Author Archives: ev1

Slow-motion film reveals what happens when lizards drop their tails

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Timothy Higham is an assistant professor of biology at UC Riverside. He is seen here holding a lizard that has self-amputated its tail. Credit: National Geographic.

Timothy Higham, an assistant professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, will be featured in the program Animal Superpowers: Extreme Survivors on the National Geographic Wild Channel, 8 p.m., ET and PT, Sunday, June 3.

Broadcast internationally, the series Animal Superpowers is hosted by the actor Sir Patrick Stewart. On the Extreme Survivors episode, Higham will discuss what happens when a lizard drops its tail an escape plan unique in nature that lizards use when they are attacked. Using high-speed cameras, Higham reveals precisely how the tail fools predators, allowing the lizard to escape and survive. The research may, in the future, help humans with spinal cord injuries.

Lizards are incredible in their ability to self-amputate their tail when they encounter a predator, Higham said. The tail, containing a portion of the spinal cord, is voluntarily detached by muscular contractions that break the tail at a weak point within a single vertebra. The tail contains many of these weak points, so the lizard can break off variable amounts of the tail.

Higham explained that the tail, once dropped by the lizard, continues to move around vigorously, doing flips and swinging back and forth. This movement distracts the predator while the lizard is able to run away and avoid being eaten.

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Lizards use an escape plan unique in nature when they are attacked. Credit: National Geographic.

Highams lab focuses on biomechanics, functional morphology, and comparative physiology of vertebrate locomotion and feeding. He received his doctoral degree in molecular, cellular and integrative physiology from UC Davis in 2006. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Harvard, he spent three years as an assistant professor of biological sciences at Clemson University. He joined UC Riverside last year.

Viewers are encouraged to check their local listings for Animal Superpowers: Extreme Survivors on the National Geographic Wild Channel.

More information: http://animals.nat hedule/wild/

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Slow-motion film reveals what happens when lizards drop their tails

Wanna Learn Marine Biology? There's an App for That

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Killer photos of orcas, stellar images of Stellar sea lions, and full-color images of gray whales can be seen by even the most landlocked of animal lover by downloading the SeaPhoto app onto their smart phones.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary released the app, which features more than 1,300 images of animals that call the sanctuary home. From the abalone jingle (a bivalve, Pododesmus cepio) to yellowtail rock fish (Sebastes flavidus), 550 species populate the app along with an ecological profile of the animal.

For those who haven't joined the smart phone set, the photos are available here.

The right combination of apps can turn a smart phone into a tool of science by putting biological field stations in the palms of millions of curious students, teachers, researchers and maybe even a few orangutans.

ANALYSIS: Apes Get Apps and iPads

Some apps allow anyone to act as the eyes and ears for biologists and wildlife conservationists. For example, amateur game wardens can use the IveGot1 app to report invasive species in Florida.

COOKBOOK SLIDESHOW: Invasive Species Recipes

Another, Instant Wild uses crowd sourcing to identify animals seen in wildlife camera traps. The app sends the photo to users who then help identify the species and report endangered species. Users can even choose the region they want to monitor so they can watch for favorite species, such as elephants in the Tsavo of Kenya. Having an army of volunteer research assistants to sift through camera trap photos could speed up a task that consumes weeks of a researcher's time.

Apps also exist that help users identify species. Some function like electronic field guides by providing images to compare to what a user finds in the natural world. Others use visual recognition to determine a species using a photo snapped by the phone. LeafSnap, a free app from Columbia University, will try to identify a tree based on a photo of the leaf by analyzing the shape and margins. It then keeps a record of trees it's identified.

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Wanna Learn Marine Biology? There's an App for That

Forest diversity from Canada to the sub-tropics influenced by family proximity

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ScienceDaily (May 17, 2012) How species diversity is maintained is a fundamental question in biology. In a new study, a team of Indiana University biologists has shown for the first time that diversity is influenced on a spatial scale of unparalleled scope, in part, by how well tree seedlings survive under their own parents.

Data from over 3 million trees in the eastern half of the U.S. were aggregated into two-degree-latitude-by-longitude cells in order to study regional patterns of conspecific negative density dependence, a process where the mortality of a species rises in coincidence with its increasing abundance.

Scientists have long considered conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD), a process where the mortality of a species rises in coincidence with its increasing abundance, to be a key mechanism maintaining diversity at the local scale. In new research to be published May 17 in the journal Science, the IU researchers show that this mechanism is driving diversity from the boreal forests to sub-tropical forests.

The report, "Conspecific negative density dependence and forest diversity," is authored by Daniel Johnson, a doctoral student in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology. Co-authors are Wesley T. Beaulieu, also a doctoral student in the Department of Biology, and biology professors James D. Bever and Keith Clay, Johnson's major advisor.

Their work analyzed data on forest composition from over 200,000 plots containing more than 1.3 million trees and from paired plots containing over 1.7 million seedlings of 151 different tree species. The plots were located from the Canadian border south to Florida and from the Atlantic coast to the 100th meridian and covered over 1.5 million square miles. The U.S. Forest Service spends about $62 million each year to gather the publicly available forest inventory data used in the IU study.

