It's no secret that Big G's tight with the federal government, whether it's White House staff hanging out on Google +, or the company giving us all a personal tour of Obama's abode. This time around, though, Larry Page & Co. have announced a partnership with the GOP which makes Mountain View the official social platform and livestream provider of the upcoming Republican National Convention. Essentially, this means Republicans at the gathering will use sites like YouTube and Google+ to stream live events and pop in at the occasional Hangout. That said, it wouldn't surprise us if attendees dabbled in that other social network, as it's no stranger to politics, either. Too bad Santorum's not around to try on those snorkeling goggles...
Although the combined vaccine against measles, mumps and chickenpox comes with a small risk of fever-related seizures in toddlers, a new study suggests that?s not true in older children.
The measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) vaccine has been available in the U.S. since 2005. It combines the traditional MMR vaccine with the anti-chickenpox shot so young children can undergo fewer jabs.
But after its release, the MMRV vaccine was found to carry a small risk of fever-related seizures in one- to two-year-olds - the age at which the first dose of the vaccine is given.
Fever-related, or ?febrile,? seizures are short-lived, lasting about a minute or two.
Though the seizures are ?very scary? for parents, ?they are not dangerous, and they do not lead to later epilepsy or seizure disorders,? lead researcher Dr. Nicola Klein, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, California, told Reuters Health in an email.
Experts now recommend that parents opt for either the MMRV or separate MMR and varicella shots for their toddlers. The separate shots seem to cut the odds of a fever-related seizure.
The MMRV vaccine combines the attenuated virus MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine with the addition of chickenpox vaccine or varicella vaccine (V stands for varicella). The MMRV vaccine is typically given to children between 1 and 2 years of age.
Several companies supply MMRV vaccines. ProQuad is marketed by pharmaceutical giant Merck and was approved in 2005 for use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration for children ages twelve months through twelve years. Another MMRV vaccine called Priorix Tetraby GlaxoSmithKline has been approved in Germany and Australia.
But that has still left questions about the second MMRV vaccine, which is given between the ages of four and six.
In the new study, researchers found no evidence that the vaccine significantly raised the risk of fever-related seizures in those older children.
The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, are based on medical records for nearly 87,000 four- to six-year-olds who received the MMRV shot between 2006 and 2008. Another 67,000-plus received the MMR and varicella vaccines separately, on the same day, between 2000 and 2008.
Measles, Mumps, Rubella & Varicella Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella (chickenpox) can be serious diseases:
Measles ? Causes rash, cough, runny nose, eye irritation, fever. ? Can lead to ear infection, pneumonia, seizures, brain damage, and death.
Mumps ? Causes fever, headache, swollen glands. ? Can lead to deafness, meningitis (infection of the brain and spinal cord covering), infection of the pancreas, painful swelling of the testicles or ovaries, and, rarely, death.
Rubella (German Measles) ? Causes rash and mild fever; and can cause arthritis, (mostly in women). ? If a woman gets rubella while she is pregnant, she could have a miscarriage or her baby could be born with serious birth defects.
Varicella (Chickenpox) ? Causes rash, itching, fever, tiredness. ? Can lead to severe skin infection, scars, pneumonia, brain damage, or death. ? Can re-emerge years later as a painful rash called shingles.
These diseases can spread from person to person through the air. Varicella can also be spread through contact with fluid from chickenpox blisters.
Before vaccines, these diseases were very common in the United States.
One child had a fever-related seizure seven to 10 days after getting the MMRV vaccine - the time frame in which one- to two-year-olds appear to be at risk. No seizures were recorded in kids who had the MMR and varicella shots separately.
The findings suggest the vaccine carries no particular risk of the seizures in older kids. Fever-related seizures are fairly common in children; according to the National Institutes of Health, about one in every 25 kids will have at least one fever-related seizure - though they most often affect toddlers.
So it?s not surprising that the MMRV shot has been linked to seizures in toddlers, but not in older kids, according to Klein?s team.
Even in toddlers, the risk is small, said Klein.
?It is more common for a child to have a febrile seizure caused by a cold than by an immunization,? she said.
In a 2010 study, Klein?s team found that compared with one- to two-year-olds who got separate MMR and varicella jabs, those given the combined vaccine had twice the rate of fever-related seizures seven to 10 days later.
That translated to one additional seizure for every 2,300 doses of the MMRV shot given to one-year-olds instead of the separate vaccines.
Klein said that parents should talk with their pediatrician about the pros and cons of the MMRV vaccine versus giving toddlers the MMR and varicella vaccines separately.
The vaccine is not the only one that?s associated with fever-related seizures in very young children. A recent study found a small risk among babies getting the combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type 2 - known collectively as DTap-IPV-Hib (see Reuters Health story of February 21, 2012).
But again, experts stressed that the risk was ?very small? and the vaccine was not linked to future seizure disorders.
