The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has resulted in many opportunities for the health technology industry. Our usually technophobic population has been embracing technology more and more since the start of the restrictions due to the spread of...

Education officials across the Caribbean and Latin America have asserted that teachers will be in need of psycho-social support for their return to the classroom, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 91,710 teachers and seven million...

Lady Allen – wife of Jamaica’s Governor General Sir Patrick Allen – says Jamaican women are among the strongest and most resilient in the world, and despite many bearing the full brunt of the coronavirus pandemic as breadwinners for their families...

This special issue focuses on The Role of Community Health Workers as First Responders in the COVID-19 Outbreak. 

Recorded May 5, 2020.

This is a part of the American Diabetes Associations ongoing project providing resources for practicing clinicians on the care of Diabetes during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Today’s discussion is an audio version of a webinar recorded on May 5, 2020.

Presented by:

Betsy Rodriguez, BSN, MSN, DCES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Colleen Barbero, PhD
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Denise Octavia Smith, MBA, CHW, PN, SFC
National Association of Community Health Workers

This book reflects the effort of the Transatlantic Council on Migration to map how profound demographic change is likely to affect the size and character of global migration flows; and how governments can shape immigration policy in a world increasingly attuned to the hunt for talent.

This book explores how developing-country governments have institutionalized ties with emigrants and their descendents. It offers an unprecedented taxonomy of 45 diaspora-engaging institutions found in 30 developing countries, exploring their activities and objectives. It also provides important practitioner insights from Mali, Mexico, and the Philippines.

This volume, by a former senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, argues that the U.S. approach to immigration and border security is off-kilter and not keeping pace with the scope and complexity of people’s movement around the world, nor with expectations regarding freedom of movement.

This edited volume examines the development impact of diasporas in six critical areas: entrepreneurship, capital markets, "nostalgia" trade and "heritage" tourism, philanthropy, volunteerism, and advocacy.

Ce manuel pratique et simple d’utilisation à l’usage des décideurs et des praticiens fait le point des mesures les plus récentes prises par les pouvoirs publics en direction des diasporas. La question qui se pose aux responsables politiques n’est pas tant de savoir si les diasporas peuvent être utiles à leur pays d’origine, mais comment elles le sont et quels types de politiques et de programmes publics sont à même de favoriser ces relations.

This practical handbook highlights policies and programs that can magnify the resources, both human and financial, that emigrants and their descendants contribute to development. It gives concrete examples of policies and programs that have been effective, and pulls out both useful lessons and common challenges associated with the topics at hand.

This edited volume develops a pragmatic approach to the engagement of highly skilled members of the diaspora for the benefit of their countries of origin. The book, edited by a World Bank senior economist, is based on empirical work in middle-income and high-income economies.

In 1964, Millie Small made one of only two or three trips back to her homeland, Jamaica, and it is an occasion that is engraved in singer Dennis Alcapone’s heart. He was fortunate enough to have actually seen the sensational My Boy Lollipop singer...

Millie Small, the first Jamaican vocalist in popular music to make the world stop and look at Jamaica as an emerging musical powerhouse, passed away in London on May 5. She was 72 years old. Speaking to Small by telephone from her home in Shepherd’...

This year’s Mother’s Day has undoubtedly been impacted by the COVID-19 virus. Plans to show appreciation to the one you call ‘mama’ have been thwarted due to worldwide quarantine conditions. But while there may not be the usual elaborate dinner at...

A webinar showcasing MPI's profiles of unauthorized immigrants in the 94 U.S. counties with the largest populations potentially eligible for DACA or DAPA, and the implications of the data for implementation of the DACA and DAPA programs.

The enactment of President Clinton’s Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Executive Order, issued in 2000, triggered a proliferation of efforts to provide services to individuals who cannot speak, understand, read, or write English fluently. With increased service provision, state and local government agencies have expressed a strong and growing interest in assuring the quality and cost-effectiveness of language access services. This paper attempts to catalog and describe some of those tools and practices.

This report provides an overview of several commonly used translation and interpretation technologies. It aims to assist language access practitioners in understanding and identifying which systems would best meet their agency’s language access needs.

This interactive language access webinar, one in a series offered by the Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, examines how New York and Illinois have broken down some of these barriers to proactively engage LEP communities to obtain workforce services.

This webinar examines how New York and Illinois have proactively engaged Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities to obtain workforce services.

In this webinar, experts discuss barriers immigrant and LEP individuals face in accessing the WIA system, how a revitalized WIA could address these barriers, and the extent to which the current Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee's WIA reauthorization proposal addresses these barriers.

The number of U.S. residents deemed Limited English Proficient (LEP) has increased substantially in recent decades, consistent with the growth of the U.S. foreign-born population. This brief offers analysis on the number, share, growth, and linguistic diversity of LEP individuals in the United States from 1990 to 2010 at the national, state, and metropolitan-area levels.

