Controlled Cognitive Engagement
A recent study is being conducted by the American Psychological Association in United Kingdom airports. Airport security agents are being trained to use a conversational based screening method rather than the traditional method of examining body language (Chakrabarti, Strauss). In this experiment lasting approximately eight months, the new screening method was 66 percent effective in determining dishonesty in the fake passengers compared to only 3 percent when just examining body language (Dando, Bull).
In this new experimental study called the Controlled Cognitive Engagement method (CCE), security agents engage in friendly, informal conversation by asking passengers seemingly unrelated and unpredictable questions about information the passenger should know (Edman). Regular travelers should not feel any pressure and it should not seem like an interrogation. Typical questions often include the name of the a high school principal or the first job they worked for. The research team recruited 204 participants with 113 male and 91 female participants. The group included college students and undercover detectives. The participants each received £60 and an additional £60 was awarded if they were able to avoid being detected by the security agents. Each of the participants were given a week to come up with a story to tell agents (Ekman).
The CCE method requires more thinking on the agent’s side who must think of different questions to ask each passenger rather than simply repeating old ones. This limits the criminal’s ability to predict what questions will be asked and their ability to rehearse them. The risk of racial profiling is also reduced with the same procedure being used for each passenger. The suspicious signs methods used in most airports is not very effective but is often used because of its cheap training (Fisher, Geiselman).
References
Chakrabarti, S., & Strauss, A. (2002). Carnival booth: An algorithm for defeating the computer-based passenger screening system. First Mon-day, 10. Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/chakrabarti/index.html
Dando, C. J., & Bull, R. (2011). Maximising opportunities to detect verbal deception: Training police officers to interview tactically. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 8, 189–202. http://dx .doi.org/10.1002/jip.145
Dando, C. J., Bull, R., Ormerod, T. C., & Sandham, A. (2013). Helping to sort the liars from thetruth-tellers: The gradual revelation of information during investigative interviews. [Advance online publication]. Legal and Criminological Psychology, n/a. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lcrp.12016 DePaulo, B. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 74–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.74
Ekman, P. (2009). Lie-catching and micro-expressions. In C. Martin (Ed.), The philosophy of deception. Oxford: Oxford University Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327939.003.0008 Evans, J. S. B. T. (2008). Dual-processes accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social congnition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 255–278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093629
Fisher, R. P., & Geiselman, R. E. (1992). Memory enhancing techniques for investigative interviewing: The cognitive interview. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.
Punishment as a device for accident prevention. Deterrent effects of traffic enforcement.
From the very beginning of road traffic history people understood that without any laws or regulations, all movement on the roads would be in the so-called “state of nature,” which means that the molecules within an environment, represented as cars on the city streets, would be in constant and uncontrolled motion, allowing for random collisions and accidents. The existence of this traffic’s tendency towards chaos contributed to the evolution of traffic environment – first traffic legislation, the “Locomotive on Highways Act”, was adopted by the British Parliament in 1861 and limited the weight of allowed vehicles to 12 tons as well as imposed a 10 mph speed limit (Ross, 1993). Furthermore, more and more elements and control devices have been added to the system, including first license plates in France in 1893, first driver license in the U.K. in 1904, and the first traffic light in Ohio in 1914 (Legge et al., 1993). Creation of laws and rules raised the need for their enforcement, since, as it is widely known, laws are being broken as long as they exist.
In order to prevent people from breaking the law, authorities have to come up with reasonable punishments depending on the severity of a violation. The key aspect in any kind of punishment, as the research shows, is the certainty of a sanction, since it acts as a much stronger deterrent than an increase in the severity of the punishment (Purssell et al., 2012). For example, the law allows police officers to administer tests for screening purposes at the site of a potential traffic violation before arrest (Porter, 2013), which increases the likelihood of detecting illegal behavior (Ritchey et al., 2011). Furthermore, immediate consequences produce a much stronger deterring effect on drivers than those that have to be reviewed before being imposed, which usually happens long after the violation. Finally, the deterrent effects of a certain punishment can be separated into two categories: specific and general (Purssell et al., 2012). In the case of drinking and driving, for instance, the specific effect is that the sanctioned driver will most likely never drink and drive again, and the general part is that people become more aware of the legal sanctions, which prevents people who might otherwise drink and drive from doing so. This leads to another key aspect of the “punishment” concept – the need for public awareness to achieve the deterrent effect. In the modern world, mass media along with high-visibility enforcement form a current that is powerful enough to keep the population informed about the laws and sanctions associated with them (Alonso et al., 2015).
