Your waistline has been gradually expanding through the years. You feel sluggish and tired, sometimes even on waking up. What could be the problem? A slow metabolism could be the culprit. But while gaining weight and feeling fatigued could be signs of slow metabolism, its important to know that medically induced slow metabolism is quite rare. In most cases, slow metabolism is caused by poor diet, lack of sleep, or lack of physical exercise.What is metabolism?Simply put, metabolism is how your body turns calories into energy. When someone says they have a slow metabolism, they mean that their body holds on to calories, causing unwanted weight gain. Often, when people talk about metabolism, theyre referring to their metabolic rate -- which is the number of calories your body burns in a period of time.People have different metabolic rates depending on factors such as sex, genetics, age, diet and physical activity. You can get a resting metabolic rate (RMR) test at a specialised clinic to accurately determine your metabolic rate.Here are some hidden medical reasons for slow metabolism:1. You have too much cortisol

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Why you are gaining weight despite doing all the right things - The Standard

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

By Natalie Parletta

A new software tool will speed up the tracking of locations where African elephant tusks have been poached for ivory.

The freely available interactive tool, Loxodonta Localiser, draws from a comprehensive database of elephant DNA and geographical locations put together by researchers at the University of Illinois, US.

Senior researcher Alfred Roca has been working on elephant genetics for 22 years and saw an opportunity to develop a straightforward method to quickly deduce the source of confiscated ivory and help stop poaching.

This is an increasingly serious issue; the weight of illegally poached ivory tripled from 2007 to 2016, according to estimates by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Because of this, more African elephants die from poaching than from natural causes: forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) populations have dwindled by more than 60% and savanna elephants (L. africana) by a third.

Current methods to infer the source populations of confiscated tusks use nuclear genetic markers. This can help identify individual elephants, but establishing their geographic origin is a complex task requiring more genetic data and statistical modelling, according to Roca.

His team drew on mitochondrial DNA which can give insights to their location, because it is only passed from mums to their offspring and the females dont disperse.

The females kick the males out of the herd at puberty and the males have to go out on their own, Roca explains. Females stay with the herd and that herd tends to stay in certain localities.

Sourcing published scientific studies, Rocas student, Kai Zhao, combined all of the relevant mitochondrial sequences for African elephants, verified by his technician Cory Green.

The region of overlap across the major studies was 316 base pairs of DNA, and this information is what is stored in the database, says Roca. It currently includes sequences for more than 1900 elephants from 24 countries.

To use the database, forensic laboratories can generate sequences from ivory and enter them as a query on the home page of the software. This will generate a map and details of where the sequence has been reported previously in African elephants.

The researchers tested it with three confiscated batches of ivory, two from Malaysia and one from Hong Kong. Their results suggested the elephants were being killed in the Tridom region of west-central Africa.

This is the largest surviving population of the African forest elephant, says Roca, which is a distinct and more highly endangered species from the African savanna elephant, and it is being targeted by poachers.

Importantly, the Malaysian co-authors were able to extract DNA from the ivory, amplify and sequence it and source its location within a week of obtaining the tusk samples. The interactive tool itself only takes a few seconds to generate results.

This simpler and quicker approach will enable scientists to extract and sequence DNA locally from any confiscated tusks and add their results to the database.

Local laboratories will be able to do their own forensic analysis without relying on shipment of elephant or ivory samples outside their own countries, which Roca notes can be complicated in terms of permits and logistics.

He hopes this method will add to the multiple approaches necessary to reduce supply and demand of ivory and put an end to poaching and trafficking.

The study is published in the Journal of Heredity.

Read more here:
Tracing poached ivory to the source - Cosmos

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Infertility affects about 10%of women ages 15-44 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That's 6.1 million people. With infertiliy affecting so many, its important to understand what it is and how its treated.

Dr. Zaraq Khan is a gynecologist at the Mayo Clinic. He joined us on Take Care to discuss the basics of infertility and what that means for couples going through it.

Classically, infertility is defined as a couple attempting to achieve pregnancy and not having success for about 12 months for women who are 35 years or less, Khan said. And for women 35 and older, its after six months of trying. Waiting even six months, though, can be tortuous for many couples, so Khan recommends checking with an infertility clinic after two to three months of no success.

Khan said that, thankfully, the dogma around infertility is changing: the World Health Organization now classifies it as a disease, and it can be treated.

More and more, were talking about infertility as being a disease and a disease that impacts quality of life, he said. And in my opinion, I think a couple needs to seek fertility evaluation anytime they feel like theyre not getting to their goals.

Khan said what is often overlooked is the couple perspective of infertility.

I feel like we should be talking about couples and not women, he said. We tend to forget about the men in the equation quite a bit.

Khan said that about 20% of infertility cases he sees are a result of male infertility, but social norms still place the blame on the woman.

Infertility is a couples medical problem, though it becomes a womans social burden to bear, he said.

With both parties factored in, Khan said about 15% of couples will have some sort of trouble in achieving a pregnancy. But that number is also influenced by age.

"We need to start talking about the importance of infertility because we're not only creating awareness; we're actually helping these couples that feel like they're on an isolated island."

Age largely determines a womans ovarian reserve, meaning the number of eggs in her body at the time of birth. That is a finite number, so that does present a bit of a time clock for optimal fertility conditions, Khan said.

We have this limited amount of time that we can then utilize to our advantage, but that decline in ovarian age, unfortunately, doesnt go hand in hand with advancement of chronologic age, he said.

That doesnt mean that nothing can be done about it, Khan said.

We cannot change parameters of ovarian reserve, but we definitely want to check for them to make sure that the person has an adequate amount of egg supply, Khan said.

Age 35 is that line in the sand, Khan said, that is generally seen as the average age at which women are affected by ovarian age. This increases by 38 and excessively after the age of 40, Khan said.

Over the past few decades, the rate of infertility has remained largely unchanged, at around 10 to 15% worldwide, Khan said. And in those cases, there are some typical causes, like low ovarian reserve and issues with sperm and semen.

Ovarian reserve issues are typically genetic, as many infertility causes are, Khan said. This is why its important to look into family history and discuss it with medical professionals.

Genetic history and a family history is exceedingly important from a couple that we see at their first intake, Khan said. There are definitely certain genetic diseases that can predispose a person or an individual to infertility.

Some of the common genetic diseases that impact infertility are chromosomal abnormalities, Khan said.

Getting a holistic family history as well as an infertility history of the family is very important, and then, based on a case-by-case basis, we can make those decisions of whether that couple would warrant or benefit by seeing a geneticist, he said.

There are other tell-tale things to look for, Khan said, which is why he and others like making sure the uterus is anatomically normal and doesnt have any abnormalities and that the female has patent fallopian tubes to carry the egg.

Khan is sensitive to the fact that these conversations arent common in families, so he knows it can be a hard topic to discuss.

The area of medicine that we work in not necessarily is a common speaking point amongst friends or social circles, so I do agree that are dealing with subjects that are very, very personal, and I think thats why having a very honest conversation and a good report with your patients is going to help, Khan said.

Unfortunately, these issues are not often talked about, which Khan said is leading to ignorance, misinformation and a lack of understanding all around.

If they dont hear that other people have been through something impactful or life-altering like infertility treatment, that feeling of isolation kicks in, and I feel like that in itself is a big blow for the morale with couples that are dealing with infertility, Khan said.

The solution? We need to discuss infertility more often, Khan said.

We need to start talking more about these issues, he said. We need to start talking about pregnancy loss. We need to start talking about the importance of infertility because were not only creating awareness; were actually helping these couples that feel like theyre on an isolated island.

Though Khan encourages struggling couples visit an infertility clinic when theyre not finding success, he cautions that there might not always be a clear explanation.

We would love to say that we can answer all questions, but, unfortunately, we -- meaning medical science -- hasnt advanced enough where we are able to specifically answer each question, he said.

About 1 in 5 patients that Khan and others see in his clinic dont have any obvious reason for infertility, which he calls unexplained infertility. However, even if the reason is unclear, the infertility is still treatable, Khan assured.

And fortunately for couples going through fertility, there are advancements that will help make that treatment easier coming in just a couple decades, Khan estimated. He said hes excited mostly about advancements to methods used to select embryos for transfer.

Most of that selection is currently done by grading embryos based on visual observation, but that may soon change.

What I think were going to start seeing in the next decade or two decades is the use of artificial intelligence that will be able to tell us which embryo would be the best one to transfer, Khan said.

Khan and other researchers are studying how embryos are divided, and Khan said that soon, bioinformatic software and articial intelligence can take that data and decide algorithms and devise different ways of deciding on its own which embryos will be destined for a pregnancy.

I think thats something very, very exciting that is going to be upcoming, he said.

Khan said he also projects future research that will help decrease false positives in genetic testing of embryos.

Read more from the original source:
Infertility: What you need to know - WRVO Public Media

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Have you played any pranks on certain teammates?

Here? I didnt do too many pranks here. I just do small jokes. I feel like in our D-line group, we like to make fun of each other so I guess just doing that, giving each other a hard time. But we all laugh. Its no hard feelings, everyone knows were playing around.

It sounds like you guys are a little family on the D-line.

What about your family at home? How many brothers and sisters do you have?

I only have one brother and one sister.

When did football start for you? Do they play sports, too?

I followed my brother into football. He played first. My mom only let him play football. I was the youngest so I didnt really have that freedom. She was too scared to let me play. Then when

I did play, I was too big to play in my class. So I was fifth grade playing with the eighth graders and high schoolers. But I didnt play though because everyone was older than me and I hadnt developed and matured and they had been playing for a while. I didnt really understand it like they did so I didnt play much. I did that for two years and then middle school, I stopped playing pop warner. Just went to school. I got into basketball because I was taller than everybody. Thats what I played. I didnt really get big until after high school. The closest thing I got to football was flag football in middle school. That was fun. They were letting me play tight end and running back.

Do you have any of that in your background because I feel like youre so agile.

I feel like part of it is genetics. My moms side, all of her family are into sports. They all play rugby. My dad played soccer, so he was the quick feet guy. But then at a young age, I started to play tennis. My first sport was tennis.

Ive heard that! Ive heard people say listen, if you want your kid to be a good athlete, start them in tennis.

Thats what it was. I started off in tennis and I played for eight years.

Yeah, it was a program where we grew up in our neighborhood. Our parents were working nonstop so it was an afterschool program. They did tutoring. You go over there and theyd give you tutoring, theyll feed you and then you get to play tennis. For young kids, you just go out there and they teach you the fundamentals. As you grow older, you start competing against each other and then in the summertime you start competing in tournaments. Some were better than others.

I was all right. I was good, I was good. But I never really took it serious because I knew I wasnt going to go far in tennis. I knew it was just a temporary thing because my parents had to work so I knew I had to be there. But now I look back at it and it was really helpful because it helps a lot with agility, hand-eye coordination, acceleration, being explosive. Especially playing singles. Doubles not as much but when youre playing singles, you have the whole court to run around and hit the ball, then they hit the ball back and you have to hit it back.

Do you still pick up a tennis racket every now and again?

I havent in a while but I feel like playing it for eight years, its just like riding a bike for me now.

So what else do you do for fun then away from the field? Whats your happy place?

I feel like my happy place is just being on the water or just being with friends and family. Since weve been back, I feel like its been really cool just hanging out with the D-line. When we have time off, we just all link up and have a good time.

What do you guys do when you hang out?

We do a lot of stuff. Weve picked up a lot of hobbies.

The main hobby were into right now is fishing.

Everyone in Florida fishes!

We fish. Youll see theres bumps all over my arm because we went to this place, I think its called Upper Tampa Bay Park and they have these canoes you can rent out. We just took our fishing poles on there. And you couldnt see these mosquitos, that was the thing. Beau told us that theyre called this what Beau said dont quote me, this is Beau. He said those mosquitos are called cant see em.

Thats what theyre called. Im telling you. You cant see them, so theyre called cant see ems.

How different is Florida then? Because you grew up in California.

Shoot. The humidity and the heat. Thats the biggest thing. I grew up in Northern California so it wasnt as sunny. If you go to California for weather, you go to San Diego or LA. Everyone comes to Northern California to network. Everything is in the Bay Area.

Are you all Yay Area as far as music goes?

Thats what I grew up on. E-40, Mac Dre, who else? Theres a lot of them. Theres an up and coming artists, Kamaiya, Keak Da Sneak. The Governor. You heard The Governor?

Damnnn. Theres an up and coming dude named Stunna June. Hes a Tongan guy. Hes representing for the culture. Theres a lot of them. Theres Cookie Money. BRBE. Youve probably heard of them.

Its this whole microcosm of rap. Its its own little world.

Tupac said it the best. The Bay Area got their own little style. We have our own little style of music. Its different. Thats the biggest thing. I feel like people come to the Bay Area to network. People come to the Bay Area to get put on game with their business or whatever theyre seeking. Whatever theyre looking for, its in the Bay Area. Thats where its at. People dont come to the Bay Area for weather. Its probably raining over there right now to be honest. Its very similar to Seattle, because thats where I went to college. Theres similarities but Seattle, it doesnt rain as much. It sprinkles. Its beautiful in Seattle.

You guys and Autzen (in Oregon) were the toughest places to play. And Pullman, that was a tough place to play for our guys - I went to Arizona State.

U-Dub is top of the line of the Pac-12. Were on the water. People come sail gate. How many stadiums can you say that you went to and were sailgating? They say U-Dub is the best setting in college football

Original post:
Behind the Buccaneers: Vita Vea - Buccaneers.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Novem.. I mean Mo'Vember is here. I generally already look like a 12-year-old, I'm not very tall, and lack the natural ability to grow good looking facial hair (thanks genetics). So instead I am rocking a rediculous looking mustache, not for the stares, or because I am thinking of becoming a Freddy Mercury impersonator. I'm wearing it to bring about awareness of suicide awareness and men's mental health.

I carved what I have of facial hair into this very same mustache during the very brief Twins playoff run (remember that?) in honor of Game 2's starter, and former 5 star Uber driver Randy Dobnak. My wife absolutely hates it. She has already threatened me with shaving it off while I sleep. My brother teases me with not allowing his kids to see me while I am in this state. However I'm not doing this for them, well I am, especially my brother 3 kids under the age of 5, but it is all about the awareness.

Minnpost.comhas a great statistic about men's mental health and suicide awareness. "The suicide mortality rate for women in Minnesota is about 5.4 per 100,000 below the national rate of 6.1 per 100.000. The suicide mortality rate for men in Minnesota is on par with the national rate, at 22.4 per 100,000 residents."

I was aJunior in high school when I experienced the effects of suicide. A former wrestling teammate, who had graduated the year before, was at college when he took his own life over the holiday break. It was a moment in my life that I still remember.

The National Center for Health Statistics says nearly 1 in 10menexperience depression and anxiety: According to a poll of 21,000American menby researchers at the National Center forHealth Statistics(NCHS), nearly one in tenmenreported experiencing some form of depression or anxiety, but less than half sought treatment.

It's ok to talk to someone about your feelings. Whether that person is a professional, or you've got a good friend that you can talk to when you just need to.

This November I want you to make the decision to start to share those feelings if you are experiencing them. Have a conversation about mental health with your dad or your kids. Let them know that it is ok to share how you are feeling.

If you feel like it, I am looking to raise funds this November that goes towards mental health and suicide awareness. You can do that here.

Original post:
My Wife Hates It, The Mustache Is A Reminder For Mental Health - kdhlradio.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Cycling is in your blood. Its passed on from father to son. And if its in you, you can fight it all you want, you cant escape it.

But if theres one thing Ive learned from my dad, its fighting. Fighting against everything and everyone. Especially against yourself.

These are the opening lines of Kenneth Merckens The Racer, a film about his own experiences of the murky world of doping in professional cycling.

Mercken was an up and coming prospect, winning a national amateur championship in his homeland of Belgium in 2000. On his way to becoming pro, helped along by performance enhancing drugs, the now 43-year-old turned his back on the sport and instead enrolled at film school, graduating in 2011.

This year hes released an autobiographical film about his career. The central conflict of The Racer isnt between the young Belgian rider and the performance enhancing drugs, at the turn of the millenium that was par for the course. Instead, Merckens sullen father, a rider who never fulfilled his own ambitions, provides his son with a route into the sport, encouragement to dope, and also the emotional baggage that culminates in the young riders eventual implosion.

>>>The only preparation Ive done is thinking and a bit of worrying: How Brexit is affecting British riders and teams

When I was 14 I wouldnt even swallow a vitamin,so I was principally against it, Kenneth says of his route into doping.It kind of started very innocently. When I was 16 years oldI started to use some caffeine and that worked really well for me, but you cant call that doping really.

But it did kind of ease the way in, and at a certain point I went to the doctor and he actually extracted some blood and enriched it. Technically, that can be called blood doping because its taking it out of the body and re-infusing it.But of course, in those days it wasseen as innocent but It was kind of shady.

Merckens story is a familiar one, of lines incrementally being crossed until a dose of EPO is no bigger of a deal than your morning coffee.

Once you get used to the needles [it becomes normal]. The first time I injected myself was like with magnesium, and of course thats a mineral so its not doping, but that kind of eases the way to other products, Mercken says. Its also culture within the sport, there are guys shooting around you, you get the feeling thatyou will never make it if you dont.

Whilst the riders in the film depicting Mercken and his former team-mates just look like any other skinny two-wheel obsessives, its important to remember these riders were barely adults, while the real-life grown-ups were the ones providing and encouraging the use of PEDs.

It just became totally normal, Mercken says. Iremember a momentinItaly and my team bossgave me a flagon of EPin a clandestine way and said tuck it away in your trainers, make sure the others dont see it.I then went upstairs and they were all shooting EPOand in the meantime all talking about the weather.

In one way it had become something banal, but in another way everybody knew this was something big.

The depiction of the real, lived experience of doping is done with such candour that its refreshing, as well as being obviously concerning. The stress of the young men trying to make it to the next level in their career while trying to make peace with the fact theyre cheating often proves combustible. There are fallings-out and emotions are nearly always running high. Merckens is a rare story about cycling where the finish line and who crosses it is of little importance.

While the Belgians decision to start doping was gradual, getting out of that world was a decisive moment.

I went to see the doctor and she told me that I had to use a growth hormone because of my delayed puberty. And I was like yeah lets do it. Everybody else was doing it. Why not me? And then she said hold on, youre gonna have to do it your whole career every day.

Then she told me I might have a higher chance of cancer if I take it that much. And really the moment I heard those words was the moment I realised that it was over, it was an epiphany. Then back in the team house I decided to do film school or to go to acting school.I really made the decision on a whim like that.

Basically, one day woke up. I realised that it was all crazy and Id gone too far.

>>>I dont know how depressed people feel, but I think I went in that direction says Marcel Kittel, who also reveals post-cycling plans

And what does he think of the doping landscape now? Having retired before his pro career had really begun, and with no skin in the game anymore, Mercken is unfailingly honest with his insight.

I think its a bit better as the time when the film is situated was a really crazy time and theres a lot more products that can be traced nowadays, Mercken says, before admitting: I think its still really bad.

Every once in a while theres a new product, which they cant trace. Theyre still using EPO, still using a lot of cortisone. Yeah, its still really bad I think, and maybe its just part of the sport, I dont know. And I dont know whats going to happen when genetic doping is going to be developed or become widespread.

Mercken does, however, see hope for the future due to the fact that young riders are now able to compete in some of the biggest races, potentially hinting at the likes of Remco Evenepoel, who won the Clsica San Sebastin this year at the age of just 19.

Im still hopeful because I think nowadays you see young kids that are 19 years old that can win big races with the pros again, that was impossible in my day.

So that means something has changed and that theres a different mentality that now its possible, because in my day youd have to get used to all those products and after 10 years, maybe you you get to a good level. So I think nowadays it is possible for somebody whos clean and got a lot of balance to get very far and that makes me hopeful.

And what about his Dad? How did he react to being portrayed as such a brutal character by his own son?

The first time he saw the film, was at the film festival in Ghent at the international premiereand his first reaction was thatI didnt portray him as brutal enough, Mercken laughs.

I think it was just a macho reaction, to hide himself behind that.But afterwards we had a few drinks andsuddenly he became silent, and then he told me I was wrong.

That was very strange for me to hear because he never said that to me. And thats the only time he ever said it to me, heprobably wont repeat it anymore. I felt confused and maybemaybe afterwards happy you know that that maybe the film has a meaning and maybe it can make people change. Even him. Make him change his mind and realise things.

The film opens with his Dad winning a local race, and a pre-teenage Mercken tugging at his jersey trying to get his attention, but he is ignored as his father revels in the glory and adulation of TV cameras and fans.

The film closes with grainy home footage of the same scene, but this time its the real Mercken and Mercken Snr. Despite the theatrics and metaphors used in the film, Mercken coughing up blood after collapsing on the side of the road during the baby Giro or a crazed Russian team-mate firing a gun in their teams guest house, this real moment does more to portray the pain of professional cycling than double-digit gradients ever could.

The Racer (Coureur) had its UK Premiere at Raindance Film Festival and will be available on digital download from November 4.

Link:
Doping is still really bad today: Former Belgian champion reveals own blood doping past in gritty autobiographical film - Cycling Weekly

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Orokonui volunteer Eeva-Katri Kumpula has recently been volunteering at the Burwood Takahe Centre, and has this update on the Orokonui takahe offspring who have previously left the sanctuary and gone on to help in the recovery programme.

Spring is in the air, and with it takahe from the coldest reaches of Fiordland to not-so-freezing Waitati to tropical Hauraki Gulf are preparing to get busy. Breeding season has started. Takahe couples are looking their best in their most iridescent blues and greens, territories are determined and fiercely defended, and much secrecy surrounds their nest locations.

The resident takahe pair at Orokonui, Paku and Quammen, have already had their first nesting attempt for this season. Unfortunately, the first eggs were not fertile, but they are now sitting on a fertile foster egg from Fiordland. We hope to have good news about that in a couple of weeks. Paku obviously loves mothering chicks, and between them the pair have successfully raised four already.

Like many endangered species, takahe suffer from relative lack of genetic variation, and sometimes this causes problems with fertility. The Doc Takahe Recovery Team spends a lot of time trying to predict good breeding pairings, and the results of nesting attempts are followed closely. Unfortunately, sometimes pairs need to be split up and reorganised, if they are not successfully producing chicks. Another pairing may lead to better results. Every chick counts, as each one is needed to add to the slowly growing population. This is the year when the takahe population officially passed 400 - for the first time in a couple of hundred years, give or take.

This is why it has been so fantastic that Orokonui has been able to contribute to the recovery efforts. The ecosanctuary has been a safe place for chicks to be raised, and other birds have stayed there temporarily. "Learning to takahe" inside the safety of the predator-proof fence has helped Orokonui-raised birds to go on to teach others. Mihiwaka, the male chick from the 2017-18 season, first learned bush skills at Orokonui with Paku and Quammen, then went to Burwood to join two other juvenile males in learning to survive in Fiordland conditions from two experienced adult takahe there. The birds there know how to burrow into snow and stay all snuggly and warm underneath in winter, and how to find food and water in those conditions. So after this learning period he is now proudly representing the Orokonui takahe whanau among the wild takahe population in the rugged Murchison Mountains.

The first takahe to hatch at Orokonui, Kotahi, is still living at Burwood Takahe Centre in Fiordland. He and partner Weydon have successfully hatched three chicks already in previous breeding seasons. They now have two juvenile helpers (yearling birds), Emerald and Te Raukawa, helping them this season. Takahe collaborate in "child care" within these family units that may consist of birds that are not actual blood relations. The juvenile helpers can take their turns to sit on eggs to keep them toasty warm, freeing parents to go to get a feed, and they also help feed the new chicks. This is very beneficial for the species and chick survival, as the juveniles learn life skills and parenting for the future from the adult pair, and the new chicks have more beaks to feed them. Sometimes the helpers are actually feeding the chicks more diligently than the parents.

Luckily takahe are not too particuar about whose eggs they sit on, so there are opportunities for swapping eggs from nest to nest as needed. Paku and Quammen have already raised three foster chicks at Orokonui, where fertile eggs were brought from Fiordland nests for them to incubate and care for. The Fiordland pairs then lay another clutch, and the numbers of chicks produced can be increased.

The male Orokonui foster chick from 2016-17, Wheko, is happily living with his long-time partner Jenkins up in Burwood in Fiordland. They have already produced one chick together, this past season. And now they are preparing for the breeding season with juvenile helpers Rough and Wera. Wheko's sister Tumanako and her partner Bendigo don't currently have juveniles with them, but fingers crossed for chicks there too. In the meantime, back in their childhood home Orokonui, their foster parents, Paku and Quammen, are busy trying to produce new offspring of their own. If all goes well, perhaps one day those chicks will be juvenile helpers for one of the now adult ex-Orokonui birds!

If you would like to support the conservation work done at Orokonui, you can find the donation details on the Orokonui website orokonui.nz/Support/Donations.

To contribute to their conservation, you can sponsor a takahe on the Doc Takahe Recovery website https://www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/takahe-recovery-programme/get-involved/...

Eeva-Katri Kumpula is a keen volunteer at many of New Zealand's ecosanctuaries, and is particularly attached to takahe.

See the original post here:
Takahe on the move - Otago Daily Times

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A former Natwest Bank in Prescot has undergone an unrecognisable transformation - and will now offer a vital service to the community.

Six years ago, mum-of-four Debbie O'Brien, from Huyton, struggled to find a day centre where her daughter Jodie could socialise and her complex needs would be met.

Jodie, 25, has multiple health needs, including cerebral palsy, severe learning developmental delay, encephalitis, Lennox Gastuat syndrome, short-term memory loss, cirrhosis, kyphosis, osteoporosis, hypopituitarism, edema and a rare disease called panhypopituitarism.

Fearful her daughter was becoming isolated, Debbie decided to set up her own club for adults and their families in Kirkby .

Through Al's Club, Debbie met fellow-mum Andrea Evans, originally from Halewood , who attended with her son Callam James Jones, 29.

Callam, who has autism, has defied the odds through his life, having a double heart bypass, kidney failure and now being 5 years in remission.

Forming a close bond and wanting to make a change, the pair teamed up to offer a bespoke service for adults aged 18 and over with disabilities and complex medical needs.

Transforming the former Natwest Bank on Eccleston Street in Prescot , Al's Activity Respite Centre (Arc) officially launched in the town this week - and the response has been overwhelming.

Director Andrea Evans, 51, said: "My son Callam, he's the one who inspires me more than anyone else in the world.

"I'm so glad that we've done this.

"It hasn't been easy because I've juggled my own job, but I knew what the end goal would be and it's going to be an absolute honour working alongside Debbie.

"Years ago adults with disabilities were told that they had to fit into society.

"We're here to re-educate society and our guys are going to be told they no longer need to try and fit in.

"They are the community, they are society and there is no reason on this earth why they shouldn't be valued and accepted."

Al's Arc offers everything from an aromatherapy room and sensory room to a mini gym, a variety of activity sessions and more.

The space is also available for other community groups to use in the evenings, as well as having subletting offices upstairs.

Founder Debbie O'Brien, 47, said: "I do know and I do believe that the two of us together are going to transform adult services for the better.

"We want our members out in the community doing what we do, they're just going to have some guidance and support.

"Everyone has given up their time to help us with this project.

"We've had a team of different tradesman in and the transformation to us has been huge."

Al's Arc received dozens of donations and support from neighbours, local businesses and Knowsley Council - as well as help from family-friend Graham in completing the buildings transformation.

The pair said they also received emotional support from others in the community, including Social Growth Officer Jacqui Meadows and Eileen from Breast Mates, a local support group who will also be utilising the space.

Andrea said: "This is a dream come true. This is our children's future and their children's future and this is all about saying disability belongs.

"We're not in competition with any other disability service. We are going to be enabling every single day and if we can enable any other services to promote themselves and be more successful then that's what we'll do."

John Maddox, operations manager at Structec N.W. Limited said: "Much of the work that we do in Knowsley is centred around adaptations to the homes of people with disabilities, so we were delighted when Debbie invited us to get involved and provide some help to get this wonderful facility off the ground.

"The passion of those at the heart of this much needed community project is truly inspirational and will make Al's Arc a huge success."

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Cllr Sean Donnelly, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, said: Im delighted that Als Arc has opened its doors in Prescot, providing much-needed services here in the borough.

"The services they are offering will really benefit young adults in Knowsley, helping them to develop their skills, confidence and independent living.

"This is a great example of Knowsley Better Together in action seeing people and organisations coming together for the benefit of Knowsley and its residents. I wish them well and look forward to visiting.

For more information email: thearcprescot@gmail.com

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Look inside the old Natwest in Prescot after its total transformation - Liverpool Echo

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Two hundred thousand years ago, the earliest shared ancestors of every living human on Earth rested their feet at a verdant oasis in the middle of Africa's Kalahari Desert.

Here, in a patchwork of now-extinct lakes, forests and grasslands known as the Makgadikgadi paleowetland, our greatest grandmothers and -grandfathers hunted, gathered and raised families for tens of thousands of years. Eventually, as Earth's climate changed, shifts in rainfall opened up fertile new paths through the desert. For the first time, our distant relatives had the chance to explore the unknown, putting behind them what a team of researchers now calls "the ancestral homeland of all humans alive today."

That's the story, anyway, told by a new paper published today (Oct. 18) in the journal Nature.

By studying the genomes of more than 1,200 indigenous Africans living in the southern part of the continent today, the team pieced together a history of one of the oldest DNA lineages on Earth: a collection of genes called L0, which is passed down maternally through mitochondria and has survived remarkably unchanged in some populations for hundreds of thousands of years. By tracking where and when the L0 lineage first split into the slightly different sublineages still seen in some indigenous African populations today, the researchers believe they have pinpointed precisely where the first carriers of L0 lived and thrived for thousands of years.

"We've known for a long time that humans originated in Africa and roughly 200,000 years ago," study author Vanessa Hayes, a geneticist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and University of Sydney, both in Australia, said in a news conference. "But what we hadn't known until this study was where, exactly this homeland was."

That "exactly" has some other researchers skeptical. Chris Stringer, a human origins expert at the Natural History Museum in London, told Live Science he is "cautious" about using modern genetic distributions to infer where ancient populations lived 150,000 years ago particularly in a continent as large as Africa. (Similar studies have traced the earliest human populations to various parts of eastern, western and southern Africa.)

Furthermore, he added, because the present study follows only one sequence of maternally inherited genetic code, its findings may not capture the full picture of humankind's earliest travels through Africa. Rather, the best available evidence suggests that multiple genetically-different founder populations may have lived throughout various parts of the continent, giving modern humans not one but several homelands.

"Like so many studies that concentrate on one small bit of the genome, or one region, or one stone tool industry, or one 'critical' fossil, it can't capture the full complexity of our mosaic origins," Stringer said.

Today, Makgadikgadi is one of the largest salt flats in the world. Climate models suggest that, 200,000 years ago, it was a fertile oasis.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The L0 lineage is a sequence of DNA encoded solely in mitochondria, a small structure in your cells that turns food into cellular energy.

Mitochondrial DNA accounts for just a fraction of your genome, with the bulk of your DNA locked away in cell nuclei. However, while nuclear DNA is inherited from both parents and recombines with every generation, mitochondrial DNA is inherited solely from your mother and can remain unchanged for tens of thousands of years. As such, mitochondrial DNA (also known as the "mitogenome") is a key tool for tracking genetic history.

L0 is especially important in that regard, as all living people are believed to descend on their maternal line from the woman who first carried the sequence, a hypothetical woman called "mitochondrial Eve." Today, the L0 lineage is found most commonly in the Khoisan people, two indigenous groups living in southern Africa. Numerous other groups of indigenous Africans carry mitochondrial DNA that descends from this lineage, but with subtle variations. By comparing those variations from group to group, geneticists can piece together a general timeline of when these ancient genetic lineages diverged.

In the new study, the researchers sequenced about 200 L0 mitogenomes in indigenous people living around southern Africa. When compared to a database of more than 1,000 existing L0 sequences, the dataset created one of the most comprehensive snapshots ever taken of how the ancient lineage and its closest offshoots are dispersed around southern Africa today. This distribution data allowed the team to estimate where and when mitochondrial Eve's descendants first split into separate, genetically distinct groups.

"Using that, we could pinpoint what we believe is our human homeland," Hayes said.

This homeland, the researchers suggested, is Makgadikgadi, a vast wetland some 46,000 square miles (120,000 square kilometers) in area, or roughly twice the area of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake today. The team found that mitochondrial Eve and her descendants lived in this region for about 30,000 years (from 200,000 to 170,000 years ago) before the L0 lineage split into its first subgroup.

"This tells us that these early humans must have stayed within the homeland region and not left" during that time, Hayes said.

So, why did our ancient ancestors finally leave their homeland, altering their genetic destinies in the process? According to the study authors, it may have been a matter of climate change.

Using climate models and sediment-core samples from the area, the team found that, from roughly 130,000 to 110,000 years ago, changing rainfall patterns opened up several "green corridors" of habitable land in the desert around Makgadikgadi. Corridors to the northwest and southeast of the wetland could have drawn migrants in those directions, leading them toward the areas where different indigenous groups still live today, the researchers wrote. This movement could adequately explain the distribution of L0 subgroups around southern Africa.

What it does not explain, however, is the other half of our genetic lineage (the male half). According to Stringer, there's not a lot of evidence that our earliest male ancestors walked a path like the one described here.

"Looking at the male-inherited Y chromosome, the most-divergent lineages currently known in extant humans are found in west Africa, not south Africa, suggesting our Y-chromosome ancestors may have originated from there," Stringer said.

The authors of the study do acknowledge that modern humans may have had multiple "homelands" where different genetic lineages took root; L0 is simply the best-preserved lineage, thanks to its strictly maternal provenance. So, while researchers may now be closer to pinpointing the little Eden where mitochondrial Eve started her family, it's still too early to say we've all found our homeland.

Originally published on Live Science.

(Image credit: Future plc)

Excerpt from:
Scientists Think They've Found 'Mitochondrial Eve's' First Homeland - Livescience.com

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Fathers are happier, less stressed and less tired than mothers, finds a study from the American Time Use Survey. Not unrelated, surely, is the regular report that mothers do more housework and childcare than fathers, even when both parents work full time. When the primary breadwinner is the mother versus the father, she also shoulders the mental load of family management, being three times more likely to handle and schedule their activities, appointments, holidays and gatherings, organise the family finances and take care of home maintenance, according to Slate, the US website. (Men, incidentally, are twice as likely as women to think household chores are divided equally.) In spite of their outsized contributions, full-time working mothers also feel more guilt than full-time working fathers about the negative impact on their children of working. One argument that is often used to explain the anxiety that working mothers experience is that it and many other social ills is the result of men and women not living as nature intended. This school of thought suggests that men are naturally the dominant ones, whereas women are naturally homemakers.

But the patriarchy is not the natural human state. It is, though, very real, often a question of life or death. At least 126 million women and girls around the world are missing due to sex-selective abortions, infanticide or neglect, according to United Nations Population Fund figures. Women in some countries have so little power they are essentially infantilised, unable to travel, drive, even show their faces, without male permission. In Britain, with its equality legislation, two women are killed each week by a male partner, and the violence begins in girlhood: it was reported last month that one in 16 US girls was forced into their first experience of sex. The best-paid jobs are mainly held by men; the unpaid labour mainly falls to women. Globally, 82% of ministerial positions are held by men. Whole fields of expertise are predominantly male, such as physical sciences (and women garner less recognition for their contributions they have received just 2.77% of the Nobel prizes for sciences).

According to a variety of high-profile figures (mainly male, mainly psychologists), bolstered by professorships and no shortage of disciples, there are important biological reasons for why men and women have different roles and status in our society. Steven Pinker, for instance, has argued that men prefer to work with things, whereas women prefer to work with people. This, he said, explains why more women work in the (low-paid) charity and healthcare sector, rather than getting PhDs in science. According to Pinker, The occupation that fits best with the people end of the continuum is director of a community services organisation. The occupations that fit best with the things end are physicist, chemist, mathematician, computer programmer, and biologist.

Whether someone has skills for maths, leadership or any gendered attribute can not be predicted fromknowing their sex

Others deny societal sexism even exists, insisting that the gender roles we see are based on cognitive differences spoiler: men are more intelligent. The people who hold that our culture is an oppressive patriarchy, they dont want to admit that the current hierarchy might be predicated on competence, Jordan Peterson has said, for instance. His reasoning suggests that women would be happier not railing against it but instead observing their traditional gender roles. Such theories have been demolished by a range of scholars, including neuroscientist Gina Rippon and psychologist Cordelia Fine.

There are certainly biological differences between men and women, from their sexual anatomy to hormones. Yet even this isnt as clear cut as it seems. For instance, around one in 50 people may be intersex with some sort of atypical chromosomal or hormonal feature thats about the same as the proportion of redheads. Mens brains are on the whole slightly larger than womens, and scans reveal some differences in the size and connectedness of specific brain regions, such as the hippocampus, in large samples of men and women.

And yet, only a tiny percent (between 0 and 8%) of individual men and women turn out to have a typically male or female brain. Most people are somewhere in the middle, and whether someone has skills for maths, spatial awareness, leadership or any other gendered attribute can not be predicted from knowing their sex, as multiple studies have shown. Anatomically and cognitively, there are more differences within the two sexes than between them.

There is no evidence that women are any less capable of the jobs and social positions that men predominantly hold. When women are given the opportunity to hold male roles, they show themselves to be equally proficient. Researchers recently calculated that it was bias against women, not under-representation, that accounts for the gender distribution seen in the Nobel prizes, for instance. Women are not less intelligent, less logical or less able than men. The roots of patriarchy, in other words, cannot be found in our biology.

Male supremacy, for all its ubiquity, is surprisingly recent. Theres compelling evidence that patriarchal societies date back less than 10,000 years. Humans probably evolved as an egalitarian species and remained that way for hundreds of thousands of years. One clue is in the similar size of human males and females, which show the least disparity of all the apes, indicating that male dominance is not the driving force in our species. In fact, equality between the sexes in our early ancestry would have been evolutionarily beneficial. Parents who were invested in both girls and boys (and the grandchildren from both) gave our ancestors a survival advantage, because this fostered the critical wider-ranging social networks they depended on to exchange resources, genes and cultural knowledge.

Today, hunter-gatherer societies remain remarkable for their gender equality, which is not to say women and men necessarily have the same roles, but there is not the gender-based power imbalance that is almost universal in other societies. In contemporary hunter-gatherer groups, such as the Hadza people of Tanzania, men and women contribute a similar number of calories, and both care for children. They also tend to have equal influence on where their group lives and who they live with.

Matriarchal societies may also have been more common in our ancestral communities. Strong female relationships would have helped to glue a larger community together, and being able to rely on friends to babysit would have given our ancestors the time and energy to support the group through food provision and other activities. Indeed, there are several societies where matriarchy is the norm Ive visited some of them, including the cocoa farming Bribri people of Costa Rica, and the rice farming Minangkabau of Sumatra, Indonesia. These are communities in which women are the landowners and decision makers.

In other words, humans are not genetically programmed for male dominance. It is no more natural for us to live in a patriarchy than in a matriarchy or, indeed an egalitarian society. In the same way, it is just as natural for humans to eat a paleo diet as it is to eat bubblegum-flavoured candyfloss; to have sex as a man and a woman or as three men; to live in a straw hut or in a glass bubble beneath the ocean. This is because, unlike other animals, we are cultural beings for our species, culture is our nature, and key to understanding our behaviours and motivations.

Social, technological and behavioural invention are part of our nature part of what it means to be human. We are driven by culture more than instinct. And our culture influences our environment and our genes. Our extraordinarily flexible, cumulative culture allows us to make ourselves even as we attribute our successes and failings to our genes.

Thats not to say that just because a cultural trait has emerged it is necessarily good. Patriarchal norms, for instance, are damaging to our health and our societies, increasing death and suffering, and limiting humanitys creative potential. We are, though, neither slaves to our biology nor our social norms even if it can feel that way.

Human cultural conditioning begins at birth, indeed, social norms even have an impact before birth: one study found that when pregnant women were informed of the sex of the baby they were carrying, they described its movements differently. Women who learned they were carrying a girl typically described the movements as quiet, very gentle, more rolling than kicking; whereas those who knew they were carrying a boy described very vigorous movements, kicks and punches, a saga of earthquakes.

Many of the ideas we consider universally held are simply the social norms in our own culture. Libert, galit, fraternit may be values worth dying for in France, for instance, but personal freedom is not considered important or desirable for other societies, which prioritise values such as purity instead. Consider the idea of responsibility. In my culture, if you deliberately hurt a person or their property this is considered a much worse crime than if you did it by accident, but in other cultures, children and adults are punished according to the outcome of their actions intentionality is considered impossible to grasp and therefore largely irrelevant.

The biological differences between males and females, or indeed between ethnic groups, tell us nothing about how intelligent, empathetic or successful a person is. Modern humans are 99.9% genetically identical. Although we have expanded far beyond our tropical evolutionary niche over tens of thousands of years, we have not speciated we have not even diversified into different subspecies. Our ancestors have not needed to make dramatic biological adaptations to the very different environments we live in, because, instead, we culturally evolved and diversified into a complexity of differently adapted cultures, each with their own social norms.

Children who speak Hebrew, a strongly gendered language, know their gender a year earlier than speakers ofnon-gendered Finnish

It is our cultural developing bath, not our genes, that profoundly changes the way we think, behave and perceive the world. Studies comparing the neural processing of populations of westerners and East Asians, for example, show that culture shapes how people look at faces (westerners triangulate their gaze over eyes and mouth, whereas East Asians centralise their focus). Language reveals our norms and shapes the way we think. Children who speak Hebrew, a strongly gendered language, know their own gender a year earlier than speakers of non-gendered Finnish. English speakers are better than Japanese speakers at remembering who or what caused an accident, such as breaking a vase. Thats because in English we say Jimmy broke the vase, whereas in Japanese, the agent of causality is rarely used; they will say: The vase broke. The structures that exist in our language profoundly shape how we construct reality and it turns out that reality, and our human nature, differ dramatically depending on the language we speak. Our brains change and our cognition is rewired according to the cultural input we receive and respond to.

Many of our social norms evolved because they improve survival, through group cohesion, for instance. But social norms can also be harmful. There is no scientific basis for the belief that a persons skin colour or sex has any bearing on their character or intelligence. However, social norms can affect a persons behaviour and their biology. Social norms that classify particular groups to the bottom of a social hierarchy encourage society to collude with that positioning and those people do worse in outcomes from wealth to health, strengthening the norm. A major study, by researchers at Berkeley, of 30,000 American shift workers found that black, Hispanic and other minority workers particularly women are much more likely to be assigned irregular schedules, and the harmful repercussions of this were felt not just by them but also by their children, who fared worse.

The danger of ascribing genetic and biological bases for our actions is that individuals and groups are not given equal opportunities in life, and they suffer. It is, after all, very convenient to believe that the poor are feckless and undeserving, morally weak or stupid, rather than casualties of a deeply unfair systemic bias. Equally, its much more appealing to think of ones own successes as down to some sort of innate personal brilliance rather than luck and social position.

If we persist in the idea that there is a natural a best way to be a human, then we blind ourselves to the great diversity of potential ways of being, thinking and feeling, and impose social limitations on those whose life choices are no less legitimate than ours. Its worth noting, though, that many norms that were once believed to be set in biological stone or ordained by gods have been changed by societies sometimes remarkably quickly. If we invented it, we can alter it. An accepted natural state that has existed for millennia can be changed in mere months.

Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time by Gaia Vince is published by Allen Lane. To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p on all online orders over 15.

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Smashing the patriarchy: why there's nothing natural about male supremacy - The Guardian

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Every cat is unique and special, theres no denying that. But scientifically speaking, a male tortoiseshell cat is very special. And why is that? Well, because the genetics that control their coat pattern also controls their gender, and those chromosomes are what causes them to be female 99.9% of the time.

But just like Jeff Goldblum said as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, well

And in this case, its in the form of an extremely adorable male tortoiseshell kitten named Cresta who just so happens to be a boy. The Cats Protection Wrexham Adoption Centre is currently housing the five-month-old kitten, who needless to say found a furever home in no time flat.

So, exactly how unique is little Cresta? Well, its believed that only 1 in 3,000 tortoiseshell kittens are born male. And this little diamond in the rough was found wandering the streets of Colwyn Bay in the UK by the RSPCA.

We couldnt believe it when we discovered Cresta was a boy. Certainly none of us here have ever seen a male tortoiseshell before, and its been many years since Cats Protection has had one in care, despite us helping 200,000 cats a year.

It wasnt difficult to find Cresta a home, and his new owners realise how special he is and are looking forward to him becoming part of the family.

Male tortoiseshell interesting fact: Male tortoiseshells are usually conceived as a result of an extra chromosome being present, and are usually sterile as a result (same with male calico cats).

From humble beginnings in 1927, Cats Protection has grown to become the UKs leading feline welfare charity.

We helparound 200,000 cats and kittens every yearthrough our network of over 250 volunteer-run branches and 36 centres.

Our work doesnt stop there, however: we also provide an array of cat care information via ourpublications,help and advicesection and National Information Line; promote the benefits of neutering to prevent unwanted litters from being born and becoming the abandoned cats of tomorrow and seek toeducatepeople of all ages about cats and their care.

The Cats Protection is certainly doing their part to make the world a better place for homeless cats, and we thank them for all that they do year after year. If youd like to learn more about them, you can visit their website here.

All Images Courtesy of The Cats Protection

STORY IN CONJUNCTION WITH CATTITUDEDAILY.COM

Related Story: Rescue Woman Hits 1:3000 Odds When She Discovers Her New Foster Kitten Is A Male Tortoiseshell!

Related Story: Male Sphynx Cat Found To Be Experiencing Gender Transition By Accident!

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Rare Male Tortoiseshell Kitten Picked Up As A Stray In The UK - Cole & Marmalade

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MUC5B genetic variants and shorter telomeres or chromosome endings are risk factors associated with greater lung damage and poorer survival in Chinese patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a study has revealed.

The study, The relationship between MUC5Bpromoter,TERT polymorphisms and telomere lengths with radiographic extent and survival in a Chinese IPF cohort, was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

While a better understanding of the underlying processes and risk factors that lead to IPF are urgently needed, several genetic factors have been associated with the disease.

Research points to genetic alterations, or polymorphisms, in genes that provide instructions for making telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and telomerase RNA component (TERC), as possible contributors to the development of pulmonary fibrosis. In fact, according to the the National Institutes of Health, 15% of all cases of IPF are related to mutations in these genes.

TERC and TERT are responsible for making components of telomerase, an enzyme that extends DNA caps at the end of chromosomes called telomeres. These structures are very important in protecting the genome from wearing down and cells from entering an aging-like process.

Maintaining telomere length is important because when telomeres get too short, cells irreversibly stop dividing and acquire features of aged cells.

In fact, telomere shortening has been linked to increased susceptibility and lower survival in IPF patients. For this reason, scientists report that IPF is the most frequent manifestation of telomerase-associated disease.

Prior studies have also linked variations at the mucin 5B gene (MUC5B) to the risk of IPF and poor prognosis of patients. However, most of these studies were conducted in Western countries or looked at genetic variants that are rare in Asian populations.

Recognizing the need to address risk factors in Asian patients, researchers investigated the association between genetic variations in MUC5B and TERT,as well as changes in telomere length, and the extent of lung fibrosis and survival in a group of Chinese IPF patients.

In total, 79 patients (86.08% males; mean age of 64.19 years) and 200 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study at the Nanjing Drum Hospital in China. The mean follow-up time was 30.36 months.

Participants were screened for five small genetic variations (single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs) rs35705950 and rs868903 in MUC5B, rs2736100 and rs2853676 in TERT, and rs1881984 in TERC.Their telomere length was also determined using blood samples.

Variations within each participant were compared with the extent of radiographic lung fibrosis seen on chest high-resolution computed tomography scans (HRCT), and with survival data. The extent of lung fibrosis was specifically measured by scoring honeycombing (clustered air spaces), an abnormal HRCT finding characteristic of IPF, used by doctors to definitively diagnose the disease.

HRCT results showed that a minority of patients (13 patients; 16.46%) had mild honeycombing (in less than 10% of the lung), while 34 patients (43.04%) had moderate honeycombing (1050%), and 32 patients (40.51%) had severe honeycombing (more than 50% of the lung).

Patients who carried one of two genetic variants CT or CC at the MUC5B promoter rs868903 or those who had shorter telomeres had more extensive honeycombing on chest scans.

After adjusting for age, sex, and smoking status, the CT/CC variants in MUC5B also emerged as a genetic risk factor for poorer survival, linked to a higher risk of death over time in IPF patients. Of note, 38 (35.44%) of the total patients analyzed died during the follow-up period.

According to the team, this is the first study to find that MUC5B promoter variations and telomere size are associated with radiological features, and that MUC5B variations were a predictive factor for the prognosis in a Chinese IPF cohort.

Further investigations are needed to determine exactly potential role of MUC5B gene in the pathogenesis of IPF, and the regulation mechanisms of telomere shortening, they added.

Ana is a molecular biologist with a passion for discovery and communication. As a science writer she looks for connecting the public, in particular patient and healthcare communities, with clear and quality information about the latest medical advances. Ana holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where she specialized in genetics, molecular biology, and infectious diseases

Total Posts: 110

Patrcia holds her PhD in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases from the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. She has studied Applied Biology at Universidade do Minho and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon, Portugal. Her work has been focused on molecular genetic traits of infectious agents such as viruses and parasites.

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MUC5B Genetic Variants, Short Telomeres Linked to Greater Lung Damage, Poorer Survival in Chinese Patients, Study Shows - Pulmonary Fibrosis News

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Few topics arouse as much interest and controversy as sex. This is hardly surprising. The biological continuance of the species hinges on it if human beings stopped having sex, there would soon be no more human beings. Popular culture overflows with sex, from cinema to advertising to, yes, even politics. And for many, sex represents one of the most intimate forms of human connection.

Despite its universality, sex and its purpose have been understood very differently by different thinkers. I teach an annual course on sexuality at Indiana University, and this work has provided opportunities to ponder sex from some provocative angles, including the body, the psyche, and the spirit.

Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) was an insect biologist whose alarm at widespread ignorance of sexual structure and physiology led him to become perhaps the first major American figure in the study of sex. The Kinsey Reports, published in 1948 and 1953, presented a highly statistical taxonomy of sexual preferences and practices. Despite draining sex of virtually all eroticism, the books managed to sell about three-quarters of a million copies.

The intellectual climate for Kinseys studies of sex had been powerfully shaped by the work of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Physician and founder of psychoanalysis, Freud created a model of the human psyche that placed libido or sex drive at its core and postulated that psychological and social life are powerfully shaped by its tensions with the conventions of civilized behavior. According to Freud, failure to adequately resolve such tensions could manifest in a variety of mental and physical ailments.

The stage for psychoanalysis had in turn been set by Charles Darwin (1809-1882). In Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin argued that human beings are animals, likening differences between males and females in body and behavior to those seen among species such as peacocks and emphasizing female choosiness and direct competition among males. From Darwins vantage point, and later that of Freud, even some of the most sophisticated trappings of human civilization reflect basic biological imperatives. The subject of non-heterosexual attraction requires a different account.

At first glance, sexual reproduction is a puzzle, since each member of an asexually reproducing species can produce its own genetically identical young at a lower biological cost. However, sexual reproduction allows a more rapid reshuffling of the genetic deck, increasing the probability that some individuals will be well-adapted to environmental changes. Because human beings reproduce sexually, the foundation is laid for sexual selection, the competition for mates of which Darwin wrote in such detail.

The writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) presents a more broadly humanistic understanding of the purpose of sex. In Anna Karenina, often ranked as the greatest of all novels, sex provides the foundation for the family. Characters who treat sex as an adventure with no regard to family come to bad ends, while those who devote themselves to family happiness fare well. In Tolstoys view, the seemingly mundane joys of family life, made possible by sex, constitute the truest joys accessible to human beings.

Consider Tolstoys description of the life of a devoted mother, Dolly, troubled by the illnesses of her children:

Though hard it was for the mother to bear the dread of illness, the illnesses themselves, and the signs of evil propensities in her children the children themselves were even now repaying her in small joys for her sufferings. These joys were so small they passed unnoticed, like gold in sand, and at bad moments she could see nothing but the pain, nothing but sand; but there were good moments too, when she saw nothing but the joy, nothing but gold.

In the first book of Anna Karenina, two men discuss the theories of love in Platos (428-348 B.C.) dialogue, The Symposium. One of its characters, the comic poet Aristophanes, grounds sex in our desire for completeness. Aristophanes tells the story of once-whole creatures, who, because of their pride, were cut in two, creating human beings who now wander the Earth seeking completion in their other half. For Aristophanes, sex represents above all a desire for wholeness.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430), a saint in Catholicism, also subordinates sex to other purposes in human life. As a young man, Augustine had relished the pleasures of sexual life, even taking a concubine who bore him a son. Later in his Confessions, he describes his former self as a slave to his sexual impulses. He recognized that such impulses could find appropriate expression in marriage and family, but he treated his own preoccupation with sex as evil, because it prevented him from orienting his life around his ultimate purpose, God.

One of the most extraordinary books in the Bible is the Song of Songs. Unlike the other books, it does not mention the God of Israel or covenant, contains no prophecy, and does not represent a wisdom text, like Proverbs. Instead, it celebrates the mutual yearning of two lovers, each of whom waxes erotically on the others charms and the sexual intimacy they enjoy. More than any other text discussed here, this is love poetry in which lovers revel in one anothers allure and embrace.

In an era in which sex and religion are often portrayed as antagonists, it can be a bit hard to fathom the view of some rabbis that the Song of Songs represents the Holy of Holies, capturing the flow of divine love and the restoration of harmony between God and creation. Likewise, Christian interpreters have often read the Song of Songs as an analogy for the love between God and man, in which the two exist in full accord. In both traditions, sex is seen as an earthly sign of a higher union.

Today, we doctors take for granted that sex and health are linked. Sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV/AIDS, immunization against human papillomavirus (HPV), and the health implications of pregnancy are rightly regarded as essential topics in sex education. Likewise, there is increasing interest in the health benefits of sex sex as a form of exercise good for the heart, intimacy as a way of relieving tension, and the benefits of sex for immune function and general sense of healthiness.

Yet the biologists, psychologists, and theologians of sex invite us to think more deeply about the purposes of sex. From a biological point of view, sex enables each human being to participate in the perpetuation of the species, interweaving each generation with its forebears and progeny. Psychologically speaking, sex brings us together in a way that makes 1 + 1 = 3, rendering us co-creators. And spiritually, sex serves as a rich metaphor for the union of earthly and higher orders.

How we see sex depends on our vantage point. Athletic and hedonistic perspectives offer relatively limited accounts of sex. If, on the other hand, we view sex as an opportunity to participate in something beyond ourselves, it may unexpectedly enrich our whole lives.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Richard Gunderman. Read the original article here.

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The facility lies midway between Munichs city center and its international airport, roughly 23 miles to the north. From the outside, it still looks like the state-run farm it once was, but peer through the windows of the old farmhouse and youll see rooms stuffed with cutting-edge laboratory equipment.

In a newer building at the back of the farm, Barbara Kessler pulls off her sneakers and sprays her bare feet and hands with antiseptic. The wiry veterinarian steps over a taped line in the shower room, leaving behind everything she can from the outside world: clothes, watch, earrings. She scrubs her body and haira buzz cut, so its easier to manage these frequent washings.

After the shower, she finds her size among the neat stacks of supplied clothes and pulls on a pair of black pants, a red shirt, and black Crocs. Outside the dressing room, she adds a black knit cap to keep even her short-cropped hair from passing on germs, and then strides down the hall to the boot room, where she carefully steps into knee-high rubber boots that are power-washed after each wearing.

LAETITIA VANCON

All these precautions are to protect animals not known for their cleanliness: pigs. And once Kessler opens the door to the indoor pens, the smell is unmistakable. Its a pigsty, after all.

When Kessler unlocks one pen to show off its resident, a young sow wanders out and starts exploring. Like other pigs here, the sow is left nameless, so her caregivers wont get too attached. She has to be coaxed back behind a metal gate. To the untrained eye, she acts and looks like pretty much any other pig, but smaller.

Its whats inside this animal that matters. Her body has been made a little less pig-like, with four genetic modifications that make her organs more likely to be accepted when transplanted into a human. If all goes according to plan, the heart busily pumping inside a pig like this might one day beat instead inside a person.

Different types of tissues from genetically engineered pigs are already being tested in humans. In China, researchers have transplanted insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells from gene-edited pigs into people with diabetes. A team in South Korea says its ready to try transplanting pig corneas into people, once it gets government approval. And at Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers announced in October that they had used gene-edited pig skin as a temporary wound covering for a person with severe burns. The skin patch, they say, worked as effectively as human skin, which is much harder to obtain.

But when it comes to life-or-death organs, like hearts and livers, transplant surgeons still must rely on human parts. One day, the dream goes, genetically modified pigs like this sow will be sliced open, their hearts, kidneys, lungs and livers sped to transplant centers to save desperately sick patients from death.

Laetitia Vancon

The death of Baby Fae

Today in the United States, 7,300 people die each year because they cant find an organ donortwo-thirds of them for want of a kidney. In many cases, the only hope is someone elses tragedy: an accident that kills someone whose organs can be harvested.

Surgeons looking for another source of organs at first looked to monkeys, because theyre the animals most similar to us. In 1984, a little girl known as Baby Fae received a baboon heart but died 20 days later, after her immune system attacked it. Baby Faes short life and quick death received global attention; many condemned the idea of killing our closest animal relatives to save ourselves. An opinion piece by a cardiologist in the Washington Post described the procedure as medical adventurism. Another, in the Journal of Medical Ethics, was headlined Baby Fae: A beastly business.

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Then, in the 1990s, researchers and biotech companies turned to pigs as the donor of choice. Since we eat pigs (120 million of them a year in the US alone), taking their organs seemed less morally fraught to many. Scientifically, their organs are roughly the right size, with similar anatomy, and pigs reach adulthood in about six monthsmuch faster than primates. But a problem arose: pigs harbor viruses that might make the jump to people. Whats more, with the simple genetic engineering available at the time, the transplanted organs didnt last long when they were tested in monkeys. They were simply, genetically speaking, too foreign.

When it comes to life-or-death organs, like hearts and livers, transplant surgeons still must rely on human parts.

More than two decades later, advances in genetic engineering have revived the prospect of so-called xenotransplants. The hottest source of debate in the field: exactly how many gene edits are needed in pigs like these to overcome the species barrier. A well-funded US company, eGenesis, which leads the more-is-better-camp, says it has made a double-digit number of changes to the pigs it raises with a sister company in China.

The Germans at the Munich facility are in the less-is-more camp. The pigs they work with have three key genetic modifications originally made more than a decade agoall designed to keep baboons and humans from rejecting their organs. Knocking out a gene that produces a sugar called galactosyltransferase prevented the recipients immune system from immediately rejecting an organ from a different species. The second change added a gene expressing human CD46, a protein that helps the immune system attack foreign invaders without overreacting and causing autoimmune disease; the third introduced a gene for a protein called thrombomodulin, which prevents the blood clots that would otherwise destroy the transplanted organ.

A smaller number of edits can be better controlled and measured, and their effects are easier to document, says Eckhard Wolf, who runs this former state farm on the outskirts of Munich, now called the Center for Innovative Medical Models. If something goes wrong, as often happens in xenotransplantation, it will be clear where the issue lies. With more edits come more potential problems. At some point, you are in a situation that you have no idea what an additional genetic modification does, he says.

The size of a heart

In 2018, the hearts of pigs from the Munich center were transplanted into 14 baboons. Two of the monkeys survived for six months, the longest any animal has lived with a heart from another species. In a report in Nature last December, the German researchers described their achievement as a milestone on the way to clinical cardiac xenotransplantation.

Laetitia Vancon

Of the first five baboons to get a pig heart, four died within a day or two, and when the fifth died after a month, its heart was diseased. In the next batch of baboons, Wolfs collaborator Bruno Reichart, a retired heart transplant surgeon, flooded the organ with nutrients, hormones, and red blood cells from the time it was removed from the pig until it was fully functional in the recipient animal. Three baboons treated with this approach lived for 18, 27, and 40days.

The last five baboons had the same procedure but were also kept on an immunosuppressant drug. Two lived for 182 and 195 days, but they had to be euthanized last year when still in good health, because it was so challenging to continue the anti-rejection therapy.It isnt practical to leave an intravenous line in a baboon for longer than six months. But neither is it a simple thing to convince a baboon to take drugs. Like young children, they resist drinking anything that smells like medication.

Reichart says he is working on a better delivery system that will enable the baboons to stay on the anti-rejection drugs for at least a yearthe amount of time he says is needed to prove that xenotransplantation is ready to be tested in people.

Midway through their baboon study, however, Wolf and Reichart noticed an unanticipated problem: the hearts, harvested from juvenile pigs to make sure they were small enough for baboons, kept on growing as if they were still destined to keep alive a 600-pound (270-kilogram) pig. The transplanted heart weighed 62% more than a typical baboon heart: massive cardiac overgrowth, as their paper described it. In the baboons, the new hearts crowded out other essential organs and, in a few cases, caused the animals death.

Laetitia Vancon

At the pig facility, Kessler showed me Wolfs solution to this problem: two sister sows, created with one more CRISPR gene edit. Researchers have turned off the animals growth hormone receptor(GHR) gene, leaving them roughly half the weight of a typical pig. Both tip the scales at about 175 pounds (79 kg),compared with nearly 400 pounds for a normal sow. The pregnant sister stood across the hall, alone in a pen facing the wall. Metal bars kept her from lying down against the wallsa precaution to protect the piglet litter. Though she was bred with a full-sized male pig, roughly half of her offspring should be missing their GHR gene.

The cost of saving a life

It isnt cheap to create a gene-edited pig and then raise it to the standard required by the US Food and Drug Administration and other agencies that would regulate pig-to-human transplants around the world. Kessler and her colleagues clone pig embryos by putting the desired genetic material into eggs collected Mondays and Tuesdays from a local slaughterhouse. To minimize germs, every new line of pigs must start by conceiving the animal in a lab dish, delivering it by Caesarean section, and separating it from its mother at birth. Later germ-free generations dont require as many precautions and cost only about 10 times the price of raising a pig for bacon and pork, Kessler says.

About 120 gene-edited adult pigs and 150 piglets live on this pig farm (one of only a handful worldwide), but even it cant afford to raise pigs to the standard that will be needed before an organ is transplanted into a person. Wolfs government grant wont cover the cost of HEPA filters to clean the air in every room of the pig facility, or to irradiate the special vegetarian feed pellets that are trucked in. The researchers lobbied for years for funding to build a perimeter fence to keep wild boarsand their germsoff the property.

LAETITIA VANCON

Reichart says he just needs funding to complete one more trial, keeping baboons alive for a full year with the pigs hearts, before hell be ready to test them in people. Other groups are also getting close. In Florida, transplant surgeon Joseph Tector, newly relocated to the University of Miami, says he just needs time to build a pig facility like Wolfs only stricter, and then hell be ready to test pig kidneys in people. The University of Alabama-Birmingham has a pig facility to support clinical transplants, with experts looking at both hearts and kidneys. Their first clinical trial of xenotransplantation might be in babies born with congenital heart malformations. A pig heart could serveas was hoped for Baby Faea bridge until they can receive a human heart.

Reichart says he doesnt need to be the first to successfully do a xenotransplant. But he believes hes likely to be among the first, since hes so close. After decades of research, the pigs in the Munich lab just might be the ones that allow surgeons to break the species barrier.

Excerpt from:
Meet the pigs that could solve the human organ transplant crisis - MIT Technology Review

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Fighting Blindness Canadas secure, clinical patient registry is a database dedicated to connecting people living with retinal eye diseases to clinical trials and research.Paffy69 / PNG

Blind and partially sighted people no longer have to wait passively for a research breakthrough in hope of treatment options. In fact, people living with genetic eye conditions can now actively drive vision research forward by enrolling in a patient registry and getting their genes tested.

There are 2.2 billion people living with visual impairment globally. Some are living with inherited retinal diseases that are progressive and can lead to complete blindness. Up until recent years, blind and visually impaired people were told that no treatment is available. This is changing as genetic testing is paving the way for a surge of gene therapies.

My doctoral dissertation at the University of B.C. was on drug therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. This progressive, blinding eye condition is the most common type of inherited retinal disease.

In people affected by retinitis pigmentosa, the light sensing cells in their retina photoreceptors die early. Unlike skin cells that regenerate, the body does not make more photoreceptors once they are damaged.

As a vision scientist affected by retinitis pigmentosa, I am passionate about finding the truth about the disease. Why do photoreceptors die? How can we stop it? How can science and medicine help?

When I was 12 years old, I realized while at summer camp that my night vision was disappearing. In the last two decades, I lost my peripheral vision, contrast sensitivity and depth perception.

I worked in Dr. Orson Moritzs lab at the UBC department of ophthalmology and visual sciences, which focuses on research using tadpoles that contain known human mutations for retinitis pigmentosa to understand the disease.

I made an alarming discovery in our animal model: knowing the genetic cause of retinitis pigmentosa is vital for treatment with one class of drugs histone deacetylase inhibitors. These determine how genes are switched on or off.

A similar study in mice showed that the same drug reacted differently to variations in a single mutant gene that also causes retinitis pigmentosa.

Treating retinitis pigmentosa is like extinguishing fire. To stop a fire, you need to know whether its water-based or grease-based. If you try to use water to stop a grease fire, the damage gets worse.

Blind and visually impaired people can advocate for eye health by enrolling in a patient registry. Participation in a registry benefits researchers by offering more information about the disease.

In Canada, individuals can self-refer to Fighting Blindness Canadas secure, clinical patient registry. This database is dedicated to connecting people living with retinal eye diseases to clinical trials and research.

When a gene therapy trial arises, researchers draw participants from this database. Since gene therapy aims to correct an underlying genetic mistake in DNA that causes disease, knowing the genetic cause of a disease is a criteria for most gene therapy trials.

Globally, other registries include My Retina Tracker in the United States, Target 5000 in Ireland, MyEyeSite in the United Kingdom, the Australian Inherited Retinal Disease Registry and Japan Eye Genetics Consortium. In New Zealand, Dr. Andrea Vincent has established the Genetic Eye Disease Investigation Unit. There is even a Blue Cone Monochromacy Patient Registry for one rare eye condition.

In the last two decades, the number of gene therapy trials has blossomed. Currently, 250 genes on inherited retinal diseases have been identified. In 2017, the first gene therapy for inherited retinal disease Luxturna was approved by the United States Federal Drug Administration.

To date, there are trials for: retinitis pigmentosa; Usher syndrome, a condition that involves hearing and vision loss; achromatopsia, a disease that causes colour blindness; X-linked retinoschisis, a dystrophy that causes splitting of the retina and affects mostly in males; and age-related macular degeneration, the third-largest cause of vision loss worldwide, caused by the interplay between genetics and environment.

Enrolment in a patient registry and genetic testing advance the design of gene therapy trials. This in turn benefits blind and visually impaired people.

Research advancement is a concerted effort across the globe blind and partially sighted people should know they have the power to push it forward.

Ruanne Vent-Schmidt is a PhD candidate in cell and developmental biology at the University of B.C.This article originally appeared online at theconversation.com, an independent source of news and views, from the academic and research community.

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Tell me about your football career.

I started playing when I was eight years old. Ill have been playing for 15 years by the end of the season. Collegiately, I played JUCO, or Junior College, before I came here, which was really successful. We were a super good team, nationally ranked at American River College. I redshirted my freshman year there, and my second year I got injured. My third year wasnt a bad year, but a guy whos now at USC played ahead of me, so I didnt have the greatest success. After my third season, I was considering giving up because I had barely played the last season. Luckily, Luther had a recruiter that would not give up. He was super persistent. So I said, screw it and came out here for a visit. I came legitimately wanting to hate this place, and it slowly just won me over. That was over a J-term, and I committed the next day. I went from living in Sacramento with a job to moving out here within two weeks.

Describe your role on the team.

As a captain, my impact is just like being a big brother to a lot of the guys, especially because we have a really young team. The majority of our roster is freshmen and sophomores, with few juniors and even fewer seniors. I always preach that players play, coaches coach. Its not our job to chew guys out, as I see it. Trying to lead by example, doing all the right things, so guys can have a reference for how they should carry themselves.

How do you prepare for games?

Obviously, we practice every day as a team. But for me personally, Friday nights I try to settle in. Look over our notes from meetings. We always have a quiz to complete. I like to imagine myself in the game and create a mental image of myself in there, going through good and bad scenarios. On the actual game day, I just have laser focus. I dont look at social media. I send out a thank- you to people saying good luck, but other than that I dont do anything but focus. About an hour before the game, I get super intense and create a small goal for myself. Five tackles or a sack, something like that.

Do you usually accomplish your goals?

Depends on the game. Usually my bare minimum goal is five tackles and a sack, and if I get one or the other then Im happy. Then Ive had bad games as well. When those happen, the most important thing is that I gave it my all. Thats the one thing I care about more than anything. My position isnt super glorious, and when I do make a tackle its cool because I had to fight off a big, fat offensive linemen. If I do my best, I can live with it.

What are your thoughts on this season so far?

For our team, its been disappointing. Nobody likes losing. But we have a lot of room to grow. As I said, we have a lot of young players that are developing mentally and physically. Moving forward for the next few seasons, its gonna get better and better. If they do the right things, they will do big things in the future. For myself moving forward, we only have about three games left and this is my last season. My ultimate goal is to finish strong. I dont want to look back and say, man, I should have worked harder. When I dont work my hardest, it eats at me. When I was at JUCO, I almost gave up. Luckily, I was given this opportunity to finish strong here, and thats what I want to do. Win or lose, I just want to finish strong.

How has the team grown since you arrived at Luther?

We have a very young team, and Ive seen a few players step up and go in the right direction. Ive also seen young players with a lot of room to grow, which is okay since they have time. I thought our camp was much better this year in terms of keeping the game as the focus. Theres improvements and growth, but it will take time for it to show.

What are you looking forward to during the rest of your time at Luther?

Im looking forward to enjoying myself as a student for once. Ive played since I was eight, and I dont think Ive ever had a moment where Ive never played a sport before. With our next semester, I wont have that football commitment. It wont be easier, but it will be an interesting feeling. Itll be sad because I wont be doing what I love, but Ill get to experience something new and Im excited for that. Because I was a transfer, I have a bunch of freedom for what I can take, so Im very excited for that. Im excited to get involved in new things, as Im now freed up to do a little more.

Who is an athlete you look up to?

Theres a guy I played in JUCO with, and he recently got signed by the Carolina Panthers. Hes a linebacker, and his names Jordan Kunaszyk. We werent super close, but I knew him pretty well. He was a captain at my JUCO, and I admired the way he carried himself and his work ethic. A lot of the times when people talk about college athletics, they talk about genetics. He had a solid frame, but his work ethic alone is why hes at where hes at. And he made the actual team. He didnt get cut and he plays. His accomplishments and his work ethic are what I admire.

Whats a fun fact about yourself that isnt related to football?

I have club thumbs and people say they look like toes.

Photo courtesy of Luther FootballSefried hails from Lodi, CA.

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Norse of the Week: Tyler Sefried ('20) - Luther College Chips

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KFOR via Fox News An Oklahoma journalist who chose to air her first-ever mammogram on Facebook Live last year was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer, she said.

In October 2018, Ali Meyer, a reporter with Oklahomas News 4 (KFOR), chose to live-stream her mammogram because I thought it might remind some women to schedule theirs, she wrote in an essay posted to the news stations website.

When the day of her appointment arrived, I had no concerns, Meyer, 41, wrote. No lumps; no family history; no reason at all to think that my baseline mammogram would turn my world upside down.

But to her shock and dismay, Meyers mammogram results were abnormal.

Local radiologist Dr. Richard Falk, with the University of Oklahomas Breast Health Network, found cancerous calcifications in the reporters right breast, she said. More specifically, she was told she had non-invasive ductal breast cancer.

I will never forget that day. I will never forget telling my husband, my girls, she wrote.

One day after her diagnosis, Meyer took to Facebook Live to share the news.

This has been hard and shocking. It does rock you to your core, she said, according to KFOR. You guys have been really supportive and I appreciate it so much. This is not the news I was hoping to tell you about to raise breast cancer awareness.

Meyer, who was only 40 at the time of her diagnosis, did not have any genetic mutations that could explain why she developed breast cancer at such a young age.

Meyer later underwent a right side, skin and nipple-sparing mastectomy.

Even though [the] surgery was my choice, it felt like forced mutilation, she wrote in the essay. It felt like cancer was stealing part of my body away from me.

Luckily, because of how early her breast cancer was detected, Meyers prognosis was good.

"We found this when it was not invasive and not a mass when you are most likely to be completely cured and go on with a normal life," Falk told Meyer for the essay.

Meyers surgery was a success. Now one year later, she is cancer-free.

"I will never stop having mammograms, she wrote. I will never stop telling women to take care of their bodies and schedule their mammograms."

"This year I had my second, annual, 3D screening mammogram, she continued. I am thrilled and relieved to tell you my mammogram was clear, showing no signs of breast cancer.

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Oklahoma news anchor diagnosed with breast cancer after streaming first-ever mammogram on Facebook Live - msnNOW

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Pick your products

The first few days, and even weeks, of moustache growth can be reminiscent of your pre-pubescent peach fuzz but persistence and the right products can help.

"No product is really going to help you grow a moustache quicker, but definitely taking care of your skin and your hair will promote natural growth," Fraser says.

Plus, using a good beard oil can also help you resist the itch that comes with growing facial hair.

"For the first 10 days of growth, your hair is actually sucking all the nutrients and essential oils out of your skin, so that's where the dry skin and all that itchiness comes from," he exaplins. "We actually refer to that as beardruff."

Don't be afraid to ditch the razor and go semi-caveman in the first stages.

"I definitely think for a moustache to look better when it's starting to grow out, you would grow your moustache, but then you'd grow a little bit of shadow under your bottom lip and also maybe on your chin, and then as that moustache starts to get a bit of length to it, then you could take your chin and the bit under your bottom lip a lot shorter. That'll make it look a lot more appealing."

Once your whiskers have settled in, it's time to trim. Fraser reckons around the second week mark for most Movember participants.

"I definitely recommend growing it until the 15th, at least, so a good 10 to 14 days growth, and then you would look at trimming up your lip line," he says.

"That's the most important part to any guy with a moustache, because as soon as it gets past your lip line, it becomes really annoying to eat or even just talking, you can feel these little pricks. Or with your partner, if you kiss your partner or anything like that you can get little sharp bits."

While upkeep can help, how your mo grows is pretty much out of your hands.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to genetics, which some people can't help," Fraser says.

If your handlebar is looking more like facial fur don't waste your time with potions and promises. Just wear your whiskers with confidence because whatever you grow will save a bro.

The Movember movement is taking on major men's health issues like prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. Your help in spreading awareness and raising money goes a long way in helping change the face of men's health. Literally.

emember the importance of what the message is, and what you're doing it for," Fraser says. "It's great that there's a bit of humour behind it and everyone has a bit of a laugh with the different moustaches created over the years for Movember, but at the end of the day, the underlying message is that we're doing this for a reason and for a charity so stick it out."

Head here for more information about Movember and how you can get behind the cause.

Continued here:
4 Tips For Growing Your Moustache This Movember - Men's Health

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

In the early 18th century, Joseph Priestley, an English preacher, was intrigued by the peculiar smells that came from the brewery near his residence and started studying them. He noted that the gas could put out glowing embers, dissolve in water and give it a tangy taste. He had discovered carbon dioxide.

In Eureka! Greatest Scientists who Changed the World, science writer S. Ananthanarayanan tells us such stories behind famous discoveries and in the process offers short accounts of the lives of 60 scientists.

Eureka moments

Though the books preface notes that the list is incomplete and that the choice can always be questioned, the author has done justice by highlighting the main torchbearers across different fields ranging from astronomy, mathematics, and physics to medicine and genetics.

The book starts with Greek mathematician Euclid who lived around 300 BCE, takes us through the tales of big names such as Galileo, Newton, Darwin and concludes with the story of 1968's Nobel Prize winners for Physiology or Medicine.

Each chapter, just two to three pages, contains a story of the challenges faced, sudden Eureka moments and how secrets of science were unravelled. The book is an easy read and a perfect gift for anyone interested in science. The book can give you a whole range of conversation starters that you can use in daily life. Over a cup of coffee, ask your colleague, Hey, did you know that a physicist invented the drip-pot coffee percolator which gives you filter coffee?, or over a drink tell friends the story of how rum was used during surgeries. My personal favourites Leeuwenhoek who called microbes animalcules, cleanliness freak Joseph Lister, Robert Hooke and his insect anatomy book Micrographia have all made it to this curated list.

The chosen four

In 2004, the author had published Icons from the World of Science in which he highlighted the works of 10 Indian scientists. But unfortunately only four of them entered the new book of 60 scientists S.N. Bose, Nobel Prize winners C.V. Raman, and the India-born Americans, S. Chandrasekhar and Har Gobind Khorana.

Published in 2019, one would expect the book to stretch to the lives of a few 21st century scientists too, but it fails to do so. The final chapter set in the 1960s is on Marshall W. Nirenberg, Robert W. Holley and Indian biochemist Khorana and tells their journey to uncover the genetic sequence or code leading to the sensational outburst in the field of genetics.

Also, the book talks about only two female scientists, astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt and two-time Nobel winner Marie Curie. With WikiProject Women Scientists running strong and Indias The Life of Science project working hard to bring women scientists to the limelight, the author could have, or rather should have, included a few more women scientists.

Unfortunately, the bright orange cover also carries a manel clearly showcasing the lack of diversity. The book is, however, a good place to start for anyone wanting to know the history behind famous scientific discoveries.

Eureka! Greatest Scientists who Changed the World; S. Ananthanarayanan, Rupa, 295.

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Eureka! Greatest Scientists who Changed the World review: Recreating great discoveries - The Hindu

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Every child is different in just about every wayheight included. But did you know different things can affect height? Different ethnicities have different average heights. Certain disorders, such as down syndrome, can also have an effect on height. Different genders can also change the height of an average 10 year old.

With more and more moms and dads entering the world of parenting, there are more and more questions arising. One question asked by many parents is, Is my child a good average height? Or is he or she above or below? Well, we have the answers for you!

Many things can affect the average height of any 10 year old child:

The Average Height Based on Gender

On average, boys are taller than girls. We all know this, and there is nothing wrong with it. However, at 10 years old, the average height of a boy and a girl is close to the same.

Typically, the average 10 year old boy is about 54.5 inches tall while the average height of a 10 year old girl is 56.3 inches. At this age, it is very normal for girls to be a little taller than boys, as girls hit puberty earlier. This will be discussed later on.

However, the range for normal height for a 10 year old boy is between 50 inches and 58.8 inches. Some young boys will be taller than the average 54.5 inches and others will be shorter. So, dont worry if you think your son is too short or tallhe isnt! The normal range for a girl is roughly the same.

The Average Height Based on Genetics and Ethnicity

Genetics is the main factor in determining height. Roughly 60-80 percent of anything that determines height is genetics. The remaining percentages are things like nutrition and environmental factors.

How tall the mother is and how tall the father is can help you get an idea of how tall your child will be at any age. If both parents are tall, chances are your child will be on the taller side too. If both parents are short, your child will more than likely end up shorter. But you need to look beyond just parents.

Look at other biological relatives. If the mother is short like the grandmother, her child can still end up tall if her father was tall. This goes the same way for the father of the child, too. Looking at patterns of the heights of siblings (the aunts and uncles of the child) can also give you an idea of how tall your child might be.

Different ethnicities and/or races will also help to determine the height of your growing child. However, ethnicity will hardly affect the height of a 10 year old girl or boy. At that age, it is rather standard on the height. However, you can guess how tall your child might be when they are older based on your ethnicity.

For men, on average, the height of an adult African American male is 69.5 inches. The average height of an Asian man is 67 inches and then the average height of a Hispanic man is 67.4 inches.

For women, he average height of an African American female is a out 64.2 inches. The average height of an Asian female is 62.8 inches. Finally, the average height of a Hispanic female is about 62 inches.

However, looking at the genetics and ethnicity combined can give you a good idea of how tall your 10 year old might be.

Nutrition

Nutrition plays a huge factor in how tall your child might end up being by the time they are 10 years old. In many poor or third world countries, you might notice children are shorter than children in first world countries. This is often due to the fact that they get poorer nutrition than our children.

Even in poor parts of first world countries if a child is not getting proper nutrition they might be shorter. Once the child starts to get decent nutrition, he or she will probably have a growth spurt depending on age and how much they needed to grow.

Genetic Disorders and Chronic Illness

Genetic disorders and chronic illnesses can definitely affect the height of your child at any age. It is good to go talk to your child pediatrician if you are worried about any sort of disorder or illness affecting them in any way.

If your child has cancer, he or she might be shorter than they would have been if they were healthy. This is because the illness attacks his or her body and takes away extra nutrients that their bodies need to grow. Plus, chemo and radiation can halt a childs growth because it works by killing off cells.

Arthritis can also impact height. While it is rare for a child as young as 10 to have severe arthritis, it can happen. Depending on the severity, arthritis can damage the joints and cause growth plates to form over and stop the child from growing.

Celiac disease is another than can stunt growth because nutrition might be less. Celiac disease is when you are truly allergic to gluten. You get incredibly sick and sometimes even need hospitalized. Those with celiac disease have a hard time finding enough foods that are 100% gluten free that are affordable, thus the lack of nutrition.

Turner syndrome only affects females. It is a chromosomal condition and while it rarely affect intelligence, it will affect outward appearances as well as a few internal complications. The most common feature in women with turner syndrome will be shorter. You can start to notice the height problem around age five, so by the time the child reaches 10, she will be much shorter than her classmates.

Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal condition in humans. Children with down syndrome have a slower rate of growth. They also tend to be shorter than their other children their age, even as young as 10 years old.

Puberty and Height

Generally, around age 10 girls are a little taller than boys. This is because a girls enters puberty at a younger age. While boys start to show physical signs of puberty such as height as early as 10 years old, girls start around 8 years old.

In a young girl, the average for a girls growth rate to peak is around 12. After she begins menstruating, she will usually grow another 1-2 inches and then reach their final height around 14 or 15. This can vary depending on what age their cycle started.

In a young boy, their major growth spurt is about two years later than girls. So, while they might be shorter than their female peers, that will change once they hit puberty. Boys tend to grow fastest around ages 12 and 15 and slow down or completely stop around age 16.

Other Factors Affecting Height

There are other smaller factors that we forget to think about when it we think about height. Did you know that a premature birth can change how tall your child can be? A smaller baby needs to catch up on growth at a young age and might continue to be catching up throughout his or her life.

Being around cigarette smoke can also cause a child to be a little shorter. The toxic chemicals in the smoke and damage cells when breathed in and therefore affect the childs health. Also, having certain hormones or lacking certain hormones can cause a change in average height.

If a child has to be on certain medications for varying medical reasons, it can also change how they grow. Some will stunt growth more than realized, but height is nothing compared to the overall health of your child.

If you are concerned about where your child is on the growth charts, talk to his or her doctor about it. Your doctor will be able to answer any questions better than any information you will be able to find online.

Source: https://www.familylifeshare.com/average-height-of-a-10-year-old/

View post:
What is the Average Height of a 10 Year Old? - Modern Ghana

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Researchers at the University of Utah determined that they have found a link between a brain cell imbalance and the levels of anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. The study revealed a new lineage of specialized brain cells called Hoxb8-lineage microglia.

The research concluded that imbalance or fluctuation in the levels of certain brain cells led to a change in the intensity of anxiety and OCD in mice. The female mice were found more reactive towards anxiety issues but the symptoms were also visible in male mice as well.

"It opens up a new avenue for thinking about anxiety,"Dimitri Trnkner, lead author of the research and assistant professor of biology at Utah University, said. "Since we have this model, we have a way to test new drugs to help these mice and hopefully, at some point, this will help people."

The research suggested that the biological sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone) and genetics, the two major risk factors for anxiety-related disorders in humans, were interlinked. The Hoxb8-lineage microglia which was earlier known only for its crucial role in brain development in the womb was found to be the reason for anxiety in mice.

"We didnt really know what to make of the fact that mice without Hoxb8 appear so normal, until we noticed that they groom significantly more and longer than that would be considered healthy," Mario Capecchi, a distinguished professor of human genetics and a Nobel Laureate, who was also involved in the research, said.

To test the feasibility of their claim, Trnkner, along with his co-workers, tested the mice at different levels of progesterone and estrogen. It was found that at male levels of hormones, the OCD and anxiety behavior in female mice resembled that of the male; whereas, at female levels, the OCD behaviors in male mice resembled that of the female.

"We have a good understanding of how anxiety is produced in people," Trnkner said. "Of all models, I have great faith that mice are one of the best models, as they are so similar to people."

Trnkner also said that the new findings put everyone a little closer to forming a new, effective drug for anxiety particularly. "Scientists want to help these people to get their lives back," he added.

Dozens of countries have had cases of the antibiotic-resistant STI, which means the bacteria responsible for the infection continues to reproduce. Photo: Pixabay

Link:
Brain Cell Imbalance May Lead To Anxiety, OCD: Study - International Business Times

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

It was 3 a.m. on a typical Saturday in Geneseo. UHots was closing and there was nothing to domy alumni friend was visiting, so we trudged through the rain back to my place for an early morning catch-up. His life is a lot more exciting than mine, so I listened intently as he told me of his post-grad misadventures.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was almost recruited into a cult? he said casually. No, he had not. I listened intently as he told me of a private subreddit he had been added to and the pseudo-intellectual who ran the page, inviting people who had like-minded views to join.

This got me thinkingthis subreddit cant be the only page like this on the internet. Since then, I have uncovered similar communities and ideas (i.e. places where spiritual thought meets modern politics and personal musings) grasping for meaning in the digital age. I believe the new frontier for religious thought lies not in the worship spaces of yesteryear, but in online forums and other digital spaces where one can make their beliefs heard and gain a following.

Spiritual groups born and bred online occupy a space somewhere between absurdism and grave sincerity. There is a whole spectrum of those who believe, dont believe or are simply curious about a given sect of online spiritual thought.

In conducting research, I came across the website for The Church of Google, a parody religion founded in 2009 with the goal of creating commentary about the sophistication and increasing symbiotic relationship that technologies like Google play in our lives. I also came across online forums such as MySpiritualgroup, which is self-described as an online spiritual group which seeks to gather all genuine truth seekers from around the world and focuses on metaphysics and esoteric thought.

Additionally, there are countless Reddit forums, like the one my friend joined, focused on the interplay between religion and psychedelics, anarchy and the alt-rightto name a few topics that have been brought into the conversation via dedicated subreddits.

One of the most intriguing online spiritual movements is one called H+, or Transhumanism. According to H+pedia, an online Wikipedia-esque transhumanist encyclopedia, transhumanism can be defined as a belief or movement in favour of human enhancement, especially beyond current human limitations and with advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, life extension and nanotechnology.

While prescribers to the philosophy might describe themselves as post-religious, there is something fundamentally spiritual about their way of thinking, which combines the concept of human transcendence with modern technological advancement. I may add that transhumanists are the same people in favor of gene modifying and strong AI technology, as well as proponents of the concept of technological singularity.

The internet is chaos, and so it only makes sense that spiritual communities that have formed from the internet are chaotic as well. The wide range of content, from intellectual to idiotic, underscores the wide range of beliefs being vocalized. Not only have we been ushered into a new age with technology providing platforms to express opinions, but the very opinions themselves have also been altered and shifted due to the emergence of the internet and what that means for human development.

As spiritual discussion online continues to mold the worldviews of many internet users, it is important that we attempt to broaden our understanding of this emerging intellectual discourse in order to better understand its real-world implications.

You can call Hayley Jones a metamorphosis rock because they do well under pressure!

Continue reading here:
Religious and spiritual online forums consist of chaotic, impactful ideas - Lamron

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Its big. Its round. Its the Chanhassen weather ball.

Well, actually its the National Weather Services WSR-88D dual-polarization radar, but that doesnt really roll off the tongue.

Its an integral piece of government equipment, responsible for gauging rain, snow and tornadoes throughout the region.

Its also a prominent landmark, visible to drivers along Lyman Boulevard and, notes Chanhassen City Manager Todd Gerhardt, those attending athletic events at the nearby Chanhassen High School.

I always thought it would have been cool to paint the Storm logo on the weather ball, Gerhardt said, of the Chanhassen High School mascot.

Kris Dahl lives in Chanhassens Valley Ridge Trail neighborhood, about a football field length from the weather ball. He uses two of the citys biggest landmarks to help visitors find his home turn at Princes Paisley Park, turn at the weather ball.

In September, he witnessed a rare site a giant crane lifted the round casing off the stand so workers could perform maintenance on the equipment. He contacted the newspaper with photographs.

So, to learn more about the radar, we contacted Eric Ahasic, a National Weather Service meteorologist and radar expert who works out of the Chanhassen office. He responded to questions via email.

What is the official name of the weather ball?

The weather ball is officially called a weather radar. More specifically a WSR-88D dual-polarization radar. Even more specifically, a Weather Surveillance Radar, 1988, Doppler which indicates that the radars became operational in 1988 and have Doppler wind retrieval capabilities.

What have you heard people call it?

Weve heard it referred to as the golf ball tower before, in addition to the weather ball. Spaceship gets thrown around as well.

What do you call it around the office?

We just call it the radar.

What equipment is inside?

Inside is a large dish, similar to a TV satellite dish, that is constantly rotating while sending out and retrieving signals. The dish has a diameter of 30 feet.

What does the equipment in the ball detect?

The radar operates by emitting microwave radiation (the same as in your microwave at home!) and listening for any energy that is reflected back to the radar by particles in the atmosphere (raindrops/hail/snow/dust/bugs/birds/etc.). Unlike your microwave at home, the radar transmits energy at 750,000 watts (compared to 800-1,000 watts in the average microwave).

Who uses this information?

Anyone who has ever looked at a radar image is using our information. Whenever you view radar online, on a smartphone, or on TV, that data is coming from our radar here in Chanhassen.

What would life be like if we didnt have the radar?

Radar is the most useful tool we have to monitor all modes of precipitation, ranging from severe thunderstorms with tornadoes to light snow and drizzle. By using the dual-polarization and Doppler radar capabilities of our radar, we are able to see signatures of tornadoes forming sometimes half an hour or more before they actually touch down.

The number of casualties from tornadoes would certainly increase, as lead time on our warnings would drop. Our radar is essential during heavy rain and flooding events, as well as we can estimate how much rain is falling in areas where we have no measurements of rainfall.

How did the radar come into play during the recent snowfall in the Dakotas and Minnesota?

The radar lets us identify areas where it is snowing vs. raining, and where the snow is the heaviest. We are able to adjust our winter weather warnings and advisories in real time based on this data.

However, one limitation of radar is that the beam of energy is always getting higher above the surface as it gets farther away from Chanhassen due to the curvature of the Earth.

Since snow comes from clouds that are much shallower than your typical tall summertime thunderstorm, the radar beam will sometimes overshoot the top of the snow in portions of our area (especially across portions of western Minnesota). We rely heavily on surface observations and observations from weather spotters in these areas, as the snow will be invisible to the radar if it overshoots the top of the clouds.

How many times does the radar spin around per minute?

We are able to operate the radar in different modes depending on what type of weather we are expecting. We spin it the fastest during severe weather, as we want the most frequent updates as possible. In its fastest mode, the radar can complete a complete turn in 30 seconds. However, the radar has to perform a separate scan to measure the precipitation intensity and another to detect the winds, so the fastest we can currently get data is every 1 minute.

No. Even if we lose power to our building, the radar has a backup generator that will keep it running. However, we routinely take the radar down for brief periods in order to perform scheduled routine maintenance. We always schedule this routine maintenance during periods of quiet weather.

Occasionally, the radar undergoes larger maintenance projects which are scheduled well in advance (rain or shine) to fit in with similar repairs on other radars across the country.

What work was recently done on the radar?

We recently replaced the pedestal unit on our radar in September, as part of the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) performed on all of the radars across the nation.

The radar pedestal unit is the mechanical parts that allows the radar dish to spin and point up and down. The four SLEP projects are necessary to repair and update outdated parts of our radar (installed in 1995) in order to ensure its operation well into the 2030s.

How often does the ball need to be maintained?

The radome itself is pretty low maintenance, usually only needing a new coat of paint every few years. We perform routine maintenance on the radar itself regularly such as changing the oil to ensure the radar spins smoothly, and calibrating the antenna/dish/transmitter to keep the data quality high.

Does the cold weather ever impact its operation?

No, while it gets cold here in Minnesota, we have weather radars in Alaska that have operated in temperatures well below -40 F.

Why is it in the shape of a ball?

The ball is the protective covering, called a radome, that protects the spinning radar dish. The round shape is most effective at deflecting wind and hail from impacting the radar, as well as prevent any interference from the radome degrading the radar data.

How tall is the entire structure?

The radar is around 150 feet tall to the top of the radome. NWS radars are commonly placed on tall towers to ensure the beam stays above nearby trees/hills/etc.

What is the diameter of the ball?

The dome is 39 feet in diameter.

What is the exterior of the ball made out of?

The radome needs to be made of a strong, but light, material that will not interfere with the signals coming in and out of the radar. Our radome is made out of fiberglass, and is designed to stand winds up to 150 mph.

What does the entire structure/equipment cost?

A NWS radar costs anywhere from $10 million-$15 million to install, and around $500,000 a year to maintain.

How many of these are there across the United States?

There are 159 NWS WSR-88D radars across the U.S. and its territories.

Where is the next closest radar?

The next closest NWS radar is the one in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 137 miles away. Neighboring NWS radars are also located in Duluth; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Aberdeen, South Dakota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to the NWS radars, the FAA operates a smaller radar in Woodbury, Minnesota, to provide coverage for the MSP Airport vicinity. We are able to use data from this radar as well in our operations.

How did you get interested in radar work?

Well I can remember the date exactly when I first was interested in weather, April 19, 1996. I was all of 6 years old and a tornado narrowly missed our house in Illinois, one of 39 tornadoes that day across the state. I became fascinated with tornadoes after seeing the damage and news coverage after that event (the movie Twister coming out a month later in May certainly didnt hurt either). In order to learn about tornadoes, you have to learn about radar, so that is where my interest started.

As I went through college, I discovered all of the other ways radar is used to detect and predict different weather phenomena, including doing some research on using radar to study lake-effect snow.

After graduating, I spent a spring researching tornadoes with smaller mobile radars attached to the back of semi-trucks, called Doppler on Wheels. Our goal was basically to get as close to possible to tornadoes in order to study them, as fun as it gets for a weather-nerd like myself.

Whats an average day like for you?

There really is no average day, but as a meteorologist the main part of my job is forecasting the weather for our county warning area covering most of the southern half of Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin. This includes a standard seven-day forecast but also aviation forecasts for seven airports across our area, including MSP International. During hazardous weather in all seasons, our office is also responsible for issuing watches, warnings, and advisories in order to protect life and property.

Our office also provides decision support services to many large events going on throughout the year across our county warning area. From small community events to the Super Bowl and Minnesota State Fair, we assist the organizers of these events who request our support by providing daily weather briefings and notification of hazardous weather approaching the event so they can ensure the safety of those attending.

What else would you like to add?

Id like to promote NOAAs Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors initiative, where we partner with businesses and organizations in our communities to promote and spread weather safety and preparedness information. If you would like to work with us to help make your community more resilient to potential weather disasters, check out the initiatives website at weather.gov/wrn, or email us for more information at nws.twincities@noaa.gov.

Link:
All hail the weather ball | Chanhassen News - SW News Media

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Avacta Group and cancer drug developer ADC Therapeutics SA have entered into a collaboration agreement.

The partnership financial terms of which were not made public will develop drugs combining ADC Therapeutics pyrrolobenzodiazepine-based cytotoxic warheads with Avactas Affimer targeting platform.

ADC Therapeutics will cover all Avactas costs during the project. The firm also has the right to obtain exclusive licenses to the Affimer proteins for clinical development and commercialization.

Matt Vincent, Avactas VP of Therapeutics Business Development, told us: The license ADC Therapeutics has from Medimmune for the PBD-based drug conjugates includes the ability to use that toxin with a certain number of antibodies and a certain number of non-antibody targeting moieties.

Through our meetings and diligence with ADC Therapeutics, I believe the Affimer platform was selected because of multiple factors: the speed with which we can generate human Affimers to designated targets in order to begin animal testing; the flexibility in formatting, such as to utilize serum half-life extension techniques different from antibodies so as to avoid Fc-mediated recycling that may cause off-target toxin release or to create multispecifics; and tumor penetration characteristics that can be fine-tuned with the Affimer platform.

Affimers are small proteins that target and bind molecules on cellular surfaces in a manner analogous to monoclonal antibodies.

The key difference is that affimers are optimized to enhance their structural stability. They are also more resistant than mAbs to changes in environmental pH and temperature.

In addition, affimers are also easier and cheaper to manufacture than mAbs. Their small size means they can be produced in large quantities in modified cell lines.

Dr Vincent told us: Affimer-based biologics can be less expensive and with less complicated manufacturing requirements when compared to antibodies.

He explained that, Production of therapeutic antibodies is generally highly optimized, but because of the limitations of the antibody structure two different chains with multiple disulphide bonds and post-translational modifications still can be expensive and time consuming in manufacture for use in human patients.

In contrast, amongst the various formats we use for Affimer therapeutics, including those likely to be considered by ADC Therapeutics, the product is generally a single chain protein which reduces the complication of production.

Vincent added that in the context of drug conjugates, we also think the relative stability of Affimers in organic solvents permits a higher yield of drug conjugate as the existing coupling chemistries can be harsh enough to result in antibody loss and decreased percentage yields of final conjugate product from starting materials.

Pyrrolobenzodiazepines are a class of compounds that kill cells by binding their DNA and interfering with replication. In nature they are made by a group of bacteria known as actinomycetes.

Research suggests pyrrolobenzodiazepines could be a useful alternative to cytotoxic payloads such as calicheamycin, because they are not cross-resistant with other chemotherapy agents [1].

In addition, they have a unique mode of action sets them apart from the tubulin binders like maytansinoids and auristatins that currently dominate the antibody-drug conjugate arena.

Avacta has already licensed the affimer technology to several other organisations, the first of which was Moderna Therapeutics in 2015.

And in January last year, Avacta agreed a deal with OncoSec Medical Incorporated, focused on gene therapies. A few months later the firm entered into a co-development partnership with Bach BioSciences.

More recently Avacta partnered with LG Chem Life Sciences, a division of the South Korean LG Group. The firm has since said the agreement could be worth up to $310 million.

References

[1] https://www.adcreview.com/pyrrolobenzodiazepine-pbd/

Read the original:
Avecta teams with ADC Therapeutics on conjugates - Bioprocess Insider - BioProcess Insider

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Day two of The Superyacht Forum will this year focus on the future of superyacht ownership. Findings from The Superyacht Agency have revealed a large generational shift in wealth that will result in an increasing number of 30-40-year-old billionaires. It can be argued that the next, younger generation of superyacht owners will be far more eco-conscious than their predecessors, in-tune with modern opinions and arguments along the no planet B theme.

Diving straight into an often-taboo topic, our morning panel discussion, The Future of Planet Superyacht gives centre stage to the sustainability debate. Panellists including a representative from the Water Revolution Foundation, will explore the needs, expectations and demands of future clients related to the impact our industry has on the earth and the oceans. As recently announced by British Marine, 2019 has been the superyacht industrys 7th year of consecutive growth, with generated revenues rising to 660 million, representing an increase of 7.1% on last year, according to their website. To ensure the industry continues to grow, on a global scale as well as in Britain, it must move with the times and provide the market with sustainable alternatives, which are already in popular demand, illustrated aptly by the ongoing development and investment into hybrid propulsion systems and other environmentally conscious innovations. This movement, however, cannot only be driven by owner demand, but it must also be driven by the industry itself.

Continuing the theme of sustainability, one of day twos panel debates, The Impact of Ceramic Coatings Solution or Problem? will address the hot topic regarding the life extension of paint systems. The topic is not one to be ignored and thus makes its way into our programme further to the arrival of various protective coatings entering the sector, which a panel of experts will explore in more detail, and consider the impact of these cosmetic solutions in order to understand if they are good or bad for the overall paint system. Finishes, after all, are not only one of the most visible and aesthetically vital elements of a superyacht project, but also remain one of the most costly and, at times, litigious build factors.

While considered by many to be an unnecessary evil, of particular interest to owners and owners teams is one of the afternoon sessions, State of the Insurance Market which will see representatives from Hiscox MGA, Lead Yacht and Willis Towers Watson considering what the future of insurance. After a period of market softening, that has seen premiums shrink to an all-time low, as well as deductibles, high broker commissions and additional coverage, the panel will explore the markets current period of correction, which has seen the market harden and premiums increase, in order to highlight why the changes have been necessary. Lay conception would assume that premiums move in one direction down. After all, if an owner has had a superyacht for 10 years and no claims, why should their premiums increase? Simply, the market, in its previous form, was unsustainable and without correction, there would be few underwriters willing to insure superyachts. In addition to the market itself, the panel will consider incidents and losses, exploring where the risks really lie, as well as looking at the ways that superyachts are changing in terms of their makeup and usage.

A unique group of industry leaders and superyacht owners, accompanied by their family and future flag-bearers, will discuss what they have discovered throughout their ownership, what they expected, and most importantly to our delegates, what they want for the future...

Day two concludes with what is set to be one of the most significant panel discussions The Superyacht Forum has ever hosted. The VIP panel, whose names will be revealed on SuperyachtNews over the coming days, comprises a unique group of industry leaders and superyacht owners, accompanied by their family and future flag-bearers, to discuss what they have discovered throughout their ownership, what they expected, and most importantly to our delegates, what they want for the future. Get your notebook at the ready and prepare to join us in Amsterdam from 18th 20th November here.

Profile links

Hiscox MGA Ltd - Yachtsure24

The Superyacht Forum

Water Revolution Foundation

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Read the original post:
What will the future of superyacht ownership look like? - Superyacht News - The Superyacht Report

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith