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Organic Chemistry

In one town, abortion debate seemed to override everything else – STAT

BRISTOL, Tenn. Zoe Poplin cupped her hands around her 17-month-olds head, as if her palms over his ears could protect him. Im worried about him, she said. She stroked baby Ezras back. Because when theyre little, you know, their little cells are splitting real fast, and hes growing and all it takes is one misreading, and he could end up with childhood cancer. Because they were saying volatile organic compounds, and what was it?

Benzene, murmured her husband, Tim.

Benzene, yeah, she said. Those are all carcinogens, and I try not to let it get to me, but. She turned away, started to cry. She was 29. On the coffee table in front of her sat the remains of Ezras post-day care snack. He was on her lap, chubby in his dinosaur-pattern onesie, oblivious to everything but the cartoon puppies bouncing around on TV.

Shed first smelled something in 2020, around 2 a.m., as she got home from a late shift at the hospital. It was mild at first. Then it got stronger, thicker, pouring into peoples homes. The pastor at a nearby Presbyterian church wondered if an animal had died in the ductwork. Some speculated the fumes were industrial. Others reported gas leaks but again and again, the fire department would come out and set them straight. Oh, no, theyd say. Thats just the landfill.

Bristolians took to calling it The Beast. Theres different notes, said Becky Evenden, co-leader of a nonprofit formed to solve the issue. Theres that sweet burning plastic smell. Theres that pure garbage smell. Theres that alcohol and acetone smell. Theres that somebody lit a match on fire sulphur dioxide smell. Then theres the dead bodies smell. Ugh, its so bad. The dead bodies smell is probably the least acute-symptom-triggering except that its so nauseating.

All those fumes originated less than two miles from the Poplins house. Theyd met working at Sams Club. He was a meat-cutter; she was in electronics and mobile, putting herself through lab-tech school. By 2017, they were buying a home with room for a kid and a backyard for the dogs. After Ezra was born, Tim drove home at a crawl, afraid to go over 30 miles an hour with this tiny, fragile being in the car. Zoe insisted on breastfeeding; even when Ezra started sleeping through the night, she woke every four hours to pump. They wouldnt use plug-in air fresheners, fearing chemical exposures. They wouldnt see unvaccinated family members, fearing Covid and whooping cough.

The landfill gas, though, was beyond their control. You try to do everything you can to protect your family and make sure that theyre healthy, Zoe said. And then the city you live in it was basically undermining me as a parent.

This fall and winter, Bristol landed in the national news but not because of the landfill fumes driving people out of their homes. Instead, the coverage zeroed in on the towns anti-abortion ordinance, made possible by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. At a recent city council meeting, throngs of activists filled the room, wearing yellow stickers that read Safe Zone for Life, with the image of a fetus nestled into the O of zone. Some had driven in from other towns. One called a local OB-GYN a serial killer. Others likened the activities of a nearby clinic to the Holocaust.

Its amazing, how those pro-birth people can get all that attention, said Joel Kellogg, a grocery store worker and co-leader of the anti-landfill group. For residents affected by the fumes, it was telling how the abortion debate seemed to override everything else. To them, Bristol hadnt been a safe zone in years.

When the gases were thickening in 2021, regulating abortion wasnt on the agenda of the Bristol, Va., city council. Besides the landfill, the town was worried about the municipal coffers and the state of their local schools. There was an OB-GYN named Wes Adams who was known to provide abortions, but his office was on West State Street, on the Tennessee side.

Thats how life is in Bristol. Its two cities in one. You can hardly go a day without stepping from one municipality into another, crisscrossing the state line. You might do your groceries in Virginia, for the lower sales tax, then head to the Bible study you like at a church in Tennessee. It has other claims to fame. Its designated the Birthplace of Country Music, where in 1927, in an old hat warehouse, the Carter Family and Jimmie Rogers first recorded ballads and yodels that would become canonical. Its home to a 153,000-seat NASCAR racetrack. But in 2022, it was Bristols status as a border town and Adams work there that brought it into the spotlight.

Adams had come to town in 1978, soon after finishing up his training in Georgia. He and his medical partner werent just terminating pregnancies. They were delivering babies, doing hysterectomies, treating symptoms of menopause with hormone therapy the entire gamut of obstetric and gynecological care, with abortion only a small fraction of it. We provided everything, he said. Thats the way we were taught.

Then, in May 2022, the draft of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe was leaked. Tennessee lawmakers were already hostile to abortion. If Roe fell, he knew some of his work would become illegal at the state level. So he put in a call to his old friend Diane Derzis, the queen of abortion, as shes often referred to in the news. Shed earned the moniker running clinics across the South, in spite of threats and bombings and byzantine laws. She owned the clinic in Jackson, Miss., at the center of the case that ended up overturning Roe. How do you feel about opening a clinic in Bristol, Virginia? she recalled him asking.

It made sense. The procedure was legal in Virginia, and Democrats controlled the state Senate. Within a few months, Adams closed his old office in Tennessee, and a new clinic popped up, less than 2 miles away.

That attracted the attention not only of the Bristol, Va., city council, but also of conservative lobbyists a five-hour drive away, in Richmond, the state capital. Thats where Josh Hetzler, the attorney who helped craft the ordinance, is based. He works for the Family Foundation of Virginia, fighting Covid-19 vaccine mandates and policies that would protect transgender people from discrimination.

He wasnt the only anti-abortion advocate looking at local government. In overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court justices had kicked the regulation of abortion to the state level. But some municipalities have passed their own restrictions, almost as a taunt, actively inviting lawsuits. As one of the architects of this movement told a journalist for Stateline, I would love to see the Supreme Court rule in our favor and potentially see abortion de facto outlawed in every single state in America.

Hetzler was aware of the anti-abortion resolutions enacted in some cities and counties, but to him, they didnt go far enough. While we support it, we were more interested in doing something that has some force of law, he said.

In Bristol, he saw two possible avenues. A general ordinance against abortion would shut down the clinic Adams and Derzis had just opened, and block any new ones. A zoning ordinance would forestall the arrival of more abortion clinics, but would allow existing businesses to keep working, as long as they didnt renovate. A general ordinance would be a much heavier lift, because it would have said to the existing abortion facility, You have to close down. That would have given clear standing for them to sue and there seemed to be limited appetite for that on Bristols city council, Hetzler explained. It just wasnt clear we had the votes for that.

Even with the ordinance he crafted, there were potential issues with a city trying to restrict something thats legal at the state level. He had a specific precedent in mind, in which a municipality had used zoning to block a business from setting up shop. It was about a landfill.

Or, more precisely, it was about a landfill that never came to be. In the 1980s, a private company proposed a dump for construction debris in Prince William County, Va., about 45 minutes from Washington, D.C. Locals protested. They worried about chemicals leaching into the drinking water and about landfill fires so deep within the mountains of garbage theyd be hellish to put out.

Technically, the land was zoned for agriculture, but a landfill wouldve been allowed until the county board of supervisors amended the zoning to put a kibosh on the whole thing. The dump-proposers sued, and lost. They appealed, and lost again. That, Hetzler argued, was a clear case of zoning being changed to stop a particular kind of land use even though it remained legal at the state level.

He needed a strong argument. Municipalities occupy a precarious niche in the ecosystem of American government. Their powers arent spelled out in the Constitution. Theyre given huge responsibilities over peoples well-being tap water, firefighting, the police force but they remain creatures of the state, their decisions easily reversed by the alpha legislators in the state capitol. Thats especially true in a place like Virginia, which upholds Dillons rule, the idea that a town can only do what the state has given it express permission to do. But it can be true for the rest of the country as well. To be a local official is to run the risk of being overruled.

