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Monday 18 November 2013

No posts

I have been moved and will not be making new posts for some time. All the best, Cheryl

Friday 15 November 2013

Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements


Announcements

Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements

Millions of people have diabetes which can lead to serious health problems if not managed well. Many widely marketed dietary supplement products claim to provide health benefits for people with diabetes. Researchers have studied several dietary supplements to see if they can help people manage type 2 diabetes or lower their risk of developing the disease, but currently there is not enough evidence to suggest that any dietary supplement can help prevent or manage type 2 diabetes. Conventional medical treatments and following a healthy lifestyle, including watching weight, can help your patients prevent, manage, and control many complications of diabetes.
This issue of the digest addresses some of the many supplements studied for diabetes—such as alpha-lipoic acid, chromium, herbal supplements, magnesium, and omega-3s—with a focus on those that have undergone clinical trials.
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/diabetes-science.htm?nav=upd

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Wikileaks Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)



Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013. The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties and biological patents. Significantly, the released text includes the negotiation positions and disagreements between all 12 prospective member states.
The TPP is the forerunner to the equally secret US-EU pact TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), for which President Obama initiated US-EU negotiations in January 2013. Together, the TPP and TTIP will cover more than 60 per cent of global GDP. Read full press release here


http://wikileaks.org/tpp/

Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements

Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements

Millions of people have diabetes, which, as you know, can lead to serious health problems if not managed well. Many widely marketed dietary supplement products claim to provide health benefits for people with diabetes. You may encounter patients in your practice who ask about dietary supplements for diabetes. Researchers have studied several dietary supplements to see if they can help people manage type 2 diabetes or lower their risk of developing the disease, but currently there is not enough evidence to suggest that any dietary supplement can help prevent or manage type 2 diabetes. As you know, conventional medical treatments and following a healthy lifestyle, including watching weight, can help your patients prevent, manage, and control many complications of diabetes.
This issue of the digest addresses some of the many supplements studied for diabetes—such as alpha-lipoic acid, chromium, herbal supplements, magnesium, and omega-3s—with a focus on those that have undergone clinical trials.
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/diabetes.htm?nav=cd

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Ixoreal Biomed "Adopts" Ashwagandha through the American Botanical Council


Ixoreal Biomed "Adopts" Ashwagandha through the American Botanical Council

The adaptogenic herb has many traditional and modern uses

(AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 11, 2013) The American Botanical Council (ABC) is pleased to announce that Ixoreal Biomed, an herbal extracts and medicines company based in Los Angeles, CA, and Hyderabad, India, has adopted the highly revered traditional herb ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) through ABC’s Adopt-an-Herb Program.

Ixoreal Biomed’s three-year commitment helps ABC keep its HerbMedPro™ database up-to-date with the latest scientific and clinical research on ashwagandha. HerbMedPro is an interactive and comprehensive database available on ABC’s website that provides access to important scientific and clinical research data underlying the use of nearly 250 herbs and their effects on human health.

"ABC is deeply grateful for Ixoreal Biomed’s support, which is crucial to continuing our nonprofit educational mission," said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. "Numerous health benefits of ashwagandha have been documented for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It is well-known in Ayurveda and other systems of traditional medicine in India. The plant’s traditional reputation as a tonic has led to a growing body of modern research. ABC is looking forward to partnering with Ixoreal Biomed to take stewardship of abstracts on current and forthcoming scientific publications on this valuable herb."

Ixoreal Biomed joins 21 additional herb- and plant-based ingredient companies that support ongoing efforts through ABC’s Adopt-an-Herb Program to collect, organize, and disseminate reliable, traditional, science-based, and clinical information on herbs, medicinal plants, and other botanical- and fungal-based ingredients. Adopt-an-Herb encourages companies and individuals to "adopt" one or more specific herbs for inclusion and ongoing maintenance in the HerbMedPro database. To date, 24 herbs have been adopted. Each adopted herb is continuously researched for new articles and studies, ensuring that its HerbMedPro record stays current and robust. The result is an unparalleled resource — not only for researchers, health professionals, industry, and consumers, but for all members of the herbal and dietary supplements community, and others — available via ABC’s information-rich website. In keeping with ABC's position as an independent nonprofit organization, herb adopters do not influence the scientific information that is compiled for their respective adopted herbs.

HerbMedPro is available to ABC members at the Academic level and higher; its "sister" site HerbMed®, however, is free and available to the general public. HerbMed features 20-to-30 herbs from HerbMedPro that are rotated on a regular basis. Making this unique resource free to the public increases the number of people who benefit from updated information on herbs, in accordance with ABC’s nonprofit educational mission.

About Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha, a much-revered plant in traditional Ayurvedic medicine, is cultivated throughout India and parts of Asia and grows to three-to-five feet tall. The root is used as an adaptogen, meaning it helps the body to cope with stress. Ashwagandha has a wide variety of traditional uses, including as a hypnotic, laxative, and tonic. In fact, the name "ashwagandha" comes from the Sanskrit word for "smells like a horse" or "horse essence," a reference to the traditional belief that the root provides the strength, character, essence, or stamina of a horse. Modern medicinal uses of ashwagandha preparations include treatment of inflammation, wasting diseases, and arthritis. Within the last few years, several clinical trials have been conducted to test the herb’s efficacy in treating infertility, tuberculosis, and anxiety, among other conditions; some trials have produced positive outcomes. In 2008, India’s Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) chose to promote ashwagandha preparations as part of a global strategy for brand-building of Ayurvedic medicine in Western countries. Ashwagandha preparations can be found in dozens of dietary supplements and related products throughout Australia, Canada, the United States, and other countries. More information on ashwagandha can be found in this profile from HerbalGram issue 99.

