National Archives Apologizes After Telling Visitors To Cover Pro-Life Clothes To See Bill Of Rights

 by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The National Archives on Friday apologized for telling visitors that they must cover up or remove their pro-life attire while being in the chamber where the original copy of the Bill Of Rights is on display.

“As the home to the original Constitution and Bill of Rights, which enshrine the rights of free speech and religion, we sincerely apologize for this occurrence,” said the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which maintains the National Archives Museum in Washington.

The apology comes after conservative law group American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), on behalf of four March for Life participants from three states, sued NARA for First Amendment violations. According to the complaint (pdf), each of them “separately and uniquely decided to visit the National Archives to view our nation’s founding documents” on the morning of Jan. 20 while wearing various clothing with pro-life messages.

After entering the museum, however, the pro-life visitors were approached by security guards who took issue with their pro-life apparel.

Wendilee Lassiter, a law student at evangelical Christian Liberty University in Virginia, was wearing a black sweatshirt that read: “I am the post-Roe Generation: Law Students for Life” when she visited the National Archives Museum with a group of fellow students. Two security guards approached her, saying that she was “disturbing the peace” because her sweatshirt “will incite others” and “cause a disturbance.”

When Lassiter asked, “I can’t come in here unless I take my sweatshirt off?” One security guard replied by stating: “No, you can’t.” She ended up removing her sweatshirt for fear that she would be thrown out of the museum if she did not comply. Her fellow students also complied with the order.

The law student also alleged that she saw that morning at least two other visitors “freely walking around” while wearing what appeared to be pro-abortion apparel, with statements to the effect of “My Body, My Choice,” and “Pro-Choice.”

Another visitor, identified in the lawsuit as L.R., is a Catholic high school student from Michigan. A security guard “specifically instructed” L.R. that she “could not be wearing anything pro-life” and that she must cover her shirt reading “Life is a HUMAN RIGHT” until she left the chamber. She was also told to take a “Pro-Love is the New Pro-Life” button off her bag.

“L.R. immediately believed her constitutional rights were being violated by the very government officials tasked with protecting them,” the complaint stated.

In response to the lawsuit, NARA emphasized that its policy “expressly allows all visitors to wear t-shirts, hats, buttons, etc. that display protest language, including religious and political speech.”

“We are actively investigating to determine what happened,” the federal agency said. “Early indications are that our security officers quickly corrected their actions and, from that point forward, all visitors were permitted to enter our facility without needing to remove or cover their attire. We have reminded all of our security officers at our facilities across the country of the rights of visitors in this regard.”

The National Archives wasn’t the only Washington museum trying to censor March for Life participants on Jan. 20, according to the ACLJ, which brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the Smithsonian for the same reason.

In that case, a group of Catholic students and parents from South Carolina tried to enter the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, only to be mocked by museum staff, who allegedly declared the facility to be a “neutral zone” where they could not wear pro-life hats.

According to the complaint (pdf), the students put their hats back on after passing through the entry point. This prompted museum staff to confront them and demand that they either “take them off or leave,” with one of the staff members yelling at a student, “You need to take off your hats. We are a museum that promotes equality, and your hats do not promote equality.”

The Smithsonian, likewise, apologized for the incident, admitting in a statement that “a security officer mistakenly told young visitors that their pro-life hats were not permitted in the museum.”

“Asking visitors to remove hats and clothing is not in keeping with our policy or protocols. We provided immediate retraining to prevent a re-occurrence of this kind of error,” the taxpayer-funded research institution said. “The Smithsonian welcomes all visitors without regard to their beliefs. We do not deny access to our museums based on the messages on visitors’ clothing.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/national-archives-apologizes-after-telling-visitors-cover-pro-life-clothes-see-bill

US shot down ‘small, metallic balloon’ over northwest Canada: Pentagon

 The American military shot down a “small, metallic balloon” over Canada on Saturday, the Pentagon wrote in a memo to lawmakers Monday — offering one of the first descriptions of one of the three mystery objects downed over consecutive days.