Figure 1: Example of deterrent effect using road signs
Source: The Policy Studies Journal
Figure 2: Example of deterrent effect using road signs
Source: The Policy Studies Journal
Of course, it is true that legislation against impaired driving is the best way to prevent crashes, and the statistics are in agreement with this fact. Driving prohibitions and vehicle impoundments for blood alcohol content above 0.08% along with alcohol counseling programs reduce impaired driving recidivism by about 8-9 % (Alonso et al., 2015). Moreover, enforcement of the laws in British Columbia, for example, reduced the amount of alcohol-related traffic crashes from an average of 113 in September 2010 to 68 in September 2011, which is an impressive 40% decline (Purssell et al., 2012).
On the other hand of the issue, it is important to look at the situation from the perspective of pedestrians, since pedestrian deaths due to traffic accidents do not necessarily mean that the driver was at fault, since, for instance, the term “recklessness” can be used to characterize both a driver and a pedestrian. In fact, statistics show that the fault lies within the pedestrian in the majority of cases, and “two of every three pedestrians killed by motor vehicles were either violating a traffic law or acting in an obviously unsafe manner (Wittels, 1949).” About 75% of pedestrians killed in traffic accidents were victims of their own carelessness (Wittels, 1949), which means that our ultimate goal, the goal of achieving zero traffic fatalities, has to be focused and concentrated at the intersection of raising both driver’s and pedestrian’s awareness of traffic laws, regulations, and sanctions.
Figure 3: “Portrait of a man begging for trouble. Besides ignoring the comparative safety of the crosswalk, he is hazardously catching up n his reading en route.
Source: Saturday Evening Post
Works Cited (MLA Format)
Alonso, Francisco, Juan Pastor, Luis Montoro, and Cristina Esteban. “Driving under the Influence of Alcohol: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment.” Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention & Policy Journal 10.1 (2015): 1-9.
Legge, Jerome, and Joonghoon Park. “Policies to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Evaluating Elements of Deterrence.” Social Science Journal 75.3 (1994): 594-606.
Porter, Lauren. “Trying Something Old: The Impact of Shame Sanctioning on Drunk Driving and Alcohol-Related Traffic Safety.” Law & Social Inquiry 38.4 (2013): 863-91.
Purssell, Roy, and Jeffrey Brubacher. “Alcohol-related Traffic Fatalities Declining.” British Columbia Medical Journal 54.2 (2012): 90-91.
Ritchey, Mark, and Sean Nicholson-Crotty. “Deterrence Theory and the Implementation of Speed Limits in the American States.” The Policy Studies Journal 39.2 (2011): 332-34.
Ross, Laurence. “Punishment as a Factor in Preventing Alcohol-related Accidents.” Addiction Journal 88.1 (1993): 997-1002.
Wittels, David. “They Ask to Be Killed.” Saturday Evening Post 221.27 (1949): 11-66.
Cannabis and its Effects in Relation to Schizophrenia
The debate continues in the United States as to whether cannabis should be legalized throughout the country. Many avid cannabis smokers advocate for cannabis legalization because it can provide some benefits to people’s health. However, studies show that cannabis can worsen psychotic symptoms especially in patients with schizophrenia.
For example, a study published in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience consisted of a total of 39 schizophrenic patients with histories of cannabis abuse, and compared them to a control group of 39 schizophrenic patients with no history of substance abuse. At the end of the 5-year span of the study, only 27 cases and 26 controls were left to investigate. The study found that “8/27 cases (30%) had continued cannabis abuse, 6/27 (22%) had become alcohol abusers. Only one patient of the control group had started abusing alcohol. Patients with previous cannabis abuse had significantly more rehospitalizations, tended to worse psychosocial functioning, and scored significantly higher on the psychopathological syndromes “thought disturbance” (BPRS) and “hostility” (AMDP)” (Caspari et al., 1999).
Furthermore, a study published in the Biological Psychiatry journal was conducted that tested the effects of 0 mg, 2.5 mg, and 5 mg of intravenous Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-9-THC) on 13 stable schizophrenic patients and compared them to the effects on healthy subjects without schizophrenia. The study found that “Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol transiently increased 1) learning and recall deficits; 2) positive, negative, and general schizophrenia symptoms; 3) perceptual alterations… [and] Schizophrenia patients were more vulnerable to Δ-9-THC effects on recall relative to control subjects” (D’Souza et al., 2005).