"We are now able to provide robust evidence that CNDD is pervasive in forest communities from boreal to sub-tropical regions and that it can significantly affect the relative abundance and richness of species with and between forests," Johnson said. "And we now see that the ability to which one tree species can sustain itself in the same area has profound impacts on the diversity of species at a spatial scale that has not been attainable previously. This is the first time it's been shown to be happening not just at a local spatial scale but over the entire eastern US."

The concept of CNDD is based on the well-known Janzen-Connell hypothesis, which proposes that the close proximity of adults reduces seedling survival of that species through increased attack by host-specific pests and pathogens.

Studies of CNDD in the past have mostly focused on forest communities at single sites or of a single species, with the most recent work showing that in tree species, composition and abundance can be influenced by CNDD at the scale of individual trees.

"Local interactions have previously been considered to affect species diversity at a local scale, but our findings indicate that local interactions feed back to species richness and abundance over much larger geographical scale, spanning most of eastern North America," Johnson said.

Evidence that local interactions underlie regional species richness is in contrast to the current understanding that patterns of forest diversity are primarily driven by temperature, precipitation and other physical aspects of the environment. This discovery has implications for how forest modeling is conducted and conservation and management decisions are made.

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Singularity University Announces Inaugural Synthetic Biology Accelerator Program

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Singularity University today announced the companies selected to participate in its inaugural synthetic biology accelerator program, SynBio Startup Launchpad. The program will nurture aspiring SynBio entrepreneurs seeking to apply the rapid-cycle, low-cost approaches employed by tech and biotech startups. Synthetic biology is genetic engineering using software-based design tools coupled with low-cost DNA synthesis and assembly.

The SynBio Accerlator Program was conceived by Andrew Hessel, Co-Chair of SU's Biotechnology and Bioinformatics track, and John Cumbers, Ph.D, a synthetic biologist at NASA Ames Research Center. As Andrew Hessel explains, "advances in technology are allowing scientists to treat DNA, our genetic code, the same way people use code for software programming."

The SynBio Startup Launchpad is Singularity University's first formal initiative to support startups developing exponentially growing technologies. "The SynBio program brings together a powerful community seeking to support startups developing products from the emerging field of synthetic biology to address some of the world's biggest challenges," said Gabriel Baldinucci, Singularity University's Vice President of Strategy and New Venture Development.

Three (3) companies have been selected for the SynBio Program: Evolutionary Solutions, Modern Meadow and SoilGene. Evolutionary Solutions (founders Kettner Griswold and Paul Sebexen) is developing a genome synthesis device. Modern Meadow (co-founder Andras Forgacs) applies tissue-engineering techniques to produce high volumes of animal protein for food and textiles. SoilGene (founders Zachary Apte and Robert Lim) combines metagenomic and bioinformatic approaches to survey land opportunities for the natural resources and agriculture sectors.

A unique aspect of the SynBio program is its partnership with Triple Ring Technologies in Newark, California. The three selected companies will be based at Triple Ring to take advantage of its engineering and lab facilities, and their staff's extensive expertise in life sciences innovation and commercialization. "We are excited to work with the SynBio entrepreneurs taking innovations to market in the emerging synthetic biology space," said Joseph Heanue, Ph.D., president and CEO of Triple Ring Technologies.

The selected entrepreneurs will go through four months of comprehensive, customized mentoring and education in bringing their ideas to market. The companies receive close mentorship from a network of experienced advisors, weekly speakers on critical venture topics, networking with their peers, and valuable discounted services to launch their companies.

The first program will conclude in late August with the SynBio Companies pitching their ventures to investors and the community at "demo day" events.

Sandra Miller, newly appointed SU Managing Director of New Venture Development, will be responsible for the management of the SynBio Launchpad as well as other new Singularity University ventures, working closely with Gabriel Baldinucci, VP of Strategy and New Venture Development.

"Creating, incubating and financing companies to positively affect the lives of a billion people are central elements of SU's vision. We call this 10^9+ impact," said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, SU Chairman and Co-Founder.

About Singularity University

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Singularity University Announces Inaugural Synthetic Biology Accelerator Program

Global Laboratory Chemical Reagents Industry

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NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Global Laboratory Chemical Reagents Industry

http://www.reportlinker.com/p087339/Global-Laboratory-Chemical-Reagents-Industry.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Genomics

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Laboratory Chemical Reagents in US$ Million by the following Product Segments: Molecular Biology (Monoclonal & Polyclonal Antibodies, Gene Expression, Vectors, Cloning, & Sequencing, Gene Synthesis, Extraction Kits, PCR Reagents, Enzymes, & Others), Biochemistry (IVD), Cytokine & Chemokine Testing, Cell/Tissue Culture, Carbohydrate Analysis, Immunohistochemistry, and Environmental Testing (Pesticide Residues, & Others). The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2009 through 2017. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. The report profiles 226 companies including many key and niche players such as BD Biosciences, Beckman Coulter, Inc., Biomerieux, EMD Chemicals Inc., GE Healthcare, Life Technologies Corporation, Meridian Life Science, Inc., PerkinElmer, Inc., SAFC Biosciences, Inc., Shimadzu Biotech, Sigma-Aldrich Corp., Takara Bio, Inc., Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd., and Waters Corp. Major Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies suppliers also profiled in the report include Strategic Diagnostics Inc., Gallus Immunotech, Inc., and Lonza Biologics Ltd., key Nucleic Acid Extraction Kits supplier, Quiagen, is also profiled in the report. The two major Biochemistry Reagents and Related Chemical Suppliers highlighted in the report are A.G. Scientific, Inc., and Promega Corporation. R&D Systems, the major Cytokine and Chemokine Reagent and Kits supplier, is also profiled in the report. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are primarily based upon search engine sources in the public domain.