About Ixoreal Biomed

Ixoreal Biomed is an herbal extracts and pharmaceuticals company based in Los Angeles, CA, and Hyderabad, India. Ixoreal is focused solely on producing a high-quality extract of ashwagandha called KSM-66®. Ixoreal has developed a proprietary process that integrates modern scientific technologies with traditional Ayurvedic concepts to produce a highly concentrated full-spectrum ashwagandha root extract. Ixoreal has invested heavily in basic research and development and in building a modern scientific repository of efficacy data on ashwagandha. To this end, Ixoreal has conducted seven human clinical trials and two animal studies on the effectiveness of ashwagandha in several important functional areas. Ixoreal describes itself as the only ashwagandha manufacturer in the world that is entirely vertically integrated with its own farms, production facilities, testing laboratories, research center, and distribution division. More information is available at www.ixoreal.com.

About the American Botanical Council

Founded in 1988, the American Botanical Council is a leading international nonprofit organization that addresses research and educational issues regarding botanicals, teas, medicinal plants, essential oils, and other beneficial plant-derived materials. ABC’s members include individuals, companies, and organizations in the herb, dietary supplement, and cosmetic industries; journalists; consumers; and others in more than 80 countries. The organization occupies a historic 2.5-acre site in Austin, Texas, where it publishes the peer-reviewed quarterly journal HerbalGram, the monthly e-publication HerbalEGram, the weekly e-newsletter Herbal News & Events, HerbClips (summaries of scientific and clinical publications), reference books, and other educational materials. ABC also hosts HerbMedPro, a powerful herbal database, covering scientific and clinical publications on more than 250 herbs. ABC also co-produces the “Herbal Insights” segment for Healing Quest, a television series on PBS

Monday 11 November 2013

Fashion magazines are heavy

Dumped my magazines, after wanting to take them with me a few months ago. Reminded how heavy they are. Some were better than others. I actually hurt my hands fixing them because the tape stuck to the scissors and the glue made it hard to cut the paper. Sept 2012, what a bad one that one is. I never saw March 2013, I wonder what was in it.

Check out LOUIS VUITTON Vintage Monogram Weekender Canvas leather Suitcase  on @eBay http://r.ebay.com/2MZMp8

Friday 8 November 2013

Call for Applications: Foundation for Physical Therapy Promotion of Doctoral Studies (PODS) I & II Scholarships

Posted: 07 Nov 2013 06:01 AM PST
Call for Applications: Foundation for Physical Therapy Promotion of Doctoral Studies (PODS) I & II Scholarships
PODS I & II Scholarships, part of the Foundation’s Doctoral Opportunities for Clinicians and Scholars (DOCS) Program, are to fund post-professional doctoral students, who, having completed one full year of coursework, wish to continue their studies or have entered the dissertation phase of their post-professional doctoral program.
Scholarship categories within the PODS program have been established for the two distinct phases of education and training:
PODS I – Up to $7,500 per year in support of the coursework phase of post-professional doctoral studies prior to candidacy (as defined by the applicant’s institution). Special consideration for one award will be given to applications with a Health Services Research focus.
PODS II – Up to $15,000 in support of the post-candidacy phase of post-professional doctoral studies (as defined by the applicant’s institution). Special consideration for one award will be given to applications with a Health Services Research focus.
Successful PODS I and PODS II candidates may receive up to three PODS I and two PODS II awards totaling $52,500. A new application is required for each year.
Application Deadline: January 15, 2014, noon, ET
Award Notification: June 2014

Thursday 7 November 2013

Stand Up for Science! Video Contest

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 08:24 AM PST
Stand Up for Science! Video Contest
From the creation of flu vaccines and new cancer therapies to enhancing agriculture and developing biofuels, bioscience breakthroughs are transforming our world and our health at a rapid pace. However, many Americans are not aware of the critical role the US federal government plays in supporting biological research and discovery.

We are looking for you to create an exciting, yet informative video to help educate Americans on how science is funded!
The contest is open to individual entrants residing in the U.S. who are at least 13 years of age at the time of entry.
The video should be between 1-4 minutes in length.
$5,000 Grand Prize
All submissions must be received by November 30, 2013
Submission Topic
The second annual Stand up for Science competition is aimed at increasing awareness of federal funding support for biological and biomedical science. Video submissions must address at least one of the five federal agencies listed below:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Biological Sciences
Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agriculture and Food  Research Initiative
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Medical and Prosthetic Research Program
Questions to Consider
What is the mission of the agency(ies)?
What type(s) of research is supported by the agency(ies)?
Who performs the research supported by the agency(ies)?
Where do the researchers perform the science that is supported by the agency(ies)? Is any research conducted in your state supported by the agency(ies)?
What are some of the major discoveries that were supported through that agency(ies)?
How does the research funded by the agency(ies) benefit Americans?
How does the agency(ies) get the funds to distribute to the researchers?
What is the process by which researchers obtain funds through the agency(ies)?
What fiscal challenges does this agency(ies) face in the future?
Submission Criteria
Must describe at least one of the five listed agencies.
Must address at least three of the listed “questions to consider”.
Must be appropriate for a non-technical audience.
Must be between one and four minutes.
Videos can be any genre (for example, but not limited to, an interview, a music video, a dance video, an animated video).
Files must be in one of the following formats: .wmv, .flv, .zip, .mp3. Videos must be 95MB or less.
Entries that do not meet the submission criteria will be disqualified!
Sponsors
The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is the nation’s largest coalition of biomedical researchers, representing 27 scientific societies and over 110,000 researchers from around the world. FASEB’s mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.
Please direct all questions to contest@faseb.org

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Science Group Says Article on DNA Barcode Analysis of Herbs Is Flawed

ABC Registered User Advisory

Science Group Says Article on DNA Barcode Analysis of Herbs Is Flawed, Contains Errors, Creates Confusion, and Should Be Retracted

Methodological Flaws, Statistical Inconsistencies, Taxonomic Confusion, and Unreliable Conclusions Require Paper in BMC Medicine to be Corrected, Revised, and Re-peer-reviewed


(AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 5, 2013)
A recently published article that presents research conducted using DNA barcode technology to analyze various herbal products in North America contains numerous flaws, calculation errors, taxonomic anomalies, and unreliable conclusions, and should be retracted by the journal and appropriately corrected before it is republished.1 So says the American Botanical Council (ABC), an independent nonprofit research and education organization that recently published a critique of the paper co-authored by five herb quality control experts.2

The paper, based on DNA technology, was published in October in the journal BMC Medicine. It has been cited by various media outlets, including the November 5 “Science Times” section of the New York Times in an article that raises questions about the quality of dietary supplements.3

ABC emphasizes that DNA technology, in general, is reliable when used appropriately. “We have published two articles in our peer-reviewed journal HerbalGram discussing the merits and benefits of DNA-based analytical methods for establishing the accurate identity of plant material, including botanical materials found in herbal teas, as well as dried powders in numerous capsules and tablets found in herbal dietary supplements and related products,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC, and a co-author of ABC’s critique.

“However,” added Blumenthal, “DNA-based analysis is not appropriate when used in some of the ways that the authors appear to have done so, i.e., when trying to use DNA to determine the identity of commercial herb products that may contain plant extracts. It is not clear from the DNA paper whether some of the commercial herb capsules analyzed by the Canadian researchers contained dried powdered herb extracts or not. If they did, then DNA sequencing would not reveal the identity of the labeled plant extract, and might provide confusing results based on other excipient and ‘filler’ ingredients, or contamination with other DNA that also may be in the capsule.”

ABC Chief Science Officer Stefan Gafner, PhD, was interviewed by New York Times reporter Anahad O’Connor for the Times article. During the approximately 15-minute interview, Dr. Gafner enumerated many of the paper’s inconsistencies, errors, and potential flaws, none of which were reported by the Times, except for the writer’s not confusing Latin names for the herb feverfew, unlike the authors of the DNA paper.

“The article published today in the New York Times, as well as other media stories on this subject, appears to have totally overlooked many of this paper’s problems and inconsistencies that we have enumerated in our critique,” said Dr. Gafner. The ABC critique lists 10 problems, errors, and areas of confusion in the DNA paper.

The ABC critique also is co-authored by Danica Harbaugh Reynaud, PhD — president and CEO of AuthenTechologies in Richmond, California — and Natascha Techen, PhD, of the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi. Both Drs. Reynaud and Techen are experienced in using DNA technology to identify botanical materials, particularly those in herbal teas and dietary supplements.

ABC’s Blumenthal added that ABC and some of its nonprofit herb expert associates have taken leadership in the United States in the past three years in helping to bring to the herb and dietary supplement industry’s attention the problem of accidental and intentional adulteration of herbal raw materials. ABC is the managing partner in an international consortium of independent analytical laboratories, nonprofit organizations, industry companies, trade associations, and others who are supporting the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program, which ABC is conducting with the nonprofit American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) and the NCNPR at the University of Mississippi. The NCNPR is a Center of Excellence with the US Food and Drug Administration. It analyzes botanical ingredients on contract for the FDA and develops laboratory analytical methods for determining proper identity and the possible presence of contaminants and/or adulterants in botanical raw materials and extracts.

Dr. Gafner, lead author of the ABC critique, is the technical manager of the Botanical Adulterants Program. Botanist Steven Foster, another critique co-author, is Chair of the ABC Board of Trustees and the author or co-author of four of the five extensive, highly peer-reviewed papers on adulteration of herbs published in HerbalGram by the Botanical Adulterants Program.

The ABC paper ends with the following statement, calling for revision of the DNA paper:

“[I]n our view, and in the opinion of expert reviewers of this critique, and with all due respect to the authors and BMC Medicine, the journal should retract this paper, and require that the authors address various errors and ambiguities by appropriately rewriting, correcting, and resubmitting it to the journal. The editors of the journal should then submit the corrected revision to an appropriate peer-review process that employs numerous expert reviewers (not just the two who presumably reviewed the initial paper) who are knowledgeable not only in the fields of DNA testing, but also botanical analytics, and related disciplines. Only then, if the paper passes such appropriately expanded peer review, should the paper be republished. Until then, despite the good intentions of its authors, this paper creates confusion, promotes false conclusions, and, unfortunately, may constitute a disservice to scientific researchers and other responsible members of the botanical products community."


References

1.  Newmaster SG, Grguric M, Shanmughanandhan D, Ramalingam S, Ragupathy S. DNA barcoding detects contamination and substitution. BMC Medicine. 2013:11:222 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-222.

2.  Gafner S, Blumenthal M, Reynaud DH, Foster S, Techen N. ABC Review and Critique of the Research Article “DNA Barcoding Detects Contamination and Substitution in North American Herbal Products” by Newmaster et al. HerbalEGram, November 2013. Available at: http://cms.herbalgram.org/heg/volume10/11November/DNAbarcodingReviewandCritique.html?t=1383684796.