Lastly, a study published in the Arch Gen Psychiatry journal tested schizophrenic patients who abused and compared them to a group of schizophrenic patients who did not abuse cannabis. As seen in the figure below, cannabis abusers were much more likely to experience a psychotic relapse than were non-abusers (Linszen et al., 1994).
Positive and Negative Schizophrenic Symptom Severity in Relation to amount of THC over Time
Therefore, it is clear that cannabis use can be very dangerous for schizophrenic patients and can worsen addictive and psychotic behavior.
Cannabis can also have adverse psychotic effects on people without schizophrenia. For example, study published in The Lancet found that after collecting data from 35 studies, “There was an increased risk of any psychotic outcome in individuals who had ever used cannabis (pooled adjusted odds ratio=1·41, 95% CI 1·20–1·65). Findings were consistent with a dose-response effect, with greater risk in people who used cannabis most frequently (2·09, 1·54–2·84)” (Moore et al., 2007). Furthermore, a study published in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal found that administering THC on heathy subjects produced positive and negative schizophrenia symptoms. As seen in the figure below, the severity of symptoms increased with increase amounts of THC (D’Souza et al., 2004).
Percentage of Prior Schizophrenic Patients without Relapse over Time, Cannabis Abusers vs. Non-Abusers
Therefore, cannabis has the ability to cause psychotic and schizophrenic symptoms even in healthy patients.
The debate over legalization of cannabis is definitely not black and white. Many advocates praise it for its calming and healing properties. However, many research studies have adequately shown that cannabis can exacerbate psychotic symptoms and behaviors in people with schizophrenia and without it.
Works Cited
Caspari D. Cannabis and schizophrenia: results of a follow-up study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. Vol 249, p 45-49. 1999.
D’Souza DC, Abi-Saab WM, Madonick S, et al. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol effects in schizophrenia: Implications for cognition, psychosis, and addiction. Biological Psychiatry. Vol 57, p 594-608. 2005.
D’Souza DC, Perry E, MacDougall L, et al. The Psychotomimetic Effects of Intravenous Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in Healthy Individuals: Implications for Psychosis. Neuropsychopharmacology. Vol 29, p 1558-1572. 2004.
Linszen DH, Dingemans PM, Lenior ME. Cannabis Abuse and the Course of Recent-Onset Schizophrenic Disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry. Vol 51, p 273-279. 1994.
Moore THM, Zammit S, Lingford-Hughes A, et al. Cannabis use and risk of psychotic or affective mental health outcomes: a systematic review. The Lancet. Vol 370, p 319-328. 2007.
Lina Mohamed-Assignment 5
Lina Mohamed October 31, 2016
Effectiveness of Homeopathy: CAM-Complementary and Alternative Medicine
MHC 20301-Paper Assignment 5
Professor Glen Kowach
Holistic medicine is gaining popularity due to raising awareness of side effects of pharmaceuticals. In 2007, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) was used by 38% of adults and 12% of children. Hopefully, there has been an increase in these numbers since then. People of all backgrounds use CAM however it is not equally distributed. For example, women use CAM more along with people with higher levels of education and higher incomes. CAM therapies need to become more advertised and accessible to people so that not only the privileged in America hear about it. CAM therapies include acupuncture, types of physical therapies, deep breathing exercises, diet-based therapies, meditation and so much more. These therapies have increased drastically from 2002 to 2007.
Prescription painkiller overdoses are a public health epidemic that needs to be solved because painkillers are being sold more than ever. Quantity of prescription painkillers sold to pharmacies was 4 times larger in 2010 than in 1999. There is so much that can be done to reduce the supply and intake of these pills and to decrease the overdoses that occur in the United States. States can improve monitoring programs, advertise natural alternatives, educate the public and ensure people do not take more than they need.
Conventional medicine/drugs is valuable but also has its problems. Prescription drugs and painkillers just treat symptoms temporarily without fixing the real problem. Also drugs become dangerous if there is more than one drug taken at a single time. Homeopathic remedies offer a solution. For example, if someone is sick and has many symptoms, instead of prescribing them many drugs, homeopathic physicians can prescribe a remedy that will stimulate their immune system and then provide an overall improvement in the person’s health rather than just target one symptom of one illness. Homeopathy embodies a system that combines the scientific aspects with the art of healing which is more successful than just the science and masking symptoms.
