ORLANDO - Haiti's president is expected to attend the NAACP's national convention at the Orange County Convention Center.
The nation's oldest civil rights organization will mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers at the convention.
The convention opens Saturday and continues through Wednesday. About 4,000 delegates are expected to attend.
Haitian President Michel Martelly and his wife are expected to join other U.S. elected officials joining NAACP members for the convention.
'Real Housewives of Miami' cast member Lisa Hochstein and her husband, plastic surgeon Leonard Hochstein, want to tear down their Star Island mansion.
C.W. Griffin / Miami Herald Staff
The fight to save historic homes in Miami Beach got a boost this week, with the city?s mayor proposing a six-month moratorium on the demolition of architecturally significant homes and preservationists taking to court their battle to save an 88-year-old mansion.
All of this is happening while proposals to provide more protections for historic homes snake their way through various city processes.
Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower has called for the city?s planning board to temporarily stop issuing demolition permits for homes that were built before 1942 and that have notable architectural features. She placed the issue on Wednesday?s regular commission meeting as a referral to the Planning Board.
?I believe this moratorium is important to allow for the review of current and proposed ordinances that would protect against demolition of our historic single-family-home neighborhoods, while allowing time for further incentive programs to be developed in order to preserve more of our existing housing stock,? she wrote in a July?9 memo.
Various city departments and boards have been tinkering with the city?s development laws to come up with ways to encourage people to restore potentially historic homes, rather than tear them down. The city?s Land Use Committee has proposed an ordinance that would provide incentives for retaining architecturally significant homes and limit the kind of construction allowed when such a home is torn down. Commissioners on Wednesday will decide whether to send the proposal to the Planning Board for further review, and to allow that board to make recommendations.
Meanwhile, the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) has appealed the demolition approval of a celebrity couple?s Star Island home to circuit court.
The home, at 42 Star Island, has been at the center of a months-long battle. Owners Leonard Hochstein, a plastic surgeon known as ?The Boob God,? and his wife, Lisa, a cast member of Bravo?s The Real Housewives of Miami, have gotten city permission to tear down the mansion. Preservationists have fought the demolition approval, given by the city?s Design Review Board (DRB.)
MDPL has also filed an application to have the 1925 home, designed by Florida?s first registered architect, historically designated.
Preservationists recently lost an appeal to a city special master and are now asking the courts to weigh in.
The city ?did not adequately evaluate whether it was practical and feasible to repair and retain the home at 42 Star Island,? said MDPL attorney Kent Harrison Robbins. ?If the building can be saved, then that has to be analyzed and considered by the DRB and a new hearing has to be granted.?
An attorney for the Hochsteins didn?t immediately return a request for comment.
?Our doctor just told me that my son has ?executive functioning? disorder,? a mother recently commented. ?What is it? What can I do??
Executive function disorder is an unofficial diagnosis characterized by challenges in following directions, difficulties with planning, organization, and goal-setting, and poor follow-through. Executive functioning challenges are common among people with ADHD, and some experts, including Thomas E. Brown, author of Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults now think that ADHD is, in fact, primarily a disorder of executive functions.
Helping a child with executive functioning challenges works best when expectations are clear and tasks are taught gradually in a step-by-step fashion. The Smart but Scattered books by Dawson and Guare are an excellent guide to this process.
But building executive functioning skills in your child with ADD is not all hard work. Hey, it?s summer! Let?s explore how building executive functioning skills can also be lots of fun!
LEGOs and blocks
On the Learning Works for Kids blog, Legos are discussed in detail as a tool for building ?the vital thinking skills that can allow them to focus better at school and during other non-play activities. In addition, Legos (like many other types of blocks and construction toys) can be a useful tool for practicing thinking skills such as focus, flexibility and planning. Lego play facilitates a need to adapt to the blocks you have, at some point plan out what you want to make, and have a willingness to persist on the task to completion.? Blocks can be used in a similar way.
Clay/Playdoh
Occupational therapist Kelly Balmer suggests that a parent ?build a figurine and have your child build an exact replica in size and color. This works on multiple skills, including initiation, breaking down tasks, sequencing, organization, and attention. If you are unable to build an example, or if you have an older child who enjoys playing independently, there are often ? images online that can be printed.?
Board games
?Board games, puzzles, quizzes and other parlour diversions have a number of common features [with neuropsychological tests] including being rule bound and subject to the play of chance, and requir[ing] various degrees of strategy, planning, and flexibility for their execution,? says neuropsychologist AJ Larner.
Balmer suggests that several games used in the therapeutic setting can also be used at home: Rush Hour, Mastermind, and Connect 4 Stackers, for example. Traditional games such as Monopoly, Clue, chess, puzzles, and Chinese checkers also promote executive skill development. For a wonderful variety of newer games review the list of American Mensa Mind Games winners.
Cooking
Additionally, Balmer recommends exercising executive functions by involving kids in planning, shopping and cooking a favorite recipe: ?Have your child choose a recipe, ? write a grocery list containing everything needed to prepare that dish, create a list of the necessary cooking supplies and, for older children, have them look up the price of each item at the store and create an estimated budget. If possible, ? take them with you to the grocery store. Older kids, [can] act as the ?head chef? and be responsible for completing most of the cooking. For younger kids, if there are safety concerns, assign specific tasks as their job in the cooking process.?
Outings
An anonymous parent on the online DC Urban Moms and Dads forum urges parents to use summer outings as an opportunity to involve kids in stepwise planning of activities: ?Want to go to the farm, let?s plan when a good time to go is, and what we need, and what we want to bake with afterward. Go to Kings Dominion next weekend? What rides should we go on??
Video games
The Learning Works for Kids blog suggests using video games such as Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii to exercise working memory skills, one of the key executive functions. Building working memory with these games is enhanced by ?repetition? duration? challeng[ing] yourself? and compet[ition].?
Online games
Video games aren?t the only way screen time can build executive functioning skills. Neurocognitive researchers have developed a number of computer games thought to help develop certain specific brain functions such as memory and attention. Here are some online sources of ?brain games? to consider:
Fit Brains
Lumosity
Mind360
Need more ideas? Learning Works for Kids suggests the following resources for more play activities provide an opportunity to improve thinking skills: Wired magazine?s Geekdad and Geekmom and Melissa Taylor?s Imagination Soup.
