Court tells Trump: 'Calling vote unfair doesn't make it so'


Issued on: 28/11/2020 -

A US federal appeals court said President Donald Trump has not offered any evidence to support his claims of an "unfair" election 

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS AFP


Washington (AFP)

A federal appeals court on Friday flatly dismissed President Donald Trump's claim that the election was unfair and refused to freeze Joe Biden's win in the key state of Pennsylvania.

In a scathing review of the Trump campaign's arguments that the president was cheated in his November 3 reelection bid, three appeals court judges unanimously said that allegations of unfairness were not supported by evidence.

"Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so," the court said.

In appealing a lower court ruling, the Trump campaign claimed discrimination, the judges noted.

"But its alchemy cannot transmute lead into gold," the court said.

It was the latest in more than two dozen court defeats around the country for the Trump campaign and Republicans who have alleged fraud and other misconduct contributed to the president's loss.

Trump persists in arguing that Biden's clear victory is invalid.

"Just so you understand, this election was a fraud," he told reporters on Thursday.

Last week a Pennsylvania state court rejected arguments by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the millions of votes in the state should be thrown out due to fraud.

The judge in that case, however, embarrassed Giuliani by forcing him to admit that none of his precise claims before the court involved fraud or anything more than technical issues in overseeing the vote count.

On Tuesday the Pennsylvania government officially certified Biden's victory in the state, and the Trump campaign appealed to federal court to have that certification frozen.

But the appeals court said Trump's campaign had nothing substantial to argue.

"Its allegations are vague and conclusory," the judges said.

"It never alleges that anyone treated the Trump campaign or Trump votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or Biden votes."

With Biden's national lead in the popular vote and the electoral college now virtually unassailable, the court indicated that another appeal, to the US Supreme Court, would go nowhere.

"The campaign has already litigated and lost most of these issues," the court said.

"The campaign cannot win this lawsuit. It conceded that it is not alleging election fraud."

Nevertheless, Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign lawyer who worked with Giuliani on the case, tweeted their intent to appeal.

"The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud ... On to SCOTUS!" she said, referring to the Supreme Court.

© 2020 AFP

UK's sole hydrogen car maker bets on green revolution


Issued on: 28/11/2020 -

The makers of the Rasa hydrogen-powered car believe it has an advantage over electric batteries because of its much greater range 

GEOFF CADDICK AFP/File


Abergavenny (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Hydrogen-powered car manufacturer Riversimple is hoping to steal a march on competitors ahead of Britain's promised "green revolution" that would see petrol-powered cars banned within 10 years.

While conventional battery-powered electric cars may be a few miles ahead in the zero-emission vehicle race, the company is betting that nascent hydrogen technology will fuel the cars of the future.

South Korea's Hyundai claims to be the current world leader, selling 5,000 units of its Nexo model in 2019, followed by the Toyota Mirai.

Their sales are dwarfed by those of battery powered cars, of which there now around five million on the world's roads.

Riversimple is only an ambitious upstart compared with the Asian automotive giants, but is currently the only British manufacturer in the sector with its flagship model, the Rasa.

Founder Hugo Spowers is keen to take on the big boys with his self-designed model, whose name derives from the Latin 'tabula rasa', or clean slate.

Starting from scratch will give him an advantage, he hopes, over manufacturing giants that are focussed on adapting petrol-driven models to run on hydrogen fuel.

He also believes hydrogen has a clear advantage over electric batteries because it offers a much greater range.

"A short-range car can be brilliant running on batteries, and we need them and there's a role for them," he said.

"But if you want the sort of range to which we've become accustomed, of 300 miles (482 kilometres) or more, hydrogen is head and shoulders ahead in terms of the overall efficiency," he added.

Rasa will begin advanced testing over the next few months, with paying customers including Monmouthshire District Council in south Wales, which has approved a hydrogen refuelling station in the town of Abergavenny.

It is the only such site in the region, but recharging takes only a few minutes, compared with several hours for an electric battery.

- Hire-purchase -

The cars turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity and water, offering the advantages of electric cars -- sharp acceleration, torque and quiet operation -- with no pollutants emitted.

Their environmental footprint is still a problem however, with the hydrogen mainly sourced from CO2-emitting natural gas.

As electricity is increasingly made from renewable sources, there is hope this could be used to create hydrogen from water via electrolysis.

