Friday, August 20, 2021

USA

Eight out of ten teachers think education news is negative and demoralising

8 out of 10 teachers think education news is negative and demoralising. Some have even left because of it — Credit: Shutterstock

For many teachers, news coverage of education seems to be unrelentingly negative. They say this is particularly noticeable in reporting of results of standardized tests such as NAPLAN and the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which seems to place most of the blame for perceived problems on them.

Australian students have reportedly been falling behind many other countries in literacy and numeracy in the PISA tests, for years. The results are nuanced, but the reporting often isn't. For instance, Australia's score in science in PISA 2015 was 510, significantly above the OECD average of 493. But the reports tend to focus on areas where we have fallen behind than other countries, rather than where Australia may have done well.

There is constant anxiety our education system is going downhill and needs urgent improvement.

In my interviews with Australian schoolteachers, most of the participants accepted standardized testing was necessary. But they opposed the results of NAPLAN testing being released due to the inevitable comparisons of student progress and schools in the related news coverage.

A growing body of research from Australia and overseas suggests teachers' perceptions about education news are justified. Education news focuses on student discipline, teacher quality, comparisons of testing results and standards. All these subjects tend to be framed negatively.

While individual success stories of students, teachers or schools are celebrated, they are usually portrayed as the exception.

What teachers say

In my 2017 study, I interviewed 25 teachers from around Australia about their perceptions of news reporting of education—88% of participants considered it to be predominantly negative.

A teacher from a Queensland public school acknowledged that from "time to time" good news stories about schools did appear but said most the coverage was "shock, horror, look at all these dreadful things that are happening in the school system."

The mostly negative portrayal presented in major metropolitan news outlets was unfair and inaccurate, according to the teachers, and the positive elements tended to be overlooked.

One used the reporting of testing results as an example: "When the NAPLAN data was published our federal minister had quite a lot of material published about how we were slipping down the league tables, but when our 15 year-olds were rated the fifth top all rounders [in the PISA tests] […] that barely got a squeak."

Several participants referred to the prevalence of news coverage that portrayed teachers as low achievers. "We continually hear about low entrance scores to get into teaching. We continually hear about teacher under-performance."

Some of those interviewed believed teachers were treated differently to other professionals in news coverage, and were subjected to greater scrutiny and pressure. "What I do each day is questioned at every level," one teacher said.

A particular frustration related to news coverage that did not capture the true nature of contemporary teaching. A principal argued there was "an absolute failure" on the part of the news media to recognize the complexity of teachers' work. She said: "Teachers are not going to school, they are going to work and it's highly complex and highly technological."

Other Australian research has found some teachers have named misleading and negative reporting of education as a factor in their decision to quit teaching.

Parents feel the same way

Our new research has found some Australian parents share teachers' views. Of the survey group of 268 teachers and 206 parents, 85% of teachers and 74% of parents considered news coverage of the Australian education system to be generally negative.

Half of the parents surveyed reported feeling demoralized by such reporting. For teachers, that figure increased to 81%.

Significantly, we also found positive news can be inspiring. Around 64% of both teachers and parents reported they feel inspired "quite a bit" or "a lot" when they encounter a positive news story about teachers, schools or the education system.

All of this points to a need for more balanced, contextualized and fair news coverage of schools and teachers.

While it is not the role of reporters to appease teachers, the evidence about the predominantly negative nature of education news and teachers' concerns about superficial and inaccurate coverage should be taken into account. And it can just be a matter of shifting the angle.

Readers turned off by negative news

There are also sound commercial reasons for rethinking the approach to reporting education. In covering education, news editors are aiming to appeal to the high numbers of parents among their audiences.

Our research suggests parents are interested in education news. But they may be less likely to engage the more negative it is. We know from other research that the most common reason people avoid news is because it has a negative impact on mood.

So, if editors want to attract readers with education news, coverage that includes more positive elements could achieve more success.

Four teachers in same Florida county die of COVID-19 within 24 hours

Provided by The Conversation

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

Tool predicts which native fish species are most at risk from lionfish predators

by University of Alberta

Coastal countries have between two and five years to act to protect native fish species once voracious lionfish arrive in their waters, according to a University of Alberta ecology professor who helped create a tool to predict which fish are in danger.

