Sheep industry unites to set the record straight – The Scottish Farmer

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EVIDENCE and facts, rather than 'headline grabbing' sensationalism, was to the fore at the first of a series of 'Setting the sheep farming record straight meetings organised by the National Sheep Association.

Kicking off at the Welshpool Livestock Market, Powys, the NSA was joined at the event by British Wool and Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales to counteract the 'almost weekly headlines claiming agriculture is responsible for many of the environmental and health problems' facing society.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: It feels absolutely the right thing to do to be putting effort into positioning our industry as a solution and not the cause of global problems. Weve experienced unprecedented criticism and attack for the duration of this year. These meetings are the perfect platform to share evidence-based facts and statistics on what the actual situation is rather than that which many of the headline grabbing media would have you believe.

HCC meat quality executive Dr Eleri Thomas said: It was good to see a really engaged audience at Welshpool, raising exactly the issues that will be important for us as a levy board over the coming months. We discussed how the industry could give a unified response to the misleading media coverage on livestock farming and meat-free food.

"Also, we had the opportunity to explore how HCCs industry development work such as the Red Meat Development Programme feeds through into outcomes that have a wide benefit, for instance waste reduction, increasing shelf-life, and telling a consistent story to the consumer of how Welsh red meat is a sustainable, high-welfare, high-quality product.

British Wool was there to demonstrate its work to promote the high welfare standards of UK sheep farmers and shearers. Producer marketing executive Laura Johnson said: Working together with farmers to negate any negativity around animal welfare in the sheep farming industry is important and these meetings are doing that by giving farmers the confidence to defend their industry against false or misrepresented information.

NSA and British Wool will travel to Penrith and District Farmers Mart this Thursday, October 31, for their next farmer meeting. A full list of the future meetings with dates and locations can be found at http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/events. All meetings are free to attend and open to all involved in the sheep sector, whether an NSA member or not.

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Sheep industry unites to set the record straight - The Scottish Farmer

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Inside Track: Is NSA Ajit Doval up or down in the Modi-2 regime? – The Indian Express

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval

Is National Security Advisor Ajit Doval up or down in the Modi-2 regime? On one hand, with Amit Shah as Home Minister, Dovals wings automatically get clipped in internal security matters. When Rajnath Singh was home minister, Doval held forth freely at North Block meetings. But with Shah as boss there is less scope for interventions. At times, when Doval issues instructions to the IB chief or other agency heads, he is informed that they have to first check with Shah. On the other hand, there is physical evidence that Dovals clout is expanding in other areas. For instance, earlier he occupied just one floor of Sardar Patel Bhawan as his personal office. Now Doval, raised to the rank of Cabinet minister, has taken over most of the building for the National Security Council (NSC) Secretariat, which has expanded noticeably. There are even three deputy NSAs and the building entrance has got a facelift. Most importantly, the rules of business were re-framed this month so that the NSC can generate Cabinet notes and act like a full government department.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sent word to the Indian ambassador in France that he wanted a pandit to be present when he landed in Bordeaux for the formal ceremony of officially handing over the first of the 36 Rafale jets manufactured for the Indian Air Force. The French authorities, alerted that a puja would be performed on the runway, made discrete inquiries as to what the procedure entailed. At the Dassault Aviation Centre, Rajnath, carried out the rituals of a shastra puja, the ceremony for worshipping weapons. He offered a coconut and flowers, while a lemon was placed under the aircraft wheel. Singh put kum kum on his finger to inscribe the auspicious figure Om on the jet. The French witnessing the ceremony, including the Minister for Armed Forces, top army brass and senior officials of Dassault, heaved a sigh of relief. They had been informed that traditionally Indians inscribe a swastika during a puja. The swastika is an unhappy symbol for France since it evokes memories of Nazi occupation of the country during World War II.

Veteran journalist Ashok Maliks field of expertise is the media. His last job in fact was as press secretary to the President. But in his new position as policy advisor in the Ministry of External Affairs he has reportedly been told not to offer advice on the media. The External Publicity Division is possessive about its turf, even if its efforts for positive coverage on Kashmir in the foreign press have fallen rather short.

The recent BCCI elections demonstrated that this is yet another sphere in which Amit Shah holds sway. However, it was not Shah alone who rooted for Sourav Ganguly over Brijesh Patel for the presidents post. Along with MoS Finance Anurag Thakur, Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who controls the seven votes from the Northeast states, and Congressman Rajiv Shukla who is influential with the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Hyderabad cricket boards, also backed Ganguly. While the common surmise is that Shah coveted a winning face for his party in the Bengal Assembly polls, the BJP president realises that Bengals cautious dada has a history of keeping on the right side of all political parties, whether the TMC, CPI(M) or Congress, and is unlikely to throw his lot solely with the BJP. The common target of the new BCCI members from different camps is Vinod Rai, till last week head of the BCCIs Committee of Administrators (CoA). The cricket bosses who lost control of the most lucrative sport in the country for over three years had announced to all and sundry that they would settle scores by investigating some of the financial transactions of the CoA. Forewarned, the Supreme Court, while permitting the elected office-bearers to take charge, scuttled attempts for a potential witch-hunt against predecessors by inserting two safeguard clauses. No proceedings against the CoA members is possible without court clearance and legal expenses will be borne by the BCCI.

The Garvi Gujarat building, the new Gujarat Bhavan in Delhi inaugurated by PM Modi on September 2, has won plaudits and publicity. But the Bhavan, located on the prestigious Akbar Road, still awaits a resident cook. It is not easy to persuade a skilled Gujarati cook to move to Delhi, since cooks find the cost of living much cheaper in their home state and they prefer the familiar surroundings. The Gujarat authorities put out tenders for an agency to run the kitchen. The tender has finally been awarded, now everyone is waiting for the cook.

This article first appeared in the print edition on October 27, 2019 under the title Inside track: Some up, some down.

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Inside Track: Is NSA Ajit Doval up or down in the Modi-2 regime? - The Indian Express

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Goodyear Must Face Jury In Face of Carpenter’s Mesothelioma Death – Mesothelioma.net Blog

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October 28, 2019

Before being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, Peter Komiak worked as a carpenter and a flooring installer, as well as a home renovation professional. The New York mans career started in 1960, when he worked part-time for a carpeting retailer in Hempstead, Long Island while still in high school. Over the next thirty years he worked with numerous versions of Goodyears vinyl asbestos floor tiles, breathing in dust as he swept floors, empties the trash, and cut carpet and padding. When he was diagnosed with the asbestos-related disease in September of 2017 he filed a mesothelioma lawsuit but died a year and a day after his diagnosis. Despite his loss, his claim is continuing, and New York Asbestos Court judge Manuel J. Mendez recently ruled that despite its objections Goodyear must face a jury in the case.

Mr. Komiak gave a detailed deposition before his mesothelioma death, and the lawsuit provided supporting evidence showing that the companys tile was contaminated with asbestos, yet despite this Goodyear filed a motion for summary judgment claiming that its product did not contain asbestos. Their motion was based on an affidavit provided by a corporate representative, Mr. Joseph A. Kemmerling.

Mr. Kemmerling worked for Goodyear from 1968 through 1979, and testified that Mr. Komiak could not have gotten mesothelioma from their product because for the period of his employment the companys tiles did not contain any asbestos. He also claimed that prior to his employment the company did not sell vinyl asbestos tile.

In response to Mr. Kemmerlings claims, the mesothelioma victims legal team pointed to testimony provided by a Goodyear floor tile development engineer that had been provided in a different lawsuit. That man had testified that the companys tile contained asbestos between 1954 and 1975, and that special orders after that date also contained asbestos.Other similar testimony from Goodyear employees contradicting Mr. Kemmerling was also brought into evidence.

In reviewing this and other testimony, Judge Manuel J. Mendez denied Goodyears motion, pointing out that there was substantial evidence to be considered by a jury. Mr. Komiaks family will be able to continue seeking justice on his behalf.

There were so many commonly-used products contaminated with asbestos in the twentieth century that it is remarkable that more people havent been sickened with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with this rare and fatal disease, we can help you get the resources you need to move forward. Contact the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net today at1-800-692-8608.

Learn more about and contact Terri

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Goodyear Must Face Jury In Face of Carpenter's Mesothelioma Death - Mesothelioma.net Blog

Mesothelioma Compensation Center Has Endorsed Erik Karst of the Law Firm of Karst von Oiste for a Coal-Gas or Nuclear Power Plant Worker with…

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NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mesothelioma Compensation Center says, "When it comes to the best possible financial compensation for a coal, gas, or nuclear power plant worker who has been recently diagnosed with mesothelioma in any state it is vital the person, or their family, are dealing directly with some of the nation's most skilled and experienced mesothelioma attorneys. It is for this reason we have endorsed the law firm of Karst von Oiste and their managing partner Erik Karst as we would like to discuss anytime at 800-714-0303.

"We are advocates for power plant workers with mesothelioma and we want people like themtoget the best possible financial compensation results from coast to coast and all states in between. Power plant workers with mesothelioma are at or near the top of the list when it comes to potential financial compensation. As we would like to discuss anytime at 800-714-0303 we offer direct access to attorney Erik Karst of the law firm of Karst von Oiste because he and his colleagues have generated over a billion dollars in mesothelioma or asbestos compensation results for their clients over the years-and these amazing lawyers know what they are doing."www.karstvonoiste.com/

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center also wants to emphasize attorney Erik Karst or his colleagues at Karst von Oiste will travel anywhere in the nation to meet any type of power plant worker with mesothelioma in their home-for a free no obligation house call. Mesothelioma is an aggressive form of cancer and the group fears many power plant workers with this rare cancer will wait too long to begin the financial compensation process.

