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Some Thoughts on "Never Forget"
October 12, 2022 / stefanfeller / Leave a comment
The idea to this post goes back to late summer 2021. Since then, the text sat in my "drafts folder". Now, one year later, with unprecedented developments happening in East Europe, it is time to pick it up again, to rewrite it according to what has happened since the Russian war of aggression began to rage through the Ukraine, and to finalise it.
September 09, 2021, I came across an article in Balkan Insight, titled "In the Balkans, Let Us Remember to Forget". The somewhat contradicting title caught my attention. I was enjoying a late summer espresso in a Belgrade street cafe, looking back at living and traveling for more than a decade in the Western Balkans. I love being here, the Western Balkans are somewhat home to me, and I have made it a habit to always connect to the local neighborhoods and to listen to local friends. Like that day in September 2021, in Belgrade's Innercity, when I had a conversation with a youth activist. Of course, the conversation touched on the question as to which extent people identifying with different nationalities do co-exist. Do they feel like belonging to something they share in common, other than an ever more distant past of an entity called Yugoslavia? How do they establish a joint identity, based on commonly shared memories? The assessment of my friend was somewhat sober: Young generations carry the same feeling of belonging to entities based on "ethnic" narratives. We spoke about how to learn to effectively talk to each other by listening. But the memories of those who talk to each other, including in young generations, they are very different from one place to another.
I spend a lot of time as a digital nomad. The great thing is that I happen to listen to new people everyday, meeting people from all walks of life. Academic discussions are rare, and when I explain what I do, I always struggle with making it as simple as possible.
When I travel to Kopacki Rit, a stunning nature reserve in East Croatia, I sometimes pass through the city of Vucovar, which has a wartime past of unspeakable atrocities. During 87 days of siege in 1991, the city was shelled into rubble by the Yugoslav People's Army JNA. To quote Wikipedia: "The damage to Vukovar during the siege has been called the worst in Europe since World War II, drawing comparisons with Stalingrad."
Today, you will see mostly new and non-descript buildings not telling anything about that time long gone. Believe me, under the surface the memories and tensions are still there. Also, I am not so sure any longer that the damage to Vukovar stands out the way it did when the Wikipedia article was written: The damage to cities, towns and villages in the Ukraine is increasing day by day.
If you happen to come to Mostar in Bosnia&Hercegovina as a tourist, you will marvel at the beauty of a historic town with the famously destroyed bridge nicely rebuilt. Not much will give away tension, and segregation. But people on one side of the bridge are identifying as Croats, on the other side as Bosniaks. Live there, and you will soon become aware of the segregation running underneath.
More visible is this segregation, of course, in Mitrovica in Kosovo, the northern part inhabited by Kosovo-Serbs, the southern parts by Kosovo-Albanians. I can not count how often I have been on the West Bridge between 2000 and 2004, with tensions and, at times, violence, flying high.
When, in 2008, I asked a friend in Bosnia&Hercegovina, whether we were still driving in East-Sarajevo or would already be close to central Sarajevo, he responded "No, we are still on our side". My friend identifies as a Croat, and he was referring to a specific area through which the front-line of Bosnian defence moved forward and backward throughout Sarajevo's siege by the JNA. He said this more than twenty years later, realized what he had just said, looked surprised, and apologised for his Freudian error. At the same time, our Nanny, who identifies as a Bosniak, would be scared when we were taking our children and her for a walk up at Trebevic, an area from where Serb snipers were killing Sarajevan citizens during the siege.
When, early after the beginning of Russia's war against the Ukraine, in February and March 2022, I would talk to friends in Serbia, notably here in Belgrade, I would always hear them also talking about their memories of the NATO bombing campaign in 1999. Like with everyone else, including related to those examples I have used above, on Croatia, Bosnia&Hercegovina, and Kosovo, collective memories of the wartime past are still very present here in Serbia. The historical connotation in which those memories happen, they are different from place to place, and so is the narrative related to what happened, or whether it happened at all, why it happened, whether some of these events constitute acts of genocide, or whether things which happened were justified, and just.
But here is the thing which I note these days: There is a collective memory of the trauma which happens when civilian populations suffer, whether through a siege, of through a bombing campaign, or anything else. The memory of trauma and fear, the memory of injury and death, it persists, notwithstanding historical reasons, established narratives, or narratives attempting to falsify history. Whilst the article in Balkan Insight in 2021 is arguing the necessity also to forget, in order to support reconciliation, this is not yet the situation here: These memories are very present.
Over the last days, when I am having coffees with Serbian friends and when I bring up the situation in the Ukraine, their voices go very low. I will hear great sympathy for the suffering of the Ukrainian people, and I see expressions of pain on my friend's faces. I will hear very clear voices telling me that indiscriminate shelling of the civilian population, that rape, murder, torture of Ukrainian's by the Russian Army are upsetting my Serbian friends very much, that there is no justification for it, at all. There is a clear distancing from those acts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, other severe crimes. And it appears those feelings go deep. I always will hear references to the fear which my friends remember from their own trauma. Whether the bombing campaign here in Belgrade, whether the siege of Sarajevo. And I guess it is similar elsewhere.
This is where I close the loop between finishing this blog article which I have sitting in my draft folder since one year, and what is in my draft folder since a few days:
First, a select collection of links which I have been compiling:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62922674
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/isjum-ukraine-graeber-leichen-folter-101.html
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/selenskyj-ukraine-massengrab-103.html
I could go on an on, but I guess it is enough. From Bucha to Izium, one atrocity is piling on another war crime. To this, the indiscriminate bombing, rocketing, shelling over the past days, justified by the Russian President as revenge for the attack on the Crimean Bridge, it adds. I don't want to throw even more links into the hodgepodge above, but it is especially this revenge action of the past days which clearly increases the feeling of people here of being upset.
When this war is over, Russia will be remembered for this. The long-term image of how we look at the Russian people will be severely damaged for a generation, or more. What this murderous Russian regime and the atrocities committed by the Russian army is doing pales anything we have seen on the European continent since the Yugoslav wars. The impact on the World order is so huge because one of the constituting powers defining the post WW2 order, dealing with the unimaginable atrocities committed by Germany, and others (notably including Russia), now tramples down the very foundations of what we collectively hoped to set up in the name of humanity.
Though genocide is genocide, and holding every nation accountable for systematic violations of the laws regulating armed conflict is a necessity of applying justice to violations of international laws, it has always been psychologically different to see these crimes being committed by nations far away, or so-called minor powers.
Yet, here we have a former superpower committing atrocities, whether in Chechnya, or in Syria, or through delegation to mercenaries in places like Africa or the Middle East. But the fact that this now is also happening in the very heart of Europe, with systemic occurrence and being part of a brutal plan of intimidation and oppression, it will haunt the individual Russian and the Russian society for decades to come. I was a child in post-war Germany and I have many individual memories about people from other nations neighbouring Germany hissing at me. As a little child, I wouldn't understand. As a little child from Russia, they will not understand. Any process of reconciliation will last decades. And the responsibility for this, including criminal liability, lies with Russian leadership, including the person holding the office of President of the Russian Federation.
Yes, it is, in some ways, important to be able to forget, in order to forgive. But some things shall never be forgotten, otherwise the term "Never Again" becomes not only violated in so many cases, but becomes simply irrelevant. Whether it is the Holocaust, or the genocides of Srebrenica, Rwanda, or so many other places, or the crimes against humanity committed by Russia in the Ukraine, they shall never be forgotten.
Predictability in Complex Environments – Cognitive Bias Codex
August 10, 2022 August 10, 2022 / stefanfeller / Leave a comment
April 20, 2021 I wrote a blog post "Futuretelling" on occasion of media informing about the report "Global Trends 2040", a product of the collective of American intelligence agencies, issued then on occasion of a new Presidential administration (the Biden administration) taking the helm. I'd like to revisit the issue, almost one and a half years later.
"Global Trends 2040" revolves around five core assessments:
Global challenges include climate change, disease, financial crises, and technology disruptions. The report stated that they are likely to manifest more frequently and intensely in almost every region and country. Their impact on states and societies will create stress, or even catastrophic shock. The report assessed the pandemic as "the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come."
Fragmentation flows from the predicted transnational or global challenges. Overwhelming threats will lead to a reflex breaking apart, or threatening, globalisation.
Disequilibrium was the third theme of the report. The report focusses on its effects in a widening gap between what societies, communities, and individuals expect from governance and services, and what they can deliver. Doubts in the benefits of democratic governance, the profound inability of systems of international order to provide peace, security, and other important challenges to the sixteen Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations create a perfect storm.
Contestation was the fourth theme. Wealthy societies pump their reserves into handling the crisis, and into the race of getting out on the other side in the best position for competing, on economical and power levels. Conflict, violence, exodus, displacement, migration will have an effect on more developed societies. In a way, this amplifies fragmentation and antagonisation.
Adaption being the final theme, it means that profound changes will ultimately end in a new equilibrium. The question is how such a new system state may look like. Or, how much of our current one is left, and what will be the new reality.
To me, the core statement of "Global Trends 2040" is that we are passing through a phase of profound global system change, or paradigm change.
That was spring 2021. "Global Trends 2040" was written during the Covid-19 pandemic, so it was somewhat easy for the authors to qualify an existing pandemic as "the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II". Then, summer 2021 brought the catastrophic events around the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taleban, and a crushing defeat of the West's ambitions for Afghanistan over two decades. Spring 2022 saw the beginning of a war of aggression by the Russian Federation against the Ukraine. Motivation and publicly voiced rationale by the Russian President went, from the outset on, far beyond his claims related to the Ukraine, and related to overthrow the Ukrainian government. From the West's perspective it is an attack against the West, it's systems and it's values. The Russian President describes this as a threat against Russia, claiming to act in self-defense. Of course, I have a clear position here joining those who state this is a brazen and aggressive move attempting to overthrow an existing order, and violating fundamental principles enshrined in international treaties. But on various occasions since then I have also acknowledged that it depends on where people live, and which cultural and historical ties they have grown up with, whether they join this assessment, or blame the West. This is a war on multiple levels, including information warfare, a war of systems against each other, a war of economies, a war of dogma how to prevail, and to govern. The physical battlefields are local or regional, information warfare happens in cyberspace, and the conflict is ultimately global.