This MPI webinar features U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials discussing the department’s efforts to improve communications with Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities in federal and federally-funded programs and activities.

This MPI webinar features U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials discussing the department’s efforts to improve communications with Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities in federal and federally-funded programs and activities.

A webinar examining aspects of the implementation at state and local levels of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) that may limit immigrant integration, along with a discussion on strategies that may help ensure more equitable access for immigrants and refugees to services provided under the law.  

In a report by MPI's Labor Markets Initiative, noted economist and Georgetown University Public Policy Institute Professor Harry J. Holzer examines the economic reasoning and research on these questions and looks at the policy options that shape the impact of less-skilled immigration on the economy. The discussion is on what policy reform would best serve native-born American workers, consumers, and employers, as well as the overall U.S. economy.

This report highlights gaps and anomalies in labor protection, while recognizing that U.S. law sets significant standards for minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor, safe and healthy workplaces, antidiscrimination, labor organizing, and collective bargaining.

This Migration Policy Institute webinar discusses labor enforcement laws during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations and chronicles gaps in labor protection.

This webinar discusses labor enforcement laws during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations and chronicles gaps in labor protection, while also discussing the elements necessary for an effective labor standards enforcement system and why labor standards enforcement should become a pillar of immigration policymaking.

With the prospects for immigration reform greater than they have been in more than a decade and the U.S. economy slowly shrugging off the effects of the recession, the United States may be on the cusp of historic changes that make the immigration system a more effective tool for innovation, economic growth and the competitiveness of its firms—large and small. 

The release of MPI's book Immigrants in a Changing Labor Market and discussion with Jason Furman, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council; Harry Holzer, Georgetown University Professor of Public Policy; and MPI's Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Madeleine Sumption, and Michael Fix.

At this release event in Washington, DC, co-sponsored by MPI, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and ImmigrationWorks USA, the Chicago Council's independent task force on immigration released its report, U.S. Economic Competitiveness at Risk: A Midwest Call to Action on Immigration Reform.

“Badass” new method uses a magnetised protein to activate brain cells rapidly, reversibly, and non-invasively

Researchers in the United States have developed a new method for controlling the brain circuits associated with complex animal behaviours, using genetic engineering to create a magnetised protein that activates specific groups of nerve cells from a distance.

Understanding how the brain generates behaviour is one of the ultimate goals of neuroscience – and one of its most difficult questions. In recent years, researchers have developed a number of methods that enable them to remotely control specified groups of neurons and to probe the workings of neuronal circuits.

Related: Remote control of brain activity with heated nanoparticles

Related: Researchers read and write brain activity with light

State-of-the-art electron microscopy reveals the large-scale organization of the proteins that regulate neurotransmitter release

This spectacular image – which took the best part of a year to create – shows the fine structure of a nerve terminal at high resolution, revealing, for the very first time, an intricate network of fine filaments that controls the movements of synaptic vesicles.

The brain is soft and wet, with the consistency of a lump of jelly. Yet, it is the most complex and highly organized structure that we know of, containing hundreds of billions of neurons and glial cells, and something on the order of one quadrillion synaptic connections, all of which are arranged in a very specific manner.

Related: 3D model of a nerve terminal in atomic detail | Mo Costandi

Related: Blowing up the brain to reveal its finer details

Research suggests that gut bacteria may directly affect brain structure and function, offering new ways to treat multiple sclerosis and psychiatric conditions

Far from being silent partners that merely help to digest food, the bacteria in your gut may also be exerting subtle influences on your thoughts, moods, and behaviour. And according to a new study from researchers at University College Cork, your gut microbes might affect the structure and function of the brain in a more direct way, by regulating myelination, the process by which nerve fibres are insulated so that they can conduct impulses properly.

The surprising new findings, published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry, provide what is perhaps the strongest evidence yet that gut bacteria can have a direct physical effect on the brain, and suggest that it may one day be possible to treat debilitating demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and even psychiatric disorders, by altering the composition of the gut’s microbial menagerie in some way or another.

Related: Brain’s immune cells hyperactive in schizophrenia

Related: White matter might matter much more than we thought | Mo Costandi

New research provides the first direct evidence that Zika virus causes severe birth defects, and explains exactly how it does so

“I lifted up my T-shirt to check on what I thought had just been a small heat rash,” writes BuzzFeed correspondent Ali Watkins. “It had shown up along the right of my back, extending out from a handful of mosquito bites I had picked up… it had seemed relatively tame [but] now, it was inching across the front of my stomach and down my legs... Meanwhile, my right eye was inflamed and bright red, almost akin to a busted blood vessel.”

Watkins is describing the symptoms of a Zika virus infection that she contracted on a recent trip to Mexico. For many people, infection with this mosquito-borne virus causes an illness with symptoms just like those experienced by Watkins: fever, skin rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. For others, these symptoms are so mild that they go completely unnoticed.

