Monthly Archives: May 2012

Artificial Intelligence: What happened to the hunt for thinking machines?

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May 25, 2012, 4:48 AM PDT

Takeaway: Mankind has long been fascinated by the idea of intelligent machines, but in the information age the sci-fi dream of creating a human-like AI appears increasingly anachronistic.

The idea of creating a sentient machine has fascinated mankind for centuries. And while sci-fi offers artificial intelligences that rival our own, the fiction bears little resemblance to real world AI.

AI is all around us, not as a synthetic overlord, but as specialised software that help fly planes and run factory production lines. For many, the idea of creating thinking machines has become a distant dream.

However, not everyone has given up on the idea of creating a machine that can think like a man. Inventor Hugh Loebner is at the forefront of the hunt: each year for more than two decades Loebner has run a competition based on the Turing Test, the game devised by British mathematician and father of computing Alan Turing in 1950 to identify a thinking machine.

In the Loebner Prize competition, software known as chatbots conduct instant messenger or verbal conversations with human judges, attempting to fool them into believing they are a real person.

Any bot that fools half the judges can win up to $100,000 for its creator, and each year there is a $2,000 prize for bot deemed to be most human-like.

Turing predicted that a machine able to fool people into thinking it was human in one third of conversations would exist by 2000.

And yet so far the performance of the chatbots has been underwhelming: after 22 years of contests no bot has come close to fooling half of the judges into thinking it is human. Bots make convincing humans during short chats, but their credibility breaks down in a prolonged conversation.

Even Loebner, for all of the time and effort he has invested, says he has little passion for event, and continues to run it largely out of a sense of obligation.

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Artificial Intelligence: What happened to the hunt for thinking machines?

Heroux-Devtek profit rises 12%, beats forecasts

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LONGUEUIL, Que. The Canadian Press Published Friday, May. 25, 2012 7:55AM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 25, 2012 8:21AM EDT

Quebec-based aerospace manufacturer Hroux-Devtek Inc. HRX-T says its fourth-quarter profit was $8.9-million, up 12 per cent from the same time last year and ahead of analyst estimates.

The Montreal-area companys profit amounted to 29 cents per share, which was two cents above a consensus estimate compiled by Thomson Reuters.

The company, headquartered in Longueuil, Que., specializes in the design, development, manufacture and repair and overhaul of related systems and components for the aerospace and industrial products segments.

It supplies the commercial and military aerospace sectors with landing gear systems and airframe structural components from 12 manufacturing facilities. Its industrial segment provides large components for power generation equipment.

Hroux-Devteks revenue was $109-million in the fourth quarter, also ahead of analyst estimates. The company says its aerospace sales were stable but sales increased in the industrial division.

For the full 2012 financial year ended March 31, Hroux-Devtek had $380.3-million in revenue up 6.4 per cent from last year. Net income for the year was $26.5-million or 86 cents per share on a diluted basis.

Thats up from $357.6-million in revenue and $19.1-million of net income, or 63 cents per share in fiscal 2011.

Fiscal 2012 was a very successful year for Hroux-Devtek, chief executive officer Gilles Labbe said in a statement.

While the overall economy remained hesitant, the majority of our strategic markets, both in the Aerospace and Industrial segments, gained momentum. As a result, we generated record sales and net income.

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Heroux-Devtek profit rises 12%, beats forecasts

Research and Markets: Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation – Strategic Snapshot, SWOT Analysis, Strategic Initiatives …

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5hzdhx/gulfstream_aerospa) has announced the addition of the "Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation - Strategic Snapshot, SWOT Analysis, Strategic Initiatives & Developments, Key Trends & Outlook - H1 2012" company profile to their offering.

This strategic report provides key insights into the strategic business aspects of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation based on a holistic assessment as well as comprehensive analysis of business structure, performance, strategies, plans, initiatives & outlook.