So I wonder how the events of 2021 and 2022 would have been reflected in the wording of the report issued in spring 2021, if these events would already have been on the books of history by the time of writing. If already the pandemic posed the greatest disruption since WWII, it has only gotten worse since then.
With lightning speed, the World is continuing to change. Nobody would have anticipated, even in early spring 2021, that the situation went so haywire in summer 2021 in Afghanistan. And after that, if someone would have asked "What's next?", I doubt many people would have anticipated the developments in the Ukraine bringing us closer to World War III. May be, many years in the future, historians will assess that we already were in WW III. Because, even the forms and shapes of warfare have changed. Some of it started in 2001, when we began to see consequences of asymmetric warfare. And at that time, people would have found it unimaginabe that we would see conventional armies battling each other, on European soil, 21 years later.
What else do we know about battlefields of such larger warfare? I could go on about Asia and the ever increasing tension between China and Taiwan, just recently blowing up again on occasion of Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, bringing likelihood of yet another massive conflict into the equation. I could refer to how we all, internationally, after 9/11/2001 made critical assessments related to terrorist attacks against nuclear power plants. Now we are finding ourselves in a situation where Russian military forces conduct their attacks using the biggest nuclear powerplant in mainland Europe as a shield. Of course, following the same logic as outlined above, two sides accuse each other of being responsible for it. From a perspective of the threat being real, and grave, even this mutual accusation, being part of information warfare, adds to how scary the situation has become.
The Doomsday Clock has, once again, moved closer to 12, with the UN Secretary General telling us August 07, 2022, that the risk of nuclear confrontation is back after decades.
I could refer to the many developments in Africa, and since I am not a paid professional analyst with own staffing resources, my list of critical developments in the World would be highly selective, and certainly biased. Of course, it would include a whole chapter on instability in the Western Balkans, where I spend much of my time.
So, what can be said about "What's next?" now, mid summer 2022?
The almost natural reflex is about looking around and to assess specific situations, specific countries or regions, and to attempt making predictions about how things may remain stable, or not. But more often than not, previous developments have taught us that destabilisation, system change, conflict and war occur almost to the surprise of professional analysts, and intelligence systems. The short term developments may be subject to correct analysis, like intelligence organisations unequivocally warned about Russia being serious about invading the Ukraine, once there was enough evidential data. But that was a short-term prediction, being put out into the public domain only from end of 2021 onwards, also in order to convince those who still, until February 23, 2022, doubted that Russia would follow-through on building up her military power alongside the borders of the Ukraine. Did we have enough data to predict this already, say in April 2021, at the time when "Global Trends 2040" was issued? From what I know through publicly avalable information, I would doubt it. So, this is not about "I told you so".
The same will be the case related to anything up in the future, any new conflict development, where we then, again, will ask ourselves with hindsight whether we would have been able to predict it. In a highly complex and unstable environment, the fault-lines of where conflict arises next, and which physical or virtual dimension it takes, are difficult to predict medium-term, and impossible to predict long-term.
However, this makes the highly abstract level of "Global Trends 2040", which I summarised above so profoundly valuable. Because, whilst we cannot be sure about "What's next?", we can be reasonably certain about that we have not reached rock-bottom. "Global Trends 2040" predicts a fundamental paradigm change and a war of systems, not a state of "rock bottom" from where things might recover to an old or only slightly changed equilibrium.
One of my favorite Youtube channels is called "Veritasium". The channel is run by Derek Muller. Veritasium is covering a broad range of subjects, based on scientific evidence. According to its own website, "Veritasium is a channel of science and engineering videos featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science." You will find a vlog as of August 2, 2022 there, called "The 4 things it takes to be an expert". This piece is amazing:
In attempting to answer the question which experts have real expertise, the vlog includes a long list of references related to scientific evidence for its statements. The four things that make somebody a real expert, in ANY field of expertise, are based on long and ardous training, the vlog talks of a rule of thumb of 10.000 hours. In order to become an expert, one has to go through many repeated attempts with feedback. At one point of the video, Veritasium refers to a sample of 284 people who make their living on offering analysis or commenting on complex issues related to politcal and economic trends. These people were followed and questioned over two decades. The results, in a nutshell, are sobering. Any so-called expert with only education, but without extended feedback loops, was doing terribly. These "experts" were not significantly better in their predictions than non-specialists.
Watch the vlog. But what is the issue here? At least, that we have to be very careful in attempting to make predictions. And secondly, that we need to have a healthy and limited expectation in relation to what pundits will tell us. In my own self-assessment, I would certainly qualify for the 10.000 hour rule in relation to my own field of expertise (peace & security). But it would not make me believe that I would be able to find anything more than short-term answers to the question "What's next?".
Something which is called "cognitive bias" adds to the problem. This is what is behind the picture attached to this blog, and you can find the picture in wikipedia's list of 188 cognitive biases, grouped into categories and rendered by John Manoogian III. In essence, according to the website teachthought, "a cognitive bias is an inherent thinking 'blind spot' that reduces thinking accuracy and results inaccurate–and often irrational–conclusions." The graphical summary is listing 180 (!!) of them.
With having said that on our limitations to predict the future reliably, I will finally come back again to "Global Trends 2040". What I, in sum, subscribe to, is the general statement about a time of system change which "Global Trends 2040" has, in my view correctly, deducted from available assessed information, which we call intelligence.
After President Nr 45 of the United States of America took power, I would find it comparatively easy to anticipate the scenarios that were possible to happen, and my worst case scenarios were pretty much along the lines of what we witnessed, until including January 06, 2021, and what we see coming up as a continuing threat for democracy in the United States, until today.
But compared with the complexity of fragility which we experience, this prediction was a piece of cake, since it was largely based on a psychological analysis of a person with multiple personality disorders, adding perhaps some deeper understanding about American society because I was embedded there for five years and listened and learned a lot.
Asking the question "What's next" related to what we experience since then, I only know it will get worse, but I don't know how, meaning "What's next". This is not a Doomsday attitude. Rather, it is a personal statement about the gravity of the situation we are finding ourselves in, these days.
"With The Help of Social Media Memories Can Be Erased" – Considerations on the Relativity of Truth
May 14, 2022 May 15, 2022 / stefanfeller / Leave a comment
Preface: I read the interview with Maria Ressa (see below) and began to express my thoughts about social media manipulation during a few days in Bucharest. It turned out not to be an easy-going process, I was struggling with something that I now identify as the question "Can I find an objective truth?" In a way this felt to me like an extension of my thinking which I began with Part 1 – 3 grappling with aspects of "perception".
The following travel to Toronto, including some severe jetlag, didn't help me feeling comfortable with the results of my thought processes, so I let the issue lingering in my drafts folder. Now, with some rest and witnessing a beautiful spring morning in Ontario, I'll try it again.
Maria Ressa has been awarded the Nobel Price for Peace in 2021, together with Dmitry Muratov, for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. Her journalist work is including 20 years as a correspondent and investigative reporter. The title of this blog entry includes a quote from her.
12.02.2022, the German online portal of the news broadcast "Tagesthemen" carried an interview with Maria Ressa on occasion of the Philippine Presidential elections. The elections were won by Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos jr., son of the late Dictator Ferdinand Marcos sr., who ruled the country between 1965 and 1986, until he was finally ousted. Together with his family and his cronies, he stands for decades of authoritarian reign, massive corruption, and reckless brutality. The family fled their country with an estimated 10bn USD. A good summary on occasion of the 2022 elections can be found in this BBC piece.
For context: The outgoing President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte leaves a reign of shame for history, too. Most remembered will be the wave of extra-judicial killings with which he allowed the Police to mutate into a murderous gang, killing scores of people, pretending that a strong-armed fight against drug kings would necessitate this and that there would not be a need for due judicial process. I remember U.S. President Nr. 45 speaking admirably of Duterte. Which in itself does not make Duterte a likeable person, Nr 45 also fell in love with North-Korea's dictator, and, well, his docile relationship with Vladimir Putin will never be forgotten either. Pied pipers.
The core message of Maria Ressa in this German article is that memories of decades of history can be erased, if social media is masterfully used. Not only that memory can be changed, that alternate versions of the same historical events can be created, no, Ressa says that corporate memories can be erased by social media manipulation. Disinformation campaigns on an industrial scale allow that, according to her. The BBC article quoted above would also indicate a manipulation aiming at changing the perception of history by "Bongbong" and associates for at least the last ten years.
Of course, an interview shortened for the digestion of the general public can not provide the same evidence as academic research would do. But for my thoughts it appears to be enough to rely both on the journalistic ethics behind two renowned public broadcasters and on the fact that a credible investigative journalist won the World's most prestigious award.
The past years have established a large body of evidence that social media is used systematically for manipulation of public opinion on a gargantuan scale. Many will remember the impact of such activities in the run-up of U.S. presidential elections, 2016. The litany of actual examples would be too long to read. December 2020 I wrote about one example, explaining a NATO study on aspects of this topic.
The case of the Philippine Presidential elections is frightening. Bongbong Marcos has won in a landslide election, not by a margin. No need for Bongbong even to prepare for challenging an election as being manipulated, and to contest it. According to Ressa, Bongbong's victory is based on a manipulation of the electorate on an industrial scale. On lies that create a narrative of Ferdinand Marcos sr. being a hero, the greatest leader of the Philippine Nation ever, and that his son, if he will win the elections, will give the money back to the poor. We will see whether he will do that. My experience would tell me that chances are slim if the whole election is already based on an epic manipulation of historical reality.
