Learning gardens seek to combat childhood obesity - Colorado ...

Give a child the proverbial choice between candy and a carrot, and he?ll likely choose candy ? unless he helped grow the carrot.

The hypothesis was one of many posited by District 11 dietician Jamie Humphrey last fall as she helped to launch a large garden at the Galileo School of Math and Science.

The students proved her right.

?The little cherry tomatoes are so sweet ? the kids just eat them up like they?re going out of style,? she said.

Humphrey hopes that noshing on nutrient-dense produce is a habit the school?s students will maintain.

?If kids are choosing healthy foods versus foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat, they will make healthier food choices as they grow into adults,? she said.

A GROWING PROBLEM

Nearly a third of American children are overweight or obese, according to a 2010 report released by the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity.

As such, they?re more likely to develop conditions such as asthma and Type 2 diabetes at a young age.

For some kids, obesity is a phase. For others, it?s the start of a potentially deadly trend. Obese children are more likely to turn into obese adults. Obese adults are at a greater risk of developing a host of conditions such as heart disease and some forms of cancer.

Though Colorado is one of the more fit states in the nation, it isn?t immune to the epidemic. The percentage of obese children in the state climbed from 9.9 in 2003 to 14.2 in 2007, dropping Colorado from its position as a leader in childhood fitness to middle of the road when compared with other states, according to data released by The Colorado Health Foundation.

Among the nearly 1,700 children enrolled in Head Start and Colorado Preschool programs in El Paso County, numbers are even higher: 22 percent are obese.

?In this country, community and in our program, we have an epidemic of really young children who are suffering from obesity,? said Noreen Landis-Tyson, president of the Community Partnership for Child Development, which runs the programs in the county. ?To me, this is a resource issue, an educational issue, a stress issue.?

Sukie Jackson, director of the Ruth Washburn Nursery Cooperative, agrees that childhood obesity sometimes boils down to a lack of education, not resources.

Since 1999, the center has been home to a number of learning gardens, including a vegetable garden with a chicken coop.

Though 20 percent of the center?s students are on scholarships, the majority come from households that can afford the center?s tuition, which tops out near $4,000 a year for four half-day sessions a week.

Yet some students still battle obesity, Jackson said.

The center?s parents have been known to have passionate discussions about the differences between carrot muffins, which are considered acceptable snacks for school, and frosted carrot cake, which is not.

?You can?t assume that someone who is not on a scholarship gets good food at home,? Jackson said.

AN EFFECTIVE WEAPON

Learning gardens can?t cure childhood obesity, but studies show that they?re effective in combating it.

Travis Robinson would know. He?s the managing director of Boulder-based nonprofit The Kitchen Community, founded last year with the aim of whittling away at childhood obesity rates by connecting kids with ?real food.?

Founders chose learning gardens as their weapon of choice because they increase kids? consumption of fruits and veggies two and a half to three times. They do so by providing children with a ?basic knowledge of where their food comes from,? Robinson said.

?They don?t know what grows underground, what grows aboveground,? he said. ?It?s that basic knowledge that results in behavioral changes.?

The organization has so far helped to launch more than 20 learning gardens, including one at the Fort Carson Head Start Center, run by Landis-Tyson?s organization.

Volunteers installed the Fort Carson garden?s infrastructure in the fall, and center employees plan to sow seeds in the spring.

Come harvest season next year, they hope the garden yields a bumper crop of colorful, robust vegetables and herbs, which they plan to sneak into snacks and send home with children.

Landis-Tyson hopes that the Fort Carson center sees results similar to that of the Galileo School.

?It?s about taking the mystery out of some really healthy foods and giving kids a chance to try them,? she said.

?They?re much more likely to try something they?ve had a hand in growing than something that comes out of a can.

?Gardens take the mystery out of veggies and fruit.?

Source: http://www.gazette.com/articles/gardens-148949-carrot-learning.html

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Global Climate Talks Spark Frustration

Even as warnings of the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming mounted, negotiators at global climate talks in Qatar made only modest steps toward halting warming as they came to an end over the weekend.

Perhaps most significant among them, was the extension of the Kyoto Protocol a greenhouse-gas emissions reduction treaty, until 2020 when a new global climate treaty ? which has yet to be drafted ? is set to take effect.

To the frustration of some observers, none of these new developments, including the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, significantly curbs the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions across the globe, which has been steadily growing.??

The United Nations talks' modest progress contrasted with the simultaneous alarms related to global warming, ranging from extreme events ? most recently, the Bopha typhoon in the Philippines and Hurricane Sandy along the U.S. East Coast ? to reports, such as one from the World Bank, which outlined the havoc a 5.2-degree Fahrenheit (4-degree Celsius) increase in global temperatures would wreak. (The report and scientists have warned that without significant action, the planet could face this amount of average warming.) [8 Ways Global Warming Is Already Changing the World]

There are reasons for optimism "on the margins of the negotiations," such as a handful of new emissions reduction pledges (although none by major emitters like the United States), as well as initiatives and national policies occurring outside the U.N. process, according to an assessment by the nonprofit Climate Analytics.

However, the assessment concluded that, given the current state of affairs, "the world is still set to warm well above 3 degrees C (5.2 degrees F)."

Doha gains

The extension of the Kyoto Protocol, a greenhouse gas emissions reduction treaty, that would otherwise have ended this year, was among the small-scale accomplishments achieved at negotiations in Qatar, said Nathan Hultman, an associate professor at the University of Maryland.

A handful of developed nations, including the European Union and Australia, agreed to take on new emissions reductions' commitments as part of a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol.

While this agreement carries some symbolic and practical importance, "it is not really a global agreement," said Hultman, who attended part of the conference.

China and the United States, the two biggest emitters, as well as other major players, did not enter the agreement, he said.

A long-term agreement is on the horizon, based on a decision made last year at talks in Durban. Under the timeline, the agreement must be drawn up by 2015 and implemented by 2020. However, no significant progress was made on it this year, Hultman said.

Negotiators did manage to close out some long-standing discussions and continued attempts to raise funds from developed countries to assist developing nations.

A suite of emission reductions' pledges put in place after talks in 2009 remained largely unchanged with no major emitter offering further cuts. [The 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas]

The lack of significant progress on changing the planet?s emission trajectory has prompted "a real lack of faith in the ability of nations to come together on a global deal," said Ellie Johnston, Lead Now fellowship director for the youth organization SustainUs. "There is a question whether or not the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention] can produce the agreement we need to address climate change."

But, she added, the U.N. process should continue, because "we need some sort of mechanism to pull all of the nations together to help encourage each other along."

A quiet year

The talks at Doha started to relatively low expectations, said Travis Franck, senior scientist and policy analyst for the nongovernmental group Climate Interactive, who attended part of the conference.

Other recent climate meetings have not brought much progress either, and the geopolitical landscape has changed little recently, Franck said, adding that major players, such as China and the United States, haven't significantly altered their positions, and the European Union's debt crisis has prevented it from playing a leading role.

Timing was also important.

"The next big conversation is the big Durban Platform," he said, referring to the treaty on the horizon for 2015. "That isn't coming to a head for a couple of years, so the pressure isn't there."

Accumulating evidence

Meanwhile, however, a sense of urgency has been building.

Natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy, and most recently, Typhoon Bopha, which has taken hundreds of lives in the Philippines, have called attention to the connection between climate change and extreme weather events.

On Thursday (Dec. 6), a Philippine delegate called attention to the disaster in his country, saying, "let this be the year we found the courage to take responsibility for the future we want. ? If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?" the Earth Negotiations Bulletin reported. [Extreme Weather Facts: Quiz Yourself]

The talks also coincided with the release of U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reports examining unprecedented change in the Arctic, including retreating sea ice, and declaring that 2012 would almost certainly be the warmest year on record for the lower 48 U.S. states.

Negotiators have the goal of reducing emissions in order to cap warming at 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C). However, carbon dioxide emissions have continued to climb. In 2011, China and India were the largest contributors to the growth in emissions, offsetting declines in emissions from the United States and the European Union, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project. (The United States remains the second largest emitter even though its emissions are declining.)

Beyond the negotiations

The U.N. negotiations may be proceeding slowly, but Niklas H?hne, director of energy and climate policy at the independent research and consulting company Ecofys and an author of the Climate Analytics assessment, sees encouraging things happening on the sidelines.

A handful of countries (none major emitters) are offering new pledges to reduce emissions; countries such as Korea, Brazil and Mexico are implementing policies at home to meet their pledges; and plenty of policies are being made at the national, subnational and city level to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, H?hne said.

The international process plays an important role in spurring nations to implement policies at home, he said.

"It may not be sufficient to reach the common goal of limiting climate change to 2 degrees C [3.6 degrees F] but it is certainly one very important factor to make it happen," he said. In past work, H?hne and colleagues highlighted 21 promising initiatives for emissions reductions occurring outside the U.N. process.

Hultman agreed that the U.N. process was not the only venue for addressing climate change.

"International discussions are one element, and we have all these other dimensions of action," he said. "It is important not to lose sight of those other actions as well."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/global-climate-talks-spark-frustration-213959869.html

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Digested formula, but not breast milk, is toxic to cells, in vitro study finds

Dec. 10, 2012 ? Free fatty acids created during the digestion of infant formula cause cellular death that may contribute to necrotizing enterocolitis, a severe intestinal condition that is often fatal and occurs most commonly in premature infants, according to a study by University of California, San Diego bioengineers. Their report, which was based on in vitro tests comparing the digestion of fresh human breast milk and nine different infant formulas, was published online in the journal Pediatric Research.

Scientists have long known that premature infants fed formula are more likely to develop necrotizing enterocolitis than those fed breast milk. The condition is the leading cause of death from gastrointestinal diseases in premature infants, but the underlying mechanism has not been understood. Alexander Penn, a research scientist working in the Microcirculation Laboratory of bioengineering Professor Geert Schmid-Sch?nbein from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, believes they have come closer to an answer.

Penn and others had previously determined that the partially digested food in a mature, adult intestine is capable of killing cells, due to the presence of free fatty acids which have a "detergent" capacity that damages cell membranes. The intestines of healthy adults and older children have a mature mucosal barrier that may prevent damage due to free fatty acids. However, the intestine is leakier at birth, particularly for preterm infants, which could be why they are more susceptible to necrotizing enterocolitis.

Therefore, the researchers wanted to know what happens to breast milk as compared to infant formula when they are exposed to digestive enzymes. They "digested," in vitro, infant formulas marketed for full term and preterm infants as well as fresh human breast milk using pancreatic enzymes or fluid from an intestine. They then tested the formula and milk for levels of free fatty acids. They also tested whether these fatty acids killed off three types of cells involved in necrotizing enterocolitis: epithelial cells that line the intestine, endothelial cells that line blood vessels, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that is a kind of "first responder" to inflammation caused by trauma in the body.

Overwhelmingly, the digestion of formula led to cellular death, or cytotoxicity -- in less than 5 minutes in some cases -- while breast milk did not. For example, digestion of formula caused death in 47 percent to 99 percent of neutrophils while only 6 percent of them died as a result of milk digestion. The study found that breast milk appears to have a built-in mechanism to prevent cytotoxicity. The research team believes most food, like formula, releases high levels of free fatty acids during digestion, but that breast milk is digested in a slower, more controlled, process.

Currently, many neonatal intensive care units are moving towards formula-free environments, but breastfeeding a premature infant can be challenging or physically impossible and supplies of donor breast milk are limited. To meet the demand if insufficient breast milk is available, less cytotoxic milk replacements will need to be designed in the future that pose less risk for cell damage and for necrotizing enterocolitis, the researchers concluded.

This may be of benefit not only to premature infants, but also to full-term infants at higher risk for disorders that are associated with gastrointestinal problems and more leaky intestines, such as autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Sharon Taylor, a professor of pediatric medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a pediatric gastroenterologist at Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, said the study offers more support to an already ongoing push by hospitals, including neonatal intensive care units, to encourage breastfeeding even in more challenging circumstances in the NICU. For patients who are too premature or frail to nurse, Dr. Taylor said hospital staff should provide consultation and resources to help mothers pump breast milk that can be fed to the baby through a tube.

The research was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Taylor, Karen Dobkins of the Department of Psychology, and Angelina Altshuler and James Small of the Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego and was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NS071580 and GM85072). The researchers conclude that breast milk has a significant ability to reduce cytotoxicity that formula does not have. One next step is to determine whether these results are replicated in animal studies and whether intervention can prevent free fatty acids from causing intestinal damage or death from necrotizing enterocolitis.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexander H. Penn, Angelina E. Altshuler, James W. Small, Sharon F. Taylor, Karen R. Dobkins, Geert W. Schmid-Sch?nbein. Digested formula but not digested fresh human milk causes death of intestinal cells in vitro: implications for necrotizing enterocolitis. Pediatric Research, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/pr.2012.125

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/JazmhchlCzw/121210124616.htm

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Nick Diaz, not Johny Hendricks, to get next shot at Georges St-Pierre and welterweight belt

Though the UFC had focused on making a superfight between welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and middleweight champ Anderson Silva, and Johny Hendricks was supposed to be the next welterweight contender, another fighter will get a shot at GSP before Silva or Hendricks. At the UFC on Fox 5 press conference, UFC president Dana White said Nick Diaz will get the next shot at St-Pierre.

Diaz is coming off of a close decision loss to Carlos Condit. He is also suspended because the Nevada Athletic Commission found marijuana metabolites during his drug test. Still, he's seen as the ideal candidate over Hendricks, who won his last five fights. Two of his last three wins were knockouts in under a minute.