Often, that means a conservative state government smacking down a citys progressive projects Texas blocking local bans on fracking, Arizona yanking away a towns ability to outlaw plastic bags. But theres also been a concerted strategy, promoted by operatives like Steve Bannon, to fill local positions with far-right officials, whove sometimes attracted legal scrutiny for dismantling the very machinery of city hall or firing the towns health officer. What comes across clearest is the din itself, a crescendo of partisanship in a realm that mightve yielded common ground.

The anti-abortion ordinance generated a lot of noise in Bristol. With the impassioned soliloquies came unresolved legal questions. Was a municipality allowed to restrict abortion, which the state of Virginia explicitly allows up to 26 weeks and 6 days? Would a court accept the argument that this fell under the citys power to make rules for the preservation of morals? Was it discriminatory to ban clinics that offer womens health care?

The fact that they have the power to zone does not mean they have the power to do anything they want and call it zoning, said Gerald Frug, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School.

When asked if he was worried about Dillons rule, Kevin Wingard, a former city councilor whod worked on the ordinance said, Dillon can go back wherever he came from.

There was another issue. Whether the ordinance would stand depended in part on the analogy between an abortion clinic and a landfill. There were some obvious differences. A landfill is right out of the zoning textbook. It can affect not only the people who have business there, but the experience of the public writ large. It can emit explosive gases and nauseating smells, attract vermin, pollute the groundwater. A landfill is a sort of classic use that has incompatibilities with other land uses, said Richard Schragger, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. It impacts things like property values and neighborhood livability.

Those arent typically concerns with a clinic. It might play a quiet, vital role in public health, but it doesnt change the block its on any more than any other medical practice. Take Bristol Womens Health. Its a squat brick building next door to a bank. The traffic is comparable to that of a dentists office. If it werent for the protesters outside one of them wearing pink, which patients might mistake for the uniform of a clinic volunteer you might not know it was there at all.

You couldnt help but know The Beast was there. It permeated the neighborhood and seeped into the house. The Poplins tried stuffing the cracks around the door with towels and foam. Zoe felt like a fish out of water, gills pulsing. She didnt want to breathe, would avoid it as long as possible, but she couldnt keep that up, shed have to inhale eventually, have to let this stuff into her lungs. She felt nauseous. She didnt want to eat. Tim got daily headaches. In the winter of 2021, they lay in their bedroom, Zoe wearing her N95 from work at the hospital, Tim wearing the respirator he used to spray insecticide for his job in pest control. They looked down at Ezra in his bassinet, his tiny nose and mouth exposed.

Plus, he was inconsolable. Zoe couldnt be sure it was The Beast. They dont come with manuals, she said. But then they drove to South Carolina for Tims grandfathers funeral, and suddenly Ezra was fine relaxed, bubbly, even when the guns went off for the military salute. It made sense. They felt sick with The Beast around; their baby was probably experiencing the same thing.

An earlier generation of Bristolians had seen this coming, when the landfill was just a proposal. Like the residents of Prince William County, theyd protested. They signed a petition, showed up at city council. I was there, and objecting to it, along with the other citizens in that area, said Jackie Nophlin, a local pastor. But keep in mind, that was a low-income area.

Virginia officials agreed with the residents. In 1985, a state geologist wrote a letter about the real danger of serious ground water pollution. But Bristols city council insisted. This was happening amid a grand reshuffling of American trash, municipal landfills closing in cities like New York, the refuse they wouldve held instead hauled by rail and road to Pennsylvania and Virginia. It was framed as a win-win: An urban center solved its garbage problem, a poor community got an influx of cash with every stinking load.

Eventually, state regulators gave in. The dump began accepting waste in 1998. It didnt take long for the landfill to catch fire. In its first two years of operation, according to the Bristol Herald-Courier, there was a series of blazes, some shooting up blue flames, others billowing black smoke. The city fixed the immediate issues, then kept on hauling in garbage bales.

We think of a landfill as nothing more than a mountain of trash, a final resting place where plastic bags, old shoes, soiled diapers, and plaque-encrusted loops of floss sit untouched. Instead, its more like a giant, explosive chemistry experiment: Its supposed to be sealed, inputs and outputs carefully controlled. Bacteria should be in there, doing the dark microscopic work of breaking garbage down. Trash juices should be pumped out and treated. Emissions should be siphoned off and burned in flares. Layers of refuse should be regularly covered over with a bed of soil.

But that kind of control can be hard to maintain in the real world, especially for a landfill like Bristols, which occupies the pit of an old quarry. The walls arent perfectly vertical, and theyre limestone a soft sort of rock, easily carved by rainwater. The surrounding landscape is honeycombed with caverns and underground creeks. At the landfill, the sides are fractured, zigzagged with cracks. Engineers hung a chain-link fence against the walls and rolled down a liner to create a seal, but it could easily tear or rumple under the weight of the trash. And anyone whos gone swimming in an old quarry knows how water collects at the bottom. Thats a lot of liquid to pump.

Its hard to pinpoint what exactly caused the Bristol landfills issues to become a crisis in the last few years. Moisture can spur heat-generating reactions. So can too much oxygen. So can other molecules that might wind up in trash. Already, the innards of a landfill run hot, with the bacterial warmth of decomposition, insulated by blankets of garbage a moist, chemically complex tinderbox.

In 2021, some of the experts called in thought there may have been spontaneous combustion. Others said it looked like an elevated temperature landfill. That wasnt wrong. The temperature was indeed elevated: In some places, it was too hot for some of the sensors that were supposed to measure it. Landfill experts start getting worried when they see readings of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. In Bristol, in January of this year, certain spots were above 300.

That inferno meant trouble. When you boil one unit of liquid water, and turn it to gas, it expands 1,700 times, said Todd Thalhamer, one of the engineers called in to help. That gas has to come out. But hed seen signs that the system of emission-siphoning pipes was inadequate. Plus, there wasnt enough soil cover. Add in a possible tear in the sidewall liner, and you get many paths through which that gas may have reached Zoe Poplins nose late in 2020.

Some think the answer is to crank up the vacuum, so the pipes slurp gas at a higher rate. But if the seal isnt good, and the root of a problem is a fire, thatll just pull in more oxygen, worsening the smolder. Drill into the trash to bolster the network for drawing out emissions and you may well send a beast out into the surrounding neighborhoods. That drilling issue may be what happened in 2021, when the Poplins were wearing respirators in their bedroom.

Throughout all this, Bristol, Va., was still hauling in more trash. It didnt stop until Bristol, Tenn., filed a lawsuit. The landfill wasnt just violating environmental law, the complaint said, but also preventing teachers and first responders from working, because the odors cause headaches, nosebleeds, and vomiting. The case was filed in May 2022; the landfill stopped accepting garbage that September.

About a month later, Bristols city council pushed forward its anti-abortion zoning ordinance. The member who worked on it called it the most important issue to ever come before the town government. Families affected by the landfill werent so sure. Some were against abortion; some supported a womans right to make her own reproductive decisions. Others didnt want to share their opinions about abortion itself. But many couldnt help noticing the disproportionate attention paid to the issue, how it seemed to suck all the air out of the room.

People care more about the unborn than they do about people who are here and suffering, whether that be the mother or the child or, you know, an entire city who cant breathe.

People care more about the unborn than they do about people who are here and suffering, whether that be the mother or the child or, you know, an entire city who cant breathe, said Zoe Poplin.

This landfills the number one thing. Its bad, said resident Chris Knupp at a recent city council meeting. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, toward the rows of anti-abortion activists. These folks back here, pro-life and all. Its all good, he said. Now, if yall are really worried about all these little children, unborn and born in our school systems, the kids are suffering, too. So yall might want to look around and get involved in it a little bit. Thats our future, these kids. And this landfills hurting them. Its hurting everybody, everybody here in this room, that lives in this city, on both sides.

