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Migration & Coronavirus: A Complicated Nexus Between Migration Management and Public Health

This webinar, organized by MPI and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School, discussed migration policy responses around the globe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and examined where migration management and enforcement tools may be useful and where they may be ill-suited to advancing public health goals. 




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Expert Podcast: Meeting Seasonal Labor Needs in the Age of COVID-19

Governments are facing urgent pandemic-related questions. One of the more pressing ones: Who is going to harvest crops in countries that rely heavily on seasonal foreign workers? In this podcast, MPI experts examine ways in which countries could address labor shortages in agriculture, including recruiting native-born workers and letting already present seasonal workers stay longer. Catch an interesting discussion as border closures have halted the movement of seasonal workers even as crops are approaching harvest in some places.




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COVID-19 in Latin America: Tackling Health Care & Other Impacts for Vulnerable Migrant Populations

This MPI webinar brought together public health and migration experts to analyze the impact that COVID-19 preventative measures will have on vulnerable immigrants and refugees in Colombia and Latin America. Speakers also discussed how policymakers and international organizations can include migrant populations in their emergency response plans.




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Immigration and the U.S.-Mexico Border during the Pandemic: A Conversation with Members of Congress

In this bipartisan discussion, two border-state members of Congress—Rep. Veronica Escobar and Rep. Dan Crenshaw—discuss the response to the coronavirus outbreak, how it is affecting the interconnected border region, and what the future might hold.
 




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Mental Health Risks and Resilience among Somali and Bhutanese Refugee Parents

Somali and Bhutanese refugees are two of the largest groups recently resettled in the United States and Canada. This report examines factors that might promote or undermine the mental health and overall well-being of children of these refugees, with regard to factors such as past exposure to trauma, parental mental health, educational attainment, social support, and discrimination.




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A Study of Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes among African-Born Women Living in Utah

Resettled African refugee women may experience particularly acute complications during pregnancy, birth, and the child's early infancy. Yet health care-providers and policymakers may not be aware of the particular challenges that these women and their children face. This report, examining women giving birth in Utah over a seven-year period, compares perinatal complications of the African born and a segment of the U.S. born.




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Immigrant Families and Child Welfare Systems: Emerging Needs and Promising Policies

With the children of immigrants a growing share of all U.S. children, and federal immigration enforcement and other policies undergoing significant change, some state and local child welfare agencies are developing new ways to improve how they work with immigrant families. This report examines key cultural, linguistic, and legal challenges, and how agencies are adjusting staffing, training, placement, and other policies to tackle them.




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Leveraging the Potential of Home Visiting Programs to Serve Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families

Home visiting programs for young families are growing in popularity across the United States, and have demonstrated their effectiveness in supporting maternal health and child well-being. At the same time, more infants and toddlers are growing up in immigrant families and households where a language other than English is spoken. Why then are these children under-represented in these programs? This brief explores common barriers, ways to address them, and why it is important to do so.




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Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants and Latinos in the Kansas City Metro Area

Latinos and immigrants are at least twice as likely to lack health insurance coverage as the overall population in the Kansas City metropolitan area. This gap that has significant implications for the region, as Latinos and immigrants will form an ever-growing share of the area’s labor force and tax base amid anticipated declines in the native-born, non-Latino population.




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Barriers to COVID-19 Testing and Treatment: Immigrants without Health Coverage in the United States

As millions of U.S. workers lose jobs and the health insurance associated with them, Medicaid and similar programs are increasingly important for people seeking COVID-19 testing and treatment. Yet many low-income uninsured noncitizens, including green-card holders, are excluded from such programs because of their immigration status, as this fact sheet explores.