Hendricks immediately took to Twitter after he heard the news:

I don't really know what to say but please @danawhite give me a shot @georgesstpierre if u want a fight I will give him anything he can take

? Johny Hendricks (@JohnyHendricks) December 6, 2012

He has a point. Hendricks has the credentials for the title shot, and White said Hendricks was the no. 1 contender after he knocked out Martin Kampmann at UFC 154.

"He looked damn good tonight," White said. "It was a replica of the Jon Fitch fight. He even landed it in the same spot (as the Jon Fitch fight). It was impressive, so I would say yes, he is (the No. 1 contender)."

Diaz jumping to the front of the line is yet another reminder that the UFC is a business first. It's their job to sell pay-per-views and attract viewers to fights on Fox, FX and Fuel. The fighter who has earned his way to the top isn't always the best one to attract viewers.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/nick-diaz-not-johny-hendricks-next-shot-georges-221912590--mma.html

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What sets newly found super Earth apart? It's simple as night and day. (+video)

Scientists say they have found a planet seven times more massive than Earth orbiting in a star's habitable zone 42 light-years away. It could have seas, and perhaps just as important, it could have an Earth-like climate because it has a day-night cycle.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / November 8, 2012

This undated artist rendering shows Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. So far, astronomers have detected more than 840 planets orbiting other stars, a handful of those are super Earths that fall within their stars' habitable zones.

Courtesy of JPL-Caltech/Ames/NASA/AP

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Astronomers have uncovered evidence for a super Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star 42 light-years away in the southern-hemisphere constellation Pictor.

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A newly discovered "super-Earth" planet, HD 40307g, is in the "Goldilocks Zone;" just the right place to support liquid water. It resides in a system of six worlds orbiting a, stable, elderly dwarf star 44 light years away.

If the data truly signal a planet, the object could host liquid water on its surface, the team estimates. Liquid water is seen as a key ingredient for organic life.

So far, astronomers have detected more than 840 planets orbiting other stars. A handful of those are super Earths that fall within their stars' habitable zones. But only two ? including this newly announced planet candidate ? are far enough away from their stars to allow for a day-night cycle. The others orbit so close to their stars that they've become tidally locked, presenting the same face to their stars as they swing about their orbits.

A day-night cycle on the new planet "improves its chances of hosting an Earth-like climate," the team wrote in the formal report of their discovery, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The host star, tagged as HD 40307, has about 77 percent of the sun's mass and is a sun-like 4.5 billion years old. Researchers previously had detected three super Earths orbiting the star. The potentially habitable planet is one of three additional planet-candidates the team is reporting around HD 40307.

It's a uniquely crafted system. Five of the six planets orbit within a scant 23 million miles of the star. HD 40307g, the outermost of the six, orbits another 33 million miles out. That brings all six orbits well within the radius of Mercury's orbit around the sun. Mercury is the innermost planet in our solar system, orbiting the sun at an average distance of 58 million miles ? close enough to broil the sun-facing hemisphere of this slowly turning planet to a toasty 801 degrees Fahrenheit.

But HD 40307g's host star is faint enough that the planet, with a year some 200 days long, falls well within the star's habitable zone.

The six planets exhibit minimum masses ranging from 3.5 Earth masses to 9.5 times the Earth's mass. The potentially habitable super Earth comes in at about seven Earth masses.

Based on calculations involving a similar, habitable-zone super Earth discovered by NASA's Kepler mission, Kepler 22b (which is also the other super Earth with a day-night cycle), the team posits that the planet could be a mini-Neptune, with a rocky core and thick atmosphere.

Other astronomers have been trying to confirm the existence of the initial three planets by hunting for the slight dimming a planet imparts to its star's light as it swings in front of the star during its orbit ? and event known as a "transit." But no one has spotted anything yet.

Given that it is easier to spot transits for close-in planets than for more-distant planets, the chances of catching a transit for HD 40307g as well would seem remote. Astronomers are interested in such detections because a transit would not only provide confirmation of the planet's existence, but also allow astronomers to infer a great deal about the planet, including its density.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/yJTJUYysGE4/What-sets-newly-found-super-Earth-apart-It-s-simple-as-night-and-day.-video

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Iranian fighters fired on US drone in Gulf: Pentagon - The Lahore ...

By AFP

Published: November 9, 2012

WASHINGTON: Two Iranian fighter jets fired on an unarmed US drone in the Gulf last week and missed, the Pentagon said Thursday, warning that the United States stood ready to protect its forces in the region.

The incident occurred on November 1 ? less than a week before America?s presidential election ? but the Pentagon kept it quiet until now.

?They intercepted the aircraft and fired multiple rounds,? spokesman George Little told a news conference.

The confrontation threatened to ignite a potential conflict between the arch foes amid a mounting crisis over Tehran?s nuclear program and a shadow war marked by cyberattacks and assassinations in Iran.

Tough new sanctions led by the United States are squeezing Iran?s economy while Washington is accused of staging cyber sabotage on Tehran?s uranium enrichment plants.

The US military drone was ?never in Iranian air space? and came under fire from Su-25 fighters off the Iranian coast over international waters, Little said.

The robotic Predator aircraft was conducting ?routine surveillance? and the United States has told Iran it has no plans to suspend the flights, he said.

?The United States has communicated to the Iranians that we will continue to conduct surveillance flights over international waters over the Arabian Gulf consistent with longstanding practice and our commitment to the security of the region,? he said.

In a warning to Tehran, the Pentagon spokesman said the United States was prepared to safeguard its forces.

?We have a wide range of options, from diplomatic to military, to protect our military assets and our forces in the region and will do so when necessary,? Little said.

The Predator returned safely to an unspecified military base in the region following the incident that occurred at 4:50 am US eastern standard time (0850 GMT).

The MQ-1 drone, a turboprop plane that flies at a much slower speed than the fighter jets, was pursued further by the Iranian warplanes but not fired on again, Little added.

The Predator was intercepted about 16 nautical miles off the Iranian coast, beyond the Islamic Republic?s territorial waters that extend 12 nautical miles off the country?s shore.

At the State Department, officials unveiled yet more sanctions on Iran, targeting the communications minister and the culture ministry among others for censoring the media and the Internet.

The move against Communications Minister Reza Taghipour came after he was blamed for ordering the jamming of international satellite TV broadcasts and restricting Internet access, a State Department official said.

The United States is determined to stop the ?Iranian government from creating an ?electronic curtain? to cut Iranian citizens off from the rest of the world,? said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

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Source: http://www.lhrtimes.com/2012/11/09/iranian-fighters-fired-on-us-drone-in-gulf-pentagon/

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Video: Months of campaigning sets stage for dramatic finish

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Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49724557/

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How to use Remind me Later to handle inopportune calls on your iPhone

iOS 6 brings some welcome new features to the Phone app, including Remind me Later, which lets you safely avoid answering calls when it's inconvenient without having to worry you'll forget to return them later. As the name implies, Remind me Later ties the Phone app straight into the Reminders app, so it's really quick to use. Like the new, quick text-message replies, Remind me Later is accessible right from the Lock screen, and is only a swipe away.