This January, Bristol got sued again, this time by the state of Virginia, for failing to fix the landfill issues. To be fair, the solutions could take time. The city was testing out a method for sealing the sidewall liner; thats not something that could happen overnight.

Residents, though, accused officials of dragging their feet. After three years of activism, theyre tired. They just want The Beast to go away. For some, its been even longer than that. Jackie Nophlin is showing up at city council meetings in 2023 to protest about the same issue shed been raising hell about in 1995. The reason you may not hear or see a large number of Bristol Virginians protesting is because they feel that they did so for so many years, and nothing was done, she said.

But theres a political dimension, too. This is a red part of the state, southwest Virginia. They dont want to admit that this is an environmental injustice issue, she said. Theyll say the issue, but they wont say the injustice part. Because they think thats Democrat-talk. But the fact of the matter is, this is an environmental injustice to them, whether you call it by name or not. Its the same for us all.

If youre passing through Bristol, and ask the anti-landfill activists to let you know when the Beast is out, chances are your texts will blow up around somewhere between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Its coming I smell the burnt plastic so its lurking. Try Booher Rd.

Its at my house but its a 3/10 rating. I want it ripe.

If your here still my god you have to drive by. Its so bad right now.

They were animated by conflicting desires: On the one hand, they wouldnt wish these gases on anybody. On the other, they want people to know this problem is real. Call The Beast an odor, as officials often have, and residents feel miffed: It stinks, but their concerns run deeper than that. Theyre worried about how the chemicals in the emissions might be affecting their children. Benzene is a known carcinogen. Hydrogen sulfide has been linked to respiratory irritation, dizziness, and convulsions. Zoe Poplin was hardly the only parent who felt unable to protect her infant. One mom would rush her coughing baby over to her in-laws with a blanket over the car seat, scared that the fumes would give her kid the kind of cancer that killed her father. Another moved her family outside of town, her rent jumping from $800 to $2,015, to stop asthma attacks from landing her daughter from landing in the ER.

It was making my wife vomit profusely. She was unable to keep down liquids a lot of the time. And with the dehydration from throwing up, she ended up having early labor contractions, said another parent, whose baby was born unable to breathe and had to spend a month in the NICU.

That these issues are directly caused by The Beast can be hard to prove. Asthma and uncontrollable vomiting late in pregnancy happen in other places, too. In a community symptom survey, the majority of the 653 respondents reported burning eyes, noses, and throats, headaches, nausea, and breathing trouble but a toxicologist hired by Bristol, Tenn., said that while the gas levels were unusually high, the concentrations were too small to be toxic.

Residents werent convinced. No matter what official reports said, the disruption to their lives was undeniable. One couple left their home and moved into a camper. Some families left the region entirely.

The Poplins thought about moving, too. They had a friend in Colorado, another in North Carolina. Maybe it wasnt so important to be near family after all. Or they could move to Kingsport, 20 miles away, its skyline and economy dominated by Eastman Chemical Company. This is more dangerous, in my perspective, than living next to a chemical plant the size of a city, she said. To her, at least that was more controlled. Ultimately, the economics deterred her. Theyd just bought a house. I cant financially ruin my family just to get away from this. Like, is the city going to pay for this?

Thats what people say: Well, just move, said Joel Kellogg. Well, you know what? If I dont know if Ive got enough gas to make it till payday, probably not going to be moving anytime soon. And then who is going to buy your home, if the realtors do their due diligence, and say, Oh you know, weve got this landfill, and the gas is going to fill your home, is that OK? Sign this waiver.

Just as Bristolians will describe The Beast in obsessive detail how it changes with the temperature and wind, how it settles in low-lying neighborhoods between ridges so, too, will they swap tips and tricks and temporary fixes, ways of trying to make their homes at least a little more livable. One evening in January, during a break in a meeting for affected residents, James and Irene Nunn sat in a community center cafeteria, describing the effect of their four air purifiers.

Doesnt eliminate it, said Irene.

But that and packing your nose with Vicks VapoRub it helps, said James.

They were 75 and 78, lifelong Bristolians. James wore a cap with the insignia of his infantry division, with which hed served in the 1960s. Hed asked Irene out soon after he got home. They already knew each other. Her grandfather jack-of-all-trades, house-builder, hog-slaughterer had been best friends with James dad; the pair had occasionally done business together, trading horses. James and Irene had raised two sons in the city, he working maintenance at a vacuum cleaner factory, she as a packager and inspector for a pharmaceutical company. They loved Bristol, the small-town-ness of it.

The Beast had gotten a bit better lately, but theyd probably still be evacuating their house if James back pain hadnt been flaring up in the car. Theyd done it so often it had become a routine, a ritual. Theyd wake up in the wee hours, feeling like they were choking. Theyd get dressed, take their dog, Bandit, and then drive all night. Theyd usually head up toward the Holston Dam, where the air felt cleaner.

Wed ride out to the lake and just sit out there, in the parking lot, said Irene. They wouldnt stay in one place too long, lest the authorities notice and run them off.

A woman in her 60s happened to overhear, and jumped in: Ive spent the night out there. Past the green bridge, in the gravel parking lot.

You have too, have you? Irene asked.

I have, said the woman. I mean, I didnt have nowhere else to go.

We didnt, neither, Irene said.

Slowly, Bristol has crept into the regional and then the national news. Its become vaguely familiar, a single-issue town. It doesnt quite have the name recognition of an East Palestine or Uvalde, but almost. It was mentioned in Politico. A health reporter visited from Atlanta. Its been written about and filmed by a team of journalists from the Associated Press, their story picked up by PBS and ABC. You could open a glossy magazine in a supermarket within a mile of the White House and find an eight-page spread about Bristol.

All of these pieces were about abortion. It was worth paying attention to, and it was attracting widespread interest. A local Catholic priest complained that this was becoming the citys claim to fame. Hed gotten interview requests from as far away as Sweden.

In late January, the anti-landfill activists held a press conference and community meeting in an auditorium on the Tennessee side. They invited about 25 news outlets from as far away as Knoxville, Roanoke, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. None came but the handful that were local to Bristol. One reporter had to leave mid-conference; two men had escaped from a prison in Abingdon, Va., and they were thought to be on the loose in a stolen Cadillac.

Local and regional outlets have delved into the delays in fixing the landfill. One journalist Sarah Wade, reporting for Southerly Magazine went so far as to distribute pamphlets to get accurate information to low-income households that might not have reliable internet or access to social media. Back in 2018, in a Washington Post piece about Bristol, Va.s financial woes, there had been a few paragraphs about the landfill as a source of debt, to the tune of $30 million, but that was before The Beast was out and about in so much of the city. Now, years into the crisis, many affected Bristolians feel overlooked, forgotten about.

Theres a parallel between the kind of coverage these two issues have gotten so far and the different registers in which each is playing out. The landfill remediation has been slow, technical, jargon-filled. It involves continuing attempts to fix the sidewall liner, to install more pipes and pumps, to put a geomembrane over the top to bolster the soil cover all ways of trying to establish a better seal. Last week, the Virginia and Tennessee sides of town came to an agreement, which involved air monitoring until the landfill is covered, ending the sister-city lawsuit.

The fight over the anti-abortion zoning proposal has been showier. On the facade of Bristol Womens Health, just below the No Trespassing sign, is a pink banner: Honored to be Bristols one and only officially designated abortion clinic, it proclaims, in all-caps. It was a joke, Diane Derzis way of thumbing her nose at the city councils ordinance, of saying that that wouldnt actually change the care that was available in town for the moment. Its perfect for me, because there cant be any other clinics there. For someone in business, you couldnt ask for the passage of a better zoning law. Derzis laughed a cigarette-y laugh. Someone made me queen for the day.