Natural practices will emerge because people will realize that it is necessary for physical and mental health. Homeopathic remedies target the person’s overall health by doing things like stimulating the immune system and overall health thereby preventing future diseases/illnesses. People may argue that homeopath and alternative medicine cannot cure everything. This is true. However, it can cure a lot and instead of harming our bodies when there are alternatives, we should resort to natural antidotes.
-(NCCIH, 2008). Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Retrieved from:
https://nccih.nih.gov/research/statistics/2007/camsurvey_fs1.htm
-Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide (2nd Edition)– June 6, 2002 Retrieved from Google Scholars: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OyrhatOdk9gC&oi=fnd&pg=PA270&dq=natural+alternatives+to+painkillers&ots=68fhOAE58y&sig=-malo2jqTO8ylS5N_CVlAN-PFSo#v=onepage&q=natural%20alternatives%20to%20painkillers&f=false
-(Dahlgreen, 2015) Many believe Alternatives are effective. YouGovUK. Retrieved from:
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/03/06/many-believe-alternative-medicine-effective/
-(2011) Prescription Painkiller Overdoses in the US. CDC. Retreived from:
http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/painkilleroverdoses/
–(Ullman, 1988) Homeopathy Medicine For The 21st Century. The Futurist. Retrieved from:
The Cost-Effect Ratio of the Cyberknife: System Shows Promise Over Other Techniques
Ariana Gopal
Past research has indicated that the Cyberknife system, a form of stereotactic radiosurgery, shows promise as a means of treating various forms of cancer. For example, this radiosurgery technique has had a positive impact on treating prostate cancer; it has been linked to lowering PSA values as well as increasing the amount of time patients treated with the technique are disease free (Davis et al., 2015). Additionally, the Cyberknife has had a positive impact on reducing toxicities and improving pain for people treated for spinal lesions (Gerszten et al., 2004).
Although the Cyberknife system has had a positive impact on treating several types of cancer, there has been a lack of exploration regarding the cost-effect ratio of being treated with the Cyberknife versus other treatment methods. This information will be evaluated in this assignment.
It has been indicated that radiation treatments can vary widely when cost is taken into consideration. For example, a single treatment with standard radiation therapy can cost near $2,000 for one treatment, whereas treatment with the Cyberknife system is closer to $4,000 per treatment (Fawcett, 2009). But in addition to the actual cost of the treatment, the actual outcomes and toxicities of the different treatments must also be taken into account in order to successfully evaluate the cost-effect ratio of the Cyberknife system. Past research has compared the effects of the Cyberknife system to traditional radiation therapy, also known as external beam radiation therapy, or EBRT for short. For example, a study conducted in 2009 used treatment outcomes and toxicities to compare the cost-effect ratio of the Cyberknife and EBRT (Papatheofanis et al., 2009). The study showed that patients treated with Cyberknife had a higher net health benefit over those treated with EBRT and was calculated to be $1900 less than EBRT, indicative that the Cyberknife system is superior and more cost effective than EBRT (Papatheofanis et al., 2009). Another study also compared these two treatment methods for cancer patients with spine metastasis. The research indicated that treatment with the Cyberknife system was costlier, but had less pain and later stage toxicities associated with it when compared to the EBRT (Haley et al., 2011). Additionally, people treated with EBRT were more likely to need additional radiation interventions than those treated with the Cyberknife (Haley et al., 2011). Lastly, a study comparing Cyberknife radiosurgery to interventional microvascular decompression for patients with trigeminal neuralgia indicated that patients treated with the Cyberknife system had an average reduction in hospital costs of 34% per patient when compared to those treated with surgical intervention, indicative that it is more cost-efficient (Tarricone et al., 2008).
Overall, the scientific literature suggests that the Cyberknife system is more cost effective when compared to traditional radiation techniques as well as to surgical procedures, as indicated by Tarricone’s article.
Table 1 shows the average direct healthcare cost for patients evaluated in Tarricone et al.’s research. The table clearly indicates that the overall cost for the Cyberknife system was cheaper by over 2,000 Euros when compared to the microvascular decompression treatment. (Tarricone et al., 2008)
References
Davis, J., Sharma, S., Shumway, R., Perry, D., Bydder, S., Simpson, C. K., & D’ambrosio, D. (2015, December 04). Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer: Toxicity and Biochemical Disease-Free Outcomes from a Multi-Institutional Patient Registry. Cureus.
