Monthly Archives: January 2014

New project on psychiatric, neurologic, and behavioral genetics

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

8-Jan-2014

Contact: Susan Gilbert gilberts@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040 x244 The Hastings Center

(Garrison, NY) The Center for Research on Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic, and Behavioral Genetics at Columbia University Medical Center unveils its mission today with the launch of its website. Two Hastings Center research scholars are core faculty members of the new center, which was recently awarded a five-year grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute.

As understanding of the genetic contributions to psychiatric, neurologic, and behavioral (PNB) traits and disorders grows rapidly, this knowledge is quickly being translated into clinical practice. But the information presents particular ethical, legal, and social challenges because of what it could reveal about characteristics associated with individual identity and many of our most feared afflictions. Because of the potential for stigma linked to many PNB disorders and traits, this information may negatively affect how people view themselves and how others see them. Examination of the impact of PNB genetic information and consideration of the implications for normative judgments and public policy are therefore critically needed.

"Scientific findings regarding PNB traits must be discussed with special attention to the human and social context because such traits and disordersfrom Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and depression to empathy, aggression, and intelligencecan touch our sense of who we are as persons," said Erik Parens, PhD, a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center. Parens and Josephine Johnston, LLB, MBHL, a Hastings Center research scholar and director of research, are core faculty members of the new center, based in the Department of Psychiatry. "The new center is uniquely situated to offer such attention."

The center is focusing on three areas: 1) the impact of PNB genetic information in clinical and research contexts on patients, family members, and clinicians, including effects on treatment choices, health and lifestyle decisions, identity, and self-image; 2) the impact of PNB genetic information in nonclinical contexts in which such information may affect perceptions of autonomy and responsibility for behavior, with a special focus on attributions of responsibility in the judicial process and in everyday life; and 3) data to suggest how PNB genetic information should be used in policy judgments related to clinical contexts (e.g., diagnostic and treatment decisions), research contexts (e.g., access to genetic data), and nonclinical contexts (e.g., legal rules and health policy).

Parens and Johnston will lead the new center's investigation into the meaning of PNB genetics information and how it should be used in policies and practices, as well as the translation of the center's work into formats that can inform policies and practices.

"Our center offers the opportunity to advance knowledge of the ethical, legal, and social implications of one of the most rapidly developing areas of genetics. Drawing on our empirical studies and input from key stakeholders, we will develop strategies to guide the use of PNB genetic data in clinical and research settings, as well as in courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies," said Paul Appelbaum, MD, director of the center and of the Division of Law, Ethics and Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. "By integrating empirical researchers with experts in ethics, economics, law, and public policy, we hope to point the way toward beneficial use of the latest scientific findings in this exciting new area of genetics."

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Watchdog report details waste in Mass. health care

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As much as 20 to 40 percent of all health care spending in Massachusetts is wasteful, much of it squandered on unnecessary hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, according to a new state report released yesterday.

The study estimates wasteful spending in 2012 at a staggering $15 billion to $27 billion. The biggest single category $700 million was spent on readmissions of patients recently discharged from hospitals. Unnecessary ER visits tallied up $550 million in waste. Total health spending in the Bay State is estimated at $69 billion.

A lot of it is totally useless, if not harmful, said Stuart Altman, chairman of the Health Policy Commission, a state watchdog group charged with monitoring health care costs, which issued the report. The worst offenders are areas that actually dont add any value, but are destructive, like people going back to the hospital when they dont need to.

The first-of-its-kind report also found that preventable infections acquired in health care settings cost $10 million to $18 million a year.

Massachusetts first in the nation to adopt universal health coverage spends more per capita on health care than any other state, and health care costs here have grown faster than the national average. A 2012 state law aims to curb the growth of health care spending.

The Health Policy Commissions report notes that costs vary widely among the states hospitals.

Some hospitals deliver high-quality care with lower operating expenses, the report said, while many higher-expense hospitals achieve lower quality performance.

Former Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center chief executive Paul Levy said the findings are a good first step but wont spur hospitals into action not unless their names are on the report.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association said the report uses outdated numbers that dont show the progress hospitals are making on tackling costs.

Massachusetts hospitals are working collaboratively ... to improve care while becoming even more costefficient, including in the areas identified in the report as examples of wasteful spending, the MHA said in a prepared statement.

