Archive for the ‘Male Genetics’ Category

Representational image: A young science enthusiast peering at the sky using a telescope

Chandrayaan-2 may have dominated popular imagination during 2019 despite the Vikram Lander failing to soft-land on the lunar surface, but the year was marked by several significant developments by Indian scientists in fields ranging from nanotechnology to climate change.

The run-up to the lunar mission with planned landing of the lander-cum-rover, the launch campaign, the journey to the lunar orbit and the landing sequence all attracted national and international attention. The year ended in triumph for citizen science when Chennai-based software engineer, Shanmuga Subramanian, discovered debris of Vikram on the lunar surface using publicly available high-resolution images of the landing site. This development comes close to a rise in citizen science initiatives in the country.

Staying with space and astronomy, star of an exoplanet was named after Indian physicist, Bibha Chowdhury. During the year, Indian software engineers got readied software that will run the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), which is slated to be the worlds largest ground-based telescope operating at optical and infrared wavelengths. Details about TMT and other international Big Science projects in which India is participating were on display in a roving exhibition called Vigyan Samagam which attracted huge crowds.

Climate change: Responding to climate change impacts being seen in the Himalayan region, Indian scientists developed a common framework for assessment of climate change vulnerability in all the states in the region, using an index based on socio-economic factors, demographic and health status, sensitivity of agricultural production, forest-dependent livelihoods, and access to information, services and infrastructure. This knowledge will now be applied to develop a countrywide map of climate vulnerability.

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) found a link between warming of the Indo-Pacific Ocean and changing rainfall patterns in many parts of the globe, including India. The warming pools of the Indo-Pacific Ocean are expanding, and this, in turn, is altering a major weather phenomenon known as the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO). The warming of Indo-Pacific Ocean is occurring due to man-made emissions. Another group from the Indian Institute of Science warned that as many as 55 percent of glaciers in the Satluj basin may disappear by 2050. and 97 percent by 2090, under extreme climate change scenario. Using ice thickness of glaciers as the basis, scientists also estimated that glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas might contain 27% less ice than previously suggested.

Eco-friendly technologies: The year saw progress towards development of less polluting crackers, with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) releasing first set of green crackers. A national centre to pursue R&D in clean coal technologies was also opened in Bangalore. Eight teams of innovators from different parts of the world were selected for an international competition to develop more efficient and climate-friendly cooling solutions for residential buildings. The team will get seed money to translate their ideas into prototypes. The final winner of the Global Climate Prize will be announced in November 2020.

Representational image: Microscopic bacteria

Indian genomic data: In an important development, Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) completed whole genome sequencing of 1008 Indian individuals representing diverse ethnic groups in the country. The data will act as baseline information for developing various applications in predictive and preventive medicine.

Scientists from CCMB also found underlying genetic factors for infertility among Indian men. This knowledge could help in developing a genetic test for male infertility in near future. As part of genetic studies to trace the origins of population groups in the Indian sub-continent, it had been seen that sizeable population group of Mundas in central and northeast India shares genetic ancestry with Southeast Asian populations as well. A study revealed how and when this admixture between Mundas and Southeast Asian populations took place.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) launched a new human atlas initiative called Manav to develop a unified database of molecular network of all the tissues in the human body, and to derive a holistic picture of the working of human body. This mega project will collate and integrate molecular information on human tissues and organs that currently lies hidden in research articles in an unstructured and disorganized form.

Developments in gene editing: Indian scientists developed a new variant of currently popular gene editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, and showed that it can increase precision in editing genome while avoiding unintended changes in DNA. The researchers showed that this type of gene editing can be used to correct sickle cell anemia, a genetic blood disorder. The experiments were done in human-derived cells from patients of sickle cell anemia, according to findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

New nano materials: Continuing their work in nano science and technology in 2019, scientists at the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) used gold nanoparticles, and by rearranging size and gaps between them, developed a new material with unique properties like capacity to absorb light and carbon dioxide. Gold does not have these properties, and therefore, the new material has been named black gold, dye to its black appearance.

Boosting rice productivity: Scientists at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) identified a gene involved in regulating the size of rice grain. The new development represents a new approach towards developing rice varieties that produce bigger and consequently heavier grains. Scientists from the Bose Institute came up with a new salt-tolerant transgenic rice plant by over-expressing a gene from a wild rice called Porteresia coarctata into the commonly used IR 64 indica rice variety.

Other important developments during the year included a new plan to establish a museum for marine archaeology at Lothal, a new satellite-based weather information service for deep sea fishers, grand challenge for cancer research to develop affordable cancer diagnostics and treatment, a white paper on e-cigarettes that led to its ban in India, and new initiative to boost malaria research in the country.

(This article was originally published on India Science Wire.)

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Rewind 2019: A Look Back at Significant Developments in Indian Science This Year - The Weather Channel

Deep Learning

One of the factors often credited for this latest boom in artificial intelligence (AI) investment, research, and related cognitive technologies, is the emergence of deep learning neural networks as an evolution of machine algorithms, as well as the corresponding large volume of big data and computing power that makes deep learning a practical reality. While deep learning has been extremely popular and has shown real ability to solve many machine learning problems, deep learning is just one approach to machine learning (ML), that while having proven much capability across a wide range of problem areas, is still just one of many practical approaches. Increasingly, were starting to see news and research showing the limits of deep learning capabilities, as well as some of the downsides to the deep learning approach. So are peoples enthusiasm of AI tied to their enthusiasm of deep learning, and is deep learning really able to deliver on many of its promises?

The Origins of Deep Learning

AI researchers have struggled to understand how the brain learns from the very beginnings of the development of the field of artificial intelligence. It comes as no surprise that since the brain is primarily a collection of interconnected neurons, AI researchers sought to recreate the way the brain is structured through artificial neurons, and connections of those neurons in artificial neural networks. All the way back in 1940, Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch built the first thresholded logic unit that was an attempt to mimic the way biological neurons worked. The Pitts and McCulloch model was just a proof of concept, but Frank Rosenblatt picked up on the idea in 1957 with the development of the Perceptron that took the concept to its logical extent. While primitive by todays standards, the Perceptron was still capable of remarkable feats - being able to recognize written numbers and letters, and even distinguish male from female faces. That was over 60 years ago!

Rosenblatt was so enthusiastic in 1959 about the Perceptrons promises that he remarked at the time that the perceptron is the embryo of an electronic computer that [we expect] will be able to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence. Sound familiar? However, the enthusiasm didnt last. AI researcher Marvin Minsky noted how sensitive the perceptron was to small changes in the images, and also how easily it could be fooled. Maybe the perceptron wasnt really that smart at all. Minsky and AI researcher peer Seymour Papert basically took apart the whole perceptron idea in their Perceptrons book, and made the claim that perceptrons, and neural networks like it, are fundamentally flawed in their inability to handle certain kinds of problems notably, non-linear functions. That is to say, it was easy to train a neural network like a perceptron to put data into classifications, such as male/female, or types of numbers. For these simple neural networks, you can graph a bunch of data and draw a line and say things on one side of the line are in one category and things on the other side of the line are in a different category, thereby classifying them. But theres a whole bunch of problems where you cant draw lines like this, such as speech recognition or many forms of decision-making. These are nonlinear functions, which Minsky and Papert proved perceptrons incapable of solving.

During this period, while neural network approaches to ML settled to become an afterthought in AI, other approaches to ML were in the limelight including knowledge graphs, decision trees, genetic algorithms, similarity models, and other methods. In fact, during this period, IBMs DeepBlue purpose-built AI computer defeated Gary Kasparov in a chess match, the first computer to do so, using a brute-force alpha-beta search algorithm (so-called Good Old-Fashioned AI [GOFAI]) rather than new-fangled deep learning approaches. Yet, even this approach to learning didnt go far, as some said that this system wasnt even intelligent at all.

Yet, the neural network story doesnt end here. In 1986, AI researcher Geoff Hinton, along with David Rumelhart and Ronald Williams, published a research paper entitled Learning representations by back-propagating errors. In this paper, Hinton and crew detailed how you can use many hidden layers of neurons to get around the problems faced by perceptrons. With sufficient data and computing power, these layers can be calculated to identify specific features in the data sets they can classify on, and as a group, could learn nonlinear functions, something known as the universal approximation theorem. The approach works by backpropagating errors from higher layers of the network to lower ones (backprop), expediting training. Now, if you have enough layers, enough data to train those layers, and sufficient computing power to calculate all the interconnections, you can train a neural network to identify and classify almost anything. Researcher Yann Lecun developed LeNet-5 at AT&T Bell Labs in 1998, recognizing handwritten images on checks using an iteration of this approach known as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), and researchers Yoshua Bengio and Jrgen Schmidhube further advanced the field.

Yet, just as things go in AI, research halted when these early neural networks couldnt scale. Surprisingly very little development happened until 2006, when Hinton re-emerged onto the scene with the ideas of unsupervised pre-training and deep belief nets. The idea here is to have a simple two-layer network whose parameters are trained in an unsupervised way, and then stack new layers on top of it, just training that layers parameters. Repeat for dozens, hundreds, even thousands of layers. Eventually you get a deep network with many layers that can learn and understand something complex. This is what deep learning is all about: using lots of layers of trained neural nets to learn just about anything, at least within certain constraints.

In 2010, Stanford researcher Fei-Fei Li published the release of ImageNet, a large database of millions of labeled images. The images were labeled with a hierarchy of classifications, such as animal or vehicle, down to very granular levels, such as husky or trimaran. This ImageNet database was paired with an annual competition called the Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (LSVRC) to see which computer vision system had the lowest number of classification and recognition errors. In 2012, Geoff Hinton, Alex Krizhevsky, and Ilya Sutskever, submitted their AlexNet entry that had almost half the number of errors as all previous winning entries. What made their approach win was that they moved from using ordinary computers with CPUs, to specialized graphical processing units (GPUs) that could train much larger models in reasonable amounts of time. They also introduced now-standard deep learning methods such as dropout to reduce a problem called overfitting (when the network is trained too tightly on the example data and cant generalize to broader data), and something called the rectified linear activation unit (ReLU) to speed training. After the success of their competition, it seems everyone took notice, and Deep Learning was off to the races.

Deep Learnings Shortcomings

The fuel that keeps the Deep Learning fires roaring is data and compute power. Specifically, large volumes of well-labeled data sets are needed to train Deep Learning networks. The more layers, the better the learning power, but to have layers you need to have data that is already well labeled to train those layers. Since deep neural networks are primarily a bunch of calculations that have to all be done at the same time, you need a lot of raw computing power, and specifically numerical computing power. Imagine youre tuning a million knobs at the same time to find the optimal combination that will make the system learn based on millions of pieces of data that are being fed into the system. This is why neural networks in the 1950s were not possible, but today they are. Today we finally have lots of data and lots of computing power to handle that data.

Deep learning is being applied successfully in a wide range of situations, such as natural language processing, computer vision, machine translation, bioinformatics, gaming, and many other applications where classification, pattern matching, and the use of this automatically tuned deep neural network approach works well. However, these same advantages have a number of disadvantages.

The most notable of these disadvantages is that since deep learning consists of many layers, each with many interconnected nodes, each configured with different weights and other parameters theres no way to inspect a deep learning network and understand how any particular decision, clustering, or classification is actually done. Its a black box, which means deep learning networks are inherently unexplainable. As many have written on the topic of Explainable AI (XAI), systems that are used to make decisions of significance need to have explainability to satisfy issues of trust, compliance, verifiability, and understandability. While DARPA and others are working on ways to possibly explain deep learning neural networks, the lack of explainability is a significant drawback for many.

The second disadvantage is that deep learning networks are really great at classification and clustering of information, but not really good at other decision-making or learning scenarios. Not every learning situation is one of classifying something in a category or grouping information together into a cluster. Sometimes you have to deduce what to do based on what youve learned before. Deduction and reasoning is not a fort of deep learning networks.

As mentioned earlier, deep learning is also very data and resource hungry. One measure of a neural networks complexity is the number of parameters that need to be learned and tuned. For deep learning neural networks, there can be hundreds of millions of parameters. Training models requires a significant amount of data to adjust these parameters. For example, a speech recognition neural net often requires terabytes of clean, labeled data to train on. The lack of a sufficient, clean, labeled data set would hinder the development of a deep neural net for that problem domain. And even if you have the data, you need to crunch on it to generate the model, which takes a significant amount of time and processing power.

Another challenge of deep learning is that the models produced are very specific to a problem domain. If its trained on a certain dataset of cats, then it will only recognize those cats and cant be used to generalize on animals or be used to identify non-cats. While this is not a problem of only deep learning approaches to machine learning, it can be particularly troublesome when factoring in the overfitting problem mentioned above. Deep learning neural nets can be so tightly constrained (fitted) to the training data that, for example, even small perturbations in the images can lead to wildly inaccurate classifications of images. There are well known examples of turtles being mis-recognized as guns or polar bears being mis-recognized as other animals due to just small changes in the image data. Clearly if youre using this network in mission critical situations, those mistakes would be significant.

Machine Learning is not (just) Deep Learning

Enterprises looking at using cognitive technologies in their business need to look at the whole picture. Machine learning is not just one approach, but rather a collection of different approaches of various different types that are applicable in different scenarios. Some machine learning algorithms are very simple, using small amounts of data and an understandable logic or deduction path thats very suitable for particular situations, while others are very complex and use lots of data and processing power to handle more complicated situations. The key thing to realize is that deep learning isnt all of machine learning, let alone AI. Even Geoff Hinton, the Einstein of deep learning is starting to rethink core elements of deep learning and its limitations.

The key for organizations is to understand which machine learning methods are most viable for which problem areas, and how to plan, develop, deploy, and manage that machine learning approach in practice. Since AI use in the enterprise is still continuing to gain adoption, especially these more advanced cognitive approaches, the best practices on how to employ cognitive technologies successfully are still maturing.

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Are We Overly Infatuated With Deep Learning? - Forbes

Prior to Payne Bauer's arrival, Sherando High School football coach Bill Hall didn't keep track of tackles for losses.

But his middle linebacker's penchant for bringing down ball carriers in the backfield at an astonishing rate changed all of that.

And this season, Bauer kept the calculators whirring at a rate even higher than before. Bauer racked up 41 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 12 sacks, for the Warriors, who rebounded from injuries to advance to the Region 4C playoffs.

Bauer's phenomenal play earned him several postseason accolades including his second consecutive Winchester Star Defensive Player of the Year honor.

The Payne Train racked up 93 tackles on the season with nearly half of them coming behind the opposition's line of scrimmage.