Fawcett, N. (2009). Radiation treatment costs vary widely by delivery, study finds. The University Record.
Gerszten, P., Ozhasoglu, C., Burton, S., Vogel, W., Atkins, B., Kalnicki, S., & Welch, W. (2004). Cyberknife frameless real-time image-guided stereotactic radiosurgery for the treatment of spinal lesions [Abstract]. Neurosurgery, 55(1).
Haley, M. L., Gerszten, P. C., Heron, D. E., Chang, Y., Atteberry, D. S., & Burton, S. A. (2011). Efficacy and cost-effectiveness analysis of external beam and stereotactic body radiation therapy in the treatment of spine metastases: A matched-pair analysis [Abstract]. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, 14(4), 537-542.
Papatheofanis, F. J., Williams, E., & Chang, S. D. (2009). Cost-Utility Analysis Of The Cyberknife System For Metastatic Spinal Tumors [Abstract]. Neurosurgery, 64 (SUPPLEMENT).
Tarricone, R., Aguzzi, G., Musi, F., Fariselli, L., & Casasco, A. (2008). Cost-effectiveness analysis for trigeminal neuralgia: Cyberknife vs microvascular decompression. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 4(3), 647-652.
Narrative Medicine in the Context of Childhood Chronic Pain
Previous studies have established that medical testing cannot detect all types of physical pain. Individuals that are victim to a system where a physical and usually quantitative measurement of pain symptoms is customary, often are left feeling helpless and resigned. This issues sets up the importance of narrative medicine in a clinical setting. Using a qualitative measure to supplement medical testing is helpful is arriving at a holistically derived diagnosis to better treat the root of the ailment (Hurwitz et al., 2004). Principles of narrative medicine allow the patient to tell a complete story with a beginning, plot, and end, in which they are given the liberty to shape their retelling of their symptoms around a larger narrative of their life (Sandelowski, 1991). Narrative medicine in the realm of chronic pain and children is especially appropriate to discuss. Patients experiencing chronic pain are often dismissed and invalidated by physicians because they are unable to find an underlying cause. Narratives by children are often viewed as incredible sources of information for diagnosis because of the their age. A 2009 semi-interview style study was conducted with children ages ten to eighteen regarding their chronic pain. The goal of the study was to understand the role of chronic pain in the context of the rest of their lives via a qualitative analysis. The narratives that the children shared had several overlapping themes, allowing researchers to create certain archetypes. The study suggests that the archetype of the story told by the patient should be taken into consideration and that the physician should aim to eventually remodel the narrative after treatment to put the patient in a powerful role in the narrative of their life.
Figure 1. One of the leading graduate level programs dedicated entirely to narrative medicine
One fallback of the use of narrative medicine include that it takes more time to be able to tell and listen to a patient’s narrative. Additionally, narratives are subjective. Even though it is a form of raw data from the patient regarding their pain, subjectivities are inevitable in patient-physician relationships due to the structural confines of class, race, and gender (Lorde, 2003). Not only this, but if the patient has told their pain narrative to another individual before visiting their physician, how that individual responded to the narrative– perhaps a facial expression, gesture, or comment– may incite the patient to retell their narrative differently to the physician. (Meldrum et al., 2009)
Citations:
Columbia University Medical Center | Program in Narrative Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2016, from http://www.narrativemedicine.org/
Hurwitz, B., Greenhalgh, T., & Skultans, V. (Eds.). (2004). Narrative research in health and illness (pp. 1-20). Malden, MA: BMJ books.
Lorde, A. (2003). The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. Feminist postcolonial theory: A reader, 25, 27.
Meldrum, M. L., Tsao, J. C. I., & Zeltzer, L. K. (2009). “I can’t be what I want to be”: Children’s Narratives of Chronic Pain Experiences and Treatment Outcomes. Pain Medicine, 10(6), 1018-1034.
Sandelowski, M. (1991). Telling stories: Narrative approaches in qualitative research. Image: the journal of nursing scholarship, 23(3), 161-166.
What is Transmedia Storytelling?
