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What is NERC? The vision of the New England Research Cloud (NERC) is to be a regional resource with world-class cloud computing services. We are building a common cloud framework tailored for data-driven discovery that will be available to many institutions in New England.

What is NERC? The vision of the New England Research Cloud (NERC) is to be a regional resource with cutting-edge cloud computing services. We are building a common cloud framework tailored for data-driven discovery that will be available to many institutions in New England. NERC is part of the Mass Open Cloud Alliance .

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New England Acoustic Research-N.E.A.R Speakers?

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N.E.A.R Speakers Came across a pair of these speakers on Craigslist and had never heard of them. Just curious if anyone knows anything about them. Not really looking to get them, but just a little knowledge for the memory bank. Was wondering if they were a quality speaker or a white van speaker and what more known brand of speaker they may closely resemble?? Thanks for the knowledge guys.  

bump  

I live in New England and haven't heard of them either. Apparently they are part of Bogen communications. Found this: http://www.bogen.com/products/ They don't seem to cater to Home Theater or home audio at all. Form their website my guess is they are more for commercial use. Background music in a shopping mall. PA or intercom. This is all speculation on my part though.  

NEAR used to have a small line-up of standard speakers. IIRC they were well-regarded speakers. One example was the 15M: http://www.soundstage.com/entry06.htm  

There was a connection with NEAR and Bozak, the NEAR guy bought the Bozak tooling. They were well regarded in their day. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Bozak  

I ran across them in the Sonos forum. A guy over there did an in home trial of them and some other speakers for outdoors. The NEAR armadillos were the winners. I'm looking to buy a pair of the A6s or A8s for my patio Sonos zone that is about to go into operation.  

NEAR is still around??? That's surprising...  

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New England Review

Vol. 44, no. 3 (2023).

Buy the issue in print or as an e-book

EDITOR’S NOTE

POETRY JOHN JAMES  The Field Which Had Been a Meadow Once / Epicurus G. C. Waldrep  Some Lines Written in Clare Priory Yard LILY GREENBERG  The Beginning According to Mrs. God LAURA NEWBERN  Ashes / Summer Afternoon / Fables and Seas BRIAN BLANCHFIELD  Holism / from New Year in Hot Springs CORTNEY LAMAR CHARLESTON  It’s Important I Remember That Abraham Lincoln Always Measured Before He Cut— / It’s Important I Remember That Frederick Douglass Learned How to Read— LEILA CHATTI  Angels / In Lament of My Uterus ESTHER LIN  French Sentence / Early Gothic CINDY KING  Noumenon / A Poem by Dean Young by Mary Ruefle by Cindy King

FICTION MICAH MULDOWNEY  Apis Mellifera DAVID MOATS  Jones Street JESSIE REN MARSHALL  Sister Fat SAMUEL KOLAWOLE  Adjustment of Status

NOVELLA LORI OSTLUND  Just Another Family

NONFICTION Traveler’s Notebook JOSEPH PEARSON  The Island That Eats People

Reckonings MILDRED KICONCO BARYA  Poetics of Transmutation ADRIE KUSSEROW  from Stories: South Sudan

Investigations ALICE SPARBERG ALEXIOU  Fanny in Ottoman Jerusalem

Rediscoveries ADELINE TRAFTON  An American Girl at Napoleon’s Tomb

TRANSLATIONS GÁBOR SCHEIN  Night of Forests translated by Ottilie Mulzet YURI ANDRUKHOVYCH  The Captain’s Wife / Old Oliynyk translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin FANG XIN 方莘   Four Etudes translated by the author

PERFORMANCE PIECES CARIDAD SVICH  from Clara Thomas Bailey

CONTRIBUTORS’ NOTES

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Under the direction of Ilja Hulinsky, MD, PhD, New England Research Associates, LLC is a dedicated clinical research facility in the Tri-State area that partners with many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies and Contract Research Organizations (CROs). We take pride in our close association with our sponsors, and it shows in the excellent work we produce. We also take pride in the exceptional level of attention we provide to all trial participants.