I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & PRODUCT DEFINITIONS

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Global Laboratory Chemical Reagents Industry

Children in U.S., Great Britain Share Risk Factors For Behavioral Problems

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Newswise WASHINGTON, DC, May 16, 2012 Children in the United States and Great Britain share a number of common risk factors that increase the likelihood that they will have behavioral problemsand Britains broader social welfare programs dont appear to mitigate those risks, according to a new study in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB).

The researchersfrom North Carolina State University, California State University-Northridge, and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaignevaluated data from a 1994 study of children between the ages of five and 13 in the U.S. and a 1991 study of children in the same age range from England, Scotland, and Wales.

In both the U.S. and Great Britain, the JHSB study found that male children, children with health problems, and children with divorced mothers were more likely to have behavioral problems.

We also found that stronger home environmentsthose that are intellectually stimulating, nurturing, and physically safedecrease the likelihood of behavior problems in both the U.S. and Great Britain, said Dr. Toby Parcel, a professor of sociology at NC State and lead author of the JHSB study.

We wanted to see whether the role of parents was equally important in both societies because the argument has been made that more developed welfare statessuch as Great Britaincan make the role of parents less important, by providing additional supports that can help compensate for situations where households have more limited resources. This study tells us that parents are important in households, regardless of the strength of the welfare state.

While there were common risk factors for children in the U.S. and Great Britain, there were also some differences between these groups. For example, family structure effects were more pronounced in Great Britain. Family structure, in this context, refers to marital status and family size. In Great Britain, a child from a family with a single mother or multiple children was at a higher risk of having behavioral problems. Additionally, the more children in a British family, the greater the likelihood a child from that family had behavioral problems. These effects were absent in the U.S.

Titled, Childrens Behavior Problems in the United States and Great Britain, the study was co-authored by Dr. Lori Ann Campbell, of Cal State-Northridge, and Dr. Wenxuan Zhong, of University of Illinois, and was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

The researchers are now looking to see how shared risk factors may influence child cognition and academic achievement across these two societies. Parcel and Campbell have previously shown that parents are critical to the creation of strong home environments in both the U.S. and Great Britain.

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About the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the ASA.

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Children in U.S., Great Britain Share Risk Factors For Behavioral Problems

Psychological Science Convention in Chicago: Music in the Mind, Mental Health, Learning and More

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available online at: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/ psychological-science-convention-in-chicago-music-in-the-mind-mental-health-learning-and-more.html

Newswise WASHINGTON -- More than 4,000 psychological scientists, academics, clinicians, researchers, teachers, and administrators from 85 countries will gather in Chicago for the Association for Psychological Sciences 24th annual convention May 23-27, 2012 at the Sheraton Chicago.

Culture and ethnicity drive many human processes including science. (Section I, below.)

A concert with a former guitarist from the Black Eyed Peas and a five-time Grammy Award winning bassist will share the stage with musically talented scientists to discuss and explore music and the mind. (II)

Scientists will also present cutting-edge research on topics including: autism (III-A), ADHD(III-B) and learning(III-C); the newest clinical treatments for mental health disorders (IV) ; questions of incivility, ideology, and attitudes in politics (V); and the latest findings in decision-making science (VI).

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I. DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES IN SCIENCE The theme of the 2012 Convention is Diverse Perspectives, and in a concerted effort to call attention to the importance of diversity in psychological-science research, the Keynote Address and the Presidential Symposium will feature distinguished speakers who will discuss the role of race and culture in scientific inquiry.

Does Mental Health Differ Among Ethnic Groups? Keynote Address: The Masquerade of Racial Group Differences in Psychological Sciences Thursday, May 24, 6:00 PM 8:00 PM Chicago Ballroom VI &VII

Distinguished psychological scientist James S. Jackson from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor will open the convention with his keynote address. Jackson is well-known for his research on how culture influences our health during our lives, attitude changes, and social support. His research has also highlighted how racial discrimination can affect physical and mental health as well as treatments. His talk will focus on racial group disparities in psychological science research. These disparities are common, and widely accepted, but Jackson will discuss how researchers should take a closer look at these easy assumptions of racial group differences. He will use the Environmental Affordances Framework of Health Disparities to demonstrate that these racial disparities are fundamentally only a masquerade.

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Psychological Science Convention in Chicago: Music in the Mind, Mental Health, Learning and More

Children in US, Great Britain share risk factors for behavioral problems

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Public release date: 16-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Daniel Fowler pubinfo@asanet.org 202-527-7885 American Sociological Association

WASHINGTON, DC, May 16, 2012 Children in the United States and Great Britain share a number of common risk factors that increase the likelihood that they will have behavioral problemsand Britain's broader social welfare programs don't appear to mitigate those risks, according to a new study in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB).

The researchersfrom North Carolina State University, California State University-Northridge, and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaignevaluated data from a 1994 study of children between the ages of five and 13 in the U.S. and a 1991 study of children in the same age range from England, Scotland, and Wales.

In both the U.S. and Great Britain, the JHSB study found that male children, children with health problems, and children with divorced mothers were more likely to have behavioral problems.

