a shame that the new generations of technology and those that we have raised, are generations of crystal that are being educated for a prospective life, as if this life were to be permanent on this Earth.

Archbishop Ulloa

Is he going to blow off the younger generations, blow off those who use their educations to take critical views of the world around them and its perils and promises, blow off those housed to his institution’s profit and public expense in SENNIAF facilities? Yeah, well.

All we learned, we knew before. The man tends to side with wealth and power, to put the finances of his institution before the needs of most of the congregation he leads.

None of us are forever, and he isn’t either. Maybe the next generation of Panamanian church leaders will prize transparency, candor and justice more than he does, and be less impressed by those whose embrace of worldly vices has been so very profitable.

Young people should not be expected to quietly sacrifice present-day justice, their futures, their progeny and planet Earth itself for the sake of their elders’ follies.

 

2
The unit prices of Sidewinder, AMRAAM, and HARM missiles as per US DoD’s official 2021 Fiscal Year budget document. So you want to consider the multiplier effects, positive and negative? On the positive side, there are folks who make these and they get paid, with the execs and shareholders generally not investing into anything that creates jobs, but employees paying for food, housing, the things they like to buy – and thus creating jobs for those who make or sell those things. On the negative side, they are single-use. BOOOM!!! But that’s not the end of it. That suspected terrorist who was at the wedding party that was rocketed? Maybe they got him and perhaps you want to score that as a gain. The late bride’s 12-year-old nephew who survived with only slight wounds because he was standing a ways back from where the rocket hit? Many may be the costs of the burning desire for revenge, even if the expense of dealing with his PTSD may be “externalized” to “the enemy.” And then there are the propaganda costs of telling the American people that it never happened, imprisoning whistleblowers who demonstrate that it certainly did, and telling that kid and many more like him to get over it. Graphic from Real Air War.

Is it too much? Is it too little?

Three trillion US dollars is an awful lot of money. The amount is comparable to the special tax breaks given to large corporations and the very rich by this past Republican administration.

Compared, however, to the losses over 50 years of US industrial decline, three trillion bucks isn’t very much. Nor is it all that much if you consider the cost of constant US warfare, which include wars in places where, far from being authorized by Congressional declarations of war, the existence and places of the conflicts are often top secrets that most members of Congress are not allowed to know, let alone the American people. It’s less than the US subsidies given to the oil industry, any way you want to count it. It’s three years worth of US coal subsidies.

Out THOSE thing, however, and the companies and owners taking the cut in subsidies and tax breaks are likely to stop giving so much to politicians who have failed to do their bidding. There would be not only smaller campaign coffers, but the costs of makeovers into “man of the people” – or woman of the people – images for those who intend to continue in Congress.

All of which comparisons, however, ought to be beside the main point. Does the US economy need to fix up or replace roads and bridges that already exist but are so deteriorated that soon they may become unusable ruins? Does the USA need a lot of electric vehicle charging stations for the evolving worldwide low-carbon economy? Do Americans need a new cellular power grid to stop wasting power that’s generated and just dissipates in the antiquated power lines? Is there a need for nationwide broadband to bring areas without it into the modern economy? Do US schools need extensive physical renovations?

Those things are needed. They aren’t luxuries. They aren’t boondoggles. Those are remedies for decades of neglect.

And do we need to put Americans back to work at jobs that pay well and enhance the overall economy, and while doing it spend money on a better educated work force? For some senior citizens, not at all! They got theirs, and they finished their educations years ago, and have no need to look at a book again. Will we hear them complain about the dumb help when they get sent to a nursing home to die?

So, looking to the left side of the spectrum, not enough?

Of course not. Can the USA remain competitive in the world if it has no international project to match or better China’s Belt and Road Initiative other than to bully countries like Panama for doing business with the Chinese? Can the Americas feed themselves without restoring and protecting the fisheries of an ocean planet? Can the US agricultural heartlands remain such if water supplies are contaminated by fracking and leaky oil pipelines? Can the red state / blue state divide be healed if there are still vast areas of “flyover country,” so cut off from transportation, economic opportunities and communications that all the young people who can do so leave to seek their fortunes elsewhere?

Joe Biden’s current package barely touches most of those needs, which will also be expensive to meet. (Even more expensive in the long run would be to pretend that these needs don’t exist.) Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz is absolutely right that the current proposal isn’t enough. It’s just an initial payment.

Candor can spur some furious reactions, but only in twisted political times does candor get treated as a punishable offense. AOC told us the truth, which doesn’t mean that she’s leading a charge against Joe Biden’s $3 trillion package.