The group also worries a power plant worker with mesothelioma, or their family will waste valuable time on 'free' books, kits, packages, claims centers and other nonsense as they would be happy to discuss at 800-714-0303. "Once you hire a law firm to assist with mesothelioma compensation you are stuck with them."https://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.Com

For a listing of all power plants in the United States please refer to the US Energy Information Agency's website on this topic:https://www.eia.gov/ maps/

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center specializes in assisting specific types of people who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. These people include the US Navy Veterans, oil refinery workers, power plant workers, nuclear power plant workers, public utility workers, hydro-electric workers, chemical plant workers, plumbers, electricians, pipefitters, millwrights, welders, or oil and gas field workers. In most instances, these people were exposed to asbestos in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s.https://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.com

According to the CDC, the states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma includeMaine,Massachusetts,Connecticut,Maryland,New Jersey,Pennsylvania,Ohio,West Virginia,Virginia,Michigan,Illinois,Minnesota,Louisiana,Washington, andOregon. However, a coal, gas or nuclear power plant worker with mesothelioma could live in any state includingCalifornia,New York,Florida,Texas,Illinois,Ohio,Iowa,Indiana,Tennessee,North Carolina,Georgia,Nebraska,North Dakota,Wyoming,Colorado,New Mexico,Nevada,Utah,Arizona,Idaho, orAlaska.www.karstvonoiste.com/

For more information about mesothelioma, please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer:https://www.cancer.gov/types/mesothelioma.

Media Contact:Michael Thomas800-714-0303223495@email4pr.com

SOURCE Mesothelioma Compensation Center

Mesothelioma Compensation Center

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Mesothelioma Compensation Center Has Endorsed Erik Karst of the Law Firm of Karst von Oiste for a Coal-Gas or Nuclear Power Plant Worker with...

Do transhumanists need their own bill of rights? – Quartz

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In todays future-facing era, phenomena once relegated to the world of science fiction are starting to edge their way into reality.

We have scientists growing brains from stem cells in petri dishes; robots are being granted national citizenship; virtual intelligences experience and expressanger.

For the past 50 years, the microprocessorthe chip that processes information in a computerhas doubled in capacity at least everyyear to two years. Experts predict that machine intelligence will be smarter than humans by 2030.

So heres my question: When the machines weve created possesses an intelligence that equals ours, will they deserve our protection?

Will they desire it? Maybe even demand it?

This should be your question, too. Because in a little longer than a decades time, well need answers if want to avert moral and civil rights mishaps.

Futurists and technologists have been working to prepare the world for radical new sapient technologies and intelligences with publications such as the Cyborg Bill of Rights V1.0 which advocates equality for mutants.

Beyond the microprocessor, instrumental in catapulting machine intelligence to new levels through its ever-increasing speed for calculations, weve seen accelerating advances in genetic editing, stem-cell research, and 3D bioprinting, each which will help to create entities that have both consciousness and intelligence. This year 3D bioprinting has come so far that a team of Israeli scientists were able to successfully print part of a human heart.

Netflix released a popular four-part documentary series called Unnatural Selection on the topic.

Scientists are already wading into murky waters when it comes to the rights of these new intelligent organisms that we create. AtYale University brains from deceased pigs are being stimulated in a vat, which has prompted controversy in the animal rights world.

Do the brains of these animals, once dead, now represent live animals? And if so, do they receive the same legal rights that have informed laws that protect animals against harmful animal testing and animal cruelty?

As a result of these emerging ethical issues, were seeing more debates about new terms of futurist-oriented rights.

But the fact remains that there are few, if any, actual rules for most of our new scientific realities.

This is largely what inspired me to come up with theTranshumanist Bill of Rights, which Wiredpublished in full in 2018. The document recently underwent its third rendition via crowdsourcing.

When the machines weve created possesses an intelligence that equals ours, will they deserve our protection?

Like many of the cyborg bills that existthere are about half a dozen significant ones floating around the internetthis bill includes legal protections for thinking robots, gender explanations for virtual intelligences, laws for genetically engineered sapient creatures, defense of freedoms allowing biohackers to modify their bodies, and many other protections. It even includes policies to fight off environmental destruction and planetary existential threats such as asteroids, plagues, nuclear war, and global warming.

In 2015, Iwalked up to the US Capitol building holdinga single-page print out of the document I had written. The machine gun-toting police standing guard just feet away from me threatened arrest, but there was little need; the taped-on page quickly fell off the building, fluttered off the wall in the wind.

I wasnt arrested. The police and journalists surrounding me chuckled at the bungled ceremonial moment.

I recall that I couldnt help but smile myself at the idea of getting a futurist bill of rights to become a fixed part of US governing policy at the time.

But four years later, with machines showing ever increasing sophisticationhumans are even marrying robotsin some parts of the worlda bill of rights is not as wild as it once sounded. We could easily say the same for genetically-modified babies being born, which happened for the first time inChinalast year.

In my work, I meet with people around the world who are interested in answering not if we need a futurist bill of rights, but when we will need it, from Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government to theCato Institute to theWorld Economic Forumto European ministries.

If you look through the various cyborg-inspired bills of rights already out there, youll find that a major goal is to include cyborg and transhumanist rights in the UNs 1948Universal Declaration of Human Rights one day.

The ideas of personhood, a right to education, and freedom of speech were once considered unattainable in some countries. Now these basic human rights are common, and at least some of this change is due to the powerful legal influence of the UNs universal bill, often seen as a blueprint for governments and laws around the globe.

Interestingly, one of the challenges of getting a transhumanist bill of rights taken seriously comes from minorities groups, when its perceived that futurist rights will undermine movements of historically marginalized peoples. While plenty of transhumanists are members of the LGBTQ community, the community has been reluctant to wander intofuturist LGBTQissues, such as nongender roleplaying as different species in virtual environments.

LGBTQ friends of minewhile often sympathetic to transhumanist goalshave told me that they believe that after their historic quest for rights in America especially, they still need to focus on progress for their own movement and its goals. They perceive a futurist bill of rights as a distraction.

I respect and agree with this. Minorities in the US and around the world face social discrimination and violations of rights that warrant our attention. But it wont slow down the trajectory of radical technologies, which is spurring a growing futurist community to call for its own set of rights, rules, and protections.

I understand that at times it seems preposterous to believe the world will need to consider whether super intelligentrobots can vote, or whether human heads can betransplantedto waiting tech-engineered bodies, or if four years of college education canbe downloadedinto human brains.

But these realities are likely to occur long before the century is out.

If society doesnt accept that new sapient lifeformswhether its an autonomous digital avatar living in a supercomputer, or a biological creature with human-level intelligence that genetic editing createdalso need rights, or that new forms of engineered conscious intelligences will walk among humans on Earth as a result of scientific progress, society will undergo another wave of civil strife as we scramble to play catch-up to whats fair and moral.

At the very least, societies and governments need more comprehensive plans to formally deal with these new realities. That begins with a Congressional dialogue and forming preliminary legal documents outlining potential rights for the evolving future.

Ultimately, it comes down to how humans believe new intelligent life deserves to be treated.

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Do transhumanists need their own bill of rights? - Quartz

Connecting gene mutations, rare genetic diseases – Baylor College of Medicine News

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Clinical exome sequencing has revolutionized genetic testing for children with inherited disorders, and Baylor College of Medicine researchers have led efforts to apply these DNA methods in the clinic. Nevertheless, in more than two-thirds of cases, the underlying genetic changes in children who undergo sequencing are unknown. Researchers everywhere are looking to new methods to analyze exome sequencing data to look for new associations between specific genes and those rare genetic diseases called Mendelian disorders. Investigators at theHuman Genome Sequencing Centerhave developed new approaches for large-scale analysis of Mendelian disorders, published today in theAmerican Journal of Human Genetics.

The investigators used an Apache Hadoop data lake, a data management platform, to aggregate the exome sequencing data from approximately 19,000 individuals from different sources. Using information from previously solved disease cases, they established methods to rapidly select candidates for Mendelian disease. They found 154 candidate disease-associating genes, which previously had no known association between mutation and rare genetic disease, according toAdam Hansen, lead author of the study and graduate student inmolecular and human geneticsat Baylor.

We found at least five people for each of these 154 genes that have very rare genetic mutations that we suspect might be causing disease, Hansen said. This shows the power of big data approaches toward accelerating the rate of discovery of associations between genes and rare diseases.

These computational methods solve the dual problems of large-scale data management and careful management of data access permission. saidDr. Richard Gibbs, study author and professor of molecular and human genetics and director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor. They are perfect for outward display of data from the Baylor College of Medicine programs.

Exome sequencing currently only diagnoses 30 to 40% of patients, Hansen said. He hopes that diagnosis rate will increase with the discovery of new associations between mutations in certain genes and rare diseases.

The genetics community can now focus on genetic mutations in these genes when they see undiagnosed patients, Hansen said. Since our initial analysis, 19 of these genes have already been confirmed as disease-associating by independent researchers. The collective effort of the genetics community will advance our understanding of these genes and provide further evidence for their potential role in disease.

Other researchers at the Human Genome Sequencing Center who were involved in the study included Mullai Muragan, Donna Muzny, Fritz Sedlazeck, Aniko Sabo, Shalini Jhangiani, Kim Andrews, Michael Khayat, and Liwen Wang.

This work was supported in part by grants UM1 HG008898 from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHBLI) to the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Common Disease Genetics; UM1 HG006542 from the NHGRI/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to the Baylor Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics; R01 NS058529 and R35 NS105078 (J.R.L.) from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); and P50 DK096415 (N.K.) from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

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Utah researchers discover link between certain brain cells and anxiety, OCD – KSL.com

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SALT LAKE CITY Mental health is blamed for a lot of issues plaguing society these days, but scientists and biologists still know very little about whats happening inside the brain that brings on problems in certain people.

A group of researchers at the University of Utah, however, may now have a clue.

Theyve identified a link between a group of specialized brain cells, called Hoxb8-lineage microglia, and obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety in mice.