"There's lots of concern about what their impacts will be and also which species are at risk," said Stephanie Green, Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Global Change Ecology and Conservation in the Faculty of Science. "They're the perfect invader."The lionfish, originally a popular aquarium species native only to the Pacific and Indian oceans, is now a highly invasive species throughout the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, where they are known to consume hundreds of native fish species.

Getting ahead of the invaders

Lionfish are gape-limited predators, which means they swallow their prey whole, and can grow to a formidable half-meter long. They have no natural predators in the Atlantic, thanks in part to 18 poisonous spines, and can devastate a population of their coral reef prey—killing as much as 95 percent—in just a couple of years.

"We can look in lionfish stomachs to see what they're eating, but often that information comes too late to protect the native species," Green said.

"Instead, we need to anticipate what lionfish are likely to eat as they spread to new areas and encounter a totally new diet, based on their food preferences."

To create the framework identifying vulnerable fish species, Green joined forces with Christi Linardich, a scientist from the Global Marine Species Assessment team associated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which publishes the "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species"—assessments of the extinction risk for virtually every wildlife species in the world.

"We literally started with every Caribbean fish that's out there," Linardich said.

Together with U of A graduate student Cole Brookson, Green and Linardich worked to narrow the field to those species that live in reef systems where lionfish typically hunt.

In classifying the relative vulnerability of fishes, the team looked for traits known to influence susceptibility to lionfish predation, including body shape, water column position and aggregation behavior, and habitat overlap as well as the degree of geographic range restriction.

Identifying the most vulnerable species

The team identified 77 Caribbean and 29 Brazilian species as highly vulnerable.

Species of particular concern are the social wrasse—a fish known only from shallow waters around a small island chain in central Belize, where lionfish were first sighted in 2010—and the salmon-spotted jewelfish, known only from coral reefs off a single island off of Brazil, where lionfish have not yet invaded but are predicted to soon reach.

Green noted many of the vulnerable species are found below scuba diving depths, beyond 120 feet deep, and only known to science from very few specimens.

"If lionfish take hold in high numbers where these species occur, they could be lost before we even know much about them," she said.

With the framework in hand, the team identified hot spots on the lionfish path. Jurisdictions include Belize, the Bahamas and Curaçao as well as several locations in Brazil: the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Rocas Atoll and the coasts of São Paulo and Santa Catarina states.

"Brazil is a really big deal because they have a number of what we call endemic fish, which means that they're not found anywhere else, and many are restricted to small oceanic islands where major threats can be catastrophic to a species' continued existence," said Linardich.

The study said implementing control measures at the invasion front two to five years before lionfish reach peak density could avert species' extinction.

"Lionfish invasion really is a global issue," Green said. "There are more than 30 countries being impacted by this species. As the invasion intensifies and expands, there is an urgent need to identify species most at risk."

Current strategies to control lionfish are mainly through volunteer efforts to hunt them, lionfish derbies and the creation of lionfish fisheries.

"One of the things we have in our favor is lionfish are actually very tasty fish," Green said.

The study, "Trait-based vulnerability reveals hotspots of potential impact for a global marine invader," was published in Global Change Biology.

Study confirms invasive lionfish now threaten species along Brazilian coast

More information: Christi Linardich et al, Trait‐based vulnerability reveals hotspots of potential impact for a global marine invader, Global Change Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15732

Journal information: Global Change Biology

Provided by University of Alberta

Smells and emotions tug on the brain's habenula, or 'little rein'

by Nancy Bazilchuk, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Smells and emotions tug on the brain’s “rein” — The image shows the forebrain (top half) and midbrain (bottom half) or a

A tiny region in the middle of the brain plays a far more important role than previously known in helping it respond to changes in the environment, a new study shows.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, was published Friday in the scientific journal Current Biology.This region is called the habenula, a name that reflects its directional role. Habenula means "little rein" in Latin, and a rein, of course, is the leather strap on a horse's bridle used to direct it.