The overwhelming victory appears, strictly speaking by counting the votes, sound. Yet, the manipulation sits straight in front of our eyes: Democracy has been defeated with a never-ending stream of content on social media re-branding the image of the Marcos' family. Phillipinos were told that the dictatorial regime was a golden age, free of crime. Which is pretty much the opposite of what is on historical record.
But, is there something like one common repository of historical records? That's what I am struggling with here: Is there something like an objective truth?
In an Address to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin on January 27th, 1921 on Geometry and Experience, Albert Einstein elaborates on the relationship between the laws of mathematics and reality: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." (Project Gutenberg eBooks, "Sidelights on Relativity", EBook #7333).
In the case of historical truths I would transfrom this sentence into "As far as a historical record refers to reality, it is not certain; and as far as such a record is certain, it does not refer to reality."
This leaves many people very confused. In my belonging to a group of people, I do establish and participate in a historical context about what happened which is based on a common framework through which the members of this group identify. If the framework is very different between two or several different groups of people, their interpretation of what happened in the past can have little or no common grounds. And always when two or several different explanations clash in a discourse, we try to identify an objective yardstick against which we construct our argument why we believe we hold the truth. And we fail on agreeing on the same yardstick, the same objective measuring rod. The results can include so many divergent views, like two different groups entirely disagreeing on whether historical events were constituting a genocide, or not. The result being that the shared reality of such different groups differs in so fundamental ways that coexistence is the best option, always with the threat of violent discourse looming.
There is nothing new in the above. The new aspect, insofar as my writing goes, relates to the claim that systematic social media manipulation can entirely change the public record of history. Again, the past is filled with examples how systematic disinformation campaigns can establish new perceived realities within a group. Being a German national, I like to refer to disinformation campaigns undertaken by the ilk surrounding Hitler. Goebbels for sure is an example of masterful application of deceit and the use of manipulation in order to control the German populace.
But is there something new stemming from the ubiquity of social media of these days? If the general method of manipulation through disinformation is a tool which has been used for millenia in order to control populations for the benefit of a ruling elite, what is the new dimension which comes from social media?
Maria Ressa, in that "Tagesthemen" interview, also refers to the manipulation machine used by Russia in relation to the situation on the Krim, and in the Ukraine: She claims that the first step is about oppression, and the second step is about extinguishing memory. Based upon the experiences she has made in her home country, the Phillipines, she anticipates the same method being utilised in the context of Russias intent to aggressively usurp the Ukraine. She claims that social media have the effect to divide and to radicalise. Thus, she challenges the argument that social media is a tool vital for guaranteeing the freedom of speech. Instead of being used to allow free speech, according to her the algorithms used by Twitter, FaceBook, Tic Toc, and so many more, they make sure that priority will be given to content which is distributed broadly, preferably even virally. Of course, this is the ad-driven business-model behind social media enterprises. According to Ressa, therefore the distribution of facts will always loose against the distribution of lies, hate, and resentment. Drowning the news related to factual reporting, Ressa then states that the result is an entire loss of a shared reality.
The yardstick of a common historical record has unalterably changed, the division has been established, power can be exerted by controlling the perceived reality. Ressa makes the case for a global threat for values including democracy, but she also hints at, perhaps in my view, the biggest threat of our contemporary times: That we will disagree about the climate crisis as a consequence of global warming.
Which is, probably, on top of the list of global challenges which require a joint reality framework holding true for all people and nations on this globe.
As so often, I have no simple answer. Because there simply is no simple answer at all. We tend to simplify, and to go to extremes. Which always amplifies the problem once a complex system is brought out of its previous delicate state of balance, whilst we do not know how to create a new balance, instead of the entire system collapsing.
So, who is right? Maria Ressa with claiming that social media has the potential to destroy realities, and the underlying framework allowing for democracy, or Elon Musk, who has repeatedly tweeted that taking Nr 45 off Twitter has been one of the biggest mistakes, and that this is all about guaranteeing the freedom of speech?
I am still navigating through the depths of this question, and personal consequences. Should I maintain my Twitter account (which is a microscopic grain of sand in the Twitterverse) once Musk owns Twitter? What I know is that I would be extremely careful about listening to a person who happens to be the richest person in the world, who is able to just buy a social media firm in a snap, take it off from the stock market in order to make the changes of his liking, and then to put it back on the stock market. Why should I trust somebody who has one single intention: Using things for a business model based on profitmaking? Why should I believe that a statement about freedom of opinion is unbiased, if the motivation behind is purely enterprise-driven, and the methodology being used is taking every single accountability mechanism offline?
Also not new. But for me, the new thing is that one person has the potential to make a decision that has global implications on a level unheard of in history, whilst any mechanisms of public accountability appear to be on national level, and to some extent on a level of international organisations, but where the credibility of these international organisations is under massive systematic attack.
I will tell you if I stay on Twitter.
Justice Being Served
May 2, 2022 May 2, 2022 / stefanfeller / Leave a comment
In my writing on the general theme of my blog – Peace & Security, Trauma & Reconciliation – I often attempt to create a conduit from the impact of personal trauma towards the effects which it has on the scale of communities, or societies. You can find some comprehensive thoughts on this in my articles on (1) the impact of trauma on individuals, (2) the trauma of children in conflict and war, and (3) the impact of trauma on communities and societies ravaged by conflict and war.
On occasion of a few other articles I have also mentioned that this is not only academic writing, but that my own processing of personal trauma is entangled with this process. It is a source of personal experience, a source of strong personal motivation, but also a source of profoundly subjective views. Objective viewpoints, entirely separating the observer from the observed, they are impossible, not only in quantum mechanics. From quantum physics we know that in literally no aspect of examining and explaining the world the observer can be separated from the observed. In human sciences we know this, of course, too. The knowledge about this fact is forcing me to always step back and critically examine my own attempts to come up with the best shot at how I try to make sense of this world.
One morning end of January 2022 I woke up after a good nights sleep. I managed to keep my busy thoughts silent during the first minutes, enjoying my morning routine of making the first coffee, feeding my cat, and beginning my day with a little mindfulness exercise. It worked pretty well, I began my day in calmness.
After which I went into my morning routine of reading the news, over my second coffee. This story showed up on my screen: "DR Congo court sentences 51 in trial over 2017 murder of UN experts", from the French news agency France24. A few minutes later, my balanced approach towards the day, a Sunday morning, was over. I had to sit down and to understand why I was feeling complex emotions, and a strong nausea in my stomach. Over the years I have learned to better understand these signs of a traumatic reaction. In such a situation I try to sit still and to embrace this reaction in a gentle way, instead of mentally running away from it.
There are reasons why I reacted so strongly. I am connected to this story. I was involved in attempts from United Nations Headquarters' in New York to deal with this horrific murder. I had privileged sight on videos taken by some of the perpetrators, documenting the last minutes and seconds before and when these U.N. experts were killed. I was involved in efforts investigating this situation, and such involvement happened on so many other awful occasions before in my line of work: My more than two decades of international work include a huge amount of personal trauma I have happily piled up. I do know that this leads to a mechanism called re-enactment. I am re-enacting my own previous trauma. My work on this since many years has given me tools with which I can mitigate the effects.
I remember those days in 2017 with all diplomatic efforts on highest levels conveying the message that we, the international community of humanitarians, peacekeepers, diplomats, expected justice being served. I remember my boss of that time, a United Nations Undersecretary General, reporting to us after he returned from a field visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He had left the message with Congolese politicians that "this will not go away easily", that it requires a sustained effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.
I also remember that I assessed the chances for justice being served under extraordinary circumstances as being slim. I contributed to our efforts assisting investigative authorities, sending own forensic experts working in my Division, helping Congolese investigators and prosecutors. Over time, hopes of seeing this crime being solved and perpetrators being sentenced, it faded. Until I saw this story, end of January 2022, give or take five years after the brutal murder act.
02 May 2022, I am working on a set of texts which I will partially or entirely publish here, depending on whether the statements in these texts have a connection to my general theme of this blog (see above). In this context, I am working on explaining why, in my experience, there is literally no memory of any situation I have been in which does not have links to the emotions I felt at the time of the event. One hypothesis I am following in this context is that these emotions can de-link from the events which caused them. As "emotional memories" with no connection to an event causing them, they "linger around", come up when triggered, influencing my emotional and cognitive setup. This, I suspect, is especially true in situations when I am exposed to what we call "trauma".
Which would explain the feeling of grave nausea when I read the article about Congolese authorities sentencing 51 individuals connected to that murder which I, like many other events in my professional career, can not forget.
My next blog article will include thoughts on the inseparability of emotions and perceptions, communication, and memory. It will be pretty methodical, I hope I can make that one an interesting read.
In this view, this draft article which I found unfinished when opening my WordPress editor, it is a teaser on more general observations to come.
But I'm ending here by stating that justice can be served, and like here, it may contribute to my healing. As a matter of fact, it does. I must continue to believe in this, and whilst I have no sight on how professional the investigation and application of the legal process by Congolese authorities has been, or whether there was negligence, faultiness, or willful instrumentalisation of legal due process, I must believe that justice is possible as a concept, and as a part of reality, and that hopefully the real perpetrators have been sentenced.
There are new atrocities happening in 2022. As happened all those years in between, whether in Myanmar, Afghanistan, now the Ukraine, in so many places in the Middle East and Africa, and elsewhere. I must continue to believe in the possibility of individual and collective justice, otherwise there are only new wounds, but no healing, and no scars.