The memo said the balloon, previously described as a “cylindrical object,” crossed near “US sensitive sites” before it was shot and “subsequently slowly descended” into Canadian waters off the Yukon territory, CNN reported.

The reported description is one of the first the Defense Department has released since taking down a trio of UFOs over the weekend. The US military also downed an unidentified object over Alaska on Friday and another over Lake Huron, Michigan on Sunday.

The Air Force F-16 jet involved in the shoot-down over Lake Huron missed its first shot, according to Fox News. 

“The first Sidewinder heat-seeking missile missed the target,” a US official told the outlet. 

A second fired Sidewinder hit the mysterious craft. It’s not clear where the first missile landed.

Each Sidewinder missile costs more than $400,000. 

US officials have released few details about the latest objects as the military works to recover the items. As of Monday afternoon, the US had “not recovered any debris from the three most-recent shoot downs,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Canada is heading the recovery efforts of the metallic balloon, while the US has started “extensive efforts” in Alaska and Michigan to retrieve the debris from the other two devices.

“In Alaska, the object landed on sea ice, and because of the wind chills and other weather impacts in the area, safety concerns are partially dictating recovery timelines,” Austin told reporters in Brussels. “In Lake Huron, US Northern Command and the US Coast Guard and the FBI are beginning operations to locate debris, in close partnership with the Canadians.”

The Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina getting shot down by a US fighter jet on February 4, 2023.

Chad Fish via AP, File

Part of the Chinese spy balloon getting recovered by US navy sailors on February 5, 2023.

Photo by TYLER THOMPSON/US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images

It remains unclear who launched the most recent objects and what they were doing, but Austin said he hoped answers can be obtained when their remnants are retrieved.

“We don’t know if they were actually collecting intelligence, but because of the route that they took, out of an abundance of caution, we want to make sure that we have the ability to examine what these things are and potentially what they were doing,” he said.

The objects were spotted after NORAD adjusted their radar settings to keep a closer eye on high-altitude disturbances after a Chinese spy balloon spent a week flying from Alaska to South Carolina before the military shot it down on Feb. 4, according to the Pentagon.

The US has shot down 4 flying objects in the last 8 days.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US hasn’t recovered any debris from the three most recent shootdowns.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

A “significant” portion of the spy balloon’s payload was lifted off the ocean’s floor intact, including “the electronics they were looking for,” a senior US defense official told Fox News on Monday.

Austin confirmed that the military has recovered “a fair amount” of debris from the Chinese spy balloon, though weather and rough seas slowed search efforts over the weekend.

“Our priority is debris recovery so that we can get a better sense of what these objects are,” he said. “We’re working closely with the rest of the federal government, including the FAA, the FBI, NASA, and others, to work through what we might be seeing.”

Austin reiterated that “the three objects taken down this weekend are very different” from the massive Chinese spy balloon seen the week before.

“We knew exactly what that was, a [Chinese] surveillance balloon,” he said. “As we have said, we do not assess that the recent objects pose any direct threat to the people on the ground and we will continue to focus on confirming their nature and purpose.”

https://nypost.com/2023/02/13/us-shot-down-small-metallic-balloon-over-canada-report/

Rethinking surgical treatment of adolescent clavicle fracture

 Until about 15 years ago, most clavicle fractures were allowed to heal with minimal medical intervention. That changed after a 2007 study reported better shoulder function after plate-fixation surgery. Although the study participants were adults, the rate of surgical treatment subsequently increased across all age groups.

Now, a study at Boston Children's Hospital demonstrates that in adolescents, treating clavicle fractures with surgery carries more risks than non-operative treatment and does not appear to offer clear benefits over non-operative treatment. The study, published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, could mark another shift in the care of clavicle fractures in adolescents, the sub-population most affected by this injury.

While the 2007 study demonstrated that adults who underwent surgery for clavicle fractures had fewer complications, it left the question of adolescent outcomes unanswered.

"As the pendulum shifted to more surgeries for clavicle fractures, pediatric orthopedists weren't sure whether the study results were applicable to their adolescent patients," says Benton Heyworth, MD, of Boston Children's Orthopedic Center.