3.  O’Connor A. Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem. Science Times, p. 1. New York Times, Nov. 5, 2013. Originally published online Nov. 3, 2013:  Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/herbal-supplements-are-often-not-what-they-seem.html?ref=science.

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem
A study using DNA testing offers perhaps the most credible evidence to date of adulteration, contamination and mislabeling in the herbal supplement industry.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/herbal-supplements-are-often-not-what-they-seem.html?_r=0

Monday 4 November 2013

$5,000 award: United Way Challenge: Engaging the Public

$5,000 award: United Way Challenge: Engaging the Public http://bit.ly/1afGktS via @InnoCentive

would like to draw your attention to the United Way Challenge: Engaging the Public. The Challenge is to create a system for accessing on-demand training, verifying online learning, and reviewing funding applications. Take a look at the details on our website. We look forward to your continued participation in the InnoCentive community.


United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley (UWMBMV) provides funding to approximately 190 non-profit agencies in more than 135 cities and towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Every three years, a complete and extensive funding review is completed by United Way staff members and trained volunteers. The organization wishes to engage additional volunteers to allow for more diverse input from the residents of this region and expand the opportunity for residents to participate without sacrificing the integrity of the process or the time frame. United Way desires a system that incorporates on-demand training with online learning and is easily integrated into the existing application review process. This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.

Challenge 9933447
Deadline: November 09, 2013
Reward: $5,000

Sunday 3 November 2013

The Repurposed Ph.D.

The Repurposed Ph.D.
The past few years have seen a surge in efforts to connect Ph.D.’s with gratifying employment outside the ivory tower, and even to rethink doctoral education itself.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/education/edlife/finding-life-after-a

Friday 1 November 2013

Science, Technology and Gender: Challenges and Opportunities FEMMSS5/CSWIP 2014

Science, Technology and Gender: Challenges and Opportunities
FEMMSS5/CSWIP 2014: Call for Proposals
Submission deadline February 15, 2014

Submissions are invited for the fifth meeting of The Association for Feminist Epistemologies, Methodologies, Metaphysics, and Science Studies (FEMMSS) to be held at the University of Waterloo, August 10 to 13, 2014.  FEMMSS is a multidisciplinary organization. We welcome feminist papers, posters, panels, and workshops related to Science, Technology and Gender.  Conference presentations are eligible for submission for consideration and review in a resulting anthology or special journal issue. Topics can include but need not be limited to:

1.    Challenges to and challenging scientific literacy
2.    Implicit bias and stereotype threat
3.    Creating equitable Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics organizations and institutions
4.    Gender, oppression, and the public understanding of science
5.    Rhetoric, argumentation, and gendered communication
6.    Epistemologies of ignorance
7.    Policy of/for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
8.    Intersectionality in practice and study of science and technology
9.    The ethics and politics of science and technology
10. Science, technology and global justice
11. Feminist methodologies in the humanities, social and natural sciences
12. Production of biological “differences”
13. Feminist scholarship of teaching and learning
14. Professional development (ex. interdisciplinary communication/ teaching/ research)

Submission instructions
You are permitted one submission, unless you are submitting a poster.  If you are submitting a poster, you can additionally submit an abstract for a paper, panel, or workshop.

To submit please go to https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=stg2013 and sign up for an account.  If you have questions, email science.technology.gender@gmail.com.
·      Individual papers and posters:  Please provide a title, 300-word abstract, and 3-10 keywords. At the beginning of the abstract please indicate if your submission is a poster.  There is no need to upload anything, so please tick the box that says, "abstract only."
·      Panels:  Please provide a title, 300-word abstract, and 3-10 keywords for the panel as a whole.  Also, upload a single document that includes the title and 300-word abstract for each paper. Please take care not to identify authors.
·      Workshops:  Please provide a title, 300-word abstract describing the workshop rationale, and 3-10 keywords.  Also, upload a 300-word description of the activities in which your audience will engage. Please take care not to identify authors.

This conference will be held in conjunction with CSWIP 2014.

https://uwaterloo.ca/science-technology-society/conferences/science-technology-and-gender-challenges-and-opportunities

Thursday 31 October 2013

The Scholars Who Shill for Wall Street

The Scholars Who Shill for Wall Street



http://www.thenation.com/article/176809/schools-sale#

E.D. Thomas Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2013


Posted: 30 Oct 2013 07:25 AM PDT
E.D. Thomas Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2013
The José Carreras International Foundation Jointly with
THE FRIENDS OF THE JOSÉ CARRERAS INTERNATIONAL LEUKEMIA FOUNTATION, U.S.
FONDATION JOSÉ CARRERAS POUR LA LUTTE CONTRE LA LEUCEMIE – GENÈVE, AND
DEUTSCHE JOSÉ CARRERAS LEUKÄMIE STIFTUNG, e.V.
Are pleased to announce the "E.D. Thomas Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2013", aimed at applicants for a fellowship for research in the field of leukaemia or related haematological disorders.
The award provides € 50.000 per year of which up to  € 35.000 may be used for salary. The award may be renewed for an additional period of two years.
This fellowship is named after Prof. Edward Donnall Thomas, 1990 Nobel Prize winner and founding member of the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation, honouring his remarkable achievements in the field of the fight against leukaemia.
Deadline for applications is November 4, 2013
Only one applicant will be considered from each institution.
FUNDACION JOSÉ CARRERAS
Muntaner 383- 08021 Barcelona - SPAIN
Fax. 34-93-2010588 - e-mail: fundacio@fcarreras.es

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Call for Applications: Making a Difference in Real-World Bioethics Dilemmas