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Zborovská pamětní medaile je pamětní medaile zřízená 13. května 1947 jako připomínka třicátého výročí bitvy u Zborova (červenec 1917).

Externí odkazy
 Zborovská pamětní medaile na stránkách Vojenského historického ústavu.
 Zborovská pamětní medaile na stránkách forum.valka.cz

Československá státní vyznamenání
Ocenění založená roku 1947

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Q: On an equality of $x \bmod 1$ Let $x \bmod 1\in \Bbb R$ be fractional part of $x \in \Bbb R$.
For what values of $x \in \Bbb R$ is $x^2 \bmod 1 = (x \bmod 1)^2$? Naturally if $|x| < 1$ we have the equality. However, there are some numbers like $x \in 0.5r \pm \Bbb N$ where $r \in \{0, 1\}$ which satisfy this equality. What is the entire solution set?
What about for higher powers?

A: Written
$$x=[x]+\{x\}$$
we have
$$\{x^2\}=\{[x]^2+2[x]\{x\}+\{x\}^2\}=\{2[x]\{x\}+\{x\}^2\}$$
So the necessary and sufficient condition for $\{x^2\}=\{x\}^2$ is that $2[x]\{x\}$ is an integer.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Q: Blazor WASM hosted how can I list all Identity Users in a Client page? I can't seem to list the Identity users in a Blazor Client page using typical HTML.  The reason is, I can't seem to get to the userManager.Users.ToList() in the Client-side.
This project is VS-2022, CORE-6, Blazor webassembly hosted with a SQL Server database.
My goal would be to have an Administrator (role) to CRUD "employees".
The starting point for me is "list the users that are in AspNetUsers table".  I have been unable to do so.  I want to use the Identity: UserManager, RoleManager and Claims, but seem unable to get to these objects from the client-side.
I seek snippets of code that shows the code in SHARED, SERVER and CLIENT projects.
There is a similiar question without an answer at this link:
How to list all the Users in a Blazor Webassembly hosted application with Identity? .
Your comments, questions and solutions are welcome. Thanks.

