Tiwi Islands: where AFL is a way of life

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A woman in her seventies, bent with age, is swathed head to toe in blue and she's hollering so loud I temporarily lose hearing in my left hear.

"Bring it home, boys, BRRRRRING IT HOOOOOOOME!"

She's barracking for the Tuyu Buffaloes, and her screams are rewarded minutes later when her team wins the 2014 Tiwi Grand Final.

Welcome to the Tiwi Islands, two small islands about 80km north of Darwin, where AFL isn't just a passion but a way of life.

The Tiwis have the highest participation rate in AFL of any other community in Australia: about 900 of the Islands' 2600 population play, a staggering 35 per cent.

Big names in AFL have sprung from the Tiwi Islands, such as Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli, and Michael Long, who played for Essendon.

Their season runs during the hot, wet half of the year in the Top End, when hundreds of millimetres of rain can fall in a day but which makes surfaces easier to play on than the hard ground during the dry.

On Grand Final day the eight local teams have been whittled down to two: The Tuyu Buffaloes from Bathurst Island and the Mulwurri Magpies from Melville Island.

The Magpies put up a good fight but the Buffaloes claim the premiership, at 13 9 (87) to 12 5 (77), their second win since 2012.

Supporters flood the field, shouting and cheering as they mob the players, babies thrown up onto shoulders and older women weeping with pride as they join the fray.

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Tiwi Islands: where AFL is a way of life

Genetics clinic at Cancer Institute

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by Dhaneshi Yatawara

A cancer genetics clinic will be conducted by the Human Genetics Unit of the University of Colombo at the Maharagama National Cancer Institute. The clinic will be held every Friday afternoon.

The purpose of the clinic is to identify individuals having hereditary cancer syndromes and provide thorough evaluation, genetic counselling and testing which will be beneficial for the patients and their families, according to Professor Vajira Dissanayake of the Human Genetics Unit, Colombo University.

"We will work with physicians and surgeons who treat the patients. The clinic is ready to provide service not only to cancer patients but also to their family members as well," Prof. Dissanayake said.

The cancer genetics clinic will conduct risk assessments for each patient for all forms of cancers and screening for early detection management, Genetic counselling and genetic testing.

"Members of families with records of cancer occurring in multiple generations or people with two or more close relatives having the same cancer can come to the clinic and get their risk assessments," he said.

And for those who underwent treatment for cancer that occurred in one section of paired organs of the body have the facility to check whether the cancer has spread to the other half of the organ. Several main genetic tests will be available at the clinic.

Tests to check effectiveness of the drugs on individual cancer patients medically known as pharmacogenomic tests, are also available at the clinic.

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Genetics clinic at Cancer Institute

Novel Gene-Finding Approach Yields a New Gene Linked to Key Heart Attack Risk Factor

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Newswise ANN ARBOR, Mich. Scientists have discovered a previously unrecognized gene variation that makes humans have healthier blood lipid levels and reduced risk of heart attacks -- a finding that opens the door to using this knowledge in testing or treatment of high cholesterol and other lipid disorders.

But even more significant is how they found the gene, which had been hiding in plain sight in previous hunts for genes that influence cardiovascular risk.

This region of DNA where it was found had been implicated as being important in controlling blood lipid levels in a report from several members of the same research team in 2008. But although this DNA region had many genes, none of them had any obvious link to blood lipid levels. The promise of an entirely new lipid-related gene took another six years and a new approach to find.

In a new paper in Nature Genetics, a team from the University of Michigan and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology report that they zeroed in on the gene in an entirely new way.

The team scanned the genetic information available from a biobank of thousands of Norwegians, focusing on variations in genes that change the way proteins function. Most of what they found turned out to be already known to affect cholesterol levels and other blood lipids.

But one gene, dubbed TM6SF2, wasnt on the radar at all. In a minority of the Norwegians who carried a particular change in the gene, blood lipid levels were much healthier and they had a lower rate of heart attack. And when the researchers boosted or suppressed the gene in mice, they saw the same effect on the animals blood lipid levels.

Cardiovascular disease presents such a huge impact on peoples lives that we should leave no stone unturned in the search for the genes that cause heart attack, says Cristen Willer, Ph.D., the senior author of the paper and an assistant professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics and Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics at the U-M Medical School.

While genetic studies that focused on common variations may explain as much as 30 percent of the genetic component of lipid disorders, we still dont know where the rest of the genetic risk comes from, Willer adds. This approach of focusing on protein-changing variation may help us zero in on new genes faster.

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Novel Gene-Finding Approach Yields a New Gene Linked to Key Heart Attack Risk Factor

Health care reform enters phase 2 – Sun, 16 Mar 2014 PST

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Now that Americans by the hundreds of thousands are signing up for health insurance coverage, reformers are movingon.

They want high health care prices to be disclosed and drivendownward.

They want the most effective care providers identified for thepublic.

They want a medical extension service to get best-practice ideas out to busy providers in stressed ruralareas.

They want mental health care to be better coordinated with primary medical care, so communities no longer have to use jails as mentalhospitals.

Last week, as Washingtons Legislature wrangled its way to adjournment, Gov. Jay Inslee and other

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Now that Americans by the hundreds of thousands are signing up for health insurance coverage, reformers are movingon.

They want high health care prices to be disclosed and drivendownward.

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Health care reform enters phase 2 - Sun, 16 Mar 2014 PST

Newtown is struggling to meet demand for mental health care

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Some of the charities paying for mental health care for children and families affected by the Sandy Hook massacre are running short of money and officials don't know how much they'll need and for how long to repair the psychological scars from the mass shooting.

Newtown officials are applying for a federal grant and charities are pooling their resources in an attempt to ensure that free long-term mental health care remains available following the December 2012 shooting that left 20 first graders and six educators dead.

We hear in the media, 'Well Sandy Hook was 14 months ago, isn't everything fine?' said Candice Bohr, executive director of the Newtown Youth and Family Services. Well, no it's not and we get calls every day from the school wanting to address an issue. I would love to say that in 10 years we're going to see a huge drop and everyone's better and we've moved on, but that's not the case.

Three of the charities that have been providing funds for services have started working together, while the charity that has raised the most money the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation says that it will likely join the alliance soon.

The Newtown Lions Club, which raised $350,000 for mental-health services in the wake of the shooting, has told the 250 people it served that it could no longer directly pay their mental health bills because fundraising was being outpaced by demand.

Other charities are picking up the slack. The town's Rotary Club and the Newtown Memorial Fund, which had been spending a combined $30,000 a month on mental health care for 150 families, partnered with the Lions Club, said Brian Mauriello, founder of the Newtown Memorial Fund.

Those who need help are being steered to the state's Office of Victim Services, which processes applications for money from a pool created by all three charities.

So far, nobody has been turned down.

I don't think anybody has a crystal ball to say whether there's going to be enough money or not, said Linda Cimino, the director of the state Office of Victim's Services I do know that the plan is for a 15-year horizon.

The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation has about $4 million left after giving more than $7 million to the 40 families most affected by the shooting.

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Newtown is struggling to meet demand for mental health care

Gene therapy to help with epileptic seizures

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It is brain awareness week and University of Auckland researchers say they have developed a promising treatment for the 30 percent of epileptics who do not respond to drugs.

Researchers say it cuts the length of seizures in half and they hope to soon be able to tell whether it reduces the frequency of them too.

Epileptic Bevan McClay has been prescribed a cocktail of pills to help him manage, but the camera shop sales consultant just can't find the right combination to keep his epileptic seizures at bay.

"It gets a little bit frustrating sometimes," says Mr McClay.

Seizures affect one in every 100 people in New Zealand. That's 40,000 people. One-third of sufferers do not respond to conventional treatment.

But University of Auckland researches say they have discovered how to turn the gene off in the brain that is responsible for causing seizures.

"It could have a significant effect on any potential future treatment for epilepsy," says researcher Debbie Young.

How they do it is quite ingenious. They place a piece of synthetic DNA called a gene silencer inside a tiny capsule. That is injected and attaches to the cell containing the overactive gene. As the capsule breaks down, it releases the silencer, which switches off the overactive gene. That in turn releases increased levels of a chemical involved in stopping the seizures.

Researchers say the treatment can halve the length of seizures, and they are now looking at whether it can reduce the frequency of them too. That is giving hope to sufferers and those treating the disease.

"My clinics are full of people whom I feel I can help very little," says Dr Peter Bergin, a neurologist at Auckland Hospital and medical director for the Epilepsy Research programme. "It's enormously frustrating for me and I feel greatly for the patients."

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Gene therapy to help with epileptic seizures

Historicism Vindicated – 2300 Day/Year Prophecy of Daniel 8 – Futurism & Preterism Debunked – Video

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Historicism Vindicated - 2300 Day/Year Prophecy of Daniel 8 - Futurism Preterism Debunked
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Historicism Vindicated - 2300 Day/Year Prophecy of Daniel 8 - Futurism & Preterism Debunked - Video

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Freedom Cry (Stand Alone) | Gameplay/Walkthrough | Part 3 – Video

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Assassin #39;s Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry (Stand Alone) | Gameplay/Walkthrough | Part 3
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Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry (Stand Alone) | Gameplay/Walkthrough | Part 3 - Video