 

3

          Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

Eleanor Roosevelt          

 

Bear in mind…

The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why and how it is said.

Vaclav Havel

The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

Peter Ustinov

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC

Los árboles tropicales más grandes y el cambio climático

0
roots
Los científicos piensan que el cambio climático puede tener un mayor impacto en los árboles más grandes de los bosques tropicales, y la muerte de estos gigantes tiene un gran impacto en el bosque, pero debido a que estos árboles monumentales son pocos y distantes entre sí, sus causas de muerte son desconocidas. Este árbol de ceiba gigante (Ceiba pentandra) a lo largo de uno de los senderos naturales en Isla Barro Colorado en Panamá fue durante muchos años el lugar favorito para tomar fotografías. Foto por Jorge Alemán, STRI.

¿Cómo responderán los árboles tropicales más grandes al cambio climático?

por STRI

Los árboles gigantes en los bosques tropicales, testigos de siglos de civilización, pueden quedar atrapados en un circuito de retroalimentación peligroso según un nuevo informe en Nature Plants presentado por investigadores del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI) en Panamá y la Universidad de Birmingham en el Reino Unido. los árboles almacenan la mitad del carbono en los bosques tropicales maduros, pero podrían estar en riesgo de muerte como resultado del cambio climático, liberando cantidades masivas de carbono a la atmósfera.

Evan Gora, becario postdoctoral Tupper de STRI, estudia el papel de los rayos en los bosques tropicales. Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, profesora en la Universidad de Birmingham, estudia los efectos del cambio climático en la Amazonía. Los dos se unieron para descubrir qué mata a los grandes árboles tropicales. Pero mientras investigaban cientos de artículos, descubrieron que no se sabe casi nada sobre los árboles más grandes y cómo mueren porque son extremadamente raros en los estudios de campo.

“Los árboles grandes son difíciles de medir”, comentó Esquivel-Muelbert. “Son la pesadilla de una gira de campo, porque siempre tenemos que volver con una escalera para subir y buscar un lugar para medir la circunferencia por encima de los contrafuertes. Toma mucho tiempo. Los estudios que se centran en las razones por las que los árboles mueren no tienen suficiente información para los árboles más grandes y, a menudo, terminan excluyéndolos de su análisis”.

“Debido a que generalmente carecemos de los datos necesarios para decirnos qué mata los árboles que tienen más de aproximadamente 50 centímetros de diámetro, eso deja fuera a la mitad de la biomasa forestal en la mayoría de los bosques”, comentó Gora.

Solo alrededor del 1% de los árboles en los bosques tropicales maduros llegan a este tamaño. Otros desde abajo, esperan su turno a la sombra.

La otra cosa que hace que los bosques tropicales sean tan especiales, la alta biodiversidad, también dificulta el estudio de los árboles grandes: hay tantas especies diferentes, y muchas de ellas son extremadamente raras.

“Debido a que solo el 1 al 2% de los árboles grandes en un bosque mueren cada año, los investigadores deben tomar muestras de cientos de individuos de una especie determinada para comprender por qué están muriendo”, comentó Gora. “Eso puede implicar buscar árboles en un área enorme”.

Imagínese un estudio de la presión arterial en personas que han vivido hasta los 103 años. Habría que ubicar y evaluar a personas mayores de ciudades y pueblos de todo el mundo: una propuesta costosa, compleja desde el punto de vista logístico y que requiere mucho tiempo.

Una gran cantidad de evidencia muestra que los árboles están muriendo más rápido en los bosques tropicales. Esto está afectando la capacidad de los bosques para funcionar y, en particular, para capturar y almacenar dióxido de carbono.

“Sabemos que la muerte de los árboles más grandes y más viejos tiene más consecuencias que la muerte de los árboles más pequeños”, comentó Gora. “Los árboles grandes pueden correr un riesgo particular porque los factores que los matan parecen estar aumentando más rápidamente que los factores que parecen ser importantes para la mortalidad de árboles más pequeños”.

En gran parte de los trópicos, el cambio climático está provocando tormentas más severas y sequías más frecuentes e intensas. Debido a que los árboles grandes se elevan por encima del resto, es más probable que sean impactados por un rayo o dañados por el viento. Debido a que tienen que extraer agua subterránea más alto que los otros árboles, es más probable que se vean afectados por la sequía.

