Nonantibiotic prevention and management of recurrent urinary tract infection

Review Article | Published: 25 October 2018 Néha Sihra, Anna Goodman, Rhana Zakri, Arun Sahai & Sachin Malde Nature Reviews Urology (2018) | Download Citation Abstract Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are highly prevalent, lead to considerable patient morbidity, incur large financial costs to health-care systems and are one of the most common reasons for antibiotic use worldwide. The growing problem of antimicrobial resistance means that the search for nonantibiotic alternatives for the treatment and prevention of UTI is of critical importance. Potential nonantibiotic measures and treatments for UTIs include behavioural changes, dietary supplementation (such as Chinese herbal medicines and cranberry products), NSAIDs, probiotics, D-mannose, methenamine hippurate, estrogens, intravesical glycosaminoglycans, immunostimulants, vaccines and inoculation with less-pathogenic bacteria. Some of the results of trials of these approaches are promising; however, high-level evidence is required before firm recommendations for their use can be made. A combination of these agents might provide the optimal treatment to reduce recurrent UTI, and trials in specific population groups are required. Key points Rising rates of antimicrobial resistance, fuelled by the overuse of antibiotics in humans, are a serious threat to global public health. Alternatives to antibiotics for the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) are attractive options to reduce the risks of antimicrobial resistance. The most commonly studied nonantibiotic management options for recurrent UTI include cranberries, probiotics, D-mannose, methenamine hippurate, estrogens, intravesical glycosaminoglycans and immunostimulants. Studies of novel vaccines targeting the adherence mechanisms of uropathogenic bacteria seem promising, but human trials are required to determine the efficacy of this approach. Evidence for the nonantibiotic measures is hampered by considerable heterogeneity, and further placebo-controlled randomized trials of these agents are needed. Access options Subscribe to Journal Get full journal access for 1 year $199.00 only $16.58 per issue Subscribe All prices are NET prices. VAT will be added later in the checkout. Rent or Buy article Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube. from$8.99 Rent or Buy All prices are NET prices. Additional access options: Log inOpenAthensShibboleth Additional information Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. References 1. Stamm, W. E. & Norrby, S. R. Urinary tract infections: disease panorama and challenges. J. Infect. Dis. 183, S1–S4 (2001). 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Show context for reference 243 CASPubMedArticlePubMed Central Google Scholar 244. van den Dobbelsteen, G. P. et al. Immunogenicity and safety of a tetravalent E. coli O-antigen bioconjugate vaccine in animal models. Vaccine 34, 4152–4160 (2016). Show context for reference 244 PubMedArticleCAS Google Scholar 245. Huttner, A. et al. Safety, immunogenicity, and preliminary clinical efficacy of a vaccine against extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli in women with a history of recurrent urinary tract infection: a randomised, single-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1b trial. Lancet Infect. Dis. 17, 528–537 (2017). Show context for reference 245 CASPubMedArticle Google Scholar 246. Darouiche, R. O. et al. Multicenter randomized controlled trial of bacterial interference for prevention of urinary tract infection in patients with neurogenic bladder. Urology 78, 341–346 (2011). Show context for reference 246 PubMedArticle Google Scholar 247. Sunden, F., Hakansson, L., Ljunggren, E. & Wullt, B. Escherichia coli 83972 bacteriuria protects against recurrent lower urinary tract infections in patients with incomplete bladder emptying. J. Urol. 184, 179–185 (2010). Show context for reference 247 PubMedArticle Google Scholar 248. Koves, B. et al. Rare emergence of symptoms during long-term asymptomatic Escherichia coli 83972 carriage without an altered virulence factor repertoire. J. Urol. 191, 519–528 (2014). Show context for reference 248 PubMedArticleCAS Google Scholar Download references Acknowledgements Reviewer information Nature Reviews Urology thanks T. J. Hannan, F. Wagenlehner and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Author information Affiliations Department of Urology, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK Néha Sihra, Rhana Zakri, Arun Sahai & Sachin Malde Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK Anna Goodman Contributions N.S., A.G., R.Z., A.S. and S.M. researched data for the article. S.M. made substantial contributions to discussions of content. All authors wrote the manuscript, and S.M. reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission. Competing interests N.S., A.G. and R.Z. declare no competing interests. A.S. has received an unrestricted educational grant, is an adviser to and has received speaker fees from Allergan Ltd. and has received monies from Medtronic for promotional purposes. S.M. has received monies from Medtronic for promotional purposes. Corresponding author Correspondence to Sachin Malde. Rights and permissions To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