Another problem is the vehicle's cost.

Riversimple is trying to resolve that via a hire-purchase scheme that includes maintenance and fuel costs.

The vehicle would still belong to Riversimple, giving it a stake in sustainability.

"You pay for it monthly by direct debit and everything's all under one umbrella, which I think is fantastic," Jane Pratt, a member of Monmouthshire County Council, told AFP.

"This is a much more sustainable method of having a car," she added.

Spowers said he expected the total outlay to be competitive with that of a Volkswagen Golf.

"Even though the car costs us more to build, because of these long revenue streams, and because our operating costs will be lower," the cost should even out, said Spowers, who plans to launch the Rasa in three years.

The company looks set to benefit from the British government's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and specifically the goal announced a few days ago of a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

British chemical giant Ineos and market leader Hyundai this week announced a partnership to develop hydrogen-fuelled vehicles and capitalise on the expected boom.

Hyundai suggested it could supply its hydrogen fuel cell technology to equip the Ineos all-terrain model Grenadier.

© 2020 AFP

Cuba sees rare protest over freedom of expression

Issued on: 28/11/2020 

Demonstrators gather outside Cuba's ministry of culture on Friday 

YAMIL LAGE AFP


Havana (AFP)

About 200 Cuban artists demonstrated outside the country's culture ministry on Friday in a rare protest over freedom of expression that received support from leading Cuban cinema figures.

The demonstration followed the expulsion by authorities on Thursday night of protesting members of an artists' collective from their premises in the historic center of Havana.

Authorities said the eviction of the 14 members of the San Isidro Movement was necessary due to Covid-19 protocols since one had returned from Mexico via the United States and not properly quarantined.

They had been protesting for 10 days, with six of them on hunger strike, and their movement had gained significant attention.

Demonstrators outside the culture ministry on Friday demanded "dialogue" and representatives were waiting to meet with vice minister Fernando Rojas after having gathered there for much of the day.

The demonstration was rare in Cuba, where permission for such protests is not often given.

Security personnel and uniformed police watched over the protest from a distance but without intervening.

"On the one hand, we do not have much confidence, but on the other we feel that it is an obligation," said activist Michel Matos.

More than 150 people demonstrated outside of Cuba's Culture Ministry on Friday in a rare protest against a recent crackdown on an artistic collective.

"They are public officials of this country and this has become a political situation."

The San Isidro Movement had been demanding the release of another member of the group, rapper Denis Solis, arrested on November 9 and sentenced to eight months in prison for contempt.

After the raid on their premises, the 14 members of the group were given Covid-19 tests and returned to their homes, with the collective's headquarters closed by the authorities, activists said on social media.

Two of them refused to go home and were arrested again: Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, 32, a plastics artist, and Anamely Ramos, 35.

A rare protest was staged outside of Cuba's Ministry of Culture for several hours

Some activists said on social media that Ramos had been released.

The list of demands from Friday's protesters included information on the whereabouts of Otero and Ramos, the release of Solis and an end to the "harassment" of artists.

"It is time for dialogue and I believe that you young people must be listened to," well-known actor and director Jorge Perugorria, 55, told the protesters.

He was accompanied by prominent filmmaker Fernando Perez, 76.

Amnesty International in a statement called for the release of Otero and Ramos, calling them "prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely because of their consciously held beliefs".

US State Department official Michael Kozak said on Twitter that "the international community is demanding the regime respect Cuban human rights."

© 2020 AFP

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/11/cuban-police-quell-protest-and-detain.html

Protests over security law as France reels from police violence

Issued on: 28/11/2020 - 

French protestors rally in Nantes on Friday against the new security law with more demonstrations expected on Saturday JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP


Paris (AFP)

Dozens of rallies are planned Saturday against a new French law that would restrict sharing images of police, only days after the country was shaken by footage showing officers beating and racially abusing a black man.

The case shocked France with celebrities and politicians alike condemning the officers' actions, and has brought debate over President Emmanuel Macron's law to boiling point.

One of the most controversial elements of the new law is Article 24, which would criminalise the publication of images of on-duty police officers with the intent of harming their "physical or psychological integrity".

It was passed by the National Assembly last week -- although it is awaiting Senate approval -- provoking rallies and protests across France.

