A Buddhist Perspective on the Global Environmental Crisis: Poetics of the Wild

My thesis is about a Buddhist perspective on the global environmental crisis, including an exploration of how both ancient and modern poetry express a compassionate response to nature, a social science survey, and a creative project of my own poetry. The exploration in the rationale paper suggests that looking inward may be an important way to begin to understand individual responsibility for the global environmental crisis. In consideration of this is a discussion of ancient Buddhist wisdom and teachings about, and the relevance of, mindfulness, compassion, interdependence, and impermanence. In a creative extension of this discussion, an exploration of Buddhist- inspired nature poetry follows. Both ancient and modern poetics address the human condition and interconnection with the planet in deep, heartfelt and insightful ways. I call this Poetics of the Wild, to describe the vast, passionate art of language that captures the wildness of nature, as well as the wildness of the creative mind in expressing our connection to it. In my emergent and multidimensional vision for this project, I include my research survey on how mindfulness may be a factor in individuals’ actions with regard to global warming; the findings are presented to illustrate the importance of mindful behavior within the context of creating solutions to the environmental crisis. Finally, my own poetry is presented in a creative project, with deep compassion and love for the earth. Awareness and respect of nature sustains my own mindfulness of how to live within the context of the devastating global environmental crisis, and I hope that it inspires others to pay close attention to the world around them, as well as to each other

Panics and Principles: A History of Drug Education Policy in New South Wales 1965-1999

When the problem of young people using illegal drugs for recreation emerged in New South Wales in the 1960s drug education was promoted by governments and experts as a humane alternative to policing. It developed during the 1970s and 1980s as the main hope for preventing drug problems amongst young people in the future. By the 1990s drug policy experts, like their temperance forbears, had become disillusioned with drug education, turning to legislative action for the prevention of alcohol and other drug problems. However, politicians and the community still believed that education was the best solution. Education Departments, reluctant to expose schools to public controversy, met minimal requirements. This thesis examines the ideas about drugs, education and youth that influenced the construction and implementation of policies about drug education in New South Wales between 1965 and 1999. It also explores the processes that resulted in the defining of drug problems and beliefs about solutions, identifying their contribution to policy and the way in which this policy was implemented. The thesis argues that the development of drug education over the last fifty years has been marked by three main cycles of moral panic about youth drug use. It finds that each panic was triggered by the discovery of the use of a new illegal substance by a youth subculture. Panics continued, however, because of the tension between two competing notions of young people’s drug use. In the traditional dominant view ‘drug’ meant illegal drugs, young people’s recreational drug use was considered to be qualitatively different to that of adults, and illegal drugs were the most serious and concerning problem. In the newer alternative ‘public health’ view which began developing in the 1960s, illicit drug use was constructed as part of normal experimentation, alcohol, tobacco and prescribed medicines were all drugs, and those who developed problems with their use were sick, not bad. These public health principles were formulated in policy documents on many occasions. The cycles of drug panic were often an expression of anxiety about the new approach and they had the effect of reasserting the dominant view. The thesis also finds that the most significant difference between the two discourses lies in the way that alcohol is defined, either as a relatively harmless beverage or as a drug that is a major cause of harm. Public health experts have concluded that alcohol poses a much greater threat to the health and safety of young people than illegal drugs. However, parents, many politicians and members of the general community have believed for the last fifty years that alcohol is relatively safe. Successive governments have been influenced by the economic power of the alcohol industry to support the latter view. Thus the role of alcohol and its importance to the economy in Australian society is a significant hindrance in reconciling opposing views of the drug problem and developing effective drug education. The thesis concludes that well justified drug education programs have not been implemented fully because the rational approaches to drug education developed by experts have not been supported by the dominant discourse about the drug problem. Politicians have used drug education as a populist strategy to placate fear but the actual programs that have been developed attempt to inform young people and the community about the harms and benefits of all drugs. When young people take up the use of a new mood altering drug, the rational approach developed by public health experts provokes intense anxiety in the community and the idea that legal substances such as alcohol, tobacco and prescribed drugs can cause serious harm to young people is rejected in favour of an approach that emphasizes the danger of illegal drug use

Quizartinib, an FLT3 inhibitor, as monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia: an open-label, multicentre, single-arm, phase 2 trial

BACKGROUND: Old age and FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) mutations in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia are associated with early relapse and poor survival. Quizartinib is an oral, highly potent, and selective next-generation FLT3 inhibitor with clinical antileukaemic activity in relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of single-agent quizartinib in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia. METHODS: We did an open-label, multicentre, single-arm, phase 2 trial at 76 hospitals and cancer centres in the USA, Europe, and Canada. We enrolled patients with morphologically documented primary acute myeloid leukaemia or acute myeloid leukaemia secondary to myelodysplastic syndromes and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-2 into two predefined, independent cohorts: patients who were aged 60 years or older with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia within 1 year after first-line therapy (cohort 1), and those who were 18 years or older with relapsed or refractory disease following salvage chemotherapy or haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (cohort 2). Patients with an FLT3-ITD allelic frequency of more than 10% were considered as FLT3-ITD positive, whereas all other patients were considered as FLT3-ITD negative. Patients received quizartinib once daily as an oral solution; the initial 17 patients received 200 mg per day but the QTcF interval was prolonged for more than 60 ms above baseline in some of these patients. Subsequently, doses were amended for all patients to 135 mg per day for men and 90 mg per day for women. The co-primary endpoints were the proportion of patients who achieved a composite complete remission (defined as complete remission + complete remission with incomplete platelet recovery + complete remission with incomplete haematological recovery) and the proportion of patients who achieved a complete remission. Efficacy and safety analyses included all patients who received at least one dose of quizartinib (ie, the intention-to-treat population). Patients with a locally assessed post-treatment bone marrow aspirate or biopsy were included in efficacy analyses by response; all other patients were considered to have an unknown response. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00989261, and with the European Clinical Trials Database, EudraCT 2009-013093-41, and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 19, 2009, and Oct 31, 2011, a total of 333 patients were enrolled (157 in cohort 1 and 176 in cohort 2). In cohort 1, 63 (56%) of 112 FLT3-ITD-positive patients and 16 (36%) of 44 FLT3-ITD-negative patients achieved composite complete remission, with three (3%) FLT3-ITD-positive patients and two (5%) FLT3-ITD-negative patients achieving complete remission. In cohort 2, 62 (46%) of 136 FLT3-ITD-positive patients achieved composite complete remission with five (4%) achieving complete remission, whereas 12 (30%) of 40 FLT3-ITD-negative patients achieved composite complete remission with one (3%) achieving complete remission. Across both cohorts (ie, the intention-to-treat population of 333 patients), grade 3 or worse treatment-related treatment-emergent adverse events in 5% or more of patients were febrile neutropenia (76 [23%] of 333), anaemia (75 [23%]), thrombocytopenia (39 [12%]), QT interval corrected using Fridericia\u27s formula (QTcF) prolongation (33 [10%]), neutropenia (31 [9%]), leucopenia (22 [7%]), decreased platelet count (20 [6%]), and pneumonia (17 [5%]). Serious adverse events occurring in 5% or more of patients were febrile neutropenia (126 [38%] of 333; 76 treatment related), acute myeloid leukaemia progression (73 [22%]), pneumonia (40 [12%]; 14 treatment related), QTcF prolongation (33 [10%]; 32 treatment related), sepsis (25 [8%]; eight treatment related), and pyrexia (18 [5%]; nine treatment related). Notable serious adverse events occurring in less than 5% of patients were torsades de pointes (one [<1%]) and hepatic failure (two [1%]). In total, 125 (38%) of 333 patients died within the study treatment period, including the 30-day follow-up. 18 (5%) patients died because of an adverse event considered by the investigator to be treatment related (ten [6%] of 157 patients in cohort 1 and eight [5%] of 176 in cohort 2. INTERPRETATION: Single-agent quizartinib was shown to be highly active and generally well tolerated in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia, particularly those with FLT3-ITD mutations. These findings confirm that targeting the FLT3-ITD driver mutation with a highly potent and selective FLT3 inhibitor is a promising clinical strategy to help improve clinical outcomes in patients with very few options. Phase 3 studies (NCT02039726; NCT02668653) will examine quizartinib at lower starting doses. FUNDING: Ambit Biosciences/Daiichi Sankyo

Dear old broadway.

Gift of Dr. Mary Jane Esplen.Piano and voice [instrumentation]C major [key]Tempo di Valse. [tempo]Popular song [form/genre]Portrait of woman, possibly Margaret D. Trone. [illustration]F. B. Haviland Pub. Co., New York. [dealer stamp]Publisher's advertisement on front inside cover and back cover. [note

Play in Wild and Captive Cetaceans

Although play behavior is difficult to define, it has been abundantly documented in the cetaceanliterature. Play behavior is prevalent among the various taxa and is exhibited by individuals of all ageclasses. However, it is often difficult to follow individuals, observe underwater behavior, and obtainmultiple sightings of individuals when investigating free-ranging populations. Captive studies allowfor the systematic manipulation of variables and the collection of detailed data with regard toindividuals, age, and gender by being able to observe behavior both at the surface and underwater.Pooling information from both wild and captive studies of play allows for more robust theories,conclusions and understanding. In this paper, we provide a review of play behavior in both wild andcaptive cetacean populations as a first step toward a more complete understanding of the significanceof cetacean play

Play in Wild and Captive Cetaceans

Although play behavior is difficult to define, it has been abundantly documented in the cetaceanliterature. Play behavior is prevalent among the various taxa and is exhibited by individuals of all ageclasses. However, it is often difficult to follow individuals, observe underwater behavior, and obtainmultiple sightings of individuals when investigating free-ranging populations. Captive studies allowfor the systematic manipulation of variables and the collection of detailed data with regard toindividuals, age, and gender by being able to observe behavior both at the surface and underwater.Pooling information from both wild and captive studies of play allows for more robust theories,conclusions and understanding. In this paper, we provide a review of play behavior in both wild andcaptive cetacean populations as a first step toward a more complete understanding of the significanceof cetacean play

Role of Peers in Cultural Innovation and Cultural Transmission: Evidence from the Play of Dolphin Calves

Observations of the spontaneous play behaviors of a group of captive bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ) revealed that each individual calf’s play became more complex with increasing age, suggesting that dolphin play may facilitate the ontogeny and maintenance of flexible problem solving skills. If this is so, play may have evolved to help young dolphins learn to adapt to novel situations. Novel play behaviors were more likely to be produced by dolphin calves than by adults, demonstrating that calves were the main source of innovative play behaviors in the group. Calves were also more likely to imitate novel play behaviors first produced by another dolphin, suggesting that calves contribute significantly to the spread of novel behaviors within a group. All in all, these data suggest that peers may be important catalysts for both cultural innovation and cultural transmission, and that the opportunity to interact with peers may enhance the effect play has on the emergence of flexible problem solving skills