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Health Care Data Breach Growth in 2014

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2013 saw a monumental number of data breaches, and health care was not immune. These breaches collectively compromised millions of individuals' personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). Within the health care field, many of the reported data breaches were not perpetrated by sophisticated hackers but were the result of individuals making poor choices. Small and medium size businesses within the health care field, including health care providers and business associates, are working to comply with the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) reporting requirements. The new HIPAA security rule requires data breach notification and mentions possible financial penalties in the event that PII and PHI are compromised. Poor choices by employees can and do undermine even carefully constructed information security structures designed to be HIPAA compliant.

Forecast for 2014

The 2014 forecast is not good, according to InformationWeek. The size and quantity of health care data breaches are expected to grow as the U.S. Affordable Care Act is implemented. Small and medium practices will discover that data management is an integral part of the business of medical care. IT teams and IT service providers have an opportunity to distinguish themselves during this period of flux and to implement proven security solutions and security awareness programs.

There is a saying that one should treat sensitive information and cash in the same manner: Do not leave it lying about; secure it, and count it regularly. PII and PHI are no exceptions to the axiom. IT solutions may start with ensuring that patient information is an accountable item by using the HIPAA physical and technical safeguards to guarantee compliance and taking client data security even farther beyond compliance. Cyber attacks receive attention and headlines, but human error puts data at risk more often than hacks.

Security Awareness

Security awareness training, specifically surrounding the implementation of IT solutions and the physical handling of data, allows those closest to PII and PHI to understand how their actions can keep data safe or put the organization at risk of a data breach. Security awareness training should include several aspects: The preferred manner for the handling of paper files; the access controls placed on electronic medical records; the proper method to expunge medical data from systems and medical monitoring equipment; best practices for manual and automatic data storage and backup; prescribed channels to use to report an anomalous event.

With attention to detail, the probability of human error is reduced. With a reduction in human error, perhaps the prognostication of 2014 as a banner year for data breaches in health care will prove to be incorrect.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

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Health Care Data Breach Growth in 2014

Rare genetic mutation discovered in Tourette syndrome family

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Health

Linda Carroll NBC News contributor

13 hours ago

A rare genetic mutation that disrupts the production of histamine may help researchers unravel the mystery that surrounds Tourette syndrome.

The mutation discovered by Yale researchers can cause the kinds of tics and other abnormalities that are the hallmark of the syndrome, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Neuron.

Thus far the genetic anomaly has been discovered only in nine members of a single family: a father and all eight of his children who have both the mutation and Tourette syndrome.

We know that Tourette is about 90 percent genetic, said study coauthor Dr. Christopher Pittenger, an associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at the Yale University School of Medicine and director of the Yale OCD research clinic. But its been incredibly hard to find any genetic abnormalities that cause the syndrome. We have proven that this gene really is the cause of Tourette in this family and also looked at some of its downstream effects.

Courtesy Jeffrey Kramer

Jeffrey Kramer and his three sons. Kramer and two of his grown-up sons have been living with Tourette for decades. Hes excited by the new findings, but realistic about their impact on patients with the syndrome.

What isnt known yet is how, or if, this finding can be extended to other people with Tourette, Pittenger and other experts said.

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Rare genetic mutation discovered in Tourette syndrome family

Does the body’s immune response to viral vector delivery systems affect the safety or efficacy of gene therapy?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

8-Jan-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, January 7, 2014Packaging replacement genes in viruses is an effective method to deliver them to target tissues, but the human body mounts an immune response against the virus. The systemic and local immune reactions induced by an adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapy to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency, approved for use in Europe, does not affect the safety of gene therapy or expression of the replacement gene for at least one year after delivery, according to a study published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Human Gene Therapy website.

Valeria Ferreira and coauthors, uniQure BV and Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and University of Montreal and Chicoutimi Hospital, Quebec, Canada, evaluated measures of inflammation and adverse clinical events and the expression of a replacement lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene that was injected intramuscularly into patients with LPL deficiency. The gene was packaged in an AAV vector, as described in the article "Immune responses to intramuscular administration of alipogene tiparvovec (AAV1-LPLS447X) in a phase II clinical trial of Lipoprotein Lipase deficiency (LPLD) gene therapy."

"The clinical data published in this paper were critical to the approval of Glybera," says James Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia. "Furthermore, they provide context for laboratory measurements of immune responses which apparently did not impact product performance."