Looking for more support in how to help your child develop executive functioning skills? Consider working with an ADHD Coach.
References
Balmer, K. (2012, November 28). Executive functioning activities at home. [blog post]. Retrieved from http://nspt4kids.com/therapy/executive-functioning-activities-at-home/
?Dr. K.? (2012, August 13). Improving thinking skills with Legos. [blog post]. Retrieved from learningworksforkids.com/2012/08/improving-thinking-skills-with-legos/
Larner, A.J. (2009). The neuropsychology of board games, puzzles and quizzes. ACNR, 9(5), 42. PDF available at ?www.acnr.co.uk/ND09/ACNRND09_board_games.pdf
?
Dr. Ahmann is an ADHD Coach specializing in work with students, parents, and women. Her blog, titled ADHD and Life Coaching is at www.lizahmann.blogspot.com. For more information about her practice, see her website at www.lizahmann.com. She is available for a free introductory consultation in person or by phone or Skype.
Like this author? Catch up on other posts by Elizabeth Ahmann, ScD, RN, ACC (or subscribe to their feed).
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 10 Jul 2013 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference Ahmann, E. (2013). Stretch Your Child?s Brain: Summer Fun with Executive Functioning. Psych Central. Retrieved on July 13, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/07/12/stretch-your-childs-brain-summer-fun-with-executive-functioning/
Apr. 9, 2013 ? A research team from Birkbeck, University of London, Royal Holloway University and Uppsala University in Sweden, have helped explain how ozone causes severe respiratory problems and thousands of cases of premature death each year by attacking the fatty lining of our lungs.
In a study published in Langmuir, the team used neutrons from the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble and the UK's ISIS Neutron Source to observe how even a relatively low dose of ozone attacks lipid molecules that line the lung's surface. The presence of the lipid molecules is crucial for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as they prevent the wet surfaces of the lung from collapsing.
Ozone is mostly produced in the upper atmosphere as the sun's UV light splits oxygen molecules, but it can also form at ground level from burning fossil fuels. It is known to harm our respiratory systems and is linked to asthma, bronchitis, heart attacks, and other cardiopulmonary problems. A recent study published by the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences found that stricter ozone emission regulations in the US could prevent over a thousand premature deaths and over a million complaints of respiratory problems each year [1].
However, it remains unclear how exactly ozone causes this damage. One theory is it attacks the lung's surface layers which consist of a layer of water sitting below a mixture of fatty molecules called lipids and proteins that are together known as lung surfactant. The surfactant aids the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide during breathing. It does this by reducing surface tension, i.e. the attraction that molecules feel for each other, in the liquid surface layer above, causing these fluids to spread out and provide a greater surface area for gas exchange.
Critically, a lack of adequate surfactant, a deficiency often found naturally in babies born prematurely, can produce similar respiratory health complaints to those mentioned above, even resulting in death in some cases.
This link was further established in 2011 by the same team from Birkbeck who demonstrated that ozone reacted very strongly with the lipid layer, damaging it. However, what exactly is going on and how these reactions might impede the surfactant from doing its job was still unclear.
To investigate further Dr Katherine Thompson from Birkbeck and her team ran neutron reflection studies at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble and ISIS Neutron Source in Oxfordshire on an artificial lipid monolayer, created to mimic the lung surface. The lipid layer was exposed to a dilute gaseous mixture of ozone, and changes in its structure or surface tension were studied in real time. The concentration of ozone was around 100 parts per billion (0.1 ppm), equivalent to what you might get in a polluted city in the summer.
The use of neutrons meant that Dr Thompson could label different parts of the sample using deuteration, a process whereby a heavier isotope of hydrogen, deuterium, is introduced and contrasted with undeuterated samples to pick out the location of hydrogen atoms. This allowed them to monitor different parts of the molecule separately as they reacted with the ozone.
Using this technique Dr Thompson's team showed that one of the lipid's upwards-facing tails, known as the C9 portion, breaks off during the ozone degradation and is lost from the surface completely. The portion still attached to the lipid head then re-orientates itself and penetrates into the air?water interface. The loss of the C9 portion causes an initial decrease in surface tension which temporarily increases surface area for gas exchange and efficient respiration. However this effect is short-lived as the penetration of the rest of the molecule into the water results in a slow but pronounced rise in surface tension, producing an overall net increase.
Note:
1. Health Benefits from Large-Scale Ozone Reduction in the United States -- Berman et all, Oct 2012
2. Royal Holloway is one of the UK's leading universities. We have a distinguished history of world-changing research and innovative teaching, with an international outlook. Our close-knit community enables students to benefit from a personalised experience, with staff collaborating across facilities to enhance health, science, culture and security on a global scale. Set in 135 acres of parkland in Surrey, our campus is recognised as one of the most beautiful in the world, and the pioneering spirit of our founders continues to inspire teaching and research today.
3. Birkbeck, University of London, is a world-class research and teaching institution, a vibrant centre of academic excellence and London's only specialist provider of evening higher education.Our flexible approach attracts many non-traditional students and we offer them the opportunity to fit university studies around busy lives. Birkbeck encourages applications from students without traditional qualifications and it has a wide range of programmes to suit every entry level.18,000 students study at Birkbeck every year. They join a community that is as diverse and cosmopolitan as London's population.
4. About ILL and ISIS -- the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble and ISIS at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK are international research centres which have led the world in neutron scattering science and technology. They operate intense neutron sources, feeding beams of neutrons to a suites of 30 to 40 high-performance instruments that are constantly upgraded. Each year 1,200 researchers from over 40 countries visit each of ISIS and ILL to conduct research into condensed matter physics, (green) chemistry, biology, nuclear physics, and materials science. The UK, along with France and Germany is an associate and major funder of the IL; ISIS is owned and operated by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.
5. STFC -- The Science and Technology Facilities Council is keeping the UK at the forefront of international science and tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society such as meeting our future energy needs, monitoring and understanding climate change, and global security. The Council has a broad science portfolio and works with the academic and industrial communities to share its expertise in materials science, space and ground-based astronomy technologies, laser science, microelectronics, wafer scale manufacturing, particle and nuclear physics, alternative energy production, radio communications and radar.
The next step for Katherine and her colleagues is to look at adapting the model, to represent the condition of people with various forms of chronic respiratory problem and attempt to understand why ozone seems to affect them worse than others.
Dr Katherine Thompson, Birkbeck, University of London said: "We are not completely sure what causes the second stage of tension increase. The damaged lipid might be slowly dissolving in the water and leaving the interface entirely, or a slow reaction might be occurring that is damaging another part of the lipid not directly attacked by ozone. What we can say is that the slow increase in surface tension that occurs as a result of the ozone exposure would certainly damage the ability of our lungs to process oxygen and carbon dioxide, and could account for the respiratory problems associated with ozone poisoning."
Dr Martin King from Royal Holloway University said: "This important study shows how a key air pollutant has a detrimental effect on the human lung and could impair breathing. It is essential that a complex mixture of air pollutants -- for example Ozone and nitrogen oxides -- and the effect of inhaled particulate matter on the lung, is looked at next."
Dr Richard Campbell from the Institut Laue-Langevin said: "Neutrons are an ideal tool for studying biological materials, particularly their reactions and interactions on surfaces and across interfaces. They are highly sensitive to lighter atoms such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen that make up these organic molecules and isotopic labelling can be used to determine the structure and composition of interfacial layers. As one of the world's brightest neutron sources, the ILL has a long history of modelling important micro-scale processes that take place inside our bodies and providing ground-breaking insights that inform the next generation of treatments."
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Casino and racetrack supporters made their case Wednesday for allowing Texans to vote on a constitutional amendment to expand gambling, promising billions in new revenues and thousands of jobs.
But the biennial push to allow casinos in Texas still faces an uphill battle with some conservatives insisting that Texas remain one of only 10 states that ban such facilities. The Republican Party of Texas platform also opposes any expansion of gambling and calls for the repeal of the Texas State Lottery.
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said the constitutional amendment he introduced is designed to bring together casino operators, racetrack owners and American Indian tribes that have worked against each other in the past while addressing the concerns of those who oppose all gambling.
Carona said he thinks Texas voters should get a chance to vote on the measure, which would limit the locations of 21 casinos.
"I'm Southern Baptists and I don't gamble, but I like to go to Las Vegas for the shows," Carona said, emphasizing the tourism possibilities. "We put everything into the constitutional amendment so that the only way we can change it is if the people of Texas come back and Texans voted again on the issue."
The proposal would allow one casino each in Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio with three additional casinos along the coast. Three racetracks in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston could operate casinos, and nine small race tracks could apply for licenses to operate casinos or slot machines.
The three federally recognized American Indian tribes in Texas would also each have a casino license. The amendment would only allow two casinos per county and no more than three in a major metropolitan area.
The state would tax gambling revenue at 20 percent, unless the operator invested more than $1 billion, and then the rate would be 15 percent. At least 85 percent of tax revenue would go to reduce property taxes, the city and county would get 5 percent each, and the remaining 5 percent would be spent to prosecute gambling-related crime and help people with gambling addictions.
Supporters say their market research indicates Texas residents spend almost $3 billion in Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico visiting casinos, and that the Chickasaw tribe has built the second largest casino complex in the nation just across the Red River to serve the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
They told the Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Wednesday that spending on convention centers and casinos could bring $8.5 billion in economic growth and 75,000 jobs to Texas.
Andy Abboud, representing the Las Vegas Sands Corp., said his company would invest in "integrated resorts" that generate revenue from conventions, dining and shopping in addition to gambling. He said the company's resorts dedicate less than 3 percent of total floor space to casinos, which serve as one of many amenities to convention goers.
"It's what they can do at the end of the day that makes a convention successful," said Abboud, who added that only 39 percent of his company's revenue in Las Vegas is from gambling. "Texas is one of the last great opportunities left in the world."
Most horse breeders have moved out of the state because Texas only offers $20 million in purses a year, while Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma offer $210 million, said Andrea Young, president of Sam Houston Race Park, a horse track in Houston.
"Texas tracks need casino gambling for one reason, in order to compete with tracks in adjacent states," she said.
But others said lawmakers should not be persuaded by the promise of new hotels and convention centers.
"You didn't hear one person talking about the games," said Rob Kohler, representing the Christian Life Commission, which opposes gambling.
Melinda Fredricks, vice chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas, read from party platform, "We oppose the expansion of legalized gambling and encourage the repeal of the Texas State Lottery." She said any attempt to allow voters to decide the issue was "a veiled attempt to pass the buck."
The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation issued a statement saying that the proposed limit on the number of casino licenses was anti-competitive and warned against the hidden social and legal costs of gambling.
Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, also warned that while he supported the measure, he knew some Democrats would oppose the measure because of possible negative economic and social consequences.
Carona promised to work with all groups to craft a better version of the resolution. It needs a two-thirds majority in the Senate and House before it can go before voters.
In a speech made to Congress in January, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson?head of the office within the IRS that is charged with assisting taxpayers?cited the need for comprehensive tax reform as the main problem facing taxpayers today. She also focused on inadequate funding of the IRS and taxpayer identity theft issues. ?The existing tax code makes compliance difficult, requiring taxpayers to devote excessive time to preparing and filing their returns,? Olson said.
According to the report, Congress has made nearly 5,000 changes to the tax code since 2001. To reduce taxpayer burden and restore public confidence, Olson urged Congress to overhaul the tax code.
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Mitrione repeatedly referred to Fox as a he and called her as "a lying, sick, sociopathic disgusting freak."
"Because she's not a he. He's a he," he said. "He's chromosomally a man. He had a gender change, not a sex change. He's still a man. He was a man for 31 years. Thirty-one years. That's a couple years younger than I am. He's a man. Six years of taking performance de-hancing drugs, you think is going to change all that? That's ridiculous.
"That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak," Mitrione said. "And I mean that. Because you lied on your license to beat up women. That's disgusting. You should be embarrassed yourself. And the fact that Florida licensed him because California licensed him or whoever the hell did it, it's an embarrassment to us as fighters, as a sport, and we all should protest that. The woman that's fighting him, props to you. I hope you beat his ass, and I hope he gets blackballed and never fights again, because that's disgusting and I'm appalled by that."