Our research facility, situated in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is conveniently located in Fairfield County, just over 60 miles from New York City. This location allows us to draw from a substantial patient pool in the Tri-State area. The region is also served by three major teaching hospitals.

If you participate in one of our studies, you’ll find that our facility offers you a comfortable and accommodating environment. We are easily accessible from I-95, Route 15 (Merritt Parkway), U.S. Route 1, and public transportation routes.

Our clinical trial management systems are fully integrated from social media-based recruitment, text-based appointment reminders, electronic regulatory documents, electronic source documents, and remote monitoring capabilities.

We are a fully equipped site with all the necessary equipment to successfully run a clinical trial at both locations. All equipment is calibrated annually. Our Laboratory is CLIA certified and all coordinators are all IATA certified.

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Contract and budget is centralized. The negotiation runs in parallel with IRB submission and Regulatory document completion.

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We have our own in-house recruitment specialist who is an expert in subject selection. Most of our subjects are recruited from within our own database. We do use referrals from local physician groups. We also use social media advertisement to increase patient access.

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Jon Hamdorf is a free spirit who lives for adventure. His latest was a little different .

It started in mid-January when he checked into a 12th-floor room in a drab brick building in Boston’s Chinatown. At age 70, Hamdorf has no permanent address and spends his days traveling or living on his boat in Maine. But for this jaunt, this intrepid soul was confined to a rigid schedule, required to eat specific meals that were handed to him, and forbidden to go outside without a chaperone — all in the service of science.

“This, to me, is like going to Nepal or going to Israel. It’s like another adventure,” said Hamdorf, a retired CPA.

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The thrill, he said, lay in the purpose. For three two-week stints, Hamdorf had agreed to become a study subject in a project seeking to answer questions that have troubled nearly every person who brings fork to mouth: What will happen in my body after I eat this food? Will it make me fat, raise my cholesterol, mess up my gut microbiome — or perhaps extend my life?

The Nutrition for Precision Health Study, a $170 million national research project seeking to enroll 10,000 people nationwide, aims to develop a way to pinpoint the optimal diet for every person. The study is being carried out by six clinical centers across the country, including the New England Clinical Center, run by Tufts University and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Current nutrition advice is based on averages, on what seems to work best for most people. But in many studies, people eating the exact same mix of nutrients have differing responses in measures like blood glucose or blood pressure, explains Holly Nicastro, the national study’s program director.

The study will try to find out exactly why, so that someday — it is hoped — people will be able to consume a diet tailored to their unique biology.

The study is also seeking to overcome the challenges that have long dogged nutrition research. Typically, nutrition data relies on asking people what they remember eating. But memories are notoriously inaccurate, and often biased by, say, embarrassment over having eaten that entire sleeve of Oreos. Nutrition for Precision Health is testing other methods of documenting what people consume, including with an app, a questionnaire, or a tiny camera mounted on eyeglasses that is activated by chewing.

“We have the technology to actually get away from the reliance on memory,” said Sarah L. Booth, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. “This is one of the exciting aspects of this study. We may be completely revolutionizing how we study nutrition.”

Participants first complete a “module” in which they follow their normal diet for 10 days and report what they ate. If they want to continue, they choose either to pick up prepackaged meals to eat at home or to enroll in the “live-in diet” module, the tightly controlled sojourn that Hamdorf selected. By keeping people inside and under watch, researchers can track — with precision and certainty — what people eat, and what effects those foods have throughout the body.

Hamdorf was among an inaugural group of four participants in the live-in diet phase in Boston. All had previously signed up for the All of Us Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, which aims to enroll 1 million or more participants to contribute their health data, including genetics, to build a database that can inform thousands of studies. Only existing All of Us members are invited to take part in the nutrition study.

On the first day, the participants gave blood and saliva samples, had their bones scanned, their metabolic rates measured, and their fat-to-muscle ratio documented. They were also equipped with blood-glucose monitors attached at the waist to continuously track fluctuations in blood sugar, and wrist bands that tracked activity and sleep.

The next day, the daily routines kicked in: 6:30 a.m. weight and vital signs taken; 8 a.m. breakfast; 12 p.m. lunch; 3 p.m. snack; 6 p.m. dinner; 11 p.m. lights out.