Then, she got serious. You have to be able to laugh at some of this nonsense, because its so sad, whats really going on, when women are having ectopic pregnancies, and no one can decide when its close enough that shes going to die, so they just let her lay there until she trailed off. We choose to laugh when we can. Because, otherwise you cry.

During the winter, nothing seemed to be happening with the anti-abortion ordinance. City council members voted for it unanimously in November. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia wrote a stern letter, questioning the bills legality. The city council went ahead and sent their proposal to the planning commission for consideration. But the planning commission didnt put it on the agenda, leaving the ordinance in limbo. Hetzler, of the Virginia Family Foundation, acknowledged that officials might be pushing it off because, after the landfill litigation, they were wary of yet another lawsuit.

Either way, hes had his eye on a legal tool that could get the legislation unstuck. The city code allows the council to advance a zoning ordinance if the commission doesnt act for 60 days. It has been over 60 days now, he said in January. And so, you know, well see what happens, but if the planning commission isnt going to take it up I guess we cant force them to the city council can move forward.

In late March, he texted, Lots going on behind the scenes. The effort is still very much alive but trying to work out which strategy can get 3 out of 5 votes at least.

Such machinations can be mesmerizing the incremental partisan scuffle that keeps us reaching for our phones, like a football match with real-world stakes. We cant help watching the backroom deals and the strategic plays, the theatrics of it all. The questions about medicine and bodily autonomy can get obscured by the tactics involved, the line of scrimmage moving up and down the field. Every maneuver is memorable, endlessly analyzable.

Our garbage is a problem we all like to forget about. We throw something out, drag our cans to the curb, our bags to the dump, and assume our municipality will take care of it. Isnt that what local government is supposed to do? Ensure our collective well-being, make our towns and counties livable? But in forgetting about our garbage, we forget about the ever-widening circle of people who live with it. It starts with the most vulnerable and then moves outward. That, too, is a question of bodily autonomy: Neighborhoods and houses unwillingly transformed by our industry and our waste, byproducts affecting pregnancy and infancy and childhood and parenthood and old age. As with any environmental issue, the longer we forget about it, the more it affects us all. Concerns are minimized, brushed off until there are lawsuits, until damage is translated into the language of money, until forgetting is no longer possible.

A lawsuit is a blunt instrument. It can compensate you for harms youve already experienced. It can prevent future damage. It can help set the record straight. But it cant go back and fix the past. When he gets older and stuff, is he going to have issues because of this? asked Zoe Poplin. She rubbed Ezras foot. Just because theres a huge lawsuit and they actually figure out, Oh, did this cause harm? I dont care about that. I just dont want anything bad to happen. You know, I dont want money. I dont want to be right. I dont want anything like that. I just want him to be OK.

It was evening now, the shutters closed. Ezra rubbed his eye with the back of his hand, flopped his head to the side, and cooed. Soon, it would be dinnertime, and then bedtime. Outside, the night was cold and clear, the street quiet. All you could hear were the muffled sounds of someone doing the dishes, the snuffling of a dog in a backyard, the whisper of cars a few blocks away. Even with porch lights and streetlamps on, it was dark enough to see the stars not just one or two, but an endless array, the kind of night that makes you want to pause, look up, breathe. But it was still early, and Bristolians could feel it: The wind had died down, and within a few hours, the Beast would be out.

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In one town, abortion debate seemed to override everything else - STAT

Organic Chemistry

Get to Know the 2022-23 Hall of Fame Inductees – Ole Miss News

The 2022-23 inductees to the universitys student Hall of Fame celebrate April 14 following a ceremony in their honor at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for Performing Arts. Photo by Thomas Graning/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services

Ten University of Mississippi seniors have been inducted into the universitys 2022-23 Hall of Fame, one of the highest honors given to Ole Miss students.

Inductees were selected by a committee in accordance with policy developed by the Associated Student Body. Selections are based on outstanding contributions in all aspects of campus life.

Inductees were recognized during an April 14 ceremony at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for Performing Arts.

Preston Antes

Preston Antes, an economics and public policy leadership major from Frontenac, Missouri, has been an active member of the Mississippi Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, where he has served as chaplain, homecoming committee chair and vice president of philanthropy, raising more than $80,000 for the Live Like Lou Foundation. He also held leadership positions in Interfraternity Council, The Big Event and Associated Student Body.

Both a Lambda Sigma honoree and Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College scholar, Antes has appeared on both the UM Chancellors and Deans Honor Rolls.

Of all my accomplishments, I am most proud of the ways that Ive prepared others to lead effectively and with integrity, Antes said.

Jilkiah Bryant

A public health and health sciences major from Macon, Jilkiah Bryant is pursuing minors in both math and African American studies. She is in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, a Truman Scholar, Mortar Board member, Luckyday peer mentor and Luckyday Success Scholarship awardee.

During her time at Ole Miss, she incorporated and served as the executive director of Project Powerful Inc.

I enriched my collegiate experience through summer internships in Brooklyn and New York, but my greatest accomplishment was working to organize the first annual Pontotoc bilingual health fair, Bryant said. Through my efforts, I hope to leave a legacy of devotion, resilience, community and love through serving.

Andy Flores

Andy Flores, a public policy leadership and philosophy major from Ocean Springs, is the first-ever Latino Truman Scholar from Mississippi. A member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, his on-campus involvement has included ASB, Ole Miss Debate Team and the UM First-Generation Student Network.

Flores accomplishments include being named a law and public policy fellow at the University of California at Berkeleys Goldman School of Public Policy, a Leadership and the American Presidency Scholar at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, and conducting federal-level education advocacy as a fellow with UnidosUS, the nations largest Latino civil rights organization.

Founding HelpSaveHELP, a movement to defend critical financial aid for working-class students across Mississippi, is my greatest accomplishment, he said. The group forged a coalition that transcended the boundaries of race, socioeconomic background and even our own campus. That has made all the difference in the fight for Mississippis educational future.

Kelly Li

A public policy leadership and integrated marketing communications major from Hattiesburg, Kelly Li is a Stamps Scholar, Lott Scholar and member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. She received the 2022 Diversity Innovator Award and Deans Award for Outstanding Service and Scholarship and nominations for the Taylor Medal and James Meredith Changemaker Award.

Li held leadership positions with the Associated Student Body, Mortar Board, School of Journalism and New Media Ambassadors, Leadership and Engagement Ambassadors, and the Honors College Minority Engagement Council.

I hope to leave a legacy of inclusivity, possibility, and authenticity for students of color that come behind me, Li said.

Preston McWilliams

Preston McWilliams, a biomedical engineering major with a pre-med emphasis from Ridgeland, is a Brevard Scholar, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College member and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society member. He has served as president of the Columns Society and been active in Kappa Alpha Order, Ole Miss Ambassadors and as a disciple group leader for a cadre of Oxford High School boys.

McWilliams received the Interfraternity Councils Emerging Leaders Scholarship and the Taylor Medal.

My greatest accomplishment is receiving the Larry D. Ridgeway Award named after Vice Chancellor Emeritus Larry Ridgeway, who lives a life of humble service and integrity and inspired the founding principles of the Columns Society, he said. I am honored to receive the award because it was voted on by my peers and is an appraisal of constant commitment to service and consistent integrity through many situations.

Rabria Moore

A journalism and political science major from Durant, Rabria Moore served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian. She is a member of the Ole Miss Columns Society, National Society for Leadership and Success, Phi Kappa Phi, MPower, Association of Black Journalists and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

A Taylor Medal honoree, Moore has also served as both an Ole Miss Ambassador and Orientation leader. A Luckyday Scholar, she has been placed on the Chancellors Honor Roll and received the Excellence in Journalism Award, Gilman Scholarship and Phi Kappa Phi Study Abroad Scholarship.

