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EXCLUSIVE: Isaiah Washington Talks Missing Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes & Hollywood Regrets (1) – Video

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EXCLUSIVE: Isaiah Washington Talks Missing Grey #39;s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes Hollywood Regrets (1)
Weeks before it was announced that actor Isaiah Washington would return to Grey #39;s Anatomy, theJasmineBRAND.com chatted with the 50-year-old actor. Promoting ...

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EXCLUSIVE: Isaiah Washington Talks Missing Grey's Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes & Hollywood Regrets (1) - Video

US foundation funds ReNeuron stem cell therapy

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A US-based charity has agreed to provide funding and access to clinical expertise for ReNeuron's retinal stem cell therapy candidate for a degenerative eye disease.

Shares in ReNeuron rose 8.8% to 3.54p on the news.

The Foundation for Fighting Blindess has agreed to provide further funding towards the AIM-listed company's late pre-clinical work on its stem cell therapy candidate for retinitis pigmentosa, together with resources in support of preparations for initial clinical trials such as access to its network of expert pre-clinical and clinical advisers.

The charity has previously funded pre-clinical work on its ReN003.

ReNeuron's Chief Scientific Officer, John Sinden, said: "We are delighted that the Foundation Fighting Blindness will be supporting the development of our ReN003 therapeutic candidate for retinitis pigmentosa. In particular, the Foundation's extensive knowledge, experience and network of advisers will be invaluable to us as we look to progress the ReN003 programme into its clinical phase."

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US foundation funds ReNeuron stem cell therapy

The connected car experience continues to fall short

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Editors note: this post originally appeared on Roger Chens blog, Beyond the bell curve. It is reposted here with permission.

Theres been a lot of buzz about the connected car recently. Thats nothing new, but it feels a little more serious this time around. The discussion has become more sophisticated, driven by the ongoing maturation of smartphones and device connectivity. My reason for interest in the connected car remains a rather simple one: cars arent going away. Smartphones arent either. And people will only use information technology more and more going forward. Yup, more selfies and snaps behind a steering wheel (I feel myself getting angry already).

A lot of discussion has centered on how the connected car will evolve. How heavily will car makers lean on third-party platforms like Android or iOS? How will car companies facilitate third-party integration? How much do they want to do on their own? What about cross-brand functionality? What standards will have to be in place? Whos going to set them the automotive industry or the government? Given the plethora of existing content and legitimate uncertainty about the answers, I dont want to focus on those issues here. Instead, allow me to dive into how drivers will interact with the connected car. Sure, people have discussed this as well, but there is a critical point that most seem to overlook: the winning connected car experience will be the safest connected car experience, hands down.

With all the buzz around contextual awareness these days, its fascinating to me that the car is perhaps the perfect proving ground for a contextually aware future because if it isnt done right, people will die. Its that consequence that has led me to stress the importance of safety. No one will use a system no matter how delightful the experience is if people die from it.

At this point, many would cite the advent of voice technologies as a clear-cut solution to this problem.Here, I would like to debunk that notion and show that we are still far from seeing the right connected car experience. There are both neurological and social reasons why.One studyhas shown that humans have limited mental resources to allocate across the different parts of the brain. Effectively, this means that simultaneously performing different actions like driving and listening make us worse at both. To prove this,fMRIimages were taken as test subjects underwent driving simulations. They showed that brain activity associated with visual information processing decreased as brain activity related to speech processing picked up when listening to auditory stimuli. Not a huge surprise, right? However,the biggest implication of this for the connected car is that hands-free voice technology alone does not ensure safer driving, contrary to common assumption.

Biological limitations arent the only factor, though. Social dynamics play a huge role as well. When talking over mobile, hands-free or not, a driver might be hesitant to seem silent out of fear of being rude, so he or she tries to pay attention. Meanwhile, when its a passenger speaking to the driver, that passenger often knows when the driver needs to focus on the road, and, well, shuts up at the appropriate moments. In fact, several studies have now empirically shown that hands-free voice has not been any safer than using a cell phone. You can find a World Health Organization studyhereand a National Safety Council studyhere.

So what does this all mean? Im definitely not saying that hands-free voice technology wont be a major part of the future connected car, but we will need to start crafting user experience (UX) with much more emphasis on the behavioral science and even neuroscience of driving. If you think youre close to figuring things out, I would love to talk.