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About the Journal

Human Gene Therapy, the official journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, French Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, German Society of Gene Therapy, and five other gene therapy societies, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. Human Gene Therapy presents reports on the transfer and expression of genes in mammals, including humans. Related topics include improvements in vector development, delivery systems, and animal models, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart disease, viral disease, genetic disease, and neurological disease, as well as ethical, legal, and regulatory issues related to the gene transfer in humans. Its sister journals are Human Gene Therapy Methods, published bimonthly and focused on the application of gene therapy to product testing and development, and Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development, published quarterly and featuring data relevant to the regulatory review and commercial development of cell and gene therapy products. Tables of content for all three publications and a sample issue may be viewed on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the Publisher

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Bioglow sheds new light on indoor plants

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Bioglow's Starlight Avatar plants emit faint light similar in intensity to starlight hence the name

Ever thought the glowing forests from the movie Avatar were pretty cool and wanted one yourself? Bioglow is the latest company to attempt to put such autoluminscent plants in homes with its aptly named Starlight Avatar.

Engineering plants to make them glow is not a new idea and has been around since the 1980s. Bioglow's approach involves adding genes responsible for bioluminescence from the marine bacteria Photobacterium leiognathi to the cultivated tobacco species Nicotiana tabacum. In this way, Bioglow claims it was able to achieve permanent light emission without the need for chemical additives to the exterior of the plant or the use of UV light.

While the current results emit only faint light, said to resemble the intensity of starlight hence the name Starlight Avatar Bioglow hopes that in the future autoluminescent plants will be able to produce enough light to illuminate town streets. It is also working on modifying the colors emitted via luciferase mutagenesis, the mutation of enzymes responsible for light generation, and is working to have foliage glow one color, with flowers and petals another.

This and similar ventures, such as the crowd funded Glowing Plants project have not come without criticism from environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth (FOE), worried about the spread of genetically engineered or modified (GM) products and the flow of engineered genes into nature.

The New York Times reported in May 2013 that FOE and other environmental groups had lobbied both the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Kickstarter to have the Glowing Plant project shut down. Since then, the USDA has reviewed and approved Bioglows plants as safe because they are not "plant pests." Bioglow also says that the light-emitting pathway in its plants cannot be transferred by pollen to other plant populations.

Bioglow will be running on online auction for its plants that kicks off on January 31st and runs for a week.

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AML score combining genetic, epigenetic changes might help guide therapy

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Jan. 8, 2014 Currently, doctors use chromosome markers and gene mutations to determine the best treatment for a patient with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). But a new study suggests that a score based on seven mutated genes and the epigenetic changes that the researchers discovered were present might help guide treatment by identifying novel subsets of patients.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, come from a study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC -- James).

The epigenetic change used in the study is DNA methylation. It involves the addition of methyl groups to DNA, which can reduce or silence a gene's activity, or expression. Abnormal DNA methylation alters normal gene expression and often plays an important role in cancer development.

Overall, the findings suggest that patients with a low score -- indicating that one or none of the seven genes is overexpressed in AML cells -- had the best outcomes, and that patients with high scores -- that is, with six or seven genes highly expressed -- had the poorest outcomes.

"To date, disease classification and prognostication for AML patients have been based largely on chromosomal and genetic markers," says principal investigator Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, Distinguished University Professor, Ohio State University Cancer Scholar and Senior Adviser.

"Epigenetic changes that affect gene expression have not been considered. Here we show that epigenetic changes in previously recognized and prognostically important mutated genes can identify novel patient subgroups, which might better help guide therapy," says Bloomfield, who is also the William Greenville Pace III Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Ohio State.

The seven-gene panel was identified in 134 patients aged 60 and older with cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) who had been treated on Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB)/Alliance clinical trials.

The researchers computed a score based on the number of genes in the panel that were highly expressed in patients' AML cells, and retrospectively tested the score in two groups of older patients (age 60 and up) and two groups of younger patients (age 59 and under).

Patients with a low score -- indicating that one or none of the seven genes is overexpressed -- had the best outcomes. Patients with high scores -- that is, with six or seven genes highly expressed -- had the poorest outcomes.

"For this seven-gene panel, the fewer highly expressed genes, the better the outcome," says first author Guido Marcucci, MD, professor of medicine and the associate director for translational research at the OSUCCC -- James. "In both younger and older patients, those who had no highly expressed genes, or had one highly expressed gene had the best outcomes."