Phytochemical Screening and in-vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Citharexylum spinosum L. (Verbenaceae)

January 2018 DOI: 10.21276/ijprhs.2018.04.19 Dhanya ShreeArbin AyeshaSaema Noorain Sahana B.K Citations Abstract Objectives: The present study was conducted to evaluate antibacterial and antifungal activity of leaf and bark extract of Citharexylum spinosum L. (Verbenaceae). Methods: Extraction of powdered leaf and bark material was carried out by maceration process. The extracts were screened for detection of phytochemicals by standard phytochemical analyses. Antibacterial and antifungal activities were evaluated by agar well diffusion and poisoned food technique, respectively. Results: Leaf extracts showed marked antibacterial activity than bark extract. Both extracts showed highest and least inhibitory activity against Bacillus cereus and Shigella flexneri, respectively. Both extracts caused >50% inhibition of mycelial growth of two seed-borne fungi viz. Aspergillus niger and Bipolaris sp. Preliminary phytochemical analysis detected the presence of saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols and triterpenoids in both the extracts. Conclusions: The plant C. spinosum can be used to treat infections caused by pathogenic bacteria and to manage seed-borne fungal diseases of plants.

New Report: $25 Million Koch-funded Think Tank at Utah State University Targets Public Lands

OCTOBER 29, 2018R.T. FITCH https://rtfitchauthor.com/2018/10/29/new-report-25-million-koch-funded-think-tank-at-utah-state-university-targets-public-lands/ Source: Center for Biological Diversity “OUR PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES ARE MEANT TO WORK FOR THE COMMON GOOD, NOT FOR CORPORATE PROFIT,” Photo by Carol Walker SALT LAKE CITY— A new Koch-funded research center at Utah State University is taking over the work of a private anti-public-lands think tank, leveraging the public university’s name and credibility for projects that stand to benefit Koch Industries, according to a new report released today by the Center for Biological Diversity and UnKoch My Campus. The Center for Growth and Opportunity is carrying on the work of the Logan-based Strata Policy, a Koch-funded advocacy group. Research and policy work at the Center, established at Utah State in 2017 with a $25 million matching donation from the Charles Koch Foundation, stands to boost profits for Koch Industries and others in the Koch philanthropic network, the report found. “Our public universities are meant to work for the common good, not for corporate profit,” said Samantha Parsons of UnKoch My Campus. “Allowing a corporate donor to leverage the university’s resources and brand to grow its self-interested advocacy project is anathema to that mission.” The groups are calling on Utah State to rescind its agreement with the Koch Foundation and disaffiliate itself from the Center for Growth and Opportunity. Koch Industries is involved in oil and gas extraction, transportation and refining, cattle grazing, logging and other activities on public lands. The Koch Foundation has spent some $200 million to support faculty and centers on more than 300 U.S. higher-education campuses. The foundation’s gift to Utah State is its largest to a western university. “The Koch Foundation’s insidious gift to Utah State is really a big present for Koch Industries,” said Ryan Beam of the Center for Biological Diversity. “There’s a grave risk to both public lands and public education if a corporation like Koch Industries can buy itself a think tank at Utah State. Public lands and public universities are for the people, not for private interest.” The Center for Growth and Opportunity’s work includes policy research and commentary supporting public lands privatization and the rollback of environmental protections. Most of its employees worked for Strata, and the Center is continuing much of the private think tank’s anti-public-lands work, the report found. Other findings show that the Center for Growth and Opportunity: Lacks university oversight; Is controlled by a pre-installed board including Koch-affiliated officials; Has veto power over the hiring of six new Utah State faculty members. Strata and the Center are connected to many of the country’s most prominent anti-public-lands figures, including members of Utah’s congressional delegation and state legislature and members of the far-right militant arm of the anti-public-lands movement. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/Insidious-Gift-report-findings-10-23-2018.php?fbclid=IwAR37m9AiiwuMzlOozsipQnpQMh73dINOLUMlf9xNsWrLVwwh5NP3b3NPxtE s.com.