How to set a location based alert with Remind me Later

1. When a call comes in, tap and hold the phone icon to the right of Slide to Answer control, and slide it upwards to reveal the new options panel.

2. Tap the Remind Me Later option.

3. Tap one of the location-based options, When I Leave, When I get Home, or When I get to Work.

4. If you haven't used location-based alerts before, you might get a popup requesting access to your location. Give your permission, or the alert can't work.

How to set a time-based alert using Remind me Later

1. When a call comes in, tap and hold the phone icon to the right of Slide to Answer control, and slide it upwards to reveal the new options panel.

2. Tap the Remind Me Later option.

3. Tap In 1 Hour.

iOS will now set an alarm and when one hour has passed, your alert will go off, reminding you to return the missed call.

Do not Disturb mode

iOS 6 also comes with a new Do not Disturb mode. If you're in a situation where you don't want to be bothered by calls for an extended period of time, don't want to have to dismiss them all manual, and don't care about being reminded to return them beyond the usual missed call notifications, Do not Disturb can be the better choice.

• http://www.imore.com/how-enable-do-not-disturb-notification-center-iphone-and-ipad

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/8mOU0uauTBo/story01.htm

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crossdavids: health and fitness: Useful Information About Eczema

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Gay GOP group hesitantly backs Romney

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A prominent gay Republican group offered Mitt Romney its "qualified endorsement" on Tuesday, calling it the right decision for the nation even as it slammed Romney's opposition to gay marriage.

Rather than offer the Republican presidential nominee its full support, Log Cabin Republicans said it will focus its efforts instead on Republican candidates for House and Senate who favor equality for gays and lesbians.

"If LGBT issues are a voter's highest or only priority, then Gov. Romney may not be that voter's choice," the group said in its endorsement, adding that its members value a diverse set of issues. "We believe Gov. Romney will make cutting spending and job creation his priorities, and, as his record as governor of Massachusetts suggests, will not waste his precious time in office with legislative attacks on LGBT Americans."

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email that the candidate welcomes the endorsement and appreciates the group's support.

A lengthy explanation released by Log Cabin Republicans under the banner "We Are Americans First" was part endorsement, part rebuke to a Republican Party whose standard-bearers the group said "appear to be caught up in an outdated culture war." The group argued that Americans of all sexual orientations have suffered financially under President Barack Obama, and while Romney may not share all of their views, he could be worse.

"Mitt Romney is not Rick Santorum, and Paul Ryan is not Michele Bachmann. Otherwise, our decision would have been different," the group said.

Even so, Log Cabin Republicans, a vocal and long-time critic of Romney's opposition to gay marriage and civil unions, said it would continue fighting a federal amendment banning gay marriage, which Romney supports, and condemned "the aspects of the GOP platform which work to exclude our families."

Stonewall Democrats, a national gay group backing Obama, called the decision by Log Cabin Republicans shameful and insulting. "This is politics at its worst ? when a community sells out its own people for the gain of a few individuals," Jerame Davis, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

The last-minute endorsement by the Republican group reflected persistent tensions among gay conservatives about what role to play within a party still largely opposed to many of the broader gay community's priorities. Another gay Republican group, GOProud, in June said it would "enthusiastically endorse" Romney and pledged to "commit significant resources" to electing him.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-gop-group-hesitantly-backs-romney-163823972--election.html

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Sucky Adult Thing #1343: Planning for Retirement

Yes. You did come to the right blog today. No poop or sleep posts. Today I want to talk about something we don?t really want to talk about?planning for retirement. I just saw you shudder?it?s ok. It isn?t thrilling but ya know, it is a?necessity. Working mom or not, it is still looming down the road. With my generation still tunneling out from student loans( 20,000 is the average), it is hard to think about saving MORE money but you really have to.

?On average, each of us spends 83,000 hours working ? and less than 10 hours planning for retirement. ? -??Harvard Human Resources

Yes. I am 30 but as I stated in my post about saving for college, my money isn?t just for lattes and iPads. We are constantly watching our money for the future. Seeing my mom and inlaws in retirement, I have to say?if you plan right, it looks freakin sweet. Lucky for me, my company has awesome planning resources and programs. I honestly haven?t had to think much about it. We had our accounts looked at by a?financial?adviser?friend and we seem pretty well established.

That being said, a few months back I was approached by My Retirement Education Center, a company here in the Triangle, to review a retirement seminar. A 1 hour lunch and learn event to hear about retirement planning. After much maternity leave, I took them up on the offer and headed out to their facility for some learning. I have to say that financial matters are not my forte. I can program, make a mean lasagna, race trains like a kick ass mom but when it comes to investing and such? I am dumb. I have money in mutual funds, 401Ks, Roth IRAs but all because someone else did it for me. I really have no clue how that magic works. I find myself googling silly simple terms and still not knowing what it means. I am an Econ failure. So going into the seminar, I was a little nervous. Would they talk over my head? Would they found out how dumb I really am? I am glad to say, my secret was safe. The owner, Steve, greeted me on arrival and made me very comfortable. The session I went to ended up being with 1 other blogging mom (who knew?) and we seemed to have similar setups. Both working moms with littles and money to invest (no outstanding debt). Steve presented us a great presentation, with lunch!, about all the basics of retirement. How 401K plans work. How to take advantage of the best packages depending on how long you have until retirement. Who you need on your ?team? as a young professional trying to navigate the financial game. I even snuck in some ?dumb? questions and he was happy to answer and relieve my nerves. I have to say I learned a good bit and if I still don?t know, I know which person to ask (Steve!).

One thing I learned that made total sense was social security was created with the idea that a person would live an average of 2 years past retirement. People live WAY beyond that now. So when planning your retirement, it is important to figure out when you plan to retire. Are you a early retiree or older? This will guide you in everything you decide now. Do you plan to travel? Do you plan to have an encore career? It is hard to envision right now for some of us but it helps to have an idea. Oh and I probably will never see Social Security anyway. You?re welcome, old people.

The other big thing I learned was you need a team of pros to help you get the most of your money. You should consider at least a 3 member team of an?attorney, CPA and an investment professional. You can?t expect yourself to do it all. You can?t know everything. Find people to help you. And Steve?s group can help!?One of the greatest things about My Retirement Education Center is it?s mission to provide retirement expertise without a sales pitch. They are there to help you understand?not make money off of you. They aren?t taking a percentage of your investment. They?genuinely?want to help people understand money better. They have done the sales game for years and have decided this is better. Teaching. And that, is something I can admire.

So please take a few minutes to check out their website even if you don?t live in the Triangle area. It gets you thinking about it. His blog?is also ?a great compilation of quick tips and articles on saving that apply to us all. If you are in the area, consider a quick lunch seminar to learn more about your future. They offer a variety of classes. They also do larger groups on site at companies and groups upon request. They even do a weekend getaway at Grove Park Inn to get you away from the hustle and bustle of life to have a little fun and focus on learning.

Thanks again to Steve and the folks at My Retirement Education Center. The class was great and I am so happy there are people out there?genuinely?trying to help dumb people like me

Disclaimer: I was given a free lunch and learn session by My Retirement Education Center for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I truly believe in their services.

?

Source: http://www.mannlymama.com/2012/10/sucky-adult-thing-1343-planning-for-retirement/

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BMI, BP Don't Up Prostate Cancer Risk | Cancer Kick

By?Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Metabolic factors did not increase the risk of prostate cancer but modestly raised the risk of prostate cancer mortality, results of a large cohort study showed.

Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and cholesterol level had no association with prostate cancer, nor did the composite z-score for combined metabolic risk factors.

Higher levels of glucose and triglycerides were associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer compared with men who had the lowest glucose and triglyceride values.

High blood pressure, BMI, and composite metabolic score did predict the risk of dying of prostate cancer, raising the odds by 13% to 62%, as reported online in Cancer.

?The results of the current study add further evidence to support the hypothesis that high levels of metabolic factors, separately or combined, are not related to the development of prostate cancer but are related to an increased risk of disease progression, but with no evidence of synergy between the metabolic factors,? wrote Christel H?ggstr?m, MSc, of Ume? University in Sweden.

?Thus, from a public health perspective, the data from the current study will add some further motivation to control metabolic factors to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and, to some degree, prostate cancer death.?

Several studies have demonstrated a modest association between excess body weight (expressed as BMI) and prostate cancer. Obesity and higher BMI have a stronger association with prostate cancer mortality.

Relatively few studies have examined relationships between specific metabolic factors and prostate cancer, and most investigations have involved small numbers of patients, the authors noted in their introduction. The effect of combined metabolic factors on prostate cancer risk has a mixed history in the literature.

To expand the investigation of metabolic factors and prostate cancer risk, H?ggstr?m and colleagues analyzed data from the ongoing Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project (Me-Can), which has a database comprising 289,866 men from Sweden, Norway, and Austria.

The Me-Can database contains records of study participants? blood pressure, lipids, glucose, height, weight, and other clinical and demographic characteristics. Investigators grouped the men into quintiles on the basis of metabolic parameters and calculated relative risk for individual parameters and a cumulative risk score.

Analysis of baseline characteristics for all 289,866 study participants showed a mean age of 44 at recruitment and that:

• 44% were overweight (BMI 25 to 30)
• 11% were obese (BMI ?30)
• 38% had hypertension (?140/90 mm Hg)
• 7% had impaired fasting glucose (?110 to 126 mg/dL)
• 4% had diabetes (?126 mg/dL)
• 32% had fasting hypercholesterolemia (?250 mg/dL)
• 27% had fasting hypertriglyceridemia (?150 mg/dL)
• 34% were current smokers

During a mean follow-up of 12 years, 6,673 men developed prostate cancer, and 961 study participants died of prostate cancer. Comparing highest versus lowest quintiles for each metabolic parameter, the investigators found that neither the individual parameters nor the composite risk score predicted an increased risk of prostate cancer.

Two risk factors were associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer: fasting glucose (RR 0.82, P=0.03 for trend) and triglycerides (RR 0.88, P=0.001 for trend).

Analysis of associations between risk factors and prostate cancer mortality identified three parameters that predicted an increased risk: BMI (RR 1.36, P=0.013 for trend), systolic blood pressure (RR 1.62, P=0.001 for trend), and diastolic blood pressure (RR 1.24, P=0.001 for trend). Additionally, the adjusted composite score (z score) predicted an increased prostate cancer mortality risk (RR 1.13 for trend).

The investigators also examined associations between risk factors and prostate cancer/prostate cancer mortality. They found stronger associations for cases diagnosed before 1997, which they speculated was a reflection of the introduction of PSA testing and subsequent diagnosis of more early-stage cancers.

The study was supported by the Woorld Cancer Research Fund and the Swedish Cancer Foundation.

The authors had no relevant disclosures.

Primary source: Cancer
Source reference:
H?ggstr?m C et al. ?Prospective study on metabolic factors and risk of prostate cancer? Cancer 2012; DOI: 10.1002/cncr.27677.

Add Your Knowledge ?

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Charles Bankhead

Staff Writer

Working from Houston, home to one of the world?s largest medical complexes, Charles Bankhead has more than 20 years of experience as a medical writer and editor. His career began as a science and medical writer at an academic medical center. He later spent almost a decade as a writer and editor for Medical World News, one of the leading medical trade magazines of its era. His byline has appeared in medical publications that have included Cardio, Cosmetic Surgery Times, Dermatology Times, Diagnostic Imaging, Family Practice, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Medscape, Oncology News International, Oncology Times, Ophthalmology Times, Patient Care, Renal and Urology News, The Medical Post, Urology Times, and the International Medical News Group newspapers. He has a BA in journalism and MA in mass communications, both from Texas Tech University.

Source: http://cancerkick.com/2012/10/22/bmi-bp-dont-up-prostate-cancer-risk/

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Used Ford Escape

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Source: http://autofinder.sevendaysvt.com/blog/video/2012/october/23/2011-Ford-Escape---37cc8e880a0a000200ffeba4c384c686.htm?locale=en_US

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Skin Cancer Foundation helps children stay sun-safe at school

Because many schools don?t allow students to use sunscreen or wear a hat outdoors during the school day without written permission from a physician, The Skin Cancer Foundation has created a sun protection form that parents and doctors can sign, allowing students to bring these items to school, apply and use as needed. The form is available at www.skincancer.org/schoolnote.

?Every child should have access to proper sun protection at school,? says Perry Robins, MD, President of The Skin Cancer Foundation. ?Alarmingly, California is the only state with legislation that gives children the right to take sun protection measures at school. Given the absence of similar legislation in other states, the Foundation hopes to fill this void by providing parents with the necessary means to ensure their children stay safe in the sun at school.?

During a typical school day, it?s not unusual for children to receive a significant amount of sun exposure. Children in elementary school typically have outdoor recess between 10:00am and 2:00pm, a time when the sun is especially intense.

Proper sun protection in childhood can drastically reduce the risk of developing skin cancer as an adult. Suffering just one blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person?s risk of developing melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, later in life.

The Skin Cancer Foundation has always recommended that everyone, regardless of age and skin color, adopt a complete sun protection regimen. At school, children should be able to cover-up with protective clothing, including broad-brimmed hats and UV-blocking sunglasses. Additionally, they should wear a broad-spectrum SPF 15 sunscreen every day, and be allowed to bring it to school for easy reapplication.

The Skin Cancer Foundation?s sun protection form ensures that children have access to recommended sun safety measures. The Skin Cancer Foundation strives to educate children about the dangers of skin cancer and the need for early detection and prevention.

The Foundation recently debuted Sun Smart U, an interactive education program that includes a robust website for teachers and a free downloadable lesson plan.

Sun Smart U was designed in accordance with national health standards for middle and high school students and may be particularly useful to health and physical education teachers.

Through Sun Smart U, students learn about the dangers of tanning through the real-life story of a young woman with Stage III melanoma, and the importance of incorporating a proper sun protection regimen into their everyday lifestyles.?

For more information, visit www.skincancer.org/education.

Source: http://www.timespub.com/2012/10/22/skin-cancer-foundation-helps-children-stay-sun-safe-at-school/

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Researchers explore how the brain perceives direction and location

Monday, October 22, 2012

The Who asked "who are you?" but Dartmouth neurobiologist Jeffrey Taube asks "where are you?" and "where are you going?" Taube is not asking philosophical or theological questions. Rather, he is investigating nerve cells in the brain that function in establishing one's location and direction.

Taube, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, is using microelectrodes to record the activity of cells in a rat's brain that make possible spatial navigation?how the rat gets from one place to another?from "here" to "there." But before embarking to go "there," you must first define "here."

Survival Value

"Knowing what direction you are facing, where you are, and how to navigate are really fundamental to your survival," says Taube. "For any animal that is preyed upon, you'd better know where your hole in the ground is and how you are going to get there quickly. And you also need to know direction and location to find food resources, water resources, and the like."

Not only is this information fundamental to your survival, but knowing your spatial orientation at a given moment is important in other ways, as well. Taube points out that it is a sense or skill that you tend to take for granted, which you subconsciously keep track of. "It only comes to your attention when something goes wrong, like when you look for your car at the end of the day and you can't find it in the parking lot," says Taube.

Perhaps this is a momentary lapse, a minor navigational error, but it might also be the result of brain damage due to trauma or a stroke, or it might even be attributable to the onset of a disease such as Alzheimer's. Understanding the process of spatial navigation and knowing its relevant areas in the brain may be crucial to dealing with such situations.

The Cells Themselves

One critical component involved in this process is the set of neurons called "head direction cells." These cells act like a compass based on the direction your head is facing. They are located in the thalamus, a structure that sits on top of the brainstem, near the center of the brain.

He is also studying neurons he calls "place cells." These cells work to establish your location relative to some landmarks or cues in the environment. The place cells are found in the hippocampus, part of the brain's temporal lobe. They fire based not on the direction you are facing, but on where you are located.

Studies were conducted using implanted microelectrodes that enabled the monitoring of electrical activity as these different cell types fired.

Taube explains that the two populations?the head direction cells and the place cells?talk to one another. "They put that information together to give you an overall sense of 'here,' location wise and direction wise," he says. "That is the first ingredient for being able to ask the question, how am I going to get to 'point B' if I am at 'point A.' It is the starting point on the cognitive map."

The Latest Research

Taube and Stephane Valerio, his postdoctoral associate for the last four years, have just published a paper in the journal Nature Neuroscience, highlighting the head direction cells. Valerio has since returned to the Universit? Bordeaux in France.

The studies described in Nature Neuroscience discuss the responses of the spatial navigation system when an animal makes an error and arrives at a destination other than the one targeted ?its home refuge, in this case. The authors describe two error-correction processes that may be called into play?resetting and remapping?differentiating them based on the size of error the animal makes when performing the task.

When the animal makes a small error and misses the target by a little, the cells will reset to their original setting, fixing on landmarks it can identify in its landscape. "We concluded that this was an active behavioral correction process, an adjustment in performance," Taube says. However, if the animal becomes disoriented and makes a large error in its quest for home, it will construct an entirely new cognitive map with a permanent shift in the directional firing pattern of the head direction cells." This is the "remapping."

Taube acknowledges that others have talked about remapping and resetting, but they have always regarded them as if they were the same process. "What we are trying to argue in this paper is that they are really two different, separate brain processes, and we demonstrated it empirically," he says. "To continue to study spatial navigation, in particular how you correct for errors, you have to distinguish between these two qualitatively different responses."

Taube says other investigators will use this distinction as a basis for further studies, particularly in understanding how people correct their orientation when making navigational errors.

###

Dartmouth College: http://www.dartmouth.edu

Thanks to Dartmouth College for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124658/Researchers_explore_how_the_brain_perceives_direction_and_location

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Barry Manilow to play Broadway in January

NEW YORK (AP) ? Looks like Barry Manilow is making it again ? on Broadway.

The Grammy Award-winning singer of such songs as "Mandy," ''I Write the Songs" and "Looks Like We Made It," will start a 17-show stand on Jan. 18 at the St. James Theatre.

Manilow, who grew up in New York, has graced a Broadway stage before, in the winter of 1976 and the spring of 1989. His new show, called "Manilow on Broadway," has tickets ranging in price from $50 to $350.

The 69-year-old crooner, whose most famous song may be "Copacabana (At the Copa)," had 25 consecutive Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1975 and 1983.

___

Online: http://ManilowOnBroadway.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barry-manilow-play-broadway-january-154953059.html

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Burglars hit Pa. house twice in 2 weeks, nab puppy

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Burglars have struck a Philadelphia house two weeks in a row, first stealing all the food in the family's refrigerator, then snatching their puppy.

Rachel Schortye tells WCAU-TV (http://bit.ly/TKmNcT ) that the latest theft happened late Saturday or early Sunday. She says the burglars took their 52-inch flat-screen TV, winter clothes and party favors for her 8-year-old son's upcoming birthday party.

Schortye says the thieves also took her 3-month-old puppy Miss Piggy from her cage. She says they entered the home through a screen on her porch.

The burglars first struck Oct. 15. Schortye says they entered through the unlocked front door and emptied the family's fridge.

Police say similar burglaries have been reported in the same neighborhood.

Schortye says she doesn't have the money to replace all that was stolen.

___

Information from: WCAU-TV, http://www.nbc10.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-10-21-Food-Puppy%20Snatchers/id-02e40787aa214bafa6c9d52e48dcca59

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Solid Redesigning Advice For Anyone To Follow Alon | Rings

Intelligent home owners are usually trying to boost their residence. At times the desire list can be quite a mile lengthy, nevertheless the bank account guide can be a buck short! So, just how does one obtain the objective of modernizing their home with limited funds? Study from what other individuals have found out of experience! You?ll be amazed to find out that renovations don?t need to cost a fortune. Let?s have a look at a few recommendations for enhancing your house with limited funds.