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Freedom Park Boxing Center Getting Closer to Opening Day

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MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) - Inside the gymnasium at Freedom Park Community Center, the basketball goals are gone.

A brand new floor has been installed. There are new bleachers--the kind that roll away when you're done with them, or roll out for big events like boxing tournaments, set to happen here in the near future.

"When we look at Freedom Park and turn that into a boxing/conditioning facility, we expect people not just from the Freedom area to go to that facility, we expect them from all of the middle Georgia area," says Dale "Doc" Dougherty, director of Macon-Bibb Parks and Recreation. "(People) throughout Bibb County and maybe beyond will come into the Freedom Park location."

Over the next few months, workers will install several boxing rings inside the gym--two for competition, Dougherty says, and two for training.

The room next to it will serve as an exclusive training room, complete with plenty of punching bags hanging by chains from the ceiling.

And what's a good boxer without a little conditioning?

One of the things that made Freedom Park ideal for this center is the sidewalk around Freedom Park Lake. Dougherty says its easy access to the building will allow for pre-workout runs and jogs. The center will also serve as a fitness facility for kids of all ages.

"...where literally parents three days a week can drop their kids off for an hour or an hour and a half and know when they pick them up, they're going to be good and tired but they're also going to be getting in shape," he says.

The new look Freedom Park is just the first step in the parks and recreation department's vision for the future.

"We're also looking at the education side with robotics at one of our centers," Dougherty says. "Creating a full STEM program for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for one of our centers. We're also looking at cultural arts--turning one of our centers into a theater as well as dance and just general drama classes."

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Freedom Park Boxing Center Getting Closer to Opening Day

River ecosystem – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The ecosystem of a river is the river viewed as a system operating in its natural environment, and includes biotic (living) interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions.[1][2]

River ecosystems are prime examples of lotic ecosystems. Lotic refers to flowing water, from the Latin lotus, washed. Lotic waters range from springs only a few centimeters wide to major rivers kilometers in width.[3] Much of this article applies to lotic ecosystems in general, including related lotic systems such as streams and springs. Lotic ecosystems can be contrasted with lentic ecosystems, which involve relatively still terrestrial waters such as lakes and ponds. Together, these two fields form the more general study area of freshwater or aquatic ecology.

The following unifying characteristics make the ecology of running waters unique from that of other aquatic habitats.[4]

Water flow is the key factor in lotic systems influencing their ecology. The strength of water flow can vary between systems, ranging from torrential rapids to slow backwaters that almost seem like lentic systems. The speed of the water flow can also vary within a system and is subject to chaotic turbulence. This turbulence results in divergences of flow from the mean downslope flow vector as typified by eddy currents. The mean flow rate vector is based on variability of friction with the bottom or sides of the channel, sinuosity, obstructions, and the incline gradient.[3] In addition, the amount of water input into the system from direct precipitation, snowmelt, and/or groundwater can affect flow rate. Flowing waters can alter the shape of the streambed through erosion and deposition, creating a variety of habitats, including riffles, glides[disambiguation needed], and pools.[5]

Light is important to lotic systems, because it provides the energy necessary to drive primary production via photosynthesis, and can also provide refuge for prey species in shadows it casts. The amount of light that a system receives can be related to a combination of internal and external stream variables. The area surrounding a small stream, for example, might be shaded by surrounding forests or by valley walls. Larger river systems tend to be wide so the influence of external variables is minimized, and the sun reaches the surface. These rivers also tend to be more turbulent, however, and particles in the water increasingly attenuate light as depth increases.[5] Seasonal and diurnal factors might also play a role in light availability because the angle of incidence, the angle at which light strikes water can lead to light lost from reflection. Known as Beer's Law, the shallower the angle, the more light is reflected and the amount of solar radiation received declines logarithmically with depth.[4] Additional influences on light availability include cloud cover, altitude, and geographic position (Brown 1987).