Study Your Grievances

by Emma Spruce, Jacob Breslow & Tomás Ojeda http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2018/10/29/study-your-grievances/ Recently, Aero Magazine published an essay by Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay, and Peter Boghossian titled “Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship”. In it, Pluckrose et al. unveiled a year-long project in which they sought to expose the ‘corruption’ of ‘grievance studies’ by publishing hoax articles in interdisciplinary feminist, queer, critical race journals. There have already been several thoughtful responses to this ‘hoax’, however some points require emphasis and elaboration. Firstly, it must be said that Pluckrose et al. are not writing in a vacuum: theirs is not an apolitical critique of academic publishing, but must be viewed in the context of a wider history of attacks on gender, sexuality, and critical race studies. The repeated engagement with questions of sexual violence in their papers do not coincidentally emerge alongside the #MeToo movement. Secondly, the current reporting on the hoax overwhelmingly fails to do due diligence. Pluckrose et al. are routinely taken at their word, with media outlets apparently failing to read and make independent judgements about the four articles that were published (out of twenty they attempted). Finally, only few responses to the ‘hoax’ challenge its claim to be ‘successful’. Seeking to intervene in the way this ‘hoax’ has been taken up, in this post we briefly challenge three of the main grievances that Pluckrose et al. share in their exposé of the ‘hoax’. These are: 1) the abandonment of objectivity and truth in favour of politics, 2) the alleged lack of rigour of academic journals in the social sciences and humanities, and 3) the scholarly community’s verification and endorsement of the ‘absurd and horrible’ arguments Pluckrose et al. so gleefully wrote. Brown frame of 5 x 5 boxes, top rows have letters inside spelling out word 'objectivity' Photo credit: ‘Objectivity by Sol LeWitt’ by Cliff Grievance 1 – objectivity and politicization One of the repeated grievances that Pluckrose et al. launch is that academic scholarship (specifically within gender studies, sexuality studies, and critical race studies) has abandoned objectivity and truth in favour of ideology and politics. In a sense, they are correct in this; ‘subjectivity’ is indeed understood as more rigorous than ‘objectivity,’ and the fields in which we work are fundamentally political and politicized. Where they err, however, is in thinking that these characteristics of our fields are problems. Feminist epistemologists have been debating ‘objectivity’ for multiple decades (Bar On 1993; Code 1993, 2014; Collins 2000; Haraway 1988; Harding 1986, 1993, etc. etc.).[1] In the mid 1980s, Acker, Barry and Esseveld (1983: 427), for example, argued that objectivity should be understood not as a practical or obtainable position, but rather as an illusion. In their words, the idea of objectivity is to ‘remove the particular point of view of the observer from the research process so that the results will not be biased by the researcher’s subjectivity.’ This ‘ideal’ version of objectivity, however, as Smith (1977) argues, can only be possible if the knower is understood as an abstract being and the ‘known’ (the object of research) is understood as without agency. And yet knowers, as feminist epistemologists have argued for decades, are not ‘abstract’ at all, ‘but [are] member[s] of definite social categor[ies] occupying definite positions within the society’ (Smith 1974: 16-17). The production and validation of knowledge does not take place regardless of context and history. Claims to objective truth are evaluated by institutions that have historically been occupied by people in privileged positions. That objective truth continues to be evaluated by people with “partial and perverse” (Hartsock 1983) perspectives raises important questions about the limitations of ‘objectivity’ and the types of knowledges (as well as knowers) that are deemed legitimate: Whose experiences are valued? On what grounds? By whom? For whom do the ‘blind principles of neutrality’ apply (cf. Williams 1991)? It is in response to these questions that feminists have debated the merits of situated knowledges, and the importance of marginal voices. Put simply, we would agree that our research and teaching is political and politicized. This politicization, however, is not a flaw: it is necessary and important. While we may not agree with one another (more on that in a moment), our fields of study are not neutral. The purpose of our fields is to address, understand, and transform injustices of various kinds. To draw upon Hartsock (1997: 370), ‘the search for truth is not at all the way to understand’ feminist, queer, trans, critical race scholarship; ‘the point, most fundamentally, is to understand power relations… [and] the point of understanding power relations is to change them.’ It is not a shocking revelation, in other words, to suggest that our fields are political. That said, as we turn to next, the suggestion that by virtue of being political, our fields somehow share a univocal version of what ‘gender,’ ‘race,’ or ‘sexuality’ mean (let alone sexism, racism, or heteronormativity), is a blatant mischaracterisation. Grievance 2 – knowledge production and scientific truths Pluckrose et al. argue that ‘grievance studies’ have contributed to the politicised corruption of scholarship. “The peer reviewer system, which should filter out the biases that enable these problems to grow and gain influence,” they write, “is inadequate within grievance studies.” This framing of the ‘problem,’ however, actually misunderstands and distorts the generosity of peer reviewers, renders peer-reviewed journals as ‘the absolute gold standard of knowledge production’, and ignores all other sites of knowledge production. For the ‘hoax’ authors, academic journals work as the final repository of truth within a scientific community that they imagine as a coherent, consensual and idealised abstraction – but this is simply not the case. Criticizing grievance studies’ alleged lack of rigour, they fail to address other sources of knowledge that also shape the world they imagine as being under threat, and that are outside the scope of the academic journals they targeted (Feminists do speak and publish in languages beyond English, you know). While rather obvious to those of us who spend our days teaching, ‘conferencing’, and talking (to colleagues, policy-makers, activists, practitioners and anyone else who wants to be in conversation), knowledge is also produced beyond journal publications. To attack journals as symptomatic is to mistake one part of the field for its entirety. Their claim that there is something particularly wrong about ‘grievance studies’ also entails some spectacular ‘looking away’ because, surprise!, similar critiques have been also tested in other scientific fields (see, for instance, this blog post for the case of psychology). Thus, if anything, what the ‘hoax’ reveals as the problem in academic publishing is less related to the supposed flaws of ‘grievance studies’, and more with how Pluckrose et al. imagine the peer-reviewed system works. Peer review is not simply about checks and balances, it is a process which relies on the principles of good faith and honesty, something that they intentionally corrupted. Yes, peer review is a means of enhancing the rigor of fields, but its effect is not to mark any and every peer-reviewed article as unquestionable dogma. Having an article published in a feminist journal does not mean that its argument has become accepted by all feminists. Academic journals, and journals with anti-racist, anti-sexist (etc.) ideological commitments in particular, are sites of struggles over knowledge that we understand as unfinished-testing sites: to publish is to invite response, dissent and critical engagement, not to have the final word. This is manifest in the discussion of standpoint theory, which Pluckrose et al. misrepresent and hold in particular ire, (see grievance 1). Curiously, they suggest feminist academia encourages ‘an epistemological and moral relativism’, yet critique feminist thought for its unique and pernicious dogmatism. If you turn to the ‘comments and reply’ section of Signs Journal special issue on standpoint theory, you’ll see the range of perspectives and disagreements feminists have had about its successes and flaws. Grievance 3 – ‘absurd and horrible’ theses At the centre of the Pluckrose et al. ‘hoax’ is a cry of outrage: how could such “outlandish or intentionally broken” papers get published? In fact, given the “shoddy methodologies” “dubious ethical implications” and “considerable silliness”, modeled by these papers, they should have gone straight into the shredder. That this wasn’t the case; that a few articles were published, and that even more of them were given feedback, is cold hard evidence that in ‘grievance studies’ “just about anything can be made to work, so long as it falls within the moral orthodoxy and demonstrates understanding of the existing literature”. In other words, Pluckrose et al. suggest that worthless and irresponsible articles will be published in ‘grievance studies’ if they have the ‘right’ politics. Leaving aside their frankly ridiculously narrow representation of feminist politics (writing this blog was testimony to the adage that if you put 3 feminists in a room, you will get 5 opinions), we thought that it was important to actually read the articles that made it through to publication (especially as so little of the media coverage seems to have done so). It turns out that to claim their ‘hoax’ as a success, Pluckrose et al. don’t just have to misrepresent other people’s work, but they also have to misrepresent their own. Here is a closer look at one example: “Hooters” consists of a (faked) ethnographic study of men who go to restaurants where “scantily-clad, attractive female servers are a defining feature/gimmick”. Pluckrose et al. tell us that it is ridiculous that this article was published