A:
"list the users that are in AspNetUsers table".

The web assembly is runing at the client side, so we couldn't use usermanager to call the server-side EF core to query the table and get the user table's result.
I suggest you could create a backend web api or other page action and use the Blazor to call it.
About how to use Blazor to call the backend method, I suggest you could refer to this article.


Here are some pictures of the staircase pictures. We have some best ideas of pictures to give you imagination, imagine some of these newest images. We hope you can vote them. Perhaps the following data that we have add as well you need.
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1. Do one thing in regards to the walls of your bedroom. Nothing is quite so frustrating as limited space for movement and storage. Whether that means a spot to chop onions, prepare meals for the oven, or perhaps a spot to grill, the island can combine performance leaving you with less requirements on space. Look on the smaller house available to you as a chance to flex your artistic muscles. It's sometimes onerous to begin redecorating your house, especially when you don't actually need it, but you'd like a change. Yes, this system requires a variety of your time, but the results are value the price. Lining up cabinets and appliances in hallway trend can provide you with the flexibility to get so much completed in a limited quantity of space, thus chopping again on time. If you happen to ever get uninterested in them, peel them off fastidiously and they will not trigger any injury to the wall.
Listed here are a couple of wall decorating ideas. Decals are humorous in kids's rooms. The decals are great for small accents or trails round windows or doorways. Are there any options? This is hard when there is no plan to follow. For those who desire picket material, both your mattress body and your closet needs to be made from wood. Put enough pillows for a snug sleep, however don't overcrowd your bed. You possibly can put some pillows on your bed, and likewise a blanket or a duvet would be good. If you possibly can accomplish multiple activity in a given location, make sure that you do so. By combining the two, you may give yourself an opportunity to unfold out. You would also use latex paint to design your individual wall patterns. You'll discover on-line all you want, from complicated mural and decorative wall paintings to abnormal wallpapers. These days every little thing is getting smaller-phones, residence video discs, MP3 gamers. That's roughly true.
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net:art | near in the distance 2 was a production of the Austrian NREN ACOnet in cooperation with the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, international science networks, and art and cultural institutions (see partners).
"net:art | near in the distance 2" was an interactive multi-site sound and dance performance. Technology and science became allies of the artistic concept and followed the lead of the protagonists.
Spread out in different locations across the globe, musicians, dancers and visual artists were in contact with each other over high-speed audio/video transmission technology and responded live to the signals they have sent and received in real time.
The stage of hall G of Vienna's MuseumsQuartier complex and the ensemble in Vienna formed the centre of the action. The images produced were processed simultaneously, reaching the audience in the form of an interactive "collage". In this unique production the stage experience blurred time and space, as well as physical presence and absence.
Regardless where the artists were located - in Barcelona, Ljubljana, New York, Judenburg or Prague (see venues), or whether they communicated via their bodies or instruments - the huge challenge of this production was to overcome and/or synchronise the latency which occurs in image and sound due to the various distances.
Artists such as the musician and composer Rupert Huber or Rosa Sánchez and Alain Baumann of Kònic thtr (Barcelona) have long been referring in their widely noticed network projects to the synergistic confluence of various disciplines, skills and genres. For "net:art | near in the distance 2" they were composing, choreographing, programming and performing with Richard Dorfmeister, Antye Greie-Ripatti aka AGF, Chris Eckman, Dominik Grünbühel and Victoria Macarte, among others (see artists).


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Rwanda - Countries
A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Rwanda
The United States recognized Rwanda in 1962. The U.S. Government is currently a major aid donor to Rwanda, where the USAID works in concert with the Rwandan Government to promote a number of initiatives, including economic development and diversification, public health, and democratic governance.
Modern Flag of Rwanda
U.S. Recognition of Rwandan Independence, 1962.
The United States recognized the Republic of Rwanda when it attained independence on July 1, 1962, in a congratulatory message from President John F. Kennedy to President Gregoire Kayibanda dated June 28, 1962. The area that became Rwanda had been previously under Belgian administration as part of the Trust territory Ruanda-Urundi.
Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and the American Embassy in Rwanda, 1962.
Diplomatic relations were established on July 1, 1962, when the American Embassy at Kigali was established, with David J.S. Manbey as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.
View a list of all countries