The strict schedule proved more liberating than confining, Hamdorf said. “It feels very good to be structured like this,” he said. “You just show up for the meals, and you don’t have to go shopping or anything.”

Between meals and tests, participants were free to use the exercise equipment on the 13th floor, stretch on the mats in the yoga room, gather in the game room, or relax in their spacious private rooms with picture windows. They loved interacting with many of the 150 people working in offices, laboratories, and the kitchen at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

Occasionally, they took a stroll outside, but only when a staff member could accompany them, lest anyone get an urge for an ice cream cone; the researchers must be able to attest that the participants ate only what they were served inside.

And what were they served?

Precisely at noon near the end of their first two-week stint, the four participants trooped to the 11th-floor dining room, accompanied by Paul J. Fuss, clinical research manager, who stayed to keep an eye on them as they ate.

The kitchen staff brought them plates wrapped in plastic and labeled with their names. Each meal is tailored to the individual’s calorie needs; participants are not supposed to gain or lose weight.

Each also has a tiny rubber spatula to scoop up every crumb. “We’re pretty much asking you to lick the plate without licking the plate,” said Kayla Airaghi, a dietitian. If they can’t finish, the staff will weigh the leftovers, tracking consumption down to a 10th of a gram.

On this day, Lori Mattheiss, 60, of Andover got a hamburger, peaches, and potato chips; her husband, Tim Carter, 63, was served two hamburger sliders. Jane Cashell, 75, of Clinton, ate broccoli, chicken nuggets, and mac and cheese. Hamdorf got Spanish rice, chicken with taco seasoning, and cheddar cheese.

“It’s not the food we normally eat,” Mattheiss said. “I’m eating things I haven’t eaten since I was a kid.” On other days she’s had a Yodel, Kool-Aid, canned fruit cocktail, Fritos.

In this two-week session, participants consumed what they called the traditional American diet. The researchers, however, resist labeling it; officially it’s described only by its contents, high in refined grains and sugar-sweetened drinks and low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish.

In the second and third two-week visits — which were spaced apart with at least two weeks in between — the participants ate high-fat and high-protein fare, and, finally, a diet replete with fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains, and fish (the four liked this one best).

The three diets were chosen not because they’re recommended but because they are the most common diet patterns in the United States, said Sai Krupa Das, a senior scientist at the center and principal investigator for the New England branch of the study. “They are reflective of what we consume as a nation,” she said.

And the goal is not to determine which diet is best, but rather to measure individuals’ varying response to the different components.

The researchers acknowledge that it will be difficult to attract a diverse population to this phase of the project. How many people can put their lives on hold for two weeks at a time? Carter and Mattheiss, who trade stocks online, worked during their stays, and other remote workers might be able to do the same. But bus drivers? Restaurant owners? Parents of young children? Even the $6,200 stipend for completing all three two-week sessions may not be enough to compensate for lost work.

Despite the challenges, the NIH’s Nicastro said, “We do have ambitious diversity goals,” which they expect to achieve at least with “Module 1,” in which participants eat what they normally do and record it. But even for the more demanding modules — the prepackaged meals or the live-in diet — research sites are working with churches, barbershops, community centers, and other places to sign people up for All of Us, and then recruit them into the nutrition study, Nicastro said.

Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, who is not involved in the study, believes the Nutrition for Precision Health will probably answer some fascinating scientific questions — but, he said, it won’t do much to improve people’s health or reach those suffering the worst effects of a poor diet.

“We live in a country where about 70 percent of adults are either overweight or obese, and 70 percent or more of their calories are coming from ultraprocessed or junk foods, including sugar-sweetened beverages,” he said. “The problem is heavily concentrated among the poor.”

Pérez-Escamilla would much prefer to see a similar investment in efforts to increase access to healthy foods, such as “produce prescription programs” that supply debit cards to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

Christopher Gardner, a Stanford professor who has studied the health benefits of dietary components but is not involved with the Nutrition for Precision Health study, called it an “incredibly ambitious” project. He predicted that the researchers would identify the key good and bad bacteria in the gut, and which foods promote them.

Gardner serves on the scientific advisory board for a private company, Zoe, that is offering personalized nutrition advice based on biological information. People take at-home tests and get instructions on what to eat based on the results.

This is exactly what the NIH study eventually hopes to offer, but Das, the principal investigator in Boston, said the results will have stronger scientific backing. “The market’s always ahead of the science,” she said, when asked about Zoe.

At the end of their two-week stay, the participants face two full days of testing, every aspect of their biology measured. On the last day, they drink two cups of vanilla Ensure and then sit in a chair from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., giving blood samples at set intervals to measure how nutrients are metabolized.

The “live-in diet” sessions are expected to wrap up in mid-2026. Then, with a trove of data from each individual, multiplied across thousands of participants, the project will deploy artificial intelligence to come up with proposed algorithms for determining who should eat what. But that’s not the end: A series of studies will have to be conducted to validate those algorithms.

Nicastro is eager to learn what factors are driving individual responses. “It could be genetics, it could be microbiome, it could be something about the environment, and or probably a lot of these things mixed together,” she said. The ultimate goal is to enable doctors or dietitians to test for certain factors and then produce a personalized eating plan.

Meanwhile, the first four participants, settled back at home with their lime-green souvenir water bottles, are already finding themselves making changes in their diet. Cashell loved the third diet so much she’s trying to re-create the recipes in her kitchen. Hamdorf noticed that during the experiment he never felt hungry, yet looked forward to each meal — and realized he needed to eat more, and drink more water. Matthiess and Carter are trying to eat less in the evening and include more fruits and nuts.

All were gratified to have been part of the study.

“You don’t have many opportunities to contribute to important scientific research,” Carter said. “And I feel lucky that I am able to do that.”

Felice J. Freyer can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her @felicejfreyer .

What the trans care recommendations from the NHS England report mean

The report calls for more research on puberty blockers and hormone therapies.

A new report commissioned by the National Health Service England advocates for further research on gender-affirming care for transgender youth and young adults.

Dr. Hillary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, was appointed by NHS England and NHS Improvement to chair the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services in 2020 amid a rise in referrals to NHS' gender services. Upon review, she advises "extreme caution" for the use of hormone therapies.

"It is absolutely right that children and young people, who may be dealing with a complex range of issues around their gender identity, get the best possible support and expertise throughout their care," Cass states in the report.

Around 2022, about 5,000 adolescents and children were referred to the NHS' gender services. The report estimated that roughly 20% of children and young people seen by the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) enter a hormone pathway -- roughly 1,000 people under 18 in England.

Following four years of data analysis, Cass concluded that "while a considerable amount of research has been published in this field, systematic evidence reviews demonstrated the poor quality of the published studies, meaning there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices."

Cass continued: "The strengths and weaknesses of the evidence base on the care of children and young people are often misrepresented and overstated, both in scientific publications and social debate," read the report.

Among her recommendations, she urged the NHS to increase the available workforce in this field, to work on setting up more regional outlets for care, increase investment in research on this care, and improve the quality of care to meet international guidelines.

Cass' review comes as the NHS continues to expand its children and young people's gender identity services across the country. The NHS has recently opened new children and young people's gender services based in London and the Northwest.

NHS England, the country's universal healthcare system, said the report is expected to guide and shape its use of gender affirming care in children and potentially impact youth patients in England accessing gender-affirming care.

MORE: Lawsuit filed by families against Ohio trans care ban legislation

The debate over transgender youth care.

In an interview with The Guardian , Cass stated that her findings are not intended to undermine the validity of trans identities or challenge young people's right to transition but to improve the care they are receiving.

"We've let them down because the research isn't good enough and we haven't got good data," Cass told the news outlet. "The toxicity of the debate is perpetuated by adults, and that itself is unfair to the children who are caught in the middle of it. The children are being used as a football and this is a group that we should be showing more compassion to."

In the report, Cass argued that the knowledge and expertise of "experienced clinicians who have reached different conclusions about the best approach to care" has been "dismissed and invalidated" amid arguments concerning transgender care in youth.

Cass did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Recommendations for trans youth care

Cass is calling for more thorough research that looks at the "characteristics, interventions and outcomes" of NHS gender service patients concerning puberty blockers and hormone therapy, particularly among children and adolescents.

The report's recommendations also urge caregivers to take an approach to care that considers young patients "holistically and not solely in terms of their gender-related distress."

The report notes that identity exploration is "a completely natural process during childhood and adolescence."

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Cass recommends that pre-pubertal children and their families have early discussions about how parents can best support their child "in a balanced and non-judgemental way," which may include "psychological and psychopharmacological treatments" to manage distress associated with gender incongruence and co-occurring conditions.

In past interviews, U.S. physicians told ABC News , that patients, their physicians and their families often engage in a lengthy process of building a customized and individualized approach to care, meaning not every patient will receive any or every type of gender-affirming medical care option.

Cass' report states that evidence particularly for puberty blockers in children and adolescents is "weak" regarding the impact on "gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health. The effect on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown."

The NHS has said it will halt routine use of puberty blockers as it prepares for a study into the practice later this year.

MORE: Amid anti-LGBTQ efforts, transgender community finds joy in 'chosen families'

According to the Endocrine Society puberty blockers, as opposed to hormone therapy, temporarily pause puberty so patients have more time to explore their gender identity.

The report also recommends "extreme caution" for transgender youth from age 16 who take more permanent hormone therapies.

"There should be a clear clinical rationale for providing hormones at this stage rather than waiting until an individual reaches 18," the report's recommendations state.

Hormone therapy, according to the Endocrine Society , triggers physical changes like hair growth, muscle development, body fat and more, that can help better align the body with a person's gender identity. It's not unusual for patients to stop hormone therapy and decide that they have transitioned as far as they wish, physicians have told ABC News.

Cass' report asserts that there are many unknowns about the use of both puberty blockers and hormones for minors, "despite their longstanding use in the adult transgender population."

"The lack of long-term follow-up data on those commencing treatment at an earlier age means we have inadequate information about the range of outcomes for this group," the report states.

Cass recommends that NHS England facilities have procedures in place to follow up with 17 to 25-year-old patients "to ensure continuity of care and support at a potentially vulnerable stage in their journey," as well as allow for further data and research on transgender minors through the years.

Several British medical organizations, including British Psychological Society and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, commended the report's recommendations to expand the workforce and invest in further research to allow young people to make better informed decisions.

“Dr Cass and her team have produced a thought-provoking, detailed and wide-ranging list of recommendations, which will have implications for all professionals working with gender-questioning children and young people," said Dr Roman Raczka, of the British Psychological Society. "It will take time to carefully review and respond to the whole report, but I am sure that psychology, as a profession, will reflect and learn lessons from the review, its findings and recommendations."

Some groups expressed fears that the report will be misused by anti-transgender groups.

"All children have the right to access specialist effective care on time and must be afforded the privacy to make decisions that are appropriate for them in consultation with a specialist," said human rights group Amnesty International. "This review is being weaponised by people who revel in spreading disinformation and myths about healthcare for trans young people."

Transgender care for people under 18 has been a source of contention in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Legislation is being pushed across the U.S. by many Republican legislators focused on banning all medical care options like puberty blockers and hormone therapies for minors. Some argue that gender-affirming care is unsafe for youth, or that they should wait until they're older.

Gender-affirming medical does come with risks, according to the Endocrine Society , including impacts to bone mineral density, cholesterol levels, and blood clot risks. However, physicians have told ABC News that all medications, surgeries or vaccines come with some kind of risk.

Major national medical associations in the U.S., including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and more than 20 others have argued that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, beneficial, and medically necessary.

The first-of-its-kind gender care clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland opened in the 1960s, using similar procedures still used today.

Some studies have shown that some gender-affirming options can have positive impacts on the mental health of transgender patients, who may experience gender-related stress.

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• Committee on the Study of Religion

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88722d666dda333b4ab34c05d4e279fa, dominating the unsaved: the different other and cultural imperialism in the new england puritan way.

The following "Researcher Reflection" from Dr. Alicia Mayer is part of an ongoing series where we spotlight CSWR scholars and their research.