because “[t]he data are clearly nonsense and conclusions drawn from it are unwarranted.” The research, however, claims to be derived from 99 visits that resulted in 10,000 minutes of recorded conversation and over 600 pages of field notes. If this weren’t fictionalised, why would a journal editor or peer reviewer consider this vast amount of data worthless nonsense? After all, the only claims that the article makes from this data are that it offers a description of an understudied site, and that it presents a hypothesis that the particular appeal of Hooters-like restaurants is that they allow men to ‘act out’ ideas of masculinity such as “sexual objectification and male dominance” that are increasingly unacceptable in other social sites. To some extent this article should be low on publication appeal because it is boring: Feminism has not eradicated sexism – surprise. Gendered hierarchies and capitalist systems reinforce each other – surprise. Masculinity and femininity remain important to many people’s’ sense of self – surprise. But then again, in a context where the US President normalised his description of sexual assault as ‘locker room talk’,[2] surely we do want to gain insights on the versions of masculinity being endorsed in male-dominated spaces? In their discussion of this article for Aero magazine, Pluckrose et al. suggest that it was published solely because it aligns with an outlandish feminist orthodoxy that “problematize[s] heterosexual men’s attraction to women”. And yet, to argue that male sexual dominance and objectification are neither good for everyone, nor an uncontrollable and universally evident biological expression that society can’t engage doesn’t really seem that outlandish? Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the article barely makes an ideological point anyway. Instead, it presents itself as a descriptive first-step in a larger project to understand the social conditions that endorse and facilitate male dominance over women. “Hooters” is replete with caveats and a keen awareness of its own limitations (perhaps thanks to the time and effort of very generous peer reviewers). This disjuncture between what they claim these articles say, and what they argue as a point of fact, is symptomatic of their entire project’s lack of ethics. Conclusion In a political climate wherein gender, sexuality, and critical race studies are under persistent attack, we feel it’s important to frame this ‘hoax’ as a call to keep studying our ‘grievances,’ with all the interdisciplinary tools we have, and with a fervour, passion and clarity that stands up to the malicious attempts to undermine us. Pluckrose et al. claim to be concerned with ‘important issues relevant to social justice’: they spent a year producing fictional material to help us understand what social justice really is and how we should address it in our research and broader scholarship. There is, however, no such a thing as a univocal and straight-forward way of understanding what social justice means, especially when contested notions of what count as justice, for whom and in what terms have been at the forefront of historical debates within feminist, queer and critical race studies. These are ongoing debates, ones we must keep having. In this vein, maybe Pluckrose et al. could spend the next year actually doing the research that they faked. This could, perhaps, contribute towards understanding the dynamics of dominance that they so gleefully — and with apparent ease — spent their time narrating.[3] image of author Emma SpruceEmma Spruce is a Teaching Fellow in Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights at LSE, where she co-convenes a course on feminist epistemologies with Jacob Breslow. Her research examines the intersections of sexuality, space and place; exploring the movement of sexual politics across scales (from the nation to the neighbourhood), as well as the ways that place and space acquire meaning through narratives of sexuality and gender. image of author Jacob BreslowJacob Breslow is a Teaching Fellow in Transnational Gender and Sexuality Studies at LSE, where he co-convenes a course on feminist epistemologies with Emma Spruce. He researches contemporary U.S. social justice movements and the ways in which the idea of childhood operates within and against them. Currently, he is working on a book with the University of Minnesota Press, titled: After Childhood: Ambivalence, Belonging, and the Psychic Life of the Child. Picture of the author Tomás OjedaTomás Ojeda is a PhD candidate at LSE Department of Gender Studies and member of the Engenderings editorial collective. His research examines the political place of Chilean psychology in the making up of the sexual subject of diversity, by analysing the sexual epistemologies at work in the so-called turn to diversity in contemporary clinical practice. [1] The list of full references is available on the next page. [2] “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” (full transcript) [3] As a side note, did it feel good to write those descriptions of sexual objectification? It definitely did not feel good to read them. And your tone, Pluckrose et al., makes the claim that that the ‘hoax’ is not an ideologically motivated attack difficult to believe. References Joan Acker, Kate Barry and Joke Esseveld (1983) “Objectivity and Truth: Problems in Doing Feminist Research” Women’s Studies International Forum. 