The UFC, which announced a fighter code of conduct in January, moved swiftly to suspend Mitrione and denounce his comments.
"The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on 'The MMA Hour.' The organization finds Mr. Mitrione?s comments offensive and wholly unacceptable and - as a direct result of this significant breach of the UFC?s code of conduct ? Mr. Mitrione?s UFC contract has been suspended and the incident is being investigated. The UFC is a friend and ally of the LGBT community, and expects and requires all 450 of its athletes to treat others with dignity and respect."
The exact length of Mitrione's suspension has yet to be released.
High-risk screening and high rate of follow up -- patient navigators creditedPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Mallet km463@georgetown.edu Georgetown University Medical Center
WASHINGTON Low-income and minority women screened for breast cancer at Capital Breast Cancer Center (CBCC) in Washington, DC, exceed national standards in their rate of medical follow-up after a positive mammogram, according to a small study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2013. Researchers credit CBCC patient navigators with playing a key role in ensuring high follow-up rates.
CBCC, a community-based arm of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center located in Southeast Washington, provides culturally sensitive breast cancer screening services, and health and wellness education guided by evidence-based practices to all women in the metropolitan area, regardless of their ability to pay. CBCC was established to help reduce health disparities in the nation's capital, where the death rate from breast cancer is higher than the rest of the nation.
This is despite a higher self-reported rate of cancer screening in the region. According to the DC Cancer Consortium, Washington residents report higher rates of breast cancer screening than do adults nationwide. Among women 50 to 74, 86.5 percent report having had a mammogram within the last two years, compared with 80 percent nationally.
"While screening rates appear strong, we were concerned that women weren't consistently coming back for a follow-up diagnostic mammogram if their initial mammogram was positive," says Bridget Oppong, MD, assistant medical director of CBCC. "We had observed anecdotally that women weren't showing up for their follow-up appointments. With our electronic health records, we were able to get a more accurate picture." Oppong is an assistant professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine and an attending physician at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
From January 2010 to December 2011, CBCC performed 2,430 digital screening mammograms. Of the women who reported their race (86 percent), nearly half (46 percent) identified themselves as black and 37 percent as Hispanic. Mammograms yielded an abnormal finding in 353 (15 percent) of all the women screened.
"Of the 353 women with an abnormal mammogram, 91 percent returned for the recommended follow-up appointment to receive a diagnostic mammogram," Oppong explained. "We are certainly pleased with that rate."
The median interval between screening and diagnostic imaging was 40 days. After diagnostic imaging, 34 women were recommended to have a core needle biopsy, of which 28 (82 percent) completed within a median of 19 days. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a median of less than 60 days between an abnormal mammography result and a diagnosis.
Oppong and colleagues speculate that the high follow-up rate can be attributed to CBCC patient navigators. "The navigators establish very close relationships with women who have breast problems detected on imaging," she says. "The navigators remain connected with the women until the work-up is complete or until they have been referred for definitive treatment."
Oppong says further study is needed to understand the factors contributing to overall compliance in the screening for breast cancer. "The next obstacle remains getting women who have normal screening to return for routine screening in subsequent years."
###
In addition to Oppong, authors include Chiranjeev Dash, PhD, Tesha Coleman, Milajurine T. Lindsay, MPAS, PA-C, Lucile L. Adams-Campbell, PhD, of Georgetown Lombardi, and Shawna Willey, MD, of Georgetown Lombardi and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. The research was funded by CBCC and the Georgetown Lombardi Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities.
About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Georgetown Lombardi is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute (grant #P30 CA051008), and the only one in the Washington, DC area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.
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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.
High-risk screening and high rate of follow up -- patient navigators creditedPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Mallet km463@georgetown.edu Georgetown University Medical Center
WASHINGTON Low-income and minority women screened for breast cancer at Capital Breast Cancer Center (CBCC) in Washington, DC, exceed national standards in their rate of medical follow-up after a positive mammogram, according to a small study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2013. Researchers credit CBCC patient navigators with playing a key role in ensuring high follow-up rates.
CBCC, a community-based arm of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center located in Southeast Washington, provides culturally sensitive breast cancer screening services, and health and wellness education guided by evidence-based practices to all women in the metropolitan area, regardless of their ability to pay. CBCC was established to help reduce health disparities in the nation's capital, where the death rate from breast cancer is higher than the rest of the nation.
This is despite a higher self-reported rate of cancer screening in the region. According to the DC Cancer Consortium, Washington residents report higher rates of breast cancer screening than do adults nationwide. Among women 50 to 74, 86.5 percent report having had a mammogram within the last two years, compared with 80 percent nationally.
"While screening rates appear strong, we were concerned that women weren't consistently coming back for a follow-up diagnostic mammogram if their initial mammogram was positive," says Bridget Oppong, MD, assistant medical director of CBCC. "We had observed anecdotally that women weren't showing up for their follow-up appointments. With our electronic health records, we were able to get a more accurate picture." Oppong is an assistant professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine and an attending physician at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
From January 2010 to December 2011, CBCC performed 2,430 digital screening mammograms. Of the women who reported their race (86 percent), nearly half (46 percent) identified themselves as black and 37 percent as Hispanic. Mammograms yielded an abnormal finding in 353 (15 percent) of all the women screened.
"Of the 353 women with an abnormal mammogram, 91 percent returned for the recommended follow-up appointment to receive a diagnostic mammogram," Oppong explained. "We are certainly pleased with that rate."
The median interval between screening and diagnostic imaging was 40 days. After diagnostic imaging, 34 women were recommended to have a core needle biopsy, of which 28 (82 percent) completed within a median of 19 days. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a median of less than 60 days between an abnormal mammography result and a diagnosis.
Oppong and colleagues speculate that the high follow-up rate can be attributed to CBCC patient navigators. "The navigators establish very close relationships with women who have breast problems detected on imaging," she says. "The navigators remain connected with the women until the work-up is complete or until they have been referred for definitive treatment."
Oppong says further study is needed to understand the factors contributing to overall compliance in the screening for breast cancer. "The next obstacle remains getting women who have normal screening to return for routine screening in subsequent years."
###
In addition to Oppong, authors include Chiranjeev Dash, PhD, Tesha Coleman, Milajurine T. Lindsay, MPAS, PA-C, Lucile L. Adams-Campbell, PhD, of Georgetown Lombardi, and Shawna Willey, MD, of Georgetown Lombardi and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. The research was funded by CBCC and the Georgetown Lombardi Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities.
About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Georgetown Lombardi is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute (grant #P30 CA051008), and the only one in the Washington, DC area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.
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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.
Google's content portal gets a lighter, brighter visual refresh
Following some recent leakage, it seems the new look Google Play Store app is finally official. Google has just announced that the new-look Play Store app will begin rolling out to Android devices today.
In today's announcement post on the official Android blog, Google says the new-look app is aimed to be "simple" and "clean," with a renewed focus on entertainment content. Based on the official promo images, that certainly seems to be the case -- Google Now-like greys and whites dominate the UI, while a lot of screen space is given to large images for music, movie and book content.
The purchasing process has also been streamlined, Google says, which hopefully means fewer taps to buy apps and other content through this new version of the store.
The new Google Play Store will begin pushing automatically to devices running Android 2.2 Froyo and above starting today. We're not seeing the new version on any of our phones or tablets just yet, but we'll keep a lookout in the hours ahead. In the meantime, hit the comments if you've managed to get it already.
Research advances therapy to protect against dengue virusPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT team presents a novel approach to developing a treatment using mutated antibodies
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Nearly half of the world's population is at risk of infection by the dengue virus, yet there is no specific treatment for the disease. Now a therapy to protect people from the virus could finally be a step closer, thanks to a team at MIT.
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers, from MIT's Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, present a novel approach to developing a dengue therapy using mutated antibodies.
According to a study by the International Research Consortium on Dengue Risk Assessment, Management and Surveillance, up to 390 million people are infected with the dengue virus each year. For most people the mosquito-borne virus causes flulike symptoms, including fever, headache and joint pain. But for some, particularly children, the virus can develop into the far more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever, causing severe blood loss and even death.
Despite the threat posed by the disease, developing a vaccine against dengue has so far proved challenging, according to Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. That's because dengue is not one virus but four different viruses, or serotypes, each of which must be neutralized by the vaccine.
Protecting people from only one or some of the four viruses could cause them to develop the more severe form of dengue if they later become infected with one of the other serotypes, in a process known as antibody-dependent enhancement, Sasisekharan says. "That was the motivation for carrying out our study, to generate a fully neutralizing antibody that works for all four serotypes."
Pushing the envelope
Efforts to develop a therapeutic antibody for dengue are focused on a part of the virus called the envelope protein. "This is a very critical protein that allows the virus to latch on to the appropriate receptor within the host, to infect them, replicate and spread," Sasisekharan says.
The envelope protein contains two regions of interest, known as the loop and the "A" strand. Research teams have previously attempted to engineer an antibody that targets the loop region of the virus protein, as this is known to be able to attack all four serotypes if targeted in the right way.
However, the antibodies that target the loop region tend to have low potency, meaning they are unable to completely neutralize the virus. This increases the risk of more severe secondary dengue infection.
So a team led by Sasisekharan decided instead to look for antibodies that target the "A" strand region of the protein. Such antibodies tend to have much higher potency, but they are unable to neutralize all four serotypes.
450-fold increase
The researchers chose as their model an antibody known as 4E11, which has been shown in tests to neutralize dengue 1, 2 and 3, but not dengue 4. "We wanted to see if we could get good neutralizing activity to dengue 4, and also tweak the antibody to increase the potency associated with the other subtypes," Sasisekharan says.
The authors mined existing antibody-antigen complexes to analyze the physical and chemical features that play an important role in their interaction, such as hydrogen bonding and ionic attraction. Taking a statistical approach, they then ranked these features in terms of their importance to each of the antibody-antigen interactions.
This significantly narrowed the number of possible changes, or mutations, the researchers needed to make antibody 4E11 in order to improve its ability to neutralize all four viruses, in particular dengue 4. "So rather than random screening, we used a statistically driven approach so we knew the regions to focus on, and what things we had to change," Sasisekharan says.
As a result, the researchers came up with 87 possible mutations, which they were able to reduce to just 10 changes after further investigation.
When they tested their mutated antibody on samples of the four dengue serotypes in the laboratory, they found it had a 450-fold increase in binding to dengue 4, a 20-fold increase in binding for dengue 2, and lesser improvements in binding for dengue 1 and 3, Sasisekharan says.
The MIT researchers are now preparing for potential preclinical trials, and hope to be ready to test the antibody on humans within the next two to three years. In the meantime, they are also investigating other targets for their immunotherapy approach, including the influenza virus.
###
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Research Foundation Singapore through the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology's Infectious Diseases Research Program.
Written by Helen Knight, MIT News Office
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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.
Research advances therapy to protect against dengue virusPublic release date: 8-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT team presents a novel approach to developing a treatment using mutated antibodies
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Nearly half of the world's population is at risk of infection by the dengue virus, yet there is no specific treatment for the disease. Now a therapy to protect people from the virus could finally be a step closer, thanks to a team at MIT.
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers, from MIT's Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, present a novel approach to developing a dengue therapy using mutated antibodies.
According to a study by the International Research Consortium on Dengue Risk Assessment, Management and Surveillance, up to 390 million people are infected with the dengue virus each year. For most people the mosquito-borne virus causes flulike symptoms, including fever, headache and joint pain. But for some, particularly children, the virus can develop into the far more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever, causing severe blood loss and even death.
Despite the threat posed by the disease, developing a vaccine against dengue has so far proved challenging, according to Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. That's because dengue is not one virus but four different viruses, or serotypes, each of which must be neutralized by the vaccine.
Protecting people from only one or some of the four viruses could cause them to develop the more severe form of dengue if they later become infected with one of the other serotypes, in a process known as antibody-dependent enhancement, Sasisekharan says. "That was the motivation for carrying out our study, to generate a fully neutralizing antibody that works for all four serotypes."
Pushing the envelope
Efforts to develop a therapeutic antibody for dengue are focused on a part of the virus called the envelope protein. "This is a very critical protein that allows the virus to latch on to the appropriate receptor within the host, to infect them, replicate and spread," Sasisekharan says.
The envelope protein contains two regions of interest, known as the loop and the "A" strand. Research teams have previously attempted to engineer an antibody that targets the loop region of the virus protein, as this is known to be able to attack all four serotypes if targeted in the right way.
However, the antibodies that target the loop region tend to have low potency, meaning they are unable to completely neutralize the virus. This increases the risk of more severe secondary dengue infection.
So a team led by Sasisekharan decided instead to look for antibodies that target the "A" strand region of the protein. Such antibodies tend to have much higher potency, but they are unable to neutralize all four serotypes.
450-fold increase
The researchers chose as their model an antibody known as 4E11, which has been shown in tests to neutralize dengue 1, 2 and 3, but not dengue 4. "We wanted to see if we could get good neutralizing activity to dengue 4, and also tweak the antibody to increase the potency associated with the other subtypes," Sasisekharan says.
The authors mined existing antibody-antigen complexes to analyze the physical and chemical features that play an important role in their interaction, such as hydrogen bonding and ionic attraction. Taking a statistical approach, they then ranked these features in terms of their importance to each of the antibody-antigen interactions.
This significantly narrowed the number of possible changes, or mutations, the researchers needed to make antibody 4E11 in order to improve its ability to neutralize all four viruses, in particular dengue 4. "So rather than random screening, we used a statistically driven approach so we knew the regions to focus on, and what things we had to change," Sasisekharan says.
As a result, the researchers came up with 87 possible mutations, which they were able to reduce to just 10 changes after further investigation.
When they tested their mutated antibody on samples of the four dengue serotypes in the laboratory, they found it had a 450-fold increase in binding to dengue 4, a 20-fold increase in binding for dengue 2, and lesser improvements in binding for dengue 1 and 3, Sasisekharan says.
The MIT researchers are now preparing for potential preclinical trials, and hope to be ready to test the antibody on humans within the next two to three years. In the meantime, they are also investigating other targets for their immunotherapy approach, including the influenza virus.
###
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Research Foundation Singapore through the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology's Infectious Diseases Research Program.
Written by Helen Knight, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The cascade of senators announcing or clarifying their support for same-sex marriage in the past two weeks has somewhat obscured the fact that more than half of the Democrats in the Senate backed the policy before it became fashionable. By the time Vice President Joe Biden abruptly announced his own support for the policy on May 5, 2012, nearly two-dozen senators had already signed on to a campaign begun several months earlier calling for marriage equality to be included on the Democratic Party's platform. Another eight, including independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, expressed their support prior to 2012.
The following chart tracks each Democratic senator's position on same-sex marriage organized around when he or she made the announcement. In some cases, this date is ambiguous. After the Huffington Post listed Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow among those who had not formally supported the measure, for example, her office indicated that she had already done so as part of her 2012 reelection campaign. Wikipedia has a highly comprehensive page on the subject that served as a basis for many of the links in this chart, all independently verified.
The chart also includes notable Democratic leaders outside the Senate as well as Republican and independent senators who have endorsed same-sex marriage.
See someone who is missing or who you think is in the wrong place? Let us know.
Update, April 8, 2013, 1:55 p.m.: Added Tim Johnson.
Update, April 5, 2013, 10:15 a.m.: This chart has been updated to reflect endorsements of same-sex marriage by Nelson, Heitkamp and Donnelly. To better visualize the wave of recent endorsements, 2013 is now divided into two categories, Q1 and Q2.
Update, April 3, 2013, 3:03 p.m.: Several readers have pointed out that many of the senators currently in the "2012 pre-Biden" category were co-sponsors of S. 598, the 2011 bill known as the "Respect for Marriage Act" that would have repealed the Defense of Marriage Act. Some reporters, such as the Washington Post's Dylan Matthews, count this as support for same-sex marriage. While that's a valid stance, for the purposes of this chart we are looking for explicit statements of support for same-sex marriage.
Update, April 3, 2013, 2:15 p.m.: Cardin, Schumer, Gillibrand, Boxer, Feinstein and Franken have been moved from the "pre-Biden" to "Prehistory" category to reflect earlier endorsements.
No longer the fantasy weapon of tomorrow, the U.S. Navy is set to field a powerful laser that can protect its ships by blasting targets with high-intensity light beams.
Early next year the Navy will place a laser weapon aboard a ship in the Persian Gulf where it could be used to fend off approaching unmanned aerial vehicles or speedboats.
The Navy calls its futuristic weapon LAWS, which stands for the Laser Weapon System. What looks like a small telescope is actually a weapon that can track a moving target and fire a steady laser beam strong enough to burn a hole through steel.
A Navy video of testing conducted last summer off the coast of California shows how a laser beam fired from a Navy destroyer was able to set aflame an approaching UAV or drone, sending it crashing into the ocean.
"There was not a single miss" during the testing, said Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of Naval Research. The laser was three for three in bringing down an approaching unmanned aerial vehicle and 12 for 12 when previous tests are factored in.
But don't expect in that video to see the firing of colored laser bursts that Hollywood has used for its futuristic laser guns. The Navy's laser ray is not visible to the naked eye because it is in the infrared spectrum.
Many of the details about how the laser works remain secret, such as how far its beam can travel, how powerful it is or how much power is used to generate it.
But Navy officials have provided a few unclassified details. For example, the laser is designed to be a "plug and play" system that integrates into a ship's existing targeting technologies and power grids. Those factors make it a surprisingly cheap weapon.
Klunder says each pulse of energy from the laser "costs under a dollar" and it can be used against weapons systems that are significantly more expensive. The Navy says it has spent about $40 million over the past six years in developing the weapon.
Rear Admiral Thomas Eccles, Navy Sea Systems Command, says the beam can be turned on instantly and that ultimately "the generation of power is essentially your magazine. It's the clip we have" instead of bullets. "We deliver precision with essentially an endless supply of rounds."
Some new technological fixes, what Klunder calls "a secret sauce," have been developed to improve the degrading of lasers over distance as well as maintaining a lock on a target from a moving ship.
The strength of the beam is flexible enough that at a lower intensity level it can be used to warn approaching ships and UAV's not to get too close to a Navy ship. Instead of using machine guns to fire non-lethal warning shots as Navy ships do now, the laser can be aimed to "dazzle" the viewing sensors aboard the craft. That light effect warns the pilot of a small water craft or at the controls of a UAV that they are being targeted by a laser and to turn away. If they don't, the laser's power can be boosted to destroy the approaching craft.