Rally organisers are calling for the article to be withdrawn, claiming that it contradicts "the fundamental public freedoms of our Republic".

"This bill aims to undermine the freedom of the press, the freedom to inform and be informed, the freedom of expression," one of Saturday's protest organisers said.

Trade unions are expected to join the demonstrations, with members of the yellow vests -- whose sometimes violent protests in 2018 and 2019 shook the country -- also expected.

In Paris, the authorities had demanded that organisers limit the rally to a single location, but on Friday evening officials authorised a march.

And in a sign that the government could be preparing to backtrack, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Friday that he would appoint a commission to redraft Article 24.

Under the article, offenders could be sentenced to up to a year in jail, and fined 45,000 euros ($53,000) for sharing images of police officers.

The government says the provision is intended to protect officers from doxxing and online abuse, but critics say it is further evidence of the Macron administration's slide to the right.

But media unions say it could give police a green light to prevent journalists -- and social media users -- from documenting abuses.

They point to the case of music producer Michel Zecler, whose racial abuse and beating at the hands of police was recorded by CCTV and later published online, provoking widespread criticism of the officers' actions.

In another instance, journalists on the ground at a French migrant camp witnessed and recorded police brutality on Monday as the Paris area was cleared.

Protests over police brutality have already taken place elsewhere in country ahead of Saturday.

In the southern city of Toulouse demonstrators took to the streets on Friday evening brandishing placards with slogans like "police everywhere, justice nowhere".

In western Nantes police said around 3,500 rallied, while organisers put the crowd at 6,000-7,000.

© 2020 AFP

US Operation Warp Speed backed vaccines for whole world

Issued on: 27/11/2020 - 

President Donald Trump, flanked (L) by General Gustave Perna, head of operations of Operation Warp Speed, and (R) Moncef Slaoui, the program's chief scientist, on September 18, 2020 at the White House  SAUL LOEB AFP

Washington (AFP)

President Donald Trump's announcement in May of plans to develop a Covid-19 vaccine by year's end is near realization -- despite a setback among one of the six candidates that the US supported.

The president described the effort as "a massive scientific, industrial and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project," alluding to the US program during World War II to develop a nuclear bomb.

At the time Trump was accused of caring only about the US as the pandemic raged worldwide in what some derided as "vaccine nationalism."

Trump called the vaccine project Operation Warp Speed, putting at its head a US army general and a former executive of pharmaceutical giant GSK.

It brought together the scientific expertise of the Department of Health and Human Services and military logistics experts.

Six months later, what Trump has termed "a miracle" is at hand: a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is being examined by the Food and Drug Administration for approval, some time shortly after December 10.

And another vaccine developed by Moderna, a small US company, could follow suit quickly.

In January the US multinational Johnson & Johnson could present its own clinical trial results to US regulators -- boosting the US goal of having vaccines available for all Americans by April.

The operation relied on six projects, two each for three kinds of vaccine technology so as to spread out the risk of one or more failing.

Pfizer and Moderna worked on a new technology involving a molecule called messenger RNA.

Meanwhile Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, working with the University of Oxford, focused on "viral vectors."

And Novavax and Sanofi/GSK centered on a protein-based product to defeat the coronavirus.

At first, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford was out in front, with its CEO announcing in June that the team would know if it was effective by September.

It suffered a first snag in early September when a participant in its clinical trials fell ill. It took six weeks for the trials to resume in the US.

Then questions emerged over good efficacy results announced by the developers, due to a dosage error. The team announced Thursday it needed to do another study.

- 'An accelerating effect' -

The US can probably afford to go without the AstraZeneca candidate as it awaits new data, as millions of Americans will be vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna shots by December 31 if the FDA gives the green light.

The rest of the world is also banking on the six Warp Speed vaccines, among dozens of other candidates.

The European Union has ordered doses from six manufacturers, five of which are backed by the operation.

"The force of investment has had an extremely important accelerating effect," Loic Chabanier of the consulting firm EY told AFP.

US government money allowed for the financing of clinical trials and the retooling or construction of facilities to churn out vaccines.

"The Americans financed clinical trials for the entire planet," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told AFP.

The US ordered 100 million doses from the company, with bill payable even if the vaccine had turned out to be a dud.

"I am not Pfizer or AstraZeneca," Bancel said. "I need a lot of cash and do not have it."