Similar to humans, female mice are more susceptible to the anxiety-related diseases, though symptoms were observed in male mice, too. The discovery could lead to the development of drugs better suited to treat and/or prevent anxiety and OCD.

It opens up a new avenue for thinking about anxiety, said Dimitri Trnkner, a lead author of the study and assistant biology professor at the U. Since we have this model, we have a way to test new drugs to help these mice and hopefully at some point, this will help people.

The findings suggest a link between biological sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone) and genetics, two major risk factors for anxiety-related disorders in humans, according to the study published this week in Cell Reports.

Until now, it was unknown whether this subset of microglia, which play a crucial role in brain development in the womb, had any other function at all. The new findings build upon previous mice studies conducted by Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi, also a lead author in the new research.

Capecchi had long suspected this subset of microglia was special in some way, but researchers didnt pick up on certain behaviors related to anxiety, such as overgrooming, until this time around its the first study to describe the role of microglia in OCD and anxiety in this way.

We didnt really know what to make of the fact that mice without Hoxb8 appear so normal, until we noticed that they groom significantly more and longer than what would be considered healthy, said Capecchi, a distinguished professor of human genetics at the U.

To test whether sex hormones drove OCD and anxiety symptoms, Trnkner and his colleagues manipulated estrogen and progesterone levels in the mice. They found that at male-levels, the OCD and anxiety behaviors in female mice resembled the male response, and at female hormone levels, the OCD behaviors in male mice looked more like the females severe symptoms, and showed signs of anxiety.

Scientists want to help these people to get their lives back.Dimitri Trnkner

We have a good understanding of how anxiety is produced in people, but cannot do experiments in people, Trnkner said. Of all models, I have great faith that mice are one of the best models, as they are so similar to people.

He said some of the mice had significant hair loss, were more easily stressed out, or lost their natural fight-or-flight response mechanisms without the protective presence of the microglia in their brains.

It shows that the two phenomena are related.

Researchers have long suspected that microglia have a role in anxiety and other neuropsychological disorders in humans because this type of cell can also release substances to harm neurons.

Its surprising to see that (the microglia) are not causing it, but they can protect from it, Trnkner said, adding that researchers and biologists now have an explanation as to why anxiety-related diseases are more common in women.

This news should give hope ... for many reasons, he said.

Science has long tried to find solutions for people who deal with the life-altering mental illnesses, and Trnkner said this puts everyone that much closer to new drugs to treat them, particularly anxiety.

Scientists want to help these people to get their lives back, he said.

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UH Receives $2M to Study Cancer Risks of Environmental Toxins – Big Island Now

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The University of Hawaii Cancer Center has received a $2 million grand award to study how human genetics play a factor in the risk of cancers related to environmental toxins and carcinogens. The award, granted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will support Center researchers Michele Carbone and Haining Yang over a three-year period.

Carbone and Yang are working in partnership with Joe Grzimek, a researcher at the Desert Research Institute and Renown Health in Reno, Nevada.Together, the team will analyze gene interactions and exposure to environmental contaminants among people living in northern Nevadaan area with high rates of respiratory diseases and cancers.

The region is fraught with a variety of toxins affecting human health including asbestos, arsenic and other heavy metals. Inhaling and ingesting these contaminants is known to cause a number of diseases, including cancer. But only a small percentage of people exposed to these toxins develop cancer, suggesting that genetic inheritance may play an important role in whether people fall ill after exposure to environmental carcinogens.

If this hypothesis proves true, the research will help identify possible risk factors in human genes that may lead to cancer and other diseases, and thereby improve prevention methods and treatments.

The studys genetic research will be done at the UH Cancer Center in Honolulu. Environmental sampling and genetic and statistical analyses will be conducted at the Desert Research Institute.

Affiliated with the University of Hawaii at Mnoa, The UH Cancer Center is one of only 71 research institutions designated by the National Cancer Institute. It aims to eliminate cancer through research, education, patient care and community outreach, while recognizing the unique ethnic, cultural and environmental aspects of Hawaii and the Pacific region.

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Genetic testing could keep you healthy. But what about personal info? – Deseret News

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LEHI If given a chance, who wouldnt want to spend a few bucks to find out if theyre at heightened risk for one day having to confront some life-changing or life-ending medical malady?

Thats the concept fueling an explosion in direct-to-consumer genetic testing and one thats also elevating ethical debates about how this most personal of information should be interpreted and protected.

Utah-born Ancestry.com is the latest entry into a growing list of companies offering health-focused genetic testing an industry expected to grow to $20 billion annually in the next few years.

While best known and an industry leader for its expertise in providing answers to the Where am I from? question, Ancestry will now expand its genetic testing resources to help people anticipate future health issues and help address, Whats going to make me sick?

Last week, the company that launched more than 30 years ago as a family history search service, later adding DNA testing to help customers identify their geographic ancestral roots, announced its new, health-focused genetic testing service.

AncestryHealth will offer two levels of genetic testing that the company said will deliver actionable insights that can empower people to take proactive steps in collaboration with their health care provider to address potential health risks identified in their genes and family health history.

Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis said the new genetic tests will help clients proactively manage their health care needs, armed with new insight on what conditions they may be predisposed for, based on genetic evidence.

Your genes dont need to be your destiny, Georgiadis said in a statement. Understanding your familial and inherited health risks can help you take action with your doctor to improve your chances of better health outcomes.

For more than three decades, Ancestry has empowered journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. In the same way that knowledge of your family and ethnicity helps you understand your past to inspire your future, knowledge of your genetic health profile and any associated risks can help you be proactive in managing the future for you and your family.

The two testing products, according to the company, include AncestryHealth Core, which uses the companys current genotype genetic assessment technique to detect genetic differences and deliver personalized reports related to health conditions such as heart disease, hereditary cancers, blood-related disorders, and risks for carrier status of health conditions, such as Tay-Sachs disease. The one-time test costs $149 and also includes the companys family history report. Those who have already submitted a biologic sample to the company can get the new genetic report for $49.

While likely not available until sometime in 2020, the AncestryHealth Plus will use more current, genetic sequencing technology that will provide greater coverage of DNA differences for each condition and more risk categories such as those related to potentially developing heart disease, cancers, and disorders related to blood, the nervous system and connective tissues. The sequencing test will require a $199 activation fee, which the company said includes the first six months of membership and an additional $49 membership fee every six months. Existing Ancestry customers will be able to upgrade to AncestryHealth Plus for an initial payment of $49.

Ancestrys testing regimen will assess genetic samples and indicate predispositions for high cholesterol and cardiomyopathy, which can lead to heart disease; hereditary indicators for breast, ovarian, colon and uterine cancers; and blood disorders including abnormal clotting and iron overload. The testing can also determine if the sample donor is a gene carrier for cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia or Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal nervous system disorder that most commonly occurs in children.

Unlike its competitor, 23andMe, which has earned U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for providing genetic test results directly to customers without a physicians participation, Ancestrys genetic testing service requires a physicians order to conduct the tests and the company says it has contracted with a private network of independent physicians and genetic counselors who participate in the process. Ancestrys health testing service also connects customers to educational information, including access to genetic counseling resources and provides printable and consumer and physician-ready reports that provide guidance for next steps an individual and their health care provider can take together.

Lynn Jorde, chairman of the University of Utahs Department of Human Genetics and executive director of the Utah Genome Project, said while labs are now capable of sequencing the entirety of the human genome some 3 billion genetic basis pairs the microarray technique currently used by Ancestry evaluates a small window of genes that, if a variation is found, have a viable medical response.

What theyre looking at is specific changes in the DNA that we know about in specific instances ... and are often called actionable genes, Jorde explained. If you have a disease causing variant here, there is actually something we can do about it.

Jorde said while some genetic markers, like those for cystic fibrosis, indicate a high probability that you have or will develop that condition, many more are merely suggestive.

The predictive power of genetic testing is getting better and better, but it will never be perfect, Jorde said. For many of these conditions, there are nongenetic components that impact risk.

Jorde said things like environment, diet and exercise/activity level can play a significant role in an individuals risk of developing an illness or disease.

Teneille Brown is a professor at the University of Utahs S.J. Quinney College of Law and an expert in health law and medical ethics. In an interview, she noted direct-to-consumer genetic testing services, now being offered by dozens of companies according to the National Institute of Health, are occupying a space thats in between current regulatory boundaries aimed at protecting individuals privacy rights.

In the research realm, any federally funded projects are subject to stringent privacy rules, Brown said. That is also the case for health care institutions that handle genetic material, under (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules.

But the big databases being built by testing companies are outside of the federal funding process and are not health care providers, so the HIPAA rules dont apply, Brown said.

Ancestry appears to underscore this by noting, in its user agreement, that it is not a covered entity under HIPAA rules.

Brown noted that in addition to unanswered questions about privacy protections, genetic test results can lead to deep emotional impacts for tested individuals, either through the discovery of gene markers that are suggestive of some future medical challenge or, less obviously, when a clean test is returned, which may provide an inaccurate suggestion that theres nothing to worry about.

Theres a huge problem when it comes to understanding what these risk scores mean, Brown said. The predictive values of these results is widely variable, including what is, or is not, implied by failure to find a specific marker.

Brown said genetic testing companies have wide-ranging policies regarding sharing an individuals genetic test results or stored biologic samples with third-party researchers. Ancestry, for example, says it will only share your information if youve given them specific permission to do so, through its informed consent agreement.

While the regulatory world is lagging behind the fast-moving development of genetic testing technology, Brown said she believes the bigger companies, including Ancestry, are working to create appropriate protections for their customers. And, she added, the growing body of knowledge being accumulated by this work could lead to groundbreaking advancements in treatments for serious diseases.

These companies might play a role in developing amazing drugs and therapies, Brown said. Collectively, they are adding all of this amazing content, providing pedigrees and information and incredibly powerful databases ... and a lot of good can come of it.