Based on earlier testing the Navy is confident the laser is ready for real-world testing aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. The ship was selected because of its mission to be an enduring presence in the Gulf to counter Iranian maritime threats in the region. Coincidentally Iran uses small fast boats to harass American warships in the waters of the Persian Gulf.
How might Iran feel about the new weapon? "Frankly I hope it sends a message to some of our potentially threatening adversaries out there to know that we mean business," said Klunder. "This is a system where if you try to harm our vessels that I hope you will take a very, very serious moment of pause to think about that before you do it because this system will destroy your vessel or will destroy your UAV."
The Navy wants the ship's crew to use the same techniques and methods they use with their other defensive weapons systems.
While for now the laser will be used primarily against slow-moving UAV's and fast boats cruising at speeds of 50 knots, the Navy sees the system's capabilities expanding over time to target faster weapons.
"There's absolutely every intention that with the development of this system and follow-on upgraded systems we will eventually be able to take higher speeds in-bound," said Klunder.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Israeli and Palestinian officials amid talk of reviving a decade-old Arab plan for Mideast peace.
Kerry spent the morning of Israel's Holocaust memorial day visiting Yad Vashem. He was to meet later Monday with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Kerry then has a dinner with Netanyahu; he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday.
Kerry is trying to end a 4?-year Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.
He hasn't publicly outlined a new plan.
But Palestinian and Arab officials say he wants to modify the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative that offered peace with Israel for a pullout from territories captured in 1967.
Officials say Kerry seeks Arab-Israeli security commitments and softer language on borders.
Contact: Mike Janes mejanes@sandia.gov 925-294-2447 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
LIVERMORE, Calif. Sandia National Laboratories is developing a suite of complementary technologies to help the emerging algae industry detect and quickly recover from algal pond crashes, an obstacle to large-scale algae cultivation for future biofuels.
The research, which focuses on monitoring and diagnosing algal pond health, draws upon Sandia's longstanding expertise in microfluidics technology, its strong bioscience research program and significant internal investments.
Because of the way algae is grown and produced in most algal ponds, they are prone to attack by fungi, rotifers, viruses or other predators. Consequently, algal pond collapse is a critical issue that companies must solve to produce algal biofuels cost-effectively. The issue was identified as a key component in the Department of Energy's National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap.
A three-pronged technical approach
Sandia is addressing the algal pond crash issue in three complementary ways:
Developing a real-time monitoring tool for algal ponds that can detect indications of a problem days in advance of a crash
Successfully applying pathogen detection and characterization technologies honed through the lab's Rapid Threat Organism Recognition (RapTOR) work
Employing its innovative SpinDx diagnostic device to dig deeper into problems after they've occurred and help to identify specific biological agents responsible for crashes
Sandia's Tom Reichardt, a researcher who works in the lab's remote sensing unit, led development of an online algal reflectance monitor through an internally funded project. The instruments are typically set up alongside the algal pond, continuously monitoring, analyzing the algae's concentration levels, examining its photosynthesis and performing other diagnostics.
"In real-time, it will tell you if things are going well with the growth of your algae or whether it's beginning to show signs of trouble," said Reichardt. However, he cautioned, while this real-time monitoring will warn pond operators when the ponds have been attacked, it may not be able to identify the attacker.
Quick identification of organisms in ponds is key to mitigation
To help pinpoint the problems, a Sandia team led by researcher Todd Lane recently developed a process to quickly and accurately identify pond crash agents through ultra-high-throughput sequencing using RapTOR.
RapTOR, originally developed for homeland security purposes, was developed to solve the "unknown unknowns" problem lethal agents that could be weaponized from ordinary viruses or disguised to look harmless. It was designed to serve as a tool to rapidly characterize a biological organism with no pre-existing knowledge.
Lane's team also created a method for creating a field-ready assay for those agents, something that works quickly and is relatively inexpensive. They are applying SpinDx, a device developed by other Sandia/California researchers that can (among other features) analyze important protein markers and process up to 64 assays from a single sample, all in a matter of minutes.
Finally, a Sandia team led by researcher Jeri Timlin, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska's Van Etten lab, enhanced the RapTOR diagnostics by studying interactions of a certain virus with algal cells. Using hyperspectral imaging, they identified spectroscopic signatures of viral infections arising from changes in algal pigmentation. These signatures potentially could be exploited for early detection and subsequent mitigation of viral infections in algal ponds.
Advanced tools, instruments could be part of "arsenal" for pond operators
"It's important for the growth of an algal industry to develop a method where algal pond operators can learn immediately when there's a problem with their ponds from a biological agent standpoint," said Lane. "It's equally important that they learn within a very short period of time, like 24 hours what specific agent is eating away at their algae, and have a technology available that could develop an assay to combat the agent. Our tools come very close to accomplishing all of those things.
"We couldn't really do an exhaustive characterization of all of the kinds of agents that could be at the root of pond crashes," Lane explained. "But we confirmed some that had been identified before, and we found some others that weren't familiar to the research community. The important achievement was to develop the methodology, which hadn't existed before."
In practical terms, the process developed by Sandia involves a central facility where pond operators would send samples of agents that have appeared in their ponds, and assays that could be deployed back to the pond site. That's where SpinDx comes in.
Pond site operators, Lane said, know their environments best and, especially with instruments like those developed by Reichardt, understand the signs that could indicate "sick" ponds. He envisions pond operators using a SpinDx-like device as part of their regular arsenal of equipment so they could run early detection tests whenever they sensed instability in their ponds. They could then provide samples to an off-site facility, which in turn would send back assays to allow the operator to investigate the problem more thoroughly and ward off pond crashes before they occur.
"That's the beauty of SpinDx," said Lane. "The disks are inexpensive, require little technical expertise and can be manipulated by non-scientists."
Sandia technology being tested as part of AzCATI algae testbed project
Now that the core principles of pathogen detection and characterization technologies for pond crash forensics have been successfully proven, the next step will be to conduct more robust demonstrations. Serendipitously, Lane's and Reichardt's groups will be continuing their work as part of the Algae Testbed Public-Private Partnership (ATP3) led by Arizona State University (ASU), the first national algae testbed. The Sandia team will apply the technologies, collect more data and seek additional collaborations.
