StemCell Therapy

Welcome to Geeks Vs Loneliness, our spot on the site where we chat about things that may be affecting you, or people you know. This week, we're handing over to Shawm Kreitzman, who wants to talk about something we're betting many of you - us included - hadn't heard of before...

A few years ago, I stumbled across the trailer for Anomalisa on YouTube.

I had never heard of the film, but I watched the trailer with mild interest and thought it looked like a curious (if slightly melancholy) piece of stop-motion animation, nicely executed, but ultimately unremarkable. I let my mouse wander on to something else, and didnt give it another thought.

Until my girlfriend happened to see it, that is.

That was incredibly creepy, she said to me, after seeing the clip.

Creepy? I had thought the mood was a little on the glum side, the general tone rather drab. But creepy?

All the faces are exactly the same, she told me.

Apparently thats the whole point of the film. I hadnt actually noticed it.

From where I sit, you have a superpower. Congratulations. You may not have X-Ray vision, or Adamantium claws that spring out of your knuckles (and be honest, how useful would that really be at the office) but there is something that you do every day; something that is completely beyond my abilities. You can distinguish one face from another.

I happen to suffer from face-blindness (prosopagnosia, to its friends) which means I find it very, very difficult to tell faces apart.

Think for a moment about how many different faces you have seen in your life. Apart from your family and friends, there are the faces of your neighbours; there are the thousands of commuters you have passed on your way to work, and the total strangers you see in the supermarket. There were the faces of the other kids at your school, back in the day. And thats before we even start talking about the faces you see in the Media: politicians, actors, celebrities, lingerie models, football hooligans etc.

Somehow, those millions of faces all look different to you. I have absolutely no idea how you do it.

Never mind the faces in Anomalisa; all faces look alike to me. Jason Statham and Clark Gregg look alike to me, apart from the hair (dont tell the staff at Den Of Geek I said that). Show me a photo of the Beatles and I see four identical white kids with silly haircuts. With a gun to my head I couldnt tell you which one is which.

Im not blind; my vision is perfectly fine. I can read the bottom line of the eye-chart forwards and backwards without breaking a sweat. But if I should happen to bump in to my optician at the grocery store an hour later, I will have absolutely no idea who she is.

Most people, it seems, are hard-wired to distinguish the tiniest variations in facial features and perceive those variations as a unique individual without even realising they are doing it. I never got those wires. When I look at a human face, I see the eyes, nose and mouth right where theyre supposed to be. I can see that some people have brown eyes, some people have blue eyes and such like.

But to take all those features and use them to construct a unique person? That is completely beyond my ability.

Like many people with prosopagnosia, I spent most of my life with absolutely no idea I had it. Indeed, it wasnt until I was in my 30s that I even knew it could be a thing. Before that, I just assumed I simply wasnt paying enough attention. After all, everyone else seemed to recognise each other with ease. Why couldnt I do that?

There were plenty of socially awkward moments. I hated parties, or any situation where I would be expected to meet a large number of new people in a short time (I still do). When I worked in a shop, I was hopeless at recognising regular customers when they walked in (until they spoke to me, at which point I would recognise them at once. Im exceptionally good with voices.). If someone changed their look significantly (shaved their beard, lost a lot of weight, dyed their hair purple etc) they instantly became a stranger to me. And I was useless at spotting familiar actors in films.

Before I read about prosopagnosia, it had never occurred to me that others might be seeing faces differently. When I recognise people (and I do recognise people all the time) its usually by their hair; their voice; their body language. I just assumed that everyone else did the same thing, only much better.

The biggest problem with face-blindness is that most people have never heard of it. Tell someone youre colour-blind and they will understand immediately. Tell them youre dyslexic and they will nod, sympathetically. But prosopagnosia? Is that contagious? Do you take pills for it? (No, you dont, by the way. Theres no treatment per se.) And if you fail to recognise someone youre supposed know, they can become very offended very quickly. Even after I explain it (which I rarely bother to do) people are often sceptical.

So you really cant see my face? they ask.

Of course I can see your face; its right where you think it is. I just cant see what makes your face different from the countless other faces I have seen in my lifetime. (And my prosopagnosia is relatively mild. Some people are unable to recognise their own family, or even themselves in mirrors and photographs.)

Please dont be offended. Its nothing personal, but thats exactly the problem. For most people, The Face is the most personal thing there is (theres a reason they dont call it Voicebook).

The irony is that Im not troubled by any of this, although that wasnt always the case.

Before I knew what it was, I struggled with it quite a bit. I thought I must be doing something wrong; I thought I simply wasnt being observant enough. This is a story I have heard from many others with the same condition. Many of us are terrified of meeting people, of interacting with anyone, for fear of embarrassing ourselves or inadvertently causing offence. We simply dont realise that we truly see the world differently.

When you're different, you tend to experience things through a filter. If something happens and you react one way while everyone else reacts another way, your first response is generally to wonder why. If I wasnt reacting to things the way normal people do, then obviously we're seeing things differently. When I eventually realised I was face-blind, it didn't scare me or disturb me; it made perfect sense. I was literally seeing things differently.

Normal is my least-favourite word in the English language. Remember Malcolm McDowell's line from Star Trek: Generations? Normal is what everyone else is, and you are not. Best Line Ever.

In exploring my own prosopagnosia, I have realised that the way we perceive the world around us is extremely subjective and personal. When I compare notes with people who have dyslexia for example, I hear them talking about written words the way I talk about faces.

When they see printed text on a shop window or a street sign, they don't see the text, they see the shapes. Once they recognise those shapes as text, they can consciously make a decision to attempt to read it. For my part, I cant imagine seeing text and not reading it. Where they see shapes, I see language.

When it comes to faces, I see shapes, while you see people.

We can never truly know what another person sees when they look at the world, but I feel sure that it's nothing the rest of us would recognise. People with synesthesia, for example, can hear colours, and, growing up, probably assumed that the rest of us do as well.

The only thing we have in common is the fact that we have almost nothing in common. Thats why everyone reacts differently, and its one of the reasons why so many people hate each other so much. I really wish more of us would realise that; it would solve so many problems in this world.