But experts generally avoid giving any credit to Trump, whose handling of the pandemic is criticized as disastrous, relying solely on vaccines to end the pandemic and failing to push public health measures that could have saved tens of thousands of lives.

"America is very good at this sort of thing. Not good at prevention. Not good at public health management, in this case a pandemic, but good at life science," said Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who is highly critical of Trump.

"This is a strength of the US. It isn't Trump. Okay, they throw money at it, billions of dollars contingent on the vaccines working. But it was the companies that drove this," Topol said.

He also praised the National Institutes of Health, the government agency that co-developed the Moderna vaccine and managed its clinical trials and those of others.

© 2020 AFP

Deported Mexican migrants dream of change under Biden



Issued on: 28/11/2020 - 

Many Mexicans who were deported from the US hope that President-elect Joe Biden will push for changes that protect undocumented migrants Guillermo Arias AFP/File

Mexico City (AFP)

Mauricio Lopez was deported to Mexico after spending most of his life in the United States. Now he hopes against the odds that Joe Biden's administration will let him return.

The 26-year-old English teacher is one of thousands of migrants known as "dreamers" who as children were taken to the US by their parents.

Like many Mexicans who were expelled, in particular under outgoing President Donald Trump, Lopez is hoping that President-elect Biden will push for changes that protect undocumented migrants.

"It would be good for us if he relaxes immigration laws ... if there are asylum processes, if he makes it easier for us to obtain work permits or tourist visas, since many of us have families there," he said.

Lopez was deported to Mexico from North Carolina in 2016 after he was unable to renew his residency permit under the DACA program for unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children.

He was deported with his mother, leaving behind a sister but joining a brother who had already been sent back to Mexico years earlier.

- Biden's hands tied? -

Lopez is part of a growing number of deportees trying to integrate into a country that often feels foreign to them.

Around 89,000 Mexicans were expelled from the United States in the first half of this year, according to the interior ministry.

Widespread expulsions have also occurred under Democratic administrations.

About three million unauthorized immigrants were deported by former president Barack Obama between 2009 and 2016, when Biden was vice president.

Biden has signaled a break with the policies of Trump, who vowed to halt almost all immigration and expel the more than 10 million undocumented migrants estimated to live in the United States.

The Republican sparked anger during his 2016 election campaign when he branded Mexican migrants "rapists" and drug dealers, and vowed to build a wall along the southern US border.

But experts say Biden may be hamstrung by a Republican-controlled Senate, depending on the result of runoffs in the state of Georgia on January 5.

"Even with the best will of the new government, it (change) won't happen imminently," said Leticia Calderon, an expert on migration at Mexico's Mora Institute.

The Democrat's win should not be seen as an "invitation to migrate" because "the bad guy is leaving and now the good guys" are in the White House, she said.

"The immigration system in the United States has no political party."

- 'Feel more positive' -

One area where she does expect action from Biden is to try to address rights for "Dreamers" to stay and work in the United States.

Biden fiercely criticized Trump's moves against "Dreamers."

"It's likely that they will deal with it in the first 100 days of government, but it has to go through the Senate," where it is likely to meet resistance, Calderon said.

Even if it is too late for him personally, Lopez hopes that other young migrants can benefit under the new administration.

"The Dreamers feel more positive with Biden. There's hope that they have a route to citizenship or residency," he said.

Around 12 million people born in Mexico live in the US, as well as another 26 million who have at least one parent or grandparent born on Mexican soil.

Father-of-two Ben Moreno, who has been deported from the US twice, most recently in 2014 during the Obama presidency, is also cautiously optimistic that things will improve.

"I honestly don't think Biden will stop the deportations," said the 54-year-old, who ran a construction company in Indiana.

"But what I do hope is that this administration will be fair about who it deports and how it does it," he said.