"We also found that stronger home environmentsthose that are intellectually stimulating, nurturing, and physically safedecrease the likelihood of behavior problems in both the U.S. and Great Britain," said Dr. Toby Parcel, a professor of sociology at NC State and lead author of the JHSB study.

"We wanted to see whether the role of parents was equally important in both societies because the argument has been made that more developed welfare statessuch as Great Britaincan make the role of parents less important, by providing additional supports that can help compensate for situations where households have more limited resources. This study tells us that parents are important in households, regardless of the strength of the welfare state."

While there were common risk factors for children in the U.S. and Great Britain, there were also some differences between these groups. For example, "family structure" effects were more pronounced in Great Britain. Family structure, in this context, refers to marital status and family size. In Great Britain, a child from a family with a single mother or multiple children was at a higher risk of having behavioral problems. Additionally, the more children in a British family, the greater the likelihood a child from that family had behavioral problems. These effects were absent in the U.S.

Titled, "Children's Behavior Problems in the United States and Great Britain," the study was co-authored by Dr. Lori Ann Campbell, of Cal State-Northridge, and Dr. Wenxuan Zhong, of University of Illinois, and was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

The researchers are now looking to see how shared risk factors may influence child cognition and academic achievement across these two societies. Parcel and Campbell have previously shown that parents are critical to the creation of strong home environments in both the U.S. and Great Britain.

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Children in US, Great Britain share risk factors for behavioral problems

Who survives 'Grey's' finale plane crash?

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ABC

By Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter

"Grey's Anatomy" viewers, buckle up: you're in for screams, blood, exposed bones and a completely stressful episode if the first six minutes of Thursday's Season 8 finale are any indication of what's coming.

STORY: "Grey's Anatomy's" Shonda Rhimes on the deadly finale: "We're literally saying goodbye to people"

After a plane carrying some of Seattle Grace's best and brightest crashed into a forest, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Cristina (Sandra Oh), Lexie (Chyler Leigh), Mark (Eric Dane) and Arizona's (Jessica Capshaw) lives were left hanging in the balance.

STORY: "Grey's Anatomy": Sarah Drew on the boards, April and Jackson's steamy hook-up and the finale "event"

Showrunner Shonda Rhimes has warned that the episode, fittingly titled "Flight," will include what she calls a "pretty big death."

STORY: "Grey's Anatomy" Recap: Whose lives are hanging in the balance?

"We're not talking [about] some guest star [who] is going to come in and die kind of thing; it's a big death and it's fairly shocking," she told The Hollywood Reporter during a recent interview. "It was hard, it was hard to write, it was hard to listen to at the table read. It is a difficult thing to do and not done lightly. When one of your main characters dies, it always affects the heart and soul of the hospital."

So who will survive the first six minutes? Watch the clip to find out, but be warned: it's graphic and severely cringe-inducing.

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Who survives 'Grey's' finale plane crash?

VistaGen CEO Issues Update Letter to Stockholders

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire -05/14/12)- VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. (OTC.BB: VSTA) (VSTA.OB), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue, today issued the following letter to its stockholders and the investment community from its CEO, Shawn Singh.

To our valued Stockholders:

Since becoming a public company one year ago, we have progressed to perhaps the most exciting time in our company's 14-year history. To arrive at this point, more than $45 million, obtained through various strategic collaborations, investments and grant awards, has been carefully employed. We believe our pluripotent stem cell technology platform, Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube, combined with the network of strategic relationships we have announced, will allow us to secure additional capital and the large market drug rescue opportunities that can deliver value to our stockholders.

Since the beginning of the year, our team has carefully reviewed our Top 10 drug rescue opportunities and narrowed our focus to our Top 5 candidates. Now we intend to launch our initial drug rescue program and secure strategic capital necessary to support it, as well as launch our second drug rescue program by year-end. We also are working on validation of LiverSafe 3D, our bioassay system for drug rescue involving liver toxicity and drug metabolism issues, for launch during the first half of next year.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to face extremely high barriers in bringing new medicine to market. The number of drugs approved by the FDA over the past decade has dropped precipitously, by over 50%, in spite of staggering increases in resources devoted to R&D by pharmaceutical companies. Based on the progress we have made with CardioSafe 3D and our efforts to build our strategic drug rescue ecosystem of collaborators, we believe our core business model -- to use our stem cell technology and strategic relationships to develop less toxic variants of drugs that have already been proven in vitro to be effective -- is now more commercially promising than at any other point in our history. We believe we will be able to help major pharmaceutical companies avoid the loss of years of time and millions of dollars spent in developing new therapies that have positive efficacy data, but must be discontinued due to later discovery of unsafe toxicity levels for human heart and liver tissue.

Over the past year, we have secured additional intellectual property protection and entered into strategic relationships with leading biotech firms and academic researchers to support development of our stem technology and our drug rescue-based commercialization initiatives:

Over the next 12 months, we have an ambitious agenda to work closely with our advisors and collaborators to secure capital and achieve these transformative milestones:

Our goals are reachable, with strategic financing. We believe we have the right technology, intellectual property, development teams and specialized focus to deliver on our founding mission -- "putting humans first" -- bringing clinically relevant human biology to the front end of the drug development process, long before standard animal and human testing, and using better cells to make better medicine.

We would like to thank our partners, advisors, employees and each of you, our loyal stockholders, for helping support us in our efforts to deliver long-term value for you.