The report also includes an insightful SWOT framework analysis on the company. The framework generates a snapshot of the company's inherent strengths & weaknesses as part of the internal environment assessment and outlines potential growth opportunities as well as threats as part of the external environment assessment.

Useful For:

The report provides insights & inputs to be incorporated into the broader strategic planning & decision making processes and will be essential from a competitive analysis standpoint as well.

For Whom:

The analysis will be essential for those having strategic interest in the company or the industry & will be especially useful for key decision makers, top management of companies, suppliers, vendors, current & potential investors, industry & company analysts & those associated with the industry or the company.

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Research and Markets: Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation - Strategic Snapshot, SWOT Analysis, Strategic Initiatives ...

Why BE Aerospace Is Indispensable

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By Navjot Kaur | More Articles May 24, 2012 |

Aircraft interior component maker BE Aerospace (Nasdaq: BEAV) seems to have benefited lately from the increase in demand for air travel as more and more airlines are buying new planes that invariably lead to more contracts for this company. So does that really make BE Aerospace a foolproof stock to invest in?

Let's put BE Aerospace under the microscope and analyze the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to reach our conclusion.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

The Foolish takeawayBE Aerospace looks like a winner in the long run, thanks to increased airline passenger traffic. The company does have some significant areas of strength that clearly outweigh its weaknesses. If BE's growth story interests you, add this stock to your watchlist to stay updated on all its news and analysis for free. Click here!

But if the airline industry is not the only one you have set your sights on, Motley Fool analysts have identified three big-name companies that are particularly well-positioned to profit, and you can learn more about them right now with our new free report: "3 American Companies Set to Dominate the World." It's completely free for Fool readers but only for a limited time -- sograb your copy now.

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Why BE Aerospace Is Indispensable

Study supports urate protection against Parkinson's disease, hints at novel mechanism

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Public release date: 23-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mike Morrison mdmorrison@partners.org 617-724-6425 Massachusetts General Hospital

Use of the antioxidant urate to protect against the neurodegeneration caused by Parkinson's disease appears to rely on more than urate's ability to protect against oxidative damage. In the May issue of the open-access journal PLoS One, researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MGH-MIND) describe experiments suggesting the involvement of a novel mechanism in urate's protection of cultured brain cells against Parkinson's-like damage.

"Our experiments showed, unexpectedly, that urate's ability to protect neurons requires the presence of neighboring cells called astrocytes," says Michael Schwarzschild, MD, PhD, of MGH-MIND, the study's senior author. "The results suggest there may be multiple ways that raising urate could help protect against neurodegeneration in diseases like Parkinson's and further support the development of treatments designed to elevate urate in the brain." Schwarzschild and colleagues in the Parkinson's Study Group currently are conducting a clinical trial investigating one approach to that strategy.

Characterized by tremors, rigidity, difficulty walking and other symptoms, Parkinson's disease is caused by destruction of brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Several epidemiological studies suggested that healthy people with elevated levels of urate, a normal component of the blood, may have a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease, and investigations by Schwarzschild's team found that Parkinson's patients with higher naturally occuring urate levels had slower progression of their symptoms.

The current study was designed to investigate whether both added urate and urate already present within the cells protect cultured dopamine-producing neurons against Parkinson-like degeneration. In addition, since previous studies suggested that urate's protective effects depended on the presence of astrocytes star-shaped cells of the central nervous system that provide both structural and metabolic support to neurons the MGH-MIND team explored how the presence of astrocytes affects the ability of urate to protect against damage induced by MPP+, a toxic molecule that produces the same kind of neurodegeneration seen in Parkinson's and is widely used in research studies.

The experiments showed that, while added urate reduced MPP+-induced cell death by about 50 percent in cultured dopamine-producing mouse neurons, urate treatment virtually eliminated neuronal death in cultures containing both neurons and astrocytes. They also showed that reducing intracellular urate levels by induced expression of the enzyme that breaks it down increased neuronal vulnerability to MPP+ toxicity significantly in cultures that included astrocytes but only slightly in neuron-rich cultures. The fact that the presence of astrocytes greatly increases the protection of both externally applied urate and urate produced within cells indicates that the effect depends on more than urate's ability to directly protect neurons against oxidative stress.