© 2020 AFP

 

The smell of cooperation

Research team with the University of Göttingen finds effect of odour on helpfulness in rats

UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN

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NORWAY RATS (RATTUS NORVEGICUS), LIKE MOST SPECIES OF RAT, ARE VERY SOCIABLE AND COOPERATE TO HELP EACH OTHER OUT view more 

CREDIT: MANON SCHWEINFURTH

Despite their reputation, rats are surprisingly sociable and actually regularly help each other out with tasks. Researchers at the Universities of Göttingen, Bern and St Andrews have now shown that a rat just has to smell the scent of another rat that is engaged in helpful behaviour to increase his or her own helpfulness. This is the first study to show that just the smell of a cooperating individual rat is enough to trigger an altruistic and helpful response in another. The research was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

It is well known that rats will help each other out. What the researchers wanted to know was whether the rat's odour during this behaviour had any effect on another rat's helpfulness. They therefore carried out a series of tests to study the importance of the scent of a rat while making cooperative decisions. The rats being studied could choose to help another rat by pulling a platform containing a reward towards the other rat's cage. This provided food for the other rat but did not have any immediate benefit for them personally. The researchers then provided the test rats either with the smell of a rat that was being helpful to another rat in a different room or with the smell of a rat that was not engaged in helpful behaviour. The researchers were surprised to find that just the scent of a rat engaged in helpful behavior was enough to illicit helpful behaviour in the other.

Dr Nina Gerber from the Wildlife Sciences at the University of Göttingen, who led the research, says: "Test rats increased their own helping behaviour when they were presented with the smell of a helpful rat. Remarkably, this holds true even though they did not experience this helpful behaviour themselves." She goes on to say, "Furthermore, such a 'smell of cooperation' depends on the actual activity of helping and is not connected to an individual rat. There isn't a "special smell" for certain nice rats: the same individual can release the scent of being helpful or not, depending solely on their behaviour."

The researchers concluded that physical cues - such as smell - might be even more important for rats to encourage cooperation than actual experiences. Gerber adds, "Even though people do not seem to rely on communication through scent in the way rats do, some studies indicate that scent is key for finding partners, or that smelling certain chemicals can increase trust in others. Whether there is such a 'smell of cooperation' in humans, however, would be an interesting question for future studies."

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Original publication: Gerber N et al "The smell of cooperation: rats increase helpful behaviour when receiving odour cues of a conspecific performing a cooperative task", Proceedings of the Royal Society B DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2327

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.2327

Scientists claim controversial results of comets observations are consistent

Opposite data sets only benefit the researchers

FAR EASTERN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: IMAGE OF 41P/T-G-K OBTAINED WITH THE 70-CM AZT-8 TELESCOPE ON OBSERVATION STATION LISNYKY OF THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF KYIV (UKRAINE) OF 25 APRIL 2017.... view more 

CREDIT: FEFU PRESS OFFICE

Astrophysicists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) joined the international research team for explaining the difference in the results of observation of the comet 41P/ Tuttle - Giacobini - Kresak. Researchers believe that data obtained by three independent teams are complementary and its complex analysis helps to unravel the mystery of dust chemical composition of comet 41P and other conundrums of the Universe. A related article appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The activity of comets is more complex than it appeared to be, one of the research outcomes says. The chemical composition of a cometary coma (gas-dusty environment of the nucleus) is able to change very rapidly, literally during the day. That is because of the Sun affects the nucleus of a comet approaching.

Researchers all over the Globe try to get data on the chemical composition of comets via analyses of the light refracted by its dust particles. However, the information about the color spectrum of comets differs every time, depending on different observation epochs and different phase angles (angle Earth-comet-Sun).

The present research paper postulates the controversial data sets obtained due to different sets of photometric filters and areas (apertures) of research are steady.

"At least three groups of researchers who observed comet 41P in 2017 came up with different results. The comet color ranged from red to blue. We have explained in detail why this happened", Anton Kochergin says", one of the authors of the study, a young scientist at FEFU. "Usually, the final color is normalized by taking into account the different bandwidths of the photometric filters applied. However, in many studies, the color of celestial bodies is interpreted independently of a particular set of photometric filters. We show that this is not valid for all cases. The reason the comet color differs is exactly sets of various photometric filters. In addition, the choice of the size of the calculation area, i.e. aperture, is of great importance. This is a certain radius around the cometary coma in the pictures from observatories, which scientists define as an area of research. Having decided on the aperture, they analyze only the signal inside this field".

The choice of the aperture determines which processes and results are included in the analysis. For example, a gas from a diatomic carbon molecule (C2): there are parent molecules (called CHON particles in the literature), which become a source of C2 upon photodissociation. This dissociation occurs at a certain distance from the comet's nucleus, which in turn depends on the comet's distance from the Sun. With the right aperture chosen, one can exclude most of the signals that C2 molecules give focusing on analyses of the dust component of the coma.