Sincerely,

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VistaGen CEO Issues Update Letter to Stockholders

Nobel Prize laureate: Ukraine working on development of biomedicine, oncology

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Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov has met with winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine Erwin Neher to discuss the current state of affairs, funding and research development in the spheres of biomedicine and physiology in Ukraine. http://www.kmu.gov.ua Nobel Prize laureate: Ukraine working on development of biomedicine, oncology Yesterday at 16:53 | Interfax-UkraineUkrainian Premier Mykola Azarov has met with winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine Erwin Neher to discuss the current state of affairs, funding and research development in the spheres of biomedicine and physiology in Ukraine.

"When three years ago I was in Ukraine, I saw that science was suffering a lack of funding and equipment. Today I can see that changes have taken place and specific efforts have been made for the development of biomedicine, physiology and oncology research in Ukraine," Neher said.

In turn, Azarov said the Ukrainian authorities are working hard for the development of medicine in the country, and allocate funding to buy the most up-to-date equipment.

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Nobel Prize laureate: Ukraine working on development of biomedicine, oncology

New Tools Will Assist School Child Nutrition Programs in Complying with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

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ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Horizon Software International, the innovative leader in K-12 food service technology and online school payments, is launching new system features that will help school districts ensure their menus comply with the new meal patterns and nutrient standard regulations imposed by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

With additional reimbursement money riding on compliance with the new regulations, its critical that school nutrition programs ensure their menus meet the new requirements and that students take the food items needed to qualify for a reimbursable meal, says Amy Huff, SNS, vice president of Marketing at Horizon. Our software now makes it easy for them to do so.

Horizons menu planning and nutrition analysis software will allow child nutrition programs to build menus based on the meal pattern components to ensure that the proper amounts of meats/meat alternates, fruits, vegetable subgroupings, grains, and milk are being offered. With the click of a button, Horizons system will compare the schools planned menus against the USDAs new daily and weekly standards for meal pattern and nutrition to identify any missing components or nutrients that are out of compliance.

The software also allows for a cost-per-plate goal to be identified, and then compares the cost of the planned menus against the cost-perplate goal as the menus are being built.

Offering nutritious meals to students is imperative, and keeping the cost of these meals as low as possible is also important, says Randy Eckels, president of Horizon. Our goal is to help foodservice directors successfully manage their operation while serving the needs of their students.

Horizons POS system will allow cashiers to quickly ring up each meal component to ensure the student is taking the required components, eliminating cashier error in identifying a reimbursable meal. For experienced cashiers, the system provides the flexibility to allow the cashier to identify that a meal is reimbursable by pressing a meal key rather than ringing up each component.

Horizons Menu Planner/Nutrition Analysis and POS systems are integrated with its other tools that help districts increase participation, manage cost, and communicate to parents, such as Healthy Reimbursable Meal Vending , SourceBoard digital signage, MyPaymentsPlus online payment system, Inventory Management, and more.

Horizon is always a step ahead in the industry, says Ed Wilkins, director of Student Nutrition Services at San Francisco Unified School District.The functionality they have provided to us will make it much easier to plan our menus and prove compliance with the new regulations.

The new system features are currently being beta tested in thirteen districts across the country, from a one-site private school to a 700+ school district. The new software will be available to all districts in June.

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New Tools Will Assist School Child Nutrition Programs in Complying with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

Keller, TX Middle-Schooler Combines Creativity and Good Nutrition to Conquer Sodexo's Future Chefs: Healthy Breakfast …

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GAITHERSBURG, Md., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Lorenzo Laohoo, 13, a seventh-grader from the Keller Independent School District in Texas, won the 2012 edition of Sodexo's Future Chefs: Healthy Breakfast Challenge, a nationwide program that teaches students about good nutrition and encourages them to make healthy choices by creating their own nutritious breakfast recipes. Laohoo won the national challenge when the video for his Saturday Asian Breakfast received the most votes on the program's YouTube page.

Students from 228 Sodexo-served schools across the country submitted more than 2,600 healthy breakfast recipes for the program. Laohoo and four others were selected to participate in the finals and all five students made videos of their award-winning recipes which were posted on http://www.youtube.com/user/SodexoFutureChefs.

Online voting was open for 10 days before Laohoo emerged as the winner. The videos were viewed more than 6,200 times over the 10-day period, bringing these amazing students and their fun, healthy and delicious breakfast recipes to a much broader audience.

"I'm proud to be the 2012 Future Chefs champion and I want to thank everyone who voted for my video," said Lorenzo Laohoo. "I also thank God, my family, and the entire Keller community for supporting me."

The four other students joining Laohoo in the national finals were:

"Congratulations to Lorenzo and the other finalists on a job well done throughout the Sodexo Future Chefs: Healthy Breakfast Challenge," said Steve Dunmore, president of Sodexo Education-Schools. "I continue to be amazed by the students' creativity and commitment to healthy eating, especially since good nutrition is a key contributor to achievement in both school and life."

SodexoFuture Chefs was recently recognized by the National Restaurant Association as the winner of its Innovator of the Year Award in the Menu Development category at the 2012 NRA Show in Chicago.Theprogram was selected for the award because Sodexo features student-developed recipes fromthe challenge inK-12 nutrition programs across the country.