Becoming editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian is my greatest accomplishment, Moore said. My dream has always been to tell peoples stories. The stories were telling are important to people and that theyre helping people feel more seen and heard.

In the end, I hope to leave a legacy of joy to the people Ive encountered on the Ole Miss campus.

Cecil Sepp

Cecil Sepp, a banking and finance major from Southaven, is a member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, where he has served as a peer mentor, Honors College senator and Honors College senate director.

He has also served as president of the Ole Miss Society for Human Resource Management, co-coordinator of new member training and selection for the Ole Miss Ambassadors, where he received the 2022 Ole Miss Ambassadors Rebel Heart Award, and has been an active member of Mortar Board and the Columns Society.

Through my work as an ambassador, I hope to have helped prospective students see the importance in building strong community and find their Why Ole Miss?' Sepp said. I believe my greatest impact at the University of Mississippi will be a crumb trail of discovery tracked through generations of its people and one that will continue growing evermore.

Logan Thomas

A biological sciences major from Ridgeland and member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, Logan Thomas is a member of the American Medical Student Association and the founder and president of The Epilepsy Connection, a nonprofit organization that is the only one of its kind on a Mississippi college campus.

The organization provided an avenue of support and a community that allows students with disabilities to be proud of who they are, regardless of the burdens they carry.

I hope my legacy will be marked by support and encouragement so that individuals with disabilities will be able to embrace their true self and reach out to others to help them do the same, Thomas said.

Margaret Walker

A public policy leadership and integrated marketing communications major from Suwanee, Georgia, Margaret Walker is a Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Scholar, Lott Scholar and Stamps Scholar. She founded and serves as president of Period@UM, and received the Capstone Medal for Demographic/Economic Collegiate Research and the Taylor Medal.

Walker studied abroad in Paris, Australia and South Africa, and also performed research in Southeast Asia and Northern Ireland for her Honors College thesis on conflict tourism.

Founding Period@UM is my greatest accomplishment because I developed a student coalition combating gender inequity, distributed over 20,000 menstrual products across campus and encouraged uncomfortable conversations, she said. I hope to have created a legacy of purpose-driven change.

Morgan Whited

Morgan Whited, senior class president and a Stamps Scholar from Marion, Arkansas, is a biochemistry major and a member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, where she has served as an ambassador, peer mentor and a senator.

She has served as a UM Voting Ambassador, vice chair for the University Judicial Council, president of Gamma Beta Phi, programming director for the Jackson Free Clinic Health Ambassadors, project leader for the Big Event and a member of the RebelTHON Miracle Family Committee. Whited also co-founded Hearts for Homeless UM and received the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistrys 2021 Outstanding Organic Chemistry Student award, as well as the Department of Writing and Rhetorics 2020 JoAnn Edwards Speech Award and the Taylor Medal.

As an Honors ambassador, I strive to convince a student to make what may well be the greatest decision of their life in matriculating here at UM, Whited said.

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Get to Know the 2022-23 Hall of Fame Inductees - Ole Miss News

Organic Chemistry

Swirltex Announces Appointment of Dominik Elsaesser To Board of … – Benzinga

Swirltex Inc. (Swirltex) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dominik Elsaesser to the Board of Directors. Mr. Elsaesser will support the board with strategic guidance and technology counsel for the business.

"We are extremely excited to bring Dominik Elsaesser on to the Swirltex Board," said Rob Budianto, Chief Executive Officer of Swirltex. "Dominik's deep technical expertise in membrane and filtration technology and strong commercial understanding of the wastewater treatment market will be invaluable to Swirltex as we grow our business and expand our capabilities. His appointment is further validation on value proposition and unique advancement in filtration that the Swirltex technology brings to market."

"Swirltex's unique technology expands the preservation and reuse of precious water resources thereby unlocking substantial value for customers," said Elsaesser. "I am pleased to join the Board of Directors and support Swirltex in their goal to achieve sustained growth and deliver a real impact to the world."

Dominik Elsaesser is the former Chief Technology Officer of Pentair PNR Customer Solutions segment, responsible for leading global product innovation. Previously he managed Pentair's Industrial Filtration business and held executive-level technology leadership positions for water, air, and other fluids applications. Prior to joining Pentair, Mr. Elsaesser had a 16-year career with Dow Chemical DOW, where he led global R&D for Dow Water Solutions. He also served as Global R&D Director for Invista Specialty Materials, and as a Vice President of Technology for Ashland Water (now Solenis).

He is currently founder and principal of Elsass Consulting, an independent management consulting practice. He brings 30 years of global industry experience to provide technology expertise, innovation management and strategic advisory services to the water industry and clean technology sector.

Mr. Elsaesser holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Dsseldorf. He gained international work experience in Germany, Switzerland and the USA.

ABOUT SWIRLTEX

Swirltex Inc., headquartered in Calgary, AB, Canada, is a clean technology company that specializes in water treatment. Swirltex's technology is a buoyancy-enhanced membrane filtration process that treats challenging wastewater streams at higher throughput, lower energy consumption, and in a broader range of climates. This patented process can use membranes in applications where conventional membranes cannot be successfully applied. Swirltex's process allows them to provide wastewater treatment solutions with smaller footprints and fewer annual maintenance requirements. Swirltex's primary client base is heavy industrial applications, which include coal and mining markets, oil and gas processes, municipal lagoons, and unconventional lithium extraction.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230418005240/en/

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Swirltex Announces Appointment of Dominik Elsaesser To Board of ... - Benzinga

Organic Chemistry

Episcopal Academy’s Maddie Masiko is Main Line Girls Athlete of … – papreplive.com

A sophomore, Masikos pitching and hitting have paced the Churchwomen (8-0 as of April 14). On the mound, she struck out18 batters against Shipley, had a no-hitter against Archbishop Carroll and as of April 14 had struck out 91 batters in 46 innings, compiling an ERA of 0.46 and WHIP of 0.54. She is the Churchwomens cleanup hitter, batting .481 with two homeruns and eight RBIs. As a freshman, she was named to All-InterAc and All-Main Line first team for softball, and was a big reason EA won the InterAc title last year.

Q: What was particularly working for you on the pitching mound in the Shipley and Carroll games?

A: Coming into the game, my curve ball and my rise were working well and spinning effectively. I was confident in my pitches and was willing to mix in my screwball and changeup as needed.

Q: What do you consider your best pitch? What aspect of pitching are you working on the most?

A: I would consider my screwball my best pitch. It was the fourth pitch I learned, but the quickest I picked up. I enjoy throwing it the most because it jams up righthanded batters and throws lefthanded batters off balance. Im working on mixing speeds the most. Change-ups are a big part of the game and something I would like to become more proficient at.

Q: As a pitcher, after facing a hitter a couple of times in a game, you probably have a better idea of what to throw her late in a game. Can you give us an example of how this has worked in your favor?

A: One example of how this has worked in my favor was in a game early this season. I had only played one of the girls on that team before in club ball, so the rest of the batters were new to me. It was a close game (2-1) and the bottom of the seventh inning with one runner on. There were two outs, and the next girl up to bat was one that had gone into deep counts with me both at-bats before. I remembered how she had chased rise and taken curve. This meant her eyes were elevated the entire game, and we threw two low curves at the knees for strikes, knowing she would take them. To finish the at-bat, I threw a riseball out of the zone, and that was the ballgame.

Q: What do you think has been the most important thing youve learned recently regarding hitting?