Most lotic species are poikilotherms whose internal temperature varies with their environment, thus temperature is a key abiotic factor for them. Water can be heated or cooled through radiation at the surface and conduction to or from the air and surrounding substrate. Shallow streams are typically well mixed and maintain a relatively uniform temperature within an area. In deeper, slower moving water systems, however, a strong difference between the bottom and surface temperatures may develop. Spring fed systems have little variation as springs are typically from groundwater sources, which are often very close to ambient temperature.[4] Many systems show strong diurnal fluctuations and seasonal variations are most extreme in arctic, desert and temperate systems.[4] The amount of shading, climate and elevation can also influence the temperature of lotic systems.[3]

Water chemistry between systems varies tremendously. The chemistry is foremost determined by inputs from the geology of its watershed, or catchment area, but can also be influenced by precipitation and the addition of pollutants from human sources.[3][5] Large differences in chemistry do not usually exist within small lotic systems due to a high rate of mixing. In larger river systems, however, the concentrations of most nutrients, dissolved salts, and pH decrease as distance increases from the rivers source.[4]

Oxygen is likely the most important chemical constituent of lotic systems, as all aerobic organisms require it for survival. It enters the water mostly via diffusion at the water-air interface. Oxygens solubility in water decreases as water PH and temperature increases. Fast, turbulent streams expose more of the waters surface area to the air and tend to have low temperatures and thus more oxygen than slow, backwaters.[4] Oxygen is a byproduct of photosynthesis, so systems with a high abundance of aquatic algae and plants may also have high concentrations of oxygen during the day. These levels can decrease significantly during the night when primary producers switch to respiration. Oxygen can be limiting if circulation between the surface and deeper layers is poor, if the activity of lotic animals is very high, or if there is a large amount of organic decay occurring.[5]

The inorganic substrate of lotic systems is composed of the geologic material present in the catchment that is eroded, transported, sorted, and deposited by the current. Inorganic substrates are classified by size on the Wentworth scale, which ranges from boulders, to pebbles, to gravel, to sand, and to silt.[4] Typically, particle size decreases downstream with larger boulders and stones in more mountainous areas and sandy bottoms in lowland rivers. This is because the higher gradients of mountain streams facilitate a faster flow, moving smaller substrate materials further downstream for deposition.[5] Substrate can also be organic and may include fine particles, autumn shed leaves, submerged wood, moss, and more evolved plants.[3] Substrate deposition is not necessarily a permanent event, as it can be subject to large modifications during flooding events.[5]

Bacteria are present in large numbers in lotic waters. Free-living forms are associated with decomposing organic material, biofilm on the surfaces of rocks and vegetation, in between particles that compose the substrate, and suspended in the water column. Other forms are also associated with the guts of lotic organisms as parasites or in commensal relationships.[4] Bacteria play a large role in energy recycling,[3] which will be discussed in the Trophic Relationships section.

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River ecosystem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ecosystem Activities for Kids | eHow – eHow | How to Videos …

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mom section Living Well Family & Relationships Education & Activities Parenting eHow Education K-12 K-12 Basics Ecosystem Activities for Kids

Elizabeth Stover

Elizabeth Stover, a writing teacher and author of 15 years experience, has a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland. Her split minor includes Sociology/Writing. Ms Stover has been published by Creative Teaching Press in the books "Science Tub Topics" and "Math Tub Topics."

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According to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), an ecosystem includes all the living and nonliving things sharing a common space, depending on and interacting with each other. It may be as small as tiny pond or as large as an entire forest. Scientists often classify ecosystems by the type of larger biome in which they exist such as a forest, urban or coastal ecosystem.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports the education of kids as they learn about ecosystems and protecting natural resources for future generations. Have kids explore the information on the EPA Student Center website or in books to learn more about the way that plants, animals and nonliving objects exist interdependently in the ecosystem.

Kids can choose an ecosystem and create a model diorama in a shoebox. Use paper and markers to create a background and clay to create three-dimensional objects. Do not fasten the clay objects to the diorama. Have kids share their dioramas and take out one object at a time. They then discuss what depends on that object and whether the rest of the ecosystem would suffer if that object disappeared.

Just walking outside to investigate the ecosystem in which a child lives or a local ecosystem such as a stream, garden, orchard or forest is an educational activity for kids. When conditions prohibit this, or in addition to an actual field trip, try investigating some of the virtual scientific field trips available online (see Resources). Typically, these may include movie tour, web cams, live chats, question forums and downloads.