For my part, I rather like the fact that I'm seeing things the way you don't (or vice versa). It constantly reminds me that everyone sees something different when they look at the same things. That's what gives the world its diversity.

Sadly, some people are frightened by diversity. I will never understand that. It's as plain to me as the face on your nose.

If you think you might have prosopagnosia, my best advice is to talk about it with your family and close friends. Compare notes. Let them know what youre dealing with. It really helps.

There are various facial recognition tests that are freely available online. I recommend these two:

http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/ff/ff_intro.php and http://facememory.psy.uwa.edu.au/

There are also many chat rooms, forums and Facebook groups devoted to prosopagnosia, including this Yahoo group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/faceblind/info

And finally, here is the NHS information page about prosopagnosia:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/prosopagnosia/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Thanks for reading.

Read this article:
Geeks Vs Loneliness: face-blindness - Den of Geek UK

Addison County Independent

Blindness no barrier to massage therapist Addison County Independent MASSAGE THERAPIST STEVEN Fidler has been running his own practice in Middlebury for the last three years. He believes his blindness has become an asset to providing his services. Independent photo/Trent Campbell. MIDDLEBURY Just another day ...

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Blindness no barrier to massage therapist - Addison County Independent

Education and Technology:

Microsoft Learning Tools is software that helps improve reading skills by reducing visual crowding, highlighting words, and reading text aloud, so students can engage with words in a whole new way.

Again?

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD). You probably havent heard much about it, but if you live in the United States, its the most likely way youll lose your eyesight as you get older. Basically, the cells in your retina that detect lightaka the maculatend to decline as you age, leading to vision loss and, in some cases, total blindness.

But a recent clinical trial tested an unorthodox method to treat and potentially prevent this from happening: giving patients a man-made virus. The trials findings, published last week in The Lancet, show that administering viruses may help doctors stall vision loss and eventually make age-related blindness a thing of the past.

For the trial, doctors gave the virus to 19 patients with advanced, wet age-related macular degeneration, a type of AMD that causes abnormal blood vessels beneath the macula to leak fluid. White Americans over the age of 80 are particularly vulnerable when it comes to getting the chronic eye disease. All the patients in this new trial were 50 years old or older and had little success with standard treatments. Though the virus was not drastically different from a common cold, doctors intended for it to jump-start the patients immune systems and help their eyes drain the problematic eye fluid.

What they found was substantial fluid reduction in four of the patients, some fluid reduction in two patients, and five who saw no improvement. According to Mic, doctors didnt expect eight of the patients to see any improvement from the outset. But for the five who were expected to see some improvement and didnt, it seems their bodies already had antibodies to ward off the homemade virus, deeming it ineffective. But for those who literally saw progress as a result of the virus, the trial is definitely worth replicating.

Read more:
Curing Blindness May Be As Simple As Getting A Virus - GOOD Magazine

Tucked inside a small laboratory at UConns Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington, Conn., Nicole Wagner is trying to cure vision impairment and blindness for more than 30 million people worldwide.

Using a protein, grown in the laboratory and implanted behind the retina, this promising new procedure offers hope for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinal diseases.

These are terrible diseases that truly impact the quality of life for many people, said Wagner, the president and CEO of LambdaVision. To offer patients the possibility of restoring their vision provides them the chance to see a new grandchild, resume a golf game, drive again or read a favorite book. For many people, restored vision would allow them to return to an independent life.

LambdaVision uses a light-activated protein, bacteriorhodopsin, to stimulate the retina of patients suffering from impaired or lost vision due to retinal degenerative diseases. The protein, isolated from high-salt environments, including the Dead Sea, is grown and purified in the laboratory. The protein works by absorbing light and converting it into a signal that is picked up by specialized cells in the retina, relayed to the optic nerve and ultimately interpreted by the brain.

More than 31 million people worldwide suffer from irreversible vision loss caused by macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The incidence of blindness caused by retinal degenerative diseases is increasing at a rapid rate due to an increase in the global geriatric population, Wagner said.

LambdaVisions implant can restore high-quality vision to those patients who are no longer candidates for traditional treatments and have end-stage retinal degeneration, Wagner said. Current treatments only succeed in slowing the progression of disease.

LambdaVision was founded through support from UConns Technology Commercialization Services in 2009. Dr. Robert R. Birge, distinguished professor of chemistry at UConn, led a research group that included Wagner.

The protein is in pre-clinical trials across the country to determine the stability and efficacy of the implant.

LambdaVision has been incredibly fortunate to have the continued support of UConn and the State of Connecticut, and we owe much of our success to the incredible mentors that have helped us to propel the research and development and commercialization of the technology, she said. In the early stages of development, they were the believers.

LambdaVision has won many awards, including most recently: a 2016 UConn SPARK Technology Commercialization Fund Award and the prestigious 2016 MassChallenge CASIS-Boeing Prize for Technology, which allows the company to carry out experiments aboard the International Space Station. Since gravity can interfere with the uniformity of the retinal implant films, the hope is that work done in microgravity will be faster and yield improvements in the homogeneity and stability of the product.

The company also won the $15,000 Wolff New Venture Prize, sponsored by UConns Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI) and a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant.

To be on the brink of a new and exciting medical breakthrough is thrilling, Wagner said. Im very eager to see this technology available in the medical community where it can make a difference in peoples lives.

More:
Farmington Startup Sets Sights on Curing Retinal-Disease Blindness - UConn Today

The expo included an awards ceremony, where awards for outstanding high school and elementary school student and outstanding employee/employer were presented, as well as an independence award, and an equal access award.

Attendees to the expo explored how Pennsylvanians who are blind or visually impaired overcome challenges in education, employment, and independence. BBVS offered simulations of varying visual impairments, while other vendors and organizations gave hands-on demonstrations with guide dogs, tools, and services that facilitate living with a visual impairment.