Its not at all sinister, but we need consumers to know what theyre submitting and being diligent about potential secondary uses of that data. More robust consent requirements for users and strict limitations for secondary uses are certainly in order.

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Genetic testing could keep you healthy. But what about personal info? - Deseret News

Student group works to foster diversity in the sciences – UChicago News

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When Christian Porras came to the University of Chicago three years ago, he knew he had a passion for science. What was less apparent to him was how to chart a path from first-year student to research scientist.

As a first-generation college student from a low-income household, Porras didnt know anyone who had taken a similar path. That changed when he connected with the UChicago chapter of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.

SACNAS became this community, this family for me. It removed some of the uncertainties about my professional goals because I was able to talk to people who were further down the path, Porras said. Now a fourth-year majoring in biological sciences, Porras is undergraduate president of the campus chapter.

This month, SACNAS named the UChicago group chapter of the year for demonstrating significant accomplishments and activities across five areasrecruitment and membership retention, professional development, community outreach, chapter development and fundraising.

One reason for the honor was a regional conference that the leadership team of the UChicago chapter planned earlier this year. They oversaw the 2019 Midwest Regional SACNAS Conference, which brought more than 200 students from the Midwest and around the United States to UChicago for a day of research presentations and professional development.

With the theme Empowering through Boundaries, the conference focused on inclusion and helping students overcome the challenge of breaking through career obstacles. Workshops covered a range of topicsfrom crafting compelling academic applications to including disabilities in discussions about diversity.

This award is an acknowledgement and appreciation of all the hard work that our chapter has put in, not just this year, but over the course of its history at UChicago, said Juan Manuel Vazquez, graduate president of the organization and a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of Human Genetics. He served as chair and lead for the 2019 Midwest conference.

The UChicago chapter of SACNAS was formed in 2016 and became a registered student organization in 2018. The organization has about 50 members, however, its events are open to all students and draw people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Lucia Rothman Denes, the A. J. Carlson Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, serves as its faculty adviser.

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Student group works to foster diversity in the sciences - UChicago News

Takeaways from ASHG 2019 in Houston: Users of Bionano’s Saphyr System Presented Validation Results for FSHD, Repeat Expansion Disorders and Digital…

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SAN DIEGO, Oct. 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bionano Genomics, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNGO), a life sciences instrumentation company that develops and markets Saphyr, a platform for ultra-sensitive and ultra-specific structural variation detection in genome analysis, today announced the key takeaways from presentations given between October 15-19 by scientists from top institutes and diagnostic companies at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting and at Bionanos satellite educational event in Houston, TX.

At ASHG and at the satellite education event held prior to the conference and organized by Bionano, clinicians and researchers using the Saphyr system to analyze samples from patients with genetic diseases and cancer presented a series of new findings and validation results that support the adoption of Saphyr as a complement to next-generation sequencing for variant discovery and as a replacement for traditional cytogenetic methods in variant detection for clinical applications.

Alka Chaubey, Ph.D., Head of Cytogenomics at PerkinElmer Genomics summarized the validation of Saphyr technology by PerkinElmer that enabled the development of PerkinElmers assay for Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy (FSHD), which PerkinElmer and the University of Iowa developed based on the Bionano EnFocus FSHD Analysis tool. Dr. Chaubey presented 100% concordance between the assay and known disease state for publicly available cell lines, and 100% reproducibility among all runs and all FSHD patient samples at multiple test sites and with multiple operators.

Joe Devaney, Ph.D., Associate Director of R&D of diagnostic company GeneDx presented a Saphyr validation study for the detection of the disease-causing variants in FSHD and repeat expansion disorders such as Mytonic Dystrophy 1 and 2. For the 40 samples genotyped for the contraction causing FSHD and the 36 samples genotyped for CNBP gene expansion that causes Mytonic Dystrophy 2, the results generated with Saphyr had a sensitivity, specificity and Positive Predictive Value of 100%.

Dr. Gokce Toruner from the MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrated 100% concordance between data generated with Saphyr and structural variant data generated with gold standard cytogenetic methods in five bone marrow specimens with hematological malignancies. All previously identified cytogenetic abnormalities detected by karyotyping, FISH or microarray analysis were detected by Saphyr. In addition, several novel structural and copy number changes were detected.

Professor Mark Ebbert from the Mayo Clinic used Saphyr to resolve challenging genomic regions implicated in neurodegenerative diseases on 31 brain samples collected post-mortem from patients with ALS, Parkinsons disease, and Alzheimers disease. One of the causes of ALS is an expansion of a repeat in a gene called C9orf72. While no technology commonly used today for genome analysis has been capable of spanning and measuring the larger repeat expansions of this gene, Dr. Ebbert was able to use the Saphyr system to size a range of expansions from a single brain biopsy, demonstrating a full continuum of mosaicism. In patients with Parkinsons disease, Saphyr resolved the structure of an inverted triplication of an associated gene. In patients with Alzheimers disease, Saphyr detected structural variants in CR1, an important gene with a repeat structure that cannot be fully analyzed with next-generation sequencing, and detected inversions in the Tau gene that protect against the disease.

Frances High, MD., Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children at Harvard University presented results of a study on 19 samples from patients with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH), a common and severe structural birth defect that leads to malformation for the developing lungs. Using data from the Saphyr system, Dr. Highs team confirmed all high-confidence structural variants that were detected by cytogenetic methods, provided additional higher-resolution detail and elucidated the structure of several, and identified novel likely causative variants. Dr. High announced an upcoming larger study of 50 patient-parent trios, or 150 samples total, to identify novel structural variants that are causative for this disease.

Professor Jennifer Mulle from Emory University School of Medicine used the Saphyr system to study a genetic syndrome characterized by intellectual disability, autism and a 40-fold increased risk for schizophrenia. She identified a high degree of previously undocumented structural variation in the disease region, identified a new gene previously not known to be involved in the disease, and was able to develop a new hypothesis about the disease mechanism from the data generated by Saphyr.

Professors Eric Vilain and Hayk Barseghyan from the George Washington University and Childrens National Medical Center presented a number of cases from the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, patients with Disorders of Sex Development, Gitelmans Syndrome, FSHD and Beckwith-Wiedeman syndrome where Bionano was able to provide a molecular diagnosis, identify new likely causative genes, or identify structural variants affecting known or expected disease genes.

Other talks included those by Professor Claudia Carvalho of Baylor College of Medicine, who used data from the Saphyr system to analyze repeat-mediated inversions, which are complex genomic structures that are hard or impossible to resolve with other molecular methods but can predispose to genetic disease; Tina Graves-Lindsay from the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University, who corrected structural errors in the official human reference genomes with data generated with Saphyr; and Amir Trabelsi, CEO of Genoox, who announced the new release of a software pipeline that now automatically validates, annotates and classifies Bionano translocation calls from whole genome sequence data.

Erik Holmlin, Ph.D., CEO of Bionano, commented, The quality of the studies presented and wide variety of applications for Saphyr in genetic disease and cancer research is continuing to increase. Data generated by the Saphyr system are answering difficult questions in complex genetic diseases that have been historically very challenging according to each of the presenters who described their experiences with Saphyr. The validation studies for FSHD, repeat expansion disorders and hematological malignancies are setting the stage for Saphyr to become a routine tool in research and clinical settings. We are grateful to all our customers and collaborators for their inspiration and for their work in showing what Saphyr can do.

More information about Bionano Genomics is available at http://www.bionanogenomics.com.

About Bionano GenomicsBionano is a life sciences instrumentation company in the genome analysis space. Bionano develops and markets the Saphyr system, a platform for ultra-sensitive and ultra-specific structural variation detection that enables researchers and clinicians to accelerate the search for new diagnostics and therapeutic targets and to drive the adoption of digital cytogenetics, which is designed to be a more systematic, streamlined and industrialized form of traditional cytogenetics. The Saphyr system comprises an instrument, chip consumables, reagents and a suite of data analysis tools.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as may, will, expect, plan, anticipate, estimate, intend and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes and are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, including among other things, adoption of Saphyr as a routine tool in research and clinical settings and the effectiveness and utility of the Saphyr system in such settings. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such a difference include the risks that our sales, revenue, expense and other financial guidance may not be as expected, as well as risks and uncertainties associated with general market conditions; changes in the competitive landscape and the introduction of competitive products; changes in our strategic and commercial plans; our ability to obtain sufficient financing to fund our strategic plans and commercialization efforts; the ability of key clinical studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of our products; the loss of key members of management and our commercial team; and the risks and uncertainties associated with our business and financial condition in general, including the risks and uncertainties described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and in other filings subsequently made by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made and are based on management's assumptions and estimates as of such date. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of the receipt of new information, the occurrence of future events or otherwise.

Contacts

Company Contact:Mike Ward, CFOBionano Genomics, Inc. +1 (858) 888-7600mward@bionanogenomics.com

Investor Relations Contact:Ashley R. RobinsonLifeSci Advisors, LLC+1 (617) 775-5956arr@lifesciadvisors.com

Media Contact:Kirsten ThomasThe Ruth Group+1 (508) 280-6592kthomas@theruthgroup.com

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Takeaways from ASHG 2019 in Houston: Users of Bionano's Saphyr System Presented Validation Results for FSHD, Repeat Expansion Disorders and Digital...

DNA research holds the keys to human history but it’s being weaponized by politicians – Haaretz

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Twitter account blew up in July in the wake of an extraordinary tweet: A new study of DNA recovered from an ancient Philistine site in the Israeli city of Ashkelon confirms what we know from the Bible that the origin of the Philistines is in southern Europe. ... The Palestinians connection to the Land of Israel is nothing compared to the 4,000 year connection that the Jewish people have with the land.