"A valuable next step will be determining whether endogenous urate is protective in live animal models of Parkinson's disease," says Schwarzschild. "It also will be important to determine whether we can selectively increase urate levels in brain cells by targeting urate transporter molecules. The approach now in early clinical trials examines whether treatment with the urate precursor inosine, which increases urate levels throughout the body, can slow the progression of the disease. If we could raise urate levels in brain cells without changing them in the rest of the body, we could avoid the risks of of excessive urate, which when accumulated in joints can cause gout."

###

Schwarzschild is an associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Sara Cipriani, MD, of MGH-MIND is the lead and corresponding author of the PLoS One report. The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the American Parkinson's Disease Association.

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Study supports urate protection against Parkinson's disease, hints at novel mechanism

Study supports urate protection against Parkinson’s disease, hints at novel mechanism

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Public release date: 23-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mike Morrison mdmorrison@partners.org 617-724-6425 Massachusetts General Hospital

Use of the antioxidant urate to protect against the neurodegeneration caused by Parkinson's disease appears to rely on more than urate's ability to protect against oxidative damage. In the May issue of the open-access journal PLoS One, researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MGH-MIND) describe experiments suggesting the involvement of a novel mechanism in urate's protection of cultured brain cells against Parkinson's-like damage.

"Our experiments showed, unexpectedly, that urate's ability to protect neurons requires the presence of neighboring cells called astrocytes," says Michael Schwarzschild, MD, PhD, of MGH-MIND, the study's senior author. "The results suggest there may be multiple ways that raising urate could help protect against neurodegeneration in diseases like Parkinson's and further support the development of treatments designed to elevate urate in the brain." Schwarzschild and colleagues in the Parkinson's Study Group currently are conducting a clinical trial investigating one approach to that strategy.

Characterized by tremors, rigidity, difficulty walking and other symptoms, Parkinson's disease is caused by destruction of brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Several epidemiological studies suggested that healthy people with elevated levels of urate, a normal component of the blood, may have a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease, and investigations by Schwarzschild's team found that Parkinson's patients with higher naturally occuring urate levels had slower progression of their symptoms.

The current study was designed to investigate whether both added urate and urate already present within the cells protect cultured dopamine-producing neurons against Parkinson-like degeneration. In addition, since previous studies suggested that urate's protective effects depended on the presence of astrocytes star-shaped cells of the central nervous system that provide both structural and metabolic support to neurons the MGH-MIND team explored how the presence of astrocytes affects the ability of urate to protect against damage induced by MPP+, a toxic molecule that produces the same kind of neurodegeneration seen in Parkinson's and is widely used in research studies.

The experiments showed that, while added urate reduced MPP+-induced cell death by about 50 percent in cultured dopamine-producing mouse neurons, urate treatment virtually eliminated neuronal death in cultures containing both neurons and astrocytes. They also showed that reducing intracellular urate levels by induced expression of the enzyme that breaks it down increased neuronal vulnerability to MPP+ toxicity significantly in cultures that included astrocytes but only slightly in neuron-rich cultures. The fact that the presence of astrocytes greatly increases the protection of both externally applied urate and urate produced within cells indicates that the effect depends on more than urate's ability to directly protect neurons against oxidative stress.

"A valuable next step will be determining whether endogenous urate is protective in live animal models of Parkinson's disease," says Schwarzschild. "It also will be important to determine whether we can selectively increase urate levels in brain cells by targeting urate transporter molecules. The approach now in early clinical trials examines whether treatment with the urate precursor inosine, which increases urate levels throughout the body, can slow the progression of the disease. If we could raise urate levels in brain cells without changing them in the rest of the body, we could avoid the risks of of excessive urate, which when accumulated in joints can cause gout."

###

Schwarzschild is an associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Sara Cipriani, MD, of MGH-MIND is the lead and corresponding author of the PLoS One report. The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the American Parkinson's Disease Association.

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Study supports urate protection against Parkinson's disease, hints at novel mechanism

Healthbeat Report: Predicting Parkinson's

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by Sylvia Perez and Christine Tressel

May 24, 2012 (CHICAGO) -- Colonoscopies are known for detecting early signs of cancer in the colon. Now Chicago researchers say this common test may help reveal who might be at risk of developing Parkinson's disease. They have discovered a clue in the gut that could be a game changer for early diagnosis and even treating the disease.

Richard Fiske Bailey says even he had a hard time realizing something was happening with his body. It was the way he was driving his sports car that caught the attention of friends.

"When I went to shift gears I would reach down with my left hand and shift I would shift with my left hand instead of my right hand, I never noticed it. And people would start to say, what is wrong," Fiske said.

It took a long time but eventually he had a diagnosis: Parkinson's disease.

"I was formally diagnosed in 2003 by my fifth neurologist," Fiske said.

A slight tremor in a hand, tense muscles and slow movements are some of the more distinctive signs suggesting Parkinson's disease. But even these can be confused with other conditions. That means thousands of cases are not diagnosed until a lot of brain cells are gone.

Parkinson's disease occurs when the nerve cells in the brain that make a chemical called dopamine are slowly destroyed. No one is sure why that happens.

Now researchers are turning to what would seem an unlikely source of a brain disorder: the gut.

"This area of research is really hot right now, and we think it's really important," said Dr. Kathleen Shannon, neurologist, Rush University Medical Center

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Healthbeat Report: Predicting Parkinson's

Healthbeat Report: Predicting Parkinson’s

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by Sylvia Perez and Christine Tressel

May 24, 2012 (CHICAGO) -- Colonoscopies are known for detecting early signs of cancer in the colon. Now Chicago researchers say this common test may help reveal who might be at risk of developing Parkinson's disease. They have discovered a clue in the gut that could be a game changer for early diagnosis and even treating the disease.

Richard Fiske Bailey says even he had a hard time realizing something was happening with his body. It was the way he was driving his sports car that caught the attention of friends.

"When I went to shift gears I would reach down with my left hand and shift I would shift with my left hand instead of my right hand, I never noticed it. And people would start to say, what is wrong," Fiske said.

It took a long time but eventually he had a diagnosis: Parkinson's disease.

"I was formally diagnosed in 2003 by my fifth neurologist," Fiske said.

A slight tremor in a hand, tense muscles and slow movements are some of the more distinctive signs suggesting Parkinson's disease. But even these can be confused with other conditions. That means thousands of cases are not diagnosed until a lot of brain cells are gone.

Parkinson's disease occurs when the nerve cells in the brain that make a chemical called dopamine are slowly destroyed. No one is sure why that happens.

Now researchers are turning to what would seem an unlikely source of a brain disorder: the gut.

"This area of research is really hot right now, and we think it's really important," said Dr. Kathleen Shannon, neurologist, Rush University Medical Center

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Healthbeat Report: Predicting Parkinson's

Recovery From Multiple Sclerosis By Growth Factor In Stem Cells

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Editor's Choice Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis Article Date: 24 May 2012 - 14:00 PDT

Current ratings for: 'Recovery From Multiple Sclerosis By Growth Factor In Stem Cells'

5 (2 votes)

4.5 (2 votes)

Animals that were injected with hepatocyte growth factor were noted to have grown new neural cells and lower levels of inflammation. Most significantly, the researchers noted that the protective envelope of myelin, the myelin sheath, which surrounds the core of a nerve fiber and facilitates the transmission of nerve impulses, re-grew and covered lesions that were caused by MS.