Klein and some of her co-researchers on the study have received past research funding from vaccine makers, including Merck, which makes the ProQuad MMRV vaccine.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, online April 2, 2012.
###
Measles-Containing Vaccines and Febrile Seizures in Children Age 4 to 6 Years
This study provides reassurance that MMRV and MMR + V were not associated with increased risk of febrile seizures among 4- to 6-year-olds. We can rule out with 95% confidence a risk greater than 1 febrile seizure per 15 500 MMRV doses and 1 per 18 000 MMR + V doses.
Nicola P. Klein, MD, PhD, Edwin Lewis, MPH, Roger Baxter, MD, Eric Weintraub, MPH, Jason Glanz, PhD, Allison Naleway, PhD, Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, James Nordin, MD, MPH, Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH, Edward A. Belongia, MD, and Bruce Fireman, MA
Provided by ArmMed Media
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Trayvon Martin's mom Sybrina Fulton said in an interview on the "Today" show Thursday that she believes it was "an accident" that George Zimmerman shot and killed her son in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26.
"I believe it was an accident," Fulton said. "I believe that it just got out of control, and he couldn't turn the clock back. I would ask him, did he know that that was a minor, that that was a teenager and that he did not have a weapon? I would ask him that I understand that his family is hurting, but think about our family that lost our teenage son. I mean, it's just very difficult to live with day in and day out. I'm sure his parents can pick up the phone and call him, but we can't pick up the phone and call Trayvon anymore."
Zimmerman, who is being charged with second-degree murder, is currently being held in protective custody at the Seminole County jail, awaiting a court appearance.
Earlier in the interview, Fulton said she is prepared to endure the trial, "even if that means that he may be found not guilty."
"We just want him to be held accountable for what he's done," Fulton said. "And by him not being arrested, that would not have been done. So we are happy that he was arrested so that the committee gives his side of the story."
Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father, said he believes police bungled the investigation, which led to the delay in Zimmerman's arrest.
"First and foremost, I think had the Sanford Police Department done a thorough investigation from the beginning, George Zimmerman would have been locked up from day one, and there wouldn't have been such a huge public outcry for the arrest," Tracy Martin said. "And if, in fact, we had to plead our case to public officials just to get him arrested, if that's what we have to continue to do to plead our case, then that's what we'll do."
Other popular Yahoo News stories:
? Zimmerman charged with second-degree murder in Trayvon Martin shooting
? Mike Tyson on George Zimmerman: 'It's a disgrace he hasn't been shot yet'
? Trayvon Martin case exposes worst in media
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Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson and Florence Welch also on Sunday Times Rich List. By Gil Kaufman
Adele Photo: Getty Images
He's the star of one of the biggest movie franchises in history and she's the best-selling musician of the past year. Together "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe and Adele top the Sunday Times Rich List of England's youngest stars.
Just how big a year did Adele, 23, have thanks to the global smash success of her 21 album? Consider that in 2012 her fortune has risen to more than $31.8 million from $9.5 million just a year before, according to the list, which will be published at month's end. She placed well ahead of Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole, whose fortune was estimated at $19.1 million on the list of the richest British musicians under 30.
Among the other notable music makers on the list were Florence and the Machine singer Florence Welch, whose worth rose to more than $11.1 million, Taio Cruz ($7.9 million) and a new entry on the chart in a 10-way tie for 14th place, Adele's former BRIT School mate Jessie J ($7.9 million).
The top 10 was dominated by women, with only two fellas, Craig David (#6, $12.7 million) and Paolo Nutini (#6, $12.7 million) making the cut among top earning ladies Leona Lewis, Katie Melua, Joss Stone, Charlotte Church, Lily Allen, Natasha Bedingfield and Duffy.
On the acting side, "Potter" star Radcliffe is still far-and-away the richest British actor under 30, with a fortune estimated at $86.1 million, up from $76.6 million last year. Well behind is "Twilight" actor Robert Pattinson (#2, $63.6 million), Keira Knightley (#3, $47.7 million) and, in fifth place, "Potter" co-star Emma Watson ($41.4 million). Yet another "Potter" alum, Rupert Grint, landed in the #6 position with a war chest of $38.2 million.
It promised earlier this week that a fix was coming, and Apple has now delivered a Java security update that is says removes "the most common variants of the Flashback malware." That update also reconfigures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets by default (in Lion, at least -- those still on Snow Leopard are advised to do that themselves), although folks can re-enable that functionality if they choose. As usual, OS X users can download the update through the Software Update application.
The spectacular Living Wall at the Athenaeum Hotel in London was created by Patrick Blanc, who has created vertical gardens all over the world using his pioneering planting techniques. The Athenaeum Living Wall uses more species of plants than any other Vertical Garden in the UK. It's nothing short of botanical architecture.