While visiting the ecosystem, kids can pretend to be a biologist. In preparation, help kids create, a pretend scientific field journal in which to write down or draw ecosystem observations during their visit. They make drawings or notes about the living and nonliving things, interdependencies, problems or unexpected objects they observe in the ecosystem. Take a camera for pictures to add to the journal. Once back from the trip, have them draw a conclusion about the health of the ecosystem based on their observations.

After discussion, field trips, videos or research, provide magazines from which kids can cut pictures to create ecosystem collages. Wildlife and outdoor magazines provide the best pictures for this project though most magazines contain a few outdoor, plant or animal pictures. Have kids search for pictures of living and nonliving objects found in a particular ecosystem. Kids can draw a background of vegetation and earth forms such as hills or shore with crayons then cut and glue pictures to create an ecosystem collage.

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Warning signs up at Mission Bay

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LAWRENCE SMITH/Fairfax NZ

NO GO: The health warning signs went up at Auckland's Mission Bay beach.

Swimmers have been warned off one of Auckland's most famous city beaches because of high levels of bacteria.

Warning signs have been put up at Mission Bay telling swimmers and beach-users of the poor water quality.

The contamination was discovered yesterday by Auckland Council's Safeswim monitoring programme, which tests water quality weekly at 63 Auckland beaches.

"Our advice is for people not to swim at Mission Bay on Thursday and Friday," acting chief operating officer Ian Maxwell said.

"Our testing indicates ... levels of bacteria [that] suggest a potential risk to human health."

The test result has surprised the council because checks of the wastewater and stormwater networks did not indicate a problem, and no overflows had been reported.

"This may be a one-off incident from an animal source, a boat dumping, or a false positive," Maxwell said.

He encouraged beach-users to swim at other local beaches including nearby Kohimarama and St Heliers.

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Warning signs up at Mission Bay

Favorite, Family-Friendly Beaches in Ventura

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When my family and I want to enjoy the beach while avoiding traffic and crowds, we head to Ventura. Living in north Los Angeles, most Ventura beaches are less than an hour away from our home. In the summer months, Ventura is a great way to beat the heat. In the winter, many of the beaches are far from crowded. As a lifelong So Cal resident, I have been to many beaches along the west coast. As a mother of two, here are a few of my favorite, family-friendly beaches in Ventura.

Emma Wood State Beach

We went here on New Year's Day. I loved the gradual incline to the water. Overall, the atmosphere was tranquil. We went when the tide was out and my kids could splash in the water. I liked that I didn't have to worry about a rip tide or rough waves (at least when I went). This is a camping beach. However, it is open for day use too. We parked near the north part of the beach, along Pacific Coast highway, and had to climb over some big rocks to get down to the beach. I liked how my car was so close to the sand.

Marina Park

I love this park/beach because it has a huge grassy area to have a picnic. When my son was a baby, I brought a canopy so he could nap in the shade. Closer to the water, there is a seaside playground that was updated recently. There are swings, several playground structures and soft rubber "floor." In addition, there is a fun ship with a zip-line attached. Of course, don't forget to dip your toes in the ocean. This area can get crowded in the summer. However, parking is free and I have never had a problem finding a parking spot. There are bathrooms too and some trails to walk along.

Surfer's Point (a.k.a C-Street) and San Buenaventura State Beach

Although Surfer's point and San Buenaventura are two separate beaches, they are connected by a bike trail. While C-Street is not the best for swimming (hence the name Surfer's Point), it is a great place for surfers or anyone who likes to watch the waves roll in. For non-surfer's, there is plenty of sand (and some rocks). Furthermore, I love the giant promenade for walking around, especially during sunset. It's perfect for jogging with a stroller or bringing bikes for a family ride. Another fun activity is to rent a surrey, a "modern carriage," from wheelfunrentals.com. Other highlights include the children's playground in the sand and the pier. There is a restaurant called Eric Ericsson's with some good fish and chips. However, my favorite place to eat is Aloha Steakhouse on the promenade. Go for lunch for special deals. I love the house salad, blackened fish and their fresh bread; plus, the waiters are always nice to my kids.

More from Melissa:

Hidden Gems to Visit in San Diego, California Exploring Point Loma: Visiting the Cabrillo National Monument, Old Point Loma Lighthouse and Tide Pools

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Favorite, Family-Friendly Beaches in Ventura

Tipping fee impasse continues between Jacksonville and two coastal cities

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A Jacksonville city councilmans draft bill designed to resolve a bitter landfill fee dispute between the city and Atlantic and Neptune beaches has instead caused more divisiveness as Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown described the legislation as unfair and costly for anyone not living at the Beaches.