This year's Master of Ceremonies was Carlton Anne Cook Walker, a certified teacher of students with blindness and visual and multiple impairments. She served as an itinerant teacher of blind and low-vision students in South Central Pennsylvania for more than six years. Currently, she serves as Project Manager for the NFB BELL Academy (National Federation of the Blind Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Academy), a nationwide program which provides summer learning experiences for hundreds of blind and low-vision students ages four through twelve.

In Pennsylvania, it is estimated that more than215,000 individuals aged 40 and under experience severe vision problems. Of those, more than 69,000 experience total blindness. For those over the age of 50, more than 1.76 million suffer from a severe visual impairment.

Following is a list of award recipients:

Outstanding Elementary School Student #AccessEqualsSuccess in Education Video Award Nathan Craig. Watch Nathan's video: https://youtu.be/45KFlBXPtvA.

Outstanding Middle School Student #AccessEqualsSuccess in Education Video Award Jaylen Hallowell and Simon Bonenfant. Watch Jaylen's video: https://youtu.be/Sivw-km-UFc. Watch Simon's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwZjl1sTeXk.

Outstanding High School Student #AccessEqualsSuccess in Education Video Award Kayla McDonough. Watch Kayla's video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEn8v11j1YQ.

Outstanding Individual #AccessEqualsSuccess in Employment AwardRen Wang

Outstanding Employer #AccessEqualsSuccess in Employment Award Bayer HealthCare, LLC

Outstanding Individual #AccessEqualsSuccess in Independence Award Ron Ream

Outstanding Business #AccessEqualsSuccess in Independence Award PSECU

Great Lakes Regional Braille Readers Are Leaders Award Andrew Godwin

For more information, please visit the BBVS website, or contact the BBVS at 717-787-6176 or bbvs@pa.gov.

Media Contact: Lindsay Bracale, 717-787-7530

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pa-department-of-labor--industry-hosts-blindness-awareness-expo-300462593.html

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry

http://www.state.pa.us

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PA Department of Labor & Industry Hosts Blindness Awareness Expo - PR Newswire (press release)

New book exposes Willful Blindness in connection with murder conviction of local rabbis son

Zeke Goldblum and his mother, Evelyn Goldblum. (Photo provided by Orah Miller)

Willful Blindness, which was published last November and is available at amazon.com and other online retailers, is edited by former Post-Gazette writer David Bear and primarily authored by James Ramsey, a former narcotics detective turned private investigator who has spent the last 10 years researching Goldblums case.

Since the incarceration of Goldblum in 1977, several high-profile figures have come out in support of his release, most notably the prosecuting attorney that tried the case, Peter Dixon, and retired U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler, who presided over the trial. Dixon and Ziegler, as well as renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, have all submitted letters or affidavits at various clemency and commutation proceedings throughout the last three decades, claiming that the evidence and extenuating circumstances require that Goldblum be released.

Still, after 40 years, Goldblum, the son of the late Rabbi Moshe Goldblum who served for 24 years as the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom, remains behind bars, currently confined at the State Correctional Institution Mahanoy in Schuylkill County.

He is 67 years old, walks with a cane and has other health issues.

On February 10, 1976, Goldblum, a 26-year-old law school graduate working with Ernst and Young, was arrested for his purported involvement with a murder. The previous evening, the victim, George Wilhelm, had been stabbed and thrown off the rooftop of the Smithfield/Liberty parking garage downtown. Rather than falling to the street, Wilhelm landed on the roof of the pedestrian bridge one floor below, and, though mortally wounded, he survived long enough to tell a policeman the name of his assailant: Clarence Miller.

That statement is known in the law as a dying declaration. It is typically given significant evidentiary weight, as it is presumed that a person on his deathbed will tell the truth.

Nonetheless, Wilhelms dying declaration was not enough to raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury, and in 1977, Goldblum was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus 15 to 30 years.

Bear, a longtime Squirrel Hill resident, began researching the case about two years ago.

When I got involved, I was amazed not only at what was discovered, but the whole process the state uses to deal with life sentences, Bear said, noting how rare it is in the state for a lifer to get his sentence commuted. The attitude of state officials, he continued, is that life means life.

There have been a number of actions brought by the family and others to overturn the wrongful conviction, he said, but only one of those applications the one filed in 1998 received a public hearing. In addition to letters of support from Ziegler and Dixon, the medical examiner on the case, Joshua Perper also said that Zeke didnt do it and that he shouldnt be in prison, according to Bear.

The matter of Goldblums continued incarceration goes beyond his particular case, according to Bear, and to the broader issue of geriatric lifers in Pennsylvania who are routinely denied clemency.

I hope this logjam will break, Bear said. They shouldnt just deny them all.

Willful Blindness is a thorough review of the circumstances of Goldblums case, including a look at media reports at the time, alleged cover-up of evidence and purported misconduct among those seeking a conviction for Goldblum.

Bear presented a talk about his findings at an adult education event at Beth Shalom last week, at which Zekes brother David Goldblum from Baltimore was present, as was his sister Orah Miller, who resides in Israel. The family continues to be active in seeking Goldblums release, and The Chronicle featured an in-depth article about those efforts in December 2015.

Maybe this book will help, Bear said. Its all I can do.

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

Excerpt from:
New book exposes 'Willful Blindness' in connection with murder conviction of local rabbi's son - thejewishchronicle.net

ANDOVER, Kan. (KAKE) -

The same old routine at the middle school track meet: waiting your turn, watching dozens of events. Then finally, you get the call. But that's a call Rich Yamamoto almost didn't get.

"My coach passed me up and goes, 'Hey, why weren't you at practice yesterday?'I was like, 'Because you didn't tell me I had to run,'and so he goes, 'Yeah,we have a spot for you at the meet if you want to join.' I'm like, 'OK.'"

It wasn't a normal race for Rich. At this meet, the 8th gradergot to run with his dad.

"It's really neat," Rich's mother Jennifer said. "It's nice that they have something they can spend time together with and have bonding over."

Before the race, Rich sets a goal. The race starts. Rich's dad, Richard, is his guide. The reason for that: Rich is blind.

Richard leads his son while letting him know his pace. Four laps around the track for one mile and Rich brings it home.