Sodexo, a partner in First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative, is committed to take measurable sustainable actions that ensure a brighter future in the areas of health and wellness, environmental stewardship and community development. Sodexo focuses on nutrition, achievement, environment, community and activity to promote student well-being.

Sodexo in North America

Sodexo Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, delivers On-site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government and Remote Site segments, and Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $17 million in grants to end childhood hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at http://www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.

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Keller, TX Middle-Schooler Combines Creativity and Good Nutrition to Conquer Sodexo's Future Chefs: Healthy Breakfast ...

Students participate in Antartica research

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The Miami University Department of Microbiology has high hopes for samples of Antarctic lake water brought back for analysis by Assistant Professor of Microbiology Rachael Morgan-Kiss.

The primary reason for the trip was to investigate microbe-dominated bodies of water in hopes of shedding light on the activity and ecological role of single-celled organisms called protists.

Students in Morgan-Kiss laboratories have been given the opportunity to perform analysis on the samples of lake water from Antarctica over the past several weeks. Morgan-Kiss said the experience is, another outlet for students to get real research experience.

Morgan-Kiss is excited with the work and findings of students who have been working with the samples, according to senior microbiology major Austin Duprey, a student in Morgan-Kiss class.

Duprey said working with the samples has been a rewarding opportunity.

I think its pretty neat because were working with stuff thats relatively new, Duprey said.

According to Morgan-Kiss, using small and relatively isolated Antarctic lakes to study the function of these microbes could help researchers understand the role similar microbes play in larger, more complex bodies of water.

These organisms are really, really abundant in all aquatic systems all over the world, Morgan-Kiss said. In these other systems, they are a lot more complex than our lakes. Its been known that these organisms are abundant, but it has been very difficult to understand what theyre doing. When organisms are important on such a huge scale they have a big impact, even though theyre microbes.

The nature of protists and their role in both large and small ecosystems is complex due to the fact that they are able to play two very different roles within their food web. According to Morgan-Kiss, protists have the ability not only to carry out photosynthesis and fix carbon, like plants, but also to be predatory organisms despite the fact that they are single-celled.

Morgan-Kiss said Miami is specially suited to the kind of work necessary to determine the roles these organisms play in global ecosystems because of its use of a technology called chlorophyll fluorescence, which analyzes in real time the types of algae living in the Antarctic lakes. This can then be used to make hypothesis about the organisms role in the carbon cycle.

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Students participate in Antartica research

Sweden's enormous education experiment improved longevity

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Swedish schoolchildren lived longer if they spent longer in education, according to a huge post-war study.

Lars Wallin/Etsa/Corbis

Shortly after the Second World War, the Swedish government conducted a vast social experiment to decide whether to implement educational reform. An examination of data from people who took part in the study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, has revealed that those lucky enough to have experienced the reformed system have been more likely than their contemporaries to live a long life.

Governments across northern Europe reformed their education systems in the wake of the Second World War, searching for ways to regain economic strength. There was an international trend inspired by the United States to go for more comprehensive schooling, says Anton Lager, a co-author of the research, who studies young people's health at the Centre for Health Equity Studies of Stockholm University. As well as starting to teach all children equally, many countries introduced longer schooling. The United Kingdom, for instance, raised the school leaving age from 14 to 15 in 1944, and to 16 in 1972.

In Sweden, the government decided to undertake a controlled study of its proposed new school system so, from 1949 to 1962, all 1.2 million children in the Swedish state education system were set on one of two paths. In a slowly increasing proportion of the school districts across the country, it became compulsory for children to attend a comprehensive school for 9 years. The rest of Sweden provided a control group, in which children stuck to the existing system: mandatory schooling for 8 years, with the most academically gifted children remaining in school for up to 10 years2.

The study was intended to discover whether overall educational standards improved, and whether academically able students would be held back. It found such significant educational benefits that the government introduced the new system for all children in 1962.

To test the long-term health benefits of the system, Lager and his co-author, Jenny Torssander, a social scientist at Stockholm University, collated information from a 1960 census and Swedish death records between 1961 and 2007. They found that children educated in the reformed system had a reduced risk of dying between the ages of 40 and 70, particularly from cancer, ischaemic heart disease and accidents. The two groups had an identical risk of dying before the age of 40.

Lager says that the Swedish governments large-scale intervention is unique in social science. In other countries, educational reforms have tended to be rolled out across the whole nation at once, so that their effects must be compared between different birth cohorts, with varying standards of living and other influencing factors, and it is difficult to determine whether education is the cause of any changes.

For example, Marcus Richards, a cognitive epidemiologist at University College London, followed two cohorts of British children, born in 1946 and 1958, and noted that the younger group, which had received an extra year of schooling owing to UK educational reform, had consistently higher literacy3. Low literacy has previously been linked to poor health4. However, any beneficial effects for the younger UK cohort might also be attributable to other factors that had changed in the intervening decade.

But in Sweden, the experiment was explicitly designed to study the effect of the reform. You dont have to assume the change is independent," says Lager. Richards agrees that the Swedish study more directly supports the view that education has a causal role in health.

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Sweden's enormous education experiment improved longevity

Longevity in Business: Jefferson Fire & Safety provide the gear to keep first responders safe

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JILL CARLSON | For the State Journal | jillcarlson1957@gmail.com madison.com | | Posted: Monday, May 14, 2012 5:00 pm

Have you ever wondered where first-responder agencies such as firefighters, emergency medical personnel and police officers obtain their equipment and gear?

