Rev Penny Jones at Pet blessing at St Lukes Church.
Bev Lacey
DOGS can seem pretty unholy after going through the rubbish and digging a few holes in the backyard, but thankfully animal owners were able to put a bit of holy back into their pets after this morning's Animal Sunday service at St Luke's Anglican Church.
Dogs howling at hymns and grumbling at prayers for cats provided for a light hearted church service as Reverends Penny Jones and Val Grayson presided over what is easily the most fun Sunday on the church's annual calendar.
Pet owners brought along their furry friends to enjoy an outdoor church service aimed at thanking the little critters that often make our most dependable and loyal friends.
There were prayers for cats, dogs, ducks and even elephants said, as well as a moment to reflect on furry friends passed on.
"It's so important to recognise our interdependence with the animal world because we have one creator and we belong together in the web of life," Rev Jones said.
"They give us such marvellous gifts such as unconditional love and loyalty and deserve to be recognised."
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Slovenia's economy, saddled by a banking crisis, does not need a financial bailout, even though public debt levels will likely breach European Union rules in two years, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said on Friday.
Jansa expects government reform programs, such as increased public-sector wage cuts, job cuts, an increase in the retirement age and consolidation of a privatization program, if executed in time, will boost economic growth and make a bailout unnecessary.
"If we do what we planned, we won't need a bailout," Jansa told Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Slovenia is struggling to avoid becoming the sixth euro zone member to need some form of financial aid. Jansa said he hopes that all of the reform programs will become law within the next 45 days. He said that if there was a call for a referendum by opposition politicians, it would only serve to delay the process by two months, not stop it.
"Of course, if we run the same debt next year, the bailout is the only solution. But we are determined not to do it. This is why we had early elections and why we changed course," he said.
Slovenia's public debt to gross domestic product ratio rose to 47.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012, but it could cross above the 60 percent threshold set by European Union rules in 2014, Jansa said.
"2014 maybe," he said on the debt threshold, adding: "2014 is also the year when we count on all these measures to start growth will also have some impacts."
The overall public debt to GDP ratio for the 17-member euro zone rose to 88.2 percent in the second quarter, up from 87.3 percent in the prior period.
Jansa said Slovenia's budget deficit stood at 3.4 percent, and required smaller cuts, despite plans to place bad loans in the banking sector - equal to 17.5 percent of economic output - into a so-called "bad bank."
That move would require more government spending, but Jansa said it would not just be bad loans that are transferred.
"We will also transfer the shares of the companies," he said, referring to loans, the majority of which are tied to corporate assets.
"But with all of the other measures we are implementing, the value of those shares after two or three years will rise," Jansa said, referring to plans for more sales of state assets to raise revenues and reduce Ljubljana's ownership of enterprises.
He rejected criticism that consolidating the five agencies in charge of privatizations into one overseen by the government was a recipe for increased political influence and selling of assets on the cheap.
"We have five different agencies which are dealing with this and the transparency is very low. Now we are creating a system with 100 percent transparency," he said.
Jansa reiterated plans to start the process of selling a $1.5 billion Eurobond in October with the aim of finishing the sale before the end of the year to help finance the reform programs.
Slovenia postponed a similar issue in euros in April because the yield demanded was above 5 percent.
Slovenia's bond issuing plans were helped dramatically by the drop in European government bond yields brought on by a July 26 pledge from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to do whatever is necessary to protect the euro zone from collapse.
"He has to do this," Jansa said. "There will never be total consensus about those measures because the difference between member countries is too big."
LONDON (AP) ? Britain's Health Protection Agency says an early genetic sequence of the new respiratory virus related to SARS shows it is most closely related to bat viruses.
Global health officials say they haven't found evidence the virus can spread between people and suspect the two victims from the Middle East may have caught it from animals.
So far, there are no signs the virus will be as deadly as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed hundreds of people, mostly in Asia, in a 2003 global outbreak
Experts say camels, sheep or goats ? animals commonly found in the region ? may be implicated too. Bats also harbor other deadly viruses, like Ebola and SARS, which usually infect other animals including monkeys and civet cats before jumping to humans.
The European Commission's "Science: It's a Girl Thing!" campaign has been retooled.