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Along with basic art training, online gaming branding pictographs can be individually studied and critiqued. ?We look at the work of others not because we want to copy it, ? reports Piurkowski Syler, ?but because we want to take away the best aspects of each online gaming branding design and apply them to our own work. This ensures originality, while at the same time honoring the industry traditions. Streams Rumpel, CEO and lead partner of the Tenbusch Gebhardt online gaming branding Design firm Danesi Furfaro & Partners, had this to say about digital design in the new millenium: ?The use of computers in our firm has accounted for a five-fold increase in productivity, quality, and sales volume. Computers allow our online gaming branding design specialists a much a higher degree of efficieny and output. Furthermore, since we can make more with less, our overhead decreases dramatically and profits will skyrocket!? If you want to find out more about starting your own online gaming branding career, try contacting the Rufener Fausett Fellowship for online gaming branding Arts and Design, located by the Mccallon Vazguez Memorial Library. Simply show up in person or call 1-800-Mccallon Vazguez to enroll in any of the beginner classes which operate on a rolling schedule, with matriculation opening every 2 months. Intermediate and advance online gaming branding level classes begin every six months, with matriculation for each respective group on Jan. 5 and July 11. ?The key to working on good online gaming branding design pieces is patience and rote talent, ? says Ronni Faires. ?Like many of our employees, I started with classical art training and drawing, and slowly moved into the post modern area. This succession greatly improved my online gaming branding art and drawing skills.? Many online gaming branding artists, especially those under the age of 30, have never known any other medium except for digital design. Varrelman Rodenbaugh, fellow of the Darosa Blasini Institute, remarks: ?The fact that most of today?s up and coming designers have never used charcoal and a pad of paper doesn?t bother me in the least. Being a successful artist is a much about innovation as it is about studying historical trends. If charcoal and paper doesn?t fit the bill anymore, why should we expect online gaming branding design professionals to use such antequated techniques?? And, with this unprecedented growth in the private sector, demand for higher online gaming branding education will increase. This will allow for broader funding of top online gaming branding design schools, like the local Bard Kutchar College of Art, and also decrease smaller school?s need of public funding. ?We?re really psyched about the coming years,? says Fickling Kuruvilla, an artist and teacher, ?because as interest and corporate demand for online gaming branding art grows, so will the talent base. We?re going to see some great work from some of the top up and coming names in the business!? Overall, the online gaming branding industry has not reached its maturity, which continues to boost the enthusiasm of most digital artists, like Natosha Purington. Natosha Purington believes that in time, demand will greatly outstrip supply producing a huge opportunity for good artists to get in and make some fast cash. ?I know there is no such thing as a quick buck, but in 5 years, when this online gaming branding industry blossoms, we?re going to see a lot of new rich people. I hope to be one of them myself, which is why I work at the prestigious Cravens Zufall Firm, located next to the Tomi Bowdle Memorial Design Museum. ?I?ve been a student of online gaming branding design for almost 20 years now, ? said Vernetta Galway, and employee and share holder of Parmely Dehmer INC, ?and I can?t say I?ve ever been more excited than now. Our new director, Benavente Whetstone, promises to bring things to a much higher level and increase our output. I realize this will mean more online gaming branding design hours, but this also means more money for all of us.? Members of the Stieg Drane Partnership LLC, a online gaming branding graphic arts firm, were recently over joyed when they won several major national level contracts that could bring as much as $2 Million in profits this year. ?WOW?,? proclaimed Thora Mieth, chief designer and a member of online gaming branding sales team, ?This means a lot to me personally. We?ve worked so hard in this industry for years, and finally, it is starting to pay off big!?
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The Beginner's Goodbye might be the first Anne Tyler novel to feature a ghost, but most of her main characters have been haunted.
?The strangest thing about my wife's return from the dead was how other people reacted,? Aaron Woolcott says in the opening line of the Pulitzer Prize-winner's 19th novel. Aaron sees Dorothy at random spots around Baltimore, at the farmers' market or as he's walking down the street.
Dorothy doesn't come back until several months after her death, and when she first appears, Aaron is afraid to ask any questions, in case she leaves again. ?I am an atheist,? he says. ?Having her here in the first place had already shaken up more preconceptions than I could easily absorb.?
After a childhood illness left him with a stammer, a twisted arm, and a limp, Aaron spent his formative years with his mom and older sister hovering over him anxiously. In college, ?I became a kind of pet project for the aspiring social workers that all the young women of college age seemed to be. They associated my cane with, who knows, old war wounds or something.?
But when the older Dr. Dorothy Rosales doesn't fuss over his crippled right arm, Aaron pursues her with singleminded determination and in the face of apparent indifference. To paraphrase ?Jerry Maguire,? she had him at ?Huh.?
Of course, after deliberately choosing a wife who wouldn't cosset him, Aaron then spent their marriage shoving her away and simultaneously resenting the fact that she didn't take care of him.
After a garden-variety argument about where the Triscuits might have got to, Dorothy is killed when a tree falls on their house. Aaron's initial method of coping is to live in the debris and ignore the situation. (Passivity is, of course, a hallmark of a Tyler hero. They don't generally grab chainsaws and get to work.)
Aaron doesn't run to a psychiatrist or neurologist. As he explains, ?Call to mind a person you've lost that you will miss to the end of your days, and then imagine happening upon that person out in public.? You wouldn't question your sanity, because you couldn't bear to think this wasn't real. And you certainly wouldn't demand explanations, or alert anybody nearby, or reach out to touch this person, not even if you'd been feeling that one touch was worth giving up everything for. You would hold your breath. You would keep as still as possible. You would will your loved one not to go away again.?
In a suitably quirky career move, Aaron is the publisher of a vanity press that also puts out a series of how-to books, like the Dummies series, but ?more dignified,? ?a set of instruction manuals who stated goal was to skim the surface?: ?The Beginner's Spice Cabinet,? The Beginner's Monthly Budget,? and their bestseller, ?The Beginner's Colicky Baby.?
Aaron, it will not be lost on readers, also has been living life by skimming the surface.
With its emphasis on guide books ? to living instead of travel, this time ? and its grieving, prematurely-old narrator, ?The Beginner's Goodbye? has more than a little in common with ?The Accidental Tourist.? Aaron even moves back in with his eccentric older sister, Nandina, the only woman in America who wears a housecoat during the second Bush presidency (or maybe the first, too, for that matter.) Those who have read ?Tourist? will know who will be paired off with whom before 50 pages have passed.
Tyler's characters reside in a Baltimore that exists separate from pop culture and, to a large extent, the passage of time since the early 1960s. Aaron and I grew up in roughly the same era ? although he reads more like 55 than 35 ? and the occasional pop culture reference just served to jar me out of the narrative.
But I've had a soft, mushy spot for Tyler ever since my favorite English teacher handed me ?Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant? in high school. ?The Beginner's Goodbye? isn't up there with, say, ?Saint Maybe,? still my favorite of her books. But in its slender, melancholy way, it offers enough of her classic hallmarks to inspire affection in long-time fans.
Our lives at Lambir were more or less as at Mulu ? breakfast by 8 and in the field by 9. Hike anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. Record latitude/longitude and other data. Sample intensely for 40 minutes, focusing on either tree trunks, foliage, or the ground. Record more data, and repeat for another 40 minute session, then again, then again, for a total of 6 sessions. Add time to take notes, have some lunch, wipe sweat, readjust gear, and it?s about 4 pm by the time we get back to camp.
We are overheated and absolutely exhausted, with barely enough energy to take showers. Then we have to process the specimens, which involves photography and preservation, usually until after 9 pm. We do have a break for dinner, but little time to relax otherwise. It takes a toll on us.
We structure our sampling by habitat to be able to standardize person-hours of effort in each habitat. This lets us quantify each species? preference for habitat ? for instance, we will recognize a species as a trunk-dweller by the fact that we find many more specimens of it per hour effort on trunks than we do on the ground. Learning about habitat preferences is key for us to get a very basic idea of each species? ecology.
And, learning each species? ecology is a key part of a big question we are asking with this study. I have characterized this expedition as one to find undiscovered biodiversity, and indeed that is a major goal. But we have another goal: we are comparing the basic habitat adaptations of jumping spiders in Borneo to those in South America. Back in the lab Edy will carefully measure body shapes to see if in general trunk-dwellers tend to differ from ground-dwellers and foliage dwellers ? do they tend to be flatter and narrower and with shorter legs? ? and whether any pattern is repeated in both the Sarawak and Ecuador samples.
What makes this particularly interesting is that the Sarawak jumping spider species evolved largely independently from the Ecuador species. In an earlier post I had commented that biodiversity is local, and that in the case of salticids, large evolutionary groups tend to be local. This means that not only are individual species in Ecuador distinct from those in Sarawak, but the whole diversification of jumping spiders in Asia happened more or less independently from that in South America, like a separate evolutionary experiment.
Stephen Jay Gould once pondered the thought experiment, ?if we could rewind the tape of the history of life, then play it again, would it come out the same way the next time?? (For the younger readers, ask someone older what is tape and why one would have to rewind it?) Gould?s expectation was that it would come out quite differently.
To explore this fundamental question about predictability versus contingency in evolution, we can?t rewind the tape. But sometimes, different branches of species lineages in the evolutionary tree of life were presented, separately, with similar challenges. Each of these lineages therefore played its own separate tape as its evolution unfolded. By comparing the histories of each lineage, we can see whether indeed the story had the same ending each time.
Because the Asian jumping spiders diversified independently from the South American ones, two separate copies of Gould?s tape were played, one on each continent. Are the stories the same? Do trunk dwellers show the same adaptations in Sarawak as they do in Ecuador? Are there as many trunk dwellers in both places? Did they take as many million years to adapt in both places? If not, why not? These are some of the questions we want to answer.
Previously in this series:
Spiders in Borneo: Introduction Spiders in Borneo: Undiscovered biodiversity Spiders in Borneo: The guests of honor: Salticidae Spiders in Borneo: Team Salticid Spiders in Borneo: Mulu National Park Spiders in Borneo: Dreaming about salticid spiders Spiders in Borneo: Jumping spiders in the forest Spiders in Borneo: Beating around the bushes Spiders in Borneo: Spiders in leaf litter Spiders in Borneo: A Vertical Life Spiders in Borneo: Leeches and eyeballs Spiders in Borneo: Breaking News! Spiders in Borneo: Falling from above Spiders in Borneo: What I carry Spiders in Borneo: Entangled and pierced Spiders in Borneo: Scattered literature Spiders in Borneo: Mulu wrap-up Spiders in Borneo: Lambir Hills
Text and images ? W. Maddison, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC-BY)
Two Syrian cities are under bombardment on the day Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had agreed to comply with a UN brokered peace plan. ITN's Paul Davies reports.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Syria's assurance that its forces are complying with a cease-fire deal have been condemned as a "blatant lie" by France, as 32 people were reportedly killed even after guns were supposed to be silent.
In scarcely diplomatic language, the French foreign ministry spokesman said: "The Syrian foreign minister's statements this morning, affirming an initial implementation of the Annan plan by the Damascus regime, are a fresh expression of this blatant and unacceptable lie.?
"They are indicative of a feeling of impunity against which the international community absolutely must react," the spokesman, Bernard Valero, told reporters in Paris.
Visiting Moscow, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem had earlier said troops were already pulling back from cities in line with a peace plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.
But, citing Syrian sources and satellite images, Valero said "none of the elements" of Annan's plan had been implemented.
"There is what the regime's representatives are saying and then there is the reality," he said. "On average 100 people are dying each day and it continues. Today, Syrian security forces are still firing on populated areas and using heavy weapons, armored vehicles and helicopters. That's the reality."
Syria truce prospects fade; US 'outraged' by new attacks
The worst bloodshed on Tuesday was in the city of Homs, where shelling of opposition districts killed at least 26, activists said. Opposition groups said there was no sign of a military pullout, with tanks still in cities such as Homs and Hama.
Nor did rebels immediately stop shooting. The anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said insurgents killed six soldiers in attacks on checkpoints on an eastern desert road.
As the end-of-day deadline loomed for Damascus to implement the ceasefire plan, -Moualem demanded guarantees from the peace plan?s author, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, that armed insurgents would also honor any truce.
"We will not ask the terrorist groups, which are killing, kidnapping and destroying infrastructure, for guarantees. We want Annan to give us these guarantees," Moualem said in Moscow.
The last-minute demand, a variant of one Syria made at the weekend, is not mentioned in Annan's proposals and looks designed to complicate his struggle to get all parties to comply with a six-point plan that is so far largely a dead letter.
The rebel Free Syrian Army will fight on if Assad fails to withdraw troops and tanks from in and around cities as required, a spokesman, Colonel Qassem Saad al-Deen, told Reuters.
PhotoBlog: Colleagues mourn TV cameraman shot dead on Lebanon-Syria border
The opposition Syrian National Council said a partial ceasefire was unacceptable and government forces should stop all violence on Tuesday. Its spokeswoman, Basma Kodmani, also told a news conference in Geneva that arrests, house demolitions and shelling by tanks and anti-aircraft guns were continuing.
An Arab League monitoring effort collapsed in January as intensifying violence made a mockery of an Arab cease-fire plan.
Assad's forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the past year, according to a U.N. estimate. Damascus says rebels have killed more than 2,500 soldiers and security personnel.
The violence has alarmed Syria's neighbours, especially Turkey which already hosts almost 25,000 Syrian refugees. At least five people, including two Turkish citizens, were wounded by cross-border fire into a refugee camp in Turkey on Monday.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Assad of personal responsibility for killing civilians and threatened an unspecified response to the cross-border shooting.
"He is continuing to kill 60, 70, 80, 100 every day," Erdogan said during a visit to Beijing. Assad's troops were "mercilessly" shooting fleeing women and children in the back.
Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
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Applications currently are being accepted for Texas Tech University?s Shake Hands with Your Future program, which is sponsored by the Institute for the Development and Enrichment of Advanced Learners (IDEAL). The dates for the summer sessions are: Session I, June 4-7 for students entering grades four to seven and July 8-12 for students entering grades eight to 11.
Shake Hands with Your Future is an academic enrichment program that targets high achieving students. One goal of Shake Hands with Your Future is to introduce students to new academic experiences and to assist students in focusing on an academic path. The program also seeks to provide a supportive environment where students share experiences and encourage each other?s thinking and creativity. Classes are not graded.
University faculty, graduate students and public school teachers serve as instructors who guide students through investigations of complex subject matter and research processes. Participants choose to participate in two courses of study. Classes offered are: Architecture, Animal Science and Food Technology, In the Lab, Environmental Engineering, LEGO Robotics, Art, Law, Theater Arts, Anatomy and Physiology, and Forensics.
For registration information, go online to www.ideal.ttu.edu. You may also contact IDEAL at (806) 742-2420 or email ideal.mail@ttu.edu.
Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu and on Twitter @TexasTechMedia.
CONTACT: Amanda Foster, assistant director, Institute for the Development and Enrichment for Advanced Learners, (806) 742-7200 or amanda.foster@ttu.edu.
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Maternal obesity, diabetes associated with autism, other developmental disordersPublic release date: 9-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9023 University of California - Davis Health System
This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese.
A major study of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and the risk that a child will be born with a neurodevelopmental disorder has found strong links between maternal diabetes and obesity and the likelihood of having a child with autism or another developmental disability.
Conducted by researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study found that mothers who were obese were 1-2/3 times more likely to have a child with autism as normal-weight mothers without diabetes or hypertension, and were more than twice as likely to have a child with another developmental disorder.
Mothers with diabetes were found to have nearly 2-1/3 times the chance of having a child with developmental delays as healthy mothers. However, the proportion of mothers with diabetes who had a child with autism was higher than in healthy mothers but did not reach statistical significance.
The study also found that the autistic children of diabetic mothers were more disabled -- had greater deficits in language comprehension and production and adaptive communication -- than were the children with autism born to healthy mothers.
However, the children without autism born to diabetic mothers also exhibited impairments in socialization in addition to language comprehension and production, when compared with the non-autistic children of healthy women. Children without autism of mothers with any of the metabolic conditions displayed mild deficits in problem solving, language comprehension and production, motor skills and socialization.
"Over a third of U.S. women in their childbearing years are obese and nearly one-tenth have gestational or type 2 diabetes during pregnancy. Our finding that these maternal conditions may be linked with neurodevelopmental problems in children raises concerns and therefore may have serious public-health implications," said Paula Krakowiak, a biostatician affiliated with the MIND Institute.
The study, "Maternal metabolic conditions and risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders," is published online today in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Its authors said that it is the first study to examine the associations between neurodevelopmental disorders and maternal metabolic conditions not restricted solely to type 2 or gestational diabetes, including obesity and hypertension, which have similar underlying biological characteristics, and to investigate correlations between these conditions and impairments in the skills and abilities of children in specific developmental domains.
More than 60 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are overweight, 34 percent are obese, and 16 percent have metabolic syndrome. Nearly 9 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are diabetic, and more than 1 percent of U.S. pregnancies were complicated by chronic hypertension. In California, where the study was conducted, 1.3 percent of women had type 2 diabetes and 7.4 percent had gestational diabetes.
Autism is characterized by impairments in social interaction, communication deficits and repetitive behaviors and often is accompanied by intellectual disability. An estimated 1 in 110 children born today will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and its incidence appears to be growing. An estimated 1 in 83 U.S. children has another developmental disorder, which includes other disorders resulting in intellectual disability.
The study included 1,004 mother/child pairs from diverse backgrounds enrolled in the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment Study (CHARGE), most of them living in Northern California, with a small subset living in Los Angeles. The children were between 24 and 60 months old, born in California and resided with at least one biological parent who spoke either English or Spanish. There were 517 children who had autism; 172 with other developmental disorders; and 315 were developing normally. The participants were enrolled between January 2003 and June 2010.
The researchers obtained demographic and medical information for the mothers and their children using the CHARGE Study Environmental Exposure Questionnaire, a telephone survey, the study participants' birth files and medical records. The primary metabolic conditions of interest were type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes.
Women were considered diabetic if the condition was noted in their medical records or if during the telephone surveys they answered yes to the questions "During this pregnancy were you ever told by a physician or nurse that you had gestational diabetes?" or "At any time before you became pregnant were you told by a doctor that you had [type 2] diabetes?" The same wording was used to obtain information about hypertension. BMI was calculated using height and weight prior to pregnancy from medical records or telephone interview.
To confirm the developmental diagnoses of the children with autism researchers used the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIR) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedules (ADOS). All of the children were administered the Mullen Sales of Early Learning and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales to assess their cognitive and adaptive development. Spanish-speaking children were administered the tests in Spanish. The participants were then divided into groups of children with autism, developmental disability or normal development.
Among children whose mothers were diabetic during their pregnancies, the study found that the percentage of children with autism born to women with type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes -- 9.3 percent -- or developmental disability -- 11.6 percent -- was higher than the 6.4 percent of children born to women without these metabolic conditions.
Over 20 percent of the mothers of children with autism or other developmental disability were obese, compared with 14 percent of the mothers of normally developing children.
Approximately 29 percent of the children with autism had mothers with a metabolic condition, and nearly 35 percent of the children with another developmental disorder had mothers with metabolic conditions, compared with 19 percent of the normal children had mothers with a metabolic condition.
The study also examined the link between hypertension and autism or developmental disorder. The prevalence of high blood pressure was low for all groups, but more common among mothers of children with autism or developmental disorder, though the finding did not reach statistical significance.
Analyses of the children's cognitive abilities found that, among the children with autism, children of mothers with diabetes exhibited poorer performance on tests of expressive and receptive language and communication skills of everyday living when compared with the children of non-diabetic mothers. And the presence of any metabolic condition was associated with lower scores on all of the tests among children without autism.
The authors note that obesity is a significant risk factor for diabetes and hypertension, and is characterized by increased insulin resistance and chronic inflammation, as are diabetes and hypertension. In diabetic, and possibility pre-diabetic pregnancies, poorly regulated maternal glucose can result in prolonged fetal exposure to elevated maternal glucose levels, which raises fetal insulin production resulting in chronic fetal exposure to high levels of insulin.
Because elevated insulin production requires greater oxygen use this may result in depleted oxygen supply for the fetus. Diabetes also may result in fetal iron deficiency. Both conditions can adversely affect fetal brain development, the authors said.
"The sequence of events related to poorly regulated maternal glucose levels is one potential biological mechanism that may play a role in adverse fetal development in the presence of maternal metabolic conditions," Krakowiak said.
Maternal inflammation, which accompanies metabolic conditions, may also adversely affect fetal development. Certain proteins involved in cell signaling that are produced by cells of the immune system can cross the placenta from the mother to the fetus and disturb brain development.
###
Other study authors are Cheryl Walker, Alice Baker, Sally Ozonoff and Robin Hansen of the UC Davis MIND Institute and Andrew Bremer of UC Davis and Vanderbilt University.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, and the UC Davis MIND Institute.
At the UC Davis MIND Institute, world-renowned scientists engage in research to find improved treatments as well as the causes and cures for autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, genetics, pharmacology and behavioral sciences are making inroads into a better understanding of brain function. The UC Davis MIND Institute draws from these and other disciplines to conduct collaborative, multidisciplinary research. For more information, visit mindinstitute.ucdavis.edu.
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Maternal obesity, diabetes associated with autism, other developmental disordersPublic release date: 9-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phyllis Brown phyllis.brown@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 916-734-9023 University of California - Davis Health System
This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese.
A major study of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and the risk that a child will be born with a neurodevelopmental disorder has found strong links between maternal diabetes and obesity and the likelihood of having a child with autism or another developmental disability.
Conducted by researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute, the study found that mothers who were obese were 1-2/3 times more likely to have a child with autism as normal-weight mothers without diabetes or hypertension, and were more than twice as likely to have a child with another developmental disorder.
Mothers with diabetes were found to have nearly 2-1/3 times the chance of having a child with developmental delays as healthy mothers. However, the proportion of mothers with diabetes who had a child with autism was higher than in healthy mothers but did not reach statistical significance.
The study also found that the autistic children of diabetic mothers were more disabled -- had greater deficits in language comprehension and production and adaptive communication -- than were the children with autism born to healthy mothers.
However, the children without autism born to diabetic mothers also exhibited impairments in socialization in addition to language comprehension and production, when compared with the non-autistic children of healthy women. Children without autism of mothers with any of the metabolic conditions displayed mild deficits in problem solving, language comprehension and production, motor skills and socialization.
"Over a third of U.S. women in their childbearing years are obese and nearly one-tenth have gestational or type 2 diabetes during pregnancy. Our finding that these maternal conditions may be linked with neurodevelopmental problems in children raises concerns and therefore may have serious public-health implications," said Paula Krakowiak, a biostatician affiliated with the MIND Institute.
The study, "Maternal metabolic conditions and risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders," is published online today in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Its authors said that it is the first study to examine the associations between neurodevelopmental disorders and maternal metabolic conditions not restricted solely to type 2 or gestational diabetes, including obesity and hypertension, which have similar underlying biological characteristics, and to investigate correlations between these conditions and impairments in the skills and abilities of children in specific developmental domains.
More than 60 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are overweight, 34 percent are obese, and 16 percent have metabolic syndrome. Nearly 9 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are diabetic, and more than 1 percent of U.S. pregnancies were complicated by chronic hypertension. In California, where the study was conducted, 1.3 percent of women had type 2 diabetes and 7.4 percent had gestational diabetes.
Autism is characterized by impairments in social interaction, communication deficits and repetitive behaviors and often is accompanied by intellectual disability. An estimated 1 in 110 children born today will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and its incidence appears to be growing. An estimated 1 in 83 U.S. children has another developmental disorder, which includes other disorders resulting in intellectual disability.
The study included 1,004 mother/child pairs from diverse backgrounds enrolled in the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment Study (CHARGE), most of them living in Northern California, with a small subset living in Los Angeles. The children were between 24 and 60 months old, born in California and resided with at least one biological parent who spoke either English or Spanish. There were 517 children who had autism; 172 with other developmental disorders; and 315 were developing normally. The participants were enrolled between January 2003 and June 2010.
The researchers obtained demographic and medical information for the mothers and their children using the CHARGE Study Environmental Exposure Questionnaire, a telephone survey, the study participants' birth files and medical records. The primary metabolic conditions of interest were type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes.
Women were considered diabetic if the condition was noted in their medical records or if during the telephone surveys they answered yes to the questions "During this pregnancy were you ever told by a physician or nurse that you had gestational diabetes?" or "At any time before you became pregnant were you told by a doctor that you had [type 2] diabetes?" The same wording was used to obtain information about hypertension. BMI was calculated using height and weight prior to pregnancy from medical records or telephone interview.
To confirm the developmental diagnoses of the children with autism researchers used the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIR) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedules (ADOS). All of the children were administered the Mullen Sales of Early Learning and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales to assess their cognitive and adaptive development. Spanish-speaking children were administered the tests in Spanish. The participants were then divided into groups of children with autism, developmental disability or normal development.
Among children whose mothers were diabetic during their pregnancies, the study found that the percentage of children with autism born to women with type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes -- 9.3 percent -- or developmental disability -- 11.6 percent -- was higher than the 6.4 percent of children born to women without these metabolic conditions.
Over 20 percent of the mothers of children with autism or other developmental disability were obese, compared with 14 percent of the mothers of normally developing children.
Approximately 29 percent of the children with autism had mothers with a metabolic condition, and nearly 35 percent of the children with another developmental disorder had mothers with metabolic conditions, compared with 19 percent of the normal children had mothers with a metabolic condition.
The study also examined the link between hypertension and autism or developmental disorder. The prevalence of high blood pressure was low for all groups, but more common among mothers of children with autism or developmental disorder, though the finding did not reach statistical significance.
Analyses of the children's cognitive abilities found that, among the children with autism, children of mothers with diabetes exhibited poorer performance on tests of expressive and receptive language and communication skills of everyday living when compared with the children of non-diabetic mothers. And the presence of any metabolic condition was associated with lower scores on all of the tests among children without autism.
The authors note that obesity is a significant risk factor for diabetes and hypertension, and is characterized by increased insulin resistance and chronic inflammation, as are diabetes and hypertension. In diabetic, and possibility pre-diabetic pregnancies, poorly regulated maternal glucose can result in prolonged fetal exposure to elevated maternal glucose levels, which raises fetal insulin production resulting in chronic fetal exposure to high levels of insulin.
Because elevated insulin production requires greater oxygen use this may result in depleted oxygen supply for the fetus. Diabetes also may result in fetal iron deficiency. Both conditions can adversely affect fetal brain development, the authors said.
"The sequence of events related to poorly regulated maternal glucose levels is one potential biological mechanism that may play a role in adverse fetal development in the presence of maternal metabolic conditions," Krakowiak said.
Maternal inflammation, which accompanies metabolic conditions, may also adversely affect fetal development. Certain proteins involved in cell signaling that are produced by cells of the immune system can cross the placenta from the mother to the fetus and disturb brain development.
###
Other study authors are Cheryl Walker, Alice Baker, Sally Ozonoff and Robin Hansen of the UC Davis MIND Institute and Andrew Bremer of UC Davis and Vanderbilt University.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, and the UC Davis MIND Institute.
At the UC Davis MIND Institute, world-renowned scientists engage in research to find improved treatments as well as the causes and cures for autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, fragile X syndrome, Tourette syndrome and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, genetics, pharmacology and behavioral sciences are making inroads into a better understanding of brain function. The UC Davis MIND Institute draws from these and other disciplines to conduct collaborative, multidisciplinary research. For more information, visit mindinstitute.ucdavis.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Our lives at Lambir were more or less as at Mulu ? breakfast by 8 and in the field by 9. Hike anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. Record latitude/longitude and other data. Sample intensely for 40 minutes, focusing on either tree trunks, foliage, or the ground. Record more data, and repeat for another 40 minute session, then again, then again, for a total of 6 sessions. Add time to take notes, have some lunch, wipe sweat, readjust gear, and it?s about 4 pm by the time we get back to camp.
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Public release date: 9-Apr-2012
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