Focus on Nygard – not on the police – Bahamas Tribune

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POLICECommissioner Paul Rolle. Photo: Donavan McIntosh

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

POLICECommissioner Paul Rolle said yesterday people should focus on sex crime allegations against fashion mogul Peter Nygard and not claimsthat link him to corruption by members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

He also said he is extremely pleased with RBPF officers despite allegations of bribery againstsome officers highlighted in a Canadian television programme about Nygards alleged sex crimes.

The TV programme repeated many of the claims made by Nygards alleged victims in civil and criminal lawsuits lodged overseas, which have been previously reported by The Tribune.

Commissioner Rolle admitted to reporters that he had not seen the TV programme.

The piece by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) programme The Fifth Estate took a closer look at the fashion moguls pamper parties at Lyford Cay where it is claimed women and underage girls were drugged and raped.

Allegations of local politicians and senior police officers receiving money to help conceal the 79-year-olds alleged offences were brought up.

Asked if he had any concerns the programme would damage his forces image internationally, Commissioner Rolle expressed confidence in the force and said the spotlight needed to be on Nygards alleged offences and not the alleged behaviour of any member of his force.

I have not seen the documentary and I am extremely pleased with the men and women of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), he said.

None of those officers have been indicted and I dont have any complaint against any of them and I believe that as Bahamians we ought to respect the fact that these young men and women who give their lives to keep all of us safe are doing a tremendous job.

And Ive spoken to the persons from the CBC and I believe that the members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force are some of the best in the world and I dont know that the image or reputation of the Royal Bahamas Police Force is damaged.

Theres some allegations made against Peter Nygard and I think we should focus on that. Let us try and deal with that. Peter Nygard is alleged to have molested a number of women. Those matters are being investigated.

I dont hear the Royal Bahamas Police Force being investigated. Lets stick with the facts.

National Security Minister Marvin Dames has said he is confident RBPF officers will investigate allegations made locally against Nygard. Yesterday, Commissioner Rolle did not givemany details about this probe.

A reporter told the police chief that Mr Dames said there was supposed to be an internal investigation into some officers who were named in a recent lawsuit in relation to Nygard.

Asked for an update, he said, You need to speak to Minister Dames.

When the reporter pointed out that Mr Dames had mentioned that the Commissioner was conducting it, Commissioner Rolle answered: I said he made the comments and you can get the update from him.

A civil lawsuit filed in New York last year claimed certain senior police officers, both past and present, were on Nygards payroll and frequented Nygard Cay.

Asked in January whether an officer named in the civil lawsuit is involved in the local investigation into Nygards actions, Mr Dames said he has confidence in Commissioner Rolle.

That is a question for the Commissioner, he said last month.

I have the highest confidence in the Commissioner and his ability and his integrity to ensure that every matter not only to which you speak that every matter that is reported to the police is investigated with the highest degree of transparency and the highest degree of integrity and there are checks and balances within the system and there are checks and balances outside of the system.

Again, I have no concerns about this matter or any other serious matter being compromised because of someone internally. Im certain the Commissioner knows exactly what he has to do and to ensure that he is being accountable to those who wouldve made the complaints and he is being accountable to the Bahamian people at large. At the end of the day this is a matter that is constantly out there in the public sphere and time will tell.

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Focus on Nygard - not on the police - Bahamas Tribune

Researchers curb local immune response in horses receiving stem cell injury therapy – Horsetalk

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Cultures with treated stem cells had a 50% higher stem cell survival rate than untreated cultures. Image by carolem41

Treating equine donor stem cells with a growth factor called TGF-2 may allow them to avoid tripping the immune response in recipients, according to new research.

The work carried out at North Carolina State University could simplify the stem cell treatment process for ligament and tendon injuries in horses, and may also have implications for human stem cell therapies.

Mesenchymal stem cell therapy is a promising avenue for treating musculoskeletal injuries, particularly tendon and ligament injuries, in horses.

Mesenchymal stem cells are adult stem cells found in bone marrow that act as repair directors, producing secretions that recruit healing-related paracrine factors to the site of injury.

Just as blood cells have types, depending upon which antigens are on the blood cells surface, mesenchymal stem cells have differing sets of major histocompatibility complex molecules, or MHCs, on their surfaces.

If the MHCs of donor and recipient arent a match, the donors stem cells cause an immune response. In organ transplants, MHCs are carefully matched to prevent rejection.

These treatments arent like a bone marrow transplant or an organ transplant, says Lauren Schnabel, associate professor of equine orthopedic surgery at the university and corresponding author of the study, reported in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

Since the mesenchymal stem cells are being used temporarily to treat localized injury, researchers once thought that they didnt need to be matched that they wouldnt cause an immune response. Unfortunately, that isnt the case.

Schnabel and Alix Berglund, a research scholar at the university and lead author of the paper, wanted to find a way to use mesenchymal stem cell therapy without the time, effort and additional cost of donor/recipient matching.

Since these cells dont have to be in the body as long as an organ does, hiding them from the immune system long enough for them to secrete their paracrine factors could be a way around donor/recipient matching, Berglund says. Downregulating expression of the MHC molecules could be one way to do this.

The researchers cultured stem cells and lymphocytes, or T cells, from eight horses, cross-pairing them in vitro so that the stem cells and lymphocytes had differing MHC haplotypes.

In one group, stem cells had been treated with transforming growth factor beta (TGF-2) prior to being added to the lymphocytes in the culture media; the other group was untreated. TGF-2 is a cell-signaling molecule produced by white blood cells that blocks immune responses.

Cultures with treated stem cells had a 50% higher stem cell survival rate than untreated cultures.

We use mesenchymal stem cells to treat musculoskeletal injuries particularly tendon injuries in horses very effectively, Schnabel says.

And while you can extract the secretions from the stem cells, you get better results with the cells themselves. Stem cells arent just a reservoir of secretions, theyre a communications hub that tells other cells what they should be doing. So finding a way to utilize these cells without stimulating immune response gives us better treatment options.

This is a promising pilot study, Berglund says. Our next steps will be to further explore the immune response in vivo, and to look at human cells in vitro, as this work has excellent potential to help humans with these injuries as well.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Morris Animal Foundation. Research specialist Julie Long and statistician James Robertson, both with the university, also contributed to the work.

TGF-b2 Reduces the Cell-Mediated Immunogenicity of Equine MHC-Mismatched Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Without Altering Immunomodulatory PropertiesAlix K. Berglund, Julie M. Long, James B. Robertson, Lauren V. SchnabelCell Dev. Biol., 04 February 2021 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.628382

The study, published under a Creative Commons License, can be read here.

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Researchers curb local immune response in horses receiving stem cell injury therapy - Horsetalk

FDA Green Lights Trials of New Type 1 Diabetes Stem Cell Therapy – A Sweet Life

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The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light for experimental trials of a truly new therapy for Type 1 diabetes.

The new therapy, named VX-880, is referred to in a press release as an investigational stem cell-derived, fully differentiated pancreatic islet cell therapy to treat T1D. In plain English, VX-880 uses laboratory stem cells that have been grown into insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. Those cells are then transplanted into a patient with Type 1 diabetes, and act just as the patients own beta cells should, hopefully restoring the bodys ability to sense glucose levels and secrete insulin in response.

Its an exciting moment for the treatment. Vertex, the business developing VX-880, has already run successful proof-of-concept animal testing. The therapy is ready for the next huge hurdle, tests in humans.

While diabetes technologies and therapies have improved at a rapid pace over recent decades, there has still be very little meaningful work done on reversing the root cause of diabetes: the autoimmune reaction that destroys the beta cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin. A therapy that could restore pancreatic function could potentially function as an actual cure, correcting the root dysfunction rather than just mitigating its effects.

For now, thats still a dream there is a very long road for the therapy to travel before we can realistically talk about it as an option for patients. People with diabetes can be understandably skeptical about potential cures, having heard about so many breakthroughs over the years that have thus far amounted to little or nothing. Only a thin minority of the drugs that begin Phase 1 clinical testing ever make it to the market. Even if it works, we dont yet know if VX-880 could wholly restore beta cell function, or only partially restore it, necessitating the continued use of some exogenous insulin.

While practical application may be a long way away, the therapy has already come pretty far to get to this point. Its genesis began years ago with the work of Dr. Douglas Melton of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Melton founded a company, Semma Therapeutics, to work on the therapy. Last year, Semma Therapeutics was acquired by a larger biotech firm, Vertex, for nearly $1 billion. Thats an eye-opening bet on the technology.

Dr. Melton is extremely optimistic about his breakthrough. In a 2019 interview, he stated, Im convinced that those cells will cure the disease.

Of course, even a Type 1 diabetes cure could come with strings attached. VX-880, for example, will require the chronic administration of concomitant immunosuppressive therapy in order to prevent the new islet cells from rejection by the bodys immune system. No word yet on how burdensome immunosuppressive therapy might be for patients. Vertex has also investigated other methods of protecting new islet cells from the immune system; another concept would implant new islet cells in a kind of porous tea bag that would allow both glucose and insulin to filter through, but block immune cells.