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This 4.5mm wide Celtic inspired wedding band will be made to order for you in our Queensland jewellery studio within 3 business days. It will be packaged in a box suitable for gifting, and care instructions along with a complimentary polishing cloth will be included.
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From the mouth to gut: A microbial journey!
S. R. Apoorva
Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Microbiology, Vinayaka Mission's Sankarachariyar Dental College, Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation (Deemed to be University), Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
*Corresponding author: S. R. Apoorva, III BDS student, Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Microbiology, Vinayaka Mission's Sankarachariyar Dental College, Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation (Deemed to be University), Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. apoodheez10@gmail.com
Received: 2020-09-10 , Accepted: 2020-09-24 , Published: 2020-12-29
© 2020 Published by Scientific Scholar on behalf of Journal of Academy of Dental Education
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
How to cite this article: Apoorva SR. From the mouth to gut: A microbial journey! J Academy Dent Educ 2020;6(1 & 2):16-22.
The oral microbiome invades almost the whole of the body, resulting in "n" number of systemic diseases. The gut is no exception in falling short to them. Many studies both in the four legged animals and their two legged successors (presumed to be the humans) have concluded that the oral microbiome can translocate to the gut and change its microbiota and eventually the immune defense. This ectopic displacement of oral microbiome specifically occurs in severe systemic diseases. Most commonly it is seen having its rage in patients with chronic periodontitis. Dysbiosis in the subgingival microbiota and immune defense, sometimes dysregulation in the gut, turns out to be the threat posed by the oral microbes. Among the other tiny troublemakers, Porphyromonas gingivalis remains the most serious. A dysbiotic gut microbiota may further cause diseases elsewhere in the body. The fact that chronic periodontitis may affect the gut microbiota suggests that the future would foresee a coordinated approach to the treatment of periodontitis and gastrointestinal diseases. Although this specific area of investigation is still a bud, it may portray different pathways for the oral microbiome to cause systemic diseases thence deserving a detailed probe furthermore.
Oral microbiome
Virulence factors
Dysbiosis
Show Related Articles from PubMed
A man's oral cavity hosts more than 700 varieties of microbes.[1] These microbes play an important role in role in modifying human health, thereby leading to disease. The oral microbiota is one of the most complex microbial communities in the whole human body (1). The completion of Human Microbiota Program[2] saw that with the developing trends in the world, people too upgraded their awareness of oral microbes but have not yet analyzed the action of oral microbiota in oral diseases such as caries, periodontal disease, and even few types of oral cancers. Another report from Segata et al.[3] in Genome Biology said that the oral cavity and stool bacteria overlapped in nearly half (45%) of the subjects in the Human Microbiome Project, suggesting that the transfer of oral bacteria to the gut is therefore common. Evidences show that the members of the oral and oropharyngeal microbiota reach the stomach through swallowed saliva, nutrients, and drinks and they are in harmony with digestive diseases. Saliva production ranges from 0.75 to 1.5 L/day but this range depends on the stages of disease progression. The ingested saliva contains an enormous amount of oral microbes. In general, these bacteria are poor colonizers of the healthy intestine.[4] Severe diseases, however, see an increased amount of oral bacteria in the intestine, as in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), HIV infection, liver cirrhosis, colon cancer, primary sclerosing cholangitis, gastroesophageal reflex disease, and alcoholism.[5] With these microbes as the central target, the treatment of oral and systemic diseases would go hand in hand.This article shall discuss the action of oral microbiota which leads to gut-related diseases.
NATIVES OF THE ORAL CAVITY
One of the most complex environments in the human body is the oral cavity. It constitutes the lips, tongue, teeth, periodontium, hard and soft palate, floor of the mouth, and buccal mucosa, which remains as a gateway between the environment and the body and is the first line of defense against microbes and their products.[6] The oral cavity adds a feather to its cap by serving as a primary digestive organ which helps to breakdown carbohydrates and dietary lipids – the two major energy sources for the host physiology and bacterial growth. This anatomical cavern hosts microbiome of about 700 bacterial species as well as various viruses and fungi. These microbiota can be either aerobic or anaerobic with bacteria being its main inhabitants[3] primarily comprising of the Firmicutes, Bacillus, Proteobacteria, Actinomyces, Fusobacterium, Veillonella, and Streptococcus mutans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Staphylococcus, and Lactobacillus.[7]S. mutans is the most common visitor and also contributes to the formation of dental plaque[8] and dental caries[9] occurring in hard tissues of the teeth which has the highest incidence among all the other oral diseases. It is followed by P. gingivalis, a periodontal anaerobic bacterium, which when ignored results in the mobility of teeth. Another familiar bacterium is Lactobacillus, a group of microbes that live in the body to benefit the host. Since it is a sugar fermenting bacteria, it can easily cause caries. The next group of microbes in race is around 85 species of fungi, of Candida[10] is the keystone. Candida is dormant in a neutral environment and when the iron is hot, it strikes by forming a biofilm with Streptococcus to play a spoilsport. Few members of the viruses, mainly phages, are also a part.[11] Some of the non-original viruses which appears in the mouth due to certain diseases is the mumps virus and HIV [Table 1]. The oral microbiota can be either beneficial or potentially pathogenic[6] and is kept in balance by the natural defense mechanisms of the oral cavity like the cell shedding from the epithelial surface layers and salivary secretions all of which can limit excessive microbial colonization. Salivary immunoglobulins such as IgA, IgG, and IgM as well as salivary agglutinins, histatins, and lysozymes are a part of the host defense.[12] These oral microbiota are influenced by multiple factors such as personal hygiene, diet, smoke, and sometimes host genetic factors.
Table 1:: This shows some of the types of oral microorganisms along with its representative members, responsible for causing gut-related diseases.
Types of microorganisms involved
Representative members
Bacteria Firmicutes, Bacillus, Proteobacteria, Actinomyces, Fusobacterium, Veillonella,and Streptococcus mutans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Staphylococcus, and Lactobacillus
Fungi Candida
Viruses Phages, mumps virus, and HIV
INFLUENCE OF THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS ON OVERALL HEALTH
Evidences say that oral microbiota has an impact on the systemic health of an individual to an extent. Diet patterns and food extracts influence oral microbiota. In this world of diversity, diet patterns vary from person to person. Some are vegetarians, westerns, and hunter-gatherers.[13] Researchers who have attempted to investigate the impact of oral microbiota using different diet strategies on oral health and physiology found major differences among hunter-gatherers, traditional farmers, western diet, and vegetarians. Through a 16 s short-gun sequencing of salivary DNA, sufficient evidence has shown that abundance ratios of core species are significantly correlated with diet pattern. The galore of Neisseria and Haemophilus showed a huge difference in the hunter-gatherers and westerners and difference in the traditional farmers was in between them. Hunter-gatherers were found to possess few oral pathogens indicating that too much of meat in diet has more tendency to cause oral diseases. The vegetarian diet, on the other hand, alters the oral microbiota's composition at all taxonomic levels, including the oral pathogens (Neisseria and Haemophilus) and respiratory tract microbes (Campylobacter and Porphyromonas), thereby altering its function. Gene function analysis indicated that the adaptation from hunter-gatherers to western diets may be Vitamin B5 autotrophy and urease-mediated pH regulation.[14] Many studies have shown that intake of green tea or purified catechins helps to prevent oral cancers. When the researchers measured the oral microbiota of tobacco smokers before and after drinking green tea, they found that these smokers were at high risk for oral cancer. The sequencing results showed apparent changes in the relative abundance of Streptococcus and Staphylococcus after green tea intake, which indicated that the tea can change oral microbiota and affect carcinogenesis.[15] Polyphenol is a common food extract found in grapes, cherry, red wine, and apple and its metabolism starts in the oral cavity, but how it influences the oral microbiota still remains a question mark. Of late, alcohol polyphenols were found to exert an antibacterial effect on oral pathogenic bacteria (such as S. mutans), which acts by inhibiting the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria and formation of biofilm. In addition, they can also inhibit the host inflammatory response caused by periodontal pathogens. Thus, polyphenols are considered to be the faith healers against oral pathogens.[16] The tobacco, alcohol, and areca nut users are more prone to oral cancers than the individuals who do not consume them. Researchers have sequenced salivary microbiota to assess the influence of chewing betel nut. Bacterial diversity was found to be considerably reduced among areca nut chewers. Betel nut chewers exhibited an increasing ratio of Actinomyces and Streptococcus and reduced relative abundance of Parascardovia. Thus, oral microbiota may sometimes negatively influence the overall health upon digesting specific food.[17]
PATHWAYS BRIDGING THE ORAL MICROBIOTA AND GUT
Previously, many studies have revealed a mass of orally derived bacteria in the gut of patients with various diseases, but whether these oral bacteria have the potential to induce intestinal inflammation and cause systematic diseases remained unknown,[18] however, recent studies have shown that these orally derived bacteria can colonize the intestines, resulting in the activation of intestinal immune system and chronic inflammation;[19] researchers who ingested saliva samples from patients with Crohn's disease into germ-free mice found a marked increase in T helper 1 (Th1) IFNalpha+CD4+ cells in the intestinal lamina propria. They also identified a bacterium that is primarily colonized in the colon, named Klebsiella pneumoniae 2H7 (Kp-2H7) which may be the main cause of TH1 cell accumulation. However, its colonization in wild-type mice does not provoke an immune response. All these experiments indicated that this species of bacteria can be colonized in a dysbiotic gut microbiota and act as a pathogen in susceptible hosts. Transplantation of a Klebsiella strain of bacteria isolated from ulcerative colitis into germ-free mice can lead to an immune response and accumulation of TH1 cells. Through the results of 16 s rDNA sequencing, it is found that Klebsiella strain of bacteria in patients with Crohn's disease increases significantly and in IBD patients, Klebsiella-related genes are found predominant in the gut microbiota.[5] Although many studies have confirmed the close connection between the oral microbiota and digestive diseases, the three possible ways which bridge the oral cavity and digestive system are described as follows:
The oral microbiota tends to directly invade the intestinal tract through the esophagus, creating an imbalance in the intestinal microecology, hence affecting the digestive system [Figure 1][20,21]