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Can a Company be pro-regulation and pro-commerce? Gregg Renfrew from Beautycounter thinks so

It’s the middle of an election year and, according to the Pew Research Center, the country hasn’t been this polarized since the Civil War. In such a climate, it would seem to be an oxymoron for a company to push for both financial growth and tighter regulations. Gregg Renfrew, CEO & Founder of Beautycounter, wouldn’t […]




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Musculoskeletal Complications of Diabetes Mellitus

Rachel Peterson Kim
Jul 1, 2001; 19:
Practical Pointers




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Cutaneous Manifestations of Diabetes Mellitus

Michelle Duff
Jan 1, 2015; 33:40-48
Practical Pointers




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Case Study: Potential Pitfalls of Using Hemoglobin A1c as the Sole Measure of Glycemic Control

Huy A. Tran
Jul 1, 2004; 22:141-143
Case Studies




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Medical Nutrition Therapy: A Key to Diabetes Management and Prevention

Sara F. Morris
Dec 1, 2010; 28:12-18
Feature Articles




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Diabetes Self-management Education and Support in Type 2 Diabetes: A Joint Position Statement of the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Margaret A. Powers
Apr 1, 2016; 34:70-80
Position Statements




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Clarifying the Role of Insulin in Type 2 Diabetes Management

John R. White
Jan 1, 2003; 21:
Feature Articles




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Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Tracy L. Setji
Jan 1, 2005; 23:17-24
Feature Articles




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SGLT-2 Inhibitors: A New Mechanism for Glycemic Control

Edward C. Chao
Jan 1, 2014; 32:4-11
Feature Articles




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Diabetes Management Issues for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease

Kerri L. Cavanaugh
Jul 1, 2007; 25:90-97
Feature Articles




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Management of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

Andrew J.M. Boulton
Jan 1, 2005; 23:9-15
Feature Articles




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Engaging Patients in Education for Self-Management in an Accountable Care Environment

Christine A. Beebe
Jul 1, 2011; 29:123-126
Practical Pointers




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Hospital Management of Hyperglycemia

Kristen B. Campbell
Apr 1, 2004; 22:81-88
Practical Pointers




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Diabetes Self-Management in a Community Health Center: Improving Health Behaviors and Clinical Outcomes for Underserved Patients

Daren Anderson
Jan 1, 2008; 26:22-27
Bridges to Excellence




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Hypoglycemia in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes: Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Management

Vanessa J. Briscoe
Jul 1, 2006; 24:115-121
Feature Articles




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Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes--2019 Abridged for Primary Care Providers

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2019; 37:11-34
Position Statements




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Perspectives in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Review of Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Jennifer M. Perkins
Apr 1, 2007; 25:57-62
Feature Articles




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Amylin Replacement With Pramlintide in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes: A Physiological Approach to Overcome Barriers With Insulin Therapy

John B. Buse
Jul 1, 2002; 20:
Feature Articles




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Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes--2016 Abridged for Primary Care Providers

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2016; 34:3-21
Position Statements




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Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes--2018 Abridged for Primary Care Providers

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2018; 36:14-37
Position Statements




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Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes--2017 Abridged for Primary Care Providers

American Diabetes Association
Jan 1, 2017; 35:5-26
Position Statements




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Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes--2015 Abridged for Primary Care Providers

American Diabetes Association
Apr 1, 2015; 33:97-111
Position Statements




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Empowerment and Self-Management of Diabetes

Martha M. Funnell
Jul 1, 2004; 22:123-127
Feature Articles




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Why We Need Libraries, Or, Memory and Knowledge


"Writing is thinking in slow motion. We see what at normal speeds escapes us, can rerun the reel at will to look for errors, erase, interpolate, and rethink. Most thoughts are a light rain, fall upon the ground, and dry up. Occasionally they become a stream that runs a short distance before it disappears. Writing stands an incomparably better chance of getting somewhere.

"... What is written can be given endlessly and yet retained, read by thousands even while it is being rewritten, kept as it was and revised at the same time. Writing is magic." 
Walter Kaufmann

We are able to know things because they happen again and again. We know about the sun because it glares down on us day after day. Scientists learn the laws of nature, and build confidence in their knowledge, by testing their theories over and over and getting the same results each time. We would be unable to learn the patterns and ways of our world if nothing were repeatable.

