Effective Ebola Vaccine

The research arm of the Canadian Public Health Agency, working with Merck, seems to have conquered the Ebola virus.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/31/ebola-vaccine-trial-proves-100-successful-in-guinea?CMP=twt_gu

Does Television Encourage Irrationalism?

Amusing Ourselves to Death
A book by Neil Postman published in 1987 about the dangers of television

Neil Postman was chairman of the department of communication arts at New York University. He passed away in 2003.

An Outstanding Review on Amazon.com

5 stars -- A classic
By David Darlington on February 27, 2007

Postman's book is a harsh diatribe against the television industry and its effects on intellectual discourse in the United States. Postman argues that television, especially when compared to the written word, cannot foster deep, rational thought in its viewers, because it requires absolute passivity from them. Television can only be about entertainment, and its cultural dominance, Postman argues, has had negative effects on education, politics, and religion.

The first half the book dedicated to Postman's updating of the famous Marshall McLuhan postulate, "the medium is the message." Postman agrees, but takes it even further, stating in chapter one that "the medium is the metaphor." What he means by this is that our language -- how we communicate -- is only a metaphor for reality. We describe as best as we can what we see and know, but our method of communication circumscribes how and what we can actually communicate. Postman argues that whichever mode of communication we chose to communicate with -- be it oral, written, or televisual -- each comes with its own set of limitations. That is to say, "the form excludes the content." Some ideas simply can't be expressed by certain forms, which should be obvious to anybody who has tried to write a sarcastic email without the appropriate smiley face at the end.

Postman then guides the reader through a history of communication, laying out eras where oral, print, or visual communicative forms were culturally dominant. For Postman, the print era (or "age of typography"), which he dates roughly from the Reformation to the 19th century, is when rational argument reached its pinnacle. The form of the written word, Postman argues, requires the marshalling of evidence and the presentation of that evidence in a logical order on behalf of the writer, and patience and discernment on the part of the reader. Only in the printed word could complicated truths be clearly and rationally conveyed. During the 19th century, when print had reached hegemony in communications, rational thought was most valued. A striking example that Postman provides is the Lincoln-Douglas debates. While these were certainly public spectacles (usually held at state or county faires), Postman presents them as if they were dueling long-form essays. In one particular debate (Peoria, October 16, 1854), Stephen Douglas went first for three hours, after which Lincoln suggested everyone go home to have dinner and come back in the evening. They did, and when they returned they were treated to another four hours of oratory, starting with Lincoln's rebuttal of Douglas. This sounds more like a paper session at an academic conference than a political debate, which is Postman's point exactly. Lincoln and Douglas did in fact write their speeches out, to make sure they made sense, though neither man was insensitive to audience response. In this era -- the era defined by typography as the leading communicative form -- major public figures, be they politicians, preachers, or activists, were expected to be able to make a long, rational, public argument, and the people were willing to listen to it. They weren't bored into a catatonic state by long speeches at all, Postman says, but rather interacted with the orators to encourage them, or challenge them to stay on point.

In the modern (television) age, however, things are different. Following the maxim "the form excludes the content," political discourse is no longer about rational argument, says Postman, but about entertainment and appearance. People get bored if television images are too static, so change has to happen, and frequently. There's no time to lay out a rational argument, but no matter, the passive audience doesn't want long, convoluted logic anyway. Television makes its viewers demand constant stimuli, so if things take too long, people just tune out. Debates rarely last even 90 minutes (poor Stephen Douglas), and politicos are lucky to get five minutes on a particular question. Not that they're expected to give a logical answer, anyway. In fact, they can repeat catchphrases as much as they want ("lockbox!" "it's hard work!") as long as they don't look bored (Bush 1992), condescending (Gore 2000), or annoyed (Bush 2004). Who really remembers what was said at the debates in the last presidential campaign anyway? Indeed, did those commenting on the debates immediately following ever really analyze what was being said? In rare cases, such as on PBS, you'd get issue analysis, but for the most part television political commentary was limited to "how did the candidate come across to voters?" "Did he appear honest? Likeable?" Postman says that we're no longer in the Age of Typography, but rather in the Age of Show Business. Television's rules control how we communicate today, even if we aren't on television ourselves.