Dr. Kochergin emphasized that the opposite data about the color of the comet, collected by different groups using different sets of photometric filters, only benefits the researchers. It is impossible to give a thorough description of the color (the color is directly related to the chemical composition of the dust of a cometary coma), and the chemical composition after just one observation. It is necessary to observe and determine the characteristics in dynamics. The more measurements made, the more accurate the conclusions are.

"In practice, this allows us to probe into the microphysical properties of cometary dust, and the processes run in a cometary coma. With such information, we will shed light on the evolutionary processes of the Solar system. Many scientific groups around the world are working inside this fundamental area", explains Anton Kochergin.

Scientists were able to model the results of color measurements of comet 41P, receives almost simultaneously via different photometric filters in different locations. Although the blue color was gained in one case and the red in the other, the researchers found that both results were consistent with the actual behavior of cometary dust particles in coma 41P. One can copy these results via simulating light scattering by dust particles of the pyroxene mineral. Pyroxene is a silicate material that is part of the lunar soil and was also delivered from the asteroid Itokawa and discovered in the comet 81P / Wild 2. Pyroxenes are a part of cometary matter and are well studied in laboratories.

Researchers to further cooperate in observing celestial bodies from different Earth locations. The routine helps to catch up with the object under investigation in case of adverse weather conditions at the location of one of the observatories. This also brings additional data in the case of different sets of filters applied by different teams. In the observation schedule of the international collaborators, all comets and asteroids their gear is capable of tracing.

The present results became possible due to the collaboration of scientists from Astronomical Observatory, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Humanitas College, Kyung Hee University (South Korea), Space Science Institute (USA), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Main Astronomical Observatory of National Academy of Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, Far Eastern Federal University, Ussuriysk Observatory of the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Previously, FEFU astrophysicists teamed up with Russian and foreign colleagues to observe the ATLAS comet, which disintegrated when approaching the Sun. They brought up a conclusion that carbon found in the nucleus of the comet would help to determine the age of comets in the Solar system.

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Ancient blanket made with 11,500 turkey feathers

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: A SEGMENT OF FIBER CORD THAT HAS BEEN WRAPPED WITH TURKEY FEATHERS, ALONG WITH A SINGLE DOWNY FEATHER. view more 

CREDIT: WSU

PULLMAN, Wash. -- The ancient inhabitants of the American Southwest used around 11,500 feathers to make a turkey feather blanket, according to a new paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The people who made such blankets were ancestors of present-day Pueblo Indians such as the Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande Pueblos.

A team led by Washington State University archaeologists analyzed an approximately 800-year-old, 99 x 108 cm (about 39 x 42.5 inches) turkey feather blanket from southeastern Utah to get a better idea of how it was made. Their work revealed thousands of downy body feathers were wrapped around 180 meters (nearly 200 yards) of yucca fiber cord to make the blanket, which is currently on display at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding, Utah.

The researchers also counted body feathers from the pelts of wild turkeys purchased from ethically and legally compliant dealers in Idaho to get an estimate of how many turkeys would have been needed to provide feathers for the blanket. Their efforts show it would have taken feathers from between four to 10 turkeys to make the blanket, depending on the length of feathers selected.

"Blankets or robes made with turkey feathers as the insulating medium were widely used by Ancestral Pueblo people in what is now the Upland Southwest, but little is known about how they were made because so few such textiles have survived due to their perishable nature," said Bill Lipe, emeritus professor of anthropology at WSU and lead author of the paper. "The goal of this study was to shed new light on the production of turkey feather blankets and explore the economic and cultural aspects of raising turkeys to supply the feathers."

Clothing and blankets made of animal hides, furs or feathers are widely assumed to have been innovations critical to the expansion of humans into cold, higher latitude and higher elevation environments, such as the Upland Southwest of the United States where most of the early settlements were at elevations above 5,000 feet.

Previous work by Lipe and others shows turkey feathers began to replace strips of rabbit skin in construction of twined blankets in the region during the first two centuries C.E. Ethnographic data suggest the blankets were made by women and were used as cloaks in cold weather, blankets for sleeping and ultimately as funerary wrappings.