Calvinist Christian doctrines brought to New England by the Puritans inspired adverse reactions against the many “different others” they encountered, especially Indigenous Americans, who did not fit a Calvinist God’s providential scheme of salvation. In this unknown, unexplored American landscape, native others were considered unsaved, nor could they be saved. The idea fueled the difficult, tense, and frequently violent relationships between Anglo-American Puritans and Indigenous Americans. Indeed, this theology could not envision unconverted people to be men, and so the Puritans could hardly conceive equality with the indigenous they considered subhuman.

To pursue genuine change in the United States, contemporary Americans must take a hard look into history to understand the founding and consequences of prejudices, stereotypes, harmful myths. New England Puritanism, thereby Calvinism, is a large part of American history. Puritan theology inspired the oppressive treatment of not just Indigenous Americans but all non-puritan religious groups (Catholics, Quakers, Anabaptists, and so forth) as well as enslaved Africans and their offspring. Such aspects of theology continue to fuel systematic inequality and violence in the United States.

The different other is born into a different culture where individuals might not be saved by God’s grace alone. It is not that Puritans and Calvinists asserted non-Europeans and non-Whites could not be saved. They did not explicitly make this claim. Yet, in practice, the different others were beyond the scope of salvation.

Puritans did not value indigenous cultural and ecological features. Yet, Puritan authors documented native cosmovision, habits and manners, ways of living, transcendent beliefs, diet, marriage customs, family life, clothing, language, funeral traditions, war practices, tribal alliances, housing, hunting techniques, and so forth. This is precious anthropological content for the modern scholar, despite Puritan authors’ negative Anglo-American standpoints.

My current research at the CSWR follows what Juan Ortega Medina identifies as “theological racism” and Udo Hebel’s “ethnocentric racism”. My book project titled Religion and Race: New England Puritans’ Perception of the Different-Other in a New World Context. A Theological Perspective documents how Puritanism in New England contributed to systematic inequality and historical racism, a far-reached consequence of John Calvin’s theology.

Calvin’s core theological arguments set up stark distinctions between souls and, thereby, distinctions between people. God separates the elect, chosen for eternal salvation, from the unbeliever, the reprobate. Some people are doubly predestined not to be saved and not able to be saved. It follows that the cultural and racial other, the different other, would also be theologically other. Calvinists maintain mankind's innate depravity: original sin inevitably drives every human to sinful behavior, their actions mixed with evil. The unsaved are depraved. Calvin said, “man is but rottenness and a worm, abominable and vain, drinking in iniquity like water.”

Early eighteenth-century Puritan figures like the Reverend William Cooper defined the Second Coming of Christ as the “great discriminating Day” where “there should be a different event to the Believer and the Unbeliever…one shall be taken, and another shall be left.” Unbelievers would be “left in the hands of the Devil, left to go on in sin till they perish wonderfully, and are destroyed without Remedy.” The unbeliever, described in terms nearly identical to Calvin’s description of the reprobate, is fundamentally different from the believer, just as the Anglo-Americans viewed indigenous people to be fundamentally different from themselves. Cooper, however, did acknowledge Blacks could be saved.

Twentieth-century scholars like Robert Ricard identify a “spiritual conquest” carried out by sixteenth-century empires in America. Converting indigenous people throughout the Americas aimed to change cultures, completely dismantling or “dislocating” cultural foundations. John Cotton, a Puritan theologian stated in 1642 that to convert the indigenous peoples it was necessary to transform them first to civility, then to humanity. Puritans had to “make them men before making them Christians.” The non-Christian indigenous were subhuman. The so-called White Mans’ Burden justified imperial conquest to civilize non-Europeans, and it was operative long before Rudyard Kipling coined the phrase.

These religious precepts were divisive, justifying discrimination against all those deemed unsaved and unable to be saved (even if, as Calvin argued, the unsaved did not actively resist salvation but were merely foolish and childish). It is hard to argue for equality when the other is not considered capable of redemption. Empathy is difficult when the other—not elect and incapable of salvation—might as well not be considered a full human. Those who did not fit God’s providential schemes of salvation were left in a vulnerable position. Consciously and unconsciously, Calvinist doctrines in Puritan New England, so different from the European origins, shaped everyday experience and practice when Puritans encountered these different others who would ultimately have their cultures decimated and the majority of their populations killed.