A: The most important thing Ive learned recently regarding hitting was patience and confidence. In my first couple of years of club ball, I was a very anxious hitter who would chase out of the zone. Ive learned to be more selective and only swing at the pitches that I know I can drive. Especially in hitting slumps, confidence is one of the hardest things to regain. Ive learned that taking pride in my past achievements and having positive reinforcement calms me down and allows me to perform better.

Q: What aspect of your game did you work on most during the off-season?

A: I worked the most on my pitch mix and speed building over the winter. This means that I worked on throwing all of my pitches and fixing my mechanics to make my pitches as efficient as possible. One specific mix I worked heavily on all winter was screw-change-rise. To a righty batter, the screw would break heavily into your hands. Followed up with a change of speed changing eye levels, and finally a riseball to chase out of the zone. In the fall this mix had been effective when it worked, and my coaches and I pushed to make it more consistent in the spring. Speed is very important for pitching if its mixed with good spins. I gained about 1-2 MPH over the off-season and am now clocking in at about 62 MPH.

Q: Tell us a little about your start in softball what sparked your original interest in competitive softball?

A: I started playing softball when I was 5 years old, and instantly fell in love with the game. I played for a rec-ball league and knew I wanted to get the most out of the sport. I tried out for my first club team when I was 9 and have been playing club ball ever since. Every year Ive played, the sport has allowed me to travel across the country, meet new coaches, friends, and teammates, and to play the game I love all year long.

Q: What is your favorite ballpark and why?

A: My favorite ballpark is Citizens Bank. Ive grown up watching the Phillies and Ive never had one bad experience in the stadium, even though I was at the Game 5 of the 2022 World Series (a loss to Houston). I recently went on Easter, and it was a great time to catch up with my extended family and spend time together rooting for the team we all love.

Q: You wear uniform jersey No. 7 for EA softball. Was there a reason you chose this number does this number have any significance to you?

A: No. 7 was the first number I had ever worn in softball, and there was only one year out of the nine years Ive played where Ive worn a different jersey. There isnt a specific reason I chose this number beside it being my favorite number and having the same number every year connects me further to the game.

Q: Tell us a little about your pre-game preparation the day of a game.

A: My pre-game preparation is pretty specific. I wake up 15 minutes earlier and pack my uniform and double check that everything is packed in my bag. During lunch I get my hair braided in the same way by one of my teammates before each game: two dutch braids into a fishtail. I do believe in superstition, as I always wear the same hairtie and bracelet the day of the game. Right before the start of the first inning, I sit on the bench by myself and take a few deep breaths and tell myself that Im playing this sport because I love it, and no matter what happens on the field, nothing will change that.

Q: Other than softball, what other extracurricular activities do you participate in at EA?

A: Varsity water polo, Fashion Club, Forensics Club, OneLove Club.

Q: What is your favorite academic course at EA? What do you think you might like to major in at college? Is there a career field that particularly interests you at the present time?

My favorite academic course at EA is chemistry. I would like to major in forensic science and chemistry in college because its what Im most passionate about. This year I took my second chemistry course, and Im planning on taking AP Chemistry next year, and organic chemistry and forensic chemistry the following. I love learning everything about atoms, elements, and molecules and the labs are my favorite part of the day, especially titrations. The career field that most interests me is forensics, although that covers a vast array of job opportunities. The career I have most looked into is becoming a CSI investigator or a forensic analyst.

Fun facts Maddie Masiko

Favorite TV show: Criminal Minds.

Favorite movie: 10 Things I Hate About You.

Favorite athlete: JT Realmuto.

Favorite team: Phillies.

Favorite place to visit: Florida.

Favorite pre-game meal: Caesar salad.

Person I most admire and why: My dad he is the hardest worker I know and my No. 1 supporter.

(To be selected as Main Line Girls Athlete of the Week, a student-athlete must first be nominated by her coach.)

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Episcopal Academy's Maddie Masiko is Main Line Girls Athlete of ... - papreplive.com

Organic Chemistry

Can u solve it? Wordplay meets numberplay – The Guardian

Alex Bellos's Monday puzzle

Todays puzzles celebrate the connections between mathematics and literature.

They also mark the publication of Once Upon a Prime, a terrific new book about these connections, by Sarah Hart, professor of maths at Birkbeck, University of London. (One of the puzzles below gives you the chance to win a copy.)

One subject covered in Once Upon a Prime is constrained writing the art of applying mathematical rules to text which provides the theme for todays challenges.

1. Pop art

Below are five sentences with the vowels and spaces taken out. Your task is to reinsert the vowels and spaces to recreate the sentences. Each sentence uses one vowel only. The five vowels A, E, I, O and U each have a sentence. To make it easier, each sentence has the name of a pop star and a famous artist, and could feasibly be a headline in this newspaper.

a) C H R G T S V R M R S K T C H

b) D M B S T R C K L L S C F F S M N C H

c) L D Y G G B G S C H G L L

d) S N P D G G S H W S T W R T H K W R K S

e) W L L S M T H S G N S H S K L M T P R N T

2. Creative curbs

Each of the sentences below is written according to a different constraint, i.e. a mathematical rule such as, say, all words the same length, or no es allowed. Can you deduce what each constraint is?

1) I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting.

2) Pert Pete wrote QWERTY. Wry Rory wept. Quiet Tori quit.

3) Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Noel and Ellen sinned.

4) Shimmering, gleaming, glistening glowWinter reigns, splendiferous snow! Wont this sight, this stainless scene,Endlessly yield days supreme?Eying ground, deep piled, delights Skiers scaling garish heights.

(Note: these six lines are an excerpt from Winter Reigns, a poem written by Mary Youngquist, the first woman to get a PhD in organic chemistry from MIT, and later editor of the US National Puzzlers League newsletter. It hides a very simple constraint. )

3. Pilish, please (plus Pon Prime prize)

Pilish is a form of constrained writing in which the lengths of the words are determined by the mathematical constant pi, the number that begins 3.1415926535 (In other words, the first word must have 3 letters, the second word 1 letter, the third word 4 letters, the fourth 1, and so on.)

Perhaps the best known Pilish phrase is: How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics, attributed to the physicist Sir James Jeans. The most ambitious Pilish text is Mike Keiths Cadaiec Cadenza, a narrative poem in the style of Edgar Allen Poe that runs for almost 100 lines.

I will send a copy of Once Upon a Prime to the reader who sends in the best sentence or two in Pilish to me here by 4pm UK today.

Sarah Hart, the books author, has agreed to judge the submissions and we will announce the winner at 5pm. You can write about anything, but extra points will be awarded for fluency, topicality and wit. Bes o luck!

FYI The first thirty digits of Pi are: 3.14159265358979323846264338327

Ill be back at 5pm with the solutions to the puzzles and the winner of the competition.

PLEASE NO SPOILERS Instead write about anything you like without using the letter e.

Once Upon a Prime by Sarah Hart can be bought at the Guardian Bookshop and other online sellers.

I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. Im always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.

I give school talks about maths and puzzles (online and in person). If your school is interested please get in touch.