6(4): 423-435. Bat-Ami Bar On (1993) “Marginality and Epistemic Privilege” in Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (eds.) Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge pp. 83-100. Lorraine Code (1993) “Taking Subjectivity Into Account” in Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (eds.) Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge pp. 23-57. Lorraine Code (2014) “Feminist Epistemology and the Politics of Knowledge: Questions of Marginality” in Mary Evans et al. (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Feminist Theory. London: Sage pp. 9-25. Patricia Hill Collins (2000) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge. Donna Haraway (1988) “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective” Feminist Studies 14(3): 581-607. Sandra Harding (1986) The Science Question in Feminism. London: Cornell University Press. Sandra Harding (1993) “Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is ‘Strong Objectivity’?” in Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (eds.) Feminist Epistemologies. New York: Routledge pp. 49-82. Nancy Hartsock (1983) “The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism” in Sandra Harding (ed.) Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Bloomington: Indiana University Press pp. 157-180. Nancy Hartsock (1997) “Comment on Heckman’s ‘Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory REvisited’: Truth or Justice?” Signs 22(2): 367-374. Dorothy Smith (1974) “Women’s Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology” Sociological Inquiry 44: 7-13. Dorothy Smith (1977) “Some Implications of a Sociology for Women” In Nona Glazer and Helen Waehrer (eds.) Woman in a Man-Made World: A Socioeconomic Handbook. Chicago: Rand McNally. Patricia Williams (1991) The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

At Ajo y Orégano, Big Flavors Flow From a Small Space

HUNGRY CITY https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/dining/ajo-y-oregano-review.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage A Family Affair in the Bronx 10 PhotosView Slide Show › Image Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times Ajo y OréganoNYT Critic's PickCaribbean, Latin American$1556 White Plains Road, Parkchester347-657-1201 By Ligaya Mishan Oct. 26, 2018 4 If it’s Friday, there will be rabo encendido, oxtails dark as ink from a simmer in Presidente beer and Brugal rum. This is lunch and event at once, and may explain the crowd that forms before noon on the rainbow-planked porch outside Ajo y Orégano, a tiny gasp of a restaurant in Parkchester, the Bronx, between a tire shop and a barber’s. On Friday, too, is the promise of pica pollo, Dominican fried chicken in airy golden coats, with seasonings gone deep. Chief among them are the ones pictured on the restaurant’s wooden awning: garlic and oregano, matching the restaurant’s name. So go on Friday — but then you’ll miss Wednesday and Thursday’s special of berenjenas asadas, eggplant charred over open flame until its insides retreat and cede sovereignty to smoke. The flesh is then mashed in a pot with garlic, tomatoes and, crucially, eggs, the secret to the dish’s louche creaminess. Image Platters served during lunch at Ajo y Orégano, in the Bronx.CreditCaitlin Ochs for The New York Times And what of Saturday and Sunday’s mondongo (tripe soup), Monday’s pernil (roast pork) and Tuesday’s pastelón, layers of fried ripe plantains, ground beef and mozzarella, salty and sweet embracing their differences? Any day you go, the menu is a tease of what might have been. ADVERTISEMENT Fortunately, the steam table at the back of the dining room is stocked daily with pollo guisado, chicken stew stained black from sugar thrown in the pan at the start and brought within seconds of a burn. Other regulars are fried sea bass under a drape of coconut milk and sofrito, orange from achiote; and barbecue pork ribs like smoked candy, with meat that gives and gives. Enver Perez and his younger brother, Jeudy Perez, opened Ajo y Orégano last October. They were children when they left Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to live in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx. Their mother, Maritza Reynoso, now works the cash register and makes the house hot sauce; their older brother, Freddy Perez, runs the floor. The bounty of the steam table, with its helpings of moro (rice and beans) and guandules con coco, pigeon peas enriched with coconut milk and auyama (pumpkin), is supplied by two aunts, Milqueya and Jackeline Reynoso. Food is presented in aluminum pots sized for little hands, the kind that the Reynoso sisters learned to cook with when they were young. But the contents are hardly dainty, and