The lack of adolescent-specific evidence became the driving force behind FACTS (Function after Adolescent Clavicle Fracture Trauma and Surgery), a multicenter study group of eight pediatric hospitals including Boston Children's. By pooling their data, members of FACTS gained the ability to study larger groups of adolescents with fractured clavicles.

The landmark study compared outcomes of operative and non-operative treatment for clavicle fractures in patients between the ages of 10 and 18. (The study went on to receive a research award from the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA).)

Each of the 416 study participants had received treatment for a completely displaced midshaft clavicle fracture at one of the eight FACTS hospitals. Within that group, 282 patients completed long-term follow-up surveys: 88 had undergone surgery and 194 were treated without surgery.

Two years after treatment, patient-reported outcomes in both groups showed no difference in shoulder function, quality of life, satisfaction, or prevention of complications commonly reported in adults. Operative treatment, however, proved to carry significantly greater risks for adolescents.

Study participants treated with surgery reported:

• significantly more unexpected subsequent surgeries, most involving implant removal after the hardware became painful
• significantly more clinically significant complications, including implant irritation and wound issues

Operative treatment also cost more. A related, unpublished study shows the cost of operative treatment of clavicle fractures in adolescents to be 19 times higher than non-operative treatment.

In adults, the two most significant complications of non-operative treatment are nonunion (the bone doesn't heal) and symptomatic malunion (the bone heals out of alignment and impairs mobility and function). Either of these issues, which occur in 15% and 10% of adult patients respectively, may require surgery.

In adolescents, by contrast, the risk of failed bone healing is exceedingly rare. Whether or not they underwent surgery, less than 1% of adolescent study participants experienced nonunion and less than 2% experienced malunion. Moreover, even in these rare cases, adolescent patients often responded to other non-operative interventions, such as physical therapy, and did not require surgery.

"Due to their younger age, adolescents have a greater healing capacity and greater ability to return to normal function at high activity levels than their adult counterparts with similar fractures," says Heyworth.

In other words, treatment protocols for adult clavicle fracture do not necessarily apply to adolescents. However, recommending minimal treatment for a broken clavicle may take a leap of faith for many pediatric orthopedic surgeons.

"It doesn't seem intuitive when you look at an X-ray of a broken bone," says Heyworth. "But now we have the science to back up that recommendation: Adolescent clavicle fractures generally heal just as well without surgery. And, compared to surgical treatment, non-operative treatment carries fewer risks, which might be the most important consideration for us in taking care of these young patients."

More information: Benton E. Heyworth et al, Two-Year Functional Outcomes of Operative vs Nonoperative Treatment of Completely Displaced Midshaft Clavicle Fractures in Adolescents: Results From the Prospective Multicenter FACTS Study Group, The American Journal of Sports Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1177/03635465221114420

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-teens-small-adults-rethinking-surgical.html

New pathways to activate dendritic cells, produce strong anti-tumor immunity

 Immune checkpoint inhibitors that activate T cells to target cancer cells have greatly improved patient outcomes across a variety of tumor types. But not all patients respond to the therapies. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are working to identify new treatment options for this subset of patients.

In a new study published in the journal Cancer Immunology Research, researchers, led by Amer A. Beg, Ph.D., show how stimulating dendritic cells through the CD40 and interferon β (IFNβ) pathways produces strong T cell activity against tumors and works in conjunction with immune checkpoint inhibitors to produce even stronger responses. The article also shares promising early results from a phase 1 clinical study of an oncolytic virus (MEM-288) that activates these pathways in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Dendritic cells play an important role in activating T cells to recognize infectious or foreign agents, including cancer cells. These characteristics suggest that dendritic cells may be an important cellular component in achieving optimum responses to checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

"Immune checkpoint inhibitors that target T cells have revolutionized cancer treatment, but there is increasing realization that targeting cell types responsible for T cell activation, such as dendritic cells, may be required for optimal patient benefit. However, the best strategy to target dendritic cells to unleash their full therapeutic potential has remained undefined," said Andreas N. Saltos, M.D., clinical research medical director in the Department of Thoracic Oncology at Moffitt and principal investigator of the MEM-288 oncolytic virus clinical trial.