Netanyahu, like the hundreds of people who replied to the tweet, interpreted the study as overwhelming proof of Jewish ownership of the Land of Israel and proof that the Philistines who share an etymological history with the Palestinians were new immigrants, having arrived here just 3,000 years ago. Officials from the Palestinian Authority were quick to say that Palestinians are the descendants not of the Philistines but rather of the Canaanite Jebusites, who were ostensibly the original inhabitants of the land.

Netanyahus tweet came a few days after the publication in the magazine Science advances of a study by researchers from Germanys Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Leon Levy Expedition. The researchers sampled DNA from 10 skeletons found in Ashkelon and concluded that their gene pool came from southern Europe. The finding supports the accepted theory that the Philistines migrated from the area of Greece and settled along what is today Israels southern Mediterranean coast.

The studys authors, however, were infuriated by the prime ministers tweets. They considered responding but decided it might give the tweets more exposure. Netanyahus political spin on the research upset many scholars, who saw it as an example of the danger inherent in bringing genetics into the study of human history. Critics fear that used incautiously, genetic research not only has the potential to distort history but also can become a tool for racist propaganda in the hands of extremist politicians and groups.

The ability to extract and sequence DNA from samples that are thousands and even hundreds of thousands of years old has led to significant breakthroughs in the study of evolution. By sequencing Neanderthal genomes, scientists have learned about the health, physical appearance and settlement patterns of Neanderthals. Even more important, DNA research led to the discovery of formerly unknown hominids. The most famous being the Denisovans, which was discovered only thanks to a single finger bone found in a cave in Siberia, from which its owners genome was sequenced. The researchers were also able to determine that most modern human beings carry genes from Neanderthals, Denisovans and additional, as-yet unidentified hominids.

Broad brush

These successes led researches to apply genetic tools to later periods, and according to some critics that is where the danger lies. A study published last week in Science Magazine of 4,000-year-old graves in southern Germany determined, using DNA and as well as the objects with which their occupants were buried that the wealthiest men were locals. Poor men, servants and most of the women came from elsewhere, and most of the high-status women were apparently sent to other communities. One can only manage the political conclusions that could be drawn from the study.

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The problem isnt with the research itself, says Raphael Greenberg, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University. Say I want to know about the connection between the Levant and the Greek region. I have various ways to examine it: pottery, inscriptions, symbols, language, and now something new has been added to my arsenal. Thats great, no one will deny that its useful. The problem is that DNA research has an element of magic to it. Only a few laboratories carry out these tests, at very high cost, and no one can argue with them, Greenberg says. He adds that their operators dont make do with presenting their findings; they go on to interpret the results. He believes that DNA researchers should leave conjectures about population migrations to the relevant experts.

The disagreement surrounding Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, by Harvard geneticist David Reich, illustrates Greenbergs argument. Reich is considered the most important researcher in the area of ancient DNA, but his critics attack him for reducing complex historical process into simplified sound bites. He has lost some of the soul of what archaeology and sociology are, wrote Anna Linderholm of Texas A&M University in a review published in Current Anthropology. With his investigations he is painting with large brushstrokes a picture of our past, and in doing so, he might be missing some of the finer points. Who we are is much more than the genetics.

Critics argue that genetics alone cannot tell the complex story of the exchange of genetic material between two population groups, which involves not only migrations but also trade, war and the taking of male and female prisoners.

Gene sequencing, says Prof. Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa, is a completely new tool whose potential we dont yet understand.... The danger is in making the connection between genetics and cultural. Its absolutely forbidden and borders on racism.

My granny was a Philistine

The dispute over the archaeological use of DNA is part of a broader discussion. Last year Reich published an opinion piece in The New York Times in which he argued that scientists should stop denying the existence of genetic differences between human population groups, rather than viewing race as entirely a social construct with no biological basis.

It is important to face whatever science will reveal without prejudging the outcome and with the confidence that we can be mature enough to handle any findings. Arguing that no substantial differences among human populations are possible will only invite the racist misuse of genetics that we wish to avoid, Reich wrote.

In an open letter produced by a group of 67 scientists and researchers and published on BuzzFeed, they attacked Reichs approach and warned against returning to a racial-genetic understanding of humanity.

Human beings are 99.5% genetically identical.... [Y]ou could genotype all Red Sox fans and all Yankees fans and find that one group has a statistically significant higher frequency of a number of particular genetic variants than the other group.... This does not mean that Red Sox fans and Yankees fans are genetically distinct races, they wrote.

Michal Feldman, an Israeli geneticist who works at the Max Planck Institute, was the lead author on the article on the skeletons from Ashkelon. Were trying to be cautious in our research and also in our press releases, and to explain exactly what we found, she says. We said we saw a genetic component that came from southern Europe, but that it disappeared after 200 years despite the fact that culturally they were still Philistines. Feldman agrees that the genetics must be separated from culture. Theres no such thing as a pure population or separate groups. Only a tiny part of the genome, 0.01 percent, attests to the origin, and most of the genes within that part are of no importance.

Nimrod Marom, an archaeo-zoologist at the University of Haifa, says the danger is of reducing the discussion to the question, Where did your mother come from?. He says that DNA research is more interested in the origin of the Philistines grandmother than in the way he lived here. In the end it doesnt say much about me and doesnt say much about anyone, he says. We get annoyed today when thats done to us, when we are categorized according to where we came from, so theres no reason not to be annoyed when its done to people from other periods.

Greenberg also believes that the danger of reductionism in genetic studies is much greater than getting an inaccurate picture of the past. We object to these classifications in our daily lives, we dont want to be defined by something that we dont see and have no control over. We want to say who we are by what we think and what we identify with. This method expropriates our identify from us. It says your identity isnt your religion and it isnt the food that you like, its what we tell you it is. Theres not really any such thing as the original inhabitants of this land.

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DNA research holds the keys to human history but it's being weaponized by politicians - Haaretz

Scientists have created the first-ever 18-carbon ring, a major feat of molecular architecture – Massive Science

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Have you ever wondered why you wash your rice or soak it overnight before cooking it? Perhaps you wash your rice grains to enhance taste, reduce starch levels, or maybe that's just the way your family has always prepped rice. Thanks to a tip from science communicator Samantha Yammine who came across Dr. Nausheen Sadiq's neat finding while live-tweeting a forum on Diversity and Excellence in Science it turns out there is another reason why, as washing rice actually helps reduce the concentration of heavy metals, like chromium, cadmium, arsenic, and lead.

Heavy metal contamination in crops can be caused by human activities, such as mining, fertilizers, pesticides, and sewage sludge. Compared to most cereal crops though, rice (Oryza sativa L.) actually accumulates more heavy materials, like cadmium or arsenic, where long-term heavy metal intake can cause health risks. For example, long-term arsenic exposure leads to skin disease, high blood pressure, and neurological effects. This is especially important to consider as rice is a staple food across the globe.

Heavy metal contamination in crops can be caused by human activities, such as mining, fertilizers, pesticides, and sewage sludge.

Photo by TUAN ANH TRAN on Unsplash

In a recent study, researchers investigated the effects of different cooking methods (normal, high-pressure and microwave cooking) on the concentration, bio-accessibility and health risks posed by three heavy metals (cadmium, arsenic and lead) in two strains of brown rice. After cooking 100 grams of brown rice grains, researchers evaluated bioaccessibility (i.e. how much of the heavy metal is released for absorption) by mixing rice samples with simulated gastric fluid, and then used spectrometery to measure heavy metal concentration. Lastly, the researchers calculated the health risk posed by the heavy metals by calculating values such as the average daily dose.

Overall, the researchers found that instead of the three different cooking methods, it was the washing process which significantly reduced concentrations of cadmium, arsenic and lead, suggesting that the reduction may be due to rice morphology. For example, lead is found largely in the outer compartments of rice kernels, so lead is more likely to be removed during rice washing.

In contrast, the three cooking methods did impact bioaccessibility i.e. how much of the heavy metal would be released for absorption by the body. Here, washing and soaking isn't enough as rice absorbs water poorly at 25C. This finding was also reflected in calculated values: the average daily doses of cadmium, arsenic and lead were lower in washed and cooked rice, compared to raw rice.

It's worth noting that the European Commission has enforced limits on heavy metal levels - for example, arsenic is currently limited to 200 parts per billion (ppb) for adults and 100 ppb for infants. Both the U.S. and Canada currently have no limits in place for arsenic in food though Canada is currently reviewing a proposal to add maximum levels for arsenic found in white and brown rice, while the U.S. FDA has previously released a (non-binding) risk assessment, suggesting the same 100 ppb levels as Europe.

So the takeaway here is that yes, your family and all those professional chefs have been right all along. Yes, washing rice involves sacrificing some of its nutritional value, but doing so means you can reduce the levels of heavy metals present in grains, and still enjoy dishes like rice cakes. And returning back to Yammine's reporting, Saudiq actually shared that by soaking and washing rice for ~5 mins, you can get rid of 50-100% of these elements. (Thanks Sam!)

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Scientists have created the first-ever 18-carbon ring, a major feat of molecular architecture - Massive Science

Law, Privacy and Genome Human Rights Failure in Russia – Putin’s Fascination with Hitler’s Eugenics Project – Communal News

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The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) and the European Union developed genetic information privacy regulations to protect the public. A majority of experts have agreed for the need for genetic information privacy. In 2014 the HUGO Committee on Ethics, Law and Society (CELS) presented a human rights approach to an international code of conduct for genomic and clinical data sharing. The code of conduct is supposed to prevent human rights violations during the research of genomes, allowing enough protection to allow scientific research in the genome field.

However, China and Russia do not have any protections. China is actually attempting to collect such information on all its citizens. China is not new to human rights violations. Russian lawyers have been raising concern, but thus far no laws have materialized, nor does Russia believe in the HUGO conduct policies. Russia relies on its constitution Section 21, but in reality it does not protect genetic information whatsoever. In the US, HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was modified to include genetic information as medical information pertaining to privacy.