— by  Dr. Alicia Mayer , Visiting Scholar

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What causes earthquakes in the Northeast, like the magnitude 4.8 that shook New Jersey? A geoscientist explains

Professor of Geosciences, Buffalo State, The State University of New York

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Gary Solar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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It’s rare to feel earthquakes in the U.S. Northeast, so the magnitude 4.8 earthquake in New Jersey that shook buildings in New York City and was felt from Maryland to Boston on April 5, 2024, drew a lot of questions. It was one of the strongest earthquakes on record in New Jersey, though there were few reports of damage. A smaller, magnitude 3.8 earthquake and several other smaller aftershocks rattled the region a few hours later. We asked geoscientist Gary Solar to explain what causes earthquakes in this region.

What causes earthquakes like this in the US Northeast?

There are many ancient faults in that part of New Jersey that extend through Philadelphia and along the Appalachians, and the other direction, past New York City and into western New England.

These are fractures where gravity can cause the rock on either side to slip, causing the ground to shake. There is no active tectonic plate motion in the area today, but there was about 250 million to 300 million years ago .

The earthquake activity in New Jersey on April 5 is similar to the 3.8 magnitude earthquake that we experienced in 2023 in Buffalo, New York. In both cases, the shaking was from gravitational slip on those ancient structures.

In short, rocks slip a little on steep, preexisting fractures. That’s what happened in New Jersey, assuming there was no man-made trigger.

How dangerous is a 4.8 magnitude earthquake?

Magnitude 4.8 is pretty large, especially for the Northeast, but it’s likely to have minor effects compared with the much larger ones that cause major damage and loss of life.

The scale used to measure earthquakes is logarithmic, so each integer is a factor of 10. That means a magnitude 6 earthquake is 10 times larger than a magnitude 5 earthquake. The bigger ones, like the magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Tawian a few days earlier, are associated with active plate margins , where two tectonic plates meet.

The vulnerability of buildings to a magnitude 4.8 earthquake would depend on the construction. The building codes in places like California are very strict because California has a major plate boundary fault system – the San Andreas system . New Jersey does not, and correspondingly, building codes don’t account for large earthquakes as a result.

How rare are earthquakes in the Northeast, and will New Jersey see more in the same location?

Earthquakes are actually pretty common in the Northeast, but they’re usually so small that few people feel them. The vast majority are magnitude 2.5 or less.

The rare large ones like this are generally not predictable. However, there will likely not be other large earthquakes of similar size in that area for a long time. Once the slip happens in a region like this, the gravitational problem on that ancient fault is typically solved and the system is more stable.

That isn’t the case for active plate margins, like in Turkey , which has had devastating earthquakes in recent years, or rimming the Pacific Ocean . In those areas, tectonic stresses constantly build up as the plates slowly move, and earthquakes are from a failure to stick.

This article, originally published April 5, 2024, has been updated with several smaller aftershocks felt in the region.

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Five thousand children with gender-related distress awaiting NHS care in England

New gender clinics looking at ‘creative ways’ of reducing waiting lists amid shortage of clinicians

Five thousand children and adolescents with gender-related distress are awaiting NHS treatment – yet a shortage of clinicians meant only 12 had been seen at a new London-based gender clinic by the start of this week.

Two newly opened gender centres, in London and Liverpool, are looking at “creative ways” of reducing the waiting lists, such as running group sessions with therapists, according to Hilary Cass, the consultant paediatrician who has devised the new, more holistic treatment model for children and adolescents questioning their gender identity.

Only half of the required 45 members of staff have been hired to work in a London clinic that does not yet have a building, leaving patients to be seen online, according to a spokesperson for Great Ormond Street hospital, which is responsible for setting up the London clinic which opened on 2 April.

The Cass review states that there have been “considerable challenges” in setting up these clinics within a “highly emotive and politicised arena”.

