Daily Archives: October 2, 2012

Novel gene associated with Usher syndrome identified

Posted: October 2, 2012 at 7:16 am

Public release date: 1-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Allison Elliott allison.elliott@uky.edu University of Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 1, 2012) Usher syndrome is a hereditary disease in which affected individuals lose both hearing and vision. The impact of Usher syndrome can be devastating. In the United States, approximately six in every 100,000 babies born have Usher syndrome.

Several genes associated with different types of Usher syndrome have been identified. Most of these genes encode common structural and motor proteins that build sensory cells in the eye and inner ear.

In a paper to be published in the November 2012 issue of Nature Genetics, a team of researchers from multiple institutions, led by Zubair M. Ahmed from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and including Gregory Frolenkov, associate professor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Department of Physiology, reported a novel type of gene associated with Usher syndrome - a calcium and integrin binding protein 2 (CIB2).

Zubair M. Ahmed, Saima Riazuddin, Thomas B. Friedman and their teams have identified this gene on chromosome 15 and determined that its mutations are responsible for nonsyndromic deafness and Usher syndrome type I. CIB2 was found to be interacting with other proteins associated with Usher syndrome.

Suzanne Leal and her team at the Baylor College of Medicine found that in Pakistan, CIB2 mutations are one of the prevalent genetic causes of nonsyndromic hearing loss.

Inna Belyantseva at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Institutes of Health, established that CIB2 is localized at the tips of mechanosensory stereocilia of the inner ear hair cells, exactly where the conversion of sound waves into electrical signals occurs.

Frolenkov and his team at UK demonstrated that disease-associated mutations in CIB2 change the ability of this protein to bind intracellular calcium; in a zebra fish model, its loss disrupts mechanosensitivity in the hair cells.

Furthermore, Tiffany Cook, Elke Buschback and their team at University of Cincinnati knockdown CIB2 analog in Drosophila (fruit fly) eyes and observed calcium-dependent degeneration of photoreceptors and loss of sensitivity to repetitive light pulses.

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The 54 Percent: In defense of political correctness

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There is no denying that politically correct has become a pejorative term in todays society. Miles Bradys opinion piece on the topic, published in TNH last week, is just one indication among many of a general disdain for the practice.

Being PC is often portrayed as a manner of policing self-expression that drains an essential color and vivacity from the English language, robbing writers of their unique voices, as well as an almost sporting pursuit among the liberal, academic and social justice communities. I concede that adherence to the canon of political correctness does not necessarily mean that the speaker cares deeply about issues of discrimination and that PC speech can be used to mask antipathy and even hatred. But using PC language simply to avoid contention over the issue is akin to following the letter of the law while violating its spirit.

In its best incarnation, political correctness is not a threat to free speech, nor a rigid primer added to and circulated each year. Speech is often ambiguous, and meaning depends heavily on the speaker and its context. Many offensive words have been reappropriated by the communities they target. There can be no list of words and phrases that are verboten. Political correctness is simply a guide to help you use language thoughtfully and with careful regard to the feelings and experiences of others.

To assert that one should not be offended by something because the majority of people find it inoffensive misses the point rather profoundly (even leaving aside the fact that it is very hard to choose not to be offended when something truly hurts you). Words are considered politically incorrectbecausethe vast majority of people find them acceptable, and use them freely, despite the fact that they serve as shorthand for the mistreatment of a small group on the part of that same majority. Words do not become offensive over time because the social justice community is playing some absurd game of discrimination bingo in which the board gets increasingly larger. Words become offensive because they are used hatefully. The word retard, once a clinical term, became politically incorrect because over the years it was used to dehumanize and marginalize a group of people.

Those who proudly describe themselves as politically incorrect seem to see themselves as truth-telling, rule-breaking cowboys living on the linguistic frontier. But the adamant assertion that one is not racist, not sexist, not classist, not ableist, not any kind of -ist does not negate an antecedent statement that says exactly the opposite. Our understanding of other people is limited in scope we cannot read minds, and a person who says things that violate his purported beliefs must not hold them very strongly, or else has a very tenuous grasp on the concept of communication. So who, among these two camps, is obscuring truth? Who is hypocritical? Who is using inexact language? From where I am standing, it is not the proponents of political correctness.