But without memory, we could learn nothing even if the world were tediously repetitive. Even though the sun rises daily in the east, we could not know this if we couldn't remember it.

The world has stable patterns, and we are able to discover these patterns because we remember. Knowledge requires more than memory, but memory is an essential element.

The invention of writing was a great boon to knowledge because writing is collective memory. For instance, the Peloponnesian wars are known to us through Thucydides' writings. People understand themselves and their societies in part through knowing their history. History, as distinct from pre-history, depends on the written word. For example, each year at the Passover holiday, Jewish families through the ages have read the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. We are enjoined to see ourselves as though we were there, fleeing Egypt and trudging through the desert. Memory, recorded for all time, creates individual and collective awareness, and motivates aspirations and actions.

Without writing, much collective memory would be lost, just as books themselves are sometimes lost. We know, for instance, that Euclid wrote a book called Porisms, but the book is lost and we know next to nothing about its message. Memory, and knowledge, have been lost.

Memory can be uncertain. We've all experienced that on the personal level. Collective memory can also be uncertain. We're sometimes uncertain of the meaning of rare ancient words, such as lilit in Isaiah (34:14) or gvina in Job (10:10). Written traditions, while containing an element of truth, may be of uncertain meaning or veracity. For instance, we know a good deal, both from the Bible and from archeological findings, about Hezekiah who ruled the kingdom of Judea in the late 8th century BCE. About David, three centuries earlier, we can be much less certain. Biblical stories are told in great detail but corroboration is hard to obtain.

Memory can be deliberately corrupted. Records of history can be embellished or prettified, as when a king commissions the chronicling of his achievements. Ancient monuments glorifying imperial conquests are invaluable sources of knowledge of past ages, but they are unreliable and must be interpreted cautiously. Records of purported events that never occurred can be maliciously fabricated. For instance, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is pure invention, though that book has been re-published voluminously throughout the world and continues to be taken seriously by many people. Memory is alive and very real, even if it is memory of things that never happened.

Libraries are the physical medium of human collective memory, and an essential element in maintaining and enlarging our knowledge. There are many types of libraries. The family library may have a few hundred books, while the library of Congress has 1,349 km of bookshelves and holds about 147 million items. Libraries can hold paper books or digital electronic documents. Paper can perish in fire as happened to the Alexandrian library, while digital media can be erased, or become damaged and unreadable. Libraries, like memory itself, are fragile and need care.

Why do we need libraries? Being human means, among other things, the capacity for knowledge, and the ability to appreciate and benefit from it. The written record is a public good, like the fresh air. I can read Confucius or Isaiah centuries after they lived, and my reading does not consume them. Our collective memory is part of each individual, and preserving that memory preserves a part of each of us. Without memory, we are without knowledge. Without knowledge, we are only another animal.




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Mathematical Metaphors


Theories in all areas of science tell us something about the world. They are images, or models, or representations of reality. Theories tell stories about the world and are often associated with stories about their discovery. Like the story (probably apocryphal) that Newton invented the theory of gravity after an apple fell on his head. Or the story (probably true) that Kekule discovered the cyclical structure of benzene after day-dreaming of a snake seizing its tail. Theories are metaphors that explain reality.

A theory is scientific if it is precise, quantitative, and amenable to being tested. A scientific theory is mathematical. Scientific theories are mathematical metaphors.

A metaphor uses a word or phrase to define or extend or focus the meaning of another word or phrase. For example, "The river of time" is a metaphor. We all know that rivers flow inevitably from high to low ground. The metaphor focuses the concept of time on its inevitable uni-directionality. Metaphors make sense because we understand what they mean. We all know that rivers are wet, but we understand that the metaphor does not mean to imply that time drips, because we understand the words and their context. But on the other hand, a metaphor - in the hands of a creative and imaginative person - might mean something unexpected, and we need to think carefully about what the metaphor does, or might, mean. Mathematical metaphors - scientific models - also focus attention in one direction rather than another, which gives them explanatory and predictive power. Mathematical metaphors can also be interpreted in different and surprising ways.