By Alan Boyle
It's not exactly surprising that males are perceived as more competent in science than females ? but researchers at Yale University were surprised to find that even professional scientists showed evidence of such bias. Now the big question is what to do about it.
"Whenever I give a talk that mentions past findings of implicit gender bias in hiring, inevitably a scientist will say that can?t happen in our labs because we are trained to be objective," microbiologist Jo Handelsman, lead author of a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a Yale news release. "I had hoped that they were right."
Nope.
Handelsman and her colleagues asked 127 science faculty members from six institutions to review an application from a senior undergraduate student looking for a job as a lab manager. The faculty members were asked to judge how competent the applicant was, how much the student should be paid, and whether they'd be willing to mentor the student.
Each researcher looked at the same application ??but in some cases the applicant was given a male name (John), and in the other cases a female name was assigned (Jennifer), all on a random basis. When the results were analyzed, it turned out that the sight-unseen male applicant was rated more competent than the female. The mean starting salary offer was $30,238.10 for John as opposed to $26,507.94 for Jennifer. Faculty members were more willing to mentor John than Jennifer.
The data showed a disparity whether the demographic category in question was male or female, young or old, tenured or untenured. "The bias appears pervasive among faculty and is not limited to a certain demographic subgroup," Handelsman and her colleagues wrote.
The researchers emphasized that they weren't suggesting the biases were intentional or stemmed from a conscious desire to hold women back. In fact, they found that the faculty members tended to like Jennifer more than John. That sentiment was generally voiced by faculty women as well as faculty men. It's just that the warm feelings for Jennifer "did not translate into positive perceptions of her composite confidence or material outcomes," according to the PNAS paper.
So what is to be done? "Our results suggest that academic policies and mentoring interventions targeting undergraduate advisers could contribute to reducing the gender disparity," the researchers wrote.
The findings suggest that it's not enough to get young women interested in careers in science, technology, education and math, a.k.a. STEM. There needs to be a conscious follow-through by the folks who do the hiring and mentoring.?You can read through the whole study at the PNAS website.
Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising to find out that scientists can be vulnerable to subtle biases, just like other people. Even journalists. Last month, for example, Lund University researchers Daniel Conley and Johanna Stadmark found that far fewer women than men were being invited to write commentaries for the journals Science and Nature.
Conley and Stadmark acknowledged that men tend to outnumber women in scientific fields, particularly at the higher levels, so there's something of a selection effect at work. But they said it was "still fair to conclude that fewer women than men are offered the career boost of invitation-only authorship in each of the two leading science journals." They called on the editors to "extend gender parity for commissioned writers."
Over time, raising the visibility of women scientists (and raising their salaries) will help draw more girls into research and science education. At least that's the idea. Here are a few more efforts that put girl power to work on the science world's gender issues:
'Girl Thing' reloaded: Remember the European Commission program that stirred up a controversy by putting out a glammed-up video about STEM careers for women? Now the EC's "Science: It's a Girl Thing" program is sponsoring a contest for videographers who think they can do better. On the Scientific American website, "Science Goddess" Joanne Manaster explains how to enter. The winning videos will be shown in November at the European Gender Summit?at the European Parliament in Brussels. Three winners will each receive a cash prize of??1,500 ($1,930).
Think locally:?It's worth looking for organizations that are bringing girl power to STEM on the community level. The best example is Sally Ride Science, which thinks globally and acts locally when it comes to getting girls involved in scientific pursuits. The organization, founded by?the late space icon Sally Ride, presents?a series of science festivals for girls?in grades 5 through 8. The next one is coming up?Oct. 27 at Rice University in Houston, with astronaut Wendy Lawrence as the featured speaker. Other organizations involved in girl-power science include?Girlstart in Austin, Texas; and Science Club for Girls in the Boston area.
Women chemists in the spotlight: The Chemical Heritage Foundation's video series pays tribute to seven women who have made their mark in chemistry?? including Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of bulletproof Kevlar fiber; Paula Hammond, a pioneer in nanotechnology for drug delivery; and Nancy Chang, a successful biotech entrepreneur.?
Celebrating girl power: Today The Mary Sue?is highlighting a series of posters that pay tribute to women scientists such as Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin and Jane Goodall. And next month, the Royal Society is planning a Wikipedia "Edit-a-thon" to improve the online encyclopedia's articles about women in science. "Female editors are particularly encouraged to attend," the society says. The event in planned in conjunction with Ada Lovelace Day on Oct. 16.
More about women in science:
In addition to Handelsman, the authors of "Science Faculty's Subtle Gender Biases Favor Male Students" include Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, John F. Dovidio, Victoria L. Brescoli and Mark J. Graham.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
"There?s a debate right now in Washington about rules that could discourage the innovative on-demand car service company, Uber. Not hard to guess which side I?m on ? I?m on the side of innovation," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Julius Genachowski, in an unusual show of political support for an issue he has no authority over. The move shows the growing opposition to D.C.'s taxi union, which is continuing its yet unsuccessful bid to regulate the popular on-demand cab service,?after a very public online protest shut down the union's first attempt earlier in the summer.
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VAUGHN, N.M. (AP) ? The police chief of the small eastern New Mexico town of Vaughn resigned Wednesday, leaving the town with just one certified member on its police force ? a drug-sniffing dog named Nikka.
Dave Romero, attorney for the town, said Wednesday that police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo decided to step down after news stories reported that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background.
"He decided the attention was distracting," Romero said.
State officials said Armijo couldn't carry a gun since acknowledging that he owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas. Armijo also faces new felony charges after being accused of selling a town-owned rifle and pocketing the cash.
Romero said Armijo is working to clear up the latest case. He said Armijo has not ruled out seeking the police chief's position again if his case is resolved and the position is open.
According to records, the only qualified member of the Vaughn Police Department is Nikka, a drug-sniffing dog. Vaughn's other officer isn't certified and pleaded guilty to charges of assault and battery last year. Noncertified officers can't make arrests and can't carry firearms.
But Romero said not having an officer qualified to carry a gun didn't put Vaughn at risk. "England doesn't allow police officers to carry guns," he said. "Sometime the strongest weapon in law enforcement is communication."
Vaughn, a town of about 450 located 104 miles east of Albuquerque, is a quiet town that is an overnight stop for railroad workers. And while residents say there is no crime problem, the town is set deep in what U.S. Homeland Security Investigations officials say is an isolated region of the state popular with drug traffickers. Officials say the desolate roads in Guadalupe County make it hard for authorities to catch smugglers moving drugs from Mexico.
Guadalupe County Sheriff Michael Lucero said since news about the police chief's record became public his department has helped patrol Vaughn. But he said those efforts have put a slight strain on his already short-staffed department.
"I visit the town at least once a month," said Lucero. "The important thing is to keep a presence so residents know we're there to help if we're needed."
Romero said town officials are considering whether to hire another police chief or keep the department staffed with just one officer. He said it's unclear whether the town will keep the police dog, which had been in Armijo's care.
When approached by a reporter from The Associated Press at his Vaughn home, Armijo said he had no comment, and he declined to grant access to the canine for photographs or video.
The dog's kennel could be seen in Armijo's backyard, and a police truck marked "K-9" was parked in his driveway.
At Penny's Diner, residents said they were embarrassed by the attention the episode has put on the small town.
"There's just a whole lot of nothing going on here," said cook Joyce Tabor. "We have very little crime. It's quiet. So this really doesn't matter."
___
Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
Images reveal potential for NIR imaging to detect success of breast reconstructionPublic release date: 25-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ian Michael ian@impublications.co.uk 44-124-381-1334 IM Publications LLP
In 2010 breast reconstruction entered the Top Five list of reconstructive procedures in the US, with 93,000 procedures performed, up 8% from 2009, and 18% from 2000. This is among the most common skin flap procedure performed.
Skin flaps are typically used to cover areas of tissue loss or defects that arise as a result of traumatic injury, reconstruction after cancer excision and repair of congenital defects. In the case of a mastectomythe surgical removal of the breastskin flaps are commonly used to create a new breast. Most commonly these flaps are derived from the woman's own abdominal tissue, which is removed and transplanted to the breast area where it is formed to take on the shape and appearance of an actual breast (this is called the flap).
Skin flaps are complex procedures that require post-operative monitoring to ensure that they do not fail. Most failures arise from circulatory complications where either the arterial blood supply to the flap is blocked or insufficient to support the flap tissue or venous drainage of the flap is compromised.
Near infrared (NIR) spectral imaging is a convenient, non-invasive method for surgeons to examine flaps during surgery and in the early post-operative period. The NIR technique can be used to detect and localise blood supply-related complications as well as give real-time feedback to the surgeon as they try to resolve the complication.
In a paper* published in JNIRSJournal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Dr Mike Sowa and his team at the National Research Council Canada report pre-clinical results showing the potential of NIR spectral imaging for intra-operative skin flap assessment.
"We also show that using estimates of tissue haemoglobin oxygen saturation, imaging measurements made during surgery and in the early post-operative period are highly predictive of the outcome of the flap tissue with specificities and sensitivities exceeding 85%", Dr Sowa stated.
Oxygenation imaging immediately after surgery shows good predictive power for tissue necrosis. The prediction accuracy of the oxygen saturation parameter improves as measurements are made later in the post-operative period and becomes an excellent predictor of outcome when measurements are made one or two hours after the surgery. This method is highly capable of predicting the fate of flap tissues.
Dr Sowa's paper is just one of 11 papers in the current, special issue of JNIRSJournal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy dedicated to NIR imaging. The issue is essential reading for anyone who needs a picture of what is inside something without destroying it.
Guest Editor of the special issue, Professor Marena Manley, said the advantages of NIR imaging are substantial and include low cost analysis per sample, more rapid analysis and the ability to operate in a number of in-field or on-line/at-line environments; hence leading to savings in laboratory cost and gains in product value.
###
*The research is published as Michael G. Sowa, Jeri R. Friesen, Michelle Levasseur, Bernhard Schattka, Leif Sigurdson and Thomas Hayakawa, "The utility of near infrared imaging in intra-operative prediction of flap outcome: a reverse McFarlane skin flap model study", J. Near Infrared Spectrosc.20(5), 601 (2012), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1255/jnirs.1007
About the Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy
JNIRSJournal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy is a peer review journal published by IM Publications. It publishes high-quality, original research papers on all aspects of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and technology. NIR spectroscopy is used widely in the food and agriculture, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, and is finding increasing applications in other areas including medicine and the environment.
For more information about the research, please contact:
Michael G. Sowa
National Research Council Canada
435 Ellice Avenue
Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3B 1Y6
Tel: 1-204-984-5193
E-mail: mike.sowa@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
For more information about the special issue and NIR imaging in general, please contact:
Professor Marena Manley
Department of Food Science
Stellenbosch University
Private Bag X1, Matieland (Stellenbosch) 7602
South Africa
Tel: 27-21-808-3511
E-mail: mman@sun.ac.za
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Images reveal potential for NIR imaging to detect success of breast reconstructionPublic release date: 25-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ian Michael ian@impublications.co.uk 44-124-381-1334 IM Publications LLP
In 2010 breast reconstruction entered the Top Five list of reconstructive procedures in the US, with 93,000 procedures performed, up 8% from 2009, and 18% from 2000. This is among the most common skin flap procedure performed.
Skin flaps are typically used to cover areas of tissue loss or defects that arise as a result of traumatic injury, reconstruction after cancer excision and repair of congenital defects. In the case of a mastectomythe surgical removal of the breastskin flaps are commonly used to create a new breast. Most commonly these flaps are derived from the woman's own abdominal tissue, which is removed and transplanted to the breast area where it is formed to take on the shape and appearance of an actual breast (this is called the flap).
Skin flaps are complex procedures that require post-operative monitoring to ensure that they do not fail. Most failures arise from circulatory complications where either the arterial blood supply to the flap is blocked or insufficient to support the flap tissue or venous drainage of the flap is compromised.
Near infrared (NIR) spectral imaging is a convenient, non-invasive method for surgeons to examine flaps during surgery and in the early post-operative period. The NIR technique can be used to detect and localise blood supply-related complications as well as give real-time feedback to the surgeon as they try to resolve the complication.
In a paper* published in JNIRSJournal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Dr Mike Sowa and his team at the National Research Council Canada report pre-clinical results showing the potential of NIR spectral imaging for intra-operative skin flap assessment.
"We also show that using estimates of tissue haemoglobin oxygen saturation, imaging measurements made during surgery and in the early post-operative period are highly predictive of the outcome of the flap tissue with specificities and sensitivities exceeding 85%", Dr Sowa stated.
Oxygenation imaging immediately after surgery shows good predictive power for tissue necrosis. The prediction accuracy of the oxygen saturation parameter improves as measurements are made later in the post-operative period and becomes an excellent predictor of outcome when measurements are made one or two hours after the surgery. This method is highly capable of predicting the fate of flap tissues.
Dr Sowa's paper is just one of 11 papers in the current, special issue of JNIRSJournal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy dedicated to NIR imaging. The issue is essential reading for anyone who needs a picture of what is inside something without destroying it.
Guest Editor of the special issue, Professor Marena Manley, said the advantages of NIR imaging are substantial and include low cost analysis per sample, more rapid analysis and the ability to operate in a number of in-field or on-line/at-line environments; hence leading to savings in laboratory cost and gains in product value.
###
*The research is published as Michael G. Sowa, Jeri R. Friesen, Michelle Levasseur, Bernhard Schattka, Leif Sigurdson and Thomas Hayakawa, "The utility of near infrared imaging in intra-operative prediction of flap outcome: a reverse McFarlane skin flap model study", J. Near Infrared Spectrosc.20(5), 601 (2012), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1255/jnirs.1007
About the Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy
JNIRSJournal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy is a peer review journal published by IM Publications. It publishes high-quality, original research papers on all aspects of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and technology. NIR spectroscopy is used widely in the food and agriculture, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, and is finding increasing applications in other areas including medicine and the environment.
For more information about the research, please contact:
Michael G. Sowa
National Research Council Canada
435 Ellice Avenue
Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3B 1Y6
Tel: 1-204-984-5193
E-mail: mike.sowa@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
For more information about the special issue and NIR imaging in general, please contact:
Professor Marena Manley
Department of Food Science
Stellenbosch University
Private Bag X1, Matieland (Stellenbosch) 7602
South Africa
Tel: 27-21-808-3511
E-mail: mman@sun.ac.za
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) ? Vanderbilt University researchers are reporting today that there is insufficient evidence to support the use of medical interventions in adolescents and young adults with autism.
Despite studies that show that many adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders are being prescribed medications, there is almost no evidence to show whether these medications are helpful in this population, the researchers said.
These findings are featured in the Sept. 24 issue of Pediatrics.
"We need more research to be able to understand how to treat core symptoms of autism in this population, as well as common associated symptoms such as anxiety, compulsive behaviors and agitation," said Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Pharmacology and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center investigator. "Individuals, families and clinicians currently have to make decisions together, often in a state of desperation, without clear guidance on what might make things better and what might make things worse, and too often, people with autism spectrum disorders end up on one or more medications without a clear sense of whether the medicine is helping."
This research is part of a larger report on interventions for adolescents and young adults with autism that found there is little evidence to support findings, good or bad, for all therapies currently used.
The researchers systematically screened more than 4,500 studies and reviewed the 32 studies published from January 1980 to December 2011 on therapies for people ages 13 to 30 with autism spectrum disorders. They focused on the outcomes, including harms and adverse effects, of interventions, including medical, behavioral, educational and vocational.
Key findings:
Some evidence revealed that treatments could improve social skills and educational outcomes such as vocabulary or reading, but the studies were generally small and had limited follow-up.
Limited evidence supports the use of medical interventions in adolescents and young adults with autism. The most consistent findings were identified for the effects of antipsychotic medications on reducing problem behaviors that tend to occur with autism, such as irritability and aggression. Harms associated with medications included sedation and weight gain.
Only five articles tested vocational interventions, all of which suggested that certain vocational interventions may be effective for certain individuals, but each study had significant flaws that limited the researchers' confidence in their conclusions. The findings on vocational interventions were featured in the Aug. 27 issue of Pediatrics.
Although the prevalence of autism is on the rise, much remains to be discovered when it comes to interventions for this population, the researchers concluded.
As recently as the 1970s, autism was believed to affect just one in 2,000 children, but newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in 88 children has an autism spectrum disorder. Boys with autism outnumber girls 5-to-1, which estimates that one in 54 boys in the United States has autism.
Additional investigators on this report include Melissa McPheeters, Ph.D., MPH, director of Vanderbilt's Evidence-Based Practice Center and senior author; Zachary Warren, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center's Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders; Julie Lounds Taylor, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics and Special Education and lead author; Dwayne Dove, M.D., Ph.D., fellow in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics; Nila Sathe, M.S., M.L.I.S., program manager, Institute for Medicine and Public Health; and Rebecca Jerome, M.L.I.S., MPH, assistant director, Eskind Biomedical Library.
Their research, Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders, was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Effective Health Care Program and conducted through Vanderbilt's Evidence-Based Practice Center.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The original article was written by Jennifer Wetzel.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
Dwayne Dove, Zachary Warren, Melissa L. McPheeters, Julie Lounds Taylor, Nila A. Sathe, and Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele. Medications for Adolescents and Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics, 2012; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-0683
J. L. Taylor, M. L. McPheeters, N. A. Sathe, D. Dove, J. Veenstra-VanderWeele, Z. Warren. A Systematic Review of Vocational Interventions for Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Pediatrics, 2012; 130 (3): 531 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-0682
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2012) ? In their quest for a cancer cure, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute made a serendipitous discovery -- a molecule necessary for cheaper and greener ways to produce nylon.
The finding, described in the Sept. 23, 2012, issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology, arose from an intriguing notion that some of the genetic and chemical changes in cancer tumors might be harnessed for beneficial uses.
"In our lab, we study genetic changes that cause healthy tissues to go bad and grow into tumors. The goal of this research is to understand how the tumors develop in order to design better treatments," said Zachary J. Reitman, Ph.D., an associate in research at Duke and lead author of the study. "As it turns out, a bit of information we learned in that process paves the way for a better method to produce nylon."
Nylon is a ubiquitous material, used in carpeting, upholstery, auto parts, apparel and other products. A key component for its production is adipic acid, which is one of the most widely used chemicals in the world. Currently, adipic acid is produced from fossil fuel, and the pollution released from the refinement process is a leading contributor to global warming.
Reitman said he and colleagues delved into the adipic acid problem based on similarities between cancer research techniques and biochemical engineering. Both fields rely on enzymes, which are molecules that convert one small chemical to another. Enzymes play a major role in both healthy tissues and in tumors, but they are also used to convert organic matter into synthetic materials such as adipic acid.
One of the most promising approaches being studied today for environmentally friendly adipic acid production uses a series of enzymes as an assembly line to convert cheap sugars into adipic acid. However, one critical enzyme in the series, called a 2-hydroxyadipate dehydrogenase, has never been produced, leaving a missing link in the assembly line.
This is where the cancer research comes in. In 2008 and 2009, Duke researchers, including Hai Yan, M.D., PhD., identified a genetic mutation in glioblastomas and other brain tumors that alters the function of an enzyme known as an isocitrate dehydrogenase.
Reitman and colleagues had a hunch that the genetic mutation seen in cancer might trigger a similar functional change to a closely related enzyme found in yeast and bacteria (homoisocitrate dehydrogenase), which would create the elusive 2-hydroxyadipate dehydrogenase necessary for "green" adipic acid production.
They were right. The functional mutation observed in cancer could be constructively applied to other closely related enzymes, creating a beneficial outcome -- in this case the missing link that could enable adipic acid production from cheap sugars. The next step will be to scale up the overall adipic acid production process, which remains a considerable undertaking.
"It's exciting that sequencing cancer genomes can help us to discover new enzyme activities," Reitman said. "Even genetic changes that occur in only a few patients could reveal useful new enzyme functions that were not obvious before."
Yan, a professor in the Department of Pathology and senior author of the study, said the research demonstrates how an investment in medical research can be applied broadly to solve other significant issues of the day.
"This is the result of a cancer researcher thinking outside the box to produce a new enzyme and create a precursor for nylon production," Yan said. "Not only is this discovery exciting, it reaffirms the commitment we should be making to science and to encouraging young people to pursue science."
In addition to Reitman and Yan, study authors include Bryan D. Choi, Ivan Spasojevic, Darell D. Bigner and John H. Sampson. The work was supported with funds from the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA1403160). The authors are listed on a patent that is pending related to the mutated enzymes.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University Medical Center.
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Journal Reference:
Zachary J Reitman, Bryan D Choi, Ivan Spasojevic, Darell D Bigner, John H Sampson, Hai Yan. Enzyme redesign guided by cancer-derived IDH1 mutations. Nature Chemical Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.1065
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Enter your tip here and it will be sent straight to Brad Kava, Aaron Jacobsen, Marguerite MacDonald, Jennifer Wilhelm Ford, Maria Grusauskas, Jacob Bourne, Danny Keith, Courtney Buchanan, and Juan Reyes, Santa Cruz Patch's (incredibly grateful) editors.
ADEN (Reuters) - A suicide bomber failed on Saturday in an assassination attempt on a former Islamist in Yemen who helped drive al Qaeda militants out of a southern region this year, a security source and resident said.
Abdul-Latif al-Sayed had just got into a parked car with three others after dining in a restaurant in the southern port city of Aden when the bomber struck, the security source said. The bomber died in the explosion and the four victims were in hospital with serious injuries.
"The car was parked when the bomber threw himself at it, he was wearing an explosive belt," said witness Mohammed Saleh, who works in a shop nearby.
Sayed headed a "popular committee" in the town of Jaar which helped the army drive out al Qaeda militants who had taken control during turmoil last year when the government of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh faced a popular uprising. Saleh was eventually forced from office in February.
A former fighter with al Qaeda, Sayed began working with Yemen's security forces three years ago. Saturday's bombing was the fifth attempt on his life. An attack targeting Sayed in August killed 45 people.
Militants have been ousted from Jaar and other towns in Abyan province, but have staged a series of assassination attempts on government officials and suicide attacks in recent months.
Restoring stability to Yemen has become an international priority due to fears that al Qaeda and other Islamist militants could become entrenched in a country which neighbors oil producer Saudi Arabia and lies on major shipping lanes.
New president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has been under Western pressure to continue security cooperation with Washington, allowing controversial U.S. drone strikes against suspected militants, despite some civilian casualties.
In north Yemen, the death toll in clashes between Shi'ite and Sunni Islamists rose to four, after a conservative Salafi preacher died on Friday in fighting with followers of the Zaydi Shi'ite group known as the Houthis, a security source said.
The Houthis have tried to assert their strength in recent weeks in Sanaa where they have many followers.
Houthis and Sunni Islamists are among the groups vying for influence in post-Saleh Yemen. The United States accuses Iran of backing the Houthis.
(Reporting by Dhuyazan Mukhashaf; Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Pravin Char)
Aside from eating rabbit, I think there?s only one thing I?m allergic to: company retreats.
Even in elementary school, I found the idea of team-building games ? from trust falls to three-legged races ? nauseating. But in a professional environment with a group of adults? I cannot understand why a company would spend money and people?s time at such retreats. Of course, there is an entire industry built around these events, which suggests a question: Do they actually work?
If you look at the Web sites of the companies that manage retreats, they say the goal is to build communication and cooperation and to improve morale and have fun. These sources go on to highlight that a company retreat wouldn?t be complete without ?considerations? like a spa evening or a golf outing. The goal, after spending a considerable amount of money and time, is to ?stimulate future productivity by helping your employees reconnect and relax.?
Now, I consider myself something of a new age chief executive. Our company prides itself on transparency and accessibility, and we even have a culture of Nerf guns complete with our own chief Nerf gun officer (the C.N.O.). But we are a business, and we come to work to work, not to play or relax. While I am in the business of giving frequent and direct feedback, I am not in the business of giving hugs or focusing on things that don?t drive fundamental and objective productivity. That is not to say that I don?t want all of my colleagues to love their jobs and enjoy their time at the office. Work should be fun, rewarding and enjoyable. It?s what we spend most of our waking lives doing.
I think that if an organization needs a company retreat to rebuild morale or excitement, there is something fundamentally wrong with the organization. The leadership of an organization should always consider the general mood of the staff and try to make real-time changes to improve it. But only to a point. All organizations have grumblers and naysayers, and no matter how many extra hours you give for lunch or how many company retreats you run, that?s not going to change.
Companies also have retreats to rethink the big picture ? the vision, mission and path of your business over the coming years. And this has come up a number of times at TerraCycle, as has the idea of running the very retreats I have such distaste for. In the past, as a compromise, I have hosted full-day off-sites at my house for the entire business to discuss these kinds of issues. The cost was always high ? primarily the opportunity cost of the entire staff taking a day away from work ? and the results were generally modest. People liked the off-sites but didn?t learn much.
When I recently was asked about doing another, we decided that instead of a company off-site we would reduce the meeting to just the senior team and run a one-hour session every month to discuss big-picture issues. The results were significantly better. We came up with a guiding document that crystalized our key challenges for the following year, and we were able to communicate that to the team at large.
In the end I have realized that instead of having lofty, expensive and infrequent company off-sites, it may be better to split the goals into bite-sized chunks. To get staff members interacting with folks they usually wouldn?t spend time with, we throw bi-monthly company parties at someone?s house (cost is usually a few hundred bucks for food and drinks). To keep rethinking the big picture, we run those one-hour monthly meetings with the senior staff and then bring changes to the whole staff when appropriate.
The closest thing we have to an off-site is our annual international week. During this time (usually a week in May) about 30 or so international staff members from our offices outside the United States come to spend the week in Trenton to share ideas and insights, meet their fellow teammates and party. We started holding international weeks three years ago, and it has been a major success.
Since it is a rather big expense ? probably more than $35,000 in travel and hotel costs plus the hard-to-quantify expense of having basically the entire company not focused on its work ? we take the scheduling of this event seriously. Over the last three years, we have worked harder and harder to make sure the week is well organized and creates as much value as possible. The goal is to work hard on opportunities and challenges and then party together to get to know the person you usually speak to only on the phone.
A critic might ask, isn?t international week a company retreat? And my answer would be no. The goal of this week is to work very hard to create concrete results for the business. Our work days are extended from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. And the meetings are never esoteric; they are highly focused on specific issues, for example: ?using SAP in your local country? or ?how to promote a new waste collection program.?
Most important, there are no trust falls, no ropes courses, and no golf. It?s an exhausting week of hard work with a focus on improving the business. And the response from our team has been overwhelmingly positive.
Tom Szaky is the chief executive of TerraCycle, which is based in Trenton.
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center announced a $3 billion research program today aimed at six specific forms of cancer.
Acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome (AML and MDS)
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
Lung cancer
Melanoma
Prostate cancer
Triple negative breast and ovarian cancer
These special areas of research are being called ?moon shots? by analogy with John F. Kennedy?s challenge to put a man on the moon. This isn?t a new idea. In fact, a few months after the first moon landing, there was a full-page ad in the Washington Post that began ?Mr. Nixon: You can cure cancer.? The thinking was the familiar refrain ?If we can put a man on the moon, we can ?? President Nixon and other politicians were excited about the idea and announced a ?war on cancer.? Scientists, however, were more skeptical. Sol Spiegelman said at the time
An all-out effort at this time would be like trying to land a man on the moon without knowing Newton?s laws of gravity.
The new moon shots are not a national attempt to ?cure cancer? in the abstract. They are six initiatives at one institution to focus research on specific kinds of cancer. And while we do not yet know the analog of Newton?s laws for cancer, we do know far more about the basic biology of cancer than we did in the 1970?s.
There are results that suggest that there is some unity beyond the diversity of cancer, that ultimately there are a few common biological pathways involved in all cancers. Maybe some day we will be able to treat cancer in general, but for now it looks like the road forward is specialization. Perhaps specialized research programs will uncover some of these common patters in all cancer.
Related links:
cancermoonshots.org Ph.D. Comics on cancer Bayesian clinical trials in one zip code
From: Credit and Personal Finance Blog | Credit Karma - 12:00pm - September 21, 2012
I got my first full time job in April 2010 as a Social Media Coordinator. Before that, I had been a broke college student surviving off credit cards, especially after I quit my part-time receptionist job to take care of my mom when she got sick.When I moved into my own place with my boyfriend (now husband), we were both making good money, but I was just paying the minimums on my cards month to month. It?s not that it wasn?t manageable, but I would?ve preferred to get out of debt sooner than later, and see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
"There?s a debate right now in Washington about rules that could discourage the innovative on-demand car service company, Uber. Not hard to guess which side I?m on ? I?m on the side of innovation," ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vJyXgCVMCLu1EcovQfgA2_aFz0KAqW-4-X4t-y1zE20_lReARkUX1VO2Nqj6qXpe0Aoe2ieXMX83Mhzfn052djmoeSgeh7pCf2qaShpTM=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Sep-2012
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