The researchers, with first author Ewelina Bartoszek, did their experiments in zebrafish, but the habenula is so important that evolution has ensured it is found in all vertebrates, from fish to mammals to humans. In fact, earlier studies in humans have found links between dysfunctions in the habenula to neurological conditions such as mood disorders and addiction.

Kavli Institute researchers showed that the habenula relays information from the outside world, such as smell and sight, along with internal states associated with emotions and learning, to the brain regions that control adaptive behaviors.

"It turns out that the habenula is an information hub," said Emre Yaksi, a professor at NTNU's Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and head of the research group that did the study. "It integrates information about odors from the environment with the information from the limbic system, which is involved in emotional behaviors and learning."

Credit: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Translating signals from the outside into alerts

In other words, the brain may be in one state when the smell of a predator—or food, or a mate —wafts into the nose and reaches the habenula. The habenula translates that smell into a kind of alert or saliency signal to shift the brain into a different state, Yaksi said.

"We argue that the habenula helps the brain to stop certain actions and communications across brain regions, in order to shift it to another mode that is better suited to the situation that the scent warns of," he said. "The brain's different modes involve different dynamic networks that best enable the animal to solve the challenges that it is about to experience."

The study highlights how important our sense of smell—or in more scientific terms, the olfactory system—is in regulating what happens in the habenula and the limbic system, during these sensory-induced state changes in the brain.

Finding 'ancestral' structures

Another important aspect of the study, Yaksi said, is that the experiments allowed the researchers to identify parts of the zebrafish brain that are "ancestral" to the hippocampus and amygdala in mammals.

In humans, the hippocampus is known to play a key role in our sense of where we are and our memory, while the amygdala is the area that helps process memories and emotional responses, such as fear.

"We also showed that these are the major cortico-limbic systems that drive the habenula," Yaksi said. The researchers were actually able to observe this connection in zebrafish by stimulating the structures and seeing activity in the habenula, he said. This finding is particularly important as researchers continue to unravel the different roles that different parts of the brain play in cognition.

The researchers suggest that given the role of the habenula in regulating moods and brain states, sensory experiences might provide a non-invasive pathway to modify habenular activity, perhaps even in humans.Brain circuit activated by hunger makes starved fish fight for longer

More information: Ewelina Magdalena Bartoszek et al, Ongoing habenular activity is driven by forebrain networks and modulated by olfactory stimuli, Current Biology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.021

Journal information: Current Biology

Provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

1.69 million deaths attributed to extreme temperatures in 2019

(HealthDay)—Acute heat and cold exposure can increase mortality risk for multiple causes of death, with cold-attributable mortality exceeding heat-attributable mortality, according to a study published in the Aug. 21 issue of The Lancet

Katrin G. Burkart, Ph.D., from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues linked deaths to daily temperature estimates, modeled cause-specific relative risks for individual causes of death, and calculated cause-specific and total temperature-attributable burden. Cause-specific relative risks were then applied to all locations globally.

The researchers found that 17 causes of death met the inclusion criteria. J-shaped relationships with daily temperature were seen for ischemic heart disease, stroke, cardiomyopathy and myocarditis, hypertensive heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, lower respiratory infection, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; the risk of external causes, including homicide, suicide, drowning, and unintentional injuries, increased monotonically with temperature. Estimates for nonoptimal temperatures ranged from 7.98 to 35.1 deaths per 100,000 in Brazil and China, respectively, with population-attributable fractions of 1.2 and 4.7 percent, respectively. In 2019, in all countries for which data were available, the average cold-attributable mortality exceeded heat-attributable mortality. Cold effects were most pronounced in China and New Zealand, while heat effects were most pronounced in China and Brazil. Globally, an estimated 1.69 million deaths were attributable to nonoptimal temperatures.

"In most regions, cold temperatures have a greater impact on health; however, our analysis finds that the harmful effects of extreme heat can far exceed those caused by cold in places where it is already hot," Burkart said in a statement

Climate change will increase temperature-attributable mortality

More information: Abstract/Full Text

Journal information: The Lancet

Workplace mistreatment reported frequently by emergency medicine residents

(HealthDay)—Emergency medicine (EM) residents often report workplace mistreatment, with patients and/or patients' families a frequent source of mistreatment, according to a study published online Aug. 19 in JAMA Network Open.

Michelle D. Lall, M.D., from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues examined the prevalence, types, and sources of perceived workplace mistreatment during training among EM residents in the United States and assessed the correlation between mistreatment and suicidal ideation. A total of 8,162 EM residents were eligible; 94.1 percent responded to at least one question on the survey and 79.7 percent completed the 35-item survey.

The researchers found that 45.1 percent of the total participants reported exposure to some type of workplace mistreatment during the most recent academic year. Patients and/or patients' families were identified as a frequent source of mistreatment: 58.7, 67.5, 85.2, and 69.1 percent reported gender discrimination, racial discrimination, physical abuse, and sexual harassment, respectively, from patients and/or family members. Overall, 2.5 percent of residents reported suicidal thoughts occurring during the past year, with a similar prevalence by gender (2.4 percent for both men and women) and race/ethnicity (2.4 and 2.7 percent for non-Hispanic White residents and residents from other race/ethnic groups, respectively).

"Identifying and promoting best practices to minimize workplace mistreatment during residency may help optimize the professional career experience and improve the personal and professional well-being of physicians throughout their lives," the authors write.

Women surgical residents suffer more mistreatment, burnout, suicidal thoughts

More information: Abstract/Full Text

Journal information: JAMA Network Open

Three out of four turtle populations risk cadmium contamination

by Griffith University

Three out of four Queensland green turtle populations risk harmful effects from cadmium found a Griffith University-led study using a new tool to determine chemical exposure limits for marine animals.

"Marine animals are exposed to an array of toxic chemicals entering the oceans," said lead researcher and Ph.D. candidate Gulsah Dogruer from the Australian Rivers Institute.In collaboration with Utrecht University (Netherlands), Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) and the University of Queensland, the researchers developed a virtual turtle model to simulate cadmium uptake and its effects over a turtles' lifetime. The model was used to reveal at what concentration cadmium in their primary food source, seagrass, is potentially toxic.

"Yet policy makers are basically in the dark about the limits these animals can endure before health effects threaten their survival.

"We developed a framework that sheds some light on this issue for policy makers. By defining the chemical exposure limit for a particular marine animal before there is harmful effects, we can help policy makers identify potentially toxic areas."

When applied to cadmium in green sea turtles, the researchers revealed a concerning 72% of the Great Barrier Reef's green turtle populations were at risk from cadmium contamination.

"Our results show that a green turtle population foraging on seagrass with more than 0.1 milligram of cadmium for every kilogram of seagrass, is exposed to potential health risks," said co-author and supervisor Dr. Jason van de Merwe, a marine ecologist and eco-toxicologist at the Australian Rivers Institute.

"As seagrass is green turtles' primary source of food, this is a real concern, but knowing this threshold level of cadmium is crucial to identify potential exposure sites."

To discover the cadmium threshold in green turtles, the researchers used a generic three-step framework that can be adapted to other marine species and other chemicals.

The framework involved firstly developing a green turtle and cadmium-specific model to predict how much cadmium the turtles are likely to accumulate over their lifetime under various environmental conditions.

"The model we developed used the physiology of the turtles and the chemical properties of cadmium to simulate its absorption, metabolism, excretion, and distribution in the turtles' liver, kidney, muscle, fat, brain, scute, and 'rest of the body'," Ms Dogruer said.

"The second step was to link these contaminant concentrations in the turtles to toxic effects seen in laboratory-based studies and in free-ranging turtles.

The researchers ran the model in reverse, using the cadmium concentration that is toxic in turtles' body, to determine the amount of cadmium in seagrass above which turtles are likely to have a toxic response (0.1 milligram of cadmium for every kilogram of seagrass).

The researchers lastly compared their results to real-world cadmium exposure conditions for green turtle populations globally.

"Three out of the four globally distinct green turtle populations assessed in Australia, Japan and Brazil are exposed to cadmium levels above the threshold seagrass limits we reported," Dr. van de Merwe said.