Take, for example, religion. Postman spends a chapter on religious discourse in the modern era, basically laying into television preachers. Postman (who was Jewish) found some televangelists intelligent, others insulting and emotionally manipulative, but, above everything else, they were all entertainers. There was very little theological depth compared to say, Jonathan Edwards or even Charles Finney. Postman comes to two conclusions about religion on television:

The first is that on television, religion, like everything else, is presented, quite simply and without apology, as an entertainment. Everything that makes religion a historic, profound, and sacred human activity is stripped away; there is no ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theology, and above all, no sense of spiritual transcendence. On these shows, the preacher is tops. God comes out as a second banana. The second conclusion is that this fact has more to do with the bias of television than with the deficiencies of these electronic preachers...

The point is that in the Age of Show Business, nothing escapes becoming entertainment. Postman reserves special scorn for the way education and news are handled by television. The news chapter is specially informative. Our news programs (even the "serious" news shows), he says, are basically entertainment, because they have music introducing ideas and pretty people ("talking hairdos") telling the stories. News items are stripped from local context, commodified, and given to the viewer in bit-sized chunks, separated by the "now.... this!" phenomenon, which serves to make the viewer dismiss it all as meaningless candy he or she can do nothing about. The "now... this!" phenomenon can be tried on any news broadcast. Tonight, for example, and update on the Iraq will be followed by ("now.... this!") Britney Spears' latest escapades. Postman says this serves to reduce it all to meaningless trivia.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is definitely a polemic. Postman starts off the book with a comparison of George Orwell's 1984 with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, stating that the point of his book is exploring the possibility that Huxley's dystopia was correct. Unlike 1984, where people are controlled by violence and pain, Huxley presented a world where people are controlled by giving them every pleasure they want. For Postman, television is the device that controls us by entertainment and pleasure. Is Postman provocative? You bet. But he does raise important questions about our uncritical acceptance of what we see on television, and our easy adoption of any new technology that comes down the pipe. Amusing Ourselves is a book that should be read and discussed by as many people as possible.

http://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Neil-Postman/dp/0413404404/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1438250830&sr=8-2&keywords=Amusing+Ourselves+to+Death

Model Projects Alloy with Highest Melting Point

Researchers Predict Material with
Record-Setting Melting Point

Providence, R.I., Brown University, July 27, 2015 -- Using advanced computers and a computational technique to simulate physical processes at the atomic level, researchers at Brown University have predicted that a material made from hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon would have the highest known melting point, about two-thirds the temperature at the surface of the sun.

The computations, described in the journal Physical Review B (Rapid Communications), showed that a material made with just the right amounts of hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon would have a melting point of more than 4,400 kelvins (7,460 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s about two-thirds the temperature at the surface of the sun, and 200 kelvins higher than the highest melting point ever recorded experimentally.

The experimental record-holder is a substance made from the elements hafnium, tantalum, and carbon (Hf-Ta-C). But these new calculations suggest that an optimal composition of hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon — HfN_0.38C_0.51 — is a promising candidate to set a new mark. The next step, which the researchers are undertaking now, is to synthesize material and corroborate the findings in the lab.

“The advantage of starting with the computational approach is we can try lots of different combinations very cheaply and find ones that might be worth experimenting with in the lab,” said Axel van de Walle, associate professor of engineering and co-author of the study with postdoctoral researcher Qijun Hong. “Otherwise we’d just be shooting in the dark. Now we know we have something that’s worth a try.”

The researchers used a computational technique that infers melting points by simulating physical processes at the atomic level, following the law of quantum mechanics. The technique looks at the dynamics of melting as they occur at the nanoscale, in blocks of 100 or so atoms. It's more efficient than traditional methods, but still computationally demanding due to the large number of potential compounds to test. The work was done using the National Science Foundation’s XSEDE computer network and Brown’s “Oscar” high-performance computer cluster.

Van de Walle and Hong started by analyzing the Hf-Ta-C material for which the melting point had already been experimentally determined. The simulation was able to elucidate some of the factors that contribute to the material’s remarkable heat tolerance.

The work showed that Hf-Ta-C combined a high heat of fusion (the energy released or absorbed when it transitions from solid to liquid) with a small difference between the entropies (disorder) of the solid and liquid phases. “What makes something melt is the entropy gained in the process of phase transformation,” van de Walle explained. “So if the entropy of the solid is already very high, that tends to stabilize the solid and increase the melting point.”

The researchers then used those findings to look for compounds that might maximize those properties. They found that a compound with hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon would have a similarly high heat of fusion but a smaller difference between the entropies of the solid and the liquid. When they calculated the melting point using their computational approach, it came out 200 kelvins higher than the experimental record.

Van de Walle and Hong are now collaborating with Alexandra Navrotsky’s lab at the University of California–Davis to synthesize the compound and perform the melting point experiments. Navrotksy’s lab is equipped for such high-temperature experiments.

The work could ultimately point toward new high-performance materials for a variety of uses, from plating for gas turbines to heat shields on high-speed aircraft. But whether the HfN_0.38C_0.51 compound itself will be a useful material isn’t clear, van de Walle says.

“Melting point isn’t the only property that’s important [in material applications],” he said. “You would need to consider things like mechanical properties and oxidation resistance and all sorts of other properties. So taking those things into account you may want to mix other things with this that might lower the melting point. But since you’re already starting so high, you have more leeway to adjust other properties. So I think this gives people an idea of what can be done.”

The work also demonstrates the power of this relatively new computational technique, van de Walle says. In recent years, interest in using computation to explore the material properties of a large number of candidate compounds has increased, but much of that work has focused on properties that are far easier to compute than the melting point.

“Melting point is a really difficult prediction problem compared to what has been done before,” van de Walle said. “For the modeling community, I think that’s what is special about this.”

https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/07/melting

Oppositional Defiant Disorder -- Unmasked

Introduction by the Blog Author

Below is a long detailed description of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, which I consider a fake psychological and psychiatric problem for reasons I explain in my afterword to this longwinded disease discussion.

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Oppositional Defiant Disorder “ODD,” as described in detail by the Mayo Clinic (ODD is a mental disorder listed in the DSM nowadays, though such conduct and moods as shown below used to be considered PERSONALITY TRAITS…

Definition

 Even the best-behaved children can be difficult and challenging at times. But if your child or teen has a frequent and persistent pattern of anger, irritability, arguing, defiance or vindictiveness toward you and other authority figures, he or she may have oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).

As a parent, you don't have to go it alone in trying to manage a child with ODD. Doctors, counselors and child development experts can help.

Treatment of ODD involves therapy, training to help build positive family interactions and skills to manage behaviors, and possibly medications to treat related mental health conditions.

Sometimes it's difficult to recognize the difference between a strong-willed or emotional child and one with oppositional defiant disorder. It's normal to exhibit oppositional behavior at certain stages of a child's development.

Signs of ODD generally begin during preschool years. Sometimes ODD may develop later, but almost always before the early teen years. These behaviors cause significant impairment with family, social activities, school and work.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association, lists criteria for diagnosing ODD. This manual is used by mental health providers to diagnose mental conditions and by insurance companies to reimburse for treatment.

DSM-5 criteria for diagnosis of ODD show a pattern of behavior that:

·                           Includes at least four symptoms from any of these categories — angry and irritable mood; argumentative and defiant behavior; or vindictiveness

·                           Occurs with at least one individual who is not a sibling

·                           Causes significant problems at work, school or home

·                           Occurs on its own, rather than as part of the course of another mental health problem, such as a substance use disorder, depression or bipolar disorder

·                           Lasts at least six months

DSM-5 criteria for diagnosis of ODD include both emotional and behavioral symptoms.