Beg and a team of researchers focused their investigation on two separate pathways that are known to contribute to activation of dendritic cells, the CD40 and the IFNβ pathways. They performed laboratory experiments with an adenovirus that expressed the proteins IFNβ and a membrane-stable version of the CD40 ligand (MEM40).

They found that the combined expression of both MEM40 and IFNβ resulted in dendritic cell activation, maturation and migration to lymph nodes. Both MEM40 and IFNβ produced anti-tumor T-cell responses and reduced tumor growth in mouse models of melanoma and lung cancer, with stronger responses observed with combined expression of both proteins.

The researchers also demonstrated that direct tumor injection of the adenoviruses expressing MEM40 and IFNβ were able to reduce tumor growth within the injected tumor and reduce distant metastases, suggesting that dendritic cell activation by MEM40 and IFNβ can produce systemic anti-tumor effects. This combination virus treatment was effective in mouse cancer models that were insensitive to checkpoint inhibitors and could work in conjunction with checkpoint inhibitors to produce even stronger anti-tumor activity.

"We believe our findings point to a new therapeutic strategy to maximize dendritic cell-induced T-cell activation with potential to benefit patients as a single agent and in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors," said Beg, senior member of the Department of Immunology at Moffitt.

Given these positive results, the Moffitt team worked in collaboration with Memgen, Inc., to create the MEM-288 oncolytic virus that drives expression of MEM40 and IFNβ. Oncolytic viruses preferentially replicate within cancer cells and lyse them, resulting in the release of antigens that promote further anti-tumor immunity. After testing their oncolytic virus in laboratory experiments, they initiated a phase 1 trial in patients with solid tumors to assess safety and efficacy.

Early results from non-small cell lung patients reveal that MEM-288 caused tumors to shrink in size and increased T cell numbers throughout the tumor environment, and importantly, the potential ability to generate systemic anti-tumor T cell immunity. The clinical trial is ongoing and continuing to recruit patients.

"The next phase of this study will be an expanded Phase 1b trial to investigate MEM-288 in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor in non-small cell lung cancer patients," said Mark Cantwell, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Memgen and an author on this study. "We are excited to see early clinical activity, safety and generation of antitumor immunity by MEM-288, which may be crucial for synergy with immune checkpoint inhibitors."

The Phase 1b trial is expected to start in mid-2023.

More information: Hong Zheng et al, Combination IFNβ and membrane-stable CD40L maximize tumor dendritic cell activation and lymph node trafficking to elicit systemic T-cell immunity, Cancer Immunology Research (2023). DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-22-0927

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-pathways-dendritic-cells-strong-anti-tumor.html

Identification of a previously unknown function of adipose tissue in insulin secretion

 Scientists at the University of Augsburg and Helmholtz Munich have made an important breakthrough in better understanding early processes in the development of type 2 diabetes by identifying a previously unknown transmission of messenger substances from adipose tissue to the pancreas.

In a publication in Nature Communications, the team led by Prof. Dr. Kerstin Stemmer was able to show that adipose cells release tiny lipid membrane particles known as extracellular vesicles into the blood, which can stimulate the release of the blood sugar-lowering hormone insulin from the pancreas.

Adipose tissue has a bad reputation. This is not least because of the increasing number of overweight and obese people worldwide. Adipose tissue cells are highly efficient energy stores that convert excess calories from food into fat deposits, often of considerable size. Nevertheless, body fat is not generally bad as it has extremely important functions.

For example, as an endocrine, a hormone-producing organ, adipose tissue is involved in the regulation of many bodily processes. Researchers at the University of Augsburg and Helmholtz Munich, member of the German Center for Diabetes Research, have now succeeded in revealing another function of adipose tissue. This is because fat cells not only release hormones into the blood but also so-called extracellular vesicles.

