It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
DW DEUTSCHE WELLE
Myanmar protests: All you need to know
Myanmar is seeing nationwide protests following a military coup. A broad coalition of doctors, teachers and blue-collar workers is demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy.
The demonstrators are demanding a return to democratic government and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other high-ranking politicians of the de facto governing party, the National League for Democracy. The military arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members on Monday.
Burma After Failing to Condemn Coup, China Faces Daily Opposition in Myanmar Anti-coup protesters hold placards at the Chinese Embassy in Yangon on Monday.
THE IRRAWADDY IS A LOCAL PRO DEMOCRACY PAPER IN MYANMAR/BURMA
IF YOU CLICK ON THIS STORY IT WILL CONNECT YOU TO SCROLLING UPDATES.
Nan Lwin / The Irrawaddy
By NAN LWIN 15 February 2021
YANGON — China’s failure to condemn Myanmar’s military coup is sparking increased anger across Myanmar as mass protests against the regime sweep the country.
The Chinese Embassy in Yangon has attracted thousands of anti-coup protesters every day in the last week. Anger toward Beijing grows as China continues to defend the military regime calling the coup an “internal affair” at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The embassy protest was larger on Monday with placards reading, “Shame on you”, “Justice is blind, coup is a crime, China is behind it”, “China breaks our democracy”, “Myanmar’s military dictatorship is made in China” and “China bullies Myanmar”.
A placard read, “China should do the walk of shame”, in reference to Cersei Lannister in the Game of Thrones series who was forced to walk naked through the streets to pay for her crimes.
“We are mad at China. We are demanding that China stop supporting the military but its support continues,” Ma Su Theingi Htun, a 24-year-old student, told The Irrawaddy. “We must put pressure China to show the Burmese do not accept the military government. I will keep coming until they understand.”
A sit-in protest against China’s support for the military regime at the Chinese Embassy in Yangon on Monday. /Nan Lwin / The Irrawaddy
Young protesters stand close to barricades in the front of the embassy gates, showing placards to CCTV cameras reading: “Support Myanmar, don’t support dictatorship”, “China and Russia secretly help Myanmar’s military, the world must know” and “China takes our resources. Why do you want more?”
China was the closest ally of Myanmar’s military while the country was isolated under the previous military regime. China is a major supplier of military hardware and technology. The foreign ministry in Beijing rejected reports that it supported the coup.
It has also denied reports that it has helped the military regime build internet firewalls to block online freedom and access personal data. Five cargo flights arrived in Yangon from Kunming in Yunnan Province last week. China claimed they were only carrying goods like seafood.
While the regime cut the internet on Sunday night, three more flights from Kunming landed at Yangon International Airport.
“China said it sent seafood last week. What was it this time?” an 18-year old art and culture student, who asked not to be named, told The Irrawaddy. She held a placard reading, “Take back your seafood.”
“China is involved in this coup. Young people won’t stand for it. We will boycott all Chinese products and spread campaigns against imports,” she said.
China and Russia blocked attempts to condemn the military takeover at the UN Security Council and Beijing only described the coup as a “major cabinet reshuffle”, sparking young people to start online campaigns against Chinese products.
Sai Htet Soe San, a 19-year-old student, told The Irrawaddy: “Anti-China sentiment is growing among the young. As long as China fails to condemn the military, we will say it is supporting the military.”
Anti-coup protesters at the Chinese Embassy in Yangon on Monday. / Nan Lwin / The Irrawaddy
Young people are urging staff from Myanmar working on the China-Myanmar oil and gas twin pipeline project to join the civil disobedience campaign. A strike could suspend work on the project, they say.
Last week, work in the China-backed copper mines in Monywa Township was suspended after more than 2,000 miners from the Kyisintaung copper mine joined the civil disobedience movement. The Letpadaung Taung copper mine in Sagaing’s Salingyi Township also stopped operations after thousands of employees joined the movement.
A Kachin activist, Daw May Sabe Phyu, the director of the Gender Equality Network, told The Irrawaddy that she is protesting at the Chinese Embassy to condemn China’s defense of the military at the United Nations.
“I want to let China know our people strongly reject its policies. China must support the people, not the military,” she said.
Daw May Sabe Phyu said civil society organizations plan to send an open letter to UN Security Council and Asean, calling for protection for civilians.
“We call on democratic states to put pressure on countries like China which are defending the Burmese military,” she said.
Burma The Coup in Myanmar: How the Generals Miscalculated
An anti-military regime protester wears a Batman outfit in Yangon on Feb. 15. / The Irrawaddy
By AUNG ZAW 16 February 2021
Myanmar braced for a major crackdown on Sunday night as more troops were deployed to the cities and armored vehicles patrolled the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw. When internet access shut down at around 1 a.m., reporters prepared their gear and cameras and prepared to face the inevitable. A friend sent a message: “Delete any sensitive information on your phone!” A colleague called me, whispering into the phone, “Lights are out.”
By 4 a.m., no news of a major crackdown had been reported, though there were some arrests, including five journalists and two local residents in Myitkyina, the capital of northern Kachin State. They were released on Monday. In the morning, the Civil Disobedience Movement poured back onto the streets of Yangon and Mandalay, as well as the national capital Naypyitaw—the “Abode of Kings”, once thought to be protest-proof but now filled with peaceful protesters and security forces.
For those of us who lived through past uprisings, it is hard not to see the fate of the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement as preordained. We cannot help but replay the past in our minds, and relive the peaceful gatherings and uprisings that faced the military’s wrath and ended in slaughter.
We can see that the military is losing patience, but unleashing bloodshed in front of livestreaming smartphone cameras will be difficult. Since the coup two weeks ago we have seen several livestreams on social media in which citizens fought back against unlawful arrest and attacks by security forces. As in the past, if the military does launch a major assault it will be like digging their own graves.An anti-military regime protest by young people near the Russian Embassy in Yangon on Feb. 12. / The Irrawaddy
However, it is frightening even to imagine how this latest confrontation will end. It feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
In November, just before the peaceful election in Myanmar, a colleague of mine sent me a message speculating on what the immediate future held for our country. The message predicted post-election violence and envisioned a scenario in which the military would intervene by staging a coup. At the time I dismissed his assessment—but deep inside, I knew there were ominous signs.
Later, after learning of the failure of last-ditch negotiations between the government and the military over the latter’s claims of electoral fraud, I knew we were traveling back into a dark tunnel. On Jan. 29, upon hearing that the two sides had been unable to reach a breakthrough, my colleague texted me simply: “Game Over”.
Indeed, much of the scenario laid out in the message in November—that within six months, the country would see violence, political polarization and the military’s eventual intervention—has come to pass, though the power grab came quicker than expected.
Protesters confront troops during the 1988 Uprising.
My colleague correctly predicted that the military would stage a coup, citing as justification its claim of voter fraud and an election that was neither free nor fair. Once in power, under this scenario, the military would announce that it intended to focus on key issues including ethnic conflicts, international pressure and economic stability. It also envisions that the military will amend the 2008 Constitution and hold elections, but without the NLD, resulting in a situation much like 2010, when the outlawed NLD refused to take part in the election. The message also speculated that former President U Thein Sein might be offered a seat in the interim government. That particular detail has not panned out—Senior General Min Aung Hlaing leads the SAC.
In retrospect, two high-level visits to Naypyitaw in the weeks before the coup by foreign dignitaries—one by the Russian defense minister (highly unusual) and the other by the Chinese foreign minister—now take on a whole new significance. If they didn’t have knowledge of the coup in advance, I would be very surprised. The military discussed the plan with some close allies at home and abroad. The generals have learned from neighboring countries, and from those further afield, and prepared thoroughly before staging the coup.
On Jan. 29, some senior military leaders in Naypyitaw reached out to ethnic armed forces and told them that, should any unprecedented incident take place in the country, the military wanted to continue working with them to achieve peace. In other words—a coup was on the way.
In 2018, at a café in downtown Yangon, I sat down with a high-ranking official who served in the U Thein Sein government. He warned me to keep in mind the events of 1958.
Anti-military regime protesters in Yangon on Feb. 15. / The Irrawaddy In that year, under General Ne Win, the military took power from Prime Minister U Nu’s government to restore order amid civil disturbances caused by factions among leaders of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League. Under a “caretaker government”, Gen. Ne Win held an election in 1960. He handed power back to the winner, U Nu, only to stage a coup and seize it back two years later. Gen. Ne Win claimed to have saved Burma from the abyss and then ruled the country for the next 26 years. Our country became one of the poorest in the world as a result. Gen. Ne Win then endorsed his subordinates to seize power again in 1988 during the nationwide uprising. The “new generation” men in uniform ruled the country until 2010, when they held a sham election. The military-installed government opened up the country, and the West and the international community hailed the reforms and embraced the generals. I am afraid we will see a similar version of these events replayed in the near future. There are hostages in custody, and the military will say: “It’s time to negotiate. What is your price?”
The historical analogy has its limitations, however. Gen. Ne Win ruled in a very different era: He did not have to deal with the creative protest methods of Generation Z, nor were there smartphones, livestreaming, street performances and a horde of celebrities and affluent middle class protesters smiling and exuding a strange calm on the streets. Gen. Ne Win faced a different kind of protest and dealt with it in his own way, dynamiting the Student Union building at Rangoon University in July 1962 and killing many students. (None of which prevented him from receiving an invitation to the US, where he met President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966.)
A week after this month’s coup, the Biden administration condemned the takeover and imposed targeted sanctions. The West and the UN joined the condemnation and backed the protest, the CDM and the ousted elected government. Within days of the coup, protests were mounted in front of the Chinese and Russian embassies in Yangon. To someone who experienced the 1988 uprising as a student protester, it was impressive; it would have taken us ages to mobilize such a movement and international reaction
.
Young people stage an anti-coup performance in downtown Yangon on Feb. 11. / The Irrawaddy
The military’s first mistake has been to underestimate the speed with which a mass movement would mobilize; it gave no consideration to the special strengths of Generation Z. Second, it thought the battle would be strictly between the military and NLD. But Myanmar’s youth emerged rapidly and have broken out from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s shadow to take charge of the resistance to the coup makers. These are everyday people—our neighbors. They say with calmness: “If we keep quiet now, gradually, we will become slaves to the military.”
The military has declared war against the people and the nation, and is trying to turn back the clock. To my colleagues who argue about whether this is a “soft coup” or the harder, cruder variety: There is no such distinction to be made; a coup is a coup. The one that took place in Myanmar two weeks ago has one aim: to take all of us back to the stone age.
Topics: 1988, bloodshed, China, civil disobedience movement, condemnation, Coup, crackdown, Generation Z, Internet, Military, Min Aung Hlaing, miscalculate, mobilize, NLD, plan, prepare, quickly, reaction, Russia, SAC, Social Media, US, Youth Aung ZawThe IrrawaddyAung Zaw is the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Irrawaddy.
CHINA VIEW
Hegemonic Washington tries to use Myanmar situation to restore global leadership
After Myanmar's military detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint and other elected leaders in early morning raids on Monday, a popular view in the West is that US President Joe Biden should seize the chance to restore the US' global leadership.
An editorial in the Washington Post on Tuesday said, "This is an opportunity to show they can deliver," since "Mr. Biden and his national security team have pledged to reestablish U.S. leadership on vital multilateral issues." A Monday article in Foreign Policy magazine argued it would "give the US a badly needed chance to reassert its role as leader of the free world."
The US' international influence and reputation have severely declined under Trump's rule. Now with the Biden administration being in office, it badly needs to take some measures to restore the leading status and influence of the US in the international community and among Western countries.
However, the US taking intervening in Myanmar as a chance to restore its influence and rebuild leadership among Western allies exposes the US' true hegemonic and selfish nature.
The US has taken interventionism for granted to prove its pledge to defend democracy, regardless of what the people of Myanmar truly need. Calling the detention of Myanmar's elected leaders "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law," Biden on Monday threatened to re-impose sanctions on Myanmar. Issuing verbal threats is the first step. The US' next moves will likely hinge on how Myanmar's military responds to Western demands and condemnation.
If Myanmar military refused to relinquish power as the US has demanded, it's likely that Washington will re-impose sanctions that had gradually been rolled back by Obama. Another possible scenario is that the US and other Western countries may further increase efforts to cultivate and support pro-democracy forces in the country - what Myanmar military is not willing to see. Now, the US and the West have shown their strong interventionist posture. The wrestling between the West and Myanmar's military will continue for a long time to come.
The most urgent problem in Myanmar right now is for relevant parties concerned to sit down and have in-depth, sincere and frank talks on the issues they are facing - and reach a certain degree of compromise. However, the US never cares about what Myanmar really needs. It always perceives the Myanmar issue according to its own desires and interests.
After the military seized power in Myanmar, some Westerners' sentiments have been ever more complicated. They are now arguing that the "democracy" under Suu Kyi (the once icon of democracy they championed) was flawed. Yet ironically, they also contend that Suu Kyi's "failings do not mean Myanmar's limited democracy is not worth saving." The mainstream Western voices hope that Myanmar's political transformation can continue to achieve the West's expectations and general directions. They see the Myanmar issue as a test for defending democracy and freedom. Have they ever really considered what caused this current dilemma?
The political democratization that the West has been advocating is not a panacea for developing countries who have their own distinct internal conditions. Political instability is actually one of the major problems faced by many Southeast Asian countries. The kind of political transformation the West seeks seldom sees long-term success in developing countries.
But this model may also leads to repeated political turbulence, failing to meet these countries' actual situations. This is what has happened in Myanmar this time. It also applies to the political turbulence that happened in Thailand before.
These cases actually show that Western-style democratization is indeed a crude model that does not take into account the reality of developing countries. The West should not force developing countries to accept their model. Serious Westerners should instead study and research the actual situations of those countries and their development goals more carefully. This way they can craft more mutual understanding with developing countries, including Myanmar.
The article was compiled based on an interview with Bi Shihong, a professor at Center for China's Neighbor Diplomacy Studies and School of International Studies, Yunnan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Voices of women and people of color must be part of Catholic social teaching discussion Feb 16, 2021 by Megan Sweas As an Interfaith Welcome Coalition volunteer, Sr. Jean Durel, a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word, helps Cyrilo Garcia, his son, Kelvin Naum, 3, and Juan Jose Nunez pinpoint their departure time June 18, 2019, at the San Antonio Greyhound station. (GSR file photo/Nuri Vallbona)
In a recent essay, Francis X. Rocca of the Wall Street Journal argued that Catholic social teaching presents a framework for uniting America, noting the prominence of religion in President Joe Biden's public life.
I have often heard John Carr, formerly of the U.S. bishops' conference and now Georgetown University, say that Catholics do not have a natural political home in either party. The flip side is that they might be able to offer a third way, Carr and other scholars say in the article. Both the left and right can find something to like — and dislike — in Catholic social teaching.
The idea that the Catholic Church might offer a place to begin a conversation between America's polarized sides is hopeful and energizing. It is amazing to reflect on how far this country has come. As Rocca noted, Biden, only our second Catholic president, can have a picture of a pope in the Oval Office without his loyalties being questioned.
If Catholic social teaching is to be a starting place for a conversation about how we shape our country, I have to ask who is part of that conversation. If we look at Rocca's article, it is white men. Not one of Rocca's sources are women and few, if any, are people of color. There has been a trend among some journalists in recent years to work toward a more equitable gender balance in sourcing. A 2010 study found that only 24% of news sources were female, journalist Adrienne LaFrance wrote in an essay, revealing that her personal numbers were not any better. It takes a concerted effort to quote more women, she concluded. The same can be said of quoting more people of color.
When she published her findings, her article challenged me. I know from personal experience that reaching anything close to parity in sourcing is difficult when reporting about the Catholic Church, especially considering the primacy men hold as priests, bishops and cardinals.
Those men, however, do not represent all Catholics. "That Christianity today is of a mostly female, underprivileged, southern-hemisphere-dwelling, non-white countenance might surprise those who follow Catholic media," writes Melissa Nichols, referring to a study on the demographics of global Christianity.
This not only an issue for journalists. Nichols points to the lack of such figures in Catholic television, radio and film.
Now that I work at a research center, I am conscious about aiming to involve a diverse set of research subjects in the University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture's global project on exemplary humanitarians. This is about whose studies get funded and whose books get published as well.
Consumers also play a role in their choice of books, media programs, publications and podcasts. All of us could be challenged to broaden whom we listen to for expertise.
This goes for popes too. Pope Francis urged Catholic media to "work to overcome the diseases of racism, injustice and indifference" last year. Yet women are largely absent in his recent addition to the canon of Catholic social teaching, the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, according to moral theologian Meghan Clark, who would have been a good source for Rocca's article.
"This is particularly striking because much of the local community-building work called for by this encyclical is practiced and embodied by women, especially within the contexts of migration and post-conflict reconciliation," she wrote for NCR.
It's hard to imagine writing about Catholic social teaching without talking to Catholic sisters who have dedicated their lives to putting it into practice. Srs. Simone Campbell and Normal Pimentel are as prominent of sources as any of the men in Rocca's piece, and countless more can be found over at Global Sisters Report.
While I am sure there are much worse examples of exclusion than Rocca's article on Catholic social teaching, it is a significant example because of its topic: our country's future.
C. Vanessa White, assistant professor of spirituality and ministry at Catholic Theological Union at Chicago (Provided photo)
What is missing without the voices of women and people of color?
C. Vanessa White of Catholic Theological Union pointed out that Fratelli Tutti opens "a door for further dialogue on racism and its deadly impacts." White's conclusion reaffirms Rocca's argument that Catholic social teaching could be the basis of conversation about a critical issue dividing America, though race was not mentioned in the article.
Most significantly, as Rocca points out, a core issue dividing the left and right's application of Catholic social teaching is abortion — a question about women's bodies. Though it is difficult to tell listening to either church leaders or politicians, 60% of Americans take non-absolutist views of abortion, according the Pew Research Center.
Jamie Manson, former NCR columnist and now president of Catholics for Choice, might point out that 56% of Catholics support abortion rights in most or all cases, as she did in a recent article on how Biden being a pro-choice Catholic will affect reproductive rights. Even on this controversial issue, there is room for conversation. Catholic social teaching promotes the dignity of life from conception to death. At the same time, many see reproductive rights as an extension of women's inherent dignity. "We see giving women access to reproductive health care as being pro-life," Manson said.
Not all women will agree with each other about how Catholic social teaching applies to American life. But if Catholic social teaching is to be the framework for bringing the left and right together in conversation, then women and people of color should be part of that conversation. That will require all of us — journalists and consumers of media alike — to make an effort to listen to their voices.
A group of super-rich tycoons based in the Caribbean has seized control of Britain's biggest listed pub chain.
Mitchells & Butlers, which owns the Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One chains, unveiled plans to raise £350million in new equity in a bid to see out the pandemic.
The fundraising will be fully underwritten by three of the group's largest shareholders – Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis, currency trader Derrick Smith, and investment group Elpida which is backed by Irish horse racing magnates John Magnier and JP McManus.
A £350m fundraising for pub giant Mitchells & Butler will be underwritten by a group of Caribbean-based tycoons which includes Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis (pictured)
The tycoons have also brought their 55 per cent combined stakes together under a new entity called Odyzean, effectively handing them control of the business.
The group of friends and associates are known as the 'Sandy Lane set' due to their ties to the exclusive Barbados hotel, a favourite haunt of celebrities such as Joan Collins, Mick Jagger and Philip Green M&B, which cut 1,300 jobs last year, is burning through up to £40million per month while its 1,600 pubs are shut under the UK-wide lockdown. It is also facing a £50million bill to service its debt next month.
'Without this major equity injection, the prospects for the business, its 1,600 venues, and over 40,000 UK employees would be bleak,' a spokesman for Odyzean said.
John Magnier (left), and JP McManus (right) have a combined 23.5 per cent stake in Mitchells & Butlers through investment group Elpida
It added that it will look to cut the number of non-executive directors on the board and review the company's strategy.
M&B will offer a subscription price of 210p-per-share, representing a 36 per cent discount to the stock's closing price on February 12.
The Odyzean consortium will make up the full £350million if other shareholders do not take part. M&B also agreed a new £150million loan with its banks.
The investors have a criss-cross of business interests in pubs, football, horse racing and care homes going back decades.
Lewis, 84, has a 27 per cent stake in M&B and is the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur. He was born above a pub in London's East End but has an estimated net worth of £3.9billion, after making a fortune in currency trading.
Derrick Smith (pictured receiving a trophy from the Queen at the 2014 Ascot festival, started his career as a bookmaker with Ladbrokes, before moving to currency trading
He spends much of his time at Albany, a 600-acre luxury resort in the Bahamas, which he jointly owns with golfers Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, and pop star Justin Timberlake.
Smith, who is worth £550million and lives in a £30million mansion in Barbados, started his career as a bookmaker with Ladbrokes, before moving to currency trading.
The tycoon, whose 210 ft super yacht Callisto is worth £50million, owns the Sandy Lane hotel with Magnier and McManus.
Smith has 4.4 per cent stake in M&B through his Smoothfield vehicle while Magnier and McManus have 23.5 per cent through Elpida.
The trio have strong racing ties through the Coolmore stud in County Tipperary, which has produced some of the world's best race horses.
New surgery may enable better control of prosthetic limbs
Reconnecting muscle pairs during amputation gives patients more sensory feedback from the limb
IMAGE: MIT RESEARCHERS IN COLLABORATION WITH SURGEONS AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL HAVE DEVISED A NEW TYPE OF AMPUTATION SURGERY THAT CAN HELP AMPUTEES BETTER CONTROL THEIR RESIDUAL MUSCLES AND RECEIVE SENSORY... view more
CREDIT: MIT
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have invented a new type of amputation surgery that can help amputees to better control their residual muscles and sense where their "phantom limb" is in space. This restored sense of proprioception should translate to better control of prosthetic limbs, as well as a reduction of limb pain, the researchers say.
In most amputations, muscle pairs that control the affected joints, such as elbows or ankles, are severed. However, the MIT team has found that reconnecting these muscle pairs, allowing them to retain their normal push-pull relationship, offers people much better sensory feedback.
"Both our study and previous studies show that the better patients can dynamically move their muscles, the more control they're going to have. The better a person can actuate muscles that move their phantom ankle, for example, the better they're actually able to use their prostheses," says Shriya Srinivasan, an MIT postdoc and lead author of the study.
In a study that will appear this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15 patients who received this new type of surgery, known as agonist-antagonist myoneural interface (AMI), could control their muscles more precisely than patients with traditional amputations. The AMI patients also reported feeling more freedom of movement and less pain in their affected limb.
"Through surgical and regenerative techniques that restore natural agonist-antagonist muscle movements, our study shows that persons with an AMI amputation experience a greater phantom joint range of motion, a reduced level of pain, and an increased fidelity of prosthetic limb controllability," says Hugh Herr, a professor of media arts and sciences, head of the Biomechatronics group in the Media Lab, and the senior author of the paper.
Other authors of the paper include Samantha Gutierrez-Arango and Erica Israel, senior research support associates at the Media Lab; Ashley Chia-En Teng, an MIT undergraduate; Hyungeun Song, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology; Zachary Bailey, a former visiting researcher at the Media Lab; Matthew Carty, a visiting scientist at the Media Lab; and Lisa Freed, a Media Lab research scientist.
CAPTION
MIT researchers in collaboration with surgeons at Harvard Medical School have devised a new type of amputation surgery that can help amputees better control their residual muscles and receive sensory feedback.
CREDIT
MIT
Restoring sensation
Most muscles that control limb movement occur in pairs that alternately stretch and contract. One example of these agonist-antagonist pairs is the biceps and triceps. When you bend your elbow, the biceps muscle contracts, causing the triceps to stretch, and that stretch sends sensory information back to the brain.
During a conventional limb amputation, these muscle movements are restricted, cutting off this sensory feedback and making it much harder for amputees to feel where their prosthetic limbs are in space or to sense forces applied to those limbs.
"When one muscle contracts, the other one doesn't have its antagonist activity, so the brain gets confusing signals," says Srinivasan, a former member of the Biomechatronics group now working at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. "Even with state-of-the-art prostheses, people are constantly visually following the prosthesis to try to calibrate their brains to where the device is moving."
A few years ago, the MIT Biomechatronics group invented and scientifically developed in preclinical studies a new amputation technique that maintains the relationships between those muscle pairs. Instead of severing each muscle, they connect the two ends of the muscles so that they still dynamically communicate with each other within the residual limb. In a 2017 study of rats, they showed that when the animals contracted one muscle of the pair, the other muscle would stretch and send sensory information back to the brain.
Since these preclinical studies, about 25 people have undergone the AMI surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, performed by Carty, who is also a plastic surgeon at the Brigham and Women's hospital. In the new PNAS study, the researchers measured the precision of muscle movements in the ankle and subtalar joints of 15 patients who had AMI amputations performed below the knee. These patients had two sets of muscles reconnected during their amputation: the muscles that control the ankle, and those that control the subtalar joint, which allows the sole of the foot to tilt inward or outward. The study compared these patients to seven people who had traditional amputations below the knee.
Each patient was evaluated while lying down with their legs propped on a foam pillow, allowing their feet to extend into the air. Patients did not wear prosthetic limbs during the study. The researchers asked them to flex their ankle joints -- both the intact one and the "phantom" one -- by 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent of their full range of motion. Electrodes attached to each leg allowed the researchers to measure the activity of specific muscles as each movement was performed repeatedly.
The researchers compared the electrical signals coming from the muscles in the amputated limb with those from the intact limb and found that for AMI patients, they were very similar. They also found that patients with the AMI amputation were able to control the muscles of their amputated limb much more precisely than the patients with traditional amputations. Patients with traditional amputations were more likely to perform the same movement over and over in their amputated limb, regardless of how far they were asked to flex their ankle.
"The AMI patients' ability to control these muscles was a lot more intuitive than those with typical amputations, which largely had to do with the way their brain was processing how the phantom limb was moving," Srinivasan says.
In a paper that recently appeared in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers reported that brain scans of the AMI amputees showed that they were getting more sensory feedback from their residual muscles than patients with traditional amputations. In work that is now ongoing, the researchers are measuring whether this ability translates to better control of a prosthetic leg while walking.
Freedom of movement
The researchers also discovered an effect they did not anticipate: AMI patients reported much less pain and a greater sensation of freedom of movement in their amputated limbs.
"Our study wasn't specifically designed to achieve this, but it was a sentiment our subjects expressed over and over again. They had a much greater sensation of what their foot actually felt like and how it was moving in space," Srinivasan says. "It became increasingly apparent that restoring the muscles to their normal physiology had benefits not only for prosthetic control, but also for their day-to-day mental well-being."
The research team has also developed a modified version of the surgery that can be performed on people who have already had a traditional amputation. This process, which they call "regenerative AMI," involves grafting small muscle segments to serve as the agonist and antagonist muscles for an amputated joint. They are also working on developing the AMI procedure for other types of amputations, including above the knee and above and below the elbow.
"We're learning that this technique of rewiring the limb, and using spare parts to reconstruct that limb, is working, and it's applicable to various parts of the body," Herr says.
###
The research was funded by the MIT Media Lab Consortia, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, and the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Disclaimer:
Teens may be more likely to use marijuana after legalization for adult recreational use
Teens may be more likely to use marijuana after legalization for adult recreational use
PISCATAWAY, NJ - Adolescents who live in California may be more likely to use marijuana since adult recreational marijuana use was legalized in 2016, according to a new report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
"The apparent increase in marijuana use among California adolescents after recreational marijuana legalization for adult use in 2016 is surprising given the steady downward trend in marijuana use during years before legalization," says lead researcher Mallie J. Paschall, Ph.D., senior research scientist at the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, California.
Paschall and his colleagues analyzed data from over three million 7th, 9th, and 11th graders who participated in the California Healthy Kids Survey from 2010-2011 through 2018-2019 school years. The adolescents provided information on their grade, sex, ethnicity, race and lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use. The marijuana use question was updated in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 surveys to include the words "smoke, vape, eat, or drink," reflecting the wide variety of marijuana products now available.
The researchers observed significant increases in the prevalence of lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use among nearly all demographic groups from 2017-2018 to 2018-2019 school years, after legalization of adult recreational use: an 18% increase in the likelihood of lifetime use and a 23% increase in past-30-day use. These numbers may reflect greater use of vaping products, and the overall increase was even more likely among those in demographic groups with historically lower rates of marijuana use.
"I was somewhat surprised to see relatively greater increases in the prevalence of marijuana use among younger adolescents (7th graders) relative to 9th and 11th graders, among females versus males, among non-Hispanic versus Hispanic youth, and among Whites versus youth in other racial groups," says Paschall. "In other words, there were greater increases in marijuana use prevalence after recreational marijuana legalization among youth in 'low-risk' groups, which is concerning."
Paschall says he can only speculate as to the reason, but that the greater increases in these normally low-risk groups may be attributed to marijuana use becoming more normative due to legalization, along with relatively greater overall declines in marijuana use among youth in historically 'high-risk' groups during the study period.
The study also indicated greater increases in the frequency of past-30-day marijuana use among older adolescents, males, African American and Asian youth who were regular users. There were notable increases in marijuana use frequency among adolescents in 2018-19, which may reflect national increases in the use of vaping products.
"Recreational marijuana legalization may be contributing to an increase in marijuana use among adolescents in California, but we need to do further research to confirm this," says Paschall. "We also need to look more closely at what's happening at the local level, because there is a lot of variation in marijuana policies in communities across California and the United States. Also, we need to know more about how adolescents are getting marijuana and what forms of marijuana they are using, since there is such a great variety of cannabis products available."
The researchers suggest that recreational marijuana legalization may present increased opportunities for adolescents to obtain marijuana and that the increasing availability of non-smoking products such as edibles may prove appealing as well.
"I'm interested in whether recreational marijuana legalization for adult use may affect use among adolescents, possibly by changing norms regarding the acceptability of marijuana use, perceived harms of marijuana use, or availability or marijuana to youth," says Paschall.
Paschall and his colleagues also write that states and communities that have legalized adult recreational marijuana use and sales could benefit from implementing both stricter controls on the availability of marijuana to adolescents and evidence-based prevention programs.
###
By Kimberly Flynn
Paschall, M. J., García-Ramírez, G., & Grube, J. W. (2021). Recreational marijuana legalization and use among California adolescents: Findings from a statewide survey. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 82, 103-111. doi:10.15288/jsad.2021.82.103
To set up an interview with Mallie J. Paschall, please contact him at 510-883-5753 or paschall@prev.org.
The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (jsad.com) is published by the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies (alcoholstudies.rutgers.edu) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. It is the oldest substance-related journal published in the United States.
The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs considers this press release to be in the public domain. Editors and journalists may publish this press release in print or electronic form without legal restriction. Please include proper attribution.
Counterintuitive approach may improve eyewitness identification
Experts have devised a novel approach to selecting photos for police lineups that helps witnesses identify culprits more reliably.
In a paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers - from the University of California San Diego and Duke University in the United States and the University of Birmingham in the U.K. - show for the first time that selecting fillers who match a basic description of the suspect but whose faces are less similar, rather than more, leads to better outcomes than traditional approaches in the field.
The counterintuitive technique improves eyewitness performance by about 10 percent.
"In practice, police tend to err on the side of picking facially similar fillers for their lineups," said John Wixted, the paper's senior author and a professor in the UC San Diego Department of Psychology. "What our study shows is that it is, contrary to intuition, actually better to pick fillers who are facially dissimilar. Doing it this way continues to protect the innocent to the same degree while helping witnesses to correctly identify the guilty more frequently."
In a study of 19,732 participants, the researchers played a mock-crime video depicting a white male stealing an office laptop and then provided photographs of one suspect (either the perpetrator or an innocent suspect) plus five police lineup fillers. The fillers always matched the most basic description of the perpetrator but they varied in how much they facially resembled him. Facial similarity among photos was scored by an additional set of participants on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being most similar.
The researchers found that picking fillers who were facially dissimilar enhanced the ability of eyewitnesses to accurately pick out the perpetrator when he was in the lineup, without increasing the likelihood of wrongly identifying an innocent suspect when the real perpetrator was not in the lineup.
In a typical police lineup, one photo of the suspect is displayed, plus photos of five or more "fillers" who are known to be innocent. To create a fair lineup in which the suspect does not stand out, fillers are selected if they are similar in basic appearance to the suspect (height, weight, race, hair color and length, etc.), or if they have facial features included in a witness's description of the culprit. Often, a combined approach is used, in which fillers with similar facial features are selected from a pool of description-matched photos.
For decades, experts have disagreed on and puzzled over the question of what is most effective, while also being fair to the suspect. There are concerns that using fillers that are too facially similar to the suspect will confuse eyewitnesses and protect guilty suspects by making the identification task too difficult. Conversely, if the fillers are too facially dissimilar to the suspect, there are concerns that this would put an innocent suspect at risk of being falsely identified.
The new approach relied on insights from signal detection theory - which considers the memory strengths that are generated by each face in the lineup in the mind of the eyewitness - to deduce that selecting fillers who are not facially similar to the suspect from a pool of acceptable description-matched photos actually increases the ability of eyewitnesses to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects.
Importantly, this approach did not have any effect on the number of "false alarms," in which an innocent suspect is incorrectly identified.
###
Study co-author Melissa Colloff, of the University of Birmingham's School of Psychology, said: "Eyewitness misidentifications have contributed to many wrongful convictions, which are later overturned by DNA evidence. Eyewitnesses failing to identify a perpetrator when he is in the lineup can also result in guilty perpetrators being free to commit additional crimes. Although many useful reforms have been introduced to protect the innocent, sometimes these will also protect the guilty. Our approach demonstrates it is possible to create police lineups that are more effective for everyone involved - increasing the likelihood that a guilty perpetrator will be identified, without increasing the likelihood that an innocent suspect will be imperilled."
The study's other co-authors are Brent M. Wilson of UC San Diego and Travis M. Seale-Carlisle of Duke University. The study was supported by the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham (Colloff) and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (Wixted).
Large-scale study finds genetic testing technology falsely detects very rare variants
A technology that is widely used by commercial genetic testing companies is "extremely unreliable" in detecting very rare variants, meaning results suggesting individuals carry rare disease-causing genetic variants are usually wrong, according to new research published in the BMJ.
After hearing of cases where women had surgery scheduled after wrongly being told they had very rare genetic variations in the gene BRCA1 that could significantly increase risk of breast cancer, a team at the University of Exeter conducted a large-scale analysis of the technology using data from nearly 50,000 people. They found that the technology wrongly identified the presence of very rare genetic variants in the majority of cases.
The team analysed SNP chips, which test genetic variation at hundreds-of-thousands of specific locations across the genome. While excellent at detecting common genetic variation that can increase the risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, geneticists have long known they are less reliable at detecting rarer variation. However, this problem is less well known outside the genetic research community, and SNP chips are widely used by commercial companies that offer genetic testing direct to consumers.
Caroline Wright, Professor in Genomic Medicine at the University of Exeter Medical School, senior author on the paper, said: "SNP chips are fantastic at detecting common genetic variants, yet we have to recognise that tests that perform well in one scenario are not necessarily applicable to others. We've confirmed that SNP chips are extremely poor at detecting very rare disease-causing genetic variants, often giving false positive results that can have profound clinical impact. These false results had been used to schedule invasive medical procedures that were both unnecessary and unwarranted."
The team compared data from SNP chips with data from the more reliable tool of next generation sequencing in 49,908 participants of UK Biobank, and an additional 21 people who shared results of their consumer genetic tests via the Personal Genome Project.
The study concluded that SNP chips performed extremely well in detecting common genetic variants. However, the rarer the variation was, the less reliable the results became. In very rare variants, present in fewer than 1 in 100,000 individuals, typical of those causing rare genetic disease, 84 per cent were false positives in UK Biobank. In the data from commercial customers, 20 of 21 individuals analysed had at least one false positive rare disease-causing variant that had been incorrectly genotyped.
Dr Leigh Jackson, Lecturer in Genomic Medicine at the University of Exeter and co-author of the paper, said: "The number of false positives on rare genetic variants produced by SNP chips was shockingly high. To be clear: a very rare, disease-causing variant detected using a SNP chip is more likely to be wrong than right. Although some consumer genomics companies perform sequencing to validate important results before releasing them to consumers, most consumers also download their "raw" SNP chip data for secondary analysis, and this raw data still contain these incorrect results. The implications of our findings are very simple: SNP chips perform poorly for detecting very rare genetic variants and the results should never be used to guide a patient's medical care, unless they have been validated."
###
The paper published today in the BMJ is entitled 'Using SNP chips to detect very rare pathogenic variants: retrospective population-based diagnostic evaluation'.
Notes to editors: For further context, see the joint statement from the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Society for Genetic Medicine on direct to consumer genomic testing, which references the pre-print version of the paper.
*Labels applied according to the Academy of Medical Sciences press release labelling system.
About the University of Exeter Medical School
The University of Exeter Medical School is part of the University of Exeter's College of Medicine and Health. Our mission is to improve the health of the South West and beyond, through the development of high quality graduates and world-leading research that has international impact.
As part of a Russell Group university, we combine this world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 19,000 students and is ranked 12th in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020.
The University of Exeter Medical School's Medicine course is in the top 10 in the Complete University Guide 2020.
The College's Medical Imaging programme is ranked in the top 5 in the Guardian Guide 2020 and the Complete University Guide 2020.
The University of Exeter entered the world top 20 for Biomedical and Health Sciences in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2019, based on the percentage of publications ranked in the top 10 per cent most cited.
An anti-military regime protest by young people near the Russian Embassy in Yangon on Feb. 12. / The Irrawaddy