According to a study on colorectal cancer, Fusobacterium nucleatum colonizes and shows its action in the colorectal tract by the systemic circulation. Few oral microbes, especially the pathogenic bacterial strain involved in periodontitis, can enter this systemic circulation through the periodontal blood, thereby acting on the whole body [Figure 1][22]
When the human body is in a low-grade inflammatory state (arising due to the metabolites of the oral microbiota in the systemic circulation), there are many opportunities for the occurrence of multiple chronic diseases of the digestive system. This approach is currently not supported by direct evidence from oral microbiological studies. However, there are studies which provide enough sources on systemic disease developing due to an imbalance in gut microbiota which indirectly hints an involvement by the oral microbiota.[23,24]
Figure 1:: These are the pathways by which oral microbiota causes gut-related problems. It also shows the systemic complications caused by them.
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P. gingivalis is another important bacterium that induces dysbiosis by impairing innate host defenses and disrupting the interaction between host microbiota and mucosa. It can target the complement C5a receptor 1 (C5aR1) and toll-like receptor 2 to activate the PI3K signaling pathway, which blocks phagocytosis and promotes inflammation by secreting SerB, a serine phosphatase, specifically dephosphorylates the p65 NF-B homodimer, which, in turn, inhibits the formation and nuclear translocation of NF-B-p65 homodimers. Transcription of the IL8 gene is reduced, and the IL-8 neutrophil gradient is disrupted during this process. This action will contribute to the cyclical nature of periodontal tissue destruction.[25]
ORAL MICROBIOTA AND THE "ORPHANED" OVERALL HEALTH
The microbes that dwell in the oral cavity remain the mastermind behind wide range of oral diseases, with the caries being predominant followed by periodontal diseases and in some cases, oral cancers. These are also involved either directly or indirectly in causing other metabolic diseases of the gut including diabetes,[26] intestinal bowel disorders,[24] obesity, liver diseases, colon cancers, and pancreatic cancers [Figure 1]. It may also be responsible for an autoimmune disease and rheumatoid arthritis.[27]
In today's world, obesity has become a disease next door. This particular disease has no mercy but it definitely can be prevented. Many reports have described a close relationship between gut microbiota and obesity. According to a study,[26] 33 adult obese people and 29 healthy adults with normal weight were selected to identify the composition of oral microbiota. The study found that oral microbiota in the obese group was quite different from those in the healthy group. However, the bacterial diversity and abundance of oral microbiota in the healthy periodontal obese people were markedly reduced. The oral microbiota of obese people saw a significant rise in the abundance of Plasmodium, S. genus, and S. mutans, whereas there was a fall in the abundance of Haemophilus, Corynebacterium, carbonophilic phage, and Staphylococcus. The environmental adaptability of the oral microbiota of obese people and the biodegradability of exogenous substances were low, and they exhibited notable features of immune diseases. Till date, researchers have only found that there is an imbalance in the oral microbiota of obese people, but the underlying mechanism needs a detailed investigation.[28]
Previously, it was known that the imbalance of gut microbiota is one of the major factors that lead to the development of liver disease. However, recent studies have reported that imbalance of both gut and the oral microbiota is linked. The diversity and the composition of oral microbiota in patients with liver cancer were significantly different than that of healthy people. Among them, Clostridium, Oribacterium, Ciliate, Actinomyces, and Campylobacter appeared to have high abundance, whereas Haemophilus, Streptococcus, and Pseudomonas have a low abundance. Clostridium and Oribacterium are the potential biomarkers that help in the diagnosis of liver cancer and also distinguish between patients with liver cancer from healthy people. Those with liver cirrhosis too exhibit an imbalance of oral microbiota. In them, there is a reduction in the abundance of oral symbiotic bacteria and an increase in the abundance of potential pathogenic bacteria (e.g., Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococcus). Researchers who compared the gut microbiota of patients with cirrhosis and healthy people found that the intestinal microbiota of patients with cirrhosis is enriched with a variety of oral microbes, including Weirong, Streptococcus, Pasteurella genus, Haemophilus, Lactobacillus, and Clostridium. The researchers revealed that the oral microbes invade gut microbiota of patients with cirrhosis. Studies in animals have shown that P. gingivalis invades the intestinal tract and hence responsible for the changes in gut microbiota's composition, increased intestinal mucosal permeability and insulin resistance, and results in the spreading of gut's bacteria to the liver which, in turn, results in an increased triglyceride levels in liver tissue. These changes validated the ability of oral microbes to invade the gut[29,30] in addition to the potentially affecting transplant outcomes, periodontitis is proved to be clinically involved with liver diseases such as pre-cirrhotic non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma;[31] there are chances that the link between the liver and the oral cavity could be made possible through impaired intestinal permeability that, in turn, could allow direct translocation of bacteria along with their products and inflammatory mediators from the oral cavity to the systemic circulation. In addition to periodontitis, cirrhotic patients exhibit numerous other oral issues, such as petechiae, candidiasis, and xerostomia. Although studies regarding a relation between periodontal and liver diseases are not as crystal clear as other studies linking periodontitis and systemic conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease,[32] a greater incidence of periodontitis (about 25–68%) has been reported in cirrhotic patients compared with healthy controls[33] an observation which definitely requires a detailed probe.
Reports have shown that along with the gut microbiota, the oral microbiota too is closely related to colorectal cancer. A member of the oral microbiota , F. nucleatum translocates to extraoral sites through systemic circulation and with the decline of immune mechanisms, it leads to local inflammation and indirectly promotes tumor formation. F. nucleatum is a Gram-negative obligate anaerobic bacterium. Several reports have isolated F. nucleatum from colorectal cancer tissues. Patients with high abundance of F. nucleatum have a higher tendency to develop colorectal cancer;[34] hence, the abundance of these bacteria serves as a potential marker for colorectal cancer. Studies reveal that F. nucleatum directly acts on host cells and adheres to normal cells and E-cadherin of cancerous epithelial cells through FadA, hence, activating catenin-regulated transcriptional pathway which leads to increased expression of cancer marker genes which, in turn, promotes cancer. These bacteria can also mediate the entry of non-invasive bacteria (such as Streptococcus and Campylobacter) into cells indirectly promoting the development of tumors. Studies have found that F. nucleatum can also be transferred from the mother's mouth to fetal tissue and cause fetal death. In patients with colorectal cancer, Han et al. found that the biofilm of their colonic mucosa is consistent with its periodontal biofilm component. However, F. nucleatum was not detected in the stool of patients with colorectal cancer. Hence, it is concluded that F. nucleatum may not translocate from the oral cavity through the digestive tract. The specific mechanism underlying its movement is still unclear, but it may involve transient bacteremia in the bloodstream and then transfer to the colorectal tumor.[35]
Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate and stands fourth among the cancers leading to death. However, its etiology still remains dark. The predominant risk factors that develop pancreatic cancer are genetics, smoking, and obesity. In addition, imbalance of oral microbiota also plays a major role. Helicobacter pylori and P. gingivalis of the oral microbial community are closely related to pancreatic cancer. A study which compared the oral microbiota of 361 patients with pancreatic cancer and 371 patients with non-pancreatic cancer showed that the detection rate of P. gingivalis and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans in the oral cavity of patients with pancreatic cancer appeared to be high. Therefore, the presence of P. gingivalis in the patient's mouth for a longer period suggests a high risk for pancreatic cancer. It has the ability to promote the occurrence and development of tumors in different ways. In animals, an evasion of the host immune activation both in vivo and in vitro was noticed. P. gingivalis binds to toll-like receptors 2 and 4, activates the NF-B pathway, induces the expression of cytokines (such as TNF, IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8), and forms an inflammation microenvironment, hence promoting tumorigenesis,[36] epidemiological investigations have found a positive relationship between H. pylori and pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancers are mostly associated with gastric ulcers. Studies show that the patients with seropositive H. pylori, responsible for gastric ulcers which along with low acid levels and elevated levels of individual nitrosamines, allow the colonization of other bacteria, thereby increasing the risks of pancreatic cancer (i.e., 38%).[37]
The impact of oral microbiome on the health of the gastrointestinal system is way beyond our thought process. Although the digestive tract hosts a much greater bacterial density than the oral cavity, the microbes in the latter outnumber the former leading to dysbiosis. Apart from P. gingivalis and A. actinomycetemcomitans, there are a large variety of oral species which can collaborate with the intestinal microbiota through swallowing, regardless of the periodontal status, but only a subset of these microbes seems to colonize the gut especially when the microbiota becomes dysbiotic.[38] These microbes synthesize growth and virulence factors to eradicate the beneficial bacteria in the gut. However, the mechanisms through which they are synthesized both in the oral cavity and the gut remain the same. This inevitably shudders the stability of the commensal microbiota and supports the superiority of orally derived opportunistic pathogens leading to intestinal dysbiosis.[39] Whether this colonization requires only a dysbiotic medium of oral microbiota or an already driven intestinal dysbiosis is not clear, thereby giving a way to further research. However, there are chances for severe diseases and genetic susceptibility of the host to promote ectopic colonization of oral bacteria.[38] When the central target is to treat the oral microbes, oral health can be improved by altering the oral microbiota through a good oral hygiene, periodontal therapy, prebiotics, and probiotics. A report from Takeuchi et al. says xylitol chewing gum has the ability to reduce the load of bacteria in the oral cavity and enhances the oral microecology homeostasis.[40] Further studies on the orally driven intestinal dysbiosis[39] resulting in other systemic inflammatory diseases, colorectal carcinogenesis;[39] changes in the liver[41] will give a better understanding of the effects of oral microbiome on gut health.
Patient's consent not required as there are no patients in this study.
Lamont RJ, Koo H, Hajishengallis G. The oral microbiota: Dynamic communities and host interactions. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2018;16:745-59.
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Spend 3 days and 2 nights in Vienna.
Enjoy your stay in one of our single or double rooms. Our rooms are equipped with laminate flooring and allergy-free bedding as well as satellite TV, telephone and WiFi.
After an extended night, a balanced breakfast buffet with tasty Austrian products is waiting for you.
With the Vienna City Card you have 48 hours of free public transport (subway, bus, tram) as well as more than 210 advantages of museums and sights, theaters and concerts, shopping, cafes, restaurants and wine taverns.