Angry and irritable mood:

·                           Often loses temper

·                           Is often touchy or easily annoyed by others

·                           Is often angry and resentful

Argumentative and defiant behavior:

·                           Often argues with adults or people in authority

·                           Often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults' requests or rules

·                           Often deliberately annoys people

·                           Often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior

Vindictiveness:

·                           Is often spiteful or vindictive

·                           Has shown spiteful or vindictive behavior at least twice in the past six months

These behaviors must be displayed more often than is typical for your child's peers. For children younger than 5 years, the behavior must occur on most days for a period of at least six months. For individuals 5 years or older, the behavior must occur at least once a week for at least six months.

ODD can vary in severity:

·                           Mild. Symptoms occur only in one setting, such as only at home, school, work or with peers.

·                           Moderate. Some symptoms occur in at least two settings.

·                           Severe. Some symptoms occur in three or more settings.

For some children, symptoms may first be seen only at home, but with time extend to other settings, such as school and with friends.

When to see a doctor

Your child isn't likely to see his or her behavior as a problem. Instead, your child will probably believe that unreasonable demands are being placed on him or her. But if your child has signs and symptoms common to ODD that are more frequent than is typical for his or her peers, make an appointment with your child's doctor.

If you're concerned about your child's behavior or your own ability to parent a challenging child, seek help from your doctor, a child psychologist or a child behavioral expert. Your primary care doctor or your child's pediatrician can refer you to the appropriate professional.

Causes

 There's no known clear cause of oppositional defiant disorder. Contributing causes may be a combination of inherited and environmental factors, including:

·                           Genetics — a child's natural disposition or temperament and possibly neurobiological differences in the way nerves and the brain function

·                           Environment — problems with parenting that may involve a lack of supervision, inconsistent or harsh discipline, or abuse or neglect

Risk factors

 

Oppositional defiant disorder is a complex problem. Possible risk factors for ODD include:

·                           Temperament — a child who has a temperament that includes difficulty regulating emotions, such as being highly emotionally reactive to situations or having trouble tolerating frustration

·                           Parenting issues — a child who experiences abuse or neglect, harsh or inconsistent discipline, or a lack of parental supervision

·                           Other family issues — a child who lives with parent or family discord or has a parent with a mental health or substance use disorder

Complications

 

Children with oppositional defiant disorder may have trouble at home with parents and siblings, in school with teachers, at work with supervisors and other authority figures, and may struggle to make and keep friends and relationships.

ODD may lead to problems such as:

·                           Poor school and work performance

·                           Antisocial behavior

·                           Impulse control problems

·                           Substance use disorder

·                           Suicide

Many children with ODD also have other mental health conditions, such as:

·                           Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

·                           Depression

·                           Anxiety

·                           Conduct disorder

·                           Learning and communication disorders

Treating these other mental health conditions may help improve ODD symptoms. And it may be difficult to treat ODD if these other conditions are not evaluated and treated appropriately.

Preparing for your appointment

 You may start by seeing your child's doctor. After an initial evaluation, your doctor may refer you to a mental health professional who can help make a diagnosis and create the appropriate treatment plan for your child.

What you can do

Before your appointment, make a list of:

·                           Signs and symptoms your child has been experiencing, and for how long.

·                           Your family's key personal information, including factors that you suspect may have contributed to changes in your child's behavior. Include any stressors that your child or close family members recently experienced, particularly with regard to parental separation or divorce and differences in expectations and parenting styles.

·                           Your child's key medical information, including other physical or mental health conditions with which your child has been diagnosed.

·                           Any medication, vitamins and other supplements your child is taking, including the dose.

·                           Questions to ask the doctor so that you can make the most of your appointment.

When possible, both parents should be present with the child. Or, take a trusted family member or friend along. Someone who accompanies you may remember something that you missed or forgot.

Questions to ask the doctor at your child's initial appointment include:

·                           What do you believe is causing my child's symptoms?

·                           Are there any other possible causes?

·                           How will you determine the diagnosis?

·                           Should my child see a mental health provider?

Questions to ask if your child is referred to a mental health provider include:

·                           Does my child have oppositional defiant disorder?

·                           Is this condition likely temporary or long lasting?

·                           What factors do you think might be contributing to my child's problem?

·                           What treatment approach do you recommend?

·                           Is it possible for my child to grow out of this condition?

·                           Does my child need to be screened for any other mental health problems?

·                           Is my child at increased risk of any long-term complications from this condition?

·                           Do you recommend any changes at home or school to encourage my child's recovery?

·                           Should I tell my child's teachers about this diagnosis?

·                           What else can my family and I do to help my child?

·                           Do you recommend family therapy?

·                           What can we, the parents, do to cope and sustain our ability to help our child?

Don't hesitate to ask additional questions during your appointment.

What to expect from your doctor

Be ready to answer your doctor's questions. That way you'll have more time to go over any points you want to talk about in-depth. Your doctor may ask:

·                           What are your concerns about your child's behavior?

·                           When did you first notice these problems?

·                           Have your child's teachers or other caregivers reported similar behaviors in your child?

·                           How often over the last six months has your child been spiteful or vindictive, or blamed others for his or her own mistakes?

·                           How often over the last six months has your child been easily annoyed or deliberately annoying to others?

·                           How often over the last six months has your child argued with adults or defied or refused adults' requests?

·                           How often over the last six months has your child been visibly angry or lost his or her temper?

·                           In what settings does your child demonstrate these behaviors?

·                           Do any particular situations seem to trigger negative or defiant behavior in your child?

·                           How have you been handling your child's disruptive behavior?

·                           How do you typically discipline your child?

·                           How would you describe your child's home and family life?

·                           What stresses has the family been dealing with?

·                           Has your child been diagnosed with any other medical conditions, including mental health conditions?

Tests and diagnosis

 To determine whether your child has oppositional defiant disorder, the mental health provider can do a comprehensive psychological evaluation. This evaluation will likely include an assessment of:

·                           Your child's overall health

·                           The frequency and intensity of your child's behaviors

·                           Your child's behavior across multiple settings and relationships

·                           The presence of other mental health, learning or communication disorders

Related mental health issues

Because ODD often occurs along with other behavioral or mental health problems, symptoms of ODD may be difficult to distinguish from those related to other problems. It's important to diagnose and treat any co-occurring problems because they can create or worsen ODD symptoms if left untreated.

Treatments and drugs

 

Treating oppositional defiant disorder generally involves several types of psychotherapy and training for your child — as well as for parents.  Treatment often lasts several months or longer.

Medications alone generally aren't used for ODD unless another disorder co-exists. If your child has co-existing conditions, particularly ADHD, medications may help significantly improve symptoms.

The cornerstones of treatment for ODD usually include:

·                           Parent training. A mental health provider with experience treating ODD may help you develop parenting skills that are more positive and less frustrating for you and your child. In some cases, your child may participate in this type of training with you, so that everyone in your family develops shared goals for how to handle problems.

·                           Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT). During PCIT, therapists coach parents while they interact with their children. In one approach, the therapist sits behind a one-way mirror and, using an "ear bug" audio device, guides parents through strategies that reinforce their children's positive behavior. As a result, parents learn more-effective parenting techniques, the quality of the parent-child relationship improves and problem behaviors decrease.

·                           Individual and family therapy. Individual counseling for your child may help him or her learn to manage anger and express feelings in a healthier way. Family counseling may help improve your communication and relationships, and help members of your family learn how to work together.

·                           Cognitive problem-solving training. This type of therapy is aimed at helping your child identify and change thought patterns that lead to behavior problems. Collaborative problem-solving — in which you and your child work together to come up with solutions that work for both of you — can help improve ODD-related problems.

·                           Social skills training. Your child also might benefit from therapy that will help him or her learn how to interact more positively and effectively with peers.

As part of parent training, you may learn how to manage your child's behavior by:

·                           Giving clear instructions and following through with appropriate consequences when needed

·                           Recognizing and praising your child's good behaviors and positive characteristics to promote desired behaviors

Although some parenting techniques may seem like common sense, learning to use them in the face of opposition isn't easy, especially if there are other stressors at home. Learning these skills will require consistent practice and patience.