"Our results over these past couple of years have been compelling, but now we need to deploy the technology into real-world ponds," Lane explains. The original work, he says, has moved from the laboratory environment into the operational realm, with only modest research and development now necessary.
Sandia will make use of an algal test bed facility at ASU known as the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI). The facility features algal ponds and closed photobioreactor algae cultivation systems of various sizes and serves as a hub for research, testing and commercialization of algae-based products.
###
For brief interviews of Sandia remote sensing researcher Tom Reichardt, Sandia biochemist Aaron Collins and AcCATI program manager John McGowen, visit Sandia's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/SandiaLabs.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Mike Janes
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Mike Janes mejanes@sandia.gov 925-294-2447 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
LIVERMORE, Calif. Sandia National Laboratories is developing a suite of complementary technologies to help the emerging algae industry detect and quickly recover from algal pond crashes, an obstacle to large-scale algae cultivation for future biofuels.
The research, which focuses on monitoring and diagnosing algal pond health, draws upon Sandia's longstanding expertise in microfluidics technology, its strong bioscience research program and significant internal investments.
Because of the way algae is grown and produced in most algal ponds, they are prone to attack by fungi, rotifers, viruses or other predators. Consequently, algal pond collapse is a critical issue that companies must solve to produce algal biofuels cost-effectively. The issue was identified as a key component in the Department of Energy's National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap.
A three-pronged technical approach
Sandia is addressing the algal pond crash issue in three complementary ways:
Developing a real-time monitoring tool for algal ponds that can detect indications of a problem days in advance of a crash
Successfully applying pathogen detection and characterization technologies honed through the lab's Rapid Threat Organism Recognition (RapTOR) work
Employing its innovative SpinDx diagnostic device to dig deeper into problems after they've occurred and help to identify specific biological agents responsible for crashes
Sandia's Tom Reichardt, a researcher who works in the lab's remote sensing unit, led development of an online algal reflectance monitor through an internally funded project. The instruments are typically set up alongside the algal pond, continuously monitoring, analyzing the algae's concentration levels, examining its photosynthesis and performing other diagnostics.
"In real-time, it will tell you if things are going well with the growth of your algae or whether it's beginning to show signs of trouble," said Reichardt. However, he cautioned, while this real-time monitoring will warn pond operators when the ponds have been attacked, it may not be able to identify the attacker.
Quick identification of organisms in ponds is key to mitigation
To help pinpoint the problems, a Sandia team led by researcher Todd Lane recently developed a process to quickly and accurately identify pond crash agents through ultra-high-throughput sequencing using RapTOR.
RapTOR, originally developed for homeland security purposes, was developed to solve the "unknown unknowns" problem lethal agents that could be weaponized from ordinary viruses or disguised to look harmless. It was designed to serve as a tool to rapidly characterize a biological organism with no pre-existing knowledge.
Lane's team also created a method for creating a field-ready assay for those agents, something that works quickly and is relatively inexpensive. They are applying SpinDx, a device developed by other Sandia/California researchers that can (among other features) analyze important protein markers and process up to 64 assays from a single sample, all in a matter of minutes.
Finally, a Sandia team led by researcher Jeri Timlin, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska's Van Etten lab, enhanced the RapTOR diagnostics by studying interactions of a certain virus with algal cells. Using hyperspectral imaging, they identified spectroscopic signatures of viral infections arising from changes in algal pigmentation. These signatures potentially could be exploited for early detection and subsequent mitigation of viral infections in algal ponds.
Advanced tools, instruments could be part of "arsenal" for pond operators
"It's important for the growth of an algal industry to develop a method where algal pond operators can learn immediately when there's a problem with their ponds from a biological agent standpoint," said Lane. "It's equally important that they learn within a very short period of time, like 24 hours what specific agent is eating away at their algae, and have a technology available that could develop an assay to combat the agent. Our tools come very close to accomplishing all of those things.
"We couldn't really do an exhaustive characterization of all of the kinds of agents that could be at the root of pond crashes," Lane explained. "But we confirmed some that had been identified before, and we found some others that weren't familiar to the research community. The important achievement was to develop the methodology, which hadn't existed before."
In practical terms, the process developed by Sandia involves a central facility where pond operators would send samples of agents that have appeared in their ponds, and assays that could be deployed back to the pond site. That's where SpinDx comes in.
Pond site operators, Lane said, know their environments best and, especially with instruments like those developed by Reichardt, understand the signs that could indicate "sick" ponds. He envisions pond operators using a SpinDx-like device as part of their regular arsenal of equipment so they could run early detection tests whenever they sensed instability in their ponds. They could then provide samples to an off-site facility, which in turn would send back assays to allow the operator to investigate the problem more thoroughly and ward off pond crashes before they occur.
"That's the beauty of SpinDx," said Lane. "The disks are inexpensive, require little technical expertise and can be manipulated by non-scientists."
Sandia technology being tested as part of AzCATI algae testbed project
Now that the core principles of pathogen detection and characterization technologies for pond crash forensics have been successfully proven, the next step will be to conduct more robust demonstrations. Serendipitously, Lane's and Reichardt's groups will be continuing their work as part of the Algae Testbed Public-Private Partnership (ATP3) led by Arizona State University (ASU), the first national algae testbed. The Sandia team will apply the technologies, collect more data and seek additional collaborations.
"Our results over these past couple of years have been compelling, but now we need to deploy the technology into real-world ponds," Lane explains. The original work, he says, has moved from the laboratory environment into the operational realm, with only modest research and development now necessary.
Sandia will make use of an algal test bed facility at ASU known as the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI). The facility features algal ponds and closed photobioreactor algae cultivation systems of various sizes and serves as a hub for research, testing and commercialization of algae-based products.
###
For brief interviews of Sandia remote sensing researcher Tom Reichardt, Sandia biochemist Aaron Collins and AcCATI program manager John McGowen, visit Sandia's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/SandiaLabs.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact: Mike Janes
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
?Our doctor just told me that my son has ?executive functioning? disorder,? a mother recently commented. ?What is it? What can I do??
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