Call for Applications: Making a Difference in Real-World Bioethics Dilemmas
The Greenwall Foundation will fund a bioethics grants program, Making a Difference in Real-World Bioethics Dilemmas to support research to help resolve an important emerging or unanswered bioethics problem in clinical care, biomedical research, public health practice, or public policy. We hope these grants will have a real-world, practical impact. These grants will be of modest size and short duration; one-year grants of up to $60,000 that do not involve primary data collection will receive priority. Additionally, in this funding cycle we will also consider larger bioethics projects that collect primary empirical data.
Four types of bioethics grants will be funded:
1. Mentored research projects. Awards to a senior bioethics researcher to carry out a mentored bioethics research project with a post-doctoral fellow or junior faculty member. The close mentoring will help ensure that the project is completed within a year. The Foundation will provide salary support for the effort of the mentor on the project. Projects where the mentee already has salary support will receive priority. Proposals in which the mentee has other responsibilities that compete with carrying out such a research project, like courses for a degree program and clinical responsibilities by resident physicians or fellows, will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. For projects that involve secondary analysis of existing data sets, the team must include expertise in the obtaining, merging, and analysis of such datasets. For mentored projects, primary data collection will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. Proposals to collect pilot or preliminary data for a larger project will not be considered.
2. Senior collaboration projects. Grants to allow innovative biomedical or clinical researchers or leaders of health care organizations or government agencies to partner with an established bioethics scholar to carry out research on the intersection of their primary work with bioethics. For example, a leading researcher in an innovative biomedical field could bring deep knowledge of that field to help analyze important unresolved bioethics problems in it. As another example, a physician-leader in a safety-net hospital or a public health agency could analyze ethical problems she or he had encountered and struggled with. Both collaborating senior scholars are eligible for salary support.
3. Analyzing the normative implications of empirical research you are conducting with other funding (new). Some researchers are able to obtain funding from other sponsors to carry out empirical research on a bioethics dilemma or issue, but lack protected time to write about the conceptual or normative implications of the findings of this empirical research. We will fund investigators to write conceptual or normative analyses, providing that the empirical study is well-designed and the findings interesting. These grants may have only one investigator.
4. Empirical bioethics research involving primary data collection (new). We will consider projects that involve the collection of primary data, are tightly linked to an active real-world bioethics problem or policy dilemma, and likely to contribute to its resolution. The research team must demonstrate the ability to carry out such projects within the proposed time frame. Methodology should be rigorous, with attention to response rates, representativeness of the sample, and bias in survey questions.  Projects will receive priority if they show contained costs, for example by adding questions to already-funded survey projects or using research trainees whose salary is supported from other sources (provided that trainees do not have conflicting classwork or clinical responsibilities). Proposals to collect pilot or preliminary data for a larger project will not be considered. Partial salary support may be requested for staff to manage the budget/finances for very complex projects.
We expect grantees to disseminate their research through practical articles in one or more peer-reviewed journals that reach the appropriate audience for the topic studied, through presentations in relevant national and international professional meetings, and in other ways that will increase real-world impact.
Examples of the kinds of real-life bioethics problems grantees might address include:
Dilemmas raised by innovative biomedical research and new communication technologies.
Dilemmas from major changes in the delivery of U.S. health care resulting from the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Acts and private initiatives.
Dilemmas that are particularly salient -- and particularly ripe for analysis --  in certain cultural and ethnic communities, although they also involve people across the population.
In evaluating proposals the Foundation will consider:
The real-world importance of the bioethics problem to be studied and the likelihood the project will have a constructive real-world impact.
The innovative nature of the project's approach.
The professional background of the proposed investigators, and their close, working familiarity with the practical bioethics problems to be addressed.
The previous success of the principal investigator in carrying out similar projects (mentoring, collaboration, normative implication of empirical research, or primary data collection).
The success of the investigators publishing practical bioethics articles, similar to what is proposed, in top-tier journals with a broad audience.
The reasonableness of the budget. All things being equal, projects with smaller budgets will receive priority.
While we will give strong preference to proposals that meet these criteria, we will also consider exceptional proposals that meet our strategic goal of supporting bioethics research that will have a real-world impact. More than one applicant may apply from each institution.
Projects with the following characteristics will not be funded:
Projects that implement or make incremental improvements in established approaches to bioethics problems, build institutional infrastructure, or provide bioethics education, training or course work.
Projects that simply describe or analyze bioethics issues or provide a conceptual framework, without making practical recommendations for resolving the issues. However, projects that present normative recommendations that are based on previous empirical research are encouraged.
Proposals to gather pilot or preliminary data for a larger project.
Projects whose main goal is to convene or enhance a meeting.
Projects to support or extend ongoing or core activities of an organization.
Applications from unaffiliated individuals and from institutions outside the U.S. The Greenwall Foundation awards grants only to tax-exempt institutions in the U.S.
Application Process
Friday, December 13, 2013 at 5:00pm ET  – Deadline for email inquiry. We encourage applicants with projects already in development to submit their inquiries before the deadline.
Please direct all inquiries to applications@greenwall.org with the subject “Primary investigator’s last name, first name, title of proposal, either ‘Mentored’, ‘Collaboration’, ‘Normative’, or ‘Empirical’ Making a Difference LOI”.  Please send a 400-600 word e-mail of inquiry including:
Title
Type of project: senior collaboration, mentored project, normative implications, or primary data collection
A one sentence summary of the project for a lay audience
The bioethics problem to be addressed
The specific aims of the project
The nature of peer-reviewed publication(s) from the project and how the journal audience includes key individuals who can change practice or policy regarding the problem.
How the proposed project is innovative and goes beyond the current work on the problem, particularly in its potential to have a real-world impact
Names of the proposed research team. Please attach copies of CV's (no more than 3 pages each, highlighting publications relevant to the this application) of the two main investigators (or mentee and mentor).
The amount and duration of funding requested.
Selected applicants will be encouraged to submit a full application. Some applicants will receive feedback on issues to be specifically addressed or clarified.
Monday, February 17, 2014 at 5:00pm ET– Deadline for full applications, by invitation only.
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Tuesday 29 October 2013

Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine Research Fellowships

Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine Research Fellowships
Deadline: March 15th 2014
The Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine will provide one $5000 grant to support travel, lodging, and incidental expenses for a flexible research period between July 1st 2014 - June 30th 2015. Foundation Fellowships are offered for research related to the history of women to be conducted at the Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Preference will be given to projects that deal specifically with women physicians or other health workers or medical scientists, but proposals dealing with the history of women's health issues may also be considered.
Manuscript collections which may be of special interest include the recently-opened Mary Ellen Avery Papers, the Leona Baumgartner Papers, and the Grete Bibring Papers (find out more about our collections). Preference will be given to those who are using collections from the Center's Archives for Women in Medicine, but research on the topic of women in medicine using other material from the Countway Library will be considered. Preference will also be given to applicants who live beyond commuting distance of the Countway, but all are encouraged to apply, including graduate students.
In return, the Foundation requests a one page report on the Fellow's research experience, a copy of the final product (with the ability to post excerpts from the paper/project), and a photo and bio of the Fellow for web and newsletter announcements.
Application requirements
Applicants should submit a proposal (no more than two pages) outlining the subject and objectives of the research project, length of residence, historical materials to be used, and a project budget (including travel, lodging, and research expenses), along with a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendations by March 15th 2014. The fellowship proposal should demonstrate that the Countway Library has resources central to the research topic.
Applications should be sent to: Women in Medicine Fellowships, Archives for Women in Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115. Electronic submissions of applications and supporting materials and any questions may be directed to chm@hms.harvard.edu.

Sunday 27 October 2013

Ebay won't help seller over missing iPad

Ebay has refunded buyer who claimed iPad never arrived – even though seller has proof of postage

Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/3jnaa

Thursday 24 October 2013

Two hours to watch Murdoch Mysteries

Season 7 has started and after a few cliches and parodies we finally had a proper show with the return of Sherlock Holmes. With the switch to CBC, there seems to be a belief in the misogynist idea that the public will not watch anymore if the leads are allowed to marry. Also with CBC is the insistence that we watch ads, which is why it took 2 hours to watch one show. My ad blocker would block the ads. My computer is at the limit of its ability to deal with the latest technology (its graphics score is 1.0). So my computer would crash and restart. Then I would have to restart the browser, find the CBC player, find my place in the story and watch for another few minutes until the next crash. Anyone would think that the private sector invented the internet.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

School Garden Grants from Annie's

Posted: 21 Oct 2013 05:51 AM PDT
School Garden Grants from Annie's
Annie’s offers grants to school gardens that connect children directly to real food. These funds can be used to buy gardening tools, seeds or other needed supplies.
Deadline to apply is December 2, 2013.
Get $500 to start a brand-new school garden program. Use these funds for anything from classroom seeds in a cup to garden beds. There's no need to have an existing garden!
Receive $1,500 to deepen your school garden program. What does your garden need? Let Annie's help out! You must have an existing school garden to choose this entry type.

Monday 21 October 2013

Philomathia Research Associate in Sociology

3.  UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Department of Sociology
Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science

Philomathia Research Associate in Sociology
Vacancy Ref: JM01875
Annual salary scale: £27,854 - £36,298 p.a.


The Department of Sociology is seeking to appoint a suitably qualified individual as a Research Associate to work with Professor Jacqueline Scott and Professor Sarah Franklin and contribute to a new collaborative research project, called "(In)Fertility, Education and Reproductive Health" funded by the Philomathia Foundation. The post is for three years.

Applications are invited from individuals who have expertise in the social science of fertility/reproductive health, experience of analysing secondary data and who have knowledge of advanced statistical techniques. Applicants must have received a PhD in sociology or demography, or subjects related to these. We are seeking applicants with outstanding research potential who can develop their own research agendas while working with others.

Further information about the Department and the Faculty can be found at www.sociology.cam.ac.uk andwww.hsps.cam.ac.uk. Informal enquiries may be addressed to Professor Jacqueline Scott at jls1004@cam.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1223 335610.
Applications should be sent to Mr Alistair Cameron (applications@sociology.cam.ac.uk), Faculty of Human, Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RQ to reach him by 4pm on Thursday 28 November 2013.

Applications should include a personal statement, a curriculum vitae, two pieces of written work, and a signed and completed copy of Parts 1 and 3 of the CHRIS/6 form which may be downloaded from here. Applicants should also arrange for two referees to send references directly to Mr Cameron on their behalf by the same date, enclosing acompleted data protection form

For more information about this position click here.

This project is funded with generous support from the Philomathia Foundation as part of a research programme exploring human values and distributive justice. More information about the Philomathia Foundation can be found here
The University is committed to equality of opportunity.

Friday 18 October 2013

ABC free screening Numen: The Nature of Plants

The American Botanical Council has partnered with the producers of the new edition of the documentary  to bring you a free online screening of the film for ten days, from October 20–30th. We encourage you to find out more about the screening of this inspirational and educational film on their site and to tell your friends about this incredible opportunity! Watch the trailer here.