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The connected car experience continues to fall short

Very HOT Chemistry Between Karan Singh Grover & Jennifer Winget @ STAR PLUS HOLI MASTI GULAL KI – Video

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Very HOT Chemistry Between Karan Singh Grover Jennifer Winget @ STAR PLUS HOLI MASTI GULAL KI
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Finding the courage to be blatantly believer-ish

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At the Academy Awards on March 2, I heard something surprising: "Lord God, I praise you."

Darlene Love said these words as she joined the director and producers of "20 Feet from Stardom" to accept the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film. Then Love, one of the singers who stars as herself in the documentary, broke into an a cappella version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."

The moment is in a YouTube video of the most memorable speeches of the night. It is rare that Oscar recipients burst into song -- the awards go to technicians and performers who aren't necessarily singers, after all -- but Love's invocation intrigued me more. Hearing it made me a little confused about which awards show I was watching. God gets a lot of credit at the Grammy Awards, even if it seems hypocritical or disingenuous (e.g., saying, "I thank God for helping me write this song full of curse words and misogynistic rhetoric), but I can't remember ever hearing anything as blatantly believer-ish as, "Lord God, I praise you" at the Oscars. People thank the academy, the people who funded their project, their colleagues on the set, parents, life partners and sometimes a teacher who made a difference. But God? No, the Oscars aren't his night to shine.

I've had passing thoughts about why this is, and they all come down to comfort and culture. The Grammys, with its awards for gospel music and its abundance of black artists who start their singing careers in church, presents a safe place to go into Christian-speak. At the Oscars, God is out of place among an audience full of celebrities who either are known to practice Scientology or who aren't known to practice anything at all.

At the Academy Awards, Darlene Love didn't care about what religious beliefs might be represented in the audience. I know she's a singer, and she probably just wanted to sing, but she started her acceptance speech with giving God the credit, and she sang a gospel song. I'm sure no one was hiding tomatoes in their couture dresses to throw at performers they disliked, but still, it takes guts to do that in front of an audience that might not share your beliefs.

When I'm in that situation, I code switch. "Code-switching" refers to mixing languages and speech patterns in conversation as the speaker deems appropriate given his or her surroundings. I've all but abandoned this practice in its traditional sense in my work vs. home worlds; the way I speak is probably about 90 percent consistent between both places. I know I'm more relaxed with my speech and that I speak with a different cadence when I'm with only my mom, the person I'm most comfortable with. But alterations in my use of slang or jargon that only certain groups would understand happens most often when I go between church and very liberal work spaces.

My full-time job is in social justice and in academia. Although I'm well aware I'm not the only Christian in the social justice community in Louisville, Ky., I almost never see people from my church attending the talks or rallies I attend. I also know that plenty of people in attendance have experienced discrimination from Christians. And in academia, I rarely meet scholars who have been able to reconcile their accumulated knowledge with the myths they were taught as children.

In these settings, I don't go into Christian-speak. I don't call victories "blessings" or attribute challenges to tests of faith. Everything isn't in God's plan, and he doesn't work things out. And when other people are open about their atheism, agnosticism or more general secularism, I don't try to change their minds.

I've wondered if my quiet comes off as shame for being Christian or if people can tell I'm Christian at all without knowing my writing. Not being as blatantly believer-ish as Darlene Love was at the Oscars protects me against ridicule and allegations of hypocrisy or pretense, and it keeps the peace by preventing discussion of religion, always an explosive topic. But I shouldn't base sharing my beliefs on what others may think.

For the next several weeks, people will notice Christians not eating meat or sugar. They'll stop smoking and watching reality television shows, or they'll temporarily close all their social media accounts as part of Lenten fasts. Christians and non-Christians alike will notice the changes, and even if they've never given any indication of their faith before, the fasting Christians suddenly will be exhibiting blatantly believer-ish behavior. They'll open themselves up to ridicule, hostility and allegations of hypocrisy.

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Finding the courage to be blatantly believer-ish

Okyanos CEO Matt Feshbach Announces Appointment of Institutes Marketing Executive Erika Rosenthal to International …

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Freeport, The Bahamas (PRWEB) March 10, 2014

Matt Feshbach, CEO of Okyanos Heart Institute whose mission it is to bring a new standard of care and better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy has announced the appointment of Okyanos senior vice president of marketing, Erika Rosenthal, to the International Stem Cell Society (STEMSO) Advisory Board. She will advise the trade organization in a communications capacity to benefit the membership and the mission.