Most important in treatment is for you to show consistent, unconditional love and acceptance of your child — even during difficult and disruptive situations. Don't be too hard on yourself. This process can be tough for even the most patient parents.

Lifestyle and home remedies

At home, you can begin chipping away at problem behaviors of oppositional defiant disorder by practicing these strategies:

·                           Recognize and praise your child's positive behaviors. Be as specific as possible, such as, "I really liked the way you helped pick up your toys tonight."

·                           Model the behavior you want your child to have.

·                           Pick your battles and avoid power struggles. Almost everything can turn into a power struggle, if you let it.

·                           Set limits and enforce consistent reasonable consequences.

·                           Set up a routine by developing a consistent daily schedule for your child. Asking your child to help develop that routine may be beneficial.

·                           Build in time together by developing a consistent weekly schedule that involves you and your child spending time together.

·                           Work with your partner or others in your household to ensure consistent and appropriate discipline procedures. Enlist support from teachers, coaches and other adults who spend time with your child.

·                           Assign a household chore that's essential and that won't get done unless the child does it. Initially, it's important to set your child up for success with tasks that are relatively easy to achieve and gradually blend in more important and challenging expectations. Give clear, easy-to-follow instructions.

·                           Be prepared for challenges early on. At first, your child probably won't be cooperative or appreciate your changed response to his or her behavior. Expect behavior to temporarily worsen in the face of new expectations. This is called an "extinction burst" by behavior therapists. Remaining consistent in the face of increasingly challenging behavior is the key to success at this early stage.

With perseverance and consistency, the initial hard work often pays off with improved behavior and relationships.

Coping and support

Being the parent of a child with oppositional defiant disorder isn't easy. Counseling for you can provide you with an outlet for your frustrations and concerns. In turn, this can lead to better outcomes for your child because you'll be more prepared to deal with problem behaviors.
Maintaining your health through relaxation, supportive relationships, and effective communication of your concerns and needs are important elements during treatment of ODD.

Prevention

There's no guaranteed way to prevent oppositional defiant disorder. However, positive parenting and early treatment can help improve behavior and prevent the situation from getting worse. The earlier that ODD can be managed, the better.

Treatment can help restore your child's self-esteem and rebuild a positive relationship between you and your child. Your child's relationships with other important adults in his or her life — such as teachers, community supports and care providers — also will benefit from early treatment.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/oppositional-defiant-disorder/basics/definition/con-20024559

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Afterword by the Blog Author

How did you like the “Parent-Child Interaction Therapy” with the one-way mirror and the ear bug so that the parent could receive advice “live” while manipulating the child?  What is going on here – is the child being trained to be paranoid?

To get to the bottom of this, let’s take another –colder – look at the “risk factors” for “ODD”:

·                           Temperament — a child who has a temperament that includes difficulty regulating emotions, such as being highly emotionally reactive to situations or having trouble tolerating frustration

·                           Parenting issues — a child who experiences abuse or neglect, harsh or inconsistent discipline, or a lack of parental supervision

·                           Other family issues — a child who lives with parent or family discord or has a parent with a mental health or substance use disorder

 From here it is easy to posit the real problem and the real cause.  ODD is the normal and un-neurotic response to a parent who intentionally installs frustration in a child, or who abuses or neglects a child because of poor parental mental health or substance abuse.

One other thing – it is remotely possible for the child to win this mindwar outright.  A very few children are given the rare gift of patience at a divine and heroic level.  This patience is properly part of the personality of middle-aged adults, but it can flower into bloom in a child under stress in unusual situations.  The supremely patient child realizes that angering and annoying the parents is ineffective and contraindicated.  This wise child is silent when betrayed and left with broken promises.  Amazingly, this child will not join in the hysteria or dramatic scenes of the mentally unstable or addicted parent, stubbornly remaining calm and uninvolved instead. This, finally, is The Invulnerable Child described by Anthony Cohler and edited by E James Anthony, M.D. and by Bertram J Cohler in case studies published in 1987 in book form.

A final word: most modern psychologists ignore these case studies and insist that no children are ever invulnerable.