what look like small portions prove to be more than enough. Yudelkys Paniagua, a veteran of Dominican restaurants in Washington Heights, cooks dishes à la carte, including chimi sliders, a diminutive but still gloriously messy version of the Dominican street burger. Chubby beef patties are stacked with squeaky fried white cheese between ragged-edged tostones: green plantains fried, flattened and fried again, so they’re crisp and chewy at once. The sauce, classic pink mayo-ketchup, gets a dash of fizz and nostalgia from Country Club frambuesa (raspberry) soda, also available by the bottle. Editors’ Picks Stone Mountain: The Largest Confederate Monument Problem in the World Is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ the Most Radical Show on TV? A ‘Generationally Perpetuated’ Pattern: Daughters Do More Chores ADVERTISEMENT Image Food is presented in aluminum pots sized for little hands, the kind that the chefs learned to cook with when they were children.CreditCaitlin Ochs for The New York Times Not on the menu but worth asking for is mofongo, plantains fried and broken down in a wooden pilón (mortar), then molded by hand into a giant cup. Once filled, it’s a caldron, aswamp in melted cheese and either mayo-ketchup or garlicky béchamel, with your choice of meat in the depths. Smaller mofonguitos, shaped with a lemon squeezer, fit demurely in ramekins, perhaps a better idea if you don’t want to stagger home. Spanish is the language and the electric current at Ajo y Orégano, where forks clank over a low throb of salsa, merengue and bachata from two decades past. The walls of the dining room are as green as palms and mounted with crockery and hot pink shutters. Bills come in shoeshine boxes painted with island scenes, of tin-roofed houses slumbering under flamboyant trees. But the space is too small, which for the crowd growing restive on the porch is a problem. By the end of November, the Perez brothers plan to open a second Ajo y Orégano in Belmont, by the Bronx Zoo. Milqueya will oversee the new kitchen, while Jackeline holds down the fort here. As it happens, both aunts worked with Enver in the White Plains Road storefront’s previous incarnation as a healthy meal-preparation service. They had minor roles: One was a dishwasher; the other did breakfast. It makes him laugh now. He said, “I had the magic recipe all along.” Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. Subscribe to Five Weeknight Dishes Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. SIGN UP Ajo y OréganoNYT Critic's Pick 1556 White Plains Road (Guerlain Street) Parkchester 347-657-1201 ajoyoregano.com Recommended DishesChimi sliders; mofonguitos; pollo guisado; barbecue pork ribs; rabo encendido (oxtail stew); berenjenas asadas (roasted eggplant).Price$ (inexpensive)OpenDaily for lunch and dinner.

How a Vortex Helps Dandelions Fly

https://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000006166266/how-a-vortex-helps-dandelions-fly.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage

Caryophyllene

BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE19 OCTOBER 2018 https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/caryophyllene/3009646.article A biologically active compound from the biblical balm of Gilead, said to ‘heal the sin-sick soul’ and mentioned at the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Ben Valsler Earlier this week, Kensington Palace announced that here in the UK we have another royal baby to look forward to, due in spring 2019. And here on Chemistry in its element, Mike Freemantle has been thinking back to the happy couple’s big day… Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex leave from the West Door of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor on May 19, 2018. Source: © Ben Stansall - WPA Pool / Getty Images Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex leave from the West Door of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor on May 19, 2018. Michael Freemantle Cast your mind back to Saturday 19th May this year. That was the day Prince Harry, a member of the British royal family, and American former actor Meghan Markle married. During the wedding ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, the American bishop Michael Curry delivered a powerful sermon. He quoted lines from a medieval poem and an old African American spiritual that referred to the balm of Gilead: ‘There is a balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole.’ In these lines, the balm is employed as a metaphor for the power of love to heal the human spirit. When I heard these lines, I asked myself: what is this balm of Gilead? Dried twigs and leaves of the plant Commiphora gileadensis, source of Balm of Gilead Source: By Deror_avi CC BY-SA 3.0, from Wikimedia Commons I soon discovered that the balm was an oil that had been used since ancient times as a perfume and as an ointment to heal various physical illnesses. The balm was named after the Gilead region of the Arabian peninsula where it was extracted from plants. The region is now part of Jordan. There are several references to the balm in the Bible, for example, in chapter 37 of the book of Genesis: ‘… behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.’ Commiphora gileadensis, botanical illustration Commiphora gileadensis, botanical illustration In 2012, a team of scientists in Israel reported the results of research on ‘the biblical balm of Gilead,’ as they called it. Their aim was to study the anti-cancer activity of the oil, which they extracted from a plant with the botanical name Commiphora gileadensis. First of all, they used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to separate and identify its volatile organic components. They identified 27 components, the most prominent of which was the hydrocarbon β-caryophyllene. It accounted for just over 20 % of the oil. Their study established that the balm prevented the proliferation of tumour cells and that the key ingredient responsible for this activity was β-caryophyllene. The compound is ubiquitous in nature and generally occurs in mixtures with other organic compounds. Essential oils extracted from lavender, rosemary, hops, cannabis and especially cloves all contain significant amounts of β-caryophyllene. The compound is also present in the oily resins extracted from many species of pine conifers. Beta caryophyllene The properties and structure of this naturally-occurring compound have been extensively investigated since the 1830s. However, it was not until 1951 that British organic chemist and chemistry Nobel laureate Sir Derek Barton provided definitive evidence of its molecular structure. The compound has an unusual bicyclic structure for a natural product. Each molecule has a nine-membered ring of carbon atoms, a four-membered ring and two carbon-carbon double bonds. Another chemistry Nobel laureate, the American organic chemist E. J. Corey, reported the total synthesis of the bicyclic hydrocarbon in 1964. β-Caryophyllene has a spicy woody smell and is generally recognised as a safe dietary supplement and flavouring agent for foods and beverages. Well-documented research studies over recent years have shown that the compound is not only active against cancer but also has a wide array of other medicinal properties. It acts as a pain killer, for example, and also exhibits anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activity. Last year, another team published a paper on the chemical compositions of essential oils extracted from the stem bark, leaves and fruit of Commiphora gileadensis. The researchers surprisingly found a dearth of β-caryophyllene in the oils, in complete contrast to the findings of the other team, even though both teams had investigated plant samples collected from the same botanical garden in Israel. The second team observed that the chemical compositions of the Commiphora gileadensis essential oils from Israel ‘are markedly different from previously reported samples.’ So how do you account for the difference? The second team concluded that there must be ‘a wide variation of essential oil compositions within the population of this plant.’ The Jordan River border between Israel and Jordan Source: © Shutterstock The Jordan River border between Israel and Jordan And there is another intriguing question here. Did the ancient Ishamaelites really extract their fragrant healing oil from the plant Commiphora gileadensis? There are claims that their precious balm of Gilead was extracted from a different plant – the mastic tree, known scientifically as Pistacia lentiscus. The plant is indigenous to the Mediterranean region including Israel, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries. It exudes a pleasant-smelling resin with similar health and culinary properties to the Commiphora gileadensis oil. Whatever the answers to these questions, there can be no doubt about the health and therapeutic benefits of β-caryophyllene, and the balm of Gilead - whatever its composition and source. Never miss a podcast again! If you love listening to the chemistry in its element podcast, subscribe today and never miss an episode Chemistry World Ben Valsler That was Mike Freemantle, showing that sometimes science writers can get distracted by chemistry even in the midst of a moving speech at a nationally important wedding. Next week, Kat Arney indicates how misuse of a common, colourful compound can cause catastrophic colonic complaints. Kat Arney These imported drinks lacked the deep red colour the people expected, so the authorities decided to add a dash of phenolphthalein to the wine supplies to redden them up. It being the early 1900s, nobody had thought to test whether it was actually safe to use as a food additive first, which might have avoided the unpleasant result: a mass outbreak of diarrhoea. Ben Valsler Join Kat next time with the pH indicator you almost certainly used in high school. Until then, you can find all of our podcasts at chemistryworld.com/podcasts, and you can get in touch with any questions or comments – email chemistryworld@rsc.org or tweet @chemistryworld. Thanks for listening, I’m Ben Valsler. TOPICS