"As ancestral Pueblo farming populations flourished, many thousands of feather blankets would likely have been in circulation at any one time," said Shannon Tushingham, a co-author on the study and assistant professor of anthropology at WSU. "It is likely that every member of an ancestral Pueblo community, from infants to adults, possessed one."

Another interesting finding of the study was the turkey feathers used by the ancestral Pueblo people to make garments were most likely painlessly harvested from live birds during natural molting periods. This would have allowed sustainable collection of feathers several times a year over a bird's lifetime, which could have exceeded 10 years. Archeological evidence indicates turkeys were generally not used as a food source from the time of their domestication in the early centuries C.E. until the 1100s and 1200s C.E., when the supply of wild game in the region had become depleted by over-hunting.

Prior to this period, most turkey bones reported from archaeological sites are whole skeletons from mature birds that were intentionally buried, indicating ritual or cultural significance. Such burials continued to occur even after more turkeys began to be raised for food.

"When the blanket we analyzed for our study was made, we think in the early 1200s C.E., the birds that supplied the feathers were likely being treated as individuals important to the household and would have been buried complete," Lipe said. "This reverence for turkeys and  their feathers is still evident today in Pueblo dances and rituals. They are right up there with eagle feathers as being symbolically and culturally important."

In the long run, the researchers said their hope is the study will help people appreciate the importance of turkeys to Native American cultures across the Southwest.

"Turkeys were one of the very few domesticated animals in North America until Europeans arrived in the 1500s and 1600s," Tushingham said. "They had and continue to have a very culturally significant role in the lives of Pueblo people, and our hope is this research helps shed light on this important relationship."

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Study shows minimal impact of APPs on ED productivity, flow, safety, patient experience

SOCIETY FOR ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE

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IMAGE: US NATIONAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE GROUP: 13,024,216 VISITS, 105,863 EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT DAYS, 94 GENERAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS, AND 19 STATES. view more 

CREDIT: KIRSTY CHALLEN, B.SC., MBCHB, MRES, PH.D., LANCASHIRE TEACHING HOSPITALS, UNITED KINGDOM

DES PLAINES, IL -- Advanced practice providers (APPs) have lower productivity compared with emergency department physicians, seeing fewer and less complex patients and generating less relative value units per hour, and having no apparent impact on patient satisfaction and safety metrics. That is the conclusion of a study to be published in the November 2020 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), a journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). This is the first known study to examine the impact of ED APP staffing on productivity, flow, safety, and experience

The lead author of the study is Dr. Jesse Pines, the national director for clinical innovation at US Acute Care Solutions (USACS) and a professor of emergency medicine at Drexel University, Philadelphia. In this role, he focuses on developing and implementing new care models including telemedicine, alternative payment models, and also leads the USACS opioid programs.

The study suggests that advanced practice providers can be effectively integrated into EDs with staffing models accounting for the lower productivity of advanced practice providers compared to physicians with no apparent negative impact on ED flow, clinical quality, or patient experience. Greater levels of advanced practice provider coverage appear to allow physicians to care for higher?acuity cases while also allowing advanced practice providers to care for a lower, but significant number of patients requiring hospital admission and other critical care services.

While advanced practice providers are currently utilized primarily for low?acuity cases, the finding of advanced practice providers independently evaluating critically ill ED patients suggests the potential for enhanced use of advanced practice providers in EDs. However, advanced practice provider use did not result in economies of scale given the higher productivity of physicians even when accounting for their similarly higher salary.

The findings are discussed with the author in a recent AEM podcast, "Taking Care of Patients Everyday With Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners." An accompanying invited commentary by Zane and Michael, "The Economics and Effectiveness of Advanced Practice Providers Are Decidedly Local Phenomena," provides expert perspective of APPs in contemporaneous emergency care.

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ABOUT Academic Emergency Medicine

Academic Emergency Medicine, the monthly journal of Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, features the best in peer-reviewed, cutting-edge original research relevant to the practice and investigation of emergency care. The above study is published open access and can be downloaded by following the DOI link: 10.1111/acem.14077. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Stacey Roseen at sroseen@saem.org.

ABOUT THE SOCIETY FOR ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE

SAEM is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to the improvement of care of the acutely ill and injured patient by leading the advancement of academic emergency medicine through education and research, advocacy, and professional development. To learn more, visit saem.org.