Some mathematical models are very accurate metaphors. For instance, when Galileo dropped a heavy object from the leaning tower of Pisa, the distance it fell increased in proportion to the square of the elapsed time. Mathematical equations sometimes represent reality quite accurately, but we understand the representation only when the meanings of the mathematical terms are given in words. The meaning of the equation tells us what aspect of reality the model focuses on. Many things happened when Galileo released the object - it rotated, air swirled, friction developed - while the equation focuses on one particular aspect: distance versus time. Likewise, the quadratic equation that relates distance to time can also be used to relate energy to the speed of light, or to relate population growth rate to population size. In Galileo's case the metaphor relates to freely falling objects.

Other models are only approximations. For example, a particular theory describes the build up of mechanical stress around a crack, causing damage in the material. While cracks often have rough or ragged shapes, this important and useful theory assumes the crack is smooth and elliptical. This mathematical metaphor is useful because it focuses the analysis on the radius of curvature of the crack that is critical in determining the concentration of stress.

Not all scientific models are approximations. Some models measure something. For example, in statistical mechanics, the temperature of a material is proportional to the average kinetic energy of the molecules in the material. The temperature, in degrees centigrade, is a global measure of random molecular motion. In economics, the gross domestic product is a measure of the degree of economic activity in the country.

Other models are not approximations or measures of anything, but rather graphical portrayals of a relationship. Consider, for example, the competition among three restaurants: Joe's Easy Diner, McDonald's, and Maxim's de Paris. All three restaurants compete with each other: if you're hungry, you've got to choose. Joe's and McDonald's are close competitors because they both specialize in hamburgers but also have other dishes. They both compete with Maxim's, a really swank and expensive boutique restaurant, but the competition is more remote. To model the competition we might draw a line representing "competition", with each restaurant as a dot on the line. Joe's and McDonald's are close together and far from Maxim's. This line is a mathematical metaphor, representing the proximity (and hence strength) of competition between the three restaurants. The distances between the dots are precise, but what the metaphor means, in terms of the real-world competition between Joe, McDonald, and Maxim, is not so clear. Why a line rather than a plane to refine the "axes" of competition (price and location for instance)? Or maybe a hill to reflect difficulty of access (Joe's is at one location in South Africa, Maxim's has restaurants in Paris, Peking, Tokyo and Shanghai, and McDonald's is just about everywhere). A metaphor emphasizes some aspects while ignoring others. Different mathematical metaphors of the same phenomenon can support very different interpretations or insights.

The scientist who constructs a mathematical metaphor - a model or theory - chooses to focus on some aspects of the phenomenon rather than others, and chooses to represent those aspects with one image rather than another. Scientific theories are fascinating and extraordinarily useful, but they are, after all, only metaphors.







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New History of Psychiatry: Melancholy, Madness, Chinese Psychiatry, Psychedelic Therapy, and More

The June 2020 issue of History of Psychiatry is now online. Full details follow below: “Wild melancholy. On the historical plausibility of a black bile theory of blood madness, or hæmatomania,” Jan Verplaetse. Abstract: Nineteenth-century art historian John Addington Symonds coined the term hæmatomania (blood madness) for the extremely bloodthirsty behaviour of a number of … Continue reading New History of Psychiatry: Melancholy, Madness, Chinese Psychiatry, Psychedelic Therapy, and More




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New JHBS: Mind-Body Medicine Before Freud, Psychology and Biography, Jung and Einstein

The Spring 2020 issue of the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences is now online. Full details about contributions to this issue follow below. “Practicing mind-body medicine before Freud: John G. Gehring, the “Wizard of the Androscoggin”” by. Ben Harris and Courtney J. Stevens. Abstract: This article describes the psychotherapy practice of physician … Continue reading New JHBS: Mind-Body Medicine Before Freud, Psychology and Biography, Jung and Einstein




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Review Article – Within a single lifetime: Recent writings on autism

AHP readers will be interested in a review article now available online from History of the Human Sciences “Within a single lifetime: Recent writings on autism.” Written by Gregory Hollin the piece reviews five recent books on autism.