"Extracellular vesicles are small membrane-enveloped particles that are released from all body cells and carry a kind of snapshot of cellular events through the body. They can be compared to Trojan horses that transport proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids to a target tissue for release. Once in the new cell, they can alter its function," explains Konxhe Kulaj, Ph.D. candidate and first author of the article.

"For example, extracellular vesicles from fat cells are targeted to the beta cells of the pancreas, where they are taken up and increase the release of the hormone insulin," Kulaj continues.

Together with doctoral candidate Michaela Bauer, her colleague Dr. Alexandra Harger, and with the help of proteome researchers Dr. Natalie Krahmer and Özüm Sehnaz Caliskan from Helmholtz Munich, Kulaj was able to demonstrate in a series of experiments that extracellular vesicles from healthy and obese adipose tissue carry a very different composition of messenger substances as "cargo" and thus influence the function of beta cells of the pancreas in different ways.

If the extracellular vesicles originated from healthy adipose tissue, as is the case with normal weight, insulin secretion was only slightly altered. In contrast, extracellular vesicles from obese adipose tissue specifically transferred proteins and nucleic acids to the pancreas, where they greatly increased the release of insulin. As a result, blood glucose levels dropped.

Stemmer explains the significance of the results: "There is a gap in our understanding of the development of type 2 diabetes. When we are overweight or obese, for example, our body cells in muscle or adipose tissue react less sensitively to insulin; we talk about insulin resistance. In this very early stage of type 2 diabetes, our pancreas has to secrete more insulin, for example after a meal, to keep blood glucose levels in the normal range. But how do the pancreatic beta cells recognize that there is insulin resistance such that they need to provide more insulin?"

The researcher continues, "An increase in insulin secretion is very beneficial in this early stage of type 2 diabetes and leads to the body being able to maintain its blood glucose level at a normal level. Many overweight and obese people manage to do this for decades, and the disease never develops. Extracellular vesicles from the fat cells appear to play an important role in this process."

"Overall, extracellular vesicles have great potential for application in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of diseases," says Stemmer. "Our ongoing studies aim to specifically load the vesicles to be able to use them for therapeutic purposes."

In other studies, researchers in Augsburg and Munich are currently developing new methods for being able to use extracellular vesicles circulating in the blood for a minimally invasive investigation of organ functions. "The close networking of our Institute for Theoretical Medicine with the Augsburg University Hospital and the Helmholtz Munich Research Center creates optimal conditions for such innovative research approaches, which will ultimately serve the well-being of diabetes patients," says Stemmer.

More information: Konxhe Kulaj et al, Adipocyte-derived extracellular vesicles increase insulin secretion through transport of insulinotropic protein cargo, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36148-1

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-identification-previously-unknown-function-adipose.html

Neurosteroid deficits lead to depressed behavior

 The latest generation of antidepressants relieves symptoms by mimicking steroids produced by the brain to ensure neurons are effectively talking to each other. How these neurosteroids are linked to depression and why they work is still to be determined, but a study in mice, led by Tufts University School of Medicine scientists, found chronic stress reduced an animal's abilities to produce and respond to these important molecules, specifically allopregnanolone. The research was published Jan. 31 in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

"Our findings suggest that the behavioral deficits following chronic stress involve impaired neurosteroid synthesis and signaling," says lead author Najah Walton, a Ph.D. student in neuroscience at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. "We found that mice subjected to chronic unpredictable stress had an impairment in allopregnanolone production within the basolateral amygdala, a brain region crucial for mediating emotional responses."

To confirm the link, Walton and colleagues in the Maguire Lab at the School of Medicine used CRISPR technology to adjust the enzymes necessary for allopregnanolone production. Mice with abnormally low levels of the neurosteroid showed depressive behaviors like those that had experienced chronic stress, while their counterparts with abnormally high levels of allopregnanolone showed more resilience to chronic stress.

"The potential implications of these findings suggest that synthetic neurosteroid analogs might exert a beneficial effect in individuals with depression by virtue of their ability to target part of the underlying neuropathology that leads to the condition," says senior author Jamie Maguire, professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine.

Less than half of patients with major depression respond to classic antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and the benefits are known to take weeks or months to take effect. "This study suggests that endogenous neurosteroid synthesis may be an alternative therapeutic target," says Maguire.

How chronic stress impacts the genes responsible for producing allopregnanolone, how neurosteroids may be involved in the emergence of depression, and how neurosteroid-based treatments benefit the brain will be the focus of the group's future work. "For people with depression or experiencing chronic stress, this research could provide some hope that we are making progress in understanding the neurobiology that contributes to the emergence of psychiatric disease," says Walton.

More information: Najah L. Walton et al, Impaired endogenous neurosteroid signaling contributes to behavioral deficits associated with chronic stress, Biological Psychiatry (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.01.022

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-neurosteroid-deficits-depressed-behavior.html

COVID-19 measures: How strict do they need to be?

 "Pan metron ariston"—everything in moderation: Author Leonidas Spiliopoulos of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development uses this Greek phrase in the title of his current study. Spiliopoulos examined the effectiveness of lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in curbing the spread of COVID-19 and limiting the number of deaths.

The study uncovers two important factors that can positively influence pandemic dynamics. The first is the voluntary behavioral changes that people make in response to both their personal assessment of the pandemic's severity and the signaling effect of political decisions. The second is the impressive success of extensive testing policies, which significantly reduced COVID-19 case and death growth rates without the negative social impact associated with many NPIs.

Spiliopoulos analyzed data from 132 countries collected between February 15, 2020 and April 14, 2021. The dataset includes information on confirmed cases and deaths, mobility data, testing rates, and the COVID-19 Stringency Index.

This index, developed by Oxford University, gauges the stringency of various NPIs—including school closures, stay-at-home mandates, cancelation or restriction of public events, international travel restrictions, and information campaigns—on a single measure to allow for easier comparisons across countries. The scale ranges from 0 (no restrictions at all) to 100 (the most extreme restrictions).

Moderately severe measures with a Stringency Index in the 31–40 range accounted for about 90% of the maximum effectiveness of NPIs. "In this range, the positive effects of these measures on the current pandemic dynamics were close to the practically achievable maximum while minimizing the impact on physical and mental health and the economic costs," says Spiliopoulos.

This range included restrictions on public gatherings of more than roughly 100 people, quarantine regulations for travelers from high-risk areas, public information campaigns, and various recommendations such as working from home, canceling events, or closing schools. The study also highlights the importance of extensive testing, which attained 50 percent of the impact of the optimal NPIs, without the significant negative societal disruption associated with the latter.

"In terms of rebalancing the policy mix for future pandemics, we should seriously consider leaning more heavily on early extensive testing and targeted public campaigns aimed at helping people make informed voluntary behavioral changes," Spiliopoulos says.

Surprisingly, the study also shows that a significant reduction in people's external mobility did not have the positive impact that was originally anticipated. Two prominent explanations are consistent with this observation.

First, while the spread of the virus outside the home may have been reduced, infection within the home may have been facilitated as families or roommates spent more time together.

Second, people's behavioral changes (e.g., social distancing, mask-wearing, switching to alternative safer transport) may have been effective enough to allow people to continue to commute and have limited contact with others without a significant increase in transmission. The study highlights the complexity of the issues at hand and the need to empirically test hypotheses about policy impact, as well as the importance of revisiting studies when further data is available in order to examine the robustness of early findings.

"This analysis allows us to draw more reliable conclusions than numerous previous studies, because the data were collected over a longer period and from a very wide range of countries," says Ralph Hertwig, Director of the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and member of the expert panel that advises the German government on the COVID-19 pandemic.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, uncertainty regarding the transmission and mortality of COVID-19 was high. Against that background, many countries decided initially on relatively restrictive policies," he says. The study's findings can inform public policy, particularly in terms of how to manage future pandemics with similar case and death rates during the critical period before vaccines are developed and rolled out.

More information: Leonidas Spiliopoulos, On the effectiveness of COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns: Pan metron ariston, BMC Public Health (2022). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-14177-7

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-covid-strict.html