Initial trials will restrict VX-880 to some of the patients most in need of a radical therapy, those with hypo unawareness and a history of severe hypoglycemia. The company will recruit about 17 patients for the Phase 1 testing.

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FDA Green Lights Trials of New Type 1 Diabetes Stem Cell Therapy - A Sweet Life

Perales Examines the Impact of COVID-19 on Recipients of Cellular Therapies for Cancer – OncLive

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Following stem cell transplant or treatment with CAR T-cell therapies, patients with hematologic malignancies and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tend to have favorable outcomes, especially if they are diagnosed in complete remission (CR) and further out from their cell infusion, according to Miguel-Angel Perales, MD, underscoring that care should not be delayed despite the ongoing pandemic.

Delayed therapy results in patients with relapse or progression of disease who did not receive the intended cellular therapy; [weve seen this happen] in 34% of cases, Perales, chief of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), said during a presentation delivered at the 2021 AACR Virtual Meeting on COVID-19 and Cancer.1 Given that we can avoid the risk of nosocomial transmission, I think this clearly indicates that we should be careful about how we manage these patients and not try to delay their care.

In his talk, Perales highlighted registry data detailing the impact of the pandemic on cellular treatment in patients with cancer, outcomes of patients who were infected with the virus and received hematopoietic cell transplantation, and the impact of virus-related delays in care.

Data reported to the ASH Research Collaborative COVID-19 Registry for Hematology, a global reference tool available to the public, showed that as of January 15, 2021, a total of 813 malignant and non-malignant cases of COVID-19 were reported, with just over 500 cases reported in the United States alone.2

When looking at cellular therapies received prior to a diagnosis with the virus, 10 patients had received CAR T-cell therapies (6 recovered, 4 died), 46 patients had undergone allogeneic stem cell transplantation (34 recovered, 7 died, 5 had unknown outcome), and the majority, or 78 patients, had undergone autologous stem cell transplantation (67 recovered, 7 died, 4 had unknown outcome).

An earlier analysis of data collected from this registry showed that among the first 250 patients for whom data were collected, the overall mortality rate was 28% (95% CI, 23%-34%).3 However, in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection, the mortality rate was even higher, at 42% (95% CI, 34%-50%). This is a condition that has significantly impacted our patients with hematologic malignancies, noted Perales.

Another registry, of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), requires the inclusion of outcomes of patients who have undergone transplantation or received CAR T cells.4 As of January 15, 2021, data for 1258 patients from 195 centers were reported to the registry and showed that 50.08% of patients had undergone allogeneic transplantation and 44.66% had undergone autologous transplantation. Only a small percentage of patients received cell therapy, according to Perales.

The age of patients at the time of infection ranged from less than 20 years to older than 70 years, with the majority of patients between the ages of 60 years and 69 years. When looking at infections by region, 29.35% of cases were reported in the Midwest, 23.44% were reported in the Northeast, and 22.73% were reported in the South. The majority of cases occurred within the first 2 years of their infusion. A total of 614 casesalmost half of all patientshad their infection resolve, while 58 experienced improvement; 187 patients had died.

In a subsequent paper, investigators examined risk factors associated with death from COVID-19 in recipients of allogeneic transplantation based on data from the CIBTR registry.5 Results from the multivariate analysis showed that age greater than 50 years (P = .016), male gender (P = .006), and COVID-19 infection in less than 12 months following transplantation (P = .019) were all significantly associated with increased risk of death.

Interestingly, race and ethnicity were not significant in this series, noted Perales. Similarly, when we look at patients [who have undergone] autologous transplant, the only factor that we saw was the diagnosis of lymphoma versus myeloma. Other factors were not significant.

In another analysis, investigators examined outcomes of patients following transplant who were infected with the virus at MSKCC. Of the first 77 patients diagnosed between March 15, 2020 and May 7, 2020, 37 had undergone autologous transplant, 35 had undergone allogeneic transplant, and 5 had received CAR T-cell therapy.6

The disease distribution was as expected, according to Perales. Thirty-eight percent of patients had plasma cell disease, 23% had acute leukemia, 23% had aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), 5% had Hodgkin lymphoma, 4% had chronic myeloid leukemia, 4% had myelodysplastic syndrome, and 3% had indolent NHL.

When you look at day [of infection] post infusion, you see there was a significant range, said Perales. In fact, the number of patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 several months or even years after their cell therapy. These are the demographics of 77 patients, but this is representative of the patients that we transplant at our center.

Notably, 44% of patients did not have any comorbidities. Investigators also examined the home medications that patients were receiving at the time of their COVID-19 diagnosis. Here, 10 patients were receiving steroids, 18 were receiving immunomodulatory agents, 4 were receiving anticoagulation agents, and 14 were receiving immunosuppressive drugs.

Almost half, or 48%, of patients had mild COVID-19 infection, so they were not admitted to the hospital. Twenty-six percent of patients had moderate infection, and thus, were admitted to the hospital, while 22% had severe infection and were either admitted to the intensive care unit or died.

In that group, the majority of them actually had active malignancy, unlike the other 2 groups where the majority actually were in remission, said Perales. Patients who required high levels of oxygen [were often those who] had active malignancy.

Results from a univariate analysis looking at the predictors of disease severity revealed significant associations between the presence of comorbidities and infiltrates on imaging at the time of diagnosis. Overall, however, we were able to see favorable outcomes with patients after COVID-19 infection, said Perales. Two-thirds of patients actually had a resolution. We did see 14 deaths, which represented 18% of patients. This was 41% of patients who were admitted, but particularly those with an active malignancy.

Among patients who were admitted to the hospital but had a malignancy that was in remission, the mortality rate was 21%. This was due, in part, to the fact that in many cases, patients or their family members decided to forego aggressive medical care.

Additional data revealed that COVID-19 was linked with a drop in lymphocyte populations across the board, added Perales. Notably, lymphopenia with COVID-19 was not found to impair long-term immune reconstitution in patients who had undergone bone marrow transplant.

When looking at survival in patients after infection with COVID-19, overall outcomes were found to be favorable.

Investigators also examined the risk of nosocomial infections in patients who had undergone transplantation or received cellular treatment in light of the pandemic. They looked at a series of 44 cases.

In March 2020, 2 healthcare workers were exposed at MSKCC and 3 patients had documented COVID-19 infection. One patient was receiving treatment in the inpatient setting, but the patient did have frequent visits from family members, according to Perales. So, its unclear when or how the exposure occurred, Perales said. The patient ended up dying.

Two additional patients may have been exposed in the donor room while they were collecting the stem cell from the autologous transplant, added Perales. One patient eventually died from the virus.

Again, its unclear whether these patients were infected in the center or in the community, as COVID-19 was very prevalent at the time, said Perales. Importantly, we have not seen any additional cases of potential or definite COVID-19 nosocomial infection since March 2020 at our center.

When examining the impact of the pandemic on treatment delays, in March 2020, investigators started to prospectively collect data from patients whose transplant or cellular therapy was delayed as a result of the impact of the virus on resources at the hospital, particularly the capability of using intensive care unit beds.1

Results showed that 85 patients delayed treatment; of those patients, 29 have not received their intended cellular treatment. Sixteen were supposed to receive autologous transplant, 12 were supposed to undergo allogeneic transplant, and 1 was supposed to receive CAR T-cell therapy.

Of the 56 patients who eventually proceeded to treatment, 62% received autologous transplant, 67% received allogeneic transplant, and 86% received CAR T-cell therapy. The biggest reason for not proceeding to treatment with autologous transplant and CAR T-cell therapy was because they were deferred due to good disease control. Other reasons included was because of a new comorbidity (12%) or they died from the virus. The most prominent reason for not proceeding to allogeneic transplant during the pandemic was progression of disease (42%).

We conclude that patients who are recipients of allogeneic transplant, and particularly those with acute leukemia, as much as possible should proceed to their indicated therapy and not be delayed, concluded Perales.

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Perales Examines the Impact of COVID-19 on Recipients of Cellular Therapies for Cancer - OncLive

Breakthrough stem cell therapy may reverse life-threatening conditions in dogs – Study Finds

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SAKAI, Japan Just like humans, mans best friend deals with all sorts of chronic and degenerative conditions as they age. For dogs however, scientists have fewer ways of reversing life-threatening illnesses compared to human patients. Now, a team in Japan has successfully developed a technique which creates new stem cells from a dogs blood. Their study opens the door for new therapies which can regenerate a dogs body just like stem cells do in people.

In humans, these baby cells have the potential to grow into a variety of specialized cells, an ability called pluripotency. After scientists transplant these stem cells into a patient, they guide their differentiation into the specific kind of cells which completes their task. The new cells can then regenerate damaged tissues, reversing the effect of various diseases. While stem cell research for humans is a widely studied topic, researchers say little work is done with pets.