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Can u solve it? Wordplay meets numberplay - The Guardian

Organic Chemistry

Simply studying a subject doesn’t earn specialisation: Uttarakhand HC – Indiatimes.com

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand high court (HC) has observed that merely studying a certain subject as part of a course doesn't mean the student gets to claim to have a specialisation in it. While dismissing the petition of an applicant who had applied for the post of a scientist at the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) in Dehradun, the HC bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Alok Verma said in a court order issued on April 11, "While applying for a job, a student cannot claim to have a specialisation in a subject if he/she has merely studied it as part of a course". The essential qualification for the post was first-class MSc degree in Chemistry, with a specialisation in organic chemistry. The contender, Saumya Singh Sheeshmukh, had obtained MSc (Chemistry) qualification with CGPA 6.54 (first class) from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in 2019, and claimed she was fit for the role as she had papers in organic, inorganic and physical chemistry as well as other topics.Sheeshmukh, whose application had been rejected by ICFRE for not meeting their eligibility criteria, argued that "even though her degree did not mention her specialisation in organic chemistry" it was evident from the grade cards issued to her that she had studied it.After looking into the degree certificate and grade cards, the court observed that "the said degree did not state that she had obtained the degree of Master of Science in the subject of organic chemistry.""If a student does BSc (Simple), they cannot claim to have obtained a degree in either Physics (Hons), Chemistry (Hons) or Mathematics (Hons), even though these subjects may have been taught as part of simple BSc. Such a person cannot claim to have specialised in any of these subjects," the court observed.It added, "Since the course offered by the university was MSc (Chemistry) and it is that course which was pursued by the petitioner, she cannot turn around and say she has pursued MSc in Organic Chemistry or MSc (Chemistry) with specialisation in organic chemistry."The court went on to say: "If the petitioner's arguments are accepted today, tomorrow she may claim she has an MSc degree with specialisation in inorganic chemistry".

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Simply studying a subject doesn't earn specialisation: Uttarakhand HC - Indiatimes.com

Organic Chemistry

Guessing What Undergraduate Research Exhibition Titles Mean – Onward State

In one of the most exciting events of the year, undergraduate students recently gathered in Alumni Hall to present their research projects in the annual Undergraduate Research Exhibition. While most of the poster titles were self-explanatory (to someone with a Ph.D.), others required a few context clues.

Luckily for you, we here at Onward State are providing that completely accurate context that you all are looking for.

Of course! Coenobita compressus thats our favorite. Upon a first read, the word beach stands out. Truthfully, Coenobita compressus sounds like the name of an organism but could be anything from a bacteria to a fish to a little mollusk.

The use of the term boldness is slightly confusing, considering that term is usually associated with colors or personalities. Maybe the author of this project investigated how aggressive the organism was in terms of competition with others. The size and beach disturbance factors are just there for a little challenge.

This research project is absolutely fascinating. First of all, whats a service robot? Maybe it fixes things, provides a manual service, or works in stores and restaurants as a customer service representative. Regardless, assigning a name to a robot would probably make anybody happy.

Graph? Vertex degrees? This one just screams math. We barely made it through MATH 140 and 141, and youre telling us someone chose to keep doing that? Like, for their entire life? Were sending our thoughts to this person.

Most people know these words by themselves, but strung together, it reads like Latin. Binder jet printed stainless steel seems like it could be related to 3D printing, but what the hell is a binder jet, and how does it print things? Our best guess for this one is that, in the most basic terms, theyre testing the strength of a certain type of stainless steel.

Radio telemetry is a bit above our pay grade ($0), but it sounds like something in the vein of echolocation, which is pretty cool. However, the usage is concerning. It seems unnecessary to try and locate spiders, especially when they have cryptic in their name. They probably dont want to be found.

This research project seems a little oxymoronic. How can a robocar be both self-driving and remote control? We would like a live demonstration, please.

The only word that means anything to us here is spectroscopic, and it brings back traumatic memories of organic chemistry. Despite our familiarity with spectroscopy, the abbreviated programs or methodologies are going way over our head, and likely everyone elses. A shot in the dark and a gut instinct is leading us to chemical engineering.

Haylee is a junior studying immunology and infectious disease. She is from Mifflintown, PA, a tiny town south of State College. She is a coffee addict, loves Taylor Swift, and can't wait to go to a concert again. Any questions can be directed to @hayleeq8 on Twitter or emailed to [emailprotected]

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Guessing What Undergraduate Research Exhibition Titles Mean - Onward State

Organic Chemistry

Missing Link Between Risk Genes Associated With Alzheimers … – Neuroscience News

Summary: Scientists have discovered a connection between two types of Alzheimers disease, shedding light on how the most common form of the disease is linked to a rarer form. The discovery could help researchers develop new treatments for Alzheimers, which affects millions of people worldwide.

Source: Chinese Academy of Science

Alzheimers disease (AD) can be divided into rare early onset familial AD (fAD) and common late onset sporadic AD (sAD) that impairs the memory and cognitive functions of older people worldwide.

While the formation of amyloid plaques is the common brain pathology in both fAD and sAD, the genetics of fAD and sAD are distinct, and it could be argued that distinct pathogenesis mechanisms may be involved; therefore, different treatment strategies should be considered. In this regard, the billion-dollar question is whether targeting amyloid plaques is the correct strategy for the treatment of the common sAD.

In a study published inNeuron, Prof. Chen Yelins group from the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provided an answer to this question.

The researchers uncovered the mechanistic relationship between the most common pathogenic risk factor of sAD, ApoE4, and the disease-causing genetic factors of fAD that directly promotes the formation ofamyloidplaques, providing a missing link between the common sAD and rare fAD.

Specific mutations in the genes that encode enzymes for processingamyloid precursor protein(APP), including APP itself and -secretase cleavage subunits (PS1 and PS2), directly promote the development of fAD by accelerating the formation ofamyloid plaques.

However, ~99% of the common late onset sAD do not carry mutations in APP or PS1/2. In contrast, individuals who carry two copies of ApoE4 have a tenfold increased risk of developing late onset sAD compared with people with normal ApoE3. Another variant, ApoE2, can significantly reduce the risk of sAD.

The striking impact of different ApoE variants on the development of sAD has also been a longstanding puzzle in the field as the amino acid sequences of ApoE2, ApoE3 and ApoE4 differ by only 1-2 amino acid residues.

A direct and differential inhibition of the -cleavage of APP by different ApoE isoforms was found by the researchers, and they demonstrated how ApoE isomers may change the risk of developing sAD. ApoE2 shows the strongest inhibitory activity on -cleavage of APP, while ApoE4 loses this activity.

This finding provides the missing link between the risk genes of fAD and sAD, suggesting that abnormal -cleavage of APP is the common pathogenic cause of fAD and sAD. This study suggests the C-terminal region of ApoE as a substrate-specific -secretase inhibitor with therapeutic potentials.

Author: Liu JiaSource: Chinese Academy of ScienceContact: Liu Jia Chinese Academy of ScienceImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Differential and substrate-specific inhibition of -secretase by the C-terminal region of ApoE2, ApoE3, and ApoE4 by Chen Yelin et al. Neuron

Abstract

Differential and substrate-specific inhibition of -secretase by the C-terminal region of ApoE2, ApoE3, and ApoE4

Aberrant low -secretase activity is associated with most of the presenilin mutations that underlie familial Alzheimers disease (fAD). However, the role of -secretase in the more prevalent sporadic AD (sAD) remains unaddressed.

Here, we report that human apolipoprotein E (ApoE), the most important genetic risk factor of sAD, interacts with -secretase and inhibits it with substrate specificity in cell-autonomous manners through its conserved C-terminal region (CT).

This ApoE CT-mediated inhibitory activity is differentially compromised in different ApoE isoforms, resulting in an ApoE2>ApoE3>ApoE4 potency rank order inversely correlating to their associated AD risk. Interestingly, in an AD mouse model, neuronal ApoE CT migrates to amyloid plaques in the subiculum from other regions and alleviates the plaque burden.

Together, our data reveal a hidden role of ApoE as a -secretase inhibitor with substrate specificity and suggest that this precision -inhibition by ApoE may protect against the risk of sAD.

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Missing Link Between Risk Genes Associated With Alzheimers ... - Neuroscience News

Organic Chemistry

Simply Nootropics All the Nutrients the Brain Needs are Coming to the United States – PRUnderground

Simply Nootropics is planning its 2023 U.S. launch of its Essentials dietary supplement, which helps boost alertness, focus, and energy without side effects.