Putin is fascinated with Hitlers eugenics project. This summer it was announced that the Russian military will be assigning soldiers based on their genetic passport. The project involves not only the assessment of their physiological state, but also a prediction of their behavior in critical situations in combat.

Also Putin, issued a decree in March 2019 that consists of social engineering propaganda to collect its citizens genetic information under the guise of protecting Russians from a western chemical or biological attack. A proposal was raised this week to add additional amendments to make the project country wide and disregard privacy laws. This would further violate the human rights of Russian citizens and forcefully gather and store their genetic data.

The second phase will be implemented at the beginning of 2020 to start testing all potential cosmonauts and even intelligence officers. The Russian Academy of Sciences is in charge of the project, which is sounding more like a Nazi eugenics operation for the master race. The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia, a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation.

HUGO code of conduct main principles:

Russia is violating human rights and the Kremlins direction into a eugenics program is a direct violation of the HUGO code of conduct and the rights of Russian citizens. Putin is a danger to the West.

Related

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Law, Privacy and Genome Human Rights Failure in Russia - Putin's Fascination with Hitler's Eugenics Project - Communal News

Neural activity plays an important role in longevity – CMU The Tartan Online

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While we have long known that neural activity in the brain is responsible for disorders such as dementia and epilepsy, recent research conducted by scientists in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School (HMS) has shown that it also plays a role in human aging and life span.

The study was published in Nature on Oct. 16. Researchers observed mice, worms, and human brains and found that a lot of activity in the brain is correlated with shorter life spans. As such, suppressing brain activity extends life spans. This is the first piece of evidence that supports the hypothesis that nervous system activity impacts longevity in humans. Past studies have demonstrated that portions of the nervous system affect animal aging, but no prior work has shown similar effects in humans.

An intriguing aspect of our findings is that something as transient as the activity state of neural circuits could have such far-ranging consequences for physiology and life span, said study senior author Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics at HMS and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging in a HMS press release.

A chain that affects longevity, the insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling pathway, is apparently where neural excitation acts. An integral portion of this signaling cascade is RE1-Silencing Transcription (REST), a protein that the Yankner Lab has shown prevents brains from developing dementia and other disorders.

Neural activity is defined as all of the electrical currents and transmissions contained within the brain. Neural excitation can result in many outcomes such as a muscle twitch or a change in our mood. As for mood, the study has not yet shown if someones thoughts, personality, or actions change their lifespan.

An exciting future area of research will be to determine how these findings relate to such higher-order human brain functions, said Yankner.

Yankner and his colleagues looked at gene expression patterns in donated tissue from people who died between the ages of 60 and 100. None of these adults had dementia.

They found that those who were alive for more than 85 years expressed neural excitation genes to a lesser extent than those who died between the ages of 60 and 80. In order to test if these results were due to correlation or causation, the researchers conducted many experiments on C. elegans, genetically altered mice, and more brain tissue.

They found that blocking REST, a protein responsible for suppressing gene expression and neural activity, caused higher neural activity and earlier deaths. Centenarians brains contained more REST than those who died earlier.

Thanks to this study, the development of new therapies that can treat conditions involving neural excitation such as Alzheimers disease or bipolar disorder is imminent. In addition, the scientists have found that some forms of medicine like drugs that target REST or some actions such as meditation may be capable of increasing lifespan through the modulation of neural activity. Since human variation in neural activity may have both environmental and genetic causes, this study has opened up future avenues for therapeutic intervention.

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Neural activity plays an important role in longevity - CMU The Tartan Online

Book Summary: Genetics and the Aryan Debate by Shrikant Talageri- I – IndiaFacts

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There are two theories regarding thehistory of ancient Indian civilization. The first is the AIT or the AryanInvasion Theory, postulating that a group of people from South West Russiaspeaking Indo-European languages (or Aryan languages) entered India in thesecond millennium BCE; and conquered North India establishing their language,culture, and religion all over. A modified version is the AMT or the AryanMigration Theory, which holds that there was no invasion, but a gradual and a tricklingmigration into an existing culture. The semantics may be slightly different,but the implications remain the same. This AIT/AMT story has a two-centuryhistory of propagation and relies on three academic disciplines: Archaeology,linguistics, and textual/inscriptional data. The textual data is mainly theVedas.

The author says that the weight of theevidence in the above three fields strongly support, in fact, the rival theorycalled the OIT or the Out of India theory, which sees India as the originalhomeland of the languages and people of the West. The Proto-Indo-European (PIE)group of languages started the speculation of an original Indian homeland in1800, but it went into complete hibernation as scholars vigorously propagatedthe AIT theory for more than a century. The reasons were many.

Koenraad Elst in his wonderful preface saysthat the political applications of the racially interpreted AIT include:

Talageri, Koenraad Elst, Nicholas Kazanas,Russian scholars Igor Tonoyan-Belyayev, and Aleksandr Semenenko are some OITscholars arguing their case strongly as the theory gained ground once again in1990. The AIT scholars, when confronted with evidence shaking their veryfoundations took the following routes to respond: by calling it a migrationrather than an invasion; by denying it completely; by questioning the validityof the data; by questioning the personal identities and moral values of theauthors; by avoiding them in public forums on the issue; and finally, by shuttingtheir eyes and ears, completely ignoring them.

But a saviour came. A saviour called TonyJoseph riding on a shining horse called genetics. Tony wrote a series ofarticles, finally culminating into a book called the Early Indians where hecollects all the genetic evidence to finally show that Aryans did enter Indiaand create the caste system. The AIT proponents are no wonder ecstaticallyhugging him. There is complete ignoring of the archaeological, linguistic, andthe textual sources, and they recede into the background. And now Talageristeps in.

WERE THE HARAPPANS DRAVIDIAN-LANGUAGESPEAKERS?

The Indus or the Harappan script is not yetdeciphered, but it is antique predating the Indo-Iranian languages and theVedic Sanskrit of North-West India. The Harappan language even predates theDavidian languages spoken in the South. In the absence of any recorded foreigninvasions historically, it would be reasonable to assume that the Indus orHarappan language would have been an ancestor to the Indo-Iranian languagefamily of the same region, used at a much later date.

AIT proponents are very keen to establishby circular reasoning that the Harappan language is the precursor to theDravidian family of languages; and that the evidence for linking Harappan tothe Indo-Iranian language family is absent. Remember the Aryans came fromoutside to establish their language of Sanskrit by force.

Talageri says that the evidence for linkingthe Harappan language to the Dravidian language family is even more absent.It is more logical to think of a continuity as the Harappan language developinginto the Indo-Iranian languages of the North. But that would be a deathblow tothe entire edifice of the Aryan-Dravidian debate and the chronology of eventswhere the Aryans forced their way into a Harappan culture and drove then South.

The standard story claims that Aryansdeveloped their Sanskrit and wrote the Vedas; and the Dravidians- dominated andsubjugated- continued with altered forms of an original Harappan language. Theevidence for all these speculations is very weak according to Talageri. Palliis a word for a village or a hamlet, and it is a Dravidian word. The nameplaces in coastal and south-western Maharashtra have a lot of vali or olias suffixes which could be derivation of the word palli. And thusproved, that the Dravidians migrated along these places on coastal andsouth-western Maharashtra to the South of Vindhyas!

What about the Brahuis of Baluchistan, anisolated Dravidian language in Pakistan? Tony Joseph quotes the now abandonedtheory that some pastoralists stayed back in Baluchistan, while the urbanitesmoved south. However, it is very clear by the voice of many scholars that theDravidian languages mainly concentrate in the south, though there are a few inthe tribal areas of the Bengal region. The presence of Dravidian language inthe Baluchistan region is the result of a recent northward migration from thesouth, as all linguists now accept.

Talageri says that the idea of the urbanand pastoralist segments of the Harappans referred to by Tony Joseph is strangeand funny. One of the proofs that the Rigvedic Aryans are not identifiable withthe Harappans is that the Rigvedic Aryans were pastoralists and noturbanites, according to AIT groups. Talageri quotes scholars who stronglyfeel that the Vedic collection is not the output of wandering pastoralists, butrather well-fed priests in a prosperous urban community!

Similarly, if palli as root of thewords vali and oli come to usage in the geographicalreconstructions of migrations; then the author suggests that the Greek placename suffix polis (as in Persepolis, Heliopolis, Annapolis) can also berooted in the same word palli. And that could imply even a westwardmigration of the Greeks from a Dravidian area to Greece! Finally, the evidencewhich Tony Joseph shows in the downward migration of the Dravidian languages ison flimsy evidence and shows a great level of bias and a lack of scientificnature, according to Shrikant Talageri.

WHY IS THE PERIOD 2000-1000 BCE SOSIGNIFICANT AND IMPORTANT?

Aryan or the Indo-European migration fromacross Asia came as a theory because of a discovery of common features in thelanguages between northern India and Europe sweeping across many regions and countries.This language family had to be a result of a common origin from wherethe original people migrated to different parts, where new languages developed,albeit with strong links to the parent language.

So, where is the origin? The Steppes ofSouth Russia, say the unanimous voice of the scholars. At least the voice ofthe AIT/AMT scholars. From the Steppes of Russia to North West India is thetraced migration of these Aryans where they encountered the local Harappans,drove them South, established the language of Sanskrit and then wrote theVedas.

The Indo-European languages are twelveliving and extinct branches of languages. From the west to the east they are: Celtic,Italian, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Anatolian (extinct), Armenian,Iranian, Tocharian (extinct), and Indo-Aryan. The common ancestral languagegets the term PIE (Proto-Indo-European). The whole theory is purely based onlinguistic analysis and only on the logic of a common origin of languages in ageographically-restricted Homeland from where the migrations took place.Talageri now constructs the time periods for these events and the route takenby these invaders/migrants in the dominant discourse.