The new study, led by Associate Professor Shingo Hatoya from Osaka Prefecture University, focuses on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in canine blood samples. Study authors say iPSCs are a type of stem cell which can be programmed from a developed cell. Scientists can do this by introducing specific genes into the cell. The genes code for specific proteins (transcription factors) which trigger the change from a developed cell into a pluripotent stem cell.

Another good thing about iPSCs is they multiply rapidly, providing a sustainable supply of usable stem cells for medical treatments.

We successfully established an efficient and easy generation method of canine iPSCs from peripheral blood mononuclear cells Dr. Hatoya in a university release.

The study authors call this a breakthrough in veterinary science. Hatoya hopes in the near future, it may be possible to perform regenerative medicinal treatments in dogs.

This isnt the first time scientists have experimented with iPSCs from canine blood cells. Researchers say these attempts used viral vectors to deliver the stem cell-triggering transcription factors.

In the new study, the Japanese team tested a different combination of factors to create pluripotency. Most importantly, researchers say they had to control how the reprogrammed cells multiplied in the host.

Scientists use viral vectors, which encode these transcription factors, to infect cells and convert them into iPSCs. Unfortunately, since these vectors merge with the hosts genetic material, these pluripotency factors can actually cause tumors if they are transplanted into a dog.

To avoid this, researchers created footprint-free stem cells using a special type of viral vector. This particular vector generates iPSCs without mixing with the hosts genes. It can also be automatically silenced by microRNAs in the cells. The OPU team grew these cells in a special environment which contained a small-molecule cocktail that enhances pluripotency. The results successfully produced cells which developed germ layers the basis of all organs.

Study authors say their findings provide a clear path to easy stem cell treatments for dogs. However, they add that their research may also have a ripple effect in the human medical world as well.

We believe that our method can facilitate the research involving disease modeling and regenerative therapies in the veterinary field, Dr. Hatoya says. Dogs share the same environment as humans and spontaneously develop the same diseases, particularly genetic diseases.

The team believes finding a cure for diseases in mans best friend may also open the door to curing illnesses still plaguing mankind.

The study appears in the journal Stem Cells and Development.

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Breakthrough stem cell therapy may reverse life-threatening conditions in dogs - Study Finds

Global Stem Cell Partnering Terms and Agreements Directory 2020: Company AZ, Headline Value, Stage of Development at Signing, Deal Component Type,…

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Dublin, Feb. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Stem Cell Partnering Terms and Agreements 2010-2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Stem Cell Partnering Terms and Agreements 2010-2020 report provides comprehensive understanding and unprecedented access to the stem cell partnering deals and agreements entered into by the worlds leading healthcare companies.

The report provides a detailed understanding and analysis of how and why companies enter Stem Cell partnering deals. These deals tend to be multicomponent, starting with collaborative R&D, and proceed to commercialization of outcomes.

This report provides details of the latest Stem Cell agreements announced in the life sciences since 2010.

The report takes the reader through a comprehensive review Stem Cell deal trends, key players, top deal values, as well as deal financials, allowing the understanding of how, why and under what terms, companies are entering Stem Cell partnering deals.

The report presents financial deal term values for Stem Cell deals, listing by headline value, upfront payments, milestone payments and royalties, enabling readers to analyse and benchmark the financial value of deals.

One of the key highlights of the report is that over 650 online deal records of actual Stem Cell deals, as disclosed by the deal parties, are included towards the end of the report in a directory format - by company A-Z, stage of development, deal type, therapy focus, and technology type - that is easy to reference. Each deal record in the report links via Weblink to an online version of the deal.

In addition, where available, records include contract documents as submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission by companies and their partners. Whilst many companies will be seeking details of the payment clauses, the devil is in the detail in terms of how payments are triggered - contract documents provide this insight where press releases and databases do not.

A comprehensive series of appendices is provided organized by Stem Cell partnering company A-Z, stage of development, deal type, and therapy focus. Each deal title links via Weblink to an online version of the deal record and where available, the contract document, providing easy access to each deal on demand.

The report also includes numerous tables and figures that illustrate the trends and activities in Stem Cell partnering and dealmaking since 2010.

Report scope

Stem Cell Partnering Terms and Agreements includes:

In Global Stem Cell Partnering Terms and Agreements 2010-2020, the available deals are listed by:

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - Trends in Stem Cell dealmaking2.1. Introduction2.2. Stem Cell partnering over the years2.3. Most active Stem Cell dealmakers2.4. Stem Cell partnering by deal type2.5. Stem Cell partnering by therapy area2.6. Deal terms for Stem Cell partnering2.6.1 Stem Cell partnering headline values2.6.2 Stem Cell deal upfront payments2.6.3 Stem Cell deal milestone payments2.6.4 Stem Cell royalty rates

Chapter 3 - Leading Stem Cell deals3.1. Introduction3.2. Top Stem Cell deals by value

Chapter 4 - Most active Stem Cell dealmakers4.1. Introduction4.2. Most active Stem Cell dealmakers4.3. Most active Stem Cell partnering company profiles

Chapter 5 - Stem Cell contracts dealmaking directory5.1. Introduction5.2. Stem Cell contracts dealmaking directory

Chapter 6 - Stem Cell dealmaking by technology type

Chapter 7 - Partnering resource center7.1. Online partnering7.2. Partnering events7.3. Further reading on dealmaking

Appendices

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/c8ppmy

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Global Stem Cell Partnering Terms and Agreements Directory 2020: Company AZ, Headline Value, Stage of Development at Signing, Deal Component Type,...

Westin Evaluates Management of DLBCL With CAR T-Cell Therapy – Targeted Oncology

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During a Targeted Oncology Case-Based Peer Perspectives virtual event, Jason Westin, MD, MS, director, Lymphoma Clinical Research, section chief, Aggressive Lymphoma, and associate professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, evaluated the management of a 63-year-old patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Targeted OncologyTM: What is your initial impression of the therapy used in this case? How would you treat the patient?

WESTIN: Theres not a right or wrong approach here. We dont have any randomized data yet saying that R-CHOP is clearly wrong. We have data from retrospective [analyses] from MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as a cooperative group publication, saying that outcomes appear inferior with R-CHOP versus R-EPOCH [rituximab, etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin]. But there are all types of biases when choosing to treat with R-CHOP for that patientis it because she was older and frail and couldnt tolerate EPOCH? [Its not a surprise that] elderly and frail patients dont live as long as patients who are more fit. Sometimes those kind of analyses have biases built into them that might favor the more aggressive treatment, just because of whom youre choosing to give it to. But I think most people feel that if the patient is able to tolerate a change in treatment, at least try it, at least see whether theyre able to tolerate R-EPOCH.

For many patients, R-EPOCH is not that much more toxic than R-CHOP. Its the same drugs; etoposide is added and stretched over 5 days, basically continuous infusion for the first 4 days and then the cyclophosphamide on day 5. It is the same dose for CHOP. So its more complicated for oncologists to give than the [regimen of] 1 day every 3 weeks in the infusion area. But in terms of patients, the adverse effects [AEs] generally line up to be similar. I also...give CNS [central nervous system] prophylaxis. Patients with double-hit lymphoma have a higher risk of CNS disease. Its not through the roof, but the incidence is usually somewhere in the 10% to 20% range of patients who could have a relapse in the brain.

How do you prefer to give patients CNS prophylaxis?

Theres no wrong answer, so whatever you like to use is OK. Many people use intrathecal [IT] chemotherapy because its easier than having to stop CHOP and give methotrexatewhat if theres renal dysfunction, or what if the liver function tests [get worse], and then you have to delay the next cycle?

For EPOCH, cytopenias are sometimes a challenge in that second week when youre trying to give somebody IT or intravenous [IV] methotrexate. Many people would give it as concurrent IT with EPOCH. There were data from the 2020 American Society of Hematology annual meeting that IT and IV might not [make a difference in AE recurrence].1 There was a large meta-analysis from multiple sites across the United States and internationally showing that for patients who are at high risk of CNS relapse, whether they receive treatment via IT or IV, both [delivery methods] still have a high risk of relapse in the brain. This is totally controversial, and the [definitive] answer is that we dont know.

Most people will continue to use IT or IV methotrexate. You just want to make sure if youre giving IV that youre maintaining the schedule and dosing intensity for the systemic chemotherapy, that youre not compromising and [there are] 5 weeks between doses of EPOCH so you can give them methotrexate in the middle.

What other regimens besides EPOCH are being used in this setting?

There are places around the world that dont use EPOCH. They use hyper-CVAD [cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone] or CODOX-M [cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, high-dose methotrexate]. In the United States, EPOCH [in] publications from the National Cancer Institute from Wyndham Wilson, MD, PhD, and Kieron Dunleavy, MD, showed good results in the mediastinal subtype and some patients with Burkitt lymphoma; Ive shifted over to using it.

EPOCH is a fairly widely used regimen, but its not [wrong to use] hyper-CVAD, CODOX-M, or the intensified regimen from Europe. Its basically [moving up] from R-CHOP to something more intense.

Which trials are relevant right now for the population with DLBCL?

Axicabtagene ciloleucel [axi-cel (Yescarta)] was the first CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T cell approved for adults with DLBCL in the United States, based on the pivotal trial [ZUMA-1 (NCT02348216)].2 [Eligible patients had] no response to last chemotherapy or relapse less than 12 months after autologous stem cell transplant, so basically patients with refractory disease or who were relapsing post transplant. They had to have [received] a prior [anti-CD20 therapy] and a prior anthracycline, which most patients with DLBCL have had.

The trial enrolled 108 patients in 2 cohorts. The [cohort] well focus on is the DLBCL cohort. Generally, the schema for CAR T cells [is] a lymphodepleting chemotherapy thats given ahead of timecyclophosphamide and fludarabine. This is to help the T cells grow, not to control disease; this is to get a favorable cytokine and microenvironment for cell growth when those T cells are infused. These are autologous cells. Its a 1-time treatment of 2 106 CAR T cells, and in this trial, 99% of patients who were enrolled were able to [have their cells] manufactured and 91% were dosed with the cells.

This [study is] changing our management of disease for patients because the overall response rate [ORR] was 83% and 58% had a complete response [CR].3 In this population post transplant or in those who are refractory to heavy-duty chemotherapy, there is a progression-free survival [PFS] of 5.9 months. There was a [significant] proportion of patients who otherwise probably would have died of their disease.

What other CAR T-cell therapies are available?

The second CAR T-cell therapy that was approved for adults with DLBCL, tisagenlecleucel [tisa-cel; Kymriah], was based on findings of the pivotal JULIET study [NCT02445248].4 This schema was basically the same for all the CAR T-cell therapies where patients undergo apheresis, which is similar to but not the same for transplant apheresis. This is [for patients] not getting CD34-positive cells...giving T cells that are cryopreserved for tisa-cel. Theyre then shipped to manufacturing. Patients could get bridging therapy on this clinical trial, which was not the case for the ZUMA-1 trial. They had undergone lymphodepletion with chemotherapy for 5 days, 4 days, and 3 days before receiving the infusion of the CAR T cells on day 0, and then theyre followed.

The results of this clinical trial [showed] ORR was a little lower at 52% and CR rate at 40% [compared with ZUMA-1]. But for those with a CR, there was an impressive Kaplan-Meier curve that showed patients being a year or more out, and 80% or more of them are holding their response. Median overall survival was 12 months for patients who were infused on this study.

How do the available CAR T-cell therapies compare?

Comparing the 2 products I just mentioned that are already FDA approved, as well as the one with impending approval, lisocabtagene maraleucel [liso-cel]...there was fairly robust follow-up now, 27 months, 14 months, 18 months [with axi-cel, tisa-cel, and liso-cel, respectively]; were seeing median PFS level out around 6 months.3-5 We see the same plateau occur in all these CAR T-cell studies, where theres a proportion somewhere in the 30% to high 40% range of patients who are long-term responders. With tisa-cel and liso-cel, the median overall survival was 12 months and 21 months, respectively; for axi-cel, its not reached, which is awfully impressive for this otherwise refractory population.

The trade-off is that it works but can be toxic. The cytokine release syndrome that people talk about, which is the dreaded complication, was seen in the studies at relatively low frequency and was characterized as grade 3 or 4. The tisacel grade 3/4 AEs were higher [23%], but it used a different grading system than the other 2. If [the AEs were] graded with the same system, it was pretty similar, around 10% or so. All 3 of them have an incidence of grade 3 or 4 cytokine release syndrome, but its relatively infrequent. The neurotoxicity is different, however, and for axi-cel, about 1 in 3 patients will have grade 3 or 4 neurotoxicity, which is sometimes prohibitive for this being utilized outside specialized centers that do this frequently. These are some of the reasons that it can be a challenge to administer these drugs.

What other kinds of drugs are available in this setting, and what data support them?

Another option approved recently is polatuzumab vedotin [Polivy], an antibody-drug conjugate, plus bendamustine and rituximab [BR].6 Approval was based on a randomized phase 2 trial for patients with relapsed disease, and it was randomized to either BR or polatuzumab/BR. Patients could not receive [this regimen] after transplant, either allogeneic or autologous, if they had significant neuropathy or if they were eligible for autologous transplant.

The patients ages were typical for this population. The International Prognostic Index score was fairly well balanced, although it was a bit higher risk in the BR arm. The median number of prior lines of treatment was 2 in both arms and about the same for the proportion of patients who had more than 3 prior lines. Seventy-five percent of patients [in the polatuzumab arm] and 85% [in the BR-only arm] had been refractory to the most recent therapy, [so this was a] highly refractory group. The germinal center B-cell subtype was fairly even between these groups.

Polatuzumab had an objective response rate of around 45% and a CR rate of 40%. Bendamustine is not the best drug combination for patients, [and BR had a] 17.5% objective response rate.

The PFS was statistically significant, 9.5 versus 3.7 months for the investigator review as well as the central review [HR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.21-0.63; P < .001]. Every subgroup favored the polatuzumab/BR regimen.

Bendamustine has toxicities, but polatuzumab/BR has a bit more in terms of the cytopenias. Neutropenia was more common. Febrile neutropenia was fairly even. A bit more neutropenia but not more febrile neutropenia. Then the peripheral neuropathy, which we know from this drug class...is an issue. Not so much with bendamustine, but about 40% of patients had some degree of mild neuropathy on the polatuzumab side.

Have there been other approvals in this setting?

Selinexor [Xpovio] was approved [in 2020 based on results of the SADAL] trial [NCT02227251].7 This evaluated patients with relapsed DLBCL who were transplant ineligible. They had to be at least 60 days post treatment or 14 weeks if they had less than a partial response. So this was not a refractory population.

The response rates [were] 28% ORR, 12% CR, and its fairly similar across the different cell of origin subtypes. There was a good group of patients who got some benefit even if they didnt get a CR, and theres no patient variable that came out as a predictor for response.

Treatment AEs [included] thrombocytopenia as the big one. It was basically 60% or so of patients have some degree of thrombocytopenia; 15%, grade 4. About half the patients had some nausea, some anorexia, and some weight loss. Seventeen percent of patients discontinued because of treatment AEs, and 5 patients died because of treatment AEs.

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Westin Evaluates Management of DLBCL With CAR T-Cell Therapy - Targeted Oncology

Stem cells’ efficacy confirmed in treating ototoxic hearing loss – Korea Biomedical Review

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Researchers at the Catholic University of Korea St. Marys Hospital have recently proved the efficacy of bone marrow-derived stem cells to treat ototoxicity hearing loss, the hospital said Thursday.

The team, led by Professor Park Kyoung-ho of the Department of Otolaryngology, conducted an experiment on animal models with ototoxic sensorineural hearing, or sudden hearing loss.

They utilized Catholic MASTER cells, bone marrow stem cells developed by the Catholic Institute of Cell Therapy, to compare the stem cell injection group with the controlled group.

The result showed that animals started to recover their hearing after three weeks. Five weeks later, they recovered normal hearing at 8000Hz, 16000Hz and 32000Hz frequency.

Ototoxic hearing loss is caused when a person ingests chemicals or certain medications that adversely affect the inner ear functions. Major symptoms related to the illness are dizziness, false hearing, and hearing loss, which permanently defects hearing functions. Elders with such symptoms should have medical consultations as they are a high-risk group, the hospital said.

We have proved the efficacy of our bone marrow stem cells in recovering hearing, said Professor Park, who doubles as the director of the Stem Cell Institute. Through the results, we expect to provide new treatment opportunities for patients with hearing loss.

The test results were published in the Korean Journal of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

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Stem cell therapy treatment introduced in Pakistan – The Nation

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ISLAMABAD-London Aesthetics & Rejuvenation Centre [LARC], helmed by Dr. Tauqir Ahmad, proudly announced their collaboration with the worlds leading stem cell therapy, R3 Stem Cell International to introduce the stem cell therapy treatments in Pakistan, with an exclusive experiential afternoon held at LARC in Lahore recently.Dr. David L. Greene, the visionary founder & CEO of R3 Stem Cell International flew in from USA to attend the event, where he talked about his vision for Pakistan while giving consultations to the attendees. The event was further attended by some of Lahores most distinguished and influential media personalities. The event and PR was managed by Lotus.Dr. Tauqir Ahmad, regarded as one of the first practitioners in the UK to start practicing the injections of Botox, launched LARC in Pakistan with a mission to achieve excellence in aesthetics and to be at the forefront of research and development of new treatments. With this collaboration, Dr. Tauqir Ahmad has brought the worlds most scientifically advanced stem cell therapy and treatments to Pakistan for this ever-expanding industry which will be executed by his expert team in Pakistan including Dr. Badie Idris (Medical Director), Dr. Sara Mubasshar (Clinical Dermatologist), Dr. Yasmin Chaudhry (Aesthetic Physician), Dr. Zulfiqar Salim (Plastic Surgeon), Dr. Saeed Qureshi (Bariatric Surgeon), Dr. Sheila Anwar (Aesthetic Gynaecologist) and Dr. Abdul Basit (Orthopaedic Surgeon).

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Stem cell therapy treatment introduced in Pakistan - The Nation

Stem Cell Therapy Market Information, Figures and Analytical Insights 2020 2026 – The Courier

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The report contains an overview explaining Stem Cell Therapy Market on a world and regional basis. Global Stem Cell Therapy market report is a definitive source of information and provides the latest market research, evolving consumer trends with actionable information about new players, products, and technologies. Our analysts have statistical data to provide information about the statistical report, including the factors that drive and impede the market growth.

The study is an integrated effort of primary and secondary research. The report provides an overview of the key drivers affecting the generation and growth limitation of Stem Cell Therapy market. In addition, the report also examines competitive developments, such as mergers and acquisitions, new partnerships, new contracts, and new products in the world market. The past trends and future prospects presented in this report make it very comprehensible to market analysis. Furthermore, the latest trends, product portfolio, demography, geographic segmentation, and market regulatory framework Stem Cell Therapy were also included in the study.

Description:

Market Segment according to type covers:

Market segment by applications may be broken down into:

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Fundamental Highlights

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The following section also highlights the supply-to-consumption gap. In addition to the above data, the growth rate of Stem Cell Therapy market in 2026 is also explained. Moreover, consumption charts by type and application are also given.

Purpose of Studies:

World Market Report Stem Cell Therapy Industry primarily covers 10 sections in the table as follows:

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VOICES: Automatic voter registration will improve lives – Thegardenisland.com

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Last year was a terrible year.

Who can disagree?

So many things we wanted to get done got shunted to the side because of COVID19.

But now we must catch up. That means getting more eligible voters engaged in our electoral politics just as they were engaged in helping to feed their neighbors.

Ordinary people stepped up. We cannot lose that momentum and that level of civic engagement. Thats why I am happy that Speaker Saiki and a number of other lawmakers have introduced bills to make automatic voter registration (AVR) a reality in Hawaii. This year we can make it happen.

AVR will make voting more accessible, secure and convenient. Heres how it works. When you go to the DMV to apply for or renew your driving license or your state of Hawaii ID, eligible citizens will have their updated information automatically sent to the Office of Elections to allow them to vote when Election Day rolls around.

The bill includes an opt-out provision if an individual decides they do not want to exercise their right to vote. But hopefully that is a provision few will choose. After all, as we like to say here, no vote, no grumble.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Kauai led the state with 80% or more registered voters turning out to vote. Politicians paid attention to their voting constituents. Citizens complaints were taken seriously, and politicians responded.

But the demographics of our islands have changed, as have the issues. Too often we have opinions about various issues, but do nothing to change things.

This is something you can help make happen. The implementation of statewide vote-by-mail last year was very successful. We need to build on that and make our election infrastructure work more efficiently to give communities everywhere access to the vote.

That includes rural areas where the internet may be slow or nonexistent, or areas where people are struggling with multiple jobs and dont make voter registration a high priority. That includes predominantly Native Hawaiian communities.

If we want to have more of a say in how your community and our islands are served if we want good public infrastructure, affordable housing and our special places kept special tell your lawmakers to support Speaker Saiki in passing AVR.

It will ensure that your address is correct so you can get your ballot in the mail and make your voice heard. AVR will mean less waste because there will be fewer undeliverable ballots. That means less labor and less waste on printing and postage. One estimate is that we could save up to a million dollars per election cycle if we had AVR. We cannot afford to pass up savings of that magnitude.

Lawmakers have a great opportunity here to ensure every eligible Hawaiian has access to the polls and make government more efficient and secure. Please let your legislator know you want them to pass automatic voter registration this year. Now, thanks to changes brought on by the pandemic, you can register to testify via Zoom. I hope you will.

Ted Kawahinehelelani Blake was born and raised in Koloa. He is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, and attended Orange Coast College, the College of Idaho and the University of Hawaii. He is a member of Malama Koloa, Koloa Community Association, E Alu Pu and KUA (Kuaaina Ulu Auamo) and the Koloa District Community Association.

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VOICES: Automatic voter registration will improve lives - Thegardenisland.com

$2.5M Waterford Township home is on an island. Here’s how it was built – Detroit Free Press

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Judy Rose, Special to the Detroit Free Press Published 7:01 a.m. ET Feb. 6, 2021 | Updated 10:44 a.m. ET Feb. 6, 2021

True original design house on an island in Lotus Lake. Wochit

This house has more than 150 windows and a wooded island to look at all woods and lake and protected wetlands. Youd drive to it carefully, single file, across a one-lane raised causeway.

From scratch this house was the project of one owner, working with a 23-year-old architecture student. The materials are natural cedar and stone; the horizontal lines are Prairie-style.

Prairie style lines with natural cedar and stone distinguish this house designed by an architecture student. Its owner took over as his own contractor to build the house on an island. Its double front doors are an homage to Frank Lloyd Wright.(Photo: Provided by MJW Photography)

Its inspiration was the setting Blain Island in Waterford Township, north of Detroit. It has a few more luxury homes, but In summer you can only see those across Lotus Lake.

This owner had been living on Lake Orion but wanted a site more private. He found this land in 1997, then searched for an architect. Alas, he found sticker shock. The quotes seemed prohibitive, $60,000, he said.So he went to the U-M School of Architecture.

He snagged a then-23-year-old student, who said hed do it for $10 an hour. Not yet licensed, the student had an architect father who could sign the project.

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When I asked him to design it, I said, I want the energy to flow through the home, the owner, who requested not to be named for privacy reasons,said. Its a very long home.

More: Ex-NFL player who owns Kuzzo's Chicken and Waffles lists Detroit home for $1.1M

More: Calling $2.5M Ann Arbor home one of a kind doesn't do it justice

The house is about 100 feet long, and if you stand on the deck at its far end, you can see through to the other ends trees. One entire long side is windows. Its a very bright house, but its not direct sun, he said.

The two-story family room looks out to the island's water, woods and wetlands. At left, a hammock is hung to suggest relaxing.(Photo: Provided by MJW Photography)

A year later, plans were done and the owner went shopping for a builder. Again, sticker shock. In the end he became his own contractor. I hired crews. I supervised every step, he said.

My favorite question was, 'If this were your house, what would you do?

Of course there were glitches.

Because he saved the trees close to the house and the grade is very steep, heavy equipment and a crane were ruled out.

Every stick had to be carried in by hand, he said. Even those tall window walls had to be framed and then erected without a crane.

They couldnt use a scaffold for elevated work. The workers invented a substitute by laying plywood across two pump jacks and pumping themselves up and down.

The house has many distinguishing features, including 4,000 square feet of stone.

Inside, this makes four fireplaces, one of them two stories tall. Outside, stone walls are a theme that starts and stops down the length of the house at different heights. That wall becomes the anchor, he said.

A curving catwalk between bedrooms offsets the horizontal lines of Prairie style in the family room below. The hearth in front of the fire box is a giant stone. The "mantels" scattered up the fireplace are slices from a felled oak tree. All four fireplaces are such stone with oak slices.(Photo: Provided by MJW Photography)

A different stone is used in huge slabs to build an imposing stone stair entrance.They lead up to double doors that are a Frank Lloyd Wright tribute with a pattern of squares.

Another feature is the beautiful cedar wood both inside and out. Added to this is a flourish the owner invented. Hed come across a crew that had just felled a very large oak and asked to buy it.

He took it home to his builders and asked them to slice it on an angle. Those slices are buffed now, polished and scattered across his four stone fireplaces as small, glowing mantels.

The Prairie-like theme here stresses strong horizontal lines sometimes intersected with a sharp angle. But high across in the family room is a counterpoint a long, curving catwalk that connects two bedroom wings.

A large curved catwalk in this home at 4210 Blain Island Road in Waterford. The house is on an island in Lotus Lake on a deeply wooded site with more than 150 windows, beautiful cedar and stone work.(Photo: Provided by MJW Photography)

With 2 deeded acres and 2 acres around those that are protected wetlands, this owner cut as few trees as possible to maintain the wooded view. He likes the house partly hidden by trees and calls this an enchanted forest.

He knows a different owner might take down more trees to trade some woods for the wider lake view. Meanwhile, he likes to call his place Isle of View, which when spoken sounds like I love you.

Blain Island is about 35 miles north of Detroit. Its in Lotus Lake, a 185-acre all-sports lake, which is wide open to the larger Maceday Lake.

Lotus Lake was named for the lotus flowers that grow around its edges.

Where: 4210 Blain Island Road, Waterford Township

How much: $2,488,000

Bedrooms: 3

Baths: 3 full, 2 half

Square feet: 4,100 on the two main floors, plus about 1,100 in the finished walkout lower level.

Key features: True original design house on an island in Lotus Lake. Deeply wooded site, lake shore, great privacy, more than 150 windows, beautiful cedar and stone work,Prairie lines, set back from the lake. Decks at three levels.

Contact: Levan Wood, RE/MAX Eclipse, 248-770-1029.

In order to limit our staff's exposure to coronavirus, the Detroit Free Press is temporarily suspending its practice of using our photographers to capture images for House Envy and is instead using photographs prepared by listing Realtors, with credit to thephotographers. We thank the Realtors for helping in this effort.

Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/money/real-estate/michigan-house-envy/2021/02/06/waterford-blain-island-home-sale/4374757001/

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Big Island COVID-19 case count increases by 1 to 2188 – West Hawaii Today

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The Big Island reported just one new COVID-19 for a second straight day Saturday, bringing the total number of cases to date to 2,188.

The new Big Island cases were among 108 new cases reported across the state by the Department of Health. Oahu reported 86 new cases while Maui County reported 17 and Kauai one. Three residents were diagnosed while outside the state.

The Big Island on Saturday had a 0.9% test positivity rate, below the statewide rate of 1.8%.

Statewide, to date, there have been 26,393 people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Statewide, 64 people remained hospitalized Saturday, including one on the Big Island. To date, 2,106 people have required hospitalization, including 112 on the Big Island.

No new coronavirus-related deaths were reported Saturday by the state. Of the 416 coronavirus-related deaths confirmed and reported by the state to date, 333 were on Oahu, 26 were on Maui, 53 were on the Big Island and one on Kauai. Three deaths were among residents outside the state.

The Big Islands COVID-19 fatality rate remained at 2.4% on Saturday, above the statewide rate of 1.6%.

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Big Island COVID-19 case count increases by 1 to 2188 - West Hawaii Today

Temptation Island: What Happened To Karl & Nicole After Season 1 (2019) – Screen Rant

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Temptation Island couple Nicole Tutewohl and Karl Collins broke up on season 1. Find out their current relationship status and what they're up to.

Temptation Islandseason 1 couple Nicole Tutewohl and Karl Collins broke up on the show, and the fans want to know whatthey're up to now. When the first season of USA'sTemptation Island reboot started out, Karl and Nicole seemed like one of the most solid couples to enter the series. The couple obviously had some doubts that brought them to the show in the first place, but there wasn't any clear indication that either of them would cross the line over the course of the season.But whilethat wasprettyaccurate for Nicole, Karl had a more wild journey.

For Nicole Tutewohl, going onTemptation Islandwas all about liberating herself, and she did achieve that state of mind in the end. Karl Collins didn't necessarily have such a set agenda for himself on the show, but he still had his fun and learned a thing or two about himself. In any case, these two didn't see eye to eyeduring the Final Bonfire, ultimately deciding to break up and part ways. Even months after theseason ended, Karl and Nicole still appeared to be single. However, thathas changed in recent times.

Related:Temptation Island 3: All The Couples & Release Date For 2021 Season

Karl and Nicole areonce again together as a coupleas of February 2021, proving that they were able to overcome whatever happened between them onTemptation Island season 1.As seen in the pictures included below, these two are all over each other's social media profiles.The fans will surely be happy to know that Nicole and Karl arestill happily dating despite the mistakes that they made on TV, as most of the couples that come from that experience and go on to break up do notfind their way back to one another.

It is important for couples to have boundaries onTemptation Island, but one must also accept the fact that rules aren't always followed by these contestants. Nicole had what was arguably one of the most surprisingly profound journeys on the show,and it's great that she was able to grow so much and still work things out with Karl after their time in the villa ended.

Season 3 ofTemptation Island is almost here. Hopefully, some of these couples will be as lucky as Karl and Nicole turned out to be.

More:Temptation Island: What Happened To Evan, Kaci & Morgan After Season 1 (2019)

Temptation Island 3premieresTuesday, February 16 at 10 pm EST on USA.

Sources: Karl Collins' Instagram, Nicole Tutewohl's Instagram

90 Day Fiance: Zied Hakimi Posts Pic With New Tunisian Friends On IG

Bernardo Sim writes about TV shows, queer culture, & Brazilian media. Born and raised in the Amazon, he now lives in South Florida. he/him

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Temptation Island: What Happened To Karl & Nicole After Season 1 (2019) - Screen Rant

The Hawaiian language and culture lives on – The Garden Island

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Editors note: This is the first of a two-part series highlighting February as Hawaiian language month. Part two will run on Monday.

The Hawaiian language and culture are alive and well and will be for a long time to come, according to Kumu Sabra Kauka, a Hawaiian studies teacher at Island school and part-time Hawaiian studies coordinator for the Department of Education for 30 years.

Im sure because Im in contact with all these incredible people around the island, Kumu Kauka said. I got like 18 people around the island, who are working their darnedest to perpetuate our culture and promote Hawaiian values, language, arts, music, and dance. I had some wonderful mentors, some wonderful people who mentored me on the history of Kauais culture, music, and arts. Theyre just wonderful people. Most of them have passed because its been 30 years.

Around the world, the Hawaiian language and culture are being taught through food, music, arts, hula and online sessions said Kauka.

Theres a great deal of love from the language to hula, around the world, Kauka said. My friends are teaching online to hundreds and hundreds of students around the world. I was in Singapore two years ago. And some of her students down there hosted us. I mean, its an amazing reach that they have around the world.

Kauka said the Hawaiian language is central to the Hawaiian culture.

Its so important to teach our visitors and our keiki, Kauka said. Like a simple word like Aloha. Its important, number one teaching it and number two, sharing it.

It all starts at home when it comes to teaching Kauais keiki the culture and the local teachings, for instance not driving on the beaches and respecting sacred areas.

You know, whos driving on the beaches? Its our own people, Kauka said. (At Polihale,) the burials are in the sand dunes. So get off the sand dunes stop driving at the beach. Thats not a road for you to take off on. And its our own people. There were no tourists on Kauai, its our own people who are desecrating that place. But you need to talk to the families directly who are involved in that are fighting for its preservation.

When did you first learn the Hawaiian Language?

My grandmother, all that generation spoke Hawaiian first, my mom and dad understood it, Kauka said. But by the time they were in school, English was stressed. When I went to Kamehameha schools, there were three languages that were taught there. Latin, French, and Spanish. I happen to be in the top tier. And then I studied Latin. But it was interesting because we always sang and we always prayed in Hawaiian. But we didnt speak it in class.

What do you do to share the Hawaiian language or culture?

When I do my olelo, Hawaiian words in the class, they are so on it, Kauka said. I just so appreciate and love them for participating and for knowing goodness to have respect, and share food to share culture to share, you know, to give from the heart.

What was something your kumu or tutu taught you that stuck with you until today?

Cleanliness was always emphasized as well, Kauka said. Like I was talking with a friend the other day like waking up in the morning and fixing your bed. And not every kid does that anymore. But thats what we were taught you start your day properly.

Kumu Kaukas final thoughts in Hawaiian and in English.

Olelo Noeau # 531

He alii ka aina; he kauwa ke kanaka

The land is chief; man is its servant. The land has no need for man, but man needs the land and works it for a livelihood.

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The Hawaiian language and culture lives on - The Garden Island

Marco Island server humbled by $500 tip – Wink News

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MARCO ISLAND

A Southwest Florida food server has been struggling financially, as many have during the pandemic. But, what he thought was just a five-dollar tip turned out to be so much more.

Joey Abramo is happy at work. We are (here) to serve the people the way we serve the Lord. Ive got that written on my heart, he said.

Abramo describes himself as a people person but, others dont always appreciate that.

It breaks our hearts toserve and do the best we can and we feel unappreciated, he said.

Abramo thought that might be the case when he messed up an order on Sunday. It was the grouper nuggets.

I made a mistake, I apologize I will get it out as soon as possible, he said.

Abramo tried to be kind, and so was the party he was serving. Then, the party of 11 left and he grabbed the check.

It said $709 total on the bottom and it said thanks Joey, God Bless,' Abramo said.

The God Bless is important to Abramo, who is a man of faith. Giving and loving and I think it just becomes contagious, he said.

Abramo and his wife, who is a bartender at Pinchers on Marco Island, never stopped their belief in giving and loving. Even when they both lost their jobs.

Back in March, we were all laid off. We had to stay home for a month, Abramo said. We dont make much, but were thankful for what we have.

And now, thanks to a few kind strangers, they have a little more, $500 more to be exact. We were able to catch up on bills, said Abramo.

The money did more than just help them pay their bills. It also gave them more faith, more hope, and more love.

For me, Im rich, Im more than rich, just to be able to have a job, earn a living and to live in such a great community, he said.

Abramo said that his good fortune inspires him to keep giving and hope this story inspires you to do the same.

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Marco Island server humbled by $500 tip - Wink News

Langkawi: The curious island of the strange colugos – BBC News

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You don't have to travel far before the hotels of Malaysia's "honeymoon island" are supplanted with the colourful low-rise farmhouses of the verdant interior. This is rural Langkawi at its most bucolic; the domain of swamp buffalo gently grazing in company of their faithful companions, the cattle egret. Heading north-west, the lowlands give way to the jagged ridges of Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park, a 500-million-year-old product of geological activity now carpeted by lush rainforest.

A colugo leapt from the tree canopy, sailing over our heads like a kitten strapped to a kite

Some of the holiday island's elite properties are sandwiched between this rainforest and the north coast. Though these resorts are usually only open to guests, my guide, French primatologist and passionate conservationist Priscillia Miard, has forged relationships with the resident naturalists and we were granted access to wander through the grounds of The Andaman Resort unsupervised.

"They've constructed paths through the rainforest, which makes perfect ground for spotting night mammals," Miard explained with an Attenborough-esque tone of barely supressed excitement.

The cicadas welcomed us to the rainforest with a rasping chorus. Something jumped overhead, a flying squirrel perhaps, followed closely by a pair of fruit bats that whizzed between the fishtail palms like lovers dancing. As darkness fell on the island, it grew evident that another world had awoken.

We soon met up with two of Miard's research assistants Fizri Zubir, a Masters student at Universiti Sains Malaysia who is currently studying colugo behavior holding a camera and Nur Liyana Binti Khalid, who is studying forestry science at University of Malaysia Sabah sporting a headlamp as if preparing to descend into a cave. But their attention was directed upwards, the red light searching the trees like a night patrol looking for combatants in a jungle war. Miard used a thermal imaging camera to track the shadows. It wasn't long before we found what we were looking for.

"There's one," said Zubir, gesturing to the trunk of an enormous tree. Through the ebbing light, a round object suspended beneath a branch was barely distinguishable, and could have easily be written-off as a jackfruit if it didn't begin to unfurl.

"It's about to go through its morning ritual!" Mirad gasped in the way a proud parent might speak of their child.

The creature stretched, then clung upright against the tree with its sharp claws and began to groom. Its skin required some attention as it had, frankly, a lot of it. A membrane stretched from its neck via its hands and feet to its tail, a kite-like feature that distinguishes the colugo, once popularly known as the flying lemur, from other night gliders like the flying squirrel, which has a long tail that it uses to fan itself through the air. Because they don't fly, nor use a tail to fan, colugos, with the logic of a hand glider launching from a hillside, typically climb high into a tree before attempting to glide. Still, their range is impressive. According to Miard they've been recorded gliding a full 150m, although hops of 30m or less are far more common.

After grooming itself, the colugo lifted its tail to relieve itself of yesterday's dinner. It was hard not to draw parallels between the colugos' habits and what we humans usually do in the morning.

"Colugos are not far removed from us," Miard pointed out. "People used to think they were related to bats or squirrels but that's been proven not to be the case. In fact, primates are some of their closest living relatives."

The colugo's missing link status they actually belong to their own order, the dermopteran, having outlived all their closest mammalian glider cousins is just one of their intriguing qualities, which also include feeding their young with milk excreted from glands located under their armpits; a preference of leaves and flowers to fruit; licking their eyeballs like lizards to clean them; and communicating with ultrasound (like near-blind bats) despite having good vision.

"They usually sleep on different trees from where they like to feed," noted Miard, as a colugo leapt from the tree canopy, sailing over our heads like a kitten strapped to a kite. It landed without incident and promptly began dining al fresco on a succulent salad of leaves and a side order of mineral-rich lichen, which it ate directly from the branch.

You may also be interested in: Malaysia's 11,000-year-old treasure trove The Asian city obsessed with cats India's elephant-friendly tea garden

Humans have lived alongside colugos for centuries. They were first recorded for science in 1758 and even make an appearance in The Malay Archipelago, the seminal text by renowned British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who wrote in 1869: "Another curious animal, which I had met with in Singapore and in Borneo [] is the Galeopithecids, or flying lemur. This creature has a broad membrane extending all around its body to the extremities of the toes, and to the point of the rather long tail. This enables it to pass obliquely through the air from one tree to another"

Colugos are not that uncommon either. Although the Philippine colugo is unique to just a few islands of the Philippines, the Malayan colugo is found in most forest habitats of Southeast Asia. Which raises the obvious question: why isn't more known about them?

It's a riddle Miard has wrestled with over the past three years while studying night mammals on the Malaysian islands of Penang and Langkawi as part of her PhD research.

"In Penang [a built-up island just 67 miles (108km) south of Langkawi] where I began my research, I was principally focused on research methodology for tracking night mammals, things like civets, slow loris, mouse deer and wild boar," she said. "But I found colugos living everywhere. They lived in farms and in roadside gardens. But there was so much missing data. That's what made me really interested in studying them."

One commonly cited reason for our lingering ignorance of colugos is that they're sensitive animals. According to Langkawi-based naturalist Irshad Mobarak, No zoo in the world has successfully reared them in captivity. Their fantastic camouflage skills, nocturnality and tree habitats also allude to why they've evaded popular attention for so long. Plus they don't eat us nor we them. But for a dedicated naturalist, no excuses can countervail a bewildering gap in scientific understanding.

Knowing that observation and fieldwork would be key to getting to know the colugos, Miard decamped to Langkawi in 2018, where greater forest cover and flatter land aids her research, as well as providing a secondary site to compare with her Penang findings.

With help from the Penang-based NGO, the Malaysian Primatological Society, she's since established a Colugo Research Station in Temoyong, Langkawi, that offers a base for curious students and researchers of all disciplines to come and study colugos.

Hemmed between a mosque and a petrol station, the area around the research station is an ideal place to study how colugos are adapting to human encroachment on their turf. We headed there on our second night out, just as a loudspeaker began calling the faithful to evening prayer. Overhead, the fading sun turned the sky spectacular shades of orange then purple, the famous Langkawi sunset that is another of the islands star natural attractions.

"These trees would all have been planted by people," explained Miard, as we walked out of the research centre onto Bohor Tempoyak Street in the company of her research assitant Zubir. Interestingly, in Peninsular Malaysia, colugos seldom leave the forests, but on Langkawi, they go much closer to human settlements. Nobody knows why exactly.

For an excited moment, Miard and Zubir believed theyd seen a colugo, a white moving object viewed with the thermal imaging camera. However, it turned out to be false alarm; a bird nesting in the treetop. Just as our hopes were fading, they spotted a colugo grasping a roadside trunk. On further inspection it turned out to be two: a mother and her infant child, which clung to her chest.

"Oh, look how cute they are, that little one must only be a few weeks old," Miard said, before assuming a more professional manner. "We've noted they can have up to three children a year; they don't appear to have a particular mating season."

Before long, colugos appeared all around us, emerging from the gloom like phantoms, using the road as a kind of skyway the gap forged by the highway a two-lane country road proving an ideal space for a gliding animal, even if near misses with passing lorries and motorbikes were commonplace.

"We've learned they are very social," said Miard of the neighbourhood community. "One area can have up to 20 individuals. But we'd like to tag one to track their movements in more detail."

Despite their manifest adaptability to various habitats, there remains a lot of concern about the threats posed to colugos in Malaysia, a country where deforestation remains a real issue.

"Habitat loss is their biggest threat," she said. "But some farmers kill them as well."

The slaying of colugos as pests is ironic because they are actually beneficial to the environment.

"Colugos are essential to tree productivity, said Miard. Consider durian, which Malaysians love. When the tree flowers, the colugos eat some of those flowers. This will result in a better quality of fruit."

The issue of colugo awareness is where Miard's research meets conservation, as these mysterious mammals are analogous to the health of the ecosystem. Malaysia is one of just 17 countries considered megadiverse by scientists, but it is also a fast-developing country where humans are putting increasing pressure on the natural world, particularly the jungle, which is cleared for farmland or to build housing.

To this end, the results of her research are published on the Night Spotting Project (NSP) social media pages, whose aims include "saving nocturnal mammals via research, education and community empowerment.

Miard would also like see Langkawi reorientate itself towards more eco-tourism .

"A lot of tourists just come here and rent jet skis on Cenang Beach or go to the mall shopping for duty free goods. But Langkawi could be like Sabah [a state in eastern Malaysia] and develop tourism around nature," she said. "Most people have no idea how rich the animal resource is. Some tourist companies such as Jungle Walla and Daves Adventure Tours lead nature orientated activities, but many companies are missing opportunities to do more nature-focused activities.