If you have somebody in the teens that raises an eyebrow at a regional or state meeting, Hall said. You don't ever hear of someone having 20 and he has 41 and he had 36 last year. Things like that are crazy.

But to hear it from Bauer, you'd be crazy to think it was all him. The humble 6-foot-2, 232-pounder gives all of the credit to the guys who play five yards in front of him, often seeming like opposing running backs fell into his lap.

It's mostly the guys in front of you, said Bauer when asked about how he racks up so many tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Everyone always talks about linebackers at Sherando, but usually it's the D-linemen. They don't get any love, but they deserve it more than anyone.

People like Caleb McLee, Skyler Taylor-Goode, he was a monster, and Brett Shockey they absorbed two blockers, he added. When two guys are blocking one dude, that always leaves linebackers free. The defensive linemen to me are the most selfless people on the football team because they eat everything for the linebackers and that's why the linebackers make plays.

While those linemen are excellent football players, Hall says the speedy and powerful Bauer often doesn't give himself enough credit in the equation to success.

He's so modest, Hall said. He just busts things off like it's not a big deal. He's been brought up the right way. He really appreciates people serving each other. He's a service type of kid. It doesn't go unnoticed on him that people are doing stuff that he can be successful. Some kids never get that, but he understands the team component of a ballgame and how it works together.

That being said, and those guys do a great job in front of him, you don't have 41 tackles for a loss without being really, really, really, really good. You just can't plug-and-play and put somebody in there and have 41 tackles for a loss. That doesn't happen.

Bauer has several schools, including Division I programs, who have offered him scholarships. He's weighing his options until February's signing date, but is sure of one thing.

My biggest thing is I want to play at a football school, Bauer said. There are some schools that are basketball schools, but I want to play where everyone loves football.

So what makes Bauer so good?

It's not just one thing, but a combination that leads to his success.

While he'd like to be stronger, Bauer is a bear. Often one arm is enough to bring down a ballcarrier. And when he hits somebody they rarely fall forward.

The thing about Payne is that he doesn't give himself credit for the type of athlete he is and the strength he possesses, Hall said. He is just naturally physical strong. He does wear his passion on his sleeve, but he applies his passion into his development to be really great. His work in the weight room is really off the charts. He doesn't take days off in the weight room.

Every lift we do in the weight room is football oriented, Bauer said. I guess I have grip strength and I took down guys with my hand. That played a big part because I wouldn't have been able to do that last year and the year before.

Bauer is willing to work at his craft.

He spends many hours watching film and working with linebackers coach John Minteer on reading offenses. And when he makes a read, he attacks.

This season, the Warriors needed Bauer to exert a little more pressure on the quarterback and he responded with his career-high sack total and forced many hurries.

I watch a lot of film, Bauer said. I like to apply myself in that. This year, I kind of became an end rusher guy. I tried watching videos of guys coming off the edge like T.J. Watt, Von Miller, J.J. Watt. Khalil Mack is my favorite. I try to watch guys like that and do what they do.

Bauer is coachable. Minteer and defensive coordinator Jake Smith challenged Bauer throughout his career and he continued to a improve.

He likes feedback, Hall said. I think that's a common characteristic of great players is that they want feedback. You can coach him hard.

And Bauer is not one to enjoy his own press clippings and accolades. While he may have several eye-popping plays during a game, Bauer knows that is not a true measure of what he accomplished.

He points to the season-opener against James Wood as a perfect example. In that contest, he registered three sacks and had a 78-yard touchdown run.

Film doesn't lie, Bauer said. I thought I played really well against James Wood because I had two or three sacks and I had a nice long touchdown run, but I looked at the film and I played terrible. It was probably one of the worst games because I played like so lazy. It was not a good game.

He's his harshest critic, Hall said. In games, he'll be like, 'Coach I'm not playing very well.' Sometimes that could be accurate to his level, but it would be really good for other people.

And while Bauer had many great moments, it's the plays that he didn't make that haunt him.

I don't think I played as well as I should have, he said of his entire season. I can remember plays where I missed. Those plays are, 'How did they get me?' I try to see what I could have done better watching film on Saturday or Monday. I try to find what I could have done better to make the play.

And Bauer carries that desire to succeed over to the practice field. He doesn't believe in doing things halfway or at half the speed. He's a gamer on Friday because of Monday-Thursday.

Payne understood that the way he practiced transferred over to the way he played in a game, Hall said. He had to play at a speed and attack level for a certain amount of time so that would transfer over so he could sustain that type of speed for that long of a time on a Friday night.

He is wide open in practice. You would have to pull him off in practice from a physicality standpoint. He was always full speed. I don't want to discredit the work he does in practice because he's one of the better practice players we've ever had. He embraced how what he does in practice transfers to what he is in the ballgame. Kids don't always make the correlation.

Bauer puts the whole package on the field and it's his intangibles that make him special.

He is really gifted at being able to make adjustments in the game, Hall said. When you watch him play football, an educated person watches him and says, 'That cat knows what he's doing.' Based of the blocking scheme that happens, he fits right. That's because of film study, being coachable, him understanding how he fits based off a blocking scheme and how we fit as a defense.

The longer you're in the business the more you appreciate it, Hall added. You realize they don't come along all of the time. We've been fortunate to have those guys. But again all of those guys, whoever you want to talk about Brian Barlow, George Aston, Dylan Rivers are cut from the same cloth that they all were with their preparation phase toward the game of football. They poured themselves into it. Then you add that with genetics, then it's a recipe for being the player that [Payne] is.

Bauer has come a long way from choosing not to play football his freshman season at Sherando. Bauer envisioned himself as a baseball player and he is a very good one having led the Warriors with a .439 average last season.

But, Hall knew he would make a good football player and tasked quarterback and baseball standout Hunter Entsminger to bring Bauer to practice. All Bauer has done since then is lead the Warriors for three consecutive seasons in tackles, racking up 309 with 99 of those being for losses.

Bauer has garnered a pair of Class 4 Northwestern District and Region 4C Defensive Player of the Year honors and has been named the the VHSL's first team defense the past two seasons.

While Hall had no doubt that Bauer had the potential to be a stellar player, others didn't and that motivated Bauer.

I think I just wanted to prove everyone wrong, he said. I can just remember people saying, 'You're not going to be good. You're not going to be on varsity or whatever. They're just going to put you on JV.' My first day, Coach Hall put me on varsity. I just wanted to prove everyone wrong that doubted me.

Bauer and Entsminger became fast friends. Bauer said he and Entsminger, now on a baseball scholarship at James Madision University, talk each day.

This season Entsminger was often on the field with Bauer symbolically. Entsminger's No. 8 was part of Bauer's attire.

Everyone knows that Hunter is my best friend, Bauer said. When they started handing out towels our first game, they were like, 'Hey, here and tossed it to me.' I guess I can blame some of my success to Hunter because I wore a little piece of him.

And like Entsminger was a big brother to him, Bauer returned the favor this season to sophomore quarterback Dylan Rodeffer. Bauer did many things together with Rodeffer, who was pressed into service because of an injury to starter Chacai Campbell.

Hall wasn't surprised. He's seen how much teammates mean to Bauer. It's the little things like eating pizza together at CiCi's on Wednesday nights that mean so much.

He wouldn't have missed that for anything, Hall said. If it had been three hours away, he would have driven three hours to get there because it was that important to him.

Bauer hardly can believe his football career is done at Sherando.

I'm going to miss it a lot, he said. It kind of makes me sad that it's over. I've got this family here and I'm going to be able to talk to the guys still. It's not even the sport I will miss the most. It's the brotherhood and the bonding we have.

When asked about how much he would miss Bauer, Hall became emotional.

All of those guys, you spend so much time with them, said a teary Hall. The other thing is that people don't know their story. You tell a story, but they don't know the rest of the story. I think the parts that I know that other people don't know if you only knew how this kid has risen to where he's at, your level of appreciation would go off the charts. He'll be an unbelievable success story when the story comes out. Down the road you will be like, 'Are you serious?' Now you know the rest of the story.

You are always going to miss the football player. Other players come, but again they are not going to be Payne. That's the nature of the business.

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Football Defensive Player of the Year: Sherando's Payne Bauer - The Winchester Star

STARKVILLE, Miss.A Mississippi State University partnership with the Fort Worth Zoo has hatched the first of more than 30 metamorphosed toadlets produced through in vitro fertilization.

A Puerto Rican crested toad named Olaf, hatched at the Fort Worth Zoo this year, is what one might call a work of art. ART, or assisted reproductive technologies, developed by scientists in the universitys Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, helps amphibians like the Puerto Rican crested toad, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The technologies include hormone therapies, sperm cryopreservation and in vitro fertilization. MSU also is home to the countrys only National Amphibian Genome Bank, a repository of cryopreserved sperm from approximately 10 of the worlds most threatened and endangered amphibian species.

Carrie Vance, assistant research professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology who co-leads the project, said Olaf is an example of how ART helps increase the genetic diversity and sustainability of populations of threatened amphibians.

Olaf represents the first time we used cryopreserved sperm from a wild Puerto Rican crested toad as a new genetic line to be combined with an egg from a captive female, said Vance, who also is a MAFES scientist at MSU. Whats more is that both of Olafs parents have since died of natural causes so Olaf is truly the last of this particular genetic line.

Vance pointed out that while cryopreserving sperm from wild males, researchers have been able to use hormone therapies to assist breeding. As opposed to other methods, this technique enables researchers to collect sperm without killing the animal, which Vance believes will result in a wider adoption of the practice.

Previously to introduce genetics from wild individuals into a captive population, the animals were brought into captivity, then paired, and often would never breed anyway. If the collection of sperm from testes macerates was needed, it would require the animal be euthanized, Vance said. This new method means we can collect the sperm and release the specimen back into the wild.

Vance said ART is one facet of a larger species survival plan, which includes steps such as habitat restoration, disease control and establishing an assurance colony in captivity.

ART helps when amphibians have difficulty breeding in captivity. Typically, amphibian breeding is cued by environmental factors such as day length, rainfall and temperature, which are things that can be difficult to control in a 10-gallon aquarium. When they dont breed, the genetic lines are lost, and a zoos entire assurance colony can collapse.

Vance said it comes down to overriding the environmental cues and synchronizing the timing of the actual breeding, noting that while it takes males only hours to generate sperm, it can take weeks for females to produce eggs.

The hormone therapy overrides the environmental factors to trigger the production of reproductive hormones, which cause sperm and egg release. Sperm cryopreservation holds the sperm in perpetuity until the eggs are ready for synchronization.

Vance has partnered with Andy Kouba, professor and head of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture in MSUs College of Forest Resources and scientist in the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, for more than 20 years developing innovative reproductive technologies for threatened and endangered species.

The researchers also have applied ART to the Mississippi gopher frog, considered one of the most endangered in the U.S. Their pioneering work resulted in thousands of Mississippi gopher frogs being produced by zoos around the country and reintroduced into their native habitat.

Many of the techniques we use on species like the Puerto Rican crested toad were developed using the Mississippi gopher frog, Kouba said. The Mississippi gopher frog was the first endangered species ever produced from frozen sperm. The offspring are still alive and have subsequently produced a second generation of offspring, considered another first of its kind.

Kouba said seeing the applied conservation in action and being able to reintroduce animals back into the wild is what excites him most about the work.

Globally, it is estimated that 30-40 percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction. In the U.S. that number is closer to 50 percent, Kouba said. Our assisted reproductive technologies have led to millions of tadpoles from threatened and endangered species being released into the wild across many species.

Kouba added that amphibians serve as indicator species for the health of their surrounding ecosystems.

They are the canary in the coal mine, Kouba said. Anything happening in the environment soaks through their permeable skin. Also, they have two life stages, an early aquatic stage and a terrestrial stage, which lets scientists know what is happening in two different environments. As an indicator species, it is important to understand why amphibian populations are disappearing and to try and help the populations recover.

In addition to the Puerto Rican crested toad and the Mississippi gopher frog, other species the team focuses on include the Boreal toad, Houston toad, Chiricahua leopard frog and various species of salamanders. Graduate students on the project include doctoral student Allison Julien of Scotts Valley, California; masters student Isabella Burger of Prattville, Alabama; and Kristen Counsell, a spring 2018 masters graduate of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Masters student Amanda Gillis of Fallston, Maryland, and research associate Emmet Guy of Oxford contribute to the labs salamander research.

Support for the Olaf project includes funding from Disneys Conservation Endowment Fund and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Longtime funding partner, the Institute of Museums and Library Services, supported the early development of this work and currently sponsors the labs salamander research. Morris Animal Foundation also has provided previous financial support.

For more on the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, visit http://www.mafes.msstate.edu. For more on the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, visit http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippis leading university, available online at http://www.msstate.edu.

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One-of-a-kind toad born through MSU pioneering technology that's saving threatened species - Winston County Journal

ENGLAND TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2019-20

Dean Elgar was dismissed off the first ball of the Boxing Day Test. Getty

Too much about the state of South Africa's batting was captured by a photographer staying in the frame for longer than Dean Elgar at Centurion on Thursday (December 26). With the bowler, the fielders, the batters and the umpires all locked, loaded and leaning in for the first ball of the men's Test series against England, Christiaan Kotze - a shutterbug of 30 years' professional standing - was scuttling out of view with seemly haste. He never made it. At least, not on foot.

Kotze stepped onto an upturned cover still slippery with the morning's dew, and something in his right knee gave way. So there he lay bang in the middle of the sightscreen: a snapper stricken, a picture of pain, hopelessly over-exposed and desperately trying to crawl out of the scene. He didn't get far. First Chris Gaffaney and Paul Reiffel sidled his way officiously. Then several England players moseyed over, like cats gingerly stalking a dustbin. Eventually medics arrived bearing a stretcher, and - to sympathetic applause - carried poor Kotze to his exit, stage left.

Then, four minutes later than advertised, "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Anderson", as per the Barmy Army, nudged his bespoke Rolls Royce engine into gear at this level for the first time in almost six months and set off towards the crafty, crusty, cussed Elgar, the bearer of South Africa's standard through so many scrapes and scraps - who dabbed his front foot inside the line of a leg-side loosener unworthy of Anderson, looked to smear it to midwicket, and instead gave Jos Buttler the kind of catch he has been taking, even in his sleep, since he was 10 years old.

Elgar's stay of one minute, one ball made him the eighth man overall and the second South African - after Jimmy Cook, who edged Kapil Dev to Sachin Tendulkar at second slip at Kingsmead in November 1992 - to be dismissed with the first delivery of a rubber. It also added a layer of lustre to Anderson's return from a calf injury to become the ninth player and the first specialist fast bowler to earn 150 Test caps.

Few players are as unconcerned with hiding their feelings as Elgar, who had taken only a few paces from the wicket before he stopped and fumed with frustration for significantly longer than he had batted. Perhaps, as a member in excellent standing of the glass-half-empty club, he was convinced of what would would happen in the ensuing hours. He had, of course, seen it all before.

Aiden Markram, Zubayr Hamza, Faf du Plessis and debutant Dwaine Pretorius all got themselves in only to get out to an England attack that recognised the ally that is a South African Highveld pitch, and bowled accordingly. Vernon Philander adhered to the first half of that equation and might yet not fall victim to the second bit, what with only one wicket standing.

Another debutant, Rassie van der Dussen, stopped at the boundary to perform an aggressive range of warm-up stretches and twirled his bat like a baton as the shiny blare of a brass band accompanied him to the wicket. After 189 first-class innings he was finally on parade. The first 33 balls he faced - for six runs - suggested he had submitted himself utterly to the philosophy of Jacques Kallis, South Africa's new batting consultant. The 34th, bowled by Sam Curran, a 1930s matinee idol of a left-armer complete with a helmet of flying hair the colour of incandescence itself, streaked across Van der Dussen, took the outside edge and flew into Joe Root's hands at first slip.

Where had we seen that before? Seven wickets fell to catches in the arc that followed tentative strokes - testament to the doubt England's bowlers caused, by using the seam effectively, in players whose minds were pre-strewn with misgivings in the wake of five consecutive Test defeats wrapped around a dismal World Cup.

Quinton de Kock was among the edgily departed, but that was all he shared with them. A widely held misconception is that de Kock is not, to put it politely, cricket's greatest thinker. Closer to the truth is that actions speak louder than either words or thoughts, and that they matter exponentially more. De Kock is a man of action. It's not that he doesn't think. It's that he has little need to think because he was born knowing what needs to be done and how to do it. His analysis of Elgar's dismissal was as pithy as it was brief: "It's not the greatest way of getting out."

There is something Kallisesque in De Kock's imperviousness to pressure, in his refusal to have his reaction to threatening deliveries and near misses dictated by his opponents, the conditions or the match situation. His reality is not what the rest of us might recognise as reality. That is what makes him play as if his team were 397/4 when he took guard and not, as they were, 97/4.

De Kock might several times have taken himself out of England's way before he reached 50, and his sixth century was there for the plucking when he steered Curran to Buttler. As he trooped off, he slung his bat across his shoulders and hung a hand from either end, which made him look like an ox under a yoke. He had tamed himself, and he knew it. But at least the theatre of competition was, from South Africa's perspective, a significantly better place when he left than when he arrived.

Overall, there wasn't a lot of Kallis' icy intent on view and even less of head coach Mark Boucher's bulldog spirit. It would be unfair to judge their impact on the evidence of their first day at the office. As De Kock said after stumps, "It's only day one with them." But judged they will be nonetheless. Too much of how South Africa have batted in recent innings was in evidence, and in this scenario continuity is not at all a good thing. So far, not so different, and thus not so good.

But, as Christiaan Kotze could have told them, what fells you today might fuel your tomorrow. Not many years ago he was shot in the side in the line of duty while covering a protest. He was unable to get up and get on with it on Thursday, but he knows what it takes to come back strong. He's taking Friday off, but look out for him around the boundary on Saturday. If his compatriots need an inspiration, he'll be there.

Cricbuzz

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No sign of the Boucher, Kallis genetic code in SA's batting as yet - Cricbuzz - Cricbuzz

life-style,

Body odour is caused by bacteria breaking down sweat and is largely linked to the apocrine glands, said Melbourne dermatologist Dr Hope Dinh. Men have more of these glands in the armpit which make them more prone to body odour. The surge in hormones during the teenage years can affect odour output in both males and females. Some population groups even naturally produce less odour. "East Asians who have nearly complete loss of typical body odour, when compared to people of African and European descent, have significantly less of the characteristic axillary odorants and variants in the ABCC11 gene, which is expressed and localised in apocrine sweat glands," said Dr Dinh. Individuals with certain medical conditions are more susceptible to having body odour. These can include diabetes, urinary tract infections, an overactive thyroid, kidney and liver dysfunction and a genetic disorder called trimethylaminuria. Certain medications can also cause sweating in some people; including antidepressants, triptans for migraines, NSAIDs (non -steroidal anti-inflammatory medications) and opioids. Lifestyle factors in what we eat and how we live can also contribute. Dr Dinh identified common reasons for body odour which include: "With the boom in activewear as a fashion statement, it can mean more body odour due to the trapped heat and synthetic fabrics. Hence try not to sit too long in your yoga pants after a session; hit the showers quickly after exercise and have a spare change of clothes," said Dr Dinh. "I recommend changing footwear or socks regularly throughout the day if they are damp. Just this simple measure can reduce the malodour significantly." How should we be washing ourselves? Dr Dinh's tips: 1 Keep the armpits clean: Wash them regularly using anti-bacterial soap, and the number of bacteria will be kept low, resulting in less body odour. 2 Deodorant or antiperspirant: Deodorants make the skin more acidic, making it more difficult for bacteria to thrive. An antiperspirant block the sweating action of the glands, resulting in less sweating. 3 Drying thoroughly between skin folds after washing is very important, otherwise any trapped moisture can lead to bacteria or thrush thriving and hence lead to body odour. 4 People can apply corn starch or talc powder to the worst areas of sweating after bathing. Despite the tips offered for effective bathing, Dr Dinh said it can be a common misconception that body odour is a result of poor hygiene. If people are concerned they should consult their GP to rule out any kind of medical cause for their issues such as diabetes or thyroid problems. The GP can refer the patient to a dermatologist for further treatment if needed. Treatment can start with topical treatment such as prescription-strength anti-perspirant, or a deodorant. More treatments for more advanced cases include medication, surgery on the apocrine gland or nerves that feed the sweat glands, and the use of medical devices on feet, hands and underarms. "Miradry utilizes thermal energy that targets and eliminates the sweat and odour glands in your underarm. Once those glands are eliminated, they do not grow back." "Hyperhidrosis Botulinum toxin (anti-sweat) treatments are easily performed in clinic by a dermatologist. Botulinum toxin injections are approved for hyperhidrosis affecting the armpits. It is a safe and effective treatment all done in clinic," said Dr Dinh. Anti-sweating injections for excessive sweating conditions are highly effective, long lasting and receive a partial rebate from Medicare.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/K5E4qWjbHGabfQuRuq4ELE/6422c706-5bb7-4ee9-ad03-f50eefb1d493.jpg/r3_287_5614_3457_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

December 26 2019 - 9:18AM

Body odour is caused by bacteria breaking down sweat and is largely linked to the apocrine glands, said Melbourne dermatologist Dr Hope Dinh. Men have more of these glands in the armpit which make them more prone to body odour. The surge in hormones during the teenage years can affect odour output in both males and females. Some population groups even naturally produce less odour.

"East Asians who have nearly complete loss of typical body odour, when compared to people of African and European descent, have significantly less of the characteristic axillary odorants and variants in the ABCC11 gene, which is expressed and localised in apocrine sweat glands," said Dr Dinh.

Individuals with certain medical conditions are more susceptible to having body odour. These can include diabetes, urinary tract infections, an overactive thyroid, kidney and liver dysfunction and a genetic disorder called trimethylaminuria. Certain medications can also cause sweating in some people; including antidepressants, triptans for migraines, NSAIDs (non -steroidal anti-inflammatory medications) and opioids.

Lifestyle factors in what we eat and how we live can also contribute.

Dr Dinh identified common reasons for body odour which include:

"With the boom in activewear as a fashion statement, it can mean more body odour due to the trapped heat and synthetic fabrics. Hence try not to sit too long in your yoga pants after a session; hit the showers quickly after exercise and have a spare change of clothes," said Dr Dinh.

"I recommend changing footwear or socks regularly throughout the day if they are damp. Just this simple measure can reduce the malodour significantly."

How should we be washing ourselves? Dr Dinh's tips:

1 Keep the armpits clean: Wash them regularly using anti-bacterial soap, and the number of bacteria will be kept low, resulting in less body odour.

2 Deodorant or antiperspirant: Deodorants make the skin more acidic, making it more difficult for bacteria to thrive. An antiperspirant block the sweating action of the glands, resulting in less sweating.

3 Drying thoroughly between skin folds after washing is very important, otherwise any trapped moisture can lead to bacteria or thrush thriving and hence lead to body odour.

4 People can apply corn starch or talc powder to the worst areas of sweating after bathing.

Despite the tips offered for effective bathing, Dr Dinh said it can be a common misconception that body odour is a result of poor hygiene. If people are concerned they should consult their GP to rule out any kind of medical cause for their issues such as diabetes or thyroid problems. The GP can refer the patient to a dermatologist for further treatment if needed.

Treatment can start with topical treatment such as prescription-strength anti-perspirant, or a deodorant. More treatments for more advanced cases include medication, surgery on the apocrine gland or nerves that feed the sweat glands, and the use of medical devices on feet, hands and underarms.

OFFENSIVE: Body odour can be off-putting for co-workers.

"Miradry utilizes thermal energy that targets and eliminates the sweat and odour glands in your underarm. Once those glands are eliminated, they do not grow back."

"Hyperhidrosis Botulinum toxin (anti-sweat) treatments are easily performed in clinic by a dermatologist. Botulinum toxin injections are approved for hyperhidrosis affecting the armpits. It is a safe and effective treatment all done in clinic," said Dr Dinh.

Anti-sweating injections for excessive sweating conditions are highly effective, long lasting and receive a partial rebate from Medicare.

Read the rest here:
What causes body odour and why do some have it worse? - The Canberra Times

The task force has about 20 or so active volunteers who comb NamUs and newspaper archives for victims that may be trans. Of course, searching the exact term transgender rarely gets many hits, except for very recent cases. One volunteer, Jessica Veltstra, told me shes learned to search outdated language. In older case, you have to look for derogatory terms, she said. You have to look for things like crossdresser, transvestite, and transsexual. Volunteers also key in on details such as makeup or nail polish on victims reported as male, or mens clothing on victims reported as female. They treat these as clues but not definitive proof of gender identity.

Many of these victims were probably misgendered in life, and when I spoke with Lee and Anthony, they were careful not to misgender them in death. They defaulted to the singular they when referring to Trans Doe Task Force caseswith the exception of Julie Doe, whose breast implants and pitting in her bones were fairly clear signs of transitioning. And they have discussed how to depict the gender of the Does in facial reconstructions. If theres an unidentified person whose forensic art might not reflect what we already know about themif theyre not represented according to a gender they may have lived aswe want to make sure there is art that reflects that, Anthony said. In a couple of cases, volunteers have used the gender-swapping tool on FaceApp to depict Does as they might have looked pre- and post-transition. Its totally amateur, Lee quickly acknowledged, but no one else was doing that for these victims.

Read: She was found strangled in a well, and now she has a name

After all, Michael says, these victims were people who were marginalized in life and marginalized in death. The volunteers I spoke with said theyd joined the task force for precisely this reasonto bring attention to cases that might otherwise be forgotten.

Earlier this year, DNA Doe Project genealogists tentatively made the first ID in a Trans Doe Task Force case called Pillar Point Doe. The victim, who was found stabbed and strangled in Half Moon Bay, California, in 1983, was originally identified as a male in womens clothing. The sheriffs office has not announced the persons identity publicly yet, and Lee Redgrave said the group would wait for the sheriffs investigation to wrap up before digging further into Pillar Point Does identity as potentially trans, to avoid affecting the official police work.

By now, the task force has documented several dozen cases with victims that may be trans and referred at least five to the DNA Doe Project, including the case of Julie Doe. Her case has proved tricky, as labs have been unable to extract enough DNA. But the volunteers havent given up. Her DNA has been to four different labs now, and her latest sequencing results are expected soon.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

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Sleuths Are Haunted by the Cold Case of Julie Doe - The Atlantic

HOUGHTON, Mich. The oldest gray wolf at Isle Royale National Park has been killed, apparently by newcomers to the Lake Superior island chain, researchers said Friday.

The 12-year-old male was one of two survivors that remained when officials decided to relocate wolves from the U.S. and Canadian mainland to rebuild the dwindling population.

His body was found in October. A necropsy showed it had been attacked by fellow wolves, park officials said in a statement.

"With the death of the island-born male, travel patterns of the remaining (mostly relocated and newly arrived) wolves are likely to change significantly, and probably dependent on whether or not the island-born female is still alive, whether she is territorial and how she gets along with the newcomers, both males and females. She is the final native wolf, never radio-collared, and searching for her will be a priority during the upcoming winter study," commented Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University and long-time wolf and moose investigator on Isle Royale.

The fate of that 10-year-old female is yet unknown.

She is the final native wolf, never radio-collared, and searching for her will be a priority for biologists during their annual winter study at the park, said Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University.

Another female one of the animals taken to Isle Royale beginning in fall 2018 also died in recent months from wounds inflicted by one or more wolves.

These events are not uncommon as wolves defend and establish their territories and social hierarchy, the park statement said.

The current population includes eight males and seven females. Researchers monitoring the other wolves' radio collars say they are feeding, traveling and sleeping near each other in various combinations, although none of the groups yet meet the scientific definition of a pack.

We have a unique opportunity to look simultaneously at the past and future of Isle Royale wolves genetic health. With the death of M183, we can now more fully understand how genetic isolation and inbreeding impacted the historic wolf population and use that to better monitor the new founders. This is an exciting time and we will be using cutting-edge genetic tools to track reproduction, inbreeding, and genetic change through time, hopefully providing a piece of the puzzle for maintaining a thriving Isle Royale wolf population, said Dr. Kristin Brzeski, wildlife geneticist at Michigan Tech University.

The National Park Service and the Isle Royale research group say a wolf group is characterized by two or more wolves traveling and feeding together. Wolf groups are further defined as a pack if groups of two or more wolves are traveling together and/or defending a territory, and if a breeding pair reproduces.

Individual preferences for mating and group or pack formation can be quite variable for a social animal like the wolf. Mate selection and pair bond formation can occur at any time, but wolves only breed and produce pups once per year. Consequently, pack formation can take time. Based on these definitions, there are currently no wolf packs on Isle Royale.

RELATED: Wolf taken to Isle Royale last fall returns to mainland

RELATED: Isle Royale wolf relocation project wraps up for the year

RELATED: Isle Royale National Park: A visitor's guide

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Oldest wolf on Isle Royale killed by recent transplants - KARE11.com

Spectrum published hundreds of articles this year on a range of topics, from characterization of candidate genes to immune-system connections. We are proud of all of them, but some in particular stand out: They expose harmful therapies such as chiropractic and stem-cell treatments, upend conventional wisdom about autism, expose uncomfortable truths or adroitly explain complex theories about the condition.

Our staff and some of our readers picked the following seven as particular favorites from the year.

Autism, explained

How might a brain-signaling imbalance underlie autism? What is the female protective effect and, conversely, an extreme male brain? We expanded our compendium of autism explainers this year to include some of the most popular theories about the condition.

False hope for autism in the stem-cell underground

Clinics offering stem-cell treatments for autism are proliferating, and desperate parents pay thousands of dollars to have these products injected into their children despite a lack of evidence that they help. Many, in fact, have the potential to cause serious harm, from introducing life-threatening infections to seeding autoimmune disorders. In this story, investigative reporter Brendan Borrell traces the provenance of one childs treatments through a cast of rogue characters and calls attention to the fact that the products are, as one of his sources says, basically afterbirth thrown in a blender.

Can preventing seizures alter the course of autism?

This story sprang to life when reporter Jessica Wright observed experimental brain surgery on a 12-year-old boy named Kevin Lightner. Kevin has dup15q syndrome, a rare genetic condition that often causes seizures and autism, and his case presented a prime opportunity to explore a provocative question: Can epilepsy lead to or at least contribute to autism? Wright followed Kevin and his family through a risky procedure to implant a responsive neurostimulation device into his brain, and over the weeks that followed.

When autistic people commit sexual crimes

Many autistic people become embroiled in the criminal justice system for sexual behaviors, including collecting child pornography, stalking and sexual assault. Some go to prison, and others become registered sex offenders a status that can prevent them from receiving state services for the rest of their lives. But as Melinda Wenner-Moyer explores in this story, autistic people may engage in these behaviors without understanding the implications of their actions or the law. Some experts are calling for a change in how the criminal justice system treats these autistic people, and for more sexual education for autistic teens.

Autism, through the eyes of a computer

Clinicians are the main arbiters of autism traits. They use their expertise to diagnose autism and judge its severity. But a growing cadre of scientists is betting that computers could do some parts of these tasks better. In this story, reporter Nicholette Zeliadt explores the use of wearable sensors and other devices to track autism traits over time as they collect data from autistic people in their homes and schools. These measurements may never replace the judgment clinicians hone through years of experience, but they may ease the workload of experts and the wait time for people who need evaluations.

Large study supports discarding the term high-functioning autism

Autistic people who excel academically are sometimes referred to as high functioning. The problem is, many dont function at all well: They struggle with everyday tasks, from getting dressed to taking the bus. This story underscores the gaping chasm between intelligence and daily living skills, and the crescendo of voices calling to abandon the high functioning label.

Studies of autism treatments lack standard yardsticks

An analysis of 36 years of clinical trials showed that researchers do not use a consistent set of tools to measure the efficacy of autism treatments. Nearly 70 percent of the tools were used in just one study, making it difficult to compare the treatments. And only three validated tools that measure core autism traits were used in more than 5 percent of the studies. But these tools are not designed to measure treatment outcomes, so they may miss subtle signs that a drug, dietary supplement or psychotherapy is working.

Continue reading here:
In case you missed them: Spectrum's standout stories from 2019 - Spectrum

HOUGHTON The National Park Service (NPS) and research partners from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) are using data from GPS collars on introduced wolves to monitor associations between individuals and identify possible pack formation. As researchers and NPS staff anticipated, new wolves immediately began interacting with each other. Researchers confirmed introduced wolves were feeding, traveling, sleeping in proximity to each other, and forming groups.

A wolf group is characterized by two or more wolves traveling and feeding together. Wolf groups are further defined as a pack if groups of two or more wolves are traveling together and/or defending a territory, and if a breeding pair reproduces. Individual preferences for mating and group or pack formation can be quite variable for a social animal like the wolf. Mate selection and pair bond formation can occur at any time, but wolves only breed and produce pups once per year. Consequently, pack formation can take time. Based on these definitions, there are currently no wolf packs on Isle Royale.

GPS collar data shows three wolves, 1 female and 2 males, have been traveling, feeding, and bedding together since March, 2019 (W001F, W007M, and W013M). This is the first wolf group to form and remain associated since introduction efforts began. Additionally, two male wolves shared bed sites and carcasses over the summer with several different female wolves, but their associations lack consistency and are currently not defined as wolf groups. Two female wolves shared bed site areas over the summer (July), but are also not considered a group. Loose associations are common when smaller prey items like moose calves, beaver and snowshoe hare are abundant on the landscape. These animals are easy prey for a single wolf.

Dr. Jerry Belant, Campfire Conservation Fund Professor at SUNY-ESF and project collaborator added Wolves are a highly social species and we continue to monitor their movements to document groups, and ultimately pack formations as demonstrated by reproduction. We developed a public online tool, https://belantlab.shinyapps.io/wolf-networks/ based on these analyses to understand potential associations among these wolves and the areas they occupy.

Researchers monitoring the GPS collar signals identified two wolf mortality events this fall. In September, researchers and NPS staff detected a mortality signal and recovered the remains of female W004F. Field evidence and subsequent necropsy at the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI, determined W004F died from wounds caused by another wolf or wolves. In October just prior to island closing, NPS staff came across the remains of male wolf, M183, one of the two remaining uncollared resident wolves inhabiting Isle Royale prior to introduction efforts. Necropsy revealed that M183 had also been killed by another wolf or wolves. These events are not uncommon as wolves defend and establish their territories and social hierarchy. With many wolves on the island sorting out their relationships with one another, the dynamic nature of wolf social organization, territoriality, and wolf-on-wolf aggression during group and pack formation is not unexpected.

With the death of the island-born male, travel patterns of the remaining wolves are likely to change significantly, and probably dependent on whether or not the island-born female is still alive, whether she is territorial and how she gets along with the newcomers, both males and females. She is the final native wolf, never radio-collared, and searching for her will be a priority during the upcoming winter study. commented Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University and long-time wolf and moose investigator on Isle Royale.

Summer wolf location cluster investigations documented 122 instances of two or more wolves with overlapping space use. Twenty-nine cases (23.8%) of space use overlap were associated with prey remains and feeding behavior, 68% were associated with bed sites, and wolf use for the remaining 7.4% of sites was unknown or could not be determined.

Researchers continue to monitor location data weekly for evidence the three newest wolves, released on the island in September, are adjusting to their new homes, interacting and forming associations. These wolves are interacting with each other (W017M and W018F were traveling together in late November) and with the wolves released last spring (W018F and W016M traveled together in early November).

NPS and its collaborators will continue to monitor the interactions, group formation, and genetic diversity of new wolves over winter and spring to document breeding (January/February) and denning (April/May) activity in Isle Royales wolf population. Closely monitoring social organization will provide insights into the genetic health of the population. The NPS has partnered with Dr. Kristin Brzeski, wildlife geneticist at MTU, to sequence the Isle Royale wolf genome for long-term monitoring of genetic health of the population.

We have a unique opportunity to look simultaneously at the past and future of Isle Royale wolves genetic health. With the death of M183, we can now more fully understand how genetic isolation and inbreeding impacted the historic wolf population and use that to better monitor the new founders. This is an exciting time and we will be using cutting-edge genetic tools to track reproduction, inbreeding, and genetic change through time, hopefully providing a piece of the puzzle for maintaining a thriving Isle Royale wolf population, said Dr. Brzeski.

Multiple lines of investigations regarding this population will help the NPS evaluate the success of the project over the next few years. We are using everything we can in our toolbox to track how this population interacts with each other, prey and the landscape. Well continue to learn as much as we can moving forward to help with the decision to add wolves as needed to meet project objectives and document ecosystem effects. stated Mark Romanski, the NPS project coordinator and Division Chief of Natural Resources at Isle Royale.

The current population includes seven females and eight males. All introduced wolves are from the Great Lakes Region, translocated from northeastern Minnesota (W001F), the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (W017M, W018F, W019M), mainland Ontario, Canada (W005F, W016M), and Michipicoten Island in northeastern Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada (W007M, W009M, W010M, W011F, W012M, W013M, W014F and W015F).

A free course for families is available in Houghton from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness.) Family and ...

Attendance at the 2019 fair was estimated at 23,790 over the four days of the fair, up from 19,792 in 2018. The ...

Dial Helps Mobile Response Team (MRT) was launched in 2017, offering face-to-face crisis support during regular ...

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Group formation of new Isle Royale wolves leads to territorial aggression | News, Sports, Jobs - Daily Mining Gazette

KEY POINTS

With more than 30,000 Americans and about 1000 new cases diagnosed every year, with cystic fibrosis is on the rise. More than 75% of the cases are diagnosed by 2 years of age and about 50% of them are diagnosed about 18 years or older.

Cystic fibrosis is a progressive, genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections and identifying early warning signs are very important.

Taste in the skin to watch out for: A high salty taste

Among individuals affected by this condition, the salt travels to the surface of their skin alongside water but doesnt get reabsorbed. Due to this, the skin of an individual with cystic fibrosis becomes abnormally salty. Parents happen to notice the salty-tasting skin when they kiss their child.

Cystic fibrosis also affects the epithelial cells in the sweat glands located in the skin and individuals with the condition will get a salty frosting on their skin and might also lose abnormally large amounts of body salt while sweating, especially during hot weather.

Other symptoms of cystic fibrosis include persistent coughing, sometimes with phlegm, wheezing, shortness of breath, very frequent lung infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, poor growth or weight gain despite having a good appetite, male infertility, frequent greasy, bulky stools or difficulty alongside bowel movements.

Being a complex disease, the types and severity of the conditions symptoms tend to differ widely from an individual to another. Several factors including the age of diagnosis can affect an individuals health and the course of the condition. Through these years, there have been tremendous advancements in specialized care for cystic fibrosis alongside dramatic improvements.

Since the type and severity of the symptoms differ widely, treatment plans might contain tailored elements based on each persons unique circumstances.

Cystic fibrosis affects both males and females and the most important risk factor for cystic fibrosis is a family history of the disease, especially if either of the parents is a known carrier of this genetic disease.

Individuals with cystic fibrosis are recommended not to meet each other in person because of certain bacteria that they all carry, which can cause serious infections. They now have online groups via which they can interact with each other.

Non-Smokers Are At Increased Risk Of Lung Damage Due To Air Pollution Photo: Pixabay/kalhh

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Cystic Fibrosis: This Taste In Your Skin Could Be A Warning Sign - International Business Times

ASHEBORO Twenty-eight students participated in the College and Career Readiness graduation ceremony out of 40 High School Equivalency Diploma graduates and five Adult High School Diploma graduates who were eligible Thursday, Dec. 12, at the R. Alton Cox Learning Resources Center Auditorium at Randolph Community College.

Three of the graduates spoke Alex Ruiz, Randy Perry and Kenneth Brown.

Ruiz was originally enrolled in Randolph Early College High School, but had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances, including a sibling in the hospital. Once his brothers health improved, he returned to RCC to explore his options.

My counselors guided me to the CCR department, Ruiz said. I was welcomed by the sweet people here. They helped me decide to begin which path I wanted to do in this program. My message to you all is: When one door closes, another door opens, so dont wait for that closed door. Keep moving and unlock your next door.

Perry, who is 60 years old, thanked everyone in the crowd for coming to the ceremony, including many family members.

My graduation was a great milestone for me and the lifetime achievement, he said. Now I have people who have encouraged me and believed in me, and it is so rewarding and such a good feeling. My teachers at [RCC] were such a major part of my work and efforts to do well in school. Although I'm 60 years young, it meant so much to me to be able to inspire and encourage young men and old men that they too can achieve this great accomplishment.

I also want to thank the staff at RCC for allowing this program to be offered at our facility. I'm an inmate from the Randolph correctional facility here in Asheboro. RCC offers this program to inmates who want to learn and obtain their high school equivalency diploma. We have a classroom setting. It's just real school. And we work really hard and I want you all to know that I've been incarcerated since 1992, and I've been through six or seven community colleges, I have many certificates, but I've never had my high school diploma. I can say firsthand, I've never met the president of a community college. Ive never met a vice president. It really touched my heart when they came in and dropped in on us. It was such a warm feeling.

Brown dropped out of school during his junior year, taking an entry-level job in the textile industry and working there for 40 years.

Over that time, I began to feel brain-dead, he said. In hopes of finding another job, I felt that I needed to jump-start my brain. I've always been one to never finish anything. For years, I thought about going back to school. Finally, I decided I was going to go back to school, to jump-start my brain, to finish what Id started many years ago. I proudly stand before you tonight as a graduate as a testament that it is never too late to finish what you started. My brain has been stimulated; I feel confident.

RCC President Dr. Robert S. Shackleford Jr. gave the welcome, noting the many graduations he has attended. He then spoke about his mother, whose father died when she was a teenager and who dropped out of school and took a job in the mill to help her family.

I love graduation, he said, listing several, but saying that those were not his favorite. My mother got married and had her children, me and my two sisters, and she always made every effort to encourage us to get the education that she herself was never afforded the opportunity to get. Many years later, after I was married and out of college and out of graduate school, my mother went to our local community college.

She told them she had dropped out of high school. She signed up for their adult education classes and after several semesters she completed her work and she graduated high school. I knew how unlikely it seemed that she would ever achieve it. I knew how hard she worked for it, and I knew how much she deserved it. That was my favorite graduation. I feel that way about you being here tonight.

Former Miss Randolph County and current Miss Cabarrus County Tiffany Rush gave the graduation address. A RECHS valedictorian and current Appalachian State University student, Rush was born with Turners Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder with a 2-percent chance of survival.

The important thing to remember is that we all carry heavy loads we just may carry them differently than other people do, she said. After all, a good story has to have conflict, excitement and struggles. You may have made it to this moment by different paths and roads, but you made it here.

This great achievement requires three main qualities: Courage, discipline and commitment. It took immense courage for you to take the first step toward your personal and professional goals. You had to have incredible discipline to take classes after a long work day or when other responsibilities overlapped. You had to be committed completing homework and studying can be easy to overlook, especially when you already have a job, family or other things going on. These three characteristics shine brightly through each and every one of you, and they empower you all on this journey. And the beautiful thing is, is your story does not end here.

She then presented a $20 bill to the crowd, ripped it, crumpled it up, stepped on it, asking the crowd if they would take it if she offered it to them at each step.

The value of the money does not change, Rush said. It got stepped on. It got rained on. Its still $20. I want you to remember that whatever you go through, your value stays the same.

Elbert Lassiter, vice president for Workforce Development and Continuing Education, and Jordan Williamson, director of Adult Basic Education, ESOL and Adult High School, presented the candidates for graduation. The awarding of the diplomas was handled by F. Mac Sherrill, chairman of the RCC Board of Trustees, and Williamson gave the faculty invitation and closing remarks, referencing College and Career Readiness In-Take Specialist Dahlia Oldham, who graduated from the program 10 years ago.

As a department, we believe in always putting the students first in everything we do, Williamson said. You guys are absolutely amazing. This is such a unique group of graduates you are all are so goal-driven and focused on what comes next. The truth is, there is no road map, although it probably would make things much simpler if there were. I think of someone who walked across this very same stage that you did tonight 10 years ago. She would say to you, Just keep pushing, do not give up because you can do this, and I believe in you.

Adult Basic Education Instructor Philip Schuyler was the faculty marshal.

The graduates listed alphabetically by their cities of residence follow:

High School Equivalency Diploma graduates

Archdale: Maria Dominguez.

Asheboro: Dakota Ball, Shawn Carson, Tiffany Creed, Kasey Hazelwood, Charity Lamar, Nancy Neese, Bryce Roig, Alex Ruiz, Mohamed Salamatou, Caleb Shinault, Elijah Stevenson, Erica Talent, Jose Tinoco Jr., Sandra Vargas, Maviel Vazquez-Arriaga and Leslie Vences.

Burlington: Edson Hernandez.

Columbia, S.C.: Dustin Garrett.

Durham: Franklin Goy.

Franklin: Kevin Johnston.

Franklinville: Christina Belmontes Gonzalez.

Lexington: Heriberto Mendez and Morgan Scott.

Liberty: Kenneth Brown.

Monroe: Randy Perry.

Pageland, S.C.: Lakeya Powe.

Ramseur: Christina Brown and Randael Taylor.

Randleman: Hollie Bailey, Terri Cooke, Danielle Gayness, Wyatt Robinson and Cheyenne Skryzmoski.

Robbins: Shane Childers.

Sophia: Darren Vaughan.

Trinity: Brittany Hill and Hannah Smith.

Adult High School Diploma graduates

Liberty: Travis Smith.

Ramseur: Shelby Moser.

Randleman: Brittany Merrick.

Seagrove: Ivy Street.

Sophia: Paige Wilson.

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RCC College and Career Readiness graduates persevere to reach goal - Asheboro Courier Tribune

Until recently, he and his mate who was also his daughter and half-sister on his twisted family tree were the last two island-born wolves to call it home. But when the National Park Service last year began an effort to relocate new wolves to Isle Royale to restore predator packs in the face of a fast-rising moose population, some scientists knew those wolves' days could be numbered.

They were right. The park service announced Friday that two more wolves were found dead on the island this fall killed by other wolves in what researchers are calling territorial aggression.

The remains of M183 were found in October by park staff, just before the island closed to visitors for the winter season. A month earlier, researchers monitoring the new wolves GPS trackers saw a female wolfs collar was transmitting a mortality signal. They pinpointed the location and found her remains. They belonged to a wolf known as W004F, a 3-year-old that had been one of the first wolves captured for this relocation project. She had been captured near Grand Portage in October 2018, and released near Isle Royales Siskiwit Bay.

Necropsies of both animals determined the same thing: Their wounds showed they had been killed by another wolf or wolves.

These events are not uncommon, as wolves defend and establish their territories and social hierarchy. With many wolves on the island sorting out their relationships with one another, the dynamic nature of wolf social organization, territoriality, and wolf-on-wolf aggression during group and pack formation is not unexpected," the park service said.

With the death of the island-born male, travel patterns of the remaining wolves are likely to change significantly, and probably dependent on whether or not the island-born female is still alive, whether she is territorial and how she gets along with the newcomers, both males and females," said Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University and longtime wolf and moose investigator on Isle Royale. "She is the final native wolf, never radio-collared, and searching for her will be a priority during the upcoming winter study.

Last winter, research data showed there was one spot on the island the new wolves were not venturing: the territory staked out by the island-born pair.

In all, six wolves have died and one has used an ice bridge to head back to the mainland in the 15 months since the park service began its multi-year effort to bring predator packs back to Isle Royale. Of those who died, one captured wolf died of anesthesia-related stress before she could be brought to the island, and another wolf that had been on Isle Royale for weeks died of pneumonia, park officials have said. One wolf caught in the U.P. this fall died within days of his release on the island.

These last two deaths bring the islands wolf population down to 15: seven females and eight males. These include the last native-born female and 14 new wolves that hail from Minnesota, Michigans Upper Peninsula, mainland Ontario, Canada, and Michipicoten Island in northeastern Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada.

Some see M183u2032s death as a chance for a new angle on the plethora of data researchers are collecting. Tracking collars on the new wolves are allowing scientists to map where they are traveling on the island archipelago, which sits about 60 miles northwest of Michigans U.P. mainland. What they are killing and eating is also being studied. Researchers are looking at everything from bones at kill sites to piles of wolf scat.

We have a unique opportunity to look simultaneously at the past and future of Isle Royale wolves genetic health. With the death of M183, we can now more fully understand how genetic isolation and inbreeding impacted the historic wolf population and use that to better monitor the new founders," said Dr. Kristin Brzeski, a wildlife geneticist at Michigan Tech, whom the park service has partnered with to sequence the Isle Royale wolf genome for long-term monitoring of the populations genetic health.

"This is an exciting time and we will be using cutting-edge genetic tools to track reproduction, inbreeding, and genetic change through time, hopefully providing a piece of the puzzle for maintaining a thriving Isle Royale wolf population, she said.

In addition to the decadeslong wolf/moose study ongoing on the island by Michigan Tech, other research teams from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Multiple are using the wolves GPS data to study if and how wolves are traveling in groups, and to identify any packs that eventually form.

We are using everything we can in our toolbox to track how this population interacts with each other, prey and the landscape. Well continue to learn as much as we can moving forward to help with the decision to add wolves as needed to meet project objectives and document ecosystem effects," said Mark Romanski, NPS project coordinator and Division Chief of Natural Resources at Isle Royale.

The wolf relocation effort began in the fall of 2018. Its a three-to-five year plan to bring up to 30 new wolves onto the island, where more than 2,000 moose are chewing their way through its forests. The concern is that a huge moose population will deforest this island wilderness, which in the warmer months draws hikers, backpackers and paddlers to enjoy its trails and bays.

Years ago, there were up to 50 wolves in different packs on Isle Royale. But a combination of inbreeding, accidents and disease caused their numbers to dwindle to just two island-born wolves.

The goal of creating strong, healthy wolf packs on this remote island means the NPS is trying to establish a good genetic stew, demonstrated by how they are trapping wolves from various points around the Great Lakes and bringing them together on Isle Royale. The hope is that with these new arrivals, the genetic problems that doomed the islands past wolves wont be replayed.

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Isle Royale's last native male wolf among 2 killed by new wolves - Duluth News Tribune

Wolves brought to Isle Royale National Park to bolster predators on the island have killed one, if not both, of the resident wolves/NPS file

Wolves moved to Isle Royale National Park to help balance the burgeoning moose population there have killed a male wolf that was one of the last two island-born wolves in the park, and it's possible they also killed the other, a female.

In October, just prior to island closing to the public for winter, park staff came across the remains of a male wolf, M183, one of the two remaining uncollared resident wolves inhabiting Isle Royale prior to wolf recovery efforts. A necropsy revealed that M183 had been killed by another wolf or wolves.

These events are not uncommon as wolves defend and establish their territories and social hierarchy, park staff said. With many wolves on the island sorting out their relationships with one another, the dynamic nature of wolf social organization, territoriality, and wolf-on-wolf aggression during group and pack formation is not unexpected.

"With the death of the island-born male, travel patterns of the remaining wolves are likely to change significantly, and probably dependent on whether or not the island-born female is still alive, whether she is territorial and how she gets along with the newcomers, both males and females," said Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Technological University and long-time wolf and moose investigator on Isle Royale. "She is the final native wolf, never radio-collared, and searching for her will be a priority during the upcoming winter study."

Researchers monitoring the relocated wolves' GPS collar signals identified a second wolf mortality event this fall. In September, researchers and park staff recovered the remains of female W004F. Field evidence and subsequent necropsy at the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, determined she died from wounds caused by another wolf or wolves.

Meanwhile,National Park Service biologists andresearch partners from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry have been following the GPS data to monitor associations between individuals and identify possible pack formation. As researchers and park staff anticipated, new wolves immediately began interacting with each other. Researchers confirmed introduced wolves were feeding, traveling, sleeping in proximity to each other, and forming groups.

A wolf group is characterized by two or more wolves traveling and feeding together. Wolf groups are further defined as a pack if groups of two or more wolves are traveling together and/or defending a territory, and if a breeding pair reproduces. Individual preferences for mating and group or pack formation can be quite variable for a social animal like the wolf. Mate selection and pair bond formation can occur at any time, a park release said, but wolves only breed and produce pups once per year. Consequently, pack formation can take time. Based on these definitions, there are currently no wolf packs on Isle Royale.

GPS collar data shows three wolves, a female and two males, have been traveling, feeding, and bedding together since March 2019 (W001F, W007M, and W013M). This is the first wolf group to form and remain associated since introduction efforts began. Additionally, two male wolves shared bed sites and carcasses over the summer with several different female wolves, but their associations lack consistency and are currently not defined as wolf groups. Two female wolves shared bed site areas in July, but are also not considered a group. Loose associations are common when smaller prey items like moose calves, beaver and snowshoe hare are abundant on the landscape. These animals are easy prey for a single wolf.

Dr. Jerry Belant, Campfire Conservation Fund Professor at SUNY-ESF and project collaborator, said, Wolves are a highly social species and we continue to monitor their movements to document groups, and ultimately pack formations as demonstrated by reproduction.We developed a public online tool,https://belantlab.shinyapps.io/wolf-networks/based on these analyses to understand potential associations among these wolves and the areas they occupy.

Summer wolf location cluster investigations documented 122 instances of two or more wolves with overlapping space use. Twenty-nine cases (23.8 percent) of space use overlap were associated with prey remains and feeding behavior, 68 percent were associated with bed sites, and wolf use for the remaining 7.4 percent of sites was unknown or could not be determined.

Researchers continue to monitor location data weekly for evidence the three newest wolves, released on the island in September, are adjusting to their new homes, interacting and forming associations. These wolves are interacting with each other (W017M and W018F were traveling together in late November) and with the wolves released last spring (W018F and W016M traveled together in early November).

National Park Service staff and their collaborators will continue to monitor the interactions, group formation, and genetic diversity of new wolves over winter and spring to document breeding (January/February) and denning (April/May) activity in Isle Royales wolf population. Closely monitoring social organization will provide insights into the genetic health of the population. The NPS has partnered with Dr. Kristin Brzeski, wildlife geneticist at MTU, to sequence the Isle Royale wolf genome for long-term monitoring of genetic health of the population.

We have a unique opportunity to look simultaneously at the past and future of Isle Royale wolves genetic health. With the death of M183, we can now more fully understand how genetic isolation and inbreeding impacted the historic wolf population and use that to better monitor the new founders. This is an exciting time and we will be using cutting-edge genetic tools to track reproduction, inbreeding, and genetic change through time, hopefully providing a piece of the puzzle for maintaining a thriving Isle Royale wolf population, said Dr. Brzeski.

Multiple lines of investigations regarding this population will help the NPS evaluate the success of the project over the next few years.

We are using everything we can in our toolbox to track how this population interacts with each other, prey and the landscape. Well continue to learn as much as we can moving forward to help with the decision to add wolves as needed to meet project objectives and document ecosystem effects, said Mark Romanski, the NPS project coordinator and division chief of natural resources at Isle Royale.

The current wolf population in the park includes seven females and eight males. All introduced wolves are from the Great Lakes Region, translocated from northeastern Minnesota (W001F), the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (W017M, W018F, W019M), mainland Ontario, Canada (W005F, W016M), and Michipicoten Island in northeastern Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada (W007M, W009M, W010M, W011F, W012M, W013M, W014F and W015F).

Excerpt from:
Wolves Relocated To Isle Royale National Park Kill Resident Wolf - National Parks Traveler

On December 22, 1997, the FDA approved Propecia, a once-a-day pill for combating the genetic condition known as male pattern baldness.

The supposed link between hair and virility dates back to at least the Biblical story of Samson. Advertisements touting supposed baldness cure-alls flourished during the 19th century, and absolutely blossomed during the TV age.

As for Propecia, a prescription-only pill, it CAN slow hair loss, or even promote limited hair growth among some men, but in a bitter irony it can adversely affect virility in some who take it as well.

Definitely ask your doctor, would be our best advice.

Far from camouflaging their hair loss, some bald but bold men have always embraced it. Way back in 1985, our late colleague Bob Simon paid a visit to a Bald-Headed Men of America convention. "If you don't have it, flaunt it!" said one participant.

And in 2004 our John Blackstone dropped in for lunch at a bald-friendly restaurant in Lodi, California. There's even a bald guy's menu the less hair, the bigger the discount!

Treat it, hide it, or flaunt it ... more than enough options for any bald man to try to wrap his head around.

Story produced by Robert Marston.

2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Almanac: On December 22, 1997, the FDA approved Propecia, a once-a-day pill for combating the genetic condition known as male pattern baldness - CBS...

In the forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, scientists noticed something odd happening among wild bonobos. Females were behaving like males during competition over other females aggressively getting in the way of some copulations.

When the scientists analyzed the bonobos genes, the results, reported in May 2019, led to even more questions: The fussing female bonobos turned out to be the adult males mothers.

This is #11 on Inverses 20 most incredible stories about our planet from 2019.

Martin Surbeck, study author and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, explained to Inverse at the time that further observations revealed that the mothers were actually helping out their sons in active and passive ways.

Aside from the fighting, the moms sometimes physically pulled their sons into close spatial proximity with females in heat, taking helicopter parenting to a whole new level. In a more subtle move, those bonobo moms with high social rankings lent their clout to their sons, allowing them better mating opportunities. Bonobos live in matriarchal societies, so an endorsement from mom can mean a lot.

The meddling appears to pay off. Male bonobos who lived in close proximity to their moms were approximately 3 times more likely to sire offspring than males who did not. Moms may want to make sure their sons get out there in order to ensure that their genetic line continues, the researchers theorize.

But what works for bonobos doesnt work for all primates. While the effectiveness of human mother matchmakers is still up for debate, the team also evaluated how helpful chimpanzee moms were at getting their sons laid. They found that though chimp moms did want to meddle just as much as the bonobo moms, they should probably stay out of romance: The sons of match-making chimp moms were 1.26 times less likely to sire offspring than the sons of more hands-off mothers.

As 2019 draws to a close, Inverse is revisiting the years 20 most incredible stories about our planet. Some are gross, some are fascinating, and others are truly incredible. This has been #11. Read the original article here.

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Science confirms: Moms meddle in their children's love lives - Inverse

Basel, 23 December 2019 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT), today announced the signing of a licensing agreement providing Roche exclusive commercial rights to SRP-9001 (AAVrh74.MHCK7.micro-dystrophin), Sareptas investigational gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), outside the United States. Under the terms of the agreement, Sarepta will receive an upfront payment of $750million in cash and $400million in equity. In addition, Sarepta is eligible to receive regulatory and sales milestones, and royalties on net sales. Roche and Sarepta will equally share global development expenses.

This collaboration demonstrates Roche's commitment to gene therapy and its transformational potential for patients. It combines Roches global reach, commercial presence and regulatory expertise with Sareptas gene therapy candidate for DMD to accelerate access to SRP-9001 for patients outside the United States. DMD is an X-linked rare degenerative neuromuscular disorder causing severe progressive muscle loss and premature death. SRP-9001, currently in clinical development for DMD, is designed to deliver the microdystrophin-encoding gene directly to the muscle tissue for the targeted production of the microdystrophin protein.

Commenting on this new collaboration James Sabry, head of Roche Pharma Partnering said, We are excited to enter this licensing agreement with Sarepta. By working together to provide SRP-9001 to patients, we hope to fundamentally transform the lives of patients and families living with this devastating disorder for which there are currently only limited treatment options.

Doug Ingram, president and chief executive officer, Sarepta, said, As a mission-driven organization, we are inspired to partner with Roche with the goal of bringing SRP-9001 to patients outside the United States. This collaboration will not only increase the speed with which SRP-9001 could benefit patients outside the United States, but will also greatly expand the scope of territories within which we could potentially launch SRP-9001 to improve and save lives.

As part of the agreement, Roche also obtains an option to acquire ex-U.S. rights to certain future DMD-specific programs from Sarepta, in exchange for separate milestone and royalty considerations, and cost sharing.

The transaction is subject to the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and other customary conditions. The parties anticipate that the agreement will close in the first quarter of 2020.

About RocheRoche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve peoples lives. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof have made Roche the leader in personalised healthcare a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible.

Roche is the worlds largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management.

Founded in 1896, Roche continues to search for better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and make a sustainable contribution to society. The company also aims to improve patient access to medical innovations by working with all relevant stakeholders. More than thirty medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organization Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and cancer medicines. Moreover, for the eleventh consecutive year, Roche has been recognised as one of the most sustainable companies in the Pharmaceuticals Industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).

The Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is active in over 100 countries and in 2018 employed about 94,000 people worldwide. In 2018, Roche invested CHF 11 billion in R&D and posted sales of CHF 56.8 billion. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information, please visit http://www.roche.com.

About Duchenne Muscular DystrophyDMD is an X-linked rare degenerative neuromuscular disorder causing severe progressive muscle loss and premature death. One of the most common fatal genetic disorders, DMD affects approximately one in every 3,500 - 5,000 male births worldwide.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

Roche Group Media RelationsPhone: +41 61 688 8888 / e-mail: media.relations@roche.com- Nicolas Dunant (Head)- Patrick Barth- Daniel Grotzky- Karsten Kleine- Nathalie Meetz- Barbara von Schnurbein

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Roche enters licensing agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics to improve the lives of patients living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy - GlobeNewswire

It was the year before my son Lysander was born, in 2004, that we saw our firstpolarbears, magnificent nomads of imponderable grace roaming the tundra like predatory ghosts in Manitoba, Canada.Polarbearsembody vastness and unspeakable endurance in their very gait. Theirs is an almost phantomic presence. They began to haunt us as an unmatched monarch whose freedom and poise and ability to survive for months without food should humble our species.

It was only recently, returning from Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic, that we learned from Ole Jorgen Liodden, photographer and population expert, that thepolarbearswere not just being seriously threatened by melting ice but also by the continued onslaught of trophy hunters who have impaired the population for decades. In Nunavut in 2003 hunters killed 373bears, while in 2005 almost 500 were killed. The estimates ofpolarbearsin the 19 subpopulations ranging from Alaska to Russia are anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000, as is estimated byPolarBearsInternational. But as Danish biologist Morten Jorgensen claims in his cautionaryPolarBearson the Edge, this division is arbitrary. The population may be smaller.

Polarbearsare divided into units to better manage their harvesting as if they were a mere commodity.Andrew Derocher, professor of biology at the University of Alberta, wrote that he has little faith in Canadianpolarbearmanagement anymore. We have populations with no estimate for almost 20 years.When it comes topolarbears, the main threat remains climate change. Harvest, however, has impacts and some of them are obvious (eg. direct mortality) but some are more subtle (eg. number of males available for breeding.)"

In Canada, hunting for trophies has taken on insidious proportions for years. As Liodden explains,"Adult males with the best furs and trophy characteristics have been targeted for years and this is definitely affecting local populations.The large males with the fittest genes are removed from the overall population that would have benefited from the strength and experience of these males whilebearsthat are less likely to survive are left to fend for themselves impairing the mating success of the species.Trophy hunting is forcing 'reverse evolution' or evolutionarydegeneration by increasing less desirable genetic characteristics in a population.

The conservation of one of the most majestic species on Earth has been reduced to quota management. If this way of conservingpolarbearscontinues, the harvesting, the actual murder ofpolarbearsas a cash crop, will come to a climax and one day, with the added challenge of climate change, they will quite simply be no more.

I had the occasion to meet Erling Madsen, an Inuit elder awarded byPolarBearsInternational for being asteward ofpolarbearsin his village, Ittooqoormitt in Eastern Greenland. He is the guardian of his people, and with flare guns and occasionally rifles has the job of making sure children are safe frompolarbearsand daily makes sure there are no straybearscoming into the village looking for food. His village is allowed a quota of 35polarbearsa year by the Greenland government, and while Erling explained that in the old days one had to go further afield to findbears, today many more come closer to town because of climate change.

I wondered if this quota did not seem too high, especially since the overall population is decreasing worldwide. Madsen insisted that hunters respected thebears. I asked how he would feel if his people lost thepolarbearforever. He paused as if I had asked something taboo, and with a sigh answered, We would lose our souls.

Not very long ago the Inuit honored thepolarbearand hunted them for survival. As John Houston, who was born on Baffin Island and who learned Inuktikuk as a child, explains, the Inuit hope we who are polluting and melting the very ground of the Arctic will grow up and become mature adults, stop fighting amongst ourselves and acknowledge the truth of the ancient prophecy that the earth and sky can be changed by people. Stop burning thepolarbear. They are Very Important Persons and worthy of our utmost respect. Look into their souls and you will be changed.

Canada, with its vast resources, can make up for any revenue native communities miss out on if they stoppedhuntingpolarbear. As Jorgensen exclaims, the precautionary principle should be heeded. We need to "consider honestly the summative pressure onpolarbearsof all human activities. Stop claiming thatpolarbearconservation is effective today. Speak out against overexploitation and commercial abuse."Canada as a country should take responsibility for its most iconic mammal while it still can. In 10 years time, with the ice dissolving beneath their feet, its might well be too late.

In the old days, certainly before the mid-20th century, thepolarbearwas honored. Kutsikitsoq, an elder, once said, After all, thepolarbearis the one closest to us!

Thepolarbearwas closely identified with man, so much so, that according to another Inuit elder, Inurterssuaq, when one had killed abear, one was to observe a period of mourning as for humans three days for a male, five for a female. Today, trophy hunters, and members of safari clubs, pay Inuit hunters to bag apolarbear, one of the least appropriate species on earth for such killing as they have a low birthrate and high cub death rate.

As opposed to the old days, when an Inuit hunter would face down apolarbearwith a spear and put his very life on the line, today skidoos and high-powered rifles out run their prey.

Commercial exploitation becomes the focus of the relationship, and it invariably becomes a question of taking the harvest to the limit. In 2013, an 11-footpolarbearskin was being sold for $20,500 in Canadian money. In 2014, pelts cost up to $40,000 in U.S. money.One recently was sold to a Chinese client for close to $80,000 U.S. A mountedbearcan earn as much as $100,000 in U.S. money. Skyrocketing prices are fueling greed worldwide, greed that if left unchecked, could eventually lead to extermination. Canada has more than enough resources to make up the loss of revenue for native peoples, they whose world was turnedupside down by the Canadian government not so very long ago. The same trophy hunters are looking for jaguar parts in the Amazon, lions in Africa and tigers in Asia and countless other irreplaceable species around the world. As Jorgensen underscores, Phasing out the unnecessary hunt of a threatened species would send a strong signal of true stewardship of the environment, and it would constitute a strong starting point for building a solid identity in a meaningful future.

Lysander floated on a zodiac near the Svalbard shoreline just a few weeks before his 14th birthday. He had come to the same place when he was a child ten years ago. Spellbound by the ice, he reveled in the presence of a giant of being, the great icebear, a creature he had once molded into a clay figurine incarnating all the marvel and joy of childhood. There was a sense of returning to a place that had helped forge the human imagination during the Pleistocene, the roof of the world whose supreme sentinel was holding on to the last vestiges of its world.

Apolarbearmeandered among the fragmented ice, like a seemingly lost nomad searching for redemption on a scattered planet.

Time is running out for many species on Earth. The bloodlust that runs in our veins serves not our survival but our eventual defeat. As the eloquent writer and explorer of mans place in the universe Loren Eiseley warned, The need is not really for more brains, the need is now for a gentler, a more tolerant people than those who won for us against the ice, the tiger, thebear. The hand that hefted the axe, out of some blind allegiance to the past fondles the machine gun as lovingly. It is a habit man will have to break to survive, but the roots go very deep.

Legislative action worldwide andespecially in Canada should be implemented immediately so that shooting ofpolarbearsis considered a crime. The trade inpolarbearbody parts should be banned. Such trade should shame the foundation of our kind. Trophy hunting needs to be eliminated forever so that the monarch of the north continues to be one of the ultimate sentinels of life on Earth. Its future is slipping through its paws as we rummage through numbers and statistics. Let humanity have a change of heart for a being we will mourn like few others, if that clay figurine our son molded when he was 6 becomes the only thing left to remind us of what was. As for future of the ice on which thepolarbeardepends so very dearly, I leave the last words to Lysander, now 14, who astutely said, The melting ice is the hourglass that measures the remainder of our time on this Earth.

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Can we stop killing polar bears while they still roam the top of the world? - The Hill

Olaf is almost two months old. (Submitted by Diane Barber)

Contact: Vanessa Beeson

STARKVILLE, Miss.A Mississippi State University partnership with the Fort Worth Zoo has hatched the first of more than 30 metamorphosed toadlets produced through in vitro fertilization.

A Puerto Rican crested toad named Olaf, hatched at the Fort Worth Zoo this year, is what one might call a work of art. ART, or assisted reproductive technologies, developed by scientists in the universitys Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, helps amphibians like the Puerto Rican crested toad, considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The technologies include hormone therapies, sperm cryopreservation and in vitro fertilization. MSU also is home to the countrys only National Amphibian Genome Bank, a repository of cryopreserved sperm from approximately 10 of the worlds most threatened and endangered amphibian species.

Carrie Vance, assistant research professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology who co-leads the project, said Olaf is an example of how ART helps increase the genetic diversity and sustainability of populations of threatened amphibians.

Olaf represents the first time we used cryopreserved sperm from a wild Puerto Rican crested toad as a new genetic line to be combined with an egg from a captive female, said Vance, who also is a MAFES scientist at MSU. Whats more is that both of Olafs parents have since died of natural causes so Olaf is truly the last of this particular genetic line.

Vance pointed out that while cryopreserving sperm from wild males, researchers have been able to use hormone therapies to assist breeding. As opposed to other methods, this technique enables researchers to collect sperm without killing the animal, which Vance believes will result in a wider adoption of the practice.

Previously to introduce genetics from wild individuals into a captive population, the animals were brought into captivity, then paired, and often would never breed anyway. If the collection of sperm from testes macerates was needed, it would require the animal be euthanized, Vance said. This new method means we can collect the sperm and release the specimen back into the wild.

Vance said ART is one facet of a larger species survival plan, which includes steps such as habitat restoration, disease control and establishing an assurance colony in captivity.

ART helps when amphibians have difficulty breeding in captivity. Typically, amphibian breeding is cued by environmental factors such as day length, rainfall and temperature, which are things that can be difficult to control in a 10-gallon aquarium. When they dont breed, the genetic lines are lost, and a zoos entire assurance colony can collapse.

Vance said it comes down to overriding the environmental cues and synchronizing the timing of the actual breeding, noting that while it takes males only hours to generate sperm, it can take weeks for females to produce eggs.

The hormone therapy overrides the environmental factors to trigger the production of reproductive hormones, which cause sperm and egg release. Sperm cryopreservation holds the sperm in perpetuity until the eggs are ready for synchronization.

Vance has partnered with Andy Kouba, professor and head of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture in MSUs College of Forest Resources and scientist in the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, for more than 20 years developing innovative reproductive technologies for threatened and endangered species.

The researchers also have applied ART to the Mississippi gopher frog, considered one of the most endangered in the U.S. Their pioneering work resulted in thousands of Mississippi gopher frogs being produced by zoos around the country and reintroduced into their native habitat.

Many of the techniques we use on species like the Puerto Rican crested toad were developed using the Mississippi gopher frog, Kouba said. The Mississippi gopher frog was the first endangered species ever produced from frozen sperm. The offspring are still alive and have subsequently produced a second generation of offspring, considered another first of its kind.

Kouba said seeing the applied conservation in action and being able to reintroduce animals back into the wild is what excites him most about the work.

Globally, it is estimated that 30-40 percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction. In the U.S. that number is closer to 50 percent, Kouba said. Our assisted reproductive technologies have led to millions of tadpoles from threatened and endangered species being released into the wild across many species.

Kouba added that amphibians serve as indicator species for the health of their surrounding ecosystems.

They are the canary in the coal mine, Kouba said. Anything happening in the environment soaks through their permeable skin. Also, they have two life stages, an early aquatic stage and a terrestrial stage, which lets scientists know what is happening in two different environments. As an indicator species, it is important to understand why amphibian populations are disappearing and to try and help the populations recover.

In addition to the Puerto Rican crested toad and the Mississippi gopher frog, other species the team focuses on include the Boreal toad, Houston toad, Chiricahua leopard frog and various species of salamanders. Graduate students on the project include doctoral student Allison Julien of Scotts Valley, California; masters student Isabella Burger of Prattville, Alabama; and Kristen Counsell, a spring 2018 masters graduate of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Masters student Amanda Gillis of Fallston, Maryland, and research associate Emmet Guy of Oxford contribute to the labs salamander research.

Support for the Olaf project includes funding from Disneys Conservation Endowment Fund and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Longtime funding partner, the Institute of Museums and Library Services, supported the early development of this work and currently sponsors the labs salamander research. Morris Animal Foundation also has provided previous financial support.

For more on the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, visit http://www.mafes.msstate.edu. For more on the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, visit http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippis leading university, available online at http://www.msstate.edu.

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One-of-a-kind toad born through MSU pioneering technology that's saving threatened species - Mississippi State Newsroom

Scientists have discovered a gene linked to male infertility, which they hope could help to account for 50 percent of unexplained cases.

Variants of a gene called SYCP2 could be the reason why some men struggle to conceive, according to the authors of a study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. So far, they have pinpointed them in four men with fertility problems.

Back in 1991, a 28-year-old man who had been unable to conceive for two years and had a very low sperm count was referred to the authors of the study. The team assessed his chromosomes, and found he had what is known as a chromosomal rearrangement, where parts of the chromosome might be missing, duplicated, or moved around. This appeared to make the SYCP2 gene 20 times more active, they found.

Identifying this abnormality led the researchers to look at how the gene behaved in a lab using cells and yeast. By modeling the rearrangement in yeast, they found it appeared to trigger an issue linked with defective sperm production in mammals, they wrote in the study.

Next, they looked at whether infertile males had variants of this gene, working with scientists at the University of Mnster. Compared with the general population, disruptions to SYCP2 were more common in those with fertility problems, the investigators found.

Co-author Samantha Schilit, an expert in unexplained infertility at Harvard Medical School, commented in a statement that these chromosomal problems in infertile men are rarely followed up beyond reporting a higher risk for an issue, which can lead to recurrent miscarriages.

"This work shows that a chromosomal rearrangement may also disrupt or dysregulated genes important in fertility, and therefore should be considered."

Infertility is one of the most common problems among those aged between 20 to 45 years old, affecting between 10 to 15 percent of couples. Evidence suggests doctors are unable to diagnose the source of the problem in between 40 to 72 percent of men. Of those, between 30 to 50 percent of cases are estimated to be caused by genetics, the authors wrote. "Searching for genes involved in unexplained infertility is a rich endeavor," they said.

Co-author Cynthia Morton, a medical geneticist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, told Newsweek: "This study focuses our interest in chromosomal rearrangements that underlie infertility beyond what is typically presumedthat is, the infertility results from embryos that are chromosomally unbalanced and may lead to miscarriage."

Morton, whose laboratory has had a longstanding interest in structural rearrangements of human chromosomes that underlie clinical disorders, said: "It brings emphasis to the fact that structural rearrangements in chromosomes may contribute to infertility by dysregulating gene expression of genes with a role in gametogenesis," or the creation of sperm.

More work needs to be done to validate the role of SYCP2 male infertility. This would be strengthened by finding more males with genomic variants in SYCP2, she said. The team envisions SYCP2 one day being included in genetic screenings for males to identify the genetic basis of infertility.

"A diagnosis can be therapeutic in itself -- even if there isn't something that can be done to correct it. It ends the search for the underlying issue and opens the door for enrolling in clinical trials," said Morton. "And I believe there is good reason to be optimistic; we now have better tools for discovery and can begin on the path toward therapy."

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A Gene Linked to Male Infertility Has Been Discovered, and It May Account for 50 Percent of Unexplained Cases - Newsweek

One out of eight couples has trouble conceiving, with nearly a quarter of those cases caused by unexplained male infertility. For the past decade, research has linked that infertility to defective sperm that fail to evict proteins called histones from DNA during development. However, the mechanisms behind that eviction and where this is happening in the sperm DNA has remained both controversial and unclear.

Now, researchers atPenn Medicineshow, using newer genome-wide DNA sequencing tools, the precise genetic locations of those retained histones, as well as a key gene regulating it. The findings were published inDevelopmental Cell.

Taking it a step further, the researchers created a new mouse model with a mutated version of the gene,Gcn5, which allows investigators to closely track the defects in sperm from the early stages of sperm development through fertilization and on. This is an important step forward as it could lead to a better understanding of not only infertility in menand ways to potentially reverse itbut also the suspected epigenetic mutations being passed onto the embryo from males either naturally or through in vitro fertilization.

Epigenetics, the factors influencing an organisms genetics that are not encoded in the DNA, play a strong role in sperm and egg formation.

For men who have unexplained infertility, everything may look normal at the doctors: normal semen counts, normal motility. Yet they can still have problems conceiving, says first authorLacey J. Luense, a research associate in the lab of the study's senior author,Shelley L. Berger, the Daniel S. Och University Professor in the departments of Cell and Developmental Biology in the Perelman School of Medicine and Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, and director of the Penn Epigenetics Institute. One explanation for persistent problems is histones being in the wrong location, which may affect sperm and then early development. Now, we have a really good model to study what happens when you dont get rid of the histones appropriately in the sperm and what that may look like in the embryo.

Read more at Penn Medicine News.

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Uncovering a defective sperm epigenome that leads to male infertility - Penn: Office of University Communications

Say hello to SoCal's newest mountain lions, P-78 and P-79. (Courtesy, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area/Facebook)

Christmas has come early for Southern California wildlife enthusiasts in the form of two new mountain lions.

On Tuesday, Angela Beatriz Cholo, a ranger with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, introduced via Facebook P-78 and P-79 to greater L.A. and to wildlife officials' study of big cats in the region.

Officials found both cats within a day of each other. P-78, a "subadult male," was captured Dec. 11, in the Santa Monica Mountains. P-79, another young male, was spotted and captured in the backyard of a home on Dec. 12.

Both were outfitted with GPS collars and released. P-78 will roam the Santa Monica Mountains, and P-79 will roam the Santa Susana Mountains, according to the Facebook post.

As their designated numbers suggest, P-78 and P-79 are the 78th and 79th mountain lions to join the study overall. Last month, P-77 was captured and tagged in the Santa Monica Mountains. In June, officials captured P-75 in a mobile home park in Pacific Palisades, outfitted her with a tracking collar and released her into the Santa Monica Mountains.

Despite these additions, Southern California's puma population has suffered in recent decades due to habitat loss and inbreeding.

Three big cats were found dead this year. P-53, a 4-year-old female lion, and P-30, a 6-year-old male, had traces of rat poison in their bodies. P-61, a 4-year-old male, died after being hit by a car on the 405 in the Sepulveda Pass area. Researchers think he may have been running from an uncollared puma at the time.

Like her fellow big cats, P-77 has a lot to contend with. There are turf wars with other mountain lions. There's the risk of getting hit by a vehicle while trying to cross freeways, which limit mating opportunities and decrease the genetic diversity of the local mountain lion population. Then there's the risk of mange. Plus, these big cats have to contend with rat poison and other chemicals introduced into the food chain by humans, who are the worst.

Reporter Ryan Fonseca contributed to this story.

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LA Gets Early Christmas Gift In The Form Of 2 New Mountain Lions, P-78 And P-79 - LAist

BOTHELL, Wash. & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seattle Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq:SGEN) and Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., Astellas) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to PADCEV for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1/L1 inhibitor and a platinum-containing chemotherapy before (neoadjuvant) or after (adjuvant) surgery or in a locally advanced or metastatic setting. PADCEV is approved under the FDAs Accelerated Approval Program based on tumor response rate. Continued approval may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. PADCEV is the first FDA approved treatment in the U.S. for these patients. It is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that is directed against Nectin-4, a protein located on the surface of cells and highly expressed in bladder cancer.1,3

Metastatic urothelial cancer is an aggressive and devastating disease with limited treatment options, and the approval of PADCEV is a significant advance for these patients who previously had limited options after initial therapies failed, said Jonathan E. Rosenberg, M.D., Medical Oncologist, Chief, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The PADCEV clinical trial enrolled a range of patients whose cancer was difficult to treat, including those whose disease had spread to the liver.

The FDA approval of PADCEV is welcome news for patients with bladder cancer, said Andrea Maddox-Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network. Though new medicines for bladder cancer have been approved in recent years, most people living with advanced stages of this disease face a difficult journey with few treatment options.

This approval underscores our commitment to develop novel medicines that address unmet patient needs, and were grateful to the patients and physicians whose participation led to this outcome, said Andrew Krivoshik, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Oncology Therapeutic Area Head, Astellas.

PADCEV is the first antibody-drug conjugate approved for patients facing this aggressive disease, and it is the culmination of years of innovative work on this technology, said Roger Dansey, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Seattle Genetics.

PADCEV was evaluated in the pivotal trial EV-201, a single-arm phase 2 multi-center trial that enrolled 125 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who received prior treatment with a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor and a platinum-based chemotherapy.1 In the study, the primary endpoint of confirmed objective response rate (ORR) was 44 percent per blinded independent central review (55/125; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 35.1, 53.2). Among patients treated with the single agent PADCEV, 12 percent (15/125) experienced a complete response, meaning no cancer could be detected at the time of assessment, and 32 percent (40/125) experienced a partial response, meaning a decrease in tumor size or extent of cancer in the body. The median duration of response (DoR), a secondary endpoint, was 7.6 months (95% CI: 6.3, not estimable [NE]). The most common serious adverse reactions (3%) were urinary tract infection (6%), cellulitis (5%), febrile neutropenia (4%), diarrhea (4%), sepsis (3%), acute kidney injury (3%), dyspnea (3%), and rash (3%). The most common adverse reaction leading to discontinuation was peripheral neuropathy (6%). The most common adverse reactions (20%) were fatigue (56%), peripheral neuropathy (56%), decreased appetite (52%), rash (52%), alopecia (50%), nausea (45%), dysgeusia (42%), diarrhea (42%), dry eye (40%), pruritus (26%) and dry skin (26%). The most common Grade 3 adverse reactions (5%) were rash (13%), diarrhea (6%) and fatigue (6%).

The FDA's Accelerated Approval Program allows approval of a medicine based on a surrogate endpoint if the medicine fills an unmet medical need for a serious condition. A global, randomized phase 3 confirmatory clinical trial (EV-301) is underway and is also intended to support global registrations.

About PADCEV

PADCEV is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that is directed against Nectin-4, a protein located on the surface of cells and highly expressed in bladder cancer.1,2 Nonclinical data suggest the anticancer activity of PADCEV is due to its binding to Nectin-4 expressing cells followed by the internalization and release of the anti-tumor agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) into the cell, which result in the cell not reproducing (cell cycle arrest) and in programmed cell death (apoptosis). PADCEV is co-developed by Astellas and Seattle Genetics.

PADCEV Support Solutions offers access and reimbursement support to help patients access PADCEV. For more information, go to PADCEV Support Solutions at PADCEVSupportSolutions.com.

About Bladder and Urothelial Cancer

Approximately 80,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with bladder cancer this year.4 Urothelial cancer accounts for 90 percent of all bladder cancers and can also be found in the renal pelvis, ureter and urethra.5

Important Safety Information

Warnings and Precautions

Adverse Reactions

Serious adverse reactions occurred in 46% of patients treated with PADCEV. The most common serious adverse reactions (3%) were urinary tract infection (6%), cellulitis (5%), febrile neutropenia (4%), diarrhea (4%), sepsis (3%), acute kidney injury (3%), dyspnea (3%), and rash (3%). Fatal adverse reactions occurred in 3.2% of patients, including acute respiratory failure, aspiration pneumonia, cardiac disorder, and sepsis (each 0.8%).

Adverse reactions leading to discontinuation occurred in 16% of patients; the most common adverse reaction leading to discontinuation was peripheral neuropathy (6%). Adverse reactions leading to dose interruption occurred in 64% of patients; the most common adverse reactions leading to dose interruption were peripheral neuropathy (18%), rash (9%) and fatigue (6%). Adverse reactions leading to dose reduction occurred in 34% of patients; the most common adverse reactions leading to dose reduction were peripheral neuropathy (12%), rash (6%) and fatigue (4%).

The most common adverse reactions (20%) were fatigue (56%), peripheral neuropathy (56%), decreased appetite (52%), rash (52%), alopecia (50%), nausea (45%), dysgeusia (42%), diarrhea (42%), dry eye (40%), pruritus (26%) and dry skin (26%). The most common Grade 3 adverse reactions (5%) were rash (13%), diarrhea (6%) and fatigue (6%).

Lab Abnormalities

In one clinical trial, Grade 3-4 laboratory abnormalities reported in 5% were: lymphocytes decreased, hemoglobin decreased, phosphate decreased, lipase increased, sodium decreased, glucose increased, urate increased, neutrophils decreased.

Drug Interactions

Specific Populations

For more information, please see the full Prescribing Information for PADCEV here.

About Seattle Genetics

Seattle Genetics, Inc. is an emerging multi-product, global biotechnology company that develops and commercializes transformative therapies targeting cancer to make a meaningful difference in peoples lives. The company is headquartered in Bothell, Washington, and has a European office in Switzerland. For more information on our robust pipeline, visit http://www.seattlegenetics.com and follow @SeattleGenetics on Twitter.

About Astellas

Astellas Pharma Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan, is a company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. For more information, please visit our website at https://www.astellas.com/en.

About the Seattle Genetics and Astellas Collaboration

Seattle Genetics and Astellas are co-developing PADCEV (enfortumab vedotin) under a collaboration that was entered into in 2007 and expanded in 2009. Under the collaboration, the companies are sharing costs and profits on a 50:50 basis worldwide.

Seattle Genetics Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release are forward looking, such as those, among others, relating to the continued FDA approval of PADCEV (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv) for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received a PD-1/L1 inhibitor, and a platinum-containing chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant/adjuvant, locally advanced or metastatic setting; the conduct of an ongoing randomized phase 3 confirmatory clinical trial (EV-301) intended to verify the clinical benefit of PADCEV and support global registrations; and the therapeutic potential of PADCEV including its efficacy, safety and therapeutic uses. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such a difference include the possibility that EV-301 and subsequent clinical trials may fail to establish sufficient efficacy; that adverse events or safety signals may occur; that utilization and adoption of PADCEV by prescribing physicians may be limited by the availability and extent of reimbursement or other factors; and that adverse regulatory actions may occur. More information about the risks and uncertainties faced by Seattle Genetics is contained under the caption Risk Factors included in the companys Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Seattle Genetics disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Astellas Cautionary Notes

In this press release, statements made with respect to current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs and other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements about the future performance of Astellas. These statements are based on managements current assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (i) changes in general economic conditions and in laws and regulations, relating to pharmaceutical markets, (ii) currency exchange rate fluctuations, (iii) delays in new product launches, (iv) the inability of Astellas to market existing and new products effectively, (v) the inability of Astellas to continue to effectively research and develop products accepted by customers in highly competitive markets, and (vi) infringements of Astellas intellectual property rights by third parties.

Information about pharmaceutical products (including products currently in development), which is included in this press release is not intended to constitute an advertisement or medical advice.

1 PADCEV [package insert]. Northbrook, IL: Astellas, Inc.2 Rosenberg JE, ODonnell PH, Balar AV, et al. Pivotal Trial of Enfortumab Vedotin in Urothelial Carcinoma After Platinum and Anti-Programmed Death 1/Programmed Death Ligand 1 Therapy. J Clin Oncol 2019;37(29):2592-600.3 Challita-Eid P, Satpayev D, Yang P, et al. Enfortumab Vedotin Antibody-Drug Conjugate Targeting Nectin-4 Is a Highly Potent Therapeutic Agent in Multiple Preclinical Cancer Models. Cancer Res 2016;76(10):3003-13.4 American Society of Clinical Oncology. Bladder cancer: introduction (10-2017). https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/bladdercancer/introduction. Accessed 05-09-2019.5 National Cancer Institute. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. Cancer stat facts: bladder cancer. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/urinb.html. Accessed 05-01-2019.

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FDA Grants Accelerated Approval to Astellas' and Seattle Genetics' PADCEV (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv) for People with Locally Advanced or Metastatic...

As a new mother, she didnt know to look for blue-tinged lips. She could just tell her babys color was off. On a chest X-ray, the clean, white-against-dark curves of his ribs were obscured, clouded by fluid. Pneumonia. That tipped Ray Ballards physicians off: He had a form of severe combined immunodeficiency SCID, for short a genetic mutation that hampered the growth of crucial immune cells, leaving him utterly vulnerable to infection.

The best fix was a transplant of his mothers bone marrow. The attitude was that in three to six months, you should be able to go back to normal life, recalled his mom, Barb Ballard.

That was true at least sort of. He got two more booster transplants before he hit 10. An antibiotic left him with hearing loss, and a virus with digestive tract damage. His lack of B cells meant he needed regular injections of other peoples antibodies, and his T cell counts were never ideal. But he was healthy enough to go to public school, to move through the hallways high-fiving half the guys, to slowly inhale and take aim during rifle team practice.

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His T cells had to be working well enough that he wasnt coming down with everything that walked into the classroom, Ballard said.

Then, when Ray was around 18, his immunity began to wane. For him, it came in the form of a norovirus he couldnt shake. For others with the same rare disease, it appears as pneumonia or gastrointestinal trouble or an unexpected T cell decline. Over the last 10 years, the trend has become increasingly clear: The bone marrow transplants that kept certain babies with SCID alive sometimes stop working after years or decades of providing fairly reliable immune defenses.

Now, to patient advocates, this has become an urgent lesson in the language people use to talk about treatment and not just for SCID. They see their communitys experience as a cautionary tale for anyone developing or receiving a therapy thats marketed as potentially curative.

Theres an expectation and a hope: When they hear about bone marrow transplants, it sounds like a lifetime deal, a forever fix, said John Boyle, president and CEO of the Immune Deficiency Foundation. Weve discovered, as a result of this issue, that bone marrow transplant ended up not being the forever fix we thought it was.

Experts have known for years that some of these transplants wouldnt provide full immune protection over the course of a SCID patients entire life. They say clinicians should have avoided the word cure. But even scientific papers that hinted at such complications called the treatment curative. Just this year, an Immune Deficiency Foundation employee was given the unenviable task of sifting through the organizations thousands of pages of online material, scrubbing out every cure that popped up. It was only there a handful of times sometimes in quotes from clinicians, Boyle said but it was there and it needed to be removed.

The language patients hear can sometimes even change their outcomes. Weve heard of cases where, years later, they realized their immune system isnt as healthy as they thought, but nobody was tracking that because they hadnt maintained a relationship with the physician, or the physician didnt maintain a relationship with them, explained Ballard. The word cure, it gives them a false sense of security.

At a time when seemingly every biotech is promoting the idea of one-and-done therapies and setting prices accordingly these advocates hope companies, too, will be more wary. One of the things Im trying to make them very aware of is the need for lifelong follow-up, said Heather Smith, who runs the SCID Angels for Life foundation. For her, its personal: This summer, her son took part in a clinical trial for a gene therapy in the hope that it would provide the immune protection that his decades-old bone marrow transplant no longer could. My son will be followed for 15 years, she said. But what about after that?

Part of the issue with bone marrow transplants from one person to another is the natural genetic variation between us, particularly in the proteins that help our bodies distinguish its own cells from foreign ones. Receiving cells from someone whose proteins dont match yours could cause a civil war within you. Thats why bone marrow transplants began back in the 1950s with identical twins: Sharing those genes meant increasing the likelihood of harmony between the body and the graft.

But the vast majority of people dont have a protein-matched sibling, let alone an identical twin. So researchers set about figuring out how to transplant bone marrow from a parent to a child in spite of only sharing half of their genes and from a matched unrelated donor to a stranger. Like cooks intent on refining recipes to their taste, the doctors who adapted the technique for SCID often did so slightly differently from one another. Over the past 35 years, those idiosyncrasies have hardened into habits. Right now, everybody transplants their patients their way, said Dr. Sung-Yun Pai, an immune deficiency researcher and co-director of the gene therapy program at Boston Childrens Hospital.

Perhaps the most vociferous controversy has been about whether to use chemotherapy to wipe out the existing stem cells within a recipients bone marrow to make room for the donors. The doctors who do use chemo before a transplant might prescribe different doses; others forego it entirely.

The arguments were sound on both sides. On the one hand, the toxic drugs could clean out the niches within our bone and increase the chances that the donors cells take root. On the other, these chemicals could hamper growth, brain development, and fertility, could make an infant who was already sick even sicker, and could increase the likelihood of certain cancers later in life. Its like being exposed to a bunch of X-rays and sunlight, or other DNA-damaging agents, Pai explained.

Because SCID is so rare the most common subtype is thought to occur in 1 out of every 50,000 to 100,000 newborns and because every hospital was doing transplants slightly differently, it was hard for physicians to systematically study what was working best. But even early on, they could tell that some of the infants whod gotten no chemo were developing incomplete immune systems. They didnt produce their own B cells, for instance, and so needed regular injections of antibodies collected from other peoples blood.

In healthy infants, stem cells migrate from the crevices of the skeleton to an organ in the chest called the thymus, where theyre trained to become T cells. In these infants, the T cell counts grew after transplant but it wasnt necessarily because the sludge was securely taking hold in the niches of their bones. Rather, immunologists say, the donors progenitor cells were only transient. Some were able to head toward the thymus for schooling. Some graduated and started fighting off infections. But as those populations were depleted with age, there werent robust reserves of stem cells in the bone marrow that could arrive to produce more. To Pai, its like trying to fill a kindergarten class in a neighborhood where no ones having babies.

You and I continue to have a slow trickle of new T cells coming out, said Dr. Harry Malech, a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health, who sits on the board of a gene therapy company, Orchard Therapeutics (ORTX), but does not receive any financial compensation. Instead of a torrent becoming slower, in these patients it goes from a trickle to practically nothing.

Thats why immunity starts to wane in kids like Ray Ballard. To many immunologists, it isnt a surprise, though they still arent sure why chemo-less transplants last longer for some of these kids than others. They can also understand how some families and clinicians might have viewed this treatment as a lifetime fix.

As Malech put it, If I said to you, Your child, instead of dying in infancy, will likely get to adulthood, go to school, have a normal life, you might think the word cure in your mind.

Even for parents who knew the protection might not last forever, the failure of a long-ago bone marrow transplant puts them in a bind. If they do nothing, their child will once again be vulnerable to any passing infection, which could prove fatal. They can try another round of the same procedure, though booster transplants sometimes come with added complications. Or they can try getting their child into a research trial for gene therapy, which comes with the risks of any experimental treatment.

Some feel an irrational guilt when the bone marrow they donated to their child stops functioning. Its your cells, and if it doesnt work, you failed them, said Ballard, who lives in Clifton, Va., about a 40-minute drive from Washington, D.C. Her son Ray had already had three transplants as a child. When his immune system started to fail again in early adulthood, gene therapy at the NIH seemed like the only reasonable choice.

That would involve researchers removing cells from his bone marrow, using an engineered virus as a kind of molecular syringe to slip in a healthy copy of the gene in which he had a defect, and then threading these corrected cells back into his veins a bone marrow transplant to himself. But preparing a virus can be tricky, and there were delays.

Meanwhile, Rays condition was getting worse. His norovirus was preventing him from absorbing much nutrition, and as Ballard put it, his bone structure was just crumbling at that point. His doctors told her he had the skeleton of an 85-year-old.

He died this past February, at 25 years old. One friend got his birth and death dates tattooed onto her shoulder. Another painted a portrait of him for Ballard, in which his arms are crossed, his lips pressed together in a wry smile.

At Boston Childrens, Pai is now helping to lead a randomized trial to better understand what dose of chemo works best for SCID patients receiving transplants. Over the last decade or so, she, Malech, and many other clinicians have also teamed up to track the long-term results of immune deficient patients whove received someone elses bone marrow.

Pai is hopeful that knowing about the phenomenon of waning immunity will give gene therapies a better shot at becoming a durable fix. They probably have a better chance of achieving a one-time, lifelong cure, but its never wrong to be humble, she said. Only after decades more and hundreds or thousands of patients will we know for sure.

Patient advocates point out that even then, these patients will still have the capacity of passing on their SCID-causing gene to future generations, and so the word cure is overly optimistic. Thats why I like the word remission, said Smith. That still gives you the hope. If you were given a cancer diagnosis, you wouldnt go through treatment and then just forget about it for the rest of your life.

As Boyle put it, Weve seen the promise and then weve seen the reality. Everyone who is looking at a transformational therapy should be optimistic, but also realistic, and not assume that this is truly one and done. (Boyles foundation has received financial support from Orchard Therapeutics, which is developing a gene therapy for a form of SCID.)

To Amy Saada, of South Windsor, Conn., that isnt theoretical. Her son Adam is now 12, and the immunity from the bone marrow transplant he got as a baby is wearing off. He isnt yet sick, but his parents know they need to decide between gene therapy or another transplant soon. She has a very clear memory of how long and uncertain the recovery from treatment felt. In some ways, she wishes she didnt know quite as much as she does; that way, she would feel less trepidation about what lies ahead.

Your heart kind of sinks, she said. Youve already been through it once, and it was hell. Its harder the second time.

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Waning treatment is a warning for all 'one-and-done' therapies - STAT

The last few decades have seen revolutionary developments in the field of Assisted Reproduction. IVF is over 40 years old. It took hundreds of experiments on animal and human eggs and sperm before Louise Brown was born in Oldham, the UK in 1978. Scientific advancement calls for a healthy interaction of colleagues, scientific bodies and the media.

After much discourse, IVF received scientific and societal acceptance ultimately resulting in the Nobel Prize for Bob Edwards in Medicine or Physiology in 2010 for work leading to the birth of Louise Brown. However, scientific ignorance can thwart major discoveries. Dr Subash Mukhopadhyay created Indias first and the worlds second test-tube baby. Durga was born just 67 days after Louise Brown. The scientific climate did not allow Dr Mukhopadhyay his claim to fame. This resulted in a crushing halt to the spread of ART in India for almost a decade.

The earlier decades saw a plateau in success rates with IVF techniques. Several factors have made IVF a household name making it the standard of care for many infertile conditions.

The introduction of the hormones like LH (Luteinizing Hormone) & FSH (Follicle-stimulating Hormone) to bring about the formation of multiple eggs was a major step to improving success, as there were more eggs and embryos to choose from. Besides, efforts were made to better understand the microenvironment of the embryo. This resulted in nutrient medium satisfying the need for embryos at various stages of development thereby enhancing pregnancy rates.

A major breakthrough occurred for males with very low or no sperm counts, with the introduction of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection in 1992 by Dr Palermo & Dr Andre van Steirtegheim in Brussels. This caused a major paradigm shift in treating male infertility. In 1994, our team created Luv Singh the first ICSI baby in South-East Asia. The technique gave a major boost to the success of Assisted Reproduction in India.

The early 90s saw an interest in looking at genetic disorders in couples who were otherwise fertile. Handyside & his group described pregnancies after biopsy of human preimplantation embryos in cases of sex-linked diseases. Techniques were refined over the years so that instead of only 5 chromosomes being checked, today we have the ability not only to check for all 46 chromosomes but to also detect minor variations in the structure and placement of chromosomes by powerful platforms like Next Generation Sequencing.

The technique of Pre Implantation Genetic Testing (PGT) also applies to couples with inheritable mutations for genetic diseases like Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Disease, Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy, and Huntingtons Chorea. This technology has been a boon for couples who would otherwise be at risk of having a genetically compromised baby.

There has been a constant endeavour to enhance pregnancy rates for couples facing fertility issues. The endometrium i.e. the inner lining of the uterus may sometimes be ineffective in helping the process of implantation. We devised a co-culture technique called Cumulus Aided Transfer (CAT) for the first time in the world, in which cells surrounding the oocyte (Cumulus Cells), are used as a feeder layer on which the embryos can grow. This has resulted in better pregnancy chances.

Immunological competence and its vagaries are now better understood. Modulating the womans immune system can prevent the block from implantation.

Today we are witnessing diminishing fertility potential globally due to the presence of different types of pollution affecting the ovaries and testes, thus decreasing egg and sperm counts prematurely. Our team has successfully carried out Ovarian Rejuvenation by instilling Platelet Rich Plasma in the ovaries of such women.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHealthworld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

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Better Success Rates of IVF Treatments - Health Files by Dr Firuza R. Parikh - ETHealthworld.com