With the introduction of digital media into the world of marketing and communications, traditional methods of “print and publish” are no longer sufficient to captivate both the time (and money) of consumers. This is where transmedia storytelling comes in. As defined by Henry Jenkins, “Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story” (Ryan, 2). In other words, transmedia storytelling boils down to a cross-network of various media that are founded off of a central idea/story but focus on different and unique elements of said story. The prime example of George R.R. Tolkien’s A Song of Fire and Ice, the book series upon which the T.V. show Game of Thrones originated from and where various fan-written stories (aka fanfiction) have been derived from. Each piece of media related to the series – books, movies, television, Internet, music – focuses on different aspects of the novels, but are all still connected under one unifying story.
Figure 1. Process of transmedia storytelling.
Transmedia storytelling has become the new way of media distribution and consumption because of the intimacy and power it provides to the consumers at hand. Stories are meticulously detailed and allow the consumer to develop a strong emotional connection that advertisements and newspapers have failed to achieve. In the spectrum of transmedia storytelling, there is a foundation layers that engage the audience into expanding and searching the story world created for them, “transmedial universes can be understood as intersubjective communicative constructs with a normative component” (Thon, 32). There is a dialogue that is created in transmedia storytelling that isn’t achieved in traditional mediums of communication; a non-linear, two-way connection between the sender and the receiver. This connection is created in a way that makes sense to the audience, as if they themselves are placed directly into the content that they interact with, “The early transmedia storytelling strategies that led viewers through different narrative experiences, separated by a linear temporal structure as well as different devices, have evolved into a layering of experiences onto a single narrative moment” (Evans, 125).
With this new way of communicating, established mediums are already taking heed and integrating transmedia storytelling into the content they produce and the marketing campaigns they run. One example of this is in comics, “…transmedial unity and its entities need to be created and re-created in a process that is continual and historical, showcasing its historicity in the temporal significations of the visuality involved in its storytelling” (Packard, 72). Comics, in particular, tend to adhere to transmedia storytelling because of the nature of its content. Superheroes and villains exists in fictional worlds where the writers have the ability to collaborate with other writers and artists to create a crossover between two characters from different worlds. The intangibility of content like this allows the story to be told in any different ways and through various other outlooks. The emotional investment and the feeling of control that the consumer gains from engaging with it is why transmedia storytelling is so powerful and why it has become the forefront of how media communication works in the 21st century.
Works Cited:
- Ryan, Marie-Laure. “Transmedia Storytelling: Industry Buzzword or New Narrative Experience?” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2015, pp. 1–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/storyworlds.7.2.0001.
- Evans, Elizbeth. “Layering Engagement: The Temporal Dynamics of Transmedia Television.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2015, pp. 111–128. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/storyworlds.7.2.0111.
- Thon, Jan-Noël. “Converging Worlds: From Transmedial Storyworlds to Transmedial Universes.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2015, pp. 21–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/storyworlds.7.2.0021.
- Packard, Stephan. “Closing the Open Signification: Forms of Transmedial Storyworlds and Chronotopoi in Comics.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2015, pp. 55–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/storyworlds.7.2.0055.
Stem Cell Research on Curing Genetic Disorders
Genetic disorders cannot be cured with existing treatments. The progression of genetic disorders can be slowed and the symptoms can be managed, but people with genetic disorders have to live with getting treatments throughout their entire lives. Fortunately, there may be a way to cure genetic disorders, but it may take decades before becoming a clinical treatment. Stem cells, which are the cells that can differentiate into any type of cell, can be manipulated to make healthy cells to take the place of mutated cells. Stem cell treatments can be done on embryos and on people already born.
One area of genetic disorders is mitochondrial disorders. There are over 200 known mutations in the genes of mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, that cause mitochondrial disorders (Wallace 2013). Each mutation produces a different disorder such as vision problems, diabetes, and seizures (Sadun 2006). Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory, led a team that worked with stem cells to cure mitochondrial encephalomyopathy and Leigh Syndrome, types of mitochondrial disorders that severely affect the brain and muscles (Belmonte 2015). He collected skin samples from patients with the aforementioned diseases.
First, Belmonte turned skin cells into stem cells by using a process to genetically modify cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. In other words, the skin cells were turned back in time to their most basic state, the pluripotent stem cell state, in which stem cells have the ability to differentiate into any type of cell. During this process, if the patient has both healthy and unhealthy mitochondria, healthy stem cells and mutated stem cells will be created. Then, healthy stem cells can be isolated to use in treatments. If the patient does not have healthy mitochondria, stem cells with healthy mitochondria cannot be generated. In this case, the nucleus of the patient’s mitochondria is moved into a donor egg with healthy mitochondria. Then, the new cell will become pluripotent stem cells with healthy mitochondria. When researchers mixed these healthy stem cells with the patient’s stem cells, they found that healthy stem cells took over and the patient’s cells were able to generate healthy stem cells (Belmonte 2015).