This is less of a tutorial for the Water CB than a recommendation of general principles regarding the device.
The reason for this is that no extensive research has been done into it; although initial results have shown it to be very strong and positive.
No specific parameters have been set for pipe length and diameter, size of bucket and quantity of water, quantity of orgonite etc.
It was developed from both Reich's pioneering Cloudbuster and Virgil Grenier's Induction CB.
Reich's CB used empty metal pipes to draw 'DOR' (negative energy) from the sky and dump it into a body of water large enough to avoid DOR-saturation.


text:
Fabian >
How to help scientists in the Gravitational Wave noise hunt
The sensitivity of Gravitational Waves detectors is limited by several types of noise, called glitches, whose presence affects the quality of the data. The glitches can have various origins, having a stationary nature (e.g. a noise signal with a stable frequency) or being transient on various timescales. In order to optimize and run the interferometers it is fundamental to identify the sources of noise and reduce or eliminate its origin.
In this framework, citizen scientists can play a fundamental role by looking at chunks of data and identify the presence of noise, creating the basis to train machine learning algorithms that will automatically recognize and isolate noise in GW data, thus providing a monitoring of the noise with an unprecedented detail. Citizen scientists' support will be crucial also to isolate astrophysical signals that cannot easily be modeled with the general relativity equations, and whose shape is unknown, such as supernovae ones.
In REINFORCE, the citizen science activities will support the optimization of the Virgo detector, allowing citizens to learn the basics of GW detection techniques, and how the noise signals and GW signals look. One of the innovative aspects of the project is that it aims to include diverse and underrepresented groups in science, by providing them with tools to overcome specific barriers, such as the sonification of data for visually-impaired people.
The webinar aims to give an overview of the first of REINFORCE Large Scale Citizen Science demonstrators which are the key vehicles that the project will utilise in order to bring frontier science and society together, showcasing the issue that the citizens will be asked to help in solving, how this activity will be performed relying on Zooniverse resources and technologies, and how the sonification of data will allow to widen the spectrum of people potentially involved.
If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!
Potential citizen scientists
Gravitational Wave Astronomy researchers and academics
Members of the physics and astronomy community
How citizens can play an active role in the advance of ground-breaking research
How REINFORCE demonstrator about Gravitational Wave Noise Hunting will be developed
How the project will work to include diverse and underrepresented groups in science
AGENDA - 16. October
15:00-15:05 - Welcome - Chris Lintott (Zooniverse)
15:05-15:12 - Broad overview - Stavros Katsanevas (EGO, Project Coordinator)
15:12-15:25 - REINFORCE Gravitational Wave Noise Hunting Demonstrator - Massimiliano Razzano (University of Pisa, WP3 leader)
15:25-15:40 - The use of sonification in REINFORCE - Beatriz Garcia (CONICET)
15:40-15:50 - Virgo and international GW network - Julia Casanueva (Virgo)
15:50-15:55 - Introduction to the European Gravitational Observatory - Francesca Spagnuolo (EGO, EU Program Coordinator)
15:55-16:05 - GW and Citizen Science for education - Emmanuel Chaniotakis (EA)
16:05-16:15 - Q&A and wrap-up
Gravitational Waves detectors noise data noise signal citizen scientists
Umfrage zum Status von Citizen Science in Deutschl...
Citizen Science erleben und begreifen bei der Euro...
The REINFORCE project (Research Infrastructures FOR Citizens in Europe) aims to engage and support citizens to cooperate with researchers and actively contribute in the development of new knowledge for the needs of science and society.
Four demonstrators cases on Zooniverse:
gravitational wave noise hunting: citizen scientists will look at chunks of Gravitational Wave data and identify the presence of noise which limits the sensitivity of detectors.
deep sea hunters: citizens will help to improve neutrino detection algorithms, while gaining a greater insight of the unexplored deep marine environment.
search for new particles at the LHC: citizens will be engaged in the quest of the Large Hadron Collider of CERN for the discovery of the ultimate structure of matter as well as particle theories beyond the Standard Model.
cosmic muons images: citizens will help explore the connections across the fields of cosmic ray physics, geology, volcanology and archaeology through the use of ata and simple experimental devices.
Zooniverse is known as the world's largest platform for online citizen science, allowing researchers across Europe and beyond to build and run their own projects without requiring software developement expertise, at the same time giving participants the chance to focus on skills development, playing a full role in scientific exploration.
If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact info@reinforceeu.eu
Claudia Magdalena Fabian is a researcher at the Centre for Social Innovation in Vienna (www.zsi.at) and a Reinforce team-member (https://reinforceeu.eu) since 2019.
Forschungsdaten im Fokus
Exkursion zu den Waldohreulen am 29.01.
Citizen Interview mit Alina: Gregor Hastik von StadtWildTiere
Fossiler Kot als Fenster in die Erdgeschichte in Scientific Reports
Auflösung zum Fossilrätsel
Florian Heigl am Mittwoch, 07. Oktober 2020 20:01
Oh wow, this sounds very fascinating but also quite complex. As a citizen scientists, do I need any specific knowledge to be able to take part in your project?
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Fabian am Freitag, 09. Oktober 2020 10:20
Our aim is to have anyone - and everyone! - be able to participate in our REINFORCE demonstrator projects. All demonstrators will come with straightforward and easy to understand documentation and tutorials explaining the classification procedure and providing background information, while participants will also be able to interact with members of the REINFORCE community, via Zooniverse, in the case of difficulties. REINFORCE is, by design, all about participation and inclusion. We hope that people arriving without even a basic knowledge of physics will be able to develop an understanding of some of its concepts and that, above all, they will feel part of a community of people doing something worthwhile.


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Q: Type Mismatch error in Excel but not in Access I get a type mismatch error when I try to run this in Excel...
Dim wkb As Workbook
Dim wks As Worksheets

Set wkb = ThisWorkbook
Set wks = wkb.Worksheets(1)

When I do the same thing in Access (including a Dim app as Application.Excel) I have no issues.
What am I over looking?

A: The type is incorrect. You have defined "worksheets" and then trying to assign a single "worksheet"
change the :
Dim wks As Worksheets

to:
Dim wks As Worksheet

should work.


2019 AYA Conference – Thank You For Joining Us!
The authors granted their permission for FWAYAOC to post their Powerpoint presentations delivered at the 9th Annual Texas AYA Conference, February 15-16, 2019 on this website.
For recognizing the value of a trained medical community that is committed to providing quality care to adolescents and young adults with cancer.