Taboo words and phrases have a power derived from their reserved nature. Their utterance carries a weight that attracts attention, and this makes people want to use them, almost as they would swearing. But a distinction must be made between speech that is offensive because it is vulgar, and speech that is offensive because it is intrinsically tied to years of institutionalized discrimination and hatred. Similarly, censorship of media because of graphic or sexual content cannot be conflated with political correctness, which is, in its most basic form, simply the choice not to use offensive, hurtful language. A word is much more than a word, and using politically incorrect speech is not avoiding euphemisms in order to embrace truthfulness. Along with their literal meaning, these statements drag with them a whole host of injustices, and prejudices and insults that have, over time and with repeated use, become inexorable from that word or phrase, and call into memory the very personal pain of being told you are less than.

There are enough words in the English language that we can deploy exactly the one we need at any given moment without having to call on another that not only does not accurately represent how we purport to feel, and hurts people in the bargain by carelessly perpetuating discrimination, marginalization and hatred. While politically correct speech cant singlehandedly right the wrongs of society, the power of making people think about the implications of their word choice cannot be overlooked. When coupled with empathy and precision of language, political correctness is a powerful force for good.

Aliza Harrigan is a junior political science major and English minor. The 54 percent denotes the percentage of the UNH student body that is female.

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Read-out being held to raise awareness for banned book week

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Read-out being held to raise awareness for banned book week

Top 10 challenged books of 2011:

Source: The American Library Association

Sections of banned and challenged books will be read aloud Wednesday to protest censorship and recognize the national Banned Book Week.

The OU School of Library and Information Studies and the Oklahoma Library and Information Studies Students Association will be holding a Read-Out from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday on the South Oval, according to the schools website.

Last year, they set up a table and took turns reading aloud, and it was so cute to see all these college students sitting down listening to each other read aloud to teach tolerance, said Cecelia Brown, professor and director for the OU School of Library and Information Studies.

Each year, the American Library Association receives hundreds of reports from libraries, schools and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country, according to the associations website. The association holds a Banned Book Week to raise awareness of and condemn censorship to ensure free access to information.

These books are challenged for different reasons, ranging from language to culture to anything that people disagree with, Brown said. A successful challenge results in these books being banned from schools, public libraries

and other institutions.

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Kurt Vonnegut, Harper Lee, and Other Literary Greats on Censorship

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Some of these authors were censored, but they certainly weren't silenced.

Some of history's most celebrated works of literature have, at various times and in various societies, been bannedfrom Arabian Nights to Ulysses to, even, Anas Nin's diaries, to name but a fraction. To mark Banned Books Week 2012, I'll be featuring excerpts from once-banned books on Literary Jukebox over the coming days. But, today, dive into an omnibus of meditations on and responses to censorship from a selection of literary heroes from the past century.

Kurt Vonnegut writes in his almost-memoir, A Man Without a Country (public library):

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And yet libraries have had a track record for exercising censorship themselves. When Virginia's Hanover County School Board removed all copies the Harper Lee classic To Kill a Mockingbird (public library) in 1966 on the grounds that it was "immoral," Lee wrote the following letter to the editor of The Richmond News Leader, found in Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird:

Editor, The News Leader:

Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board's activities, and what I've heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.

Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that "To Kill a Mockingbird" spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To hear that the novel is "immoral" has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink.

I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism. Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.

Harper Lee

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Ron Paul Supporters Contemplate a Write-in Campaign

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With Rep. Ron Paul's, R-Texas, latest and final quest for the presidency now history, his small but committed group of supporters are now mulling what to do now. Some are contemplating writing his name in as a protest vote.

Others maintain that writing in Paul would do little but make the re-election of President Barack Obama more possible, something the libertarian-leaning Paul supporters would seem to loath to do.

Paul himself has not publically commented about a potential write-in campaign.

Write in Ron Paul

In an article in the Hartford Courant, Howard Landis makes the case for writing in Paul's name. He does this by ticking off the positions of both Mitt Romney and Obama in three key areas.

The economic policies, states Landis, of Barack Obama has been abysmal, with the excessive spending, high taxes, and over regulations. By implication, Romney, while not perfect, would be far better on economic policy than Obama.

Landis favors the foreign policy of Obama over that Romney. It seems that Romney would take a more active role in world affairs, attempting to influence events, something that is anathema to a Paul supporter.

On social policies, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, both Romney and Obama get good marks on not being active in pushing those issues. However, the high incarceration rate of people Landis believes have "harmed no one" concerns him and neither candidate will address the issue.

So, the upshot, is that since both Obama and Romney have the correct view on only one issue, Landis will write in Paul's name.

Do not write in Ron Paul

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Ron Paul’s underserved cult

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By Ben Levin

Published as a part of Maneater v. 79, Issue 12

The opinions expressed by The Maneater columnists do not represent the opinions of The Maneater editorial board.

Ron Paul is never going to be the president of the United States. He didnt win the Republican nomination, and there wasnt a fight at the convention. Im sorry. I know, I know, Ron Pauls a great American hero. Hes not a politician. He delivers babies in his spare time, for goodness sake! I saw him help a grandma cross the street the other day. Whats that, you say? Ron Paul is old? Wrong: Within his blood courses the youthful life force of the American dream.

Yet before we sink any further into hero worship of Americans favorite libertarian, I want you to stand back for a moment and ask yourself, honestly, what it is you like about Ron Paul. You hear it all the time: Ron Paul is the voice of the college student. During his visit to MU last March, Rep. Paul drew the loudest cheer for his endorsement of marijuana legalization. Youll get no argument from me about the point the war on drugs should end. But the drug war is not the most pressing problem facing college students. Its not even in the top five. If you support Ron Paul because of his antiestablishment message and opposition to the drug war, you owe it to yourself to re-examine both his positions and your priorities.

Heres a priority: health care. Obamacare allows young adult students to continue receiving coverage under their parents health insurance plans until the age of 26. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, three million young adults now have access to health care who otherwise would not. Are you one of them? Under President Paul, that policy would be gone, along with the rest of the Affordable Care Act. Goodbye, easy access to health care.

Or maybe you have diabetes. Assuming youre not insured under your parents health plan (remember, weve repealed Obamacare), youre going to need some insurance. So on top of rent, food and tuition, youre going to need to find some insurance company willing to pay for your health care. Its alternately impossible or impossibly expensive, and its real life under President Paul. Obamacare, for comparison, forbids insurance companies from turning you away based on your preexisting conditions.

I can hear you now: Wait, Ben! College students are a mostly healthy bunch! Why should we care about those few poor suckers that arent us? Fair question, friend. Young adults are, on average, healthier than any other age group. We are united by two things: our general health and our general poverty. Many college-age people are in the unique position of not being supported by their parents and not having the time to pay for both their expenses and their tuition. Pell Grants, Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and federal subsidization of college loans allow thousands of students at MU to continue their educations. These programs, more integral to college students than any drug policy, would be abolished under a libertarian philosophy. You would suffer. Your friends would suffer.

Its almost funny Ron Paul is known for his rabid support from college students. It betrays a deep ignorance on the part of those students an ignorance toward the issues that affect students most. Maybe you have your tuition paid by your parents. Maybe you fall under your mothers insurance plan. Maybe even your credit card statements are sent to a faraway mailbox. For those not so lucky, Ron Pauls platform poses an insurmountable obstacle to their health and future. Remembering those students, and that their concerns are greater than the need for a legal joint, will help you decide which politicians deserve your worship.

Concurrence or rebuttal, if you have a strong opinion, let's hear it. The Maneater Forum seeks to publish a diversity of opinions and foster meaningful decision. Readers are encourages to actively contribute to and develop new discussions. Add to ours, or make your own point.

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The legitimacy of the Hague Tribunal to check: expert

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The legitimacy of the very many international institutions today need to check again. This was announced today, 21 December, the Director of the Foundation Institute of the post-crisis world (Russia) Ekaterina Shipov at the Roundtable the establishment of the Eurasian International Tribunal for war crimes and human rights, correspondent BakuToday .

We live in an era of transition to a new multipolar world, and in this era of many previous mechanisms do not work. Do not work past retention of economic and political stability, do not operate the old machinery confirm guarantees of sovereignty of States. If earlier it was enough for international recognition of membership in the UN or other international organizations, today this is clearly not enough. We see it on the example of Libya, the Balkans, Iraq, said Shipov.

It is clear that we need new mechanisms, new institutions and instruments, said the expert. -And here we have the whole thing in question, which 100 years ago identified the classic German political sociology of Max Weber. He said that one must distinguish between legality and legitimacy. The legality of any structure, Institute, the authorities reinforced by certain formal bureaucratic instruments, legislation, the system itself. And legitimacy is a much broader set of concepts, which includes the recognition of the authority in large parts of both people and the elite on the basis of the basic notions of fairness, Dobre, truth, and so on. It also implies a willingness to follow the decisions of this structure, this power without coercion.

And in this respect the legitimacy of the very many international institutions today need to check again. We still dont know what is legitimate for the developing world, the post-Soviet countries, the Hague Tribunal. And we do not know whether he left the same legitimate, as it was 20 years ago, for Western countries, said Shipov.

The establishment of the Eurasian Tribunal must rely on a broad popular movement. If there is a similar idea to the masses, then it usually institualiziruets, finds its material embodiment. The establishment of the public Council, the parliamentary hearings in post-Soviet countries-all of this will be a great step forward towards the establishment of the Eurasian Tribunal, and we will be able to get closer to the realization of this, in my opinion, very good case, concluded Shipov.

The consequences of the resignation of the speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Hovik Abrahamian and the dismissal of first Deputy Director of the Office of head of State Editor-in-chief Michael Minasian impact on the voters of the Republican Party of Armenia. However, for measuring the impact and content of the effects of personnel reassignment, sentiments and intentions of the voters need some time. As correspondent BakuToday, it was announced 8 November at a meeting with journalists, the head of the sociological Center tigranakert Aharon Adibekyan.

According to him, in the pre-election period, usually about a third of the active voters already geared-for whom and why would vote, and therefore this part of the electorate is difficult to influence. As noted by the sociologist, another third of the total number of voters is what political force preferred. The final third had no targets, namely, the election for this part of the electorate are just a convenient opportunity to disrupt the Kush-get a job to earn money. And when the resignation and human displacement, it narrows the range of influence in this electoral segment, because such a voter already wonder than him can help someone who disappeared from the fields of power, noted Aharonyan.

As he added although Hovik Abrahamyan and Mikael Minasyan retained essentially its position in the party structure, but in the eyes of voters-they were on a hierarchical layman ladder authorities step below. Sociologist believes that a shake-up in the highest echelons of power would necessarily affect the attitudes and intentions of the voters. For an accurate assessment of the extent of influence of the resignations must be a certain amount of time that these developments came to consciousness. We plan to conduct an opinion poll in late November. Then clarify-as the amount, so keep the effects of staff movement, explained Adibekyan.

He also indicated that some actions of the opposition Armenian National Congress may be perceived by the protest of the electorate with a certain amount of skepticism and suspicion. The ANCs attempts to cover all of the protestnoe field lead to movements in the direction of the Centre, which naturally gives rise to doubts and suspicions in the camp, the radical opposition. Backward steps ANC cause perplexity Centrists. In General, however, from such an action, an increasing number of those who have not yet decided the final choice, concluded Adibekyan.

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Azerbaijan detains youth activist in ongoing post-Eurovision crackdown

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A young Azerbaijani opposition activist spent the weekend in incommunicado detention after a group of men in plainclothes seized him in the capital Baku on Saturday, the latest in a string of activist detentions documented by Amnesty International since the city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year.

Zaur Gurbanli, 25, was finally allowed to see his lawyer on Monday after being handed 15 days in prison for resisting arrest. The Anti-Organized Crimes Unit which was allegedly responsible for his detention has said they are now investigating his possession of a number of illegal materials.

Azerbaijani opposition activists are routinely detained on the pretext of resisting police, giving the authorities 15 days to try to build a case against them, said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

Gurbanli is the chair of Nida, an opposition youth movement that also campaigns for democracy and human rights. He was involved in the Sing for Democracy campaign that persuaded this years Eurovision winner Loreen to condemn rights abuses in Azerbaijan.

In a hasty telephone call to a friend on Saturday he said that a group of men in plainclothes had stopped him outside his apartment in Baku and presented themselves as officers of the Azerbaijans Organized Crimes Unit.

The men seized Gurbanli apparently without explanation, saying they were taking him to the Yasamal District police station. When his lawyer contacted the police station, officers said that he was not there.

During the arrest, Gurbanlis laptop and Nida materials were taken from his apartment, as well as a number of documents and articles from the office of another NGO he is involved in, Positive Change suggesting that he has been targeted for his political activity.

The other staff at Positive Change were forced to give their names, have their photographs taken, and to hand over their membership lists. Officers of the Anti-Organized Crimes Unit brought Zaur Gurbanli to the search without handcuffs or restraints, making their claim that he resisted arrest highly dubious.

A regular blogger, he recently posted an article criticizing government corruption and nepotism. The piece ridiculed the inclusion of a poem by President Ilham Aliyevs daughter as mandatory reading in the countrys school curriculum.

It looks very much like the Azerbaijani authorities decided Zaur Gurbanli crossed the line when he poked fun at the Presidents family, said Dalhuisen.

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EDIT: Human error?

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Fox News inadvertently broadcasted a mans suicide on Friday. The network aired live feed of a car chase near Phoenix, Ariz., including the final scene where the driver abandoned his car and shot himself in the head. Fox had a five-second delay on the helicopter feed of the chase, according to an article in The Washington Post Friday.

However, Fox said it was due to severe human error that the network did not take down the footage within the five seconds, according to The Washington Post.

It is unacceptable that Fox aired footage of a man committing suicide.

When a network runs live video feed, a scenario such as the one on Friday could occur.

However, Foxs coverage wasnt live. It was delayed five seconds. The suicide scene could have been avoided.

Now, a technical error excuse would probably have been more acceptable. Technological snafus happen, some of them unpredictable and unavoidable. Had Fox said a technological glitch prevented it from using the time-delay tool, people would probably have been more understanding.

But the human error excuse is unacceptable. In the broadcast journalism world, five seconds is a lot of time. The people editing this footage are trained to respond to these situations in that amount of time or less.

The question of whether or not this car chase was even newsworthy should also be raised. Should car chases be covered at all? What makes a particular chase worthy of coverage? Does a chase have to be conducted for a certain amount of time or does the driver have to engage in a shootout with police to make it deserving of coverage?

While its true that viewers are drawn to car chases, theyre action-packed and unpredictable, its hard to say where networks should draw the line between chases that should and should not be aired.

Hopefully this event will prompt networks to review their coverage of car chases (or any potentially violent acts) more closely.

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The Most Beautiful '50s And '60s American Car Paintings [Car Art]

Posted: at 7:15 am

Although they decrease in number with each passing year, classic cars from the 1950s and '60s are part of America's cultural landscape. They're icons of an time when we had just defeated the biggest threats the world had ever known.

The futurism seen in automotive design, art and architecture of that era are pretty good indications that on top of the nation's brewing social unrest, there was a sense of optimism. This is often reflected in the classic car art of the era, and of future artists looking back on the era. What's the most beautiful car-on-canvas painting reflecting this moment in America's existence.

Our nominee is this painting from Danny Heller, a 30-year-old painter from Southern California's San Fernando Valley. He wasn't even alive until the 1980s.

But growing up in Southern California, where mid-century architecture and cars are common, he began to notice that there was something special about that simple space age aesthetic. Houses are low and long, and because of the region's dry, sunny weather many of the cars from that era are still on the road, having escaped the fate of rust belt body rot.

"L.A. and the San Fernando Valley have a car culture. Those old cars were all around me when I was growing up," Heller told us. "My dad had a stingray 'Vette and an old Lincoln, the neighbors had a Chevy Bel Aire. You could drive by Bob's Big Boy in Burbank on cruise night and there would be classic cars in the parking lot."

So when he began painting mid-century architecture and design as his main subject matter, cars were a natural part of the scenery. Painting that scene is a way for him to preserve not just mid-century design, but it's version of hope for the future: Better living through good design. Big windows. Lots of light. Big, space age cars. Enough to go around.

Southern California has changed a lot since rocket tipped Oldsmobiles and suburban ranch homes were in vogue. Our vision of the future has shifted. Although the trappings of that time are still around, like any flotsam of a bygone time they're disappearing. Hipsters love '50s furniture and old, beer-bellied men are fond of finned Detroit iron, but the rest of the world has moved on. Heller thinks his waning, and in many cases dilapidated, SoCal Golden Suburban Utopia Era surroundings are beautiful, and wants to preserve some of it for posterity.

Take a look at Heller's paintings. At first glance, they almost look like photographs. But how does seeing old cars and Palm Springs homes in paint change the way you see them? Does it freeze them in time or do they age instantly? Do they become more or less alive? Has the Golden State dream portrayed in Heller's paintings disappeared completely, or have we reshaped it somehow?

Please share your images from that era and of that era and tell us what they mean to you.

Image credit: Danny Heller

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