About 250 children and adolescents have been transferred to the care of the new London hub – which will be called the Children and Young People’s Gender Service, London – and the second clinic in the north-west. Only a handful of patients are understood to have been seen so far in the north-west clinic.

Cass acknowledged that it would “take a while to resolve” the long waiting list, but said child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) were screening children on the list to flag “urgent problems and urgent risks”.

She said there was “no magic fix” for getting the waiting list down, other than investment in Camhs and recruiting more staff into mental health services. Waiting lists would come down when more children and young people were seen by generalist practitioners locally, rather than being placed on a waiting list for specialist gender services, she said.

Clinicians’ nervousness about working in this area has made recruitment to the new services very challenging, Cass said, describing how some healthcare staff were “fearful” of working in this field, partly because of uncertainties about the correct treatment model and partly because they feared “being called transphobic if you take a more cautious approach”.

NHS England said helping the new clinics to “overcome challenges around staff recruitment will be a top priority as this will determine the pace at which they will be able to see new patients from the waiting list”.

The Great Ormond Street hospital spokesperson said a consultant paediatrician and consultant psychologist were already leading the hub’s multidisciplinary team. “We have been actively recruiting since November 2023. Building a workforce is taking time as we are recruiting into disciplines where there are known shortages, such as doctors and psychologists,” he said.

No staff members who worked at the Tavistock’s now-closed gender identity development service had been hired for the new clinics, he said. The Cass review sets out that when the hubs are operating at full capacity they should be staffed by clinicians from mental health services and services for children and young people with autism and other neurodiverse presentations. There should also be support for looked-after children and children who have experienced trauma.

Cass’s new model aims to move services away from having a very specialist focus; she said no one in the team “should have a tunnel vision on gender” and that clinicians should continue to work in parallel in other parts of the NHS outside the gender hubs.

“The more we can bring this back into normal adolescent care the better,” she said.

“It is about seeing people as whole people; if they need to go on a hormone pathway, then that’s fine and that should be still available embedded in the services,” Cass said this week. Access to endocrinology services and fertility services should be available for the minority of patients whom Cass expects to go on to seek a medical intervention.

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Cass said she had an encouraging conversation with the clinical lead for the new London hub last weekend, who said a “very diverse range of young people” had been seen, and that the patients had been “very pleased” that they would have access to a broad range of services.

Great Ormond Street’s spokesperson said: “We are working swiftly on recruiting the right skill mix of people … We aim to settle into a permanent community base as soon as possible so we can provide the best possible service.”

He said the group sessions were not specifically designed to reduce waiting lists, adding that “group sessions and workshops have additional benefits in decreasing isolation and increasing a sense of social support for isolated young people and their families”.

“Families we have spoken to have expressed their appreciation for this opportunity. These will not be the only interventions offered and will be part of a bespoke package of care tailored to the individual needs of young people and their families,” he said, adding that there would be some one-to-one options for those children unable to access group interventions.

The central aim of the new services is “to help young people to thrive and achieve their life goals”, the Cass review states.

Mermaids, a transgender youth support charity, said it was “pleased the voices and experiences of trans young people appear to have been heard and respected” in the review, but added that the NHS was “failing trans youth, with appalling waiting lists” amid “increased politicisation of the support offered to children and young people”.

The mother of one teenager who referred herself on to the waiting list for care at the Tavistock gender clinic but who never progressed close enough to the top of the list to receive an appointment said she thought her daughter would benefit from the new approach.

“This looks like normal healthcare,” she said. “Sometimes it has felt like trans-identifying children have been exempted from all normal rules – in schools, and in healthcare. I just want her to receive standard NHS healthcare, with a strong mental health element.”

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Cass review must be used as ‘watershed moment’ for NHS gender services, says Streeting

‘This isn’t how good scientific debate happens’: academics on culture of fear in gender medicine research

Ban on children’s puberty blockers to be enforced in private sector in England

What Cass review says about surge in children seeking gender services

Adult transgender clinics in England face inquiry into patient care

‘Children are being used as a football’: Hilary Cass on her review of gender identity services

Thousands of children unsure of gender identity ‘let down by NHS’, report finds

Review of gender services has major implications for mental health services

What are the key findings of the NHS gender identity review?

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