mlabib's blog

 I really like this article and am very happy that this experiment was conducted on the mice to prove that healthy gut bacteria can cause a healthy life. This can be used on humans once more research is done, and provide antibiotics to humans to provide them with a healthier life and reduce their chance of developing things such as schizophrenia. There were different patterns of neural activity in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex when the gut bacteria was disrupted, so in turn brain regions associated with fear and learning. Hopefully the research can continue in this topic, and hopefully one day this antibiotic tested on mice will be available for humans.
 

In this article we find out that mice with a disrupted gut microbiota may be unable to shake off fearful memories – and that gut bacteria that is disrupted affects the memory and learning skills..David Artis at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and his colleagues studied the effect antibiotics have on the way mice learn and respond to fearful situations. They made mice fearful of this specific sound, as it delivered a small shock to their paws, making them scared when they heard the tone. If the shock was not in the scenario, they can learn to forget the fear, but since there is the shock, it is rather traumatizing. When they had added an antibiotic that clears their gut bacteria and microbes, they were able to forget the fear, and not respond to the specific tone that caused them distress before the antibiotic. Researchers found that with disrupted gut bacteria, had different gene switches on. The ones without the gut bacteria, had lower levels of four compounds related to schizophrenia and autism. Thus, the conclusion of this experiment is that if your gut bacteria is healthy, you are more likely to have a lower risk of developing certain defects, such as fear, schizophrenia, and autism.  

The tobacco industry also lobbies and hijacks legislative processes, to make sure they will not be at risk of getting sued by any buyer. The industries uses front groups  to gain access to policy makers and provide ready to use legislative proposals, causing them barely any issues with the law. In an example in 2017, the United Kingdom Fraud Office opened an investigation to British American Tobacco involvement in bribing policymakers in at least 4 African Countries; Burundi, Comoros, Kenya and Rwandaonce these legislations are passed, the industry may or may not disobey the rules, in the illicit cigarette trade, through illegal channels, but it is hard to confirm this.. Lastly, they manipulate public relations to make buyers think that they are good Samaritans by thinking about society, when really they only care about what is entering the company’s pocket. For example, when new tobacco control policies are on the agenda, the image of a good “corporate citizen” redirects attention away from the dire consequences of smoking

I believe she is a feminist ethnographer and her past depicts it too. Feminist ethnography is a very broad term and does not necessarily have a label to it. It is purely power dynamics and inequities; their struggle as women and their struggle being a mother. For example, we see the birth process that Nisa had to go through in this book. Shostak spent her time photographing, audiotaping music, and studying women’s artistic productions such as beadwork way before she ever travelled to do fieldwork on the !Kung people. She was also where she was a supporter of the women’s equal rights movement. I believe that Nisa had made her into a real female ethnographer as Nisa changed her life and was particularly special to Shostak. The majority of the book is speaking about females and her interview with women as she probably believes that she can connect and conduct an interview with a female much easier than she can with a man. She stood out in Shostak’s eyes for her highly articulate stories, her emphatic methods of storytelling, and her profound and often tragic life experiences. She takes into account all genders, and even speaks about them in the text, however she pays particular attention to women by honing on women’s statuses, for ex: Nisa. I woud says she presents her ethnography as a range of methods, as she interviews 15+ females and asks about their life history. 

In terms of emotionally, they live a very traditional life in which they were very humble and thoughtful of other’s people’s emotions; for example, bragging is bad and considered bad manners. They rely closely on each other and sit in very close proximity. This shows a very genuine interaction, one that I believe we lack in 2019, we get very angry at each other very easily, and our way of playing “games” usually involves technology, such as the movie theatres. For them, all it takes is some land and a hand-made soccer ball. Mentally and physically, their illnesses are healed with a Healer. They also believe that sexual relations are very beneficial to an individual’s mind, although I would think they would be stricter about this certain aspect of intimacy. This in turn does not seem like a very difficult life! I do however think they need some education, as education is important, especially sexual education as the reason their life expectancy could be short may be due to their transmission of diseases. 

Copper hospital beds kill bacteria. A new study has found that copper hospital beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) harbored an average of 95 percent fewer bacteria than conventional hospital beds, and maintained these low-risk levels throughout patients' stay in hospital. In the United States, hospital beds are the 8th leading cause of death. This is not okay! The hospital should be a safe place to go when someone is already sick, not a place to receive more bacterias and infections. They are among the most contaminated surfaces in medical settings.  This idea came from ancient Ayurveda, when drinking water was often stored in copper vessels to prevent illness. Additionally, copper has been previously studied to have antimicrobial properties. 

This idea is new and is still being studied. To conduct an experiment for this, you need a control group, and a experimental group. Ex: comparing plastic beds with copper beds. Nearly 90 percent of the bacterial samples taken from the tops of the plastic rails had concentrations of bacteria that exceed levels considered safeAlthough these are not yet on the market, and will be costly, this will be beneficial for the future of our healthcare industry and microbe control.

In nature, when local and regional species diversity value equals 1 (slope = 1), then all the species within a region will be found in all communities in that region thus the slope will be linear, but because this is species richness and not diversity, it is impossible to have more species in a local community than the region as a whole . However, this could also happen in nature only if the axis’ were different. For example, instead of intervals of two, it would have to be 5, 10 , 50, 100, 200 on the x axis, to show the large increase in regional species richness. It would not be a linear scale, and this one is. It is not actually greater than 1. 

Copper hospital beds kill bacteria. A new study has found that copper hospital beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) harbored an average of 95 percent fewer bacteria than conventional hospital beds, and maintained these low-risk levels throughout patients' stay in hospital. In the United States, hospital beds are the 8th leading cause of death. This is not okay! The hospital should be a safe place to go when someone is already sick, not a place to receive more bacterias and infections. They are among the most contaminated surfaces in medical settings.  This idea came from ancient Ayurveda, when drinking water was often stored in copper vessels to prevent illness. Additionally, copper has been previously studied to have antimicrobial properties. 

This idea is new and is still being studied. To conduct an experiment for this, you need a control group, and a experimental group. Ex: comparing plastic beds with copper beds. Nearly 90 percent of the bacterial samples taken from the tops of the plastic rails had concentrations of bacteria that exceed levels considered safeAlthough these are not yet on the market, and will be costly, this will be beneficial for the future of our healthcare industry and microbe control.

I have always wondered how the alcohol and tobacco industries promote their products. Is it through person to person? Or social media? Maybe both? These two industries are also largely on social media promoting their topics, and this is where they have a large similarity. In a study called “Booze and Butts”, scientists discovered 14 of 73 (19%) magazine covers featured alcohol; 581 of 1558 (37%) magazine articles mentioned alcohol; 119 of 444 (27%) tobacco ads showed alcohol images; and 57 of 695 (8%) non-tobacco ads portrayed alcohol. There is no better way to enlarge the industries than putting these products on a magazine cover, as psychology has said that a person is more likely to buy it if they have seen it in a famous magazine/movie/show etc.