In case you are trying to eliminate wallpapers that has been coloured above or has more than one level, you might want to make use of a steamer. garage door Calgary By using a steamer will guarantee you may not injury the walls when eliminating the wallpaper. You are able to generally rent payments a steamer or buy a do-it-yourself version.

Many people are unacquainted with new technologies in water heaters, so consider proceeding tankless. That older hot water heater keeps 40-60 gallons of water popular, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Tankless water heaters only heating water since you need it and can save you cash now and will bring you income once you promote.

Correct surface squeaks by incorporating drywall screws. Whilst a second individual waits under within the crawl area or cellar, stroll over your surface and locate the location where the squeaking is developing. Transmission to the particular person listed below exactly where the catch is. They are able to insert a drywall screw throughout the sub flooring and to the flooring to stop the squeak.

Should you don?t desire to refinish your older and weathered wood made flooring surfaces, you can as an alternative, give your home a bungalow fashion improve. Purchase some essential oil dependent fresh paint and judge some affordable stencils. Use the stencils and color to re-style your wooden flooring surfaces. Then add adorable designs in varying designs, to present an entire on-bungalow look to your house.

Take into account that you will additionally have to modify the clip of the insulation when residing your own home. There are various choices you could make when changing your trim. Composite or made clip are considerably cheaper than the greater number of classic wood trim. Weigh up the costs and find out whatever you can logically manage.

Using whole wheat board is a method to have kitchen cabinets created that are ideal for environmental surroundings. There is also wooden that is certainly qualified as environmentally friendly but is of precisely the same good quality as all other sorts of wood. Composite hardwood is just not the ideal choice as it produces dangerous substances in to the air.

If one enjoys normal water and swimming then receiving their particular pool area can be only the home improvement thing for these people. There are numerous options for kinds of swimming pools one can get with regard to their house allowing a custom fit swimming pool area for one?s demands. A swimming pool could be merely the factor for home improvement.

When improving your house, there are several tasks that can be done on your own and others that you simply cannot. If you believe as if you can complete a easy process like repainting your kitchen, then go ahead and do it, in order to save on your own some extra dollars. Just ensure that you determine what you?re getting yourself into before starting a project. You don?t want to try and transform your bath room and discover half way by way of that you?re not sure if you can total the task without having hitting a pipeline.

Retailer your glue containers upside down! Possibly get annoyed as soon as the recommendations of your adhesive bottled unavoidably dried out up involving employs? Eliminating individuals plugs of adhesive is no entertaining. To avoid this just convert your snugly capped fasten container upside down and rest it straight down on the inside an additional container to help keep it propped up.

When making use of a whole new jacket of paint into a textured wall surface or ceiling, work with a fresh paint roller by using a heavy, soft snooze. These rollers might be very likely to dripping, so you must be cautious. Even so, they are necessary for making sure every single corner and cranny on the surface obtains some fresh paint.

So you?ve determined to battle that lengthy anticipated redecorating project. You?ve made a good choice by beginning here. In this article, we now have discussed the very best tips to help you the job completed. We hope you may have identified these details useful and that it makes the next undertaking that much better to attain.

Source: http://o-ringsizechart.com/accounting/solid-redesigning-advice-for-anyone-to-follow-alon/

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Natural process activating brain's immune cells could point way to repairing damaged brain tissue

ScienceDaily (Oct. 21, 2012) ? The brain's key "breeder" cells, it turns out, do more than that. They secrete substances that boost the numbers and strength of critical brain-based immune cells believed to play a vital role in brain health. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of how resident stem cells and stem cell transplants may improve brain function.

Many researchers believe that these cells may be able to regenerate damaged brain tissue by integrating into circuits that have been eroded by neurodegenerative disease or destroyed by injury. But new findings by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine suggest that another process, which has not been fully appreciated, could be a part of the equation as well. The findings appear in a study that will be published online Oct. 21 in Nature Neuroscience.

"Transplanting neural stem cells into experimental animals' brains shows signs of being able to speed recovery from stroke and possibly neurodegenerative disease as well," said Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences in the medical school and senior research scientist at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. "Why this technique works is far from clear, though, because actually neural stem cells don't engraft well."

Neural stem cells can endure essentially unchanged for decades in two places in the mammalian brain, replicating just enough to meet the routine needs of those regions. In most parts of the brain, they aren't found at all.

While of critical importance to maintaining healthy brain function, true neural stem cells are rare. Far more common are their immediate progeny, which are called neural progenitor cells, or NPCs. These robust, rapidly dividing cells are poised to travel down a committed path of differentiation to yield new brain cells of several different types including neurons.

It's known that treating humans with radiation or drugs that prevent NPC replication causes memory deficits ("chemo brain") and, in children, IQ losses of up to 20 points. Conversely, studies are being initiated to see whether infusing neural stem cells into brains affected by Alzheimer's disease can enhance patients' memory function.

One category of brain cells, microglia, descends not from neural stem cells but from an immune lineage and retains several features of immune cells. "Microglia are the brain's own resident immune cells," Wyss-Coray said. Unlike most other mature brain cells, microglia can proliferate throughout adulthood, especially in response to brain injury. They can, moreover, migrate toward injury sites, secrete various "chemical signaling" substances, and gobble up bits of debris, microbial invaders or entire dead or dying neurons.

Microglia normally are distributed throughout the brain -- rather small, quiescent cells sprouting long, skinny projections that meekly but efficiently survey large areas that, taken together, cover the entire brain. But if this surveillance reveals signs of a disturbance, such as injury or infection, the microglia whirl into action. They begin proliferating and their puny bodies puff up, metamorphosing from mild-mannered Clark Kent-like reporters to buffed Supermen who fly to the scene of trouble, where they secrete substances that can throttle bad actors or call in reinforcements. Within these activated cells, internal garbage disposals called lysosomes form in large numbers and start whirring, ready to make mincemeat out of pathogens or cellular debris.

In addition to their part patrol-officer, part cleanup-crew status, microglia can also secrete substances that help neurons thrive. They also contribute to the ongoing pruning of unneeded connections between neurons that occurs throughout our lives.

But like immune cells elsewhere, said Wyss-Coray, microglia can be a force for evil if they engage in too much or inappropriate activity. They might, for instance, start to remove healthy cells (as occurs in Parkinson's) or stop cleaning up garbage strewn about the brain (for example, Alzheimer's plaque).

In a series of experiments, Wyss-Coray and his colleagues have shown that NPCs secrete substances that activate microglia. First, the researchers observed that microglia were uncharacteristically abundant and activated in the two regions in the mammalian brain where NPCs reside and new neurons are formed. Wondering whether the NPCs might be causing this increased microglial activity, the investigators incubated mouse microglia in a culture medium in which NPCs had previously been steeped. Two days later, they saw that the microglia had multiplied more, expressed different amounts of various signal molecules and featured more lysosomes. "The microglia were ready for action," said Wyss-Coray.