In the Madison area, Jefferson Fire & Safety is a source for everything from boots, protective clothing, fire hoses, pumps and even fire trucks and ambulances.

In addition to first responders, the company works with commercial and industrial businesses and the general public to sell and service professional safety equipment.

Pete Jefferson is the grandson of E.L. Jefferson, the company founder. "My grandfather worked for Fyr Fyter brand fire extinguishers as a distributor. He decided to start his own business in 1948," he said.

When Pete's father, Dave, joined the business, the name was changed to E.L. Jefferson & Son. In 1969, the company was renamed Jefferson Fire & Safety. Pete remembers working with his grandfather helping out at the business when he was young.

"We're proud of our history. This is a unique business," he said. "Every fire station has a memorabilia case, as the departments are steeply rich in history. I decided that we needed to have one here."

In the front lobby of the office is a case filled with photos, fire safety equipment and other items. One photo shows E.L. and Dave Jefferson in front of a company truck from the 1950s.

Originally located in downtown Madison, the company has been headquartered in Middleton since 1992, and serves customers in Minnesota, northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

Pete's son Tyler joined the company almost two years ago as a sales representative for the Milwaukee area. "He's been around the business all of his life," Pete said.

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Longevity in Business: Jefferson Fire & Safety provide the gear to keep first responders safe

Peter King: Tom Brady's longevity and an inspirational story you have to read

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Tom Brady has thrown 300 touchdown passes in his 12 seasons with the Patriots.

Al Tielemans

Different column this week, stretching from Foxboro (Tom Brady) to San Diego out West (Dan Fouts), from an unhappy Dolfan in the Southeast (Daniel Tosh) to Russell Wilson in the Land of Opportunity in the Northwest (Seattle), from a hotel in Oakland to a bar in D.C., from a hockey rink in New York to the busiest building in North America (Staples Center in Los Angeles) ... well, let's just get on with it.

***

Last of the (New England) Mohicans, and he's not planning to leave anytime soon.

Matt Light retired the other day. Peyton Manning plays for Denver now. This means that Tom Brady is the lone member of an exclusive club.

Sept. 30, 2001. Ninety players dressed for the first start of Brady's career, against the Indianapolis Colts, at the rickety old Foxboro Stadium on a cloudy and windy Sunday afternoon. Eighty-nine played. And Tom Brady, 34, is the only man who suited up that day who still plays for the Patriots, and one of just two left from that game overall, with Colts long-snapper Justin Snow the other. (Notes for you sticklers: Reggie Wayne was inactive that day, and he still plays for the Colts. Kevin Faulk had 11 touches that day, but he's an unrestricted free agent and doesn't play -- yet -- for the Patriots this year.)

Look at the turnover, less than 11 years after the first start of Brady's career. It's Brady and Bill Belichick against the world now.

"Well,'' Brady said Thursday afternoon, trying to figure out what it meant but not sounding at all surprised about it, "Matt called me a while ago and told me what he was planning to do, and I've called him every week since then trying to talk him out of it. He had such a great year for us. But there was no way I was going to be able to talk him out of it. He'll be a tough player to replace. But, you know, every year in this game, there's a lot of change.''

Except with one guy. One guy living a bicoastal life, married to one of the most famous women in the world, with two kids, and with a coach who's not very concerned with all of that stuff.

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Peter King: Tom Brady's longevity and an inspirational story you have to read

:: 14, May 2012 :: SCIENTISTS MAKE GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY OF MUTATION CAUSING GENETIC DISORDER IN HUMANS

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MEDIA RELEASE

SCIENTISTS MAKE GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY OF MUTATION CAUSING GENETIC DISORDER IN HUMANS

1. Scientists at A*STARs Institute of Medical Biology (IMB), in collaboration with doctors and scientists in Jordan, Turkey, Switzerland and USA, have identified the genetic cause of a birth defect known as Hamamy syndrome[1]. Their groundbreaking findings were published on May13thin the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. The work lends new insights into common ailments such as heart disease, osteoporosis, blood disorders and possibly sterility.

2. Hamamy syndrome is a rare genetic disorder which is marked by abnormal facial features (Annex A) and defects in the heart, bone, blood and reproductive cells. Its exact cause was unknown until now. The international team, led by scientists at IMB, have pinpointed the genetic mistake to be a mutation in a single gene called IRX5.

3. This is the first time that a mutation in IRX5 (and the family of IRX genes) has ever been discovered in man. IRX5 is part of a family of transcription factors that is highly conserved in all animals, meaning that this gene is present not only in humans but also in mice, fish, frogs, flies and even worms. Using a frog model, the scientists demonstrated that Irx5 orchestrates cell movements in the developing foetus which underlie head and gonad formation.

4. Carine Bonnard, a final-year PhD student at IMB and the first author of the paper, said, Because Hamamy syndrome causes a wide range of symptoms, not just in newborn babies but also in the adult, this implies that IRX5 is critical for development in the womb as well as for the function of many organs in our adult body. For example, patients with this disease cannot evacuate tears from their eyes, and they will also go on to experience repetitive bone fractures (Annex A) or progressive myopia as they age. This discovery of the causative gene is a significant finding that will catalyze research efforts into the role of the Irx gene family and greatly increase our understanding of human health, such as bone homeostasis, or gamete formation for instance.

