Children of Sodom and Gomorrah: a critical reflection

This essay is an exploration and critical sounding of the multi-award winning radio feature Children of Sodom and Gomorrah: why young Africans flee to Europe (ARD 2009/ABC 2011) by the Berlin radio author/journalist and director Jens Jarisch. The reviewer, Virginia Madsen, finds something close to a dialectic approach in this unforgettable and searing ‘radio film’, but also the resonances of what she explores as ‘allegorical thinking’. Jarisch, even if unconsciously, appears to have dug down deep into the modern-day ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, a ‘no place’ in Accra, Ghana where children eke out a living, forfeiting their childhoods and risking death to recycle our computer waste, before they flee to find a better life in Europe. This program takes on mythical fabular proportions while offering a journalistic ‘investigation’ based on actual field recordings and the witness of Jens Jarisch in his role as ‘reporter’ and writer. But what is discovered here goes far beyond everyday journalism and reportage, Madsen argues. Offering her reflections of this ‘radio fiction’ documentary or ‘acoustic film’, and drawing on references and dislocations experienced from her listening and research, she encourages us to tease out this tapestry of voices coming as if from an ‘underworld’, and surfacing from the depths and pandemonium to disturb our western ‘paradise’. Madsen understands and imagines this program as a pilgrim’s journey between heaven and hell and purgatory as she sounds out key correspondences and dislocations the program evoked for her. Madsen was on a journey of her own when she first encountered this dream of paradise in Africa, an epic tale (Old Testament yet contemporary) of the blessed and the damned. Her essay speaks of the phenomenology of listening in that encounter, the underestimated power of a writing with the microphone and of the history of ‘radio feature’ culture, especially in Germany. Madsen responds to the depths this program sounds out as it invokes the voices of the dead and of the living, of hope, despair and longing in the face of overwhelming silence and noise. The interweaving of voices in this ‘impossible dialogue’ and ‘play for voices’ succeeds in writing itself onto our memories like a fable. And even if we remain fearful that nothing changes, the reviewer finds here something of great value and power that challenges us to listen beyond paradise. (And then maybe to act?) This is not quite Dostoevsky although he is invoked (as are Virgil, Dante and Breugel), but perhaps we come close to something that sounds like ‘evidence in a trial’: one of the many ‘wild ideas’ offered by great feature making traditions in radio. Virginia Madsen is a Senior Lecturer and Convenor Radio (Macquarie University, Sydney). Formerly a producer for the ABC, she was a founding member of the national audio arts program, ‘The Listening Room’. She has published pioneering essays exploring the radio documentary and ‘cultural radio’ traditions/practices, and is writing the first international history of ‘the documentary imagination’ in radio, examining forms and developments from the 1920s to the present renaissance

Critical Appraisal of Four IL-6 Immunoassays

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) contributes to numerous inflammatory, metabolic, and physiologic pathways of disease. We evaluated four IL-6 immunoassays in order to identify a reliable assay for studies of metabolic and physical function. Serial plasma samples from intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTTs), with expected rises in IL-6 concentrations, were used to test the face validity of the various assays. METHODS AND FINDINGS: IVGTTs, administered to 14 subjects, were performed with a single infusion of glucose (0.3 g/kg body mass) at time zero, a single infusion of insulin (0.025 U/kg body mass) at 20 minutes, and frequent blood collection from time zero to 180 minutes for subsequent Il-6 measurement. The performance metrics of four IL-6 detection methods were compared: Meso Scale Discovery immunoassay (MSD), an Invitrogen Luminex bead-based multiplex panel (LX), an Invitrogen Ultrasensitive Luminex bead-based singleplex assay (ULX), and R&D High Sensitivity ELISA (R&D). IL-6 concentrations measured with MSD, R&D and ULX correlated with each other (Pearson Correlation Coefficients r = 0.47-0.94, p<0.0001) but only ULX correlated (r = 0.31, p = 0.0027) with Invitrogen Luminex. MSD, R&D, and ULX, but not LX, detected increases in IL-6 in response to glucose. All plasma samples were measurable by MSD, while 35%, 1%, and 4.3% of samples were out of range when measured by LX, ULX, and R&D, respectively. Based on representative data from the MSD assay, baseline plasma IL-6 (0.90 ± 0.48 pg/mL) increased significantly as expected by 90 minutes (1.29 ± 0.59 pg/mL, p = 0.049), and continued rising through 3 hours (4.25 ± 3.67 pg/mL, p = 0.0048). CONCLUSION: This study established the face validity of IL-6 measurement by MSD, R&D, and ULX but not LX, and the superiority of MSD with respect to dynamic range. Plasma IL-6 concentrations increase in response to glucose and insulin, consistent with both an early glucose-dependent response (detectable at 1-2 hours) and a late insulin-dependent response (detectable after 2 hours)

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

From the limbo zone of transmissions: Gregory Whitehead’s On the shore dimly seen

In this review-essay, Virginia Madsen enters the polyphonous \u27limbo zone of transmissions\u27 created by Gregory Whitehead\u27s most recent \u27performed documentary\u27 and radio provocation, On the shore dimly seen . This composed voicing, drawn from verbatim texts courtesy of WikiLeaks and the dysfunctionality of America\u27s Guantanamo Bay, is heard as a fortuitous chance encounter with a medium – and as an increasingly rare listening \u27detour\u27 while Madsen is on the road. This essay is thus both a reflection upon the nature of the radio offered here, the chance listening experience to work of this kind, and upon the distinctive body of work created over more than 30 years by this American performance and radio artist. Digging down into this new radio \u27no play\u27 as she calls it, a \u27forensic theatre\u27 and convocation created by Whitehead for international audiences, and drawing on her interviews with the artist and other research and critical interactions, Madsen aims to sound out this work\u27s greater depths and to connect us to some of the unlikely voices which still haunt its \u27woundscape\u27

Cultural radio at the crossroads : 'When I hear the word culture, I switch on my radio' : reflections on an underestimated form, 'cultural radio'

22 page(s

In search of the Mekong blues

Broadcast on ABC Radio National and International Podcast "Into the Music" program, 08 March 2008Ex ABC http://www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic/stories/2008/2165684.htm: "In this feature, Virginia Madsen goes in search of Cambodia's great musical traditions and find them against all the odds surviving on the streets and in the slums of Phnom Penh. We meet the remarkable Kong Nai, the 'Ray Charles of Cambodia' and one of few surviving masters of the chapei, which is both a musical instrument (an ancient two stringed guitar unique to Cambodia) and a style of music that sounds remarkably like the American Delta blues. The New York Times recently described Phnom Penh as 'the next Prague', rising from the ashes of thirty years of war and conflict. But such descriptions gloss the everyday reality and it's easy to forget the terrible Khmer Rouge years when one in four Cambodians died and a rich culture was almost extinguished forever". Recorded by Virginia Madsen in Cambodia and written and produced by Virginia Madsen in Australia. Commissioned by the ABC. Exec Producer Robyn Ravlich for "Into the Music", Radio National. Duration 50 minutes

The Rats came over the roof

Broadcast Sunday Night Feature, Radio National, Thursday 22 July 2004"The Rats Came Over The Roof" written and produced by Virginia Madsen and it is an evocative nocturnal sound memoir of the composer's grandmother's deserted home