Robert H. Miller, professor of neurosciences at the School of Medicine and vice president for research at Case Western Reserve University declared: "The importance of this work is we think we've identified the driver of the recovery."

MS is caused by damage to the myelin sheath, the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. The nerve damage is caused by inflammation, which occurs when the body's own immune cells attacks the nervous systems located in areas of the brain, the optic nerve, and spinal cord. This damage can cause an interruption of the nerve signals, which results in loss of balance and coordination, cognitive ability, as well as in other functions and in time, these intermittent losses may become permanent. In 2009, Caplan and Miller discovered that mice with MS injected with human mesenchymal stem cells recovered from the type of damage that was brought on by MS. A clinical trial is currently underway based on their research, whereby patients with MS are injected with their own stems cells.

During this trial, the team decided to first establish whether the presence of stem cells or other cells induce recovery. They injected a total of 11 animals with MS with the medium, in which mesenchymal stem cells that were taken from bone marrow grew, discovering that all animals displayed a rapid reduction in functional deficits. An analysis demonstrated that unless the injected molecules had a certain size or weight, i.e. between 50 and 100 kiloDaltons, the course of the disease remained unchanged.

Other research, as well as the team's own studies, suggested that this was likely to be instigated by the hepatocyte growth factor, which is secreted by mesenchymal stem cells.

The team then injected the animals with either 50 or 100 nanograms of the growth factor on alternate days for a 5-day period and observed a decrease in the level of signaling molecules that promote inflammation, whilst the level of signaling molecules that oppose inflammation increased. The researchers noted a growth of neural cells, whilst nerves that were exposed because of MS were rewrapped with myelin. Recovery was marginally better in those mice that received the 100-nanogram injections compared with those receiving the 50-nanogram injections.

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Recovery From Multiple Sclerosis By Growth Factor In Stem Cells

Multiple sclerosis walk-through

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Participants warm up for the walk held in conjunction with World Multiple Sclerosis Day. Pix by Iqmal Haqim Rosman

Padma Panikker says many know little about the rare disease, a situation that the Multiple Sclerosis Society Malaysia hopes to change. Pix by Iqmal Haqim Rosman

IN conjunction with World Multiple Sclerosis Day on May 30, a charity walk was held at Titiwangsa Lake.

Organised by Multiple Sclerosis Society Malaysia and supported by Novartis Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, the event had the support of 300, who walked around the lake wearing the society's official T-shirt.

The walk was flagged off by model Amber Chia, who was there to show support to the cause and learn more about the disease.

"I heard that the percentage of Malaysians with the disease is low, and some do not even know they have it.

"I am here to learn more about the disease. I hope that more people will be aware of multiple sclerosis after this," she said.

Chia said she did not know much about the disease before she was invited to the event, and was surprised by some of the things she had learnt.

"For example, I thought that only old people get it but some of the patients here have got the disease since they were 13," said Chia.

Multiple Sclerosis Society Malaysia president Padma Panikker said those who were diagnosed with the disease were usually frightened at first and the society acted as a support group for them.

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Multiple sclerosis walk-through

NZACA Welcomes $7 million Increase for Dementia

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NZACA Welcomes $7 million Increase for Dementia

NZACA Press Release 24 May 2012

NZACA welcomes the governments $7 million p.a. increase for dementia care announced today.

The budget announcement of $40 million for dementia is arrived at by adding together, over a four year period, yearly increases along with the additional funding required to cover demand growth.

This represents a 5.8% increase in the daily subsidy rate and taking into inflationary pressures of 1.8% this represents a 4% overall gain for dementia care operators.

The average amount paid for dementia care per day is $149 depending on where you live in New Zealand.

This is another good increase in the dementia rate and means the underfunding of this service has reduced from about 36% to 20% in the last two years based on the independent 2010 Aged Residential Care Review paid for by the Government, the Chief Executive of NZACA, Martin Taylor, said today.

Everyone in the aged-care sector and the health sector understands the demand for dementia care will increase dramatically and that it is one of the hardest services to deliver. As such this increase will be of great assistance to the 150 operators delivering dementia care to 3100 elderly each and every day in New Zealand.

The independent 2010 Aged Residential Care Review also established the rest home care subsidy was 40% underfunded and the hospital rate 17% underfunded. Unfortunately, these underfunding levels have increased over the last two years as inflationary pressures for these services have not been met.

In 2011, about 3100 people were in dementia care, 11,000 in hospital level care and 16,700 in rest home level care.

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NZACA Welcomes $7 million Increase for Dementia

Rates Of Dementia In Underdeveloped Countries Are Double Than Previously Reported

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Editor's Choice Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia Article Date: 23 May 2012 - 15:00 PDT

Current ratings for: 'Rates Of Dementia In Underdeveloped Countries Are Double Than Previously Reported'

In addition, the team found that just like in developed countries, education offers substantial protection against dementia in less developed nations. The study is published Online First in The Lancet.

Lead study author Martin Prince from King's College London said:

Our findings suggest that early life influences, education and learning to read and write, may be particularly important for reducing the risk of dementia in late life. We need to understand more about cognitive reserve, how to measure it, and how it is stimulated across cultures.

The high incidence of dementia in less developed countries remind us that we are facing a global epidemic, and there needs to be more focus on prevention."

Using conventional western diagnostic approaches, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV criteria, earlier studies have suggested that the incidence of dementia might be significantly lower in low- and middle-income countries vs. high-income nations.

However, the new 10/66 Dementia Diagnosis approach uses methods developed and validated in 25 low and middle-income countries. The new approach has been demonstrated to provide accurate diagnoses even in individuals with little or no education.

In order to the compare the incidence of dementia, and to determine whether education and literacy, among other factors are protective against the development of dementia, the team applied both the standard DSM-IV criteria and the 10/66 approach to around 12,800 individuals aged 65+, across 9 urban and rural sites in Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and China.

The researchers found that the 10/66 dementia incidence is 1.5 - 2.5 times higher than the standard DSM-IV criteria calculated. In addition, 10/66 dementia incidence was consistently comparable to, or high than, dementia incidence reported by earlier studies.

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Rates Of Dementia In Underdeveloped Countries Are Double Than Previously Reported

Shop staff will be trained to help dementia sufferers

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Ministers believe the basic training in dementia awareness is relevant to anyone working in a public environment, such as shops, transport and banks.

Speaking at the event in East London, the Prime Minister urged businesses to join his national fightback against dementia.

Mr Cameron said companies should do more to make people with dementia able to use their services.

He declared that tackling the disease, which is thought to affect 670,000 people in England, was one of his personal priorities.

Dementia is a terrible, heart breaking disease, he said. Tackling it is a personal priority of mine.

Already 20 big organisations like Lloyds Group, Tesco and E.On have signed up to become more dementia-friendly and over the coming months I want to see many more follow suit.

For the sake of millions in our country weve got to keep this spirit of energy and defiance alive.

Were going to keep searching for treatments, keep looking for ways to make life easier for those with this disease and keep taking the fight to dementia.

Mr Cameron urged young volunteers with the National Citizen Service to help sufferers in care homes.

The youngsters aged 16 and 17 are being asked to help dementia patients take part in craft activities and to take them on trips out of care homes.

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Shop staff will be trained to help dementia sufferers

Dementia app spots early signs of condition

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British scientists developed an iPad-based memory test that can spot dementia in its earliest stages, when treatment can be most beneficial.

Researchers from Cambridge University helped to develop the CANTABmobile test, which assesses patients' short-term memory with a series of challenges in which they have to remember symbols.

Trials show that the computer program accurately distinguishes normal age-related forgetfulness from dementia and other treatable memory problems.

Dr. John O'Loan, who tested the app at his lab in Warrington, northwestern England, said, "Not everyone with memory problems has dementia. There are a small number of medical conditions -- vitamin deficiencies or an underactive thyroid -- that we check for if patients have problems with their memory."

Doctors currently use pen-and-paper tests to screen for the condition, with patients asked a series of questions including the date and whether they can spell "world" backwards.

However, the tests can fail to pick up dementia, particularly in patients with higher academic qualifications.

The iPad app is far more sensitive, even picking up mild cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to dementia.

Michael Hurt, Dementia Care Program Manager for NHS Walsall added, "We might find that we get people through the system more quickly and more effectively because the screening tool is more accurate, and that's better for GPs, hospital staff, as well as the people receiving the test."

Click for more from Sky News.

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Dementia app spots early signs of condition

Proposal advances for minimum standards in nursing homes, special dementia care units

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By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

A loophole in Massachusetts law that allows nursing homes to advertise specialized Alzheimers and dementia care units, even though their workers may have no training in caring for such residents, is one step closer to being closed.

A proposal that would establish minimum standards for such units was approved by the House of Representatives Wednesday, and is headed for the state Senate.

The bill would require the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which regulates nursing homes, to establish minimum standards for facilities with dementia care units.

Similar legislation has been proposed for the past seven years without success, supporters said. But this is the first time the measure has made it this far, this early in the year, they said.

This is certainly way overdue, said James Wessler, president and chief executive of the Alzheimers Association of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Often nursing home placement is done in time of crisis, and families are then not good shoppers, Wessler said. So the state has an obligation to have a minimal level of guarantees that facilities are providing the level of dementia care that they say they are giving.

Massachusetts is one of a handful of states without such requirements. A 2005 federal report noted that 44 states at that time had requirements governing training, staffing, security, and other areas for facilities that provided specialized dementia care.

The Massachusetts legislation would require all licensed nursing homes to provide dementia-specific training for all direct-care workers, activities directors, and supervisors. Supporters said it was important to mandate dementia training for staff at all licensed facilities because more than half of people in nursing homes suffer from dementia, even if they are not living in specialized dementia care units.

Additionally, the legislation stipulates that there should be activities programs in dementia special care units that provide activities geared to people with dementia.

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Proposal advances for minimum standards in nursing homes, special dementia care units

Prayer for Mercy: Henderson family seeks a cure for 6-year-old's unique condition

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Leila Navidi

Mercy Doyle, 6, visits with Tina Lindquist, the program director at Brain Balance Achievement Centers in Henderson on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Doyle has been diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder Opsoclonus MyoclonusSyndrome.

By Conor Shine (contact)

Thursday, May 24, 2012 | 2 a.m.

Six-year-old Mercy Doyle is like a lot of girls her age.

She loves coloring, swimming and The Little Mermaid. She looks up to her big sister and finds her younger brother kind of annoying.

But to doctors in Nevada and around the country, Mercy is a medical mystery, a child with a unique set of symptoms theyve never seen before.

Mercys medical odyssey began seemingly overnight, her parents say, four years ago during a family vacation to the beach in California.

She kept falling in the sand. She couldnt run around. She was shaky. It was weird, said her father, Kevin Doyle, a worship pastor at Green Valley Christian Center.

Her family rushed back home to Henderson, where Mercy was diagnosed with a viral infection that was attacking her brain. After a few months, her condition seemed to be improving. Then her symptoms worsened again.

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Prayer for Mercy: Henderson family seeks a cure for 6-year-old's unique condition

Prayer for Mercy: Henderson family seeks a cure for 6-year-old’s unique condition

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Leila Navidi

Mercy Doyle, 6, visits with Tina Lindquist, the program director at Brain Balance Achievement Centers in Henderson on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Doyle has been diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder Opsoclonus MyoclonusSyndrome.

By Conor Shine (contact)

Thursday, May 24, 2012 | 2 a.m.

Six-year-old Mercy Doyle is like a lot of girls her age.

She loves coloring, swimming and The Little Mermaid. She looks up to her big sister and finds her younger brother kind of annoying.