In a race he almost wasn't going to run, Rich set a personal record, leaving behind a legacy at a routine middle school track meet not soon to be forgotten.

Rich says he plans to run track as a freshman next year.

The Yamamotos are always looking for dedicated runners to work with Rich. If you or someone you know would like to help, email the Yamamotos.

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Blindness doesn't stop Andover middle school runner - KAKE

Using nanoparticles to carry genes rather than viral vectors could be safer, simpler and allow for larger genes to be transported

24 May 2017 by Selina Powell

Researchers have used gene-carrying nanoparticles to prevent sight loss in mice with a human form of leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), in a study published in Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids.

The inherited cause of blindness affects two to three babies in every 100,000 newborns, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Although the research focused on leber congenital amaurosis 2, or LCA2, scientists believe the study holds promise for other forms of LCA and inherited diseases that lead to severe vision loss or blindness.

Study author Dr Zheng-Rong Lu, of Case Western Reserve University, told OT that using the nanoparticles for gene delivery had advantages over traditional viral forms of delivery.

The nanoparticles were easy to produce, safe and had unlimited cargo capacity, Dr Lu explained.

Right now, genetic visual disorders are a major cause of retinal degeneration and severe vision loss, yet there are no approved therapies to treat these diseases, Dr Lu shared.

With gene therapy, we can cure the disease by delivering a healthy copy of the mutated gene directly to the cells that need to use it. However, this promise cannot be realized without a safe and effective gene delivery system to carry the gene into the target cells, he emphasised.

Gene replacement therapy using the delivery system in mice with LCA2 resulted in improved vision for more than 120 days.

Dr Lu highlighted that while the gene delivery system had potential, further improvements were needed. Future work would focus on prolonging gene expression and improving tissue specificity.

See the original post here:
Fine-tuning gene delivery to combat childhood blindness - AOP

A WOMENS organisation in Yate has awarded 3,000 to a blindness charity after organising a series of events over the past year.

Members of Yate and District Townswomens Guild chose Retinitis Pigmentosa(RP) Fighting Blindness as their charity of choice for 2016-17, and raised funds for the organisation by hosting beetle drives, sales tables, a fashion show and Christmas Craft Stalls.

Rhona Cowie, Chairman of Yate and District Townswomen's Guild,said: "I would like to extend my thanks to all of the ladies of the guild for their hardwork and effort.

"My predecessorChristina Shinton did an amazing job organising the fashion show, which was attended by around 160 people and raised most of the money."

"Models wearing clothing fromM&CO and Next also made the fashion show a very successful evening."

Rhona and Christinapresentedrepresentatives from RP Fighting Blindness with a 3,000 cheque at the Townswomen's monthly meeting in April.

RP Fighting Blindness is a charity dedicated to finding a treatment for a group of eye conditions (retinitis pigmentosa) that affect vision and can ultimately lead to blindness.

There is currently no cure for RP, which affects around 25,000 people in the UK, but the charity provides support and guidance for those who have been diagnosed.

Ian Watson, Fundraising Manager at RP Fighting Blindness, said: We were delighted to hear of the support from Yate and District Townswomens Guild.

Community support of this type is so important for our charity; not only does it raise much-needed funds, but spreads the word of our work too, raising awareness of inherited retinal dystrophies with the general public.

The Townswomen's Guild have now announced that their next charity will beDogs for Good, an organisation that trains assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities and children with autism.

They will be hosting a luncheon on Wednesday, May 31 at 12.30pm at the Masonic Hall in order to raise funds for the charity.

Those wishing to book a ticket should contact Rhona on 01454 881532.

She added: New members are always welcome to join us. We area friendly group who enjoy meeting, having a chat and give amazing support to various charities.

Excerpt from:
Yate and District Townswomen's Guild raise 3000 for blindness charity - South Cotswolds Gazette

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. If youve lived in central Indiana for a while, youve probably heard Bernie Eagans voice come through the radio at work, at home or in your car.

Bernie is the afternoon radio personality from 4 to 8 p.m. on Soft Rock B105.7. Hes also been working at Emmis Communications, which also owns 93 WIBC, since 1981 and has only been on two radio stations this entire time. Before joining B105.7 as their morning radio personality in 2002, Bernie had worked as a DJ at Lite Rock 97.1 WENS, which is now Country 97.1 HANK FM.

But if youve listened to Bernie over the past 36 years, you may have never known this entire time that he is blind.

It doesnt matter. It doesnt add to the show, it doesnt take away from the show. If it made a difference, they probably wouldnt have hired me, says Bernie who says he focuses instead on talking about the music, station events, upcoming concerts and things that he says his listeners can relate.

Because Bernie may rarely, if ever, mention on-air that he is blind, he says his listeners are surprised to find out when they meet him.

If youve never met a blind person, people dont know how to behave, says Bernie.

His wife Teresa drives him to and from work and helps him to the studio to start his show. Once she sets up the computer for him, hes ready to roll.

A lot of times shell help me with transcribing things. Shell read them, Ill write them down. When youre blind, theres no question there are certain things that somebody has to help you with and she is just great, says Bernie.

Shes [also] a much better driver than I am, says Bernie jokingly about Teresa, whom he married in 1995.

Bernie also takes the music logs for B105.7, which tells a radio DJ the order the songs on the station will play, and transcribes them into braille to print off and use for his show.

Bernie had gone to the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired through high school and knew that he wanted to work in radio as a teenager.

I went down to what use to be Indiana Central College, now the University of Indianapolis. They [have] a station, WICR, and so I used to bug those guys because I used to live very close. My mother took me over to the station and I went in and started telling the [DJ] how to do his show because I was 14 years old, so I [thought I] knew everything. And [the DJ] finally said to me, do you want to take over the show? Of course it scared me unbelievably, and I said, sure! Bernie says the WICR DJ showed him how to run the equipment, and he had his first taste of being on-air.

From there, Bernie went to Ball State University to study Radio Broadcasting and worked at several stations in East Central Indiana including WERK, which is where David Letterman also got his first start.

In 1981, Bernie applied to work at a new station called WENS, and was hired by Program Director Rick Cummings, who is now the President of Radio Programming for Emmis Communications. Bernies first day on the air was July 11, 1981, which was one full week after WENS had debuted as an Adult Contemporary format on July 4.

After nearly 36 years on the air in Indianapolis, does Bernie have any plans of slowing down anytime soon and stepping away from his passion in radio?

Im not really sure. Im going to work here, if I can, until I retire. Then after that, well see what happens.

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR BERNIE EAGAN TALK WITH 93 WIBCS C.J. MILLER ABOUT OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF BEING BLIND AND WHY HE DECIDED TO GO INTO RADIO BROADCASTING.

93 WIBCS C.J. MILLER REPORTING.

Twitter: @CJMillerWIBC

Photo Credit: C.J. Miller / WIBC

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B105.7 Radio DJ Bernie Eagan on Overcoming Challenges of Blindness - 93.1 WIBC Indianapolis

Cradled in his fathers arms, overcome with tears streaming down his cheeks, Jeff Belge had two questions:

Am I going to lose my eye? Will I ever play baseball again?

Belge, 9 years old at the time, and his cousin were skipping stones when he accidentally was hit squarely in the right eye with a rock that had slipped from his cousins hand, shattering his cornea. His eye became deflated like a balloon, white puss oozing out of it.

Fast forward seven years later, Belge is at a hotel in Atlanta, rough-housing with teammates after a long day of summer league baseball games. One of the Syracuse natives teammates accidentally sticks his finger in the same right eye, undoing the two surgeries from the first incident, and rupturing the globe in his eye. It had become deflated again.

You have to prepare yourself that we may have to remove his eye, his mother Karen was told by one doctor.

Yet, here he is, two traumatic experiences later, still pitching, an integral part of one of the best baseball teams in St. Johns history, a 6-foot-5 southpaw who throws mid-90s heat and has a professional future.

Belge is legally blind in his right eye, which was saved. The freshman can only see some colors and outlines of objects, relying solely on the left eye, in which he has 20/25 vision. But he doesnt see it as a limitation. It has been that way since he was 9. Its who he is.

I find ways around it, said Belge, who wears protective glasses. It doesnt really bother me.

Its just me having a dream and just following it. Its a bump along the way I had to get over.

After the first incident, doctors couldnt tell him if baseball was going to be part of his future. He had to miss a month of school. He didnt bother asking after the first few times. He didnt need anyone to answer the question for him.

I just told myself I was going to play, Belge said. I got on the field as soon as I could.

He started the road back with his little league coach, who would hit him tennis balls in the outfield, so he could get used to using just the one eye without fear of hurting himself. Belge would spend hours with his dad at the local park, pitching and hitting, training himself like he was learning the sport from scratch. When he got back into games, nearly a year later, he didnt think about the eye.

His focus was that intense. The injury had given him big-time motivation, determination, to push through things, he said.

If anything was a challenge, his father Tom said, it was trying to slow him down.

Belge made the Henninger High School varsity as a seventh grader, was also a standout basketball player and played quarterback for a season. He made it onto major league scouts radar as a sophomore, after striking out 11 opposite Scott Blewett, a second-round pick in 2014.

Belge was nearly a top draft pick despite the second incident costing him most of the summer prior to his senior year of high school, depriving him of several notable showcases in front of scouts.

The Red Sox, Brewers and Royals all offered Belge significant money in the third round, according to his father, money they turned down. Still, the Red Sox drafted him in the 32nd round as a courtesy.

I certainly hope in two years hes a Red Sox, said Ray Fagnant, the Red Sox area scout who followed him in high school. Hes a kid you always root for. Nothing is ever going to scare him.

The family liked the idea of him attending St. Johns, believing the experience of living in New York City and continuing to develop was too good to pass up. That bond with the Queens school grew in the summer before his senior year, following the incident. Depressed he was going to miss the showcases and unable to do much of anything baseball-related for six weeks, Belge sunk into depression. He was being forced to relive the traumatic accident from his childhood. All the work he had put in, all the time he spent staring down adversity, felt like a waste.

It put me in a bad place mentally, he said.

Pitching coach Corey Muscara, his lead recruiter, made sure to stay in close contact with Belge. Muscara would call him almost daily and suggest goals making his bed, losing a pound of weight per week, finishing a book as a way for him to keep active. It wasnt forgotten when it came time to make a decision about his future. It set it in stone, Wow, this guy really has my best interest at heart, Belge recalled.

Though Belge said he isnt thrilled with his performance this year on the mound hes 3-3 with a 5.13 ERA in nine starts the southpaw has been an integral part to one of the best teams in program history, just three wins shy of the most in St. Johns history. He has been a weekend starter as a freshman for the nationally-ranked Red Storm, with freshman Nick Mondak missing almost the entire year due to arm trouble and Kevin Magee just returning from his own injury.

I dont know how he does it, Mondak said of his teammate pitching with vision in only one eye. Its amazing.

Belge doesnt see it that way. This always has been his goal: to play baseball at a high level, and one day reach the major leagues.

The two accidents didnt change that. He expects a lot of himself, and remains confident he can be a major factor for St. Johns (40-9) in next weeks Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament that follows. He already has overcome so much, a few poor outings wont do much to that belief.

He doesnt take anything for granted, Karen said. When you have setbacks and have things taken from you, a lot of kids wouldve crumbled. A lot of kids wouldnt say I can do this again, maybe be scared of the mound, be afraid to get hurt. Not Jeffrey.

Its made Jeffrey a much stronger-willed person. It wasnt going to own him, and it didnt.

See the article here:
'Am I going to lose my eye?': St. John's star overcomes blindness - New York Post

Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF)s Dallas Chapter organized their inaugural walkathon, a 5K Fun Run/Walk for Vision on May 13 at Myers Park and Event Center in McKinney.

The event brought over 1,200 registered participants including Mayor-Elect George Fuller and his wife, Maylee-Thomas Fuller.

The event included a variety of entertainment for people of all ages bounce houses, pony rides, slides, fun filled music by local radio host DJ Moody, food and beverage choices via food trucks and even a fast-beat, choreographed flash mob led by Sweta Rajesh.

Close to $30,000 was raised with sponsorships from a host of local businesses including diamond sponsors Saravanaa Bhavan and Texas Institute for Neurological disorders.

A campaign to Open 300 Eyes was the highlight of the event. With a $30 donation, a donor gifts vision to a blind person in one of the many SEF eye hospitals in India. The assembled crowd surpassed the target by donating funds to open 450 eyes, aided by Fuller, who pledged to open 50 eyes. Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, Centennial, based in Frisco, matched the contribution toward the first 100 eyes. Participants who pledged received an I opened an eye sticker.

Established in the Bay Area, SEF is a nonprofit organization that has been working for the past 12 years with the goal of eradicating curable blindness in India. SEF has currently established nine community hospitals as well as two city hospitals and will soon embark on two new hospital projects.

SEF provides free eye care for those unable to afford it, those members of the rural poor, and this accounts for 80 percent which is approximately 150,000 people per year of the surgeries performed at their hospitals. For information visit giftofvision.org.

View post:
SEF Dallas raises close to $30000 toward eradicating curable blindness in India - Star Local Media

The EVE Online site has been updated with the news that Skill Injectors are getting a new, smaller version in addition to the current one. The smaller Skill Injector will weigh in about 1/5th the size of the already-existing one and will, of course, come at a lower cost, perfect for newer and beginning players.

At the current time, Skill Injectors cost about 650M ISK, a cost prohibitive to new players. By adding the smaller injector, more players early in their time within EVE will have an opportunity to make use of them.

You can read the full blog post on the EVE Online site.

In other EVE news, color-blindness support is coming to the game!

[A]round 7.999% of EVE players are color blind, which is a considerable chunk. I am not one of those 7.999%, so it was particularly interesting, yet challenging, to work on this feature, mostly because I was at no point capable of estimating if I was finding any success. I guess that gave me a tiny taste of how it must feel to be colorblind.

You can read more about how support was designed here.

Read the original here:
Smaller Version of Skill Injectors & Color Blindness Support - MMORPG.com

Warning: this article contains spoilers from Doctor Who episode 'Extremis'.

After this week's confusing Doctor Who episode 'Extremis', it seems that the Doctor, Bill and Nardole are heading to more challenging terrain next week.

In a trailer for 'The Pyramid at the End of the World', we see the trio visit a 5,000-year-old pyramid.

Except there's a problem the structure was not there the previous day, and the creatures inside have been studying the people around it to arrive at that exact time.

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Related: Doctor Who series 10, episode 6: 8 HUGE questions and theories after watching 'Extremis'

Oh, and it looks like the Doctor may finally reveal the truth about his blindness, which would be good, eh Doctor?

Those shadow creatures from this week's episode are also back, and they seem to be as doomy as ever.

Meanwhile, 'Extremis' finally saw the return of fan favourite Missy after a series or so away from our screens.

BBC

Related: Doctor Who series 10, episode 6 review: 'Extremis' gets lost in the dark

We also learned what was inside the vault, in that the Doctor had actually been holding Missy inside the whole time a secret that was revealed within the first five minutes.

Doctor Who returns on BBC One next Saturday (May 27) with 'The Pyramid at the End of the World'.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.

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The Doctor finally reveals his blindness in trailer for next week's 'Pyramid at the End of the World' - DigitalSpy.com

In Brief Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland have discovered a rather unusual way to treat a severe form of age-related blindness. They found a virus inserted into the retina can be used to halt or even reverse the disease. A Unique Treatment

They say you dont fight fire with fire. However, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland have found that sometimes a virus may be the best weapon against a disease.Their studyhas been publishedin The Lancet

The researchers werelooking for ways to treat a particular type ofage-related macular degeneration (AMD)known as a wet AMD. Its a rare and more severe form of the disease,affecting just 10 percent of all AMD patients, and it causes new blood vessels to grow under the retina, which then leak blood and fluid into the eye, leading to vision problems.

The researchers knewthey could halt and even reverse the condition by suppressing an overactive protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Other researchers had been able to do it with monthly eye injections, but this team was hoping to do it with just one injection.

The best way they found to do this was by using a common cold-like virus called AAV2 as a carrier of gene that activates the production of a differentprotein,sFLT01, tocounter VEGF.

In a preliminary trial involving 19 men and women 50 years old and above, the researchers injected the patients with a form of AAV2that was genetically engineered to penetrate retinal cells and deposit the gene. After the virus deposited the gene, the cells began secreting sFLT01 which bound to VEGF and prevented it from stimulating leakage and growth of abnormal blood vessels, explained a Johns Hopkins press release.

The clinical trial showed promising results, with the condition of four of the patients improving dramatically after just one viral injection. Two others saw some reduction in the fluid build up, and the treatment didnt produce any side effects in any patients. Even at the highest dose, the treatment was quite safe. We found there were almost no adverse reactions in our patients, said researcher Peter Campochiaro.

Of the patients that didnt respond, the researchers discovered that five naturally produced antibodies that would attack the AAV2 virus, rendering it unable to complete its gene depositing mission. They think these antibodies could be prevalent throughout the population, making it difficult to determine how effecting the treatment would actually be.

Nevertheless, this research is a step in the right direction, especially with AMD expected to affect almost 5.44 million people in the U.S. by 2050. This preliminary study is a small but promising step towards a new approach that will not only reduce doctor visits and the anxiety and discomfort associated with repeated injections in the eye, but may improve long-term outcomes, Campochiaro said.

See the original post:
An Experimental Gene Therapy Uses Viruses to Stop Age-Related ... - Futurism

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New research has discovered that switching from a high-glycemic (GI) diet to a low-glycemic diet can stop the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The study by Tufts University found that for the same amount of total carbohydrate, high GI foods release sugar into the bloodstream more rapidly than low GI foods.

This can affect your eyesight by causing damage to the retina.

High GI foods include potatoes, white bread and rice, while examples of low GI foods are whole grains, lentils and fruit.

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The researchers discovered that a high GI diet triggered the development of many features of AMD.

The researchers discovered that a high GI diet triggered the development of many features of AMD.

These included the loss of function of cells at the back of the eye, and of the cells that capture light.

However, eating a low GI diet did not.

Interestingly, switching from a high GI diet to a low GI diet could repair this damage to the retina.

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10 things to eat to live past 100

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Sheldon Rowan, scientist at Tufts University and lead study author, said: "We were genuinely surprised that the retinas from mice whose diets were switched from high- to low-glycemic index diets midway through the study were indistinguishable from those fed low-glycemic index diet throughout the study.

We hadn't anticipated that dietary change might repair the accumulated damage in the RPE so effectively.

Our experimental results suggest that switching from a high-glycemic diet to a low-glycemic one is beneficial to eye health in people that are heading towards developing AMD.

AMD happens gradually over time - in the early stages it causes blurred vision, while later on it can develop into blindness.

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There is currently no cure, making these new findings of particular interest.

The researchers also believe theyve found potential biomarkers of AMD which can be used to predict when a person is at risk for this disease.

Allen Taylor, scientist at Tufts University and senior study author, said: "Currently, there are no early biomarkers to anticipate the disease. Our findings show an interaction between dietary carbohydrates, the gut microbiome, specific biochemical molecules, and AMD features.

This work should lead to new approaches to understand, diagnose and treat early AMD - perhaps before it affects vision.

Already anticipated by our human epidemiologic studies, the findings imply that we can develop dietary interventions aimed at preventing the progression of AMD, a disease which impacts millions and costs billions worldwide.

Read the rest here:
Could eating a low GI diet prevent blindness as you get older ... - Express.co.uk

A small and preliminary clinical trial has found that injecting a common cold-like virus into the eyes of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients - one of the leading causes of blindness in the US - can halt and even reverse the progression of the disease.

The results will need to be replicated in a much larger group of patients, but the early signs suggest that a single injection of the specially engineered virus can kick the body's natural immune response into gear, and clear out the fluid that causes permanent vision loss.

The approach, trialled by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland, targeted a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is overactive in people with wet AMD - a rare and more severe form of the disease, which causes new blood vessels to grow beneath the retina and leak blood and fluid into the eye.

This build-up of fluid causes permanent damage to light-sensitive retinal cells, prompting them to progressively die off, leaving blind spots in the centre of a person's vision. Wet AMD affects around 10 percent of all AMD patients.

While treatments do currently exist for wet AMD, they involve getting injections in the eye once every four weeks - and if you want to maintain the benefits, you have to keep up those monthly injections for the rest of your life.

Side effects of current medications include eye infections and a heightened risk of stroke.

What the team at Johns Hopkins has demonstrated in a handful of patients is that, in some cases, there could be a way to halt and even reverse the progression of wet AMD with a single injection.

"This preliminary study is a small but promising step towards a new approach that will not only reduce doctor visits and the anxiety and discomfort associated with repeated injections in the eye, but may improve long-term outcomes," says one of the team, Peter Campochiaro.

"[P]rolonged suppression of VEGF is needed to preserve vision, and that is difficult to achieve with repeated injections because life often gets in the way."

The phase 1 clinical trial involved 19 men and women, who were 50 years or older, with advanced wet AMD.

They were divided into five groups that received increasing doses of a viral vector called AAV2 - a common cold-like virus that's been genetically engineered to penetrate the patients' retinal cells and deposit a gene that prompts the production of a protein called sFLT01.

"After the virus deposited the gene, the cells began secreting sFLT01 which bound to VEGF and prevented it from stimulating leakage and growth of abnormal blood vessels," the team explains.

"The goal is for the retinal cells infected by the virus to produce enough sFLT01 to permanently stop the progression of AMD."

Previous research has shown that sFLT01 can inactivate VEGF, but until now, scientists had struggled to get the body to produce it on its own - instead, they've had to regularly inject VEGF-suppressing proteins to keep it at bay.

The first three groups were given the lowest doses of the AAV2 virus, and after they showed no negative side effects, the final two groups were given the maximum dose. No severe side effects were observed in either group.

"Even at the highest dose, the treatment was quite safe. We found there were almost no adverse reactions in our patients," says Campochiaro.

The 19 participants were all selected based on their lack of response to all other standard treatment options - eight of which were unlikely to respond even to their new treatment.

Of the remaining 11, four showed dramatic improvements after a single viral injection, with the amount of fluid in their eyes reducing from severe to "almost nothing", the team reports. Two more patients experienced a partial reduction in the amount of fluid in their eyes.

The remaining five patients weren't so lucky, experiencing no improvement in vision after the injection, but for good reason - the researchers realised that their bodies naturally produced antibodies that attack the AAV2 virus.

And therein lies the rub, because the researchers suspect that these natural antibodies could be widespread in the US at least, becauseadeno-associated viral infections - a relative of the AAV2 virus - are quite common.

It will take a much larger clinical trial to figure out if the almost 50-50 chance of success in this study is an accurate indication of how the wider population will respond to their new treatment, but it's a promising development.

With advanced age-related macular degeneration expected to increase fromapproximately 2.07 million Americans in 2010 to 5.44 million in 2050, treatment that works for only half of wet AMD patients could still change hundreds of thousands of lives.

The research has been published in The Lancet.

Read the original here:
Scientists have reversed age-related blindness by deliberately ... - ScienceAlert

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In rare cases of uncontrolled diabetes, sufferers can turn blind.

One the most common forms of diabetic eye disease is diabetic retinopathy.

Its caused by having higher than normal levels of blood glucose for a long period of time which can damage the small blood vessels within the retina.

These are the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye that converts light into signals for the brain.

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A new drug has just been approved by the FDA to treat all forms of the diabetic eye disease.

Until recently, theres been no way to reverse it.

However, a drug has just been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat all forms of the diabetic eye disease.

Previously the drug, Lucentis, had been available for use in the US to manage patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), and was given the go-ahead for its use in the UK in 2013.

Now it can be used to treat diabetic retinopathy in patients with or without DME.

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People should be aware signs and symptoms of diabetes are not always obvious and the condition is often diagnosed during GP check ups.

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Sandra Horning, chief medical officer and head global product development at Genentech, the developers of Lucentis, said: "Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of vision loss among working-aged adults in the US between the ages of 20 and 74.

We are very pleased that Lucentis is now FDA-approved to treat retinopathy in people with and without DME.

Currently the main way to treat the condition is with laser eye surgery, which works by preventing fresh blood vessel growth and improving the nutrient and oxygen supply to the retina.

Prior to the FDAs approval, research compared Lucentis directly with laser surgery.

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In the study, the drug was shown to significantly improve diabetic retinopathy among the 300 patients who trialled it.

Its the first vascular endothelial growth factor (VEFG) inhibitor to be approved for treating all forms of diabetic retinopathy.

VEGF sends new blood vessels to help affected tissues, but this can actually make sight worse.

There are two ways vision loss due to diabetes can occur.

Either weak, abnormal blood vessels can develop on the surface of the retina, leaking fluid onto the centre of the eye, and blurring vision.

Alternatively, fluid can leak from the blood vessels into the central area of the retina that provides our central vision, and cause it to swell.

Read the original:
Diabetes sufferers could REVERSE blindness with new drug - Express.co.uk

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While hanging out at A Better U, the word on the streets is that during UNMs search for a new head mens basketball coach not one black coach was included within the list of potential candidates. And furthermore, that no black administrators or faculty were even casually offered the opportunity to provide input within the selection process of a program manned more than 50 percent by African American students. Two questions were posed that merit mention: (1) Would this have occurred if there were more African Americans working within the UNM Athletics Department and/or mens basketball? (2) Is UNM, which still does not have a black person sitting on its board of regents, making greater efforts to eradicate institutional racism on its campus as the school promised following hazing incidents aimed at black students two years ago? Sorry, my bad, thats right, like the Bernalillo Democratic Party and the New Mexico State Democratic Party, youre color blind.

Has anyone noticed that a great amount of the ART project construction emphasis is near and around the Confederate monuments in Old Town? The same monuments that Mayor Richard Berry promised the Albuquerque African American community he would remove or modify over two years ago. And while some still insist these monuments represent New Mexicos heritage, the fact remains that this commemoration is sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), an organization that has been directly tied to the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations throughout its history. Yet, when completed, ART will bring all visitors and residents of the state right to a commemoration of one of this nations most atrocious acts against humanity: slavery of black people. Oh, Im sorry, my bad, like Bernalillo Democratic Party, New Mexico State Democratic Party and the University of New Mexico, the Mayors Office and city of Albuquerque are also color blind.

With the APS 20162017 (school year) coming to a close over the next few weeks headlined by high school and middle school graduations, many in the African American community are interested in the plans of the APS Board (of Education) to address discriminatory disciplinary practices throughout the schools in the district prior to the beginning the next school year. Many groups, including Black Parents of New Mexico, have been urging the APS Board to look into the disproportionate number of as well as the severity of expulsions and suspensions administered to African American students.

Throughout the nation this practice is the catalyst of the prison pipeline that plagues the family and youth while deteriorating life at large for all of society.

This past February a more progressive mindset appeared to have been elected to the board, a mindset that should embrace the belief that everyone deserves a fair shot at a decent, fulfilling and economically secure life. However, I must note that traditionally progressives do not believe race is endemic to the American experience, and furthermore, there is not one black person sitting on the school board.

Oh, Im sorry, my bad, like the Bernalillo Democratic Party, the New Mexico State Democratic Party, the University of New Mexico, the Mayors Office and city of Albuquerque, and joining the list, APS, youre all so, so, color blind.

Link:
Color blindness epidemic in NM - Albuquerque Journal

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The inability to recognise faces is a surprisingly common, but fairly unknown, condition.

Those who suffer have to use clothes, hairstyles, voice or walking manner to identify a person.

It means that they often remove themselves from social situations so that they dont embarrass or offend others.

Many people are unaware they are affected, and may just think they have a bad memory.

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Some people with face blindness struggle to recognise their family and friends, and this can have a negative impact on their lives."

Punit Shah

However a new simple test to diagnose face blindness has been presented in research published in the The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

They looked at whether an online questionnaire could accurately reveal face recognition ability.

Punit Shah, lead study author and lecturer in psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: Some people with face blindness struggle to recognise their family and friends, and this can have a negative impact on their lives.

Face blindness has been recognised by the NHS since 2016 and it is important to establish how many people are affected in order that they receive the assistance they need.

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Little Geeta, three, and her younger brother Lukeshwar, one, suffer from severe skin condition epidermolysis bullosa - an inherited mutation that makes skin fragile.

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In the questionnaire, the participants were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with particular statements, such as I often mistake people I have met before for strangers or I sometimes find movies hard to follow because of difficulties recognising characters.

Shah explained: Psychologists interested in face blindness have been hesitant to use questionnaires, but our new study suggests that using a well-designed questionnaire is helpful in recognising the condition and is suitable to be used on a large scale.

We are now adapting this questionnaire as there is evidence that prosopagnosia exists in children. It could help to explain why some children struggle to make close friends, and the problem could be more acute in schools where uniforms are worn.

Early detection may be beneficial as training programmes to improve face recognition, which are known to work in adults, may be even more successful in children given that they have a more plastic brain. There is still a lot to learn about prosopagnosia, but this research into identifying the condition using questionnaires is hopefully a step in the right direction.

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One of the most well known sufferers of prosopagnosia is the actor Brad Pitt.

He has spoken in the past about how the condition makes him seem egotistical.

According to the NHS, the condition often affects people from birth.

They are unable to recognise family, friends and partners, and have to use other clues to identify them.

This can be difficult if a sufferer sees someone out of context, and can cause distress.

Read more:
Face blindness test: Do you have the same condition as Brad Pitt? - Express.co.uk