"The forest hiking is incredible, but few people go into the forest except locals when hunting. This island could really be an eco-tourist hotspot," she said, before conceiving a new moniker for "honeymoon island" as "the island of the colugo".

Natures Curiosities is a BBC Travel series that offers a close-up look at the natural world, taking adventurous travellers on an unexpected journey of exploration.

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Langkawi: The curious island of the strange colugos - BBC News

All about the Falkland Islands and its airports – Flightradar24

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Yesterday a Lufthansa A350-900 completed an ultra long-haul flight from Hamburg to Mt. Pleasant, in the Falkland Islands. The 15 hour 37 minute flight was Lufthansas longest ever. The plane will be heading back to Germany tomorrow, as LH2575. Sadly this isnt destined to become a regularly scheduled route (wouldnt that be something.) But it did make us curious to look a little deeper into aviation in the Falklands and for such a small place, theres a lot going on there.

In fact as ultra long-hauls go, this flight was only mildly impressive. It was a record-setter for Lufthansa, but these days its not uncommon to see airlines doing 19- or 20-hour flights with their A350s. However the fact that this was headed to the Falklands (the first leg for a group of scientists making their way to Antarctica) caught the attention of many an aviation enthusiast.

Mt. Pleasant Airport (MPN) is also known as RAF Mt. Pleasant, so-called because its a Royal Air Force base. Just the mention of the Falkland Islands is sure to set off a volley of political arguments, and the fact of this being a British air base probably doesnt help.

For the uninitiated, Argentina claims these islands as their own, and refers to them as Las Malvinas. There was a war fought over them in the 1980s. Its a messy dispute that mostly simmers quietly under the surface, usually until someone mentions the islands in conversation. Its surprisingly sensitive for a place with a total population only just slightly more than 3,000 people.

Mt. Pleasant Airport may be an air force base, but it also sees scheduled commercial flights. Thats because it has by far the longest runways on the island with an 8497-foot (2590-meter) strip that can handle just about any type of aircraft. Scheduled flights to MPN are relatively few in number these days. With normal non-pandemic schedules in effect its generally possible to fly with LATAM to Mt. Pleasant from Chile and Brazil.

The longest-running flight is the link with Punta Arenas in Chile, although that hasnt operated in some time. LATAM has this flight back in their schedule once a week starting in April, although the Falkland Islands Government has stated these wont start back up again until late June (thanks to Ronnie MB for pointing this out). Flight time on the A320 to Punta Arenas, whenever it does start up again, is about an hour and a half.

Mt. Pleasant is also the destination for a special flight known as the airbridge operated by AirTanker in cooperation with the British Ministry of Defence. It departs RAF Brize Norton (BZZ) in England and heads to Mt. Pleasant, normally via a stop somewhere along the way. In the past Ascension Island has been the go-to tech stop. Lately it seems the planes mostly route through Dakar.

These flights have actually been flown nonstop, although that doesnt seem to be a regular occurrence. Last year AirTanker ran a handful of nonstop proving flights on one of its A330-200s, G-VYGM, between Brize Norton and Mt. Pleasant. The southbound flight was 15 hours 9 minutes long just a little bit shorter than yesterdays Lufthansa flight. As it happens, G-VYGM is on the ground at Mt. Pleasant as we speak, having come in from Brize Norton and Dakar on February 1.

The Falklands has another main airport not too far (30 miles as the crow flies) from Mt. Pleasant, at Port Stanley (PSY). Stanley is the main population center and capital of the Falklands. However the longest runway is just 3,013 feet (918 meters), so scheduled flights stick to MPN.

Its airport is used mainly for short runs around the Falklands to airstrips serving remote communities. The Falkland Islands Government Air Service is the main player here it does double duty running Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders on mostly unscheduled civilian flights as well as running surveillance and maritime patrol around the territory. Port Stanley also occasionally sees flights to and from British research stations in Antarctica, and helicopter services out to the Zebedee Oil Rig.

Its not easy or cheap to get to the Falkland Islands, especially from the Northern Hemisphere. However it would clearly be worth the effort, especially for anyone interested in aviation. Ill be adding this to my list of places to go once we can all move around freely again. And Ill be doing everything I can to catch a flight on one of those Islanders.

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All about the Falkland Islands and its airports - Flightradar24

Cold front to bring widespread rain and chilly nights to Hawaiian islands – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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The easterly tradewinds are expected to die down today ahead of a cold front coming from west of Kauai and expected to arrive Tuesday night, bringing clouds and showers, forecasters say.

The National Weather Service says the fast-moving cold front will sweep from west to east down the isle chain from Tuesday night to Thursday morning, bringing widespread rain that may be heavy at times, along with a few thunderstorms.

Todays forecast is mostly sunny for most isles, with highs from 77 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, forecasters say a weak jet stream north of Hawaii will produce some ice crystal cirrus clouds today enhancing sunrise and sunset colors.

Lows tonight dip to 65 to 70 degrees, with isolated showers expected for Kauai, and brief passing showers for Oahu and Maui counties. On Hawaii island, haze is expected on the leeward side.

Tradewinds are expected at 10 to 20 mph for most isles and at a slower rate of 5 to 15 mph for Hawaii island tonight.

Surf today remains below advisory levels 4 to 6 feet for north shores, 2 to 4 feet for east and west shores today and Tuesday. Surf on south shores remains at 1 to 3 feet today and Tuesday.

But a much larger, northwest swell is expected to reach the isles on Wednesday, forecasters said, peaking late Thursday into Friday. This swell will bring large to extra-large surf to north and west shores of the smaller isles, and impact west shores of Hawaii island as well.

Forecasters predict the cold front will hit Kauai County Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, reach Oahu by Wednesday afternoon, move into Maui County from Wednesday afternoon to evening, and finally drift into Hawaii island from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.

On Hawaii island, snow is expected to drop to the 11,000-foot elevation level on Wednesday, bringing snowfall once again to the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

Colder air is also expected to move in behind the front, causing high and low temperatures to fall below normal into the weekend. The below normal temperatures, forecasters said, are expected to last through Sunday.

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Cold front to bring widespread rain and chilly nights to Hawaiian islands - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Camano Island fire department to close clinic next week after 1,200 expected vaccine doses don’t arrive – Q13 FOX (Seattle)

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Camano Island without virus vaccine doses, local vaccination site to close next week

A Camano Island fire department says they have to close their vaccination clinic next week due to expected 1,200 doses not arriving.

CAMANO ISLAND, Wash. - Camano Island Fire & Rescue will close their vaccination clinic next week after1,200 expected doses of the COVID-19vaccine never arrived.

CIFRsay they requested 1,200 doses from the state, buthave not been allocated any doses to provide vaccinations in time for next week.

According to their website, CIFR is partnering with the Camano Center and Island County to set up a vaccination clinic on the island, located at the Camano Center,and open weekly whenever vaccines are shipped from the state to their site.

Q13 News reached out to Island County Health Department for additional comment but was not availableat the time of the article's publication.

Related:Washington averaging 28,000 COVID-19 vaccinations a day

A spokesperson for the Washington state Department of Health (DOH) sent the following statement in regards to available vaccines:

We are still in a place right now where demand for vaccine greatly outpaces the amount of vaccine we have available. This week, more than 600 facilities requested more than 358,000 first doses of vaccine. Our first-dose allocation from the federal government was only 107,125 doses, which is less than one-third of what providers asked for.

We also had more requests for second dose allocations than our allocation from the federal government. Our total state allocation for second doses was 58,725, and providers requested 14,000 more than that.

Recently DOH has been expanding vaccine allocation beyond hospitals to help with access. In the beginning it made sense to send most of the vaccine to hospitals to reach the most at-risk workers in health care settings. Now, we are spreading limited vaccine among many more sites where people can get vaccinated, including pharmacies, community health centers, local public health, and mass vaccination sites.

Weve received a lot of questions recently regarding the states allocation process. This week, DOH allocated 19% of vaccine to community health centers, federally qualified health centers, local health jurisdictions and private practitioners, 23% to hospitals, 36% to mass vaccination sites, 19% to pharmacies, and 3% to tribes and Urban Indian Health Programs. State allocations of vaccines go to sites that are locally run, as well as the mass vaccination sites.

Each week, the state allocates vaccine from our limited supply to enrolled providers through a multi-step process that starts Saturday and is completed by Thursday night to meet the CDCs Friday morning ordering deadline. Enrolled providers place their requests through the states Immunization Information System (WAIIS) and DOH gathers information from Local Health Jurisdictions to help determine their priorities of where vaccine should go. Decisions are made based on several factors: proportional population of those eligible in the county, data from providers, providers current inventory and documented throughput, equity, and access at all provider types (hospitals, pharmacies, mass vaccination sites, and clinics).

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Camano Island fire department to close clinic next week after 1,200 expected vaccine doses don't arrive - Q13 FOX (Seattle)