Numen is the first feature-length documentary to celebrate the healing power of plants. The film features stunning footage of medicinal plants and thought-provoking interviews with Tieraona Low Dog, MD, Larry Dossey, MD, the late Bill Mitchell, ND, author Kenny Ausubel, herbalists Rosemary Gladstar, Phyllis Light, and many others and calls for a re-awakening of traditional knowledge about plants and their uses.

The producers hope that Numen will spark new conversations and debates about health and wellness and inspire real, tangible actions to build a grassroots, ecologically sustainable healthcare movement. To help sow the seeds of this movement, they are making the film available for free online for a limited time. To encourage you to share the film with others, they will also be offering a 10% discount on all screening licenses during this period and reduced domestic shipping rates.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to do everything we can to make the world more sustainable, including making better choices about the medicines we consume. Numen encourages viewers to think deeply about the sources of their medicine and how those choices affect themselves and the larger web of life. The film presents a sobering view of conventional healthcare and the dangers of environmental toxins, as well as a vision of safe, effective, and sustainable medicine. It offers stories about how individuals have improved their own health and well-being and provides concrete steps for viewers to do so as well. Most broadly, the film inspires us all to deepen our relationship with the natural world and reminds us of the healing made possible by re-embracing our place in the wider web of life.

We hope you’ll join in this screening. Find out the details for watching the film online for free here. And please tell your friends—and anyone else who might be interested.


Cordially,

The American Botanical Council

Thursday 17 October 2013

Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at SFSU

Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies at SFSU
The Women and Gender Studies Department at San Francisco State University invites applicants for an approved tenure track position at the Assistant Professor level to begin in fall 2014, subject to financial ability.

Position Description:
The Women and Gender Studies Department at SFSU seeks to hire a junior scholar with expertise in transnational feminist methodologies whose research addresses one or more of the following fields:
Science and technology studies
Disability studies
Indigenous feminisms
Health inequalities and the environment
The successful candidate will have a PhD in Women and Gender Studies or experience in the discipline. This scholar must teach from a perspective that emphasizes the mutually constitutive nature of categories of difference, and their course offerings should complement and extend our strengths in transnational feminist cultural studies and interdisciplinary social sciences.
 Qualifications:
Ph.D. (or completion of degree requirements by August 1, 2014), evidence of teaching effectiveness, and demonstrable high-quality scholarship.
 Salary and Benefits: 
Salary competitive, commensurate with qualifications.  San Francisco State University, as part of the California State University system, provides generous health, retirement, and other benefits, including domestic partner benefits.
3.
MASTERS OR DOCTORAL-LEVEL RESEARCH TRAINEE OPPORTUNITY
 The Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities and Mental Health (CGSM) www.socialinequities.ca at Simon Fraser University supports international collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multisectoral teams of researchers and research users. CGSM investigators strive to ameliorate gender and social inequities in mental health and substance use through the development of innovative research, knowledge exchange and training initiatives.
 A major Centre objective is to provide high quality training and mentorship of graduate students to build capacity for research and knowledge exchange/application on gender, social inequities and mental health. The Centre is especially committed to learning from and training researchers with lived experiences of resisting social marginalization and/or stigmatization.
 The Centre is seeking a masters or doctoral research trainee for 2014. The trainee will receive a $17,850 annual fellowship plus a $3,000 research stipend.
 Eligibility criteria: 
·       Registered in a relevant graduate program during 2014
·       Experience with – or strong interests in – research addressing social inequities in mental health
·       Excellent oral, written and interpersonal communication skills
·       Ability to work autonomously
·       Training in quantitative or qualitative research methods
·       Interest in learning/applying critical methodologies for advancing health equity

Please submit via email to bja11@sfu.ca by 5:00 PM Pacific Time, November 1st, 2013:
·       A cover letter explaining how your past training/research/professional experiences and interests meet the eligibility criteria
·       A resume or curriculum vitae
·       University graduate transcripts
·       1 academic or professional reference letter (emailed to bja11@sfu.ca by referee) addressing eligibility criteria
·       Contact information for 2 additional academic or professional references
·       1 piece of sample academic/professional writing, preferably as sole author

**Aboriginal peoples, racialized individuals, members of LBGTQ communities, and persons with physical disabilities or lived experience of mental health/substance use issues are especially encouraged to apply**
4.
COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH TRAINEE OPPORTUNITY
 The Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities and Mental Health (CGSM) www.socialinequities.ca at Simon Fraser University supports international collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multi-sectoral teams of researchers and research users. CGSM investigators strive to ameliorate gender and social inequities in mental health and substance use through the development of innovative research, knowledge exchange and training initiatives.
 A major Centre objective is to provide high quality training and mentorship of community-based researchers to build capacity for research, knowledge exchange/application related to gender, social inequities and mental health. The Centre is especially committed to learning from and training researchers with lived experiences of resisting social marginalization and/or stigmatization. The Centre is seeking a community-based research trainee for 2014. The trainee will receive an annual
$17,850 fellowship plus a $3,000 research stipend.