STEMSO is a member-based, international, non-profit 501(c) 6 trade association which promotes the interests of organizational members of the global, adult stem cell healthcare community. STEMSO provides information, education, resources, advocacy and public awareness for the advancement of adult stem cell research and therapy. The organization recently hosted a global regenerative medicine conference in Freeport, The Bahamas, entitled, Bridging the Gap: Research to Point of Care which brought together experts in adult stem cell therapy and regulations to discuss commercialization of therapies for chronic disease in a safe, ethical, and compliant manner.

STEMSO is an important organization to the field of stem cell therapy and research, said Feshbach. Communications and healthcare are both fields in which Erika excels, and so I am pleased to see her lend her expertise for an important cause. I look forward to the Okyanos Heart Institute executive team continuing with such efforts for the greater good of medicine.

Rosenthal was a 2008 recipient of the National Association of Women Business Owners Business Woman of the Year award, and was recognized in Business Leader Magazine as a Woman Extraordinaire, for her business accomplishments and contributions to the non-profit community. She is a former faculty member of the University of California where she taught Marketing and Hospitality Management.

It is indeed an honor to work with STEMSO to advance their cause to help advance adult stem cell research and therapy worldwide, and to bring together leading researchers, physicians, regulators and scientists to set standards for ethical and responsible delivery of therapies as they become available to the public worldwide, said Rosenthal. It is an exciting time in medicine, and STEMSO is greatly needed to bring collaboration and guidance between this impressive member group of thought leaders.

STEMSO is pleased to have Erika Rosenthal participate on STEMSOs Advisory Board, said Douglas Hammond, president of STEMSO. Non-profit trade associations are only as strong as their member participation and leadership allows. If other members or prospective organizational members were to support STEMSO as Okyanos Heart Institute and Erika Rosenthal, there would be no limit to STEMSOs impact in the Regenerative Medicine Industry.

About Okyanos Heart Institute: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, The Bahamas, Okyanos Heart Institutes mission is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy. Okyanos adheres to U.S. surgical center standards and is led by Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I. Okyanos Treatment utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue. The cells, when placed into the heart via a minimally-invasive procedure, can stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Angiogenesis facilitates blood flow in the heart, which supports intake and use of oxygen (as demonstrated in rigorous clinical trials such as the PRECISE trial). The literary name Okyanos, the Greek god of rivers, symbolizes restoration of blood flow.

END

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Okyanos CEO Matt Feshbach Announces Appointment of Institutes Marketing Executive Erika Rosenthal to International ...

ICAR stresses GM technology for Kerala

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Kerala cannot afford to overlook the potential of Genetically Modified (GM) crops to emerge as a substitute for toxic chemicals used against plant parasites in polyhouse cultivation, Swapan K. Dutta, Deputy Director General (Crop Sciences), Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has said.

Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the National Biennial Group Meeting of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Nematode pests here earlier this week, he said states like Kerala that were increasingly turning to protected cultivation could no longer ignore the benefits of genetic engineering for pest and disease control.

Dr. Dutta said biotechnology and genetic engineering would assume a greater role in the battle against pathogens and plant diseases that caused crop loss. The controlled conditions that help to optimise crop production inside a polyhouse are conducive for pests as well, forcing farmers to use toxic chemicals for control. Through genetic engineering, the plant itself develops protection against pathogens. That way you avoid toxic chemicals. States like Kerala will soon have to pay attention to GM technology.

Highlighting the potential of plant genetic resources, he said, In nature, plants continuously try to defend themselves against hundreds of thousands of pathogenic bacteria and nematodes. If scientists can understand the genes that plants activate against pathogens or diseases, it will be a million dollar discovery with potential impact on plant as well as human health. Understanding the resistance mechanism of the gene could provide a breakthrough in disease control.

Terming Keralas move to switch over to organic farming as a political gimmick, Dr. Dutta said it had no meaning. It is not possible for a whole State to make the switch to organic farming. Our experiments show that organic farming will not give sustainable production and high productivity.

Observing that farmers in Kerala, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, used subsidized fertilizers and other chemicals, Dr. Dutta noted that there were some niche areas like speciality and high-value fruits and vegetables that could be kept organic. Organic farming helps in increasing soil fertility. But to keep production and productivity high, you need to have other fertilizers.

Dr. Dutta said plant-parasitic soil nematodes, a microscopic variety of worms, constituted a major threat for protected cultivation of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Surveillance, monitoring and pest management assume more importance in protected cultivation.

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ICAR stresses GM technology for Kerala