But to doctors in Nevada and around the country, Mercy is a medical mystery, a child with a unique set of symptoms theyve never seen before.

Mercys medical odyssey began seemingly overnight, her parents say, four years ago during a family vacation to the beach in California.

She kept falling in the sand. She couldnt run around. She was shaky. It was weird, said her father, Kevin Doyle, a worship pastor at Green Valley Christian Center.

Her family rushed back home to Henderson, where Mercy was diagnosed with a viral infection that was attacking her brain. After a few months, her condition seemed to be improving. Then her symptoms worsened again.

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Prayer for Mercy: Henderson family seeks a cure for 6-year-old's unique condition

Sam Bridgman: The University of Portland comes together to help support one of its own

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One night last November, players on the University of Portland men's and women's basketball teams joined forces to compete in one of the toughest games of their lives.

What the students lost by in points that night, they gained in perspective: They got to see a glimmer of what life is like each day for their classmate and friend Sam Bridgman.

Bridgman, a junior finance major, has a condition called Friedreich's ataxia, a rare, degenerative neuro-muscular disorder that causes progressive loss of coordination and muscle strength.

About 550 people attended the event, which raised more than $7,000 toward research for Friedreich's ataxia and offered Bridgman the opportunity to educate his classmates about his condition.

It also gave Bridgman's classmates on the campus of about 3,810 students the chance to show him what he means to them.

"Although SamJam is a more formal event, it just shows what goes on every day with him -- how we all feel about him and that we just want to help him out," says Sam Westendorf, a member of the school's Student Athlete Advisory Committee who helped organize the event.

Bridgman, a Seattle native, grew up a happy, outgoing kid who loved people and baseball -- and pretty much every other sport. His mother, Amy Koepnick, recalls how her son could make 3-pointers from the age of 7.

But his body first began behaving strangely when Bridgman was playing basketball in middle school.

"When I would rebound the ball I would box out, see the ball come off the rim, and I would tell my body to go get it, but it wouldn't move," he recalls while eating lunch on campus in the company of two close baseball buddies and his girlfriend, Molly Billingham.

Bridgman's symptoms were gradual and easy to dismiss as growing pains. It took years for a diagnosis because the condition is so rare. It wasn't until he was 15 that a pediatric neurologist in Seattle finally put a name to his body's inexplicable rebellion.

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Sam Bridgman: The University of Portland comes together to help support one of its own

MONROE: Towns went âBlueâ for National Autism Month

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MONROE April was recognized across the United States as National Autism Month and served as an opportunity for everyone to educate the public about autism and the issues within the autism community.

Resident Kimberley Toto decided to go bigger this year and promoted more awareness during World Autism Awareness Day April 2, and not only included the schools but made it a community wide event and asked the two local communities to light it up blue.

This marked her third year promoting this campaign through Autism Speaks, where prominent buildings across North America turned their lights blue in honor of World Autism Awareness Day.

The Empire State Building in New York City did the same thing to promote awareness for the condition.

Inspired by this, Ms. Toto used spotlights and blue Christmas lights on her home in April.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors, according to the Autism Speaks website, http://www.autismspeaks.org.

When my daughter was diagnosed it was 1 in 150. In the last several years the numbers increased to 1 in 110, Ms. Toto said. Right before the month of April 2012, the Centers for Disease Control came out with new numbers. It is now 1 in 88 kids that are affected with some form of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).

Autism statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify around 1 in 88 American children as on the autism spectruma 10-fold increase in prevalence in 40 years, according to the organization. Careful research shows that this increase is only partly explained by improved diagnosis and awareness.

Studies also show that autism is three to four times more common among boys than girls. An estimated 1 out of 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States, according to the Autism Speaks website.

By way of comparison, this is more children than are affected by diabetes, AIDS, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or Down syndrome, combined, according to the organization.

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MONROE: Towns went âBlueâ for National Autism Month