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Forthcoming in HHS: Homosexual Aversion Therapy, Comte on Organism-Environment Relationships

Two forthcoming pieces in History of the Human Sciences may be of interest to AHP readers. Full details below. “Cold War Pavlov: Homosexual aversion therapy in the 1960s,” by Kate Davison. Abstract: Homosexual aversion therapy enjoyed two brief but intense periods of clinical experimentation: between 1950 and 1962 in Czechoslovakia, and between 1962 and 1975 … Continue reading Forthcoming in HHS: Homosexual Aversion Therapy, Comte on Organism-Environment Relationships




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The Best Material For A Homemade COVID-19 Mask

The best type of fabric for a breathable but effective COVID-19 mask.

Support PsyBlog for just $5 per month. Enables access to articles marked (M) and removes ads.

→ Explore PsyBlog's ebooks, all written by Dr Jeremy Dean:




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4 Ways Therapists Assist People with Mental Health Issues

One of the primary reasons people seek therapy is to get help with mental health issues. Some of the more common mental disorders affecting individuals today include depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress (PTSD), phobias, addiction, and attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD). Depending on the type and intensity of your issue, your therapist may adjust his treatment […]




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Can CBD Help Your Mental Health?

These days, there is huge hype around cannabidiol (also known as CBD), and for good reason.  There are numerous health benefits that are linked to this non-psychoactive all-natural substance. Many people report that CBD has helped them to manage mental and emotional distress. But are those reports true? Can CBD help your mental health? In […]




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How to Mentally Prepare for a Synchro Swimming Competition

Some people have the misguided belief that synchronized swimming is just an easy sport performed in beautiful swim team suits. That it’s merely dancing in the water that you can tune in to watch during the Olympic Games. But that is far from true; there is much more to the sport.  Synchro is a dominant […]




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Intimacy vs Isolation: Why Do Some People Struggle to Form Intimate Relationships?

Loneliness is a surprisingly common phenomenon in the 21st century. In 2018, a survey conducted by The Economist and the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that 22% of adults in the United States and 23% of adults in the United Kingdom often or always feel lonely or left out. Interestingly, many people who describe themselves as […]




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Charles Barkley believes in the hot hand fallacy – when it comes to poker, anyway

NBA legend and recreational gambler Charles Barkley is presented with the following hypothetical on ESPN radio: You are winning big at the poker table when a beautiful woman sits down next to you. “Do you stay with the hands or do you leave?” Barkley: “Bro, gambling is so fickle, I love to gamble, when you [...]




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does resurge work : Resurge weight reduction supplement is a...



does resurge work : Resurge weight reduction supplement is a distinct advantage program that would bolster your ascent to control. It will change you and make you more grounded than at any other time with improved wellbeing that can assist you with getting away from heftiness. This Resurge audit tells how the Supplement will help your lack of sleep and weight reduction cause. Improved digestion change will enable the body to acquire vitality.




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Women Who Buy Sex: Why They Do It, And What Their Experiences Are Like

Most research on people who patronize sex workers has focused on men. In some ways, this isn’t surprising because men are much more likely to report having paid for sex than are women. For example, in a recent YouGov survey of 1,000 adult Americans, 12% of men reported having paid for sex before compared to just 1% of women. Similarly, in a nationally representative survey of more than 20,000 Australians aged 16-69, researchers found that 17% of men said they had paid for sex, while only 0.3% of women said the same [1]. However, these figures may significantly underreport the actual number of women who have ever engaged the services of a sex worker.