"Our framework for determining chemical exposure limits will help managers of conservation sites better understand and minimize the risk to marine animals and hopefully begin to turn the tide for green turtle populations worldwide,'' Ms Dogruer said.

Study finds smaller turtles are nesting on Florida beaches

Provided by Griffith University

Understanding the effects of population pressure on violence levels

by Okayama University

Scientists dig deep to understand the effects of population pressure on violence levels — The trauma is slightly healed. However, because it seems to have been severe enough to have caused terrible damage to the person, it is likely perimortem. Credit: Chikushino City Board of Education

A continuous rise in global population has led to fears that conflicts and war will become more frequent as resources dwindle. But this widespread belief has not been quantified based on actual Japanese archaeological data, until now. Researchers from Okayama University have now examined the skeletal remains of people living in the Middle Yayoi period of Japan to set the record straight on the relationship between population pressure and the frequency of violence.

Among these, the population pressure hypothesis has become more prominent recently as people globally experience climatic changes and environmental breakdown. The hypothesis states that population increase can result in resource scarcity, leading to competition and conflict over resources. While there is wide acceptance of this claim, there are very few studies that have quantitatively backed up the origin of inter-group violence due to population pressure based on actual archaeological data.The human capacity for warfare and whether it is an inescapable part of human nature is a hot button issue at the heart of various disciplines like anthropology, archaeology and philosophy. Researchers have posited a range of ideas about why humans engage in war, and the running list of triggers for inter-group violence is long, be it the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, the development of weapons, ecological constraints or population pressures.

To correct this gap, Professor Naoko Matsumoto from Okayama University and her team surveyed the skeletal remains and jar coffins, called kamekan, from the Middle Yayoi period (350 BC to AD 25 CE) in northern Kyushu, Japan. This region has been the focus of inter-group violence investigations because the skeletal remains in the Yayoi period indicate a significant increase in the frequency of violence compared to those living in the preceding Jomon period.

"The inhabitants of the Yayoi period practiced subsistence agriculture, in particular wet rice cultivation," says Professor Matsumoto. "This was introduced by immigrants from the Korean peninsula along with weapons such as stone arrowheads and daggers, resulting in enclosed settlements accompanied by warfare or large-scale inter-group violence. However, those living during the Jomon period were primarily pottery-makers who followed a complex hunter-gatherer lifestyle and had low mortality rates caused by conflict."

Professor Matsumoto and her team inferred demographic changes using the numbers of well-dated burial jars as a proxy for population size, and estimated population pressure from the ratio of population to arable land. The team calculated the frequency of violence by using percentages of injured individuals identified within the skeletal population, followed by a statistical analysis between population pressure and the frequency of violence.

The results of the investigation were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The researchers uncovered 47 skeletal remains with trauma, in addition to 51 sites containing burial jars in the Itoshima Plain, 46 in the Sawara Plain, 72 in the Fukuoka Plain, 42 in the Mikuni Hills, 37 in the east Tsukushi Plain, and 50 in the central Tsukushi Plain, encompassing all six study sites. They found that the highest number of injured individuals and the highest frequency-of-violence levels occurred in the Mikuni Hills, the east Tsukushi Plain, and the Sawara Plain. Interestingly, the Mikuni Hills and the central Tsukushi Plain also showed the highest overall values for population pressure. Overall, statistical analyses supported that population pressure affected the frequency of violence.

However, the peak population did not correlate with the frequency of violence. High levels of population pressure in the Mikuni Hills and the central Tsukushi Plain showed low frequency-of-violence values, while the relatively low population pressures of the east Tsukushi Plain and Sawara Plain were linked to higher frequency-of-violence levels.

Professor Matsumoto reasons there may be other factors that could have indirectly influenced such high levels of violence in the Middle Yayoi period. "I think that the development of a social hierarchy or political organization might also have affected the level of violence. We have seen stratified burial systems in which certain members of the ruling elite, referred to as 'kings' in Japanese archaeology, have tombs with large quantities of prestige goods such as weapons and mirrors," she says. "It is worth noting that the frequency of violence tends to be lower in the subregions with such kingly tombs. This suggests that powerful elites might have a role in repressing the frequency of violence."