Eligibility criteria:
·       3-5 years experience in community-based work addressing mental health or substance use (bachelor degree equivalency)
·       Experience leading community engagement efforts or in community organizing
·       Ability to work autonomously
·       Experience with – or strong interests in – participatory research addressing gender, social inequities and mental health or substance use

 Please submit via email to bja11@sfu.ca by 5:00 PM Pacific Time November 1st, 2013:
·       A cover letter explaining how your past experiences/interests meet the eligibility criteria
·        A resume
·        1 professional reference letter (emailed to bja11@sfu.ca by referee) explaining how you meet
eligibility criteria
·       Contact information for 2 additional professional references related to your community work
·       1 piece of sample writing or other written/visual materials you produced in your community work

**Aboriginal peoples, racialized individuals, members of LBGTQ communities, and persons with physical disabilities and/or lived experience of mental health/substance use issues are especially encouraged to apply**

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Call for Papers: Anthology on the Philosophy of Slavery and Emancipation

Call for Papers: Anthology on the Philosophy of Slavery and Emancipation
Historically, the institution of slavery was the focus of a great deal of philosophical research. Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Mill, Wollstonecraft, Bentham, Locke, Rousseau, Paine, Wilberforce, Grotius, Pufendorf, Nietzsche, Marx, and many others, considered such topics as the definition of slavery, the rightness or wrongness of slavery, which sorts of people could or should be enslaved, and whether (and if so, when) they should be emancipated.
In recent years, by contrast, philosophers have shown little interest in slavery. This anthology seeks to remedy this by presenting new work on the philosophy of slavery and emancipation. Possible topics to be addressed include, but are not restricted to:
• What is slavery? How is slavery different from other forms of unfreedom/inequality/labour etc?
• What was mistaken about historical arguments for slavery?
• How do we best explain the wrongness of slavery? Why were the actions of slave owners, slave traders, or those involved in the initial enslavement, wrong?
• Do people not involved in slavery have obligations to oppose slavery?
• Are slaves who once consented to their own enslavement required to obey their masters? Do such masters have a right to such obedience? Should the state recognise, or even enforce, such contracts of slavery?
• What is the relationship between slavery and sexism/racism/ableism/heteronormativity etc?
• What is the relationship between slavery and bondage & discipline, or dominance & submission, or sadism & masochism?
• What do slave narratives tell us about the nature or wrongness of slavery or about the rightness of emancipation?
• What is emancipation?
• What does the history of emancipation tell us about contemporary abolitionism?
• Who can emancipate whom, when, and from what?
• Is emancipation all that is owed to slaves? Does the legacy of slavery and emancipation require further action?
The anthology will, in the first instance, be submitted to Cambridge University Press for possible inclusion in their new series, Slavery Since Emancipation. The description of this series can be found here.
Guidelines for submissions
• Deadline for submission of abstract (150-300 words): 1st December 2013
• Deadline for submission of paper: 1st February 2014
• Manuscripts should be in English and be between 6000 and 9000 words, including abstract, references and footnotes.
• They should be prepared for anonymous refereeing and sent by email attachment as a word document or pdf to both editors.
• They will be subject to a process of peer-review.
• Expected date for preliminary verdict on submitted papers: 31st July 2014
Editors
Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman, uctynat [at] ucl [dot] ac [dot] uk
Simon Roberts-Thomson, serobertsthomson [at] gmail [dot] com

Multidisciplinary Training in Gender, Sexuality, and Health

Multidisciplinary Training in Gender, Sexuality, and Health
The Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health will offer at least one and possibly two Predoctoral Fellowships in Gender, Sexuality and Health to PhD applicants entering in the fall of 2014.
 This fellowship is funded by a training grant award from the National Institute of Child Health and Development, Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch.  Fellowships cover tuition and stipend and include monies for professional meeting travel and academic supplies.  Funding is guaranteed up to five years (although students will be encouraged to seek outside funding for their dissertation research). 
Applicants must apply to and be accepted by the Department of Sociomedical Sciences before a training fellowship can be offered.
 For further information about the fellowship program, contact:
Peter Messeri
Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences

Andrea Constancio
Academic Program Coordinator
Department of Sociomedical Sciences

 Prospective applicants may also wish to consult the Columbia University websites of the disciplinary departments in which they are primarily interested.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Diversity of flora used for the cure of equine diseases in selected peri-urban areas of Punjab


Ethnoveterinary medicines used for horses in Trinidad and in British Columbia, Canada.








Cited in:

Diversity of flora used for the cure of equine diseases in selected peri-urban areas of Pu...

Authors: Khurram Goraya,Zafar Iqbal,Muhammad Sohail Sajid

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 01/2013

Diversity of flora used for the cure of equine diseases in selected ...

www.ethnobiomed.com/content/9/1/70
by K Goraya - ‎2013
Sep 30, 2013 - Diversity of flora used for the cure of equine diseases in selected peri-urban areas of Punjab, Pakistan. Khurram Goraya, Zafar Iqbal*, .


View

Monday 14 October 2013

he International Gender and Language Association Conference: Shifting Visions: Gender, Sexuality, Discourse, and Language

The International Gender and Language Association Conference:
Shifting Visions: Gender, Sexuality, Discourse, and Language
 The conference will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from June 5th through to June 7th, 2014.  It will be held at Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus, Harbour Centre.
 We hope the www.IGALA8.com website will be helpful in answering any questions you may have. Please submit an abstract of your own work and/or encourage any colleagues or graduate-level students to do so by November 30, 2013.
 The theme of the conference is Shifting Visions to inspire fresh and original thinking and perspectives concerning gender and language research. Every two years, IGALA members from all over the world meet at the IGALA conference. The 2014 conference is the first ever to be held in Canada. It is a great opportunity to connect with others in our field from around the world and challenge our own work in constructive ways.
 Looking for Volunteers: If students are interested in getting some international conference experience, this is a terrific opportunity to get involved in a dynamic group of scholars. Please email allyson.jule@twu.ca if available. Such tasks could include publishing tasks, liaison with authors, publisher contact, welcome desk secretary, hospitality coordinator, etc. Preferences given at first come, first serve basis.