Con la esperanza de comprender mejor lo que les está sucediendo a los árboles grandes, Gora y Esquivel-Muelbert identificaron tres lagunas de conocimiento evidentes. Primero, casi no se sabe nada sobre enfermedades, insectos y otras causas biológicas de muerte en árboles grandes. En segundo lugar, debido a que los árboles grandes a menudo quedan fuera de los análisis, la relación entre la causa de muerte y el tamaño no está clara. Y, finalmente, casi todos los estudios detallados de grandes árboles tropicales son de algunos lugares como Manaus en Brasil e Isla Barro Colorado en Panamá.

Para comprender cómo mueren los árboles grandes, existe una compensación entre esforzarse en medir una gran cantidad de árboles y medirlos con la frecuencia suficiente para identificar la causa de la muerte. Gora y Esquivel-Muelbert están de acuerdo en que una combinación de tecnología de drones y vistas satelitales del bosque ayudará a descubrir cómo mueren estos grandes árboles, pero este enfoque solo funcionará si se combina con observaciones intensas, estandarizadas y en el terreno, como las utilizadas por la red internacional de sitios de estudio ForestGEO del Smithsonian.

Esquivel-Muelbert espera que el ímpetu de esta investigación provenga de una apreciación compartida por estos misteriosos monumentos vivientes:

“Creo que son fascinantes para todos”, comentó. “Cuando ves a uno de esos gigantes en el bosque, son tan grandes. Mi colega e investigadora amazónica, Carolina Levis, comentó que son los monumentos que tenemos en la Amazonía donde no tenemos grandes pirámides ni edificios antiguos… Esa es la sensación, que han pasado por tanto. Son fascinantes, no solo en el sentido científico, sino también en otro sentido. Te conmueven de alguna manera”.

 

2
La corona de flores del Dipteryx oleifera, uno de los árboles más grandes de Isla Barro Colorado, Panamá, elevándose sobre el bosque. Los árboles grandes pueden estar más expuestos a los efectos del cambio climático: sequías más frecuentes y severas, fuertes vientos y relámpagos de fuertes tormentas. Foto por Evan Gora, STRI.

 

3
Cuando cae un árbol grande, parece que se ha disparado una bomba y se crea un gran claro. Si el cambio climático hace que la tasa de muerte de árboles grandes se dispare, la estructura del sotobosque podría cambiar drásticamente. Foto por Jorge Alemán, STRI.

 

4
Imagen de dron: los árboles tropicales pueden llegar a medir más de 77 metros (250 pies) de altura. Observe a la persona vestida de rojo en el suelo del bosque. Foto por Evan Gora, STRI

 

El financiamiento para este estudio provino de STRI, la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de EEUU y el proyecto TreeMort como parte del Programa Marco de Investigación e Innovación de la UE.

Referencia: Gora, E.M. and Esquivel-Muelbert, A. 2021. Implications of size-dependent tree mortality for tropical forest carbon dynamics. Nature Plants. doi: 10.1038/s41477-021-00879-0

 

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC

¿Wappin? ¡Felices Pascuas! / Happy Easter!

0
easter

His legendary return
Su regreso legendario 

Tallis – Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet
University of King’s College Chapel Choir, directed by Paul Halley
https://youtu.be/rgRXLN6nlVU

Dahila Bashta – قام حقاً (Prince of Peace is Risen)
https://youtu.be/LOg1t0d77i0

Mahler: Symphony No.2 in C minor – “Resurrection”
Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Zuben Mehta, with Ileana Cotrubas & Christa Ludwig
https://youtu.be/vZ2U28Ypc50

Easter Mass from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 2019
Presided by Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa
https://youtu.be/ic9QV-6H-fg

False Bay Circuit Easter 2019 – Ulihlathi lethu Thixo
Cape of Good Hope Synod
https://youtu.be/16CRjl4q9RA

Luis Arteaga – El Jarrito
https://youtu.be/G8gcESTdmT8

 

 

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

 

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.  

~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information. Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
 

npp

 

FB CCL

 

FB_2

 

Tweet

 

$$

 

vote final

   
Dinero

¿Wappin? Good Friday for plague times / Viernes Santo para tiempos de plaga

0
Portobelo
El Nazareno de Portobelo / The Black Christ of Portobelo. Wikimedia photo by Adam Jones

On this day long ago, an anti-corruption dissident was tortured.

En este día, hace mucho tiempo, un disidente anticorrupción fue torturado.