Unfortunately, there are lot of problemswith this story. Most importantly, there is absolutely no archaeologicalevidence, not a shred, to support this remarkable migration from the Steppes ofRussia to North West India and the full-blown development of Sanskrit/ Rigvedain a remarkably short span of less than two thousand years. Archaeology of theHarappan area shows an extremely stable civilization without any cataclysmicchanges propounded by the forced entry of the Aryans from 4500 BCE to 500 BCE.Again, archaeology is a nail in the coffin of AIT, because whatever evidence ithas, it is more in favour of an exact opposite trend of migration, from out ofIndia to the west!

Studying the Rigvedic data shows clearlythat the Indo-Aryan speaking Vedic people were present in a wide area fromSouth- East Afghanistan to westernmost UP. The Rigveda does not contain asingle reference of any tradition, name, or place in memory of its previousjourneys from the Russian steppes. Also, the river and place names have noconnection to the Dravidian languages who were allegedly living there before.Rivers in Europe carry the original names even after the influx of Europeanlanguages, but this does not funnily seem to happen in the North West India.All the names and places are Indo-European. The area is, in short, purelyIndo-Aryan in the Veda itself.

A very populous Dravidian civilization in ashort span from 2000 BCE to 1200 BCE could not have just left the area for theinvading or the trickling nomadic Aryans to become completely obliterated fromany reference whatsoever. There is no reference in the Vedas or archaeologywhich records such great cataclysmic events.

The other Samhitas follow the Rigveda:the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, and the Atharvaveda. Thenthere are the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, the Upanishads, andthe Sutras. Each of these have their own chronological periods showinglinguistic changes indicating that they were of different periods of time; butall before the Buddha. This squeezes the entire period of the Vedic corpus intoa narrow window of 400-600 years. Remarkable!

For the AIT/AMT to hold, the period between2000 BCE to 1000 BCE is extremely important, as this is the period wheneverything related to Aryan migration into India, driving away theHarappans/Dravidians, development of the perfect language of Sanskrit andwriting the entire corpus of the Rigveda happened. The major problem comes thatall evidence from archaeology, textual/inscriptional analysis, and evenlinguistics show the presence of Indo-Aryans much before 2000 BCE. In fact,evidence from above can show a reverse migration as the OIT (Out of India)proponents aggressively suggest.

And now comes the superhero for the AIT- genetics.A paper written by ninety-two scientists called The Genomic formation ofSouth and Central Asia apparently proves for Tony Joseph that multiplewaves of Steppe pastoralist migrants between 2000 BCE and 1000 BCE from CentralAsia into South Asia brought Indo-European languages and new religious/cultural practices.

The migrations may be a fact based ongenomics; but the conclusion of bringing in languages and culture is purespeculation of the AIT/AMT proponents who still want to hold on to the period2000-1000 BCE says Talageri. All the recorded evidence in the three importantbranches of archaeology, textual corpus, and linguistics show evidence to thecontrary. Genetics should hold its findings in confirmation to establishedevidence, but not in confirmation of theoretical speculations. It is an attemptto fit forcibly the data into a pre-supposed theory. The science may not be badhere, but the interpretations are suspect.

CAN GENETIC EVIDENCE TELL US THATIE-LANGUAGE SPEAKERS MIGRATED TO INDIA FROM CENTRAL ASIA?

There are two components to the claim ofTony Joseph in the book. The first is that between 2000-1000 BCE, multiplewaves of Steppe pastoralist migrants from central Asia entered south Asia, andcould be a fact. The second component is that they brought Indo-Europeanlanguages and new religious practices into an existing civilization andcompletely changed the pattern of civilization without any force. It is almostlike one entering a random beautiful mansion peacefully and asking the ownersto leave. The latter do so willingly without any resistance leaving the mansionto the people who asked so politely. Obviously, the second part is purespeculation and doubtful if genetics can make any such claims, as Talagerisays.

Genetics is a super science no doubt and ithas made great contributions in tracing ancestries and migrations of humansacross the globe. Adam Rutherford in his book, A Brief History of EveryoneWho Ever Lived traces the ancestry of all humankind brilliantly. AdamRutherford says, a few thousand years back, a few thousand men were theancestors of all people who are living now. Hence, a Chinese, a Russian, anIndian, a European, an African, an Arab are all living in your and my DNA asinformation, some expressed and some not. We are all related and not only that;we are all related to the Neanderthals too, whom we successfully eliminated orintegrated with. About 2-3% of genes belong to the Neanderthals. Yes, weprocreated with them. Humans have been certainly very promiscuous. Some donot agree to the Neanderthal bit though.

Genes can track the movements of speciesacross various geographical locations; and it is nearly clear that we all cameout of Africa. The humankind presently populating the entire globe started as asmall group of people in Africa who started walking. The unifying message of Rutherfordsbook is we are all one; but each one is unique. What a wonderful way tocelebrate!

Another myth which the Rutherfordsuccessfully blows up are the claims of discovery of genes for complex humantraits like sexual orientation or alcoholism. That is almost always fictitiousscience something akin to phrenology which predicted human behaviour bylooking at bumps on the skull. Genetic code is very complex for most humantraits with hundreds and thousands of genes being involved in each human trait.And all the genes interact in a highly-complicated manner with the environmentthey are in. The behaviour of humans is simply too complex to have the paradigmof one gene leading to one disease or one trait. In such a situation, it mightbe difficult to conceive of language and cultural migrations based solely ongenetic studies. Language and culture are components of evolution mechanisms, independentof genetics with maybe some interlinking, in the words of authors Eva Jablonkaand Marion Lamb (Evolution in Four Dimensions), but a study of the genesthemselves to predict linguistic movements is tricky science.

Anyway, according to Tony Joseph, the onlycriterion for the identifying genetic evidence of the influx from Central Asiais the dating of the Rigveda also between 2000 to 1000 BCE. Vedic compositionis between 1400 BCE to 1000 BCE, claims Tony Joseph on the authority of MichaelWitzel. It is important for the Aryan theory bringing in Indo-Europeanlanguages to also have a linkage in the linguistic sense. This means tallyingwith the dating of the oldest of the Vedas too.

The philosophy of science has a deepprinciple of falsification. If there is falsification of a key component of anytheory, then the whole theory stands to scrutiny. If the Vedas are older than2000 BCE, then the whole edifice of the Aryan invasion or migration theorycollapses. This is what Talageri proves repeatedly that the Vedas are atleast beyond 3000 BCE. And the AIT/AMT school shuts itself from Talageriand indulges in neither proving or disproving his contrary claims. And that isbad science.

THE OLD RIGVEDA AND THE NEW RIGVEDA

The Rigveda is the oldest manuscript in theworld. It is also the longest inscription from the ancient world. The Rigvedaconsists of 10 mandalas or books; 1028 suktas or hymns; and 10552 mantras orverses. The Rigveda is amazing in the sense that its preservation has been in aperfectly pristine form for over thousands of years in an oral form. Thetextual form came much later. Every word, every syllable, and even the tonalaccent to pronounce the words has an exact preservation across time and space.They are a tape recording of the Vedic era transmitted orally; and hence, anautobiography of the time when composed. The names of places or persons referto contemporary sources of that time; and this is the unanimous opinion ofgreat scholars, both Indian and western.

The Rigveda is an inscription telling usabout the Vedic age. Unfortunately, there is no exact dating of the Vedic textsin a direct manner. However, Talageri says the dating becomes possible whencompared to other related data from the Avesta and the Mittanirecords.

Scholars after deep study have concludedthe division of the Rigveda into the New books and the Old books.The Old books are 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and the New books are 1, 5, 8,9,10. There isalso another division as family books which are basically the Old booksalong with book 5; and the non-family books which are the New booksexcept book 5. There are several add on verses called the redacted hymns whichare present only in the Old books and they come as an addition either betweenthe verses or at the end of the book. The redacted hymns were additions at thetime of writing the New books.

So finally, the Old Rigveda are the books2, 3, 4, 6, 7 with 280 hymns and 2351 verses after subtracting the redactedhymns; and the New Rigveda are books 1, 5, 8, 9, 10 with 686 hymns and 7311verses. The 62 redacted hymns with 890 verses form a late appendix to the OldRigveda- a kind of grey area between the two epochs.

The authors scholarship comes into thefore in this chapter where Talageri discusses the differences between the Oldand the New books of the Rigveda. The differences are in the authors, thestructure of the verses, the meters used, the sacred numerical formulae,categories of words, usage of personal names, usage of suffixes or prefixes informing compound words, grammatical forms, certain mythical and sociologicalconcepts, categories of words, differing meaning of same words, totally newwords in the New books, and so on.

The conclusion from all the above is that the two parts of the text fall in two distinct chronological eras; the era of the Old Rigveda followed by the era of the New Rigveda.

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Sullivan takes over TMS wrestling program | Local Sports – Tullahoma News and Guardian

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When wrestling season gets underway, there will be a new face on the sidelines for the Tullahoma Middle School wrestling team this year.

Mike Sullivan has been hired as the new Tullahoma Middle School Wrestling Coach. Currently, Sullivan is a geometry teacher at Tullahoma High School. He takes over for former head coach Sean Adkins.

Im pumped, Sullivan said. We have a lot of talent. The previous coaches, Sean Adkins, Taylor Roper and Michael McChesney, they have done a really good job of building these kids up, so its easy for me right now. Im just taking the talent that they have already built and running with it.

While he takes over the program, hes been in constant contact with all of the former coaches. In fact, he noted that McChesney will be joining him on the sidelines this season.

Sean helps me quite a bit, Sullivan said. Michael McChesney is my assistant coach. Hes back this year to coach. Taylor, hes up at the high school, so I interact with him quite a bit during high school practices.

When official practices began, Sullivan was left without several members of his team. Practices began in late September, while football season was still going on. The Wildcats football team ended up winning the CTC Championship in early October. Once the fall break ended, Sullivan was able to have his full team at practice.

Football and wrestling are huge together and Im glad that we have people who compete in both, Sullivan said. Those two sports really benefit each other great and Im all about multisport athletes.

With the football players back on the mat, the new Wildcats coach can fully see the type of talent he has. Based on what Sullivan has seen so far this season, he has high expectations for his squad.

I see region champions. I really do, he said. Even though I wasnt here last year, I did get to see some of their matches. I kept up with the results. We have a really strong team and a really talented team.

One thing Sullivan noted was missing from this team was a lack of size. There are no monsters on this team. However, the TMS coach didnt really see that as an issue.

They are very talented and they are gritty, Sullivan said. They want it and they go after it and thats what you have to have in wrestling.

The TMS wrestling team will play host to its first preseason event on Oct. 26 at Old West Middle School. The T-Town Wildcat Duals will get underway at 9 a.m.

Tullahoma will then open the regular season on Nov. 2 with a trip to Cookeville, taking part in the Prescott Duals. Start time for that has yet to be announced.

On Nov. 7, Tullahoma will have its home opener, facing three other teams. The Wildcats will welcome Warren County, Cookeville and Upperman to Old West Middle School. Wrestling is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m.

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TMS projects aim to bring bullying to a halt – Tahlequah Daily Press

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Though it was once considered an ordinary aspect of growing up, bullying has become increasingly repudiated by schools across the country, and Tahlequah Middle School is doing its part to address the issue.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so TMS is holding Bullying Prevention Week to promote dialogue among students, their teachers and their parents.

"We recognize it for the month, but we do it for a week just to make sure we have a concerted effort," said TMS Principal David Bookout. "So we have different activities for our kids to be involved in. It's just to make people aware and give them ideas on how they can do their part to stop bullying at school."

Several types of bullying can be recognized: verbal, physical, relational, and cyberbullying. Research shows bullying often leaves lasting negative effects on its victims, including chronic depression, increased risk of suicidal thoughts, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, self-harm, substance abuse, poor general health, and more.

On Monday, the school held Affirmation Day to teach students the power of words and the written word, as they were encouraged to write positive notes about fellow classmates.

"Kids put their name on a piece of paper and everybody goes around to write something positive about that student," said Fred Poteete, bullying preventionist. "They can't write anything about their clothes, how they look, what kind of house they live in, or what kind of car their parents drive. It's more about how they act or behave."

Tuesday, students recognized Give Bullying a Hand Day. During homeroom period, students traced their hands on pieces of paper and wrote down prevention methods.

"They listed some things on their fingers that they can do to help stop bullying," said Bookout. "It could be, 'If I see something, I say something to somebody;' 'If I see somebody who needs help, I help them.' They just come up with different things they can do to recognize how they can help prevent bullying."

TMS planned a See Something, Say Something Day for Wednesday, giving teachers and students a chance to review how bullying may be reported. Students can report bullying in person to teachers, parents or guardians; they can leave a note in the Tiger Paw Box; or they can report online at http://www.tahlequahschools.org.

On Thursday, students will be given a Hot Spot Survey to help the school improve its climate. The school has surveyed students for several years, and oftentimes administrators learn better ways to make students feel safer. For instance, when TMS still had fifth-graders attending, around 50 students drew a line on a map from their fifth-grade building all the way to the cafeteria, adding X's along the route to indicate they didn't feel safe.

"Well, the reason they felt unsafe is because the eighth-graders were out in the hall at that time," said Poteete. "So all we did was just change the schedule for about five minutes so the eighth-graders weren't in the hall when the fifth-graders walked to lunch. That's all it took for us to figure it out, and how much did that cost? It cost the money to make the surveys and about 10 minutes of class time."

Students will watch a 20-minute video, "Gum in Your Hair," on Friday. Poteete said it's a fun video, "but it's to the point about bullying."

Fortunately, not every kid at TMS experiences bullying. Skyler Jessie said she hasn't been bullied herself and doesn't see much of it occurring at TMS, but added there could be a gray area when someone may misconstrue behavior as bullying.

"It's their tone that doesn't really say they're bullying, but the person looks like they are," said Jessie. "So I don't know what do and I don't want to accuse the person of being a bully."

Not every student is as lucky as Jessie, however. Noe Sosa said he's seen friends get "sad," because they were bullied, and recalled a time in elementary school when he was picked on.

"When I was playing, this person would constantly continue destroying my things," he said. "It happened for a while, until I finally told my teacher."

If students are concerned about being bullied, they'll likely have a hard time concentrating on their grades. They also might not want to attend school or are afraid of speaking out. Therefore, TMS works to combat bullying year-round, instead of just during Bully Prevention Week.

Brian Stanglin, School Resource Officer at TMS, teaches DARE and other courses throughout the year that touch on bullying.

"There's a big block in [DARE] about respecting other kids," said Stanglin. "I also teach My Body, My Life and Real Men. They're both focused on a lot of things, but they both have bully blocks in those also."

Students can also join the Safe School Committee, which is made up of students from each grade who report unsafe behavior or hazardous locations around campus. The committee gives students another source to reach out to if they're experiencing bullying of any kind.

"People think getting picked on is part of growing up," said Poteete. "I don't agree with that at all. I don't think that's something you should have to put up with. Every student has a right to stay safe at school."

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TMS Busy in the Shetland Islands, Toft Pier Development in Full Swing – Dredging Today

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Image source: TMS

TMS Ltd crews are currently in the Shetland Islands, a subarctic archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, working on Toft Pier development.

According to their latest project update, the weather has been testing them, but the sixth pile gate has now been set up on the seaward side.

Now that the piles are complete in the first section, stone fill is being stockpiled ready to be placed at low tide, the company said.

All of the stone has been locally sourced from EMN Quarry.

TMS has just released a couple of photos from the work, showing a long reach excavator on TMS Modular Pontoon Sinbad in the foreground, placing fill to the seabed after excavating to remove an obstruction to the corner piles.

Posted on October 28, 2019 with tags Scotland, Shetland Islands, TMS, Toft.

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ORANGEBURG PROPERTY TRANSFERS – The Tand D.com

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The following property transfers are on file at the Orangeburg Courthouse, Oct. 17-23.

Sandford Investments, LLC to Linda Keitt Johnson, TMN 0183-09-08-005.000, $8,500.

Huger Investments LLC to Delicias Investments, LLC , TMN 0206-00-01-017.139, 0206-00-01-017.087, 0206-00-01-017.134, 0206-00-01-017.121, 0206-00-01-017.049, 0206-00-01-017.137, 0206-00-01-017.133, 0206-00-01-017.138, 0206-00-01-017.051, 0206-00-01-017.118, 0206-00-01-017.135, 0206-00-01-017.131 and 0206-00-01-017.091, Orange Township, $615,000.

Emma Lou Adicks to Thomas Harold Gibson, Jr., TMN 0108-00-06-011, Union Township, $80,000.

Patricia Ann Hajek to May Joseph and Ejiroghene E. Idolor, TMN 0286-09-11-001.000, $18,000.

Linda Keitt Johnson to Fardentcyia Shuler, TMN 0183-09-08-005.000, $10,000.

W. Paul Davis, Jr. Charles Terry Davis, Barry L. Davis and Ryan Davis to Johnny Green, TMN 0099-00-08-017.000, $5 and valuable consideration.

Wingate, LLC to Law Shack, LLC, TMN 0174-13-10-008, Orange Township, $5 and other valuable consideration.

Jacqueline M. Kennedy to Beverly M. Berry and Charles P. Berry, TMN 0191-11-18-001, Town of Branchville, $7,025.

Corrective Deed Gerald Atmar Thompson, Jr. and Valerie T. Funchess to Cynthia T. Horton aka Cindy T. Horton, TMN 0250-00-01[007] and 0199-00-03-[003], $5, love and affection.

Josephine Antley, Andre Antley and Antonio Antley to Gregory Hicks, TMN 0151-20-06-024, City of Orangeburg, $175,500.

Michelle L. Grant to Freda Lorraine Boyd, TMS 0175-19-01-003.000, $125,900.

Mutassa Bouie to Lovett Holdings, LLC, TMS 0258-00-04-008, 0257-00-01-003, 0257-00-03-001, 0257-00-03-004 and 0257-00-03-005, Middle Township, $5 only, love and affection.

Mike Dempsey aka R. Michael Dempsey to Thomas W. Gray, Jr., TMN 0110-00-07-031, Union Township, $56,000.

Evergreen Mortgage Notes, LLC to Anna G. Miller, TMS 0142-14-004-000, Limestone Township, $219,000.

Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, not in its individual capacity, but solely as Trustee of RMF Buyout Acquisition Trust 2018-1 to Roslyn V. Sumpter, TMN 0339-13-10-006.000, $50,000.

Maxine Gore, Johnnie Way and Barbara Koger to Kenneth Rivers, TMN 0060-11-05-004, Elizabeth Township, $57,000.

Kenneth Rivers to Kanga P. Ouahie, TMN 0060-11-05-004, $5, Elizabeth Township, plus love and affection.

Kildeer Farm, LLC to Chris E. Harley and Rachel M. Harley, TMN 0237-00-02-001, $5 and other valuable consideration.

Dale McLendon fka Dale Johnson to Alyssa Danielle Shire, TMS 0125-19-03-003.000, Zion Township, $58,600.

Cumest Lee Felder to Cumest Lee Felder and Annie M. Felder, TMS 0246-18-07-002, Bowman Township, $5, love and affection.

Annie M. Felder to Cumest Lee Felder, Kenneth E. Felder and Christopher Felder, TMS 0270-00-03-008, Cowcastle Township, $5, love and affection.

Ernesto M. Torres to SFR3 LLC, TMN 0173-06-27-008.000, $61,500.

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