5. We believe that this discovery could open up new therapeutic solutions to common diseases like osteoporosis, heart disease, anaemia which affect millions of people worldwide, said Dr Bruno Reversade, Senior Principle Investigator at IMB. The findings also provide a framework for understanding fascinating evolutionary questions, such as why humans of different ethnicities have distinct facial features and how these are embedded in our genome. IRX genes have been repeatedly co-opted during evolution, and small variation in their activity could underlie fine alterations in the way we look, or perhaps even drastic ones such as the traits seen in an elephant, whale, turtle or frog body pattern.

6. Only a handful of people in the world have been identified with Hamamy Syndrome making it a very rare genetic disorder. Rare genetic diseases, usually caused by mutations in a single gene, provide a unique opportunity to better understand more common disease processes. These "natural" experiments are similar to carefully controlled knockout animal experiments in which the function of single genes are analyzed and often give major insights into general health issues.[2]

7. Prof Birgitte Lane, Executive Director of IMB, said, Understanding how various pathways in the human body function is the foundation for developing new therapeutic targets. This is an important piece of research that I believe will be of great interest to many scientists and clinicians around the world because of the clinical and genetic insights it brings to a large range of diseases.

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:: 14, May 2012 :: SCIENTISTS MAKE GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY OF MUTATION CAUSING GENETIC DISORDER IN HUMANS

DNA replication protein Cdt1 also has a role in mitosis, cancer

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Mitotic spindle-chromosome attachments, marked in green, become unstable (on the right) compared to normal (on the left). Credit: Cook and Salmon labs, UNC School of Medicine

The foundation of biological inheritance is DNA replication a tightly coordinated process in which DNA is simultaneously copied at hundreds of thousands of different sites across the genome. If that copying mechanism doesn't work as it should, the result could be cells with missing or extra genetic material, a hallmark of the genomic instability seen in most birth defects and cancers.

University of North Carolina School of Medicine scientists have discovered that a protein known as Cdt1, which is required for DNA replication, also plays an important role in a later step of the cell cycle, mitosis. The finding presents a possible explanation for why so many cancers possess not just genomic instability, but also more or less than the usual 46 DNA-containing chromosomes.

The new research, which was published online ahead of print by the journal Nature Cell Biology, is the first to definitively show such a dual role for a DNA replication protein.

"It was such a surprise, because we thought we knew what this protein's job was to load proteins onto the DNA in preparation for replication," said Jean Cook, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics and pharmacology at the UNC School of Medicine and senior study author. "We had no idea it also had a night job, in a completely separate part of the cell cycle."

The cell cycle is the series of events that take place in a cell leading to its growth, replication and division into two daughter cells. It consists of four distinct phases: G1 (Gap 1), S (DNA synthesis), M (mitosis) and G2 (Gap 2). Cook's research focuses on G1, when Cdt1 places proteins onto the genetic material to get it ready to be copied.

In this study, Cook ran a molecular screen to identify other proteins that Cdt1 might be interacting with inside the cell. She expected to just find more entities that controlled replication, and was surprised to discover one that was involved in mitosis. That protein, called Hec1 for "highly expressed in cancer," helps to ensure that the duplicated chromosomes are equally divided into daughter cells during mitosis, or cell division. Cook hypothesized that either Hec1 had a job in DNA replication that nobody knew about, or that Cdt1 was the one with the side business.

Cook partnered with Hec1 expert Edward (Ted) D. Salmon, PhD, professor of biology and co-senior author in this study, to explore these two possibilities. After letting Cdt1 do its replication job, the researchers interfered with the protein's function to see if it adversely affected mitosis. Using a high-powered microscope that records images of live cells, they showed that cells where Cdt1 function had been blocked did not undergo mitosis properly.

Once the researchers knew that Cdt1 was involved in mitosis, they wanted to pinpoint its role in that critical process. They further combined their genetic, microscopy and computational methods to demonstrate that without Cdt1, Hec1 fails to adopt the conformation inside the cells necessary to connect the chromosomes with the structure that pulls them apart into their separate daughter cells.

Cook says cells that make aberrant amounts of Cdt1, like that seen in cancer, can therefore experience problems in both replication and mitosis. One current clinical trial is actually trying to ramp up the amount of Cdt1 in cancer cells, in the hopes of pushing them from an already precarious position into a fatal one.

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DNA replication protein Cdt1 also has a role in mitosis, cancer

Posted in DNA

DNA test inevitable for ND Tiwari after court order

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New Delhi: Senior politician and former Andhra Pradesh governor ND Tiwari has been ordered to either "gracefully appear" for a DNA test, or be forced to take the test by the Delhi Police.

The Delhi High Court warned Mr Tiwari to pick his option within two days. The court has also asked a Hyderabad lab to send kits to Delhi for the DNA test. Mr Tiwari has been ordered not to leave India.

Mr Tiwari has been fighting a paternity test for several years. Rohit Shekhar, in his 30s, claims to be his biological son. Last month, the High Court had said that Mr Tiwari must submit blood samples for a DNA test, or risk being subjected to it by force.

Mr Tiwari, who is 86 years old, was forced to resign as governor of Andhra Pradesh in 2009 after local channels broadcasted footage that allegedly showed him in a compromising position with three women.

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DNA test inevitable for ND Tiwari after court order

Posted in DNA