Figure 1- Pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated into any type of cell such as neural progenitors (left) and heart cells (right).
Healthy stem cells generated by Belmonte’s team can be converted into any type of cell that the team wants, as shown in Figure 1. For example, the team could turn healthy stem cells into heart cells, eye cells, brain cells, and more (Belmonte 2015). However, turning these stem cells into mature cells and transplanting them back into patients’ bodies is still under research.
There are strict restrictions on embryonic stem cell research so there is less known about embryonic stem cells. Using stem cells from embryos is controversial for being unethical by some religious communities (Annas 1999). In addition, embryonic stem cells that are generated by research cannot be applied to actual embryos. However, they can be studied by turning somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells, which are not the same as embryonic stem cells, but have similar qualities such as the ability to regenerate indefinitely (Takahashi 2007). Pluripotent stem cells can be used to study disease mechanisms, such as why a disease affects different organs in different ways by turning pluripotent stem cells into different types of cells (Belmonote 2015). In addition, they can be used to screen drugs and treat patients with various types of diseases like juvenile diabetes (Takahashi 2007). There is a lot of potential in using stem cells to find cures for genetic disorders.
Works Cited
Annas GJ, Caplan A, Elias S. Stem cell politics, ethics and medical progress. Nat. Med. 1999; 5: 1339.
Belmonte J, Ma H, Folmes C, Wu J, Morey R et al. Metabolic rescue in pluripotent cells from patients with mtDNA disease. Nature 2015; 524: 234-238.
Sadun AA, Carelli V. The role of mitochondria in health, ageing, and diseases affecting vision. British Journal of Ophthalmology 2016; 90(7): 809-810.
Takahashi K, Tanabe K, Ohnuki M, Narita M et al. Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells From Adult Human Fibroblasts by Defined Factors. Cell 2007; 131(5): 861-872.
Wallace DC. A mitochondrial bioenergetics etiology of disease. J Clin Invest. 2013; 123(4): 1405-1412.
Dengue Fever: What is it and What is Being Done to Stop it?
Dengue fever is a mosquito borne viral infection that causes a flu-like illness and if not treated, can worsen into severe dengue and become lethal. The female mosquito that transmits Dengue fever is also responsible for spreading Chikungunya disease, yellow fever, and Zika virus (WHO, 2016). Currently, about one-third of the world’s population is at risk for contracting Dengue Fever. Dengue fever is predominantly found in the tropics and subtropics.
There is no real treatment for Dengue, and until recently, there has been no vaccine, so the main form of prevention is preventing mosquito bites in general. Prevention techniques are displayed in figure 2. Dengue fever is a global health issue, as it is prevalent on every continent. The prevalence can be seen in figure 1. Most recently, the rapid spread of the disease through the Americas has been a major cause for concern as it came after no appearance of Dengue for 16 years. The three most common causes of transmission are 1) poor water, sewage and waste management systems, which increase the population density of the mosquito that carries dengue 2) increased travel by airplane, spreading the disease across continents 3) most countries do not consider dengue to be a crisis, so they do not use the resources needed to eradicate it (Gubler and Clark, 1995).
Earlier this year, the first vaccine for Dengue fever, Dengvaxia, was manufactured. Due to the increased spread of the disease through the Americas, the vaccine was put through clinical trials and registered in several countries. The Dengue vaccine has been researched since the 1920s, but has only been produced recently due to little knowledge of the disease and its mechanism of action (WHO, 2016).
Figure 1: Prevalence of Dengue Fever
Figure 2: Symptoms and Prevention
Works Cited:
Gubler, D. J., and G. G. Clark. “Dengue/dengue Hemorrhagic Fever: The Emergence of a Global Health Problem.” Emerging Infectious Diseases. Centers for Disease Control, Apr. 1995. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
“Dengue and Severe Dengue.” World Health Organization. World Health Organization, 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
“Dengue.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
“Dengue Fever | NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.” U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
Gubler, Duane J. “Epidemic Dengue/dengue Hemorrhagic Fever as a Public Health, Social and Economic Problem in the 21st Century.” Science and Society. Trends in Microbiology, 1 Feb. 2002. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