City Council President Bill Gulliford, who wrote the draft and whose district covers the Beaches, and beaches mayors impacted by the dispute accused Brown and his administration of failing to understand the needs of the coastal communities.

A letter Brown sent to the mayors of the two communities Wednesday said the draft bill does not address several remedies proposed by the city to help resolve an impasse in which Jacksonville says Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach owe it more than $1.4 million in tipping fees for solid waste dumped at the Trail Ridge Landfill since 2011. Jacksonville Beach does not have such an agreement with Jacksonville.

Jacksonville officials, as part of the consolidated county government, began charging the two coastal communities after the City Council added the fee to the budget. Jacksonville says about $370,000 annually from Atlantic Beach and $200,000 from Neptune Beach pays for using the landfill. But the two smaller cities complained about a variety of problems with the fees, including fears over hidden charges.

The city officials said the proposed bill only covers a proposal for Jacksonville to expand its garbage collection into the two coastal cities.

That proposal would negate the need in the future for the two smaller cities to pay the fee for private contractors to dump residential garbage in the landfill. Jacksonville would charge the cities $12.65 per household for monthly garbage collection by its haulers, the same fee paid by Jacksonville residents.

The $12.65 charge would then be passed on to their residential customers as part of their current garbage fee: $17.78 in Atlantic Beach and $22 a month in Neptune.

But Jim Robinson, Jacksonvilles director of public works, said the reduced charge at the beach would still cost Jacksonville taxpayers about $200,000 a year because of the added travel expense for the citys haulers.

Missing from the bill is a proposal to make up that difference and cut the tipping fees owed to the city in half by granting Jacksonville water quality credits for improvements to quality of the St. Johns River that the Beaches cities produced in part by improvements to their wastewater treatment plants, Robinson said.

Jacksonville has planned to use the credits to meet a commitment it made to the state in 2008 to help the health of the St. Johns River.

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Tipping fee impasse continues between Jacksonville and two coastal cities

NASA Observatory Selects Educator Teams for 2014 Science Flights

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NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, will become a flying classroom for teachers during research flights in the next few months.

Twelve two-person teams have been selected for SOFIA's Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program, representing educators from 10 states. Each will be paired with a professional astronomer to observe first-hand how airborne infrared astronomy is conducted. After their flight opportunities, Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors will take what they learn back to their classrooms and into their communities to promote science literacy.

SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747SP jetliner fitted with a 100-inch (2.5-meter) effective diameter telescope. The aircraft flies at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet (12-14 kilometers), above the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere, and collects data in the infrared spectrum.

"SOFIA offers educator teams unprecedented access to infrared astronomers and the unique capabilities of an airborne observatory," said John Gagosian, SOFIA program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Previous Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors teams have witnessed SOFIA's world-class astronomical science and have used this experience in hundreds of science, technology, engineering and math teaching opportunities throughout the United States."

SOFIA's Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors for 2014 are:

-- Megan Tucker and Dan Molik, The Palmdale Aerospace Academy, Palmdale, Calif.

-- Barbel Sepulveda, Lincoln High School, and Chris Rauschenfels, Sierra Middle School, Stockton, Calif.

-- Nathan Mahoney, Pine Crest School, Deerfield Beach, Fla. and Hellen Tavora, South Florida Amateur Astronomers Association and Fox Astronomical Observatory, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

-- Marcella Linahan, Carmel Catholic High School, Mundelein, Ill., and Lynne Zielinski National Space Society, Long Grove, Ill.

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NASA Observatory Selects Educator Teams for 2014 Science Flights

Computer science: The learning machines

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Three years ago, researchers at the secretive Google X lab in Mountain View, California, extracted some 10 million still images from YouTube videos and fed them into Google Brain a network of 1,000 computers programmed to soak up the world much as a human toddler does. After three days looking for recurring patterns, Google Brain decided, all on its own, that there were certain repeating categories it could identify: human faces, human bodies and cats1.

Google Brain's discovery that the Internet is full of cat videos provoked a flurry of jokes from journalists. But it was also a landmark in the resurgence of deep learning: a three-decade-old technique in which massive amounts of data and processing power help computers to crack messy problems that humans solve almost intuitively, from recognizing faces to understanding language.