Related: Zika virus spreads across Americas - in pictures

Related: Zika forest: birthplace of virus that has spread fear across the world

A new imaging technique may give researchers fresh insights into brain development, function, and disease

The human brain is often said to be the most complex object in the known universe, and there’s good reason to believe that it is. That lump of jelly inside your head contains at least 80 billion nerve cells, or neurons, and even more of the non-neuronal cells called glia. Between them, they form hundreds of trillions of precise synaptic connections; but they all have moveable parts, and these connections can change. Neurons can extend and retract their delicate fibres; some types of glial cells can crawl through the brain; and neurons and glia routinely work together to create new connections and eliminate old ones.

These processes begin before we are born, and occur until we die, making the brain a highly dynamic organ that undergoes continuous change throughout life. At any given moment, many millions of them are being modified in one way or another, to reshape the brain’s circuitry in response to our daily experiences. Researchers at Yale University have now developed an imaging technique that enables them to visualise the density of synapses in the living human brain, and offers a promising new way of studying how the organ develops and functions, and also how it deteriorates in various neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Related: Brain’s immune cells hyperactive in schizophrenia

Related: 3D model of a nerve terminal in atomic detail | Mo Costandi

New research shows that the drug makes cells in the retina more sensitive to light

25 years ago, pharmacologist M. E. West of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, noted that local fisherman who smoke cannabis or drink rum made with the leaves and stems of the plant had “an uncanny ability to see in the dark,” which enabled them to navigate their boats through coral reefs. “It was impossible to believe that anyone could navigate a boat without compass and without light in such treacherous surroundings,” he wrote after accompanying the crew of a fishing boat one dark night, “[but] I was then convinced that the man who had taken the rum extract of cannabis had far better night vision than I had, and that a subjective effect was not responsible.”

Some of these crew members told West that Moroccan fishermen and mountain dwellers experience a similar improvement after smoking hashish, and in 2002, another research team travelled to the Rif mountains in Morocco to investigate further. They gave a synthetic cannabinoid to one volunteer, and hashish to three more, then used a newly developed piece of kit to measure the sensitivity of their night vision before and after. Confirming West’s earlier report, they found that cannabis improved night vision in all three of their test subjects.

Related: How marijuana impairs memory

Related: A brief history of psychedelic psychiatry | Mo Costandi

New research shows that the rhythm of breathing directly impacts neural activity in a network of brain areas involved in smell, memory and emotions

The rhythm of breathing co-ordinates electrical activity across a network of brain regions associated with smell, memory, and emotions, and can enhance their functioning, according to a new study by researchers at Northwestern University. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest that breathing does not merely supply oxygen to the brain and body, but may also organise the activity of populations of cells within multiple brain regions to help orchestrate complex behaviours.

Related: Your nose knows death is imminent | Mo Costandi

Related: A cooler way to evaluate brain surgery patients

New findings challenge our understanding of how the brain matures

Faces are important to us. From the moment we are are born, we prefer to look at faces than at other, inanimate objects, and, being social animals, we encounter faces every day of our lives. The face is the first thing we look to when identifying other people; faces also convey emotions, informing us of peoples’ mood, and from them we can usually determine a person’s sex and, sometimes, roughly how old they are. Eye movements can also reveal to us something about another person’s intentions.

Related: How your eyes betray your thoughts

Related: Live imaging of synapse density in the human brain

Researchers at MIT have developed a new method of electrically stimulating deep brain tissues without opening the skull

Since 1997, more than 100,000 Parkinson’s Disease patients have been treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS), a surgical technique that involves the implantation of ultra-thin wire electrodes. The implanted device, sometimes referred to as a ‘brain pacemaker’, delivers electrical pulses to a structure called the subthalamic nucleus, located near the centre of the brain, and effectively alleviates many of the physical symptoms of the disease, such as tremor, muscle rigidity, and slowed movements.

DBS is generally safe but, like any surgical procedure, comes with some risks. First and foremost, it is highly invasive, requiring small holes to be drilled in the patient’s skull, through which the electrodes are inserted. Potential complications of this include infection, stroke, and bleeding on the brain. The electrodes, which are implanted for long periods of time, sometimes move out of place; they can also cause swelling at the implantation site; and the wire connecting them to the battery, typically placed under the skin of the chest, can erode, all of which require additional surgical procedures.

Related: Blowing up the brain to reveal its finer details

Related: Traces of memory in a dish | Mo Costandi

Why did right-winger Yosemite Sam have problem with the leftist Bugs Bunny?

Or better yet go back to Africa, we don’t need any feminazis ruining our society

I say - Lock everything down, as we are, and keep everything locked down for years  This way, what every these people are complaining about will be long gone 

happy, sad, meh, mad, or what?

https://diazhub.com/news/boris-johnson-will-tell-public-to-stay-alert-control-the-virus-and-save-lives/