When we started the company, we set out to develop the most comprehensive nootropic, said Stuart Vaughan, co-founder of Simply Nootropics, a New Zealand health and wellness company. We wanted to give people a better life without limitations and barriers.

Simply Nootropics is on a mission to help people perform at their very best, he added. We want people to enjoy and live their fullest lives.

Vaughan and co-founder Anthony Baxter consulted with neuroscientists and natural health leaders to create a product that helps people achieve their goals.

Our products combine neuroscience, neurobiology, and organic chemistry, Baxter said. We use ingredients, such as Ashwagandha, L-Theanine, and Ginkgo Biloba, based on scientific research.

Essentials is a nootropic formula that offers great value, he added. We only use ingredients that can help people improve their focus and boost their energy levels without the inevitable crash that occurs with many other products.

Simply Nootropics also suggests a unique dosage regimen.

We tell people to take Essentials for five straight days and then skip two days, Baxter said. This technique helps your body avoid building up a tolerance to the supplement and avoid increasing the dosage to see the same results.

Vaughan said Simply Nootropics does not use any fillers in its products.

We only put in what is absolutely necessary, he said. We dont use sales or marketing gimmicks to make our products cool.

Simply Nootropics just uses great ingredients, at the right dose, for the best results, Vaughan added.

Simply Nootropics products should appeal to consumers because they are vegan, kosher, gluten-free, and ethically made.

Our bottles only contain 100 percent recyclable materials. We want to keep people and our planet healthy, which is why our ingredients are ethically and sustainably sourced, Vaughan emphasized.

Baxter said Simply Nootropics wants to be more than pills.

We believe education is vitally important, he said. We help our customers achieve complete human cognitive optimization.

For more information, please visit Simply Nootropics online.

Disclaimer: The statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This press release is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please check with your doctor. The news site hosting this press release is not associated with Simply Nootropics. It is merely publishing a press release announcement submitted by a company, without any stated or implied endorsement of the product or service.

About Simply Nootropics

Simply Nootropics, a New Zealand health and wellness company, develops nootropic dietary supplements. Nootropics supplements are nutrition for the brain.

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Simply Nootropics All the Nutrients the Brain Needs are Coming to the United States - PRUnderground

Organic Chemistry

Guide to building pharma strategies in oncology – Omnia Health Insights

Strategic analytics and forecasting in oncology and rare diseases go beyond numbers, as each number is a patient, and each patient is a life. Oncology is a complicated but important pharma category to forecast with oncology assets becoming an increasingly critical part of company portfolios.

Business strategies, forecasts and analytics are used for research and development, while new product portfolio planning requires different methodology and outputs than other functional areas. In these types of forecasts, we need to adjust for risk and uncertainty in the forecast as the product may not be launched yet.

The key challenge to forecasting is to create a process where the needs of function can be met without compromising the integrity of the forecast approach. It is also important to note how we could create the one source of truth across an organisation while having no historical sales data.

When looking at the field of oncology or rare diseases, one gold standard approach is the epidemiological method. Forecasters often start with an epidemiology-based approach, using data and assumptions around prevalence, persistence, compliance, and market share to determine how many patients are taking a drug, and use this to forecast future revenue. This model is used when a product is new to the market, or where patterns of usage are complex (such as rare diseases or cell and gene therapy in oncology).

A forecaster should be equipped to bring and validate different data sources to arrive at meaningful insight. These insights can be useful for building a commercial strategy since they establish a deep and more causal relationship between patients and resulting commercial sales. At the end of the day, forecasters are trying to stay ahead of the curve and steer the organisation and investors in a win-win direction.

However, getting detailed in this space is not always easy. The populations for these treatments are often very specific: many drugs are approved for a certain tumour type, specific line of therapy, and/or only in populations with certain biomarkers. To build an accurate oncology model, forecasters must be increasingly patient-focused and deal with challenges including accurate patient identification, the likelihood of treatment switching and discontinuation, and time on therapy for different patients, as well as pricing changes over time. They must also constantly monitor the rapidly evolving marketplace, where many pipeline drugs mean that standards of care and the competitive landscape can change dramatically in the time it takes to bring a drug to market.

These obstacles force pharma companies to rethink their approach to forecasting in oncology. When projections are misaligned, pharma companies can fail to meet revenue goals, disappointing investors and shareholders. But when forecasters get it right, manufacturers can optimise resources to fit the opportunity and produce plans that deliver innovative medicines to patients who need them.

Oncology is recognised as a challenging area to forecast. According to Precedence research the global oncology market was valued at US$286.04 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach over US$581.25 billion by 2030. The increased importance of forecasting has become even more relevant in recent years, due to the specificity of new-era targeted therapies. These therapies target specific subsets of patients, meaning it is paramount to ensure accurate and robust forecasting to limit over-or under-estimation of product usage.

Here is a list of essential guidance to help business strategists and forecasters navigate the shifting times of oncology treatments and build an effective forecasting approach.

As oncology treatments become increasingly targeted to certain patient populations, best-in-class oncology forecasts require forecasters to split the population into smaller and more specific segments. For example, for second-line therapy in metastatic lung cancer with improved efficacy for a certain biomarker, a forecaster may need to model eight or more segments in order to understand their potential patient population. While smaller segments are often more accurate, each new category of segmentation multiplies the forecasting effort.

Before building an oncology forecast model, it is important to understand the level of data granularity that users demand on an immediate and mid-to-long-term basis. Annual models, albeit easier to build and maintain, do not answer key business questions like monthly sales. It can also be difficult to adapt to an event like a data readout, where changes in forecasting output are needed at a monthly level by business users.

These challenges make annual models inflexible with low precision. On the other hand, a monthly model can offer an ideal time granularity for forecasting because it incorporates oncology-specific dynamics based on available monthly data.

Forecasting in oncology is different from other therapeutic areas because of the significant need to follow patients through different stages, lines, and treatments as they progress through the disease. As important as this is to do, inaccurate identification of the target patient pool has been a common pitfall in oncology forecasting.

Forecasters should split the population into smaller and more specific segments, and accurately model them based on incidence, recurrence, diagnosis, treatment, and other important factors to maximise the accuracy of forecast outputs.

Forecasters must be able to model patients through the different stages of the disease as cancer therapy models have become more complex. They need to assess the advancement of each patient segment, understand how patients move between the lines of therapy, analyze dosing regimens, rates of progression, remission and discontinuation, patient dependency on old and new drugs or therapies, and more. A holistic understanding of the disease space, as opposed to a myopic one, is critical for forecasters to model such complex and dynamic patient flows.

Understanding the dosing patterns of your target patient population is crucial before building a forecasting model. Each of these inputs needs to be modelled differently because patient segmentation and the associated granularity heavily depend on drug dosing specifications. Duration of Treatment (DoT), persistency curve, and cohort models can be considered for oral targeted therapies that carry a fixed dosing approach.

In addition to estimating the first-time users of your new product, forecasters must also look at two additional streams where patients could potentially flow in from:

For those key questions, it is important for the strategic forecaster to have a concurrence with the wider cross-functional team so that there is one number across the organisation.

References available on request.

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Sanobar Syed is a subject matter expert in the field of pharmaceutical business strategy and forecasting in North America. She has a successful career spanning over 14 years with top global pharmaceutical firms, including Beigene, AbbVie, Novartis, and McKesson. With a masters degree in Organic chemistry coupled with MBA in marketing, she has established and successfully led strategic forecasting and business analytics and excellence across geographies for multi-million-dollar brands across distinguished organisations.

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Guide to building pharma strategies in oncology - Omnia Health Insights