Deep learning itself is a revival of an even older idea for computing: neural networks. These systems, loosely inspired by the densely interconnected neurons of the brain, mimic human learning by changing the strength of simulated neural connections on the basis of experience. Google Brain, with about 1 million simulated neurons and 1 billion simulated connections, was ten times larger than any deep neural network before it. Project founder Andrew Ng, now director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University in California, has gone on to make deep-learning systems ten times larger again.

Such advances make for exciting times in artificial intelligence (AI) the often-frustrating attempt to get computers to think like humans. In the past few years, companies such as Google, Apple and IBM have been aggressively snapping up start-up companies and researchers with deep-learning expertise. For everyday consumers, the results include software better able to sort through photos, understand spoken commands and translate text from foreign languages. For scientists and industry, deep-learning computers can search for potential drug candidates, map real neural networks in the brain or predict the functions of proteins.

AI has gone from failure to failure, with bits of progress. This could be another leapfrog, says Yann LeCun, director of the Center for Data Science at New York University and a deep-learning pioneer.

Over the next few years we'll see a feeding frenzy. Lots of people will jump on the deep-learning bandwagon, agrees Jitendra Malik, who studies computer image recognition at the University of California, Berkeley. But in the long term, deep learning may not win the day; some researchers are pursuing other techniques that show promise. I'm agnostic, says Malik. Over time people will decide what works best in different domains.

Back in the 1950s, when computers were new, the first generation of AI researchers eagerly predicted that fully fledged AI was right around the corner. But that optimism faded as researchers began to grasp the vast complexity of real-world knowledge particularly when it came to perceptual problems such as what makes a face a human face, rather than a mask or a monkey face. Hundreds of researchers and graduate students spent decades hand-coding rules about all the different features that computers needed to identify objects. Coming up with features is difficult, time consuming and requires expert knowledge, says Ng. You have to ask if there's a better way.

IMAGES: ANDREW NG

In the 1980s, one better way seemed to be deep learning in neural networks. These systems promised to learn their own rules from scratch, and offered the pleasing symmetry of using brain-inspired mechanics to achieve brain-like function. The strategy called for simulated neurons to be organized into several layers. Give such a system a picture and the first layer of learning will simply notice all the dark and light pixels. The next layer might realize that some of these pixels form edges; the next might distinguish between horizontal and vertical lines. Eventually, a layer might recognize eyes, and might realize that two eyes are usually present in a human face (see 'Facial recognition').

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Computer science: The learning machines

Denny Sanford believes genetic medicine is ‘the medicine of the future’

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FARGO Denny Sanford was recovering from possibly fatal blood clots in his lungs when he decided to invest $125 million to bring genetic medicine into the mainstream.

Sanford became ill on a hunting trip in south-central South Dakota in October, about 140 miles west of Sioux Falls.

Doctors there suspected he had pneumonia, but Sanfords personal physician, Dr. Eric Larson of Sanford Health, suspected a pulmonary embolism a blood clot in the lungs and arranged for an air ambulance to whisk him to Sioux Falls.

He really saved my life, Sanford said in a telephone interview with The Forum, referring to Larson, an internal medicine doctor and one of the champions of the new genetic medicine initiative Sanford Health announced Tuesday.

Sanford, who is in his late 70s, did not attend Tuesdays announcement, which was made in Sioux Falls, and simulcast to Sanford medical centers in Fargo, Bismarck and Bemidji, Minn.

While recuperating in his namesake hospital in Sioux Falls, Sanford reminded Kelby Krabbenhoft, Sanford Healths top executive, that his team was preparing a genetic medicine proposal.

He invited them to make their pitch two days later, when he was convalescing at home. Sanfords recent medical emergency made him receptive to the idea of placing results of genetic testing tools in the hands of primary care physicians.

It was an opportune time to lay it out on me, Sanford said, chuckling about the timing and his gratitude for the care he received.

I believe that is the medicine of the future, added Sanford, referring to the use of genetic information in tailoring health care. He recently donated $100 million to a stem cell research program in California.

Sanford, a St. Paul native who founded Premier Bank, now has donated more than $1 billion, much of it to Sanford Health, beginning with a $400 million gift in 2007.

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Denny Sanford believes genetic medicine is 'the medicine of the future'