The evidence collected by Professor Matsumoto and her team undeniably confirms a positive correlation between population pressure and higher levels of violence and may help devise mechanisms to avoid seemingly never-ending conflicts in motion today. Further research based on these insights could identify other variables at play in determining the root causes of inter-group violence and actively prevent them.

Study: Refugees often face violence, mental health issues in the cities where they had sought safety

More information: Tomomi Nakagawa et al, Population pressure and prehistoric violence in the Yayoi period of Japan, Journal of Archaeological Science (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2021.105420

Journal information: Journal of Archaeological Science

Provided by Okayama University

Restoring hormone levels in a neutered dog leads to health improvements

by Parsemus Foundation

A case study published in Topics in Companion Animal Medicine details the first report of hormone restoration therapy applied to a dog suffering from diverse physical and psychological symptoms following castration. Treatment resulted in normal levels of testosterone and luteinizing hormone, improved mobility, and reduced anxiety.

Part of responsible pet ownership in the United States has included spaying or neutering your dog to reduce pet overpopulation. Other benefits of spay or neuter include fewer diseases associated with the sex organs, such as mammary, ovarian, and testicular cancers, pyometra and prostate disorders. But growing research on this practice indicates that removal of the gonads (testes or ovaries) and associated sex hormones can have significant health and welfare impacts on dogs as well. Obesity, urinary incontinence, various cancers, immune-mediated diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, and cognitive and behavior problems are more common in spayed and neutered dogs. This is likely because natural hormone feedback mechanisms become unregulated in neutered dogs. For example, without sex hormones signaling the pituitary gland and hypothalamus in the brain, levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) continue to increase. Emerging research indicates that the high levels of unopposed luteinizing hormone likely influence the development of diverse health disorders. The relationships between sex hormones, health and wellness are not simple and may be influenced by many factors, including the dog's sex, breed, age, and environment.Disruption of hormones due to spaying and neutering

To avoid the potential health issues due to spay and neuter surgery, many informed pet owners are opting for hormone-sparing sterilization (like hysterectomy or vasectomy) for their dog. But what about the millions of dogs who have already been spayed or neutered and now suffer from ailments that do not respond to traditional medical treatment? Restoring and balancing the hormones of neutered dogs is uncommon in veterinary medicine, with the only published accounts including treatment for incontinence. The case study published in Topics in Companion Animal Medicine chronicles the health issues, hormone treatment procedures, and outcomes in a neutered male dog.

Background and health issues

A male mixed breed dog named Toby was adopted from a county animal shelter at about 7 months of age. Like most shelters and rescue centers in the United States, castration was required before he could go home to his new family. The young dog arrived as an active, healthy, sociable pet but his health quickly deteriorated over the next few months. When he was one year of age, the owners took him to the veterinarian to address reduced mobility, limping in the right hip, rapid weight gain, and fear of unfamiliar people. The veterinary team treated Toby over the next three years with trials of pain medication, joint supplements, thyroxine, antidepressant, and significant diet restrictions. Frequent carprofen administration and daily joint supplements helped to reduce limping, but mobility was still poor. Weight stabilized on a strict diet but fear and anxiety around strangers continued to worsen.

Treatment resulted in significantly improved health

By four years of age, Toby's owners were no longer able to take him out of the house due to his extreme anxiety, and his inability to run and jump exacerbated his overweight condition. When a new younger dog was adopted, Toby's health deficits were even more apparent as he could not run and play. The owners knew about the possible health impacts resulting from the lack of normal hormone levels after spay or neuter, and wondered if this may be the cause of Toby's problems? Working with Dr. Michelle Kutzler, a veterinary theriogenologist at Oregon State University, the decision was made to try hormone therapy to restore his hormones to a normal level.

Castrated male dogs have very low testosterone and can have high levels of LH. Toby's LH level was three times higher than what is normal for a neutered dog. He was started on a regimen of weekly testosterone shots, which he accepted readily with positive reinforcement training. Within three months, the treatment significantly increased muscle mass, reduced limping and improved mobility. Fear and anxiety were somewhat decreased. However, his LH concentration did not come down to normal levels, so a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist was implanted. The treatment brought the dog's testosterone and LH levels back to normal, and health improvements continued.

After hormone restoration therapy, Toby's appetite was reduced, and fear of people became manageable. Toby's owners now take him for walks in public parks and he has no problem running, jumping, and keeping up with the other family dog. There were no known side effects, and the owners were pleased with the outcome. He has been continued on the treatment, with his health monitored through standard bloodwork, testosterone and LH levels, and prostate exams.

"The improvement in Toby's health and behavior has been amazing", said Linda Brent, owner of the dog and lead author of the publication. "After years of trying traditional medical treatments with little effect, returning his hormones to normal levels has given him a chance for a happy and healthy life."

Next steps and information for dog owners

This research concluded that hormone restoration may be effective in improving health in neutered dogs, but also raised many questions about the optimal methods and potential risks.

"This case report provides evidence to support lowering LH concentrations with GnRH downregulation and gonadal hormone supplementation in spayed and neutered dogs displaying clinical signs of the long-term adverse health effects of gonad removal", commented Dr. Michelle Kutzler. She added, "Controlled randomized clinical trials are needed."

While data from an individual animal cannot be generalized to other dogs, the authors hope that it encourages dialog and further research on the topic of hormone therapy for spayed or neutered dogs.

Early neutering poses health risks for german shepherd dogs, study finds

More information: Linda Brent et al, Restoration of Reproductive Hormone Concentrations in a Male Neutered Dog Improves Health: A Case Study, Topics in Companion Animal Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.tcam.2021.100565

Provided by Parsemus Foundation

Boston Dynamics' latest video shows its Atlas humanoid robot has moves like Simone Biles

by Mike Snider, Usa Today

Boston Dynamics' latest robot video shows its 5-foot humanoid robot has moves like Simone Biles

Boston Dynamics, the company known for its robotic dogs, now has a humanoid robot capable of doing gymnastics.

The robotics company previously has shown how its robot dogs can go down stairs and open doors. Some police departments have begun using the robot dogs, typically called Spot, to help patrol. And Atlas, which the company dubbed "the world's most dynamic humanoid," showed in an earlier video how the robot can jog and jump over a log.

In a new video, Atlas now can do parkour—a sport of moving through obstacles—jumping and running along uneven platforms. Then, two humanoid robots do synchronized movements including turning, spinning and two flips, mirroring each other moves.

Having the robots perform parkour sequences including running along a balance beam, jumping and doing flips helps in the development of a robot capable of multiple tasks, "a go-anywhere, do-anything robot of the future," said Scott Kuindersma, leader of Boston Dynamics' Atlas team, in a blog post accompanying the new videos.

"The work that we are doing now is really just foundation building," he said. "We are building the core capabilities that we think any useful robot will need and in doing so we are really just defining the next set of challenges that we are going to be working on over the next two to five years."

Some facts the company dished up on Atlas: the robot is five feet tall, weighs 190 pounds, has an on-board battery, RGB cameras and depth sensors, as well as three built-in computers.

Boston Dynamics also released a new behind the scenes video showing that the robots don't always accomplish their skills in the first try. "It can be frustrating sometimes the robots crash a lot," said Atlas controls lead Benjamin Stephens, Atlas Controls Lead. "It's not the robot just magically deciding to do parkour. It's kind of a choreographed routine much like a skateboard video or a parkour video where it's an athlete who has practiced these moves dozens or hundreds of times even to get to that high level that exciting capability. So we are kind of doing the same thing here with Atlas, exploring how to push it to its limits."

This scientists at Boston Dynamics had just begun having the two robots do parkour simultaneously two weeks ago and this was the first time they had filmed them together, said Ben Stephens, the Atlas controls lead. "Every behavior here has a small chance of failure. It's almost 90 seconds of continuous jumping, jogging, turning, vaulting, and flipping, so those probabilities add up."

Boston Dynamics' new robot Stretch can help move boxes in warehouses

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment