Greetings from the RV Kaharoa, voyage KAH 1301. There is not much to report scientifically today as we are still transiting to the first station.? We left Wellington Harbour yesterday and sailed through the Cook Straits and up the east coast of New Zealand?s North Island. We expect to get to the Trench soon.
Most of the daylight hours today were spent somewhere in the vicinity of Cape Turnagain and Cape Kidnappers.? By late tonight we should be turned upsides down by weather off the East Cape before a day of plain sailing out to the Kermadec Trench.
This whole area has of course quite a nautical history with the Capes Turnagain and Kidnappers and the straits being of the Captain James Cook legacy; it?s all a bit ?Cooky? as I like to say.
Similarly, the trench indirectly gets its name from swashbuckling adventures on boats. It is named after the adjacent Islands, which are named after an 18th century Breton navigator-fellow called Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec (1748-1792), who went there in the 1790s on the Bruni d?Entrecasteaux expedition on the premise of doing something important but decided instead to go gallivanting and name every plant, animal and island he found after himself, only to find out later that this did not increase his h-index.
The trench is ~1200 km long with a maximum depth of over 10,000m, making it the fifth deepest trench in the world ? an impressive crack in the Earth!
It is nice to be cruising in such a nautically historic part of the world, with the beauty of it all only temporarily shaded by the fact the RV Kaharoa handles the sea like an inflatable pig; officially described as ?lively seaway?.? But we love the old girl, happy days.
Laura Safe, texting her boyfriend, just before she made her big splash.
Generally speaking, those who report the news try to avoid being ... well, the news. But sometimes accidents happen?? like in the case of?a radio newscaster who walked directly into a canal while texting her boyfriend.
"Oh dear. I should really be called Laura UNsafe after the day I've had!" tweeted Laura Safe, a newscaster for UK-based music radio station Capital FM, about a week ago.?It didn't take long for the world to discover why Safe was feeling dangerous, because her colleagues were more than happy to make the details of her morning part of a segment.
"Poor Laura Safe. All she wants to do is read the news. And this morning, all we wanted to do is take the mickey," a note on the Capital FM website explained on the day of the incident. "The canal was icy, she was texting ... it was the weather's fault really."
Holding nothing back, whoever wrote that note even finished it with a flourish: "Ahahahahahahahahahaha!"
"I thought there was pavement ahead of me, I could see it out of the corner of my eye," Safe said during a segment on Capital FM's Capital Breakfast show. After viewing?CCTV footage acquired by the Telegraph, we find this to be an almost reasonable explanation. The canal running through?the Mailbox ??the Birmingham shopping center in which Safe had her stumble?? is at the bottom of a set of stairs, with no guardrail of any sort preventing someone, such as a distracted newscaster, from walking directly into it. We wouldn't be surprised if it did indeed look as if it was merely a walking area, if it happened to be frozen over and one wasn't really looking ahead.
Excuses and theories aside, Safe was quite lucky.?Neil Edginton ??managing director at property development group EDG Property, who coincidentally?was part of the team?behind the creation of the Mailbox and its odd layout?? happened to witness her accident.
"Slightly wet, as just had to pull someone out of canal! Walking towards me on their phone, straight into the water! #splash," Edginton tweeted shortly after pulling Safe out of the water. He'd tried to warn her right as she was taking the final step into icy doom: He shouted "Nooooooooooooo!"
As much fun as Safe's colleagues and other reporters appear to be having while covering her accident, distracted walking isn't really a joking matter. In 2008, the American College of Emergency Physicians warned of rising reports involving oblivious texters, with injuries involving text-messaging pedestrians, bicyclists, and even horseback riders.?
More recently, we've seen plenty of individuals endanger themselves by using their cellphones while walking. In January 2011?a woman fell into a water fountain while walking through a mall and text messaging. Video footage of the accident?was posted to YouTube and quickly made its rounds on the Internet.?In April 2012, a Califonia-based man nearly walked directly into a bear because he was distracted by his cellphone.?In August 2012, footage of an earlier incident in which a man stumbled right off a plain platform while focused on his phone circulated on the Internet.
In April 2012, October 2012, and January 2013, this reporter managed to bruise her knee on a desk corner because of a distracting text message. She is considering changing desks.
Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.
BANGOR, Maine (AP) ? Horror writer Stephen King is seeking to provoke a discussion on gun control and gun rights following the school shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn.
The Maine native is a gun owner. He calls for three "reasonable measures" to curb gun violence in an essay titled "Guns," released Friday as a Kindle single through Amazon.
King says he wants background checks on all gun sales and bans on high-capacity magazines and military-style weapons like the rifle used in the Newtown shooting, which killed 20 children and six school officials.
King describes a pattern of mass shootings in which anger and frustration give way to political rhetoric before discussions of gun control "disappear into the legislative swamp." He says on his website: "If this helps provoke constructive debate, I've done my job."
I write a lot of reviews here on my blog, on my Yelp Page, and on my YouTube Page. ?When I like a product or service, I generally post about it right away, but it?s rare that I ?write more than one review. ?The Lash Company is the exception to that rule. ?Their customer service and business model is so stellar, that I am writing about them twice.
I am a customer-service stickler. ?I get really disappointed by a lot of businesses that don?t place enough value and emphasis on customer service. ?To me, it?s truly the backbone of the company?s success, and I?m always amazed at how many companies lack even the most basic elements of good customer service. ?The Lash Company & Skin Care Boutique doesn?t ?just provide good customer service, they offer?STELLAR customer service, and other small (and large) businesses should take note.
My experience with them started with a phone call, answered by Jeremy, who was very friendly and polite, and we even connected in conversation after finding out we?re both East Coast transplants to California. ?He had to check on a time for me, but called me back promptly to offer me times and also followed up our conversation with an email confirmation for my appointment (which I LOVED because I?m incredibly forgetful and that reminded me to put it in my calendar). ?I was booked for an electrology appointment with Rosie.
When I walked in, I fell in love with the decor ? pinks, leopard prints ? totally my type of place. ?The gals there were super friendly, despite obviously being very busy with their customers. ? Rosie came out, introduced herself, and then brought me to the back room and took lots of notes to make sure she knew about my medical history, my concerns, my previous experiences, and my future ?wants.?
She immediately put me at ease with great conversation, and she worked really efficiently with minimal pain (which is to be expected, at least a little bit). ?I was really pleased with the end result, and the price is very comparable with my east coast treatments ($60/hr). ? ?I just found her to be so personable and professional, I?d highly recommend her to anyone looking for an electrologist.
That appointment was yesterday. ?Today in the mail, I received this little note card:
It was a lovely hand-written note from Rosie thanking me for coming in. ?Prompt and incredibly thoughtful, this is the way that customer service *should* be. ? I am so impressed with the way they regarded me as a customer, and it?s obvious from their other Yelp reviews that others agree.
Other businesses would do well to follow their lead here: ?they showed me that they valued my business, and in return, they?ve got it. ?I?ll definitely be returning there regularly, and as shown by my TWO reviews now, I?ll definitely be spreading the word about how great I think they are.
These were small, easy to do things that make a HUGE difference in retaining customers. ?In a fast-paced world where customer service is so often neglected, The Lash Company & Skin Care Boutique really stand out as top-notch. ?They?ll be getting tons of repeat business from me, and hopefully others!
The Lash Company & Skin Care Boutique 205 N. Glendora Ave Glendora, CA 91741 (626) 260-3786
http://www.thelashcompany.co/
Electrology: ?Rosie
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Diva Taunia is an Award-Winning Professional Vocalist, Music Educator, Radio Host, Musical Director and Choreographer, and also a five year gastric-bypass post-operative patient living life after weight loss surgery. Heralded by jazz greats Herb Pomeroy and Terrance Blanchard as a "powerful vocalist with a warm, rich sound," she's been performing in the New England area for over twenty years, and just recently relocated to the Pasadena, CA area. She's been featured on ABC's "The Revolution" with Tim Gunn, on NH Chronicle Television, in The Boston Globe, on various radio programs, and her music has been showcased around the world. On March 25, 2008, she decided to have RNY Gastric Bypass Surgery at Boston Medical Center?with Dr. Donald Hess. She has since maintained a loss of over 150 lbs, and has worked to help educate and inform people about the life-changing difference weight loss surgery can make for someone suffering with morbid obesity. She chronicled her entire weight loss journey on her YouTube Channel, and dedicates her weekly radio program to weight loss surgery and bariatric related topics and information. Taunia is also an active and enthusiastic music educator with over twenty years teaching experience in both the public and private sector. She also works and performs with an educational rap company called Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, based out of Cambridge, MA. She also teaches private voice and piano instruction at The Real School of Music and North Main Music. She also maintains her own personal blog "Diva Voice" as a way to educate and encourage singers to pursue their dreams. She is currently writing her first e-book on the business of singing, due to be published this fall.
MADRID/CARACAS (Reuters) - Spain's influential El Pais newspaper apologized on Thursday for splashing a "false photo" of Venezuela's cancer-stricken leader Hugo Chavez on its front page, prompting a furious response from the government in Caracas, which vowed to take legal action.
Within minutes of posting the image online as a global exclusive, El Pais said it had discovered from social media that the photo was not of Chavez. It removed it from its website and withdrew its print edition.
Venezuela's government said the publication of the photo - which showed the head of a man lying down with a breathing tube in his mouth - was "grotesque," while Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez, a close ally of Chavez, called it vile.
"El Pais apologizes to its readers for the damage caused. The newspaper has opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of what happened and the errors that were committed in the verification of the photo," the paper said.
Chavez, 58, is fighting to recover in Cuba after undergoing his fourth cancer operation in just 18 months. He has not spoken or appeared in public for six weeks, fuelling speculation about how serious his condition is.
El Pais, one of the world's biggest Spanish-language publications and an institution both in Spain and in Latin America, said it received the grainy image from the agency Gtres Online, which it said represents 60 other agencies in Spain.
In a statement, El Pais said the newspaper was told it had been taken seven days earlier by a Cuban nurse who was part of Chavez's medical team, and was then sent to the nurse's sister, who lives in Spain.
"The agency has acknowledged it was deceived by those who provided the material and will take legal action," El Pais said.
The photo was on the newspaper's website for half an hour and also appeared in early editions of the print version that were then pulled from newsstands and replaced with a new edition with a different front page.
In Venezuela, anxious Chavez supporters and opponents alike are waiting for any new picture, video or audio message from the socialist leader, who is famed for filling the airwaves with long-winded speeches, jokes and withering jabs at his foes.
NO SIGHT OF CHAVEZ
Officials say his condition is improving after he suffered multiple complications, including unexpected bleeding and a severe respiratory problem following the December 11 surgery.
But, in contrast to Chavez's previous visits to Havana, officials have not published any evidence of his condition. In 2011, with great fanfare, they broadcast video footage of him reading a newspaper, walking in a garden, and chatting with his friend and mentor, Cuba's ex-leader Fidel Castro.
In the absence of such proof this time, many Venezuelans are questioning the terse official bulletins and suspect Chavez's extraordinary 14 years in power could be coming to an end.
The president has never said exactly what type of cancer he has, only that the initial tumor found in mid-2011 was in his pelvic area and was the size of a baseball.
Venezuelan opposition leaders have long accused the government of secrecy over his illness, while supporters accuse "bourgeois" local and foreign media of being in league with the opposition to spread rumors he is at death's door.
The handling of information relating to Chavez's health has become as contentious as the man himself, and his administration's updates have been confusing and contradictory.
The government says it has never been more transparent. It described El Pais's publication of the picture - a screengrab from an unrelated 2008 video - as part of efforts by far-right political forces to attack Chavez's self-styled revolution.
It said it would take appropriate legal action, and that the newspaper's apology to its readers was not enough.
"Neither their disgusting photos nor their systematic campaigns will stop the president's advance," Information Minister Ernesto Villegas told a news conference in Caracas.
"Would El Pais publish a similar photo of a European leader? Of its director? Sensationalism is valid if the victim is a revolutionary 'sudaca'," he added, using a pejorative term that is sometimes used in Spain to refer to Latin Americans.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
(This story was refiled to correct the spelling of Venezuela in the headline)
Jan. 23, 2013 ? New research at the University of Chicago and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that children begin to show signs of higher-level thinking skills as young as age 4 ?. Researchers have previously attributed higher-order thinking development to knowledge acquisition and better schooling, but the new longitudinal study shows that other skills, not always connected with knowledge, play a role in the ability of children to reason analytically.
The findings, reported in January in the journal Psychological Science, show for the first time that children's executive function has a role in the development of complicated analytical thinking. Executive function includes such complex skills as planning, monitoring, task switching, and controlling attention. High, early executive function skills at school entry are related to higher than average reasoning skills in adolescence.
Growing research suggests that executive function may be trainable through pathways, including preschool curriculum, exercise and impulse control training. Parents and teachers may be able to help encourage development of executive function by having youngsters help plan activities, learn to stop, think, and then take action, or engage in pretend play, said lead author of the study, Lindsey Richland, assistant professor in comparative human development at the University of Chicago.
Although important to a child's education, "little is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying children's development of the capacity to engage in complex forms of reasoning," Richland said.
The new research is reported in the paper "Early Executive Function Predicts Reasoning Development" and follows the development of complex reasoning in children from before the time they go to school until they are 15. Richland's co-author is Margaret Burchinal, senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The two studied the acquisition of analogical thinking, one form of complex reasoning. "The ability to see relationships and similarities between disparate phenomena is fundamental to analytical and inductive reasoning, and is closely related to measurements of general fluid intelligence," said Richland. Developing complex reasoning ability is particularly fundamental to the innovation and adaptive thinking skills necessary for a modern workforce, she pointed out.
Richland and Burchinal studied a database of 1,364 children who were part of the Early Child Care and Youth Development study from birth through age 15. The group was fairly evenly divided between boys and girls and included families from a diverse cross-section of ethnic and income backgrounds.
The current study examined tests children took when they were 4 ?, when they were in first grade, third grade, and when they were 15. Because the study was longitudinal, the same children were tested at each interval. Among the tests they took were ones to measure analytical reasoning, executive function, vocabulary knowledge, short-term memory and sustained attention.
Children were tested at 4 ? on their ability to monitor and control their automatic responses to stimuli. In first grade they worked on a test that judged their ability to move objects in a "Tower of Hanoi" game, in which they had to move disks between pegs in a specific order.
In third grade and at 15 year olds, they were tested on their ability to understand analogies, asked in third grade for instance to complete the question "dog is to puppy as cat is to__?" At 15 year olds, they were asked to complete written tests of analogies.
The study found a strong relationship between high scores among children who, as preschoolers, had strong vocabularies and were good at monitoring and controlling their responses to later ability on tests of understanding analogies.
"Overall, these results show that knowledge is necessary for using thinking skills, as shown by the importance of early vocabulary, but also inhibitory control and executive function skills are important contributors to children's analytical reasoning development," Richland said.
The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation supported the research.
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Journal Reference:
L. E. Richland, M. R. Burchinal. Early Executive Function Predicts Reasoning Development. Psychological Science, 2012; 24 (1): 87 DOI: 10.1177/0956797612450883
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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.
Contact: Ulf Ahlgren ulf.ahlgren@ucmm.umu.se 46-090-785-4434 Umea University
A new imaging method for the study of insulin-producing cells in diabetes among other uses is now being presented by a group of researchers at Ume University in Sweden in the form of a video in the biomedical video journal, The Journal of Visualized Experiments.
The developed techniques have contributed to the reasons why the research team recently received a SEK 4.3 million grant from the EU in a Marie Curie program to link together leading research teams in Europe in the field of diabetes imaging.
Professor Ulf Ahlgren and his associates at the Ume Center for Molecular Medicine (UCMM) have subsequently elaborated the technology for biomedical imaging with optical projection tomography (OPT). Initially the method could only be used on relatively small preparations, but five years ago the scientists at Ume were able to adapt the technology to study whole organs including the pancreas from adult mice. The present findings describe a further development of the OPT technology by going from ordinary visible light to the near-infrared spectrum. Near infrared light is light with longer wavelengths that can more easily penetrate tissue. Thereby, the developed imaging platform enables studies of considerably larger samples than was previously possible. This includes the rat pancreas, which is important because rats as laboratory animals are thought to be physiologically more similar to humans.
This adaptation, to be able to also image in near-infrared light, also means that the researchers gain access to a broader range of the light spectrum, making it possible to study more and different cell types in one organ preparation. In the article the scientists exemplify the possibility of simultaneously tracking the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans as well as the autoimmune infiltrating cells and the distribution of blood vessels in a model system for type-1 diabetes.
Internationally, huge resources are being committed to the development of non-invasive imaging methods for study of the number of remaining insulin cells in patients with developing diabetes. Such methods would be of great importance as only indirect methods for this exist today. However, a major problem in these research undertakings is to find suitable contrast agents that specifically bind to the insulin producing cells of the pancreas to allow imaging. In this context, the developed Near Infrared - OPT technology can play an important role as it enables the evaluation of new contrast agents. It may also be used as a tool to calibrate the non-invasive read out by e.g. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This is now going to be tested in the newly launched Marie Curie project "European Training Network for Excellence in Molecular Imaging in Diabetes," which links together five major EU-funded research consortia with different cutting-edge competences in the field.
The study by scientists from Ume is presented in the Journal of Visualized Experiments, which is the first scientific journal to offer the video format for publication in the life sciences. Visualization in video presentations clearly facilitates the understanding and description of complex experimental technologies. It can help address two major challenges facing bioscience research: the low transparency and poor reproducibility of biological experiments and the large amounts of time and work needed to learn new experimental technologies.
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Other authors of the article are Christoffer Svensson, Anna Eriksson, Abbas Cheddad, Andreas Hrnblad, Maria Eriksson, Nils Norlin, Elena Kostromina, and Tomas Alanentalo, all at UCMM; Fredrik Georgsson at the Department of Computer Science; all with Ume University, along with Antonello Pileggi, Miami University, Florida, and James Sharpe at CRG, Barcelona, Spain.
Link to the video article: http://www.jove.com/video/50238/near-infrared-optical-projection-tomography-for-assessments-cell-mass
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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.
Contact: Ulf Ahlgren ulf.ahlgren@ucmm.umu.se 46-090-785-4434 Umea University
A new imaging method for the study of insulin-producing cells in diabetes among other uses is now being presented by a group of researchers at Ume University in Sweden in the form of a video in the biomedical video journal, The Journal of Visualized Experiments.
The developed techniques have contributed to the reasons why the research team recently received a SEK 4.3 million grant from the EU in a Marie Curie program to link together leading research teams in Europe in the field of diabetes imaging.
Professor Ulf Ahlgren and his associates at the Ume Center for Molecular Medicine (UCMM) have subsequently elaborated the technology for biomedical imaging with optical projection tomography (OPT). Initially the method could only be used on relatively small preparations, but five years ago the scientists at Ume were able to adapt the technology to study whole organs including the pancreas from adult mice. The present findings describe a further development of the OPT technology by going from ordinary visible light to the near-infrared spectrum. Near infrared light is light with longer wavelengths that can more easily penetrate tissue. Thereby, the developed imaging platform enables studies of considerably larger samples than was previously possible. This includes the rat pancreas, which is important because rats as laboratory animals are thought to be physiologically more similar to humans.
This adaptation, to be able to also image in near-infrared light, also means that the researchers gain access to a broader range of the light spectrum, making it possible to study more and different cell types in one organ preparation. In the article the scientists exemplify the possibility of simultaneously tracking the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans as well as the autoimmune infiltrating cells and the distribution of blood vessels in a model system for type-1 diabetes.
Internationally, huge resources are being committed to the development of non-invasive imaging methods for study of the number of remaining insulin cells in patients with developing diabetes. Such methods would be of great importance as only indirect methods for this exist today. However, a major problem in these research undertakings is to find suitable contrast agents that specifically bind to the insulin producing cells of the pancreas to allow imaging. In this context, the developed Near Infrared - OPT technology can play an important role as it enables the evaluation of new contrast agents. It may also be used as a tool to calibrate the non-invasive read out by e.g. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This is now going to be tested in the newly launched Marie Curie project "European Training Network for Excellence in Molecular Imaging in Diabetes," which links together five major EU-funded research consortia with different cutting-edge competences in the field.
The study by scientists from Ume is presented in the Journal of Visualized Experiments, which is the first scientific journal to offer the video format for publication in the life sciences. Visualization in video presentations clearly facilitates the understanding and description of complex experimental technologies. It can help address two major challenges facing bioscience research: the low transparency and poor reproducibility of biological experiments and the large amounts of time and work needed to learn new experimental technologies.
###
Other authors of the article are Christoffer Svensson, Anna Eriksson, Abbas Cheddad, Andreas Hrnblad, Maria Eriksson, Nils Norlin, Elena Kostromina, and Tomas Alanentalo, all at UCMM; Fredrik Georgsson at the Department of Computer Science; all with Ume University, along with Antonello Pileggi, Miami University, Florida, and James Sharpe at CRG, Barcelona, Spain.
Link to the video article: http://www.jove.com/video/50238/near-infrared-optical-projection-tomography-for-assessments-cell-mass
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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.
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Novo Nordisk, the world's biggest insulin producer, said on Monday it got the final go-ahead from authorities to market its long-acting diabetes drug Tresiba in Europe.
Novo Nordisk said in a statement that the European Commission had granted marketing authorization for Tresiba and another insulin, Ryzodeg.
Novo Nordisk, the world's biggest insulin producer, has estimated that Tresiba, the brand name for the active ingredient degludec, could become a blockbuster drug.
A drug reaches blockbuster status when it generates more than $1 billion in annual sales.
Novo Nordisk said it expected to launch Tresiba in Britain and Denmark in the first half of 2013 and in other European markets throughout the rest of this year and next. It will launch Ryzodeg about one year after Tresiba, it said.
"These marketing authorizations constitute significant milestones for Novo Nordisk and the treatment of diabetes," Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, Novo Nordisk's chief science officer said in a statement.
Tresiba is central to Novo's aim of ending rival Sanofi's dominance of the long-acting insulin market.
It has already been approved by regulators in Japan and is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Last November, an advisory panel to the FDA voted to recommend approval of Tresiba, despite signals of possible cardiovascular risk.
The FDA rarely goes against its advisory panel's recommendations when making its final decision.
(Reporting by Mia Shanley; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
Contact: Aileen Sheehy press.office@sanger.ac.uk 0044-012-234-92368 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
The MRC awards the African Partnership for Chronic Disease research 5 years' funding
A new initiative to understand chronic disease in Africa has been awarded five years' funding by the Medical Research Council (MRC). The African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research (APCDR) is an international research partnership that assesses the burden and causes of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
This MRC funding will allow researchers from the partnership to develop a sustainable platform to share resources and skills which will help develop long-term strategies for disease control and management in sub-Saharan Africa.
As treatment and management of infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis improves, medical researchers expect that non-infectious chronic diseases will become an increasingly important problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are expected to become the leading causes of morbidity and death in this region.
The APCDR will conduct research that will provide more reliable and precise information on disease burden, underlying aetiology and strategies for intervention.
"We don't fully understand the magnitude and distribution of risk factors for these diseases in sub-Saharan Africa," says Dr Elizabeth Young, investigator from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Over the next five years, our partnership expects to collect detailed health and disease information and blood samples from over 24,000 individuals across 10 countries. This collection will generate a resource that will provide a unique framework for researchers in these countries."
In existing studies into these diseases throughout Africa, scientists have used a variety of methods and assessed only a small subset of risk factors. This small scale restricts any comparative studies across the region.
This partnership will develop the much needed, large-scale high quality comparable studies across a wide range of diseases and possible risk factors, spanning countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Importantly, this will also provide a platform for interventional research and ensure that African populations benefit from the on-going advances in genomics.
"The African Genome Variation project, a key endeavour of the APCDR, will be an important resource for Africa researchers." says Dr Manjinder Sandhu, lead investigator from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge. "This will allow researchers to understand patterns of genetic diversity within sub-Saharan populations, as well as providing a global resource for genomic studies of diseases in Africa. If we want to have lasting benefits, the APCDR must provide mechanisms and infrastructure to share research resources, training and support with the next generation of researchers and scientific leaders in Africa."
"Understanding the cause and determinants of these diseases in sub-Saharan Africa is a fundamental step in developing strategies for diseases management and control," says Professor Pontiano Kaleebu, lead investigator from the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS. "In the context of epidemiological transition and the complex relation between risk factors for chronic infection and non-communicable disease, an integrated approach to our research is essential."
"For countries in sub-Saharan Africa to benefit from future progress in non-communicable disease research and genomics, there is a need to strengthen research capacity, training and collaboration across the region to ensure researchers can play a full part," says Professor Jean Claude Mbanya, lead investigator from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon. "This initiative will play an important role in piecing together the puzzle of non-communicable disease in Africa."
"The MRC is pleased to support such an innovative strategic partnership between UK scientists and centres of research excellence in sub-Saharan Africa," says Dr Wendy Ewart, MRC Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy. "This award will provide a platform to enhance training and capacity building at the African centres as well as maximising outputs from world-leading collaborative research. Ultimately this will help researchers to develop effective strategies to tackle the grand challenge of non-communicable diseases in Africa."
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Selected Websites
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.
http://www.sanger.ac.uk
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
Over the past century, the Medical Research Council has been at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers' money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Twenty-nine MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed.
Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms.
www.mrc.ac.uk
The MRC Centenary Timeline chronicles 100 years of life-changing discoveries and shows how our research has had a lasting influence on healthcare and wellbeing in the UK and globally, right up to the present day.
www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
Contact details
Don Powell Media Manager
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Tel +44 (0)1223 496 928
Mobile +44 (0)7753 7753 97
Email press.office@sanger.ac.uk
End of Notes to Editors
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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.
Contact: Aileen Sheehy press.office@sanger.ac.uk 0044-012-234-92368 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
The MRC awards the African Partnership for Chronic Disease research 5 years' funding
A new initiative to understand chronic disease in Africa has been awarded five years' funding by the Medical Research Council (MRC). The African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research (APCDR) is an international research partnership that assesses the burden and causes of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
This MRC funding will allow researchers from the partnership to develop a sustainable platform to share resources and skills which will help develop long-term strategies for disease control and management in sub-Saharan Africa.
As treatment and management of infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis improves, medical researchers expect that non-infectious chronic diseases will become an increasingly important problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are expected to become the leading causes of morbidity and death in this region.
The APCDR will conduct research that will provide more reliable and precise information on disease burden, underlying aetiology and strategies for intervention.
"We don't fully understand the magnitude and distribution of risk factors for these diseases in sub-Saharan Africa," says Dr Elizabeth Young, investigator from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Over the next five years, our partnership expects to collect detailed health and disease information and blood samples from over 24,000 individuals across 10 countries. This collection will generate a resource that will provide a unique framework for researchers in these countries."
In existing studies into these diseases throughout Africa, scientists have used a variety of methods and assessed only a small subset of risk factors. This small scale restricts any comparative studies across the region.
This partnership will develop the much needed, large-scale high quality comparable studies across a wide range of diseases and possible risk factors, spanning countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Importantly, this will also provide a platform for interventional research and ensure that African populations benefit from the on-going advances in genomics.
"The African Genome Variation project, a key endeavour of the APCDR, will be an important resource for Africa researchers." says Dr Manjinder Sandhu, lead investigator from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge. "This will allow researchers to understand patterns of genetic diversity within sub-Saharan populations, as well as providing a global resource for genomic studies of diseases in Africa. If we want to have lasting benefits, the APCDR must provide mechanisms and infrastructure to share research resources, training and support with the next generation of researchers and scientific leaders in Africa."
"Understanding the cause and determinants of these diseases in sub-Saharan Africa is a fundamental step in developing strategies for diseases management and control," says Professor Pontiano Kaleebu, lead investigator from the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS. "In the context of epidemiological transition and the complex relation between risk factors for chronic infection and non-communicable disease, an integrated approach to our research is essential."
"For countries in sub-Saharan Africa to benefit from future progress in non-communicable disease research and genomics, there is a need to strengthen research capacity, training and collaboration across the region to ensure researchers can play a full part," says Professor Jean Claude Mbanya, lead investigator from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon. "This initiative will play an important role in piecing together the puzzle of non-communicable disease in Africa."
"The MRC is pleased to support such an innovative strategic partnership between UK scientists and centres of research excellence in sub-Saharan Africa," says Dr Wendy Ewart, MRC Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy. "This award will provide a platform to enhance training and capacity building at the African centres as well as maximising outputs from world-leading collaborative research. Ultimately this will help researchers to develop effective strategies to tackle the grand challenge of non-communicable diseases in Africa."
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Selected Websites
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.
http://www.sanger.ac.uk
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
Over the past century, the Medical Research Council has been at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers' money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Twenty-nine MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed.
Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms.
www.mrc.ac.uk
The MRC Centenary Timeline chronicles 100 years of life-changing discoveries and shows how our research has had a lasting influence on healthcare and wellbeing in the UK and globally, right up to the present day.
www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
Contact details
Don Powell Media Manager
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Tel +44 (0)1223 496 928
Mobile +44 (0)7753 7753 97
Email press.office@sanger.ac.uk
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Stop snoring is often a significant sleep problem brought on by enlarged adenoids (the glands from the fretboard on the roof for the palette) mucking up oxygen penetration along with impacts 400,000 youngsters in the states annually. This provides problem for ones kid on inhaling and exhaling throughout their sleep at night during the night. Sleep sleep apnea is known for a stop with deep breathing around 10 seconds overnight. Some youngsters in such a ailment have a tendency to wake up several times a day in the midst of a night. Sleep sleep apnea contributes to daytime lack of electric power around youngsters if they?re allowed to be dynamic, crankiness together with becoming easily irritated, and even bring on conduct difficulties.
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As mourning turns to frustration following the untimely death of Internet activist Aaron Swartz Friday, a number of researchers and supporters ? activists in their own right ? are taking to Twitter to participate in a large protest as a reaction to Swartz's suicide.
The online event, running under the hashtag #pdftribute, has thousands of users contributing links to academic papers ? regardless of whether they technically have permission due to the papers' copyrights ? as a virtual representation of Swartz's beliefs in the availability of information in the academic world.
"Those with access to these resources ? students, librarians, scientists ? you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not ? indeed, morally, you cannot ? keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends," wrote Swartz in a 2008 manifesto.
"Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends"
The online campaign, which initially came to the surface via a Reddit comment by Dr. Micah Allen, of Denmark's Aarhus University Department of Health Sciences, was up to around 500 tweets per hour and more than 2.5 million impressions as of this morning. It's since grown to around 15,000 tweets in total and 40 million impressions as of this article's writing, reports Eva Vivalt.
"Where will this go? Well, maybe someone can scrape the pdfs together into a repository. Maybe #pdftribute can be a pledge to avoid paywalls in the future. Maybe we can push journals for more change," Vivalt wrote. "JSTOR's gradual opening has been heartening, but there is still more to do. Would welcome thoughts or suggestions in the comments or on twitter."
For a listing of everything that has been submitted as part of #pdftribute ? from academic papers to news articles ? a link scraper for the event has been set up at the website pdftribute.net.
Swartz's family released a statement yesterday in which they called out the U.S. Attorney's office for contributing to the 26-year-old's death as a result of their pursuit of, "an exceptionally harsh array of charges" stemming from Swartz's downloading of approximately 4.8 million academic articles in 2011.
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Defense nominee Chuck Hagel is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran.
By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News
ANALYSIS
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Even before he was nominated to become the next U.S. secretary of defense, the bad-mouthing of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel had already begun.
Warnings flew like salvos across the U.S. media and beyond: Hagel is soft on Iran and no friend of Israel.?Tea Party and Republican critics of the moderate and pragmatic Hagel smelled blood.
Ted Cruz, a freshman senator from Texas, said that Hagel ?would make war with Iran more likely because he's too nice to Iran.?
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Hagel would be "the most antagonistic secretary of defense towards the state of Israel in our nation's history."
So you would expect to see the vitriol flowing here in Israel, especially just days before a crucial parliamentary election -- on Jan. 22 -- in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is struggling to head off a late populist surge by an even more right-wing candidate.
But there have been no anti-Hagel protests outside the U.S. Embassy and no angry Israelis heard on radio talk shows. In fact, reaction to all the uproar back home has been muted.
'Dark cloud' It's true that Israelis in general aren't happy with the nomination. ?It represents a dark cloud over the relationship between the two countries, and it borders on hostility,? said Simon Schiffer, a political analyst with the Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper.
Hagel's willingness to engage with Iran and its client, Hamas, upsets most Israelis, Schiffer noted. But he went on to say that ?U.S. policy towards Israel is set in the White House, and there you can find today a president who has a very warm approach to Israel but at the same time a very angry and cold policy towards Netanyahu and his government.?
Related: Hagel -- a man without a party
So far, Israeli government reaction has been minimal and mixed. Reuven Rivlin, the powerful speaker of Israel?s parliament, the Knesset, told The Associated Press he is worried about Hagel ?because of his statements in the past and his stance toward Israel.?
But Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, wrapping up a trip to the U.S., told a group of major Jewish organizations that he personally knew and worked with Hagel and found him to be ?a decent and fair interlocutor who believes in the natural partnership between Israel and the United States.?
Until Sunday there had been not a peep from Netanyahu himself,?whose "iron fist" approach to Iran, Hamas and the Palestinian territories seems diametrically opposed to Hagel's instinct for dialogue.
"I do not interfere in the political appointments of the?U.S. president. It is his prerogative,'' Netanyahu told Israel's Army Radio. "Congress decides and confirms, and we will work with?whoever is chosen.''
One Israeli official told NBC News that Netanyahu's silence doesn't mean he's not angry.
After making the mistake of ?backing the wrong horse -- [Gov. Mitt] Romney -- during the last U.S. election, he's not willing to play that game again,? said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record about policy matters.
'Revenge' for Romney? Sever Plocker, an influential Israeli commentator, went further by suggesting that Obama picked Hagel as ?revenge? for Netanyahu's public support for Romney.
Hagel hasn't yet defended his positions before the U.S. Senate, but he has faced the court of public opinion, emphasizing in recent days his ?unequivocal support for Israel.? On Iran, he told Defense Department officials Wednesday that he also strongly ?supports multilateral sanctions against Iran and that Tehran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear warheads.?
Hagel may have gotten into some hot water with a comment -- made years ago in Washington -- that ?the political reality is that ?the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.? But on Monday one of the largest and most active of those "Jewish lobbies" -- the National Jewish Democratic Council -- released a statement saying it believes Hagel ?will follow the president's lead in providing unrivaled support for Israel -- on strategic cooperation, missile defense programs and leading the world against Iran's nuclear program.?
The consensus here is that Netanyahu may enjoy watching Hagel fight for his nomination in Washington, but staying out of the fight is probably a smart move.
Ghana is experimenting with a novel, ICT- driven means of agricultural information exchange. Robert Owusu is the Managing Director of Esoko, the mobile phone information system serving rural farmers in Ghana. He explains to AfricaSTI.com in Accra, the benefits of using the mobile phone service to improve agriculture and the livelihood of farmers. Excerpts:
Key issues in Ghanaian Agriculture I am not an expert in agriculture but I know that most Ghanaian farmers are small holder farmers, and some of the challenges are : producers don?t know where to sell; the farmers find it difficult to sell what they have produced; traders don?t know where to buy; wholesalers can?t predict their supplies because sometimes you put up a factory but the supplies are not forthcoming; you produce today , you cannot produce tomorrow because there are no produce from the farmers. That also means government cannot plan for food security. All these because of something that is critical. And that is information. So what we tried to find out the information needs within the agric sector or from the farmers based on our experience, we discovered that they will be asking questions like: Where do I get extension advice? What is the right price? Who is buying? Where can I buy fertilizer or farm input? What harvest will I get? Are the rains falling? Where are my customers? Where is my truck? Can I trust the buyer to pay for what they have bought? All this brings us to extension services: it?s about weather; it?s about input; it?s about processing; and it?s about transportation. Those are what they are looking for information for.
Mobile phones and information dissemination in Ghana If you look at the mobile phone, the penetration is high, if you take for example, Ghana, the government of Ghana claimed that the penetration of mobile phone is about 80% that means that about 19 million Ghanaians have mobile phones . We don?t believe that, we think that it may be roughly about 60% or less because some people are using two ,three phones and they are in the cities but in terms of coverage of the mobile phone operators and where you can get access , mobile phone is more around within the country than any other commodity because it?s going faster than electricity, water, health, services and school. So if we use the mobile phone in disseminating this information, then, that will be a success and that is why we are beginning the Esoko. Esoko tries to bring how you can use the mobile to communicate and give information to farmers.
How Esoko works Esoko starts with price alert and what we do is , if anybody has got a phone , and he types in ?1900? and he puts in say, ?maize? or ?yam?, you can easily get the prices from the key commodity market in the country through the mobile phone right now as we speak, you can test it, or you do for rice, cassava, you will get immediate response. Apart from this, we also have farmers already programmed on our profile in the network on our platform. Those who for instance have selected their prices for maize, on weekly bases they receive the price. They want to know the prices on Wednesday because thy will be going to the market on Thursday, or they want to get the prices on Friday because they will be going to the market on Saturday. You can set that as an alert and the message will come to you through your mobile phone showing all the prices that are obtainable in the key markets across the country. We are doing this by having about 33 agents operating in 38 markets around the country for all major agricultural commodities in the country. And in terms of the commodities, we are covering about 58 markets and recording data on weekly bases in the country, and we are also using the project trying to do a pilot in cape coast to know if there has been an impact on the people. And from what the farmers are saying, because now they have insight into pricing and what is happening in the market place they are saying they are able to improve their income between 25%- 40% but scientifically we have not bothered ourselves to find out if what they are saying is true or not. Most of them are claiming that they are willing to pay for these services, but now it?s free so they may say they will pay but when it comes to paying whether they will pay or not is a different ball game. But at least that?s what they are saying. Most of them are also claiming that it is benefiting them but we will know when they start paying on their own because this project is being sponsored and we are supplying this information to them for free, this is so because you can go on our platform now and just sign yourself on the platform and you will see the prices alerts depending on the commodity that you select. But at now researchers from the New York university are now doing a study here in Ghana , they started last year, it will end in 2013 , that is when we will know if the mobile information on pricing have helped improve farmers income and their livelihood. The study is on-going, we will know when the result comes out.
How the mobile phone works with the Esoko Beyond pricing, the mobile phone can be used in terms of trading, we have a system where if you have a ton of maize and you want to sell it you can just pick up your mobile phone and text in ?sell , maize, two tons? and this message will move into our platform and those who have been programmed on the platform to receive the messages will get the information that somebody wants to sell maize two tons at a particular price and this is his contact. So if you are one of the traders you can contact the person for negotiation on how to buy the maize. That is what we are using the phone to do. We also use the phone to send out information and news alerts or whatever is happening just by SMS push. We can send the SMS to the people who have been programmed on the platform. What we have is that if you are a researcher or you are doing any business, you just programme your members into cassava growers, maize growers, whatever you want or any way you want to classify them, you can classify them by districts, or by regions, so that if something is happening within a certain region you can easily transmit that message to that specific region, to those specific people who are on your profile on that network and use it to communicate with that target group. The same platform can be used if you want to send coupon, instead of sending paper coupon, you can decide to use the mobile coupons and transmit it to farmers or anybody, also by a mobile phone. You can also use it to do simple polls, asking basic questions like, have you planted? Yes or No, if not when will you do that? This simple questions can also be used to do polls on the platform, you can also use it to give you stock alerts to tell you the stock you have in your warehouse or in the farm, you can use it to send alerts about transportation . And for those of you who are researchers, you can do a small poll per say, send the reports just by SMS message to the recipient if the respondent have just respond the result can be capture if they are on the platform and the analysis will be done so it is very simple to use just because it has a very limited usage ,if you want to use a very large research that means you cannot use the SMS platform because of these limitations . You can use the Android phone or the Java application because they are smart phones and they have the ability to do more interactions that can be used for the Esoko.
On the challenges of the mobile platform There are some challenges in terms of using this platform, currently most SMS have about 169 characters but on our platform you can see up to 560 characters so anything beyond that, you will not be able to transmit that message on the platform and that is a limitation because you cannot use the platform to send much information but only about 560 characters. You also need to rely on mobile phone operators to deliver the SMS message, in case the network is down, then your recipient will not receive the message and they may not give you the feedback that you need. There is also another limitation for mobile phone services, for somebody to use it effectively, the person must know how to read and write or interpret the message through the mobile phone and that is another challenge to most of our farmers around Africa because reading and interpreting the message you need some skills in doing that which is a limitation. And when you do a poll by SMS, you send the questions, people have to respond, how do you motivate them to give you the response? If you are in the field it?s a face to face ,so the person have no alternative but to respond to what you have asked him but you can send an SMS to thousands of people but getting the response is an issue . So what we do is that when you send a message to people you tell them that if they respond they get a certain unit of a mobile phone credit, if you do that then you may get people responding if they have the ability to interpret the message and understand it then they can respond effectively to it. In spite of this , based on our learning and experience in dealing with this project , we have realized that for any good market information system service (M.I.S) you need to address the needs of the target groups because if not, the message may go and they wouldn?t understand or read it. It should also be timely and effective in delivering the message to the audience, the technology should be easily accessible, the message should be clear and understandable and it should be localized ,relevant and customized. This means that you should use the language that the people understand because if they don?t understand they will not respond. It should be timely and accurate, it should be convenient and inexpensive. It should also focus on implementation, training reinforcement and marketing because if you have a product and you didn?t promote and advertise it people will not know.
Reported by : Abah Anthony John
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Posted by AfricaSTI on January 13, 2013. Filed under Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
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Public release date: 21-Jan-2013
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Posted by AfricaSTI on January 13, 2013. Filed under Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