Bach – Matthäus Passion
Netherlands Bach Society
https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ

Rimsky-Korsakov – Russian Easter Overture
Orquesta Sinfónida de Minería
https://youtu.be/s2tfXtK_52g

Brother Joseph Bekele – Under Your Cross (Amharic Good Friday Song)
The Christians
https://youtu.be/BzkDbhqJnOU

Fauré – Good Friday Choral Concert
Tenth Presbyterian Church
https://youtu.be/AhECHhFS6a0

 

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

 

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.  

~ ~ ~
These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information. Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.
 

npp

 

FB CCL

 

FB_2

 

Tweet

 

$$

 

vote final

   
Dinero

Coronavirus and antibody evolution

0
bugs
Antibodies (white) binding to a coronavirus (red and orange).
Photo by Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.

Coronavirus is evolving but
so are our antibodies

by Sarah L Caddy, University of Cambridge and Meng Wang, University of Cambridge

The emergence of “variants of concern” has raised questions about our long-term immunity to the coronavirus. Will the antibodies we make after being infected with or vaccinated against the dominant lineage, called D614G, protect us against future viral variants?

To answer this question, scientists have been examining how our antibody responses to the coronavirus develop over time. Several studies have recently compared the difference between antibodies produced straight after a coronavirus infection and those that can be detected six months later. The findings have been both impressive and reassuring.

Although there are fewer coronavirus-specific antibodies detectable in the blood six months after infection, the antibodies that remain have undergone significant changes. Researchers have tested their ability to bind to proteins from the new coronavirus variants and found that 83% of the “mature” antibodies were better at recognizing the variants. A recent preprint (a study that is yet to undergo peer review) also found that some antibodies present six months after infection were starting to be able to recognize related, but entirely distinct viruses, such as the coronavirus that causes Sars.

How is this possible? Quite simply because the B cells that make antibodies evolve after they are first activated. While it is well known that viruses can mutate over time, our own B cells can also take advantage of mutations to make superior antibodies.

Somatic hypermutation

A key difference between the mutation of antibodies and viruses is that mutations in antibodies are not entirely random. They are, in fact, directly caused by an enzyme that is only found in B cells, known as Aid (activation-induced deaminase). This enzyme deliberately causes mutations in the DNA responsible for making the part of the antibody that can recognize the virus. This mutation mechanism was solved by pioneering researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, almost 20 years ago.

AID activity leads to a much higher rate of mutation in B cells than in any other cell in the body. This phenomenon is called “somatic hypermutation”.

Some of the mutations that are induced in the antibody binding site will improve the binding of that antibody to the target virus. But some mutations will have no effect, and others will actually decrease the antibody’s ability to latch onto the target virus. This means there needs to be a system whereby B cells making the best antibodies will be selected.

B cells congregate in small glands called lymph nodes while they are developing. Lymph nodes are found all around the body and often get bigger if you are fighting an infection.

Location of lymph nodes on the human body
B cells gather in lymph nodes while they are developing. Sakurra/Shutterstock.

Within the lymph nodes, the B cells that can make better antibodies after somatic hypermutation are given positive signals to make them replicate faster. Other B cells fall by the wayside and die. This “survival-of-the-fittest” process is called affinity maturation; the strength or “affinity” with which antibodies bind to their target matures and improves over time. After this rigorous selection, the newly emerged B cell will now mass produce its improved antibody, leading to a more effective immune response.

The course of a typical COVID infection is ten to 14 days, so the first wave of antibodies driving out the virus doesn’t have long enough to evolve because affinity maturation normally takes place over weeks. But research from the US has shown that small non-infectious bits of SARS-CoV-2 remain in the body after an infection is cleared, so B cells can keep being reminded of what the virus looks like. This allows antibody evolution to continue for months after an infection has been resolved.

Overall, antibody evolution means that if a person is infected with coronavirus for a second time, antibodies with far superior binding ability will be ready and waiting. This has important implications for vaccination. Antibody evolution will begin after the first vaccination so that much-improved antibodies will be present if the virus is encountered at a later date. Hopefully, it is comforting to know that it is not just the virus that is mutating, our own antibodies are keeping pace.The Conversation

Sarah L Caddy, Clinical Research Fellow in Viral Immunology and Veterinary Surgeon, University of Cambridge and Meng Wang, Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellow, University of Cambridge

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

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC

International Monetary Fund calls for rich to pay more taxes

0
Code Pink
Code Pink takes to the streets of Washington, along with many other women, in 2019. Photo by Fred Murphy.

IMF calls for taxing world’s richest to
curb inequality, stave off social unrest

by Kenny Stancil — Common Dreams

f governments don’t close the gap between society’s richest and poorest members—which was growing before and has exploded during the coronavirus crisis—by raising wages for low-income workers, taxing wealthy households, and using the increased revenue to improve social welfare, they should expect diminished trust in government and increased social polarization and unrest.

That warning comes in a new report on the intensification of inequality released Thursday by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a Washington D.C.-based international financial institution whose lending policies prior to and even during the Covid-19 pandemic have heightened vulnerability to crises by imposing public expenditure cuts in developing countries.

The IMF noted that the coronavirus disaster laid bare preexisting inequalities within and between countries in terms of income and access to public goods, such as healthcare and vaccines. Such “inequalities have worsened the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic,” with a strong link between poverty, unequal access to basic services, and infection and mortality rates.

While preexisting inequalities have worsened health outcomes for vulnerable populations, the coronavirus-driven economic crisis has, in turn, exacerbated inequality. For instance, 95 million more people were thrown into extreme poverty during 2020 than would have been expected based on pre-pandemic projections, and unequal access to quality education and digital infrastructure “may cause income gaps to persist generation after generation.”

According to the IMF: “Disruptions to education threaten social mobility by leaving long-lasting effects on children and youth, especially those from poorer households. These challenges are being compounded by accelerated digitalization and the transformational effect of the pandemic on the economy, posing low-skilled workers with difficulties in finding employment.”

It is “against this backdrop,” the IMF added, that “societies may experience rising polarization, erosion of trust in government, or social unrest. These factors complicate sound economic policymaking and pose risks to macroeconomic stability and the functioning of society.”

Reducing inequality “is crucial for policymakers to strengthen public trust and support social cohesion,” the IMF stressed. “Governments need to provide everyone with a fair shot—enabling all individuals to reach their potential.”

“The pandemic has confirmed the merits of equal access to basic services—healthcare, quality education, and digital infrastructure—and of inclusive labor markets and effective social safety nets,” the IMF noted. “Better performance in these areas has enhanced resilience to the pandemic and is key for the economic recovery to benefit all and to strengthen trust in government.”

“In the months ahead,” the IMF said, universal access to inoculation “will be decisive.”

While “cross-country surveys administered before the pandemic suggest that respondents in advanced and emerging market economies have long expressed favor for more tax-financed spending on education, healthcare, and old-age care, and more progressive taxation,” the IMF wrote that “popular support for better public services… has likely risen” in the past year due to increased “attention on governments and their ability to respond to the crisis.”

“Public finances have been weakened in most countries as a result of the pandemic,” but the IMF said that “many countries will need to raise additional revenues and improve spending efficiency… to support inclusive growth in a context of tighter fiscal space.”

Policymakers, the IMF added, “should recognize that various aspects of inequality (income, wealth, opportunity) are mutually reinforcing and create a vicious circle.”

Policy interventions should therefore combine “predistributive” policies that affect incomes before taxes and transfers, such as increasing employment and wages, as well as redistributive policies, such as taxing the rich to expand and improve the provision of public goods.

The IMF made the following recommendations:

  • Investing more and investing better in education, health, and early childhood development;
  • Strengthening social safety nets by expanding coverage of the most vulnerable households, and increasing adequacy of benefits;
  • Mustering the necessary revenues. Advanced economies can increase progressivity of income taxation and increase reliance on inheritance/gift taxes and property taxation. Covid-19 recovery contributions and “excess” corporate profits taxes could be considered. Wealth taxes can also be considered if the previous measures are not enough. Emerging market and developing economies should focus on strengthening tax capacity to finance more social spending;
  • Acting in a transparent manner. For most countries, these reforms would be best anchored in a medium-term fiscal framework as early as possible. Strengthening public financial management and improving transparency and accountability, not least for Covid-19 response measures, will reinforce trust in government; and
  • Supporting lower-income countries that face especially daunting challenges. Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals—a broad measure of the access to basic services—by 2030 would require $3 trillion for 121 emerging market economies and low-income developing countries (2.6% of 2030 world GDP). Support from the international community is needed to aid reform efforts, with the immediate priority being affordable access to vaccines.

The IMF’s report coincides with another analysis out Thursday, which revealed that the world’s 2,365 billionaires have seen their collective fortunes grow by $4 trillion during the pandemic, a staggering windfall that prompted demands for a global wealth tax.

“Unless we tax the world’s billionaires,” warned Chuck Collins, researcher with the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies, “the legacy of the pandemic will be accelerated concentrations of wealth and power.”

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

donate

NNPP

FB_2

Tweet

PDC
1...151152153...446Page 152 of 446

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

©