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The world’s been waiting for male birth control. India may be the first to launch it.

Some researchers are skeptical that it’s safe and effective.

Officials at the Indian Council of Medical Research say they’ve successfully completed clinical testing of the world’s first injectable male contraceptive, the Hindustan Times reported.

But while the researchers recorded no severe side effects, they did note that “mild scrotal enlargement” was common, as was scrotal pain and nodules at the injection site. These issues resolved within the six-month study period — but two men experienced ongoing “fluid collection” around their scrotums.

Michael Skinner.
Skinner

The short-term swelling and discomfort may be acceptable to men and regulators, since it resolved quickly, said Michael Skinner, a reproductive biologist who studies male contraceptives at Washington State University. But the continued fluid buildup two men experienced is more concerning, and we’d need a longer-term trial to understand the impact of this response.

“I have not seen any large clinical trails yet, nor studies on reversibility in humans, so [we] will need to wait and see how useful it becomes,” Skinner told Vox. “It could replace need for vasectomy in [the] future, and if reversible [be] useful for contraception. The key is some large-scale trials for utility and reversibility in humans.”

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Vox

Daily Mail

 

Cannabis reduces headache and migraine pain by nearly half

Carrie Cuttler.
Cuttler

Inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported headache severity by 47.3% and migraine severity by 49.6%, according to a recent study led by Carrie Cuttler, a Washington State University assistant professor of psychology.

The study, published online recently in the Journal of Pain, is the first to use big data from headache and migraine patients using cannabis in real time. Previous studies have asked patients to recall the effect of cannabis use in the past. There has been one clinical trial indicating that cannabis was better than ibuprofen in alleviating headache, but it used nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid drug.

“We were motivated to do this study because a substantial number of people say they use cannabis for headache and migraine, but surprisingly few studies had addressed the topic,” said Cuttler, the lead author on the paper.

In the WSU study, researchers analyzed archival data from the Strainprint app, which allows patients to track symptoms before and after using medical cannabis purchased from Canadian producers and distributors. The information was submitted by more than 1,300 patients who used the app over 12,200 times to track changes in headache from before to after cannabis use, and another 653 who used the app more than 7,400 times to track changes in migraine severity.

“We wanted to approach this in an ecologically valid way, which is to look at actual patients using whole plant cannabis to medicate in their own homes and environments,” Cuttler said. “These are also very big data, so we can more appropriately and accurately generalize to the greater population of patients using cannabis to manage these conditions.”

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Science News
WSU Insider
ABC Action News
KDKA Pittsburgh

UPI 

 

Moving from prison to a PhD

Nature spoke to three US researchers who have built academic careers after they were released.

Most applications to academic institutions around the world include a box to check if a student has a criminal history, but a ‘ban the box’ movement is now under way. Last year, the UK Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) — which manages application to all British universities — dropped its criminal-history question. And in August, the US Common Application, used by 800 colleges and universities, removed the question — although individual institutions can still ask it.

A 2013 study from the RAND Corporation1, a think tank in Santa Monica, California, found that incarcerated individuals who participated in correctional education programmes were 43% less likely to return to prison after release than were those who did not.

Although 2.3 million people are currently in US prisons, fewer than 5% of people get university degrees — making them 8 times less likely to complete their education than the general public. Fewer still pursue PhDs. Nature spoke to three US researchers who went from prison to PhD programmes to senior posts in academia, and who now aim to help others to find their academic footing.

Noel Vest.
Vest

NOEL VEST: Value lived experience
Postdoc at Stanford University, California

“In 2003, my struggles with alcohol and drugs resulted in a 7-year prison sentence in Nevada for drug possession and identity theft, crimes that followed a spiral of addiction after my business and relationship failed at age 21. I began taking psychology courses in prison and, after my release, continued at the Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington, with the goal of becoming a drug and alcohol counsellor. Then an instructor told me that my writing ability could get me into graduate school.

“I didn’t know what graduate school entailed, but this watershed moment started me on a scientific path. I pursued a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Washington State University in Richland, while working as a counsellor. Seeing how science influenced treatment opened my eyes to a new world, and I was accepted into graduate school at the university’s Pullman campus 2014.”

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Nature

Five Best: J.D. Dickey on Books About American Preachers

Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America  (2007), by WSU history professor and chair Matthew Avery Sutton, is among the top five books about American preachers.

Even among the Hollywood stars of the 1920s and ’30s, Aimee Semple McPherson stood out as a celebrity. A master of mass communication and entertainment, she blended both into her spectacular evangelism. One of the first women in radio, McPherson began broadcasting in the 1920s. Her monumental Angelus Temple in Los Angeles was decorated “half like a Roman Coliseum, half like a Parisian Opera House.” Here, the audience watched as she worked miracles: “The blind saw, the paralytic walked, the palsied became calm.”

Matthew Avery Sutton.
Sutton

A magnetic figure in Matthew Avery Sutton’s portrait, McPherson summoned the fury of critics, who said she caused “hysteria, mob psychology, or religious hypnosis.” Her two divorces and her openness to black ministers preaching from her pulpit — almost unheard of at the time — fueled more controversy. Her sudden disappearance led to a frenzy in the press, as did her explanation, upon her return, that she had been kidnapped — though most of the evidence pointed to a tryst with a married man. A potent mix of religion, sex and mass media, her story “cut to the heart of modern American culture” and made McPherson a template for countless media evangelists to come.

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The Wall Street Journal

A new take on the WSU Fight Song

From Devo’s quirky take on the Rolling Stones’ “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” to Daughtry’s acoustic cover of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” musicians often reimagine popular tunes in their own style. In honor of the WSU Fight Song’s 100th anniversary, the Cougar Marching Band will perform four different arrangements of the beloved tune during the WSU football halftime show on Saturday, Nov. 16, in Martin Stadium.

Troy Bennefield.
Bennefield

Written by two music students in Pullman, the WSU Fight Song was first published in February 1919 and had its home football debut on Nov. 1, 1919, at the WSC game against the University of Idaho, “so this year’s first home game in November is the perfect opportunity to showcase the song along with the arranging skills of our talented music faculty,” said Troy Bennefield, assistant professor of music and director of athletic bands.

The four versions to be performed on Saturday include the original vocal score, a Dixieland jazz arrangement, a Big Band swing version, and an updated 2019 arrangement for the full band.

Horace Alexander Young.
Young

Horace Alexander Young, an accomplished international recording artist and associate professor of saxophone and jazz studies at WSU, arranged the Dixieland score for the Cougar Marching Band. Saturday will be the first time it has been performed live for an audience.

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WSU Insider