So they injected NPCs into an area of mice's brains where these cells are normally not found. In the same area in the opposing brain hemisphere, they injected a control solution. Again they found significant differences in microglial proliferation and activity, and more microglia in the NPC-injected side had assumed a "Superman" as opposed to a "Clark Kent" body shape. When they repeated this experiment using only the NPCs' "discarded bath water" rather than NPCs themselves, they got similar results.

Clearly NPCs were secreting something, or some things, that were spurring microglia to action.

Using sophisticated lab techniques, the team monitored purified NPCs plus several other cell types found in the brain and assessed nearly 60 different substances known to have powerful cell-to-cell signaling properties. Several such substances, it turned out, were secreted in much larger amounts by NPCs than by the other cell types: most notably, vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF -- a well-known molecule produced by many cell types throughout the body. VEGF stimulates the formation of blood vessels and exerts a beneficial effect on neurons. Conversely, drugs that block VEGF (such as Avastin) are frequently used to combat cancer because tumors require an immense blood supply in order to grow quickly.

VEGF is also known to boost microglial proliferation. Because it is produced in such volumes by NPCs, Wyss-Coray's team wanted to see if VEGF alone could mimic any of the changes wrought by NPCs or their culture-medium-borne detritus. So they injected VEGF into mice's right brain hemisphere, and saline solution into the left -- again with the same outcomes. Taking the opposite tack, the team injected NPC-saturated medium devoid of the cells, as they had done earlier. But this time they first used various laboratory techniques to deplete the fluid of the VEGF secreted by its former inhabitants. Doing this almost completely reversed its microglia-activating effects.

"All of this strongly suggests that VEGF produced by NPCs is playing a strong role in influencing microglial behavior," said Wyss-Coray. "This is important, because in all neurodegenerative diseases we know of we see microglia out of control." The new finding may open the door to reprogramming misbehaving microglia to play better with other cells.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center.

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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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/g0wPwQxtoGc/121021133924.htm

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The 90s strike back! - Video Game Blog, Video Games Reviews ...

Ever since the console release of Capcom?s Street Fighter 4 in 2009 2d fighters are enjoying a good degree of popularity once again. Trying to ride the success of Marvel VS Capcom 3 and the Marvel Avengers movie, Capcom releases on PSN and XBLA a new collection called Marvel VS Capcom Origins, cointaining two 90s two dimensions fighters: Marvel Super Heroes and the first Marvel VS Capcom.
Do these two games still hold their own after all these years or will Capcom?s collection only attract nostalgics? Let?s find out.

Nostalgia calling

To be completely honest, I can?t really understand why these two games have been choosen for the collection.
The Marvel VS Capcom franchise main feature is the tag team mechanic, where each player chooses 2 or more fighters, can swap them anytime during battle and even unleash some devasting combination attacks; Marvel Super Heroes features the standard 1 vs 1 formula without any tag team option
It?s not like it?s a bad game, but I think including X Men VS Street Fighter or Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter too would have been more appropriate, since they are the first steps of the VS franchise and, nostalgia wise, it would have been a better choice altogether.
And nostalgia definitely is one of the main selling points of this collection and Capcom didn?t even try to hide it!
The Games are identical to their 90s counterparts in every possible way: graphics wise, sound wise and gameplay wise these two games are a trip back in the 90s, when these big detailed sprites dominated arcade cabinets.
To improve the nostalgic feeling of the collection, Capcom added 2 video options, one to simulate old CRT televisions and another to slight distort the image, simulating an old arcade cabinet screen.
These options will probably be fun for a couple minutes and most players will revert to the regular video option after some time.
Gameplay wise, how do the two fighters hold up? Quite frankly, they?re still very fun, despite their shortcomings.

Avengers, Assemble!

As I mentioned before Marvel Super Heroes, the second Capcom fighter featuring Marvel comics heroes, sports a traditonal 1 versus 1 gameplay, where players can unleash special attacks through the usual 2d fighters stick motions and even more devastating attacks called Infinity Combo after charging a special meter bar placed at the bottom of the screen. The fighters roster is quite diverse and feautures many fans? favourites like Captain America, Spiderman, Iron Man, Wolverine, Wolverine and Cyclops and a few villains like Blackheart, Shuma Gorath and Doctor DoomGameplay is enriched by the presence of special gems called Infinity Gems which grant some bonuses for a short amount of time during the fight.Graphics and sound wise we get what we could expect from a 90s 2d fighting game: sprites and backgrounds are nicely detailed and animated and the soundtrack manages to do its job, although some of the tracks sound a bit repetitive.

When two different worlds collide

Marvel VS Capcom: Clash Of The Super Heroes, released in 1998, is a turning point of the franchise: with this game Capcom started to expand the roster way beyond the Street Fighters characters including characters from other Capcom games like Darkstalker, Megaman, Strider and Captain Command. The Marvel roster gets expanded too with the inclusion of Spiderman?s nemesis Venom and a mix of characters already present in Marvel Super Heroes and XMen Vs Street Fighters.
Gameplay wise Capcom refined the tag team formula: players will choose two characters to use in combat and will be able to switch them at will during play. Nice additions are the Duo Team Attacks which allow the player to use both characters at the same time for a brief time with unlimited super moves usage and the Assist Characters which can be summoned for a limited amount of time to assist the player. These characters aren?t normaly usable so it feels like each time is composed by 3 characters, a prelude to the future evolution of the series.
Graphics wise we?re not too far from the other game in the collection except for a bit more details in both characters and backgrounds. The same can be said about soundtrack: it does its job well but there?s hardly anything memorable.

Now it?s time to take them on!

The only modern touch in the collection is, obviuosly, the online multiplayer mode. The online infrastructure is really well done: I experienced very little lag playing with people all over Europe and even when playing with someone far I didn?t experience too many problems.
The main issue with playing online comes from some unbalancing problems of the games: people playing online will try to win at any cost, so you?ll probably costantly fight the powered up versions of Hulk, Iron Man and Venom.
Not being technical fighters, the charm of these games lies in the easy to pick up and play nature and the unbalanced roster but with competitive play this may become an issue.
Final Verdict

I used to play these games when they were released and I had fun playing them again, probably as much as I did back then thanks to online play; nostalgia has probably a lot to do with this.
Players who never played these games in the past are probably better off looking elsewhere since some others 2d fighters are more refinite with more modern and compelling mechanics. Nostalgics like myself are probably going to really enjoying themselves, remembering those times where reading ? Insert Coins? on the arcade cabinets screens made them full of excitement!

The game is available on both PSN (12,99 euros) and XBox Live Arcade (1200 Microsoft points)

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Article from Gamersyndrome.com

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Source: http://gamersyndrome.com/2012/video-games/the-90s-strike-back-marvel-vs-capcom-origins-review/

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